An enhanced requirements elicitation framework based on business process models
April 2015
Requirements elicitation is a central and critical activity in the requirements engineering process. Completeness is among the most difficult challenges facing requirements engineers. Missing requirements is one of the major causes of software failure; they often result from the lack of anticipation of all possible relations between elements of the system-to-be. In this paper, we propose a requirements elicitation...
Production of particleboards from licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) and European black pine (Pinus Nigra Arnold) wood particles
April 2015
In this study particleboards were manufactured from mixtures of licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) and European Black Pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) wood particles at several ratios. The suitability of licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) chips for particleboard production was examined. Urea formaldehyde resin was used as a binder in 3-layers particleboards. The manufactured boards were tested according to European (EN) standards. The...
Fertigation through trickle and micro sprinkler on flowering characters in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.)
April 2015
An experiment was conducted during 2010 and 2011 to investigate the impact of fertigation on flowering characters of cocoa at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India. The study was laid out in randomized block design with thirteen treatment combinations replicated thrice. The study shown that, fertigation with 125% recommended fertilizer dose as water soluble fertilizer through fertigation by micro sprinkler...
Genotype-environment interaction and stability analysis in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) for protein and gluten contents
April 2015
Genotype-environment interaction and stability performance were investigated on protein and gluten contents in three environments. Genotypes showed important differences in quality values as reflected in the AMMI (additive main effects and multiplicative interaction) analysis biplot result. The protein content showed the similar trend of GE interaction as that of grain yield. The genotype G1 was tightly grouped with E3...
Evaluation of potential application of micromagnetic techniques for detection of corrosion in reinforced concrete
March 2015
Despite the constant development of new materials, reinforced concrete is still widely used in civil engineering. Corrosion of the steel armour in reinforced concrete structures has historically been one of the main causes of damage and early failure. The development of a reliable method of non-invasive corrosion inspection and evaluation has been a challenge for many years. This paper focused on magnetic inspection of...
The law of symmetry and its application
March 2015
In this paper, the content of the law of symmetry and its application in science and production is introduced. It emphasizes the law`s effect on scientific law. Key words: Symmetry principle, scientific law, translation variant, symmetry, geometrical, rotational.
Algorithm for wavelength assignment in optical networks
March 2015
Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes many optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths. Wavelength assignment is one of the important components of routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem in WDM networks. In this article, to decrease the blocking probability, a new algorithm for wavelength assignment- Least Used Wavelength Conversion...
Improved production of β-galactosidase and β-fructofuranosidase by fungi using alternative carbon sources
March 2015
The influence of alternative carbon sources as inducers of ï¢-galactosidase and ï¢-fructofuranosidase by filamentous fungi (that are, Aspergillus aculeatus, Chrysonilia sitophila, Gliocladium virens, Aspergillus fumigatus and Trichoderma longibrachiatum), recently isolated from Brazil’s Atlantic Forest biome has been investigated. The greatest levels of intracellular β-galactosidase activity were obtained...
Antifungal activity of aqueous and ethanol extracts of seaweeds against sugarcane red rot pathogen (Colletotrichum falcatum)
March 2015
The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of seaweed extracts of Sargassum myricocystum (brown alga) and Gracilaria edulis (red alga) against the mycelial growth of Colletotrichum falcatum with different extraction methods of aqueous and ethanol at concentrations of 5 and 10% along with control by poison food technique. The result revealed that extract of S. myricocystum (ethanol extract) showed significant...
The -expansion method and the exp -expansion method with applications to a higher order dispersive nonlinear Schrödinger equation
March 2015
In this article, we study the connection between the -expansion method and the exp -expansion method with the aid of a suitable transformation. We employ these two methods to derive families of exact solutions for a higher order dispersive nonlinear Schrödinger equation describing the propagation of the optical pulse in a medium. Comparison between these two methods is presented. We show that the two methods as...
Evaluation of pavement noise emission model: A case study in Tehran
March 2015
Noise pollution and its influence on environment and life quality of human beings may be considered as a hot topic in scientific research. Since there are no sufficient studies on noise pollution in Tehran, this study was carried out to determine noise levels of pavement in Tehran City. SMM1 (The first standard of noise measurement method) model is one of the most common models used in calculating noise emission in...
A review on cashew research and production in Nigeria in the last four decades
March 2015
Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.); a tropical nut tree crop, is a source of food, income, industrial raw materials and foreign exchange for many countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. In Nigeria, current cashew trading and exports is worth 24 billion naira ($160 million) and over one million people depend on the industry. Commercial cultivation of cashew in Nigeria dates back to more than 60 years, while research...
Sharing healthcare information based on privacy preservation
March 2015
The evolution and development of information technology have facilitated greater sharing of data and knowledge management for the collection of electronic information by data owners such as governments, corporations, and individuals. Therefore, they have created huge opportunities for knowledge management and information retrieval. Recent develoments have helped improve decision making especially in the fields of...
Antimicrobial activity and phytochemical screening of crude water extract of the stem bark of Ficus glumosa.
March 2015
Water and methanol extracts of the stem bark of Ficus glumosa were screened for their antimicrobial properties against Salmonella species. Preliminary results showed that the active compound was in the water extract. Therefore, the water extracts (hot and cold) were subjected to column chromatographic fractions and antibacterial screening. The most active fraction was subjected to phytochemical screening and finally Gas...
A study on current status of herbal utilization in Bulgaria: Part 1 - Application of herbal medicines
March 2015
Despite increasing interest in phytotherapy, little is known about patterns of herb utilization in modern society. Ethnobotanical studies are useful tool to evaluate the dynamics of traditional knowledge. To our knowledge, there is no study focused on collection of information about herbal utilization from a wide range of people in Bulgaria. 1) the attitudes toward benefits of medicinal plants; 2) the most popular...
Front line demonstrations on need based plant protection in pulses for enhancing productivity and profitability under farmer’s condition
March 2015
Pulses have high nutritional value and worldwide commercial importance because these are rich source of protein and fibers. The productivity of pulses is lower in comparison to potential yield due to several biotic and abiotic stress. To show the productivity potential and profitability of need based plant protection in pulse crops (Black gram, Pigeonpea, Gram, pea and Lentil) total 74 front line demonstrations (FLDs)...
Proposition of a low cost field assay to determine antiproliferative properties of indigenous plants using Dugesia dorotocephala (brown planaria)
February 2015
Cancer is a major health problem, not only in developed countries, but also in developing countries where the number of cancer-related ailments is growing. Chemotherapy is the most commonly used treatment option but side effects associated with its use necessitates the search for alternatives. Over 80% of the population in developing countries relies on ethnomedicinal plants for primary healthcare including cancer....
High sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) level and lipid profiles of healthy volunteers with prehypertension
February 2015
Coronary atherosclerosis still represents one of the main causes of death. Efficacious prevention should focus on early control of cardiovascular risk factors, including lipid profiles, which unable detect on sub-clinical cases. High-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) can prove to be an early cardiac risk predictor. Aims of this study were to compare hs-CRP levels between healthy volunteer with normal blood pressure...
Production of laccase from a white rot fungi isolated from the Amazon forest for oxidation of Remazol Brilliant Blue-R
February 2015
The purpose of this study was to investigate the production of laccase from a white rot fungi isolated from the Amazon forest for oxidation of Remazol Brilliant Blue-R (RBB-R). Initially, a small screening was carried out aiming to find laccase producers. The next step was to investigate, using factorial design and Response Surface Methodology (RSM), the influence of the　content of glucose, peptone and CuSO4 in the...
Investigations on optimum possibility of replacing cement partially by redmud in concrete
February 2015
Red mud is an industrial waste material generated during production of alumina from bauxite by Bayer process. These industrial wastes hold some heavy metals which are hazardous in nature. The aim of the paper is to investigate the possibility of partially replacing Portland cement in concrete by red mud and evaluating its compressive and splitting tensile strength. This study examines the effect of red mud on the...
Tracheal relaxant effect of aqueous-methanol leaf extract of Rumex vesicarius L. in rabbits
February 2015
Rumex vesicarius L. has traditionally been used in folkloric medicine to manage respiratory disorders. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of aqueous-methanol extract of R. vesicarius on isolated rabbit tracheal preparations, an attempt to validate its folkloric use in traditional medicine for respiratory ailment. The application of the extract to isolated rabbit tracheal preparations relaxed...
Investigation of resonance characteristics and effective parameters of a metamaterial structure with split rings
February 2015
This paper presents a new metamaterial, based on SRR structure and systematically investigate the various properties of the metamaterial structure. The resonant frequency of the proposed metamaterial structure is first estimated using its equivalent circuit model and the estimated value thus obtained is then compared with the values obtained by High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) simulations. The negative...
Determination of the priority areas for the rehabilitation of degraded forest lands
February 2015
Turkey has more than 21.67 million ha forest areas and 10.11 million ha of these forest areas are still degraded or highly degraded in 2012 year. These areas can only be transformed into a productive state with implementation of rehabilitation treatments. Determination of the priority of degraded forest areas for the rehabilitation is important issue and affected by many parameters in Turkey. Some important indicators...
Ultrastructural changes in the neuronal superior colliculus in the early stage of streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus in rats
February 2015
The superior colliculus (SC) is a visuomotor center involved in the autonomic reflex adjustments of eye movements in response to visual stimuli. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is known to affect some visual pathway structures, but few studies have assessed the effects of diabetes on the SC. The aim of this study was to investigate the ultrastructural changes of SC neurons in the early period of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced...
A hybrid multilevel text extraction algorithm in scene images
February 2015
The textual pieces in scene images might often provide vital semantic data for visual content understanding, indexing and analysis; as a result, text extraction had become a significant research area in image processing and computer vision. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid multilevel algorithm to extract text in various scene images. The algorithm converts the Red – Green –Blue (RGB) image into...
Effects of a Tabebuia avellanedae extract and lapachol on the labeling of blood constituents with technetium-99m
February 2015
Tabebuia avellanedae extract has been used in folk medicine in the treatment of some clinical disorders. Lapachol is an active compound from this medicinal plant. The procedure of labeling of blood constituents with technetium-99m (99mTc) could be used as an in vitro assay to evaluate some properties of natural and synthetic drugs. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of a T. avellanedae extract and lapachol...
Exact solutions for the nonlinear KPP equation by using the Riccati equation method combined with the G'/G - expansion method
February 2015
The improved Riccati equation method combined with the improved - expansion method is an interesting approach to find more general exact solutions of the nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics. The objective of this article is to employ this method to construct exact solutions involving parameters of a nonlinear Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piskunov (KPP) equation. When these parameters are taken to be...
Assessment of non-ionizing radiation from radio frequency energy emitters in the urban area of Natal City, Brazil
January 2015
The massive increase of wireless communications in the world calls for responsible actions by governments in order to prevent possible health hazards. In addition to cellular towers overcrowding in urban areas, it is also important to consider other radio frequency radiations from different sources. The electric field intensity is one of the fundamental parameters to assess the exposure of human beings to Non-Ionizing...
Effect of the aging process on mechanical properties and machinability in AA6013 aluminum alloys
January 2015
This study investigated the effects of aging process on the mechanical properties and machinability in AA6013 aluminum alloy. To this end, AA6013 aluminum alloy samples were maintained in heat treatment furnace at 530°C (for 8 h) and placed in hot water (at 70°C), and then subjected to aging process by storing in heat treatment furnace (at 180°C) for various times (1, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 h). Changes in...
Trade, population study and conservation aspects of Choraka/Choru in Kumaun Himalayas
January 2015
Medicinal plants constitute an effective source of traditional and modern medicine. Angelica glauca Edgew. is a high value medicinal aromatic plant species of the Himalaya. In this article, a brief profile of the herbal medicinal plant Choraka (A. glauca Edgew.) which is used in the traditional system of medicine and in folk medicines in the Kumaun Himalayas was presented. Regular supply of raw material for...
Growth pattern of two crop species on bio-remediated hydrocarbon polluted soils
January 2015
The effectiveness of agricultural wastes as bioremediation materials is gaining research attention as a better option in mitigating the issue of crude oil effects in soil environment. In the present study, the growth performance of Telfairia occidentalis and Arachis hypogaea linn in crude oil polluted soil amended with plantain peels (PP) and cocoa pod husks (CPH) were investigated. Eight kilograms (8 kg) each of dried...
Safety analysis on hazardous chemicals transportation by Indian roads
January 2015
In engineering industries, necessary safety measures during manufacturing, storage and loading of the chemicals which are dangerous in nature, also known as hazardous chemicals are generally taken. There are means to monitor and control the same, but once the product vehicle is loaded and leaves the plant premises, there is hardly any control over it. The safety of it largely depends on the condition of vehicles and the...
Laminar free and forced convection cooling of a semi permeable open cavity
January 2015
Heat transfer inside a semi porous two-dimensional rectangular open cavity was numerically investigated. The open cavity comprises two vertical walls closed to the bottom by an adiabatic horizontal wall. One vertical wall is a porous and an inflow of fluid occurs normal to it. The other wall transfers a uniform heat flux to the cavity. It shows how natural convection effects may enhance the forced convection inside the...
Coastal climate and beach dynamics at Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique
January 2015
Annual field surveys conducted at Ponta do Ouro in Southern Mozambique have determined that coastal variability is driven by high wave energy and consequent northward longshore drift. There is a log-spiral headland-bay system marked by 80 m tall forested dunes in the south that give way to a broad flat sandy beach. Marine climate processes that affect coastal erosion and accretion are studied using local and remote data...
An efficient hybrid distributed document clustering algorithm
January 2015
Recent advances in information technology have led to an increase in volumes of data thereby exceeding beyond petabytes. Clustering distributed document sets from a central location is difficult due to the massive demand of computational resources. So there is a need for distributed document clustering algorithms to cluster documents using distributed resources. The greatest challenge in this area of distributed...
The fatigue flexural behavior of fiber reinforced concrete: Effect of the parameters of coarse aggregates
January 2015
The effect of the coarse aggregate type on the fatigue flexural behavior of concrete was investigated in this work. Three types of the coarse aggregates were selected from three different careers (CA1, CA2 and CA3). The mechanical parameters of these aggregates were determined (Los Anglos and Micro Deval). Prismatic specimens (70×70×280 mm) for each concrete mixture were made with aggregates of each source....
Exploring the effectiveness of dialogue in improving health facility deliveries
January 2015
Maternal mortality is a concern worldwide with higher disparities of 1 in 16 in developing compared to 1 in 2800 in developed countries. Kenya’s maternal mortality ratio has increased from 414 per 100,000 live births in 2003 to 488 per 100,000 live births in 2009. In 2010 the figure increased to 530 per 100,000 live births. The purpose of the study was to explore the effectiveness of dialogue in improving health...
Nutritional composition, functional properties and sensory evaluation of breads based on blends of ‘orarudi’ (Vigna sp) and wheat flour
December 2014
The proximate composition, functional and physical properties, as well as sensory evaluation of breads based on blends of wheat and ‘orarudi’ (Vigna sp) flour were investigated. Batches of ‘orarudi’ (Vigna sp) were separately put in a container and subjected to natural lactic acid fermentation in deionized water in a ratio of 1:3 (w/v) at 28 ± 2°C for 24 h. The fermented samples were...
Influence of nanosilica and a polycarboxylate superplasticizer on the rheological and electrokinetical properties of cement pastes
December 2014
The effect of individual and combined addition of both nanosilica (NS) and polycarboxylate ether plasticizer (PCE) admixtures on cements pastes was studied. The sole incorporation of NS increased the water demand, as proved by the mini-spread flow test. An interaction between NS and hydrated cement particles was observed in fresh mixtures by means of particle size distribution studies, zeta potential measurements and...
Knowledge management for plant biosecurity in South Asia
December 2014
Knowledge management promotes an integrated approach to identify, capture, evaluate, retrieve and share information assets for enhanced knowledge processing. Agriculture forms the backbone of rural livelihoods and national economy in South Asia. The food security which largely depends on plant biosecurity in South Asian countries is challenged by devastations in agricultural crops caused by diseases and pests and the...
Reiter's syndrome presenting with lumbar and leg pain as the chief complaint: A case report and literature review
December 2014
Reiter’s syndrome is usually known as a clinical triad of arthritis, urethritis, and conjunctivitis. Peripheral nerve involvement in Reiter's syndrome is extremely rare. We report here on a 36-year-old man presenting to the orthopedic department with a chief complaint of lumbar and leg pain who initially was found to have lumbar intervertebral disc and was diagnosed as Reiter’s syndrome 3...
Effect of welding parameters in flux core arc welding (FCAW) with conventional and pulsed current in the efficiency and fusion rate of melting coating
December 2014
This study was conducted over the welding parameters associated with three levels of pulse to lead to important data for the deposition of metal on martensitic stainless steel, through tubular electrode EC410NiMo MC – ESAB by the conventional and pulsed flux core arc welding (FCAW) process in SAE 1020 steel. Were applied three current levels, 170A, 200A e 230A with welding speed of 300 mm/s, 350 mm/s and 400 mm/s,...
Queue size comparison for standard transmission control protocol variants over high-speed traffics in long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) network
December 2014
The employment of the existing protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) cannot achieve the requirements of high-speed networks such as long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) due to the large-bandwidth and low-latency links used in this network. LTE-A network is the continuation of 3GPP-LTE (3GPP: 3rd Generation Partnership Project) and it is targeted to advanced development of the requirements of LTE in terms...
Lipoxygenase assay and cutaneous erythema test have discovered a potent anti-inflammatory activity shown by some genus Prunus plants
December 2014
Medicinal plants have gained considerable interest in treatment of various medical conditions including inflammation. Rosaceae (the rose family) family of flowering plants having largest genus Prunus (plums, peaches, cherries and almonds) is one of the most economically important families. In current study, anti-inflammatory activities of three fruit species Prunus persica, Prunus avium...
Design considerations for a sustainablepower energy system in Khartoum
November 2014
Application of renewable energy in Sudan is a major issue in strategic planning for alternatives fossil fuels to provide part of local energy demand. Sudan is an important case study in the context of renewable energy because Sudan possesses relatively high profusion of solar radiation, moderate wind speeds. This paper discussed the efficient system of sustainable renewable energy for domestic used and its total cost....
Checklist of tropical algae of Togo in the Guinean Gulf of West-Africa
November 2014
The phytoplankton is an important part of the biodiversity and one of the bases of food networks of freshwater, brackish and marine environments. This study is carried out to record the algae flora (microalgae and macroalgae) in Togo regarding the floristic diversities. The results show that 795 species of microalgae have been recorded in Togo belonging to 134 families, nineteen groups among which the most important in...
Effect of transplanting age on seed yield and quality in Davana (Artemisia pallens)
November 2014
Davana (Artemisia pallens Wall ex. D.C.) is an important high valued annual medicinal and aromatic herb of India belonging to the family Asteraceae. An experiment was conducted at Department of Seed Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during 2011 to optimize the age of seedling for transplanting Davana to maximize the growth, herbage yield seed yield and seed quality attributes of...
Modification of the adaptive Nadaraya-Watson kernel regression estimator
November 2014
Nadaraya-Watson (NW) kernel regression estimator is a widely used and flexible nonparametric estimator of a regression function, which is often obtained by using a fixed bandwidth. Several studies showed that the adaptive kernel estimators with varying bandwidths have better performance results. In this paper, a new improvement of the NW kernel regression estimator is proposed and the bandwidth of this new improvement...
Evaluation of the drying rate constant, drying efficiency, nutrients and sensory qualities of dried vegetables using solar dryer and open-air sun drying methods
November 2014
Utazi (Gongromena ratifolia) and Nchuanwu (Occimum americanus) were dried using solar dryer and open- air sun drying methods. 200 g of each sample was used. The weight losses were used to determine the reduction in moisture content. Drying was assumed to have taken place in the falling- rate period, which enabled the use of only one drying rate constant, K. Graphs of ln(M0-M) versus time were used to obtain the drying...
Effect of industrial tannery effluent on soil fungi and fungal protease/cellulase activity on modified rice husk /modified sawdust medium (MRHM/MSDM)
November 2014
The release of unprecedented tannery effluents into agricultural fields constitutes danger to land fill and nutrient cycling as well as organic matter processing. In the present study, tannery effluent discharged soil (polluted landfill), undischarged soil (control) and effluent discharged (waste) were collected from the surrounding areas of tannery industry. The physico-chemical and biological properties and soil...
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