Archives-April 2015

In order to become successful members of society in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, students must be able to write effectively. However, many students are unwilling or unable to write by the time they leave high school. Two major factors linked to writing performance include writing self-efficacy beliefs. The current study endeavours to conceptualize the relationship between self-efficacy and writing performance. The paper posit a positive relation between writing self-efficacy and writing performance. The study concludes its premises by suggesting topics of interest for future research.

Creative thinking skills plays a paramount role in child’s developments. It is the heart and soul of child's education. It is the foundation on which the personality of child is built. The study of mother-tongue is of dire necessity on the aforementioned skills. Teachers rarely use teaching technology like multimedia, instructional technology etc. They adopt lecture cum text book method-a boring procedure. No attempt is made to arouse their creativeness or encourage their self-expression so what they learn is poor learning. The researcher takes the initiative to bridge the relationship between the utilisation of technological methods in Arabic classes and the enhancement of critical thinking skills as a result of adopting technological methods.

Motivated by the lack of agreement on the stages of creativity, the researcher endeavours to outline them. Guided by Torrance concept of creativity, this paper extrapolate on a wide array of research to achieve its aim. The paper concludes by discussing its premises. As such, it is hoped that the current research benefits, future investigation.

This study examines Persian address terms within the theory of politeness in the three distinct historical periods of Qajar (1791-1925), Pahlavi (1926-1979) and after the Islamic Revolution (1979 -up to now). Data was collected from 24 novels to best reflect various interpersonal relationships. Data analysis shows that Persian address terms are clearly divided into positive and negative types. All types of positive address terms have shown to increase in number. Negative address terms of ‘honorifics’, ‘educational’ & ‘cultural’ and ‘teknonyms’ decreased while ‘occupational’ and ‘zero address terms’ have increased in frequency which reveals a gradual and regular movement from formality to solidarity.

This article investigates social trust- trust in other citizens- and its determinants in two cities of Iran. For this purpose, a model based on institutional theory of Rothstein and Stolle (2008) and Putnam's social capital theory was designed and tested. Variables extracted from the first theory include: feeling social security, discrimination experience, attitude toward corruption and institutional trust. Variables extracted from the second theory are membership in formal groups, membership in informal groups, components of socioeconomic status (education, income and job rank), using mass media, age as well as city of residence. Through cluster sampling 1200 individuals were randomly selected to contribute to the study. The results clearly indicate that the institutional theory is stronger to explain social trust than social capital theory. That is to foster social trust in a society primarily it is necessary to control destructive factors so that nurturing factors of trust are effective.

The industrial arrangement and their basics are unprotected to hazardous environments and therefore behavior should be given a due consideration in the design and execution. Likewise are employed in design of the landfills as impermeable membranes in line for to their low permeability. Clay liners remove or limit the movement of leachate from the landfills. The landfills liners are unprotected to numerous chemical, biological and physical events, due to movement of leachate through them. The properties of pollutants on clays are multipart due primarily to exchange or nature of pore fluid. There are sum of mechanisms through which separate contaminants affect the engineering things. Including chemical reactions such as dissolution or precipitation and physic-chemical occurrences, disturbing intermolecular forces of water solutions. The compressive operative stress in liners, when applied during permeation may performance a key character in controlling the chemically induced changes in hydraulic conductivity and compressibility.

In the present study oral administration of ethanol extract of Syzygium cumini seed from fruit to Alloxan monohydroxide induced diabetic rats secluded the rats from the changes induced in carbohydrate and enzymatic studies were seen. The selected Syzygium cumini (L) plant seed extract (100 and 200 mg/kg bw) seems to be more efficient in the control of type II diabetes. Oral administration of ethanol S.cumini extract able to control the diabetes induced alterations in enzymes related to carbohydrate metabolism. Non enzymatic antioxidant enzymes like ascorbate, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and TTH and antioxidant defense enzymes like SOD, CAT and GPx levels also regulated by the supplementation of S. cumini seed extract to the alloxan induced rats. The reduction in carbohydrate and enzymatic levels in diabetic rats can be used as a marker in the evaluating the severity of diabetes.

The ultrasonic velocity, density and viscosity have been measured for the binary liquid mixture of polyvinyl alcohol+ water has been measured as a function of the composition of 303,308,313and318 K. The experimental data have been used to calculate some parameters namely, acoustic impedance (z), adiabatic compressibility (?), intermolecular free length (Lf), and relative association (RA). The results are discussed and interpreted in terms of structural and specific interactions that predominated by intermolecular hydrogen bonding.

The study was carried out to assess genetic diversity among nineteen oil palm accessions collected for conservation, evaluation and future incorporation into Oil Palm Research Institute (OPRI) breeding programmes. Genetic diversity and relationship among the nineteen accessions were evaluated using 10 microsatellites. The number of alleles revealed by each of the polymorphic loci ranged from 2 to 3 with an average of 2.5. Cluster analysis resolved the nineteen accessions oil palm accessions into two clusters. The percentage similarity between the oil palm accessions ranged from about 63% to 100%. This study suggest that there was not much genetic diversity among the nineteen accessions used in the study compared to other similar genetic diversity studies in oil palm using microsatellites.

Over the recent years, lives and property worth millions of shillings have been destroyed in fire disasters in secondary schools in the world. Cases of fire disasters in Kenyan secondary schools have been experienced in the last decade with increasing frequency and severity. It was therefore necessary to determine the causes of fire disasters in secondary schools. The main objective of this study was to assess causes of fire disasters in secondary schools in Kenya. An evaluation research design was used. Stratified simple random sampling was used to select the schools and the respondents. The study population was composed of secondary school principals, teachers, laboratory technicians, students and the District Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (DQASO) in Vihiga County. Data was collected by use of structured questionnaires designed for teachers, students and laboratory technicians, in-depth interviews with school principals and the DQASOs and an observation checklist. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 11.5 was used in the analysis of data with Chi-square being used to test independence and variation of responses. A spearman’s rank order correlation was run to determine the relationship between teachers’ and students’ responses. According to the findings of this study, Faulty electrical appliances, arson, flammable materials, gas leakages, waste burning, students unrest and lighting were cited as main hazards that lead to fire disasters in secondary schools. It was also established that: five out of the thirty five schools that participated in the study had experienced fire disasters in the last 10 years; in all the schools that had experienced fire disasters causes were clearly known; It was concluded that: fire disasters in Vihiga are frequent and severe; that the trends as to the causes of fire disasters in the county are dynamic; most of the administrators and even teachers were not trained in fire fighting skills; most of the schools dint have safety committees and were not practicing fire drills and that most of the general requirements for fire disaster preparedness were not in place. The findings of the study will enable schools to be aware of fire hazards and empower them to reduce their vulnerability to fire disasters. It will also be important to education policy makers who will use this information in formulating and implementing policies on fire safety in schools.