New application of principal component regression in estimation of electrical energy consumption in an abnormal automatic meter reading system
May 2018
This paper proposes a new application of principal component regression (PCR) for estimating electrical energy consumption in case of abnormal automatic meter reading (AMR) systems. These events occur in a delivery metering system such as problems from mistakenly setting and connecting meters in electrical systems, broken metering accessories, etc. The estimation is performed by using MATLAB. The unclean sampled input...
Modelling climate change impact and mitigation actions: A case study of rice productivity in West Africa based on panel data analysis
April 2018
This paper investigated how climate change can affect paddy rice productivity and proposed a mitigation measure that may be undertaken. The analysis first explored the potential impacts of climate variables on rice yields by using panel data covering the period 1980 to 2016 for seven countries members of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). It then went on to calculate the investments needed in Research...
Path analysis to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of climatic variables in the development stages of Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)
April 2018
The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of climatic variables on the population dynamics of the tomato moth Tuta absoluta (Meyrick, 1917), (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) through correlations and path analysis, on the main variable in organic and conventional tomato crops (Solanum lycopersicum L., Solanaceae). We studied the effects of the pheromone (used Delta traps) on insect phase sampling in two areas...
Bacteriophages and phage products: Applications in medicine and biotechnological industries, and general concerns
March 2018
Since their discovery in 1928 antibiotics have transformed medicine and saved millions of lives; however, the current global appearance of antibiotic resistance and absence of new antibiotics commercialization to the health sector return to the post-antibiotic era. Today, scientists are working to revive a century old technique of using bacteriophage as an option to currently available antibiotics in management of...
Image enhancement based on neuro-fuzzy gradient profile clustering
March 2018
This paper proposes a technique for image enhancement using Neuro-fuzzy based gradient profile generation to reconstruct the high resolution image from a single low resolution one. The natural gradient priors are collected and their statistics are analyzed and learned through Neuro-fuzzy model. The model adopts powerful data adaptation from neural network and combines with fuzzy system to enhance the ability in...
Survival modeling of accident risks of vehicle drivers in Northern Region of Ghana
February 2018
The primary objective of this article is to investigate how survival modelling can be used in traffic accident analysis to explain driver accident risk factors. Accident records of 398 drivers from 2007 to 2009 were obtained from Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), Ghana Police Service, Northern region. Cox proportional regression model was employed for the analysis using the SAS package. The conclusion was...
Precipitation concentration changes over India during 1951 to 2015
February 2018
The precipitation concentration index (PCI) of Indian region using monthly data for 1951 to 2015 was estimated on an annual and seasonal scale to show the changes in temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall over the 34 meteorological sub-divisions. As a result, annual values of PCI showed more erratic nature than the uniform to moderate behaviour of seasonal (Jun-Sept) PCI values. Computation of PCI will be useful...
Preparation of value added composite sheet from solid waste leather - A prototype design
January 2018
Leather sector in Ethiopia is blessed with huge livestock resource which serves as source of raw material (hides and skin), cheap and highly disciplined workforce, cheap cost of doing business, significant international comparative advantages, investment incentives, and custom duty exemption. This industry remains a supplier of low value added, semi- processed hides and skin to the international market. leather sheet of...
Histological changes in the larvae of the domestic mosquito Culex pipiens treated with the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana
January 2018
The Culicidae are biting insects that are most harmful to people. They are almost all blood-suckers, and are responsible for the spread of many important diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and elephantiasis. Entomopathogenic microorganisms occupy an important place among the alternative methods of fighting against pests insect. The fungus, Beauveria bassiana is an entomopathogenic agent naturally present in the...
Influence of layouts on visual impression: Comparing 12 flyer layout patterns
December 2017
The purpose of this study was twofold. First, extent of the influence of flyer layouts on user impressions was investigated. Data were collected from 425 non-designers. The participants, consisting of eight groups of men and women between the ages of 20 and 50, were shown 60 flyers (12 layouts × five other design features) of a piano concert on a computer screen. The percentage of layout contribution to user...
Time step-size on simulation of tree-induced capillary potential in unsaturated soils
November 2017
Unreliability in the assumption of soil properties, selection of elapse time, choice of time step size and atmospheric variables causes most inconsistencies in the simulation results. Therefore, time step size studied was based on root water up-take on a single Lime tree on a Boulder Clay. The effects of ¼, ½ and 1 day time step sizes on generated capillary potential at 0.0 m, 1.4 m and 3.0 m from the lime...
Determination of heavy metals in landfill area in Tocantins, Brazil
October 2017
Improper disposal of municipal solid waste is a problem in Brazil, especially in the North, as noted in Araguatins, TO and can lead to environmental contamination caused by heavy metals. This study aims to analyze the occurrence of heavy metals in soil and leachate in the landfill of Araguatins, TO, Brazil. Soil samples and manure were collected at different points and stored in plastic containers for later laboratory...
Climate change impact on maize (Zea mays L.) yield using crop simulation and statistical downscaling models: A review
September 2017
Review of literature related to the impact of climate change on maize (Zea mays L.) yield using Global Climate Models (GCMs), statistical downscaling, and crop simulation (APSIM-maize-and-CERES-maize models) models are discussed. GCMs can simulate the current and future climatic scenarios. Crop yield projections using crop models require climate inputs at higher spatial resolution than that provided by GCMs. The...
Effect of sonication at different ultrasonic frequencies on the quality and quantity of fatty acids of the oil of Chlorella vulgaris
August 2017
In order to investigate the effect of sonication on the fatty acids of alga oil, oil of Chlorella vulgaris was extracted by sonication at 20, 40, 60 and 80 kHz. Oil extracted by refluxing alga cells in n-hexane was used as control. Probable changes in the structures of the fatty acids were investigated using gas chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The retention profiles of the...
West African Monsoon (WAM) and Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) onsets using Regional Climate Model
August 2017
This study focused on the occurrences and relationships of the Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) and the West African Monsoon (WAM) onsets in the Sudano-Sahelian region during 1983-2000. Two simulations (WAFSSTERA and WAFSSTREY) were used to investigate the sensitivity of the Regional Atmospheric Model (MAR) for two different datasets of sea surface temperature (ERA-40 and Reynolds SST datasets). The MAR reproduced the...
Design and fabrication of 3.60 m3 household plastic bio digester loaded with kitchen waste and cow dung for biogas generation
July 2017
A 3.6 m3 pilot plastic digester for family generation of biogas was designed, constructed and evaluated through physico -chemical studies using 50% cow dung and 50% kitchen wastes. The ash content of waste increased after digestion while the fibre and fat contents of the waste was 5.10 and 1.05% but significantly (p<0.05) decreased to 2.49 and 0.70% after digestion. The carbohydrate content of the waste...
Determination of the most economic thickness and energy source in the design of local hemispherical clay pots
July 2017
There is currently great emphasis on research regarding various aspects of energy sources but the question of optimum usage of the energy is equally important. This work seeks to produce an economic computer-aided design of a fire-clay pot based on conditions that give minimum cost per unit of usage time for the consumer. A percentage of energy loss from the fuel to the environment due to inefficiency of the heating...
Optimizing the life cycle of an office building at semiarid region
June 2017
Energy consumption by occupants during utilization phase concerns the increase of global warming potential and a shortage of energy resources. Energy consumption in an effective way decreases the risk of global warming. Use of materials with high embodied energy and embodied carbon in building components may improve the energy performance of the building, but it can ameliorate global warming. The issue of Life Cycle is...
Design and simulation of direct torque control of induction motors using VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL)
June 2017
Induction motors are currently used in many industrial applications. Thus, their control techniques have received a lot of interest. An efficient method of induction motor control is the Direct Torque Control (DTC). It is considered particularly interesting since it is independent of machine rotor parameters and requires no speed or position sensors. This paper presents a simulation of a DTC strategy for three-phase...
Evaluation of sustainable urban preservation concept via Ankara Hamamönü example
May 2017
The city identity, taking form with pysical, cultural, socio-economical, historical and stylistic factors, carrying peculiar characteristics in each city, formed by the citizens and their lifestyles, constantly developing and reflecting the sustainable urban concept, is a completion of concepts. Urban identity elements, either they are natural or human artifact, are the witnesses of the past and form our cultural...
Effect of salinity on transmembrane potential of the roots of Sesuvium portulacastrum (L.) L.
May 2017
Halophytes are plants that complete their life cycle in saline environments. Halophytes can therefore be viewed as potential gene sources for genetic manipulation of economically important crop plants. In this study the influence of salinity on potential difference (PD) and surface pH of root cortical cells was investigated. The effect of the metabolic inhibitor, potassium cyanide (KCN), on PD of the root cells...
Cytotoxicity of aerial parts of Indigofera heterantha
April 2017
In the ongoing phytochemical study, an effort was made to investigate cytotoxicity of various crude fractions of aerial parts of Indigofera heterantha. The results obtained revealed that all the fractions including n-hexane, ethyl acetate, methanol and residue showed brine shrimp (Artemia salina Leach) cytotoxicity activity. The data obtained revealed the medicinal importance of the plant and will help the researchers...
Investigation of attenuation parameters for concrete shielding using simulations through iterative approach and measurement
April 2017
The intensity of the ionizing radiations can be reduced by allowing them to pass through certain materials and such external materials are known as shields. The shielding material is often chosen based on the type and intensity of the radiation. The radionuclides of standard radioactive sources for calibration purpose or therapeutic use, the irradiated components that produce ionizing radiation of high intensity shall...
A comparative study of the creep behavior of laminated composites: Effect of type of fiber and matrix
March 2017
This paper presents the effect of matrix type on creep behavior at 80% loads of ultimate tensile strength of two laminated composites at different fiber and matrix system. For this, two types of laminated composites were manufactured based on two types of fibers (carbon fabric and glass fabric) with different matrix systems EPOCAST 50-A1 (EP50-A), Epoxy STR (STR) and Epoxy INJ812 (INJ). The tensile and creep behavior of...
Glance at potential future combating of diseases: Bioengineered antimicrobial organisms
March 2017
The incidence of diseases is on the surge as exemplified by the recent occurrence in West Africa of Ebola Virus (EBOV) and increase of Zika Virus in Brazil. These pathogens have evolved strategies to evade the human immune system and thus continue to be globally important human pathogens. Bioengineering capabilities are on the increase with rapid advances in synthetic biology and allied technologies (nanobiotechnology,...
An effort-based evaluation of pedestrian route choice
February 2017
Route choice is one of the main challenging problems from theoretical and practical viewpoints in the realm of pedestrian behaviour. A prime underlying concern of researchers in this field is to identify criteria or discover principles that pedestrians use to select their routes. Despite the fact that there are infinite possible routes between two given destinations in space, pedestrians in real situations tend to...
Groundwater resilience to climate change in the Eastern Dead Sea Basin – Jordan
February 2017
Pumping of 82 MCM/yr from Mujib Basin (Eastern Dead Sea), coupled with the 54 MCM/yr recharge rate, has led to diminished groundwater levels and dramatically affects ecosystem services. Climate change compounds these issues by reducing recharge and increasing the ecosystem’s hydrological demand. This paper investigates groundwater resilience to climatic changes in Mujib Basin by modeling resilience for the years...
Water harvesting: Groundwater storage reservoir in Wadi Ishe, Jordan
January 2017
Wadi Ishe pilot project is a trial project set to illustrate the recharge of runoff and storage in an artificial groundwater reservoir to minimize evaporation losses and as a substitute of water supply for rural arid areas that could be used for stock watering and some agricultural activities. The HEC-Hydrologic modeling System was used to estimate the runoff potential. The model in the research will provide...
Anomalous modes in Faraday instability
January 2017
This research presents an experimental study on the Faraday instability in one-dimensional cells filled with a mixture of water and glycerol, and for a range forcing frequency between 10 and 60 Hz. It showed that for a particular forcing frequency, whose value depends on the width of the cell, an anomalous surface oscillation arises, that appears as a large wavelength mode oscillating subharmonically with respect to the...
Quantum fluctuations of the spacetime geometry in the spectral scheme#
December 2016
The spectral scheme for spacetime geometry is a totally new framework for quantitatively describing the spacetime geometry in terms of the spectra of a certain elliptic operator (typically the Laplacian operator) on the space in question. The central idea of the framework can be symbolically stated as ``Let us hear the shape of the Universe!" There are several advantages of this framework compared to the...
Evaluation of productivity and rates of application of poultry manure for remediation of kerosene oil contaminated soil in Abakaliki, Southeastern Nigeria
November 2016
This experiment was carried out in order to evaluate productivity and rates of poultry manure used to amend kerosene oil contaminated soil on 0.18 ha of land. The land area was contaminated with 5% of kerosene oil equivalent to 50,000 mgkg-1 and thereafter the field laid out using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four treatments of 10, 20, 30 tha-1 of poultry manure and control which were replicated five...
Thermal treatment in air of direct current (DC) magnetron sputtered TiN coatings
November 2016
TiN coatings were deposited onto mirror polished stainless steel substrates by reactive DC magnetron sputtering using a pure Ti target and Ar+N2 atmosphere. The deposited TiN coatings were thermally treated in ambient air at temperatures ranging from 500 to 700°C for times between 1 and 16 h. The as-deposited and thermally treated coatings were characterized using glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy, x-ray...
Lessons withdrawn from the diversity of inland valleys cultivation at a regional scale: A case study of Mono and Couffo departments in south Benin
October 2016
In a context of greater climate variability and increasing population pressure, inland valleys are considered as high potential agricultural area. This agricultural potential has been subject to multiple initiatives for characterization which were generally based on the physical characteristics. However, support strategies based on such inventories often fail to fit with the promoters’ expectations. One of the...
A new gateway node for wireless sensor network applications
October 2016
Wireless sensor network based applications have gained a significant importance in recent years. However, it creates problems when sending the detected data over distant stations even though establishment of sensor networks by means of ZigBee communication modules as the communication range of these modules are limited. For this reason, in this study, design of a gateway node which can be used in the sensor network...
Dynamic modelling and predictive health monitoring for vibration control and resonance of rotating machinery
October 2016
The aim of this study is to investigate the critical speed analysis and response of a rotating machinery. The search for increasingly high performances in the field of the vibration phenomena which is subject rotor are increasingly important and can lead to system instability. The use of the finite element method makes to establish dynamic equations of the movement. Numerical calculations of the model developed, can...
Evaluation of reinforced concrete buildings in Northern Cyprus using TEC2007 and EC8 in respect of cost estimation
October 2016
Cyprus lies in a seismic zone and the whole island (northern and southern part of the island) can be considered as an earthquake vulnerable area. In the last years, earthquake design of reinforced concrete structures becomes an important phenomenon due to unfortunate earthquakes. This amplifies the need to make such buildings earthquake resistant at a reasonably low cost. Most of the buildings are mid-rise reinforced...
Bayesian analysis to detect change-point in two-phase Laplace model
September 2016
The general form of the change-point problem is to determine the unknown location m, based on an ordered sequence of observations X1,X2,.., Xm, Xm+1,..., Xn such that, the two groups of observation X1,X2,.., Xm and Xm+1,..., Xn follow distinct models. In this paper the problem of change-point detection of two-phase Laplace model is considered. Our object is to find...
Slow translation of Tropical Africa’s wealth in medicinal plants into the clinic: Current biomolecular infrastructural capacity and gaps in sub-Saharan universities
September 2016
Tropical Africa has one of the world’s largest endowments in medicinal plant diversity. However, this potential has not been translated into pure drugs of proven efficacy and safety synonymous with modern pharmaceuticals. The basis for the slow translation of Tropical Africa’s medicinal plant wealth into value-added medicines acceptable in the doctor’s clinic is not clear. In this work, we sought to...
Analysis of the environmental effects of international outsourcing: Study of the iron casting industry
August 2016
The international outsourcing of intermediate products is a common practice in manufacturing. Although outsourcing labor- and resource-intensive production to developing countries is based on financial motives, the decision should also be evaluated from an environmental perspective at a global scale. In this study, the environmental effects of four supply chain scenarios are analyzed through a life-cycle assessment...
Exploring the road to improving knowledge and access to female condom in Nigeria: Evidence from Edo, Delta and Lagos states
August 2016
The female condom is a relatively new product that is intended to serve the dual role of protecting against unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STI). Very few studies have been conducted on the use of female condom in Nigeria. Therefore, information is lacking about its continued use, particularly among women at high risk of HIV and other STI. With the above consideration, the Society for Family...
Exploring the association between diabetes mellitus and hearing loss: Genetic mutation, neuropathy and microangiopathy
July 2016
Diabetes mellitus (DM) has progressively increased in global prevalence. Recent studies have found that patients with DM may suffer from hearing impairment as a chronic complication. The effect of hearing loss may impair the quality of life of patients which affects functional, social, as well as psychological aspects. Both DM and hearing loss are considered to be associated, although this correlation remains elusive....
Modeling of compound layer growth during nitriding of pure iron
July 2016
This paper presents a physical model which describes the layer growth kinetics and the nitrogen concentration profiles during gaseous or plasma nitriding of pure iron. The model is related to a one dimensional moving boundary value problem where the initial concentration profiles are assumed to be linear and a new boundary condition at the diffusion zone is proposed. The model is solved by using a classical finite...
New methodology for microarray spot segmentation and gene expression analysis
June 2016
DNA microarray analysis is the main core in genome mapping. Each microarray image contains millions of information about genes. Microarray analysis is considered one of the most recent and important technologies in exploring the genome. One of the key steps in microarray analysis is to extract gene information from the gene spots, these information represent gene expression levels in the microarray. This paper proposes...
Simple identification of a parallel resonance transfer function in power systems using a frequency response technique
June 2016
This paper proposes frequency response based identification of a parallel resonance transfer function in power systems including capacitor banks for power factor improvement. The proposed method is simple and easy to understand by finding undetermined coefficients. Only magnitudes of measured harmonic currents for some orders of both source and load are required. Validation of the proposed method is given in frequency...
Optimizing the process of developing E-government website using decision support system
May 2016
The purpose of this paper was to address the issue of E-government website evaluation regarding the provision of a decision-making framework built around the concepts of website evaluation. The proposed framework deploys a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) to conquer the subjectivity and inaccuracy that characterizes the conventional models for E-government website quality assessment. Since the developments of E-government...
Avoiding potential greenhouse emissions by using local materials in housing construction: A case study in Colombia
May 2016
Housing in Colombia, especially social housing, has been a priority issue for governments in recent years; however, it is necessary to consider building more sustainable homes with less environmental impact using local material as opposed to building with conventional materials. Based on these needs, this research aimed to evaluate the potential environmental impact of social housing by predominantly using local...
Sentiment analysis as a way of web optimization
April 2016
Web optimization is the process of optimizing the web to increase visibility or rank of websites in search engines. Furthermore, this process is also viewed from multiple perspectives, from optimizing inter-server communication that offers the best responses to users’ queries and provides targeted advertisements to users of a website. With this regard, the process of automatic classification and information...
Strain field determination using displacement gradient model and unified least-squares technique
April 2016
Deformation analysis is crucial to applications in geodesy, structural engineering, and geology, of which the main goal is to detect the behaviors of a deformed body. Traditional deformation analyses rely on a limited number of observations and thus give a relatively poor description of the strain field on the entire object. In this study, a method based on the displacement gradient model and unified least-squares...
Availability and morphological characteristics of endophytic fungi held in different methods of preservation
March 2016
Maintenance of microorganisms in mycology is of fundamental importance for retrospective and prospective studies that focus on their biology, etiology and epidemiology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the viability, contamination and morphological changes of endophytic fungi maintained under different preservation methods. We evaluated five preservation methods; constant sub-culturing, preservation under mineral...
Characterization of rain-fed maize-based vegetable production systems in Northern Ghana
March 2016
The study was conducted in Northern Ghana comprising of the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. The objective of the study was to analyse maize-based rain-fed vegetable production systems with a view to explore their potential to contribute to food and income security for rural households. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were employed during the study. Questionnaires were...
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