Archives-December 

In this study, the different film thicknesses of nano silver–clay films were prepared by varying volumes of the composite dispersion for casting. Effect of film thickness on thermal behavior, solid-state crystallinity, water uptake and erosion, and water vapor permeability of the nano composite films were investigated. The film thickness caused a small change in thermal behavior of the films when tested using DSC and TGA. The crystallinity of the thin films increased when compared with the thick films. Water uptake and erosion, water vapor permeation of the thick films were higher than those of the thin films. The results suggest that the evaporation rate of solvent in different volumes of the composite dispersion used in the preparation method could affect crystallinity of the film surface and film bulk of the nano composite films. This led to a change in water vapor permeability of the films.

Using hardwood cuttings is the most common method for propagation of pomegranate. Due to the high demand for raw materials in pomegranate production nurseries, and to reduce raw material consumption, comparison of different cutting methods as single-node, two-nodes and four-nodes with smaller and larger than 8 mm diameters, was investigated in greenhouse condition, and on a mixture of sand and perlite bed in the ratio of 2 to 1. Also effects of two levels of IBA hormone treatment with concentrations of 1500 ppm and 3000 ppm and 2N sulfuric acid on increasing of pomegranate single-node cuttings rooting were tested. Cultivars used in this study were Shirin-e-Saveh and Malas-e-Torsh planted on March 2010 and January 2011, and statistically analyzed as factorial in a completely randomized design. According to the obtained results single-node cuttings with diameters smaller than 8 mm had better rooting. Shirin-e-Saveh cultivar showed better rooting compared to Malas-e-Torsh cultivar and also IBA hormone treatment with concentrations of 1500 ppm and 3000 ppm did not show significant effect on increasing of single-node cuttings rooting. Whereas acid treatment in Shirin-e-Saveh cultivar caused facilitation in rooting,best average for some of roots (11 roots) were found in single-node cuttings of Shirin-e-Saveh cultivar treated with sulfuric acid.

With the public corporations in Kenya embracing strategic management which was heralded to bring the much needed improvement in their performance, the much awaited change has not been as widely seen as was anticipated but is rather slow and at times even retrogressive. There is still concern about poor performance of these public corporations. This can only mean one thing. The strategies are not working or in academic terms, the strategies have not been successfully implemented. Studies have shown the various aspects that contribute to the success of strategy and these have been adopted by the public corporation. This leaves one field not explored- The effect of stakeholder involvement on the successful implementation of strategy. However with public corporations, caution has to be taken on which stakeholder to involve and to what extent. This thus called for the present study to analyze the effect of involving each stakeholder in strategic planning and implementation on successful strategy implementation. Due to the number of public corporations and their homogeneity, a study on one should reflect on what happens in the others. This is the rationale for using KEBS. The study used a desk research design and explored much on the effects of stakeholder involvement on successful strategy implementation in public corporations.

Comparisons of peroxidase isozymes among seeds and seedlings of barley, naturally infected and artificially inoculated to Drechslera gramnea were investigated. Electrophoretic comparisons revealed no significant qualitative differences in peroxidase isoenzymic patterns in seeds of different categories viz. healthy, naturally infected and artificially inoculated. Results of electrophoretic study of peroxidase isozymes on Drechslera graminea infected seedlings indicated difference in banding pattern and band intensity in healthy, naturally infected and artificially inoculated seedlings during examination periods. Band intensity was in increasing order from 10th to 30th day, was highest in samples of 30th day of sowing. peroxidase isozymes analysis gave only a possibility of defence mechanism against Drechslera graminea by introducing new isozymes of peroxidase.

The failures of the bituminous pavements are not only due to increase in traffic but also due to extreme climatic conditions prevailing in the country. The addition of sulphur to the bitumen can improve the quality of bitumen and enhance its properties as far as its use in the road construction is considered. In this paper the effect of addition of sulphur on the physical properties of the bitumen is studied and the optimum dose of sulphur to be added to the bitumen is also determined. The effect of Aging on the physical properties of Sulphur modified bitumen is also discussed in this paper.

Abstract The corrosion inhibition and adsorption process of D - Tryptophan (DT) on mild steel in 2 HCl was studied by means of chemical (weight loss), electrochemical and quantum chemical techniques. The inhibition efficiency increases with decreasing temperature and increasing concentration of inhibitor. It has been determined that the adsorption of DT on mild steel obeys the Temkin adsorption isotherm at all studied temperatures with negative values of ?Goads, suggesting a stable and a spontaneous inhibition process. In potentiodynamic polarization, the curves shifted towards lower current density in the presence of the DT with well-defined Tafel regions suggesting that the inhibitor retard the corrosion process without changing the mechanism of the corrosion process; and exhibit cathodic and anodic polarization (mixed type inhibitor) because the change in Ecorr is less than 85 vM/SCE with respect to the blank. Corrosion current density was calculated by extrapolation of the linear parts of these curves to the corresponding corrosion potential; and corrosion potential (Ecorr), corrosion current densities (icorr), anodic Tafel slope (?a), cathodic Tafel slope (?b) were determined with maximum value of inhibition efficiency for 5 x 10-4 M concentration of the inhibitor at 303 K was 78.4%. Quantum chemical calculations were performed using Density Functional Theory (DFT) with the help of complete geometry optimization for theoretical calculations of EHOMO, ELUMO, and energy gap (?E). Inhibition efficiency increases with increasing EHOMO indicating that the molecule has tendency to donate electrons to the mild steel with low energy empty molecular orbital; whereas low value of ELUMO suggests that the molecule easily accepts electrons from mild steel.

In this study, two cotton cultivars viz. LD 694 (Gossypium arboreum L.) and LH 2076 (Gossypium hirsutum L.) were used to investigate factors influencing efficiency of transformation from the shoot apices of aseptically germinated seedlings for the Agrobacterium mediated transformation using the Agrobacterium strain GV3101 having the plasmid pPZP200 vector, carrying cry1Ac gene. The objective of study was to develop genotype independent Agrobacterium mediated transformation method. Antibiotics sensitivity assay showed that Kanamycin @ 50mg/l inhibited the regeneration of shoot tips in both LD 694 and LH 2076 genotypes and Cefotaxime @ 250mg/l check the bacterial growth. For Agrobacterium mediated transformation, a dilution of 500 µl /25ml of water using dip method and co-cultivation for 72 hours were resulted in better infection and survival of agroinfected explants with GV3101 strain in both genotypes. Average survival of 11.42% and 13.51% was recorded for Agrobacterium transformed shoots on selection medium supplemented with 50 mg/l Kanamycin and 250mg/l Cefotaxime in LD 694 and LH 2076 genotypes, respectively. GUS expression of transformed tissues ranged from 5.5-12.0 % in shoot tips. PCR analysis confirmed the presence of Cry 1Ac gene in putative transformed tissues.

This paper proposed new techniques based on fuzzy logic in optimal direction for suppression of random valued impulse noise in digital images. The deviation of the test pixel from its neighboring pixels present in the optimal direction shows its corruption level. According to how much a pixel is impulse-like, a fuzzy index is assigned to each and every pixel in the image. After the detection of impulsivity of each pixel, a non-local mean filter is employed for noise suppression. Extensive simulations are performed to prove that the proposed techniques give better visual quality and quantitative measurement than recent impulse noise suppression techniques.

Sovereignty is one of the four attributes of statehood. Earlier it was known as capacity of a government to enter into relations with other states. Sovereignty is at the core of international system. Therefore, in this paper the author seeks to trace the origin of the concept diving into the history. For this purpose the author takes into account the circumstances prevailing in Greek city-states, Rome city, Mourya Empire, Gupta Empire, feudal system, Holy Roman Empire, etc and the opinions of various jurists and thinkers have also been included and pondered upon so as to find out the contents of the concept. The paper reveals when the concept was recognised and who used the term ‘sovereignty’ for the first time and what type of power and freedom have been said to be its essential ingredients.

The tribal populations are is recognised as socially and economically vulnerable. Their lifestyles and food habits are different from that of their rural neighbours. They depend on minor forest produce and manual labour for livelihood. They may not have adequate income. Their food consumption pattern is dependent on the vagaries of nature and varies from extreme deprivation (in the lean seasons) to high intakes (in the post-harvest period). This leads to the health and nutrition problems. The health and nutrition problems of the vast tribal population of India are as varied as the tribal groups themselves who present a bewildering diversity and variety in their socio-economic, socio-cultural and ecological settings. The objective of the present paper is to examine health and nutritional status of the tribal population in India. The collected data reveals that Primitive tribal groups of India have special health problems and genetic abnormalities. The malnutrition is high among the tribal population. The tropical disease like malaria is still widespread in the tribal areas. The tribal population has a much lower Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) as compared to the scheduled castes but moderately higher than the other population. No specific precautions are observed at the time of conducting deliveries which resulted in an increased susceptibility to various infections. Services of paramedical staff are secured only in difficult labour cases. Vaccination and immunization of Infants and children have been inadequate among tribal groups. In addition, extremes of magico-religious beliefs and taboos tend to aggravate the problems. Lack of medical facility is another problem for them. Hygiene problem is very common in rural as well as in tribal areas. Hence proper methods should be developed to tackle the problems.