Vol. 1 Issue 2
A. Mahmoud, A.M. EI-Sheikh and S. Abdul Baset
Francoeuria crispa is a perennial bushy desert plant. Its distribution in Saudi Arabia includes the Northern, Eastern, and Nefud regions, North Hijaz, South Hijaz and Eastern Najd.
The freshly harvested seeds were germinated over a range of alternating temperatures (1S/8 , 21/10, 28114, 32116, 36121, and 42126°C) and also at varying salinity levels (2305.5, 4611, 9222.5, 18445, 27667 and 46112 ppm = 5, 10, 20, 40, 60 and 100 percent seawater, respectively) at two fluctuating temperature regimes: 21110 and 28114°C.
The germination temperature responses of the nondormant seeds synchronize the event of germination with the season when environmental conditions are more favorable for subsequent growth and seedlings establishment.
At 21110"C the seeds tolerated fairly high salinity levels which are far beyond those encountered and tolerated by the adult plants in their natural habitat. Increasing the incubation temperature to 28114°C reduced drastically the salt tolerance of the seeds.
The inhibition of germination by excessive salinities (40, 60, and 100 per cent seawater) is due to the high osmotic potential of the medium. The ecological significance of the responses of the seeds to the various environmental
variables is discussed.
K.R.F. Hussein, R.A. Organgi, M. EI-Monayeri and M.A.F. Shalaby
The soil characters and phytosocial habitat of Argemone mexicana L. (Papaveraceae) growing near AJ-Taif, Saudi Arabia, is described. The seed oil contains alkaloids and has been analysed for the usual characters. Five fally acids, with linoleic (61.4%) dominant , have been identified by TLC and GLC.
Shaukat A. Cbaudhary and Thomas A. Cope
A list of grasses of Saudi Arabia has been presented. It includes 269 grass taxa along with their synonomies. Of this number, 54 taxa are not confirmed as the material on which the original reports were based could not be seen or there is some doubt concerning whether these species actually exist in Saudi Arabia. Many of the confirmed taxa reported are new records for the Arabian Peninsula and or Saudi Arabia.
Saleh K. Hajlbrahim
A method is described for the isolation, characterization and fingerprinting of porphyrin mixtures from geological samples. The procedure, which employs various modern analytical techniques (e.g.· high performance liquid chromatography , computerized mass spectrometry and uv/vis spectrophotometry), is simple, fast and should, thus, facilitate studies concerned with the structure elucidation of these pigments. Applied to a wide variety of oil and shale samples from the Arabian Gulf, Europe , North America , Venezuela and Indonesia, this method of crude oil fingerprinting provides a new technique for oil classification and recognition, and should prove useful in the twin areas of oil exploration and oil pollution control.
E. Hallaba, A. AI-Suhybani, S. Al-Khowaiter and M. Abdel-Wahed
The optimum Parameters of labelling rose bengal in a polar organic medium are discussed. The halide exchange with inactive rose bengal gave over 90% yield within one hour reaction time with undegraded final product. This generalized method can be applied successfully to label any iodinated organic compound, such as hypuran, thyroxine , tyrosine or aliphatic fatty acids, for application in nuclear medicine .
D.A. AI-Sammerrai, Q.S. Majeed and W.D. Saleem
Nitration of aromatic hydrocarbons in mineral oils with dilute nitric acid at 50 degree Celsius depends on the number of rings. Under these conditions the mono- and di-nuclear aromatics were not susceptible to nitration, while the tri-aromatics were easily converted to the nitrated products. The anti-corrosion properties of nitrated mineral oils is attributed to the presence of these products.
A. Bahafzalla, A.N. Basahel, H.H. Mansour and S. Omara
Clastics of unknown nomination cropping out in Haddat Ash Sham area have been geologically mapped and defined. The Haddat Ash Sham Formation with its three members, namely the Kheslef, the El-Hegre, and the Borma members have, therefore, been introduced. An unexpected extension of the Maestrichtian to Paleocene Usfan Formation with apparent conformity overlies the Haddat Ash Sham Formation.
This crucial occurrence together with the fact that the Haddat Ash Sham Formation rests with marked unconformity on the Pre-Cambrian basement complex point out that its age might be Cretaceous or even older. The local structural features exhibited by these clastics have also been briefly discussed.
Mostafa M. Soliman
The Gabal Mueilha area consists of high-level granites with high content of volatiles and associated pegmatites and greisen, emplaced in a deep-seated tectonic zone. Geochemical bed-rock sampling was carried out in order to assess the mineralization potential of the district and to study the distribution and interelement relationships of Sn, Nb, Mo, Bi, Be, Pb, Y, Zr, Cu and Ti during magmatic and post magmatic processes. Results indicated that anomalous concentrations of Sn, Nb , Be, Mo and Bi are associated with the most intensively albitized and greisenized zones in the apical parts of the granites, probably due to their emanation transportation under the effect of degassing processes during magmatic and post-magmatic stages. Ti, Y and Zr are partially leached away during post-magmatic processes. There are marked differences in the behavior between Sn, Nb , Y, Zr, Cu , Pb and Ti during magmatic and post-magmatic processes. This is probably because they tend to form complexes that differ in mobility and stability under different geological environment
A.R. Mitchell and J.LI. Morris
An idea of Sanz-Serna (1982) suggested for the numerical solution of the Korteweg de Vries equation is applied to the numerical solution of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The approximating method is an explicit scheme where the time step is chosen at each stage to exactly converse the L2 'energy' of the theoretical solution of the discretized procedure. The algorithm is applied to the case of a single solution and to the interaction of two solutions.
Elie K. Barbour, N.H. Nabbut and H.M. Al-Nakhli
A bacterial examination of 112 necropsy tissue specimens (livers, spleens, lungs, lymph nodes) from domestic animals including cows, sheep, goats and chickens revealed that 55 (49.11%) of the samples were positive bacteria. The 9 bacterial genera most commonly encountered and their incidences were as follows: Escherichia (15.18%), Pseudomonas (8.93%), Pastuerella (Past. haemolytica 8.04% and Past. multocida 0.89%), Streptococcus (4.46%), Corynebacterium (4.46%), Porteus (2.68%), Salmonella (2.68%), Klebsiella (0.89%), and Staphylococcus (S. aureus 0.89%).
Of 61 mastitic milk samples examined, 44 (72.13%) showed bacterial contamination. Escherichia coli was the predominant potential pathogen in milk followed by 6 other bacterial floras, namely, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus, Alcaligenes feacalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus and Klebsiella pneumoniae.
Susceptibility testing of the bacterial isolates to 12 antimicrobial agents showed that the five most effective drugs tested were chloramphenicol, furazolidone, nitrofurantoin, sulfathiazole and polymyxin.