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The study sought to explore reflective pedagogical needs of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) lecturers for promoting creativity in teacher education in south-south Nigeria. Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was 217 TVET lecturers, consisted of 165 TVET lecturers from Colleges of Education and 52 TVET lecturers as experts form Vocational Education University of Uyo. Using simple random technique, the sample size consisted of 80 TVET lecturers from Colleges of Education and 42 TVET lecturers form Vocational Education University of Uyo. A-40 item structured questionnaire instrument tagged Reflective Pedagogical Questionnaire (REPEQ) was used to collect data from the respondents. The instrument was validated by two experts from Vocational Education, University of Uyo, Nigeria and one expert from Vocational Teacher Education University of Nigeria, Nsukka. A reliability coefficient of 0.82 was obtained after trial test. The research questions were answered using Improvement Need Index (INI) while Z-test was used to test the hypothesis at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that peer observation skill, lesson recording skill, teachers’ dairy and evaluation skills of reflective pedagogy were needed by TVET lecturers for promoting creativity in College of Education, South-South Nigeria. It was recommended that the officials of state the Ministry of Education in conjunction with Faculty of Education in the Federal Universities should embark on massive training and re-training of TVET lecturers in College of Education, in the reflective pedagogy skills. It was concluded that the COE lecturers should be abreast with the innovative pedagogy for the 21st century instructional delivery.

The major aim of current study was to explore the relationship between examination anxiety and academic achievement of students at university level. Nature of study was descriptive, non- contrived, cross sectional and quantitative. Universal sampling technique was exploited to collect data from all students of department of education, university of Gujrat, Pakistan. An adopted questionnaire was used to measure anxiety level of students against thirty statements. Mean , Standard Deviation and Pearson correlation were run for data analysis. No relationship between examination anxiety and academic achievement was found among university students. It was explicated that examination anxiety is not caused of low, average and high achievement of the student.

This article reports a study investigating the existence of any statistically significant correlation between intercultural competence and reading comprehension ability among EAP university students. The participants of the study were about 120 participants (male = 50, female =70, mean age = 26.85). In so doing, first of all, the Persian translation of intercultural sensitivity questionnaire was used. Moreover, to provide evidence for the dependent variable of this study, that is, reading comprehension, specialized readings (Academic Medical standardized readings) which were related to the aspects of medical texts were given to the students. Based on Pearson product moment correlation, it was found that there was a strong positive correlation between Intercultural competence and reading comprehension ability, indicating that individual‘s performance on Academic readings comprehension got better with respect to higher Intercultural competence. It was also found that there was a significant positive correlation between variable-specific IC and performance on Academic reading comprehension.

Customer satisfaction refers to the state of mind or the perception that customers have about an organization and its products or services at the time their perceptions have been met or surpassed. Customer service is an integral part of any organization. Over the past few years, customer satisfaction and technology have become conjoined. Customers today are demanding more and more techno-savvy service that will provide quick and efficient service that will keep pace with the ever changing technological world. The water reticulation system in Mombasa is old and dilapidated and is prone to leaks and bursts. Coupled with this fact is the challenge of illegal connections done by unscrupulous persons who connect to the system unprofessionally leading to leaks. Leaks and bursts may go for days an end without being reported leading to excessive loss of water. However, residents are lax in reporting leaks in their areas and have tended to ignore the issue either out of ignorance or lethargy to report the issue. There appears to be lack of effective communication between the utility and the customers which needs to be addressed. Water services by the Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company (MOWASSCO) thus continue to be unsatisfactory given the key challenge of financial sustainability. Poor services invariably affects the degree of customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to establish the role of electronic water monitoring systems in increasing customer satisfaction with services provided by the Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company, despite the several challenges in water service provision as outlined. This research used descriptive survey where the target population totaling 600 was drawn from the five water meter reading zones in Mombasa County namely Island North, Island South, Likoni, Nyali and West Mainland. The study used primary data which was gathered using structured questionnaires. Chapter one dealt with a background of the study including a background of the water supply system and its challenges. A synopsis of customer satisfaction in public institution was given together with a brief of the water supply in Mombasa. A statement of the problem described in depth the current challenges encountered by MOWASSCO in its service delivery. The chapter also gave an insight into the use of technology in enhancing customer satisfaction. Chapter two analyzed the literature review with emphasis on adoption of technology in the service industry and also outlined the conceptual framework. Chapter three outlined the research methodology, while Chapter four analyzed the data and derived conclusions. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression, presented in tables and pie charts extracted from both MS Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software tools version 20.Lastly, Chapter five gave a summary of the study, conclusions, recommendations and further research.

The classroom study forms the backbone of the language learning process for many learners. But it is the duty of the teacher to motivate students to engage in their self study. This paper examines four aspects of the learning process that self-directed learners are generally understood to be able to navigate: planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating; it then suggests ways in which teachers can foster these abilities in the language learning classroom. Teachers can help learners to assume more responsibility for their own learning and develop them as more effective language learners.

Failures of equipments and process costs money. The reasons for failure could be either a bad design, improper working conditions, failure of system components as they approaches the wear out stage or a combination of these factors. There is no way of completely eliminating failures. However, a better understanding of the causes and mechanisms of equipment failure can allow failure control measures to be developed and implemented. Unreliability is the costly part of the economic equation and adopting measures to improve reliability and availability of the system will ultimately result in economic gain. The present work attempts to provide an estimate of the net effect of modification that is required for a system by using the control chart procedure. The method involves plotting control charts for each of the components using the time to fail. The central line of the control chart corresponds to the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and the control limits are placed at a distance of from the mean line and is based on t- distribution. The components that require an improvement with regard to failure rate is identified by analysing the control charts. The desired change in the component availabilities as well as the system availability can be obtained and an estimate of the net effect of modification is also arrived. The model can provide a measure of the performance of the components as well as that of the system. The quantification of the improvements required, if any, can be obtained using the model. A 11 step algorithm is also developed based on the model. It is hoped that the developed model and algorithm will prove to be a powerful tool in process reliability analysis.

In this paper we report simulation and experimental characterization of microstrip antenna that employs silver nanofilm as radiating patch. The bulk silver is deposited to a thickness of 30 nm using physical vapor deposition system. In this work non-contacting feed aperture coupled patch antenna is used in order to avoid soldering problem between nanofilm (ultrathin) and bulk copper feed thickness of 17 micron. The experimental result of fabricated nanofilm antenna shows wide bandwidth response over bulk patch antenna. Using nanofilm, an optimum bandwidth of 12% is obtained which is 50% higher than bulk patch antenna. The nanofilm antenna resonates around 6.5 GHz finds application in ‘C’ band frequency.

Accurate rainfall prediction is of great interest for water management and flood control. In reality, physical processes influencing the occurrence of rainfall are highly complex, uncertain and nonlinear. In this paper, we present tools for modeling and predicting the behavioral pattern in rainfall phenomena based on past observations. The aim of this paper is to predict the seasonal rainfall of (Iran) khozestan using artificial neural network (ANN) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. In order to evaluate the prediction efficiency, we made use of 33 years of seasonal rainfall data from year 1976 to 2008 of Khozestan Province (Iran). The models were trained with 28 years of seasonal rainfall data. The ANN and the ARIMA approaches are applied to the data to derive the weights and the regression coefficients respectively. The performance of the model was evaluated by using remaining 5 years of data. The study reveals that ANN model can be used as an appropriate forecasting tool to predict the rainfall, which out performs the ARIMA model.

This article contains, in the first chapter, a general presentation of an installation for neutralization of aggressive waters, which may resulted in some electrical thermo-centrals, as those from Deva-Mintia, Paroseni (Romania) etc., in removal of sulphur and by washing anion and cation filters, necessary for de-pollution. Before waters evacuation, the pH must be kept in the limits of neutral values. The automation command is redundant and needs a PC computer and a microcontroller, of Twido type, for example, produced by Schneider Company. We choose here to present what is inside the PC, where was installed a LabVIEW programming environment and where was created a simulation program, which works independently of process and of data acquisition modules and which was called Mintia.sim.vi. This simulates communications with inputs and outputs, through the NI ELVIS - Instrumentation, Data Acquisition and Prototyping for Labs modules. The second chapter presents the interfaces between PC and process: data acquisition modules and multiplexer module, connected in the PC USB port, which were either simulated or included in NI ELVIS. The third chapter contains the program short description, with its panel, offering controls and indicators, among whom being so called „tanks”, which symbolize neutralization and consumption tanks (HCL and NaOH), which indicate, synchronously with physic reality, the reminded tanks filling or depletion. The start and stop controls command the equipment power supply and some virtual LED-s and messages inform permanently the operator about the filling-neutralization-depleting process running. Consequently, the panel is both an operative and a synoptic one.

The aim of this paper is to explore the enhanced methods of transesterification and pyrolysis of waste cooking oil and plastic scrap. Pyrolysis of plastic waste produces bio-oil. The waste cooking oil from hotel industries are subjected to transesterification. The combined bio-diesel and bio-oil from pyrolysis are subjected to cracking reaction which yields bio-diesel with excellent quality for using in automobile engines and to synthesis petrochemicals.