Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye grown for use as animal feed. In Florida, due to its soft coat, triticale is highly vulnerable to Sitophilus oryzae L. (rice weevil) and there is interest in development of methods to detect early-instar larvae so that infestations can be targeted before they become economically damaging. The objective of this study was to develop prediction models of the infestation degree for triticale seed infested with rice weevils of different growth stages. Spectral signatures were tested as a method to detect rice weevils in triticale seed. Groups of seeds at 11 different levels (degrees) of infestation, 0–62%, were obtained by combining different ratios of infested and uninfested seeds. A spectrophotometer was used to measure reflectance between 400 and 2500 nm wavelength for seeds that had been infested at different levels with six different growth stages from egg to adult. The reflectance data were analyzed by several generalized linear regression and classification methods. Different degrees of infestation were particularly well correlated with reflectances in the 400–409 nm range and other wavelengths up to 967 nm, although later growth stages could be detected more accurately than early infestation. Stepwise variable selection produced the lowest mean square differences and yielded a high R² value (0.988) for the 4th instars, pupae and adults inside the seed. Models were developed to predict the level of infestation in triticale by rice weevils of different growth stages. Overall, this study showed a great potential of using reflectance spectral signatures for detection of the level of infestation of triticale seed by rice weevils of different growth stages
This work aims to fabricate two types of plasmonic nanostructures by electrical exploding wire (EEW) technique and study the effects of the different morphologies of these nanostructures on the absorption spectra and Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) activities, using Rhodamine 6G as a probe molecule. The structural properties of these nanostructures were examined using X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The morphological properties were examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). The absorption spectra of the mixed R6G laser dye (concentration 1×10-6 M) with prepared nanostructures were examined by double beam UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. The Raman spe
... Show MoreThe effects of short-range correlation on elastic Coulomb (charge) form factors, charge density distributions as well as root mean square charge radii of various nuclei (for instance, 46, 48, 50Ti, 52, 54Cr, 56, 58Fe, and 72, 74, 76Ge nuclei) are examined. The one- and two body terms of the cluster expansion together with the single-particle harmonic oscillator wave functions are utilized. For the purpose of embedding these effects into the formulae of charge density and form factor we employ the correlation function of Jastrow-type. These formulae depend upon the short-range correlation parameter (which instigates from the Jastr
... Show MoreThis paper discusses reliability of the stress-strength model. The reliability functions ð‘…1 and ð‘…2 were obtained for a component which has an independent strength and is exposed to two and three stresses, respectively. We used the generalized inverted Kumaraswamy distribution GIKD with unknown shape parameter as well as known shape and scale parameters. The parameters were estimated from the stress- strength models, while the reliabilities ð‘…1, ð‘…2 were estimated by three methods, namely the Maximum Likelihood, Least Square, and Regression.
A numerical simulation study a comparison between the three estimators by mean square error is performed. It is found that best estimator between
... Show MoreSteel–concrete–steel (SCS) structural systems have economic and structural advantages over traditional reinforced concrete; thus, they have been widely used. The performance of concrete made from recycled rubber aggregate from scrap tires has been evaluated since the early 1990s. The use of rubberized concrete in structural construction remains necessary because of its high impact resistance, increases ductility, and produces a lightweight concrete; therefore, it adds such important properties to SCS members. In this research, the use of different concrete core materials in SCS was examined. Twelve SCS specimens were subjected to push-out monotonic loading for inspecting their mechanical performance. One specimen was constructed from co
... Show MoreIn this work, metal oxide nanostructures, mainly copper oxide (CuO), nickel oxide (NiO), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and multilayer structure, were synthesized by the DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The effect of deposition time on the spectroscopic characteristics, as well as on the nanoparticle size, was determined. A long deposition time allows more metal atoms sputtered from the target to bond to oxygen atoms and form CuO, NiO, or TiO2 molecules deposited as thin films on glass substrates. The structural characteristics of the final samples showed high structural purity as no other compounds than CuO, NiO, and TiO2 were found in the final samples. Also, the prepared multilayer structures did not show new compounds other than th
... Show MoreAn electrocoagulation process has been used to eliminate the chemical oxygen demand (COD) from wastewaters discharged from the Al-Muthanna petroleum refinery plant. In this process, a circular aluminum bar was used as a sacrificial anode, and hallow cylinder made from stainless steel was used as a cathode in a tubular batch electrochemical Reactor. Impacts of the operating factors like current density (5-25mAcm-2), NaCl addition at concentrations (0-2g/l), and pH at values (3-11) on the COD removal efficiency were studied.
Results revealed that the increase in current density increases the COD removal efficiency, whereas an increase
There is an interesting potential for the use of GFRP-pultruded profiles in hybrid GFRP-concrete structural elements, either for new constructions or for the rehabilitation of existing structures. This paper provides experimental and numerical investigations on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) specimens composite with encased pultruded GFRP I-sections. Five simply supported composite beams were tested in this experimental program to investigate the static flexural behavior of encased GFRP beams with high-strength concrete. Besides, the effect of using shear studs to improve the composite interaction between the GFRP beam and concrete as well as the effect of web stiffeners of GFRP were explored. Encasing the GFRP
... Show MoreIn the present study, the effectiveness of a procedure of electrocoagulation for removing chemical oxygen demand (COD) from the wastewater of petroleum refinery has been evaluated. Aluminum and stainless steel electrodes were used as a sacrificial anode and cathode respectively. The effect of current density (4-20mAcm−2), pH (3-11), and NaCl concentration (0-4g/l) on efficiency of removal of chemical oxygen demand was investigated. The results have shown that increasing of current density led to increase the efficiency of COD removal while increasing NaCl concentration resulted in decreasing of COD removal efficiency. Effect of pH was found to be lowering COD re
Catalytic reduction is considered an effective approach for the reduction of toxic organic pollutants from the environment, but finding an active catalyst is still a big challenge. Herein, Ag decorated CeO2 catalyst was synthesized through polyol reduction method and applied for catalytic reduction (conversion) of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP). The Ag decorated CeO2 catalyst displayed an outstanding reduction activity with 99% conversion of 4-NP in 5 min with a 0.61 min−1 reaction rate (k). A number of structural characterization techniques were executed to investigate the influence of Ag on CeO2 and its effect on the catalytic conversion of 4-NP. The outstanding catalytic performances of the Ag-CeO2 catalyst can be assigne
... Show More