The Red Palm Weevil (RPW) is one of the most dangerous pests of palms in the world. Among several techniques that have been applied to combat the RPW pest such as phytosanitation, chemical insecticides, pheromone traps and biological control, the use of microwave energy for heat disinfestation seems to be a promoting solution. Its main advantages are rapid heat transfer, volumetric and selective heating, speed of switching on and off and no pollution to the environment. This paper presents the design of microwave antenna system for microwave disinfection of date palms application. The microwave system consists of a 3-D circular array of 16 Vivaldi elements. We present an electromagnetic-thermal model, including palm and adult/Larva RPW models, to test their thermal reactions for microwave heating. The 3-D numerical model shows the capability of the microwave system to heat the outer layer of the palm, and reach the RPW lethal temperature. Also, the research discusses the effect of varying the input power and treatment duration to control the RPW. This work provides a powerful tool to simulate the thermal distribution of the palm and RPW insects for different input cases; which help fight against the RPW.
The Modern Syllogistic Method (MSM) of propositional logic ferrets out from a set of premises all that can be concluded from it in the most compact form. The MSM combines the premises into a single function equated to 1 and then produces the complete product of this function. Two fuzzy versions of MSM are developed in Ordinary Fuzzy Logic (OFL) and in Intuitionistic Fuzzy Logic (IFL) with these logics augmented by the concept of Realistic Fuzzy Tautology (RFT) which is a variable whose truth exceeds 0.5. The paper formally proves each of the steps needed in the conversion of the ordinary MSM into a fuzzy one. The proofs rely mainly on the successful replacement of logic 1 (or ordinary tautology) by an RFT. An improved version of Blake-Tison algorithm for generating the complete product of a logical function is also presented and shown to be applicable to both crisp and fuzzy versions of the MSM. The fuzzy MSM methodology is illustrated by three specific examples, which delineate differences with the crisp MSM, address the question of validity values of consequences, tackle the problem of inconsistency when it arises, and demonstrate the utility of the concept of Realistic Fuzzy Tautology.
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