Oil Families and Their Potential Sources in the Southern Gulf of Suez, Egypt

Four oil families are identified in the southern Gulf of Suez, through high-resolution geochemical studies including gas chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and carbon isotope analyses. Biological features characterize oils in family 1a, suggesting tertiary carbonate source rocks for these oils, rich in type II organic matter and deposited under anoxic depositional environment. Family 1b oil shows minor variations in the source of organic matter and the depositional environment, as it was derived from carbonate source rock with more algal and bacterial contribution and minor input of terrestrial organic sources, deposited under less saline condition compared to family 1a oil. Family 2 oil, although genetically related to family 1a oil, has some distinctive features, such as diasterane to sterane and pristane to phytane ratios, which suggest clay-rich source rocks and a more oxic depositional environment. Also, the lack of oleanane indicates pre-tertiary source rocks for this oil. In contrast, family 3 oil is of mixed sources (marine and non-marine), generated from low sulfur and clay-rich source rock of tertiary and/or younger age. Family 4 oil seems to be mixed from family 1b and family 3 oils, sourced mainly from carbonate source rocks rich in clay minerals with algal and bacterial contributions. Family 4 oil is highly mature, family 1b oil lies within equilibrium values (peak oil generation stage), while the other families are more or less near equilibrium.     

Silicon Affects Rice Growth,Superoxide Dismutase Activity and Concentrations of Chlorophyll and Proline under Different Levels and Sources of Soil Salinity

Silicon - Silicon (Si) application shows beneficial effects on growth and salt tolerance of plants; however, its effects on the rice (Oryza sativa L. var. Hashemi) growth, superoxide dismutase...     

Fish oil microencapsulation as influenced by spray dryer operational variables

The effects of spray‐drying air temperature, aspirator rate (drying air mass flow rate), peristaltic pump rate (feed mass flow rate) and spraying air mass flow rate on microencapsulation properties of fish oil including moisture content, particle size, bulk density, encapsulation efficiency and peroxide were investigated. The process was carried out on a mini spray dryer, and skim milk powder was used as the encapsulating wall material. Results indicated that increasing inlet air temperature increased the particle size, encapsulation efficiency and peroxide value but decreased the bulk density and moisture content of product. Increasing aspirator rate resulted in increased particle size and peroxide value but decreased the moisture content and bulk density. Increase in feed mass flow rate increased the moisture content, particle size, bulk density and peroxide value but decreased the encapsulation efficiency of microcapsules. The encapsulation efficiency and bulk density increased with the increasing aspirator rate but moisture content, particle size and peroxide value decreased.     

Improving energy productivity of sunflower production using data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach

BACKGROUND: Efficient use of energy in agriculture is one of the conditions for sustainable agricultural production. This study applies the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to the data of 95 randomly selected farms to investigate the technical and scale efficiencies of farmers with respect to energy use for sunflower production in Golestan province, Iran. The study also helps to identify the wasteful usage and the optimum level of energy from different inputs. RESULTS: According to the results of DEA models, about 36% of farmers were found to be technically efficient and the mean efficiency of sunflower producers was found to be 0.87 and 0.96 under the constant and variable returns to scale assumptions respectively. The optimum energy requirement was calculated as 8448.3 MJ ha^?1; accordingly, a potential reduction of 10.8% (1020.3 MJ ha^?1) in total energy input could be achieved by raising the performance of farmers to the highest level. CONCLUSION: Applying a better machinery management technique and conservation tillage methods, application of fertilisers by performance monitoring and utilisation of alternative sources of energy such as compost and chopped residues may be the pathways for improving energy productivity and reducing the environmental footprint. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Identifying Periodical Activities Independent of Video Content

In this research, a completely new and accurate method has been presented for detecting periodic activities with the help of machine vision. The proposed method is independent of motion tracking complex algorithms unlike the previous strategies and it is fully independent of contents and types of activities by performing low level calculation. Not using of heavy computations while improving the ability of periodicity detection is regarded as the unique feature of this method. The use of general and flexible framework in this method causes to facilitate the machine vision periodic activities identification process.     

Renal tubular dysgenesis

Renal tubular dysgenesis (RTD) is a very rare malformation, only 24 cases having been described. We present the case of twins born after 28 weeks gestation to a newly-arrived Ethiopian immigrant in whom oligohydramnios was diagnosed when she was admitted. 1 twin had developed polyhydramnios, died before birth and was born with hydrops fetalis. The other newborn suffered from pulmonary distress and anuria, and died 2 days after birth. At autopsy there were no apparent changes in the kidneys or urinary tract, but histological examination showed absence of proximal convoluted tubules. This was attributed to RTD and confirmed by histochemical examination.     

Optothermal properties of fibres

Studies of the mechanical and optical properties of undrawn polypropylene fibres by annealing and drawing were performed. The optical properties and strain produced in polypropylene fibres at different conditions were measured interferometrically at room temperature. It was found that as the draw ratio of the fibre increased, its birefringence, Δn_a, increased at a constant rate, and then nearly levelled off. The refractive index, n ^∥, and polarizability, p ^∥, increased with different draw ratios; but for fibres annealed at 70 and 100°C, there were no acceptable variations. For fibres annealed at 130°C, n ^∥ and p ^∥ increased compared to those fibres annealed at 70 and 100°C. An empirical formula has been suggested to explain the relationship between the cross-sectional area of polypropylene fibres with the draw ratio, and the constants of this formula have been determined. The effect of annealing on the refractive index profile of undrawn polypropylene fibres, before and after thermal treatment, was studied. The strain optical coefficient and the Poisson's ratio were calculated over different draw ratios. The results obtained clarify the effect of annealing time and temperature with different draw ratios on the optical behaviour of polypropylene fibres. Microinterferograms are given for illustration.     

Source monitoring.

Aframework for understanding source monitoring and relevant empirical evidence is described, and several related phenomena are discussed: old–new recognition, indirect tests, eyewitness testimony, misattributed familiarity, cryptomnesia, and incorporation of fiction into fact. Disruptions in source monitoring (e.g., from confabulation, amnesia, and aging) and the brain regions that are involved are also considered, and source monitoring within a general memory architecture is discussed. It is argued that source monitoring is based on qualities of experience resulting from combinations of perceptual and reflective processes, usually requires relatively differentiated phenomenal experience, and involves attributions varying in deliberateness. These judgments evaluate information according to flexible criteria and are subject to error and disruption. Furthermore, diencephalic and temporal regions may play different roles in source monitoring than do frontal regions of the brain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of quinoa germ on the quality properties of fresh whey-less cheese made by ginger (Zingiber officinale) extract as a coagulant

The effect of ginger extract (GE), as a milk coagulant, was investigated on the physicochemical, proteolysis, textural profiles and sensory properties of whey-less cheese containing quinoa germ powder (QGP; 0, 3, 6 and 9%) during storage. The results showed that with increasing QGP, the dry matter, fat, soluble nitrogen at pH 4.6 and free tryptophan and tryptophan amino acids increased and protein content decreased. Consequently, it is suggested that using 6% quinoa germ in the production of whey-less cheese made by GE as a coagulant can give the most desired product with no adverse effects on the quality and sensory properties.     

Evaluation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Contamination in the Sediments of the Johor Strait,Peninsular Malaysia

In May 2013, sediment samples were collected from five stations in the Straits of Johor, near the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia, in order to evaluate the distribution and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The concentrations of 16 United States Environmental Protection Agency PAHs varied from 650.5 to 1441.2 ng g ^?1 dry weight (dw) with a mean value of 985.5 ng g ^?1 dw. PAHs can be classified as moderate level pollution in the collected samples. When comparing PAHs in this study with that of the sediment quality guidelines (SQGs), it was found that the total PAHs, low molecular weight (LMW), and high molecular weight (HMW) PAHs might incur minimal adverse biological effects. The diagnostic ratios of individual PAHs indicated both petrogenic and pyrogenic origins with predominantly pyrogenic sources, the findings of which are further supported by the results from principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA results reveal contributions of 44.44%, 32.3%, and 18.96% for traffic-related, coal combustion, and petroleum-related products, respectively. These findings indicate that the effective monitoring and significant improvement resulting from the implementation of environmental regulations in Malaysia might have caused a shift in the source of petroleum hydrocarbons in the Straits of Johor's aquatic ecosystems from petrogenic to pyrogenic origins.