Archives-June... 

Cyclotriphosphazenes are prominent inorganic N-heterocycles.They consist of six-membered ring structures of alternating phosphorus and nitrogen atoms. The tetravalent phosphorus atoms carry two exocyclic substituents, which can be widely varied enabling fine-tuning of the size and shape of the molecular periphery. This study involved the synthesis and characterization of hexa (diethanolamino) cyclotriphosphazene by an enveremently and friendly system catalyst consist of clay layered called Maghnite-H+ (Algerian MMT) and diethyl ether. The effect of different synthesis parameters such as amount of catalyst, effect of time, temperature and solvent are discussed.

The interaction between a luminescent metal-ligand probe, [Ru(dpp)3]2+ (dpp = 4,7- diphenyl-1,10- phenanthroline disulphonic acid) with bovine serum albumin(BSA) was investigated by means of absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. The fluorescence of BSA was quenched by the ruthenium (??) complexes and the quenching mechanism was considered as static by forming a complex. The association constant Kb and the number of binding sites, n were calculated using the modified Stern Volmer equation. The fluorescence of the metal complex is highly enhanced by the addition of BSA. In addition, the results of synchronous fluorescence spectra showed that binding of the metal probe with the BSA induce conformational changes in BSA. The fluorescent enhancement of the system is found to be originated from the hydrophobic microenvironment provided by BSA.

The Synthesis and functionalization of Zeolite A from Nigerian Ahoko Kaolin for adsorption studies of Methylene blue (MB) was studied in this paper. Zeolite A was successfully synthesised from metakaolin earlier developed from refined kaolin using conventional hydrothermal method. The synthesised zeolite A was thereafter functionalized using Hexamethyltetraamine (HMTA) and characterized. The effect of initial concentration, adsorbate dosage, pH, temperature and contact time were studied in a batch adsorption system for both unfunctionalized zeolite (UFZA) and functionalized zeolite A (FZA) under the following condition of initial concentration of 100 mg/l, temperature of 303 K, and pH of 7. The adsorption rate increases with increase pH, temperature, initial concentration but decrease with adsorbent dosage for both UFZA and FZA. Langmuir, Feundlich and temkim isothermal were also investigated and was found out that Langmuir isotherm is the most suitable. The pseudo–first order and pseudo-second order kinetic equation were evaluated and adsorption of MB onto UFZA and FZA followed the later. The thermodynamic studies indicate that adsorption of MB onto UFZA and FZA are spontaneous and endothermic reaction.

Studying feelings and emotions that people develop towards places is getting increased attention, while the concept of place attachment lies at the heart of these studies. This concept is sited within the realm of environmental meaning and association. Place attachment usually is described as a connection that occurs between people and their meaningful settings. This paper will review and analyze the existing seminal literature in place attachment as one of the prevailing concepts among place-based researches. Considering dimensions of place attachment has always been beneficial for investigating the factors that influence people-place relationships. Therefore, in this paper first the concept of place attachment and its characteristics will be examined afterward the psychological dimensions of place attachment will be reviewed and finally methods to measure Place attachment will be described.

The effects of distributed generation in the Nigerian North East zone is discussed in this paper. DG capacity installation in the power system was modelled using NEPLAN software. Network loss reduction, reduction in transmission line losses and congestion as well as voltage profile improvement for the nodes of the network were some of the observed advantages in the results.

This research examines the influence of motivation towards academic achievement among gifted students in Saudi Arabia. The discussion in the study is base on the theoretical framework of the emotional intelligence Theory Goleman’s (1995), the Mayer and Salovey Model (1995) and achievement motivation Theory. These theories are appropriate for the study because they allow the reader to understand how academic achievement is significantly influenced by motivation among gifted students in Saudi Arabia.

The purposes of this research were to study the influence of social media on customer’s perception, case study PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) in order to measure the performance and propose the development approach. The sample were 400 customers living in major provinces around Thailand, aged over 18 years old and used social media in daily basis. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were conducted. For quantitative method, data was collected by simple random sampling through questionnaires. Frequency, percentage and chi-square test were applied as statistical analysis tools. Statistical significance levels were set at .01 and .05. For Qualitative method, both in-depth interview and content analysis of online news about PTT were conducted by descriptive method. The study indicated that PTT's social media had the potential to provide relatively positive information at a moderately high level. This was good for the image and business. (products and services) of PTT both In terms of public relations and clarification. As for the suggestions for improvement included: 1. It was new media that did not cover all users. Therefore, it should be used in conjunction with traditional media. 2. It should be organized collected and integrated to be convenient to use. 3. There should be strategies to present it in a timely manner and be able to create a sense of togetherness. And 4. There should be a good content creation process to increase the positive impact and reduce the negative impact in order to enhance the customers to get good value from PTT.

The purpose of this study was to see whether any significant relationship exists among EFL learners’ self-esteem, autonomy, and reading comprehension; and whether there is any significant difference between EFL learners’ self-esteem and autonomy in predicting their reading comprehension skill. For this purpose, 121 EFL participants who were studying English Language Literature and Translation at Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch, were randomly selected. The researcher tested different ranges of students with different levels of proficiency. The Coopersmith self-esteem inventory, autonomy questionnaire and reading comprehension section of Preliminary English Test (PET) were administered. Correlation and regression analysis demonstrated that there is a significant relationship among EFL learners’ self-esteem, autonomy, and reading comprehension. There is also a significant difference between EFL learners’ self-esteem and autonomy in predicting their reading comprehension.

The purpose of this study is provide some insight into the role played by emotional intelligence in the effectiveness of a leader. The general objective of this research study is to establish the relationship between emotional intelligence and effectiveness of a leader. Specific objective is to understand the role emotional intelligence plays in effectiveness of a leader. The null hypothesis of this study is there is no relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. The study is built on the general belief that leaders are human beings who have human feelings. Therefore, one who is emotionally intelligent might use emotion to create charismatic authority over team members in order to ensure team transformation. It is assumed that effective leaders may not necessarily be people with very high intelligent quotient but those intelligent people who are well able to manage their emotions to suit the present situations. In the recent past, there has been a rise in cases of prominent people and leaders in organizations losing jobs because of their inability to balance between their emotions and job requirements. Cases of stressed workforce have been rising. This prompted this research. Ferris (2002) emotional intelligence is a construct that is gaining a lot of attention because many very learned leaders have been failing in their leadership just because of not balancing between emotions and intelligence. Sosik and Megerian (1999) stated “emotionally intelligent leaders provide the impetus for individuals to collectively perform”. The methodology of this study will be combined research design. Purposeful sampling will be used to sample the population. In this regard, three different cases have been identified to support this proposition and understand the nature of relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. The caseswere drawn from major banks in kenya. The researcher concludes that effective leaders are those who able to balance between their moods and emotions at the workplace in order to influence their employees positively and also well manage others at work

Student violence has been a problem in the Kenyan educational system for a long time now. The first case of student unrest in Kenya was reported at Maseno School at the beginning of the 20th century (1908). To date, the situation is still unabated. The trend is rather alarming and the magnitude of violent acts by students is high and worrying. The paper therefore using a random sample of 251 students who were selected from five purposively chosen secondary schools in Njoro division were interviewed using a standardized research questionnaire. The students were selected using a combination of stratified random sampling and the systematic sampling techniques, which are probability sampling procedures. The data collected was analysed using both the descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found out that three factors related to the school social environment determined the students’ participation in violence in secondary schools as discussed in this paper. The paper recommends that there should be a better understanding of the school social environment factors as aggravators of student violence in secondary schools.