Protective floral structures may evolve in response to the negative effects of floral herbivores. For example, water calyces--liquid-filled, cup-like structures resulting from the fusion of sepals--may reduce floral herbivory by submerging buds during their development. Our observations of a water-calyx plant, Chrysothemis friedrichsthaliana (Gesneriaceae), revealed that buds were frequently at...

background: electrochemical methods, as one of the advanced oxidation processes (aops), have recently been applied to remove different contaminants from water and wastewater. this study compares the performance of anodic oxidation (ao) and electro-fenton (ef) methods on waste sludge treatment. methods: this experimental study was performed on real sludge and the effect of operating parameters s...

Methods are described for measuring the light emitted by an emulsion of luminous bacteria of given thickness, and calculating the light emitted by a single bacterium, measuring 1.1 x 2.2 micra, provided there is no absorption of light in the emulsion. At the same time, the oxygen consumed by a single bacterium was measured by recording the time for the bacteria to use up .9 of the oxygen dissol...

The main purpose of this study is to perform numerical simulation of nanofluids as the coolant in VVER-440 fuel rod bundle. The fuel rod bundle contains 60 fuel rods with length of 960 mm and 4 spacer grids. In VVER-440 fuel rod bundle the coolant fluid (water) is in high pressure and temperature condition. In the present Thermo-hydraulic simulation, water-AL2O3 nanofluids containing various vo...

Crop production process utilizes input energy and produces some biomass energy as output.  During this process, greenhouse gases (GHGs) are also emitted which can make environmental risks. In this study, input and output energies, energy indices, and GHG emissions arising from inputs were estimated for wheat-cotton rotation under different tillage practices in Fars province. The study was condu...

Background: Energy input in agriculture has increased tremendously and accounts for about 17% of total energy consumed in the USA. Precision agriculture involves knowledge-based technical management systems to optimize application of fertilizer, chemicals, seeds, and irrigation resources to reduce input costs and to enhance crop yield while simultaneously reducing harmful environmental impacts ...

The degree to which a water sample can potentially support the growth of human pathogens was evaluated. For this purpose, a pathogen growth potential (PGP) bioassay was developed based on the principles of conventional assimilable organic carbon (AOC) determination, but using pure cultures of selected pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli O157, Vibrio cholerae, or Pseudomonas aeruginosa) as the...