Testing concrete made with cork powder and steel fibres
November 2012
Nowadays, greater respect for the environment is a widespread social demand. Since the cork industry generates vast amounts of waste of approximately 20 to 30%, the harvested cork ends up as cork dust with no industrial use. It is becoming necessary to find a way to reuse or recycle this kind of residue. This paper evaluates the mechanical behavior of several samples of concrete containing cork powder (8%) and different...
Emotional and cognitive response to placement method of background music in shopping website
November 2012
Consumer on-line behaviors are more important than ever due to the high growth of on-line shopping. The main purposes of this study is to design placement methods for background music for shopping websites and examine the effects of these methods on on-line shoppers’ emotional and cognitive responses. Two placement methods of background music, that is, placement point and fade-in period for shopping...
Energy and exergy analysis of fluidized bed drying of chickpea and bean
November 2012
Nowadays, drying process has taken an important role in food and agricultural production fields. Drying process is necessary to prepare the products for consumption and storage. There are various drying process techniques, point from the technological and process technique. Fluidized bed drying is usually preferred, because of high heat and mass transfer coefficient. In this work, fluidized bed was used in the...
Digitaria exilis (acha/fonio), Digitaria iburua (iburu/fonio) and Eluesine coracana (tamba/finger millet) – Non-conventional cereal grains with potentials
November 2012
Traditional African cereal grains, acha (Digitaria exilis Stapf), iburu (Digitaria iburuaStapf) and tamba (Eluesine coracana) though poorly studied have received an increasing attention by scientists within the last decade as revealed from the literature. They have potential to contribute significantly to whole grain diets, wellness, economic status improvement, and play important role in food security in...
Correlation of birth and placental weights amongst Hausa parturients in Kano
November 2012
The aim of this study is to establish the relationship of birth weight to the placental weight of our ethnic community which until now is to our knowledge unavailable. All the studied 500 live births and their placentas were products of single gestation at term. This is a prospective study of 500 healthy term placentae of the Hausa ethnic group parturients. Each of the placentas was cleansed of blood clots and...
Effectiveness of control flow test coverage criteria using mutation analysis: An experimental study
November 2012
Empirical studies play an important role in measuring the effectiveness of software testing methods and coverage criteria. This has led us to develop an experimental research to study four major test coverage criteria based on the Control Flow Graphs extracted from the source code of programs. In this study, different implementations of an industrial problem are selected as subject programs and the effectiveness of...
Clustering of mortality rates in Greece’s prefectures
November 2012
The purpose of this paper is to present of the geographical variation of mortality rates in the 51 prefectures of Greece per gender in 2001 and 2006. The database consisted of the mortality rates of 65 causes of mortality for all 51 prefectures of Greece in two different time periods: 2001 and 2006. All rates were calculated using the “direct method of standardization” procedure and were selected from...
Design optimisation of dome structures by enhanced genetic algorithm with multiple populations
November 2012
The design of dome structures is optimized by a genetic algorithm methodology with multi populations. In order to increase the convergence degrees of optimal designs obtained, exploitation and exploration capacities of the genetic algorithm methodology are enhanced. In this regard, a radial basis neural network and a new design strategy based on provisions of LRFD_AISC V3 specification are implemented into the...
Some properties of a generalized class of prestarlike functions
November 2012
In this article, we introduce the class of prestarlike functions of order which generalizes the concept of prestarlike functions. We study here some interesting properties such as inclusion results, invariance under convolution and convex hull properties. Finally, a conjecture from our results which can be considered for future work is presented. Key words: Convolution, test set,...
Exploration of wild plants wealth with economic importance tolerant to difficult conditions in Khulais Governorate, Saudi Arabia
November 2012
The present work studied the flora of Khulais region, west Saudi Arabia, with reference to its potential use. Results revealed that the region considers a hot-spot in the Kingdom in term of plant diversity and more diverse region compared with other well studied regions in Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries. A total of 251 plant species belonging to 160 genera and 50 families were identified. The major plant...
Double traveling wave solutions for some nonlinear partial differential equations in mathematical Physics
November 2012
In this article, we construct the double soliton exact solutions for some nonlinear partial differential equations in mathematical physics via (2+1)-dimensional Painleve integrable Burgers equations, (2+1)-dimensional breaking soliton equations and (2+1)-dimensional Nizhnik-Novikov Veselov equations. We obtain many new types of complexiton soliton solution, that is, various combination of trigonometric periodic function...
Prediction of grout penetration length into the jointed rock mass using regression analyses
November 2012
In this paper, new relations are proposed to predict the gout penetration length into jointed rock mass by means of multivariate linear and non-linear regressions. Numerical analysis was used to obtain the grout penetration length into the rock mass by considering all effective rock and grout properties. The results of numerical analysis were in a good agreement with analytical methods. As a case study Bakhtiary dam and...
Entropy based assessment and palmer drought severity index of drought analysis
November 2012
Drought is one of the most important natural events. Evaluation of drought is of great importance because it is influential in many areas like water resources projects and agricultural production; it has various social and economical consequences and it is closely related to the economy, health, psychology and commerce of the society. To be able to take precautions against the dangers of drought, knowledge and...
Effects of fluorine incorporation on the microstructure and optical properties of ZnO thin films synthesized by Sol-gel technique
November 2012
Fluorine doped Zinc oxide (ZnO) [FZO] transparent conducting thin films were deposited by sol-gel spin coating method. Zinc acetate and amonium fluoride were used as precursor solution materials. Microstructural, morphologycal, and optical properties of the films were investigated as a function of flourine (F) doping ranging from 0 to 3.5% mole. From x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns the films...
Determining the knowledge levels of midwives about vaccines in Sivas, Turkey
November 2012
This study aims to determine the knowledge levels and incorrect knowledge of midwives regarding vaccination and it increase the efficiency of vaccination through providing necessary training. This is a cross-sectional study. The material of the study included midwives (n = 93) from primary health care centres, state hospital and university hospital in a city center. A survey was conducted to obtain...
Experimental investigation on centrifugal casting of 5500 alloy: A Taguchi approach
November 2012
Design of experiments has been used, to study the influence of process parameters on the mechanical properties during centrifugal casting of aluminum alloy (5500). Taguchi method of design of experiments was employed to optimize the process parameters and to increase the mechanical properties such as UTS, elongation, BHN. The investigation has indicated that increase in pouring temperature reduces mechanical properties...
Antioxidant activity of bamboo-leaf extracts from the species Dendrocalamopsis oldhami
November 2012
The antioxidant enzymatic activities of Dendrocalamopsis oldhami bamboo-leaf extracts (BLE) in cholesterol-fed rats and an index of lipid peroxidation were determined. In the BLE groups, compared with the control group, significant decrease was observed in superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the livers and kidneys, catalase (CAT) activity in the kidneys, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in...
Effect of gastric symptoms, age and gender on quality of life
November 2012
Digestive symptoms are the most common and frequent symptoms being reported. It is difficult to measure their effects on quality of life, as they varied by age and gender. Therefore, our aim was to determine the effect of gastric symptoms on quality of life and to explore their relationship with age and gender. A secondary analysis of an original pragmatic randomized trial with repeated measurements was conducted in...
Review of applications of partial differential equations for image enhancement
November 2012
Image restoration and enhancement are important parts of digital image processing, belonging to the early visual image processing problems. Image pre-processing is the necessary preliminary work of image analysis, such as filtering to reduce image noise and to enhance the image edges. The image enhancement technique plays an important role in improving image quality and is good for image post-processing e.g. image...
A numerical method for second order strain gradient theory
November 2012
In classical mechanics, based on the generalized Hook’s law, stress is only a function of strain. However, in the strain gradient theory, stress is not only a function of strain, but also a function of high-order gradients of strain. This relationship between stress and strain and its new boundary conditions is derived using the principle of minimum total potential energy. Meanwhile, a new stress tensor called...
Study on ringing effect in ultrasonic transducer
November 2012
This paper presents theoretical experimental and evidence of the effect of internal resonance at silicon substrate in micro fabrication ultrasonic transducer. This ringing is clearly observed in immersion transducers with 4.2 MHz and harmonics. A mathematical analytical model of the attenuation yield by ringing effective and simulation is introduced. Experimental results are further compared to simulations...
Phytochemical screening and biological activity of the aerial parts of Elaeagnus umbellata
November 2012
The methanolic crude extract of the aerial parts of Elaeagnus umbellata and its various solvent fractions was screened for the secondary metabolites and biological activity. Phytochemical analysis of the aerial parts showed the presence of bioactive secondary metabolites; alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, saponins while flavonoids, anthraquinones, tannins, phlobatanins and glycosides were absent. The ethyl...
Genetically tuning of lead-lag controller in order to control of fuel cell voltage
November 2012
The aim of this article is to introduce, implement and control the voltage of one of the most important types of fuel cell, namely proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) during system load variations. Fuel cell output voltage should be kept in a constant value against the load variations, and a controller should be designed for this purpose. Here, the Lead-Lag Controller is used in which its coefficients are...
Genetically tuning of lead-lag controller in order to control of fuel cell voltage
November 2012
The aim of this article is to introduce, implement and control the voltage of one of the most important types of fuel cell, namely proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) during system load variations. Fuel cell output voltage should be kept in a constant value against the load variations, and a controller should be designed for this purpose. Here, the Lead-Lag Controller is used in which its coefficients are...
A decision support system for supplier selection using fuzzy analytic network process (Fuzzy ANP) and artificial neural network integration
November 2012
Selection of appropriate supplier(s) for success of an organization is particularly a valuable necessity, hence apart from the common criteria such as logistics, service and quality, this paper discusses most of the key decision variables which can play a critical role in case of the supplier selection. In this study, analytic network process (ANP) method is used because it considers the relationship between the...
Kinetic studies of some hazardous metal ions in the particles of titanium potassium vanadate as a cation exchanger
November 2012
Titanium potassium vanadate (TiKV) as an inorganic ion exchange material was synthesized from titanium tetrachloride, potassium chloride and sodium monovanadate with molar ratio Ti: K: V = 1: 1: 1. The kinetic behaviour of Cs+, Co2+and Cd2+ have been studied under different conditions of concentration, particle size, reaction temperatures and drying temperatures. The experimental conditions were set to favour...
Effects of tillage, fertilization and weed control methods on corn yield in Khuzestan province
November 2012
This work was carried out to evaluate the effects of seed bed preparation, fertilization and weed control (after planting) methods on growth and corn yield in Khuzestan. One field experiment was conducted as strip plot within randomized complete block design with 4 replications during 2009 and 2010. Three seed bed preparation consisted of planting in wet soil (locally named Makhar) + conventional tillage (plough + disk...
Influence of heat and mass transfer on Phan-Thien-Tanner fluid model for blood flow through a tapered artery with a stenosis
November 2012
In the present investigation, we study the influence of heat and mass transfer on blood flow through tapered artery with a stenosis. The non-Newtonian nature of blood in small arteries is analyzed mathematically by considering the blood as Phan-Thien-Tanner fluid. The representation for the blood flow is through an axially symmetrical stenosis. Symmetry of the distribution of the wall shearing stress and resistive...
Preparation and identification of two new phthalocyanines and study of their anti-cancer activity and anti-bacterial properties
November 2012
Nickel phthalocyanines chloride and nickel phthalocyanines nitrate abbreviated as NiPcCl and NiPc (NO3) respectively were synthesized and characterized. These nickel phthalocyanines are prepared by reaction of phetalic anhydride with urea, ammonium chloride and ammonium heptamolybdate, nickel related salt. Characterization of them was made by microanalyses, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and...
Optimizing tilt angles and orientations of solar panels for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
November 2012
Shading of solar panels drastically reduces the solar collector’s efficiency “η” by reducing cell power “PMP”, and altering the short circuit-current “ISC”, the open-circuit voltage “VOC”, and the fill factor “FF”. Therefore, the orientation and tilt angle of solar collectors play an important role in minimizing shading and consequently in...
Investigation of the hygienic situation of kitchens, bathrooms and toilets in the traditional residential architecture
October 2012
This study investigated the hygiene state of kitchens, bathrooms and toilets and how they are used in the traditional houses (their characteristics, the changes in their uses and the extent of these changes). The study also attempted to find the principles and criterions on which the arrangements that are the products of accumulated experiences were based in the spaces or systems. Furthermore, the study investigated how...
Vermicomposting potential and plant nutrient contents in rice straw vermicast of Perionyx excavatus and Eudrilus eugeniae
October 2012
Vermicomposting is proven to be an effective way for nutrient cycling, converting large quantities of organic waste into value added product (vermicast). In order to harness the potential of earthworms in vermicomposting, selection of earthworm species that are able to consume large quantity of waste, and moreover, produce vermicast with high nutrient content is important. This experiment was carried out to compare the...
Use of urea-formaldehyde in the production of diatomite-based lightweight building components
October 2012
This research, being the first research in the literature, investigates use of urea-formaldehyde, a widely used polymer, as a binder in producing diatomite-based lightweight building elements. Urea-formaldehyde and ground diatomite of granular size under 500 microns were blended at ratios of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50% by volume and fired at temperatures ranging from 80 to 140°C to obtain test...
Potential of neem leaf-empty fruit bunch-based vermicompost as biofertiliser-cum-biopesticide: Chemical properties, humic acid content and enzymes (protease and phosphatase) activity in vermicompost (Part I)
October 2012
The palm oil industry generates empty fruit bunch (EFB) in large quantities, which need to be optimally exploited to obtain maximum benefits from their uses. Vermicomposting of EFB with neem leaves is of great interest, as the end product might function as biofertiliser as well as biopesticide. Therefore, vermicomposting of different ratios of EFB and neem leaves using Eudrilus eugeniae as a composting agent was...
Brachyuran crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda) in the Suez Canal, Egypt, and their associated epifauna
October 2012
The Suez Canal is the main connecting link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. On its route from the Red Sea in the south to the Mediterranean in the north, it crosses different lakes which represent different habitats, and in some cases, hinder the migration of the faunal community from one sea to the other. Ten Brachyuran species belonging to ten genera and eight families were recorded in the canal water, all...
Mucocutaneous mycoses in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients hospitalised in a tertiary healthcare centre in the state of Amazonas-Brazil
October 2012
Several studies have been performed in which the severity of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is correlated with skin manifestations. The state of Amazonas-Brazil has a high incidence of HIV infection (2008, 26/100.000 hab), and this state is located in the tropics, a climate that promotes the development of mycoses; however, few studies have been published in the literature that discuss the...
Adaptive automata model for learning opponent behavior based on genetic algorithms
October 2012
The purpose of this research is to study how genetic algorithms (GA's) are applied in the field of Game Theory. GA's are effective approaches for machine learning and optimization problems. In this work, genetic algorithm is utilized to determine the behavior of an opponent in Prisoners’ Dilemma. The opponent behavior will be modeled by means of adaptive automaton. The basic problem of this study is the...
Evaluation of herd structure of white Fulani cattle holdings in Zaria, Nigeria
October 2012
A survey of 20 Fulani households in Zaria and environs revealed that the maximum and minimum herd size of Fulani cattle holdings in Zaria is 69 and 16, respectively, with the mean herd size of 41.5. The cattle stock composition showed a gender imbalance, with a preponderance of female stock than males. On the average, female animals constituted 60 to 75% in each herd type. The young animals contributed about 50% of the...
Comparision of ant colony optimization and genetic algorithm models for identifying the relation between flow discharge and suspended sediment load (Gorgan River - Iran)
October 2012
Correct estimation of sediment volume carried by a river is very important for many water resources projects. The prediction of river sediment load also constitutes an important issue in hydraulic and river engineering. Conceptual models based on artificial intelligence models, namely, ant colony optimization (ACO) and genetic algorithm (GA) are now being used more frequently to solve optimization problems. Hence, the...
Genotype X environment interactions and grain yield stability of haricot bean varieties in Northwest Ethiopia
October 2012
Seven haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) varieties were evaluated in 2000 to 2001 and 2001 to 2002 cropping seasons at three representative locations in northwest Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to evaluate genotype x environment interactions (GEIs) and grain yield stability in multi-environmental trials across wide ecological locations. The trial was laid out in the randomized complete block design...
A novel meta-heuristic algorithm for numerical function optimization: Blind, naked mole-rats (BNMR) algorithm
October 2012
Optimization algorithms inspired by the world of nature have turned into powerful tools for solving the complicated problems. However, they have still some drawbacks need the investigation of new and better optimization algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new meta-heuristic algorithm called blind naked mole-rats (BNMR) algorithm. This algorithm has been developed based on the social behavior of the blind naked...
Evaluation of nanosilver efficacy along with transforming growth factor (TGFβ) in induction of chondrogenesis: An animal study
October 2012
This study is on the multipotential mesenchymal cells which enable us to differentiate chondroblasts in presence of Transforming growth factor (TGFβ) andbone morphogenic factors (BMPs). As use of a transferring system for these growth factors is a notable issue in recent researches, the present study was designed to evaluate the nanosilver transferring system of TGFβ on two sample groups...
Soil macro and mesofauna in alley cropping systems from two regions of central Mexico
October 2012
Alley cropping; Maize intercropped with fruit trees (MIFT), is a system of technified agro forestry cultivation of central Mexico. MIFT is one of the most feasible cultivation systems to show the biodiversity richness of the country; however, the effect this system exercises on the soil organisms has not been measured, whereby the macrofauna, mites and collembolans from the furrows of perennial production (Prunus...
Evaluation of automated guided vehicle systems in thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) Array manufacturing process
October 2012
In real bay layout of automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems for thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) Array manufacturing, excessive inter-bay transfers in such systems will degrade performance. Thus, this paper presents two models which capture the elements of the material handling time of both bay and conventional AGV systems. Five...
Effects of gas service on the electricity distribution system assets
October 2012
This paper investigates the effect of gas outage on the assets of electricity distribution systems as well as the effects of load growth. Owing to the fact that electricity and gas distribution systems supply energy demand independently, in this paper, gas and electricity consumption is analyzed and the overload of electricity distribution systems when cutting off gas current is considered. The findings of this research...
Issues of resistance of pathogens to antimicrobial agents
October 2012
Antimicrobial resistance among pathogenic organisms is now a persistent problem and of tremendous public health care concern around the globe. These pathogens are able to develop mechanisms of resistance, the antimicrobial agents that were at one time the drug of choice. They continue to develop various mechanisms of resistance either by intrinsic or acquired, and have been able to transfer and accept different...
Metabolic syndrome among medical university students in Kashan, Iran
October 2012
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is defined as a clustering of complicated disorders such as: central obesity, hypertension, increased blood glucose and impaired blood lipids. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among students of Kashan University of Medical Sciences between 19 to 27 years old (n=221). Metabolic syndrome was defined using the updated 2001 National Cholesterol Education...
Exploring the challenges of molecular diagnostic techniques for clinical and veterinary microbiology in developing countries
October 2012
The advent of molecular biology techniques for the detection, diagnosis, monitoring and characterization of microorganisms have revolutionalized as well as increased the reliability of microbiology laboratory results. The fact that laboratories always served as an early warning system for epidemiologic surveillance, the use of molecular techniques also placed a huge challenge on microbiologists all over developing...
An imperialist competitive algorithm mixed model assembly line sequencing problem on just in time system
October 2012
Mixed-model lines are used to produce several kinds of models in small lots without carrying large inventories. The production sequence for the mixed-model sequencing problem depends on the goals of the production facility. In order to enjoy the useful application of these lines, it is vital to devise a schedule for assembling the different products to be determined. Based on the NP-hardness of the problem, this present...
Modeling and simulation of active front steering system
October 2012
This paper includes the modeling and simulation of active front steering (AFS) system. AFS controls the front wheel steering angle to improve the steering feel and comfort. Driver and vehicle models are used for the simulation. AFS adjusts the yaw rate in critical driving maneuvers. The driver workload is reduced and the yaw rate response is diminished by AFS. Firstly, step function is applied to the vehicle. Secondly...
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