A square experimental arena with vegetation on one interior side was deployed in a Sharjah, United Arab Emirates desert. Individual darkling beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) Akis subtricostata Redtenbacher, 1850 and Trachyderma philistina Reiche and Saulcy, 1857 were placed inside the arena at temperatures ranging between 27 - 49°C. Whether they chose the vegetated side of the arena or not was recorded, as well as how long it took for them to reach the vegetated side, if they chose it. Both species preferred the vegetated side at all temperatures, and the chance of them choosing the vegetated side increased significantly with increasing temperature (logistic regression, p = 0.0096 and p = 0.0003 for T. philistina and A. subtricostata, respectively). T.philistina and A. subtricostata always chose the vegetated side at temperatures above 31°and 44°C, respectively. Individual beetles that chose the vegetated side moved quickly and directly to it at temperatures above 30°C. Below 30°C, however, beetles tended to move slower and take more pauses within the arena. Time to reach the vegetated side declined significantly with increasing temperature (least-squares regression, p < 0.00005 for both species). A few individuals of both species died at the highest temperatures (48 - 49°C).
Biodiesel can be prepared from various types of vegetable oils or animal fats with the aid of a catalyst.
Calcium oxide (CaO) is one of the prospective heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel synthesis. Modification
of CaO by impregnation on silica (SiO2) can improve the performance of CaO as catalyst. Egg shells and rice
husks as biomass waste can be used as raw materials for the preparation of the silica modified CaO catalyst.
The present study was directed to synthesize and characterize CaO impregnated SiO2 catalyst from biomass
waste and apply it as catalyst in biodiesel synthesis. The catalyst was synthesized by wet impregnation
method and characterized by x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence, nitr
The research aims to investigate the existence of a direct causal relationship between selected agricultural variables: agricultural output (as a representative of growth in the agricultural sector), agricultural terms of trade as a completely new variable in agricultural studies in recent years, agricultural labour which is an important part in the total workforce for Iraq, and finally, agricultural investment because of its importance and vital role in the production process, creating job opportunities, and then raising the level of employment, then it's role to achieving agricultural growth and development. For this purpose, the researchers used the Toda-Yamamoto causality methodology for a time series covering from 1990 to 2019. The res
... Show MoreDensity Functional Theory (DFT) method of the type (B3LYP) and a Gaussian basis set (6-311G) were applied for calculating the vibration frequencies and absorption intensities for normal coordinates (3N-6) at the equilibrium geometry of the Di and Tetra-rings layer (6, 0) zigzag single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) by using Gaussian-09 program. Both were found to have the same symmetry of D6d point group with C--C bond alternation in all tube rings (for axial bonds, which are the vertical C--Ca bonds in rings layer and for circumferential bonds C—Cc in the outer and mid rings bonds). Assignments of the modes of vibration IR active and inactive vibration frequ
... Show MoreThe current study introduces a novel technique to handle electrochemical localized corrosion in certain limited regions rather than applying comprehensive cathodic protection (CP) treatment. An impressed current cathodic protection cell (ICCPC) was fabricated and firmly installed on the middle of a steel structure surface to deter localized corrosion in fixed or mobile steel structures. The designed ICCPC comprises three essential parts: an anode, a cathode, and an artificial electrolyte. The latter was developed to mimic the function of the natural electrolyte in CP. A proportional-integrated-derivative (PID) controller was designed to stabilize this potential below the ICCPC at a cathodic potential of −850 mV, which is crucial for prote
... Show MoreMultiple linear regressions are concerned with studying and analyzing the relationship between the dependent variable and a set of explanatory variables. From this relationship the values of variables are predicted. In this paper the multiple linear regression model and three covariates were studied in the presence of the problem of auto-correlation of errors when the random error distributed the distribution of exponential. Three methods were compared (general least squares, M robust, and Laplace robust method). We have employed the simulation studies and calculated the statistical standard mean squares error with sample sizes (15, 30, 60, 100). Further we applied the best method on the real experiment data representing the varieties of
... Show MoreThe aim of this research is to estimate the parameters of the linear regression model with errors following ARFIMA model by using wavelet method depending on maximum likelihood and approaching general least square as well as ordinary least square. We use the estimators in practical application on real data, which were the monthly data of Inflation and Dollar exchange rate obtained from the (CSO) Central Statistical organization for the period from 1/2005 to 12/2015. The results proved that (WML) was the most reliable and efficient from the other estimators, also the results provide that the changing of fractional difference parameter (d) doesn’t effect on the results.
This paper considers approximate solution of the hyperbolic one-dimensional wave equation with nonlocal mixed boundary conditions by improved methods based on the assumption that the solution is a double power series based on orthogonal polynomials, such as Bernstein, Legendre, and Chebyshev. The solution is ultimately compared with the original method that is based on standard polynomials by calculating the absolute error to verify the validity and accuracy of the performance.