Archives-December 

In this study all the four basins of Dal lake were studied for various physico-chemical parameters in all the seasons and the eight different vegetable gardens falling within the Dal Lake area were selected to study their impact on the water quality of the Dal. The various parameters were analysed and accordingly measures were suggested to restore the quality of Dal.

The effect of pre-drying treatments on the proximate and phytochemical quality of oven-dried mushroom was evaluated using conventionally accepted methods. The pre-treatments used were dipping in 10% citric acid solution, dipping in 10% ascorbic acid solution and a control. The pre-treatments resulted in significant differences in pH, protein, vitamin C, some trace elements and phytochemicals present. Control sample had a protein content of 7.4%, while a range of 19.4% and 14.3% was recorded for samples pre-treated with citric acid and ascorbic acid respectively. The total phenolic content was in the range of 6.39 – 32.26 mg GAE/g of dry weight. Thus the use of these pre-treatments can be used to effect changes in some proximate and phytochemical components of oyster mushroom powder. Keywords: mushroom, oven-drying, blanching, citric acid, ascorbic acid

Autism is one disorder among a spectrum of disorders known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It is a general term that describes mental ailments that has diverse symptoms and characteristics. These include; restricted/repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, and activities during the early developmental period. Others exhibit hyperactivity, aggression and anxiety. The individual’s functionality is impaired requiring early intervention. Anxiety is a common comorbid and if left untreated affects the social functionality in ASD. This study looked at the proportion and levels of severity of the anxiety in a sample of 80 school children and adolescents with ASD. The goal of this study was to determine the levels, proportions and severity of anxiety among children presenting with ASD. The sample of 80 children and adolescents with ASD were observed and rated by their parents/teachers/caregivers using the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory (CASI) to measure anxiety. Eighty four percent of the total sample met cut-off criteria of at least one anxiety disorder. Anxiety was associated with poor coping skills and greater impairments in social reciprocity. Anxiety is a common comorbid in ASD which requires clinical assessment and treatment. It is important to those who deal with children and adolescent with ASD to understand the symptoms and management of anxiety both in school and other settings (home, social places).

This study attempted to shed some light on the effect of rubric-referenced peer assessment on EFL learners’ speaking skill and on the cultivating the learners’ awareness of having appropriate criteria for speaking, as one of the four major skills. This study explored the effect of rubrics on peer assessment of 18 Iranian EFL learners. First, learners assessed their classmates speaking performance based on their own presuppositions and assumptions. Subsequently, a spoken language rubric was introduced to them. They re-assessed their classmates’ performances through using this rubric. Quantitative data analysis revealed significant difference between the results. In-depth qualitative analyses of comments and marginal notes written down by learners revealed that peers heed not only to institutional components specified in scoring scales but also to other irrelevant criteria such as the result of the speech act performed.The study has suggested that the use of a combination of peer assessment and rubric-referenced assessment encourages students to become more rationally responsible and reflective and has shown positive formative effects on student achievement and attitudes. The article concludes with some guidelines for practitioners.The findings of this study also provide insight into the effective assessment and recommendations for future research and practice are made.

Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC) offers one of the most promising alternatives to the replacement of fossil fuels. However effective the design of the fuel cell may be, it cannot perform effectively without proper modelling and simulation. The importance and the need for the modelling of a DMFC are discussed in detail. The modeling of the key components such as the gas diffusion layer, MEA, flow distribution, catalyst thickness which contributes to the performance of the fuel cell are discussed.

This article will debates about Religion Pluralism which brought by netted Liberal Islamic group. One of the Religion Pluralism issue is Different Religion Marriage. Though, Liberal group support those concept and using an argumentation from Al-Quran to strengthen their contentions and debates. Moreover, the author brought of firmly and fixed debates from Al-Quran and viewers from Holy Priest in order rejecting that slanders. Lastly, the holy discuss and agree to state for that Different Religion Marriage is a sinful things to practice. It is mentioned and confirmed regarding Al-Quran facts and belief, and no more dispulation of disagree or dissension.

The effect of addition of Santalum paniculatum leaves extract on the corrosion of steel in 0.5M H₂SO₄ acid has been studied by weight loss measurements, potentiodynamic polarisation and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. The inhibition efficiency was found to increase with inhibitors content to attain 59.38% and 91.66% Santalum paniculatum leaves extract on and 25ppmTBAB respectively. Data obtained from EIS studies were analyzed to determinate the model inhibition process through appropriate equivalent circuit models. Inhibition efficiency IE (%) obtained from the various methods is in good agreement.

Setting a conventional cement plug is nearly unsuccessful when there is any wellbore flow especially for the zechstein formations. As such, the used of sodium silicate remain the common option. The silicate polymerization and gelation has been used in well formation to plug holes and reduce the catastrophic flow which cause a lot of production looses. This is usually encountered during drilling rocks zone producing large amount of water or brine. This could result in large volume of the drilling fluid lost into the formation and consequently reduce the effectiveness of the drilling operations. A well designed silicate/cement material forms an impermeable plug and reduces the adverse of the flow also the in-situ gelation of the process is better understood when the chemistry of the process and the chemical evolution of the brine formation is given due consideration.

The inhibitive effect of the extract of Solanum torvum leaves on the corrosion of aluminium in 1M NaOH solution was studied using at weight loss method at 30 - 60?C. The extract acts as an excellent corrosion inhibitor with 91% efficiency at the highest concentration in the alkaline environment and the inhibition efficiency increased with increasing concentration of the extract. The adsorption of the inhibitor on aluminium surface decreases with rise in temperature, suggesting physical adsorption of the organic matter on the metal surface. These results were supported by kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for corrosion and adsorption processes calculated from the experimental data at the various temperatures studied.

One of the most important and challenging problems for seamless access of wireless and mobile services is mobility management, which will be regardless of the services and networks. Mobility management enables the Mobile (MT) to switch between networks for better resource management and is still a hot research topic. With so many handover algorithms available, how to evaluate and select the best algorithm becomes critical, thus making handover algorithms one of the essential components for the successful implementation of mobility. These algorithms need to be designed to provide the required Quality of Service (QoS) over a wide range of applications. This work is based on new criterion called Wrong Decision Probability (WDP) which is used to evaluate the performance of vertical handover algorithms and is based on signal strength (SS) and the available bandwidth (BW), which are combined together to obtain a better decision for handover. This paper proposes a new user centric algorithm for vertical handovers, which minimizes the wrong decisions during a handover process and maximize the user throughput by taking into account Bandwidth and Signal Strength of the network.