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...
Influence of Samarium Oxide ions on structural and optical properties of borate glasses
March 2016
We have successfully synthesized Samarium oxide (Sm2O3) doped borate glasses by conventional rapid melt quench method. The prepared batch was melted at suitable transition temperature and to improve the crystalline phases, glass was kept at 500°C for 7 h. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern identified the amorphous nature of glass and photoluminescence emission properties proved the optical properties of Sm2O3 doped...
Modeling teachers' influence on learners' self-directed use of electronic commerce technologies outside the classroom
February 2016
Nowadays, Electronic Commerce (EC) course is becoming one of the most important taught courses at all business schools due to increased businesses over the Internet network by utilizing all available technologies. However, the success of such courses cannot be measured by number of students who pass or fail but rather by how such courses influence and can change the daily life of these students. Previous literature...
On the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the effect of jet nozzle angle on mixing time for various liquid heights
February 2016
In the present work, the effect of nozzle angle (22.5º, 45º and 67.5º) on mixing time for jet mixing tanks with the various ratios of liquid height (H) to tank diameter (D), including 0.5, 1, and 1.5, are studied by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results revealed that CFD model with standard k-epsilon is successfully employed to predict the concentration profiles and mixing time by using...
Theoretical framework for social network marketing based on genetic algorithm
February 2016
The social network played recently a major role as communication media in our daily life as it allows individuals to interact with one another and build relationships. When products or companies advertise on the social network, they expect that their product or advertisement reaches its target. Social networks is a hot research topic that has received great interest in the recent years due to its wide spreading and...
Femur neck insufficiency fracture in an adolescent associated with vitamin D deficiency
January 2016
The study reports a case of 14-year-old female child who was not participating in any athletic activities, and presented with gradual onset of left side hip and groin pain since 8 months duration. Clinical and radiological evaluation showed medial-sided femur neck insufficiency fracture associated with vitamin D deficiency. Femur neck insufficiency fractures are rare entity in children; usually result from overuse...
The determinants of the adoption behaviour of women azolla (Azolla pinnata) farmers in Coochbehar District of West Bengal
January 2016
Adoption behaviour may be reflected as the predisposition of the behaviour of an individual during the adoption process of any innovation. Here, in the present study, the respondents were women stakeholders selected through panchayat. The study analysed their adoption behaviour towards azolla cultivation because the scientific azolla cultivation has been taken up as the innovation in terms of which the adoption...
Shoot demography of some evergreen and deciduous tree species of Kumaun Himalaya, India, along an altitudinal gradient
January 2016
The shoot diameter and shoot length extension growth studied in 10 tree species occurring between 350 to 2500 m elevation in the Kumaun Himalaya. Effects of temperature on shoot growth were studied under natural conditions. Shoot length growth was significantly affected by the temperature during shoot elongation (p<0.01). The optimum temperature for elongation was ranged from 21 to 36°C across the altitudinal...
Influence of fertility levels and weed management practices on yield and yield attributes of rain-fed maize
December 2015
Investigating the response of rain-fed maize to fertility levels and weed management practices, a field trial was undertaken in 2012 and 2013 at Experimental Farm, D(K)ARS, SKUAST-Kashmir, (J&K). The experiment consisted of 3 fertility levels and 4 weed management practices. The results revealed that fertility levels F3 and F2 at par with one another recorded significant increase in cob length, number of cobs...
Studies on chemical solutions and storage duration on keeping quality of cut gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus L.) spikes (‘White Prosperity’)
December 2015
The experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of different chemical solutions (C1= sucrose (20%) + [Al2 (SO4)3 .-16H2O 300 ppm], C2= sucrose (20%) + [Al2 (SO4)3 .-16H2O] 300 ppm + GA3 50 ppm and C3= Control (Distilled water)) and five storage durations viz., (S0 = 0 days, S1 = 7 days, S2 = 14 days, S3 = 21 days and S4 = 28 days) on keeping quality of cut spikes of gladiolus ‘White...
Synthesis and characterization of copper metal soaps from Thevetia peruviana and Hura crepitans seed oils
December 2015
Thevetia peruviana (TP) and Hura crepitans (HC) seed oils with 73 and 65% unsaturation, respectively as analyzed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) chromatogram were used for the synthesis of copper metal salt. The sodium carboxylate (soluble soap) prepared from the oils by saponifying with sodium hydroxide were reacted with solution of copper salt to produce the metal soaps. The yield was...
Effects of streptozotocin diabetes on the ultrastructure of astrocytes in the cervical enlargement of rat spinal cord
November 2015
A chronic complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), diabetic neuropathy, causes neurodegeneration leading to the development of neuropathic pain and sensation loss, particularly in the hands and arms. The cervical enlargement of the spinal cord sends the nerve supply to the hands and arms. Moreover, astrocytes effectively provide structural and functional maintenance of neurons in the spinal cord. Nevertheless, there is...
Photoplethysmogram second derivative review: Analysis and applications
November 2015
Photoplethysmogram (PPG) and its second derivative of the photoplethysmogram (SDPTG) are simple and low cost optical techniques for detecting and tracking blood volume changes. The PPG waveform and its SDPTG have been used by many scholars to obtain valuable information about heart and cardiovascular system. Since PPG and SDPTG reflect blood volume changes, much work has been done on its application as a diagnostic tool...
Biochemical studies on Ziram induced acute, subacute and subchronic toxicity in broiler chicken
October 2015
The present experimental work was conducted to elucidate the biochemical changes in broiler chicken after ziram intoxication. For the study, 150 apparently healthy broiler chicks were reared together up to 2 weeks of age and thereafter allocated randomly to four groups, that is, control (n=30), acute (n=10), subacute (n=20) and subchronic (n=90). Toxicity was induced following single oral dose of Ziram at 100 mg/kg body...
The effect of the spinodal curve condition on J – T inversion curves for van der Waals real gas
October 2015
This paper examines a consequence of spinodal curve condition on the Joule – Thomson inversion curves, for van der Waals real gas. To this end, we consider the differential form of Joule – Thomson coefficient, and concentrate on the parametrical algebraic equation of the corresponding family of curves in a P – V Cartesian frame of reference. The aim of this work is not the prediction of Joule...
Finite-element modeling and experimental study of nitrogen concentration profile in 16MnCr5 gas nitrided steel
October 2015
In this paper, a numerical and experimental study of the nitrogen concentration profile in the precipitation layer of gaseous nitrided 16MnCr5 alloy steel was performed. The gaseous nitriding was performed in ammonia atmosphere at 510, 550 and 590°C, and for each temperature four different nitriding times were chosen. Nitrogen concentration profile of the nitrided specimens was experimentally investigated with...
Influence of Indian Ocean zonal circulation on variability and predictability of Ethiopia highlands vegetation
September 2015
The vegetation fraction over the Ethiopian highlands exhibits large seasonal and multi-annual variability in the period 1982 to 2014. Northern areas are more sensitive to rainfall due to the brevity of the wet season. Differences in the regional climate during periods of high and low vegetation are analyzed using composite fields of rainfall, wind, humidity, sea temperatures, salinity and currents; and correlations at...
Spectra characterization, flavonoid profile, antioxidant activity and antifungal property of Senecio bifrae and its copper complex
September 2015
This study describes the synthesis, spectra characterization using UV-Visible and Infra-Red spectroscopic methods, flavonoid profile, antioxidant activity and antifungal property of Senecio biafrae-Cu complex and Senecio biafrae. UV-Visible spectra revealed bathochromic shifts for Senecio biafrae-Cu complex in comparison with Senecio biafrae which could be due to complexation. Differences between vibration spectra...
A comparison of functional properties of native Malawian cocoyam, sweetpotato and cassava starches
September 2015
Cassava, cocoyam and sweetpotato constitute underexploited but yet important sources of starch for the Malawi industry. The functional properties of starches isolated from cassava, cocoyam and sweetpotato were studied and compared. Results revealed diverse functional properties among the starches from the different sources. With increasing temperature, water binding capacity, swelling power and solubility of the...
Identification of the damage model parameters of thrust ball bearings under variable operating regime
September 2015
Bearing is an important component of a rotating machine; however, under normal operating conditions, it is subjected to fatigue which results in a defect called spalling. This work presents a monitoring fatigue of a thrust ball bearing on a bearing fatigue test bench. Spalling is artificially initiated on a bearing raceway. Vibration analysis is the method used to characterize the defect. The experimental procedure used...
Predicting the permeability of pervious concrete pavement using artificial neural networks modeling
September 2015
Pervious concrete (PC) pavement is a sustainable type of concrete pavement that can protect and restore natural ecosystem. The permeability coefficient is the most important characteristic of PC. The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate the effect of mixture design parameters, particularly water-to-cement ratio (W/C) and size of aggregate on the permeability coefficient of PC. The thirty six mixtures...
Maritime continent winter circulation as a predictor of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influence on Ethiopia summer rainfall
September 2015
Summer rainfall over the cropping region of Ethiopia is related to the precursor winter circulation around the Maritime Continent and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) development and influence. Investigation of this link reveals that sea surface temperature (SST) in the north Indian Ocean and China Sea are anomalously cold and there are low level north-westerly wind anomalies around the Maritime...
Evolutionary role of seed oils in plants: The case of Jatropha curcas L.
September 2015
Seed oils in higher plants function as an energy source for germination, emergence and establishing as a new plant. Then, the seed oil must be a trait subjected to natural selection. In this work we revise the evolutionary function of seed oils in angiosperms, analyzing the patterns of seed oil accumulation and their fatty acids composition among species differing in habit, habitat and relatedness. We review some...
Adaptive Pixel-Selection Fractional Chaotic Map Lattices for image cryptography
September 2015
Chaotic theory has been employed in cryptography application for establishing a sequence of data closest to pseudorandom number. Image cryptography with Chaotic Map Lattices (CML) uses the chaos parameters, the number of iterations and the number of cycles for encryption as secret keys. Amount of secret keys has a great impact on security in cryptography. Adaptive Pixel-Selection Fractional Chaotic Map Lattices (APFCML)...
Air pollution indicators in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) countries
August 2015
Over the past several decades, the amount of attention given to various countries’ environmental impact has greatly increased. Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) have been drawing special attention due to the pollution emissions released into the atmosphere by their increasing number of industries and their exaggerated consumption of products. This article aims to elucidate and analyze the evolution of some of...
Interval study of convergence in the solution of 1D Burgers by least squares finite element method (LSFEM) + Newton linearization
August 2015
This paper aims to apply the least squares finite element method (LSFEM) in conjunction with the linearization technique known as Newton method. For this, the application chosen was the traditional 1D Burgers equation. From two numerical applications and an error analysis based on knowledge of the exact solution, will be possible to present convergence ranges for this proposal. Key words: Least squares...
The time delayed feedback control to suppress the vibration of the autoparametric dynamical system
August 2015
The response of a dynamical system of two-degree-of-freedom with parametrically excited pendulum is solved and studied. The delayed feedback control is applied to suppress or stabilize the vibration of the system. The case of 1:2 sub-harmonic resonances between pendulum and primary system is studied; the method of multiple scales is applied to obtain second-order approximations of the response of the system. It is shown...
Evaluation of agro-ecological approach to soil quality assessment for sustainable land use and management systems
August 2015
Long-term cultivation of crops has been found to cause soil physico-chemical and biological quality (SQ) degradation for sustainable agricultural production practices in Akwanga, Nigeria. Understanding the dynamics of SQ change under different land use types is desired. The present study was carried out to assess soil physico-chemical indicators (based on land evaluation approach) and biological SQ (based on...
Evidence for the presence of a female produced sex pheromone in the banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus Germar (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)
August 2015
Behaviour-modifying chemicals like pheromones and kairomones hold a great potential in pest management. Evidences from mating behaviour studies of the banana weevil, and from the weevil’s responses to their freeze-killed conspecifics, body washes/extracts, live conspecifics (olfactometer studies), and trapped volatiles of mature and immature adults clearly suggest that two types of pheromones are produced in...
Apocarotenoid gene expression in saffron (Crocus sativus L.)
August 2015
Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is a triploid sterile plant characterized by its long red stigmas, which produce and store its chief carotenoid derivatives-safranal, crocin and picrocrocin. Saffron selections of Kashmir are heterogeneous for floral characteristics which are mainly attributed to the environmental factors, though genetic factors may have role with regard to its differential characteristics across various...
Purification and biochemical characterization of extracellular manganese peroxidase from Ganoderma lucidum IBL-05 and its application
July 2015
In this study an extracellular manganese peroxidase (MnP) was isolated from culture filtrate of an indigenous fungal strain Ganoderma lucidum IBL-05 under static conditions using wheat bran as substrate. The enzyme was purified by applying successively ammonium sulphate precipitation, dialysis, ion exchange and gel filtration chromatographic techniques. Purification procedure resulted in 3.43-fold purification with...
Effect of magnesium fertilization on some plant nutrient interactions and nut quality properties in Turkish hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.)
July 2015
Plant nutrient interactions and fertilization is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of hazelnuts. This study aimed to determine the relationships between some plant nutrients and some hazelnut quality criteria and yields. The trial was carried out at Tombul hazelnut orchards in Hazelnut Research Station between 2009 and 2011. The trial was designed as randomized complete blocks of magnesium nutrient...
Structural damping identification using a recursive Kalman filter
July 2015
Much research has been done in developing techniques for identifying the structural damping of physical systems. Such techniques are always accompanied by the development of an analytical model of the ideal system and its comparison with experimental data obtained in laboratory. Also, flexible systems are difficult to be modeled, but the authors can use an approximation, supposing that a flexible system, composed by a...
Impact analysis of front line demonstration of rice (Oryza sativa) on the yield, economics and farmer’s knowledge in temperate region of India
July 2015
Impact analysis of Front Line Demonstrations (FLD’s) of rice on yield, economic returns, level of knowledge and adoption extent was conducted through a study in temperate region of northern India, in which 240 participating farmer respondents and 240 non-participating farmer respondents from 5 representative villages in four districts were selected through stratified random sampling method for the purpose. Based...
Investigation of premature fracture of a tail pulley in the field
July 2015
An unexpected (premature) failure happened in Tail Pulley during operation in field. Consequently, a complete analysis in terms of fracture and fatigue performed. The analysis aimed to determine the failure root-cause by the analysis of the project and materials. The analysis covered the tensions undergone by the pulleys under operation and the material´s mechanical strengths. The results showed the project...
Growth, optical, thermal and electrical properties of nonlinear optical ï§-glycine single crystal
July 2015
Single crystal growth of γ-glycine has been grown by solution growth technique. The lattice parameters and crystal system of the grown crystals were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The functional groups present in the grown crystal were identified by FT-IR spectral analysis. The optical property of the γ-glycine crystal is studied by UV-Visible spectrum. Optical constants such as band...
Performance of summer sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) cultivars under varying dates of sowing in prevailing agro-climatic condition of North Bengal
June 2015
To study the effect of dates of sowing and improved cultivars on growth and yield of summer sesame in North Bengal five different dates of sowing (10th February, 20th February, 2nd March, 12th March and 22nd March and three cultivars of sesame (Rama, Savitri and Tillotama) with three replications. The highest (114.66 and 115.83 cm) plant height was recorded when sesame sown on 12th March (D4) and which was...
Comparative performance of some bivoltine silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) genotypes during different seasons
June 2015
Twenty-six bivoltine silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) genotypes were tested along with two check varieties (NB4D2 and SH6) for their performance in respect of 14 metric traits during spring (E1) and summer (E2) seasons. No genotype displayed significantly superior performance vis-à-vis check breeds in all the metric traits under study. However, several genotypes registered higher performance in several subsets of...
Seasonal incidence of major insect- pests and their biocontrol agents of soybean crop (Glycine max L. Merrill)
June 2015
The major insect-pests observed attacking soybean variety JS 335 were girdle beetle, Obereopsis brevis; tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura; green semilooper, Chrysodeixis acuta; whitefly, Bemisia tabaci and jassids, Empoasca kerri. The peak activity of girdle beetle (1.0 damaged plant per meter row) was observed during first week of October. Whereas the peak activity of caterpillar pests that is, S. litura (2.5...
Analysis of cavitating flow through a venturi
June 2015
A dynamical study of a bubbly flows in a transversal varying section duct (Venturi), is modeled by the use of the mass and momentum phases equations, which are coupled with the Rayleigh-Plesset equation of the bubbles dynamics. The effects of the throat dimension and the upstream void fraction on flow parameters are investigated. The numerical resolution of the previous equations set let us found that the...
Larval stage of trematodes obtained from brackish water snails in the central and east coast of the gulf of Thailand
June 2015
Brackish water snail is one of the important intermediate hosts of trematode infections. This kind of snail along the Gulf of Thailand were examined for cercariae, the larval stage of trematodes. The aim of this study was to investigate cercarial infections in brackish water snails in the central and eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand. Snails were collected from 45 sampling sites (20 central areas, 25 eastern areas),...
Genetic divergence in some bivoltine silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) breeds
June 2015
Twenty-eight genotypes of bivoltine silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) were studied for genetic divergence using Mahalanobis D2 statistic. Based on fifteen important metric traits, D2 values were obtained and the genotypes were grouped into five clusters using Tocher’s method. The clustering pattern indicated a mixed trend. The silkworm genotypes originating/evolved from different geographical regions fell in the same...
Effect of pre-harvest foliar spray of calcium and potassium on fruit quality of Pear cv. Pathernakh
June 2015
Growing costs of fertilizers and increasing concern about ground water pollution has resulted indiscriminate or excessive soil fertilization problem that may be solved by more efficient fertilizer application technologies. The availability of new promising oriental pear or Japanese pear [Pyrus pyrifolia (Burm) Nakai] cultivar like ‘Patharnakh’, pave an opportunity for extending its cultivation under tarai...
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