Archives-May 2012

In MANETs, the Associativity Based Long-Lived Routing (ABR) protocol is an good alternative to the position-based and the location-aided routing protocols.In ABR, the associativity is determined by many factors such as residual battery life time, link stability, storage capacity, processing power and etc., In this paper we consider link stability to determine the associativity of the nodes. Link stability refers to how long any two nodes can communicate with each other. If a mobile host is in high mobility , there will be low stability. If there is low mobility, there will be high stability between any two nodes. Moblity causes frequent topology changes and can break the existing path. In this work, we use various mobility models like random waypoint(RWP) model, reference point group mobility(RPGM) and random direction mobility(RDM) models to study the performance of ABR protocol. These models capture the behaviors of ABR protocol in the simulator. The simulation results can show the performance of the ABR protocol varies based on the mobility models across different performance parameters.

This study involved assessment of effect of chemical weathering of bedrock on the hydrochemical character of associated shallow groundwater system in Abeokuta area, SW-Nigeria. Physico-chemical parameter revealed a mild acidic water system with pH of 5.9–6.9 while the hydrochemical analyses revealed the order of abundance of elements concentrations as Na⁺>Ca²⁺>Mg^2+>K⁺ for cations and HCO₃>Cl>SO₄>NO₃ for anions in Migmatite Gneiss (MG) compared to the concentration order of Na⁺>Ca²⁺>Mg²⁺>K⁺ for cations and Cl>HCO₃>SO₄>NO₃ for anions under Porphyritic Biotite Granite (PBG) and Porphyroblastic Gneiss (PG) bedrock settings.  Further hydrochemical characterization revealed that the water samples collected around the PBG and PG were mostly of Ca-HCO₃ water type, characterized with low total dissolved solids (TDS) of 228–391mg/l while those around MG revealed Na-HCO₃ water type with TDS of about 315mg/l. A comparison of the dissolved trace elements revealed that the water samples from the three bedrock settings revealed concentrations within the limits of WHO/EU standards except for enrichment of Al and Fe with concentrations of 0.25–0.55mg/l and 0.36–0.60mg/l respectively. This is a clear indication of geogenic influence of water-rock interactions on shallow groundwater chemistry.

The aim of this study was to determine the relevance of the personality tests used in Kenya for recruitment and placement purposes. The study sought to determine the construct validity of the tests as well as the tests' stability and internal consistency. The tests are published abroad and it is not known whether they are valid with the local population. The population comprised all published personality tests as well as all the Higher Diploma students at The Kenya Institute of Management, Eldoret Branch who were 57 in number (both male and female). A complete enumeration of the students was done. Purposive Sampling was used to select one personality test on the basis of frequency of use by consulting firms. A mock recruitment exercise was conducted during which the test was administered to obtain scores, which were analyzed using the spearman rank coefficient of correlation and factor analysis. The test was found to have very low levels of validity though its level of reliability was satisfactory. With alterations in the content item structure and type, the test can be adopted by the public and private sector for use in recruitment instead of the practice of posting staff.

The aim of this study was to investigate the adolescent psychopathologies among youth in Eldoret town. The objectives of the study were; to investigate the psycho-physical manifestations of psychopathology among youth in Eldoret town, the etiological factors in the psychopathologies and the relationship between the psychopathology and socio-economic factors. The study adopted the expost-facto research design. The study sample was 72 adolescents from low socio-economic status estates of the town which include Langas, Kamukunji, Kambi Nyasi, Munyaka, King’ong’o and Huruma estates. The common psychopathologies were aggression, anxiety disorders, depression, learning disorders, eating disorders and the conduct disorders. The etiological factors for the psychopathologies were peer influence, bad role models, influence of the environment and genetic factors. The psychopathologies were common in large families that that had five or more children implying laxity in control by the parents. The prevalence of the psychopathologies was high in less well-to-do families as well as those that had uneducated parents.

The aim of this paper is to examine the issue convergence of per capita income of North Africa countries to the per capita income level of countries in Southern Europe. We have applied tests of sigma-convergence and polynomial beta-convergence of Chatterji to assess convergence. We have applied the multiple endogenous breaks test advocated by Bai & Perron (2003) in order to evaluate the sigma-convergence hypothesis. According to our results, the process of sigma-convergence is not uniform over time. There exists a movement of convergence of per capita income of NA countries towards the income level of countries of Southern Europe during the period 1980-1984. The estimate of convergence clubs can refine the results for countries that have started catching up. This test rejects the hypothesis of beta-convergence on the whole period (1980-2007). If the model is estimated for each country, then there is a movement of beta-convergence only for Tunisia and Morocco on the period 1985-2000.On the other sub-periods, the assumption of divergence is accepted. The per capita income level of countries of Southern Europe does not seem to be a target toward which converge the countries of the NA region in the long term.

This paper reviews on the potential impacts of quality assurance approaches on the construction industry. Previously, researchers discovered that better product quality, not the price of the product is the key point in sustaining competition in the construction market. Hence to this fact, many construction organizations are beginning to invest relentless amounts of efforts and attention into the quality of their products as the product quality itself is the winning key in obtaining the competitive edge over local competitors in the market to ensure the sustainability of their own businesses. Quality has long been identified as one of the most basic requirements of clients as the necessity for product quality is undeniable and understandable. This is due to the fact that such buildings might be one of the biggest investments in the lives of most clients. Besides that, with the information regarding construction industry readily available for the public, potential clients are more educated and well-informed. To cater the different needs of clients, contractors have to be creative and innovative, to try their best to perform better. They must not only aim to deliver projects on time but also projects of excellent quality and price.

Estimating the annual volume of the aquifer basin is of the main issues in designing the aquifer projects. Since the aquifer basin of central Iran covers half of country and a great number of the aquifer basins are situated in the arid and semi arid regions of the hydrometric stations, their watering figures are estimated by experimental models. The general structure of these models in some cases brings about considerable differences in the estimated and observed figures resulted from an incorrect selection of a model. This study has made use of 9 experimental formulas of Justin, Lisi, the world Meteorology Organization ratio, Agricultural Research Association of India, ICAR, Khosla, Turc, the Irrigation Department of India, and Inglis and De Souza for calculating the annual runoff in the water basin of Iran. Therefore for selecting the basins with the least annual natural and artificial Debi changes, the equal aquifer basins with an area less than 300 square kilometer which had no stank and vast agricultural lands which had little to middle degree of penetrability were firstly chosen. In selecting and determining the basin border two soft wares, Google earth, and ArcGIS were used, then the geological, climatological, and land applicability maps of the studied basin were prepared and their hydro climatologic statistics in the common 30-year-old time limit (1976- 2005) were extracted. At the end, the annual runoff altitude of the selected stations was determined using the aforementioned 9 ratios and these outcomes were compared with the observed data of the stations using four methods MAPE, RMSE, t distribution, and the unilateral analysis variance. The results show the superiority of Khosla to the other methods in the arid and semi arid regions. The estimated data in both arid and semi arid climates were studied separately, in both cases Khosla was selected as the most appropriate method.

The present paper attempts to investigate the influence of Mawlana, the 13th century Persian poet, through translations done of his work in the West. Translation of Mawlana’s works started in Germany in 1809. In 1881 Redhouse started translation of Mawlana in English, later other translators like Winfield in1887, Wilson in 1910, and Nicholson in 1935, created their translations. Bark in 1995 created his version of the Masnavi according to Nicholson’s translation. Then, Helminski in 1994 and 1996 created his version. Helminski’s version like Bark’s was according to Nicholson’s translation. These translations caused Mawlana’s thoughts and works penetrate among the whole people of the world. Among them Americans have bigger portions.

This paper describes a QRS detector system to be implemented using 0.35µm CMOS technology which is used in biomedical applications. The proposed system uses fuzzy logic controller and several analog circuits for detecting QRS complexes and separating these parts from the rest of ECG signal. Simulation results using HSPICE that verify the functionality of system are presented.

In this paper, we made an attempt to study the algebraic nature of intuitionistic fuzzy subsemiring of a semiring.