Archives-J 

Previous studies indicate that career choice has become a problem to secondary school students all over the world, Kenya included. Migori sub-county in Kenya is particularly disadvantaged in terms of career development in comparison with neighboring sub-counties such as Kisii. The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between self-esteem and career choice behavior among secondary school students in Migori sub-county. Descriptive Survey Design and Correlation Design were used. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Career Decision Scale were used to collect data from students. Test-retest reliability was estimated by Pearson’s r which yielded .82 for Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and .80 for Career Decision Scale. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics that included frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. Structural Equation Modeling was used to make statistical inference using model fit and regression estimates. The study revealed that the level of self-esteem and career choice behavior was high. However, career choice behavior for males was generally different from that of females. The relationship between self-esteem and career choice behavior was statistically significant (p<.05). It was concluded that self-esteem does influence career choice behavior. The findings are significant to students, career counselors and policy makers to improve students’ career choice by raising their self-esteem. 

This study is a descriptive survey conducted on four primary schools based in the Kgalagadi North Sub-District in Botswana with purpose to cross-examine the instructional challenges faced by teachers based at schools in remote areas. After establishment of validity, interviews were conducted (individual and focus group). Results show that all the four remote schools sampled had homogeneous instructional challenges. Of the challenges, teachers identified discipline and academic challenges as a major factor in all the sampled schools. Even though parental support related challenges did not feature prominently in this study, the study identified that parents we not active in supporting their children in learning. The frequency of these challenges was found to be hampering positive academic output. These challenges were perceived to be capable of adversely affecting Botswana’s national objectives of Vision 2016 pillar of, an educated and informed nation. The study found out that learner achievement at remote schools is low and that parents are not actively involved in their children's education. The final thought of the study was that teachers based at remote schools need capacity building to deal with instructional challenges to enhance their effectiveness. On this ground, the researcher agrees with literature on the need for family learning as an approach to assist parents to support their children.

Automatic license plate recognition of vehicles is a real time embedded system which identifies the characters directly from the image of the vehicle license plate. In the present research, an efficient method for license plate localization in the images without dependence of the plate color is proposed. After capturing the image of the vehicle, some image-enhancements are done first in order to reduce problems such as low quality and low contrast in the vehicle images. The proposed method extracts edges and then determines the candidate regions by comparing it with a selected plate which has appropriate size for selected capture distance. Finally by connected component elements analysis, the license plate is detected. The proposed system has improved efficiency as compared to earlier methods.

The synchronization of the chaotic sequence using open plus closed loop (OPCL) coupling is presented in this paper by realizing 1D logistic map in microcontroller based hardware electronic experiment. The masking of the information signal in driver and demasking in the driven system is done in the chaotic region by using two microcontrollers ATMEGA 16 for secure communication. These two microcontrollers are used for driver and driven systems. In the synchronized condition driver system received the modulating signal from the signal generator and mask it with the chaotic sequence for transmitting to the driven system. In the receiver, section demasking is done to retrieve the information signal. The proposed scheme is simulated in Proteus simulator and the complete hardware circuit has been implemented and the obtained hardware experimental results confirm the validity of the proposed circuit.

Fats from guttered Nile tilapia were collected melted into oil and used to fry; eggs, beef sausages and beef. Widely used oils such as vegetable oil and sunflower oils were use as control oils. Ten (10) semi trained panellist judged the test oils used in frying the foods based of the attributes of colour, odour, flavour, texture and overall acceptability using 3 descriptions: “like”, “neutral” and “dislike” The results shows that Tilapia oil can compete favourable with other commercial oil, hence it extraction and use be promoted.

Shareholders are normally owners of the corporation’s assets and the fact that such assets are controlled by the management body is the cause for many of the problems dealt by corporate governance. Shareholders meeting as management organ can play sizeable roles in corporate governance. The problem addressed by this article is therefore what necessary measures can further strengthen the shareholders controlling mechanisms on the corporation upon which they invested their capital. Even though there are many theories concerning their roles in corporate democracy, none of them seem to win the battle. The query of the paper is how to enhance role of shareholders in corporate governance. The paper mainly uses doctrinal research method. Therefore the rules governing shareholders meetings should be well designed in a way of enabling them play their part. It may include access of electronic voting, possibility of voting by mail, facilitating sufficient information disclosure mechanisms, adopting advisory voting and the rules necessary to such vote, facilitating easy exit mechanism to shareholders dissatisfied by majority holders, introduction of stock exchange market could enhance shareholders governance role. Moreover possibility of derivative suits by shareholders is also another mechanism that should be available to them to promote control.

There are many examples for co-orbital motion in the Solar system, including temporary co-orbital companions of the Earth, raising many interesting questions. The problem of co-orbital motion is formulated in the Hamiltonian form when the larger primary is an oblate body. Different forms of the disturbing function are outlined; the relevant form is developed in terms of Laplace’s coefficients. The Hamiltonian of the problem is formed in Delaunay-like canonical elements. The ratio of the primaries’masses is considered as a small parameter of the first order while the leading oblateness term of the first primary is considered of second order. Finally, the short-period terms are eliminated from the Hamiltonian using the procedure based on Lie series and Lie transform, leaving the Hamiltonian as a function of only the secular and critical (resonant) terms.

This research is a part of an initiative to improve the service for transportation of employees who work in Thai Industrial Estates. The study aims to find smarter transportation service by using internet-based technology. This kind of service serves employees who travel to work in any factory inside industrial estates, who typically live far from the capital and its public transportation system. For factories with a large workforce and maintain a large fleet of shuttle buses transportation, it is particularly important to set effective routes, transit points and “Pick Up” times, to make it convenient for employees when coming to work. In this study, an application called " Wherever” used on Smart Phone is introduced to address this problem of picking up and transporting employees from different areas, and come to work in the same location. This report demonstrates how useful this new application is, for this purpose.

This article focuses on the study of biodiversity' changes in Khor Abuhabil area. The intentions of the article are to study the change in biodiversity, and distinguish its main indicators and causes. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources together with Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing to track the changes in biodiversity through different periods. The descriptive and statistical analytical methods; density index, ARC MAP 10 and ERDAS 8.5 are used for the data analysis. The study points out that changes in biodiversity is a wide spread phenomena in Khor Abuhabil area as indicated by 98.4% of the respondents, the analysis of the satellites images and index of density. The forest and grass area decreased from 3708 km² to 819 km² and from 9817 km² to 4578 km² during the period 1972 to 2013 respectively, and concurrently, the cultivated area increased by 40% during the same period, at the expense of biodiversity. The changes in biodiversity represented by change in vegetation cover including the dominance of Calotrpis procera, Maerua crassifolia, Boscia angustifolis, Guiera senegalensis trees and decreased in Acacia senegal, Acacia mellifera and Dalbergia melanoxylon. The study also indicates the decreased and disappearance of palatable grass species like Triumpettaf lavesscens, Ischamum brachyatherum, Eragrostis pilosa and appearances of unpalatable grass species like Triumpetta flavesscens. The study also showed that many wildlife animals like Panther atigris, Crocuta crocuta, Viverra civetta and Gazella dorcas disappeared whereas birds like Bubulcus ibis, Ploceus galbula and Apus apus have become very abundant. The study concluded that the main causes stand behind the phenomena of change in biodiversity represented in frequent drought years 1973, 1984, 1991 and 2003, fluctuation of rainfall, overgrazing and misuse of trees and over hunting (P <0.001).

Decisions are complex in nature. Decisions may include uncertainty to some extent. Some decisions may be sequential in nature. Decisions are made within a decision environment. It is defined as the collection of information, alternatives, values, and preferences available at the time of decision. A sequential decision problem consists of n sequential states which are independent or interdependent. Therefore, action must be taken at each state and hence a sequence of actions must be taken to arrive at a solution. A decision made at one state due to an action is passed on to next state and the overall decision depends on the decisions made at each state. Probabilistic Transition System (PTS) is an extension of Labeled Transition System where each transition depends on a probability. PTS constitutes a framework for the description and comparison of processes with stochastic behaviour. Stochastic Finite Automata are suitable for the construction of mathematical models of complex systems having stochastic behavior in a finite way. In the study, PTS is extended by adding a component so as to represent a Transition System for Sequential Decision Problem under Uncertainty. The study is an attempt to exhibit Stochastic Finite Automata as a Mathematical Model for Sequential Decision Making under Uncertainty.