Archives-  

Austenitic stainless steels (ASS) represent the largest group of stainless steels and have maximum usage in industry. AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel is widely used as a structural material in chemical, petrochemical, power engineering and aviation industries owing to its good combination of mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and weldability. In view of industrial importance of this stainless steel, the proposed work would comprise of fabricating welded joints on 10mm thick AISI 316L using two different groove designs viz. Single-V groove and Narrow gap and submerged arc welding process. In view of the service applications that this alloy is subjected to, the joints will be subjected to thermal aging to high temperature of 750°C for 24 hours duration. The joints were thermally aged to study effects of precipitation at high temperature (750°C/24 hrs.) aging condition on different welds. For analyzing different aspects of these welds different specimens were extracted from the welded plates and were further subjected to metallurgical, corrosion and fatigue testing.The metallurgical testing were carried out via optical microscopy, ferrite content evaluation and microhardness measurements. Further, corrosion performance was evaluated using potentiodynamic scan for determining the pitting corrosion resistance of AISI 316L welds with different joint designs. The fatigue crack propagation behavior of different welds was determined through fatigue testing of above-mentioned welds. The results of corrosion and fatigue crack growth performance of AISI 316L welds with different joint designs and thermal aging were correlated with metallurgical observations. Mixed morphology of lacy and skeletal ferrite along with lower ferrite content and higher microhardness were observed for narrow gap butt weld as compared to single V-weld. Further, pitting corrosion resistance was also improved for joints prepared with narrow gap butt weld. The FCGR performance of narrow gap butt weld was also improved as compared to single V butt weld. Aging at high temperature reduced the pitting corrosion performance but increased the fatigue performance owing to accelerated precipitation in AISI 316L welds with different joint designs.

The principal as the key implementer assumes the role of moderator of all aspects of participatory practices. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which involvement of students in decision making influence students discipline in secondary schools in Nandi County, Kenya. The study used systems theory by Ludngvan Bartalanffy. Descriptive survey design was adopted. The study sample consisted of 118 public and private schools’ principals, 108 teacher and 1534 student leaders. Each school provided 13 student leaders. Questionnaires for principals, interview guide for teachers and student leaders were used as instruments of data collection. Data was analysed using SPSS. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse data then, tabulate and present data. The results generated were reported in tables. The findings indicated that most of school students were involved in decision making. The incidences of student discipline in those schools were high a factor that could have been occasioned by students sense of ownership and feeling respected and recognised. The study concludes that involvement in decision making and highly correlate to student’s discipline. The study recommends a replication of the same in a number of counties involving teachers and Board members as respondents.

The usage of alternative fine aggregate like silica sand is a natural step in solving a part of depletion of river sand. The research on alternative material for concrete making commenced earlier than half a century. Concrete made from silica sand as fine aggregate was studied for workability, compressive strength. Silica sand is made from crushing of quartz stone. Similarly, observe of its durability will make sure more dependability in its utilization. So here on this assignment, silica sand were used as substitute of fine aggregate for making concrete of M-20, with w/c ratio 0.45. The proportion substitute could be 100% with natural fine aggregates. For making M20 concrete opc-53 grade cement is used. Cubes has been casted and tested compressive strength.

The workforce is arguably the most important input to any health system since they have a strong impact on overall health system performance. The quality of patient care may be related in an important way to the quality of life experienced by staff at work. This is because the human factor is central to healthcare, yet its proper management has remained beyond the reach of healthcare organizations. Organizations must understand their strategic imperatives and implement HR practices that will result in employee behaviors that are supportive of those strategic objectives. SHRM practices are concerned with how people are employed and managed in organizations so as to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce. As complex systems, hospitals house an assortment of professionals, medical and administrative, with varying backgrounds and affiliations who exchange ideas, experiences and information, make decisions and enact them. With this background information, the study sought to examine the influence of strategic human resource management practices on sustainable growth of private hospitals in Kenya in this research Sustainable growth in the private hospitals is presumed to apply when the hospitals are able to deliver effective, safe, quality health services to those in need, with a minimum waste of resources while ensuring compliance to the government regulations. The study employed a descriptive research design. The target population for this study was 712 staff from the 178 private hospitals licensed by Kenya Medical and Dentist Board. The study found that Strategic human resource management practices was statistically significant in explaining sustainable growth of private hospitals. Thus, hospitals managers should emphasize on implementation of Strategic human resource practices in order to foster hospital growth.HR managers and practitioners should understand the critical nature and utmost importance of strategic human resource practices in creating value for the organization so as to enhance organizational productivity and growth.

A study on the influence of the weed effect on the biomass production of six Brachiaria ecotypes, namely Brachiaria decumbens cv Bazilisk; Brachiaria mulato; Brachiaria brizantha cv Xaraes; Brachiaria ruziziensis; Brachiaria brizantha cv Nioka and Brachiaria brizantha cv Piata at Nioka, was carried out to observe their productivity and identify those with an interesting resilience to the above-mentioned factor.The experimental set-up was that of randomized complete blocks comprising six treatments (six ecotypes mentioned above) and repeated three times. All six Brachiaria ecotypes were subjected to the weed factor. The following parameters were measured: recovery rate and speed, tillering, biomass.The results of the investigations showed that the highest biomass before and after weed invasion was obtained only by B. ruziziensis

Instructional scaffolding techniques like graphic organizers aid L2 learners in the mastery of tasks. This study aimed at exploring the effects of graphic organizers on listening comprehension and incidental vocabulary acquisition. To this end, a total number of 157 Iranian intermediate EFL who met the homogeneity criterion of the Oxford Quick Placement Test were assigned to an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG), through a quasi-experimental design. The participants received a pretest, the instruction, and a posttest. The pedagogical sequences proposed by Vandergrift and Goh (2012) was the underlying roadmap for both CG and EG's instruction. However, the EG's participants were provided with four graphic organizers. In order to assess the efficacy of the graphic organizers, both descriptive analysis and ANCOVA were employed. The results of the study indicated that the EG's participants outperformed their peers regarding both listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, the data obtained from an interview revealed the learners' positive attitudes towards the treatment. This study could help practitioners in the field of SLA support the use of graphic organizers as instructional scaffolding strategies.

Intermolecular interactions of chlorpheniramine with 1-methanol have been reported at various concentrations in the frequency range 10 MHz to 10 GHz at 303K,308K and 313K using Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR). Excess inverse relaxation time and dielectric relaxationtime were computed by Higasi’s Method and interoperated in terms of the molecular interaction of the liquid mixture. The relaxation time and dielectric constant were decreased with increase in concentration of chlorpheniramine. Cole-Cole method was used to determine the non-linearity of the interactions with ideal values. Deviations in such parameters at all the temperatures implies that the existence of solute-solvent interaction due to rotation of dipoles present in the selected liquid system. Hence the experimental observations suggested hetero interaction which may be due to hydrogen bonding of the –OH group of alcohol with N-H of the chlorpheniramine. The intermolecular interaction was obtained in the order of 303K >308K >313K.

In fierce competition of airline industry, due to sensitive nature and vital rule of crisis management, viability of companies in this industry is highly depended on skillful handling of crisis situations. The aim of this study is to first determine the different strategies of airline companies in dealing with crisis situations in Iran and then to identify the effect of Customer's perception of danger on repurchase intention for Iran's airline industry. Data obtained from 500 survey questionnaire were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that Denial has a significantly negative effect on Customer's perception of danger. Involuntary product recall has a significantly negative effect on Customer's perception of danger. Voluntary product recall has a significantly positive effect on Customer's perception of danger. Supper effort has a significantly positive effect on Customer's perception of danger. Customer's perception of danger has a significantly positive effect on Repurchase intentions. In addition results show that Denial was the best negative predictor of their Customer's perception of danger and Supper effort was the best positive predictor of Customer's perception of danger.

When solar cells are used for space applications, there are exposed to different types of energetic particles such as protons and electrons. Those energetic particles create defects in the base of the solar cell and lead to the degradation of the performances of the solar cell. Three mainly phenomenon observed in silicon solar cells exposed to 1 MeV electron irradiation are decrease in diffusion length, removal of majority charge careers and enlargement of Space Charge Region (SCR). These three phenomenon lead to the type conversion of the base of solar cell and an anomalous behavior of the short-circuit current for a certain value of the fluences. In the present study, theoretical approach is used to investigate the impact of decrease in diffusion length, removal of majority charge careers and enlargement of SCR on the anomalous behavior of the short-circuit current and type conversion of the base.The electric parameters are studied under AM 1.5 for different fluences of 1 MeV electrons.It was found that, defects responsible for the anomalous behavior of the short-circuit current could appear for different values of the fluences and that, the type conversion of the base is caused by the removal of the majority charged carriers and decrease in diffusion length while the anomaly observed in the evolution of the short-circuit current is caused by the widening of the SCR.

The study was carried out to isolate Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) from cow feces meat as well as screening bioactive compound produced from isolated LAB via well-in agar method. The identification of LAB through biochemical test consists of sugar test and milk curdles. Isolated LAB was ferment at 37°C for 24 hours. One type of LAB was successfully isolated, namely Lactococcus sp.