Archives-December 

ABSTRACT Suitability of growing media or substrates is essential for production of quality seedlings for transplant. It directly affects the development and later maintenance of the extensive functional system. A good growing medium would provide sufficient anchorage of support to plant, serves a reservoir for nutrient and water, allow oxygen diffusion to the root and permit gaseous exchange between the root and atmosphere outside the root substrate. In the present of study different growth media were used to germinate the seed of white yam (Dioscorea rotundata) under a controlled growth chamber to identify which among the tried media is best for yam seed. The growth media tested were Cocopeat, Peat pellet, Carbonized rice husk, Top soil, Cocopeat + Top soil and Carbonized rice husk + Top soil. Each treatment was measured into a nursery seedling basket, arranged in randomized complete block design, and replicated four times. Daily minimum and maximum Temperature and Relative humidity records were recorded throughout the experiment. At 60 and 90 days after seed sowing, growth response parameters were recorded and were subjected to analysis of variance and treatment means were separated using least significant difference at 5% probability level. Highest germination of 71.65 and 88.65% at 60 and 90 days after sowing respectively were recorded from yam seed planted in Cocopeat and the same trend was observed in respect of growth response parameters observed. Top soil had the least influence as growth medium, which was not significantly different from response from its mixture with other growth media.

CHROMagar Candida is a new differential culture medium that allows the isolation and presumptive identification of species of yeast of clinical importance. During the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in the prevalence of fungal infections caused by Candida species. The aim of the study was to isolate and identify Candida species from the oral cavity with CHROMagar Candida. This study was carried out in 30 patients with infections aged 21 to 90 years. Swabs samples were taken from oral cavity and were cultured directly on Sabouraud dextrose agar medium. In this study shows that CHROMagar Candida can easily identify four species of Candida on the basis of colonial color and morphology, and accurately differentiate between them i.e. Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, Candida tropicalis and Candida krusei. Results showed the prevalence of C.albicans (n = 21, 70%), C. glabrata (n = 5, 16.6%), C. krusei (n = 2, 6.7%), and C. tropicalis (n =2, 6.7%). In this investigation, CHROMagar produced light green colonies and were considered as Candida albicans, Pink with a darker mauve center colonies were identified as Candida glabrata, pink with pale borders colonies were identified as Candida krusei, and dark blue, purple diffusion colonies were identified as Candida tropicalis. CHROMagar is extremely useful in making a rapid presumptive identification of common yeast species. This capability plus the ability to detect mixed cultures of Candida species promises to improve and streamline the work flow in the mycology and clinical microbiology laboratory.

This paper describes a hybrid design for intrusion detection that combines anomaly detection with misuse detection. The proposed method includes an ensemble feature selecting classifier and a data mining classifier. The former consists of four classifiers using different sets of features and each of them employs a machine learning algorithm named fuzzy belief k-NN classification algorithm. The latter applies data mining technique to automatically extract computer users’ normal behavior from training network traffic data. The outputs of ensemble feature selecting classifier and data mining classifier are then fused together to get the final decision. The experimental results indicate that hybrid approach effectively generates a more accurate intrusion detection model on detecting both normal usages and malicious activities.

Table of contents for the month of August 2011

Table of contents for the month of May 2017

Recently, the focus of scientific investigations has moved from the primary role of food as the source of energy and body-forming substances to the more subtle action of biologically active food components on human health. There has been an explosion of consumer interest in the active role of food in the well-being and life prolongation, as well as in the prevention of initiation, promotion, and development of non-transmissible chronic diseases. As a result, a new term—functional food—was proposed. Among these foods, probiotics exert positive effects on the composition of gut micro biota and overall health, and the market is increasing annually. In the current study the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus was encapsulated in microcapsules of sodium alginate. These encapsulated microbes were used in the fermentation and production of curd with high nutritional values. On comparing the curd fermented with microencapsulated bacterium with that of the non-encapsulated forms (traditional fermentation technique) it was found out that there was a considerable reduction in the fat content of the sample prepared with the microencapsulated form (2.20 gm) to the non-encapsulated organisms (3.90 gm). The protein and the vitamin-C content were found to be more or less the same in both the cases. The iron content of the sample prepared with microencapsulated form was found to be 7.2 gm to 3 gm of iron content for the sample produced through non-encapsulated bacterium. It was found out that the curd fermented through the microencapsulated L. acidophilus was found to be nutritionally rich and that the organism could also act survive as a probiotic in the gut in the presence of a protective microencapsulation.

We are very happy to announce that from 18th November 2013, Mr. Gabriel Marian Manolache has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Physical Education and Sport, Sports Management. Mr. Gabriel Marian Manolache is currently working as Physical Education and Sports Faculty, University of Galati, Garii Street, Galati. The appointment of Mr. Gabriel Marian Manolache 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. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief

We are very happy to announce that from 15th August 2012, Mr. Muhammad Waqas Chughtai has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Management Science. Mr. Muhammad Waqas Chughtai is currently associated with Scholars Cantt Group of Colleges Rawalpindi. The appointment of Mr. Muhammad Waqas Chughtai 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 chiefeditor@elixirjournal.org. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief

Discretization transforms a continuous attribute values into a finite number of intervals and associates with each interval a numerical, discrete value. For mixed-mode (continuous and discrete) data, discretization is usually performed prior to the learning process and plays an important role in KDD process. CAIM is very efficient, supervised discretization algorithm. Recent data mining technology is found to be slow to handle data of very large scale. In addition, data mining needs to be a continuous, online process, rather than an occasional one-shot process which has created a need for incremental approach for effective model preparation and updating. Incremental classification is proposed in literature needs online discretization, has created a need for fast and efficient discretization algorithm. The Modified CAIM (MoCAIM) algorithm is proposed and used as online discretization for the Novel ID3 (NID3) algorithm where CAIR is used as attribute selection criteria and CAIM is used for online discretization. Improved NID3 (INID3) is proposed to improve the classification accuracy by considering the unclassified instances of the test and predication phases of the classification process. The outperforming results of MoCAIM and INID3 algorithms in term of classification accuracy and Execution time motivate to explore the process further for the streamed data classification.

This paper has investigated the relationship between the oil prices and the real exchange rate in Iran from 1980-2013. The result of the Johansen cointegration test illustrates a long run equilibrium relationship between the real oil prices and the real exchange rate. This relationship is supported by the Granger Causality test which determines the causal relationship from the oil prices to the Real Exchange Rate. The result of the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity test (GARCH) suggests persistency of the volatility between the oil prices and the real exchange rate. These findings consider the implications for policy maker to stabilize the fluctuations of the real exchange rate. Therefore, these findings can be beneficial for formulating and implementing economic policies.