In 1911 superconductivity was discovered in mercury having transition temperature at 4.2 K, during last 100 years transition temperature has been increased to 153 K. In this manuscript the major developments in experimental and theoretical fields have been reviewed. A summary of various applications of superconducting materials is also given and future prospects of superconductivity are discussed.

Let  denote the domination number of the graph  and let denote the domination number of the Cartesian product of the graphs and . Here in this note; let denote the cycle with three vertices and similarly, let denote the cycle with  vertices. The domination number of the Cartesian product of two even cycles  and  is characterized here, where , with   such that . If and only if  divides  , that is,   iff .

As we know that tropical cyclones (or hurricanes) act as giant heat engines, so it is logical to assume that an increase in sea surface temperatures (SSTs) will create more intense hurricanes. Indeed, there is a general consensus among hurricane scientists that an increase in SSTs due to global warming, should, in theory, lead to more intense hurricanes. This paper discusses the tropical cyclones history in Arabian Sea with respect to trend, underlying distribution of occurrence of tropical cyclones in 120 years (1891-2010), and its persistency / anti-persistency with the help of Hurst exponent calculations. We test for presence of any positive trend in cyclones frequency in the Arabian Sea by analyzing the cyclone data of 120 years. It has been shown that there exists a statistically significant positive trend in Arabian Sea cyclone frequency data. The underlying distribution of occurrence of tropical cyclones history came out to be lognormal, suggesting an increasing multiplicative complex physical process, which strengthens the finding of positive trend in cyclone frequency data. Hurst exponent of Arabian Sea annual cyclone frequency for 120 years came out to be 0.98, which shows a persistency in future cyclone frequency and bolsters the results of trend and distribution function of cyclone frequency history. Moreover, cyclone trend values of 120 years data for the months of May, June, October, and November are also significant.  Finally, sea surface temperatures for these months also reveal persistency as the values of Hurst exponent are greater than 0.5, and seems to be proportional to the cyclone frequency slope (of fitted trends) values for the same months.

High definition Video (HDV) is becoming increasingly common feature in video display devices as it provides superior level of details in comparison to standard video. Latest video compression standard, H.264/AVC can be used for storage and efficient transmission over network. However, blocking artifacts are introduced due loss of correlation between blocks during compression process. H.264/AVC employs deblocking filter to suppress these blocking artifacts. This paper provides performance evaluation of H.264/AVC deblocking filter for 720p high definition video. Various simulations by using different 720p video sequences are conducted to check the efficiency of H.264/AVC deblocking filter. Simulation results show that H.264/AVC deblocking filter can significantly suppress blocking artifacts while maintaining the quality of 720p video.

Use of lossy compression for medical images could result in compression error that may be considered as diagnostic problem by medical doctor. Hybrid schemes, a combination of lossy and lossless compression are used to achieve higher compression ratio without compromising the subjective quality of medical images. This paper proposes a new hybrid compression method for medical images. Different combinations of lossy and lossless compression schemes: RLE, LZW, JPEG LS, JPEG and JPEG2000 are implemented to find out the best hybrid compression combination by keeping subjective quality of medical image as a benchmark. X-ray images are used for experimentation. Experimental results show that hybrid combination of JPEG2000 lossless and lossy JPEG2000 produce optimized results without compromising subject quality of medical images required for diagnostics. The proposed hybrid combination has average compression ratio, space saving, MSE and PSNR of 0.21, 78.97, 1.16 and 47.58 respectively for all the medical images used in experimentation. The proposed hybrid scheme can be used for medical image compression.

The present study assesses for the first time, the level of background radiation and the environmental radioactivity concentration in Duhok city using both gamma spectroscopy and dosimetry. The objective is to establish a baseline radiation level of the region. The city is located in the northwest in Kurdistan region of Iraq. Using gamma scout radiation meter (dosimetry), the average outdoor dose rate found in the field is 0.16 µSvh^-1. Using shielded well type NaI (TI) detector for 30000 sec, the calculated absorbed dose rate in air from terrestrial radiation and ¹³⁷Cs ranges 21.09-72.14 nGyh^-1 with an average of 44.05±1.34 nGyh^-1 which is below the world average value. The corresponding average annual effective dose rate is 0.054±0.002 mSvy^-1. The mean deposition activity concentration of ¹³⁷Cs is 9.17±0.47 Bqkg^-1 and 17.25 Bqkg^-1 for the non-intervened locations. Taking the non-intervened value, the expected contamination of the ¹³⁷Cs fallout from the Chernobyl accident in 1986 is 30.2 Bqkg^-1. Regarding the depleted uranium (DU) it is found that there is no significant DU trace at 20 sampling locations.  Compared with other measurements in different countries we can conclude that the environment of the city is clean and suitable for living.

The sensible sources (namely; corn, wheat, barley, oat and rye) and molasses (procured from the local market of Rawalpindi), following enzymatic hydrolysis were subjected to fermentation to produce high fiber protein (HFP) and  liquid protein as a by-product. The former can be used for human consumption and the later was considered fit for animal feed. Carbon dioxide gas produced during fermentation can be used as gas in beverages or converted into dry ice. Malt husk (spent grain) left behind  as a result of waste has utilization for poultry and dairy farm.  Ethanol produced was converted into high power alcohol and a comparison of its characteristics with those of natural fuels was made. The high power alcohol was transformed into high power fuel (gellified material) by the interaction with potassium salts of the isopropylidene derivatives of carbohydrates. The potassium salt of the isopropylidene derivative of carbohydrate was prepared in two stages: first, derivative of carbohydrates was synthesized by the interaction of carbohydrates with acetone. The derivative so produced was further treated with chlorosulphonic acid in the presence of potassium carbonate, to produce potassium salt of the derivative of carbohydrates. The fermentation mash may be consumed as a non-alcoholic drink after addition of flavor.

This study assesses the intake adequacy of elements determined in fresh, ultra high temperature treated and powder milk samples. The samples were analyzed by semi-absolute k₀ instrumental neutron activation analysis, epithermal neutron activation analysis and flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry with proper method validation. Fourteen elements (Br, Ca, Cl, Cs, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Na, P, Rb, Sn, Sr and Zn) were quantified in all samples. All essential elements were assessed for their daily intake by comparing with the dietary reference intakes. The daily intake of Pb, identified in only two samples, was compared with the provisional tolerable weekly intake defined by FAO/WHO. The Sr/Ca ratio was calculated for the assessment of radioactive dose. Additionally, the data was explored by cluster analysis and correlation coefficient to extract relationships between samples and elements respectively.

The adsorption of silver ions on rice husk has been studied in nitric acid medium at ambient temperature using batch method. Atomic absorption spectrometry was employed for the quantification of silver ions. Maximum adsorption was observed at nitric acid concentration of 0.001mol L^-1 using 0.5 g of rice husk and shaking time of 15 minutes. The adsorption of silver ions obeyed the Langmuir isotherm model in the concentration range of 1.854 ´ 10^-4 to 1.159 ´ 10^-3 mol L^-1. A comparison of four linear equations of the Langmuir isotherm (Type 1, 2, 3 and 4) were examined for silver ion sorption onto rice husk. Isotherm parameters obtained from the four linear equations are reported and discussed. Though Langmuir type 1 is the most popular form, but the type 2 had the highest correlation coefficient of R² = 0.9967, compared with the other Langmuir linear equations with R² values ranged from 0.9688 to 0.9937. The observed adsorption capacities (Q_m) of the silver ions on rice husk were in the range of 1.08 to 1.62 mg g^-1. The determined adsorption capacity of silver on rice husk was also compared with the reported values for other adsorbents.

Accurate and reliable potential evapotranspiration estimation depends on the method through which it is estimated. The aim of this research study is to compare and evaluate different potential evapotrasnpiration estimation methods against the standard FAO Penman -Monteith equation. The methods evaluated included simple Penman -Monteith equation (SPM), Hergreaves’s method (HM), Priestly Taylor method (PTM) and Makkink method (MM). Mean monthly data of all the climatic variables including maximum and minimum air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation and rainfall was recorded during 2010 from weather station installed inside the Agriculture Research Institute (ARI) Tarnab, Peshawar, Pakistan. Results reveled that all method underestimated potential evapotranspiration value except the HM. A t and paired t-test was applied on overall means of the all methods and individually monthly means against FPM. There was no overall significant difference for all methods, however significant differences were observed fall all methods when subjected to paired t-test for individual monthly mean. The SPM is considered best after FPM (R²=0.99), but it also need high numbers of climatic parameters. While the HM which worked on only temperature variable and PT on solar radiation showed high correlation (R²=0.98) with FPM. HM and PT are simpler and rely only on temperature and radiation data, can be used as an alternative to FAO56 Penman-Monteith method if other climatic data are missing or unreliable

Path coefficient analysis was done to know which characters are useful for making selection of the desired plants in Solanum lycoprsicum (L.). Simple analysis of variance of data of days to 50% flowering (NDFL), days to 50% fruit setting (NDFR), number of flowers per cluster (NFLC), number of fruits per cluster (NFRC), fruit length (FRL), fruit width (FRW), fruit firmness at pink stage (FFP), fruit firmness at red stage (FFR), pericarp thickness (PT), total soluble solids (TSS%) and pH of the juice (pH) revealed significant amount of variation in all the characters measured. Genotypic and phenotypic correlation of (TSS) with NFRC was positive and significant, whilst genotypic correlation of NDFL was positive and significant. Phenotypic correlations of TSS with FRL, was negative and highly significant. The path-coefficients were also computed to estimate the contribution of individual characters towards TSS. Path coefficient analysis showed that NFRC had maximum positive direct effect on TSS followed by ERL, FFR and FRW whilst characters like NDFL, NDFR, NFLC, FFP, PT and pH had negative direct effect on TSS. Correlation component reveals that NFRC exerted great influence both directly and indirectly on TSS. Characters like NFRC, FRL, FFR and FRW having positive direct effects may be given due consideration.

Host plant resistance can play an important role in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) against insect pests. Relative infestation on five Bt transgenic cotton varieties/ genotypes (IR-443, IR-FH-901, IR-448, IR-1524 and IR-1513) was investigated against sucking complex (jassids, thrips and whiteflies) and bollworm complex [pink (Pectinophora gossypiella) and spotted (Earias spp.) bollworms] during 2 consecutive years (2009 and 2010). Results reflected that IR-443 proved to be the most successful genotype rendering lowest infestation of jassids, thrips and whiteflies in both years as compared to other Bt cotton genotypes followed by IR-FH-901. Percent infestation by pink and spotted bollworms remained below Economic Threshold Level (ETL) and differed non significantly in all transgenic cotton genotypes. Highest yield was recorded from IR-443 which was significantly higher than IR-1513 and statistically at par with other three Bt cotton. Overall performance of IR-443 was found excellent followed by IR-FH-901. Thus, the latter two Bt transgenic cotton varieties/ genotypes should be considered as an important tool to help in managing certain pest populations in an economically viable and environmentally safe manner.