Archives-June 2013

This paper explored the motivations for beneficiaries’ participation in community-based agriculture and rural development program among Guba farmers in Nigeria. Utilizing qualitative research approach, the data for the study was collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussion based on semi-structured questions from 8 key informants. The data collected was analyzed through open-coding system. Findings of the study indicates that though, several reasons have been identified by informants as their motivations to participate in the program, the desire by beneficiaries to meet tangible material benefits stood above all other considerations. However, Group leadership, Workshops and Seminars, the program’s approach, Officials / beneficiaries’ relationship and publicity given to the program were also found to have motivated beneficiaries’ participation. At the end, the paper made recommendations to practitioners and policy makers in designing future developmental programs that ensures popular participation. This will in the long run ensure the sustainability of the programs and effective poverty alleviation.

This research explains the steps and the benefits of implementing Activity Based Costing (ABC) in Iranian Gas Company. Using ABC, cost of one cub meter of consuming gas in all regions of capital was determined and compared with the results of the Traditional Costing Systems (TCS). Implementing ABC strongly changed company managers’ prospective toward company cost of services, provided more effective system for company internal decision-making, improved the effectiveness of the costing system and cost management and helped the managers to correct company pricing of services and accomplishment of the strategic goals by giving correct cost information.

To solve the problems in environmental monitoring arising from remote data acquisition, real-time transmission and analysis, this paper researched the principle of wireless communications SMS / GPRS and the technology of seamless integration with GIS. The system architecture was designed and key technical solutions were implemented. Based on the SMS / GPRS technology, the wireless real-time transmission of the remote monitoring data was achieved, and GIS visualization technology was carried out to visualize the monitoring data. Geographic affected areas were analyzed by GIS spatial analysis. The system is applicable to the environmental protection departments to realize applications such as monitor data acquisition, communication transmission, GIS management and analysis and decision-making.

Seeds of Vigna aconitifolia Jacq.(mataki seeds) pre-soaked in cell free culture filtrate of post-harvest sapota fungi viz.Geotrichum candidum, Aspergillus niger and Rhizoctonia solani. Impact of effect of incubation period, pH and temperature on fungal metabolites from culture filtrates on seed germination was studied for toxicity. It is clear from the result that culture filtrate of all the post-harvest sapota fungi hampered percentage of mataki seed germination and showed reduction in root length and shoot length as compared to control.

The Pathologic fractures usually occur during normal activity or minor trauma due to weakening of the bone by disease .The clinical features was minor injury force, spontaneous fracture, and functional fracture. These fractures occurred in giant cell tumors, chondroma, solitary fibrous tumor of bone, aneurismal cyst, fibroma desmoplastic, fibrous dysplasis, osteoid osteoma in patients with no story of trauma. The surgical treatment consisted to curette the tumor bone and the fixation was made by different materials (nails, pins, blade plates) followed by cancellous grafting or resection-reconstruction. Six months later, we noted only one case of recurrence in giant cell tumor of the knee and was amputed. All patients were consolidated and the functional long term prognosis was excellent after physiotherapy

The quality of weld is depicted by weld bead geometry. In submerged arc welding (SAW) bead geometry closely related to the process parameters namely welding current, open circuit voltage, welding speed and nozzle to plate distance. So it is necessary to develop the mathematical models for bead geometry in automatic SAW machine. In the present work mathematical models are developed for bead width and bead hardness by making bead on plate (12 mm thick ASTM SA 516 Grade 60). Experiments were conducted according to the two level half factorial technique and analysis of direct and interactive effect of parameters on responses are presented with the help of Design expert software. Results were clearly illustrated that bead width increases with welding current and voltage, but decreases with welding speed and nozzle to plate distance. Bead hardness increases with Welding current, welding speed and nozzle to plate distance, but decreases with voltage.

In mobile communications, the need to improve the quality of service and to predict the minimum signal power required for transmission has attracted a great deal of research attention. In this paper, the ITU-R adopted Walfisch-Bertoni (W/B) pathloss model for IMT-2000 third generation (3G) mobile networks standard, is enhanced based on experimental campaigns conducted in two CDMA2000 networks transmitting at 800MHz frequency band in South-South, Nigeria. In this enhancement method, W/B is modified to incorporate secondary knife edge diffraction and multipath reflection loss due to the buildings and objects nearest the mobile down the street. The proposed pathloss models indicate improved prediction accuracy compared to the original W/B model in terms of root mean square and relative error analysis.

We are very happy to announce that from 12th June 2013, Dr. M. Vijayaragavan has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Environmental Pollution. Dr. M. Vijayaragavan is currently working as Department of Botany, Government Arts College, Thiruvannamalai-606 603, Tamilnadu, India. The appointment of Dr. M. Vijayaragavan as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to elixirpublishers@gmail.com. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief

We are very happy to announce that from 20th June 2013, Mr. Manoj Kumar Rastogi has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Environmental Mathematics. Mr. Manoj Kumar Rastogi is currently working as Research Scholar, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Patna - 800013, Bihar. The appointment of Mr. Manoj Kumar Rastogi as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to elixirpublishers@gmail.com. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief

We are very happy to announce that from 25th June 2013, Mr. Ali I.Al-Mosawi has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Mechanical Engineering. Mr. Ali I.Al-Mosawi is currently working as Lecturer, Machines Department, Technical Institute-Babylon, Iraq. The appointment of Mr. Ali I.Al-Mosawi as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to elixirpublishers@gmail.com. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief