This study was devoted for H2 production from rotten fruits of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) by three fermentation stages. A facultative anaerobe, Escherichia coli EGY was used in first stage to consume O2 and maintain strict anaerobic conditions for a second stage dark fermentative H2 production by the strictly anaerobic Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Subsequently, a third stage photofermentation using Rhodobacter capsulatus DSM 1710 has been conducted for the H2 production. The maximum total H2 yield of the three stages (7.8 mol H2 mol
1 sucrose) was obtained when 5 g L
1 of sucrose was supplemented to fermentor as rotten date fruits. A maximum estimated cumulative H2 yield of the three stages (162 LH2 kg
1 fresh rotten dates) was estimated at the (5 g L
1) sucrose concentration. These results suggest that rotten dates can be efficiently used for commercial H2 production. The described protocol did not require addition of a reducing agent or flashing with argon which both are expensive.

This study was devoted for H2 production from rotten fruits of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) by three fermentation stages. A facultative anaerobe, Escherichia coli EGY was used in first stage to consume O2 and maintain strict anaerobic conditions for a second stage dark fermentative H2 production by the strictly anaerobic Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Subsequently, a third stage photofermentation using Rhodobacter capsulatus DSM 1710 has been conducted for the H2 production. The maximum total H2 yield of the three stages (7.8 mol H2 mol
1 sucrose) was obtained when 5 g L
1 of sucrose was supplemented to fermentor as rotten date fruits. A maximum estimated cumulative H2 yield of the three stages (162 LH2 kg
1 fresh rotten dates) was estimated at the (5 g L
1) sucrose concentration. These results suggest that rotten dates can be efficiently used for commercial H2 production. The described protocol did not require addition of a reducing agent or flashing with argon which both are expensive.

Spoilage date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) fruits were used as substrate for acetone, butanol and ethanol (ABE) production by mixed culture of Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 and Bacillus subtilis DSM 4451. B. subitlis was used to consume O2 and maintain strict anaerobic conditions for ABE production by the strictly anaerobic C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824. The total ABE production of 21.56 g L
1 was achieved at 75 g L
1 spoilage date fruits homogenate. The maximum ABE productivity of 0.30 g L
1 h
1 and ABE yield of 0.42 were obtained at 75 g L
1 spoilage date fruits homogenate by mixed culture without addition of a reducing agent and N2 flushing. Addition of yeast extract (5 g L
1) or ammonium nitrate (1.6 g L
1) to spoilage date fruits homogenate significantly enhanced ABE production. The combination of yeast extract and ammonium nitrate markedly increased ABE production. These results suggest that spoilage date fruits can be efficiently used for commercial ABE production. The described protocol did not require addition of any costly reducing agent to medium or flushing with N2 to ensure anaerobic conditions. This will makes the anaerobic fermentation of date fruits homogenate more economical and reduces the cost of ABE production.

The present study, which was conducted between 2009 and 2010, provides an analysis of the floristic composition, life forms, phenology, chorological spectrum and analysis of the vegetation in the deltaic part of Wadi Qena using multivariate analysis techniques. Twenty-five stands were sampled to represent, as much as possible, the vegetation variation in the study area. A total of 54 species (nineteen annuals and 35 perennials) belonging to 47 genera and nineteen families were recorded. The largest families were Fabaceae and Brassicaceae (nine and seven, respectively), Asteraceae and Poaceae (six for each), Chenopodiaceae (five), and Zygophyllaceae (four). Therophytes are the predominant life form (37%) followed by chamaephytes (24%), phanerophytes (18.5%), hemicryptophytes (9.29%) and cryptophytes (5.5%). Chorological analysis revealed that Saharo-Arabian (48%) and the Sudano-Zambezian (19.2%) chorotypes constitute the main bulk (67.2%) of the total flora of the studied area. The majority of the perennial species behave similarly to each other in their phenology, and usually perennials sprout at the end of February, become leafy in March, flower in April and produce fruits between April and July. Three main vegetation groups resulted from classification of the dominant vegetation. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that magnesium, potassium and pH were the most effective soil variables.

In this paper, estimation of the parameters of a truncated Type I generalized logistic distribution TTIGL(β, α, τ ), when β = 0, is obtained based on a doubly truncated sample of generalized order statistics. This model is introduced by [AL-Angary, Truncated logistic distributions as lifetime models,M.Sc. thesis, Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kindom of Saudi Arabia,1997] and the finite mixture of TTIGL(β, α, τ ) component model studied by [Ateya,Mixtures of logisticdistributions as life-time models. M.Sc. thesis,Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt, 2001] and [AL-Hussaini and Ateya, Maximum likelihood estimations under a mixture of truncated type I generalized logistic components model, J. Stat. Theory Appl. 2(1) (2003), pp. 47–60; AL-Hussaini and Ateya, Bayes estimations under a mixture of truncated type I generalized logistic components model, J. Stat. Theory Appl. 4(2) (2005), pp. 183–208]. The maximum-likelihood andBayes methods are used in the estimation and then we compare these methods by computing the mean squared errors of the estimates in both cases considering orderstatistics and upper record values cases. Also, the Bayesian prediction intervals for the future generalized order statistics are computed based on a one-sample scheme