The impacts of harvested cropland in the double cropping region (DCR) of the northern China plains (NCP) on the regional climate are examined using surface meteorological data and the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST). The NDVI data are used to distinguish the DCR from the single cropping region (SCR) in the NCP. Notable increases in LST in the period May–June are found in the area identified as the DCR on the basis of the NDVI data. The difference between the mean daily maximum temperature averaged over the DCR and SCR stations peaks at 1.27°C in June. The specific humidity in the DCR is significantly smaller than in the SCR. These results suggest that the enhanced agricultural production by multiple cropping may amplify regional warming and aridity to further modify the regional climate in addition to the global climate change. Results in this study may also be used as a quantitative observed reference state of the crop/vegetation effects for future climate modeling studies.
Background: Interleukine-2 is a multifunctional cytokine, considered a central regulator of host resistance against a variety of pathogens and has been recently demonstrated to exert an active role in the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of scaling and root planning on level of IL-2 in serum and saliva of patients with chronic generalized periodontitis, in relation to clinical parameters. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 subjects were enrolled, of which 25 had chronic generalized periodontitis and 25 periodontally healthy subjects as control. The clinical parameters included: gingival index, pocket probing depth, clinical attachment level and bleeding on probing. The level of
... Show MoreThis study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of Saccharomyces cerevesiae as a growth promoting agent in tomato. Soaking the seeds in yeast suspension at 5 g/L for 12h increased germination percentage, root length, root fresh and dry weight, plant height, foliage fresh and dry weight, attained 88.5% ; 8.1 cm ; 84.3 mg ; 7.03 mg ; 10.75 cm ; 839 mg and 37.75 mg compared with 80% ; 5.33 cm ; 39 mg ; 4.8 mg ; 7.35 cm ; 608 mg and 25.5 mg in seedlings grown from non treated seeds respectively. Similar results were obtained with seedling from seeds soaked in S. cerevesiae filtrate for 12 hrs. with values of 77.5% ; 6.875 cm ; 91.5 mg ; 7.5 mg ; 9.5 cm ; 777 mg and 40.35 mg compared to 66% ; 5.8 cm ; 57.7 mg ; 5.03 mg ; 5.9 cm ; 493 mg
... Show MoreKinetics study on the phenol oxidation by catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) using CuO.NiO/Al2O3 as heterogeneous catalyst is presented. 4 g/l phenol solution of pH 7.3 was oxidized in a trickle bed reactor with gas flow rate of 80% stochiometric excess (S.E).. In order to verify the proposed kinetics, a series of CWAO experimental tests were done at two temperatures (140 and 160° C), oxygen partial pressures (9 and 12 bar), and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3 h-1). According to Power Law, the reaction orders are found to be approximately 1 and 0.5 with respect to phenol concentration and oxygen solubility, respectively. These values favorably compare with those cited in the literature for intrinsic kinetics,
... Show MoreThis work examines numerically the effects of particle size, particle thermal conductivity and inlet velocity of forced convection heat transfer in uniformly heated packed duct. Four packing material (Aluminum, Alumina, Glass and Nylon) with range of thermal conductivity (from200 W/m.K for Aluminum to 0.23 W/m.K for Nylon), four particle diameters (1, 3, 5 and 7 cm), inlet velocity ( 0.07, 0.19 and 0.32 m/s) and constant heat flux ( 1000, 2000 and 3000 W/ m 2) were investigated. Results showed that heat transfer (average Nusselt number Nuav) increased with increasing packing conductivity; inlet velocity and heat flux, but decreased with increasing particle size.Also, Aluminum average Nusselt number is about (0.85,2.
... Show MoreThis paper aims at studying the illocutionary speech acts: direct and indirect to show the most dominant ones in a presidential speech delivered by the USA president. The speech is about the most critical health issue in the world, COVID-19 outbreak. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted by observing the first speech delivered by president Trump concerning coronavirus outbreak and surveying the illocutionary acts: directive, declarative, commissive, expressive, and representative. Searle's (1985) classification of illocutionary speech acts is adopted in the analysis.
What are the main types of the illocutionary speech acts performed by Trump in his speech?; Why does
... Show MoreThe detection of fungi contaminating maize grain and the effect of four plant extracts Azadirachta indica, Eucalyptus globulus Glycyrrhiza glabra and Zingiber officinale on the growth of A. flavus and its ability to produce AflatoxinB1. The results showed that the incidence of Aspergillus spp., was 52.75% of the isolated fungi, of which 29.50% was due to Aspergillus flavus, followed by Penicillium spp., with an incidence of 21.06%, and then Fusarium spp., with a rate of 18.13%. The percentage of toxin-producing A. flavus isolates reached 70.8% out of 24 isolates. The results showed the effect of alcoholic plant extracts at a concentration of 10 mg/ml on the fungal growth activity of A. flavus, the alcoholic extract of neem leaves was superi
... Show MoreA solar updraft tower power plant (solar tower) is a solar thermal power plant that utilizes a combination of solar
air collector and central updraft tube to generate an induced convective flow which drives pressure staged turbines to generate electricity.
This paper presents practical results of a prototype of a solar chimney with thermal mass, where the glass surface is replaced by transparence plastic cover. The study focused on chimney's basements kind effect on collected air temperatures. Three basements were used: concrete, black concrete and black pebbles basements. The study was conducted in Baghdad from August to November 2009.
The results show that the best chimney efficiency attaine
... Show MoreBackground: Cisplatin is a widely used antineoplastic drug in different types of cancers (ovarian, testicular, and hematological) with several types of adverse effects, including testicular toxicity. Fimasartan is a newer angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) that has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Omega-3 is an unsaturated fatty acid that has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Objective: to evaluate the protective effects of fimasartan alone or in combination with omega-3 against cisplatin-induced testicular toxicity. Methods: Thirty Wistar rats were divided into five groups: control group, cisplatin-treated group, fimasartan+cisplatin group, fimasartan+omega-3+cisplatin group, and omega-3+cisplatin group. Trea
... Show More