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In this paper, the entropy generation of a fully developed laminar flow in annularsector ducts with constant wall heat flux is investigated. Entropy generation is obtained for various aspect ratio (?), various sector angels (2?), various wall heat flux and various Reynolds number. It is found that with the increasing aspect ratio (?) and sector angels (2?) values, total entropy generation and pumping power at fixed Reynolds number increases and with increasing wall heat flux values, total entropy generation increases, however, pumping power decreases.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, women engaged in small scale farming are believed to produce about 80% of crops used in feeding their families. This study was carried out to determine socio-economic factors influencing level of participation of rural women in crop farming in Kakelo Location, Homa Bay County, Kenya. Levels of participation in crop farming were determined with respect to farming activities in which the respondents participated such as land preparation, planting, weeding, pest and disease control, harvesting and storage. The level of participation was determined on a scale of 0 (“no participation”) to 4 (“full participation.”). The study was done using descriptive cross-sectional design involving stratified cluster sampling method to select participants. A sample size of 288 women among a population of 17 812 in the study area was interviewed using questionnaires. Chi-square test was used to establish association between socioeconomic factors and level of participation. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study found out that only 21.2% of the respondents reported full participation in crop farming. Women with formal employment reported highest level of 41.7% full participation (X2=0.69, P=0.79). Also, acquisition of education, at least up to high school, improved the level of participation of the women in crop farming (X2=32.92, P=0.00). Education and formal employment increased the women’s access to credit and technical information, which improved level of crop farming. Acreage of cultivated farmland did not appear to have any significant association with level of participation in crop farming. The study revealed that out of the 288 respondents, none of them had ever received any agricultural extension service within the location in the last five years. In conclusion, the fact that only 21.2% of the respondents in Kakelo Location, Homa Bay County, Kenya, reported full participation in crop farming indicated dismal contribution by majority women to improvement of household food security. Therefore, it is recommended that more effort should be put into increasing level of rural women participation in crop farming.

In the present paper, we introduce two functions namely and in terms of K-function introduced recently by Sharma[9] and show their properties by using fractional integrals and derivatives. Results derived in this paper are the extensions of the results derived earlier by Shukla and Prajapati[2].

This article presents the strategic thinking of the underdog, and to show how it is possible to teach or train people in all walks of life. The first part discusses the characteristics of underdog strategic thinking by comparing them to strong-side strategic thinking. The examples are deliberately drawn from a range of applications, to emphasize that the underdog will never think of only one category of means. The second part proposes some simple exercises to start training people in underdog thinking, first by identifying those who do so naturally, and then in using a simple device, the core idea, to give their own strong-side thinking the beneficial characteristics of the other kind of strategy.

This paper discusses the structural behaviour of latex modified ferrocement in comparison with conventional ferrocement particularly when exposed to severe environmental conditions. The development of strength, deformability and fracture properties were slightly different from conventional ferrocement. Test result indicates a significant improvement in reducing and bridging micro cracks, especially in the prepeak load region. Fracture toughness and deformability increased significantly. However, the post peak behaviour was quite similar to conventional ferrocement.

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the effect of ? -irradiation dose, polyvinyl alcohol content and nano-calcined clay ratios of PVA-NCC-cement mortar composite. PVA-NCC-cement mortar composite was prepared by the addition of PVA on blended cement mortar with different percentages namely 2, 4, 6 and 8% by wt. of blended cement. The fresh composites were first cured at 100% relative humidity for 24 hours and then subjected to ? -irradiation dose namely 10, 20, 30 and 50 KGy. The irradiated composites were cured in water for 28 days. Physico-mechanical properties such as compressive strength, bulk density, total porosity and water absorption were tested according to standard specifications. XRD, SEM, TGA were carried out on some selected samples to evaluate the effect of different factors on crystallinity, microstructural and thermal behaviour of the composites. Results showed that, compressive strength and bulk density of the composites increased with increasing the absorbed dose and PVA contents for certain values and then decreased while, total porosity and water absorption behave in an opposite direction. XRD, SEM, TGA confirmed these conclusions.

The present paper involves the application of chemical and photochemical homogeneous advanced oxidation processes on the decolourization of textile effluent and Methyl Orange (MO) Dye. The decolourization efficiency of various oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), fenton reagent i.e. hydrogen peroxide and hydrated ferrous sulphate (H₂O₂/Fe²⁺), sodium hypochlorite (NaClO), UV/H₂O₂/Fe²⁺, Solar/H₂O₂/Fe²⁺, UV/NaClO and Solar/NaClO has been investigated. The effect of process parameters viz., oxidant dose, pH, concentration of dye and source of light (UV/Solar) for decolourization and COD reduction of dye effluent and MO has been studied. The decolourization efficiency was estimated from residual concentration spectrophotometrically. The experimental results show that the maximum decolourisation (more than 95 %) and COD reduction (40 %) of effluent occurred using combined Solar/NaClO (20 mg/L) system at pH 6 within 20 minutes. The decolourization efficiency of MO dye with H₂O₂ or UV alone was found to be negligible but more than 95% efficiency could be achieved either with UV/H₂O₂/Fe²⁺ (450 mg/L /150 mg/L) at pH 2 or Solar/NaClO (120 mg/L) at pH 6 within 30 minutes.

This paper examines the effects of macroeconomic variables like currency rate, inflation rate, real interest rate, gross domestic product and liquidity on the stock market index in Tehran Stock exchange during 1985 to 2015. Various econometric analyses such as Co-integration and Vector Error Correction Method (VECM) are employed on time series data. It finds that Iran’s stock market is positively influenced by the inflation and currency rates and negatively affected by the liquidity. On the other hand the relationship between real interest rates and stock price is positive but not significant.

The main purpose of this research is to determine the effect of job demand and job control in job design on job stress and subjective well-being. The population of the research was all the personnel of Isfahan Petrochemical Company in Iran from which 151 persons were randomly selected via simple random technique. The research method was correlational. To gather the required data, the following three instruments were used: Job Design Questionnaire of Wall, Jackson and Mullarkey (1995), Subjective Well-being Questionnaire of Mollavi (1386), and Job Stress of Eliot (1994). The obtained data were analyzed via one group MANOVA and multiple regressions. The findings were as follow: The relationships between job demand with job stress (P < 0.05) and positive affect (P < 0.01) were significant. Also, the relationships between job control with job stress (P < 0.01), subjective well-being (P < 0.01), positive affect (P < 0.01) and negative affect (P < 0.01) were significant. In the current research, employees were categorized as the Technical, Support and General staff. The results of subgroup analysis via one- way ANOVA showed that the job stress and subjective well-being of three groups have a significant difference.

The study investigated the replacement value of plantain peel meal for maize on feed intake, live weight gain and feed efficiency of a snail species (Achachatina marginata). Four diets were formulated as follows: diet 1, 30.7% maize without plantain peel; diet 2, 20.7% maize and 10% plantain peel; diet 3, 10.7% maize and 20% plantain and diet 4 ; 30.7% plantain peel without maize.48 medium size snails were randomly divided into four groups and each group was fed with one of the experimental diets for 3months . The snails were examined for performance using live weight gain, feed intake and feed efficiency. The statistical analysis showed no significant difference among the treatments (experimental diets) but the result revealed that snails fed with diet 1 had the highest performance in live weight gain (5.67) and feed efficiency (0.56) while diet 4 had the least in live weight gain (4.03) and efficiency (0.41) but the greatest in feed intake (10.83).However, plantain peel is a feed ingredient that has no side effect on the snails although poorly consumed. Its inclusion in the diet should not exceed 10% based on the result of the study.