Biosurfactants are diverse molecules with numerous biological functions and industrial applications. A variety of environments were examined for biosurfactant-producing bacteria including soil, water and leaf surfaces. Biosurfactant production was assessed with an atomized oil assay for a large number of bacterial isolates and compared with a commonly used drop collapse assay from broth and pla...

The invasive Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) has been evident in the North Carolina Piedmont, United States for 90 yr but has failed to spread further north. We investigated the mechanisms preventing this expansion. The Argentine ant ceases foraging at temperatures below 5°C and we hypothesized that winter soil temperatures at higher latitudes restricted fora...

Mesopotamia is the broad, flat alluvial plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is today Syria and Iraq (Fig. 1). Under the rule of Sargon of Akkad, the world’s first united empire was established in this region, linking the remote agricultural hinterlands of northern Mesopotamia with the complex city-states in the south. This united empire extended from the Persian Gulf to the he...

Soil aggregate stability influences a wide range of physical and biogeochemical processes in the agricultural and natural environments, including soil erosion [3]. The relative prepon‐ derance of aggregates of various sizes in the soil and their stability to external forces are, therefore, an issue of major concern to soil scientists. By definition, an aggregate is a compo‐ site body or granule...

In current practice, the remediation of landslides has shown that biggest problem is increase in number works, and therefore price works. This due to several factors, including characteristic soil, such as collapse (collapse) surrounding ground around main slide during landslide remediation. Unless these soil erosion effects are taken into account, recovery costs will overrun, which can jeopard...

Environmental contaminations resulting from mining operations play an important role in the collapse of ecosystems balance. In order to measure vegetation characteristics and to study soil and plant contamination in rangelands surrounding bauxite mine, a systematic random sampling was done according to physiognomy and homogeneity of vegetation cover. Sampling was performed using a 50-meter tran...

Abstract In this essay, the progressive collapse resistance of reinforced concrete wall-frame structures was evaluated with and without considering soil–structure interaction. The vulnerability frames against investigated middle column removal scenario from first story, based on sensitivity index. To evaluate effects interaction, along soil (hard soil) foundation were simultaneously modeled in ...

carbonate materials are mostly found in tropical areas, where exploiting gas and oil resources are of high concern. their unique behavior under shear loading first was recognised during oil resources investigations in the persian gulf. off-shore structures have been placed on carbonate soils which are highly crushable.during storms cyclic loading imposes on the bases of structures lied down on ...