Recent excavations along the Yobe valley

The Yobe valley is one of the many refugia that dotted the Chad basin after the commencement of the desiccation of the Sahara. It hypothetically must have been attractive to the population that had to move away from the aridized zone in search of favourable ecotones. As the Mega Chad receded from its Bama ridge shores, new lands were progressively made available for human occupation along the valley. It is one of the principal goals of the Yobe Valley Archaeological project to investigate how and when this new valley was occupied. This paper has been divided into three principal sections. The first section deals with the search for the earliest settlements of the Yobe valley. The excavations conducted at Garingada and Damakarwa were aimed at tackling this problem. The second section deals with the development of complexity. The excavation at Gambaru was directed towards this problem. The third section seeks to discuss on the bases of the excavations at the three sites, manenvironment relationship. The concluding part of the paper focuses attention on the problems and prospects of the Yobe Valley Archaeological Project

A Neural-CBR System for Real Property Valuation

In recent times, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for real property valuation has been on the increase. Some expert systems that leveraged on machine intelligence concepts include rule-based reasoning, case-based reasoning and artificial neural networks. These approaches have proved reliable thus far and in certain cases outperformed the use of statistical predictive models such as hedonic regression, logistic regression, and discriminant analysis. However, individual artificial intelligence approaches have their inherent limitations. These limitations hamper the quality of decision support they proffer when used alone for real property valuation. In this paper, we present a Neural-CBR system for real property valuation, which is based on a hybrid architecture that combines Artificial Neural Networks and Case- Based Reasoning techniques. An evaluation of the system was conducted and the experimental results revealed that the system has higher satisfactory level of performance when compared with individual Artificial Neural Network and Case- Based Reasoning systems

Crystal structure of 4,4-dimethyl-2-(trifluoromethyl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazole, C6H9F3N2

C6H9F3N2, monoclinic, P21/n (no. 14), a = 10.6224(9) Å, b = 11.8639(9) Å, c = 13.3139(11) Å, β = 105.903(3)°, V = 1613.6(2) Å3, Z = 8, Rgt(F) = 0.0618, wRref(F2) = 0.1629, T = 102(2) K [1–3]

Medicinal plants used in the management of diabetes mellitus 2015

Diabetes mellitus is one of the common endocrine disorders prevalent in almost all of the countries. This chronic pathology is characterized by hyperglycemia caused by defective insulin action, insulin secretion, or the combination of both. Prolonged persistence of elevated blood glucose level consequently caused a series of complications such as nephropathy, retinopathy, and cardiomyopathy. Currently available synthetic drugs for treating this disease are found to be associated with many adverse effects. The use of plants in medicine is an age-long practice in various parts of the globe for both preventive and curative purposes. Several warnings have been issued over lack of quality control, scientific evidence for the efficacy, and potential adverse effects of herbal remedies including hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity among others. Despite all of these, reliance on herbs as medicine for the management of diabetes mellitus is still much practiced by a large proportion of the world population because they are readily available and affordable with perceived reduced toxicity. Therefore, with the upsurge of interests in medicinal plants, there is a need for thorough scientific investigations of these plants for both efficacy and potential toxicity. In this issue, we present some recent advances in the use of medicinal plants for treating diabetes mellitus. B. Pang et al. (“Innovative Thoughts of Treating Diabetes from the Perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine”)presented a review article on the contribution of traditional Chinese medicine to the development of alternative and complementary medicine for the treatment and prevention of diabetes mellitus. In another paper (“Effect of Rhizoma Coptidis (Huang Lian) on Treating Diabetes Mellitus”), B. Pang et al. discussed the efficacy and safety of Rhizoma Coptidis in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. In another study (“Evaluation of the Effects of Cornus mas L. Fruit Extract on Glycemic Control and Insulin Level in Type 2 Diabetic Adult Patients: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial”), R. Soltani et al. reported the results of a clinical trial on the effect of Cornus mas L. fruit extract on hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetic patients. In addition, W. Liu et al. (“The Effects of Chinese Medicine on Activation of Wnt/β-Catenin Signal Pathway under High Glucose Condition”) present a valuable review on some compounds implicated in the regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway as a mechanism of action involved in the antihyperglycemic activity from Chinese medicine. Furthermore, A. O. T. Ashafa and M. I. Kazeem (“Toxicopathological Evaluation of Hydroethanol Extract of Dianthus basuticus in Wistar Rats”) reported on the effects of Dianthus basuticus (a Basotho plant with acclaimed antidiabetic activity) on some biochemical parameters and histology of Wistar rats. Finally, X.-J. Li et al. (“TCM Formula Xiaoyaosan Decoction Improves Depressive-Like Behaviors in Rats with Type 2 Diabetes”) evaluated the effect of traditional medicine formula, Xiaoyaosan, on the cognitive function of diabetic rats. After the first volume of this special issue that was published in 2014, we hope that this issue will present additional valuable information for scientists and clinicians

A fuzzy expert system (FES) tool for online personnel recruitments

The advent of the internet has facilitated greater access to the myriad of job opportunities available globally. Currently there exist many job application submission portals that are being used for online job recruitment purposes. However, the task of many of these job submission portals is limited to matching the professional and academic qualifications of applicants with the requirements of employers and several organisations and does not involve the ranking of applicants’ credentials according to their relative suitability for the jobs applied for. In this paper, we describe the implementation of fuzzy expert system (FES) tool for selection of qualified job applicants with the aim of minimising the rigour and subjectivity associated with the candidate selection process. A performance evaluation of the FES tool that was conducted confirmed the viability of a FES-based approach in handling the fuzziness that is associated with the problem of personnel recruitment

A Data Mining Process Framework for Churn Management in Mobile Telecommunication Industry

Churning which is a sudden defection of a subscriber to competitors is a disturbing problem in the global telecommunication industry. However, the effectiveness of existing churn control strategies can be improved if an integrated approach that incorporates several dimensions of the phenomenon of churning is adopted. In contrast to existing approaches, this paper proposes an integrated approach to churn management and control by using a data mining process framework that enables churn prediction, determination of reason(s) for churn, and recommendation of appropriate intervention strategy for customer retention. A datamining experiment that was undertaken using data from a major telecom operator in Nigeria to assess the viability of the approach yielded encouraging results

Internet Privacy

The benefits of the Internet have come at some cost, one of which is a loss of privacy, which is often regarded as a moral right or a legal right. Internet privacy is primarily concerned with protecting user information. It is widely acknowledged as the top consideration in any online interaction. New threats to privacy and civil liberties are emerging daily and privacy practices are not one size fits all. This paper provides a brief introduction to online privacy