Archives-May 2013

Leaf pigment content can provide valuable information about the physiological performance of leaves. Measurement of spectral reflectance provides a fast, nondestructive method for pigment estimation. In this paper, a set of vegetation indices belonged to two classes normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and modified simple ratio (MSR) index were tested to explore the potentials in chlorophyll content estimation. In the sensitivity study, two new formed indices NDVI [750,675] and MSR [750,675] were proved to have better linearity with chlorophyll content taking into account the effect of quick saturation at 675 nm with relatively low chlorophyll content. The results showed that the spectral indices NDVI [750,675] and MSR [750,675] are most appropriate for chlorophyll estimation with high correlation coefficients R2 from 0.88 to 0.97 in control and polluted selected plant species even more disturbances such as shadow, soil reflectance, and non photosynthetic materials and cement dusted pollutant are taken into account.

This study highlights the impact of recycled sugar factory effluent on the digestive enzymes of fish. The need for this task arises from the trend of releasing the untreated effluent into the aquatic body. The bioassays conducted separately with the raw and recycled sugarfactory effluent against the fish,Catla catla. This study exposed that quantum of decrease in the digestive enzyme level in the fish exposed to the highest concentration of raw sugar factory effluent is more when compared to that of fish treated in the recycled sugar factory effluent. The reuse of recycled sugar factory effluent is highly recommended for aquaculture through this study.

To evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of the aqueous extract of delonix regia against paracetamol induced hepatotoxicity in albino rats. Hepatotoxicity was induced in albino rats by p.o of paracetamol (2gm/kg for 3 days). The aqueous extract of delonix regia was administered to the experimental animals at two selected doses for 14 days. The hepatoprotective activity of the extract was evaluated by the liver function marker enzymes in the serum (asparitate transaminases AST, alanine transaminase ALT, alkaline phosphatase ALK.P, total bilirubin TB, and histopathological studies of liver. Both the treatment groups showed hepatoprotective effect against paracetamol induced hepatotoxicity by significantly restoring the levels of serum enzymes to normal which was comparable to that of silymarin group. The oral administration of delonix regia significantly ameliorates paracetamol hepatotoxicity in rats.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a common random fixed point theorem for five random multivalued operators satisfying a rational inequality using the concept of weak compatibility, semi compatibility and commutativity of random multivalued operators in polish space.

As the increase of social networking, people started to share information through different kinds of social media. Among all varieties of social media, Twitter is a valuable resource for data mining because of its prevalence and recognition by famous persons. In this paper we present a system which collects Tweets from social networking sites, we’ll be able to do analysis on those Tweets and thus provide some prediction of business intelligence. Results of trend analysis will be display as tweets with different sections presenting positive, Negative and neutral.

Heavy metal accumulation in waste water could affect aquatic life, human health and overall ecosystem adversely. Therefore, in recent years much emphasis has been given for the use of agricultural waste as low cost adsorbents for the removal of metallic contaminants from waste water. In this paper, the studies on removal of Cu (II) by adsorption on custard apple peel powder as adsorbent have been investigated in a batch type experiments. The agitation time, the adsorbent size, adsorbent dosage, initial copper concentration, and the effect of solution pH are studied. The Freundlich model for Cu (II) adsorption onto Custard apple peel powder is proved to be the best fit followed by Langmuir model and Tempkin model based on high regression coefficient R2 value. The adsorption kinetic behavior is best described by second order. The maximum percentage removal of metal efficiency is found to be 93.97 %. The results obtained in this study illustrate that custard apple peel powder is expected to be an effective and economically viable adsorbent for Cu (II) removal from industrial waste water.

Product-harm crises can seriously impact the viability of a company. By considering the factors that affect the outcome of a crisis, organizations could manage crisis situations to minimize negative consequences. The purpose of research was twofold: (1) examining the impact of company's response strategies (i.e., denial, involuntary product recall, voluntary product recall and supper effort) on customer's perception of danger (2) examining the effect of Customer's perception of danger on repurchase intention for Iran's airline industry. Data obtained from 500 survey questionnaire were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that Denial has a significantly negative effect on Customer's perception of danger. Involuntary product recall has a significantly negative effect on Customer's perception of danger. Voluntary product recall has a significantly positive effect on Customer's perception of danger. Supper effort has a significantly positive effect on Customer's perception of danger. Customer's perception of danger has a significantly positive effect on Repurchase intentions. In addition results show that Denial was the best negative predictor of their Customer's perception of danger and Supper effort was the best positive predictor of Customer's perception of danger.

The present research dealt with evaluating the Human Resources Information System (HRIS) efficiency employing effective factors on users’ satisfaction such as system quality, information quality, and system application. The research sample included all staff in the Bureau of Prisons in Markazi province, Iran. The sample data were analyzed based on four factors including age, gender, education level, and years of service. Hypotheses testing revealed that there is a significant correlation between all of the considered variables. Results indicated that the ease of use of information system, authorized access to information system, integrated reports provided by information system, timely response of information system to individuals’ needs, information system variability and flexibility under different settings and continuity and uniformity of information system programming, information accuracy, security, completeness, newness, coordination and simplicity as well as correct information volume and understandability of information, information use in job performance improvement, feasibility of objectives and information system excellence, task simplification, transparency, clarity and understandability of information system, easy use, and output and productivity excellence of information system have a relatively significant impact on users’ satisfaction improvement.

The present study outlines a systematic approach for the development of Lamivudine floating matrix tablets to enhance bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy of the drug. Floating matrix tablets of Lamivudine are designed to prolong the gastric residence time after oral administration. These tablets have shown controlled release and there by proper duration of action at a particular site is achieved. The matrix tablets were prepared by using direct compression technique, by using polymers such as HPMCK15M, carbopol, gum karaya and other standard excipients. Sodium bicarbonate and citric acid were incorporated as gas generating agents. The effect of different concentrations of polymers on drug release profile and floating properties were investigated. LF16 prepared by HPMCK15M and gum karaya with effervescent agent was found to be more effective amongst all formulations. FTIR, DSC and SEM analysis were carried out to study drug excipients interactions and surface characteristics which indicated no drug excipient interaction. All the formulations were found to extend the drug release, while some of the formulation exhibited floating characteristics also.

In this study, Piper longum (long pepper), Piper nigram (black pepper) and Zingiber officinale (dried zinger) were incorporated with artificial feeds formulated to understand their effects on survival, growth, activities of digestive enzymes and biochemical constituents in Macrobrachium rosenbergii post larvae (PL). These herbs were independently incorporated with basal ingredients at a concentration of 5% each, and fed to M. rosenbergii PL (1.56±0.08 cm; 0.074± 0.02 g) for a period of 60 days under laboratory condition with triplicates. A significant improvement (P<0.05) in survival and growth performance (weight gain, specific growth rate, food conversion ratio), elevation in activities of digestive enzymes (protease, amylase and lipase), increased concentrations of total protein, non-enzymatic antioxidants (vitamins C and E), and mineral salts (sodium and potassium) were recorded in P. longum incorporated feed fed PL followed by P. nigram and Z. officinale when compared with control. Polypeptide bands of molecular weight between 116-14 kDa were resolved in the muscle of PL fed with control as well as herbs incorporated feeds. Generally, there were eleven Coomassie blue stained protein bands (116, 58, 51, 45, 38, 33, 25, 18, 17, 16 and 14kDa) were calculated in herbal incorporated test samples. The general comparison between control and experimental groups revealed that there was more number of bands resolved in herbals incorporated feeds fed PL. Therefore, it is suggested that these medicinal herbs have their own influence in protein synthesis. In this study, the overall results indicated the fact that these herbs have acted as appetizers and hence, enhanced the secretion of digestive enzymes, which facilitated efficient digestion, absorption of nutrients and favoured for general health, which in turn ultimately produced better survival and growth of M. rosenbergii PL. Therefore, these herbs can be taken as feed additives in sustainable development of freshwater prawn culture.