Archives-June... 

The collimator is the most important part in the installation of the Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA). This collimator will be installed around the lateral Channel of the Moroccan TRIGA MARK II research reactor. The main purpose of this work is using the Monte Carlo simulation via the MCNP5 code to design the new collimator of the prompt gammas installation, to determine the optimal thickness of the bismuth (Bi) filter for gamma radiation. The obtained results of the collimator design and its filter are analyzed and discussed.

Biometric technology has become a basis of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions in our world today. More importantly in the wake of heightened concern about security and rapid advancements in communication and mobility. Significant application areas of biometric systems include security monitoring, access control and authentication, border control and immigration, forensic investigation, telemedicine and so on. When a single trait is used in an application it is referred to as unimodal biometric, while combination of two or more sources or traits in an application is referred to as multiple biometrics. But biometric system that uses a single biometric trait for recognition has this propensity to contend with problems related to non-universality of the trait, spoof attacks, large intra-class variability, and noisy data. Besides, no single biometric trait can meet all the requirements of every possible application, hence the need for multiple biometric system to overcome the limitation of unimodal biometric. The new paradigm is robust against individual sensor or subsystem failures and spoof attack, as it is very difficult to spoof multiple traits simultaneously. In addition, the technological environment is very appropriate because of the widespread deployment of multimodal devices (PDAs, 3G mobile phones, Tablet PCs, laptops etc). The aim of this paper is to present an overview of multiple biometric systems, design approach and application scenario.

Network Proxy Logs contain useful user access patterns that are waiting to be discovered. By analyzing those logs, it is possible to discover various kinds of knowledge, which can then be applied to improve the performance of proxy server. Association Rule mining, by using Proxy logs, aims to discover interesting user access patterns. This paper proposes a novel approach for proxy log mining. In our approach, the Apriori Algorithm is used to extract important or useful Rules from proxy server ACCESS logs. Our paper’s aim is to mine patterns from the Network Proxy Logs and show the difference that some unauthorized clients somehow getting access to information and some authorized clients are not getting access to information. Clients who are unauthorized might be an intruder.

Although the Republic of Turkey is recognized as a country figured in opposition to the heritage of and in contrast with the Ottoman Empire, it is obvious that this viewpoint does not fully comply with realities. In this regard, it is possible to claim that the attempt of a bureaucratic group to control the whole social and political area, which also revealed itself for centuries in the Ottoman Period and became more evident in its last periods, has passed to the Republic. Center-periphery relationship established by both the bureaucracy and the public with the spirit of Kuva-yi Milliye (meaning either National Forces or Nationalist Forces in Ottoman Turkish) has evolved into a bureaucratic management structure upon the foundation of the Republic. This structure, which was attempted to be justified for institutionalizing and guaranteeing the new state in the early years of the Republic, did not change in the following years; moreover, it turned into an uphill struggle of bureaucratic structure not to lose the positions that it obtained. Although the powerful governments supported by the public upon the initiation of the multi-party system, the bureaucratic structure, having positioned itself as the owner of the state, struggled to take hold of the power every time by antidemocratic means and usually achieved to do it. In this regard, the coups of May 27, September 12 and February 28 may be considered as the attempts of the bureaucratic structure to take hold of the state again. Today it seems that the bureaucratic structure that regards itself as the owner of the state has lost some of its positions; however, it may be suggested that the struggle between the masses willing to have more democracy and this deep structure will go on for a long time. In this study, the struggle of bureaucratic structure to acquire areas and protect the acquired ones in spite of public and democracy and neutralization of politics in this struggle as from the foundation of the Republic until 2002 are discussed.

Strenuous physical activity is part and parcel of an athlete’s daily schedule especially prior to competitions. The physical demands of training induce specific nutritional demands in the athlete as sports training is often characterised by acute bouts of high power output (Brotherhood, 1984) which inevitable places a huge demand for energy and water. This posits that proper nutrition is a vital aspect in sports and can optimize one’s performance on the track or field. Over the past two decades, there has been greater understanding on the inextricable link between dietary behavior and optimal sports performance. Yet, awareness on the ground still seems to be lacking especially in developing nations. This paper, hence, attempts to summarize some important concepts pertaining to nutrition and sports performance to raise awareness on the physiological basis of the specific nutritional demands of sporting activities. It also provides some suggestions on dietary composition during various stages of training and competition.

The effects of moringa leaves and seeds fortification on the nutritional value and overall acceptability of Sorghum-Maize ‘ogi’ was investigated. The ‘Ogi’ produced from sorghum and maize was enriched with moringa leaves and seeds at substitution level of 10%. . Sorghum, maize and moringa seeds/ leaves were constituted in the ratio 45:45:10 while sorghum ogi with moringa leave/seeds was constituted in the ratio 90:10 The proximate content, mineral and vitamins content and the sensory properties of the ogi samples were determined. There was increase in the proximate content with the variation in the ratio of sorghum and maize and 10% Moringa seed enrichment. There was increase in the mineral content. The swelling capacity decreased with 10% moringa leaf and seed substitution. The ogi sample with 10% moringa seeds substitution was rated close to the unfortified ogi sample.

The degree of violence in Nigeria’s Niger Delta has become endemic and are too far-reaching to be ignored: for the inhabitants of this area, there are constant environmental hazards and security threat, The study, therefore, examined the community relations strategies used by oil companies in managing the crises in the Niger Delta. The study population comprised the community relations units of oil companies in the Niger Delta (among which Shell, Chevron and Agip were selected) and the indigenes of Omoku and Obrikom communities in Rivers State and Eruemukohwarien, Tisun and Kolokolo communities in Delta State. Both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (key informant interview and focus group discussion) methods of data collection were employed. The respondents for the survey were randomly selected while those for the interviews and focus groups were purposively selected. The study established that conflicts between oil companies and host communities had serious implications for the two parties and that the community relations strategies adopted by the selected oil companies were not adequate in preventing and resolving conflicts in the Niger Delta. That was because there was a lacuna between the strategies the oil companies believed host communities preferred for conflict resolution and the ones actually preferred by those communities. The research, therefore, recommend that to reduce conflict between oil companies and host communities in the Niger Delta, companies should be mindful of conflict propelling factors identified by the respondents and stated in the work, they should improve on their community relations strategies in order to impress the community and most importantly, they should introduce grassroots approach to the implementation of their strategies

This research paper empirically examines a correlation and causality between asset quality of commercial banks in India by using macro variables (linkages). The asset quality is measured in terms of rising non-performing assets (NPAs) of commercial banks. The correlation estimated between gross NPAs and the six macro variables has turned out to be significant. In addition to the study of the impact of macro linkages, sector- specific analysis is undertaken to examine the correlation between priority and non-priority sector lending and NPAs of these sectors. The Granger causality coefficients are also meaningful and significant. The paper also provides sector-specific correlation and causality analysis of gross NPAs of priority and non-priority sectors and credit to these sectors. The latter part of this paper illustrates Net Stable Funding Ratios (Base III) calculated for all scheduled commercial banks and suggests the ways to improve deteriorating quality of assets of scheduled commercial banks.

Healthcare workers(HCW) are at risk of medical sharps injuries. According to the Kenya national policy on injection safety, 58% of healthcare workers have suffered these injuries. It has long been recognized that needlestick and other injuries from sharp objects place healthcare workers at risk of infection. The main objective of this research was to determine the outcomes of preventive and controls measures against medical sharps amongst HCW at Sub-County hospital in Mombasa County. The study sought to determine health workers adherence to safety guidelines available and determine the prevalence of needle-stick injuries at the county hospitals. This study focused on the HCW of different cadres. Questionnaire were distributed to the respondents of different job cadres of healthcare workers at the hospitals including Nurses, Clinical Officers, Lab Technologists, Public health officers, dentists, waste handlers/support staff who were selected proportionate to the sample frame. Interviews were done on the chosen wrkers. The research adopted a Descriptive cross sectional research design by employing both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools. A checklist was used to observe occupational risks and adherence related to exposure to medical sharps including needle sticks. The findings were collected and analysis done by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.0 and presented using pie charts, contingency tables, and bar charts. Dentists were found to have the highest level of exposure to sharp injuries [X2 (DF= 1, N= 117) = 0.408, p= 0.05].This was consistent with the findings that all dentists indicated that they re-cap used sharps. Recapping of sharps being a critical risk to sharp injuries was practiced more by those who got lower frequency of on-job training. On-job training on infection control had no effect on knowledge of risks involved with sharps injuries where those without exhibiting awareness and practiced safe disposal of sharps to a great extent [X2 (DF= 4, N= 117) = 0.109, p= 0.05]. The use of sharp disposal containers was one of most commonly used method and had significant reduction in exposure to sharp injuries. Personal protective equipment use such as safety boots increased level of protection against medical sharps injuries while others such as hand gloves had insignificant importance. The level of adherence to preventive control measures was found to be quite low and significantly affected the outcomes of the available control measures. Low level of adherence was established at both management level and personnel level where enforcement and practice respectively were found to be deficient. With a prevalence of about 43%, medical sharps injuries at Sub-County hospitals in Mombasa County is found to be of great concern as established in this study.

Software quality depends upon Software Reliability as it is one of its most important characteristics. Software Reliability is an important attribute of software quality, together with functionality, usability, performance, serviceability, capability, installability, maintainability, and documentation. It is hard to be achieved, because the complexity of software tends to be high. The development of many Software Reliability Growth Models (SRGMs) over the last several decades have resulted in the improvement of software facilitating many engineers and managers in tracking and measuring the growth of reliability. This paper proposes Pareto type IV based Software Reliability growth model with interval domain data. The unknown parameters of the model are estimated using the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation approach. Reliability of a software system using Pareto type IV distribution, which is based on Non-Homogenous poisson process (NHPP) is presented through estimation procedures. Comparison is also made between the Pareto type II model and Proposed model. The performance of the SRGM is judged by its ability to fit the software failure data. How good does a mathematical model fit to the data is also being calculated. Besides, an analysis of two software failure data sets is included.