Archives-September 2015

Tree height-diameter relationship can be used as an important input component in forest growth and yield models and description of stand dynamics. Five non-linear growth functions were fitted to tree height-diameter data of 21 years old Gmelina arborea plantation in Ibadan, South west Nigeria. The data consisted of three sets: 2004, 2008 and 2011 on total tree height and diameter at breast height (dbh). According to the model statistics, the five growth functions fitted the data equally well, but resulted in different asymptote estimates. Modified exponential fit was observed to give the best fit for the three data sets based on least square error, coefficient of determination and significance. The models are: Ht = (R2 = 36.21%), Ht = (R2 = 37.53%) and Ht = (R2 = 34.74%) for 2004, 2008 and 2011 data sets. The predicted values follow the same nonlinear pattern and formed close to the line of best fit without much outlier. The result of this study revealed that the ability of dbh in determining height is not strong enough based on the model’s goodness of fit and the model’s ability for predictive purposes. Hence, more variables such as age, crown area and soil fertility were recommended to be incorporated in future prediction of the tree height in the study area. Also, the potential tree height-diameter equations should be evaluated and validated for their predictive capabilities across a range of tree diameters. This useful information can help forest researchers and managers to select and apply the appropriate models.

Exchange rate exposure of UK listed oil and gas companies was examined against four major currencies; Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Euro and US dollar by applying Adler and Dumas (1984) estimation model. The final sample of the study consists of (17) firms. (100%) of the sample firms exhibit significant negative exposure to US dollar indicating a decrease in stock returns of these firms, all the companies’ exhibit significant positive exposure to Australian dollar, 88% of the sample firms exhibits significant positive exposure to Canadian dollar. Major findings from the study reveals that oil and gas sector in UK is highly vulnerable to exchange rate risk particularly against US, Australian and Canadian dollar.

The study examined previous studies on the relationship between board dynamics (structure, composition, diversity) and corporate performances, the results of the investigations revealed mixed findings on the relationship between board variables and corporate performance, some studies established evidence of significant positive relation while others discovered neutral and or negative relationship. Therefore the conflicting results discovered may be due to differences in corporate governance practice found in different countries.

The purpose of writing the current paper is to survey the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) on human resource productivity (HRP). First of all, by applying Chi-square test, the relationship between ICT with human HRP and its indices was proved. After that by applying Average test, the variables levels were calculated in which all of them except “creativity and innovation” were placed in favorable places. Finally by utilizing one of new MCDM techniques (fuzzy TOPSIS) the indices were prioritized in which “human resource management, planning and improvement”, “cooperating in supply chain to create added value for customers” and “evaluating some methods for risks accountability” were selected as the top ones.

Due to the process of deforestation and Increasing human population and growing demands for forests, afforestation and the development of forest is and will be of paramount importance. The objective of this research is to identify suitable lands for afforestation and forest development in Mehran County on the western of Iran by using multi criteria evaluation making. Site selection analysis was carried out to find the best suitable lands for forest development and afforestation in an example of promising southern Ilam province, Iran. The GIS models were developed to represent a scenario of land use suitability in the study area using GIS Multi Criteria Analysis Modeling. The factors contributed in the analysis are the Topography, Land cover, Climate, Soil, and Geology. Land suitability maps for afforestation have been extracted using weighted overlay techniques. The total resulting areas for afforestation reveal the importance of forest development in Mehran County, and the suitability of the terrain. The suitable map for afforestation shows that 35.88% of the investigated area is highly suitable, 28.64% is moderately suitable and 35.46% is lowly suitable. According to autochthonous species and adaptive exotic species and their ecological demand suggest species for afforestation in suitable places that ecological demand of the suggested species is similar to ecology specifications of this suitable land that have capability for afforestation. Several species suggested for afforestation in suitable lands such as Amygdalus arabica, Prosopis juliflora, Pistasia atlantica, Eucaliptus camaldulensis, Ziziphus spina- christi, Ziziphus numularia, and Myrtus communis.

Oil and grease removal process, through the use of fenton oxidation reaction on an oil polluted wastewater from a vegetable oil plant has been studied. The study was designed to assess the effectiveness of fenton oxidation reaction process in eliminating oil and grease contaminant in the wastewater. The raw wastewater was subjected to analysis through standard methods to determine BOD, Oil and grease, phenol, salinity and sodium batch oxidation process was adopted to remove the oil and grease in which four input parameters ; ph, Fe2+, temperature and hydrogen peroxide(H2O2) were considered. Four runs of experiment were performed where each parameter was varied while the other three remained constant. In each run, oil and grease removal was determined at ten minutes interval for 60 minutes through analysis. The results showed that the highest oil and grease removal efficiencies of 96.28% 98.74%, 99.02 and 93.03%were achieved at the optimum conditions of ph=3, fe2+=3.2 g/l, temp=450C and H2O2=4.5moles respectively and the oil and grease removal was progressive with time until at the point of inflection at 50 minutes where the removal appeared steady. Oil and grease removal efficiency was highly sensitive to the operating conditions. At excess values of the operating conditions, that is, at values beyond the optimum values, the rate of formation of the hydroxyl radical (OH•) became sluggish, impairing removal process. This also explained why the removal efficiency progressed to the plateau at the optimum condition values, and then declined as the values of the operating conditions increased.

Phishing is considered a form of web threats that is defined as the art of mimicking a website of an honest enterprise aiming to obtain user’s confidential credentials such as usernames, passwords and social security numbers. Social engineering and technical tricks are commonly combined together in order to start a phishing attack. The phishing attack starts by uploading the post on social network site which contain fraud URL that seems authentic to potential victims advising them to meet site and update or validate their information by following a URL link. The fraud user posts their comment on social network service that contains URL which are malicious. These malicious URL some time it contains malware or virus. When user clicks on these fraud URL Then viruses enter into user system and system gets affected. The proposed system Extraction of feature set for detecting fraud URL using ANN in social networking services effectively detect fraud URL with high accuracy.

The objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting secure and multiple web service collaborations. Online shopping is one such area where the need arises to perform secure communications with several other trading partners. In this study we have chosen a popular Chinese internet E-commerce company that offers online shopping and other internet related services. We have compared the current model which they have adopted to perform those collaborations and also proposed the benefits they would obtain if changes are made in their communication patterns.

Emotional intelligence is a different way of being smart. It includes knowing what your feelings are and using your feelings to make good decisions in life. It’s being able to manage distressing moods well and control impulses. It’s being motivated and remaining hopeful and optimistic when you have setbacks in working toward goals. It’s empathy; knowing what the people around you are feeling. And it’s social skill—getting along well with other people, managing emotions in relationships, being able to persuade or lead others. Emotional intelligence was popularized in 1995 when psychologist Daniel Goleman wrote his book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Emotional, or social intelligence, involves at least five types of skills: 1- Self-awareness is a person’s ability to understand and be aware of their feelings and moods. Self-awareness helps a person keep an eye on their thoughts and emotions so they can better understand why they feel a particular way. 2- Managing emotions This skill helps people display their emotions in socially appropriate ways. It helps one control anger, sadness, and fear. 3- Motivation helps a person use their emotions to reach their goals. It helps them hold back their impulses and delay gratification to reach these goals. 4- Empathy is the ability to understand how a person feels. It is different from feeling sorry for someone. It is feeling like “walking in their shoes.” 5- Social skills are dealing with others in social situations. It is the ability to carry on a conversation and deal with other’s emotions. It is being socially competent.

Aim: The main aim of this study is analysis of job satisfaction and professional commitment between staffs in Kermanshah. Materials and methods: This study is according to descriptive analysis and reaching branch and information gathering tools is question air and for assessing job satisfaction we use briefed and worth 18 question airs and for analysis of professional commitment and organizational commitment receive 83% static and 87% from job satisfaction question air, because crownbakh in both question air is more than 0/7 so both question air necessary static. Sample population volume 150subjects from privet banks in Kermanshah and according to sampling random way some of them had been chosen a stoical population and finally we collected 18 questions airs. Findings: For determining normality of data we use kolomogrove – sminoroph test and results of tests confirm normality of data so meaningful relationship between them had approved.