Archives-June... 

There has been growing concern about global sea-level rise and its impacts on mankind. This work therefore focuses on analyzing sea level data of Cape Coast Sea by employing conventional methods of time series analysis and extreme value theory. The study seeks to find out if there is any significant rise in the sea levels of the Cape Coast Sea that will cause flooding of the town and to make recommendations as to whether resettlement issues should be considered. The exploratory analysis reveals that the sea levels of the Cape Coast Sea are characterized by trend and seasonality. The conventional approach of analyzing the sea level data considered sitting a trend model, trend plus seasonal model, a quadratic trend model and a quadratic plus seasonal model to the sea levels of the Cape Coast Sea. The analysis reveals that the fluctuations in the sea levels of the Cape Coast Sea could best be modeled by a trend plus seasonal model. The estimated parameters of the model reveal a highly significant and positive trend in the sea levels of the Cape Coast Sea, and if this trend continues it will have serious implication for the flooding of the town. The extreme value approach in analyzing the sea levels of the Cape Coast Sea considered sitting a General Extreme Value (GEV) distribution model to the annual maxima sea levels (block maxima approach) and the Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD) model (threshold model). The fitted GEV distribution that changes linearly in the location parameter(µ (t)) is reasonable in modeling the annual maximum sea levels of the Cape Coast sea levels and this supports the fact that the annual maximum sea levels increases over time. The GPD model on the other hand does not support a linear trend in the scale parameter (?(t)). On a whole, the estimated parameters of both models show an increase in the sea levels, and this is significant for the flooding of the town.

'The start of new century may have seen a decline in the number of incidents of 'traditional' terrorism such as hijackings and kidnappings but the lethality of the terrorist potential has risen to a frightening degree with the advent of digitalized terrorism , and its links to computer technology. The vulnerability of the critical infrastructure has led to increasing concern that it will be the target of terrorist attacks. In this highly topical study the authors examine the new terrorist tools and their appalling capacity for the destruction of human systems. The authors claim that the technological revolution has effectively 'democratized' computer knowledge so that the forces of law and order no longer have an inherent advantage of power and privilege. Their special challenge in the new century will be to match the resourcefulness and ingenuity of their terrorist adversaries. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Internet is altering the traditional concept of terrorism. What are the common Ways of terrorists attacks Cyber-terrorism or digitalized terrorism is a catastrophic phenomenon that has not yet attracted the attention of the Indian Legislature exhaustively. The paper consider whether there is a need to react to digitalized terrorism and if so, to what extent?

We are very happy to announce that from 30th November 2016, Dr. Manish Kr Singh has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Veterinary sciences. Dr. Manish Kr Singh working as Assistant Professor in Dept. of Instructional Livestock Farm Complex, Khalsa College of Veterinary and Animal Science, Amritsar- 143 002, (Punjab), India. The appointment of Dr. Manish Kr Singh as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal.

The pulse beetle, C.maculatus is a major storage pest of stored grains. Different botanicals were evaluated for their bioefficacy against this pest. The present study was undertaken to study the effect of A. indica (L), C. gigantea (L.), O.tenuiflorum (L), P. amarus (linn) and T. purpurea ((L.) Pers.). Oviposition deterrence and adult emergence activity were carried out at three different concentrations (4%, 8% and 12%) on blackgram, Vigna mungo (L.) against C. maculatus. Maximum oviposition deterrence activity was observed in T. purpurea (70.09%) followed by A. indica (69.44%), P.amarus(56.21%), O.tenuiflorum (50.32%) and C.gigantea (39.39%) at higher concentration. Reduction in adult emergence was higher in C. gigantea and O.tenuiflorum (87.85%) treated seeds. The other plant powders also exhibited their higher potential against C. maculatus.

Gum Arabic exudate was collected from Acacia Senegal trees around Zaria metropolis. The gum was hydrated in double strength chloroform water, purified in 95% ethanol and then washed with diethyl ether. Modification of the gum was performed with ethanol and Acetic anhydride. Densities of the samples were compared with that of the unmodified gum and it was found that both samples were less dense than the unmodified gum. From turbidity measurement, ethanol modified (EGL) gum appears more turbid than both acetic anhydride modification (AAN) and unmodified gum (PGM). In salinity, conductivity and TDS tests, AAN sample higher values than other samples. The melting point of EGL and PGM are only slightly different, 242oC and 245oC respectively while that of AAN was 229oC. The mechanical properties of the samples were measured using Honsfield Tensometer. The AAN sample has the highest modulus at 10, 20, 30 and 40% gum composition. For PGM the modulus drops from 10-30% gum composition then finally increases. The ACT modification shows decrease in modulus as the percent of gum increases. Modulus of PGM drops at 20, 40, 60 and 80% gum composition. It was found that the tensile strength of the chemical modification formulations reinforced the PVC matrix at 10%/90%, 20%/80% and 30%/70% gum/PVC compositions for AAN and at 10%/90% and 20%/80% gum/PVC compositions. Though EGL showed increase at 30%/70% composition, its tensile strength is similar to that of the unmodified gum (PGM), decreasing with increasing gum concentration.

Pyrano[2,3-b]quinolin-2-ones was synthesized by cyclic condensation of 2-chloro-3-formylquinolines with sodium acetate and acetic acid in microwave reactor. Microwave reactions are very inexpensive, operational simplicity, eco-friendly method and good yield in a very short reaction time. Unexpectedly, 3-formylquinolin-2(1H)-ones were exclusively formed in very high yield by changing the molar ratio of acetic acid and sodium acetate in just 1.5 to 2.5 min. The synthesized compounds were characterised by IR, NMR, and Mass Spectra.

This work deals with the elaboration and the physical characterization of thermally modified wood with boiling palm oil. The heat treatment consists of dipping successively the wood into two baths of oil, the first one at a temperature about 200°C for 30 minutes and the second at ambient temperature of 23°C. This resulted in important color changes of treated specimens. The wood species used for the study are Sapelli and Ayous, two Cameroonian hardwoods. A compared study of the physical properties of treated and untreated wood was made. Hygroscopicity of heat?treated wood has been tested. Samples were dipped in water and then kept in a room with a relative humidity of 65% and a temperature of 23 °C. The samples were periodically weighed over a period of 8 days. The conclusion was that during a short period the water permeability of heat?treated Sapelli was 70 per cent lower than that of normal dried Sapelli. The same result was found for Ayous. Heat treatment significantly reduces the tangential and radial swelling. The Specific gravity of heat treated wood was almost constant, but higher than that untreated wood. After an adequate treatment, the moisture content of these woods after dipping in water for a long time was less than 7%. It is therefore possible for these treated woods to be used outside without biological attack due to moisture. In addition, the dimensions of treated wood were almost constant.

In this study, we have demonstrated that haemoglobin can be coupled to acid-treated multiwall carbon nanotubes in the presence of 1-ethyl-3- (3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) and assembled as haemoglobin–carbon nanotube (Hb–CNT) composites. Our observations of the electrochemical studies demonstrate that the electrochemical response of Hb–CNT assembled in the presence of EDC is much higher than that in the absence of EDC. It is evident that the direct electron transfer of haemoglobin could be effectively accelerated in the Hb–CNT assembly by using EDC on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE), and the relative electron transfer rate constant Ks is found to be 1.02 ± 0.05 s?1. The results of our studies illustrate that the assembly of haemoglobin–multiwall carbon nanotubes using EDC could provide a novel strategy to effectively facilitate the direct electrochemistry of heme-containing proteins, which could be further utilized as a promising biosensor for some specific biological substrate and related biological process.

Absorbed dose rate and annual effective dose estimated for occupational workers for Goldmines in Ghana that uses nuclear gauges in their operations and external ionizing radiation exposure during cargo radiographic inspections were measured as part of the authorization process for the use of ionizing radiations sources in Ghana. The measurements reported in this paper were made with portable radiation monitor which employed GM tube and was calibrated against secondary standard dosimetry system and a data for a five-year period (2010-2014) was compiled from the RAIS of the Ghana Radiation Protection Board. The average absorbed dose rate in air for Goldmine workers was 0.73µSv/h with an annual effective dose of 1.45 mSv while the average external radiation dose for workers and members of the public during cargo inspection was 0.23 µSv/h for Cobalt 60 scanners and 0.1 µSv/h for x-ray scanners and the annual effective dose for both workers and members of the public for Cobalt-60 and X-ray scanners were 0.46mSv and 0.2mSv respectively. It was concluded that the prevalent radiation levels did not pose any significant radiological health hazard to workers and members of the public.

In this work had be determine the ratio of the drift velocity to the diffusion coefficient W/D to calculate the motion of free electrons in air and helium gas. The following parameters of the electronic motion were determined as a function of the electric field strength E, apparent energy factor, K1 and Townsend energy factor, KT for Helium gas and air at 300?K and 288?K respectively in case of Maxwell and Druyvesteyn distribution law. The transport equation solved numerically to obtain the transport coefficients values and had be fed to the equations to calculate the above parameters. The gas parameters are obtained and compared with available experimental data.