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For the last two decades, the government strategy in most developing countries has been focusing on the development policy of rural areas. This is caused by the slower socioeconomic development in these areas compared to that of the urban areas. The flaw in the previous development policy, which concentrated more on the development of rural areas, has resulted in the regression of the rural areas. For that reason, rural development concept has become the government strategy in improving the standard of living and socio-economic of the rural community, particularly for the poor people. Most of the rural community members are less active and hardly become involved in the government development programmes. Moreover, their economic activities are concentrated on agricultural based activities which provide low proceeds and unprofitable. Therefore, new policy has been legislated to ensure that the rural community will be free from poverty and regression through active involvement in the development of the rural tourism sector. The government anticipates that the development in the rural tourism sector particularly in homestay tourism will be able to boost the socioeconomic development of the community in the areas involved. It is for the reason that, the homestay tourism is able to make the most of nature’s beauty as well as the community’s idyllic customs and cultures as appealing strategies to attract tourists to come to their village, which in turn will heighten the tourism activities in the area. Ever since it was introduced, the homestay tourism has gained encouraging responses that it is utilized as the strategy to overcome poverty in rural areas. Since then, the homestay tourism has attracted tourists, particularly international tourists. Through homestay tourism, participants are given the opportunity to experience the difference in the way of living and customs of the local community as well as given accommodation package throughout their stay in the chosen village. The implementation of the homestay programme offers opportunity to the tourists to be aware of and understand the cultures and the way of life of the local community as they, themselves will be experiencing the village life. This research uses questionnaire distributed to 70 homestay proprietors in Banghuris, Selangor. Based on the fieldwork carried out in Banghuris, it is evident that the homestay tourism has been able to bring in socio-economic changes ever since it was implemented. Therefore, this research proves that the homestay tourism is able to be a medium of the strategy to overcome poverty in rural areas, and above all in improving the community’s income rate as well as receiving outside influence for the betterment of their lives.

Image fusion is one of the techniques in Image processing. In this paper, we are going to propose a Image fusion method based on Teaching Learning Based Optimization. Taking two multifocused images, we are going to divide them into blocks then the contrast visibility of the two image blocks then is calculated. TLBO algorithm is performed to obtain optimal coefficients and fused image is acquired finally using this Optimal Coefficients. For different set of multi focus images, different quantitative measured are calculated. Then the results of proposed method are compared with existing Particle Swarm Optimization.

Despite increasing attention paid to intangibles research since the end of the 20th century, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the interactions among different intangible elements and their performance implications due to the lack of appropriate intangible measurements and the low level of intangible disclosure in the public domain. This paper seeks to investigate the role of intangibles in the Indian banking by studying 46 banks, seven years (2005-2011) quantitative data. The empirical results show that top management human capital (HC) has a positive impact on either customer relationships or bank financial performance, and the combination of different intangible elements tends to better explain the variation in banks’ return on assets than they do individually. They also depict a positive relationship between relational capital and banks performance. Hence it is advisable for banks to build up on their intangible assets to gain competitive advantage and distinguish themselves from competitors in a world where in the hunt for market share firms are resorting to copying tangible assets and capabilities possessed by others to beat each other.

This work on the Effects of Treated Palm oil mill effluents (POME) on soil microflora was carried out using standard microbiological and chemical methods. Activated carbon used for the treatment of POME were generated corn cob, coconut shell and a combination of the two materials. Palm oil mill effluents were obtained from Umulolo community in Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State. Top soil (10-15cm) and sub soil (of 15-30cm) samples were obtained from Federal University of Technology, Owerri farms. The Activated carbon were used separately and in combined forms to treat POME samples and the resultant wastewater, used to water the top and sub soil samples for four (4) weeks. The microbial flora of the watered soil samples were assessed using pour plate method. The results obtained revealed that the high microbial load of the untreated POME (TVC: 3.28 x 10? cfu/ml) reduced after the treatment with the activated carbon from agrowastes (Coconut shell TVC: 5.7 x 10? cfu/ml, Corn cob TVC: 1.03 x 10? cfu/ml and Cocunut shell + Corn cob TVC: 2.04 x 10? cfu/ml). There was a general increase in the microbial load of the top and sub soil samples watered with the treated POME when compared with the top and sub soil watered with the raw POME. The bacterial isolates obtained in this study were; Kebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus subtilis, Staphlococcus aureus, Corynebacterium glaucum, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli. The fungal isolates obtained were Cladosporium herbarum, Aspergillus niger, Penicillum chrysogenum, Rhizopus stolonifera and Candida albicans. From the results obtained in this study, it can be inferred that POME treatment with activated carbon removed the colloidal properties (usually one of the characteristics of POME), reduced the Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), the chemical oxygen demand (COD) thus conditioning the soil for more microbial growth.

This present paper explores the way in which the cellular manufacturing can help a selected manufacturing company for a selected Machining Center, a highly flexible shop with many different customers choice and products, achieve improved performance and customer satisfaction. The environment in which the product of selected company operates today is very different from the one in which it has historically succeeded. The decline in heavy commercial vehicle spending has increased the importance of cost or affordability in a decision process which previously emphasized the incorporation of state-of-the-art technology into new products in the heavy auto industry. In addition, the heavy vehicle industry consolidation is producing fewer companies competing fiercely for a piece of a decreasing pie. Therefore, Product of demand from master companies’ success depends on its ability to exceed customers’ expectations through superior performance, by delivering high quality products in a timely manner, with shorter lead-times and lower costs.

In India, residential sector represents the largest single source of black carbon (BC) emissions from the use of cow dung cake, wood or coal, in heating stoves, Chullah’s and Kerosene lamp and its radiative forcing is a significant source of uncertainty for health and climate impact. A descriptive assessment was carried out through regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between socioeconomic variables, fuel use, leading causes of biomass fuel use, possible impact of BC, mitigation Measures and barriers to implementing clean fuel initiatives in 900 Households during April to June, 2015. It also looks at changes in this fuel use before and after clean energy program was introduced in India. Per household/month consumption of firewood in rural areas was 154.4 kg. Monthly per household consumption of LPG is 10.3 kg, and a household with access to LPG spends Rs. 218.54 per month on an average. LPG was the primary source of fuel for cooking in 65% of urban households. Firewood and kerosene are reported as primary sources of cooking fuel in 17% and 6% of the households, has been reported in urban households. The results of the model suggest that there is both room optimism and pessimism. One perspective on the data results suggests that there is a good chance that India will grow its way out of the cookstove conundrum; that is there is reasonably good evidence to suggest that fuelwood use may initially increase but the fall at still low NSDP levels.

This study illustrates the importance of Critical Discourse Analysis in revealing the latent ideologies and power struggle. It contains a theoretical description of Critical Discourse Analysis, a framework for the analysis of Human Rights Watch discourse on the Palestinian-Israeli issue that is published in its Annual Report 2013; a discussion of discursive practices; and a consideration of the selected framework in the analysis of the generic mixture. In fact, the application of Halliday & Matthiessen’s 2014 Systemic Functional Linguistics approach shows the representation of the case from a material and relational perspectives. Three major types of participants predominate; namely, actors, carriers, and goals. The application of Fairclough’s 1992 Interdiscursivity approach uncovers hybridity, materialization and selectivity procedures in the description of human rights in the Palestinian and Israeli case.

The research was carried out to investigate inventory challenges facing the performance of logistics firms in Kenya, Freight Forwarders Kenya Limited a leading Logistical company in East and Central Africa was used as the case study. The general objective of the study was to investigate the inventory challenges facing logistic firms. The specific objectives were to analyze how inventory cost, lead time, technology and level of inventory affects the organizations performance. The researcher used relationship marketing theory, deterministic inventory model and Economic Order quantity theories in the course of the research to relate how the challenges are affecting the performance of firms. Sampling method was employed in the cause of data collection for analysis a target population of 68 employees of FFK was targeted and a sample size of 58 was used In the course of research. The researcher collected primary data from Freight forwarders Kenya Limited by means of questionnaire’s those who gave their input were Top level managers, Middle level managers, supervisors and low level employees. Secondary data was also utilized from existing literature in analyzing and coming up with conclusions. Data was analyzed using descriptive analysis and inferential analysis using the SPSS Statistics to come up with sound conclusions regarding inventory challenges facing Logistical challenges in Kenya.

In previous research reports the Excel™ outlier replacement protocol called: The Average of the Nearest Neighbor Panel-points: [ANN] was investigated. The authors reported that there seems to be a predilection relative to chance for ANN-protocols to produce a reduction in the standard error of the OLS-two-parameter linear regression [OLSR] model compared to that produced by the Basic or unmodified Panel. This is usually termed a Smoothing-Effect and results in more narrow Confidence or Capture Intervals [CI]—i.e., enhanced precision. There were idiosyncratic anecdotal conjectures offered as to why such a penchant may be created by ANN-protocols. We will consider Dysfunctional or Gaming Considerations: If Smoothing is inherent for ANN-protocols this offers an opportunity to make the decision to apply or eschew the application of the ANN-protocol based upon the intention to engineer the forecasting CIs. This being the case, two research questions are begged: Is there a Panel-length that: (i) sufficiently mollifies the Smoothing- or Provoking-events, or (ii) results in a balance between Smoothing- and Provoking-events either of which would render the gaming decision moot. We offer inferential tests re: (i) the conjecture that the length of the Panel systematically mollifies the ANN-impact on precision, and (ii) the conjecture that the seriousness of an ANN-impact on the OLSR-CIs is symmetrically balanced. We demonstrate inferentially that: Using the Medians of various ANN-protocols tested over various sample-sizes that mollification is likely the state of nature. However, despite mollification there seems likely to be asymmetry in favor of Smoothing. This suggests that gaming must be entertained as an opportunistic possibility. Given this, an organizational solution is suggested to mitigate against gaming the application of the ANN-protocols.

The AWJM is widely used to process the different materials. The material considered for the experimental study is commercial aluminum, mild steel and EN8. The operating parameters, namely pressure, cutting speed and abrasive flow rate are varied during to find its effect on metal removal rate. Attempt is made to establish relationship between operating parameters and material removal rate by using regression analysis & ANOVA. Experimental study is performed to validate the results. It is observed that pressure & abrasive flow rate are the most significant parameters that affect the material removal rate in AWJM.