Archives-June... 

In the digital age, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is benefiting billions across the world by bridging certain gaps and multiplying human potential in every walk of life. Digital services provision that is being developed for our society has enormous positive potential. The internet has revolutionized the way businesses approach and conduct work. For consumers, the idea of purchasing online is appealing for several reasons. A well designed and implemented e-commerce system can lower transaction costs, reduce inefficiencies, promote better information flow, and encourage better co-operation between buyers and sellers. With little more than a click of a mouse, business can communicate, engage in commerce, and expand their business opportunities. At the same time, there are certain social, political, and economic implications being observed globally either in the form of ‘spying websites’ like ‘wikileaks’ hacking activities or cybercrimes against women. Along with promoting the use of Information and Communication technologies since their inception, countries have been looking at ways to counteract the negatives simultaneously.

The study is on the determinants of factors affecting net return of tomato in Owerri metropolis of Imo State, Nigeria, A sample size of 60 tomato traders of 30 wholesalers and 30 Retailers were randomly selected .Simple descriptive statistics, marketing margin tool and net return model were used to analyze the data. The study showed that traders were faced with several constraints and the major one in the study area was hourly fluctuation in market prices, Based on the findings, marketers were advised to belong to cooperative were they can together build adequate storage facility for their produce.

Investigation was carried out to study the effect of the forward speed and tire inflation pressure of the farm tractor on gross power losses, and tractive efficiency. The studied variables are the equipment (moldboard plough, disk plough and disk harrow), tire inflation pressure (80, 140 and 160 kPa) and five different forward speeds (3.86, 4.18, 4.76, 5.82 and 7.21 km/h). The ploughing depths were (15-20 cm) and average soil moisture content (14.56 %). the soil texture was found to be a (Clay). The study was focus on the rate of drawbar pull, drawbar specific fuel consumption, travel redaction (slip), tractive efficiency and gross power losses. The experiment was carried out by using split-split plot with complete randomized block design in three replicates. The obtained results, for the range of tests, showed that the use of 80 kPa tire inflation pressure superposed the (140 and 160 kPa), in recording lowest rate of slip (6.31 %), and higher rate of drawbar pull (16.097 kN). The forward speed (3.86 km/h) superposed in recording lowest rate of gross power losses (5.29 kW), and higher rate of tractive efficiency (74.017 %) and drawbar specific fuel consumption (0.98 l/kW.h). While the fifth forward speed (7.21 km/h) was superior on other forward speed in recording higher rate of drawbar pull (17.12 kN), in the meantime the moldboard plough recorded higher rate of tractive efficiency (75.37 %) and drawbar pull (20.69 kN), While the use of disk harrow recording lowest rate of slip (4.898 %) and power losses (7.40 kW). The relationship fits the experimental data on studying the effect of tire inflation pressure (I.P) and forward speed (FS) on reduce of gross power losses (Lpower) by prediction regression equations.

In recent years, the development of software and hardware technology has enabled the creation of large amount of digital video content. The innovation being done in multimedia streams from last few years necessitates the development of efficient and more effective methodologies for storing information related to video, audio, text etc. Accessing of content based video data requires segmentation of each video stream into its primary blocks. The general objectives are to segment a given video sequence into its constituent shots, and to identify and classify the different shot transitions in the sequence. The video stream consists of a number of shots, each sequence of frames are represented using a single camera. Switching from one frame to another indicates the transition from a shot to the next one. Therefore, the detection of these transitions, known as scene change or shot boundary detection, is the first step in any video-analysis system. A number of proposed techniques for solving the problem of shot boundary detection exist, but the major challenges to them is Detection of gradual transition and the elimination of disturbances caused by illumination change or fast object and camera motion . The reliability of the scene change detection stage is a very significant requirement because it is the initial stage in any video retrieval system. Thus, its performance has a direct impact on the performance of all other stages. On the other hand, efficiency is also crucial due to the voluminous amounts of information found in video streams. In my research paper, a new robust and efficient algorithm capable of detecting transitions in AVI videos is developed.

We are very happy to announce that from 1st April 2018, Dr. Ankita Pathak has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Business Administration. Dr. Ankita Pathak working as Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, Pacific University, Udaipur- 313003, Rajasthan, India. The appointment of Dr. Ankita Pathak as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to elixirpublishers@gmail.com.

We are very happy to announce that from 8th April 2011, Dr.N.J.R. Muniraj has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on the Electronics and Communication Engineering. Dr.N.J.R.Muniraj is currently working at Tejaa Shakthi Institute of Technology for Women, Karumathampatti, Coimbatore-641659, TamilNadu, India as Principal. The appointment of Dr.N.J.R.Muniraj as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to chiefeditor@elixirjournal.org. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief

There is a growing interest in heating and cooling systems based on renewable energy. This is the property of earth ground the below about 2.5 to 3 m, the temperature of ground remains nearly constant throughout the year. This constant temperature is called undisturbed temperature of earth. However, a good visualize the undisturbed ground temperature, for a correct interpretation of the geothermal heat exchanger. The undisturbed temperature is very important yourself, which remains higher than the outside temperature in winter and lower than the outside temperature in summer. The EAHEs are considered as an effective passive heating/cooling medium for buildings. It is basically a series of metallic, plastic or concrete pipes buried underground at a particular depth through which the fresh atmospheric air flows and gets heated in winter and supplied to the building if at sufficiently high temperature and vice versa in summer. Until now, many researchers have conducted a series of studies in the development, modelling and testing of systems of the EAHE. This paper observe on earth air heat exchanger in summer cooling for various supply air conditions in summer climate in LNCT Energy Park Raisen Road Bhopal M.P.

Environmental considerations such as the energy, resources or chemical used during manufacturing or environmental implications during its use or disposal stage has a vital role to play in the purchase decision making of consumers’ specially in the developed economies. Consumers’ perceptions towards eco-labels, their environmental concern and choice behavior for purchase of products across the two different categories were analyzed using a validated likert scale. A structural equation modeling methodology and analysis of variance was applied to test a casual model regarding environmental concern, eco-label awareness and consumers’ evaluation across two product categories. The results suggest the whacking role of eco-labels on products when associated with financial savings in market share augmentation for environmentally preferable alternatives subjected to consumers’ environmental approach in an emerging market.

The formation of ECOWAS was seen as the beginning of a new era in the history of economic cooperation in West Africa. Its overall aim was to promote cooperation and integration, with a view to establishing an economic and monetary union as a means of stimulating economic growth and development in West Africa. Since the emergence of ECOWAS, the organization has been saddled with a lot of challenges and intra-regional crises without much economic integration being achieved. The paper sets to examine why ECOWAS lags behind in its quest to integrating the economies of West African region. Basically, the study is primarily qualitative. The findings reveal that ECOWAS that needs serious reforms in order to maximally benefit from integration mechanisms the way other regions have done. The prospects are great. The paper concludes by affirming that the current economic turmoil afflicting the region may be seen as a temporary setback, and that a new ECOWAS with a new set of leaders will emerge to realize the dreams of the founding fathers of one larger political and economic union.

The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of strategic management practices on customer retention in Commercial Banks in Kenya. Specific objective formed the basis of the study namely: To establish the effect of, strategic corporate governance practice on customer retention in the commercial banks in Kenya and the theory used was Agency theory. The total number of banks registered with the Central Bank of Kenya is forty-three (43) hence a survey method was used. The questionnaires were distributed to all banks and the managers and the department heads were requested to fill in. The total numbers issued was 123 questionnaires and 117 were returned, giving a response rate of 86%. The questionnaires were coded and fed into the SPSS. The data was then analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. Inferential statistics was used including ANOVA, correlation, multiple regression method. Qualitative data was used to put into categories based on themes that would be aligned to research objectives and would be integrated in the discussion of the findings. The findings of the study show that strategic corporate governance practice were significant on Customer Retention. Therefore, it was concluded that to increase customers the strategic management practices must be adopted. Banks should ensure that strategic corporate governance practice become their watchword. This will enhance efficiency and profitability and encourage an environment for the cultivation of other attributes of corporate governance. It should also promote accountability, transparency, healthy ethics, integrity and participation of stakeholders. Internal discipline and a strong operational agenda rooted in corporate governance, strong leadership, strengthened by moral questions bordering on integrity to carry out functions as appropriate should be put in place. This study gave managers invaluable; insights on how to plan allocate and enhance capabilities in ways that allowed them to achieve commercial banks objectives in dynamic and competitive environment using strategic management practices and customer retention strategy. Therefore, since strategic management practice could be of value, they were well advised to pursue customer retention as well as at a suitable level of strategic management practices