Archives-June... 

Mary Shelley, the daughter of “two persons of distinguished literary celebrity” - Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of Rights of Man, and William Godwin, author of Caleb William – was a 19th century writer. Her first novel Frankenstein is a gothic story about the creation of a monster, produced by an unconventional and unorthodox scientific experiment. It represents the author's notions of life, humanity and the society of her own time. It is suggested that the story has hues of Mary Shelley’s own life. Much has been discussed on her feministic view in the theme of novel, but little attention has been given to the reflection of her own travels which molds the setting of the story. Mary Shelley traveled widely in her lifetime and used to keep journals and letters of her travels as a tourist; Shelley’s letters showcase her friends and family, her cares and concerns, her daily life and her life as a romantic author. The primary focus of the present study is on the elements of tourism which comprise the setting of the story and help to create the theme and atmosphere of a story in which theme and setting are interwoven and function as a character throughout the novel. This character represents the life of the author as a tourist.

The number of females appointed to leadership positions is small compared to males. This phenomenon happens not only in developing countries but also in developed nations. Various barriers are mentioned and this includes limited educational opportunities for females. However, in Malaysia, the numbers of females in institutions of higher learning far exceed the number of males in the ratio of 70:30. This paper will explore the question related to the position of female students in students’ associations in one public university. Data are obtained through document analysis, focus group interviews and in-depth interviews with students involved in associations. The questions attempted to be answered include the number of female students involved in associations; the leadership positions held; factors that motivate and prevent them from participating; and the challenges faced by them. The analysis shows that there are many female students appointed as representatives in associations but the numbers holding the positions of President are disappointing. What are the factors contributing to this situation? Further, several recommendations will be discussed to assist students in improving their leadership skills.

In the present study, the defatted successive ethyl acetate and methanol extracts from Artocarpus heterophyllus leaf were evaluated for their protective effects on paracetamol-induced liver damage in Wistar albino rats. Serum biochemical parameters viz. serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), serum alkaline phosphatase (SALP), total protein, bilirubin, cholesterol, triglycerides were evaluated. All biochemical findings indicated that both the test extracts exerted significant hepatoprotective efficacy against paracetamol-induced hepatic damage in rats. The methanol extract was found to be more effective than the ethyl acetate extract. Therefore, from the present study it can be concluded that A. heterophyllus leaf had remarkable hepatoprotective activity in rats.

This study involved assessment of effect of chemical weathering of bedrock on the hydrochemical character of associated shallow groundwater system in Abeokuta area, SW-Nigeria. Physico-chemical parameter revealed a mild acidic water system with pH of 5.9–6.9 while the hydrochemical analyses revealed the order of abundance of elements concentrations as Na⁺>Ca²⁺>Mg^2+>K⁺ for cations and HCO₃>Cl>SO₄>NO₃ for anions in Migmatite Gneiss (MG) compared to the concentration order of Na⁺>Ca²⁺>Mg²⁺>K⁺ for cations and Cl>HCO₃>SO₄>NO₃ for anions under Porphyritic Biotite Granite (PBG) and Porphyroblastic Gneiss (PG) bedrock settings.  Further hydrochemical characterization revealed that the water samples collected around the PBG and PG were mostly of Ca-HCO₃ water type, characterized with low total dissolved solids (TDS) of 228–391mg/l while those around MG revealed Na-HCO₃ water type with TDS of about 315mg/l. A comparison of the dissolved trace elements revealed that the water samples from the three bedrock settings revealed concentrations within the limits of WHO/EU standards except for enrichment of Al and Fe with concentrations of 0.25–0.55mg/l and 0.36–0.60mg/l respectively. This is a clear indication of geogenic influence of water-rock interactions on shallow groundwater chemistry.

Steganography is skill of hiding secret messages or hiding secret images so that only the writer and the intended recipient are aware from hidden information .Steganography is an powerful technique in terms of any type of carrier which is hiding technique that develops stimulating structures to fruitfully & successfully hide information (may be a text or an image ) in color images. Digital steganography is basically about hiding a file in, or adding a file to, another file, called the carrier file, such that the carrier file is not changed enough to raise suspicion that something may be concealed within it or appended to it. The steganography scheme on hardware platform shows huge potential by means of various advantages such as high speed implanting, specific hardware dependency, and low power consumption etc. Current developments favor using digital images, carrier files as the cover file to hide another file that contains the secret information in the form of either text or image that means carrier file. Hardware stenographic modules applied in a processor platform like FPGA which offer some essential additions to the existing benefits of software based stego systems. It also offers the Embedding rate which is very high when compared to the systems in software domain. LSB method representing a high imbedding capacity.

The study is related with the strengths and weaknesses of the integrated curriculum and the intelligent use of latest technologies in it. The study also pointed out that why there is a sort of hesitancy in using technologies. Integrated curriculum has certain important features as it gives the students a holistic look of the world and improved their ability to make connections around the topic. It required a great deal of efforts and skills on the part of the teacher and it needs excellent planning and team work too. The slow learners find it difficult to follow this curriculum pattern and he technology integration make them more confused. Technology integration is the modern trend of education and must be integrated in all the subjects in keeping mind the aims of the education and must be relevant to students’ needs.

In today’s globalize economy, competition is becoming ever more intense. Many companies are trying very hard not only to satisfy their customer’s needs but where possible exceed them. This can only be achieved through cost reduction, improvement in product performance, increased customer satisfaction and a constant effort towards world class organizations. In order for companies to survive and grow in the future, it is essential that they deliver high quality goods and services. Those that can deliver quality are the ones that will prosper in the next century (Ross, 1994). The main aim of this research focused on a set of concerns regarding HR initiatives focused on employees’ commitment and quality awareness, developed in smaller firms. These concerns gave rise to the research’s main focus and got materialized through the following purpose: the study HR initiatives focused on employees’ commitment and consciousness/awareness about the importance of quality improvement in firms’ competitiveness.

In this paper, we exam firm’s incentive to manage earnings raising external capital varies with investor beliefs. Under the spline specification regression: a firm is more likely to management earnings when investors are more optimistic about the industry prospects, but more reluctant when investor belief is low. We evaluate monitory cost to explore the reasons and find that using venture capitalists as specialized investors with lower monitoring costs than other institutional investors, earnings management is less likely for low investor beliefs but more likely for high investor beliefs for VC-backed firms relative to non-VC-backed firms. We can also obtain the same results as former study that auditor’s quality negatively related with earnings management. Considering above consequence, we documents IPOs firms engaged in managing earnings with high investor beliefs have an influence on the long-run abnormal stock return performance. These findings have implications for investors, firms, and accounting standard setters. More prudential monitory is important during market booming periods.

This study was to "examine the relationship between family functioning and parenting style and perfectionism of adolescent students of Shemiranat that has conducted in a descriptive-correlation style. The statistical population in this study includes all high school students in the Shamiran city that has been done according to the latest available statistics and data in 10625. According the extend size of the studied population, a simple random sampling method is used. Finally from the mentioned population, a sample size with amount of 371 students was chosen. To measure the variables used in the study, I used 3 questionnaires according to BOMRIND (1971) parenting style, NATAN B. ENSTIEN et al (1998) questionnaire and HILLS perfectionism questionnaire (2004). The content and form of the questionnaires was approved by experts. The GERONBACH ALFA for parenting style questionnaire was 0.85, for family functioning questionnaire was 0.86 and for perfectionism questionnaire was 0.87. The data analyzing was according to the results of Pearson correlation test and Regression. Pearson correlation test results indicated that there is a positive and meaningful relation between authoritative parenting style and perfectionism style. But between authoritative parenting style and perfectionism there is a reverse and negative relation. Finally there is no meaningful relation between Leniency style and perfectionism. Also the results of regression test showed that there is a meaningful relation between family functioning (solving problem, communication, roles, emotional replication, emotional involvement, behavioral control, general family functioning) and perfectionism. In general, the results showed that among family functioning features, four features (emotional involvement, behavioral control, general functioning, and emotional replication) have the ability to predict perfectionism.

Rice husk, agricultural waste material of environmental  impact,  was carbonized at temperatures of 300 - 600⁰C in an oven for 2h, after which its adsorption capacities was investigated for the adsorption of acenaphthene in synthetic aqueous solution, at increasing concentrations (50–150mg/L). The yields of carbon obtained from the raw rice husk ranged from 20 - 40 % (w/w), while the adsorption capacities of rice husk increased with increasing carbonization temperature and increasing initial concentration of acenaphthene. The removal efficiencies of the rice husk increased from 71.37 - 80.56% as the carbonization temperature increased from 300-600⁰C, but decreased with increasing initial concentration of acenaphthene. The adsorption equilibrium data obtained, fitted well to the Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubnin-Radushkevich isotherms with minimum correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.9981, 0.9262, 0.9667 and 0.9215, respectively. The error analysis showed the order of suitability of the isotherm models selected to be Temkin > Freundlich > Dubnin-Radushkevich > Langmuir. This study shows that carbons rice husk possesses favourable potency of being used as activated carbon for the removal of acenaphthene from wastewater.