Cover crops (CC) improve soil quality, including soil microbial enzymatic activities and soil chemical parameters. Scientific studies conducted in research centers have shown positive effects of CC on soil enzymatic activities; however, studies conducted in farmer fields are lacking in the literature. The objective of this study was to quantify CC effects on soil microbial enzymatic activities (β-glucosidase, β-glucosaminidase, fluorescein diacetate hydrolase, and dehydrogenase) under a corn (Zea mays L.)–soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) rotation. The study was conducted in 2016 and 2018 in Chariton County, Missouri, where CC were first established in 2012. All tested soil enzyme levels were significantly different between 2016 and 2018, irrespective of CC and no cover crop (NCC) treatments. In CC treatment, β-glucosaminidase activity was significantly greater at 0–10 cm depth in 2016 and at 10–20 and 20–30 cm in 2018. In contrast, dehydrogenase activity was significantly greater in NCC in 2018. Soil pH and organic matter (OM) content were found to be significantly greater in CC. Overall, CC have mixed effects on soil enzyme activities and positive effects on soil OM compared to NCC. This study highlights the short-term influence of CC and illustrates the high spatial and temporal variability of soil enzymes under farmer-managed fields.
This paper deals with the Magnetohydrodynyamic (Mill)) flow for a viscoclastic fluid of the generalized Oldroyd-B model. The fractional calculus approach is used to establish the constitutive relationship of the non-Newtonian fluid model. Exact analytic solutions for the velocity and shear stress fields in terms of the Fox H-function are obtained by using discrete Laplace transform. The effect of different parameter that controlled the motion and shear stress equations are studied through plotting using the MATHEMATICA-8 software.
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of aromatic compounds that contain at least two rings. These compounds are found naturally in petroleum products and are considered the most prevalent pollutants in the environment. The lack of microorganism capable of degrading some PAHs led to their accumulation in the environment which usually causes major health problems as many of these compounds are known carcinogens. Xanthene is one of the small PAHs which has three rings. Many xanthene derivatives are useful dyes that are used for dyeing wood and cosmetic articles. However, several studies have illustrated that these compounds have toxic and carcinogenic effects. The first step of the bacterial degradation of xanthene is conducted by d
... Show MoreA field-pilot scale slow sand filter (SSF) was constructed at Al-Rustamiya Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Baghdad city to investigate the removal efficiency in terms of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical oxygen demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Chloride concentrations for achieving better secondary effluent quality from this treatment plant. The SSF was designed at a 0.2 m/h filtration rate with filter area 1 m2 and total filter depth of 2.3 m. A filter sand media 0.35 mm in size and 1 m depth was supported by 0.2 m layer of gravel of size 5 mm. The secondary effluent from Al-Rustamiya STP was used as the influent to the slow sand filter. The results showed that the removal of BOD5, COD, TSS, and Chloride were
... Show MoreIn this paper the experimentally obtained conditions for the fusion splicing with photonic crystal fibers (PCF) having large mode areas were reported. The physical mechanism of the splice loss and the microhole collapse property of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) were studied. By controlling the arc-power and the arc-time of a conventional electric arc fusion splicer (FSM-60S), the minimum loss of splicing for fusion two conventional single mode fibers (SMF-28) was (0.00dB), which has similar mode field diameter. For splicing PCF (LMA-10) with a conventional single mode fiber (SMF-28), the loss was increased due to the mode field mismatch.
This research deals with the qualitative and quantitative interpretation of Bouguer gravity anomaly data for a region located to the SW of Qa’im City within Anbar province by using 2D- mapping methods. The gravity residual field obtained graphically by subtracting the Regional Gravity values from the values of the total Bouguer anomaly. The residual gravity field processed in order to reduce noise by applying the gradient operator and 1st directional derivatives filtering. This was helpful in assigning the locations of sudden variation in Gravity values. Such variations may be produced by subsurface faults, fractures, cavities or subsurface facies lateral variations limits. A major fault was predicted to extend with the direction NE-
... Show More—This paper studies the control motion of a single link flexible joint robot by using a hierarchical non-singular terminal sliding mode controller (HNTSMC). In comparison to the conventional sliding mode controller (CSMC), the proposed algorithm (NTSMC) not only can conserve characteristics of the convention CSMC, such as easy implementation, guaranteed stability and good robustness against system uncertainties and external disturbances, but also can ensure a faster convergence rate of the systems states to zero in a finite time and singularity free. The flexible joint robot (FJR) is a two degree of freedom (2DOF) nonlinear and underactuated system. The system here is modeled as a fourth order system by using Lagrangian method. Based on t
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