Adapting Entities across Languages and Cultures

How would you explain Bill Gates to a German? He is associated with founding a company in the United States, so perhaps the German founder Carl Benz could stand in for Gates in those contexts. This type of translation is called adaptation in the translation community. Until now, this task has not been done computationally. Automatic adaptation could be used in natural language processing for machine translation and indirectly for generating new question answering datasets and education. We propose two automatic methods and compare them to human results for this novel NLP task. First, a structured knowledge base adapts named entities using their shared properties. Second, vector-arithmetic and orthogonal embedding mappings methods identify better candidates, but at the expense of interpretable features. We evaluate our methods through a new dataset of human adaptations.

Isolation of fowl pox virus from pigeon and back yard chickens

This study was conducted on domestic pigeons and back yard chickens populations in many regions of Syrian Arab Republic using techniques of isolation on chicken embryo and cell culture. The birds were suspected to be infected by pox virus through clinical symptoms by the presence of lesions in warts and scars on Different areas of the face as the comb, wattle, the corner of the mouth and eyelids and other areas of body and we notice presence of Diphtheric lesions on the mucous membrane of the oral cavity in many cases.

The effect of some food additives in the microbial growth of some starter cultures used in the manufacturing of fermented meat

The research aimed to study the contrast between three commercial starter cultures used in the manufacturing of fermented meat and different concentrations of nitrite, salt, lactic acid and black pepper all alone on the impact of inhibition of the microbial growth. The first starter culture contained a mixture of Staphylococcus carnosus and Staphylococcus vitulinus, and the second one contained Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus sakei while the third one contained Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus sakei, Staphylococcus carnosus and Staphylococcus xylosus. Four concentrations of each additive were individually prepared and the inhibition activity on the microbial growth was estimated by comparing the total microbial counts with and without the addition of the same additive. Analysis of variance and least significant difference (LSD) test at P<0.05 showed that the lactic acid was the most influential on the microbial growth of starter cultures, and significant differences were also detected between the used concentrations of lactic acid, while no significant effect was observed when 100 ppm of nitrite, 1-3% of salt and 0.1-0.4% for black pepper were used. Consequently, the previously mentioned concentrations could be applied in the manufacturing of fermented meats.

The effect of salinity on proline and carbohydrate contenets in three bread wheat genotypes (Triticum aestivum L.) in vegetative growth stage in hydroponic cultures

This study was carried out in 2009-2011, in the laboratories of science faculty - Tishreen University. The seeds of three genotypes: Sham8, Sakha8,AUS 29639 of bread wheat were planted in hydroponic cultures irrigated with Hoagland liquid in a growth chamber to compare the effect of three salt concentrations (0, 100,200 mm of NaCl) on proline and carbohydrate contents in three growth stages 21, 28, 35 of the experiment. There was an increase of proline and carbohydrate contents in all cultivars with increased salinity during the three growth stages of plants. Proline contents increased in Sham8 with low rates compare with Sakha8, AUS 29639. It increased in Sakha8 with the increase of salinity which reached 348% in the third growth stage in concentration 200 mm NaCl, while Proline concentration reached the highest value in AUS 29639 (524%). The carbohydrate content reached the highest value in Sakha8 in NaCl concentration 200 in the first growth stage (238070%) compared with the control, and (204.34%) in third stage in NaCl concentration 200mM compare with the control. The results of the study indicate the superiority of Sakha8, AUS 29639 in salt tolerance through accumulating suitable rates of proline and carbohydrates. AUS 29639 was more resistant to salt stress than Sakha8. We may use these results later in other physiological and genetical studies.

The effect of commercial starter cultures on quality parameters of smoked fermented semi-dry sausage

This study was conducted at the laboratory of Agriculture College, Damascus University to produce smoked fermented semi-dry sausages using three kinds of commercial starter cultures, First culture contained a Staphylococcus carnosus and Staphylococcus xylosus, the second contained Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus sakei, while the third one contained Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus sakei, Staphylococcus carnosus and Staphylococcus xylosus. All treatments were analyzed for microbial and sensory evaluation after 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days and for chemical parameters after 0, 14 and 28 days of cold storage at 5 C in order to choose the optimal treatment to determine the best product. Results of microbial analysis showed the sovereignty of lactic acid bacteria in fermented sausage before smoking and then decreased after smoking and reappeared in commercial starter culture containing lactic acid bacteria after that it was dropped gradually until the end of storage while the pathogenic bacteria did not appear in cultures. Chemical analysis showed significant effect in the pH number between control and treatments that had lactic acid bacteria starters. The sensory evaluation also showed superiority of the fermented sausage using the third starter and gave the best qualities in terms of taste, odor, color, texture and overall appearance.

Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on In vitro micropropagation of Myrtle (Myrtus communis L.)

Single nodes and axillary buds excised from adult trees of Myrtle (Myrtus communis L.) grown in the field under natural conditions at Damascus countryside (Ain Elfiegh) were used as primary explants, which were surfacedisinfected by 70% Ethanol and Clorox containing 5.25 % Sodium Hypoclorite with a drop of Tween 20 for different periods and concentrations before being placed onto MS basal medium. Established cultures were then transferred onto MS basal medium containing a combination of growth regulators at different concentrations (BA at 2.22 and 4.44 μM) each with NAA at 0.54, 1.62, 5.4 μM or 1.47 μM IBA with GA3 at 0.58 μM for all tratments. Multiplication rate of 12.8-fold was achieved every 4 weeks on MS medium supplemented with 4.44 μM BA with 1.47 μM IBA and GA3 at 0.58 μM.