Archives-December  

The activity concentrations of gross alpha, gross beta, 228Ra and 226Ra in fifteen brands of sachet water produced in Accra Metropolis of Ghana were measured. The analysis was carried out in the Alpha Spectrometry Laboratory at Radiation Protection Center of Ghana Atomic Energy Commission by using gross alpha/beta counter system to quantify the radionuclides of interest in the water samples. The investigation revealed a recorded measured activity concentration for alpha ranged from 1.28±0.04 to 8.3±0.02 mBq/L with an average concentration of 3.36±2.05 mBq/L. Beta activity concentration also ranged from 21.34±0.03 to 64.38±0.04 mBq/L with average activity of 33.69±12.23 mBq/L. The concentration values of gross - alpha and gross -beta for all the sachet water samples were below the Ghana Standard Authority and World Health Organization recommended guideline levels set for drinking water quality which is 0.1Bq/L and 1.0Bq/L, and 0.5Bq/L and 1.0Bq/L respectively. The results obtained indicated that, the inhabitants in the Accra municipality are not exposed to any significant radiological health hazard associated in drinking sachet water produced in Accra. This research would provide some useful monitoring data for establishing a regulatory limit (base –line radiometric radioactivity) on radiation in public drinking water as well as sachet water produced in Ghana, which could be used as baseline data for future studies in the study area and provide some useful data (base –line radiometric values) to be used by the regulatory authority to evaluate possible changes in the future.

This study specifically investigates the value or importance given to different sources of Word-of-Mouth. It also investigates the effect of Negative Word-of-Mouth on consumer decision-making. The study further investigates how actively people share their healthcare institute-related experiences with others. The study is based on primary data collected from 120 attendants from 4 hospitals (2 private hospitals and 2 government hospitals) in Delhi, India. The data is analysed using various statistical tools and methods. The results reveal that recommendations from medical practitioners and people who have availed the service are considered to be the most credible where as an individual’s own opinion takes the back seat while choosing a healthcare facility. The results of the study also reveal that people share their healthcare institute-related experiences very actively with others so as to express a sense of care and humanity. The results also reveal that Negative Word-of-Mouth plays a significant role in consumer decision-making about choosing a healthcare facility. Thus healthcare practitioners should focus on positive as well as negative Word-of-Mouth, and should come up with different strategies for different sources of Word-of-Mouth, in accordance to the importance given to those sources by consumers, so as to enhance their position in the market.

Present study was designed to investigate the role of instructional practices in determining students’ satisfaction. Major objectives of the study include, comparing instructional practices adopted by private and public sectors universities. It was descriptive in nature in which university students’ satisfaction was measured in relation with teachers’ instructional practices. Here instructional practices were taken as independent variable while students’ satisfaction was considered as dependent variable of the study. For sampling a stratified random sample of 700 respondents was collected from respondents of two distinct groups’ i.e., students, and teachers. Two different tools were developed and use to get the views of students, and teachers in public and private sector universities. Collected data was analyzed statistically (descriptive and inferential statistics) in relation with objectives of the research. Various statistical tests such as mean, Standard Deviation, Analysis of variance, correlation and regression were used to explore research variables with the help of SPSS 21. On the basis of results it reveled that students of public sector universities are more satisfied with instructional practices of their teachers.

A Mobile Ad hoc Network is a collection of mobile wireless nodes that combine to form a network without any infrastructure. The main challenges in MANET are reliability, bandwidth and battery power. Broadcasting is important in MANET for routing information discovery. Broadcasting is the process in which a source node sends a message to all other nodes in MANET. The broadcast operation as a fundamental service in mobile ad hoc networks is prone to the broadcast storm problem if forwarding nodes are not carefully designated. This paper proposes a simple broadcast algorithm called double-covered broadcast which takes advantage of broadcast redundancy to improve the delivery ratio in an environment that has rather high transmission error rate. Only a set of selected nodes will forward the broadcast message. The selected nodes called forwarding nodes must satisfy the following two requirements: 1) the sender’s 2-hop neighbors are covered and 2) the sender’s 1-hop neighbors are either forwarding nodes or non forwarding nodes covered by at least two forwarding neighbors. The retransmissions of the forwarding nodes are received by the sender as the confirmation of their reception of the packet. The non forwarding neighbors do not acknowledge the reception of the broadcast. The proposed algorithm has many metrics such as balancing the average retransmission redundancy, avoid broadcast storm problem, recovering the transmission error locally and increasing the broadcast delivery ratio in a high transmission error rate environment.

Effect of different doses of nitrogen with or without GA3 application on plant height, nutrient uptake (N,P,K and S). Yield parameters in NDR-8501 Brassica juncea cultivar in year 2013-14. Field experiment was conducted at Instructional Farm of N.D.U.A.&T., Kumarganj, Faizabad (U.P.) during Rabi season, mustard seeds were grown under different treatments. Three doses of nitrogen (90, 120 and 150 kg ha-1) and GA3 (50 ppm) spraying at 30 and 60 DAS, nutrient uptake, siliquae plant-1, seed siliquae-1, seed yield increases at 120 kg N ha-1 with spraying of GA3 at 30 DAS as compared to without GA3 spraying GA3 at 60 DAS spraying increase the observed parameters but it was low in comparison of 30 DAS. The optimum dose of nitrogen of recommended dose of fertilizer along with spraying of 50 ppm GA3 at 30 DAS can be used as optimum recommended source for improving mustard seed yield under local agro climatic conditions.

Abstract. The article focuses on the problem of teaching English for Specific Purposes for non-language students, particularly, assessing the role of supporting schemes at ESP classes for Physical Culture students. The goal of the research is to develop supporting schemes and to assess their role for training students’ speaking skills. Supporting schemes are found to create conditions for practical application of the acquired material and are a stimulus to students’ speech activity being supporting visuals for the development of speaking skills. Supporting schemes are determined to have a positive influence upon students’ state. They increase the level of students’ performance and decrease the level of high reactive anxiety. Key words: English for Specific Purposes, visual aids, supporting skills, students’ performance, the level of anxiety.

Objective: To describe the strengths and weaknesses of current media to act as a prime tool to tackle rural poverty and help in development. Design: A descriptive, cross sectional study design, collecting relevant quantitative and qualitative data was conducted. A data on retrospective histories and experiences of poverty was also captured to link the exposure pattern on the availability of government assistances through media vehicles. Setting: Urban community comprising of reporters and journalists belonging to different media houses in East Khasi Hills District from both the print and electronic media. Results: The working journalist in the State suggested that the media should create awareness programmes and make people aware of the schemes and loans being provided by the government. In addition, the media should also highlight the needs of the poor. These working professionals are consciously aware of its role but mentioned that they find it difficult in allotting space to information on government monetary benefits to the masses through their media houses. Conclusion: This study concludes that media has been ignoring poverty for too long. Media’s role in projecting and highlighting government’s assistance to help alleviate economic poverty in the State is a highly conscious elucidation endorsed by all.

Measurements on efflux time are performed for draining a large open spherical tank through an exit pipe, the flow in the exit pipe is assumed to be laminar. Laminar flow is maintained by using different concentrations of glycerin solutions. The experimental values are compared with the mathematical model and found to be in good agreement with the model. The model is also verified for different exit pipe lengths and different volumes of liquid in the tank. Further, the effect of addition of polyacrylamide and polythene oxide polymers on drag reduction for water as well different concentrations of glycerin solutions is contemplated. It is observed that, for the range of concentrations of polymers considered, drag reduction prevails in absence of glycerin solutions only. The optimum concentration with polyacrylamide is found to be 1.25 ppm and in case of polythene oxide, it is 10ppm. However, for the case of polymer solutions of different concentrations prepared using glycerin solutions, instead of drag reduction, drag enhancement takes place. The trend is found to be same for all volumes of liquid as well as for all exit pipe lengths. This suggests that caution has to be exercised when using polymer solutions for drag reduction in gravity driven flow systems.

In this paper we have explored the problem for generalized temperature functions considered over positive and negative time. We have established representation theorems and their applications.

Modal is one of the vital regenerated cellulosic fibres used in textile industries. It contains almost all the properties required for the textile applications. In this paper the physical properties, dyeing effects and antimicrobial characteristics of modal, cotton and modal / cotton (50 : 50 blend) fabrics are studied. Modal fabrics in original and in blended (50 : 50) form with cotton show good properties towards k/s value, wash, light and rubbing fastnesses and also for antimicrobial behavior.