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Today, participation in extra-curricular activities are seen as an important initiative that should be carried out by each institution in order to establish a holistic student so that they are balance in terms of physical, spiritual, intellectual and social in line with the National Education Philosophy of Malaysia. This article writes about co-curricular activities help to promote holistic student development

The current paper reflects a conceptual endeavours. It exhaustively review the literature as regards to critical thinking skills. The researcher pays special attention to the research on the phenomenon is the Saudi context. Throughout the body of this paper, the author outlined the importance of critical thinking, critical thinking skills, and teaching such skills. The paper is closed by discussing its stances. It also provides suggestion for future research.

This paper presents an efficient cryptographic algorithm based on the mathematical functions that determine the important properties of the numbers. The conversion of characters to numbers makes this algorithm more secure. The other features of this algorithm include the lesser time that it takes to execute the encryption and the decryption. Also, the dynamic nature of the key makes this algorithm invulnerable to attacks.

The watershed resources management (WRM) model is a basin-scale model for continuous simulation. It is applicable in planning, forecasting and operational hydrology. Hydrological simulation requires calibration to match reality. In automatic calibration, optimization is carried out using selected model parameters. WRM model originally calibrated heuristically in FORTRAN for Curley’s and Mayne’s sub-watersheds Canada was converted to C# (C sharp) to allow flexibility in programming and to enable Graphic User Interface (GUI) creation, and autocalibrated for tropical watersheds. The WRM model was repackaged to run in normal and autocalibration mode. Two software programs, WRMGA and WRMGUI, were successfully developed, tested and applied. Genetic algorithm (GA) was employed as optimization technique. Four parameters (genomes) namely, the Manning roughness coefficient for land surface (MANN1), Manning roughness coefficient for stream surface (MANN2), Manning roughness coefficient for terrace surface (MANN3) and surface retention parameter (KRET) with high sensitivity were used to adjust the four input files (FOR001.DAT, FOR003.DAT, FOR005.DAT, optimized.dat and WRM.DAT.optimized.dat) for the autocalibration. Genomes were generated using a random number generator within specified ranges. The generated values were stored in a file, Optimized.dat, which the program calls up and uses to compute the best fit. For MANN1, MANN2, MANN3 and KRET, minimum values of 0.10, 0.01, 0.00 and 0.01 and maximum values of 0.18, 0.05, 0.05 and 0.05 respectively were set and used for optimization process. The optimization process with up to 1000 trials using these sets of minimum and maximum values gave optimized values of 0.1272, 0.0214, 0.0201 and 0.0102 for MANN1, MANN2, MANN3 and KRET respectively, with a best fitness test of 0.9998. Hydrograph plots of both the originally heuristically calibrated simulations for the watersheds and the autocalibration simulations for the same watershed were compared with measured hydrographs and statistically validated. WRM originally calibrated to the watersheds gave a regression coefficient (R) of 34.8% while the autocalibrated model gave 37% showing an improvement in the autocalibration scheme. The WRM model was successfully repackaged for autocalibration in this paper and could be employed by non-expert in hydrologic modelling.

The study was carried out between November 2011 and October 2013, using 707 Oreochromis niloticus (Linné, 1757) specimens in a tropical reservoir (8° 3"to 8° 12"N and 4° 6"to 4° 12"E). Standard methods were used to determine food and feeding habit and enteroparasitic infestation of the fish in the reservoir. The fish species was found to be an omnivore, but primarily an herbivore and the feeding on food items of animal origin may be supplementary. The high presence and constancy of sand grains and detritus in the diet showed that the fish though pelagic, do forage regularly into the benthic zone to feed. Intestinal parasites recovered were two acanthocephalans - Neoechinorhynchus rutili, Acanthocentius tilapiae - and the metacercaria of Clinestomum tilapiae. Prevalence of parasitic infestation was higher in the dry season than the rainy season and also higher in females (23.40 %) than in males (19.15 %). The metacercariae were found in the buccal cavity while the two acanthocephalans were found in the intestine, nothing was found in the stomach. Generally, parasites intensity was higher in females than in males and parasitic infestation was found to have an effect on the body weight of O. niloticus in Oba reservoir.

The present study was conducted in southern Western Ghats of Tamilnadu, India. It is one of the global biodiversity hotspots that includes Nilgiri biosphere and Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary (proposed). We studied the Diversity, Dominance and Evenness of butterflies in three different habitats (forest area, river bank, and crop area) during the period January 2011 to December 2011. A total of 92 species, from 65 genera and 5 families were recorded. Species diversity and abundance were maximum in the months of March-May and dropped to the minimum in the months of December-January. Forest area habitat had greater species diversity, while river bank habitat had greater number of individuals; crop area had the least diversity and abundance among the studied habitats. We have also recorded the endemism and flight period of some butterflies and their distribution within the habitats with their nectar source plants. Analyses were done to emphasize the importance of butterflies and the need for their conservation.

This study examined the effect of transactional and transformational leadership paradigms on customer service delivery in local authorities in the Western region of Kenya. This was based on the recognition of the role played by local authorities namely county, municipal and town councils in offering essential services to citizens at the grass root level of governance. Using a co-relational research design, data was collected from 322 employees of these entities using questionnaires. It was analysed descriptively using frequencies and percentages and inferentially using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation test. The study found that both transformational and transactional leadership approaches had a positive and significant influence on customer service delivery. However, the transformational leadership approach had a greater effect on customer service delivery than the transactional leadership approach. The study recommends that the successors of the local authorities, that is county governments, should utilize these approaches in managing their operations in order for them to for accrue benefits to themselves and the citizens in their jurisdiction.

The green microalga strain, Botryococcus braunii Kützing, was provided by the Culture Collection of Algae at the University of Texas (Austin, USA). The effects of nitrogen and temperature on growth and lipid production were studied for 18 days. Cultures of B. braunii were incubated in five different nitrogen concentrations: 1 g L-1 (group 1), 0.5 g L-1(group 2), 0.25 g L-1 (group 3), 0.125 g L-1(group 4) and free nitrogen (group 5). The highest biomass concentration (0.564±0.200 g L-1) and lipid content (33.31±0.014%) were obtained by cultivation with an initial nitrogen concentration of 0.50 g L-1 in these experiments. In free nitrogen, the maximum lipid content was 56.31±0.026% of dry weight, while the biomass concentration was 0.270±0.063 g L-1 at 20 °C. The density of the biodiesel obtained from B. braunii was calculated as 0.8263 kg.L-1, its viscosity as 4.97 mm2.s-1 at 40 °C and its flash point as 109 °C. According to these results, nitrogen-starved Botryococcus braunii increased the production of lipids and could be made more suitable for biodiesel production. This study suggests that it is possible to utilize Botryococcus braunii for biodiesel production.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Cognitive Load Theory on the learning among Jadara University students in Jordan. The lesson developed in two different modes, text and image (TI) and audio, image with text (AIT). A quasi experimental factorial design was adopted in this research. The independent variables were the two modes of courseware. The dependent variable was the post test score and attitude. The study sample consisted of 79 educational technologies and was randomly (simple random sample). Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to analyze the collected data. ANCOVA was used to determine the significant differences of the post-test scores among the groups. The findings of this study showed that students using the Text, Images (TI) mode were not significantly higher than that attained by students using the Audio, Images, Text (AIT) mode. Also the findings of this study showed that all of the differences between the attitude scores of students in two treatment groups were not significant.

this present study, adsorption capacity of groundnut shell activated carbon coated with Fe3O4 as a low cost adsorbent for removal of cationic dye, Rhodamine B (RDB) from aqueous solution was explored. The surface morphology and functional groups present were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The effect of various parameters such as contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage and concentration of adsorbate were studied at ambient temperature. Equilibrium data were analysed using Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models. Kinetic data were studied using Pseudo-first and Pseudo-second order kinetic models and the mechanism of adsorption was described by intraparticle diffusion model.