A survey : particle swarm optimization-based algorithms for grid computing scheduling systems.

Bio-inspired heuristics have been promising in solving complex scheduling optimization problems. Several researches have been conducted to tackle the problems of task scheduling for the heterogeneous and dynamic grid systems using different bio-inspired mechanisms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). PSO has been proven to have a relatively more promissing performance in dealing with most of the task scheduling challenges. However, to achieve optimum performance, new models and techniques for PSO need to be developed. This study surveys PSObased scheduling algorithms for Grid systems and presents a classification for the various approaches adopted. Meta task-based and workflow-based are the main categories explored. Each scheduling algorithm is described and discussed under the suitable category

Adsorption of Pesticides from Aqueous Solution using Kinkeliba (Combretum micranthum G.) Derived Activated Carbon

The utilization of kinkeliba (Combretum micranthum G.) leaves as precursor for producing activated carbon for adsorption of pesticides from aqueous solution was investigated in this study. The Combretum micranthum G. leave were carbonized at a temperature of 500 ºC for 1 h. After activation with H3PO4, the kinkeliba activated carbon (KAC) possessed bulk density of 78.6 g/dm3 and volatile component of 10%. The pH, percentage moisture and ash content of the KAC were 5.43 ± 0.36, 1.25 ± 0.04% and 5.01 ± 0.12% respectively. The adsorption of pesticides onto the prepared KAC adsorbent was optimized in terms of operating parameters (adsorbent dose, pH, contact time and initial adsorbate concentration). The results showed greater removal efficiency for the pesticides at pH 3 in 30 min. The results from isotherms studies showed that adsorption of pesticides onto KAC was best fitted to the Langmuir isotherm model (R2 > 0.99), indicating monolayer adsorption. However, Freundlich isotherm model provided the best fit for the uptake of pendimethalin onto the KAC with qe of 118.13 mg/g and R2 of 0.935 suggesting multilayer adsorption.The present work showed that the kinkeliba activated carbon can be used as a potential low-cost adsorbent for the removal of pesticides from aqueous solutions

Pressure gauge accuracy and tire maintenance awareness among vehicle owners in Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria

Aside from human factors, tire blowouts and other tire imperfections are major contributors to the persistently high road accident rate. While tire imperfections are categorized as part of the mechanical factors affecting road accident, the tire maintenance personnel and the vehicle owners' human behavior plays a significant role in ensuring that accidents due to tire imperfections are minimized. Therefore, this study aims to determine the accuracy of the pressure gauges used by tire maintenance personnel, popularly called vulcanizers in Nigeria, and to determine the level of awareness of vehicle owners about the basic information that affects the safe use of tires on the road.  The study consists of two stages. The first stage investigates the accuracy of the pressure gauges used by twenty vulcanizers in four different districts in Birnin Kebbi, the northwestern part of Nigeria. The second stage was an online survey regarding the tire maintenance behavior of 87 participants, who were formally educated from Diploma to Ph.D. level. The study's findings showed that about 25% of the vulcanizers do not use pressure gauges to measure air pressure during tire inflation, and less than 17% of the readings taken were accurate. Yet about 60% of the respondents believe that vulcanizers' pressure gauges are reliable and less than 30% of the respondents know that the expiring date of tires is four years in Nigeria. Therefore, there is an urgent need for proper awareness about tire usage and maintenance among the general population. It would also be appropriate to include such basic road safety information in the school curriculum at all levels

A Review on Required Catalysts Composition and its Effective Preparation Method for Hydrodeoxygenation of Bio-oil

The hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oil performance is dependent on the efficiency and effectiveness of the applied catalyst. The effectiveness of a catalyst in hydrodeoxygenation reaction heavily depends on its composition. In this review, an overview of hydrodeoxygenation catalyst composition and its effective preparation methods are highlighted and discussed. Various catalyst compositions such active metals,  promoters, and catalyst supports used for hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oil to saturated hydrocarbon fuels are discussed. Furthermore,  effective synthesis methods for nickel-based catalysts as well as factors that can enhance better distribution and dispersion of active nickel species over catalyst support at various developmental stages, i.e. during deposition, drying and activation (which involve calcination and reduction of catalysts synthesis) are discussed

Frequently Encountered Animal Diseases at Animal Hospital Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State - Nigeria

Data from the clinical record of the Animal Hospital Birnin Kebbi was used to determine the frequency of occurrence of various diseases of animals from February 2009 to January 2010. A total of 794 cases were presented. 155 (19.5%) for routine check and vaccination, while the bulk 639 (80.5%)were presented as a result of disease conditions. Diseases diagnosed include; helminthoses 141(22%), followed by fowl pox 65(10.2%), lousiness 61(9.5%), traumatic injuries 46(7.2%), enteritis 32(5.0%), upper respiratory tract infection 29(4.5%), mite/mange 24(3.8%), septicemia22(3.4%), bloat 19(3.0%), and abscess 17(2.7%). Other moderately occurring, disorders included dystocia & post partum complications 14(2.2%) each, mal-directed horn/hooves 12(1.9%), tick infestation 10(1.6%), coccidiosis 9(1.4%), fracture 8(1.3%), hernia, PPR, pregnancy toxemia & castration 7(1.1%) each. Poisoning, infectious coryza, arthritis, rumen impaction & vaginal prolapse were 6(0.9%) each, pneumonia and mastitis 5(0.8%) each. The less occurring disorders included urinarytract infection, Gumboro disease, black leg, abortion, paraphimosis & dog bite 4(0.6%) each. Rhinitis & chronic respiratory diseases 3(0.5%) each, Foot and Mouth disease, New castle disease, cowdriosis, and hygroma numbering 2(0.3%) each. The least occurring disorders were Fowltyphoid, dislocation, trypanasomosis, pyometra, orf, stomatitis, grass tetany, canine distemper, atresia ani and rectal prolapse 1(0.2%) case each. Information generated can be useful to Government agencies involved in formulating policies and guidelines for prevention andcontrol of animal diseases

Prevalence of Cysticercus tenuicollis cysts in sheep slaughtered at Sokoto abattoir, Sokoto state, Nigeria

A prospective study was conducted based on the principle of post mortem examination on sheep slaughtered at Sokoto abattoir for the presence of Cysticercus tenuicollis cysts. A total of 261 sheep were examined with 34 (13.03%) infected. Prevalence of infection increased with the age of the  animals. Males had relatively higher prevalence than females. Infection was recorded in several visceral organs with omentum having the highest  prevalence (35.29%) and the lungs the least(11.76%). The results suggest that C. tenuicollis is common and may constitute a health problem in sheep and a source of economic loss in the meat industry, thus emphasizing the need for proper meat inspection and handling of offals in the study area

A particle swarm optimization and min-max­-based workflow scheduling algorithm with QoS satisfaction for service-­oriented grids

In service-orientated grids (SOG) environments, grid workflow schedulers play a critical role in providing quality-of-service (QoS) satisfaction for various end users (EUs) with diverse QoS objectives and optimization requirements. The EU requirements are not only many and conflicting, but also involve constraints of various degrees—loose, moderate or tight. However, most of the existing scheduling approaches violate EU constraints in tight situations and suffer inferior QoS optimization results. In this paper, a constraints-aware multi-QoS workflow scheduling strategy is proposed based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and a proposed look-ahead heuristic (LAPSO) to improve performance in such situations. The algorithm selects the best scheduling solutions based on the proposed constraint-handling strategy. It hybridises PSO with a novel look-ahead mechanism based on a min–max heuristic, which deterministically improves the quality of the best solutions. Extensive simulation experiments have been carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The simulation results show that the LAPSO algorithm guarantees satisfaction (0% violation) of the EU constraints even in tight situations. It also outperforms the comparison algorithm, with about 30% increase, in terms of cumulative QoS satisfaction of optimization requirements. In addition, the new scheme significantly reduces the CPU time by about 75% compared to the benchmark algorithm

Catalytic Upgrading of Biomass Model Compounds: Novel Approaches and Lessons Learnt from Traditional Hydrodeoxygenation – a Review

Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is a fundamental process for bio‐resources upgrading to produce transportation fuels or added value chemicals. The bottleneck of this technology to be implemented at commercial scale is its dependence on high pressure hydrogen, an expensive resource which utilization also poses safety concerns. In this scenario, the development of hydrogen‐free alternatives to facilitate oxygen removal in biomass derived compounds is a major challenge for catalysis science but at the same time it could revolutionize biomass processing technologies. In this review we have analysed several novel approaches, including catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH), combined reforming and hydrodeoxygenation, metal hydrolysis and subsequent hydrodeoxygenation along with non‐thermal plasma (NTP) to avoid the supply of external H2. The knowledge accumulated from traditional HDO sets the grounds for catalysts and processes development among the hydrogen alternatives. In this sense, mechanistic aspects for HDO and the proposed alternatives are carefully analysed in this work. Biomass model compounds are selected aiming to provide an in‐depth description of the different processes and stablish solid correlations catalysts composition‐catalytic performance which can be further extrapolated to more complex biomass feedstocks. Moreover, the current challenges and research trends of novel hydrodeoxygenation strategies are also presented aiming to spark inspiration among the broad community of scientists working towards a low carbon society where bio‐resources will play a major role.Financial support for this work was provided by the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering of the University of Surrey and the EPSRC grants EP/J020184/2 and EP/R512904/1 as well as the Royal Society Research Grant RSGR1180353. Authors would also like to acknowledge the Ministerio de Economía, Industriay Competitividad of Spain (Project MAT2013‐45008‐P) and the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). LPP also thanks Comunitat Valenciana for her postdoctoral fellow (APOSTD2017)

Effect of Ti loading on structure-activity properties of Cu-Ni/Ti-MCM-41 catalysts in hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol

Various Cu-Ni/Ti-MCM-41 catalysts by varying Ti amount (Ti/Si = 10, 20 and 30%) were synthesized for hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol and characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, NH3-TPD, H2-TPR and Raman spectroscopy. The Ti loading shows an adverse effect on the catalyst surface area. But, more number of acidic sites (5173.55 μmol/g) were found for 20% Ti loaded Cu-Ni/Ti-MCM-41 catalyst. The 20% Ti loaded Cu-Ni/Ti-MCM-41 catalyst shows a high guaiacol conversion (74.2%) and cyclohexane selectivity (48.81%) which is due to abundant acid and redox sites: acid sites initiate removal of oxygen via dehydration, while hydrogenation of guaiacol to cyclohexane is promoted by redox sites

Probabilistic reliability prediction models for task scheduling in distributed systems: A review

In service-oriented distributed systems, beside time and cost, reliability is the most important concern to both service users and the service providers. Although, this has been many decades problem, the existence of large number of service systems on the internet today has rendered the problem more difficult. This is because the distributed environment of today is more complex with numerous uncertainties and chances of failure at all levels. Therefore, selection of reliable service poses a serious challenge. To combat this problem, over the years, huge number of reliability researches has been reported in literature. These researches have been categorized and analysed in many survey and review studies. However, most of these studies focus on the architecture-based reliability mechanisms and pay little attention to the advances in the popular probabilistic reliability prediction methods which are based on quantitative reliability measurements. These methods which are sometimes called ‘black box’ techniques are of great importance to both service designers and service clients such as brokers and other proprietary schedulers, for evaluating reliability of services or service components. Therefore, in this study the previous survey and review studies are extended by analyzing these methods and their recently proposed variants. In the end the study reveal some of the current issues that need further research