Archives-June... 

A laboratory investigation was undertaken to explore the production of cellulase enzyme complex and xylanase enzyme in the Boletus edulis, Ganodrema tsugae and Micoporus xanthopus. The result of the study revealed that the exo-B 1,4 glucanase activity, endo B-1,4 glucanase basidiocarp of mushrooms, viz., activity, B-glucosidase activity and xylanase activity were very much pronounced in Ganoderma tsugae (1.791 Umg-1 1.864 Umg-1,1.127 IUmg-1 and 0.142 IUmg-1 enzyme protien) than Boletus edulis (0.555 Umg-1,1.05 Umg-1,0.683 IUmg-1 and 0.063 IUmg-1 enzyme protein)and Microporus xanthopus (1.142Umg-1,1.503 Umg-1, 0.623 IUmg-1& 0.038 IUmg-1 enzyme protein).

Hydrodistilled flowers (500g) of Ageratum conyzoides yielded 0.25% v/w of essential oil. Characterization of the oil using GC, GC-MS revealed the predominance of demothoxyageratochromene. Other principal constituents were; ?-caryophyllene (19.5%), ?-cubebene (5.2%), germacrene D (3.9%), ?-caryophyllene (2.9%) and trans-?-farnesene (2.4%).

The reported incidence of thyroid nodules in children and adolescents is estimated to be between 1% and 2%. However, this incidence may be increasing because diagnostic radiological procedures are detecting incidental thyroid nodules in children and to find their correlation with histopathology. To Study the Demographic distribution of Papillary carcinoma of thyroid on USG-guided biopsy with free guided biopsy` and confirm the same with cytohistopathological diagnosis. The study was conducted in a teaching hospital for a period of 1 year. It was a prospective hospital based Study. Patients were explained about whole of the procedure & the consent for the procedure was taken in all patients. FNAC of thyroid gland was done both free guided and ultrasonic- guided and the results were correlated statistically followed by histopathological examination wherever possible. Out of 139 patients, maximum numbers of patients were in 31-40 age group i.e., 43 and minimum patients were in < 10 years and > 70 year age group. 24 patients were males and rest 115 were females. The diagnosis of thyroid lesions as per Betheseda System by USG and conventional FNAC. Cytological diagnosis of papillary carcinoma was made in 32 cases in ultrasound guided FNAC. Out of 32 patients, 30 were clinically euthyroid and 2 had clinical toxic features. Two cases was reported as unsatisfactory smears in free hand FNAC while as guided aspirates proved to be papillary carcinoma. Age ranged from 8 to 68 yrs., with mean age of 39.5 yrs. Majority were female numbering 27 and 5 were male. Comparison of neoplastic lesions results both by USG guided FNAC and Free Hand FNAC in 38 patients shows difference of 2 cases in Papillary carcinoma. Number of unsatisfactory smears were 4 and 1 in free and USG Guided FNAC respectively. The Histo-pathological results were same as that seen cytological study. Out of 30 cases of papillary carcinoma diagnosed on Free-Hand FNAC histopathology was available in only in 15 cases. The statistical significance of USG-guded FNAC as: Sensitivity 96.96%, Specificity 93.3%, Positive predictive value 96.96%,negative predictive vale 93.33%,diagnostic accuracy 95%.The statistical significance of USG-guded FNAC as: Sensitivity 90%, specificity 80%, positive predictive value 90%, negative predictive vale 80%, diagnostic accuracy 86.66%.

In recent years energy generation from renewable sources in clean, efficient and environment friendly manner is a real challenge. Among the various non conventional sources, photovoltaic(PV) generation using multilevel inverter topologies are widely used due to the economy of use, flexibility in control under partially shaded conditions and the high quality of voltage waveforms. This work focuses on a single phase nine level cascaded inverter using PIC16F877A microcontroller to generate the required gate signals. The notch angles for the gate signals are calculated using selective harmonic elimination method. Using this method the total harmonic distortion is minimized by eliminating the most significant low frequency harmonic components from the voltage waveforms. The high frequency harmonic components can then be easily eliminated using additional filter circuits. The entire setup has been simulated in MATLAB and verified using the hardware setup.

We are very happy to announce that from 13th December 2018, Dr.P.malyadri has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Commerce. Dr.P.malyadri is working as Principal, Government Degree College, Rayalaseema University, Srisailam Project, Kurnool (Dt), 518102, Andhra Pradesh., INDIA. The appointment of Dr.P.malyadri as member, Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal.

This project aimed at establishing the drivers of change in commercial banks in Kenya. Drivers of change in the study refer to the reasons that may lead the company to want to bring changes to its normal operations. Change may occur in terms of changing processes, products, services, management style, restructuring, rebranding or policies from legal bodies. Change managers have to come up with plans on how to initiate the change, how to inform the company’s stakeholders and get them to embrace the change and how to finally make it part of the company’s normal operations. The study highlights that change drivers might be changing customer needs, need to keep up with competition, new rules enacted by legal bodies, restructuring and rebranding and new management which brings with it new management styles. In the current economy, banks keep coming up. This brings with it not only new products but different expectations from the market. Growth of the world into a global village also leads to sharing of technology across borders. Banks are not excluded from sectors that share these new technologies. In all this, the main challenge the banks are faced with is change. It is therefore important to not only change but to ensure the changes are effective and successful. The main objective of the study is to analyze the change drivers available and knowing exactly what drives effective change in commercial banks. The study examined theories of change that have previously been highlighted by researchers.

Cancer is currently the cause of 12% of all deaths worldwide. The number of cancer deaths annually will increase from about 6 million to 10 million. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide, with nearly 1 000 000 new cases diagnosed per year, and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. The causes of breast cancer remain largely unknown, but certain reproductive and hormonal factors are clearly related to risk. It is reported that one in 22 women in India is likely to suffer from breast cancer during her lifetime. The medical records of 300 patients treated at the Mahavir Cancer Institute and research Centre for breast cancer between 2005 and 2008 with perspective age of marriage and menstrual status were reviewed. In present study we can observe that breast cancer cases were more found in pre menopausal women i.e.: 55% than post menopausal women i.e.: 45%. Mean age of marriage is very earlier, which indicate that early marriage may be a causative factor for breast cancer. Thus it is concluded that early age marriage is risk factor for breast cancer as well as pre menopausal women are at higher risk for breast cancer.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, forest goods and services are extremely important for rural livelihoods, providing food, medicine, shelter, fuel and cash income. However, the national statistics on the contribution of forest products to the country’s economy are extremely poor. This study seeks to evaluate the economic contribution of fuel wood to the livelihood of rural households in Ibarapa Central LGA of Oyo State. Sixty copies of questionnaires were administered to rural households in six randomly selected villages from the LGA. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents while regression analysis was used to analyse the factors influencing the economic growth among the fuel wood traders in the study area. The findings indicated that fuel wood business is a very lucrative job in the study area judging from the rate of profit realized from the business because for every N1 spent in the sale of fuel wood by the respondents in the study area, 70 kobo was realized as profit. This is so due to an active involvement of family labour in the business which drastically reduces the cost that might have been incurred if such labour is hired.

The study evaluated the effect of anthropogenic activities on the physico-chemical properties of soils of Awka South, LGA, Anambra state, Southeastern Nigeria. Triplicate soil samples were collected from different soil depths (0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm) in four land use types: sand mining, play ground, arable land and forest land of Agu Awka, Amawbia, Okpuno and Ifite respectively. Physico-chemical properties of the soils were analyzed using standard methods. Analysis of variance and correlation analysis were performed using Genstat Statistical Package Version 18. Results showed that soil properties were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the different anthropogenic activities and were not uniformly distributed down the depths. Soils were dominated by loamy sand and were moderately compacted with low moisture content. The soils were generally acidic (4.47-.5.83) irrespective of depth and landuse.Organic carbon (0.263-0667 %) and total nitrogen (0.028-0.069 %) were low and were seriously reduced by human activities. Available phosphorus (6.12-8.91 ppm) was seriously increased in sand mining compared to other land use types, moreover, sand mining activities had impacts on the levels of Ca (5.32-1.99 cmolkg-1) and Na (0.020-0.32 cmolkg-1). Total exchangeable acidity was reduced in all the land use types apart from playground where there was slight increase (1.57-1.70 cmolkg-1). Total exchangeable bases and ECEC followed decreasing pattern of forest > arable land > sand mining > playground. Soil pH had significantly positive association with OC, TN, Ca, Mg, TEB, EEC, %BS, TP and MC. To improve the fertility status of these soils especially arable land, the use of organic and/or inorganic fertilizer is required. The regulation of mining activities in the study area was also recommended to protect the soil from further degradation.

Experiment was set up in 2013 at the experimental field of Savannah Agriculture Research Institute to evaluate the effect of split nitrogen application on growth and yield of lowland rice. It was made up of ten treatments laid out in split plot design with three replications. Treatments were made up of two low land rice varieties (Jasmine and Degang) randomly assigned to main plots and five levels of N fertilization (control, 60 kg NPK/ha, 60 kg NPK/ha + 30 kg N/ha, 60 kg NPK/ha + 15 + 15 kg N/ha and 60 kg NPK/ha +10 + 10 + 10 kg N/ha) randomly assigned to sub plots. Fertilizers used were NPK (15-15-15) and Sulfan (24% nitrogen). Variety x split N fertilization had no significant (P>0.05) effect on all parameters measured. Main effect of variety and split N fertilization significantly (P<0.05) affected most parameters measured, especially grain yield. Jasmine proved superior to Degang in grain yield. Application of 60 kg NPK/ha + 30 N/ha optimized rice growth and maximized yield similar to 60 kg NPK/ha + 15 kg N/ha + 15 kg N/ha and 60 kg NPK/ha + 10 kg N/ha + 10 kg N /ha + 10 kg N/ha. Application of 60 kg NPK/ha + 30 N/ha is recommended for increase rice yield and income of farmers, as split application at 15 + 15 kg N/ha and 10 + 10 + 10 kg N/ha attract additional labour cost.