In order to obtain the soil water retention curve of an unsaturated soil which is defined as the relationship between water content and suction, extensive laboratory tests are essential. These laboratory tests are usually costly and time consuming. Moreover, for most practical problems, it has been found that approximate unsaturated soil properties are adequate for analysis. Thus, empirical pro...

Strains of Pseudomonas that produce antimicrobial metabolites and control soilborne plant diseases have often been isolated from soils defined as disease-suppressive, i.e., soils, in which specific plant pathogens are present, but plants show no or reduced disease symptoms. Moreover, it is assumed that pseudomonads producing antimicrobial compounds such as 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) or p...

introduction: playa is one of the most important landscapes in arid regions which covers about 1% of the world's total land area. study of playas is important from different points of view especially pedology, sedimentology, mineralogy, environmental geology, groundwater and surface water chemistry. more than 60 playas have been identified in iran. considering the fact that playas and surroundi...

soils of the arid–semiarid karaj basin in north-central iran have formed on alluvium-colluvium derived from mixed calcareous-gypsiferous marls of miocene and basic igneous rocks of holocene age. in order to characterize and classify the soils and to determine the soil-landscape relationship in the area, sixteen pedons located on different physiographic positions have been described, sampled and...

INTRODUCTION Ethiopia achieved a rapid expansion of TB microscopic centers for acid fast bacilli (AFB). However, external quality assurance (EQA) services were, until recently, limited to few regional and sub-regional laboratories. In this paper, we describe the decentralization experience and the result of EQA using random blinded rechecking. MATERIALS AND METHODS The routine EQA quarterly r...

Pay for performance (P4P) is defined as the transfer of money or material goods conditional on taking a measurable action or achieving a predetermined performance target (Eichler 2006). In recent years, P4P has received considerable attention as an innovative health system model to increase the use, quality and efficiency of health care services in lowand middle-income countries (LMIC). In addi...

In this paper a relationship between two approaches towards construction of genuinely two-dimensional upwind advection schemes is established. One of these approaches is of tile control volume type applicable on structured cartesian meshes. It resulted (see [14], [15]) in the compact high resolution schemes capable of maintaining second order accuracy in both homogeneous and inhomogeneous cases...

This paper presents a novel countermeasure against Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks that we call the rouTer poRt mArking and paCKet filtering (TRACK), which includes the functions of both IP traceback and packet filtering. TRACK is a comprehensive solution that is composed of two components: a router port marking module and a packet filtering module. The former is a novel packet mar...