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The purpose of the study was to establish the role of organizational culture on performance in the insurance industry in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population for this study was the senior and middle level management staff of the 49 insurance companies registered with the Association of Kenya insurers (AKI) by December 2014. The study selected the respondents using stratified proportionate random sampling technique. Primary data was obtained using self-administered questionnaires administered using a drop and pick later method. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean score and standard deviation was estimated for all the quantitative variables and information presented inform of tables and graphs. Inferential data analysis was done using Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis to establish the relations between the independent and dependent variables. Hypothesis testing was done using p-value in a Chi-square test. F-statistic was also be computed at 95% confidence level to test whether there is any significant relationship between organizational culture and performance of insurance companies in Kenya. The correlation results revealed that organizational culture promoted performance in the insurance industry in Kenya. The study recommends that standard employee compensation packages should be implemented to poster motivation for better employee productivity. Insurance companies in Kenya should develop strategic marketing plans that differentiate each organization from the market rivals. Continuous market innovation and product development is also advocated. Strong focus on customer retention and building of loyalty is recommended. Insurance firms in Kenya should implement knowledge management systems as this was associated to be a key driver towards Performance of Insurance Companies. Periodically, insurance firms in Kenya should carry out SWOT analysis, business reengineering process is also encouraged to keep operations on tack. Internal flow of activities are effective as the quality of coordination was found to be a crucial factor posting positive performance of organization and that management should work to ensure that strategic policies actively promote organizational effectiveness, reputation, values and ethics. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge concerning strategic management which has become popular among companies. The study results promote clear understanding on organizational culture especially on leadership.

The portunidae crab Charybdis natator were collected from the offshore region of Nagapattinam (Lat. 10⁰ 46’ NS and Long. 79⁰ 51’ EW) on south east coast of Bay of Bengal. A random collection of specimens were made and sex ratio of male and female crabs were thoroughly studies in a period of two year January – 2009 to December – 2010. The result it clearly indicates that there was slight variation in both sex numbers. Among the total crabs 1748, the males were 864 and females were 884. The overall sex ratio of male and female was found to 1:1.01 ratio. The chi-square (?2) test analysis indicated that the ratio was not significantly differ from the expected 1:1 ratio. Hence it is suggested that the variation in sex ratio mainly depends on migration of crab for feeding, breeding, types of gear and craft used in that season.

A single speaker will use different linguistic forms on different occasions, and different speakers of a language will express the same meanings using different forms. Speakers of a language make choices in pronunciation, morphology, vocabulary, and grammar depending on a number of non-linguistic factors: the speaker’s purpose in communication, and some other non-linguistic features that cannot be used intentionally: age, and sex. If one person utters the sentence ‘John is a farmer’ and another says the same thing except pronounces the word farmer as ‘fahmuh,’ then the difference is one of accent. But if one person says something like ‘You should not do that’ and another says ‘Ya hadn’t oughta do that,’ then this is a dialect difference because the variation is greater. A dialect is variation in grammar and vocabulary in addition to sound variations. There are occupational dialects (the word bugs means something quite different to a computer programmer and an exterminator), sexual dialects (women are far more likely than men to call a new house adorable), and educational dialects (the more education people have, the less likely they are to use double negatives). There are dialects of age (teenagers have their own slang, and even the phonology of older speakers is likely to differ from that of young speakers in the same geographical region) and dialects of social context (we do not talk the same way to our intimate friends as we do to new acquaintances, to the paperboy, or to our employer). There is a relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic variations. Understanding this relationship can help language learners to express themselves more appropriately. Such an understanding is an asset without which they run the risk of exposing themselves to being laughed at. This paper focuses on enabling learners of the English language to participate successfully in social and linguistic interaction through developing their communicative competence or through discovering how various aspects of the non-linguistic context influence the nature of linguistic communication.

The present study was conducted in rural Mangalore taluk of Daskhina Kannada district of Karnataka state to explore the pattern of social support system and life satisfaction elders and to seek the scope for social work intervention in this case. A simple random sample of 60 elders was covered from the study area. The data were collected through pretested semi-structured questionnaires and data were analyzed by using percentages and proportions. Out of 60 respondents, 45(75%) elders were married and living with their family members. The Family members were quoted as most important social support network factors for life satisfaction in the case of 48(80%). It was found that 42 (70%) respondents were not anxious about the future, since the respondents are economically sustainable and position in the family is comparatively good.

A mild stress is must for stimulation, motivation and growth which is desirable. Till you manage stress, it is not harmful but when stress starts managing you it becomes harmful. When we do or are made to do things beyond our capacity, the paradigm is broken and we become tense – this is nothing but STRESS. In business across the country, the employee stress levels are rising day by day along with the talks of increasing conflicts in the organisations. Each individual reacts differently to the factors causing stress and actual stress itself. Though it is believed that women generally tend to go into shell when extremely stressed, men on the contrary become more violent, irritable and develop addictions. No addiction can claim to be free from stress at all points of time. Stress cannot be eliminated full but can be reduced, so the need of the hour is to manage the stress at the right time. We have to manage stress till, stress starts managing us. Various techniques are used to manage stress by arranging various stress relieving programmes say yoga, meditation etc. Stress should not only be managed at individual level but more important is to be managed at Individual level but more important is to managed it out at organisational level. As one’s quality of professional life leads to quality of personal, family and social life which cannot be easily separated.

Allegorical metaphor is a kind of explicit metaphor in which the elliptic tenor as an abstract form of multiple grounds is compared to an explicit vehicle which is an abstract from of multiple grounds either. This figure of speech is a verbal masterpiece of human being and soaring beyond the heaven of the poetic images which has always had many controversies regarding its quality and quantity during its historical course. This descriptive article using content analysis attempts to study and compare the various and different opinions of the scholars of the art of the scheme from commencing of this term to the art of Arabic and Persian rhetoric up to present time to provide the interested readers of the art of the scheme and device of metaphor with a thorough understanding of the historical course and evolution of that figure.

Dihydro-3,4-dihydroxy-5-(hydroxymethyl)furan-2(3H)-one has been prepared in two steps from galactose. The first step potassium-2,3,4,5-tetrahedroxypentanoate was obtained in 64% yield and the title compound has been isolated in next step with 75% yield. The structures of the products were characterized by IR, 1H, 13C, mass and microanalysis study.

Some metal(II) complexes of mixed ligands-dimethydithiocarbamic and p-aminobenzoic acids were synthesized (M = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn) and characterized by solubility, percentage metal, conductivity, infrared and electronic spectra measurements. Infrared data showed that the dimethydithiocarbamic and p-aminobenzoic acids coordinated through the sulphur atoms, and the carboxylate oxygen atoms to the metal atoms respectively. Electronic spectra and room temperature magnetic moments corroborated equilibrium between high spin and low spin octahedral geometry (spin-crossover) for the Mn(II), Fe(II), Ni(II) and Co(II) complexes, while the Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes were octahedral and mononuclear. The antimicrobial activities of the metal complexes against Escherichia spp, Streptococcus spp, Proteus sp, Candida sp, Salmonella sp, Bacillus spp, Staphylococcus sp and Pseudomonas spp showed that the Mn(II), Fe(II) and Zn(II) complexes had very good antimicrobial activities against these microbes with inhibitory zones range of 7.0-20.0, 7.0-20.0 and 9.0-27.0 mm respectively, just like Streptomycin (7.0-29.0 mm) proving their potentials as broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents in-vitro.

The aim of this article is to analyze the role of metadata in the use of learning objects. Firstly, an overview of metadata is provided and the role of educational metadata for learning objects is considered. Then the purposes, the uses and the values of metadata are investigated in this regard. In the continuation, the study reviews other related issues such as metadata categories, metadata creation, and metadata attributes or characteristics. Finally a collaborative approach for metadata creation is proposed. This research concludes that metadata has an invaluable role in facilitating the widespread use of learning objects.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is multifactorial diseases caused by complex between genetic, lifestyle and environment risk factor; T2DM has also been recognized as an immune mediated disease leading to impaired insulin signaling and selective destruction of insulin producing beta cells in which cytokines play an important role. This study aimed to investigate the association of IL-6 gene polymorphism (-174G>C) with type 2 diabetes mellitus incidence in Iraqi population. Peripheral blood samples were collected from 50 diabetic patients and 50 apparently healthy individuals from both genders. DNA was extracted and Polymerase Chain Reaction - Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was carried out to detect polymorphism at the -174 position of IL-6 gene and determined the genotype for Iraqi population. The results revealed that the GG genotype in diabetic was significantly (p?0.05) lower than control group (64% versus 74%, respectively) while the GC genotype in diabetic was significantly (p?0.05) higher than control group (32% versus 22%, respectively), and there was no significant difference between diabetic and control group in the CC genotype with a non significant differences in either G or C allelic frequencies between diabetic patients and control group. The results of the present study indicate that heterozygous GC genotype was associated with the incidence of T2DM.