Archives-April 2015

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intellectual capital (IC) efficiency of Indian banking sector in utilizing intellectual capital and capital employed to run the organization by using the data envelopment analysis methodology. The authors use three individual components of value added intellectual coefficient as the input variables, and Tobin’s Q and return on equity as the output variables. Examining a sample of 35 banks in financial years 2009-2013, findings of this study show that banks listed on the Mumbai stock exchange invest most of their resources in Structural Capital as compared to Human Capital and Physical Capital, and The Jammu & Kashmir Bank Limited, Indian Overseas Bank, HDFC Bank Ltd., State Bank of India, Federal Bank Ltd. and Yes Bank Limited are the most efficient company of all the sample banks, since they have the highest coefficient of intellectual capital super efficiency based on Anderson and Peterson model. The benchmarking analysis of this study may shed light for the managers in banks to benchmark and improve their efficiency in intellectual capital management. The overall average values of Technical efficiency 0.756, Pure technical efficiency 0.984 and Scale efficiency 0.766 suggest that managers of banks are inefficient in scale efficiency intellectual capital due to the technical problem and not managing intellectual capital.

This study endeavored to investigate the relationship between parenting styles and mental health of Iranian elementary students using descriptive research method. To measure the variables used in the study, two questionnaires of parenting style of Bamrynd (1991) and general health (GHQ- 2) were used and the findings revealed that the relationship between authoritative parenting style and mental health was positive. In similar, the relationship between permissive parenting style and mental health of elementary students of Shemiranat was positive. However, there was a negative relationship between authoritarian parenting style and mental health of students. Also, the results of regression test showed that among the three dimensions of parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian and permissive), merely the authoritative parenting style had the ability to predict the mental health of students.

The present paper discusses an approximate solution of the Burger’s equation arising in longitudinal dispersion phenomenon in groundwater flow. In the porous medium pure water, salt water or contaminated water disperse in longitudinal direction gives rise to a non-linear partial differential equation in the form of Burger’s equation. The equation is solved by the optimal homotopy analysis method. The longitudinal dispersion phenomenon may be miscible or immiscible fluid flow through porous media. The problem of miscible displacement can be seen in the coastal areas, where fresh water beds are gradually displaced by sea water. Longitudinal dispersion phenomenon plays an important role to control salinity of the soil in seashore region. The governing non-linear Burger’s equation has been solved by optimal homotopy analysis method and the numerical and graphical representations have been given.

The aim of the present paper is to obtain the distribution of mixed sum of two independent random variables with different probability density functions. One with probability density function defined in finite range and the other with probability density function defined in infinite range and associated with product of Srivastava’s polynomials and Aleph-function. We use the Laplace transform and its inverse to obtain our main result. The result obtained here is quite general in nature and is capable of yielding a large number of corresponding new and known results merely by specializing the parameters involved therein. To illustrate, some special cases of our main result are also given.

The present study was carried out in order to study about the textural characteristics of sediments, trace metal concentration (Cu, Zn), and their seasonal changes along with the influence of organic matter and physico-chemical parameter like pH, temperature, salinity and rainfall. Samplings were done at 3 different stations during 4 seasons starting from premonsoon-2009 to summer-2010. The changes in the phi mean grain size are due to selective winnowing of the finer grain size population by waves and currents acting in that environment. The sediments were well sorted to moderately well sorted in nature, skewness of the sediment samples were nearly symmetrical to coarse skewed and kurtosis ranged from mesokurtic to extremely leptokurtic in nature. The organic matter concentration range from 3.2% to 9.7% as minimum and maximum respectively. Concentration of reactive copper ranged from12.8ppm to 34.16ppm and the zinc concentration ranged from 39.3ppm to 228.2ppm.Thus in the present study the concentration of trace metals (copper & zinc), organic matter, grain size distribution and the interaction of Physico chemical parameters during different seasons were discussed.

This paper employs widely used Water Quality Index (WQI), which is valuable and unique rating to depict the overall water quality status in a single term and simple (e.g., good or poor) for reporting to authorities management and the public in a consistent manner , that is helpful for the selection of appropriate treatment technique to meet the concerned issues. The water quality of Muthanna Province has been assessed from 2011 to 2014 to express the suitability of water for drinking purposes. Water quality data obtained from two sampling sites. According to the WQI values, the water quality at most of the sites was within an environmentally satisfactory condition during summer, and during the winter. Generally, the results showed that water quality varied from Excellent to Medium range during seasons. The results of the study confirm the suitability of all selected water sources for drinking purposes. Since this is unprecedented attempt to apply WQI on Muthanna , the used WQI proved to be a highly effective tool to assess the water quality of Muthanna in simple way, and its use is strongly recommended.

All welding processes are used with the aim of obtaining a welded joint with the desired weld-bead parameters, excellent mechanical properties with minimum distortion. The welding input parameters play a significant role in obtaining excellent mechanical properties with minimum distortion to get a desired weld bead parameters. Usually, the desired welding parameters are determined using traditional methods like welder’s experiences, charts and handbooks (preferred values) which are simple and inexpensive. But this does not ensure that the selected welding parameters result in satisfactory welding and this method is not applicable to new welding process. To achive desired weld bead parameters different models were developed to correlate input variables with output variables. Mathematical models to specify the relationship between the input variables and output parameters can be used for optimization. Design of Experiment (DoE) technique has been used to carry out such optimization. Computational network & evolutionary algorithms have also grown rapidly and been adapted for modeling and optimization of welding process parameters to achieve desired properties in the welded joint. In this paper a comprehensive literature review of the application of these techniques is presented. This review shows the correlation and modeling between the input welding process parameters and the output weldment characteristics. The paper also presents the optimization of the different welding processes through the mathematical models and evolutionary algorithm. The use of mathematical models and evolutionary algorithm for the optimization of the different welding processes is discussed in this paper.

In this paper, we used Taguchi design to find an optimum condition for semi-solid Al-Si aluminum alloy fabricated by cooling slope plate method. In CS method, molten alloy was poured over an inclined cooling plate in order to make the semisolid slurry. The semisolid slurry ?owed and solidi?ed into a mold placed at the bottom end of the slope. In Taguchi’s design, it is well-known that high value of S/N ratio (Signal vs. Noise) is better. Consequently, manufacturing conditions were arranged as table of orthogonal array L9(34), and then pouring temperature and tilt angle of cooling plate factors were determined. From microstructural observations, grain size and shape factor were measured by image analyzer. The results of S/N ratios showed that the pouring temperature has the main effect on grain size and morphology of silicon phase of an Al-23%Si alloy cast by cooling slope plate method, since S/N ratio which is sensibility on surround environment was the highest. The optimum conditions were also identified.

The current paper reflects a conceptual endeavours. It exhaustively review the literature as regards to critical thinking skills. The researcher pays special attention to the research on the phenomenon is the Saudi context. Throughout the body of this paper, the author outlined the importance of critical thinking, critical thinking skills, and teaching such skills. The paper is closed by discussing its stances. It also provides suggestion for future research.

This paper provides an overview of the literature that involves the gifted education. It started with exploring the theories of intelligence, as some consider it as a basic characteristic of giftedness. Afterwards, the most fundamental theories of giftedness have been explored in depth. This was followed by the characteristics of gifted students, in order to clarify how their giftedness is manifested through their behaviour. The following section focused on the methods that are being used to identify gifted students. Particularly, the researcher advocates multiple intelligences theory as a mean of identification. The researcher, then, discusses the premises, with a special attention to the Saudi educational system, of the current paper and forward suggestions for future research.