Synthetic Co-Attractants of the Aggregation Pheromone of the Date Palm Root Borer <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oryctes agamemnon</Emphasis>

Laboratory and field investigations to identify and evaluate plant co-attractants of the aggregation pheromone of the date palm pest Oryctes agamemnon are reported. Volatiles emitted by freshly cut palm core and palm core with feeding males, were collected, analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and evaluated in olfactometers alone or combined with synthetic pheromone. A collection of palm odor without male effluvia was attractive alone and enhanced attraction to synthetic pheromone in an olfactometer similar to that to a collection of palm odor emitted with feeding males and containing natural pheromone. Behavioral responses to collections of palm volatiles were correlated to the amount of volatiles material in them. Enhancement of the attractiveness of the pheromone was not correlated to chemicals specific to beetle feeding. The chemicals common to the active collections extracts were benzoate esters, mostly ethyl benzoate, anisole derivatives and sesquiterpenes. Blends of the most abundant components of the extracts were evaluated for enhancement of the attractiveness of pheromone (1 μg) in olfactometers at 1 or 10 μg doses. The mixtures were further evaluated by field trapping in Tunisia at 3–10 mg/day using reference (6 mg/day) or experimental pheromone formulations. A mixture of ethyl benzoate, 4-methylanisole and farnesol (1:1:1 w/w at 6.5 mg/day) enhanced captures in pheromone baited traps in 2014 and 2015 and this mixture was as active as the natural palm bait. The practical prospect of the result for the management for O. agamemnon, and other palm beetles is discussed.     

Synthesis,Crystal Structure,Electrochemical and Catalytic Properties of Hybrid Polyoxomolybdate Clusters-Based Terbium Complex

The inorganic–organic compound based on polyoxomolybdate [Tb(C₂H₆SO)₈][PMo₁₂ O₄₀]·2C₂H₆SO·½H₂O (I) has been isolated and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray molecular structure, IR spectra, thermogravimetric analysis and cyclic voltammetry measurements. The catalytic activities of (I) were also tested. The title compound crystallizes in monoclinic crystal system with C2/c space group. In the crystal, the polyoxidometalate anions are arranged in chains parallel to the [010] direction. The complex cations are located between these layers and linked to the neighbouring anions via weak C–H?O hydrogen bonding interactions leading to the formation of three dimensional network structure. Their catalytic activity toward organic dye is quite sizeable since the target removal is about 68% in the presence of the system POM-Tb/H₂O₂ after 120 min.     

Influence of sulfur fertilization on S-containing, phenolic, and carbohydrate metabolites in rosy garlic (Allium roseum L.): a wild edible species in North Africa

Allium roseum L., a North African endemic species, is a rich source of many important nutrients and bioactive compounds responsible for many promising beneficial health physiological effects. The influence of sulfur fertilization (S fertilization) on the flavor, total polyphenols, and carbohydrates content in A. roseum was studied, using three sulfur concentrations (0.01, 1.50 and 4.50 mmol L^?1) under controlled conditions. S fertilization showed a significant increase in the allicin concentration of A. roseum bulbs with an average of 0.859–2.285 g kg^?1 FW for bulbs grown at 0.01 and 1.50 mmol L^?1 SO₄ ^2?, respectively. The same trend was observed for total polyphenol content. On the contrary, the highest level of S decreased the content of reduced carbohydrates. These results provide evidence that the concentrations of allicin and polyphenols in A. roseum are increased by S fertilization, potentially amplifying its beneficial impacts on health.     

Theoretical study of an electrostatically actuated torsional microsensor for biological applications

Microsystem Technologies - We develop an analytical formulation to calculate the induced resonance frequency shifts of an electrostatically actuated torsional microsensor due to an added bio-mass...     

Virgin olive oil (VOO) production in Tunisia: The commercial potential of the major olive varieties from the arid Tataouine zone

The commercial potential of olive oils from three consecutive crop years, derived from the main autochthonous olive varieties Chemlali Tataouine, Fakhari Douirat, Zarrazi Douirat and Dhokar Douirat grown in the arid region of Tataounine (Tunisia) was examined with regards to stability and nutrition aspects. Several characteristics such as fatty acid composition, the extremely high phenol-type antioxidant content, and the low levels of green pigments suggested that these oils, the only fat source for the local people, are of promising composition. Efforts to develop commercial products from these varieties could improve antioxidant intake of the local population. The introduction of Good Manufacturing Practices is a prerequisite so that the quality observed for oils obtained by an Abencor system to be achieved also in real life. This can be feasible through appropriate oleoculture, which is often the only viable agricultural activity in remote arid regions such as Tataouine.     

An Optimized SW/HW AVMF Design Based on High-Level Synthesis Flow for Color Images

In this paper, a software/hardware High-level Synthesis (HLS) design is proposed to compute the Adaptive Vector Median Filter (AVMF) in real-time. In fact, this filter is known by its excellent impulsive noise suppression and chromaticity conservation. The software (SW) study of this filter demonstrates that its implementation is too complex. The purpose of this work is to study the impact of using an HLS tool to design ideal floating-point and optimized fixed-point hardware (HW) architectures for the AVMF filter using square root function (ideal HW) and ROM memory (optimized HW), respectively, to select the best HLS architectures and to design an efficient HLS software/hardware (SW/HW) embedded AVMF design to achieve a trade-off between the processing time, power consumption and hardware cost. For that purpose, some approximations using ROM memory were proposed to perform the square root and develop a fixed-point AVMF algorithm. After that, the best solution generated for each HLS design was integrated in the SW/HW environment and evaluated under ZC702 FPGA platform. The experimental results showed a reduction of about 65% and 98% in both the power consumption and processing time for the ideal SW/HW implementation relative to the ideal SW implementation for an AVMF filter with the same image quality, respectively. Moreover, the power consumption and processing time of the optimized SW/HW are 70% and 97% less than the optimized SW implementation, respectively. In addition, the Look Up Table (LUTs) percentage, power consumption and processing time used by the optimized SW/HW design are improved by nearly 45%, 18% and 61% compared the ideal SW/HW design, respectively, with slight decrease in the image quality.     

Effect of non-uniform parallel channel on performance of passive direct methanol fuel cell

In this paper, the effects of current collector on passive direct methanol fuel cell's (passive DMFC) performance and removing CO₂ gas is studied. For this purpose, a single cell with two arrangements of current collector in anode and cathode side is considered. In first arrangement, non-uniform parallel channels with 53.76% open ratio is used in the anode side and a perforated flow field with 34.5% open ratio is applied in the cathode side. In second arrangement, uniform parallel channels with 42.28% open ratio has been used in both anode and cathode sides. At the first arrangement, a maximum power of 20 mW cm⁻² in 4 M methanol concentrations and in the second arrangement a maximum power of 17.7 mW cm⁻² in 5 M methanol concentrations has been obtained. Furthermore, it is shown that using the current collector with non-uniform parallel channels is more effective in removing CO₂ gas than other parallel channels.     

Effect of Cobalt and Nickel Doping on Structural and Magnetic Properties of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Two series samples of Iron Oxide nanoparticles doped with nickel and cobalt with different doping values (x?=?0.01; 0.03; 0.05 and 0.07), were successfully synthesized by using sol–gel method, and then they were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). X-ray diffraction analysis of two series samples showed the formation α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles, accompanied by two phases iron spinels, CoFe₂O₄ and NiFe₂O₄. In addition, the variations in grain size were observed for both two series. The observation by scanning electron microscopy reveals a change in the morphology of the grains of all the samples doped, which confirm the cobalt and nickel effect on the morphology of iron oxide nanoparticles. Magnetic measurements which were measured by VSM showed significant magnetic parameters such as coercivity and magnetization besides the ferromagnetic behavior of both two series doped with Cobalt and Nickel.

     

Effects of frying on the fatty acid composition in farmed and wild gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

The effects of frying in soybean (FWSO) and olive oils (FWOO) on the fatty acid composition of farmed and wild gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata were evaluated. The fat content increased with both frying treatments. However, after FWOO the moisture content of the fish was reduced to a greater extent than that in fish FWSO. The concentration of saturated fatty acids (SFA) decreased significantly during both frying processes ( P  < 0.01). However, the concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) increased significantly in fish fried in olive oil ( P  < 0.01). The fried fish contained a higher level of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and a lower level of n-3 PUFA compared to raw fish. The n-3/n-6 ratio decreased in wild fish FWSO and FWOO from 0.94 ± 0.08 to 0.15 ± 0.01 and 0.15 ± 0.02, respectively. In farmed bream, the ratios decreased from 2.51 ± 0.03 to 0.18 ± 0.03 and 0.36 ± 0.01, respectively. The concentration of trans fatty acids decreased significantly in both fish types after frying ( P  < 0.05). The frying process widely affected the EPA and DHA content, limiting the positive effects of n-3 PUFA.