Overview on the ecological and geographical appraisal of important medicinal and aromatic plants: An endangered component in the flora of Saudi Arabia
April 2012
The geographical location of Saudi Arabia has provided an ideal environment for the growth and nourishment of various floristic elements including medicinal and aromatic plant (MAP) species. The country is gifted with diverse vegetation types occurring in the desert, semi-desert, and mountainous ecosystems. Furthermore, the country represents three phytogeographic regions: Saharo-Sindian, Somali-Masur and...
Community perceptions on the impact of the recession of Lake Victoria waters on Nyando Wetlands
April 2012
Lake Victoria experienced drastic water level changes from October 2005 raising concerns about impact to the livelihood of the communities around the lake. The study investigated impacts of the water level decline on land use changes, wetland resource utilization, household food production, income generation, fish catches, water supply, quality and quantity and biodiversity changes within the Nyando...
Automatic detection of urban areas using the Hierarchical Temporal Memory of Numenta®
April 2012
The aim of the study is to develop a new methodology for the identification of urbanized and not urbanized areas using high spatial resolution remote sensing data and adapting a new digital classification algorithm based on the functionality of the human Neocortex. We used multispectral Quickbird images for the classification of different urban areas in the Province of Cordoba (Spain). The...
Cancer and Immunology Session
April 2012
Biosorption of Cd2+ and Pb2+ ions onto mango stone and cocoa pod waste: Kinetic and equilibrium studies
April 2012
Mango stone (DMS) and cocoa pod (CPC), two agricultural waste materials evaluated for the removal of toxic cadmium ion Cd2+ and Pb2+ ions from aqueous media in batch adsorption mode. Adsorption variables such as the nature and composition of electrolyte, pH, adsorbent dose and equilibration time were optimized for the maximum accumulation of the metals to the biosorbents. The optimum contact time of 15 min for...
Toxicological studies on the leaf extract of Aloe ferox Mill. (Aloaceae)
April 2012
Aloe ferox is renowned for, amongst others, its antihelminthic properties in livestock. However, there is dearth of information on toxicity of A. ferox in livestock. Therefore, toxicity effects of A. ferox were evaluated through acute, sub-acute and chronic toxicity tests. For each test, twenty-five rats were randomly grouped into five groups of five rats. Group 1 (control) was orally...
Sintering characteristics of ceramsite manufactured from blast furnace slag and sewage sludge
April 2012
To develop a method of recycling solid wastes, blast furnace slag (BFS) and sewage sludge (SS) were added as components for making ceramsite. This study examined the sintering characteristics of ceramsite at different sintering temperatures and duration and different mass ratios of materials (BFS:SS:clay). The results show that as the sintering temperature and duration increased, the pore -size diameter...
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...
Development and Implementation of E-Education Model in a Higher Education Institution
April 2012
This paper considers the problem of realization of e-learning infrastructure based on cloud computing at a university level. The primary goal is to develop a model of scalable and reliable infrastructure and services for e-learning. The proposed model is based on a private cloud realized within the existing infrastructure of a higher education institution. The model has been implemented at the Faculty of...
Nonlinear system identification using clustering algorithm and particle swarm optimization
April 2012
The identification of nonlinear systems operating in a stochastic environment is an important problem in various discipline science and engineering. Fuzzy modeling and especially the T-S fuzzy model draw the attention of several researchers in recent decades this is due to their potential to approximate highly nonlinear behavior. An algorithm allowing the identification of the premise and consequent...
ARL performance of residual control charts for trend AR(1) process: A case study on peroxide values of stored vegetable oil
April 2012
For the purpose of process control, quality assurance engineers in a vegetable oil factory wonder the performance of the Shewhart, CUSUM, and EWMA residual control charts for peroxide values that show both serial autocorrelation between adjacent observations (autocorrelation) and upward linear trend. To deal with autocorrelated process data, a primary method is to apply these charts to the uncorrelated...
Prediction of rotary machinery degradation status based on vibration data using back propagation (BP) neural network
April 2012
Rotary machinery has to be maintained and repaired exactly once or several times before they totally failed to keep their good working status. In order to determine the maintenance interval of rotary machinery, machine condition should be predicted by some diagnostic methods and predictive methods. This study was conducted to establish the relationship between machine performance and machine vibration and to...
Antigenotoxic effects of Indian mustard Brassica juncea (L.) Czern aqueous seeds extract against mercury (Hg) induced genotoxicity
April 2012
The present study evaluates the antigenotoxic effects of B. juncea (L.) Czern.(Indian mustard) aqueous seed extract on the Allium cepa L. (common onion) root tip cells. The experiment was carried at three stages: (1) onion bulbs were treated with 0.75 ppm mercury for 3 h, and then treated with different concentrations (0.1, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1.0%) of aqueous extract for another 3...
Effect of tea in the treatment of obesity
April 2012
Obesity is a growing problem causing significant morbidity and mortality in the word. The efficacy of conventional therapies is limited. Numerous alternative therapies are advocated for weight loss, including dietary modifications, hypnotherapy, and acupuncture. Many herbal medications and dietary supplements have being used. Most have been tested in very limited trials. None have been evaluated to the extent...
Residential satisfaction and construction
April 2012
The failures of many housing projects stems from lack of knowledge on the determinants of Residential Satisfaction (RS) concept. This paper has utilized archival methodology for the past 13 years starting from 1997 until 2010. It aimed to compile existing definitions of RS in order to determine the core and principle of those various definitions. It was found out that RS is a subjective dependent...
DTC torque ripple minimization based on PSO-PID controller
April 2012
In conventional direct torque controlled (DTC) induction motor drive, there is usually undesired torque and flux ripple. The given torque is the speed output regulator; therefore, it necessary continues tuning for adjusting parameters Kp, Ki. In conventional proportional- integral (PI) speed controller, the performance of motor may differ over time that may cause unexpected torque disturbances, causing...
Acute toxicity and effects of sub-lethal malathion exposure on biochemical and haematological parameters of Oreochromis niloticus
April 2012
The specimens of Oreochromis niloticus were exposed to Malathion to determine the lethal concentration (LC50) value and effects of sub-lethal concentrations on haematological and biochemical parameters. The LC50 value was registered as 1.06 mg/l. Fishes exposed to sub-lethal concentrations (0.12, 0.23 and 0.46 mg/l) for 6 weeks revealed that the pesticide causes alterations in various blood...
Effect of arbuscular mycorrhizas on P use efficiency for growth and N2 fixation in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)
April 2012
This study assessed the tripartite symbiosis of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) with rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in hydroaeroponic culture under sufficient versus deficient P supplies (250 versus75 µmol P plant-1 week-1). The effects of three AMF species on the mycorrhizal root colonization, rhizobial nodulation, plant growth and...
Breed, gender and anatomic location-specific expression patterns of the porcine insig-1 and insig-2 genes
April 2012
The insulin-induced genes (insig-1 and insig-2) played important roles inadipocyte differentiation and lipogenesis. To determine the breed, gender and anatomic location-specific expression patterns of insig-1 and insig-2, we measured their mRNA abundances in different adipose tissues from male and female pigs for leaner and fatty breeds using a qRT-PCR approach. In accordance with the well-characterized role...
The antiurolithiasic and hepatocurative activities of aqueous extracts of Petroselinum sativum on ethylene glycol-induced kidney calculi in rats
April 2012
Forty-eight (48) male Wistar rats were randomly assigned into 6 groups and treated for 30 days. Group A served as normal control and group B ethylene glycol (EG) control received 1% EG in drinking water. Groups C, D, E and F received 1% EG from day 0 and were used as the treatment subjects. Rats in groups C and D received 200 and 600 mg/kg body weight (BW) of aerial parts aqueous extract, respectively and...
Eco- and Neurophysiology Session
April 2012
Global Perspectives Session
April 2012
Reproductive Physiology Session
April 2012
Wyndham Competition (Student Presentations) Sessions
April 2012
Cardiovascular and Exercise Physiology Session
April 2012
Tillage-induced compaction: Effects on physical properties of agricultural loamy soils
April 2012
Soil compaction due to agricultural tillage practices is a global concern and has profound implications on soil conservation and management with consequent effects on soil productivity. To assess the influence of tillage induced compaction on physical properties, we carried out a comparative study in agricultural loamy soils under tillage and no till manipulation by determining physical properties. Soil...
Lignocellulolytic enzymes from tropical fungi: Types, substrates and applications
April 2012
Lignocellulolytic enzymes constitute a large group of mainly extracellular proteins including ligninolytic enzymes (peroxidases and oxidases) and hydrolytic enzymes (cellulases, hemicellulases, pectinases, chitinases, amylases, proteases, esterases, and mannases). These enzymes have attracted a wide range of industrial and environmental applications including pulping, de-inking, decolourization and...
Skeletal ontogeny of Seychelles giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys/Dipsochelys)
March 2012
The skeletal development of captive bred Seychelles-Aldabra giant tortoises (Dipsochelys/Aldabrachelys) was studied from late embryos to adults based on 93 specimens (45 embyronic). The pattern of ossification is described and the developments of the characters used to distinguish different morphotypes are investigated. The timing of ossification of different bones in this genus is similar to the patterns reported for...
Optimal homotopy perturbation method for solving partial differential equations with large solution domain
March 2012
In this paper, an efficient modification of homotopy perturbation method, namely optimal homotopy perturbation method, is introduced for solving linear and nonlinear partial differential equations with large solution domain based on a new homotopy perturbation method and Padé approximation method. We compare the performance of the method with those of new homotopy perturbation and optimal variational iteration...
Power quality monitoring system based on embedded system with network monitoring
March 2012
This paper has proposed a power quality monitoring system on the detection of power disturbance in real-time by using an embedded system. It can be controlled and monitored by its function via Ethernet network. This system has been developed to monitor and detect any disturbance signals in power lines. If any phase in the power lines has disturbance, the monitoring system will store the fault data into the chosen memory...
Alteration of cotyledonary globulins and albumins mobilization in pea exposed to cadmium
March 2012
Seed germination and post germination events are complex physiological processes which can be seriously affected by heavy metals. Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental pollutant extremely toxic to plants and other living organisms including humans. To assess Cd phytotoxicity, pea seeds (Pisum sativum L. var. douce province) were germinated in distilled water or 200 µM CdCl2. Cadmium treatment induces a deleterious...
Complementary food blends and malnutrition among infants in Ghana: A review and a proposed solution
March 2012
Widespread malnutrition among Ghanaian infants could be attributed to unfortified plant-based complementary foods commonly used at the household level. This review summarises the publications on the development of complementary food blends and intervention trials aimed at improving the nutritional status of Ghanaian infants. The complementary food blends are cereal-based which are developed from maize (in higher...
Comparative phytochemical and ethnomedicinal survey of selected medicinal plants in Nigeria
March 2012
Phytochemical screening and ethnomedicinal survey of twenty-two medicinal plants distributed in fifteen different families were carried out in order to know the distribution of secondary metabolites and the diseases being treated with these plants. It was discovered that alkaloids, tannins and saponin were present in all. Flavonoid was absent only in Peperomia pellucida; five out of these plants lack terpene,...
A smart energy management system for monitoring and controlling time of power consumption
March 2012
Energy resources and their management is one of the prime challenges to the world especially low economy developing countries like Malaysia where the majorcontribution to energy generation is based on imports setting a considerableweight on the...
The Tucumán solar UV transparency experiment: Preliminary results and prospective
March 2012
Two radiometers were simultaneously operated during the past dry season in Tucumán province, NW Argentina. The main objective was to determine particulate matter content of the atmosphere. Ampimpa, an astronomic observatory up in the mountains, was adopted as the reference, non polluted monitoring site. The INTA meteorological facility at Famaillá, in the plains, was chosen as an air pollution test site,...
An electromagnetism-like mechanism for solving cell formation problems
March 2012
This paper presents an electromagnetism-like mechanism (EM) algorithm in order to solve cell formation problems. Based on the attraction-repulsion principle in electromagnetic theory, each combination of the part and machine groups was regarded as a charged particle. The total force calculation and the move along the total force calculation were then determined out to either maximize the cell group effectiveness or...
Household Asset Index and Total Iron Intake, but not Education, best Predict Iron Status in a Black Population Sample in Gauteng, South Africa
March 2012
This paper reports on independent associations of household asset index and education, as components of socio-economic status, on iron status in a black population sample in Gauteng province. The study was cross-sectional, involving 40 men, 184 women (n = 224), randomly selected, based on informed consent. Socio-economic, dietary intake and biochemical data were collected using household socio-demographic...
Intelligent computer vision system for Sprague-Dawley rat sperm classification using gray-level microscopic images
March 2012
This paper presents a development of intelligent computer vision system for Sprague-Dawley rat sperm classification. The system is developed to help pathologists and improve the current conventional detection methods and classification of Sprague-Dawley rat sperm. The conventional method tends to result in errors and is also time consuming. Thus, the new computer vision system is developed to overcome these problems...
Determination of some trace element nutritional status of cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus L.) with leaf analysis which grown natural conditions in Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey
March 2012
This investigation was carried out to determine the trace element nutritional status of cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus L.) in Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. For this purpose, leaf samples were collected from different 20 cherry laurel (P. laurocerasus L.) gardens in June. Iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), boron (B) and molybdenum (Mo) contents were determined in leaf samples....
An improvement of electrical characteristics of P-N diode by X-ray irradiation method
March 2012
This paper presents a new technique of semiconductor fabrication technology, where a soft X-ray annealing method is proposed as a new technique and used in this work. The effect of Pt and Soft X-ray annealing on P-N diodes was investigated. The tested P-N diodes were fabricated at TMEC laboratory using CMOS technology. Results obtained have shown that the platinum doping is affected both reverse and forward current...
ILOMPEL: Information and metadata modeling for personalized e-learning
March 2012
This paper presents the pedagogically and psychologically engaged Personalized e-Learning Course Model (PeLCoM) and the Information Learning Object Model for Personalized e-Learning (ILOMPeL), based on variations of students’ intellectual profiles. Developed information learning object model makes clear the set of learning resources and organizes them in the way that it is possible to pack them, sequence, and to...
Quality of water from dug wells and the lagoon in Lagos Nigeria and associated health risks
March 2012
The aim of this research work was to assess the quality of the water from dug wells and lagoon in Lagos, Nigeria, ascertain the contamination problems that may confront the consumers, determine the health risks and suggest appropriate remedies. Twenty (20) dug wells were randomly selected in Oworonshoki area of Lagos and water samples were collected during July to August 2010. The samples were checked for odour, colour...
Assessing the performance of improved harmony search algorithm (IHSA) for the optimization of unconstrained functions using Taguchi experimental design
March 2012
This paper describes the meta-heuristic improved harmony search algorithm (IHSA) and analyzes the performance of IHSA in solving unconstrained function minimization problems. The most important challenge to this algorithm is setting the parameters for various optimization problems. Performance of IHSA is quite sensitive to initial settings. Using Taguchi’s experimental design to arrange IHSA parameters, the...
An overview of water pollution and constructed wetlands for sustainable wastewater treatment in Kathmandu Valley: A review
March 2012
Due to lack of strong legislation and guidelines to control untreated wastewaters and industrial effluents, surface and groundwater sources have been deteriorated seriously in Kathmandu Valley. Although, there are five centralized wastewater treatment plants in the valley, most of them are out of order. In recent years, constructed wetlands (CWs) have gained attention in the country for treating domestic...
Improving the quality of pigskin leather texture images using enhanced image processing
March 2012
In this paper, we propose a method to improve the quality of pigskin leather texture images using digital image processing approach. The proposed method intends to minimize the imbalance illumination problem that occurs in the images captured from consumer leather products. This method is compared with the other methods in the literature such as contrast adaptive binarization method, and the results showed that the...
Multi-user detection in ultra-wideband multiple-access communications systems using an efficient heuristic algorithm
March 2012
This paper investigates learning and achievable bit error rate (BER) performance of ultra-wideband (UWB) systems that use intelligent multiuser detector (MUD) when communicating over UWB channels that experience both multiuser interference (MUI) and intersymbol interference (ISI), in addition to multipath fading. Multiple access interference (MAI) degrades performance of conventional single user detector in UWB systems....
Page 19 of 56, showing 50 records out of 2759 total, starting on record 901, ending on 950
