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It has been observed that there is an increasing trend of implementing Lean Techniques as a whole in general and Kanban in particular in the software development process all across the globe to reap the proclaimed advantages of these techniques as documented in the available literature and verified by the Lean practitioners. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the present state of implementation and usage of Kanban techniques in the software development process, its obtained and to-be-obtained benefits, challenges that are being faced by the software development companies and the reason(s) of motivation that compels the organization to adopt Kanban technique. Furthermore, the solutions for challenges identified during the study will also be suggested. In order to achieve this, an empirical study has been conducted encompassing a survey followed by complementing thematic interview sessions with 241 employees of 67 software companies of Pakistan. The companies involved in the empirical study have reasonable years of experience in practicing Agile and Lean techniques. Generally, the obtained results depict that the usage of Kanban techniques is rather positive and appreciative; however, the challenges that are being faced in Kanban adoption are lack of specialized training and experience pertaining to its usage and a too conventional organizational culture.

The purpose of this study is to (a) investigate the impact of workforce diversity management on job match, job satisfaction, and job performance; (b) test the influencing role of job match on job satisfaction and job performance; and (c) examine the mediating role of a person’s job match on the association between workforce diversity management and employees’ outcomes (job satisfaction and job performance). Structured questionnaires were sent to employees working in five-star hotels in China. In total, 324 valid responses were analyzed through AMOS-SEM to draw the statistical conclusion. Overall, results revealed that workforce diversity management is positively related to a person’s job match, job satisfaction, and job performance. Next, a person’s job match is positively related to job satisfaction and job performance, in particular a person’s job match mediates the relationship between workforce diversity management and employees’ outcomes. Most of the studies in the area of workforce diversity management focused on the management of diversity such as age, gender, race, and ethnicity from American perspective. This could be among rare studies which investigate another aspect of workforce diversity management, such as management of diversity on the basis of skills, knowledge, interest, and preferences of employees from the Chinese perspective.

Demand for poultry meat is rising in low- and middle-countries, driving the expansion of large commercial farms where antimicrobials are used as surrogates for hygiene, good nutrition. This routine use of antimicrobials in animal production facilitates the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Despite potentially serious consequences for the animal industry, few studies have documented trends in antimicrobial use (AMU) at the farm-level in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of this study was to estimate AMU in a broiler chicken farm in Pakistan over a five-year period and to extrapolate national AMU in commercial broiler farming. Between 2013 and 2017, we monitored AMU in 30 flocks from a commercial broiler farm in Punjab, the most populous province of Pakistan. The amount of antimicrobials administered was calculated in milligram/population unit of the final flock weight (mg/fPU) and in used daily dose (UDD). The annual on-farm antimicrobial use was 250.84 mg of active ingredient per kilogram of the final flock weight. This consumption intensity exceeds the amount of antimicrobial used per kilogram of chicken of all countries in the world except China. Measured in mg per kg of final flock weight or population unit (fPU), medically important drugs such as colistin (31.39 mg/fPU), tylosin (41.71 mg/fPU), doxycycline (81.81 mg/fPU), and enrofloxacin (26.19 mg/fPU) were the most frequently used antimicrobials for prophylactic or therapeutic use. Lincomycin was the most frequently used antimicrobial used in-feed (29.09 mg/fPU). Our findings suggest that the annual consumption of antimicrobials in the broiler sector in Pakistan could be as high as 568 tons. This alarmingly high consumption estimate is the first baseline study on antimicrobial use in animals in Pakistan. Our findings call for immediate actions to reduce antimicrobial use in Pakistan, and countries with comparable farming practices.

Muḥadithīn have played a dynamic role in the preservation and compilation of Ḥadīth of the Prophet (SAW). Among them the contribution of Imam Bukhārī is unavoidable and remarkable in the field of Ḥadīth and its sciences. Since, he is known “Hafiz and Compiler” and considered as “Imam” and “authority” in the field of both higher and lower criticism. His book "Al-Tārīkh al Kabīr" (08 volumes) is considered as one of the ancient books in field of Ḥadīth and its sciences. This paper aims to describe the methodology of Imam Bukhārī in Al-Tārīkh al Kabīr. He described the biography of thirteen thousand seven hundred and seventy nine only (13779) in alphabetic order. Although his methodology was to mention names of the narrators alphabetically, but in respect with the Prophet (SAW), he gave place to eleven narrators among the companion whom names were started with the names of “Muhammad”. In the Methodology of Imam Bukhārī (RA), it is found that either the narrators are rejected or given authenticity, on the basis of not only his own examinations but he relied on the sayings of other Muḥadithīn as well. It is also pertinent to mention that he awarded degree to a little number of the narrators while left over most of the narrators undecided, because the main objective of the book was to portray the biographies of the narrators rather to make analysis of all the narrators.

Abstract Background Epidermal growth factor (EGF) can promote cell proliferation as well as migration, which is feasible in tissue wound healing. Oil bodies have been exploited as an important platform to produce exogenous proteins. The exogenous proteins were expressed in oil bodies from plant seeds. The process can reduce purification steps, thereby significantly reducing the purification cost. Mostly, the diameter of oil body particle ranges between 1.0 and 1.5 µm in the safflower seeds, however, it reduces to 700–1000 nm in the transgenic safflower seeds. The significant reduction of particle size in transgenic seeds is extremely beneficial to skin absorption. Results The diameter of oil body in the transgenic safflower seeds was recorded in the range of 700–1000 nm. The smaller particle size improved their skin absorption. The expression level of oleosin-hEGF-hEGF in T3 transgenic seeds was highest at 69.32 mg/g of seeds. The oil body expressing oleosin-hEGF-hEGF had significant proliferative activity on NIH/3T3 cells and improved skin regeneration thereby accelerating wound healing in rats. The wound coverage rate exceeded 98% after treatment for 14 days with oil body expressing oleosin-hEGF-hEGF, while the saline without EGF group and wild type oil body group both showed less than 80%. The neonatal fibroblast and collagen were found to be increased in the safflower oil body expressing oleosin-hEGF-hEGF treatment group. TGF-β1, bFGF and VEGF were noted as important growth factors in the repair of cutaneous wounds. Their expression level increased after 4 and 7 day treatment, but decreased after 14 days. Therefore, it can promote skin regeneration to accelerate wounds healing. Conclusions The expression of oleosin-hEGF-hEGF in T3 transgenic seeds was 80.43 ng/μL oil body. It had significant proliferative activity on NIH/3T3 cells and improved skin regeneration to accelerate wound healing in rats. The expression process of TGF-β1, bFGF and VEGF increased at first and then gradually declined.

Objective: To determine frequency of different types of leukemias and aberrant CD markers expression on these types. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Immunology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi from Jul 2015 to Dec 2015. Material and Methods: All peripheral blood and bone marrow samples to confirm the suspicion of acute leukemia with flow cytometric immunephenoltyping were included in the study. Cells were stained with lineage specific monoclonal antibodies against cell specific CD markers through lyse wash procedure. Cell acquisition and analysis was done on Cell Quest software in multi parameter flow cytometer. Data was entered in SPSS v 20.0 to determine the frequencies of different types of leukemias and aberrant CD markers expression. Results: Over 6 months,102 males and 49 females were tested with mean age 26 ± 21 years. Commonest leukemia was AML M2. Among 69 pediatric cases with mean age 7.4 ± 5.8 years, precursor B ALL was commonest. Among 82 adults with mean age 41.5 ± 15.7 years, AML M2 was commonest leukemia. Total 32 cases (18 children and 12 adults) expressed cross lineage aberrant markers, CD13, CD33 and CD7. Conclusion: Aberrant CD markers expression must be kept in mind during lineage assignment of acute leukemias while performing flow cytometric immunophenotyping.

Inevitably, the time has come that necessitates software systems to have long lasting social impact and environmental friendliness. Although sustainability related to environmental and social aspects have been well versed in the literature, software sustainability, for the way of development and as final product for use, is still not mature enough. With the increasing role of software crowdsourcing, a new working architecture for software development, in global software development (GSD) settings, has emerged challenges regarding sustainable software development and software sustainability, which are still to be elucidated. Software standards and models exist to assist co-located and global software development; however, seismic changes in the working architecture of software development as software crowdsourcing are highlighting a risk of software failure. Recently, statistics showed that only 30% of projects are successful, whereas 50% encounter challenges and the remaining 20% are absolute failures that implicate a challenge toward software success and its sustainability. This posits questions of how many IEEE and international standard organization standards exist that cover the sustainability aspects in particular to software development and how in-depth the development practices are addressing sustainable aspects in software crowdsourcing? Thus, the aim of this paper is to examine the IEEE software standards with a lens of sustainability to software crowdsourcing. After reviewing the existing IEEE standards related to sustainability, it has been observed that few standards exist which have discussed the importance of sustainability on an abstract level (energy and examining environmental influence by the computers) in software development. Moreover, standards are focusing less attention toward the sustainability of software development in the presence of new envision toward software crowdsourcing. Thus, a lack of any guideline toward sustainable software crowdsourcing is highlighted as one of the limitations in the software standards. This paper contributes to the GSD industry in two folds, first by laying down the importance and theoretical association on and around sustainable crowdsourcing, and second by highlighting that the IEEE standards, inadequacy toward the suppressing phenomena of sustainability in software crowdsourcing, if addressed adequately, can minimize the ripple effect toward software failure.

Websites are the main contributors of today’s businesses and assisting the users to surge business throughout the world by the search engine optimization (SEO) techniques are endlessly losing. In order to get greater business values and results website optimization is very indispensable. Websites that are not optimized their visitors and successively losing business. SEO is a process to increase a prominence of website on search engine and test whether user are contented or not with our content (Websites or Blogs). Most of the search engines (like Google Yahoo, Baidu and Ask.com) deliver instructions to the website owner/developers to craft their content according to their search engine philosophy. The objective of this paper is to scrutinize and compare overall website’s performance of the five Foreign and local universities. For this study, we used two different SEO tools named as Nibbler and SEOPTIMER. We evaluated websites with seventeen parameters of Nibbler and five of the SEOPTIMER. Some of the parameters are Social Interest, URL formats, Internal Links, Heading, Images, Page titles, Social media pages (Twitter, Facebook). This work will benefit us in achieving idea about the strength and weaknesses of these websites, and whose websites are enhanced and optimized. In this study we have enlightened essential SEO features for developing an academic websites for achieving better SERP ranking.

Context: Software measurement programs are essential to understand, evaluate, improve and predict the software processes, products and resources. However, successful implementation of software measurement programs (MPs) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is challenging. Objective: To perform a detailed analysis of studies on MPs for highlighting the existing measurement models, tools, metrics selection methods and challenges for implementing MPs in SMEs. Methods: A Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) is conducted. Results: In total, 35 primary studies are comprehensively analyzed. We identified 29 software measurement models and 4 tools specifically designed for MPs in SMEs. Majority of the measurement models (51%) are built upon software process improvement approaches. With respect to measurement purposes of models, the distribution of MPs was identified as: characterization (63%), evaluation (83%), improvement (93%) and prediction (16%). Majority of primary studies discussed the use of measurement experts and experience (60%) followed by the use of measurement standards (40% and the use of automated tools (22%) for metrics selection in MPs. We found that the SMEs and large organization face different challenges as studies in SMEs report challenges that exist even before the implementation of MPs due to infrastructure and management processes of SMEs. The challenges reported by studies in large organizations are mostly related to the issues discovered while implementing MPs. Conclusion: The analysis of measurement models, tools, metrics selection methods and challenges of implementing MPs should help the SMEs to make a feasibility study before implementing a MP.

Ralstonia Solanacearum is one of the most infectious soil-borne bacterial plant pathogens, causing tomato bacterial wilt (TBW). Nanotechnology is an emerging area of research, particularly the application of nanoparticles (NPs) as nanopesticides to manage plant disease is gaining attention nowadays. However, the interaction between NPs and rhizosphere bacterial communities remains largely elusive. This study indicated that metal NPs (CuO, ZnO, and FeO) reduced the incidence of bacterial wilt to varying degrees and affected the composition and structure of the rhizosphere bacterial community. The results revealed that the application of metal oxide NPs can improve the morphological and physiological parameters of TBW infected tomato plants. Among all, CuONPs amendments significantly increase the Chao1 and Shannon index. In the early stage (the second week), it significantly reduces the relative abundance of pathogens. However, the relative abundance of beneficial Streptomyces bacteria increased significantly, negatively correlated with the relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria. In addition, the nano-treatment group will enrich some potential beneficial bacteria such as species from Sphingomonadaceae, Rhizobiaceae, etc. In general, our research provides evidence and strategies for preventing and controlling soil-borne disease tomato bacterial wilt with metal oxide NPs.

Paper-based microchip electrophoresis has the potential to bring laboratory electrophoresis tests to the point of need. However, high electric potential and current values induce pH and temperature shifts, which may affect biomolecule electrophoretic mobility thus decrease test reproducibility and accuracy of paper-based microfluidic electrophoresis. We have previously developed a microchip electrophoresis system, HemeChip, which has the capability of providing low-cost, rapid, reproducible, and accurate point-of-care (POC) electrophoresis tests for hemoglobin analysis. Here, we report the methodologies we implemented for characterizing HemeChip system pH and temperature during the development process, including utilizing commercially available universal pH indicator and digital camera pH shift characterization, and infrared camera characterizing temperature shift characterization. The characterization results demonstrated that pH shifts up to 1.1 units, a pH gradient up to 0.11 units/mm, temperature shifts up to 40 °C, and a temperature gradient up to 0.5 °C/mm existed in the system. Finally, we report an acid pre-treatment of the separation media, a cellulose acetate paper, mitigated both pH and temperature shifts and provided a stable environment for reproducible HemeChip hemoglobin electrophoresis separation.

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) plays a crucial role in regulating blood pressure in the human body. Identification of potential ACE inhibitors from medicinal plants supported the idea of repurposing these medicinal plants against hypertension. A method based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled with a diode array detector (DAD) was used for the rapid screening of plant extracts and purified compounds to determine their ACE inhibitory activity. Hippuryl-histidiyl-leucine (HHL) was used as a substrate, which is converted into hippuric acid (HA) by the action of ACE. A calibration curve of the substrate HHL was developed with the linear regression 0.999. The limits of detection and quantification of this method were found to be 0.134 and 0.4061 mM, respectively. Different parameters of ACE inhibitory assay were optimized, including concentration, incubation time and temperature. The ACE inhibition potential of Adhatoda vasica (methanolic-aqueous extract) and its isolated pyrroquinazoline alkaloids, vasicinol (1), vasicine (2) and vasicinone (3) was evaluated. Compounds 1–3 were characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. The IC50 values of vasicinol (1), vasicine (2) and vasicinone (3) were found to be 6.45, 2.60 and 13.49 mM, respectively. Molecular docking studies of compounds 1–3 were also performed. Among these compounds, vasicinol (1) binds as effectively as captopril, a standard drug of ACE inhibition.

A rapid, novel and cost‐effective spectrofluorimetric method developed to determine moxifloxacin (MFX) in pharmaceutical preparations because MFX in a pH 10 medium could reduce the fluorescence intensity of l‐tryptophan. The maximum fluorescence excitation and emission wavelengths were found to be 280 and 363 nm respectively. A range of factors affecting fluorescence quenching and the effect of co‐existing substances were investigated. Fluorescence quenching values (ΔF = FL‐tryptophan − FMoxi‐L‐tryptophan) displayed a strong linear relationship with the MFX concentration ranging from 0.2 to 8.0 μg/ml under optimum conditions. The limit of detection was found to be 6.1 × 10−4 μg/ml. The proposed method was shown to be suitable for MFX determination in pharmaceutical tablets and biological fluids by the linearity, recovery and limit of detection. The spectrofluorimetric approach that has been developed is extremely eco‐friendly, as evidenced by the fact that all the experimental components and solvents were safe for the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that affects the joints and can lead to significant disability. RA may affect other parts of the body, leading to various issues including damage to the joints, deformity, disability, and reduced mobility. The pathogenesis of RA involves a complex interplay between genetic, environmental and immunological factors. The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis typically reduces inflammation, manages pain, stiffness and prevents joint damage. However, these medications have several side effects no single therapeutic remedy directly targets the disease. Researchers in the field are focused on developing new treatments that are more effective and have fewer side effects as well as understanding the underlying mechanisms of the disease. Some areas of current research include the use of nanotechnology such as cell membrane-coated nanoparticles for the treatment of RA as well as the development of new biologic drugs that target specific molecules involved in inflammation. The use of cell membrane-coated nanoparticles for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has several potential benefits including targeted drug delivery, reduced inflammation, improved safety and biocompatibility, and reduced frequency of administration. However, more research is needed to fully understand the potential benefits and limitations of this approach to develop effective cell membrane coated nanoparticle-based therapies for RA. In this review cell membrane-coated nanoparticles may become valuable for numerous biomedical problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Stephanofilaria spp. nematodes are associated with cutaneous lesions in cattle and other livestock and mammalian wildlife species. In Australia, Haematobia irritans exigua, commonly known as buffalo fly (BF) transmits a well-described but presently unnamed species of Stephanofilaria, which has been speculatively implicated in the aetiology of BF lesions. The sensitivity of current techniques for detecting Stephanofilaria spp. in skin lesions and vector species is low, and there is no genomic sequence for any member of the genus Stephanofilaria currently available in sequence databases. Methods: To develop molecular assays for the detection of the Australian Stephanofilaria sp., skin biopsies were collected from freshly slaughtered cattle with typical lesions near the medial canthus. Adult nematodes and microfilariae were isolated from the biopsies using a saline recovery technique. The nematodes were morphologically identified as Stephanofilaria sp. by scanning electron microscopy. DNA was extracted and the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of rDNA, and the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) region of mtDNA was amplified and sequenced. Stephanofilaria sp. specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and qPCR assays (SYBR Green® and TaqMan™) were developed and optimised from the novel ITS2 sequence obtained. The specificity of each assay was confirmed by testing against nematode species Onchocerca gibsoni and Dirofilaria immitis, as well as host (bovine) and BF DNA. Results: Scanning electron microscopy of the anterior and posterior ends of isolated nematodes confirmed Stephanofilaria sp. A phylogenetic analysis of the cox1 sequence demonstrated that this species is most closely related to Thelazia callipaeda, a parasitic nematode that is a common cause of thelaziasis (or eyeworm infestation) in humans, dogs, and cats. Both conventional and qPCR assays specifically amplified DNA from Stephanofilaria sp. Conventional PCR, TaqMan™, and SYBR Green® assays were shown to detect 1 ng, 1 pg, and 100 fg of Stephanofilaria DNA, respectively. Both qPCR assays detected DNA from single Stephanofilaria microfilaria. Conclusion: Molecular diagnostic assays developed in this study showed high specificity and sensitivity for Stephanofilaria sp. DNA. The availability of an accurate and sensitive PCR assay for Stephanofilaria will assist in determining its role in the pathogenesis of cattle skin lesions, as well as in understanding its epidemiological dynamics. This assay may also have application for use in epidemiological studies with other species of Stephanofilaria, most particularly closely related S. stilesi, but this will require confirmation.

This research was performed to explore the vital role of seed priming with a 0.01 µM concentration of brassinosteroids (EBL) to alleviate the adverse effects of Cr (100 µM) in two different rice cultivars. Seed priming with EBL significantly enhanced the germination attributes (germination percentage, germination energy, germination index, and vigor index, etc.), photosynthetic rate as well as plant growth (shoot and root length including the fresh and dry weight) under Cr toxicity as compared to the plants primed with water. Cr toxicity induced antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, POD, CAT, and APX) and ROS level (MDA and H2O2 contents) in both rice cultivars; however, a larger increment was observed in YLY-689 (tolerant) than CY-927 (sensitive) cultivar. EBL application stimulatingly increased antioxidant enzyme activities to scavenge ROS production under Cr stress. The gene expression of SOD and POD in EBL-primed rice plants followed a similar increasing trend as observed in the case of enzymatic activities of SOD and POD compared to water-primed rice plants. Simultaneously, Cr uptake was observed to be significantly higher in the water-primed control compared to plants primed with EBL. Moreover, Cr uptake was significant in YLY-689 compared to CY-927. In ultra-structure studies, it was observed that EBL priming relieved the rice plants from sub-cellular damage. Conclusively, our research indicated that seed priming with EBL could be adopted as a promising strategy to enhance rice growth by copping the venomous effect of Cr.

The discovery and identification of novel natural products of medicinal importance in the herbal medicine industry becomes a challenge. The complexity of this process can be reduced by dereplication strategies. The current study includes a method based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), using the evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD) to identify the 12 most common secondary metabolites in plant extracts. Twelve compounds including rutin, taxifolin, quercetin, apigenin, kaempferol, betulinic acid, oleanolic acid, betulin, lupeol, stigmasterol, and β-sitosterol were analyzed simultaneously. The polarity of the compounds varied greatly from highly polar (flavonoids) to non-polar (triterpenes and sterols). This method was also tested for HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-MS/MS analysis. Oleanolic acid and ursolic acid could not be separated in HPLC-ELSD analysis but were differentiated using LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis due to different fragment ions. The regression values (R2 > 0.996) showed good linearity in the range of 50–1000 µg/mL for all compounds. The range of LOD and LOQ values were 7.76–38.30 µg/mL and 23.52–116.06 µg/mL, respectively. %RSD and % trueness values of inter and intraday studies were mostly

Plants host diverse but taxonomically structured communities of microorganisms, called microbiome, which colonize various parts of host plants. Plant-associated microbial communities have been shown to confer multiple beneficial advantages to their host plants, such as nutrient acquisition, growth promotion, pathogen resistance, and environmental stress tolerance. Systematic studies have provided new insights into the economically and ecologically important microbial communities as hubs of core microbiota and revealed their beneficial impacts on the host plants. Microbiome engineering, which can improve the functional capabilities of native microbial species under challenging agricultural ambiance, is an emerging biotechnological strategy to improve crop yield and resilience against variety of environmental constraints of both biotic and abiotic nature. This review highlights the importance of indigenous microbial communities in improving plant health under pathogen-induced stress. Moreover, the potential solutions leading towards commercialization of proficient bioformulations for sustainable and improved crop production are also described.

Dye-sensitized solar cells are gaining interest in the aerospace industry, extending their applications from solar-powered drones to origami-style space-based solar power stations due to their flexibility, light weightiness, and transparency. The major issue with its widespread commercial use is the employment of expensive Pt-based counter electrodes. In this study, an attempt has been made to replace the Pt with Polyaniline (PANI)/Molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) nanocomposite. The nanocomposites i.e., PANI-0.5wt% MoS2, PANI-2wt%MoS2, PANI-5wt%MoS2, and PANI-7wt%MoS2and PANI-9wt%MoS2, have been synthesized and compared with standard Pt-based CE. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction methods have been utilized to study both surface morphology and structural composition. Fourier transform infrared has also been used to identify redox-active functionalities. Electron impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry have been employed to study electron transfer and catalytic activity. Finally, I-V testing has been conducted using a sun simulator. A maximum efficiency of 8.12% has been observed with 7wt% MoS2 in the PANI matrix at 6 µm thickness, which is 2.65% higher compared to standard Pt-based CE (7.91%). This is due to high electronic conduction with the addition of MoS2, improved catalytic activity, and the high surface area of the PANI nano-rods.

Abstract Background The plant biomass and agro-industrial wastes show great potential for their use as attractive low cost substrates in biotechnological processes. Wheat straw and corn cob as hemicellulosic substrates were acid hydrolyzed and enzymatically saccharified for high xylose production. The hydrolysate was concentrated and fermented by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces for production of xylitol. Results Acid hydrolysis of wheat straw and corn cob in combination with enzymatic hydrolysis showed great potential for production of free sugars from these substrates. Kluyveromyces produced maximum xylitol from acid treated wheat straw residues with enzymatic saccharification. The percentage xylitol yield was 89.807 g/L and volumetric productivity of 0.019 g/L/h. Kluyveromyces also produced maximum xylitol from corn cob acid hydrolyzed liquor with xylitol yield 87.716 g/L and volumetric productivity 0.018 g/L/h. Conclusion Plant and agro-industrial biomass can be used as a carbohydrate source for the production of xylitol and ethanol after microbial fermentation. This study revealed that wheat straw acid and enzyme hydrolyzed residue proved to be best raw material for production of xylitol with S. cerevisiae. The xylitol produced can be utilized in pharmaceuticals after purification on industrial scale as pharmaceutical purposes.

The effective utilisation of technology provides a more collaborative environment to improve the traditional distance learning. Moreover, it has invigorated a new era of discussion from a range of participants including online learners, learning sources, and eLearning managers. The Learning Management System (LMS) is defined as a hub for handling the overall learning framework in Distance/eLearning education. The system is not only capable of covering the Learning process to the Learners but also acts as a bridge between Learners, Instructors, and learning resources. This study describes the key characteristics and functions of the newly deployed LMS at Jazan University called JUMP (Jazan University Multi-Platforms) with an overview of the previous system, JUSUR, which is an Arabic word, meaning Bridges. The emphasis of deploying JUMP as a new LMS by supplanting the former system is to establish a unified eLearning platform for Jazan.

Software Engineering is a discipline that provides a systematic approach to develop software in a cost-effective manner. Successful software development is challenged by various challenges, such as varying situational contexts, conformity with standards, changing requirements, optimism of schedule, schedule pressure, software complexity, and software invisibility. Varying situational contexts are the changed circumstances that are resulted due to varying situational factors. These situational factors are the root cause of varying situations, which need to be discovered in detail. If these situational factors are left unattended, they can cause software failures. Software standards can help to deal with software failures. In this paper, we have reviewed various software engineering standards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standard Association. These software engineering standards were investigated for the factors and sub-factors that can lead to varying situations among software development team members. As a result we found 12 factors grouped with 52 sub-factors that can lead to varying situations among software development team members. These resulted factors and sub-factors can act as a source for varying situations among team members. Unattended identified situational factors can lead to software failures. This paper provides a guideline for the practitioners to consider these factors and sub-factors while performing software development in order to have a successful software development.

This research aims to develop a simple mathematical model for performance evaluation of a thermally exposed solar parabolic trough cooker. It was done under open environmental climate conditions for domestic uses. The experimental setup consisted of a solar cooker made of polished parabolic trough stainless steel having concentration ratio 9.867. The efficiency analysis depicts that the resulted parabolic trough optical efficiency range between 53-33%, theoretical efficiency between 50-30% and the experimental efficiency between 38-5%. Additionally, the maximum water temperature achieved was 37.2 °C at the outlet of parabolic trough. However, maximum water temperature achieved by parabolic trough cooker was 53.6 °C under stagnated conditions. Furthermore, the observed cooker energy efficiency range between 6.5-0.11% and exergy efficiency was in range between 7.6 × 10−2 - 2.1 × 10−2% for direct cooking. Results found helpful for making domestic useable cooker. Keywords: Energy and exergy efficiency analysis, Mathematical model, Performance evaluation, Solar parabolic trough cooker

Surface modification of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) for improving tribological performance is difficult due to its high melt viscosity. Therefore, the potential of laser processing to produce textures on the surface of this material in specific dimensions was evaluated in this study. The influence of several conditions and laser processing parameters was determined. The laser texturing at room temperature, freezing temperature, and producing distilled water layer on UHMWPE disks was not helpful to produce the textures in required dimensions. The textures in specific dimensions were produced at 2 overscan times, 25 mm/s scanning speed and 30 MHz laser intensity using aluminum foil. The coefficient of friction (COF) versus time data under different concentrations of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was recorded for textured and un-textured specimens. The wear performance in term of wear track depth was also compared for textured and un-textured specimens using a confocal microscope. Keywords: Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), Tribological performance, Bulge micro-texture, Orthopedic implants