Comparative diversity of insects in various habitats of Kovada Lake National Park Basin (Isparta, Turkey)
June 2012
The study was conducted in nine habitats representing different ecosystems in Kovada Lake Natural Park basin located in Isparta province. Pitfall traps were used for collecting various insects during 2007-2008 by regular weekly samplings. Consequently, a total of 64 insect species belonging to 15 families and 4 orders were recorded from the natural park basin. According to Shannon-Wiener and Simpson indices of...
Application of umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation: A better option in regenerative medicine
June 2012
Extensive research in the field of stem cells has proven the possibility of repairing the damaged tissues and organs. Stem cells can divide and differentiate into various specialized cells. In adult organisms, stem cells act by repairing adult tissues and in a developing embryo, they not only differentiate into all the specialized cells, but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs.Unfortunately the...
Physico-chemical analysis of selected groundwater samples of Ilorin town in Kwara State, Nigeria
June 2012
This study was conducted to assess the impacts of industrial activities on the ground water quality in industrial and non- industrial area in Ilorin Town. The quality assessment was focused on physico-chemical parameters. Groundwater samples were collected from industrial area and from non-industrial area which were used as control. The results obtained were compared with standards prescribed by WHO. Total of 5...
Fluorescent demonstration of neuronal degeneration in cyanide neurotoxicity through anti protein G-colloidal gold conjugate labeling
June 2012
The study of the mechanism of neuronal cell death has been an important aspect of cell biology in the last decade. Considering the somewhat non-specific nature of the methods and the complexity of the neuronal cell cycle, a multi-technique approach has been suggested. This study is aimed at describing a method for demonstration of neuronal degeneration in the visual cortex (molecular layer) of adult wistar rats. It...
An intelligence system approach using artificial neural networks to evaluate the quality of treatment planning for nasopharyngeal carcinoma
June 2012
The quality of the nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treatment plans evaluation using three types of artificial neural networks (ANNs) are instructed by three different training algorithms. Three ANNs including Elman (ANN-E), feed-forward (ANN-FF), and pattern recognition (ANN-PR) were trained by using three different models, that is, leave-one-out (Train-loo), random selection (Train-random), and user...
Meta analysis of zoledronic acid on the bone markers among osteoporosis patients
June 2012
Osteoporosis is a skeletal disease that is characterized by compromised bone strength predisposing a person to an increased risk of fracture. Zoledronic acid (ZOL) is an aminobisphosphonate with a high affinity for mineralized bone. This review of relevant meta-analysis aimed to clarify the effect of ZOL in treatment and prevention of osteoporosis. Random control trials that investigated the evidence for the role of ZOL...
Effect of boron carbide on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of segments produced using hot pressing method
June 2012
In this study, effect of boron carbide (B4C) addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of diamond cutting segments was investigated. For this purpose, the boron carbide addition quantity was changed as 2, 5 and 10 wt%. In all of the experiments, hot pressing process was carried out at 35 MPa, at 700°C and sintering time of 3 min. Microstructure and phase composition of segments were determined by Scanning...
Nutritional and organoleptic properties of three common Nigerian foods cooked with three different energy sources
June 2012
This study investigates the nutritional and organoleptic properties of rice, beans and yam cooked with firewood, biogas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) that is, each of these foods was cooked with these energy sources. The biogas was generated from cow dung using a 10 m3 digester at the National Center for Energy Research and Development, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The substrate (cow dung) used for generating...
Combining 1000 mg oral acetaminophen with 75 mg intramuscular Diclofenac of analgesic efficacy for acute renal colic treatment
June 2012
In this study, we compared oral acetaminophen alone versus intramuscular diclofenac alone versus both together in the treatment of acute renal colic. A prospective, randomized, and double-blind study was conducted in the Emergency Department. Patients were divided into three groups, which were given either acetaminophen + placebo (n = 25), diclofenac sodium + placebo (n = 25) or acetaminophen + diclofenac...
Aeromagnetic data interpretation to locate buried faults in Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia
June 2012
High resolution aeromagnetic data and various filtered maps are used in the present study to detect buried faults in the Riyadh region, Saudi Arabia. Filtering techniques such as Butterworth filter, tilt derivative, source edge detection (SED) and Euler deconvolution (ED) were used to map the structural lineaments in the study area. In this respect, the interpretation of the magnetic anomaly maps indicates that the area...
Malware detection based on evolving clustering method for classification
June 2012
Malware is a computer program that can replicate itself and cause potential damage in data files. The high speed of the computers and networks increased the virus spread. To avoid the virus infection and the data loss, it is important to use an efficient and effective method for virus detection. This paper proposes an approach for malware detection based on the evolving clustering method. The...
Preliminary study on consumers’ and meat traders’ perceptions of beef quality and how the beef quality is affected by animal welfare practices
June 2012
A study was conducted to determine the perceptions of rural meat consumers and traders on meat quality and how the welfare of slaughter cattle affects beef quality. The study focused on the three stages: prior to purchase, at point of purchase and at point of consumption. A total of 102 rural consumers and 31 meat traders were conveniently sampled and used in the study. Principal component analysis with varimax...
Antifungal potential of Parthenium hysterophorus L. plant extracts against Fusarium solani
June 2012
Fusarium wilt, caused by Fusarium solani (Mart.) Sacc, is an economically important disease of potato in Pakistan. Recent studies have shown that plant pathogens can be controlled by plant products as these are biodegradable, exhibit structural diversity and complexity. Presently, antifungal bioassays were conducted to confirm mycotoxic potential of root, shoot and leaf of Parthenium...
Effective virtual teams for new product development
June 2012
At present, the existing literature shows that the factors which influence the effectiveness of virtual teams for new product development are still ambiguous. To address this problem, a research design was developed, which includes detailed literature review, preliminary model and field survey. From literature review, the factors which influence the effectiveness of virtual teams are identified and these factors are...
Security verification of the return routability protocol by Murphi
June 2012
The return routability protocol (RRP) is commonly used in route optimization to secure and authenticate mobile IPv6 signals between the mobile node and its correspondent node. In this paper, the correctness and the security of RRP were verified using a Murphi model checker. The results show that RRP has no failure and is correct. However, it is not secure, because an...
Application of Schmidt rebound hammer and ultrasonic pulse velocity techniques for structural health monitoring
June 2012
The concept of non-destructive testing (NDT) is to obtain material properties of "in place" specimens without the destruction of the specimens and to do the structural health monitoring. Ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) used together with Schmidt Rebound Hammer (SRH) tests give a combined test method for health assessment by a suitable correlation between these two tests along with test by compressive testing...
Evaluation of reinforced concrete beam behaviour using finite element analysis by ABAQUS
June 2012
In this research, the ABAQUS program is used to model the behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The finite element model uses the concrete damaged plasticity approach; this model can help to confirm the theoretical calculations as well as to provide a valuable supplement to the laboratory investigations of behaviour. For validation, a reinforced concrete beam was modelled that had been experimentally tested and...
Research of significant anthropogenic changes in Ostrava city area (Czech Republic)
May 2012
This study aimed to widen the knowledge on landscape element changes in areas exposed to the effects of mining and other industries, which represent one of the most affected types of landscape in terms of environmental changes. It provides results of analyses of landscape element changes in the selected area of Ostrava Basin (city of Ostrava) in the North-east of Czech Republic. The study was compiled for...
Wood identification in Yıldız Palace Harem structures (19th century) in Istanbul
May 2012
Yıldız Palace was the last Ottoman Palace built. Harem Structures of this Palace are one of the important parts of the complex. These structures are composed of five parts: the apartments of the Sultan’s consort I and II, the apartments of the concubines, the apartments of the Harem’s chief treasurer, and the passages between apartments. In this research, the woods used in these parts of the...
An empirical approach for experimental assessments in urban freight
May 2012
Increasing concerns about sustainable urban freight transport have appeared recently in developed countries. While some methods and indexes exist today to evaluate economic and development sustainability, this paper holds up the need to develop a standard tool to evaluate how an urban freight system is functioning. In this sense, this paper presents the concept, the methodology and the application of a model...
Hybrid intelligent algorithm [improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) with ant colony optimization (ACO)] for multiprocessor job scheduling
May 2012
Efficient multiprocessor scheduling is essentially the problem of allocating a set of computational jobs to a set of processors to minimize the overall execution time. The main issue is how jobs are partitioned in which total finishing time and waiting time is minimized. Minimization of these two criteria simultaneously, is a multi objective optimization problem. There are many variations of this problem,...
Ion exchange kinetics of some heavy metals from aqueous solutions onto poly (acrylic acid-acrylonitrile) potassium titanate
May 2012
Heavy metals released by a number of industrial processes are major pollutants. Ground, industrial and even treated wastewaters, heavy metals can be extremely toxic as they damage nerves, liver, kidney and bones. So, our work was concerned to prepare composite inorganic-organic absorbers which represent a group of inorganic ion exchangers modified using binding organic materials. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) has...
Diffusion mechanism of cesium, cobalt and cadmium ions in the particles of tin vanadate as a cation exchanger
May 2012
The mechanism of diffusion of Cs+, Co2+, and Cd2+ ions in the H-form of tin-vanadate as cation exchanger was studied as a function of particle size, concentration of the exchanging ions, reaction temperature, and drying temperature. The exchange rate was controlled by a particle diffusion mechanism as a limited batch technique and is confirmed from straight lines of B versus 1/r2 plots. The values...
Effect of pre-sowing treatments on seed germination in Hedychium spicatum: An important vulnerable medicinal plant of Indian Himalayan region
May 2012
The objective of Present study was to examine the effect of various pre-sowing treatments on seed germination of an important and vulnerable high value medicinal plant, Hedychium spicatum with different plant growth regulators (PGRs) and nitrogenous compounds under different conditions. Out of various used treatments, gibberellic acid (GA3) and potassium nitrate (KNO3) were significantly effective...
Thyroid hormones levels in Jordanian athletes participating in aerobic and anaerobic activities
May 2012
Acute and prolonged exercises have controversial effect on the circulatory levels of thyroid hormones. The aim of the present study was to assess changes in thyroid hormones levels in elite top Jordanian athletes participating in both aerobic and anaerobic activities. Moreover, this work aims at comparing the level of thyroid hormones in both groups and to sedentary healthy subjects. Eighty Jordanian top...
Preliminary identification of genetic mechanism of shank color in game chicken
May 2012
This study aimed to explore a simple way to identify the genetic mechanism of shank color in chicken and provide an on-the-spot evaluation method for the trait without genealogy records. The shank color of 202 parental mating combinations and 489 offsprings were observed in Zhongyuan Game chicken and Snyder genetic ratios were calculated. The results showed that the cyan shank was dominant compared to the...
Low and high ω-3 oils consequences rats’ serum lipid fractions
May 2012
To study the consequences of some low and high ω-3 edibles oils on fatty acid profile, triacylglycerols and cholesterol levels of rats’ serum; males of albino rat were fed on diet containing 5 and 10% from each of linseed, safflower and olive oils individually for 4 weeks. The extracted oils and serum lipids were directed togas chromatography (GC) analysis. Serum triacylglycerols and...
Distributed multimedia presentation control – A system perspective
May 2012
In many meeting scenarios, such as in a conference, delivering multimedia presentation is an important activity that is supported by different presentation systems. Most of the current presentation systems provide a tightly-coupled solution where the model (source presentation), the view (rendering), and the controller (mouse/keyboard) work as a single unit of interaction. Although this approach is easier to...
Simulation and analysis of innovative hand tool harvester
May 2012
There is a real need to develop a hand tool harvester since harvesting tubers ofDioscorea hispida (ubi gadong) is time tedious and consuming. The tubers were surrounded by roots, which were well gripped to the soil which made harvesting process difficult. Therefore, a new tool equipped with cutting device to cut the roots of D. hispida is required. The information from the experiments is used...
Application of DEMATEL, ISM, and ANP for key success factor (KSF) complexity analysis in R&D alliance
May 2012
SMEs did not have enough ability to invest in development of new products and entering of new markets. Therefore, they try to achieve something through R&D Alliances, such as unique technology, resources, power of synergy, and the ability to reduce the gap between market leaders. However, the scope and characteristics of R&D alliance result in management complexity and difficulty that are higher than...
Seasonality of non-timber forest products (NTPFs) in the Kupe mountain area of South West Cameroon
May 2012
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are economically-important commodities, especially in the humid and semi-humid regions of many sub-Saharan countries. However, in many of these countries, there is little information on the seasonality characterising their availability and collection, rendering difficult the development of meaningful packages for their sustainable use and valorisation. A study was therefore...
Adaptive message size routing strategy for delay tolerant network
May 2012
Delay tolerant network (DTN) is a kind of computer network that suffer from the frequent disconnections, network partitioned and unstable network connectivity, therefore maintaining an uninterrupted route from source to destination is not possible. Therefore, the transmission of message is achieved via intermediate nodes by adopting a novel transmission mechanism called store-carry and forward where node...
Length-weight relationships, relative condition factor and relative weight of three fish species from beach seine fishing grounds Iranian coastal waters of Caspian Sea
May 2012
The aim of this study is to record the length-weight relationship, relative condition factor (Krel) and relative weight (Wr) for three fish species in Iranian coastal waters of the Caspian Sea. Fish sampling was carried out in the beach seine fishing grounds in autumn and winter seasons for two years (2007 and 2009). 14104 specimens were measured and weighed. The values of the exponent b in the length-weight...
Design and development of standalone DSP prototype for QT interval processing and monitoring
May 2012
This paper describes the development of stand alone DSP hardware for QT interval monitoring and assessment. The QT interval has been known to be an important indicator prior to Myocardial Infarction (MI) and it is important to observe and monitor any changes in the period of the QT interval. The system consists of three units. The first unit includes floating point digital signal processor, TMS320VC33 which...
Effective techniques in drilling to improve the recovery process of hydrocarbons in oil and gas sector
May 2012
The purpose of this research is to use effective method of drilling to improve the recovery process of hydrocarbons in oil and gas sector. Hydrocarbons are present in large amount beneath the earth. By using exploration geo physics, the reservoir of hydrocarbons below the earth can be located with more precision and accuracy. The first step consists of the geological and the seismic survey to obtain the image...
Gastroprotective effects of Dicranopteris linearis leaf extract against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury in rats
May 2012
Dicranopteris linearis is a medicinal plant commonly used traditionaly in the treatment of many aliments. This study was performed to evaluate the gastroprotective effect of ethanolic extracts of D. linearis leaf extract (DLELE) against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury in experimental rats. The rats were divided into four groups respectively pre-treated orally with...
Available transfer capability and least square method
May 2012
In deregulated power industries, accurate and fast calculation of Available Transfer Capability (ATC) for seller in the electricity market is required. In this paper, deterministic ATC will be calculated using algebraic equation and linear optimization by Least Square (LSQR). Probabilistic ATC is also calculated by considering time varying load and load margin. The proposed method will be tested on IEEE 30...
Introducing slag powder as drag reduction agent in pipeline: An experimental approach
May 2012
Main by product in ore smelting from tin production in Malaysia has become a trigger for this investigation. Slag waste can be categorized as suspended solid. Utilization of this waste in fluid transportation can reduce the pressure drop in pipelines. Experimental works had conducted in order to test slag waste in a closed loop of turbulence water flowing system with water and fuel as the transport liquid....
A methodology to evaluate both internal and external environments of applied-scientific educational system used in strategic planning
May 2012
In the present work, we introduce a new model to evaluate an educational system, namely the applied-scientific system. This model provides us with a deep knowledge of different aspects of educational system including its organizational weakness and strength. Within our approach, making use of the production function and the calculated education area function, it is also possible to recognize different...
Colour image segmentation using the second order statistics and a modified fuzzy C-means technique
May 2012
This paper presents a new colour image segmentation method based on Fuzzy C-means technique and the second order statistics. The importance of combining statistical features extracted from the co-occurrence matrix and the standard Fuzzy C-Means clustering algorithm in the segmentation context is studied in this paper, to obtain a more reliable and accurate segmentation results. In the first phase of...
Performance evaluation of simulated annealing and genetic algorithm in solving examination timetabling problem
May 2012
This work details the performance evaluation of simulated annealing (SA) and genetic algorithm (GA) in terms of their software complexity measurement and simulation time in solving a typical University examination timetabling problem (ETP). Preparation of a timetable consists basically of allocating a number of events to a finite number of time periods (also called slots) in such a way that a certain set...
Contribution of the melioration canal to the water regime of forest areas
May 2012
The paper analyzes the intensity of draining and recharging action of the melioration canal foreseen for the Biđ-Bosut Field irrigation, with special reference to its potential impact on forest areas. The designed canal will enable a series of agro-amelioration interventions aimed at recharging or draining soils and thereby regulating their water regime. The paper describes the influence of infiltration and...
Convergence impacts of two growing Asian countries on rice consumption: The case of India and China
May 2012
In this study, shifting structure of world rice consumption is examined using various rice-consumption models associated with two Asian countries’ data: India and China. The models are tested in terms of statistical significance, economic theory and mathematical rules. The models containing a maximum point entails convergence analysis. The convergence analysis illustrates either how fast countries...
Open surgery in huge volume benign prostatic hyperplasia
May 2012
The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of open surgical treatment for huge volume (> 150 ml) benign prostatic hyperplasia and summarize our clinical experiences. Between January 2001 and September 2010, surgeries for a total of 15 patients with huge volume benign prostatic hyperplasia were performed. Mean age of these patients was 71.8 ± 6.1 years. Mean prostate volume was...
Using wavelet transform to improve generalization capability of feed forward neural networks in monthly runoff prediction
May 2012
In the study presented, a hybrid model is proposed for monthly runoff prediction by using wavelet transform and feed forward neural networks. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and Levenberg-Marquardt optimization algorithm based feed forward neural networks (FFNN) are considered for the modeling study. The study region covers the basins of Medar River which is located at the Aegean region of Turkey....
Administration of Hydrocotyl bonariensis aqueous leaves extract regulates cardiovascular disease risk factors in galactose model of experimental cataractogenesis
April 2012
Reports had indicated that Hydrocotyl bonariensis contains phytochemicals that can be exploited for the development of anticataractogenic agent. In the present study we investigated the effects of administration of the plant’s leaves extract on some cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in galactose model of experimental cataract. Twenty five (25) weanling rats randomly assigned to five...
Time independent seismic hazard analysis of the afar depression
April 2012
A Bayesian approach is applied to conduct a seismic hazard analysis in Afar Triple junction, resulting in a spatial distribution of the probability of exceedance in 100 years for earthquakes of MSK intensities VI and VII. The highest values of the exceedance probability for intensity VII are relatively scattered, showing spatial distribution that conforms with the RRR (rift-rift-rift) relative translational...
Fuzzy-rough feature selection and a fuzzy 2-level complementary approach for classification of gene expression data
April 2012
Classification of gene expression data is an important issue in medical diagnosis of disease such as cancer. In this paper first Fuzzy-Rough Set theory is established to select relevant features for classification. This will be followed by proposing a new fuzzy 2-level complementary learning method. The Fuzzy-Rough Set is a mathematical tool which encapsulates the relevant but distinct concepts of fuzziness...
Seasonal performance evaluation of solar stills connected to passive external condensers
April 2012
In recent years, investigations and research has focused on exploring methods and finding ways to enhance solar stills efficiency and increase the production rates. In this study, experiments were carried out for 24 h during summer, autumn, and winter in order to investigate the affect of incorporating passive external condensers to a single-slope, single basin type solar still. Therefore, three identical...
Recent trends on artificial neural networks for prediction of wind energy
April 2012
A variety of Artificial Neural Network models for prediction of hourly wind speed (which a few hours in advance is required to ensure efficient utilization of wind energy systems) is studied and the results are compared. Results in terms of simulation and prediction are obtained with Feed Forward Back Propagation Neural Networks (FFBPNN) which shows its performance better than other neural networks. Empirical...
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