Archives-December 

This paper explores the findings of a qualitative phenomenological study of teaching practicum as a critical component of teacher training program at a leading private University in Kenya. This phenomenological study evaluated the teachers prevailing understandings of the teaching practice phenomenon (Borg and Gall, 2007). It focuses on exploring the issues and concerns related to the planning, teacher placement, implementation and administration of teaching practicum. It addresses the teacher trainees’ experiences, challenges, pedagogic and philosophical concerns during the teaching practicum. The participants in the study were selected using purposive sampling techniques. These were teachers who had completed the mandatory course requirements in a private university and were taking the final units in readiness for the final examination before graduation. The participants took their teaching practicum in their teaching duty stations, under the mentorship of a cooperating teacher and were supervised by two faculty members during the first term of the school calendar. The research design used a phenomenological interpretive methodology that gave prominence to the participants’ subjective meanings (Cohen and Manion, 2000). The participants in the study were 78 teachers who took part in the teaching practicum in the last phase of their teacher training program. Data were collected from professional journals, reflective papers and portfolios prepared by the teachers during and after the teaching practicum. Analysis of data was done by coding the teachers’ experiences into broad themes. Following the emerging perspectives and challenges during the practicum, suggestions are made to improve aspects of planning and pedagogy the teaching practicum.

This study assessed information needs and dissemination of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The study focused on the adequacy of existing holdings in the research institute determines the recency of materials in the library and evaluate the environmental condition of the library. The study was a descriptive survey which involved the design of questionnaire that was administered to staff and library clientele. The findings revealed that the highest percentage of the library clientele were researchers 45.8%, followed by the administrative and accounts staff 45.9% and planning officers accounted for 8.3% being the least among the library users. Also, majority 61% agreed that the materials were adequate. The study further showed that majority 64% of the materials were relatively recent. The study further revealed that 33.3% of the respondents described the environment as conducive for reading and learning. This study concluded that the agency is living up to its mandate as an institution for science, technology and innovation management (STI). However, the information needs of the agency needs to be explored to assist the management to provide current materials for the use of the staff and other users.

Interband optical absorption coefficients in a strained Zn0.2Cd0.8S/ZnS quantum dot are discussed theoretically taking into account the internal field induced by the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations. The effects of geometrical quantum confinement on the exciton binding energies in ZnxCd1-xS/ZnS quantum dot are investigated for various confinement potentials and thereby the interband optical transition energy associated with the photon is brought out. The effects of quantum confinement on the heavy hole exciton are brought out here. We calculate the oscillator strengths for the heavy hole and light hole excitons and the total nonlinear optical absorption coefficients in a Zn0.2Cd0.8S /ZnS quantum dot with the incident photon energy taking into account the effective mass anisotropy of holes. Our results bring out that the oscillator strength depends on the geometrical confinement, electron and hole wave functions and the interaction between them, and the nonlinear optical absorption coefficient shows larger values for smaller dots.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the internal auditing practices on the financial performance of Tehran Stock Exchangelisted companies and to consider the effect of a contextual factor-Political influence on this relationship. While much empirical works have given diverse reasons for the poor financial performance of TSEs, research evidence of the impact of internal auditing practices on the financial performance of TSEs in the Iran context is scanty.The study found no strong associationbetween internal auditing practices and financial performanceof TSEs and those political influences do not significantlyimpact this relationship. The weak association betweeninternal auditing practice sand financial performances isattributed to these enterprises’ inadequacy and poorimplementation of internal auditing practices. Where internalauditing is de-emphasized it cannot impact positivelyonperformance.

Medical Tourism forms a significant proportion of less developed countries’ income. With regard to Iran’s attractiveness for tourists and big advantages of developing this industry in the country and lack of researches in this field, identification of motivations of medical tourists for choosing Iran, can significantly improve this burgeoning industry. Statistical population of this research is foreign medical tourists which have traveled to Iran for medical treatments. The data is gathered through distributing 56 questionnaires consist of 38 questions between medical tourists which were chosen by the method of convenience sampling. For testing the conceptual model multi linear regression has been applied. Results showed that while treatment cost, waiting time, treatment options, medical facilities and sociological factors are significantly and positively influential on medical tourists’ motivation, service quality, political conditions and tourist attractions has not any significant influence on medical tourists’ motivation. Therefore, we suggest concentrating the investment on the first 5 above mentioned factors in marketing plans and considering prevention of bad effects of the other factors.

The transactions within the retail sector often require face-to-face interactions between buyers and sellers. In most cases, consumption and production of retail services take place in very close proximity. This paper aimed at determining the location preference of shop/ retail uses in urban areas in Lagos State, Nigeria. In other to achieve this, the following research questions are raised (1) what are the location preferences for a prospective shop owner? (2)What are the factors affecting the decision of a retailer to locate his/her shop (3) what are the available facilities within the shops. The findings revealed that apart from accessibility which serves as the base/preference for location of any land uses, the type of goods sold is the most important factor when it comes to location preferences for shops / retail outlets. Proximity to manufacturer was ranked last on the list. It is concluded that proximity to manufacturers factory is not a serious determinant in sitting shops which show that where the goods is produced is not the concern of the shopper.

In this paper an attempt has been made to study the efficiency of randomized block designs with two missing values. Consequently, we have obtained explicit expressions for the variances of the elementary treatment contrasts, average variance and the loss of efficiency in randomized block designs due to two missing values. Further we have also tabulated the loss of efficiency for various values of and where are respectively representing the number of treatments and the number of blocks in the randomized block designs.

The most important principle in public participation activities, capacity and mobilization of local communities through social structuring and new organization of people accepted by rural communities. Carbon sequestration project strategy based on a bottom-up planning and that executive strategies based on three principles of development needs, environmental issues and socio-economy issues has been reclamation and participatory management of natural resources. The research aimed to measurement Beneficiaries tendency of watershed in Gurpan area than participation in international carbon sequestration project and it factors affecting implementation in the area. The required data were collected with using a questionnaire. Statistical community consisted of 2335 person and sample size is 330 person which obtained by simple random sampling method. The dependent variable of this research, Persons tendency to participate in implementation of carbon sequestration project and the independent variable of individual, agricultural, economic, social ,educational and extension characteristics of persons and persons knowledge, persons attitude, and persons tendency to participate in the project. For reliability of the questionnaire used the comments of professors and experts. And its validity was assessed by Cronbach's alpha test. To express descriptive characteristics factors, were used descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation according to the measurement scale. The results showed that the respondents' knowledge of the project is moderate, attitude in the upper and positive, and tendency to participate in the project and tendency to the formation of rural development groups is moderate. In general, the tendency of people to participate in this project was moderate to high. Whatever the more knowledge of persons about the project, tendency of persons are more positive, and therefore will be more tendency to participate in the project.

Originally developed as an antibiotic Minocycline has shown a variety of aspects that makes Minocycline a versatile molecule with diversified roles. Beside an antibiotic it has proven to be beneficial in different disorders and the potential of Minocycline to attenuate the severity of disease like stroke, cerebral ischemia, multiple sclerosis, spinal-cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, epeilepsy, traumatic brain injury, Huntington’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease makes it a centre of fascination in research circles. Despite progress in understanding the pathogenesis of several neurological disorders, our knowledge of the mechanisms leading to neuronal cell loss, glial dysfunction, and vascular remodeling is incomplete. In this review, we describe the evidences and various mechanisms which may be responsible for the efficacy of Minocycline in several neurological disorders and introduce the emerging investigation of minocycline in clinical neurology. The encouraging results of minocycline in experimental neurology make it a potential therapeutic target in human neurological diseas

Bullwhip effect is a phenomenon of increase in variation of demand as one move up the supply chain. Bullwhip effect has adverse effects on the sustainable growth of the industries. Bullwhip effect is very predominant in case of seasonal products. In this paper author has identified the major factors that affects the Bullwhip effect, and has derived a Multi-level model of these factors, on the basis of their contextual relationship, using Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) technique.