The productivity of shrub biomass was determined in three seasons at different altitude in Tehsil Takht-e-Nasrati, district Karak was undertaken in 2010-2011. The biomass of Saccharum bengalense was high and at altitude between 340-399 m (5020.38 Kg hec-1) and 400-499 m (4331.58 Kg hec-1). The biomass value of Zizyphus nummularia (1125.1 Kghec-1) was high at altitude between 500-599 m while at altitude between 600 – 700 m Capparis decidua have a high biomass value of 437.79 (Kg hec-1). Among shrubs average biomass of Saccharum bengalense (2665.12 Kg hec-1) was greater followed by Calotropis procera (677.73 Kg hec-1), Periploca aphylla (533.67 Kg hec-1) and Calligonum polygonoides (506.29 Kg hec-1) while the lowest biomass was found of Cassia angustifolia (13.47 Kg hec-1). Among seasons variation the biomass of Saccharum bengalense (13800 Kg hec-1) was greater during winter at between altitude 340-399 m and Periploca aphylla (12.35 Kg hec-1) biomass was lower in spring at altitude between 600 – 700 m. The assessment of shrub biomass in research area is a requirement for successful management at the same time as it gives a complete documentation for the area in complexity and work out unpredictable resources to help imagine shrubs potency and behaviour.

The use of renewable energy sources is a fundamental factor for a possible energy policy in the future. Taking into account the sustainable character of the majority of renewable energy technologies, they are able to preserve resources and to provide security, diversity of energy supply and services, virtually without environmental impact. Sustainability has acquired great importance due to the negative impact of various developments on environment. The rapid growth during the last decade has been accompanied by active construction, which in some instances neglected the impact on the environment and human activities. Policies to promote the rational use of electric energy and to preserve natural non-renewable resources are of paramount importance. Low energy design of urban environment and buildings in densely populated areas requires consideration of wide range of factors, including urban setting, transport planning, energy system design and architectural and engineering details. The focus of the world’s attention on environmental issues in recent years has stimulated response in many countries, which have led to a closer examination of energy conservation strategies for conventional fossil fuels. One way of reducing building energy consumption is to design buildings, which are more economical in their use of energy for heating, lighting, cooling, ventilation and hot water supply. Passive measures, particularly natural or hybrid ventilation rather than air-conditioning, can dramatically reduce primary energy consumption. However, exploitation of renewable energy in buildings and agricultural greenhouses can, also, significantly contribute towards reducing dependency on fossil fuels. Therefore, promoting innovative renewable applications and reinforcing the renewable energy market will contribute to preservation of the ecosystem by reducing emissions at local and global levels. This will also contribute to the amelioration of environmental conditions by replacing conventional fuels with renewable energies that produce no air pollution or greenhouse gases. This study describes various designs of low energy buildings. It also, outlines the effect of dense urban building nature on energy consumption, and its contribution to climate change. Measures, which would help to save energy in buildings, are also presented.

The climate, through all its parameters (values of the minimal and maximal temperatures, frost frequency, sun exposure, quantities of precipitations etc.), represents one of the most important factors, along with the pedological (soil-related) and technological ones, in the development of pomiculture. Climatic accidents directly affect the threes’ biological cycle and implicitly the fruit production, obtained under different forms.\n The fruit-growing basin of Dâmboviţa is situated in the area of the Subcarpathians of Ialomiţa, at an altitude ranging between 400 and 600 m, having a temperate climate, with summers that generally lack excessive heat (the average multiannual temperature is situated around the value of 90 C, the total annual precipitations sum up 782 mm, of which about 60% fall during the vegetation period, namely the months of April-September), presenting not very cold winters (the temperature rarely falls under 200 C). The area is protected from strong winds due to the existence of slopes on both sides of Dâmboviţa River valley. The tree plantations are situated on the terraces of the same hydrographic artery, most of them covering the slopes and the interfluves, where the soils are good for fruit tree growing, the predominant cultivated fruit trees being the apple tree and the plum tree.\n In this fruit-growing basin there is the Research-Development Station for Pomiculture Voineşti (SCDP), created in 1950. Even since it started its activity, its main objective was to determine technical-organizational solutions to complete the fruit-tree patrimony and later on to lay the foundations for the development and modernization of pomiculture in the fruit-growing basin of Dâmboviţa and in its area of influence. The research programs and goals of this station aim to promote modern fruit tree selections and technologies in Romanian pomiculture, appearing as a leader in the scientific and productive area both locally and in Romania and being known as well even outside the country.

In the pursuit of novel drugs, natural products, especially those from herbal medicines are being investigated in more detail. Plant extracts are complex samples and whilst screening of crude samples is of some use, reliable screening data can only be obtained from purified material. This study describes the novel application of automated preparative-HPLC combined with a rapid off-line bacterial bioassay, using the tetrazolium salt, XTT reaction as an indicator of bacterial metabolism. This approach facilitated the identification of bioactive fractions from Quercus baloot that were active against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. This is the first report of bioactivity associated with Q. baloot.

Adipokines are involved in the control and regulation of appetite and energy balance, including glucose and lipid metabolism, endocrine function, reproduction, immunity, and diabetes functions. Adipokines are proteins secreted by adipose tissue, such as leptin, adiponectin, resistin, visfatin, apeline, omentin and other, many of which promote inflammation and interrupt regulation of appetite and energy balance. Among adipokines, Adiponectin is a 247-amino acid protein, which present in the three distinct oligomeric and hexameric forms. The exact physiological mechanisms involved in the regulation body weight are complex and incompletely understood. Adiponectin mediate the activity of the regulatory proteins in the liver and skeletal muscle, which has profound effects on fatty acid oxidation and decreases inflammation. Adiponectin increases fatty acids oxidation, which lowers circulating free fatty acids and prevents insulin resistance and several other chronic metabolic diseases. Adiponectin plays an important role as an insulin-sensitizing hormone and negatively correlated with obesity through its receptors AdipoR1, AdipoR2, and T-cadherin. AdipoR1 is expressed abundantly in muscle, whereas AdipoR2 is predominantly expressed in the liver. Adiponectin also acts as an anti-inflammatory factor especially with regard to atherosclerosis, but in some chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases adiponectin may have pro-inflammatory effects and its production correlates with inflammatory markers and disease activity. In this study, ample evidence exists to support recommendations that adiponectin mediate multiple molecular pathways and it is of therapeutic value in the treatment and prevention of obesity, type II diabetes .

This study assessed the concentrations of four metals, Cu, Pb, Cd and Zn in the flesh of two dominant fish species, Mugil cephalus and Seriola sp. from the Korle Lagoon in Ghana. The results indicated very high concentrations of Cu (17.02 ± 6.77 µg/g), Pb (45.91 ± 1.79 µg/g) and Cd (36.05 ± 2.65 µg/g) in the flesh of the two species which were above safety reference standards outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and thus posed a serious health risk for human consumers.

People around the world are concerned with the solid waste management and it has become a burning issue due to its impacts on the environment and conservation. In fact, it involves in the human civilization process. Most of the countries have their own Acts and policy to tackle this problem. The humans and poverty are mostly responsible for this problem. Some religious guidelines regarding the environmental conservations may be critical in this regard. In Bangladesh, this problem is numerous due to over population and range of poverty. In order to address this issue, the government of Bangladesh has passed several laws and policies in this regard. The newly set up the Environment Courts bear critical role preventing and protecting the environment. This study examines critically the existing legal environmental provisions in Bangladesh based on the primary and the secondary sources consisting of at least 25 respondents in this regard. A similar case study may be made in Hantian Kazang, Bangi, Malaysia where a lot of Bangladeshi people have been working there.

In Finite Mixture Models approach, identifying the number of components (clusters) in a dataset is one of the most important problems; despite the accumulation of many proposals, a question remains concerning the selection of specific information criteria that may be more suitable for particular applications. The aim of this study is to determine which theoretical information criteria is more appropriate (among eleven frequently used) for mixture model selection when considering datasets with mixed (both categorical and numerical) clustering base variables. \nIn order to select among information criteria, which may support the selection of the correct number of clusters, we conduct a simulation study. The generation of mixtures with both multinomial and multivariate normal data supports the proposed analysis. As a result, we establish a relationship between the level of measurement of clustering variables (mixed) and some (eleven) information criteria’s performance on finite mixture models. The criterion AIC3, followed by AICu, shows better overall performance (it indicates the correct number of the simulated clusters’ structures more often) when referring to mixtures of mixed clustering base variables.

Four isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets, with different α-cellulose inclusion levels, were formulated. Diet with 4% α-cellulose in it served as control. Fish ranging from 2.6-3.4 gm each were housed in glass aquaria @10 fish per aquarium. Aquaria were provided with 14L/10D fluorescent light. Trial was conducted for 60 days. No mortality was observed in any group. All diets performed equally well. However, the diet with 12% α-cellulose showed superiority over the rest of the treatments in growth and nutrient digestibility. There was no variation in digestibility of carbohydrates and dry matter contents. Lowest digestibility of fats and protein was observed in 16% α-cellulose containing diet the group which also displayed the lowest growth. The studies have suggested that Labeo fingerlings can tolerate complex carbohydrates up to 16% if included in the diet but there is a gradual reduction in performance if inclusion level of this carbohydrate exceeds 12% of the diet.