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The effects of nanoencapsulated cumin essential oil (EO) feeding broilers on growth performance, mucin 2 gene expression, blood parameters, and immune responses to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and 2, 4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) were evaluated. In a completely randomized design, 1050 male day-old Ross 308 broilers were distributed into 7 dietary treatments with 5 replicates of 30 birds per replication. Dietary treatments included 1) control basal (no additives), 2) control antibiotic growth promoter (flavophospholipol at 650 mg/kg), control basal plus a solution of 3) 150 mg/kg of chitosan nanoparticles, free-form cumin EO at 4) 100 or 5) 200 mg/kg, and nanoencapsulated cumin EO at 6) 100 and 7) 200 mg/kg. The use of 200 mg/kg nanoencapsulated cumin EO significantly (P< 0.01) increased body weight gain and mucin 2 gene expression and improved feed conversion ratio compared with other treatment. The highest feed intake was significantly (P< 0.01) in the control treatment during day 15 to 18 and day 29 to 42. In birds fed with nanoencapsulated cumin EO, serum total triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were also significantly lower than birds in the control group. Sheep red blood cell antibody titer (35 and 42 d), immunoglobulin G (42 d), heterophilus (H), lymphocyte (L), and H/L ratio, PHA, and DNCB (42 d) were affected by the nanoencapsulation process of cumin EO (P < 0.01). Finally, cumin EO in nanoencapsulation significantly improved growth performance, mucin 2 gene expression and sustained broiler immune responses and therefore could be used as substitute for antibiotics.

Ultrasonic Testing (UT) is one of the well-known Non-Destructive Techniques (NDT) of spot-weld inspection in the advanced industries, especially in automotive industry. However, the relationship between the UT results and strength of the spot-welded joints subjected to various loading conditions is unknown. The main purpose of this research is to present an integrated search system as a new approach for assessment of tensile strength and fatigue behavior of the spot-welded joints. To this end, Resistance Spot Weld (RSW) specimens of three-sheets were made of different types of low carbon steel. Afterward, the ultrasonic tests were carried out and the pulse-echo data of each sample were extracted utilizing Image Processing Technique (IPT). Several experiments (tensile and axial fatigue tests) were performed to study the mechanical properties of RSW joints of multiple sheets. The novel approach of the present research is to provide a new methodology for static strength and fatigue life assessment of three-sheets RSW joints based on the UT results by utilizing Artificial Neural Network (ANN) simulation. Next, Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to optimize the structure of ANN. This approach helps to decrease the number of tests and the cost of performing destructive tests with appropriate reliability.

AbstractWe propose an approach for computing an approximate nonnegative symmetric solution of some fully fuzzy linear system of equations, where the components of the coefficient matrix and the right hand side vector are nonnegative fuzzy numbers, considering equality of the median intervals of the left and right hand sides of the system. We convert the fully fuzzy linear system to two real linear systems, one being related to the cores and the other being concerned with spreads of the solution. We propose an approach for solving the real systems using the modified Huang method of the Abaffy-Broyden-Spedicato (ABS) class of algorithms. An appropriate constrained least squares problem is solved when the solution does not satisfy nonnegative fuzziness conditions, that is, when the obtained solution vector for the core system includes a negative component, or the solution of the spread system has at least one negative component, or there exists an index for which the component of the spread is greater than the corresponding component of the core. As a special case, we discuss fuzzy systems with the components of the coefficient matrix as real crisp numbers. We finally present two computational algorithms and illustrate their effectiveness by solving some randomly generated consistent as well as inconsistent systems.

In this paper, first an overview and explanation of the Oblique Active Tilting (OAT) and Opposed Lateral Tilting (OLT) control concepts are presented. A complete dynamic model of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) having lateral and longitudinal rotor tilting mechanism is developed using a Newton-Euler formulation for double axis OAT mechanism (dOAT). Then, a theoretical analysis of OAT vehicle control response and stability for pitch, roll and yaw motion is described and simulated using the derived dynamic model. The aim of the aspects presented in this paper is to fully enable the highly maneuverable characteristics of UAV possessing dOAT which renders them to navigate in highly confined environments by performing semi-acrobatic maneuvers in hover lateral and forward flight.

•Extraction of mathematical formulas for diameter calculation of spot-welded joints.•Acoustic finite element simulation of Ultrasonic Testing (UT) on three-sheet spot welds.•Utilization of a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) artificial neural network for the prediction of nugget diameters.•Quantitative comparison of theoretical, numerical and experimental results of ultrasonic testing.•An approach to automatically pass or reject spot welds using an inspection technique based on diameter estimation.

We reviewed the prevalence of HLA-B27 in 760 healthy individuals in the UAE, where the community is multi-ethnic. All were potential live donors for renal and bone marrow transplantation. The overall prevalence rate was 6.4%; 5.7% in Arabs only and 7.4% in the Asian group. Significant intra-racial variation were not observed between the major ethnic groups (P 0.235 and 0.1). Emirian Arabs exhibited a very low prevalence rate of 0.5% which was highly significant in comparison to other Arab subgroups, thus allowing a degree of intra-racial variations of the marker. The pair-wise comparison in all other Arab subgroups did not yield any significant differences. The Yemeni Arabs in this study had the highest rate of 17% and unexpectedly, Arabs with an African admixture (Somalis and Sudanese) also showed relatively high figures.

Context.water-fountain sources are a class of post-AGB objects that exhibit bipolar jet-like structures traced by H2O maser emission. The circumstellar envelopes of these objects show deviations from spherical symmetry. While the H2O masers originate in a collimated outflow in the polar region, the OH masers may be distributed in the equatorial region or a biconical outflow in the circumstellar shell. Magnetic fields could play an important role in collimating the jet and shaping the circumstellar envelope of these objects.

Context. The majority of the observed planetary nebulae exhibit elliptical or bipolar structures. Recent observations have shown that asymmetries already start during the last stages of the AGB phase. Theoretical modeling has indicated that magnetically collimated jets may be responsible for the formation of the non-spherical planetary nebulae. Direct measurement of the magnetic field of evolved stars is possible using polarization observations of different maser species occurring in the circumstellar envelopes around these stars.Aims. The aim of this project is to measure the Zeeman splitting caused by the magnetic field in the OH and H2O maser regions occurring in the circumstellar envelope and bipolar outflow of the evolved star W43A. We compare the magnetic field obtained in the OH maser region with the one measured in the H2O maser jet.Methods. We used the UK Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) to observe the polarization of the OH masers in the circumstellar envelope of W43A. Likewise, we used the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) observations to measure the magnetic field strength obtained previously in the H2O maser jet.Results. We report a measured magnetic field of approximately 100 $\mu $G in the OH maser region of the circumstellar envelope around W43A. The GBT observations reveal a magnetic field strength $B_{\rm ||}$of ~30 mG changing sign across the H2O masers at the tip of the red-shifted lobe of the bipolar outflow. We also find that the OH maser shell shows no sign of non-spherical expansion and that it probably has an expansion velocity that is typical for the shells of regular OH/IR stars.Conclusions. The GBT observations confirm that the magnetic field collimates the H2O maser jet, while the OH maser observations show that a strong large-scale magnetic field is present in the envelope surrounding the W43A central star. The magnetic field in the OH maser envelope is consistent with the one extrapolated from the H2O measurements, confirming that magnetic fields play an important role in the entire circumstellar environment of W43A.

Context. The majority of the observed planetary nebulae exhibit elliptical or bipolar structures. Recent observations have shown that asymmetries already start during the last stages of the AGB phase. Theoretical modeling has indicated that magnetically collimated jets may be responsible for the formation of the non-spherical planetary nebulae. Direct measurement of the magnetic field of evolved stars is possible using polarization observations of different maser species occurring in the circumstellar envelopes around these stars.