Preparation and Characterization of Urea with Coated-Urea Materials and their Performance to Reduce Ammonia Volatilization and Improve Crop Production

Urea is a widely used N fertilizer in the world. The rapid hydrolysis process of urea is responsible for high microsite pH and accumulation of NH4 in the soil. It caused NH3 emission from surface applied urea, resulting in poor N uptake and hazardous environmental effects. Urea can be more effective if an efficient method is devised to reduce NH3 losses. One of the approaches is to coat urea with biodegradable materials and urease inhibitors. The objectives of the study were; to prepare and characterize coated urea with biodegradable material and urease inhibitors; to evaluate the effects of the coated urea on NH3 losses, nitrogen transformations in soil and crop production. Laboratory, glasshouse and field studies were conducted to evaluate the physical and chemical properties of coated urea; to quantify the N transformation and ammonia volatilization loss on selected soil series and to determine yield and N uptake by plant from coated and uncoated urea. Six treatments of coated urea were prepared for the study labeled as; uncoated urea; palm stearin and Cu coated urea; agar and Cu coated urea; gelatin and Cu coated urea; Cu coated urea and Cu and Zn coated urea. The urea were coated with agar, gelatin, palm stearin, Cu and Zn by using fluidized bed coating machine. The coated urea was characterized for physical and chemical properties by using elemental analysis, FT-IR, TGA and SEM techniques. The results of study revealed that there were no significant changes were occurred in the properties of urea after coating. Laboratory evaluations of coated urea were carried out to quantify the N transformation and ammonia volatilization loss on three soil series named as; Munchong, Serdang and Holyrood. The urea coated treatments coated with combinations of agar, palm stearin and Cu had 20-23, 30-32 and 40 - 38 % lower microsite pH, NH4 and NO3 content in soil as compare to uncoated urea, respectively. In glass house study, Munchong soil series was used to grow the maize variety J-58. The plant were harvested after 8 weeks, followed by second planting on the same pots to determine residual effects of coated urea treatments on soil and plant. The coated and uncoated urea treatments, Triple super phosphate and potassium chloride was applied as fertilizer source of N, P and K at the rate of 100, 50, 100 kg ha-1 before the planting. After first harvesting, the second planting was done without application of N fertilizer. The results of both experiments revealed that 33- 40 % increase in N uptake and 40 - 60 % in dry matter yield of maize in the pot treated by coated urea with as compared to uncoated urea. However, the highest yield 26.50 and 26.45 g pot-1 was obtained from micronutrient coated urea at first harvest and from Agar and Cu coated urea at second harvest, respectively. To evaluate the effects of coated urea treatments under field condition, a pasture site (Guinea grass) was selected, harvested and fenced before application of fertilizer treatments. The duration of experiment was six months. During the experiment, the site was fertilized with urea treatments, TSP and KCl treatments at the rate of 217, 100 and 217 kg ha-1, respectively. And standardized agronomical operations were performed. The grass was cut two times at flowering stage to record dry matter yield. The soil and plant sample were analyzed for N, Cu and Zn content. The results showed 35 and 30 % improvement in N uptakes and crop production in UCuZn treated plots in at both harvestings, respectively. In addition, amendment of urea with multiple coatings has beneficial residual effects. It was concluded that coated urea can improve N uptake and reduce the ammonia losses. The urea coated with Biodegradable polymer and Cu had increased the residual effects of N

Trustee: A Trust Management System for Fog-enabled Cyber Physical Systems

In this paper, we propose a lightweight trust management system (TMS) for fog-enabled cyber physical systems (Fog-CPS). Trust computation is based on multi-factor and multi-dimensional parameters, and formulated as a statistical regression problem which is solved by employing random forest regression model. Additionally, as the Fog-CPS systems could be deployed in open and unprotected environments, the CPS devices and fog nodes are vulnerable to numerous attacks namely, collusion, self-promotion, badmouthing, ballot-stuffing, and opportunistic service. The compromised entities can impact the accuracy of trust computation model by increasing/decreasing the trust of other nodes. These challenges are addressed by designing a generic trust credibility model which can countermeasures the compromise of both CPS devices and fog nodes. The credibility of each newly computed trust value is evaluated and subsequently adjusted by correlating it with a standard deviation threshold. The standard deviation is quantified by computing the trust in two configurations of hostile environments and subsequently comparing it with the trust value in a legitimate/normal environment. Our results demonstrate that credibility model successfully countermeasures the malicious behaviour of all Fog-CPS entities i.e. CPS devices and fog nodes. The multi-factor trust assessment and credibility evaluation enable accurate and precise trust computation and guarantee a dependable Fog-CPS system

Privacy Preserving Attribute Based Encryption for Multiple Cloud Collaborative Environment

In a Multiple Cloud Collaborative Environment (MCCE), cloud users and cloud providers interact with each other via a brokering service to request and provision cloud services. The brokering service considers several pieces of data to broker the best deal between users and providers which can subsequently risks the privacy and security of MCCE. In this paper, we propose a Privacy Preserving Attribute-Based Encryption(PPABE) scheme which protects MCCE from a compromised broker. The proposed encryption scheme preserves the privacy by employing data access policy over sets of attributes. The identifying attributes are anonymoized using pseudonyms. The data access policy is further anonymized so as it remain unknown to unauthorized parties. The PP-ABE achieves unlinkability between different data items which flows through the collaborative cloud environment and preserves the privacy of cloud users and cloud providers

Fractional flow reserve versus angiography in guiding management to optimize outcomes in non–ST-elevation myocardial infarction (FAMOUS-NSTEMI): rationale and design of a randomized controlled clinical trial

<p>Background: In patients with acute non–ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), coronary arteriography is usually recommended; but visual interpretation of the angiogram is subjective. We hypothesized that functional assessment of coronary stenosis severity with a pressure-sensitive guide wire (fractional flow reserve [FFR]) would have additive diagnostic, clinical, and health economic utility as compared with angiography-guided standard care.</p> <p>Methods and design: A prospective multicenter parallel-group 1:1 randomized controlled superiority trial in 350 NSTEMI patients with ≥1 coronary stenosis ≥30% severity (threshold for FFR measurement) will be conducted. Patients will be randomized immediately after coronary angiography to the FFR-guided group or angiography-guided group. All patients will then undergo FFR measurement in all vessels with a coronary stenosis ≥30% severity including culprit and nonculprit lesions. Fractional flow reserve will be disclosed to guide treatment in the FFR-guided group but not disclosed in the “angiography-guided” group. In the FFR-guided group, an FFR ≤0.80 will be an indication for revascularization by percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass surgery, as appropriate. The primary outcome is the between-group difference in the proportion of patients allocated to medical management only compared with revascularization. Secondary outcomes include the occurrence of cardiac death or hospitalization for myocardial infarction or heart failure, quality of life, and health care costs. The minimum and average follow-up periods for the primary analysis are 6 and 18 months, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions: Our developmental clinical trial will address the feasibility of FFR measurement in NSTEMI and the influence of FFR disclosure on treatment decisions and health and economic outcomes.</p&gt

Evaluation of coated urea for ammonia volatilization loss, nitrogen mineralization and microsite pH in selected soil series

The increase in microsite soil pH due to surface application of urea to the soil is an important reason of ammonia volatilization loss and fast hydrolysis process. The use of Cu and Zn with biodegradable materials coatings were assumed to reduce ammonia volatilization losses by reducing soil pH and slowing down hydrolysis process. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of coated urea with the combination coatings of Cu, Zn, palm stearin, agar and gelatine on microsite pH. For this purpose, six urea treatments named; uncoated urea or control, Cu and palm stearin coated urea, Cu and agar coated urea, Cu and gelatine coated urea, Cu coated urea, Cu and Zn coated urea were prepared and evaluated for their effects on microsite pH, ammonia volatilization loss and mineralization of N in three tropical soil. For the each soil; soil properties, soil microsite pH, ammonia volatilization loss and N mineralization were determined with slandered methods. The results reveal that the microsite pH in the three soils varied significantly due to the variability in texture. The pH of microsite treated with coated urea was lower than the uncoated urea treatments in each soil. The reduction in the microsite soil pH was associated with urea hydrolysis. The rate of mineralization (30%) and ammonia volatilization (50%) reduced in the soils where the pH was low or stable on the fertilizer microsite after adding the fertilizer treatments. The results of this study proved the positive effectiveness of coating material and potential to control fast hydrolysis process and ammonia volatilization losses

Pattern and outcome of epilepsy at department of neurology at cmc teaching hospital larkana

Epilepsy is third most common chronic neurological disease. Mortality is 2-3% more common in epilepsy patients than in general population. World wide survey have shown that epilepsy responds to treatment in about 70 % of epileptic patients and three fourth of the affected people do not get the treatment they need. So objective of our study was to know the outcome and pattern of epilepsy at Department of Neurology CMC teaching hospital Larkana ,so that in next step we could know which factors could reduce the morbitity and mortality due to epilepsy hence could prevent complications due to epilepsy. Total 404 patients were enrolled out of them 55 % were controlled and compared to world wide survey that in which 70 % of epileptic patients are controlled who get treatment so in comparison with world wide survey and this study there is gape of 15 %

Automated people counting by using low-resolution infrared and visual cameras

Non-contact counting of people in a specified area has many applications for safety, security and commercial purposes. Visible sensors have inherent limitations for this task, being sensitive to variations in ambient lighting and colours in the scene. Infrared imaging can overcome many of these problems, but normally hardware costs are prohibitively expensive. A system for counting people in a scene using a combination of low cost, low-resolution visual and infrared cameras is presented in this paper. The aim of this research was to assess the potential accuracy and robustness of systems using low-resolution images. This approach results in considerable savings on hardware costs, enabling the development of systems which may be implemented in a wide range of applications. The results of 18 experiments show that the system can be accurate to within 3% over a wide range of lighting conditions

Effect of Cu and palm stearin coatings on the thermal behavior and ammonia volatilization loss of urea

Problem statement: Cu coated urea with palm stearin will be beneficial for plant nutrition and environment which can be beneficial for plant physiology and growth. Due to coating layer of natural materials, the nitrogen will be available to plants for a long period after a single application of coated urea. On the other hand, it will be slow down hydrolyses process of Cu coated urea by inhibiting the activity of urease enzymes. This combination can decrease the ammonia volatilization losses. Temperature is the one another important factor which reduces urea use efficiency of crops. Coating of urea with palm stearin and Cu can increase the thermal stability of urea. Approach: hundred grams of urea was coated by seven grams of palm stearin and 5μg of Cu by fluidized bed coating machine. After coating the coated urea was dried in vacuum desiccators for 48 hours. The urea and Cu- and palm stearin- coated urea were analyzed for TGA (thermo gravimetrical analysis) and DSC (diffraction scanning calorimetric).as well as the coated urea was evaluated for the ammonia volatilization losses till six weeks to compare the effect of coated urea with uncoated urea in selected soil series. Results: The analysis showed that there is a scope to increase thermal stability of urea to reduce ammonia volatilization losses by using coating of some natural material. As well as the combination Cu and palm stearin coated urea can reduce 50% ammonia loss from soils. Conclusion: This study has potential to develop a environmental friendly coating to reduce urea losses