Archives-June... 

Shot hole borer, Xylosandrus compactus (Eichh) is one of the most serious pests of robusta coffee. Small black beetle bore into green succulent stem and make galleries which leads drying of the twig. Ambrosia fungus grows inside the gallery helps the development of the beetle. Whole stages develop inside the gallery and this concealed nature makes it difficult to control. The present review discusses the distribution, taxonomy, biology and the control of shot hole borer.

In this paper, we study 0 – modularity in the lattice of weak congruences. We are going to prove that Cw(L) is 0 – modular if and only if L is a chain.

Child care has become an essential component of life in our society .Quality child care can make a significant difference in child’s development .Here we consider some regulations in favour of lower child staff ratio ,higher educational standards for care givers and smaller group size . In this paper we present a methods for fuzzy risk analysis based on, child- staff ratio group size and care giver ability. We obtain the expected number of children in queue needing attention at any time by using both function principle and Graded Mean Integration method. Furthermore we calculate the proportion of time that a child would spend engaged by using both function principle and Graded Mean Integration method. The model presented in this paper can be applied to other educational services also

In most cases, the importance of local histories in explaining the issues and delicacies of a land or territory is a good guide and answer for people who want to find out more about the history, dignitaries, culture, customs and the status of a region or area. Having prosperous, vibrant and populous regions, the vast country of India has seen a very great and notable civilization and has always been important throughout history, each region which having its own wonders and developments. Although there had been many worth sayings points about different regions of India before the arrival of Islam in this country, all of which used to be cited orally, there have been different books about different regions of the country prepared after the arrival of Islam in this country, especially during the centuries when the Islamic sovereignty was stabilized or Persian Language and Literature developed there. In the first part of the present study, which in fact is an introduction to the writings and compositions of local historiographies, the researchers seek to mention the course of Muslims’ historiography in India from the past until recent centuries. In the second part of the study, they introduce a list of local chronicles together with the name and time of their compilation in about twenty states or regions of India. In the last part, however, they explain the content of some of these works. The indented questions, nevertheless, are that what the position of local chronicles is in the Indian Historiography, what regions or what topics local chronicles have contended with, and when such works have been written. Regarding the data collected for this research, the answer to these questions will be possible and positive and the status of local historiographies in the Indian subcontinent will be characterized.

Internet banking has made drastic changes in the banking system of India. The Indian banking with its large network provides various kinds of E-Banking services to the customer. Now a day’s most of the banking transaction happens through E-touch. E-Banking is modernizing the whole system of the bank with the aid of technology. Though the bankers as well as the customers were facing some initial hitch with the introduction of E-Banking, later stages the country has witnessed a wide spread acceptance of technology for banking. The SBI and ICICI banks plays very crucial role in banking industries. The paper attempts to give an insight on various E-banking services and the latest development in E-Banking for the period of 2010-11 to 2015-16. The paper also focuses on the challenges faced by banking industry in adopting the E-banking with the help of IT.

With the current expansion of the global economy and the fast-changing evolution of technology and innovation, organizations are facing an on-going need for employee training and development. As knowledge increasingly becomes a key factor for productivity, it has also become a currency for competitive success. The resource base approach contends that the organization can develop a sustained competitive advantage only if its activities create value in a unique way, on that competitors cannot easily copy. The human capital cannot be easily copied once they acquire the expertise and the necessary skills and knowledge in their workplace. The study used survey research design because it assessed the nature of prevailing conditions. The research was carried out in Nyamira Sub County. The study target population was 600 respondents. The study sample size will be 362 respondents. Results indicated there was a positive and significant effect between training, job retention and employee performance in Nyamira sub county (b = 0.369, t = 3.62, p<0.05). Results indicate that training contents has a positive and significant (p<0.05) effect on the employee performance in Nyamira sub county (b = 1.18, t-value = 4.93, p-value <0.05). This implies that increase in training contents will increase the level of employees? performance in Nyamira Sub County. From results there was indication that training evaluation and employee performance were positively and significantly associated (b = 0.315, t-value = 4.54, p<0.05). This could be interpreted to mean that evaluation of content of the training and the methods employed, measure performance of knowledge, skills and attitudes against the standard could easily contributed to enhanced employee retention and performance at work.

This study was undertaken to determine the anthelmintic activity of some of the selected plants like Eleusine coracana, Cephalandra indica and Colocasia esculenta commonly consumed by different tribals of Ganjam, Odisha-India for nutritional purposes using in vitro biological models like tapeworms (Raillietina spiralis), roundworms (Ascardia galli) and earthworms (Pheretima posthuma) where Albendazole and Piperazine citrate were used as reference standards. It was revealed that the ethyl acetate extract of Eleusine coracana was most potent which was well comparable with both standard drugs followed by ethyl acetate extract of other two plants, but at little higher doses. Methanolic and petroleum extracts of all these plants were endowed with minute anthelmintic property, which were not up to the standards. The present study enlightens the potential usefulness of those selected plants as good anthelmintic agents.

The study was conducted to assess dairy production and marketing system of Horro district of Horro Guduru Wollega zone. A structured questionnaire was used and the study area was stratified into highland and Mid-highland agro-ecology. The means and standard deviations of livestock holding was found 12.17±8.69, 13.54±13.98, 3.22±5.25, 2.79±2.84 and 0.96±1.34 for cattle, sheep, goats, horse and donkey, respectively. Cattle herd structure is governed by the overall function of the animal in agricultural production system; however, this study revealed that the proportion of male to female cattle was in-balance (49.5:50.5%) in the total herd studied. The overall means and SDs of milking cow holding was 2.14 ± 1.57 where it was higher for the highland than mid-highland smallholders agro-ecology. Cows’ average lactation length was 8.16 months and estimated total lactation milk yield within this lactation period was not more than 360 liters/cow. The major livestock input supply and service delivery expenditure was mainly for veterinary services where animal feed purchase, labour employment and renting grazing land during summer seasons were also another challenges which farmers in the study area were encountering. Udder washing before and after milking was rarely practiced where about 74.23 percent producers do not wash udder before milking and only 25.27 respondents wash udder before milking. However, ‘Lantana trifolia, Sida cuneifolia and Cucumis prophetarum’ were the most commonly used plant/herbs for cleaning and washing milking and milk storing equipments in the study area. The means and SD of shelf life of butter in days was studied and butter can be kept un-perished for up to 159.45(84.915) and 68.44(42.416) at highland and Mid-altitude. The difference in butter shelf life was highly significant at (P>0.001) among the highland and mid-highland. The difference in shelf life of yogurt was also significantly (P>0.001) higher for mid-highland than highland.

This research work aimed at evaluating the degree of metal contamination in the weija lake and the extent to which the quality of the sediment has deteriorated. The dam is a source of drinking water and is also utilized for fishing and irrigation. It however receives agricultural runoff and municipal wastewaters. The concentrations of ten metals (Cu, Co, Cr, Fe, K, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn) in sediments from thirteen sampling points from the Weija dam in Accra, Ghana, were investigated using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF). Elevated concentrations (in µg/g) of toxic and potentially toxic elements (Cu, 19.80±3.77; Co, <19.80; Cr, 87.62±19.69; Fe, 141245.5±1765.39; K, 25363.08±3740.08; Mn, 433.61±60.71; Ni, 58.65±8.81; Pb, 20.03±1.19; V, 77.35±24.02; and Zn, 19.07±3.41) were recorded in the sediments of the dam. The enrichment factor ( Apart from K with EF=1.20 showing minor enrichment) and geoaccumulation index values calculated indicated that these metals were generally from natural sources with insignificant contribution from anthropogenic sources.  The geology of the dam, been characterized by granite, shale and phyllite might have contributed to the elevated levels through weathering and leaching. Concentrations of Co were however below detection limit in all the samples. The pollution load index values show that the sediment was unpolluted with respect to Cu, Co, Cr, Fe, K, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn.

This paper is aimed at evaluating the activities of cocoa on male rats. Sixty healthy matured rats weighing 130±20g were divided into four experimental groups of 15 rats each. The rats were treated with cocoa seed powder at 0 (control), 100, 200 and 300mg/kg body weight, respectively for 65 days. Blood samples were collected for hormonal, biochemical and haematological indices while semen was obtained for semen analysis. Results showed that cocoa powder elevated prolactin, testosterone and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels; red blood cell, and white blood cell counts significantly reduced follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol; platelets, packed cell volume and haemoglobin concentration (Hb); alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and albumin. There was also a reducing effect of cocoa powder on total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL- cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol, especially at the dose of 300mg/kg as well as sperm count, sperm viability and sperm motility. However, sperm head abnormality increased in a dose-dependent manner. These results imply implicitly that cocoa powder at higher doses might be detrimental to animal health, its beneficial effects notwithstanding.