Survey on job scheduling mechanisms in grid environment

Grid systems provide geographically distributed resources for both computational intensive and data-intensive applications.These applications generate large data sets.However, the high latency imposed by the underlying technologies; upon which the grid system is built (such as the Internet and WWW), induced impediment in the effective access to such huge and widely distributed data.To minimize this impediment, jobs need to be scheduled across grid environments to achieve efficient data access.Scheduling multiple data requests submitted by grid users onto the grid environment is NP-hard.Thus, there is no best scheduling algorithm that cuts across all grids computing environments.Job scheduling is one of the key research area in grid computing.In the recent past many researchers have proposed different mechanisms to help scheduling of user jobs in grid systems.Some characteristic features of the grid components; such as machines types and nature of jobs at hand means that a choice needs to be made for an appropriate scheduling algorithm to march a given grid environment.The aim of scheduling is to achieve maximum possible system throughput and to match the application needs with the available computing resources.This paper is motivated by the need to explore the various job scheduling techniques alongside their area of implementation.The paper will systematically analyze the strengths and weaknesses of some selected approaches in the area of grid jobs scheduling.This helps researchers better understand the concept of scheduling, and can contribute in developing more efficient and practical scheduling algorithms.This will also benefit interested researchers to carry out further work in this dynamic research area

Asian catfish Clarias batrachus (Linnaeaus, 1758) getting critically endangered.

The presence of Asian catfish, Clarias batrachus in Malaysia is at a deteriorating state. It is hardly a cultured species since the supply of seed is unavailable. This species is found in lowland streams, swamp and rice fields. Therefore, they are greatly exposed to factors such as intermittent periods of drought, devastation of the natural habitat and agro-chemicals. Presently, fish farmers are more into the culture of Clarias gariepinus. This threatened the mere existence of this indigenous C. batrachus. Hardiness, good growth, efficient food conversion and excellent nutritional profile guarantee C. batrachus as a suitable aquaculture candidate. Some conservation efforts were looked into in order to prevent the extinction of this potentially important catfish

A simple and rapid method for blood collection from walking catfish, Clarias batrachus (Linneaus, 1758)

Blood is collected from experimental animals for a wide range of scientific purposes including; hematology, clinical biochemistry parameters, immunology, studies in bacteriology, parasitology and investigations in reproductive performance and health. The number of methods employed to collect blood from fish include; the puncture of caudal vein, dorsal aorta or cardiac vessels and the severance of the caudal vein. Unfortunately, all these procedures are practically found to be slow and stressful to Clarias batrachus, including the popular caudal vein approach, likely due to the small size of caudal veins relative to the size of the species. In line with the universal ethical recommendations for taking blood from small research animals, we propose an alternative one-operator approach for C. batrachus that is simple, rapid and without the need to sacrifice the fish as with other methods. This procedure targets the dorsal aorta (a relatively larger blood vessel) in a sedated fish, punctured by inserting a needle directly from the anterior part of the anal fin about 2-5 mm behind the genital papilla, to draw the desired amount of blood. The technique is a one-operator procedure not requiring the help of an assistant or any special equipment to restrain the fish. The operation of the protocol is unique since it permits the continuous collection of blood from the same experimental fish over a varied time course and reduces the need for a large number of replicate animals. The advantages of the proposed protocol are also highlighted and discussed in detail

Design and Performance Evaluation of Wind-Solar PV Energy System for Kola Village at Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria

This paper presents the results from a designed and simulated wind - solar PV hybrid energy system for residential power requirements of Kola village in Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria. The components designed comprised of wind energy conversion and solar photovoltaic (PV) subsystems, storage batteries and charge controller. 20kW PV array and 10kW wind turbines were integrated in a hybrid arrangement with a battery bank of 12V/200Ah and an average daily energy consumption of 4100 Wh. The Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER) software as well as wind and solar resources data from the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) were utilized for the analysis. The total generated power (141,162kWh/yr) meets the load requirement of the location. The wind energy resource contributed 75.25% electrical energy to the system while the solar PV resource (24.25%). The simulated most cost effective system configuration was found to have a total Net Present Cost (NPC) of $236,415 and a levelised Cost of Energy (COEL) of 0.413$/kWh

Fish species composition and morphological descriptions of five dominant families from inland waters of Kebbi state-Nigeria

A study was conducted on fish species composition and morphological features of five dominant fish families from the inland waters of Kebbi state, Nigeria between January and December 2017. Three major fishing communities (Argungu, Sabiyel and Yauri) were selected for the study. Fish samples were qualitatively collected from the commercial landings of the fishermen using gill nets. The analysis of the distribution of fish species were analyzed using Microsoft Excel software In total 18 fish species belonging to 10 families were identified from the inland waters of Kebbi state. Viz: Bagridae, Cichlidae, Claridae, Mormyridae, Citharacidae, Characidae, Mochokidae, Melaptaruridae, Schilbeidae and Cyprinidae. Among the 10 identified families, Bagridae (22.22%) and Mormyridae (16.66%) which accounted for four and three species respectively, were the most dominant families