Zooplankton population in the river tigris: Effects of samarra impoundment

The influences of the Samarra impoundment on the ecology of the downstream sector of the river Tigris are investigated. Zooplankton were collected monthly from July 1987 to July 1988. It was found that zooplankton were most abundant during high river discharges in March. During the month of low river discharge, September, the zooplankton population was greatly reduced immediately below the barrage and remained so to the last downstream station. Several factors seem to explain such differences. The high discharge from the impoundment was found to be the dominating factor and may flush the small backwaters in which zooplankton were abundant, thus increasing the population in the river. Zooplankton species vary in their ability to sustain populations in the river, variations which are due mainly to species-specific characteristics.     

Iris recognition and the challenge of homeland and border control security in UAE

This article discusses the implementation of iris recognition in improving the security of border control systems in the United Arab Emirates. The article explains the significance of the implemented solution and the advantages the government has gained to-date. The UAE deployment of iris recognition technology is currently the largest in the world, both in terms of number of Iris records enrolled (more than 840,751) and number of iris comparisons performed daily 6,225,761,155 (6.2 billion) in ‘all-against-all’ search mode.     

Biogenic amine content of boza: A traditional cereal-based, fermented Turkish beverage

Boza is a fermented beverage made from millet, maize, wheat or rice. Biogenic amine contents of 10 boza samples from different manufacturers in Turkey were analysed for the first time, using HPLC after derivatisation with benzoyl chloride. Of the 11 biogenic amines under study, putrescine, spermidine and tyramine were detected in all boza samples. Tyramine was the prevailing biogenic amine. Tyramine concentrations of boza samples were between 13 and 65 mg/kg. Total biogenic amine contents of boza samples were between 25 and 69 mg/kg. Consequently, consumption of boza might represent a health risk for patients being treated with drugs containing monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). The pH values of boza samples were in the range from 3.16 to 4.02; total dry matters were from 15.3% to 31.1% (w/w); protein contents were from 0.50% to 0.99% (w/w). No significant correlations were detected between biogenic amine concentrations and pH, protein content and total dry matter content.     

The effect of par‐baking and frozen storage time on the quality of cup cake

The effects of frozen storage and initial baking time of par‐baked cake on baking loss, volume, moisture, colour and textural properties of cake obtained after thawing and rebaking were investigated. Cakes, par‐baked at 175 °C for 15, 20 and 25 min, were stored at ?18 °C for 3, 6 and 9 months. After storage, par‐baked cakes were thawed and rebaked at 175 °C for 10, 15 and 20 min. Baking loss, moisture content, L and +b colour values, firmness, gumminess and chewiness of the resulting full‐baked cakes were significantly affected by both par‐baking and frozen storage time, while specific volume, cohesiveness, springiness and resilience values were significantly affected by frozen storage time. The increase in the time of frozen storage of the par‐baked cake leads to a decrease in the quality of the rebaked cake, namely an increase of baking loss and cake crumb firmness, and a loss in the moisture content and specific volume. Moisture of cake crumb, L and +b colour values, firmness, gumminess and chewiness significantly increased as the par‐baking time increased. However, regarding baking loss, specific volume, moisture content and textural properties, 3‐month intermediate storage at ?18 °C and 20‐min initial baking time gave the best result among the cakes produced by using the two‐step baking procedure.     

Prediction of geological hazardous zones in front of a tunnel face using TSP-203 and artificial neural networks

This research aims at improving the methods of prediction of hazardous geotechnical structures in the front of a tunnel face. We propose and showcase our methodology using a case study on a water supply system in Cheshmeh Roozieh, Iran. Geotechnical investigations had previously reported three measurements of the newly established method of TSP-203 (Tunnel Seismic Prediction) along 684 m of the 3200 m long tunnel up to a depth of 600 m. We use the results of TSP-203 in a trained artificial neural network (ANN) to estimate the unknown nonlinear relationships between TSP-203 results and those obtained by the methods of Rock Mass Rating classification (RMR – treated here as real values). Our results show that an appropriately trained neural network can reliably predict the weak geological zones in front of a tunnel face accurately.     

Refractive lens exchange for presbyopia

True presbyopia correction still remains one of the main challenges amongst eye professionals. Many corrective techniques exist including bifocal spectacle correction, monovision techniques both with corrective lenses and surgery, multifocal corneal excimer laser and refractive lens exchange with either accommodating or multifocal lenses. Refractive lens exchange was first described more than 10 years ago and has become more accepted in recent years with advancements in lens technology and improvements in surgical techniques. This article reviews developments in this field and current available lens options in the treatment of presbyopia.     

Modeling a ground-coupled heat pump system by a support vector machine

This paper reports on a modeling study of ground coupled heat pump (GCHP) system performance (COP) by using a support vector machine (SVM) method. A GCHP system is a multi-variable system that is hard to model by conventional methods. As regards the SVM, it has a superior capability for generalization, and this capability is independent of the dimensionality of the input data. In this study, a SVM based method was intended to adopt GCHP system for efficient modeling. The Lin-kernel SVM method was quite efficient in modeling purposes and did not require a pre-knowledge about the system. The performance of the proposed methodology was evaluated by using several statistical validation parameters. It is found that the root-mean squared (RMS) value is 0.002722, the coefficient of multiple determinations (R²) value is 0.999999, coefficient of variation (cov) value is 0.077295, and mean error function (MEF) value is 0.507437 for the proposed Lin-kernel SVM method. The optimum parameters of the SVM method were determined by using a greedy search algorithm. This search algorithm was effective for obtaining the optimum parameters.The simulation results show that the SVM is a good method for prediction of the COP of the GCHP system. The computation of SVM model is faster compared with other machine learning techniques (artificial neural networks (ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)); because there are fewer free parameters and only support vectors (only a fraction of all data) are used in the generalization process.     

Simulation of the flow through woven fabrics

Filament-level three-dimensional simulations of the flow through single layer woven fabrics were done using FLUENT^TM. For screen Reynolds numbers, Re_s, between 50 and 300, CFD simulations reproduce experimental measurements of wind tunnel screen pressure drops to within ±10%. Simulations of woven fabrics with geometric non-uniformities have also been undertaken. In these simulations one or more strands of the fabric is shifted laterally relative to its undisturbed location. If the filament displacement, normalized by the centre-to-centre separation between filaments, is ε, the enhancement in the flow rate through the enlarged opening in the fabric is given by approximately 2ε. A very simplified model of the geometry is consistent with this enhanced flow rate. The findings of this research are relevant to both wind tunnel and papermachine forming fabric design.