Water stress has a negative impact on the yield and growth of crops worldwide and consequently has a global impact on food security. Many biochemical changes occur in plants as a response to water stress, such as activation of antioxidant systems. Molybdenum (Mo) plays an important part in activating the expression of many enzymes, such as CAT, POD, and SOD, as well as increasing the proline content. Mo therefore supports the defence system in plants and plays an important role in the defence system of mung bean plants growing under water stress conditions. Four concentrations of Mo (0, 15, 30, and 45 mg·L−1) were applied to plants, using two approaches: (a) seed soaking and (b) foliar application. Mung bean plants were subject

A novel demountable shear connector for precast steel‐concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high‐strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents slip of bolts within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes typical construction tolerances issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly, and therefore, can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow, i.e. (i) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (ii) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (iii) steel beams can b

In this study, concentrations of radon were measured for seventeen samples of soil distributed in three Sulphuric Spring, in addition to other regions as a background in Hit City in AL-Anbar Governorate. The radon concentrations in soil samples measured by using alpha-emitters registration that emits from radon (222Rn) in (CR-39) track detector. The concentrations values were calculated by a comparison with standard samples. The results show that the radon concentrations in first spring varies from (258.253- 347.762 Bq/m3), second spring (230.374-305.209 Bq/m3), third spring (292.002-336.023 Bq/m3) and the average radon concentration in other regions (187.821 Bq/m3). As a conclusion of the study radon concentration in Sulphuric Spring is r

A batch and flow injection (FI) spectrophotometric methods are described for the determination of barbituric acid in aqueous and urine samples. The method is based on the oxidative coupling reaction of barbituric acid with 4-aminoantipyrine and potassium iodate to form purple water soluble stable product at λ 510 nm. Good linearity for both methods was obtained ranging from 2 to 60 μg mL−1, 5–100 μg mL−1 for batch and FI techniques, respectively. The limit of detection (signal/noise = 3) of 0.45 μg mL−1 for batch method and 0.48 μg mL−1 for FI analysis was obtained. The proposed methods were applied successfully for the determination of barbituric acid in tap water, river water, and urine samples with good recoveries of 99.92

GFRP was employed in constructions as an alternative to steel, which has many advantages like lightweight, large tensile strength and resist corrosion. Existing researches are insufficient in studying the influence of hybrid reinforced concrete composite columns encased by GFRP I-section (RCCCEG) and I-section steel (RCCCES). In this study twenty one (RC) specimens of a cross-section of 130 mm × 160 mm, with different length (long 1600 mm and short 750 mm) were encased by using I-section (steel and GFRP) and tested under various loading (concentric, eccentric and flexural loads). The test was focused on the influence of many parameters; load-carrying capacity, mode of failure, deformation and drawing an interaction diagram (N-

Pharmaceuticals have been widely remaining contaminants in wastewater, and diclofenac is the most common pharmaceutical pollutant. Therefore, the removal of diclofenac from aqueous solutions using activated carbon produced by pyrocarbonic acid and microwaves was investigated in this research. Apricot seed powder and pyrophosphoric acid (45 wt%) were selected as raw material and activator respectively, and microwave irradiation technique was used to prepare the activated carbon. The raw material was impregnated in pyrophosphoric acid at 80◦C with an impregnation ratio of 1: 3 (apricot seeds to phosphoric acid), the impregnation time was 4 h, whereas the power of the microwave was 700 watts with a radiation time of 20 min. A series o

This article presents the simultaneous adsorption of bimetal Cu²⁺ and Zn²⁺ from an aqueous solution using activated carbon synthesized from a plum seed precursor by sulfuric acid and microwave activation: plum seeds chemically activated by 45% (w/w) sulfuric acid with 2:1 ratio for 4 h, then carbonized for 2 h at 700 °C and the product obtained activated in a microwave oven for 20 min at 700 W for final of activation. Plum seeds and activated carbon produced were characterized in terms of their physical and chemical composition using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurements, field emission scanning electr

This paper deals with an analytical study of the flow of an incompressible generalized Burgers’ fluid (GBF) in an annular pipe. We discussed in this problem the flow induced by an impulsive pressure gradient and compare the results with flow due to a constant pressure gradient. Analytic solutions for velocity is earned by using discrete Laplace transform (DLT) of the sequential fractional derivatives (FD) and finite Hankel transform (FHT). The influences of different parameters are analyzed on a velocity distribution characteristics and a comparison between two cases is also presented, and discussed in details. Eventually, the figures are plotted to exhibit these effects.

Ti6Al4V alloy is widely used in aerospace and medical applications. It is classified as a difficult to machine material due to its low thermal conductivity and high chemical reactivity. In this study, hybrid intelligent models have been developed to predict surface roughness when end milling Ti6Al4V alloy with a Physical Vapor Deposition PVD coated tool under dry cutting conditions. Back propagation neural network (BPNN) has been hybridized with two heuristic optimization techniques, namely: gravitational search algorithm (GSA) and genetic algorithm (GA). Taguchi method was used with an L27 orthogonal array to generate 27 experiment runs. Design expert software was used to do analysis of variances (ANOVA). The experimental data were