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We are very happy to announce that from 30th January 2016, Dr. Chandrakant Muktaram Bharambe has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Zoology. Dr. Chandrakant Muktaram Bharambe working as Associate Professor, Department of Zoology, Vidnyan Mahavidyalaya, Malkapur, Dist-Buldana, Maharashtra, India . The appointment of Dr. Chandrakant Muktaram Bharambe 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 elixirpublishers@gmail.com.

We are very happy to announce that from 14th August 2015, Dr. Sriram Chandramohan has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Occupational Diseases and Environmental Health Problems. Dr. Sriram Chandramohan currently working as Lecturer in Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Saudi Electronic University, Under Ministry of Higher Education, Government of Saudi Arabia. The appointment of Dr. Sriram Chandramohan as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. 

This study was performed with the goal of educational need assessment of teachers? technological skill in Sarpol-e Zahab County in the academic year 2014-2015. The present study has a practical purpose and is conducted with a descriptive-survey method and analytical review. Studied statistical population consists of all teachers teaching in primary school and first and second periods of high school in Sarpol-e Zahab County. Population size and sample size were determined respectively 712 and 124. Statistical population was chosen by stratified random sampling and according to sample size in each grade. The measuring tool of variables was a 56-item questionnaire made by the researcher. It investigated studied teachers? necessary technological skills in two parts of general skills (11 paragraphs) and professional skills (14 paragraphs) and their required competences in two parts of cognitive (14 paragraphs) and functional (17 paragraphs) in a range of 4 levels. Validity of the questionnaire was determined based on the point of view of 10 experts in the field of education and new technologies and its validity was equal to 0.939 for the entire questionnaire based on Cronbach?s alpha and calculation of internal consistency coefficient of gathered data among 50 individuals of statistical population. Data analysis was performed in two parts: descriptive (frequency table, average, standard deviation) and inferential (one sample t test and Friedman test). The results of research showed that teacher?s educational needs in 9 paragraphs of general skills part, in 4 paragraphs of professional skills part, in 2 paragraphs of cognitive competences and in 11 paragraphs of functional competences and totally in 26 paragraphs of studied 56 paragraphs were significantly higher than the average.

The growth hormone concentrations of 25 male students of Madonna University, Elele within the age group of 19-27years were determined pre and post exercise and compared. Growth hormone levels were assayed using the commercially available Human Growth Hormone quantitative test kit whose principle is based on a solid phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The data generated was calculated statistically using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 17. The result showed significant difference in 4.23 ± 0.90 ng/ml in pre exercise and 15.13 ± 1.83 ng/ml in post exercise (P<0.05).There was significant increase in growth hormone pre and Post exercise at different age groups 19-21years(3.61 ± 0.90 ng/ml and 16.18 ± 4.40 ng/ml), 22-24(2.35 ± 0.77 ng/ml and 14.64 ± 2.09 ng/ml) and 25-27 (9.71 ± 2.91 ng/ml and 14.65 ± 4.14 ng/ml). The study has shown that exercise can affect concentration of growth hormone.

This study examines the influence of fundamental factors on small equity investor behavior in the context of Pakistan. The fundamental factors considered in this study are social, political, environmental, regulatory, technological, economic and legal, known as SPERTEL factors. Primary data is collected from individual equity investors from all three stock exchanges of Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to test the validity of the survey instrument, and structural equation modeling (SEM) technique is used to test the hypotheses. The study documents that overall, small equity investor’s decision making is not influenced by fundamental factors. The study found significant influence of social and political factors on small equity investors’ behavior. However, economic, regulatory, technological, environmental and legal factors have no influence on individual equity investor’s decision making behavior in Pakistan.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the factors related to ICT skills development of the primary school teachers and the usage of it in teaching. Findings of our research study revealed that teachers’ age, their gender and their past experience of ICT training play an important role. Also, their satisfaction from the organization of training and usage of teaching methods and techniques of trainers had a positive influence in their skills and usage of ICT in teaching.

Kaolin plays a very signi?cant role in the industrial aspects of life and new ones are still being discovered. It is a unique industrial mineral and very widely utilized in industry and its usage is in?uenced by its functional properties. However, the Egyptian kaolin is hard and massive. It is also low grade so that it needs beneficiation to be suitable for different industries. The kaolin used in most of the industrial applications should have very fine size distribution (80-90% by weight below 2 µm) and should be of high quality especially for applications like plastics, paints, paper industry, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Moreover, great attention in recent years has been paid to the industrial applications of intercalated nano-composites where kaolin or clays are extensively used. Therefore, new technologies must be developed to achieve good separation, especially when treating these finely disseminated particles. One of such recent technologies is the bio-processing where micro-organisms could be used for removing these coloring materials. In this paper, the role of micro-organisms on the surface properties of the kaolin single mineral has been studied through zeta potential and adhesion measurements as well as the adsorption experiments. Complete characterization of both single mineral and bacteria isolated from its surface has been done using XRD, SEM, and FTIR as well as morphological and biochemical identification of bacterial isolates.

Newspaper editorials constitute a part of media discourse, which is an extremely important field of research in both intercultural rhetoric analysis and EFL/ESL studies. Specifically, certain features of editorial headlines and also their important role in monitoring and directing readers' attention have made the interface between the linguistic analysis of newspaper editorial headlines and teaching of English as a foreign language as a relevant issue in language teaching. Through conducting a contrastive textual analysis of selected headlines, culled from the editorials of the English newspaper, The New York Times, and those of Persian newspaper, Tehran Times, the present study aimed at exploring the kind of textual and rhetorical strategies the two newspapers employed for propagating their preferred ideologies. The results of the study indicated that headlines in the two papers presented a subjective attitude of the writers (newspapers) towards the topic. However, based on the analysis of the data, it became clear that there were certain differences between the two sets of headlines in terms of Presupposition, and certain Rhetorical devices.

Table of contents for the month of February 2015

Table of contents for the month of March 2015