Archives-December 

The objective of this study is two fold. First, the present study seek to examine the relationship between logistics cost and sales. Second, this relationship is achieved economies of scales or not. The study is based on secondary data of top ten food companies during the period of 2008-09. The result reveals that Indus foods products limited has received highest sales growth during this period due to less logistic costs. However, there is some unusual trend has been seen in other firm’s logistic costs and sales perspectives. Thus, the study concluded that logistics cost has a strategic importance in accomplishing companies long tem goals.

The amino acid composition of the muscle and skin of the matured female African giant pouch rat (Cricetomys gambianus) was determined on a dry weight basis. The total essential amino acids ranged from 29.8-41.2 g/100 g crude protein or from 48.6-53.2 % of the total amino acid. The amino acid score showed that lysine ranged from 0.73-1.06 (on whole hen’s egg comparison), 0.82-1.20 (on provisional essential amino acid scoring pattern) and 0.78-1.14 (on suggested requirement of the essential amino acid of a preschool child). The predicted protein efficiency ratio was 1.89-2.41 and the essential amino acid index range was 0.84-1.21. The correlation coefficient (rxy) was positive and significant at r = 0.01 for the total amino acids, isoelectric points and amino acid scores (on whole hen’s egg basis) in the two samples. Comparison of the samples with the muscle and skin amino acid compositions of the Greater Cane Rat showed that positive and significant differences existed at r = 0.01 between their muscles and their skins respectively. Results have good comparison with whole hen’s egg protein.

The removal of hydrocarbons from contaminated soil is an essential practice because of environmental and health concerns, and in order to avoid further contamination of surface and groundwater. A variety of oil-contaminated soil remediation methods, categorized as physiochemical, biological and thermal remediation were compiled and summarized. However, the efficiency of these methods depends on several factors, such as the amount of spilled oil and the penetration depth of the oil into the soil, the type of oil and polluted soil, and the age and degree of contamination. With respect to remediation in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, it has been shown by studies that bioremediation and phytoremediation are the best methods that have been used in the area for the remediation of petroleum in soil due to the fact that it is cheap, easy to manage (even by the community), proved to be effective in enhancing biodegradation and environmentally safe. Finally, as there is no universal method that can be generally applied to completely remove the oil from contaminated sites, thus, the prevention of oil spills or leakages should be the first concern. However, if oil spills or leakages occur, a response should be taken immediately to minimize the potential environmental consequences. Furthermore, constant environmental monitoring, assessment, and evaluation to determine the level of damage that is caused by oil spills on the environment.

Chromium has been widely used in various industries like textile, leather, chemical manufacture, metal finishing, paint industry and many other industries. Since hexavalent chromium is a priority toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic chemical when present in excess, it is very much required to remove chromium from effluents before allowing it to enter any water system or on to land. In the present study, the removal of hexavalent chromium by adsorption on the Borasus flabellifer coir powder as adsorbent has been investigated in the batch experiments. The agitation time, the adsorbent size, adsorbent dosage, initial chromium concentration, temperature and the effect of solution pH are studied. Adsorption mechanism is found to follow Freundlich. The adsorption behavior is described by a second order kinetics. Percentage removal of chromium (VI) is found to be 97.16% at pH=2, w=0.5g, dp=63µm and temperature=303 K. The results obtained in this study illustrate that Borasus flabellifer coir powder is an effective and economically viable adsorbent for hexavalent chromium removal from industrial waste water.

In recent years, the human body as an important topic in contemporary sociology has been studied. Therefore, the body is very important and has attracted the attention of many researchers. One of the issues raised in this area, is today in body management among youth (boys and girls) are quite common and popular because of body management, through actions and behavior like choosing clothes, coat appearance, body configuration, type hobbies, sports, diet and ... Are expressed. Given the importance of the management body of the youth in the present study sought to examine social factors affecting the management body of the young people were in Yasuj. In our population of young people 15 to 29 years is in Yasuj and a sample of 353 people were selected for the study sample. To examine the relationship between body by the same token, religious, cultural, economic status, and age as independent variables and the dependent variable pay as a management body. The results indicate a significant relationship between the independent and dependent variables in research.

Ad-hoc networks, due to their improvised nature, are frequently established insecure environments, which makes them susceptible to attacks. These attacks are launched by participating malicious nodes against different network services. Routing protocols, which act as the binding force in these networks, are a common target of these nodes. On Demand Route Routing Protocol (ODRRP) is a Broadcast Reply network routing protocol for Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET). Black hole attack is one of the severe security threats in ad-hoc networks which can be easily employed by exploiting vulnerability of on-demand routing protocols such as ODRRP. In this paper we proposed a solution for identifying the malicious node in ODRRP protocol suffering from black hole attack.

The effect of Second Order Autoregressive (AR-2) model and non-normality on the power function of the control chart for known ? is studied. The power function is derived by considering the first four terms of an Edgeworth series for AR-2 model. The values of power function for three situation viz. when the roots are (i) real and distinct (ii) real and equal and (iii) complex conjugate along with case when there is no dependency are presented.

Electricity has played a central role in the economic development of countries since the wake of industrialization of nations and the demand for this strategic commodity and input has undergone a significant growth. This has caused researchers to become more focused on the factors affecting price and production costs and seek solutions to increase the efficiency in power generation. The general objective of this research study was to establish the strategic management factors affecting performance of thermal power generation companies in Kenya. Four key strategic management factors were selected for this study that affects performance of thermal power companies in Kenya which formed the specific objective of the study, they include; cost of fuel, customer relationship management (CRM), quality management and competitive strategy. The finding of this study was to assist shareholders in decision making process in terms of the investment to engaged in, government in reviewing and formulating policies in the energy sector and managers in focusing on their competitive areas while seeking solutions in there weaker areas in terms of performance. Literatures and theories were reviewed to seek various opinions and views from different authors in the area under study. Three theories of resourced based view, Stakeholder and resource dependency theories were considered. The conceptual frame work presents the relationship that exists between dependent and independent variables. The study criticized some of the literatures and presented the research gap where this study seeks to fulfill. The research study applied a descriptive research design. The target population was the 80 employees of Rabai Power Limited comprising of the four departments of operation, maintenance, procurement and administration. The sample size of 67 respondents out of the total population was obtained using the Slovin?s formula for sample determination. This was equivalent to 84% of the target population which was drawn using simple stratified random sampling technique to promote the need for efficiency and representativeness from various departments. Both primary and secondary data technique was used to collect data for the purpose of analyzing these factors that affect performance.

The leaf epidermis and midrib of Vernonia amygdalina, V. cinerea, V. perrottetii and V. adoensis were studied following standard proceedures and features were observed with the aid of compound microscope. To the authors’ knowledge, the leaf and midrib anatomical features of V. adoensis and V. perrottetii are being comprehensively and adequately documented for the first time. The results obtained revealed that the four species were hypoamphistomatic with anomocytic type of stomata. Stomata Index (%) was higher at the lower epidermis than the upper epidermis with V. amygdalina having 35.00 as the highest and V. perrottetii having 31.00 as the lowest. Similarly, the highest width (µm) of stomata was found in the upper epidermis of V. adoensis having an average of 73.22 ± 21.77 while the lowest was 22.46 ± 2.47 as found in the lower epidermis of V. adoensis. Highest stomata length (µm) of 81.46 ± 22.38 was also recorded in upper leaf epidermis of V. adoensis while lowest length of 30.43 ± 4.26 was recorded in its lower epidermis. In the four species, epidermal cells were predominantly irregular in shapes with predominantly sinuous anticlinal and periclinal walls. In another vein, the midribs were oblong in outline consisting of collateral and open bundles arranged in ring-like pattern except in V. perrottetii in which the bundles were concentric, amphicribral, collateral and close. Based on the overwhelming similarities that existed among the four taxa, it was established that there exist interspecies relationship among them. In conclusion, it was opined that the minor and discontinuous differences in the anatomical features of the four species are insufficient to adjudge their rearrangement and repositioning to separate genus and that their present taxonomic status are unbiased and warranted.

Paper in the work presents the first comprehensive and complete report on the concentration of on natural radioactivity measurements, other fissionable isotopes and the hazard parameters in the NORM samples from different marine environment Samples of the Arabian Gulf region (Beach Muddy/Sands, Arabian Gulf Water, Shells and Different types of Marine Fish) collected along the eastern coastline of the State of Kuwait. All samples were measured using gamma spectrometry technique, with high purity germanium detector. The results show that the average activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, 137Cs and 60Co for Kuwaiti Environmental Marine Samples are lower than the worldwide average value. The worldwide average values (32, 45 and 420) for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, respectively. The activity concentration of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, 137Cs and 60Co for Kuwaiti Environmental Marine Samples ranged between [(0.18 - 10.43) Bq/kg with average of 3.26 ± 0.80 Bq/kg, (-0.23 – 3.63) Bq/kg with average of 1.15 ± 0.67 Bq/kg, (1.27 - 110.92) Bq/kg with average of 43.62 ± 1.7 Bq/kg, (0.50 - 10.61) Bq/kg with average of 3.11 ± 0.34 Bq/kg and (ND – 0.35) Bq/kg with average of 0.01 ± 0.01 Bq/kg] respectively. Marine Environment Samples of the Arabian Gulf region in Kuwait have been investigated. Samples were collected along the eastern coastline of the State of Kuwait. All samples were collected from different beach sites in Kuwait. These samples were collected randomly from different locations in these sites (from north to south along the eastern coastline of Arabian Gulf). According to the Kuwaiti samples, the estimated range for (Radium Equivalent Rate, External Hazard Index, Internal Hazard Index, Absorbed Dose, annual effective dose, Gamma Index, Alpha Index) is [(0.79 – 21.80) Bq/kg with average of 8.26 ± 1.90 Bq/kg, (0.00 – 0.06) Bq/kg with average of 0.02 ± 0.01 Bq/kg, (0.00 – 0.09) Bq/kg with average of 0.03 ± 0.01 Bq/kg,(0.36 - 10.68) Bq/kg with average of 4.04 ± 0.86 Bq/kg, (0.44 – 13.10) Bq/kg with average of 4.96 ± 1.06 Bq/kg, (0.00 – 0.08) Bq/kg with average of 0.03 ± 0.01 Bq/kg and (0.00 – 0.05) Bq/kg with average of 0.02 ± 0.00 Bq/kg], respectively. The estimated hazard parameters in all Kuwaiti samples are lower than the recommended limits for occupationally worker. From this study, it was noticed that the average activity concentrations of 226Ra series, 232Th series, 40K, 137Cs and 60Co for Kuwaiti Environmental Marine Samples are lower than the worldwide average value. Results obtained are discussed and compared with the international recommended data.