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Medical implants the most unavoidable medical device of nowadays has many potent advantages. One of the important limitations of it in medical usage is colonization of biofilm formers on the inner surface of the implants and produce high risk for the implantable material. This study involves the evaluation of one such high rate biofilm forming bacteria, Staphylococcus epidermidis which prevail in the blood. The research materials silicone used for making catheters and stents was coated with chitosan and crosslinked using poly- D,L lactic acid (PDLLA) to provide anti-bacterial activity. This was achieved through a dip coating procedure. The bioefficacy against S. epidermidis, water absorbing ability, withstanding lysozyme degradation and biocompatibility analysis were done to understand whether the coated catheters can be more advantageous than the usual one used in hospitals normally. All the analysis showed more compatible result for the chitosan-PDLLA coated catheter samples. The bioefficacy effect of the dip coated catheters and its ability to eradicate the biofilm formation on the surface designated the modified silicone catheters as efficient implants.

The effects of alkalinity/acidity, addition of copper and zinc, and seeding material on biogas generation using freshly voided cow dung as feedstock were investigated. Experimental set-up for seven digesters, labeled A to F, were carried out in the laboratory with varying measurements of slurry in the digesters, varying pH values for three digesters, some with seeding materials while others with addition of metals –copper and zinc separately. The study was carried out for an hydraulic retention time of 32 days during which volumes of gas generated from all digesters range from 1022cm3 to 1723cm3 with the highest gas produced from digester with the rice husk and banana peels. The results showed best yields with cow dung seeded with rice husk and banana peels, while addition of metals and an alkaline slurry solution of pH = 7 had an improving effect on biogas production.

Speech is an efficient mode of communication among human beings. The shape of glottal excitation may be speaker and language dependent. The objective of this paper is to investigate the quality of speech with respect to glottal excitation modification in Hindi and Dogri languages. For this, recordings of six speakers (3 males and 3 females) were carried out in Dogri and Hindi languages. Cardinal vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/) were extracted from recordings of each speaker. Investigations were carried out by modifying the glottal excitation component of speech and this modification is obtained by adding noise which is a random signal to the glottal excitation component. The analysis of the results showed that quality and intelligibity of speech changes with the modification of the glottal source component in such a manner that identity of a speaker is fully lost and the clarity is degraded though not fully lost. Further, it is perceived that with the modification clarity in male speakers is more degraded than female speakers.

Principals’ leadership behavior plays an important role in transforming societies through the best performance of their teachers. This study was focused on the investigation of leadership behavior of principals at secondary school level in southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The survey research design was used. The study determines leadership behavior of secondary school principals as perceived by teachers. The study was delimited to Southern Districts of Khyber Pakhtukhwa, Pakistan and to the government boys’ Secondary Schools. The population of this study was comprised all teachers of government boys’ Secondary Schools of Southern Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Multistage random sampling technique was used, from the population four districts i.e. Kohat, Karak, Bannu and LakkiMarwat were selected randomly and then from each district ten schools and from each school ten teachers were selected randomly and thus the sample was stood 400 teachers of 40 Secondary Schools. The data was collected through a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The collected data was analyzed using Mean and Standard deviation to provide answer to the research question. It was concluded that the perceived leadership behavior of principals was above average and was good according to the scale.

Metal monitoring in food, like teas, provides basic information on safety aspects of food in regulatory processes in terms of suitability of food for consumption, as well as its nutritional value. The aim of this work was to measure the total content of Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn in ten brands of commercially available black tea, on the Ghanaian market. All of the samples were microwave-assisted acid digested followed by measurement of the elemental contents by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The concentrations of all the elements varied among the different brands of tea analysed. The total contents of Fe were comparatively higher than the other analyzed elements and varied between 302.95–27.30 µg/g. the ranges of the other elements observed, in µg/g, were as follows: Cr (<0.006-0.90), (3.85- 9.95), Mn (5.34-219.25), Pb (<0.001-2.05) and Zn(2.80-5.50). Cadmium and Cobolt were below detection limits. All values recorded were below the maximum permissible limit set by the WHO.

This paper reviews on the potential impacts of quality assurance approaches on the construction industry. Previously, researchers discovered that better product quality, not the price of the product is the key point in sustaining competition in the construction market. Hence to this fact, many construction organizations are beginning to invest relentless amounts of efforts and attention into the quality of their products as the product quality itself is the winning key in obtaining the competitive edge over local competitors in the market to ensure the sustainability of their own businesses. Quality has long been identified as one of the most basic requirements of clients as the necessity for product quality is undeniable and understandable. This is due to the fact that such buildings might be one of the biggest investments in the lives of most clients. Besides that, with the information regarding construction industry readily available for the public, potential clients are more educated and well-informed. To cater the different needs of clients, contractors have to be creative and innovative, to try their best to perform better. They must not only aim to deliver projects on time but also projects of excellent quality and price.

This paper focuses on the design of multi-element micro strip patch antenna array applicable to WLAN/MIMO at 2.4 GHz. Obviously, the performance of multi-element antenna system depends critically on the proper design of the arrays. In this paper design and simulation of 4x1 micro strip patch array with software IE3D is discussed. The performance of array have been compared with that of a single element micro strip patch antenna .Also the effect of mutual coupling of array elements on its performance is discussed .To reduce surface wave propagation, implementation of EBG substrate is discussed.

Two problems often crop up in adaptive sampling. One, it may not be feasible to sample according to a designated sampling plan. And two, the prescribed sampling plan may result in very small selection probabilities for some units thereby giving large weights to such units in estimation. In order to ameliorate these problems, a regression procedure that combines design and model-based techniques of estimation is proposed. Adaptive sampling designs are designs in which additional units or sites for observation are selected depending on the interpretation of observations made during initial sampling. Additional sampling is driven by the observed results from an initial sample. The results from this study demonstrate that the existing Horvitz-Thompson estimator for adaptive cluster sampling can be improved using model assistance.

We are very happy to announce that from 10th June 2017, Ms. Pooja Khanna has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Computer Science Engineering. The appointment of Ms. Pooja Khanna as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal.

Psychologists have identified personality variables as one of the most important factors related to physical illness. The period since 1950s till date, research has continued to show positive results relating illness to psychological factors and personality. Research in this area suggests that stress seems to affect some people more than it does to others, and researchers have looked for personality variables that might account for differential effects of stress. This study attempts to compare the neuroticism versus emotional stability scores of hypertensive and normotensive as well as male and female participants. The study adopted a 2 (hypertensives and normotensives) x 2 (males and females) factorial design. Two hundred and forty participants (120 chronic hypertensives and 120 normotensives) are selected from Gurgaon, Delhi. Out of 120 hypertensives, there were 60 males and 60 females. Similarly 60 healthy males and 60 healthy females not suffering from hypertension or any other disease were selected. The participants of all the four groups compared with respect to their scores on neuroticism versus emotional stability. The results indicate that hypertensives showed more score in all the dimensions of neuroticism compared to normotensives. It is also found that females have more depression and anxiety than males. They are more self-conscious and more vulnerable to stress compared to males. Males score high on anger, hostility and impulsive dimensions of the personality.