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We are very happy to announce that from 25th February 2013, Dr.P.Ponnusamy has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Mechanical Engineering. Dr.P.Ponnusamy is currently working as Professor & Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Surya Engineering College, Erode-638 107. The appointment of Dr.P.Ponnusamy 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

Mechanical Properties such as tensile strength, yield strength Impact strength etc and microstructure of weldment of various steels are too much affected by the shielding gases. Shielding gases play an important role during the welding process.it cannot be over look. In this review paper an attempt has to be made to explain the effect of shielding gases on the mechanical properties and metallurgical properties of a weldment. The coarse-grained weld microstructure, higher heat-affected zone, and lower penetration together with higher reinforcement reduce the weld service life in continuous mode gas metal arc welding (GMAW). It is observed that weld bead geometry and penetration is too much affected by the use of shielding gas. This brief review illustrates the effect of shielding gases on weld quality

To assess the impact of textile and dye industrial effluent on soil and crops, the pot culture experiment carried out with maize crop to determine the effect of dye and textile factory effluent in combination with amendments (poultry manure, green leaf manure, biocompost, vermicompost). This study revealed that application of CETP sludge @ 5 t ha-1 + poultry manure @ 5 t ha-1 + NPK increased the soil organic carbon, available N, P, K, Ca, Mg and micronutrients (Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn) in soil under treated effluent irrigation compared to river water irrigation. The sodium content and ESP of soil increased under effluent irrigation. However, it did not produce any toxic effects to the crops. This showed that the treated effluent could be safely used for irrigation along with poultry manure @ 5 t ha-1 and NPK.

Information technology has become an essential component of any financial organization in the present global scenario. Information Technology governance is a concept that has suddenly emerged and become an important issue in the information technology field. It has been observed by researcher banks in India are using IT based systems from last three decades for performing different banking functions but their implementation is done in a disorganized manner. Therefore implementation of IT is not as effective as it should be. In fact implementation is not everything all but its prefect governance is a must to get the optimum benefits of IT enabled modern technologies. For getting real fruits of IT, proper IT governance is required. This article tries to highlight importance of IT governance, obstacles in IT governance and implementation framework for IT governance in banks.

The application of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical modeling and Hilbert transformation for the image enhancement and detection of buried engineering utilities using surface ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technique is demonstrated in a typical sedimentary terrain of Lagos Nigeria. Accurate delineation and precise location of such subsurface features is of effective use for engineering and environmental studies. A traverse magnetic (TM-) mode formulation was adopted for the models; and perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundaries were implemented for wave absorption at the modeling grid edges. Four synthetic models were developed; three single-layer models of a single pipe buried at depth (z) of 2m, two pipes 10m apart and concrete bars buried at z=1.5m, and one double-layered model of multiple pipes buried at z=1.5m. The electrical properties of the models are; single-layered earth-system (vadose zone): ?_r=9, ?=1mS/m ; pipes: ?_r=12, ?=1mS/m, bars: ?_r=16, ?=1mS/m. The two-layered subsurface, had a thin-layer of air-earth interface of ?_r=1 and ?=0, upper layer of vadose zone sediment and lower-layer (saturated zone) of ?_r=25 and ?=5mS/m. The µ was set equal to its free space value, µ_0 for all the materials. The 2D GPR data acquired in some parts of Southwestern Nigeria and processed using basic functions such as dewow, filtering and application of gains. The resulting GPR radargrams were subjected to advanced attribute analysis using Hilbert transformation (HF) in order to establish the suitability of HF for GPR signal image enhancement that would aid the interpretation of the location of the buried utilities. The model investigations revealed that the electrical and the magnetic properties of the medium hosting the buried utilities, and the depth of burial plays a major role in controlling the image resolution obtained in a sedimentary terrain. The results from the field data are in general agreement with the numerical FDTD modeling experiments.

The metal taking capacity of several types of biomass, agro products and by-products has gained attention during recent years. In the present study, one such material i.e., coconut shell powder was chosen as the biosorbent for the removal of Cu(II) from aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacity of this sorbent was investigated by batch experiments. High adsorption (>90 %) is achieved in the present study.

Organizational culture is defined as an assembly of traditions, values, procedures, conceptions and attitudes which creates the context of activities in the organization. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of organizational culture on employee job performance. The study sought to determine the influence of organizational culture on employee performance at Kenya Ports Authority. Specifically it sought to determine the influence of competitive culture, entrepreneurial culture, bureaucratic culture and consensual culture on employee performance at Kenya Ports Authority. A descriptive research design was adopted to carry out the study. The target population for the study was 106 employees working for KPA and the sampling frame was a list of employees obtained from the human resource management department. The study utilized simple random sampling technique to draw a sample of 43 employees from the population under study and used a questionnaire as a tool for data collection. Descriptive statistics measures such as mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the data, while inferential statistics, and particularly regression analysis was used to draw inferences about the population under study. During the study, data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 as a tool and analysed data was presented using tables, graphs and charts. Thirty six usable responses were received and analysed. The findings reveal that organizational culture has an influence on employee performance. Competitive culture had a greater influence on employee performance from the four types of culture analysed. The study recommends that management comes up with sound organizational policies that creates enabling environment for employees to exhibit a culture that enhances employee performance.

This study, entitled "Investigating the Effect of Emotional Intelligence on the success of business in marketing" was conducted with an overall objective and 5 sub-objectives in the Bou Ali industrial estate of Hamedan in 2013. This research is a descriptive-analytic study in the form of a causal - comparative survey. The research population is 180 individuals and includes all the managers and persons in charge in the manufacturing and service factories in Bu Ali industrial estate. The sample size was estimated at 123 by Cochran's formula and it was randomly selected. Data were analyzed through three questionnaires. One standardized Sybrya shrink EQ questionnaire with 33 questions and emotional intelligence two self-report questionnaires for marketing intelligence and marketing success, collecting using SPSS software version 19 and by multivariate regression. Face and content validity of three questionnaires were estimated and then assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which in all questionnaires was 70/0. Results showed that emotional intelligence had effect on the success of marketers and marketing firms. Accurate results suggest that the two self-awareness and self-control factors significantly correlate with the success of marketers and persons in charge of marketing firms. The other three factors of self-motivation, social awareness and social skills have no significant correlation with the variable of success of marketers and persons in charge of marketing firms. Also, between the two factors of self-awareness and self-control, self-control factor is more effective than the other.

Table of contents for the month of July 2011

Table of contents for the month of July 2013