Archives-  

Beekeeping is a very longstanding practice in the farming communities of the Tigray region and it plays a significant role as a source of additional cash income which is also an integral part in the smallholder farming system of the region. The overall objective of the study was to analyze honey marketing opportunities and challenges in the study area. A total of 135 beekeepers were proportionately and randomly selected from each study districts. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics using SPSS ver.16. According to the data analysis, the mean price of honey is birr 63.45 (September to November), 61.77 (December to February), 62.20 (March to May) and 59.69 (June to August) and most of the respondents (62.5%) sold their honey at district market while the rest sold at farm gate, kebelle market, other kebelles’/districts’ market and regional market. The honey marketing system of the study area has been reported to have faced with some challenging factors such as poor extension services related to honey marketing (96.6%), absence of local cooperatives that can activity participate in the honey marketing (89.8%), and limitation in participation of wholesalers and processors in the marketing system of honey are the main among the others. Despite these limitations, there are many opportunities for honey marketing in the study area; stable honey price, accesses to market information, access to nearby market and accesses to credit in relation to honey marketing, existence of good market infrastructure particularly, road and mobile networks, and presence of credit institutes such as Dedebit Credit and Saving Institution (DCSI) in the research location.

This study examines the medicinal uses and marketing of desert date in Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State. A total of one hundred marketers were randomly selected among the traders in the markets located in the study area. Information on the traditional uses of the plant was equally gathered from the respondents using a well structured questionnaire with personal interview. Eighty-eight (88%) of the total questionnaires were successfully utilized for the analysis. Economic tools such as Gross Margin (GM) and Marketing Efficiency (ME) were used to determine the profitability of Balanite aegyptiaca (desert date) marketing while the socio-economic characteristics of the traders and uses of the plant were analysed using simple descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage. The business is male-dominant and the uses of the plant are basically for medicinal purposes in the treatment of ailment such as schistosomiasis, dizziness/body weakness, stomach upset/pain, ulcer, and as food. Plant parts used include the leaf, root, seed and fruit. Gross Marketing Margin was calculated to be N140, 856.40, Net Marketing Margin was N137, 256.94 while the Marketing Efficiency (ME) was calculated to be 39.13%.

Our aim is to assess nutrient status and pigment content of Uzunçay?r Dam Lake during period from May of 2013 to April of 2014. We sampled at different depths (0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 m) from nine stations selected and investigated chlorophyll concentrations and carotenoid content in samples. The concentrations of chlorophyll were high in the spring and autumn that the values ranged from surface 19.06 to deeper parts 97.15 µg L-1. The highest value was determined as 13.14 µg L-1.Based on our data, Uzunçay?r Dam Lake can be classified as oligotrophic.

Tabernaemontana divaricata (L) R. Br. (Apocynaceae) commonly known as Tagar in Bengali. It is a garden plant in tropical countries and found throughout the Indian subcontinent. The present investigation assessed the scavenging potential by 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) assay. All of the extracts exhibited potent in vitro free radical scavenging activity that increased with extract concentrations. The methanol extract was found to be the most potent in this regard, followed by the benzene and ethyl acetate extracts. Therefore, the present study confirms marked in vitro free radical scavenging activity Tabernaemontana divaricata leaves.

Hopfield Network is able to convert noisy data provided to the network because it can act as content addressable memory. Hopfield Network can convert images of noisy fingerprint to the noiseless images or the images with the minimum noise by training through receivable models set. In this research, fingerprint recognition process has been performed through Hamming Distance and effect of use of Hopfield network on fingerprint recognition process has been mentioned. In case those Hamming Distance operations are performed after Hopfield Networks processing, error of fingerprint recognition will be reduced.

Despite the many benefits of modern urban life, it has some disadvantages as well. One of the most important disadvantages is that modern urban life affects the mental and physical health problems due to exposure to urbanize problems such as air and noise pollutions, behavioral disorders including lawbreaking and law violation. Therefore, it seems crucial to allocate a special time to leisure activities in the natural or quasi natural environment to reduce the impacts of urban life.Parks can be one of the most suitable places for spending leisure time. Most parks, particularly urban parks are rarely designed and constructed based on scientific criteria. Thus, redesigning of urban parks based on cultural, educational and environmental criteria should be taken into consideration. Urban parks are one of the most important places that have the highest crime rates due to their inappropriate design. Urban parks are often designed in low quality due to the lack of implementation of standard rules such as massive vegetative areas, low lighting, dark corners and informal investigation. This makes the park less effective and its quantity, quality and sustainability can be affected. Therefore, the only solution for sustainable use of parks, especially the urban parks, which are not designed based on scientific criteria, is to redesign them. The ultimate aim of the present study is to resolve the problems relevant to lack of information discussed above by designing the park with creating priority maps needed for redesigning a park and by a comparative study of the correspondence between the criteria used in designing the Azadi Park in Shiraz and the actual ecological and socio-cultural criteria that are used in designing by a descriptive approach and data analysis using ANP method

Stress is an adaptive response, mediated by individual characteristics and/or psychological processes that are a consequence of any external action, situation or event that places special physical and/or psychological demands upon a person. A total of 112 out of 132 rehabilitation counsellors completed occupational stress questionnaire and 13 administrators were interviewed in five counties. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and percentages) were used to analyse the data. Results of the study revealed that the causes of occupational stress were found to be workload, clients’, organisational and interpersonal demands. The study further revealed that demographic and work characteristics interacted with the causes of occupational stress. This study recommends that regular assessment of occupational stress for preventive measures be done among the respondents.

This paper presents the characterization of solid state sintering schedule for near-net shaping of warm formed metal powder compacts. Iron ASC 100.29 powder was used as main powder constituent during this investigation.  The feedstock was prepared by mechanically mixed iron powder with 0.4 wt% zinc stearate as admixed lubricant. The powder mass was then formed as solid cylinder at 180ºC.  The defect-free green compacts were sintered in an argon gas fired furnace at different sintering schedule. The sintered products were characterized through dimensional measurement, and mechanical testing. The results revealed that sintering schedule plays an important role in manufacturing near-net shape yet high strength components.

The nutritional compositions of Hunteria umbellata were examined in this study. Proximate, mineral and inorganic elements of dehulled Hunteria umbellata seed (DHUS) and whole Hunteria umbellata seed (WHUS) were analyzed. The proximate composition (%) of the DHUS and WHUS seed are as follows; crude protein (13.65) and (9.0), crude fibre (26.79) and (2.74), crude fat (2.87) and (14.97), ash (3.89) and (3.45), moisture (9.57) and (10.95) and carbohydrate (43.23) and (58.88). Hunteria umbellata are good source of macro and micro nutrient (mg/100g) with Potassium (1130) and 1150, Magnesium(180) and (189), Calcium (76) and (78), Sodium (87.5) and (90), Iron (60) and (63), Manganese (5) and (7) also present in appreciable quantities. The result of inorganic element (mg/100g) also revealed in Hunteria umbellata; Nitrogen (7.14) and (2.11), Carbon (52.1) and (68.4), Hydrogen (4.22) and (6.11), Sulphur (2.33) and (2.26) and Oxygen (34.3) and (21.1) respectively. Nitrogen content was determined by micro-Kjeldahl method. Total carbohydrate was calculated by the difference method while mineral analysis was carried out after acid digestion using spectrophotometer and flame photometry. The high value obtained for potassium, carbohydrate, and carbon reveal that Hunteria umbellata seed has potential of serving as supplement for food, source of synthetic and antimicrobial drugs, and traditional herbal medicine. 

Automatic annotation is in fact the process of classifying medical using global and local features of standard image codes (IRMA) while being extracted. This includes four technical data axes of providing image (modality), direction, anatomy, and biological system. A number of recent researches have been conducted on the extraction of the local binary pattern texture features for automatic annotation, but until now no complete comparison has been conducted on the accuracy of the different classifications in resolution and annotation of the images based on the local binary pattern texture features. The results from the known and famous classifiers used on the four characteristics of anatomy, direction, biological system and modality are presented in this paper, which show that Sequential Minimal Optimization is the most efficient classification group as far as accuracy is concerned.