Kernel estimation of residual extropy function under α-mixing dependence condition

As in the context of introducing the concept of residual entropy in the literature, Qiu and Jia (2018b) introduced the concept, residual extropy to measure the residual uncertainty of a random variable. In this work, we propose a nonparametric estimator for the residual extropy, where the observations under consideration are exhibiting α-mixing (strong mixing) dependence condition. Asymptotic properties of the estimator is derived under suitable regular conditions. A Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out to evaluate the performance of the estimator using the mean squared errors

EIMERIOSIS IN POULTRY OF RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD AREA

This study was designed to determine the prevalence of eimeriosis in poultry and identify potential risk factors for its spread in Rawalpindi/Islamabad area of Pakistan. Of 359 gut samples (suspected for harbouring eimeriosis) examined, 258 (71.86%) were found infected. Four species of Eimeria (E. maxima, 34.10%, E. tenella, 30.62%, E. mitis, 13.95% and E. necatrix, 7.75%) were recorded. The prevalence of eimeriosis was highest in the month of September (89.74%), while lowest during June (28.57%). The disease was more common at the farms where the litter was wet and not managed properly

Plant Biomass Productivity Under Abiotic Stresses in SAT Agriculture

The semi-arid tropics (SAT) include parts of 48 countries in the developing world: in most of India, locations in south east Asia, a swathe across sub-Saharan Africa, much of southern and eastern Africa, and a few locations in Latin America (Fig 1). Semi-arid tropical regions are characterized by unpredictable weather, long dry seasons, inconsistent rainfall, and soils that are poor in nutrients. Sorghum, millet, cowpea, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut are the vital crops that feed the poor people living in the SAT. Environmental stresses represent the most limiting factors for agricultural productivity. Apart from biotic stresses caused by plant pathogens, there are a number of abiotic stresses such as extremes temperatures, drought, salinity and radiation which all have detrimental effects on plant growth and yield, especially when several occur together (Mittler 2006)

Safety compliance for hihg rise projects in Nigerian construction Industry

Health and safety issues had always been a major challenge and concern in the construction industry. Construction is found to be one of the most dangerous on health and safety practice, predominantly in developing countries. As construction accidents continue to dominate the overall construction industry. Despite the programs implemented by government and measures introduced by companies the number of high rise construction accidents still remains alarmingly. This research aim to investigate the safety compliance for high rise construction project in Nigeria. In achieving this aim three (3) objectives has been outlined; to investigate the current level of compliance to safety practice and policies in Nigerian construction site. To investigate the factors that prevent the compliance to safety and health practices in high rise projects of Nigerian construction industry. To recommend appropriate ways to improve the compliance to safety in high rise of Nigerian construction. The interview and questionnaire method was used in this research. Structured Questionnaires was distributed to 108 potential respondents from the construction industry players 90 was returned and Qualitative interview have been conducted to meet the first objective of the project, to investigate the current level of compliance to safety practice In addition, structured interviews were carried out with selected managers from construction industry. The result shows that Bribery and corruption, Lack of training, Absence of safety representatives, Lack of corporate responsibility & Accountability, Weak legal structure were the significant factors affecting safety. Compliance. The result also indicate that Site inspection, Safety seminars (enforcement officers), Building codes of practice, Enforcement of safety act, Workers/labourers training are the effective factors that could improve compliance to safety practice in high rise project of Nigerian construction industry. It is recommended that relevant authorities should checkmate the Safety practices in the Nigerian construction industry

Toxicity of conventonal insecticides to fourth instar larvae of tobaccocaterpillar, Spodoptera litura (Fab.) in different generations

Studies on development of resistance in tobacco caterpillar against some insecticides were carried out in the laboratory, Division of Entomology, Udheywalla, Jammu. The differential susceptibility level of parental and susceptible strains of tobacco caterpillar to conventional insecticides revealed that the level of susceptibility in 4th instar larvae of this insect has decreased considerably in parental strain as compared to recommended concentrations of insecticides. The highest resistance factor of 9.33 was observed with monocrotophos whereas malathion encountered lowest resistance factor of 1.50. Comparison of the LC50 values obtained in succeeding generations with the 1st generation in 4th instar larvae of S. litura revealed that the resistance developed in an increasing order in all the six generations. The resistance ratio in the 6th generation as compared to the 1st generation was 3.97- fold in endosulfan, 3.11 in malathion and 3.45 in carbaryl

Removal of Transition-Metal Ions by Metal-Complexing Polythiosemicarbazone Membranes

Membrane technology is one of the many strategies to remove transition-metal ions from aqueous streams because of its relatively lower costs and ease of operation. Typically, adsorbent materials are added into polymeric membranes to impart chelating/complexing properties, but this often results in a limited number of adsorption sites within the membrane. In this work, polythiosemicarbazone (pTSC) is proposed as a material to prepare polymeric membranes due to its metal-complexing ligands in the backbone, providing more adsorption sites. The polymer was easily processed into membranes via the nonsolvent-induced phase separation technique and exhibited asymmetric structures with adequate mechanical strength. The porosity of the membranes was controlled by increasing the polymer concentration in the casting solution, leading to ultrafiltration- and nanofiltration-type membranes with permeabilities ranging from 30 to 0.7 L·m$^{–2}$·h$^{–1}$·bar$^{–1}$. The resulting pTSC membranes were applied for the removal of silver and copper ions in batch and, in the case of silver ions, also in dynamic adsorption experiments. The maximum removal rate of 17 mg·g$^{–1}$ for silver and 3.8 mg·g$^{–1}$ for copper ions was obtained in the batch removal experiment. Streaming potential, pH measurements, and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were conducted to verify the anionic binding of TSC groups, while neutral binding modes were revealed by FTIR and batch removal experiments. Furthermore, the removal of silver ions was also successfully demonstrated in a flow setup operated at 4 bar of applied pressure. The streaming potential and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy conducted on the membranes after the flow tests confirmed the complexation by TSC-functional groups as the separation mechanism. Finally, partial desorption of the silver ions was successfully conducted in water to demonstrate the reusability of pTSC membranes

Convertible staircase lift

The present work investigates the design and analysis of a staircase lift, which can be used as a Material Handling System. A staircase lift is a mechanical device for lifting people and wheelchairs up and down the stairs, who may find difficulty in doing so themselves. For sufficiently wide stairs, a rail is mounted to the treads of the stairs. A chair or lifting platform is attached to the rail. A person on the chair or platform is lifted as the chair or platform moves along the rail, old age and goods are to be carried across the staircase. A staircase lift is a type of lift that can be mounted on the staircase without altering civil structure. Not only altering, but the person need not change the seat from the wheelchair to the staircase lift, there is a foldable supporting rod for the staircase lift which directly attaches to the wheelchair. This lift runs on electric power and consists of a motor, reduction gearbox, rope drive, two rails and a sliding chair. In this system, we use a DC motor for changing the polarity of the power supply which will make the motor run in reverse direction. Advantages over the conventional hydraulic lift are no civil structure and alteration is required, low cost, less bulkiness, less power, less maintenance required. Easy design, easy installations can be of industrial use too. Moreover, considering some drawbacks due to weight carrying capacity completely depends upon the capacity of the motor. There is a lot of scope for further modification in the project as using a monorail instead of two, using a belt drive or chain drive instead of a rope drive. Incorporation and automation/timer unit will ease the use of the device. Rack and carrier arrangement for using the device for a curved staircase and use of work & roller reduction gear assembly

Temperature dependence of electrical properties of electrodeposited Ni-based nanowires

The influence of annealing on the microstructure and the electrical properties of cylindrical nickel-based nanowires has been investigated. Nanowires of nickel of nominally 200 nm diameter and of permalloy (Py) of nominally 70 nm were fabricated by electrochemical deposition into nanoporous templates of polycarbonate and anodic alumina, respectively. Characterization was carried out on as-grown nanowires and nanowires heat treated at 650°C. Transmission electron microscopy and diffraction imaging of as-grown and annealed nanowires showed temperature-correlated grain growth of an initially nano-crystalline structure with ≤8 nm (Ni) and ≤20 nm (Py) grains towards coarser poly-crystallinity with grain sizes up to about 160 nm (Ni) and 70 nm (Py), latter being limited by the nanowire width. The electrical conductivity of individual as-grown and annealed Ni nanowires was measured in situ within a scanning electron microscope environment. At low current densities, the conductivity of annealed nanowires was estimated to have risen by a factor of about two over as-grown nanowires. We attribute this increase, at least in part, to the observed grain growth. The annealed nanowire was subsequently subjected to increasing current densities. Above 120 kA mm -2 the nanowire resistance started to rise. At 450 kA mm -2 the nanowire melted and current flow ceased

A Study on Zografos-Balakrishnan Log-Normal Distribution

In this article, we studied a generalization of the log-normal distribution called Zografos-Balakrishnan log-normal distribution and investigate its various important properties and functions including moments, quantile function, various reliability measures, Rényi entropy, and some inequality measures. The estimation of unknown parameters is discussed by the methods of maximum likelihood, and the Bayesian technique and their simulation studies are also carried out. The applicability of the distribution is illustrated utilizing a real dataset. A likelihood ratio test is utilized for testing the efficiency of the third parameter. The effectiveness of this model for the dataset is also established using the parametric bootstrap approach