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We are very happy to announce that from 22nd September 2016, Dr. Srinivas Sathapathy has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Veterinary science. Dr. Srinivas Sathapathy working as Assistant Professor, Veterinary Anatomy & Histology, College of Veterinary Sci. & Animal Husbandry, Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar- 751 003, (Odisha), India. The appointment of Dr. Srinivas Sathapathy as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal.

Despite that plantain marketing could be used as one of the economic options of breaking the vicious circle of poverty in Nigeria, studies seems not to have existed on the marketing of processed plantain in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. The study employed a combination of multistage and purposive random sampling techniques to collect data from 120 marketers. In line with the specific objectives, the data generated were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the analysis revealed that about 67% of the marketers were females who are within the active mean productive age of 32 years. It further showed that plantain are being processed into chips, flour, beverages, plantain ball, pastry, roasted plantain with plantain chips, plantain pastry, and roasted plantain being the most marketed processed plantain in the area. Meanwhile, the identified marketing activities performed by the marketers include advertisement, promotion, packaging, and after sells service in which case, the coefficients of advertisement and promotion (x?) were negatively signed and statistically significant at 5% level; and the coefficients of packaging (X?) and after sells service being positively signed and statistically significant at 1% level. Using the Benefit-Costs-Ratio analysis to determine the return to investment, it was observed that the most economically viable options of marketing plantain is by processing and selling roasted planting, plantain chips, plantain beverages, plantain pastry, plantain flour, and plantain balls. The study recommended for the provision of adequate marketing infrastructures by government and other NGOs to enable marketers make good returns from the marketing of processed plantain within the area.

A field experiment was carried out at the experimental Station of National Research Centre – El-Nubarya district, El-Behera Governorate, Egypt during two seasons of 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 to study the effect of drought stress (2504, 2003 and 1502 m3/fed/Season) (100 % IR, 80 % IR and 60 % IR) and four foliar application levels of ascorbic acid (AA) (0.0, 100, 200 and 300 mg/L) and their interaction on yield, irrigations water use efficiency of wheat, protein content and protein yield under newly reclaimed sandy soil conditions Results indicated that water irrigation requirement varied significantly in all studied characters. The water irrigation requirement of (80 % IR) produced high grain yield per faddan and insignificantly outyielded the water irrigation requirements of (100 % IR). Increasing foliar application levels of ascorbic acid significantly increased grain and straw yields per plant and per faddan as well as protein content, protein yield, plant height, spike length, seed index, number of spikelet’s per spike and water use efficiency. Results indicated that the interaction between water irrigation requirements and foliar application levels of ascorbic acid had significant effect on all studied characters. The interaction between the water irrigation requirements of (80% IR) and (300 mg/L) foliar application level of ascorbic acid gave the highest values of grain, straw and protein yields per faddan, water use efficiency and significantly outyielded the other all interactions. This means that we can save 20 % of irrigation water by using 80 % IR to irrigate the new lands under the conditions of this trail.

The aim of the present work is to study the effect of laser shock peening (LSP) on fatigue life of aluminum alloy (3003-H18) by using different (LSP), single spot, 2-spots with 50% overlap and 3-spots 100% full overlap on the surface to be treated. The effect of laser shock peening (LSP) on the fatigue life were investigated with constant amplitude stress at stress ratio R=-1 at room temperature. The results showed that the fatigue life increment over the life of samples without (LSP) in range (12%) for 1-spot LSP, (18%) for 2-spors LSP and (77%) for 3-spots LSP for aluminum alloy 3003-H18 at 100MPa amplitude stress. Also the results show that the highest fatigue strength was for samples with 3-spots LSP.

The effects of magnetic field on the exciton binding energy and the Phosphorous alloy content in a cylindrical Phosphorous doped GaAs quantum dot are investigated with the geometrical confinement. The various Phosphorous alloy concentration in the (xin = <0.3) quantum dot has been taken into account. All the computations to get the electronic states are performed using variational procedure within the single band effective mass approximation by the magnetic field strength. The effect of strain due to the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations is included.

Increased environmental awareness and strictness in emissions regulations have led to development of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA). The potential of WMA in reducing the energy consumption as compared to Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) is becoming more and more attractive nowadays. The goals for the WMA are to lower the mixing and compacting temperatures by reducing the viscosity of the binder, and using the same HMA plants to produce mixes that still meet specifications. The benefits of WMA include reduced emissions, decreased energy (fuel) consumption, reduced asphalt oxidation and early traffic opening. Several technologies of WMA are available today such as Aspha-min, Sasobit, Evotherm, WMA-Foam and Asphaltan B. Viscosity of the binder is used to determine its mixing, laying and compaction temperatures.In the present study Brookfield Viscometer is used for determination of the viscosity of bituminous binders with different combinations of additives at different temperatures ranging from 90ºC to 160ºC. Two binders VG 30 and CRMB 55, and two additives Sasobit and Evotherm are used. The results shows that the viscosity of the bituminous binders varies exponentially with the temperature and linearly with respect to the dose of Warm Mix additives and the mixing temperature can be reduced by 20ºC to 25ºC while laying and compaction temperature can be reduced by 10ºC to 15ºC by using these additives.

The focus of this study is to explore EFL teachers’ evaluations and expectations about English language courses as EFL in Iran. In other words, this article aims at creating a new avenue for effective EFL teaching curriculum and syllabus in the Iranian context. Iranian universities offer basic, general, and specific English courses as a part of their program, which are not being very effective. These courses do not promote the students in dealing with their disciplines or programs oriented courses. Even after completion of these courses in three or more semesters, students fail to grasp comprehensive control over the reading materials of their field. This is a common scenario in almost all the universities in Iran. The authors of this paper ventured to study the predicament of EFL courses in some universities. The data were collected through questionnaires from a total of 40 EFL teachers at 8 universities. The research results revealed that the existing English Course syllabus is not tailored appropriately to the needs of the students. It, therefore, suggests that university English courses should be redesigned in assimilating the learners’ need, and course contents should cover the socio-cultural factors of the learners.

Flood discharge is one of important factors in designs and hydrological works. Because of non-facilities and non-hydrometric equipment in basins without statistics or with deficient statistics especially in small watersheds, estimation of maximum instantaneous flood discharge is one of main problems in watershed projects. In this stud with the aim of determination of acceptable method to estimate maximum instantaneous flood discharge in small watersheds, two methods one base to basin area and other based to physiographical feature and precipitation were studied. The results showed that among methods related to basin area, Horton method with residual sum of squares 2.8(RMSE=2.8) and among methods related to basin- physiographical feature and precipitation, curve number with RMSE=20.6 had least error .so, determined as the best methods. FHWA method because of having most amount of RMSE=5924.5 had the least efficiency for determination of peak discharge in this area.

The effect of drying behavior on drying rate and quality characteristics of potato slices in a vacuum- infrared drying system was studied. In this work, the effect of the infrared radiation powers (100, 150 and 200 W) and vacuum levels (20, 80, 140 mm [Hg] and atmosphere pressure) at different thickness (1, 2 and 3 mm) on drying rate, shrinkage percentage and rehydration capacity were investigated. From the study, it was concluded that IR power level has significant effects to processing time and drying rate.The processing time reduced,while drying rates were higher with increased in IR power. Drying rate curve of potato slices at initially time of drying because of surface moisture evaporation in the ascending phase and afterward due to the start of influence of water from within of material to surface descending phase occurs. Also shrinkage percentage increased with increase of sample thickness. In other words, shrinkage was decreased at different thickness with increase of infrared radiation power and vacuum level. It was found that the long period of drying and increase of sample thickness may have contributed to a decrease in rehydration capacity. However, rehydration capacity at temperature 100°C for 3 min was more than temperature 25°C in duration 12 min.

Travel and Tourism industry is helping India’s economy in generating employment opportunities directly and indirectly. The present investigation is an analysis of financial and operating performance of a specialised financial institution came into existence to promote tourism in India i.e. Tourism Finance Corporation of India Ltd. It contributes in the development of tourism facilities in the country. The main concern of the study is to analyse financial and operational performance of the corporation through Financial Statement Analysis. The study is based exclusively on secondary data, which has been collected from various annual reports of Tourism Finance Corporation of India Ltd. The data has been analysed and interpreted by FSA, tables and graphs to make the data presentable and easy to understand. The research will provide assistance to the TFCI and other financial institutions to judge their financial and operational efficiency in respect to its beneficiaries in the society.