EFFECT OF MICROWAVE TREATED WATER ON THE GROWTH OF CORN (ZEA MAYS) AND PEPPER (CAPSICUM ANNUUM) SEEDLINGS

This paper presents the investigation of the influence of microwave treated water on the growth of the plants. For this experiment, four groups of seedlings were used and subjected to the study. We took drinking water and divided it into four parts, each group was given only one part. The first group was given water that had been heated to boiling in a glass cup on a gas stove. The second and third group was given water that had been heated in a microwave to boiling (100 C) and 60 C respectively. The fourth group of seedlings was given water that had not been heated at all and used as control. The growth of seedlings was studied for 30 days. The analysis of the results shows that corn seedlings that exposed to microwaved water show lower growth rate in comparison to the control ones. Corn seedlings when watered with normal water or with water heated on the stove grew faster and have shoot length significantly bigger than the corns which were watered with water heated in a microwave at 60 C/100 C. On the other hand, pepper seedlings watered with either microwaved water or not microwaved water were found with no significant effects on their growth characteristics

RESPONSE OF CORN (ZEA MAYS), BASIL (OCIMUM BASILICUM) AND EGGPLANT (SOLANUM MELONGENA) SEEDLINGS TO WI-FI RADIATION.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the changes of growth related aspects of seedlings after being exposed to Wi-Fi radiation. Experiment was carried out by exposing seedlings to radiation from a Wi-Fi router. The test seedlings and the control were subjected to the same environment during four weeks. The results showed that corn seedlings when exposed to Wi-Fi radiation grew faster and have shoot length and stem thickness significantly larger than the other control. On the other hand basils and eggplants, both exposed and not exposed to Wi-Fi radiation, were found with no significant effects on the shoot length and stem thickness. Moreover Wi-Fi radiation significantly reduced the fresh weight of corns and basils, whereas eggplants were not affected. Furthermore Wi-Fi radiation significantly increased the dry weight of eggplants, whereas corns and basils were not affected. Finally, the results showed that Wi-Fi radiation significantly decreased the water content of three tested seedlings. The study concluded that the Wi-Fi radiation may alter growth related characters of seedlings

INFLUENCE OF MAGNETIZED WATER ON THE GROWTH OF CORN (ZEA MAYS) SEEDLINGS

This study was conducted to evaluate the response of some growth characteristics of corn (Zea mays) seedlings for watering with magnetized water. For this experiment, we took corn seedlings and separated it into two sets. The first set watered with magnetized water and the second one was given tap water (control). The magnetized water was prepared by passing of tap water through the magnetization device at a relatively low speed and then collected into bottle for distribution. The seedlings were immediately watered after magnetization of water. The growthrelated aspects of corn seedlings were investigated for 7 weeks. The results of the current study revealed that the seedlings’ length, stem thickness, leaves number and leaves morphology were affected by magnetized water. Analysis of the results revealed the positive effects of magnetized water on the growth of corn seedlings. The seedlings that given magnetized water exhibited marked increases in shoot length, stem thickness and leaves number per seedling, and also changes of morphology of leaves over the control.أجريت هذه الدراسة لتقييم استجابة بعض خصائص النمو شتلة الذرة (زيا ميس) لسقي بالماء الممغنط. لهذه التجربة ، اتخذنا الذرة الشتلات وفصلها إلى مجموعتين. المجموعة الأولى تسقى بالماء الممغنط والثانية أعطيت واحد ماء الصنبور (السيطرة). تم تحضير الماء الممغنط بتمرير ماء الصنبور من خلال جهاز مغنطة بسرعة منخفضة نسبيا ثم جمعت في زجاجة ل توزيع. تم سقي الشتلات على الفور بعد مغنطة المياه. تم التحقيق في الجوانب المرتبطة بالنمو لشتلات الذرة لمدة 7 أسابيع. نتائج الدراسة الحالية كشفت أن طول الشتلات وسمك الساق وعدد الأوراق والأوراق المورفولوجية كانت تتأثر المياه الممغنطة. كشف تحليل النتائج الآثار الإيجابية للممغنطة الماء على نمو شتلات الذرة. الشتلات التي أعطت المياه الممغنطة عرضت ملحوظ يزيد في طول تبادل لاطلاق النار ، وسمك الجذعية ويترك عدد لكل الشتلات ، وكذلك تغييرات التشكل من الأوراق على السيطرة

A New Stereo Correspondence Method for Snake-Based Object Segmentation

ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose a new method for generating excellent external energy for snake-based object segmentation methods in stereo images. Our method first generates an edge-based disparity map by performing stereo correspondence between multi-level edge maps of the stereo image pair. Only edges of similar strength are considered for matching. To filter the disparity map for edges of the object of interest, the method estimates the object's disparity value by matching the pattern of edges of the region of interest in the left image against candidate patterns in the right image. The filtered edge map is then used to generate external energy for the snake. The proposed method has been tested on two snake models and results show a noticeable enhancement on performance of the snake when compared with other methods

Geographical differences in semen characteristics of 13 892 infertile men

Objective: To assess the relationship between geographical differences and all semen parameters, across 13,892 infertile men of 84 diverse nationalities, recruited at a specialised tertiary hospital that represents the main healthcare provider in Qatar. Male infertility is an important and global public health problem. Despite this, there is a significant scarcity of epidemiological male infertility and semen analysis research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as geographical comparisons with other parts of the world. Patients and methods: Retrospective study of semen findings of 13 892 infertile men assessed at the Male Infertility Unit at Hamad Medical Corporation, in Qatar between January 2012 and August 2015. Based on country of origin, patients were categorised into those from the MENA region (n = 8799) and non-MENA patients (n = 5093). The two groups were compared across demographic features and semen characteristics: age, sperm volume, sperm total motility, sperm progressive motility (PMot), abnormal sperm forms (ABF), and sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF). Results: The whole sample's mean (SD) age was 35.7 (0.7) years, sperm concentration was 32.3 (0.25) × 106 sperm/mL, total motility was 45.4 (0.2)%, sperm PMot was 25.1 (0.2)%, and ABF was 79.9 (0.2)%. Overall, 841 patients had azoospermia (6.05%), 3231 had oligospermia (23.3%), 4239 had asthenospermia (30.5%) and 6772 had teratospermia (48.7%). SDF (1050 patients) was abnormal in 333 patients (31.7%). MENA patients were significantly younger than their non-MENA counterparts and had a greater semen volume. Non-MENA patients had significantly higher sperm counts, total motility and PMot, and lower ABF. SDF showed no statistical difference between the two groups. MENA patients had significantly higher prevalence of oligospermia, asthenospermia, and teratospermia; and lower prevalence of normal sperm concentration, normal motility, and normal morphology. Throughout the 4 years of the study, MENA patients constantly had significantly lower sperm counts; generally lower sperm total motility percentage and generally lower quality sperm morphology. We compared patients by age (≤40 and >40 years): in the patients aged ≤40 years, the same results as for the overall study were reproduced; in the >40-years group, the same results were reproduced with the exception of morphology, which was not significantly different between the MENA and non-MENA patients. Conclusion: Semen quality is generally lower in male infertility patients from the MENA region compared to non-MENA regions. © 2018 Arab Association of UrologyScopu

Controlling the nanoparticle size of silica in an acidic environment by using a strong magnetic field and a modified sol-gel techniques

In this study, we were able to create highly dispersed silica nanoparticles with diameters of less than one nm by changing the sol-gel technique. During the poly-condensation process, a strong magnetic field was applied to the silica sol to control particle size. The size of silica nanoparticles has a substantial impact on preparation elements such pH, magnetic field intensity, and exposure time. These parameters can be changed in a systematic manner to reduce or increase particle size. A dynamic light scattering test was also used to investigate the effect of a magnetic field on the particle size and dispersion of silica dust. Despite the fact that silica is naturally diamagnetic, the magnetic field has a considerable impact on their size growth. Magnetic fields altered the typical influence on silicon structure, resulting in crystal formation in the silicon sample under consideration. Many applications require small particle sizes and/or a narrow particle size dispersion. The building blocks of nanotechnology are usually made of low-dimension particles. The experts concluded that additional research into such strange phenomena will be required in the future

Regularized Ridge Regression Models to Estimate Static Elastic Moduli from Wireline Measurements: Case Study from Southern Iraq

Elastic moduli such as Young\u27s modulus (E), Poisson\u27s ratio (v), and bulk modulus (K) are vital to creating geomechanical models for wellbore stability, hydraulic fracturing, sand production, etc. Due to the difficulty of obtaining core samples and performing rock testing, alternatively, wireline measurements can be used to estimate dynamic moduli. However, dynamic moduli are significantly different from elastic moduli due to many factors. In this paper, correlations for three zones (Nahr Umr shale, Zubair shale, and Zubair sandstone) located in southern Iraq were created to estimate static E, K, and ν from dynamic data. Core plugs from the aforementioned three zones alongside wireline measurements for the same sections were acquired. Single-stage triaxial (SST) tests with CT scans were executed for the core plugs. The data were separated into two parts; training (70%), and testing (30%) to ensure the models can be generalized to new data. Regularized ridge regression models were created to estimate static E, K, and ν from dynamic data (wireline measurements). The shrinkage parameter (α) was selected for each model based on an iterative process, where the goal is to ensure having the smallest error. The results showed that all models had testing R2 ranging between 0.92 and 0.997 and consistent with the training results. All models of E, K, and ν were linear besides ν for the Zubair sandstone and shale which were second-degree polynomial. Furthermore, root means squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) were utilized to assess the error of the models. Both RMSE and MAE were consistently low in training and testing without a large discrepancy. Thus, with the regularization of ridge regression and consistent low error during the training and testing, it can be concluded that the proposed models can be generalized to new data and no overfitting can be observed. The proposed models for Nahr Umr shale, Zubair shale, and Zubair sandstone can be utilized to estimate E, K, and ν based on readily available dynamic data which can contribute to creating robust geomechanical models for hydraulic fracturing, sand production, wellbore stability, etc

Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS in Monitoring Surface Water of Al-Razzaza Lake: A Review

Al-Razzaza Lake, which was established in 1969 to protect the southern regions from heavy rains, is a part of the western plateau and is characterized by a semi-arid climate, hot in summer and cold in winter. The lake water level decreased in the past ten years due to the lack of rain and high temperatures, which affected the water quality and quantity, so it was studied and monitored the decline of the water level and calculate the surface area of the lake by several researchers using remote sensing techniques integrated with the GIS environment. Several researches were reviewed in this study, which dealt with the use of satellite images taken at different periods with the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to detect change in the areas covered by Al-Razzaza Lake. Studies have shown that the area of the lake gradually decreased from 1990 to 2018 at a rate of about 1285 km2, then recovered slightly since 2018 at a rate of 118 km2. The results of the studies also showed that there is a real threat to the environment of Al-Razzaza Lake as a result of the significant deterioration that affects the water quality and the environment in the region. Consequently, researchers are required to expand the study of this problem to provide recommendations and propose appropriate solutions to reduce the resulting risks

Oxidation–reduction potential and sperm DNA fragmentation, and their associations with sperm morphological anomalies amongst fertile and infertile men

Objective: To assess seminal oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) and sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) in male infertility and their relationships with sperm morphology in fertile and infertile men. Patients and methods: Prospective case-control study comparing the findings of infertile men (n = 1168) to those of men with confirmed fertility (n = 100) regarding demographics and semen characteristics (conventional and advanced semen tests). Spearman rank correlation assessed the correlation between ORP, SDF, and different morphological indices. Means of ORP and SDF were assessed in variable levels of normal sperm morphology amongst all participants. Results: Infertile patients had a significantly lower mean sperm count (32.7 vs 58.7 × 10 6 sperm/mL), total motility (50.1% vs 60.4%), and normal morphology (5.7% vs 9.9%). Conversely, infertile patients had significantly higher mean head defects (54% vs 48%), and higher ORP and SDF values than fertile controls. ORP and SDF showed significant positive correlations and significant negative correlations with sperm head defects and normal morphology in infertile patients, respectively. ORP and SDF were significantly inversely associated with the level of normal sperm morphology. Using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, ORP and SDF threshold values of 1.73 mV/10 6 sperm/mL and 25.5%, respectively, were associated with 76% and 56% sensitivity and 72% and 72.2% specificity, respectively, in differentiating <4% from ≥4% normal morphology. Conclusion: A direct inverse relationship exists between seminal ORP and SDF with various levels of normal sperm morphology. Using ORP and SDF measures in conjunction with standard semen morphology analysis could validate the result of the fertility status of patients. © 2017 Arab Association of UrologyScopu

Streptococcus anginosus bacteremia: a septic IVC thrombus and a large empyema requiring decortication

A previously healthy 39 year old male presented with complaints of cough, fever, abdominal pain and chills. The patient was found to be in active sepsis with hypotension on presentation so was resuscitated while a full septic work-up was ordered. Initial chest X-ray showed only increased broncho-alveolar markings and no consolidations, but blood cultures eventually revealed Streptococcus anginosus bacteremia. Intravenous antibiotics were started and infective endocarditis was ruled out. Computerized tomography scan of the abdomen with contrast revealed findings suggestive of a septic hepatic inferior vena cava thrombus and right lower lung findings suggestive of septic embolization and an empyema. Later on during admission, CT scan of the chest with contrast revealed a moderate-sized empyema of the right lung which eventually required decortication. Discovering such findings concurrently in a single patient is extremely rare, particularly an embolizing septic IVC thrombus with confirmed bacteremia. For this reason it is described in the following case presentatio