Archives-December 

The digital divide manifests the unbalanced growth between developed and developing world. This paper analyzed the existing digital divide through retrieving data in the period of 2000 - 2014 in Ethiopia. The result revealed that a huge gap in sex-disaggregated information appeared in Ethiopia. In addition, poverty, education and infrastructural development significantly affected accessibility, use and skill discrepancy in ICT between the genders. The digital divide trajectory is diminishing over time as the educational attainment and level of income increasing.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a common and chronic gastrointestinal disorder characterized by intestinal inflammation and mucosal tissue damage. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a pathogenic role in UC. The aim was to examine the treatment effect of sildenafil, a cGMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor, in the experimental rat model of UC. Intrarectal instillation of acetic acid (1ml 5% v/v) was used to induce UC. Sildenafil was used at dose of 10 mg/kg. Rats received treatment for 5 consecutive days. On day 6, the rats were sacrificed, colon was removed, then the body weight, colon weight/length ratio, tissue glutathione (GSH) concentration, macroscopic, and histopathological evaluations, were performed. The levels of body weight, and colon weight/length ratio were decreased significantly (???? < 0.05). The glutathione (GSH) concentration was increased significantly (???? < 0.05). The macroscopic and histopathological parameters were decreased, but it didn’t reduce significantly in the Sildenafil treated groups, compared to acetic acid-treated group.The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of Sildenafil in treating the UC are due to its potential to reduce the colon weight/length ratio, increased GSH, and improving the macroscopic, and histological markers.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has for thirty years, five operational mobile telephonic companies. No descriptive survey was conducted to assess the real risk for mental health of Call Center workers. The main objective was to contribute to the knowledge of the characteristics of job strain among teleoperators in Kinshasa. Specifics objectives were : 1) to describe the socio-demographical characteristics of Call Center workers ; 2) to identify the job strain among teleoperators ; 3) to measure the relation between job strain and work time within the Call Center ; 4) to measure association between job strain and socio-demographical characteristics. The study was conducted in five Call Center s in Kinshasa, a sample convenience of 110 people was recruited pursuant to individual consent as per the Helsinki Declaration. They were informed of terms of reference regarding their participation and the research objective. Data were collected using standardised Karasek Questionnaire French version validated by the Sumer Inquiry 2003.Spss 20 software was used to analyze data and the khi-square to measure the association between variables. This version evaluates three dimensions: psychological demand, decisional latitude and social support. One hundred and ten people were surveyed averaging 30 years. Most of them were male, university graduates and unmarried. 75.5% of participants presented job strain, 60% have spent six months or more in Call Center s. There was a significant relation between working time within Call Center s and inherent job strain. Six months was a minimum time during which psychological factors negatively impacted teleoperators’ mental health. This study focused on Call Center teleoperators, demonstrated that teleoperators were affected by job strain (high psychological demands and low decisional latitude). The susceptible minimum exposure time to trigger the disease was evaluated at six months or more. Teleoperators were predominantly male, graduated, youngsters and unmarried.

In Accra (Ghana), it is estimated that, plastic waste takes about 16.5% of the waste stream. In the past two decades, plastics have become the most favoured materials in the food and water packaging industry, contributing to an increase in their proportions in the waste stream in the region. Much earlier in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the use of paper in conventional packaging gave way most especially to polyethylene (low density, linear low density and high density polyethylene) film bags and other plastics as stringent quality standards were required in food and water packaging industries so as to minimize the incidence of food and water related epidemics. In recent years the use of plastics packaging for water and food has become favorable and very convenient. The public has therefore developed a strong desire for the use of plastics since it is less expensive, portable and can easily be carried from one place to another. After using the content, these plastics are indiscriminately discarded, littering the whole environment. These plastics however constitute a major proportion of the waste generated throughout the country, replacing leaves, glass and metals as a cheaper and more efficient means of packaging. In addition plastics collect around the city, choking gutters and drainages, threatening small animals in rivers and streams, affecting soil fertility and polluting beaches and other water bodies since resources available for the management of this waste and, for that matter plastic waste, are inadequate making it difficult to effectively and efficiently manage the waste generated.

Characterization of the ethanolic extract of Randiaaccuminata stem (chewing stick) was carried out using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrophotometer. The result of the analysis showed that the stem of Randiaaccuminata contain primary and secondary amines, aliphatic amine, alkyl halide, aromatic amine, nitro compounds, alkyne, alkanes, chloride and fluoride ions. The chloride and fluoride ions present in this plant is responsible for its cleaning property. It also prevents tooth decay, remove tooth stain, eliminates tooth aches and also promote cleaner teeth.

The ligand 2,5-bis(phenylcarbamoyl)terephthalicacid (bpctpa) was synthesized and characterized. Novel co-ordination polymers were prepared by using ligand (bpctpa) and transition metal ions viz. Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II). The co-ordination polymers and parent ligand were characterized by elemental analysis, spectral studies, thermogravimetry, number-average molecular weights ( ), diffuse reflectance spectral studies and magnetic susceptibilities. The biological activity of all the samples has also been monitored against plant pathogens.

Audiolingual is a method of teaching used in teaching languages based on behaviourist psychology and structuralist linguistics. At first, this method had many advocates, but later it was rejected as the result of having some problems. Later on new communicative methods were introduced. They emphasized the role of interaction as the means and the aim of learning a language. Similarly, they had their own problems. Therefore, it has been suggested that it is better not to hold rigidly to a single method, but instead use the points of strength of various methods. This paper intends to combine useful points of the two methods to devise an efficient method for teaching more especially in EFL contexts.

The present project describes the Comparative Analysis of Steel and RC Shear Wall. This work focus of static analysis is carried out for steel moment resisting building frame having (G+4) storey situated in zone IV stiffened without shear wall, with Steel Shear Wall and with RC shear wall. The scope of present work is to understand that the structures need to have suitable Earthquake resisting features to safely resist large lateral forces that are imposed on them during Earthquake. The analysis of steel plate shear wall and RC plate shear wall building are carried out using Software STAAD PRO V8i. . The main parameters consider in this project to compare the seismic performance of buildings are Nodal displacement Value, Drift Value, Moment and shear force value, Reactions and story shear Value. The models are analyze by equivalent static analysis as per IS 1893:2002. On the basis of Analysis and Observation Shear Wall is played a Vitol Role the displacement value at the intermediate Nodal Location are more. In the structure with RC shear wall Drift value is comparatively less the moment and Shear Force in the column for the structure with shear wall is more as compared to structure without shear wall. Moments and Shear force are more for Steel Shear wall Structure as that of RC shear wall structure. As the seismic forces are depend upon the Total weight of structure and provision of shear wall is increased. The total weights of structure thus, the reaction are more for structure with RC shear wall followed by steel shear wall. Storey shear value are less for Structure with RC shear wall as compared to steel shear wall and structure without shear wall.

Automatic annotation is in fact the process of classifying medical using global and local features of standard image codes (IRMA) while being extracted. This includes four technical data axes of providing image (modality), direction, anatomy, and biological system. A number of recent researches have been conducted on the extraction of the scale invariant feature transform for automatic annotation, but until now no complete comparison has been conducted on the accuracy of the different classifications in resolution and annotation of the images based on the scale invariant feature transform. The results from the known and famous classifiers used on the four characteristics of anatomy, direction, biological system and modality are presented in this paper, which show that Sequential Minimal Optimization is the most efficient classification group as far as accuracy is concerned.

The concentrations of copper and zinc in Sarotherodonmelenotheronfrom the Fosu Lagoonwere measured to assess the extent of contamination with these metals. The lagoon is a closed lagoon situated within the Cape Coast Municipality of Ghana. Atomic Absorption Spectrometry was employed to estimate the mean concentrations of copper and zinc within a three (3) month period from 16th September, 2005 to 2nd December, 2005. The concentration of copper was found to be in the range of 10.647mg kg-1 to 26.146mg kg-1 and that of zinc ranged from 4.138mg kg-1 to 96.236mg kg-1.The mean concentrations of copper and zinc were 19.665 mg kg-1 and 38.615mg kg-1 respectively. The mean concentration for copper was within the acceptable limit for human consumption whilst that for zincexceeded the FAO’s acceptable limit of 30mg kg-1. The hazard index for Copper exceeded 1. There is therefore, a very high probability of severe adverse health effect on the consumption of this fish species harvested from the Fosu Lagoon especially for children of 0 – 1 year. It was moreover, observed that no correlation existed between the values obtained for copper and zinc. This is a sharp contrast to literature.