Abstract: In this study, the effect of L-arginine was examined at the neuromuscular junction of the chick biventer cervicis muscle. LArginine at 500 μg/ ml, decreased twitch response to electerical stimulation, and produced rightward shift of the dose- response curve for acetylcholine or carbachol. L-Arginine at 1000μg/ ml produced a strong shift to the right of the dose – response curve for acetylcholine or carbachol with a reduction in the efficacy. The inhibitory effect of L-arginine on the twitch response was blocked by caffeine (200μg/ ml). NO levels were also measured in the chick biventer cervicis muscle homogenates, using spectrophotometric method for the direct detection of NO, nitrite and nitrate. Total nitrite (nitrite + nitrate) was measured by a spectrophotometer at 540 nm after the conversion of nitrate to nitrite by copperized cadmium granules. NO levels were found to be significantly increased in concentrations 500 and 1000μg/ ml of L-arginine in comparison with the control group (p
Abstract: Colour choice has become a common strategy and
correlates highly with marketing. Three broad functions can be
identified for colour in a building context especially applied in
marketing communications, which are its role as an important
parameter in illumination designs, its capacity to influence the visual
appearance of a building in a predictable manner and as an aesthetic
function. The review of literatures shows that colour has an impact on
online marketing communications, and relations between colour, web
and marketing communications.
Abstract: Ethnicity identification of face images is of interest in
many areas of application, but existing methods are few and limited.
This paper presents a fusion scheme that uses block-based uniform
local binary patterns and Haar wavelet transform to combine local
and global features. In particular, the LL subband coefficients of the
whole face are fused with the histograms of uniform local binary
patterns from block partitions of the face. We applied the principal
component analysis on the fused features and managed to reduce the
dimensionality of the feature space from 536 down to around 15
without sacrificing too much accuracy. We have conducted a number
of preliminary experiments using a collection of 746 subject face
images. The test results show good accuracy and demonstrate the
potential of fusing global and local features. The fusion approach is
robust, making it easy to further improve the identification at both
feature and score levels.
Abstract: Quaternary InxAlyGa1-x-yN semiconductors have
attracted much research interest because the use of this quaternary
offer the great flexibility in tailoring their band gap profile while
maintaining their lattice-matching and structural integrity. The
structural and optical properties of InxAlyGa1-x-yN alloys grown by
molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is presented. The structural quality of
InxAlyGa1-x-yN layers was characterized using high-resolution X-ray
diffraction (HRXRD). The results confirm that the InxAlyGa1-x-yN
films had wurtzite structure and without phase separation. As the In
composition increases, the Bragg angle of the (0002) InxAlyGa1-x-yN
peak gradually decreases, indicating the increase in the lattice constant
c of the alloys. FWHM of (0002) InxAlyGa1-x-yN decreases with
increasing In composition from 0 to 0.04, that could indicate the
decrease of quality of the samples due to point defects leading to
non-uniformity of the epilayers. UV-VIS spectroscopy have been used
to study the energy band gap of InxAlyGa1-x-yN. As the indium (In)
compositions increases, the energy band gap decreases. However, for
InxAlyGa1-x-yN with In composition of 0.1, the band gap shows a
sudden increase in energy. This is probably due to local alloy
compositional fluctuations in the epilayer. The bowing parameter
which appears also to be very sensitive on In content is investigated
and obtained b = 50.08 for quaternary InxAlyGa1-x-yN alloys. From
photoluminescence (PL) measurement, green luminescence (GL)
appears at PL spectrum of InxAlyGa1-x-yN, emitted for all x at ~530 nm
and it become more pronounced as the In composition (x) increased,
which is believed cause by gallium vacancies and related to isolated
native defects.
Abstract: A numerical study on the turbulent flow and heat
transfer characteristics in the rectangular channel with different types
of baffles is carried out. The inclined baffles have the width of 19.8
cm, the square diamond type hole having one side length of 2.55 cm,
and the inclination angle of 5o. Reynolds number is varied between
23,000 and 57,000. The SST turbulence model is applied in the
calculation. The validity of the numerical results is examined by the
experimental data. The numerical results of the flow field depict that
the flow patterns around the different baffle type are entirely different
and these significantly affect the local heat transfer characteristics.
The heat transfer and friction factor characteristics are significantly
affected by the perforation density of the baffle plate. It is found that
the heat transfer enhancement of baffle type II (3 hole baffle) has the
best values.
Abstract: The implementation of the new software and hardware-s technologies for tritium processing nuclear plants, and especially those with an experimental character or of new technology developments shows a coefficient of complexity due to issues raised by the implementation of the performing instrumentation and equipment into a unitary monitoring system of the nuclear technological process of tritium removal. Keeping the system-s flexibility is a demand of the nuclear experimental plants for which the change of configuration, process and parameters is something usual. The big amount of data that needs to be processed stored and accessed for real time simulation and optimization demands the achievement of the virtual technologic platform where the data acquiring, control and analysis systems of the technological process can be integrated with a developed technological monitoring system. Thus, integrated computing and monitoring systems needed for the supervising of the technological process will be executed, to be continued with the execution of optimization system, by choosing new and performed methods corresponding to the technological processes within the tritium removal processing nuclear plants. The developing software applications is executed with the support of the program packages dedicated to industrial processes and they will include acquisition and monitoring sub-modules, named “virtually" as well as the storage sub-module of the process data later required for the software of optimization and simulation of the technological process for tritium removal. The system plays and important role in the environment protection and durable development through new technologies, that is – the reduction of and fight against industrial accidents in the case of tritium processing nuclear plants. Research for monitoring optimisation of nuclear processes is also a major driving force for economic and social development.
Abstract: The objective of the research was to evaluate the
hardness stability of milk pomade sweets packed in several
packaging materials (OPP, Multibarrier 60 HFP, BIALON 65
HFP, BIALON 50 HFP, ECOLEAN) by several packaging
technologies – modified atmosphere (MAP) (consisting of
30% CO2+70% N2; 30% N2+70% CO2 and 100% CO2) and
control – in air ambiance. Samples were stored at the room
temperature +21±1 °C. The studies of the samples were
carried out before packaging and after 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10
storage weeks.
Abstract: The iris recognition technology is the most accurate,
fast and less invasive one compared to other biometric techniques
using for example fingerprints, face, retina, hand geometry, voice or
signature patterns. The system developed in this study has the
potential to play a key role in areas of high-risk security and can
enable organizations with means allowing only to the authorized
personnel a fast and secure way to gain access to such areas. The
paper aim is to perform the iris region detection and iris inner and
outer boundaries localization. The system was implemented on
windows platform using Visual C# programming language. It is easy
and efficient tool for image processing to get great performance
accuracy. In particular, the system includes two main parts. The first
is to preprocess the iris images by using Canny edge detection
methods, segments the iris region from the rest of the image and
determine the location of the iris boundaries by applying Hough
transform. The proposed system tested on 756 iris images from 60
eyes of CASIA iris database images.
Abstract: Manufacturing tolerancing is intended to determine
the intermediate geometrical and dimensional states of the part
during its manufacturing process. These manufacturing dimensions
also serve to satisfy not only the functional requirements given in
the definition drawing, but also the manufacturing constraints, for
example geometrical defects of the machine, vibration and the
wear of the cutting tool. In this paper, an experimental study on the
influence of the wear of the cutting tool (systematic dispersions) is
explored. This study was carried out on three stages .The first stage
allows machining without elimination of dispersions (random,
systematic) so the tolerances of manufacture according to total
dispersions. In the second stage, the results of the first stage are
filtered in such way to obtain the tolerances according to random
dispersions. Finally, from the two previous stages, the systematic
dispersions are generated. The objective of this study is to model
by the least squares method the error of manufacture based on
systematic dispersion. Finally, an approach of optimization of the
manufacturing tolerances was developed for machining on a CNC
machine tool
Abstract: Due to memory leaks, often-valuable system memory
gets wasted and denied for other processes thereby affecting the
computational performance. If an application-s memory usage
exceeds virtual memory size, it can leads to system crash. Current
memory leak detection techniques for clusters are reactive and
display the memory leak information after the execution of the
process (they detect memory leak only after it occur).
This paper presents a Dynamic Memory Monitoring Agent
(DMMA) technique. DMMA framework is a dynamic memory leak
detection, that detects the memory leak while application is in
execution phase, when memory leak in any process in the cluster is
identified by DMMA it gives information to the end users to enable
them to take corrective actions and also DMMA submit the affected
process to healthy node in the system. Thus provides reliable service
to the user. DMMA maintains information about memory
consumption of executing processes and based on this information
and critical states, DMMA can improve reliability and
efficaciousness of cluster computing.
Abstract: Recently, the health of retired National Football
League players, particularly lineman has been investigated. A
number of studies have reported increased cardiometabolic risk,
premature cardiovascular disease and incidence of type 2 diabetes.
Rugby union players have somatotypes very similar to National
Football League players which suggests that rugby players may have
similar health risks. The International Golden Oldies World Rugby
Festival (GORF) provided a unique opportunity to investigate the
demographics of veteran rugby players. METHODOLOGIES: A
cross-sectional, observational study was completed using an online
web-based questionnaire that consisted of medical history and
physiological measures. Data analysis was completed using a one
sample t-test (50yrs) and Chi-square test. RESULTS:
A total of 216 veteran rugby competitors (response rate = 6.8%)
representing 10 countries, aged 35-72 yrs (mean 51.2, S.D. ±8.0),
participated in the online survey. As a group, the incidence of current
smokers was low at 8.8% (avg 72.4 cigs/wk) whilst the percentage
consuming alcohol was high (93.1% (avg 11.2 drinks/wk).
Competitors reported the following top six chronic
diseases/disorders; hypertension (18.6%), arthritis (OA/RA, 11.5%),
asthma (9.3%), hyperlipidemia (8.2%), diabetes (all types, 7.5%) and
gout (6%), there were significant differences between groups with
regard to cancer (all types) and migraines. When compared to the
Australian general population (Australian Bureau of Statistics data,
n=18,000), GORF competitors had a significantly lower incidence of
anxiety (p
Abstract: The business strategy of any company wanting to be
competitive on the market should be designed around the concept of
intangibles, with an increasingly decisive role in knowledge transfer
of the biggest corporations. Advancing the research in these areas,
this study integrates the two approaches, emphasizing the
relationships between the components of intellectual capital and
corporate social responsibility. The three dimensions of intellectual
capital in terms of sustainability requirements are debated. The paper
introduces the concept of sustainable intellectual capital and debates
it within an assessment model designed on the base of key
performance indicators. The results refer to the assessment of
possible ways for including the information on intellectual capital
and corporate responsibility within the corporate strategy. The
conclusions enhance the need for companies to be ready to support
the integration of this type of information the knowledge transfer
process, in order to develop competitive advantage on the market.
Abstract: This study was carried out experimentally and analytically about the performance of solar cell panel system for operating the pump coupled by dc-motor. The solar cell panel with total area 1.9848 m2 consists of three modules of 80 Wp each. The small centrifugal pump powered by dc-motor is operated to lift water from 1m to 7m heads in sequence and gives the amount of water pumped over the whole day from 08.00 to 16.00 h are 11988, 10851, 8874, 7695, 5760, 3600, 2340 L/d respectively. The hourly global solar radiation during the day is an average of 506 W/m2. This study also presents the I-V characteristics of the panel at global radiations 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 W/m2 matched with the operation of the pump at the above lifting heads. It proves that the only solar radiations 800 and 1000 W/m2 could provide lifting head from 1m to 7m. The analysis shows the best efficiency point of the performance of solar cell panel system occurs at the pumping head 2.89 m.
Abstract: Conventional approaches in the implementation of logic programming applications on embedded systems are solely of software nature. As a consequence, a compiler is needed that transforms the initial declarative logic program to its equivalent procedural one, to be programmed to the microprocessor. This approach increases the complexity of the final implementation and reduces the overall system's performance. On the contrary, presenting hardware implementations which are only capable of supporting logic programs prevents their use in applications where logic programs need to be intertwined with traditional procedural ones, for a specific application. We exploit HW/SW codesign methods to present a microprocessor, capable of supporting hybrid applications using both programming approaches. We take advantage of the close relationship between attribute grammar (AG) evaluation and knowledge engineering methods to present a programmable hardware parser that performs logic derivations and combine it with an extension of a conventional RISC microprocessor that performs the unification process to report the success or failure of those derivations. The extended RISC microprocessor is still capable of executing conventional procedural programs, thus hybrid applications can be implemented. The presented implementation is programmable, supports the execution of hybrid applications, increases the performance of logic derivations (experimental analysis yields an approximate 1000% increase in performance) and reduces the complexity of the final implemented code. The proposed hardware design is supported by a proposed extended C-language called C-AG.
Abstract: Dynamic of phytoplankton blooms in the Baltic Sea
has been analyzed applying the numerical ecosystem model 3D
CEMBS. The model consists of the hydrodynamic model (POP,
version 2.1) and the ice model (CICE, version 4.0), which are
imposed by the atmospheric data model (DATM7). The 3D
model has an ecosystem module, activated in 2012 in the operational
mode. The ecosystem model consists of 11 main variables: biomass
of small-size phytoplankton and large-size phytoplankton
and cyanobacteria, zooplankton biomass, dissolved and molecular
detritus, dissolved oxygen concentration, as well as concentrations of
nutrients, including: nitrates, ammonia, phosphates and silicates. The
3D-CEMBS model is an effective tool for solving problems related to
phytoplankton blooms dynamic in the Baltic Sea
Abstract: Effects of bio-nitrogen fertilizer (bio-N), as a partial
alternative to mineral-nitrogen fertilizer (mineral-N), on growth,
yield and yield quality of broccoli plants were investigated. Bio-N
was applied at 1, 2 or 3 doses in combination with 65% of the
recommended dose of mineral-N (bio-N1, bio-N2 or bio-N3 +
⅔mineral-N). However, 100% of the recommended dose of mineral-
N was applied as a control. Significant positive influences of the bio-
N3 + ⅔mineral-N treatment were observed on growth traits, leaf
contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, nitrate and nitrite, and
yield quality when compared to the other two combined treatments.
In contrast, there were no significant differences in these parameters
between the bio-N3 + ⅔mineral-N and the control treatments, except
for leaf contents of nitrate and nitrite. They showed lower contents in
the bio-N3 + ⅔mineral-N treatment than the control. Therefore, we
recommend using bio-N as a partial alternative to mineral-N for
healthy nutrition.
Abstract: This paper presents an intelligent speed control
system based on fuzzy logic for a voltage source PWM inverter-fed
indirect vector controlled induction motor drive. Traditional indirect
vector control system of induction motor introduces conventional PI
regulator in outer speed loop; it is proved that the low precision of the
speed regulator debases the performance of the whole system. To
overcome this problem, replacement of PI controller by an intelligent
controller based on fuzzy set theory is proposed. The performance of
the intelligent controller has been investigated through digital
simulation using MATLAB-SIMULINK package for different
operating conditions such as sudden change in reference speed and
load torque. The simulation results demonstrate that the performance
of the proposed controller is better than that of the conventional PI
controller.
Abstract: Supplementation of palm vitamin E has been reported
to prevent loss of bone density in ovariectomised female rats. The
mechanism by which palm vitamin E exerts these effects is still
unknown. We hypothesized that palm vitamin E may act by
preventing the protein expression changes. Two dimensional poly
acyrilamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) and PD Quest software
genomic solutions Investigator (proteomics) was used to analyze the
differential protein expression profile in femoral and humeri bones
harvested from three groups of rats; sham-operated rats (SO),
ovariectomised rats (Ovx) and ovariectomised rats supplemented for
2 months with palm vitamin E. The results showed that there were
over 300 valued spot on each of the groups PVE and OVX as
compared to about 200 in SO. Comparison between the differential
protein expression between OVX and PVE groups showed that ten
spots were down –regulated in OVX but up-regulated in PVE. The
ten differential spots were separately named P1-P10. The
identification and understanding of the pathway of the differential
protein expression among the groups is ongoing and may account for
the molecular mechanism through which palm vitamin E exert its
anti-osteoporotic effect.
Abstract: The launching nose plays an important role in the
incremental launching construction. The parameters of the launching
nose essentially affect the internal forces of the girder during the
construction. The appropriate parameters can decrease the internal
forces in the girder and save the material and reduce the cost. The
simplified structural model, which is made with displacement method
according to the characteristic of incremental launching construction
and the variation rule of the internal forces, calculates and analyzes the
effect of the length, the rigidity and weight of launch nose on the
internal forces of girder during the incremental launching
construction. The method, which can calculate the launching nose
parameters for the optimum incremental launching construction, is
achieved. This method is simple, reliable and easy for practical use.
Abstract: Adolescents in Northern Uganda are at risk of teenage
pregnancies, unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted infections
(STIs). There is silence on sex both at home and school. This cross
sectional descriptive analytical study interviews a random sample of
827 students and 13 teachers on knowledge, perception and
acceptability to a comprehensive adolescent sexual and reproductive
health education in “O” and “A” level secondary schools in Gulu
District. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 16.0. Directed
content analysis of themes of transcribed qualitative data was
conducted manually for common codes, sub-categories and
categories. Of the 827 students; 54.3% (449) reported being in a
sexual relationship especially those aged 15-17 years. Majority
96.1% (807) supported the teaching of a comprehensive ASRHE,
citing no negative impact 71.5% (601). Majority 81.6% (686) agreed
that such education could help prevention of STIs, abortions and
teenage pregnancies, and that it should be taught by health workers
69.0% (580). Majority 76.6% (203) reported that ASRHE was not
currently being taught in their schools. Students had low knowledge
levels and misconceptions about ASRHE. ASRHE was highly
acceptable though not being emphasized; its success in school
settings requires multidisciplinary culturally sensitive approaches
amongst which health workers should be frontiers.