Development and evaluation of gas sucking machine for tubewell pit
August 2013
The use of tubewell irrigation has made it possible to increase crop productivity. While installing and using of tubewells cause many accidents to occur every year. Such accidents are reported by media in the rainy season. The purpose of this study was to develop a gas sucking machine for minimizing such fatalities. 30 tubewell pits were selected for the study, where such accidents happened. It was found that the depth...
Development of mini-infiltrometer for soil sorptivity test in the humid tropical climate of Nigeria
August 2013
Mini-infiltrometer for determining soil sorptivity, hydro-repellency and other hydraulic properties of soil using water and other forms of fluid was designed and developed. It was made of quality pyrex glass tubes and calibrated to metric standard after manufacture. The component of the mini-infiltrometer include: the infiltrometer tube, which bears a porous sponge at the tip for moisture metering into soil samples,...
Numerical evaluation of a landmine detection system based on the neutron back scattering technique
August 2013
This paper describes an anti-personnel landmine detection system, which is based on the neutron back-scattering technique. It consists of a point-like isotopic neutron source (252Cf, 2,31 × 107 n/s), eight BF3 detectors and a neutron moderating and shielding block made from borated paraffin (3 wt%). It was modeled and tested by carrying out Monte Carlo calculations (MCNP-4C2 Code). The tests were performed in some...
Saline stress on seed germination
August 2013
Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses in arid and semi-arid regions and it affects 7% of the world’s land area of about 930 million ha (Munns et al., 2006). Salinity reduces the ability of plants to take up water, leading to metabolic effect that reduces plant growth. It may reduce crop yield by upsetting water and nutritional balance of plant. The deleterious consequences of high salt concentrations in...
Influence of seed polymorphism on physical, physiological and biochemical seed quality characters of endangered medicinal tree Bael (Aegle marmelos (l.) corr.)
August 2013
Bael is a medicinal tree with multipurpose utility propagated through seeds. Bulk seeds of Bael exhibit polymorphism in seed characteristics. Hence, a study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of seed polymorphism on physical, physiological and biochemical seed quality characters. Polymorphic seeds based on size were separated by size grading the seeds using round perforated metal sieves of sizes 6.4, 6.0 and 5.5...
In vitro study of fungicides and biocontrol agents against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. pini causing root rot of Western Himalayan fir (Abies pindrow)
August 2013
Nine fungicides namely: carbendazim, hexaconazole, thiophonate methyl, triadimefan, metalaxyl, mancozeb, captan, copper oxychloride and chlorothalonil and seven bioagents namely: Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma viride,Gliocladium virens, Lacaria laccata, Boletus edulis, Suillus placids and Russula lutea were evaluated in vitro by using dual culture and cultural filtrate...
A computational approach to analyze unbalancing in rotational systems
August 2013
Rotational systems are widely used in industrial application and its monitoring can improve production and decrease stop times of machines, for example. In industry these kind of problem is, in general, solved using a vibration meter and a phase meter in order to obtain the necessary data to correct the rotor unbalancing. This work presents the development of a computational application, using LabVIEW, for improving the...
Pneumococcal meningitis induced neuronal injury in motor cortex and cerebellum in Wistar rats
August 2013
Bacterial meningitis is known to cause neurodegenerations in the hippocampus, a region of the brain concerned with learning and memory. Aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of pneumococcal meningitis on motor cortex and cerebellum in rats. 30 days old rats were divided into normal control (NC) and meningitis (M) groups. Rats in the meningitis group were infected with Streptococcus pneumonia...
Volume based expression of soil variables: Good descriptor of soil-plant interrelationships
August 2013
This research compared the gravimetric method of expression of soil nutrient concentration with actual soil volume based expression in terms of yield response using rubber as a test crop. A rubber plantation (planted in year 1989 under a NPK fertilizer trial) was investigated. The experiment was laid out with thirteen treatments in three replications in a randomized block design planted with rubber (Clone RRII 105) at a...
Apo lipoprotein E4 gene APOE4: An early predictor of Dementia / Alzheimer’s disease
August 2013
The present study aimed to determine the relationship of APOE4 with socio demographic variables as well as with co-morbidities including hypertension and diabetes mellitus. In this study, 200 subjects with dementia were recruited, out of these 200 patients APOE4 was present in 130 cases, 85 (65.4%) were male and 45 (34.6%) females. However, in 70 cases APOE4 was missing, 41 (58.6%) males...
(G´/G, 1/G)-expansion method for traveling wave solutions of (2+1) dimensional generalized KdV, Sin Gordon and Landau-Ginzburg-Higgs Equations
July 2013
The-expansion method is one of the most direct and effective method for obtaining exact solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). In the present article, we construct the exact travelling wave solutions of nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics via (2+1) dimensional generalized KdV, Sin Gordon Equation and Landau-Ginzburg-Higgs Equation by -expansion method,...
Positioning fruit trees into climate change/variability scenarios: Opportunities and constraints in the placement of fruit tree species in payment for environmental services
July 2013
Extreme environmental conditions due to climate change or variability are a threat to crop production, productivity and livelihoods. Thus, providing alternative livelihoods to communities, especially the rural masses remain an important catalyst in reducing poverty, food insecurity and deforestation in the development of climate change/variability scenarios. This is critical in southern Africa where poverty,...
Interaction of the extracts of three medicinal plants with antibiotics against some antibiotic resistant bacteria
July 2013
The outcome of in vitro interaction of standard antibiotics with ethanolic leaf extracts of three medicinal plants (Picralima nitida, Chromolaena odorata andAspilia africana) against antibiotic resistant bacteria was investigated by agar disc diffusion methods and macrobroth dilution techniques. At least three isolates each of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas...
Technological quality attributes of pork from a small-holder abattoir as affected by breed, age and season of slaughter
July 2013
The objective of the current study was to determine the effect of breed, age group and season of slaughter on technological quality attributes of pork from a smallholder abattoir. Meat from the Large White pig meat had higher (P < 0.05) pHuand lower a* than values of meat from the Landrace. No breed differences were observed in lightness (L*), yellowness (b*), shear force values, thawing loss, cooking loss and...
Breeding dynamics of rice (Oryza sativa) for enhanced adaptation and grain quality
July 2013
Rice is a very important crop feeding half of the world population. Its importance is becoming increasingly high due to high nutritive value and high returns per given land area than any other cereal crop. However, its production is facing major challenges such as degraded soil, need for high grain quality, population growth, high input costs, climate change and variability threats and plateauing yields. There is now...
A demonstration of correlation graphs to human body dimensions
July 2013
A large number of variables and multivariate analyses are required to study complexity. Network analysis is also a valuable complex systems analysis tool. Recently techniques were developed where correlation matrixes are presented as networks, known as correlation graphs. These have been used mainly to study structures in time series data, often in the financial stock markets, and correlation graphs have not been widely...
Allocation of capacitor banks in distribution systems using multi-objective function
July 2013
This paper develops an optimal placement method in order to size and site capacitor banks in IEEE 33 bus test system. The proposed method in order of optimization in this article is Evolutionary programming and the objective function is composed of two parts. Most part of proposed objective function considers improvement of voltage profile and other part is active power losses of the system in nominal load of mention...
Customer churn prediction using a hybrid genetic programming approach
July 2013
A churn consumer can be defined as a customer who transfers from one service provider to another service provider. Recently, business operators have investigated many techniques that identify the customer churn since churn rates leads to serious business loss. In this paper, a hybrid technique has been used which combines K-means clustering with Genetic Programming to predict churners in telecommunication companies....
Heavy metals concentrations in selected areas used for urban agriculture in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
July 2013
This study was carried out to assess the concentration of heavy metals in selected areas used for urban agriculture in Dar es Salaam and compare them with permissible limit from the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) in order to establish risk levels. Samples were collected from six sites of Tazara mchichani, Ubungo darajani, Kigogo darajani, Temeke wailers, Tegeta and Bunju, which reflect frequently flooded and...
Study of the mechanism that increases the hardness of groundwater: A case study from Beijing urban area
July 2013
The rapid development of construction and the increase of population water demand were increased rapidly in Beijing, China’s capital city, yet one of its fastest-growing municipalities is running out of water. Today, more than 70% of the municipality’s total water supply comes from groundwater. Therefore groundwater has been over-exploited a long time which led to regional water level down and more and more...
An optimization study on the delivery distance of colloidal silica
July 2013
The low initial viscosity of colloidal silica enables the use of low injection rates during soil treatment against liquefaction. Several large scale 3-D laboratory experiments show that colloidal silica treatment provides successful treatment coverage when the distance between injection and extraction wells is about 2.5 m. However the repeatability of such large scale experiments to optimize the injection procedure is...
Acute effects of Zn(NO3)2 on gill and liver tissues of Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix)
July 2013
Zinc is one of an environmental water pollutant, added to diet and water as a micronutrient for increase of plankton production and fish growth. Therefore, this research was carried out with the aims of studying on histopathology of Zn(NO3)2toxicity on gill and liver tissues of silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) within the period of 96 h. Totally, 135 fishes with mean weight 50 ± 10 g were stocked in 12...
Reduction of corrosion in various concentrations of hydrochloric acid by compositional design
July 2013
Experimental analysis has been advanced in the reduction of corrosion in various concentrations of hydrochloric acid (HCl) by compositional design. The analysis which involved metal matrix composite design and corrosion pattern determination by weight loss method and least square model showed that percentage weight loss, corrosion rates and reactivity decreased as Aluminum addition in the Al/Fe composite...
Farmers’ perception on ante-mortem welfare of sheep and slaughter indicators in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
July 2013
A survey was conducted among 203 sheep farmers to investigate their perceptions on the significance of ante-mortem welfare and slaughter indicators for sheep. Descriptive statistics were computed for seasonal indicators, farmers’ age groups, gender and their distribution within the Eastern Cape Province (ECP). The X2-tests were also computed to determine the associations between the farmers’...
Molecular diagnosis of avian respiratory diseases in commercial broiler chicken flocks in province of Najaf, Iraq
July 2013
Avian influenza virus subtype 9 and Newcastle virus have been recognized as the most important pathogens in poultry. In Najaf governorate, Iraq, many chickens’ flocks suffered from high mortality (about 30 to 70%) and respiratory signs. In this study, trachea swabs and tissue specimens from 53 commercial broiler chicken flocks suffering from respiratory diseases were tested initially by rapid test for antigen...
Capabilities and limitations of crisis management in the Teaching Hospitals of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, 2010
July 2013
Various communities continuously try to manage the unexpected events. In this context, hospitals by providing quick and timely health care services has transformed to the most pragmatic unit of health system. Planning and preparation of them should be a strategic policy of health system. This paper aimed to investigate the capabilities and limitations of crisis management in teaching hospitals of Hormozgan University of...
Analysis of climate change awareness in Nigeria
July 2013
The science of climate change, its effects and adaptation measures have received much attention but climate change education and awareness are given very little attention. This prompted this study that analyses the level of climate change awareness in Nigeria. 1200 copies of the Questionnaire were administered in the two climatic zones (Tropical Maritime (mT) and Tropical Continental cT) of Nigeria. In mT climatic zone,...
Chemical stability of vacuum packaged West African cheese (Wagashie)
July 2013
Local West African cheese (Wagashie) samples from unpasteurized full-fat milk (UFFM), pasteurized full-fat milk (PFFM) and partially pasteurized skimmed milk (PPSM) were prepared and a fourth (control) was purchased from a local commercial producer. The study was to determine chemical changes of the Wagashie samples over a four week storage period. All the four Wagashie samples were vacuum-packaged at pressure of...
Gender analysis of fish farming technologies adoption by farmers in Ondo State
July 2013
The study was conducted with the purpose to unveil the gender gap in the adoption of fish farming technologies in Ilaje and Ese-Odo Local Government Areas of Ondo State. The study investigated the involvement of men and women at different stages of fish production, the level of adoption of available fishery technologies and their socio- economic characteristics. Two hundred respondents were interviewed for the...
Characterization of Zulu sheep production system: Implications for conservation and improvement
July 2013
Understanding the production environment under which Zulu sheep are raised is essential in strategizing the breed’s conservation and improvement programme. Ninety-six farmers across 11 rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, were interviewed using structured questionnaires to describe traditional Zulu sheep production system, evaluate its sustainability and identify some constraints limiting production. Sheep...
Real time digital simulation of shunt active filter for mitigation of current harmonics with P-Q theory
July 2013
The main objective of this paper is to develop PI and Fuzzy logic controllers to analyze the performance of instantaneous active and reactive power (p-q) control strategy for extracting reference currents of shunt active filters under balanced, un-balanced and balanced non-sinusoidal conditions. When the supply voltages are balanced and sinusoidal, then all controllers converge to the same compensation characteristics....
Total quantity of caesium radioisotopes in fish in the Fukushima-Ken Exclusive Economic Zone, Japan, in November 2012
July 2013
The Tokyo Electric Power Company Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima-Ken (Prefecture), Japan, was destroyed in March 2011 due to a massive earthquake (magnitude 9) centred offshore to the northeast of Honshu Island and the subsequent historic tsunami on 11 March 2011. Due to nuclear meltdown, damage to the buildings housing the reactors by hydrogen explosions, and the contamination of cooling water from...
Determination of hydraulic characteristics of groundwater aquifer in Ilorin, North Central Nigeria
July 2013
Ground water is part of the hydrologic cycle. Generally, ground water occurs in permeable geologic formations known as the aquifer. Before the exploitation of groundwater in a region, it is usually necessary to determine the hydraulic characteristics which allow the flow of water through the aquifer. The notable parameters are the hydraulic conductivity or permeability and transmissivity. Groundwater is a major source...
Accuracy behavior explanation of electrical second-order system based on multi-time technique
July 2013
In this paper, a new analysis technique for ordinary second-order systems is presented. The technique is based on multi-temporal conditions and results in a new closed-form for the complete response of second-order systems, which can be used to determine the complete solution of second-order systems with ease. In addition, the new technique provides a clear explanation of second-order systems, not only in the case of...
Particle swarm optimisation based proportional integral and derivative (PID) controller design for linear discrete time system using reduced order model
July 2013
Design of proportional integral and derivative (PID) controller for a higher order discrete system is presented in this paper. The design and tuning of PID controller parameters proportional gain Kp, integral gain Ki and derivative gain Kd are complex and time consuming process for a higher order system. To overcome this, an approximate second order equivalent model is obtained for the higher order system...
Influence of sitting posture on tidal volume, respiratory rate, and upper trapezius activity during quiet breathing in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
July 2013
This study was performed to determine the influence of sitting posture on tidal volume (TV), respiratory rate (RR), and muscle activity of the upper trapezius (UT) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Fifteen men with COPD based on the Global initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria, participated in the study. Inductive respiratory plethysmography and surface...
Control chaos for Lorenz system based on tridiagonal matrix stability theory
July 2013
The Lorenz system is chaos when parameters vary in certain scope. In order to control chaotic Lorenz system, a new controller is proposed based on tridiagonal matrix stability theory. The proposed controller is simple and easy to be implemented. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the controller. Key words: control chaos, Lorenz system, tridiagonal matrix stability theory.
Linear thermoelastic analysis of a functionally graded (FG) rotating disk with different boundary conditions using Adomian’s decomposition method
June 2013
Linear thermoelastic formulation of a functionally graded rotating disk is studied in the present paper. Thermoelastic solution of a rotating disk, due to the nonhomogenous terms, needs more mathematic operation and the solution of the governing equation is more complicated. In the present paper, thermo elastic formulation of a functionally graded rotating disk is presented...
Influences of nitrogen and potassium fertilizer rates on pepper and tomato yield and nutrient uptake under field conditions
June 2013
The influence of nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) fertilizers on pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) growth, fruit production and nutrient uptake was determined under field conditions for two successive years. The aim of the experiment was to determine the optimum N and K fertilizer rate for yield and quality parameters. Experiments were...
Influences of rosuvastatin on the expression of matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9) through extracellular-signal-regulated kinases (ERK) pathway in mononuclear cell line (THP-1) derived macrophages induced by oxidized low density lipoprotein
June 2013
The current study aims to probe the changes in matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9)expression during differentiation as the mononuclear cell line THP-1 is converted into foam cells, as well as the underlying influence and mechanism of rosuvastatin.PMA was used to induce THP-1 cells transform into macrophages and treated with various concentrations, whereas...
Homotopy analysis method for Zakharov-Kuznetsov (ZK) equation with fully nonlinear dispersion
June 2013
In this paper, we apply Homotopy Analysis Method (MHAM) to find appropriate solutions of Zakharov-Kuznetsov (ZK) equations. Numerical results coupled with graphical representation explicitly reveal the complete reliability of the proposed algorithm. Key words: Homotopy analysis method, Zakharov-Kuznetsov (ZK) equation, exact solutions,...
Management of vegetal covers on Pecan tree with fertilizer irrigation
June 2013
The pecan Carya illinoinensis (Wangeh.) K. Koch is a fruit tree in domestication process, and the components of its profitable and sustainable management are continuously generated by research (Wood, 1991, 2006). For the soil management, the plants that grow on it are traditionally cataloged under the “weed” concept, which states that they must be...
Surveillance of the condition of bacteria and Amaranthus viridis in a gasoline contaminated soil
June 2013
The condition of bacteria and Amaranthus viridis in gasoline-contaminated soil was surveyed. The soil was treated with different concentrations of petrol oil: 0 ml (control), 18, 56, 112, 168 and 224 ml. Each of the concentrations was in triplicates. Seventeen (17) bacterial isolates were recovered from the control soil while twenty (20) bacterial isolates were recovered from the...
Design of an HIV drug resistant patient management system in a digitally connected world
June 2013
It is inevitable that drug resistance will become of concern in the treatment of HIV/AIDS infected patients due to the fact that the virus mutates at a high speed, selective pressure and patients that default from treatment. Not only is the management of HIV drug resistant patients difficult, but so too is the management of the patients’ data. The use of information...
First report of Tuber macrosporum occurrence in Poland
June 2013
Tuber macrosporum, a large spore species is first time confirmed from Poland. It grows naturally in southern part of Poland, in calcareous soils. The fruit bodies of the species were found in mixed fresh forest with dominant tree species such as:Pinus sylvestris, Carpinus betulus and Quercus robur. The soil chemistry and texture of the site was analysed. Fruit...
Safety and efficacy of Contiflo OD (Tamsulosin) on catheterized patients treated for acute urinary retention caused by benign prostatic hypertrophy in Ekiti State, Nigeria
June 2013
This study aims to assess the safety and efficacy of Contiflo OD (Tamsulosin) on catheterized adults treated for Acute Urinary Retention (AUR) caused by benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). In this randomized double blind prospective study, patients that reported at the Accident and Emergency Department of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) with AUR and had...
Effect of drought stress on yield and yield components of maize hybrids
June 2013
The effect of drought stress on yield and its components was studied on six (6) Iranian commercial corn hybrids at the Khorasan Razavi Agricultural Research and Natural Resources Institute Mashhad, Iran in 2010. The study was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications under drought stress conditions. There were significant differences among hybrids...
A review on the fabrication techniques of functionally graded ceramic-metallic materials in advanced composites
June 2013
Whenever two or more dissimilar materials are bonded, large jump in the stresses occurred at the interface during the fabrication will leads to the delamination and poor load-bearing performance on the final structures. Functionally graded material (FGM) which has compositional and microstructure gradient along its thickness was introduced to be a great solution to this...
Influence of feeding synbiotic containing Enterococcus faecium and inulin on blood metabolites, nutrient digestibility and growth performance in sheep fed alfalfa-based diet
June 2013
The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of synbiotic (SYN) containing Enterococcus faecium and Inulin on blood metabolites, nutrients apparent digestibility and performance of sheep fed alfalfa based diet. The 21 Farahani sheep averaging body weight 33.9 kg were allocated in a completely randomized design with 7 replicates in each treatment. The...
Donkey traction, use and welfare needs at Daman region of Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan
June 2013
This paper reviews donkey utilization in the livelihood of people in the arid zone of Dera Ismail Khan and adjoining areas of Khyber Pakhtoon Khawa, commonly known as Daman. The physical atmosphere of Daman region is rather harsh and the annual rainfall is low. The lands are sandy to muddy or mixed, very poor in nutrients and relatively salty. Most of the region is a broad plain approximately 500 to...
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