Perennial biofuel and cover crops systems are important for enhancing soil health and can provide numerous soil, agricultural, and environmental benefits. The study objective was to investigate the effects of cover crops and biofuel crops on soil hydraulic properties relative to traditional management for claypan soils. The study site included selected management practices: cover crop (CC) and no cover crop (NC) with corn/soybean rotation, switchgrass (SW), and miscanthus (MI). The CC mixture consisted of cereal rye, hairy vetch, and Austrian winter pea. The research site was located at Bradford Research Center in Missouri, USA, and was implemented on a Mexico silt loam. Intact soil cores (76‐mm diam. by 76‐mm long) were taken from the 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm depths with three plot replicates and two sub‐samples per plot replicate per depth. Soil hydraulic properties evaluated for each sample included: saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), water retention, bulk density, and pore size distributions. Results showed with the test of Duncan's least significant differences that treatments of MI (1.18 Mg m−3) and SW (1.21 Mg m−3) had lower values of bulk density averaging across soil depth than CC (1.27 Mg m−3) and NC (1.31 Mg m). Management systems significantly increased Ksat with the biofuel treatments at 0–10 cm compared to NC system. The MI management showed a significant increase in macroporosity and fine mesoporosity as compared to other management systems. Slight changes have occurred in the measured soil physical properties for CC system compared to NC plots. Overall, increasing soil organic matter from more plant roots from long‐term biofuel cropping systems can improve soil water storage and crop productivity.
In this work, ZnO nanostructures for powder ZnO were synthesized by Hydrothermal Method. Size and shape of ZnO nanostructureas can be controlled by change ammonia concentration. In the preparation of ZnO nanostructure, zinc nitrate hexahydrate [Zn(NO3)2·6H2O] was used as a precursor. The structure and morphology of ZnO nanostructure have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD). The synthesized ZnO nanostructures have a hexagonal wurtzite structure. Also using Zeta potential and Particle Size Analyzers and size distribution of the ZnO powder
Lead selenide PbSe thin films of different thicknesses (300, 500, and 700 nm) were deposited under vacuum using thermal evaporation method on glass substrates. X-ray diffraction measurements showed that increasing of thickness lead to well crystallize the prepared samples, such that the crystallite size increases while the dislocation density decreases with thickness increasing. A.C conductivity, dielectric constants, and loss tangent are studied as function to thickness, frequency (10kHz-10MHz) and temperatures (293K-493K). The conductivity measurements confirm confirmed that hopping is the mechanism responsible for the conduction process. Increasing of thickness decreases the thermal activation energy estimated from Arhinus equation is
... Show MoreIn this work, two different structures are proposed which is fuzzy real normed space (FRNS) and fuzzy real Pre-Hilbert space (FRPHS). The basic concept of fuzzy norm on a real linear space is first presented to construct space, which is a FRNS with some modification of the definition introduced by G. Rano and T. Bag. The structure of fuzzy real Pre-Hilbert space (FRPHS) is then presented which is based on the structure of FRNS. Then, some of the properties and related concepts for the suggested space FRN such as -neighborhood, closure of the set named , the necessary condition for separable, fuzzy linear manifold (FLM) are discussed. The definition for a fuzzy seminorm on is also introduced with the prove that a fuzzy seminorm on
... Show MoreHot mix recycling of asphalt pavements is increasingly being used as one of the major rehabilitation methods by various highway agencies. Besides general savings in costs and energy expended, it also saves our natural resources and environment. Recycling process presents a sustainable pavement by using the old materials that could be reclaimed from the pavement; these materials could be mixed with recycling agents to produce recycled mixtures. The important expected benefits of recycling process are the conservation of natural resources and reduction of environmental impact. The primary objectives of this work are evaluating the Tensile and Shear Properties of recycled asphalt concrete mixtures, In addition to the
... Show MorePoly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/poly(caprolactone) (PCL) and two types of organoclay (OMMT) including a fatty amide and ocatdecylamine montmorillonite (FA-MMT and ODA-MMT) were employed to produce polymer nanocomposites by melt blending. Materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Mechanical properties were also investigated for these nanocomposites. The nanocomposites showed increasing mechanical properties and thermal stability. XRD results indicated that the materials formed nanocomposites. SEM morphology showed that increasing content of OMMT reduc
... Show MorePolyaniline (PANI) has been prepared by the oxidation method in order to fabricate it with various concentrations of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) which produced using the reduction method. Various techniques have characterized pure PANI and PANI doped CuNPs composites, such as fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), which were provided important information about the structure and morphology of the fabricated polymer nanocomposites. The properties of dielectric permittivity (έ), dielectric loss (ἔ) and electrical conductivity (σ_AC) properties were studied at room temperature versus a range
... Show MoreThe aim of present study was to investigate the effect of Pregabalin on hormonal profile of pituitary and ovarian hormones in female albino rats. Three groups of healthy adult female albino rats having fifteen rats in each group were selected for present study. The rats of groups G2 and G3 were administered with Pregabalin with two doses 150 mg and 300mg/kg b.wt/day respectively by orally route daily for 1month, 2 months, and 3 months. Animals of group G1 (Control) were given saline alone. After the experimental periods, the rats were sacrificed, and the study of hormonal profile was carried out by collecting blood samples from the heart puncture method, centrifuged sera and analyzing concentrations of estrogen, progesterone and gonadotropi
... Show MoreCataract, which is the opacity inside clear ocular lens of eye, result in the scattering of visible light as it passes via the lens and consequently deterioration in optical image. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether safranal, an active constituent of Crocus sativus L. stigmas, has a protective effect on the cataract in the rat's pups. The animals were randomly divided into five groups, each of which consisted of 7 rat pups. Group I served as normal control (vehicle administration). For testing cataract induction, animals of Groups II, III, and IV were administered a single subcutaneous injection of sodium selenite on postpartum day 12. After sodium selenite intoxicatio
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