Bagging of female inflorescence following pollination has recently received growers attention. Although this process occurs early in the season but affects fruit quality, yield, and marketability. Date palm growers have used to use grocery paper bags for this bagging process. Since inflorescence bagging causes what is called the greenhouse effect, it was very important to investigate the effect...

Proper storage of shea butter is crucial to maintain quality and ensure availability the product over time, particularly in production zones where refrigeration not an option. The present study investigated several characteristics under different conditions. Three packaging materials (i.e. calabash, black plastic, transparent plastic), often used store zones, were for six months at ambient cond...

A 2-year field experiment was conducted on maize (Zea mays L.) to explore effective ways to decrease soil CO2 emissions and increase grain yield. Treatments established were: (1) no mulching with urea, (2) no mulching with controlled release fertiliser (CRF), (3) transparent plastic-film mulching (PMt) with urea, (4) PMt with CRF, (5) black plastic-film mulching (PMb) with urea, and (6) PMb wit...

The counter electrodes (CEs) for flexible dye solar cells (DSCs) are normally prepared by sputtering platinum on indium tin oxide (ITO) plastic substrate. However both ITO and platinum are expensive materials that need to be replaced with cheaper alternatives in large scale production of low-cost DSCs. We fabricated a flexible and completely carbon-based CE for DSCs based on electropolymerized ...

We study three-dimensional finite transient deformations of transparent poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA)/adhesive/polycarbonate (PC) laminates impacted at low speed by a hemispherical nosed rigid cylinder using the commercial finite element (FE) software LS-DYNA. The two glassy polymers PMMA and PC are modeled as thermo-elasto-visco-plastic materials by using the constitutive relation proposed b...

The activation of plastic deformation mechanisms determines the mechanical behavior of crystalline materials. However, the complexity of plastic deformation and the lack of a unified theory of plasticity have seriously limited the exploration of the full capacity of metals. Current efforts to design high-strength structural materials in terms of stacking fault energy have not significantly redu...

transparent glasses in a system of li2o-mgo-sio2-al2o3-fchemical constituents were prepared by melt quenching method. in the fabrication of nanocrystal glass-ceramics, controlled nucleation and subsequent crystal growth were necessary to avoid loss of transparency. it was therefore important to understand thermal properties and crystallization kinetics of the glass ceramics. the crystallization...

The annual American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ “Plastic Surgery: The Meeting” is always filled with great educational events and endeavors, and the 2015 gathering in Boston was truly exceptional. Perhaps the most memorable and most rewarding panel that we had the honor and pleasure to be a part of was the Medical Student Session, moderated by one of the first Plastic and Reconstructive Surger...

Background A literature review did not reveal any study investigating the prevalence of depression among plastic surgery residents. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional mail survey and included all Saudi Plastic Surgery residents in our local program in Saudi Arabia. The Beck Depression Inventory II was used. Results The inventory showed that mild, moderate, and severe depressive symptoms...