Purification and characterization of novel truncated fragments of bioactive proteins from porcine intestine with effects on insulin secretion
August 2012
During purification of porcine gut polypeptides with respect to glucose-induced insulin secretion from pancreatic β cells, two novel fragments of the known gastrointestinal peptides were isolated and chemically characterized. They are truncated forms of phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP93-124) and valosin (Valosin3-25). These novel fragments,...
Effects of alkaline and alkaline-earth ions on the rheological behavior and zetametric study of two cement pastes (artificial cement portland-CEMI and cement resistant to the sulfates-CRS) with the polynaphthalene sulfonate (PNS)
August 2012
The use of admixtures which tends to be generalized in the formulation of self-compacting concrete (SCC), requires taking into account the chemical composition of cement, particularly its content of SO3, which can inhibit or restrain the effect of these admixtures (superplasticizers). For more information of the compatibility problem of cement-superplasticizer, the rheological...
Effects of menstrual periods on postural stability in eumenorrheic female group
August 2012
High rate of injuries detected during certain periods of menstrual cycle, raised the suggestion of hormonal impact on soft tissue and neuromuscular control with subsequent lost in joint stability, deterioration of postural balance and injury development. The aim of present study was to investigate possible differences in static postural balance during the preovulatory and...
A novel filter compensation scheme for single phase-self-excited induction generator micro wind generation system
August 2012
The paper presents a novel flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) based stabilization scheme developed by the second author for use in small scale residential/commercial micro grid (wind-induction generator) utilization schemes in the range 5 to 50 kVA, for stabilized efficient renewable wind utilization. The novel FACTS stabilization scheme is...
Taxonomic study of family Brassicaceae of Mardan District, Khyber Pakhtun Khwa, Pakistan
August 2012
A total of 23 species belonging to 17 genera were investigated from the research area. The genera with number of species are: Alyssum (1 sp.), Brassica (5 sp.),Capsella (1 sp.), Cardamine (1 sp.), Coronopus (1 sp.), Eruca (1 sp.), Iberis (1 sp.), Lepidium (1 sp.), Lobularia (1...
Study on watermarking effect in image-signature association copyright protection model
August 2012
This paper aims to compute the effect of the different watermarking techniques on a proposed scheme of image copyright protection. This scheme depends on image association principle rather than image data modification. Hence, it is intended to support the developed technique with essential study to approve the validity with convenient measures and performance criteria. The effect of watermarking is classified in...
Analysis of energy as a precondition for improvement of living conditions and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa
August 2012
This paper examines the link between availability of energy and improvement of living condition and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. It argued that modern sources of energy are required for the improvement of living standards; may be by helping to create jobs and by boosting productivity. For energy exporters, particularly oil producers, they provide revenues that may...
Production and applications of microbial lipases: A review
August 2012
Lipases (triacylglycerol ester hydrolases, EC 3.1.1.3) are biotechnologically relevant enzymes that find immense applications in food, detergent and pharmaceutical industries. They catalyze the breakdown of fats and oils as well as various synthetic reactions such as esterification, transesterification and interesterification in organic solvents. Microbial lipases stand out as...
Structural patterns identified through a historical analysis of Anatolian stone constructions
August 2012
This paper derives structural patterns through the analysis of ancient Anatolian structural configurations built up by stone. Related archaeological sources indicate that ancient Anatolian constructions incorporating only stone as the principal building material are infrequent. Almost all of the walls of the dwellings and monumental structures were composite. They were...
Frequency of lower respiratory tract infections in Karachi and comparison of different antibiotic agents used for the treatment
August 2012
The objective of this study is to compare the use of different antibiotics in lower respiratory tract infections at Jinnah postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi, Pakistan. A non blind randomized study design was used to for this study which was carried out in JPMC, for a period of four months. A total of 137 patients infected with various infections were selected and...
High capacity three-component dynamometer design, construction and its calibration
August 2012
In this study, a three-component dynamometer design, construction and its calibration were carried out. The dynamometer system consisted of three 20 kN high capacity single point load cells, three isolated strain gauge input modules, a terminal board, an analogue-to-digital card and a software for recording and analyzing the data. The load cells were mounted in three different...
Wheat yellow rust resistance improvement in wheat and maize cross progenies using double haploid method
August 2012
This research was conducted to produce doubled haploid lines of wheat through chromosome elimination (wheat × maize crosses) technique. Three wheat hybrids: DH-29: MILAN / SH7 // SHIROODI, DH-30: INIA // SW89.3064 / STAR / 3 / MILAN / SHA7 and DH-32: NANJING8201 / KAUZ // MILAN / SHA7 were pollinated with maize pollen from two genotypes H1: KSC108, 403 and...
Interaction between barley grain processing and source of dietary protein on nutrients digestibility, rumen pH and ammonia concentration in sheep
August 2012
The effects of barley grain processing (whole vs. cracked) combined with two different protein sources (urea vs. soybean meal) on nutrients digestibility, rumen pH and ammonia concentration in sheep were investigated. Four permanently rumen fistulated Mehraban sheep were allocated in a 4×4 Latin square design. Four different experimental diets were used: 1) whole barley grain with urea...
A novel adaptive color to grayscale conversion algorithm for digital images
August 2012
A color image sent to the monochrome device must undergo the color-to-grayscale conversion process. Although the conventional color-to-grayscale conversion algorithms are widely used, their performance is questionable in certain circumstances and poor quality resultant grayscale images will be produced. This paper tackled some drawbacks of the conventional methods by...
A novel adaptive color to grayscale conversion algorithm for digital images
August 2012
A color image sent to the monochrome device must undergo the color-to-grayscale conversion process. Although the conventional color-to-grayscale conversion algorithms are widely used, their performance is questionable in certain circumstances and poor quality resultant grayscale images will be produced. This paper tackled some drawbacks of the conventional methods by...
Hydrogeochemical and isotopic evaluation of groundwater in Jabal Hafit area, Eastern Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
August 2012
This study deals with groundwater quality of the Jabal Hafit area in the southeastern part of the UAE. In order to assess groundwater in the study area, 21 samples were collected from groundwater wells. Of these, 12 samples were analyzed for stable isotopes of δD and δ18O. The results showed that the sequence of cations dominance in groundwater in the study...
Ahmed A. Murad1*, Saber M. Hussein1 and Aidah Al-Abdouli2
August 2012
The area of robot path planning and navigation has been studied by various researchers over the last decades, resulting in a large number of works. One of the most challenging fields in motion planning is dealing with unknown environment, which is known as online path planning. This paper aims to improve one of the most famous methods for online navigation, that is, Bug algorithm, which has been...
Knowledge worker productivity measurement using fuzzy analytical network process (FANP)
August 2012
It is commonly recognized that knowledge is the only source of core competence in the knowledge based companies, but the productivity rate of knowledge workers is always low. Based on knowledge workers’ characteristics, this paper identified factors influencing the productivity of knowledge workers and then presented improvement strategies of productivity. Finally, it...
On spectral-homotopy analysis solutions of steady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow and heat transfer from a rotating disk in a porous medium
August 2012
In this paper, a new computational technique was used to solve a system of nonlinear second order equations that govern the steady magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) flow of a viscous incompressible and electrically conducting fluid past a rotating disk in a porous medium. Approximate analytic solutions are found and the effects of ohmic heating and viscous dissipation on the fluid...
Competitive effects of redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus) and lambsquarter (Chenopodium album) on potato
August 2012
In order to study the effects of redroot pigweed and lambsquarter densities on potato yield, an additive experiment were conducted in 2004 and 2005. This experiment was done in split plot based on randomized complete block design with four replications. Treatments were two weed species in main plots and weed density in sub plots (0, 2, 4 and 8 plant per...
Sexual selection and evolution of male and female choice in genetic algorithm
August 2012
Variety and diversity of population are essential for convergence to global optimal in genetic algorithm. In this study, the concepts of fitness distribution, expected and cumulative fitness distribution, reproduction rate and loss of diversity are defined for a sexual selection mechanism, and their performance of this type of selection mechanism is studied theoretically. Then...
Osteoid osteoma of the radial shaft: An unusual location case report and literature review
August 2012
Osteoid osteoma has been found in nearly all bones and usually treated with radiofrequency ablation or laser photocoagulation. We reported a case of a radial shaft osteoid osteoma in a 37-year-old man and also reviewed the reported literature. The patient was presented with pain and swelling in his right forearm; conventional radiographic examination of forearm seemed to be...
Larvicidal activity of extracts from different parts of Neem (Azadirachta indica) against Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes’ larvae
August 2012
Dengue is one of the major health problem in many countries. The genus Aedes in which Aedes aegypti (Family: Culicidae) mosquito belongs to, is the major vector of dengue fever disease. Search for larvicidal active compound(s) is one of the several attempts to find effective and affordable ways to control this mosquito. The aim of this study is to investigate...
Permeability characteristics of pumice-bentonite mixtures in comparison with sand-bentonite mixtures
August 2012
Environmental pollution is a significant concern around the landfill sites, waste repositories and other similar wastewater storage and treatment basin and ponds. Pumice is an abundant natural material in Kayseri, Turkey and therefore, permeability characteristics of pumice-bentonite mixtures were investigated in comparison with commonly used sand-bentonite mixtures. Four...
A statistical analysis on skinfold thickness and measurement of body composition for Chinese adults
August 2012
The purpose of this study was to evaluate developmental mechanism and characteristics of skinfold thickness and body composition among Chinese adults of Han nationality. Sampling measurement method was applied to acquire the indexes of height, weight, cheek skinfold thickness, triceps skinfold thickness, biceps skinfold thickness, subscapular angle...
Prediction of compression index using artificial neural network
August 2012
Over the decades, a number of empirical correlations have been proposed to relate the Compression Index of normally consolidated soils to other soil parameters, such as the natural water content, liquid limit, plasticity index and void ratio. In this article too it has been attempted to establish a correlation between compression index and physical properties for the clayey...
Trace elements changes in the appendix of rabbit infected with Eimeria coecicola
August 2012
The parasitic protozoa, Eimeria coecicola, causes intestinal coccidiosis in rabbits and, thereby, enormous economic losses in rabbit farms. This study aimed to investigate the trace elements changes in the appendix of infected rabbits with E. coecicola. Rabbits were orally infected with 50000 sporulated oocysts of E. coecicola, began to shed parasitic oocysts...
Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) point density analysis
August 2012
The point density is a preeminent parameter on airborne laser scanner surveys. It is not only related to accuracy but costs and savings. The lack of uniformity of the point density across the survey is well-known in the scientific community. This paper analyzes the behaviour of the point density derived by an oscillating mirror laser scanner on different single strips on flat bare ground in order to estimate...
Google analytics: Tips for micro-firms
August 2012
The free web analytics tools launched by some search engines (for example, Google analytics and yahoo web analytics) have the potential to be turned into key marketing tools for small businesses and long tail websites. Web analytics, however, is not just about the number of people visiting a site, but is also about the quality of the traffic and what the visitors do when they access a site. The aim of this...
An application of Delphi method for eliciting criteria in personnel selection problem
August 2012
An important phase of human resource management is personnel selection, which is concerned with identifying an individual from a pool of candidates suitable for a vacant position. As with many decision problems, personnel selection problem is very complex in real life. Some of the techniques in decision making are multi criteria decision making (MCDM) which can be applied for personnel selection process....
Laser raman and infrared spectrum analysis on low-density lipoproteins purified from hen egg yolk
August 2012
Diversified proteins were separated from hen egg yolk by ammonium sulphate rapid fractionation, and pure low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was obtained after filtrating through Sephadex G-200 chromatography. After the qualitative detection ofSodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), we discovered that LDL consists of five major apoproteins. The results show...
Study on the impact of geotextiles on fatigue life of asphalt specimens
August 2012
In this research, four types of geotextiles were selected and their impact on fatigue life and average flexural stiffness of hot mix asphalt (HMA) specimens was investigated. Fatigue tests were implemented by four-point bending beam test at strain control condition with haversine wave and 10 Hz frequency. The fatigue tests were carried out in four strain levels 250, 400, 650 and 1000 micro strain. Based on...
Contractions on Hilbert space with the smallest local unitary spectra
August 2012
Let T be a contraction on a complex Hilbert space H, let be the local spectrum of at , and let be the local unitary spectrum of T at ;. We show that if is of Lebesgue measure zero, then, where is the unitary part of in the canonical decomposition of H with respect...
Laminar flow of couple stress fluids for Vogel's model
August 2012
The coupled nonlinear equations for heat transfer flow of variable viscosity couple stress fluids between two parallel plates are derived for four different problems, namely plane Couette flow, plug flow, plane Poiseuille flow and generalized plane Couette flow. These equations are made dimensionless with the help of non-dimensional parameters and solved by using regular perturbation technique. The effect of...
Impaired N-cadherin-mediated adhesion increases the risk of inducible ventricular arrhythmias in isolated rat hearts
August 2012
Recent studies suggest that cadherin-mediated adherens junctions may be impaired in diseases and pathologic processes related to ventricular arrhythmias, which are concomitant with decreased connexin 43 (Cx43). In this study, we evaluated the acute arrhythmogenic effects of adherens junction impairment in isolated rat hearts. A total of 56 hearts isolated from adult male rats were perfused with 0.2 mM AHAVD,...
Expression of protein-gene peptide (PGP) 9.5 in myocardial sleeves around the pulmonary artery and aorta in pigs
August 2012
A subgroup of outflow tract (OT) ventricular tachycardias (VT) originates from the aortic sinuses or the main stem of the pulmonary artery. Myocardial sleeves onto the pulmonary artery (PA) and aorta (Ao) have been recognized as a frequent site for the origin of arrhythmia. The aim of this study was to analyze PGP9.5 expression in pulmonary artery and aorta from 100 pigs hearts and relate it to the mechanism...
Characterization of de novo assemblies of quasispecies from next-generation sequencing via complex network modeling
August 2012
Several worldwide pandemics, such as influenza, human immunodeficiency virus, and coronavirus, are caused by viral quasispecies. Characterization of quasispecies harboring in a host is essential to unveil the mechanisms that are at the base of the pathogen evolution, infection and spread at the epidemic level. Next generation sequencing (NGS) produces many thousands of sequence fragments from a single sample,...
Community engagement in landslide risk assessment in Limbe, Southwest Cameroon
August 2012
This paper presents preliminary findings on community engagement in landslide risk assessment and inventory mapping in Limbe, Southwest Cameroon. Emphasis was placed on collection of disaster experiences, training and skills development of the locals in identifying and characterising landslides and landslide contributory factors. Despite a number of challenges ranging from lack of incentives, proper...
Efficiency analysis of an induction motor with field-oriented control at a hot rolling mill
August 2012
In this paper, the efficiency analysis of an induction motor with field-oriented control (FOC) at a hot rolling mill in South Africa is presented. It is shown that the energy consumption of an induction motor at a hot rolling mill can be improved with the introduction of FOC with a variable input reference compared to direct torque and flux control (DTC) with a fixed input reference. An overview on the...
Peristalsis in a rotating fluid
August 2012
This paper is devoted to the study of peristaltic flow of a viscous fluid in a rotating frame. The governing equations for the flow problem are derived under the long wavelength approximation. The closed form solutions for the stream function and the secondary velocity are obtained. The effects of Taylor number on physical quantities of interest such as the pressure rise per wavelength and the flow rate due...
Certain morphological features in limb-girdle muscular dystrophies are not shared by polymyositis: Useful diagnostic clues
August 2012
Some hereditary myopathies can mimic acquired polymyositis (PM) in particular when they first present in adulthood with a limb-girdle distribution of weakness. The diagnosis is made yet more complex when inflammatory infiltrates attend on muscle biopsy. This is common in certain dystrophies in particular limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD). For better distinction between the two diseases, histochemical...
Influence of vehicle headway irregularity in public transport on in-vehicle passenger comfort
August 2012
This paper performs an analysis of the influence of headway irregularity in public transport on the quality of the transport service, in the domain of in-vehicle passenger comfort. The influence of vehicle headway irregularity along a route on the in-vehicle passenger comfort has been analysed on urban bus routes that operate in a mixed traffic flow. Based on the research conducted on 2,800 bus departures,...
Molecular typing of Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) using multiprimer PCR
August 2012
A total of 42 Escherichia coli strains isolated from broilers and the halls of growth were examined between the years 2010 and 2011, in order to assess the prevalence of avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) strains in the West of Romania, where the majority broiler is represented by the imported ones. Multiplex PCR technique was used in order to detect three genes governing the synthesis of...
Covering stack of layers consisting of a single layer: Local near-surface buckling instability
August 2012
The local near-surface buckling of a material system consisting of a half-space, which is covered by the single layer and half-space materials is elastic within the framework of a three-dimensional linearized theory of stability (TLTS). The equations of TLTS are obtained from the three-dimensional geometrically nonlinear equations of the theory of viscoelasticity by using the boundary form perturbations...
A physicochemical interpretation of the Turin Shroud imaging
July 2012
The image impressed on the inner side of the Turin Shroud (TS) could be interpreted as the signature of a natural event. The fundamental working hypothesis adopted in this paper is that an accelerated physicochemical aging occurred on the topmost fibers of the cellulosic texture. This extremely superficial degradation is assumed as being originated by electrostatic discharges (ESD, often also referred to as...
Digital image processing techniques demonstrating the anomalous nature of the radiocarbon dating sample area of the Shroud of Turin
July 2012
This article reports on the use of digital image processing techniques to analyze an ultraviolet-fluorescence photograph of the area of the Shroud of Turin where the radiocarbon dating samples were taken. Results of this analysis demonstrate the anomalous nature of the radiocarbon data sample area. The techniques employed in this investigation are those used by the land remote sensing community for the...
A possible hypothesis for correcting the radiocarbon age of the Shroud of Turin
July 2012
Three methods of calculation in Chemical Physics are used to study how the isotopic exchange could affect the radiocarbon age of the Shroud of Turin. The basic hypothesis is that a fire in the year 1532 caused an isotopic exchange reaction between the air and the fabric of linen. According to this model, molecules of carbon dioxide from the air exchanged isotopes by isotopes with the...
Particle radiation from the body could explain the Shroud’s images and its carbon dating
July 2012
This paper highlights some of the main reasons why radiation caused the body images on the Shroud of Turin; why the source of this radiation was the body wrapped within it; that the radiation appears to be particle radiation; and that if particle radiation came from the body of the man in the Shroud, it could account for or explain all of the primary and secondary body image features, the excellent condition...
Piezonuclear neutrons from earthquakes as a hypothesis for the image formation and the radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud
July 2012
Some researchers have suggested that corona discharge phenomenon or proton radiation is responsible for the Shroud body image formation, while neutron radiation is liable to a wrong radiocarbon dating. On the other hand, no plausible physical reason has been proposed to explain the radiation source origin, and its possible effects on the linen fibres. However, some recent studies, carried...
Open issues regarding the Turin Shroud
July 2012
The Turin Shroud is a linen cloth which shows the front and back images of a man who had been scourged, crowned with thorns and crucified, who died on a cross and who was stabbed in the side with a lance after his death. The Catholic Christian tradition identifies him as Jesus Christ who was resurrected from the dead, but not all researchers are unanimous in believing this tradition, partly because science...
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