Archives-December 

Human T-cell leukemia Virus (HTLV) is an important cause of mortality and morbidity rate in adults. In India the incidence of HTLV infection are 100 in 100,000. The transmission of HTLV is through unprotected sex, HTLV donor and from infected mother to baby by means of breast feeding. Transcription of HTLV provirus leads to T-cell multiplication. A study was done to determine the presence of HTLV-I infections in pregnant women during third trimester. 57 maternal samples of three trimesters were collected. The serum was separated by centrifugation and aliquot. The presence of HTLV infection was assayed by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).  Seropositivity for HTLV -1 infection among the third trimester of pregnant women was found to be 2.44 %.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role and the scope of the application of data mining predictive science and medicine in a bid to build, evaluate, and the exploitation of data mining models in this regard. In this study to examine the related works in the field of prediction data mining in medicine, who recently published and is trying to highlight important issues and summarize methods and algorithms applied in the form of a series of training. According to the study of used in this study, in most cases to explore knowledge in the medical data from a combination of such as smart algorithms artificial neural network and the decision in the direction of the optimal - the former methods have been used.

We are very happy to announce that from 22nd June 2018, Dr. Aliyev Zakir Husein oglu has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Agricultural sciences. Dr. Aliyev Zakir Husein oglu working as Associate Professor, Professor of RAE academician RAPVHN and MAEP. The appointment of Dr. Aliyev Zakir Husein oglu as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to elixirpublishers@gmail.com.

Fuel wood is a major forest product that serves as vital source of livelihood for large proportion of the poor and middle- class people living in or close to the forest in most tropical countries. This study carried out the economic profitability of marketing fuel wood in Ibadan town of Oyo State, Nigeria. It specifically examines the market structure and conduct for fuel wood, the profitability and type of fuel wood sellers in the study areas. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 50 fuel wood marketers in the study area and structured questionnaires were administered on them. Descriptive statistical tools such as frequency, percentage and table; profitability analysis, gross margin and Gini coefficient were used to analyze the data collected. The study revealed that fuel wood market is dominated by the retailers which accounted for 46% of the sellers though there were other categories of sellers such as wood fellers/ producers (16%), wholesalers (32%) and wholesalers/ retailers (6%). The profitability analysis showed that an average marketer incurred a total variable cost of ?31, 731.82 per week but earned average revenue of ?38,290.00 per week which implies that an average marketer earned ? 6,558.18 as gross margin per week. In the analysis, the marketing margin and efficiency of fuel wood were estimated to be 58.69% and 120.67% respectively. A Gini-Coefficient of 0.393 obtained in this study indicates a high level of concentration and inefficiency in the fuel wood market. It is therefore recommended that the marketers should be equipped with incentives such as means of transportation, forest subsidies inform of reduce tax, reduced forest-charges, credits and loans that will reduce the marketing cost and bring about equal distribution of sales and income.

Fodder grasses like Sorghum bicolor play a vital role in livelihood generation in arid and semi-arid areas of Rajasthan in India. Cadmium pollution from industries can affect soils in farmlands thereby playing havoc with health of humans and livestock. The present study was undertaken to study the effect of Cadmium salts on seed germination percentage, seedling growth and fresh weight including various biochemical parameters of Sorghum bicolor. Seeds were treated with different concentrations (10, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 ppm) of cadmium sulphate along with control for 10 days. On the 10th day results were noted for above parameters. Seed germination percentage was recorded maximum at 10 ppm followed by 100 ppm. Both shoot and root length showed progressive decline with cadmium treatment. Fresh weight of seedlings was observed better than control for 10 ppm dose level. Further maximum amount of proteins and total soluble sugars were observed at 500ppm dose level while starch and total phenols were found to be maximum at 100ppm dose level. However, in lipids there was constant decrease as compared to control with increase in treatment dose. Total chlorophyll was found to be maximum at 1000 ppm , carotenoids and MDA at in control. These results can be further developed as markers for field testing of cadmium polluted plants.

Inhibition of ?-amylase, enzyme that plays a role in digestion of starch and glycogen, is considered a strategy for the treatment of disorders in carbohydrate uptake, such as diabetes and obesity, etc. Plants are an important source of chemical constituents with potential for inhibition of ?-amylase and can be used as therapeutic or functional food sources. In this study methanolic extracts from Mimosa pudica plant source that have been tested for ?-amylase & acid phosphatase inhibitory activity has been done. Amongst the phyto-constituents that have been investigated, flavonoids are one of them that demonstrated the highest inhibitory activities with the potential of inhibition related to number of hydroxyl groups in the molecule of the compound.The inhibition of acid phosphatase could be due to the rupture of lysosomal membrane in the presence of Mimosa pudica. Methanol crude extracts of the (whole plant) of Mimosa pudica (Mimosaceae) were screened in vitro for cytotoxicity studies by brine shrimp lethality bioassay and antioxidant activity using the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay. The methanol crude extracts of the whole plant showed potential cytotoxic activities (IC50 82.50?g/ml). The methanol crude extract of the whole plant showed moderate antioxidant activity (IC50 48.54?g/ml) compared to Rutin (IC50 34.60?g/ml). The % of inhibition of alpha Amylase & Acid Phosphatase of Mimosa pudica was found to be 41% & 47.8% in the concentration of 5mg/ml respectively with membrane stability 61.5%. The overall experimental results suggested that biologically active constituents present in the methanolic extract of Mimosa pudica and justifies its use in folkloric remedies.

Nowadays, consumers expect manufacturers to provide excellent quality, reliable delivery and competitive pricing. This demands that the manufacturer’s machines and processes are highly reliable. In order to possess highly reliable machines to make sure smooth manufacturing process, many organizations have implemented Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) as the enabling tool to maximize the effectiveness of equipment by setting and maintaining the optimum relationship between people and their machines. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is used as a measure when evaluating the result of TPM. This paper intends to find out the relationship between TPM implementation and OEE result. Comparison between before and after the implementation of TPM is carried out to see the difference that TPM can bring to an organization. Elements that constitute the OEE equation will be analyzed in order to identify which one that affects OEE result. After identifying, improvement will be made on that element so that OEE result will be improved ultimately. The approach used in this paper is case study and the instruments used to collect data are observation and interview. Microsoft Excel is used to analyze data obtained and calculate OEE. Hence, TPM is a useful tool in helping firm to achieve optimal manufacturing process. By being able to achieve this level of maintenance, an organization will be able to reap competitive advantages brought by TPM, thus, producing quality products that manage to satisfy customers and subsequently generating greater profits.

In this paper we have tried to implement the idea to classify fingerprints through identifying the core of the fingerprint. The fingerprint is taken as an input via an image. The image is then transformed for necessary preprocessing. Then we make a graph with ridges’ ending and bifurcations all around the Centre, acting as vertices. Then we compare the graph constructed using the connection of vertices. The idea is to calculate distance between neighbouring vertices for each vertex. Our aim is to increase the efficiency of fingerprint identification in different orientation.

Sodium montmorillonite clay was successfully modified by double modification one organic modification and the other inorganic phosphate. The nanodispersion was proven by transmission electron microscope which showed mixed morphology (intercalated, exfoliated and immiscible structures) in polymer matrix. In general, the thermal stability and flammability properties were improved by loading high density polyethylene by double modified clay.

For green fodder yield and its contributing traits in Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.), genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variability, heritability and genetic advance were estimated. Higher estimates of genetic variability were computed in internodal length followed by green fodder yield, plant height, number of leaves per plant and leaf area, whereas the least genetic coefficient of variability was observed in the days to 50% flowering. Higher amount of heritability was expressed by plant height followed by internodal length, number of leaves per plant, leaf area and green fodder yield. High estimates of genetic advance were computed for plant height followed by leaf area and internodal length. Correlation analysis at a genotypic level of the present breeding material indicated that plant height mainly increases with the increase in internodal length and with the increase in plant height, leaf area and number of leaves per plant, green fodder yield would increase. Path coefficients were computed to estimate the contribution of individual characters to green fodder yield in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.). Highest overall effect on green fodder yield was observed associated with plant height followed by internodal length, leaf area and number of leaves per plant.