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The study aimed to examine financial factors affecting lending portfolio in commercial banks in Kenya. The specific objectives of this study were: to determine the effects of interest rates on the lending portfolio of commercial banks in Kenya; to establish the effect of deposit mobilization on the lending portfolio of commercial banks in Kenya; to assess the effect of collateral on the lending portfolio of commercial banks in Kenya; and finally determine the effect of loan repayment on the lending portfolio of commercial banks in Kenya. The study was based on Liquidity Preference Theory (LPT), Loanable Funds Theory and The Theory of Interest. The study used a cross sectional survey research design administered through questionnaires. The heads of credit related departments who are concerned with policies implementation in 43 commercial banks in Kenya formed the target population. The sample population of the study was 64 respondents. The mean, standard deviation, correlation and regression were the main statistical analysis used. It was found that interest rate had a negative correlation with lending portfolio. Deposit mobilization, which is the source of funds for the banks, had a positive effect on the lending portfolio. Emphasis on collateral requirements had a negative effect on amount of loans but increased the quality of the loans lent out (low risk of default). Finally it was found that loan repayment policies had a positive significant effect on the lending portfolio. It was concluded that unfavourable (high) interest rate reduces lending portfolio. Effective deposit mobilization strategies increases lending portfolio. Loan repayment policies increase the lending portfolio. Finally, collateral requirement increased the chance of loan repayment thus increasing the quality of lending portfolio. Consequently it was recommended that the stakeholders, especially the government to implement economic strategies that spars economic growth. The economic growth as multiplier effect in that it does not only empowers the citizens financially, it also reduces the interest rate of bank loans. There should be effective assessment mechanisms of potential borrowers so as to have appropriate collateral requirement for an individual borrower. Finally it was recommended that a complementary study that examines the causes of non-repayment in commercial banks will be ideal. This study also proposed another study be carried out that investigates the direct role of lending portfolio on bank’s financial performance.

To catalogue the medicinal plant wealth of Karian Shola MPCA, Coimbatore District of Tamilnadu, Southern India and to categorize the RET status and their need for conservation along with the Ethnobotanical knowledge of the medicinal plants. Field trips were made to collect the medicinal plants from Karian Shola MPCA, Anamalais, Coimbatore District, Tamilnadu during January 1994 to December 1995. A total of 300 species of angiosperms, of which 6 are additions to the Flora of Tamilnadu, 50 endemic plants, 15 Red listed taxa, 20 highly traded medicinal plants and 27 ethno-medicinal Plants were documented from the study area. The study emphasized the need for in situ conservation along with the wild plants used by the Malasars and Kadars were also provided.

Metoprolol tartrate is effective ?-blocker which is having antianginal properties and used in the treatment of myocardial infarction. Oral bioavailability of metoprolol tartrate is around 40%. In present work an attempt has been made to prepare fast dissolving tablets of metoprolol tartrate to enhance the dissolution rate. Sublimation method . The values of pre-compression parameters evaluated were within prescribed limits and indicated good free flowing property. In all the formulations, friability is less than 1%, indicated that tablets had a good mechanical resistance. Drug content was found to be in the range of 98 to 102%, which is within acceptable limits. In sublimation method, camphor is used as subliming agent. All the tablets of metoprolol tartrate were subjected to weight variation, hardness, friability, in vitro dispersion, drug polymer interaction, drug content uniformity, and in vitro drug release The drug release from tablets of metoprolol tartrate prepared by sublimation methods were found to be S1 showed 98.20% drug release within 10 minute. It is concluded that Metoprolol Tartrate mouth dissolving tablets could be prepared using sublimation technique with improved bioavailability and rapid onset of action.

The optimal design of transmission system expansion planning is an important part of the overall planning task of electric power system. One of main keys of the successful grid expansion planning comes from optimal reliability level/criteria decision, which should be given for constraint in the optimal expansion problem. However, it’s very difficult to decide logically the optimal reliability criteria of a transmission system as well as generation system expansion planning in a society. The technique proposed in this paper is a “novel but classic” technique. We classify the transmission planning into three dimensions including Line Loading Index (LI), Voltage Profile Index (PI), and Expected Energy Not Supplied (EENS) Index with detailed definitions. Transmission Expansion Index (TEI) is the main focus of this paper and can be used as an important criterion for decision making and transmission planning in the planning horizon. The 6 bus system case study results demonstrate that the proposed method is practical for solving the power system expansion planning problem.

Wireless sensor networks are those that are used for the communication between various sensor nodes to the base station. Heterogeneity in such networks are used to manage the network deployment cost and the network traffic. A hierarchical cost effective LEACH (HCEL) protocol is proposed to enhance energy efficiency of the sensor nodes thereby maximizing the network performance without increasing the network deployment cost.In this paper, a heterogeneous network that comprise three types of sensor nodes are considered. A hierarchical network structure is formed where the data are forwarded by using “aggregators”. The clustering is done inorder to maximize the energy eficiency of the sensor nodes. The cost comparision is done between various protocols like seperateLEACH(SL), proposedLEACH(PL), seperateproposed(SP) and HCEL. The energy efficiency is derived by initiating the activity window interference. Simulation results show that the HCEL protocol derive a gradual decrease in the network deployment cost ratio in terms of powerful nodes and energy factor.

The study attempted to find out the impact of capacity building of teachers of Government Boys’ Primary Schools on classroom teaching. The objectives of the study were to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the capacity building initiatives for professional development of teachers in district Swat and to make recommendations for improving the current efforts of government and other agencies for capacity building of primary school teachers. Capacity is developed when individuals are motivated to use knowledge, skills and resources in order to enhance organizational objectives. An opinionnaire containing eleven statements was handed over to Head Masters, a questionnaire containing eleven questions were handed over to the teachers, who had received training and a checklist for classroom observation of 5th class students of 101 primary schools in district Swat. The relevant literature was reviewed, which provided indicators for development of tools. The data obtained were quantified and described. The results revealed that Head Masters could play more effective role for school effectiveness by developing clear vision; providing instructional feedback to teachers; effective monitoring and supervisory mechanism; setting a democratic environment conducive to teaching learning process and involving the stakeholders in decision-making. The results of the study further indicated that school effectiveness owed itself to capable Head Masters, committed staff, non-political intervention, a procedure of incentives and disincentives, positive feedback to teachers and last, but not the least, a continuous instructional supervision of what happened in classroom. The recommendations for improving classroom teaching required continuous on-the-job training, commitment of teachers to the teaching profession and improved pedagogical skills of teachers as well as updating classroom management.

This article examines the notions of (in) directness and politeness in the Persian and English electronic requests of Iranian EFL postgraduate students (nonnative speakers of English) to their professors during their education at Islamic Azad University, Najaf Abad Branch, Isfahan, Iran. To that end, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate 60 English and 60 Persian e-mails composed by the participants. More specifically, a modified version of request strategies that was proposed initially by Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper (1989) and revised by Bisenbach-Lucas (2007) to fit e-mail request data was employed to analyze the request head act of each e-mail message. Findings from the study reveal that the students employ more direct strategies in their Persian e-mail requests than their English e-mail requests. The results of the study also indicate that students employ more direct strategies for the requests for information, but not for the requests for action. This study argues that e-mail requests characterized by significant directness give the faculty no choice in complying with the request and fail to acknowledge the imposition involved. Therefore, many of them might become responsible for pragmatic infelicities.

A questionnaire, interview survey of 320 patients was made in Peshawar, Pakistan to study the severity of beta thalassaemia on different aspects. The study revealed that it was common in male than female. The other things were that inter family marriages played an important part. The average family income was very less as compared to the family members and the expenditure of the treatment. The analysis showed that the father income is associated with the knowledge about thalassaemia and education. It was also revealed that the disease was more common in positive blood groups.

The goal of this study was to evaluate Distortion Product Otoacoustic emissions in the normal hearing subjects regarding to the following variables; ear side & gender. The purpose of this work is to study the influence of the ear side and gender on the distortion product Otoacoustic emission of normal hearing Iraqi population of age (21-30) years. The decision about whether a Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission is present often depends on a visual assessment of the response along with certain objective criteria, such as DP1 level (amplitude) and the signal-to-noise ratio of the response compared to the noise. DPOAEs were considered present when the signal was at least 3 dB above the corresponding noise level. In the present study, the overall SNR for each tested ear was more than 3 dB SPL at the overall frequency bands. The findings from this study revealed an ear asymmetry and gender effect on the parameters of the DPOAEs (SNRs dB SPL &DP1 level dB) in Iraqi subjects. Right ears were found to produce higher DPOAEs-SNRs than left ears and The DPOAEs (DP1 level dB) in the right ears was higher than that in the left ears .The minimum value of the whole Signal-to-noise ratio (SNRs) recorded for all tested ears was above 3 dB SPL over frequency bands 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0 kHz. The mean value of the whole SNRs in 56 ears was (10.53 dB SPL), ranged from 3.0 to 28.30 dB SPL. In females; the mean value of whole SNRs (11.27 dB SPL) was higher than that in males (9.8 dB SPL). The mean value of SNRs in the right ears female (11.38 dB SPL) was higher than that in the left ears female (11.16 dB SPL), while in male; the mean value of SNRs in the right ears male (10.08 dB SPL) was higher than that in the left ears male (9.52 dB SPL). The results show The minimum and the maximum value of the whole Distortion product (DP1 Level) recorded for all tested ears (56) was -10.7 and 25.6 dB respectively over frequency bands 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0 kHz. The mean value of the whole DP1 level in 56 ears was (6.50 dB), ranged from (-10.7 to 25.6 dB). In females; the mean value of whole DP1 Level (7.72 dB) was higher than that in males (5.28 dB). The mean value of DP1 level in the right ears female (8.22 dB) was higher than that in the left ears female (7.23 dB), while in male; the mean value of DP1 level in the right ears male (5.58 dB) was higher than that in the left ears male (4.98 dB).

This paper presents the preparation and characterization of a series of (PEO+PVP) composites with different ratios of NaF salt. New Na+ ion conducting polymer blend electrolyte films based on semicrystalline polymer poly (ethylene oxide) PEO and poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) PVP complexed with NaF salt were prepared using the solution-cast technique. The features of the complexation and structure of the electrolytes were studied by X- ray diffraction (XRD) and FTIR techniques. Frequency dependent conductivity were obtained from complex impedence (cole-cole) plots. It was observed that the magnitude of conductivity increased with increasing temperature and followed Arrhenius behavior throughout with three regions having different activation energies. The activation energy values were found to decrease with increasing concentration of NaF.