The habitat type and food availability always influence the population size of many
organisms. Bird’s feeding pattern should be abstracted to complete avian community structure
data. The agronomy main research farm of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology
is a well-managed multi-crop agro-ecosystem which provides a suitable ground for ecological
research. In a multi-crop farmland, the association of Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica Linnaeus,
1758, with the Indian mustard Brassica juncea (L.) Czernajew, 1859 crops have been
recorded for the first time while hovering only on this field. A flock of Barn swallows was
recorded in 32 field visits while flying continuously over the Indian mustard field after
flowering to ripening of fruit in the morning and sometimes in afternoon also. The range of
the birds was recorded from 6 to 61 with a mean individual of 36.03 ± 15.37 hovering for
1.83 hr daily. This may be the behaviour for the feeding pattern of these flying insectivorous
birds which was not seen in other crop-fields with same insect diversity describing it as not
the only reason for this behaviour. To reveal this poorly understood behaviour of flying
insectivore birds, a detailed long term behavioural study with gut content analysis is needed to
explain the particular reason behind this behaviour of Barn swallows which will support the
conservation of these birds and control their population decline.
Background: The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor historically recognized for its role in the regulation of toxicity mediated by environmental chemicals. Recent research points to AhR's critical participation in male reproductive physiology, particularly in spermatogenesis, hormone signaling, and the maintenance of sperm quality. Both endogenous ligands (e.g., dietary and gut microbiota-derived metabolites) and exogenous pollutants (e.g., dioxins and benzo-α-pyrene) influence AhR-mediated pathways, making it a key link between environmental exposures and male fertility. Results: This review highlights AhR's influence on the male reproductive system, emphasizing the role of endogenous AhR ligands an
... Show MoreProductivity estimating of ready mixed concrete batch plant is an essential tool for the successful completion of the construction process. It is defined as the output of the system per unit of time. Usually, the actual productivity values of construction equipment in the site are not consistent with the nominal ones. Therefore, it is necessary to make a comprehensive evaluation of the nominal productivity of equipment concerning the effected factors and then re-evaluate them according to the actual values.
In this paper, the forecasting system was employed is an Artificial Intelligence technique (AI). It is represented by Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to establish the predicted model to estimate wet ready mixe
... Show MoreIn this paper, some commonly used hierarchical cluster techniques have been compared. A comparison was made between the agglomerative hierarchical clustering technique and the k-means technique, which includes the k-mean technique, the variant K-means technique, and the bisecting K-means, although the hierarchical cluster technique is considered to be one of the best clustering methods. It has a limited usage due to the time complexity. The results, which are calculated based on the analysis of the characteristics of the cluster algorithms and the nature of the data, showed that the bisecting K-means technique is the best compared to the rest of the other methods used.
Regular sampling for six months from January to July 2012 were taken in small, shallow, perennial, standing ponds near the Greater Zab River, Gwer district, Erbil. A variety of physicochemical parameters were determined. Air and water temperature were falling between 15.2 - 34.7 ? C and 15.5 and 26.5 ?C. The waters are neutral (pH 7.38-8.27), hard, alkaline, salty, high in TDS and EC (892-966?S/cm, and rich in nutrients (NO3: 2.1-4.1mg/l, PO4: 0.33-0.62 mg / l , SO4: 24.7-80.2 mg / l ). The attention fixed on a filamentous blue- green algae Glaucospira Lagerheim, 1982) which is new to Iraqi flora. It is a filament (trichome), solitary, pale or yellowish blue – green, without sheath, Screw like coiled, motile, some of them are activ
... Show MoreI n this paper ,we 'viii consider the density questions associC;lted with the single hidden layer feed forward model. We proved that a FFNN with one hidden layer can uniformly approximate any continuous function in C(k)(where k is a compact set in R11 ) to any required accuracy.
However, if the set of basis function is dense then the ANN's can has al most one hidden layer. But if the set of basis function non-dense, then we need more hidden layers. Also, we have shown that there exist localized functions and that there is no t
... Show MoreThis paper includes an experimental study of hydrogen mass flow rate and inlet hydrogen pressure effect on the fuel cell performance. Depending on the experimental results, a model of fuel cell based on artificial neural networks is proposed. A back propagation learning rule with the log-sigmoid activation function is adopted to construct neural networks model. Experimental data resulting from 36 fuel cell tests are used as a learning data. The hydrogen mass flow rate, applied load and inlet hydrogen pressure are inputs to fuel cell model, while the current and voltage are outputs. Proposed model could successfully predict the fuel cell performance in good agreement with actual data. This work is extended to developed fuel cell feedback
... Show MoreInformation about soil consolidation is essential in geotechnical design. Because of the time and expense involved in performing consolidation tests, equations are required to estimate compression index from soil index properties. Although many empirical equations concerning soil properties have been proposed, such equations may not be appropriate for local situations. The aim of this study is to investigate the consolidation and physical properties of the cohesive soil. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been adapted in this investigation to predict the compression index and compression ratio using basic index properties. One hundred and ninety five consolidation results for soils tested at different construction sites
... Show MoreBy measuring Adropin, fasting blood glucose (FBG), cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) in the sera of Iraqi patients with MetS and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the current study was designed to compare some crucial markers in metabolic syndrome (MetS) sera and diabetic patients (T2DM) with control. Twenty female subjects were divided into three groups: group I=40 with MetS and group II=40 with T2DM, and 40 healthy subjects were employed as a control group. Compared to the control group, Adropin levels in the Mets group and T2DM group decreased significantly (p < 0.05). In contrast, none of the patient groups (MetS and T2DM)
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