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The main purpose of this paper is to present the importance of benchmarking in TQM and organizational performance. To determine the various benefits an organization can derive from the application of total quality management practices, or the relationship between total quality management and quality outcomes/benefits in services sector of telecom industry of Pakistan. The study is based on primary and secondary data. Eight most important constructs were found through literature review for conceptual framework in this study. Primary data is collected through questionnaires. The same questionnaire was used in comparison of TQM practices in different countries such as India, USA, Mexico, China and Norway. The theoretical framework adopted is by Raghunathan et al. (1999). Findings revealed that TQM practices and implementation have positive effects on quality benefits or outcome (productivity, profitability, competitive position, reduce customer complaints, cost reduction, reduce rework level, reduces scrap level, stay in business) in services sector of telecom industry of Pakistan. Benchmarking also plays a significant role in the development of organizations. In addition to the research data, findings from different field studies and other research works have further supported conclusion drawn from this research, that TQM practices have positive effect on organizational development. The findings based on this empirical research would be useful to both decision makers and researchers.

Indoor radon levels were measured in four seasons throughout 2013 in public hospitals for Iraqi Kurdistan, using a passive technique CR-39 nuclear track detectors. Thus, the highest and lowest values of rate indoor radon were in winter (105.3 ± 17.20 Bq/m3) and summer (39.92 ± 8.28 Bq/m3) season, respectively. This different value depended for ventilation rate, building material and geological formation. According to the estimation risk factor, the radon induced lung cancer risks for public hospitals in selected locations was varied from 2.7 ± 0.08 to 11.16 ± 1.94 per million people. The highest and lowest values of annual effective dose were recorded in winter and summer seasons, respectively.

A time series database is a collection of data that are generated in series as time goes on and constitutes a large portion of data stored in computers like stock-price movements, weather data, bio-medical measurements, video data etc., Two time sequences of same length are said to be similar if the Euclidean distance is less or equal to a given threshold. The main issue of similarity search in time series databases is to improve the search performance since time sequences are usually of high dimension. So it is important to reduce the search space for efficient processing of similarity search in large time series databases. We have used Adaptive Framework for the data reduction purpose which improves the search performance in Recent-Biased time series databases. We have applied a set of linear transformations on the reduced sequence that can be used as the basis for similarity queries on time series data. We have also formalized the intuitive notions of exact and approximate similarity in time series data. Our experiments show that the performance of this method is competitive to that of processing ordinary queries using the index and much faster than sequential scanning.

Spermatocytic seminoma is a rare malignant tumor of the testis that is characterized by an extremely low metastatic potential. This tumor is distinguished from other testicular germ cell tumors including classical seminoma by histological and immunohistochemical features clean. Previously, it was treated in the same way as conventional seminomas by prophylactic irradiation of para-aortic lymph nodes and iliac after orchiectomy. The currently accepted approach is surveillance. The rarity of this tumor makes diagnosis difficult, but its identification is very important to avoid any further treatment to patients after the initial surgery. We report a case of spermatocytic seminoma in a 42 year old patient and discuss the clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic features of this condition.

This study was designed to ascertain the status of shea butter processing, acceptability and utilization as an edible fat/oil in Kainji lake area of Nigeria. 300 questionnaires were distributed and 282 retrieved. The generated data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis in form of frequencies, percentages and totals. Processing and selling of sheanuts are flourishing businesses among the indigenes. Traditional manual method of processing shea butter vary from place to place, gives low yield and unpleasant aroma product with low acceptance as an edible fat/oil. Forty percent of the respondents, mainly indigenes, accepted shea butter as edible fat while 60% did not. Stew, soup, jollof rice and beans, moinmoin, indomie, akara and masa are some foods prepared using shea butter in the area.

In the present investigation attempts have been made to isolate sorghum starch (Sorghum bicolor L. moench) using genotype CSH-25, PMS 8AXKR196, PMS 71AXKR354 at optimum conditions. The genotypes CSH-25, PMS 8AXKR196 and PMS 71AXKR354 are sorghum hybrids and could be exploited for preparation of sorghum starch and among these three CSH-25 was found to be highest starch yielding hybrid. The yield of starch obtained from all these hybrids is to be satisfactory and these hybrids can be extensively used for commercial production of starch .This starch can be used for various purposes such as stabilization, thickening, syrup preparation, extraction of bioethanol which can be used as fuel with gasoline etc.

The design of existing cycle rickshaw has hardly changed significantly even since it was introduced in India in early 1940’s from Far East. The gearing and the mechanical advantage of the pedal is very poor. Hence the rickshaw puller has to work hard while climbing even a slight slope. A common sight is of the rickshaw puller getting down and pulling on the foot the rickshaw with the passengers. The conventional drive mechanism of tricycle is provided with one set of sprocket, which gives speed ratio of two between input and output. This speed ratio is fixed for all loading conditions. More effort is required to the puller in starting from the rest or going up. The work done by the various researchers has been studied and improved methodology has been suggested by the authors in future work.

International Trade relations of each nation can be effective on their economic growth. These relations can lead to using the production factors on economy sectors that have more advantages and leads to improvement in efficiency of production factors and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of each nation. In recent years many studies have been done by using different econometric modules and methods in order to answer the question that is export growth will lead to the economic growth? In this study the effect of the export value (Oil & Gas) on the national production growth (Economic Growth) had been examined through 1961 to 2011 by Johansen Test that the result shows a strong positive correlation between the value of Oil & Gas Export and Iran Economic Growth. In fact if the value of Iran Oil & Gas Export increases in 1 unit, the Economic Growth will increase 2/301 units.

A multi-end reeling machine with re-reeling unit has been fabricated at BSRTI for production of raw silk with high quality and quantity. The experiment was done by thirty samples of green cocoons in four different seasons to determine the cocoon characteristics and reeling performances on multi-end reeling machine. Mean renditta, raw silk recovery %, reelability %, waste % were found 11.01, 69.80%, 63.24% and 24.26%. It was also found that mean tenacity and elongation percentage were 3.10 (g/d) and 18.70% in multi-end reeling machine, whereas it was 2.83 (g/d) and 18.61% in cottage basin respectively. BSRTI fabricated multi-end reeling machine was suggested as an improved reeling appliances commercially to get high quality raw silk production.

The purpose of writing the current paper is to survey the effect of intellectual capital on competitive advantage in Abyek cement Company. Two separated questionnaires about intellectual capital (contains human, organizational and relational capitals) were designed and after proving their validity and reliability distributed among 277 employees in Abyek Company. The results of applying Pearson and Regression test explained that intellectual capital and its indices have positive and meaningful influence on competitive advantage in which the effect of human and relational capital was more than organizational capital. The result of applying Entropy technique proved the mentioned results. Finally it was found that all variables apart from human capital were placed in high levels.