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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

From the House

Bluffton Today

Mary and I hope that everyone had as nice a Christmas as our family. Despite our recent loss, we pulled together and made what could have been a less than joyful affair into one of our best ever. The miracle of Christmas has always been about gratitude.

A brief and unscientific survey of merchants around Bluffton and Hilton Head would lead me to believe that most businesses in our area are experiencing their share of thankfulness. It seems that all the “shop local” sentiment so effectively promoted by the chambers of commerce did exactly what was intended. Most of the assessments I’m hearing are somewhere between “above average” to “over the moon.” Our merchants in the Promenade and around Old Town Bluffton report that between Thanksgiving and Christmas day, sales were very strong and continue briskly so far this week before the New Year celebration.

This is right in line with what we heard recently during the economic forecast session at the USC Darla Moore School of Business. According to our very own economist, USC’s Doug Woodward: “the state’s economy is looking good…South Carolina is in relatively good shape and there is growth in the US economy where we are in a position to do fairly well.” That may not sound like high praise, but for those of us who know Doug Woodward, it almost sounds as though our own dismal scientist is succumbing to a fit of “irrational exuberance.”

There are obviously a few spots in the economy still feeling sluggish after the Great Recession, such as home sales and new construction. However, the leading indicators for these areas are looking up and we have every reason to be optimistic that 2012 is going to be a turnaround year for real estate.

The surprise, of course, is that the manufacturing sector is leading the recovery with convincing gains across the board. Bridgestone, Continental Tire, Boeing and a host of smaller manufacturing players are seeing a serious recovery. While manufacturing only accounts for around 10 percent of our jobs, my friend Bobby Hitt, SC Secretary of Commerce, told me that we have a realistic shot at increasing that to 15 percent in the very near future. In fact, South Carolina is leading the region in manufacturing growth.

According to the latest projections from the Federal Reserve, South Carolina is one of two states likely to show growth in the next six months in excess of 4.5 percent. Combine that with the national business magazine naming us as the fourth best state in the nation in which to do business and you begin to see what all the buzz is about.

I mentioned a few columns ago that we had regained our AAA credit rating. While that is good news, what it means in practical, immediate terms is we can refinance a series of bonds saving the taxpayers a little over $24 million in borrowing costs. As a member of Ways and Means, such good news and such great economic projections help to salve the lingering sting many of us felt over the austerity budgets we have crafted these last several years. Sometimes it’s hard being the budgetary grownup saying we can’t afford this program or that new highway.

For me, one of the leading local economic indicators has turned out to be the live/work units we are putting together in Old Town Bluffton. The buzz has gone from several friends and interested locals, to calls from folks in the Upstate, and now there are several parties from Atlanta and Nashville requesting information and wanting to talk about taking the concept beyond Bluffton. We’ll see what happens.
In the meantime, please celebrate responsibly. Sheriff Tanner and Chief McAllister will have every available unit on the road this holiday. No excuses.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

From the House

Bluffton Today

With only a few days left before the Christmas holiday, I probably don’t need to remind you that there are a good many of our neighbors struggling to secure just the basics of living right now. Our friends at Bluffton Self-Help, Volunteers in Medicine, and Deep Well, to name just a few, are doing what they can. They could all use your help, especially right now.

What if I told you that there is a potentially productive strategic relationship for job creation (my favorite topic) and the non-profit sector? What might make it even more interesting is if you knew that very similar legislative initiatives were recently introduced into the state houses of both Massachusetts and South Carolina. What could the do-gooder liberals in Massachusetts and the rock-ribbed conservatives of South Carolina possibly have in common? And why are they both very excited about this forward-thinking job creation strategy?

The idea is called CHIRA, and the idea could potentially unlock trillions of currently idle dollars, and put them into the non-profit sector, building hospitals, schools, cultural institutions, and performing the good works that Americans have traditionally supported. Building equals jobs and jobs support families. The unlocked dollars would not only be available immediately for local projects, they would be directed by individuals in local situations with almost zero government input. Sounds pretty interesting, doesn’t it?

CHIRA is an acronym for Charitable Investment Recovery Act. It is a process whereby holders of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) could loan a portion of their accounts to their favorite charity or non-profit. Concurrently, the 501(c)
(3) would purchase insurance to guarantee repayment, plus interest, of all dollars to the donor’s IRA. These dollars move immediately from Wall Street to Main Street. Instead of funding the Wall Street Casino, we could fund improvements right in our communities, guided by our local needs by local folks.

Right now, you can leave your IRA to a charity, but you won’t personally see any of the benefit because your estate will make the award. There are ways to donate assets before death, but there is a daunting level of complexity. CHIRA provides an alternative to this complexity while also making your wishes translate to good works while you are around to enjoy the moment. For details, go to and take a look for yourself.

Like all seemingly good ideas, this one needs the scrutiny provided by the committee system in the General Assembly. There may be some downside that is not immediately apparent. That is why we hold hearings and receive testimony from folks whose special knowledge in these matters is heard. Having said that, I have spoken to a number of legislative colleagues whose opinions I respect, and the overwhelming consensus right now is very positive for this initiative. As we look more closely at the particulars in committee, I will of course keep you informed.

Finally, I want to leave you with two suggestions: First, do your shopping locally with your friends and neighbors. Circulate your dollars around the community and you will be surprised at how many of them return home. Secondly, please make sure you attend all your holiday parties with a designated driver. One or two glasses of eggnog may impair your senses just enough for this Christmas to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Give thanks for all our blessings and have a merry Christmas, confident that the coming year will bring us closer to peace and prosperity.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

From the House

Bluffton Today

As always, I appreciate all the comments, calls and emails on the previous columns we have produced. It is almost exactly a month until we reconvene the General Assembly. As we are refining our legislative agenda, your input is absolutely invaluable. Historically, the week after Thanksgiving is when your contribution to the agenda starts to get serious. While my conversations with you are the primary driver of the agenda, this year I am hearing much more from individuals and businesses from around the state and from other parts of the country. It’s an interesting phenomenon, but I represent you, and your voices are by far the most important to me.

We are still getting many responses from the Medicare/Medicaid columns of last month. In that vein, if you have a complex or multi-part Medicaid question, or a question about matters related to Health and Human Services (HHS), please, if possible, send it as an email or written letter. That way, I can research the matter and get back to you with the correct information, or I may just put you in touch with the person you need to talk with from the state. As much as I enjoy chatting, sometimes the complexity of these issues requires a more formal way of communicating. When we get you squared away, then you may want to come into the office and we’ll have that chat over a cup of coffee.

Last week, I rode up to Columbia for a meeting with the State Infrastructure Bank. It was my pleasure to be joined in the meeting by my good friend Weston Newton, Chairman of Beaufort County Council, along with his County Administrator Gary Kubic.

Hardeeville Mayor Bostick, and several key officials from Jasper County also joined us. This is an example of the regional cooperation that we have been talking about for a generation, which is now starting to happen routinely. It will also become more common and more important after the House districts are realigned in 2012, essentially creating a Beaufort/Jasper block in the legislature.

The subject of our meeting with the Infrastructure Bank had to do primarily with the status of the widening and enhancement of Highway 170, along with some of the feeder roads that will make our 170 efforts more effective. The outcome of the meeting was very positive and reflected the efforts of your representative over the last decade in creating the groundwork and rationale for the repatriation of your tax dollars back to the Lowcountry to address our local needs. It also reflects the success of Chairman Newton’s campaign to temporarily add a penny to our local sales tax to support crucial transportation projects. I will have more on this as it goes from agreements in principle to line items in the budget. Suffice to say we are no longer on the dark side of the moon, politically speaking.

There is good economic news from the big brains up at the Darla Moore School of Business at University of South Carolina. Over the last 18 months, our state has made big progress in the manufacturing segment of our economy. With Boeing, Bridgestone, Continental Tire, Amazon and a host of middle and smaller companies poised for expansion, they are conservatively projecting a 15% increase in manufacturing activity.

Also, a combination of our budgetary restraint and increased tax receipts has resulted in the restoration of our triple A credit rating, which will save us millions in borrowing costs over the next year.

Finally, my idea for live/work units in Old Town Bluffton sparked a ton of interest. That interest is somewhat driving the configuration of the project. If you want to become a part of the Bluffton economic phenomenon, call me at 757-5464.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

From the House

Bluffton Today

Today is the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that precipitated our entry into the Second World War. For those who were there, or whose loved ones were there, it was the equivalent of being at ground zero New York City for the calamitous events of 9/11/01. While that war is long over and the Japanese are now our fast friends and allies, the lessons of Pearl Harbor are not to be forgotten. Constant vigilance is truly the price of liberty.

On a happier note, many congratulations to our Bluffton Bobcats football team. Going to the state championship game is something that everyone in Bluffton can be proud of. The entire season was an example of how sport is meant to be. The young men who played the games, the classy coaching staff, and the enthusiastic but well-behaved fans all deserve credit for a stellar season. In the end, we fell just short of perfection, but in all the ways that truly matter, our community is uplifted by the example set during this outstanding season. Regardless of the final score, the Bluffton Bobcats, Bluffton High, and the Bluffton community are all winners.

Another great example of the entire community pulling together for the common benefit is the fantastic 2011 Bluffton Christmas Parade. With Grand Marshal (and former mayor) Hank Johnston leading the way, the parade stepped off right on time. To the delight of the estimated crowd of 8,000 to 10,000 attendees, the two hour long parade snaked through the heart of downtown Bluffton. The dignitaries were dignified, the Marine Band was excruciatingly precise, the Shriners were rowdy and loud, and all the singing and marching children were cute beyond the dreams of their proud parents.

As one of the “dignitaries” situated in the front of the parade, I was able to make it from the disbanding site at Frazier Park back to the Promenade for the last hour and a half of this splendid event. Even for those of us a little too old for Santa Claus, there was definitely Christmas magic in the air surrounding our amazing community parade.

There was organizational magic, thanks to Sandra, Julie, Tammy and all the tireless workers at Town of Bluffton. After all the years Town Clerk Sandra Lundsford has run these parades, she can do them in her sleep.

Special thanks go to Chief Dave McAllister and his crew for the excellent manner in which the traffic was handled. The notices of road closures and car removals along the parade route were done with timeliness and tact. All the policemen not actually in the parade were in place to make sure the excitement didn’t get out of hand. They were invisible but effective. As always, their performance reflected the highest levels of professionalism.

People really understand there is something special about Bluffton. Whenever I give a speech, many of the follow-up questions have to do with how can folks become a part of the community, especially the business community. They want to know what’s the possibility of doing a live/work situation in Old Town. Right now, the Promenade is sold out-- with a waiting list. However, I have an idea for a new project that just might answer the need for affordable live/work possibilities right at the center of Old Town Bluffton. Give me a call at 757-5464. We’ll sit down with a cup of coffee and talk it over. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Finally, in this season of holiday festivities, please use common sense and appoint a designated driver. Losing a loved one is always tragic, but even more painfully so during the holidays.


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• Heritage Action
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Executive Memorandum #933 on Africa

May 19, 2004

Addressing Nigeria's Economic Problems and the Islamist Terrorist Threat

By and

Nigeria is a case study in oil-based wealth being squandered by poor governance and internal strife. Instability in Nigeria merits U.S. attention because it is a major non-Middle Eastern oil producer (accounting for 3 percent of global oil production in 2001) and was America's fifth largest (9.6 percent) source of crude oil imports in 2003. Moreover, Islamist radicals hope to exploit Nigeria's poverty, political turmoil, and inadequate law enforcement--thereby making Nigeria a potential regional security threat. Recent Muslim-Christian clashes, which have left hundreds of people dead and more than 1,000 wounded, highlight this threat. Ongoing assaults against Nigerian oil production, general instability, economic mismanagement, and the threat of Islamist radicalism necessitate that the U.S. work with Nigeria to address these problems.

Squandered Wealth
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with a population of 133 million in 2002. It is also home to the world's sixth largest Muslim population. It has estimated oil reserves of 27 billion barrels (over 2.6 percent of global proven reserves). Given Nigeria's location and ports, the country could be an economic hub for western and central Africa. Regrettably, political instability and military coups, combined with inept economic governance and endemic corruption, have squandered Nigeria's advantages.

Since gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria has experienced civil war and numerous coups, with only 13 years of democratic government. To secure their power base, past governments enacted repressive economic policies and undermined the rule of law. The Index of Economic Freedom ranks Nigeria as a "mostly unfree" economy due to high trade barriers, heavy regulation, and excessive government intervention. Instability and misguided economic policies have curtailed foreign investment outside of the oil sector.

Transparency International's 2003 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Nigeria as the second most corrupt nation in the world. Although President Olusegun Obasanjo has pledged to end corruption and adopt economic reforms, vested interests oppose change. As U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John Snow has noted, "While some steps were taken to introduce transparency and accountability, little change was seen in budgeting practices, contract awards, monetary policy, privatization, or public service reform."

Poor governance and lawlessness have enormous costs. Nigeria's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was $248 in 2002--lower than in 1970 in constant terms. Violence, kidnapping, sabotage, and other criminal activity in the southern oil-rich region often disrupt production--dramatically affecting an economy in which the oil sector accounted for 65 percent of budget revenue, 95 percent of exports, and 20 percent of the GDP in 2001.

Vulnerability to Radical Islam
Poverty, political corruption, an absence of the rule of law, and a fractious society (250 ethnic groups and a population split between Christians and Muslims) make Nigeria ripe for exploitation by radical Islamists. Nigeria has experienced increased ethnic and religious violence and tensions after 12 of the country's 36 states adopted the Islamic Shar'ia law. The BBC reports that over 10,000 people have died in communal and religious violence since 1999.

A January 2004 uprising by Al Sunna Wal Jamma (Followers of the Prophet) highlights these concerns. The terrorist group attempted to establish a Taliban-style Muslim state in northern Nigeria. When locals resisted their efforts, the group attacked, seizing weapons and burning down police stations. Nigerian troops quickly crushed the uprising, killing approximately 20 members and arresting another 50. However, Nigerian officials fear that a network of cells with as many as 1,000 followers may still be operating in Nigeria. Although Al Sunna Wal Jamma originated in Nigeria, foreign radical Islamists may be supporting the group. Indeed, Osama bin Laden has apparently announced that he has targeted Nigeria for "liberation."

A U.S. Strategy
It is in America's interest to encourage Nigeria to improve its economy, secure its oil, combat corruption, and enforce the rule of law. Specifically, the Bush Administration should:

  • Require progress on economic reform and fighting corruption in return for aid. The U.S. Agency for International Development requested $63 million in fiscal year 2004 for democracy, governance, health, and economic programs in Nigeria. However, assistance and debt relief cannot replace domestic efforts. Aid should follow--not precede--progress in combating corruption, adopting economic freedom, and enforcing the rule of law.
  • Clamp down on radical Islamists. The U.S. should coordinate intelligence with Nigerian law enforcement to identify, monitor, and eliminate radical Islamist networks and external sources of support--especially by clamping down on Nigerian money laundering.
  • Increase law enforcement training. In order to improve law and order, America should offer technical assistance, equipment, and training to Nigerian law enforcement and marine patrols. Foreign investors in the oil and gas sector should be encouraged to hire supplementary private security and to pay some of the Nigerian government's investment costs for improved security.
  • Train counterinsurgency forces. The Bush Administration's request of $850,000 for military education and training and $4 million in foreign military financing properly focuses on enhancing regional stability, counterterrorism capabilities, border and maritime controls, and the war on terrorism. This assistance is critical and should be augmented with U.S.-Nigerian training missions.

The growth of radical Islam in Nigeria and its potential impact on regional and energy security should be viewed in the context of increased global terrorist threats and a breakdown in governance systems. Government mismanagement, interventionist economic policies, and inadequate law enforcement hinder Nigeria's economic growth and oil production and have heightened Nigeria's vulnerability to Islamist radicalism. Addressing the Islamist threat in Nigeria requires strategies that strengthen Nigeria's ability to counter foreign terrorist activity and fix the country's underlying economic and security problems.

Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., is Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies in the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies and Brett D. Schaefer is Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs in the Center for International Trade and Economics at The Heritage Foundation. The authors thank Dr. Funmi Olonsakin for her comments and Will Schirano for his research assistance.

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Help honor heroes on both ends of the leash by voting for your Hero Dog in the 2015 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards™! The last round of voting to determine the 2015 American Hero Dog will remain open from July 6th to September 7th at 12pm Eastern Time. Individuals who are at least 18 years of age and reside in the United States may vote for one dog each day.

Individuals may not use more than one email address to vote more than one time per day. Invalid votes, as determined by American Humane Association, will not be counted. For more information on the grand prize winner determination, please see our Rules page.


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Herreshoff Marine Museum and Ameerica's Cup Hall of Fame
Herreshoff Marine Museum America's Cup Hall of Fame
Herreshoff Marine Museum
America's Cup Hall of Fame

Grant Simmer (AUS) (b. 1957)

Simmer has won the America’s Cup three times in a career that spans four decades.  In 1983 Simmer was the young, 26-year-old navigator on board the historic challenger Australia II, the boat that achieved the impossible dream and broke the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year long grip on the America’s Cup.
Since that famous victory Simmer could fairly be accused of having made a career of the America’s Cup as he has been involved in a variety of roles across no fewer than nine subsequent campaigns.

A co-owner of North Sails Australia for 17 years Simmer finally gave up managing the sailmaking business in 2000 to become Design Coordinator for the Swiss America’s Cup Challenger Alinghi.  The ensuing match in 2003 against Team New Zealand saw him collect his second Louis Vuitton Cup win and his second America’s Cup winner’s medal before moving up to assume the position of Alinghi Co-Managing Director and Design Team Coordinator, and winning his third Cup in 2007.

Not to be put off by his team’s defeat in 2010 against BMW ORACLE Racing’s wing-masted monster trimaran, Simmer, one of the most highly regarded, competitive and sought after personalities in the Cup’s long history moved in 2012 to take up responsibilities as General Manager of ORACLE Team USA, a role that now gives him day-to-day operational responsibility for the America’s Cup defense later this year in San Francisco.
The America’s Cup Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, jointly organized by the Herreshoff Marine Museum and Louis Vuitton, will take place in San Francisco on the evening of Monday, 5th August at the de Young Museum in San Francisco during the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Selection Series.

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Hue Ultra Capri with Wide Waistband 14041 - Hue Bottoms
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Hue Ultra Capri with Wide Waistband 14041

This product was discontinued May, 2015 and is no longer available. Please consider one of the Customer-Recommended Replacements above, or try a new search.

Streamlined, soft and sporty: these solid capri leggings from Hue have a smooth, refined appearance that can alternate between casual and put-together. Just let your sense of style do the talking. The rich feel of the fabric is accomplished by blending cotton with rayon and lycra to give it the right amount of stretch to mold to your figure without squeezing you.
  • Wide, fabric-covered waistband fits securely around your waistline.
  • Capri length.
  • Tapered, hemmed legs.
  • Please Note: Black is no longer available.

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© 2015 Andra Group, LP - Tuesday, September 01, 2015 (A1).


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Mixed Treats Christmas Basket

Create a Christmas gift basket packed with homemade desserts, treats and produce your friends and family will love this holiday season.

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Hidden Ireland - Country Guest Houses Ireland
+353 98 66650 http://www.hiddenireland.com/

About Us At Hidden Ireland Hidden Ireland

Historic House Bed & Breakfast

...By County

Self Catering Holiday Rental

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It is best to book in advance by phone, fax or e-mail. Bookings should be made directly with each house, not through The Hidden Ireland office (though the office may help with any difficulties). You will normally need to secure the reservation with a credit card. Be sure to check each house’s cancellation policy at the time you make the booking. It is also a good idea to let them know if you will arrive in time for dinner on the first day; after that, you can decide each morning.

Prices & Payment

Prices are shown for each house and are per person per night, including taxes and a full Irish breakfast. Supplements normally apply for single occupancy of rooms, as indicated. Many houses offer special packages for stays of two or more nights. Payment may be made by credit card, unless otherwise indicated; the cards that each house accepts are shown, but almost all accept Mastercard and Visa.

Exclusive Use

Most of the houses can be booked in their entirety for an exclusive private party over a weekend or for longer stays. Special rates normally apply and it can be a remarkably inexpensive way of celebrating a special occasion or anniversary with friends or family.

Arrival Time

Guests are advised to arrive in the late afternoon, perhaps around 5 or 6pm. Be sure to let your hosts know if you will be arriving unusually early or late.

Rooms & Bathrooms

All houses have private bathrooms for each guest room and, with very few exceptions, these are en suite.

Dining Arrangements

In most houses, everyone eats together at one big table, which can be great fun and gives you a chance to enjoy the company of other guests and often your hosts, too. In others, there may be separate tables and in some houses your hosts may be busy in the kitchen, but you will normally get the opportunity to meet them during the course of each evening.

Some houses welcome young children and others do not. The policy is indicated under each house’s entry. Some houses offer early suppers for children and children’s meals or extra beds may be available at reduced rates. If in doubt, do check at the time of reservation.

Unless otherwise indicated, all houses have a licence to sell wine and some have marvellous cellars available to guests. In the odd case where the house is not licensed, guests may bring their own.

This is entirely a matter for you - no automatic service charges are applied. But, for guidance purposes only, a tip for the household staff of about €10 per person per night is normal. This is completely at your discretion.

See what some of our guests have said about Hidden Ireland and their experience of staying at our houses here

Special Offers & Packages

Hilton Park

Hilton Park
Mid-Week Offer: Two nights B&B with a four course Dinner on an evening of your choice.

Mid-Week Offer: Two nights B&B with a four course Dinner on an evening of your choice. (Arrival Tuesday or Wednesday)
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Ashley Park House

Ashley Park House
Ashley Park are currently offering a two night special, with dinner on one night, for €165 per person sharing.

Ashley Park are currently offering a two night special, with dinner on one night, for €165 per person sharing. They also have a days fishing with a gilli and equipment for €130
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Clothing April, 2 2014

JieDa Fall/Winter 2014 Lookbook

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JieDa gives a quick overview of its offerings for the upcoming Fall/Winter 2014 by way of the latest lookbook. Fusing familiar silhouettes with unexpected designs twists, the Japanese brand serves up a solid collection that covers every serious men’s wardrobe needs. Staples like wool coats and bomber jackets are set against roomy pants and boldly patterned knitwear. We especially dig the dinosaur camo and the oversized houndstooth pattern. Expect the full JieDa lineup to hit select retailers in the coming months.


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SCW Florida: Brutal Battle 2004 DVD-R

SCW Florida: Brutal Battle 2004 DVD-R

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    Price: $12.95

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    DVD-R Version

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    Click here to check: (DVD-R Compatibility Chart)

    SCW Florida presents "Brutal Battle" featuring their championship tournament.

    1. Ryze vs. Leon Scott - Tournament Match
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    5. Dagon Briggs & Johnny Schumacher vs. Mister Saint Laurent & Manny Montana - No Time Limit, No Holds Barred
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Austin Aries - TNA Deluxe Impact 11Figure

Austin Aries - TNA Deluxe Impact 11Figure

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About this Journal Submit a Manuscript Table of Contents
International Journal of Rotating Machinery
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 847203, 10 pages
Research Article

Confirmation of Thermal Images and Vibration Signals for Intelligent Machine Fault Diagnostics

1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University, Jalan Professor Sudarto, Tembalang, Semarang 50275, Indonesia
2Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Pukyong National University, San 100, Yongdang-dong, Nam-gu, Busan 608-739, Republic of Korea
3Department of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Marine Industry, Gyeongsang National University, 445 Inpyeong-dong, Gyeongnam-do, Tongyoung City 650-160, Republic of Korea

Received 20 June 2012; Revised 27 August 2012; Accepted 29 August 2012

Academic Editor: Hui Ma

Copyright © 2012 Achmad Widodo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This paper deals with the maintenance technique for industrial machinery using the artificial neural network so-called self-organizing map (SOM). The aim of this work is to develop intelligent maintenance system for machinery based on an alternative way, namely, thermal images instead of vibration signals. SOM is selected due to its simplicity and is categorized as an unsupervised algorithm. Following the SOM training, machine fault diagnostics is performed by using the pattern recognition technique of machine conditions. The data used in this work are thermal images and vibration signals, which were acquired from machine fault simulator (MFS). It is a reliable tool and is able to simulate several conditions of faulty machine such as unbalance, misalignment, looseness, and rolling element bearing faults (outer race, inner race, ball, and cage defects). Data acquisition were conducted simultaneously by infrared thermography camera and vibration sensors installed in the MFS. The experimental data are presented as thermal image and vibration signal in the time domain. Feature extraction was carried out to obtain salient features sensitive to machine conditions from thermal images and vibration signals. These features are then used to train the SOM for intelligent machine diagnostics process. The results show that SOM can perform intelligent fault diagnostics with plausible accuracies.

1. Introduction

Machine condition monitoring and fault diagnostics are very important for machineries in the industry to guarantee high performance of their functionality. High reliability is needed to reduce product and profit loss because of unwanted downtime. Therefore, machine condition monitoring and fault diagnostics become a critical issue in maintenance activity to ensure availability, minimize operator hazard, and reduce economic losses [1]. For this purpose, several sensors such as vibration sensors, acoustic emission sensors, and temperature sensors are used to fulfill the requirement for machine condition monitoring procedure [2]. The assessment of machine components of critical rotating machines, such as bearings (journal or rolling element), using such sensors is significant for early detection of machine condition.

The application of vibration sensors as fundamental tools for machine condition monitoring has been used extensively over a period of approximately four decades [3]. The reason to use these sensors was their effectiveness of measurement process and data analysis that can represent the machine conditions. Vibration signal monitoring of installed bearings in rotating machines is still effective to obtain the machine’s behavior. Such monitoring could extract the machine conditions through signals analysis in time and frequency domains. Machine fault diagnostics technique using vibration sensors has been reported by many researchers including application of intelligent system in their proposed method [47].

Machinery monitoring and diagnostics by means of acoustic emission (AE) sensor have also been conducted by experts with their own proposed techniques [810]. Their works were mostly applied to slow speed bearings monitoring and fault diagnostics. According to published results, AE sensor was more sensitive than vibration sensor in monitoring low speed bearings. The use of AE sensor, along with intelligent technique, that is, relevance vector machine (RVM), for help in machine diagnostics process using such sensor was reported by Widodo et al. [11]. Another research in this area was reported by El-Ghamry et al. [12] in which he used the automated pattern-recognition procedure to perform fault diagnostics of reciprocating machines by AE sensor.

The use of temperature monitoring for journal bearings has been reported by Glavatskih et al. [13] and Glavatskih [14]. Their work did not employ any intelligent systems for monitoring and diagnostics. Temperature monitoring by means of thermocouple sensor is usually used as a secondary sensors instead of vibration and AE sensor. Therefore, the reports which employ intelligent diagnostics using such sensor are rarely found.

Another method that is recently popular in machine condition monitoring and fault diagnostics is the thermography technique. The good performance and simplicity to use have made this technique highly popular in the engineering maintenance area. This technique has been used in wide range area such as the mechanical, electrical, petrochemical, material, medical, and structure and building areas, and so forth [15]. In the case of machine condition monitoring and diagnostics, the use of such method has been reported by Mazioud et al. [16] in which fault detection of rolling element bearing degradation using infrared thermography was performed. The implementation of intelligent system use thermography has been proposed by Fidali [17]. He proposed a continuous monitoring using thermography camera and fault-diagnostics based statistical texture analysis. His work employed Fisher criterion and minimization of error classification for diagnostics procedure. Younus et.al. [18] reported evaluation on thermal data image for machine diagnostics. Image features are extracted by principal component and independent component analysis. Their proposed system was augmented by support vector machine (SVM) for diagnostics process. A recent publication by Younus and Yang [19] implemented feature extraction of images by two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform. The intelligent system used the SVM for machine diagnostics.

In this paper, confirmation of thermal images and vibration signals for intelligent machine fault diagnostics is studied. The aim of this work is to find a new alternative source feature and a machine diagnostics technique by utilizing thermal images and SOM. Thermal images are processed by the thresholding method for image segmentation and clustered by means of -means algorithm. Salient features are then extracted from binary images after images processing. The extracted features used for SOM training are area, perimeter, and central moment of region of interest (ROI). After SOM diagnostics, the result will be compared with the vibration-based method for validation purposes.

2. Basic Theory

2.1. Thermal Image

Infrared camera does not measure directly a temperature of surface. The detectors of the camera are sensitive to the luminance emitted by the object being studied. This luminance is naturally dependent on the temperature of the surface. Thermal image is an image which is captured by infrared thermography camera. This device can capture electromagnetic spectrum within infrared bands, 0.78–1000 μm. A thermal image is a function of radiated energy on an inspected object [15]. This image can be digitized and represented in matrix form for computational processing as follows:

2.2. Image Thresholding

Image thresholding is mostly used for image segmentation [21, 22]. Thresholding is also common method for defect detection of material by IRT image. Thresholding is a process to separate objects from its background in a digital image. Histogram is the main tool in this separation process. Suppose that the grey level corresponds to an image that is composed of lights objects on a dark background, in such a way that object and background pixels have grey levels grouped into two dominant modes. Extracting the object from the background is performed by selecting a threshold that separates these modes. A thresholded image is defined as The method of global threshold is selected in this paper where the grey-level histogram is calculated from the entire image [22].

2.3. Feature Extraction
2.3.1. Image Features

The perimeter and area are meaningful for binary image. Consider a discrete binary image containing one more object, where if a pixel is part of the object and for all nonobject or background pixels. The bit-quads [23] method is adopted to determine the perimeter and area of ROI. The moment of order of an image [24], denoted as , is defined as where and are coordinates of the pixel, and is the grey level of the pixel. The higher order moments represent spatial distribution of the objects. The previous two characteristics make moments a reasonable and proper feature for the classification task. However, the above equation may be greatly affected by the objects shifting. Therefore, to overcome this problem central moment is used and defined as where and .

The relationship between moments and central moments up to order 3 are listed as follows: Then, central moments could be further normalized by the following formulas: where

2.3.2. Vibration Features

Statistical are extracted from time domain vibration data using formulas presented in (8) and (9) as follows where,

2.4. Self Organizing Map (SOM)

The SOM is a neural network model that implements a characteristic non-linear projection from a high dimensional space of sensory or other input signals onto a low-dimensional array of neurons. The SOM is an unsupervised learning algorithm which produces a map pattern features on its output layer [20]. Input patterns with similar features are mapped onto neighbouring output nodes. The network consists of an input layer with neurons and an output layer with neurons as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: SOM network [20].

The image of the signal space tends to manifest the clusters of input information and their relationship on the feature map. With every node , a parametric reference vector is associated. In an abstract scheme it may be imagined that at time the input , by means of some parallel computing mechanisms, is compared with all , and the location of best match in some metric is defined as the location of the response. However, in many practical applications, the Euclidean distances can be made to define the best matching node (neuron) which is signified by the index , where ; ; represents the input vectors and represents the weight vectors, of the th output vectors. is the error which is given by .

3. Method and Material

The flowchart of diagnostics process is presented in Figure 2. After image acquisition from the object, thermal image is cropped to select the ROI, that is, rolling element bearing image. Next step, image clustering will be performed by using -means algorithm to cluster the hotspot area based on color palette. Image segmentation by thresholding is conducted by using the a Otsu method [16]. Image thresholding will produce binary image which is useful for image feature extraction. Perimeter, area, and central moments are then calculated based on resulted binary images. After feature extraction, extracted features from normal and faulty condition are separated for SOM training purpose. The feature of normal condition will be used as baseline of the diagnostics process. Finally, SOM will make decision of whether the machine condition is normal or faulty.

Figure 2: Flow chart of SOM diagnostics process.

Data acquisition was conducted on MFS which is able to simulate abnormality in rotating machine, that is, rolling element bearing fault, unbalance, misalignment, and looseness. Thermal images and vibration signals were simultaneously acquired from the machine that has been operated for 30 minutes to generate initial heat in the bearings. The image acquisition produced 30 images per second, and the machine was operated at 1800 rpm. Figures 3 and 4 show the data acquisition process in the laboratory using infrared thermography camera and accelerometer sensors.

Figure 3: Data acquisition process.
Figure 4: Accelerometer sensors placement.

4. Results and Discussion

Data acquisition of thermal image and vibration signal of faulty bearing is presented in Figures 5 and 6. FLIR SC5000 camera was used to capture thermal images and LMS Test. Xpress was used to vibration signal acquisition from MFS. The acquired images were stored in RGB format with size of 256 × 256 pixels, and vibration signals were acquired in 5 kHz sampling frequency.

Figure 5: Thermal images of MFS.
Figure 6: Vibration signal of faulty bearing.

After cropping, thermal images captured from right and left bearings are presented in Figures 7 and 8. The ROI was determined by red or pink colors that represent the hottest temperature area generated by bearings. Such colors were then extracted and clustered by -means algorithm with . Figure 9 depicts the clustering result by means of -means algorithm.

Figure 7: Thermal images of right bearing.
Figure 8: Thermal images of left bearing.
Figure 9: Clustering of bearing images: (a) normal bearing; (b) faulty bearing.

Figure 9 also shows the colors in ROI from which feature extraction will be performed. The selected ROI will be transformed into binary image by thresholding method. Next step is feature extraction of perimeter, area, and central moments from ROI. This process is depicted in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Processing of bearing thermal image.

Figures 1113 show image features of area, perimeter, and central moment , respectively. The labels U, M, L, and B represent the faults in the machine namely unbalance, misalignment, looseness, and bearing faults, respectively. Figure 11 shows random patterns for the hot area of ROI which are not good patterns because the conditions of the machine cannot be distinguished clearly. The feature representation of Figure 12 shows better patterns than the feature of area, even though some data are out from the cluster of conditions. Observing this figure, temperature is increased between normal condition and faulty condition. This plot could be a reference for determination of bearing condition. Figure 13 also shows random structure of patterns but is better than feature of area. These patterns will be then input data for SOM training for fault diagnostics process.

Figure 11: Feature area of thermal image.
Figure 12: Feature perimeter of thermal image.
Figure 13: Feature central moment of thermal image.

Feature extraction was also performed on time domain vibration signal by calculating its statistical features. The results of feature extraction are presented in Figures 14, 15, 16. It is clearly observed that the machine conditions are well clustered. Comparing with features from thermal images, vibration features show better performance in clustering of machine conditions.

Figure 14: RMS vibration.
Figure 15: Skewness vibration.
Figure 16: Kurtosis vibration.

The fault diagnostics process is started by training SOM algorithm using features from thermal images and vibration signals. SOM is trained by 20 training data which consist of five machine conditions. The results of training process are presented by using U-matrix with hexagon topology to visualize distances between neighboring map units and help in seeing the cluster structure of the map. Map units indicate cluster border between conditions in the machine which are visualized by different color in the map. The U-matrices of SOM training are shown in Figures 17 and 18. These maps will be references from which fault diagnostics procedure is performed.

Figure 17: Mapping of perimeter image.
Figure 18: Mapping of RMS vibration.

After SOM training, the performance of SOM diagnostics was evaluated by testing process using 10 data from thermal images of bearing fault and unbalance case (BU label), and 8 data from vibration signals of bearing fault case (B label) respectively. In the case of thermal images data, 8 data successfully activated cluster of BU, and 2 data were misclassified in BU cluster. It means that the accuracy is 80%. In addition, testing process using vibration data gives accuracy of 100% which means that all data tests successfully activate the cluster of B. From the experiment, the performance of testing process using vibration data is better than thermal images data. It was well known that vibration data can produce good accuracy in machine fault diagnostics. However, it could be said that the results of testing process by using thermal images and vibration data show good performance. Testing process of SOM using thermal images and vibration data are visualized by presenting the topography of best matching unit (BMU) as depicted in Figures 19 and 20, respectively.

Figure 19: SOM test for perimeter data.
Figure 20: SOM test for RMS vibration.

5. Conclusion

This paper deals with the confirmation of thermal images and vibration signals for intelligent machine fault diagnostics using SOM network. Thermal images and vibration signals were acquired from MFS that is a reliable tool for machinery simulation. Image segmentation technique was performed on thermal images to obtain binary images for image feature extraction process. The features extracted from thermal images were area, perimeter, and central moments. Statistical features, namely, RMS, means, skewness and kurtosis, were also extracted from time-domain vibration signals. SOM were then trained by using extracted features from both thermal images and vibration signals. After training, SOM was tested by feeding some data to evaluate the performance of fault diagnostics. The results show that good accuracy was reached by using both source features thermography and vibration. Moreover, it showed that the thermography method could be an alternative way for conducting intelligent machine fault diagnostics with plausible results.

This work was supported by the Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University, Indonesia, through Research Grant for International Research Collaboration with Contract no. 3203/UN7.3.3/PG/2011. This work is also dedicated to the late Professor Bo-Suk Yang, the founder of the Intelligent Mechanics Laboratory at Pukyong National University Republic of Korea, where the first author spent almost five years with him in research area of machine fault diagnostics and prognostics. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the Brain Korea (BK21) project on this study.

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Journal of Toxicology
Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 272097, 5 pages
Research Article

Hepatoprotective Potential of Some Local Medicinal Plants against 2-Acetylaminoflourene-Induced Damage in Rat

Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, P.M.B. 4000, Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Received 7 April 2013; Accepted 7 June 2013

Academic Editor: Margaret James

Copyright © 2013 Adewale Adetutu and Olubukola S. Olorunnisola. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The in vivo micronucleus assay was used to examine the anticlastogenic effects of crude extracts of Bridelia ferruginea, Vernonia amygdalina, Tridax procumbens, Ocimum gratissimum, and Lawsonia inermis in Wistar albino rats. Extracts of doses of 100 mg/kg body weight were given to rats in five groups for seven consecutive days followed by a single dose of 2-AAF (0.5 mmol/kg body weight). The rats were sacrificed after 24 hours and their bone marrow smears were prepared on glass slides stained with Giemsa. The micronucleated polychromatic erythrocyte cells (mPCEs) were thereafter recorded. The hepatoprotective effects of the plant extracts against 2-AAF-induced liver toxicity in rats were evaluated by monitoring the levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT), and histopathological analysis. The results of the 2-AAF-induced liver toxicity experiments showed that rats treated with the plant extracts (100 mg/kg) showed a significant decrease in mPCEs as compared with the positive control. The rats treated with the plant extracts did not show any significant change in the concentration of ALP and GGT in comparison with the negative control group whereas the 2-AAF group showed a significant increase ( ) in these parameters. Some of the leaf extracts also showed protective effects against histopathological alterations. This study suggests that the leaf extracts have hepatoprotective potential, thereby justifying their ethnopharmacological uses.

1. Introduction

There is a huge patronage of herbal products around the world as an alternative to orthodox drugs [1, 2] and these medicinal plants have immensely contributed to the development of human health and welfare [3, 4]. Previous studies on several folklore herbs showed that plant extracts contain many compounds with chemoprotective potentials that may prevent the attack of carcinogens [5, 6]. However, limited studies have investigated the anticlastogenic potentials of African herbs used in folk medicine to treat cancer.

Various test systems have been used to evaluate the protective effects of plant extracts against genotoxicity induced by carcinogens [79]. Genotoxic carcinogens, including 2-AAF, often cause a variety of nongenotoxic alterations in cells which might be indispensable in tumorigenesis. Various studies used different models to investigate the effect of herbs on alleviating oxidative stress on the liver [3]. Carcinogenic 2-AAF was selected in this study because of the ability to induce chronic liver toxicity and tumors in a number of species in the liver, bladder, and kidney [7, 10]. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the hepatoprotective effects of B. ferruguinea, V. amygdalina, T. procumbens, O. gratissimum, and L. inermis extracts against 2-AAF-induced toxicity in rats.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Plant Materials and Extraction

The leaves of the selected plants were collected in February 2011, from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Farm, Ogbomoso, Oyo, State Nigeria. The authentication of the plants was carried out by Mr. T. K. Odewo in the Herbarium of the Forest Research Institute (FRIN), Ibadan, Nigeria, where the voucher specimens were deposited. The voucher numbers assigned are Ocimum gratissimum, FHI. 107392; Vernonia amygdalina, FHI. 107399; Tridax procumbens, FHI. 107397; Parkia biglobosa, FHI. 107395; and Bridelia ferruginea, FHI. 107393. The leaves of the plant materials were air dried for 3 weeks until a constant weight was obtained and ground into powdered form. 100 g of the ground leaves was macerated in 500 mls of distilled water at 4°C under refrigeration, for three days with occasional agitation. The aqueous extracts were then filtered through Whatman No.1 filter paper and the filtrate was concentrated using a freeze dryer. Healthy Wistar rats with an average weight of 188 g were obtained and housed in the preclinical animal house, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso. The rats were kept five per cage with hust bedding and fed with pellets (obtained from Irorun-Agbe feed mills, Ogbomoso) and water ad libitum. This study was conducted in accordance with the Applied Ethics in Animal Research and it was approved by the Ethical Committee of College of Medicine, LAUTEC H, Ogbomoso, Nigeria.

2.2. Experimental Design and Micronucleus Assay

Rats were randomly divided into 7 groups of five animals each. The plant extracts were orally administered at the dose of 100 mg/kg body weight for seven consecutive days followed by a single dose of 2-AAF (0.5 Mmol/kg body weight) which was administered intraperitoneally. The rats in the negative control group were given distilled water while those in the positive control group received 2-AAF. The rats were sacrificed after 24 hours and their bone marrow was flushed and smears were prepared on glass slides. These were stained with Giemsa and viewed under a microscope and a tally counter was used to record the frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocyte cells (mPCEs).

2.3. Serum Preparation, Enzyme Assay and Liver Isolation

The rats of each group were anaesthetized with ether, and blood was collected directly from the heart. The blood was centrifuged at 2,000 g for 10 min at 4°C to separate the serum and kept at 4°C to assay the activities of the serum enzymes. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT) were determined using assay kits (Labkit, Spain) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The liver was removed carefully after sacrificing the animals by cervical dislocation. The livers were fixed in 10% buffered formalin and then dehydrated in a graded series of alcohol, cleared in xylene, and embedded in paraffin wax. Multiple 5 μm sections from each block were mounted on slides and stained with hematoxylin-eosin dye.

2.4. Statistical Analysis

All values are mean ± S.E.M. ( ). For statistical analysis, one-way ANOVA with Duncan’s variance (SPSS 15) was used to compare the groups. In all the cases, a difference was considered significant when .

3. Results

3.1. Micronucleus Test and Enzyme Assay

The rats administered with 2-AAF alone showed relatively high values of mPCE frequency, ALP and GGT concentrations when compared to the negative control group (Tables 1 and 2). For the groups administered with crude plant extracts followed by 2-AAF (groups A–E), there was a significant decrease in the mPCE frequency (Table 1) and enzyme concentrations (Table 2) as compared to the negative control group. Similarly, in the oxidative injury experiments, the negative control group demonstrated relatively low values of ALP and GGT concentration, while the 2-AAF-treated group showed elevated levels of ALP and GGT (Table 2). The biochemical parameters of the extract-treated group were higher than those of the control group ( ), but it showed much lower levels of ALP and GGT than the 2-AAF treated group.

Table 1: mPCEs count in rats treated with the plant extracts and 2-AAF.
Table 2: ALP and GGT concentration in rats treated with the plant extracts and 2-AAF.
3.2. Histopathology Analysis of the Rat Liver

Histopathology experiment was carried out on the liver of the rats fed with plant extracts and 2-AAF and the results are shown in Figures 1(a)1(g). Figure 1(a) shows the liver of 2-AAF only treated rats. The liver sections of these rats showed necrosis across the cells and erosion in hepatic plates and loss of cellular margins. The hepatocytes are disordered and sinusoids are damaged as well. In the negative control group (Figure 1(b)), the cells are normal in shape, the cell nuclei are intact, and, most notably, the portal vein has a regular shape and healthy set of cells can be observed. In the rat treated with plant extracts and 2-AAF, the histological architecture of treated liver sections revealed a mild degree of degeneration and necrosis with the hepatocytes nuclei at a recovery stage (Figures 1(c)1(g)).

Figure 1: Representative photomicrographs of H&E stained sections of the liver of the rat fed with 2-AAF and plant extracts at 200X magnification. (a) Photomicrograph of the liver of the rat fed with 2-AAF only. (b) Photomicrograph of the liver of the rat fed with distilled water only. (c) Photomicrograph of the liver of rat fed with B. ferruguinea and 2-AAF. (d) Photomicrograph of the liver of rat fed with V. amygdalina and 2-AAF. (e) Photomicrograph of the liver of rat fed with O. gratissimum and 2-AAF. (f) Photomicrograph of the liver of rat fed with L. inermis and 2-AAF. (g) Photomicrograph of the liver of the rat fed with T. procumbens and 2-AAF.

4. Discussion

The growth of cancer has been seen as a progressive multistep development of transformation of normal cells into malignant cells motivated by genetic alterations that include mutations in tumour suppressor genes and oncogenes and chromosomal damage [11, 12]. This study evaluated the protective effects of five popular medicinal plants against 2-AAF-induced chromosomal damage and hepatotoxicity. These plants were selected basically because of their popular use to treat various diseases in Africa including cancer [1315].

In this study, the selected plant extracts produced no clastogenic effect with respect to micronuclei frequency in rats’ bone marrow. However, the 2-AAF-treated group confirmed an indication of chromosomal damage with increase in number of mPCE as compared with the negative control group. Similarly, the serum ALP and GGT level evaluation confirmed that 2-AAF caused liver injury at the doses injected into the rats. In addition, the elevation of cytoplasmic ALP and GGT is considered an indicator for the release of enzymes from disrupted cells.

Therefore, these results are in conformity with the previous reports that demonstrated that carcinogenic agents like 2-AAF produced sufficient injury to the hepatic parenchyma [1618]. On the other hand, treatments with the extracts significantly reduced the levels of ALP and GGT compared to the 2-AAF-treated rats. The decrease in the serum levels of these enzymes might be due to the presence of various phenolic compounds in the leaf extract that enhanced the liver’s regeneration ability [18].

Furthermore, the histopathological studies conducted on the liver of the treated rats revealed that the extract were effective in reducing the 2-AAF-induced histopathological lesions and almost normal liver architecture was exhibited, with well-formed hepatocytes separated by sinusoids and maintained cord arrangement. Consequently, the histopathological examination thus verified the hepatoprotective effects of the extract against the 2-AAF-induced hepatotoxicity. The protective effects exhibited by the selected plants in this study might be due to various interactions between the complex crude extracts and the mechanisms involved in 2-AAF induced toxicity. Reported antioxidant and anticancer activities and the phenolic content of the extracts may be responsible for their protective activity [13, 15, 19].

T. procumbens is used for various problems related to the liver such as jaundice, hepatitis, cirrhosis, and heart burn. It has been demonstrated that the chloroform insoluble fraction of ethanol extract of T. procumbens is most potent in alleviating the oxidative stress/liver injury caused by factors similar to viral hepatitis, drug intoxication, and lipid peroxidation due to reactive oxidative species [15, 20]. O. gratissimum has been used extensively in the traditional system of medicine in many countries. In the Northeast of Brazil, it is used for medicinal, condiment, and culinary purposes. In the coastal areas of Nigeria, the plant is used in the treatment of epilepsy, high fever, and diarrhoea. In the Savannah areas, decoctions of the leaves are used to treat mental illness [21, 22].

Topical application of L. inermis leaf extract at a dose level of 1000 mg/kg body weight was found to be effective in reducing the number of papillomas. Izevbigie [14] demonstrated that V. amygdalina might be a strong candidate for cancer management and that edotides may be the principles in V. amygdalina that are responsible for its anticancer activity. In addition, Jisaka et al. [19] had shown that the extract of V. amygdalina has potent anticancer activities and the flavonoid content of the extracts may be responsible for their activity. B. ferruginea leaves have been used to treat diabetes and as a purgative and a vermifuge [13]. The bark extract is being used for milk coagulation and also in lime juice for the formulation of traditional gargle “ogun efu” [23].

In the present study, B. ferruguinea, V. amygdalina, T. procumbens, O. gratissimum, and L. inermis leaf extracts demonstrated hepatoprotective potentials in a rat model of 2-AAF-induced hepatotoxicity. The hepatoprotective activity of the leaf extracts may be due to the free radical scavenging and antioxidant activity, resulting from the presence of some phenolic compounds in the extracts. Further studies are in progress to better understand the mechanism of action of the plant extracts responsible for the observed hepatoprotective activity.

The authors wish to acknowledge Mr. Olayode of Anatomy Department, LAUTECH, Nigeria, for providing histopathological facilities.

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text:
iconimg Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Anita Sharan, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, April 08, 2013
When publishing house Westland offered Indian fiction author Amish Tripathi a jaw-dropping Rs. 5 crore advance for his next book series after his hugely successful Shiva Trilogy, everyone sat up and took note.

Interestingly, Tripathi's first book in the trilogy, The Immortals of Meluha, was rejected by Westland and 19 other publishers, forcing him to self-published it. After the book sold 45,000 copies in three months, Westland picked up its marketing rights and took on the publishing of the next two books in the trilogy, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras. The three books have sold over 1.5 million copies.

Gautam Padmanabhan, CEO, Westland, said, "We are confident that Amish will justify the advance payment on his next series." He added that in the last three-four years, the benchmark of the bestseller has changed. "While earlier, the sale of 10,000-20,000 copies was considered big, bestsellers are now pushing for a million copies."

Kapish Mehra, MD, Rupa & Co., which publishes Chetan Bhagat's books, concurred: "Chetan's Revolution 2020 sold one million copies in 100 days. We are targeting two million copies for his next book."

Tripathi said, "People were always interested in reading about subjects rooted in India. It was a problem of supply, not demand. Today, such books are available."

About more Indian readers reading more Indian writers, Stephen Miles, COO - international, Harlequin, which has published the Mills & Boon romantic novels for 103 years, said, "Our Indian authors are selling much better than our imported authors. We've published six Indian authors by now."

Harlequin will translate its books to Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil. Penguin Books India is already printing books in Hindi, looking at translations, and at publishing books in local languages under its recently launched self-publishing banner, Partridge India.

Commenting on Partridge in India, Penguin India MD and CEO, Andrew Phillips said, "We think it is the right time to introduce this kind of a service. Many more people are writing books and looking to publish them."

Padmanabhan said that in the last three-four years, submissions for publishing by Indian writers "has more than quadrupled."

As more Indian readers read more books, there is bound to be experimentation. The Shiva Trilogy proved that no one can predict what will succeed.

Rashmi Bansal's books, published by Westland, are non-fiction and have sold well. "My books are inspirational stories of real-life people," she said. She believes the book publishing industry in India has reached a tipping point, with huge opportunities opening up.

Publishers are looking these opportunities seriously, and at their pricing to drive sales. While Penguin says it prices its books in India 50% lower than its UK prices, Harlequin keeps its pricing at Rs. 125-150 and is looking at lower-priced options.

The emerging breed of Indian writers is in the age band of 25-45 years, say the publishers, with several coming from established professions that have nothing to do with writing. Shoma Narayanan, 37, who has written four Mills & Boon books, two of which have been published, is a banker. So were Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi, till they quit to become full-time writers. Not all new writers are bankers, though - they are a diverse bunch, writing on diverse subjects.


text:
iconimg Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Press Trust Of India
Jamshedpur, November 16, 2012
People of this country want to see Rahul Gandhi as prime minister of the country, Union minister for steel Beni Prasad Verma said a day after the AICC general secretary was made head of the Congress Co-ordination Committee for 2014 Lok Sabha polls. "Yes, we all want him to become the prime minister," Verma, who was in the steel city to take part in the 50th National Metallurgists Day inaugural function in Jamshedpur, told reporters today.

He was responding to a question whether Congress was projecting Gandhi as the party's prime ministerial candidate for the next general election.

In a move signalling his larger role in the party, Congress on Thursday made Rahul Gandhi the head of the Congress Coordination Committee for 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Referring to corruption charges involving BJP national president Nitin Gadkari, the minister said Gadkari was "converting black money into white."

"He (Gadkari) has indulged in negative politics, which hampered the progress of the country," the minister alleged.

He told reporters, "Gadkari ko highlight karte rahiye, Congress ko faiyda hoga (Keep on highlighting Gadkari's deeds, it would benefit Congress in the next election)."

To query about corruption charges levelled against Union minister for external affairs Salman Khurshid by activist Arvind Kejriwal, the minister said there were no such charges against Khurshid.

About corruption charges against Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of AICC president Sonia Gandhi, the minister said, "Everybody has the right to do business and Vadra was not a Congress party member."


text:
DMK’s threat to pull out of UPA a mere ‘preach’ tactic: BJP

Updated: March 16, 2013 20:03 IST

Ridiculing the DMK over its threat to pull out support from the UPA coalition, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday said they only preached and didn’t practice. Jaitley claimed that it was in the allies’ interest to continue the corrupt administration of the UPA.

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Small biz loans in poor growth, RBI moves to aid

  • Debobrat Ghose, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
  • |
  • Updated: Jan 02, 2013 01:16 IST

In an age when the country’s banking sector is doling out home and auto loans even over phone calls, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) that play a vital role in the growth of the economy seem to be struggling for financial help from banks.

While the home and auto loan segments registered a year-on-year growth of 12% and 20% respectively by September 2012, the micro and small enterprises (MSE) had only 7% and the worst performance was by the medium enterprises sector — a mere 0.6% increase over 2011.

The apathy of majority of banks and financial institutions to lend to MSMEs is an age-old issue.

And, the government’s assurances have apparently failed to change the situation.

The hurdles small entrepreneurs face while procuring bank loans for new units can be better understood from the story of Greater-Noida based entrepreneur Sushil Goel.

“My loan proposal was denied thrice by a public sector bank in 2004, because despite repeated efforts I failed to convince the branch manager about my electronic equipment project, I had planned to set up,” said Goel.

Taking cognizance of this fact and also taking into account finance minister P Chidambaram’s emphasis on increasing priority sector lending, the standing advisory committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended for setting up of centralised credit processing (CPC) cells.

While instructing the banks to set up CPC cells for MSMEs, the deputy governor RBI, KC Chakrabarty said that these cells would act as a single-point appraisal, sanction, documentation, renewal and enhancement of loan mechanism.

“This arrangement will help to reduce delays, respond to multiple queries, develop fair practices and easier tracking,” he said.

“If the cell is created, it will positively help MSMEs due to a concerted effort and ensure faster sanctions and disbursement of loans,” said the president of the Federation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME), VK Agrawal.

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Mandeep’s ton shows North the way in semifinal

  • Abhijeet Kulkarni, Hindustan Times, Vadodara
  • |
  • Updated: Jan 27, 2011 00:05 IST

Mandeep Singh made the most of a life to score his second first-class century in only his fifth game and the lower middle order showed the patience to drop anchor in the final session to help North Zone reach a comfortable 315 for 5 on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal against defending champions West Zone on Wednesday.

Nineteen-year-old Mandeep walked in after just three balls had been bowled after North opted to bat. He was not scared to pull the new-ball bowlers Jaidev Unadkat and Samad Fallah, and used his feet to great effect against the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja and Bhargav Bhatt.

The approach looked dangerous at the start and had Ajinkya Rahane managed to latch on to a difficult chance at gully when Mandeep was on 25 and the team total on 30, the story could have been different.

But that did not happen and Mandeep’s game plan allowed other opener Shikhar Dhawan (21) to settle down. When it looked like the southpaw was gearing himself for a long haul, he hooked Fallah straight to Harshad Khadiwale on the square leg fence.

The wicket followed the best period of the innings for North as the experienced Mithun Manhas (58) joined Mandeep and the duo treated the West bowlers with disdain.

They added 104 for the third wicket in just 135 balls and made West captain Wasim Jaffer look silly for choosing an all-spin attack from both ends.

Manhas picked Jadeja for some severe treatment, hitting him over the sight screen and then following up with a drive through extra cover on successive deliveries. But a similar attempt against Bhatt brought about his downfall as the miscued hit barely reached Cheteshwar Pujara at mid-on.

The departure of Manhas forced Mandeep to slow down and the Jalandhar boy dropped anchor. But his concentration suffered after crossing the landmark and Rahane had no problem in accepting the simple offering off Unadkat.

Central in command

Manish Pandey justified his reputation of being the most sought after uncapped Indian player as he smashed his way to an unbeaten 203 as South Zone notched up 416 for eight against Central on the first day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal.

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text:
App lets long-distance lovers hear each other's heartbeat

  • PTI, London
  • |
  • Updated: Aug 17, 2013 14:58 IST

Researchers have developed a new app that lets long-distance lovers listen to each other's heartbeats regardless of the distance between them.

Pillow Talk, a combination of a wristband and app from UK design company Little Riot, connects partners separated by miles by transmitting their heartbeats in real time.

The wristband picks up the wearer's heartbeat and transmits it via Bluetooth to the iOS or Android app.

"You are connected directly to your partner via the app; you will receive his/her heartbeat, and they will receive yours.

"By plugging in your headphones or the pillow speaker you can lie in bed and hear the realtime heartbeat of your loved one. The result is an intimate interaction between two lovers, regardless of the distance between them," the company said on its website.

Pillow Talk began life in a slightly different form as a university product of founder Joanna Montgomery in 2010. The project has since received more than 750,000  views on Youtube and worldwide attention, the company said.

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Heavy turnout in repolling in TN, Kerala

  • PTI, Chennai/Thiruvananthapuram
  • |
  • Updated: May 12, 2011 11:46 IST

Over 80% voters exercised their franchise in repolling in eight polling booths in Tamil Nadu and two in Kerala on Saturday.

The repoll was ordered in view of malfunctioning of EVMs at some places and minor skirmishes in certain areas during the Assembly polls in both states on April 13.

In Tamil Nadu, 81.35 of voters cast their votes in eight polling booths in six constituencies, while in Kerala, 80.5 and 72.28% exercised their franchise, Election Commission sources in both states said.

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ASG Harin Raval quits after 2G letter bomb

  • HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
  • |
  • Updated: May 01, 2013 02:22 IST

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Harin Raval’s resignation following differences with the Attorney General GE Vahanvati over the CBI stand before the SC in the coalgate probe is only a manifestation of lack of trust and co-ordination between the top law officers of UPA II.

Raval becomes the fifth law officer to resign since July 2011 when solicitor general Gopal Subramanium resigned in protest against government’s decision to appoint a private lawyer to represent communications minister in the 2G case hearing in the SC.

Though Raval said he sent his resignation to the law minister on Tuesday evening, a day after he shot off a letter accusing Vahanvati of making him the scapegoat in the coalgate proceedings, ministry sources said the senior lawyer’s position became untenable after he told the SC on March 12 that CBI did not share its status report.

CBI director contradicted Raval in his affidavit, saying the draft report was shared with the law minister and two officers of PMO and coal ministry.

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Never interfered in CBI coal scam report: attorney general Vahanvati

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text:
Mamata’s no-trust vote rejected in LS

  • HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
  • |
  • Updated: Nov 23, 2012 00:51 IST

The unity of the opposition parties against allowing FDI in retail appeared to have been shattered on the very first day of Parliament’s winter session on Thursday as the UPA’s outside supporters, the SP and the BSP, broke ranks from the BJP and Left parties that insisted on a voting on FDI.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress went ahead with a no-confidence motion, which was rejected by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as it did not have the support of 50 MPs as is required. Besides the 18 TMC MPs, only three members of the Biju Janata Dal supported the current Lok Sabha’s first no-confidence motion that failed to even cross the first hurdle.

SP leaders said while it wanted a discussion on FDI, it did not insist on voting on the issue.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury hoped the SP wouldn’t change its anti-FDI stand. “We are in touch with the SP... BSP, however, has not said anything so far.”
The SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav said, “We are against FDI but not for piggybacking on the BJP.”

The BSP, conveniently for the government, deflected the focus from FDI by raising the issue of reservation in promotion for SC/ STs in both Houses and left the others with the only option of shouting slogans in the din.

The government, meanwhile, has called an all-party meeting on Monday to seek a consensus on FDI discussions.

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BJP refuses to eat out of Manmohan Singh’s hand

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Govt not serious on policy to curb acid sale: SC

  • PTI, New Delhi
  • |
  • Updated: Jul 20, 2013 21:18 IST

The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the Centre for not being "serious" about framing a policy to curb sale of acid in order to prevent acid attack cases.

A bench headed by justice RM Lodha said that people are dying everyday due to acid attacks but the Centre has failed to frame a policy despite assurances given by it on the last hearing on April 16.

"Seriousness is not seen on the part of government in handling the issue," the bench said, while granting one week's time as a last opportunity to the Centre to frame policy in consultation with state governments.

"People are dying, but you are not worried about it. Think of people who are losing their lives everyday. Girls are being attacked everyday in different parts of the country," the bench said.

It also said, "with heavy heart this court had passed an order in April, but the government failed to come out with any scheme to curb sale of acid in the market".

The bench made it clear that if the Centre fails to come out with such a scheme on the next date of hearing, July 16, then it would pass orders.

On April 16, the apex court had said it would wait for the Centre and the state governments to explore ways to regulate sale of acids for domestic use before it imposes a ban on the chemical.

Earlier, on February 6, the court had directed the Centre to convene in six weeks a meeting of chief secretaries of all states and Union Territories to hold discussion for enacting a law to regulate the sale of acids and a policy for treatment, compensation and care and rehabilitation of such victims.

The bench had said that for evolving such a policy, the secretary, ministry of chemical and fertilisers, and secretaries concerned from the states would be involved.

The court was hearing a PIL filed in 2006 by Delhi-based acid attack victim Laxmi, who was then a minor. Her arms, face and other body parts were disfigured in the acid attack.

Are you an acid attack victim? Do you know an acid attack victim? Tell us your story

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text:
Did Selena Gomez go under the knife for a fuller bust?

  • IANS, New York
  • |
  • Updated: Jul 11, 2014 15:07 IST

Singer Selena Gomez was spotted flaunting a more curvaceous chest than ever before, sparking rumours that she may have gone under the knife for some re-sculpting.

She was roaming around freely at a sidewalk here sans a brassiere, and her enhanced bosom was more than noticeable, reports dailystar.co.uk.

However, so far no comment from Gomez's representative has confirmed that she's gone under the knife.

Read: I am brave: Selena Gomez on her bikini snapshot

Selena Gomez was seen roaming the streets of New York, covering up her body a little more than usual. (Getty Images)

Gomez wore ripped jeans, a chic blazer and clingy tank top for the outing, and she looked different from what she looked in March.

Her fans took to Twitter to share views on her latest look and several of them felt "the 21-year-old has fallen victim to the pressures of boosting her cup size".

One social networker posted, "Yeahhhhh selena gomez must've had a b**b job", while another added: "Selena Gomez totally got a b**b job. No ones b**bs are that naturally perky with no bra."

A third fan posted: "Pretty sure Selena Gomez got a b**b job lol they were NOT Like that."

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