Archives-December  

This study aims at assessing the compatibility of critical success factors in new products developments with structural variables of various sports manufacturing industries in Tehran. Use of a descriptive correlational study, 80 employees and managers of various sports manufacturing companies in Tehran were totally examined, 70 of which delivered the completely filled-in questionnaires. After the approval of validity and reliability of researcher-made questionnaire, data were collected. The results revealed that indices of NPD's critical factors are able to predict structural variables, and critical success factors of new products have positive and significant relationships with structural variables. Finally, it can be said that the research model consists of optimal independent variables (critical factors in new product development) and dependent variables (structural variables), and the set of independent variables are able to explain changes in structural variables. The sport industry was ranked twenty-third with an income equivalent to 50.2 billion dollars in 1987, and after ten years in 1997 it attained the rank of eleventh with an income equivalent to 152 billion dollars. In 1999, it reached 213 billion dollars and the sports.

In the present study, an attempt has been made to investigate the antidiabetic effect of aqueous extract of seeds on alloxan induced diabetic rats. After the citrullus colocynthis plant treatment all the change were reversed and reaches the near normal level.

Processing blurred images is a key problem in many image applications. Existing methods to obtain blur invariants which are invariant with respect to centrally symmetric blur are based on geometric moments or complex moments. In this paper, we propose a new method to construct a set of blur invariants using the orthogonal Legendre moments. Some important properties of Legendre moments for the blurred image are presented and proved. The performance of the proposed descriptors is evaluated with various point-spread functions and different image noises. The comparison of the present approach with previous methods in terms of pattern recognition accuracy is also provided. Theexperimental results show that the proposed descriptors are more robust to noise and have better discriminative power than the methods based on geometric or complex moments.

This article aims to identify the impact of the course the School-Based Assessment (SBA) against the level of understanding of teachers Living Skills in secondary schools for producing management system SBA that efficiently and effectively. School-Based Assessment (SBA) implemented in phases starting in early 2011 was a transformation in the education system to develop human capital in a holistic manner with emphasize the mastery of knowledge, intellectual capital, and the adoption of a progressive culture that values, ethics and morality. To meet this educational transformation, the Teacher Education Division has provided appropriate training programs and sufficient for increasing understanding among teachers in the management of SBA. For manage the school-based assessment, teachers must understand how SBA implementation carried out can be planned, administered, give scores, and reported in a systematic manner in accordance with procedures prescribed by the Malaysian Examinations Board (MMB). Through a strong understanding can help teachers implement assessment tasks properly and efficiently in increasing the effectiveness of teaching. This article provides information on the analysis of the level of understanding living skills teachers was attending a SBA course so as to create an efficient management assessment. Analysis of information and data obtained from 14 secondary schools in the District of Jasin, Melaka.

Maximum power point trackers (MPPTs) play a vital role in photovoltaic (PV) systems because they increase the efficiency of the solar photovoltaic system by increasing the power output. MPPT algorithms are necessary because PV arrays have a non linear voltage-current characteristic with a unique point where the power produced is maximum. The output power from the solar panel varies with solar irradiance, temperature and so on. To increase the power extracted from the solar panel, it is necessary to operate the photovoltaic (PV) system at the maximum power point (MPP). This paper presents the Matlab/simulink arrangement of perturb & observe (P&O) and incremental conductance (INC) MPPT algorithm which is responsible for driving the dc-dc boost converter to track maximum power point (MPP). This paper also presents the theoretical analysis of variable step size (VSS) of INC MPPT which can effectively improve the tracking speed and accuracy of maximum power.

Differential Evolutionary Algorithm is a simple but powerful computing tool for real parameter optimization. This article describes the application of this technique for designing a PID controller for Electromagnetic levitation system (EMLS).EMLS is inherently unstable and strongly non-linear in nature. Classical controllers designed for this system give no satisfactory performance. Little change in the operating air gap position deteriorates the controller performance making the system unstable. Therefore a need arises to make one controller such that it will give the optimum performance in the sense of changing gap positions .To that end Differential Evolutionary Algorithm (DEA) is used to fulfil this goal. The analysis is performed within the mathematical programming environment of MATLAB using both DEA and Conventional Genetic Algorithm (CGA) and a detailed comparative study is presented.

Efforts to minimize dose delivered to critical organs of cancer patients and also to improve local tumour control have led to the development of High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy procedures. The associated risks in HDR brachytherapy are relatively high, hence strict quality assurance requirements are needed. In this study, mathematical model has been used to compute the dose rate distributions around an Ir-192 HDR brachytherapy source. The calculations were based on separation of dose rates around the sources into transverse axis component and an anisotropy function. The two dimensional coordinate system for anisotropy functions was then transformed into a one dimensional system with radial distances from the centre of the source as constraints. The maximum average fit uncertainty was found to be 0.35% for the anisotropy functions. The maximum uncertainty in the calculated dose rate distribution around the source was 14.31%, which is less than the uncertainty quoted in published reports for other methods. The model is therefore an improvement over existing recommended systems for dose calculations and the results can be used as quality control tool to improve dose delivery to cancer patients undergoing brachytherapy.

We are very happy to announce that from 24th January 2017, Dr. Mohammad Akram has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on English Literature. Dr. Mohammad Akram working as English Club Deanship, Jazan University, Jazan, KSA. The appointment of Dr. Mohammad Akram as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal.

Ebola is a deadly disease caused by a virus. There are five strain, and four of them can make people sick. After entering the body, it kills cells, making some of them explode. It wrecks the immune system, causes heavy bleeding inside the body, and damages almost every organ. The virus is scary, but it also rare. You can get it only from direct contact with infected persons body fluids. The on-going Ebola outbreak in the West African countries is so far the worst in the history of the deadly disease. The virus seems to have gripped the world's interest due to its destructive potential, claiming nearly 7000 lives in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea -- worst-hit Ebola nations in West Africa. Although a few cases of Ebola have been reported from Australia, America and other nations of the world, no positive cases of Ebola virus in India have been reported till date. According to the WHO reports, on an average, 80% of the people infected with this virus do die. Their death is usually due to a drop in their blood pressure and failure of organs.

The effect of compost and earthworm production on soil properties, growth and dry-matter yield of maize in crude oil degraded soil was studied. The treatment consisted of 250g crude oil degraded soil (DS) and 50g each of four different compost materials mixed differently with 250g of degraded soil, and the compost were cassava peels (CP), cassava peels + poultry manure (PC), cassava peels + pig manure (GC) and cassava peels + pig manure + poultry manure (PGC) and 10 pieces of sub-adult earthworms (Eudrilus eugenae) were inoculated to each of the experimental pot after 11 days. The five treatments were replicated four times, data generated were subjected to analysis of variance test and treatment means were separated using least significant difference (LSD=0.05). The results of the study indicated significant differences between the treatments in soil and agronomic parameters assessed. The application of compost and earthworm activities increased the plant height, leaf area, and number of leaves at 4 weeks after planting (WAP) and 6 WAP, and dry matter yield of maize. The shoot and root dry matter yield was observed to increase in the order PC>PGC>GC>CP>DS. Earthworm activities in the study measured by the number survived and biomass weight showed CP and GC as the best culture for earthworm production in oil degraded soil. The degraded soil (DS) did not record any earthworm survival at harvest. The result of the soil analysis indicated less change in the textural class of the soil, and all the chemical parameters tested were enhanced by the compost and earthworm activities. Based on the results of growth rate and yield components of maize as well as soil chemical properties, the PC and PGC cultures having performed competitively better than the other treatments can be considered useful and adequate with the help of earthworm in reclaiming an oil degraded soil for crop production in a tropical environment.