American Journal of Applied Sciences 

About: American Journal of Applied Sciences is an academic journal published by Science Publications. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Electric power system & Population. It has an ISSN identifier of 1546-9239. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 2970 publications have been published receiving 39155 citations. The journal is also known as: AJAS & Journal of applied sciences.

Case Study: A Strategic Research Methodology

Abstract: This research reviews the literature on case study as a strategic qualitative research methodology. Although case studies have been criticised by some authors as lacking scientific rigour and do not address generalizability, this research, however, reiterated its appropriateness when dealing with a process or a complex real-life activities in great-depth. Case study has been commonly used in social science fields like sociology, industrial relations and anthropology eventhough generally was considered an underutilized strategy. Hence, this research explained the general concept of a case study, strengths and weaknesses of using this method knowing that theoretically case is exciting and data rich. Based on a study of four organizations and the researcher’s own experience, this article described matters on how case study was undertaken, gaining excess to those organizations and the systematic process of data collection and triangulation (multiple techniques). It was noted that combining multiple techniques for elicitng data in case study research actually strengthens and confirmed results.

Fish Spoilage Mechanisms and Preservation Techniques: Review

Abstract: Problem statement: Spoilage of food products is due to chemical, enzymatic or microbial activities One-fourth of the world’s food supply and 30% of landed fish are lost through microbial activity alone. With the ever growing world population and the need to store and transport the food from one place to another where it is needed, food preservation becomes necessary in order to increase its shelf life and maintain its nutritional value, texture and flavor. The freshness and quality of fish have always gained the attention by Food Regulatory Agencies and Food Processing Industry. Proper handling, pretreatment and preservation techniques can improve the quality fish and fish products and increase their shelf life. Methodology: Historically salting, drying, smoking, fermentation and canning were the methods to prevent fish spoilage and extend its shelf life. In response to consumer demand for texture, appearance and taste, new methods were developed including: Cooling, freezing and chemical preservation. A comprehensive review of the literature on the subject of fish spoilage and modern preservation techniques was carried out. Conclusion: Fish spoilage results from three basic mechanisms: Enzymatic autolysis, oxidation, microbial growth. Low temperature storage and chemical techniques for controlling water activity, enzymatic, oxidative and microbial spoilage are the most common in the industry today. A process involving the addition of an EDTA (1 mM)-TBHQ (0.02%) combination and ascorbic acid and storage at refrigerated temperatures (5°C) in darkness can be the most positive for controlling the spoilage of fish and fish product. The suggested process would address antimicrobial activity as well as destructive oxidation of the desired lipids and fats. However, more efforts are required to understand the role of proximate composition of fish, post harvest history, environmental conditions, initial microbial load, type and nature of bacteria and their interaction in order to optimize the shelf-life of fish.

ECG Signal Denoising By Wavelet Transform Thresholding

Abstract: In recent years, ECG signal plays an important role in the primary diagnosis, prognosis and survival analysis of heart diseases. In this paper a new approach based on the threshold value of ECG signal determination is proposed using Wavelet Transform coefficients. Electrocardiography has had a profound influence on the practice of medicine. The electrocardiogram signal contains an important amount of information that can be exploited in different manners. The ECG signal allows for the analysis of anatomic and physiologic aspects of the whole cardiac muscle. Different ECG signals are used to verify the proposed method using MATLAB software. Method presented in this paper is compared with the Donoho's method for signal denoising meanwhile better results are obtained for ECG signals by the proposed algorithm.

Application of Harmony Search to Vehicle Routing

Abstract: A phenomenon-inspired meta-heuristic algorithm, harmony search, imitating music improvisation process, is introduced and applied to vehicle routing problem, then compared with one of the popular evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithm. The harmony search algorithm conceptualized a group of musicians together trying to search for better state of harmony. This algorithm was applied to a test traffic network composed of one bus depot, one school and ten bus stops with demand by commuting students. This school bus routing example is a multi-objective problem to minimize both the number of operating buses and the total travel time of all buses while satisfying bus capacity and time window constraints. Harmony search could find good solution within the reasonable amount of time and computation.

Review on landfill leachate treatments.

Abstract: Problem Statement: Sanitary landfilling is the most common way to eliminate solid urban wastes. An important problem associated to landfills is the production of leachates. This study is a review of landfill leachate treatments. Approach: The advantages and disadvantages of the various existing leachate treatments discussed under the items: (i) Leachate channeling (combined treatment with domestic sewage, recycling) (ii) Biological processing (aerobic and anaerobic) (iii) Chemical/physical treatment (flotation, coagulation/flocculation, chemical precipitation, adsorption, ammonium stripping, chemical oxidation, ion exchange and electrochemical treatment) (iv) Membrane filtration (microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis). Conclusion: The major fraction of old or biologically treated leachate was large recalcitrant organic molecules that are not easy removed during biological treatment. So that, in order to meet strict quality standards for direct discharge of leachate into the surface water, a development of integrated methods of treatment, a combination of biological, chemical, physical and membrane process steps, were required. Today, the use of membrane technologies, more especially Reverse Osmosis (RO), either as a main step in a landfill leachate treatment chain or as single post-treatment step had shown to be an indispensable means of achieving purification.