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The present study was designed to determine physic-chemical characteristics and best extender for refrigerated preservation of Labeo rohita milt. In experiment I, milt was collected from mature and healthy brooders (n = 5) of L. rohita reared at fish seed hatchery, Rawal Town, Islamabad, Pakistan. After collection, milt was maintained at 4°C and physico-chemical characteristics were studied. The mean volume of Labeo rohita milt was 8.02 ± 0.12 ml, pH 7.60 ± 0.17, sperm count 2.77 ± 0.19 1010/ml, osmolality 267.6 ± 7.4 mOsmol/kg, sodium 95.43 ± 6.7 (mM/L), potassium 34.41 ± 1.2 (mM/L), total lipids 178.94 ± 5.0 mg/dl and motility 83.5 ± 5.0%. In experiment II, nine male brooders (3 brooders/replicate) maintained in three different ponds were used. In each replicate, milt from three brooders was pooled, kept at 4°C and divided into 4 aliquots. An aliquot was kept undiluted (control), while other aliquots were diluted in Alsever's solution, sugar-based extender and modified Kurokura extender (KE) in 1:9 ratio at 4°C and stored up to 7 days. Sperm motility and viability were assessed for up to 7 days. Total antioxidant capacity was measured on Day 4. Sperm motility was higher (p < 0.05) in milt diluted with KE compared with control and other diluents from Day 5 to Day 7. However, highest sperm viability was observed on Day 6 and Day 7 in sperm diluted with KE. Total antioxidant capacity of milt diluted with KE and control was higher than other diluents on Day 4. In conclusion, viability of Labeo rohita sperm can be increased by diluting it in KE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study stemmed from consumer complaints about earthy and musty off-flavours in treated water of Rawal Lake Filtration Plant. In recent years, several novel adsorbents have been developed from nanomaterials for enhancing the contaminant removal efficiency. This paper presents preparation and the use of new adsorbents Pt doped titania and Fe doped titania, for the adsorption capacity of Geosmin and 2-MIB from water under laboratory conditions and their comparison, with most widely used activated carbon, under batch and column experiments. Stock solutions were prepared by using Geosmin and 2-MIB standards, procured by Sigma Aldrich (England). Samples were analysed using SPME-GC-FID. The adsorption of Geosmin and 2-MIB on GAC conformed to the Freundlich isotherm, while that of adsorption on metal doped titania fit equally well to both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Moreover, data, generated for the kinetic isotherm, confirmed that Geosmin and 2-MIB removal is a function of contact time. Breakthrough column tests using 125 mg/L Pt doped titania nanoparticles, coated on glass beads against 700 ng/L of off-flavours, attained later breakthrough and exhaustion points and removed 98% of Geosmin and 97% of 2-MIB at room temperature. All columns could be regenerated using 50 mL 0.1 molar sodium hydroxide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essence of context awareness has changed the revolution of ubiquitous computing, and the wireless sensor network technologies paved the way towards many applications. Activity recognition is a key component in identifying the context of a user for providing services based on the application. In this study, we propose a context management model that is based on activity recognition. The model is composed of four components: a set of sensors, a set of activities, a backend server with machine learning algorithms, and a GUI application for the interaction with the user. A prototype is developed to show the usability of the proposed model. As a pilot testing, only accelerometer data of an Android phone is used to identify the activities of daily living (ADLs): sitting, standing, walking, and jogging. A good accuracy of results that is about 96% on average is achieved in all activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]