Archives-J  

The paper highlights the weaknesses of the Indian Management Education System. After an in-depth study of the system, the issues that have been surfaced are- over production of management graduates, recklessness in meeting the quality requirements, lack of research facilities, student interface and attention to specialization specific niche concepts. It has also been found that in majority of B-Schools, Entrepreneurship stands no meaning and they follow poor admission procedures. This is an indicative of the fact that inclusive growth is still a dream for India and will remain for a long time to come. However, an immense potential for radical change can help fructify the suggested model- “MERT”, which is holistic and modern in approach and lively in practice. It shall try to uplift the Management Education System by bringing about an initiative for inclusive growth of the industry. The acronym MERT stands for Management Education Reform Triangle.

This study adopted a cross sectional descriptive research design to define and measure strategic communication in the Ugandan health sector organizations. The study contends that strategic communication is a center piece in making or breaking organizations and thus must be well managed. And that, to manage strategic communication effectively, it must be measured effectively. An analytical survey design with mixed methods was used in this study. The quantitative data were collected in two phases. In phase one a sample of 170 organizations was used to test and refine the designed measurement model. In phase two a sample of 223 organizations in the same population was used to confirm the validity and reliability of the refined instrument. Qualitative data were collected to compliment the quantitative data. The findings of the study revealed that strategic communication is defined as cognitive awareness and emotional attachment to the purpose for communication. The study contributes to literature by providing a valid and reliable tool for assessing level of strategic communication in organizations.

The toxic Microcystis flos-aquae strain was isolated from the local freshwater blooms and batch culture characteristics were observed in the modified J-medium. The isolation of toxic species was carried out by serial dilution and solid-agar plate adopting plate transfer method. Among the four culture media evaluated, modified Parker’s J-media was found most suitable for batch culturing of Microcystis flos-aquae strains. The use of Na2S and Na2SO3 in solid and liquid medium was found effective in reducing the contamination in culture and for providing better growth conditions as required for Microcystis flos-aquae specifically. The culture of isolated Microcystis flos-aquae showed the typical batch culture characteristics and the specific growth rate was in range of 0.02-0.40 d-1. The 14 days old batch culture of isolate was used to estimate the toxic components, and besides several other variants, the microcystin RR (MC-RR) was dominantly present (0.16 % of its dry weight biomass) as confirmed by LC-PDA/MS. Thus it was observed in this study that the strain M. flos-aquae was responsible for the MC-RR contents in the local ponds of northern India.

Module is an important structure in successfully implementing the complex software system in computer software engineering. Borrowing the module thought in brain functional memory network modeling we put forward the brain memory complex network model from neuron and cortex level. The results of bi-modular network model in brain memory show that it is reasonable to explain the structure and function of the brain memory. We also highlight some of the technical challenges and key questions to be addressed by future developments in this rapidly moving field.

Graphene oxide (GO) is an amazing nanostructured material with a wide range of possible technological applications, including its use as filler for thermoplastic polymers or thermosetting resins. A combination of graphene-related substances with other systems often leads to promising nanocomposite materials with unique mechanical, chemical, and physical properties. In this work, we study morphology and elastic properties of a composite consisting of polystyrene (PS) and graphene oxide (GO). We prepared several composite films of this nature with a varying polystyrene concentration on a fixed amount of graphene oxide. The morphology of the composites was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The SEM image shows the higher the concentration in polystyrene, the more compact structure of graphene oxide and polystyrene are observed. The mechanical properties of the composite films were analyzed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). It is found that the Young’s elastic modulus of the composite film changes drastically from the value of its pure constituent solutions though it shows a rather weak dependence on the polystyrene concentration for the values considered.

The human body has the privilege of possessing features that are unique and exclusive to each individual. This exclusivity and unique characteristic has led to the field of biometrics and its application in ensuring security in various fields. Today, the technology has emerged as a reliable and effective method for establishing the identity of a person and controlling access to both physical and spaces, more importantly in the wake of heightened concern about security and rapid advancements in communication and mobility in our environments. Meanwhile, experimental studies have shown that a biometric system that uses a single biometric trait for recognition has this propensity to contend with challenges related to non-universality of trait, spoof attacks, large intra-class variability, and noisy data. Besides, no single biometric trait can meet all the requirements of every possible application. Therefore, it is believed that some of the limitations imposed by unimodal biometric systems can be overcome and much higher accuracy achieved by integrating the evidence of multiple biometric traits for establishing identity. However, the time and computational complexity of combining the evidences from different traits during application processes remains an overt concept that attracts research attention. In this research work, a multilevel decision threshold authentication mechanism is presented for efficient multimodal biometric system. This kind of level-based strategy allows data fusion at three different levels to gradually improve the performance of any biometric authentication system.

Soluble and conducting block copolymer (PANI-PEO) nanocomposite was prepared by oxidative polymerization of aniline in non acid media and in different weight percentages in the presence of ecologic catalyst layered called (Maghnite-H+) and reactive polymer stabilizer such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO2000, Mn = 2000).The morphology, structure, solubility and electrical properties of PANI-PEO copolymer nanocomposite was characterized by FTIR,Uv-vis,1H-NMR spectroscopy, dynamic scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).It was found that structue, solubility an conductivity of resulting PANI-PEO nanocomposite depended on the amount of catalyst, molecular weight and functionality of the reactive stabilizer (PEO) and molar ratio of monomers (PANI-PEO). The formation of the hydrogen bonding between PANI and PEO copolymer was predicted by the FT-IR spectra. DSC analysis showed only one (Tg=16°C) for the blend copolymer implying compatibility of the two components

A study was conducted to assess the nutrient digestibility and haematological parameters of West African dwarf (WAD) sheep fed space controlled, fertilized (Organic and Inorganic) and air-dried F1 Pennisetum purpureum. Twenty four (24) West African dwarf sheep of average age of seven (7) months were randomly distributed to four dietary treatments of six (6) animals per replicate. F1 Pennisetum purpureum was harvested from an established plots Spaced into 75cm by 100cm, to which poultry manure (Pm) and urea (U) fertilizer was applied to supply 200kgN/ha. Proximate composition of Air-dried Pennisetum tagged T1 (75cm+Pm), T2 (75cm+U), T3(100cm+Pm) and T4(100+U) was investigated and fed to WAD sheep at 4% body weight to determine nutrient digestibility and haematological parameters, respectively. The results were significantly affected (P<0.05). The Crude protein (CP), Crude fibre (CF) and Ash contents value range were 12.90-13.31% CP, 23.83-31.42% CF, 10.62-12.54 % Ash. Dry matter (DM) was not significantly affected (P>0.05). Digestibility values varied significantly (P<0.05) across the treatments. Digestibility values for DM ranged from 71.68% (T1) to 82.81%(T4), CP(%) 72.44 (T2) to 77.439(T4), while CF(%) and Ash(%) recorded 48.37 (T2) to 68.71(T4) and 80.83(T2) to 86.00 (T4), respectively. Blood parameters for T2, T3 and T4 were not significantly different. The study affirms space controlled, fertilized (Organic and Inorganic) and air-dried F1 Pennisetum purpureum as adequate forage feed for WAD goat, especially in the dry season when nutritious feed are scarcely available. 

The production of full fat yoghurt from full cream milk enhanced with ginger extract and sodium benzoate with a view to improve its nutritional quality and shelf life was carried out. The pH of the yoghurt samples were determined, as incubation time increased the pH of the samples reduced. The yoghurt with 5000mg/L of sodium benzoate had the lowest pH of 4.2, while yoghurt with ginger extract had the highest pH of 4.8. The organoleptic evaluation was conducted by ten panel members to assess: appearance, sourness, consistency, aroma, taste and general acceptance; yoghurt with ginger was rated the best and the most acceptable. Proximate analysis was carried out to evaluate nutritional composition such as: crude protein, fiber, fat, moisture and ash contents; yoghurt with ginger extract had the highest protein content of 10.44% while the control sample had the lowest (3.59%). Also, the control sample had the highest fat content of 3.71% while yoghurt with ginger extract had the lowest (1.58%). The shelf life of the four yoghurt samples were monitored and the control had the lowest shelf life of three weeks, followed by yoghurt with 2500mg/L of sodium benzoate had shelf life of eight weeks, while the yoghurt with ginger extract and yoghurt with 5000mg/L of sodium benzoate had the highest shelf life of three months. Lactic acid bacteria and non-lactics isolates were isolated from the yoghurt. The isolates were characterized and identified as Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus lactis, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas chlororaphis, Bacillus subtilis. The total bacteria colony count of each of the samples was monitored for four weeks and the control sample had the microbial load of 2.0 x 104 in the first week after production and increased to >6.0 x 107 in the fourth week. The ginger preserved cheese had the lowest microbial load of 2.0 x 102 in the first week and increased to 5.0 x105 in the fourth week. Therefore, the high cost and side effect of chemical preservatives could be overcome by the application of biological preservatives particularly ginger extract which added to the nutritional value of the yoghurt, it also demonstrated a good preservative property.

The article presents the concept of fixed point theorem with the Banach contraction principle which is the main source of fixed point theory. We give definitions, theories and examples of Banach contraction principles, complete lattice, homeomorphism between spaces. The metric fixed point theory is given more importance due to its simplicity of application. To ensure existence of the fixed point, continuity property is not a necessary condition , however some order – monotonic conditions must be satisfied by a given mapping.