The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of electrical and thermal systems optimization on energy consumption in broiler farms. Experiments were conducted in 4 different climates (cold, hot, dry, and temperate) with four treatments (4 broiler farms in each region) and 5 iterations (5 rearing periods per farm) on the Ross 308 strain of broiler chicken in a completely randomized basic design. The results showed that the solutions applied in cold and dry climates had a significant effect on reducing energy consumption (P<0.05). In the hot climate, although the reduction in energy consumption was observed after the application of the solutions, the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Also, the application of solutions in temperate climates created a significant difference in the specific amount of thermal energy consumption per kilo of meat and total energy (P<0.05). Overall, the results of the present experiment showed that optimizing the electrical and thermal systems of broiler houses could reduce energy consumption in all climates.

Background: Many studies reported age- and sex-related differences in health outcomes among SARS-CoV-2 patients. More data on racial and ethnic differences is needed to implement proportionate intervention in preventing and treating Covid-19 infection.\n Methods: The present study was conducted on 1567 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ali Ibn Abi Taleb Hospital in Rafsanjan. The clinical outcomes were death and hospitalization. \nResults: From February 11, 2020 to August 2, 2020, 1567 (1282 were Iranians and 285 Afghans) positive test patients of COVID-19 referred to the hospital. The mean age was 46.37 years, and 50.2% were female. Incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2 in this duration among Iranian residents (4 per 1000 population) was significantly higher than that among Afghans (6.12 per 1000 population). Despite this difference, the unadjusted case fatality rate for Iranian was 5.46%, compared to 2.81% in Afghan patients. Although a higher probability of hospitalization in Iranian patients was seen, Iranian ethnicity showed no significant association with higher mortality after adjustment of differences in demographic profile and clinical characteristics. \nConclusions: We concluded that ethnicity differences between people with different nationalities might be important in terms of both morbidity and mortality of the novel coronavirus.

Le polar africain a un fort ancrage sociologique et anthropologique. La trame anthropologique et politique est donc fondamentale pour une exploration socio-économique et politique des diverses sociétés africaines dans lesquelles les romans policiers africains se situent. Dans ces romans policiers africains, l’Homme est présenté dans sa complexité sociale, culturelle, ethnographique ou ethnologique et historique. Cet article a consisté dès lors à montrer que l’aspect socio-anthropologique joue un rôle de plus en plus important dans le polar africain dans lequel apparaît le dévoilement d’une problématique politique, sociale ou culturelle conjointement à l’enquête du détective. Nous sommes arrivé à la conclusion que les auteurs de romans policiers africains font de l’enquête policière une énigme sociologique et anthropologique pour dire et dévoiler la société africaine

Increasing harmonic pollution and poor power factor have motivated researchers in recent years to actively contribute to development of several power factor correction (PFC) converters. Among all the PFC converters available, conventional Boost power factor correction (BPFC) converters are more popular; thanks to their simplicity, ease of control and compliance with power quality standards. Boost inductor is an integral part of the BPFC converter whose volume significantly influences the power density of the converter. Therefore, inductor design is vital to improve the power density of the converter. This paper is intended to report a simple and direct procedure for boost inductor design optimization. The procedure is based on achieving an optimal core geometry wherein an appropriate core material with required dimensions is selected for the inductor design. The choice of core material thus made is proved to be effective in bringing all the operational parameters within limits while maintaining desired efficiency and regulation for the converter. An experimental hardware is built to establish proof of the discussed concept.

The art of viticulture and the quest for making wines has a long\ntradition and it just started recently that mathematicians entered this field with their main contribution of modelling alcoholic fermentation.\nThese models consist of systems of ordinary differential equations that describe the kinetics of the bio-chemical reactions occurring in the fermentation process. The aim of this paper is to present a new model of wine fermentation that accurately describes\nthe yeast dying component, the presence of glucose transporters, and the formation of aromas and acids. Therefore the new model could become a valuable tool to predict the taste of the wine and provide the starting point for an emerging control technology\nthat aims at improving the quality of the wine by steering a well-behaved fermentation process that is also energetically more efficient. Results of numerical simulations are presented that successfully confirm the validity of the proposed model by comparison with real data.

Urate oxidase is a peroxisomal enzyme with four equal subunits that convert uric acid to allantoin, a more soluble metabolite for excretion. The usage of uricase as a drug in medicine is to treat hyperuricemia. Many microorganisms have been used for uricase production such as Streptomyces exfoliates, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Aspergillus flavus. In this study, microorganisms with higher uricase production ability were isolated, and optimized cultural and environmental conditions for increasing uricase production were studied. Soil samples were collected and then cultured in screening medium including uric acid. Samples with the higher ability of uricase production were selected for enzyme assay. Standard reaction mixture included uric acid dissolved in sodium borate buffer (pH 8.5), 4-aminoantipyrine, phenol, horseradish peroxidase, and enzyme solution. Enzyme activity was measured by spectrophotometry and the sample with the most uricase activity was identified as Aspergillus niger and selected for further studies. Then the effect of temperature, different sources of carbon and nitrogen, and different additive metal ions were studied. According to the results, the optimized temperature for enzyme production by Aspergillus niger was determined to be 35±2°C. The best carbon and nitrogen source was glucose and NH4NO3, and the best additive ion was determined as Cu2+. So temperature and components of the medium can affect uricase production by Aspergillus niger. This is the first report on the isolation and medium optimization for extracellular urate oxidase production by a newly isolated Aspergillus niger.

Based on historians and orientalists, Wadi-Arar is an area of a distinctive nature; however, within 200 years, it lost two of its most important features, namely the Juniper plant and the freshwater pools. By reviewing the related studies, the study is an attempt to identify the causes of the scarcity and disappearance of the Juniper plant in the current arid area of northern border region at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study has highlighted the quality of natural conditions, biotransformation, and the geopolitical factors as some of the most important factors of an environmental change in the habitat of the Juniper plant. Through analysis, the study assumption dedicates an ample space for theorists to identify what might be the main reason for changing the natural conditions, which is followed by a bio abrupt shift that has an adverse impact on this plant. The biotransformation has been associated with a global effect on migratory animals and birds among Africa, Asia, and Europe.