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...
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...
Physico-chemistry, mineralogy, geochemistry and nutrient bioaccessibility of geophagic soils from Eastern Cape, South Africa
March 2012
The consumption of soils is widely practiced in several rural communities in the world including the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa which is considered to be poor with a large rural population where culture and indigenous practices remain endemic and well entrenched. This pioneering study of geophagic soils from the province had its primary objective of understanding their physico-chemistry, mineralogy, and...
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...
Comparison of the tissue biocompatibility of Resilon and gutta-percha cones
March 2012
The aim of this study was to evaluate the tissue biocompatibility of Resilon compared to gutta-percha cones. Three subcutaneous pockets were made in the back of 36 rats weighing between 200 to 250g. Subcutaneous pockets were left unfilled (control, 1 pocket) or filled with Resilon (1 pocket) or gutta-percha (1 pocket). At 3, 10, 30 and 90 days after implantation, 9 rats were killed and the materials were removed...
Influences of the window size of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical thickness (AOT) values on particulate matter (PM10) motoring in Klang Valley, Malaysia
March 2012
Remote sensing has been shown to be a useful tool in retrieval aerosol optical thickness (AOT) in particulate matter (PM) pollution monitoring. In this study, daily AOT data retrieved from moderate resolution IMAGING spectroradiometer(MODIS) and the amount of PM10 measured at eight air quality monitoring ground stations in Klang Valley from 2004 to 2006 were used. The AOT values consisted of...
Hysteresis parameter identification of hybrid dynamical systems
March 2012
This paper discusses the identification of a class of hybrid dynamical systems whose discrete states have hysteresis phenomenon. The identification model is piecewise affine model along with hysteresis switching law. The first step of the proposed identification method is the estimation of the local parameter vectors for small neighbourhood of each measured data point. Then the local parameter vectors are clustered....
Evaluation of microbiological hazards in barbershops in a university setting
March 2012
There is a growing concern that barbershops could serve as a potential source of bacterial, fungal or even viral infections and little is known about microbiological hazards of barbershops in the university environment in Nigeria. This study evaluated microbiological hazards of barbershops in a university setting in Nigeria. To determine the types of microorganisms prevalent in barbershops, combs, brush, clippers 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...
Natural radioactivity in drinking and mineral water in Johor Bahru (Malaysia)
March 2012
The radiological quality of 238U, 232Th and 40K in some samples of drinking and mineral water collected in Johor Bahru, Malaysia has been measured by direct ï§ ray spectroscopy using high purity germanium detector in this paper. Mean activity concentration of 238U, 232Th and 40K in drinking and mineral water were found 1.48 ± 0.12, 9.59 ± 0.83, 39.67 ± 1.69 ppm and...
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....
Quantum message exchanging network using entanglement swapping and decoy photons
March 2012
We propose a scheme for secure quantum message exchanging network following the idea in entanglement swapping. In this scheme, the servers of the network provide the service for preparing the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled states as quantum channels. For preventing the eavesdropping, a security checking method is suggested. After the security check, anyone of the authorized users can exchange his/her...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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,...
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...
A Bayesian networks-based security risk analysis model for information systems integrating the observed cases with expert experience
March 2012
In the process of security risk analysis for information systems, establishing an appropriate model suitable for the target security risk problem is a crucial task that will ultimately influence the effectiveness of risk analysis results. For inducing a representative model for observed information systems, a security risk analysis model is proposed based on the knowledge from observed cases and domain...
Concepts of permanency in Persian domiciles of Muslims and Zoroastrians
March 2012
One of the most crucial and important subjects in Persian architecture is permanency of traditional domiciles. The goal of creators was to obtain the best building that met the needs of the time. Also, permanency is conditions and characteristics which a building has for being permanent through the years. Environmental sustainability mostly emphasizes less consumption of fossil fuels, energy waste on...
Effects of various medium compositions and wounding treatments on in vitro growth and regeneration of bird of paradise(Strelitzia reginae)
March 2012
The aim of this study was to investigate the use of antioxidants, wounding treatments and hormone concentrations in efforts to overcome phenolic oxidation and stimulate axillary bud proliferation. Significant results were achieved with 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) concentrations on explants discoloration and callus formation. The antioxidant treatments, activated charcoal (AC)...
The influence of motives on risky behavior in traffic: Comparison between motorcyclists and passenger car drivers
March 2012
Motorcycle riders represent one of the most endangered groups of traffic participants. It is important to determine which factors influence the increased number of motorcycle deaths in relation to other categories of participants, especially automobile drivers. Motives are often related to risky behaviour in traffic, therefore this paper examines the influence of motives on risky behaviour of motorcyclists...
High yield generation of hepatocyte like cells from adipose derived stem cells
March 2012
Mesenchyma stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells. They are capable of transforming into several mesoderm lineages. They can be separated from different tissues, such as bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, peripheral blood, and adipose tissue. Stem cell based therapies for the repair and regeneration of individual tissues and organs suggest a paradigm shift which may supply optional therapeutic solutions for...
Propagation of plane magneto-thermo-elastic waves in a rotating, electrically conducting and transversely isotropic medium
March 2012
In this article, plane wave propagation, in a rotating perfectly electrically conducting unbounded transversely isotropic mediums in the presence of initially applied uniform magnetic field is studied. A general dispersion relation with complex coefficients is obtained for magneto-thermo-elastic waves. Axis of rotation, axis of symmetry and propagation of waves are chosen along z-axis. Four waves propagate in...
New HPLC method for the determination of artemether in injections
March 2012
This new economical HPLC method has been developed for the estimation of artemether in injections to reduce the cost of estimation. Previously, one HPLC method is available in European Pharmacopoeia for the estimation of artemether but it is costly due to high price of acetonitrile. Present study replaced acetonitrile with methanol and showed that new method remained as specific, linear, accurate and precise...
Evaluation on physical, chemical and biological properties of casts of geophagous earthworm, Metaphire tschiliensis tschiliensis
March 2012
Earthworms are soil dwellers that have profound effects on soil ecosystem. Their feeding and burrowing activities help to incorporate soil particles with organic matter and redistribute them back into the soil via casts. The casts produced enhance microbial activities in soil that promote nutrient cycling. The present study was carried out to examine the physical, chemical and biological properties of casts...
An improved beamlet tree-structured algorithm and its application in pavement crack detection
March 2012
In order to overcome the high computational complexity of beamlet tree-structure algorithm, the paper proposes an improved algorithm and applies it to pavement crack detection, thereby; solving the problem of pavement crack detection which has the disadvantages of poor noise immunity and inaccurate test results. First, the pavement crack image is rectified by multiplicative factors to eliminate the...
Assessment of groundwater quality in the rural areas of the North West Province, South Africa
February 2012
The aim of this study is to assess the quality of the groundwater currently supplied to the rural communities of the North West Province. Groundwater samples collected from 100 boreholes in these rural areas were subjected to culture-based methods using selective media for the isolation of faecal and total coliform bacteria. Molecular analysis targeting 16S rRNA gene, and the restriction...
Cycle analysis of in-cylinder heat transfer characteristics for hydrogen fueled engine
February 2012
The overall heat transfer process within the in-cylinder for port injection hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine (H2ICE) was investigated. One-dimensional gas dynamics was used to describe the flow and heat transfer in the components of the engine model. The engine model was simulated with a variable injection timing, engine speed and equivalence ratio (φ). Simulation was executed for 60 deg ATDC...
Modeling of machining parameters of Ti-6Al-4V for electric discharge machining: A neural network approach
February 2012
This paper presents the artificial intelligence model to predict the optimal machining parameters for Ti-6Al-4V through electrical discharge machining (EDM) using copper as an electrode and positive polarity of the electrode. The objective of this paper is to investigate the peak current, servo voltage, pulse on- and pulse off-time in EDM effects on material removal rate (MRR), tool wear rate (TWR)...
Tool-chip temperature simulation on high pressure jet assisted machining of Ti6Al-V4
February 2012
In this paper a numerical solution to predict cutting temperature in high pressure jet assisted turning of Ti6Al-V4 is presented. Temperature distribution is solved using finite difference method. Chip and tool temperatures are calculated under different cutting conditions such as variable cutting speed, feed and high pressure jet assisted cooling conditions. Chatter free stable cutting condition has been...
New programmable BiCMOS fuzzifier
February 2012
It is clear that fuzzy logic is more compatible with analog circuit implementation compare to its digital mate. On the other hand being programmable is very important in various industrial implementations. Because of that this paper introduces a new method for implementing Membership function in fuzzy logic controllers. And a new high-speed analog fuzzification circuit was introduced for implementing this...
EPC Class-1 Generation-2 radio frequency Identification (RFID)-based Malaysian University Communities
February 2012
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been recently adopted as an automated data management system in many areas, especially in supply chain management systems. However, research and studies on EPC Class-1 Generation-2 (Gen 2) RFID technology-based university communities are relatively few. Ultra high frequency (UHF) RFID technology has outperformed the barcode technology and high frequency...
The impact of physical and socio-cultural factors on structuring vernacular dwellings in Eastern Black Sea Region
February 2012
People live in their physical and social environments and they ought to arrange their relations via physical and social environments surrounding them to meet sheltering need, which is their essential requirement. When, especially, traditional residential architecture that represents historical and cultural backgrounds of societies is examined, the critical importance of human-environment relation is...
Participation in breast cancer prevention: Assessing women’s knowledge and their participation in mammography in Tehran, Iran
February 2012
A survey was carried out from July through October, 2009 to study the knowledge and women’s participation in mammography. A total of 400 women in urban areas of Tehran, Iran were randomly selected in this study. Although, the general knowledge of women was fairly good, they did not participate in mammography in the last 2 years. However, the mean score of the knowledge of women who were adherent to...
Improving efficiency of inverse constitutive analysis of reinforced concrete flexural members
February 2012
Adequate modeling of reinforced concrete (RC) cracking and, particularly post-cracking behavior, as one of the major sources of nonlinearity is an important and difficult task of deformation analysis. In smeared crack approach dealing with average cracking and strains, post-cracking effects can be modeled by stress-strain tension-stiffening relationships. Most of them were derived using test data of tension...
Planning for fast DBT in distributed virtual execution environment
February 2012
Virtualization via dynamic binary translation is essentially an emulator. The main advantage is that the CPU of the guest does not have to be the same as the CPU of the host. Although, dynamic binary translators (DBT) are gaining popularity and offering a promising future in the modern virtual executive environments, the requirements of DBTs’ processing and memory resources have...
Friction stir spot welding parameters for polypropylene sheets
February 2012
The friction stir spot welding (FSSW) method has four welding parameters: the welding tool rotational speed, tool plunge rate, tool plunge depth, the dwell time and tool retract delay. The effects of these welding parameters on joint formation and weld strength of polypropylene friction stir spot of welds were investigated. The effects of welding parameters on welding joint formation were determined by...
Influence of different surface treatments on computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD-CAM) zirconia frameworks
February 2012
To evaluate the effect of grinding and sandblasting on the microstructure and flexural strength of partially sintered yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y-TZP) ceramic, 60 bars from each material were randomly divided into four groups of fifteen. For each group, a different surface treatment was applied: grinding, sandblasting and grinding + sandblasting, and a control...
Minimizing the loss probability in GI/M/3/0 queueing system with ordered entry
February 2012
This study analyzed the queueing model with finite capacity, heterogeneous servers and ordered entry using the method of semi-Markov process. In this system, the customer, who arrives in the system, enters the server with the lowest index among the free servers. If all servers are busy, he leaves the system without receiving any service. Such customers are termed ‘lost customers’. The...
Length-weight and length-length relationships of Aphanius dispar dispar (Rüppell, 1829) in Dalaki river, Bushehr, in south of Iran
February 2012
Length-weight and length-length relationships were derived for Aphanius dispar dispar in Dalaki river (in south of Iran). Sampling was done between January to August of 2011 using scoop net. The b value in the length-weight relationship did not differ significantly between males and females (t-test, P>0.05) and this value was significantly higher than 3 (P<0.05). The relationship between total and...
Synthesis and characterization of grafted acrylonitrile on polystyrene modified with activated carbon using gamma-irradiation
February 2012
Acrylonitrile was successfully grafted on polystyrene modified with activated carbon using gamma-irradiation technique. This process was carried out modified at various gamma dose (0.2 to 1.5 Mrad). The new grafted polymer (GP) was characterized and its properties were investigated. In this study, it was found that 2 g of polystyrene, 90% (w/w) acrylonitrile monomer, 2% (w/w) ferrous...
Random-valued impulse noise reduction in digital image using efficient nonparametric switching median filter
February 2012
Visual information plays an important role in modern applications as the usage of multimedia becomes more widespread from day to day. However, impulse noise is ubiquitous in real life and often distorts an image. This paper presents a new noise-filtering algorithm called efficient nonparametric switching median (ENPSM) filter, which is capable of reducing the effect of low level random-valued impulse noise up to 30% of...
Effect of water absorption on the wear behavior of sol-gel processed epoxy/silica hybrids
February 2012
The aim of this study is to investigate the wear behavior of epoxy-silica hybrids. These hybrids were obtained through the addition of sol-gel prepared silica nanoparticles to epoxy resin. In this study, the effect of nanosilica content on the mechanical properties and wear behavior of epoxy-silica hybrid materials was investigated. Tensile strength, impact strength, hardness, water absorption and wear tests...
Performance improvement of SAC-OCDMA system using modified double weight (MDW) code for optical access network
February 2012
In this paper, we have extensively analyzed the SAC-OCDMA system performance using Modified Double Weight (MDW) code with NAND detection technique as newly developed by the authors. In theoretical analysis, various noises and Multiple-Access Interference (MAI) effect were taken into account. The system performance was characterized by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the Bit-Error-Rate (BER). The analysis...
Use of diatomite in the production of lightweight building elements with cement as binder
February 2012
Diatomite is currently being used as raw material in various industrial sectors worldwide and is also in use in the construction industry, aimed at improving characteristics of concrete and cement, and in producing heat-insulating bricks, using various binders. In this study, usage of cement as a binder, in producing diatomite-based lightweight building elements, was investigated. Diatomite rocks...
A comparative study on conventional push-over analysis method and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) approach
February 2012
The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the load-displacement capacity of steel moment-resisting frame structures using the conventional non-linear static analysis method and incremental dynamic analysis approach. Emphasis was put on the influence of different lateral load patterns on the plastic hinge of structural components and also on the seismic behavior of the structures which is influenced by...
Pareto analysis of on-site productivity constraints and improvement techniques in construction industry
February 2012
Productivity represents efficient and effective utilisation of scarce resources to achieve set objectives. Based on Pareto principle, this study aims to identify the nature of and improvement measures for the 20% of the factors causing 80% of the on-site productivity problems in the New Zealand construction industry. Qualitative data collected using pilot interviews formed the basis for questionnaire surveys...
Effect of longitudinal stress levels on sliding wear
February 2012
In this study, sliding wear on specimen surfaces subjected to tensile loads was investigated. Specimens were loaded with four tensile loads that correspond to 0, 20, 40 and 60% of the specimens’ yield strength value, and then the resulting variations of wear rate with respect to sliding distance were investigated. In addition, a constant dead load of 60 N was exerted on the specimens and two...
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