Designing machines and equipment for post-harvest operations of agricultural products requires information about their physical properties. The aim of the work was to evaluate the possibility of introducing a new approach to predict the moisture content in bean and corn seeds based on measuring their dimensions using image analysis using artificial neural networks (ANN). Experimental tests were carried out at three levels of wet basis moisture content of seeds: 9, 13 and 17%. The analysis of the results showed a direct relationship between the wet basis moisture content and the main dimensions of the seeds. Based on the statistical analysis of the seed material, it was shown that the characteristics examined have a normal or close to normal distribution, and the seed material used in the investigation is representative. Furthermore, the use of artificial neural networks to predict the wet basis moisture content of seeds based on changes in their dimensions has an efficiency of 82%. The results obtained from the method used in this work are very promising for predicting the moisture content.
The cathodic deposition of zinc from simulated chloride wastewater was used to characterize the mass transport properties of a flow-by fixed bed electrochemical reactor composed of vertical stack of stainless steel nets, operated in batch-recycle mode. The electrochemical reactor employed potential value in such a way that the zinc reduction occurred under mass transport control. This potential was determined by hydrodynamic voltammetry using a borate/chloride solution as supporting electrolyte on stainless steel rotating disc electrode. The results indicate that mass transfer coefficient (Km) increases with increasing of flow rate (Q) where .The electrochemical reactor proved to be efficient in removing zinc and was abl
... Show MoreNanostructured Al2O3has been applied as a protective coating against corrosion of the carbon steel (C.S) in seawater environment (3.5% NaCl) at temperatures range (298-328)K. Aluminananoparticles were deposited on carbon steel substrates by cathodic electrophoretic deposition (EPD) with ethanol as suspension medium and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as polymeric charging agent. Meanwhile, thesurface morphology was examined using Atomic-force microscopy (AFM). The cross-section AFM showed that the particles sizes for the Al2O3 NPs is around 60-80 nm. The anticorrosion behaviour of coated C.S was investigated in 3.5% NaCl at temperature range 298-328 K by potentiodynamic polarization measurements. Results show that using PAA in suspension coat incr
... Show MoreCoupling reaction of 4-amino antipyrene with 4-amino benzoic acid gave bidentate azo ligand. The prepared ligand was identified by Microelemental Analysis, 1HNMR, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. Treatment of the prepared ligand with the following metal ions (CoII, NiII, CuII and ZnII) in aqueous ethanol with a 1:2 M:L ratio and at optimum pH, yielded a series of neutral complexes of the general formula [M(L)2]Cl2 . The prepared complexes were characterized using flame atomic absorption, (C.H.N) Analysis, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic methods as well as magnetic susceptibility and conductivity measurements. Chloride ion content was also evaluated by (Mohr method). The nature of the complexes formed were studied following the mol
... Show MoreThis study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of 6 isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens and Trichoderma harzianum and there combination against Fusarium tomato wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum F.sp. Lycopersisi under green house condition .The isolates of bacteria (B3) and Trichoderma (T1) were found to be highly effective in reducing the disease incidence to 13.3% , 21% respectively , compared to control treatment (40%).Furthermore, disease severity was reduced to 28 and 30% respectively in comparison to control (90%) .Colonization of the roots (cfu /g fresh root weight )by the two isolates whether alon or together was extremely high . The combination treatment had a high ability in reducing disease incidenece and sev
... Show MoreM(II) Ions using amino acid L- proline as a primary ligand and either Nicotinamide or 8- hydroxyqinoline as secondary ligand, respectively: a. The mixed ligand complexes of composition,[M(pro)2(na)2]. b. The mixed ligand complexes of composition , Na[M(pro)2(Q)]. Where proline (C5H9NO2) symbolized as pro H , Nicotinamide (C6H6N2O) symbolized as (NA) , 8- hydroxyqinoline, (C9H7NO2) symbolized as (8-HQ). The ligands and the metal chlorides were brought into reaction at room temperature (37ºc) in ethanol as solvent .The reaction required the following molar ratios [(1:2:2) metal:2NA:2pro-] and [(1:1:2) metal:Q:2pro-] with M+2 ions, where M = [Mn (II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and pd(II)]. Products were found to be solid crystall
... Show MoreVarious assays are used to determine the toxic effects of drugs at cellular levels in vitro. One of these methods is the dye exclusion assay, which measures membrane integrity in the presence of Trypan blue. Trypan blue the dye which was used in this study to investigate cytotoxic effect of a new Cis –dichloroplatinum (II) complex [(Qu)2PtCl2] on the viability of polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs). Three concentrations of platinum complex were prepared (70, 35and 17.5 µg/ ml) and the results revealed that the percentage of cell viability decreased as the platinum complex concentration increased in comparison with control.
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