Archives- 

Number of plant species, in present time, is on the verge of extinction. Thus owing to this threat to plant species their identification has become very important. This paper presents a technique that has been implemented for the identification of plant species based on leaf images. The plant species identification involves three steps such as pre-processing, feature extraction and classification.

Sarcomatoid renal carcinoma is a rare and agressive variant of the cancer of the kidney. These tumors are indifferencied and originates from all renal cell carcinomas. The diagnosis is exclusively histologic and therapeutic modalities are limited to radical nephrectomy. We report a new case and will discuss diagnosis, therapeutic and prognostic characteristics of this rare and agressive entity

Small Scale Enterprises have been recognized to be the main engine of economic growth and a major factor in promoting private sector development and partnership in the developing economies of the world. The enterprises in this category have not only brought about substantial local capital formation, it has really increased the level of productivity and capabilities of the dwellers of the rural commodities thereby redistributing the nations income and curbing rural-urban drift of citizens. However, despite the benefit accruable from the development of Small Scale Industries (SSI), little attention has been paid to its improvement by various tiers of government because of the distance between the government and the local dwellers. Also, lack of infrastructural facilities like power supply, provision of water, accessible roads to link the rural communities to the commercial centers, and non – availability of formal financial institutions have negatively affected the optimum performance of the various Small Scale Enterprises in Nigeria. Therefore the thrust of this paper is to assess how far the Small Scale Industries have been thriving in the face of various problems ranging from infrastructural to financial, confronting the entrepreneurs in the local communities and the effects of such constraints and problems on their business and how the problems can be ameliorated in order to improve the welfare and enhance the social economic development of the citizens at the grassroots. The population for the study comprises the small scale entrepreneur in Osun State of Nigeria. The sample consists of Iwo Local Government Area and Ola Oluwa Local Government Area. The two local councils are predominantly of villages and towns which can be regarded as real grass root communities and the major enterprises being practiced is the small scale type. Out of this population, 200 respondents randomly chosen were served questionnaires, in which 153 respondents returned their questionnaire filled. The researcher also made use of oral interview with the officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Iwo Zonal office serving the two local councils as well as using some relevant data from the internal Revenue Board of Osun State. For the analysis of the data, simple percentages were used to classify the responses of the respondents and Chi-square (x2) was used to test the various hypotheses proposed. The findings of the study indicate that Small Scale business entrepreneurs have no access to funds from the formal financial institutions (Banks) due to non-availability of banks in these rural areas and where there are few of the banks, the formality of processing loans and the interest on such loans have been very discouraging. Due to this, majority of the respondents make use of non-bank financial institution like thrift and cooperative societies, and also get financial assistance through Revolving Loan Scheme (ESUSU) and Daily Contributions Arrangement (AJO). However, in spite of all these challenges, it was found out by the researcher that investing in small scale business in these areas has great prospect and thus profitable to the owners. Small scale businesses have really served as a very charitable linkage between the source of raw materials and the usage of such materials by the large scale counterparts in the state. Also, of small scale business have thrived greatly by helping the rural dwellers to have access to the finished products of large corporations through buying and selling.

Space-based solar power (SBSP) is the concept of collecting solar power in space for use on Earth. It has been in research since the early 1970s.This paper projects how SBSP would differ from current solar collection methods in that the means used to collect energy would reside on an orbiting satellite instead of on Earth's surface. Besides the cost of implementing such a system, SBSP also introduces several new hurdles, primarily the problem of transmitting energy from orbit to Earth's surface for use. Since wires extending from Earth's surface to an orbiting satellite are neither practical nor feasible with current technology, SBSP designs generally include the use of some manner of wireless power transmission. The collecting satellite would convert solar energy into electrical energy on-board, powering a microwave transmitter or laser emitter, and focus its beam toward a collector (rectenna) on the Earth's surface. Radiation and micrometeoroid damage could also become concerns for SBSP

Brachyuran crabs for the present investigation were collected from offshore region of Mallipattinam (Lat. 10°12¢ NS. and Long. 79°20¢ EW) which is situated near sethubhava ghatiam on sethusamudram canal. Ashvini River enters into Palk Strait at Mallipattinam, which carries large among of nutrients flushing into the probably promotes the species biodiversity both racially and individually. In the present investigation nearly 23 species of marine crabs are landing at Mallipattinam coast. Out of these twenty three species frequency of landing restricted to 12 species alone. They are Portunus pelagicus, P. sanginolentus, C. lucifera, C. feriata, C. callinosa, Podophthalmus vigil, Galene bispinosa, Ocypoda macrocera, Ocypoda platytarsis, Calappa lophos, C. bicornis, and Philyra globasca. In these groups some species are non-edible and others are edible but the non-edible species are commercially important because of their use in aqua and poultry feed industry. The population density, distribution frequency, sex ratio, fecundity of these crabs showed significant variation with reference to seasons. The study critically focusing the fact, that the biodiversity of brachyuran species and even other species may be decline in future due to the deposition of sand into the Palk Strait region. In these areas indicates that this area suitable for crab inhabiting and propagation.

Objective: To determine superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione dismutase (GPX) malondialdehyde (MDA), uric acid, zinc, ascorbic acid, albumin, blood lipids and glycated hemoglobin A1 (HbA1c) in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients. Study Design: Case control study Place & Duration: Department of Medicine -Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Hospital from December 2014- August 2015. Subjects & Methods: 95 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics and 55 controls selected through non-probability purposive sampling according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. 8-12 hour fasting was ensured for blood samples. BUN, serum creatinine, albumin, bilirubin, uric acid, blood glucose, HbA1c, blood lipids, triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, MDA, SOD, GPX, zinc and Ascorbic acid were determined by standard methods. Data was entered in Statistix 8.1. (USA) Continuous and categorical data was analyzed by student’s t test and Chi square test respectively. Microsoft excel was used for graphing. Data was analyzed at 95% confidence interval (p- ? 0.05). Results: Blood pressure, obesity, blood glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine showed statistically significant differences (p<0.05). VLDL, triglycerides, LDLc were elevated in diabetics, while HDLc was reduced. MDA, SOD, GPX, zinc, ascorbic acid, uric acid and bilirubin showed significant differences (p<0.05). MDA in diabetics and controls was noted as 5.17±0.81 vs. 2.15±0.62 µmol/ml respectively (p=0.0001). SOD, GPX, AA, Zn++, UA, serum albumin and serum bilirubin were decreased in diabetics. Conclusion: The superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), uric acid, bilirubin and zinc were reduced and malondialdehyde (MDA), altered blood lipids and glycated HbA1 were increased in diabetics in present study.

Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) ions form complexes of the type [ML₂]xH₂O with the  Schiff  base, [{4-(methylsulfanyl)phenyl]imino}methyl]benzene-2,4-diol, using the phenolic O and imine N atoms. These compounds are characterized by microanalysis, conductance, ¹H NMR, infrared and electronic spectral measurements. The IR measurements reveal that the Zn(II) complex is in the trans-isomeric form while electronic measurements are corroborative of a four coordinate, tetrahedral/square-planar geometry for the metal complexes. None is an electrolyte in nitromethane, and all the complexes are air stable but decomposed on heating in the temperature range 210-330^oC. The antibacterial studies show that the ligand, the Mn(II), Co(II), and Zn(II) complexes are active against Staphylococcus aureus with inhibitory zones range of 9.0-17.0 mm.  The cytotoxic study shows that the Cu(II) complex has the best in-vitro anticancer activity against HT-29 (colon carcinoma) cells with an IC₅₀ value of 30.17 ?M, which is  about a quarter as active as Cis-platin.

One feature that characterized the political history of most African countries is the evolution from colonialism through the rise of nationalist movements to independence and the fall of the first generation nationalists. Headed by the emerging African elite most of whom had just obtained western education in either Europe or America, these nationalist movements began to advocate “self-rule now”. They do so with the promise that the development of African nations will be faster under native rulers. Given the opportunity to rule their nations, however, things begin to change for the worse against the high expectations of the masses. Greed, avarice, nepotism and corruption have taken over, and have eaten deep into both social and economic lives of the people. This study, which is based on the realist approach to literary criticism, seeks to examine the image of the African political administrators in two post-colonial novels – Peter Abraham’s A Wreath for Udomo and Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People. The purpose is to find out if, in literature, African countries have fared better economically under native rule than under colonial rule.

One type of a new product for the usefulness of panel wall material containing mixed composite of cement, sand and recycle paper called as Paper Fiber Reinforced Foam Concrete (PFRFC) as upon of the reinforcement addition is expected can improve materials quality for non load bearing wall. Pursuant to study of paper fiber in mixture of concrete it was produce a strong structure materials, environmental friendly and economical. By that, this study have practiced using paper fiber with other mixture of lightweight foamed concrete to search out the good material for lightweight concrete in term of the tension strength, compression strength and absorption of noise. Paper fiber come from wood fiber which have experienced of crushing process, condensation, and pickling have idiosyncrasy in absorbent strength of sound and strength of tension but it is sensitive to water, slow harden and increase the density of foam concrete specimens. Experimental work of PFRFC have been conducted in the form of prism specimen, panel wall and cube, with water ratio, cement, and sand is 0.45 : 1 : 1.5 and mixed with 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% of paper fiber. The research ve shows that with addition of paper fiber, the flexural strength of the Paper Fiber Reinforced Foam Concrete (PFRFC) is increases although the compression strength of PFRFC is not as good as the flexural strength. The strength of wall panel of PFRFC is better compared to Normal Foam Concrete (NFC) wall panel in terms of the flexural strength and noise absorption. The density discovered is less than normal concrete density, which are 2400 kg/m3. The PFRFC density is appropriate for the lightweight material for wall panel, which is the range of density, are 800 - 900 kg/m3 for the specimen of PFRFC cube.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to survey the relation between students’s learning style and teacher’s teaching methods which apply towards the achievements in CES subject in three Technical School in Negeri Sembilan. Respondent of the research involving 180 students and a questionnaire was used as research instrument. This questionnaire contained two parts, which were Part A; seven questions related to background of respondents and Part B containing 36 items related to 3 types of learning styles and 2 types of teaching methods. The acquired overall alpha value was 0.844 and possessed high trustworthiness questions. Data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) software version 15 to acquire frequency, percentage and mean that were later shown in table form. Acquired study findings showed that auditory learning style was the most dominant learning style which applied among the students whereas demonstration method was the most dominant teaching method used among the teachers. In this study, it was discovered that no significant relation between visual and kinesthetic learning style with the achievements in Civil Engineering Studies (CES) subject whereas there was a significant relation between auditory with the subject achievements. For analysis of relation between learning styles and teaching methods there was a significant relation between both of them. This research suggest a further research to find the effectiveness of teacher’s teaching methods which must be required to attain correct information and used it to solve the student’s achievement problems.