Archives- 

The present study deals about to assess the rainfall variation during 1999 to 2014 in Salem district, South India, which makes to understand the rainfall fluctuation over a period of 16 years differences. Precipitation pattern analysis is very essential for the forecasting of any regions like agriculture or hazards. The analysis results shows that the mean winter season has contributed only 1%, summer season 19%, SW season 41% and NE season 39% of rainfall. The average rainfall in the study area is 829mm from 1999 to 2014. IDW has been used for prepare the spatial distribution maps.

The present study carried out among 50 respondents from ten self help groups in Dakshina Kannada district with the help of purposive sampling method. The study focused on the socio-economic development achieved and the areas of empowerment among the SHG members. The potential of self help group is widening the social involvement of the respondents, is evident from the fact that 67 percent of the respondents had not participated in public meetings before joining self help groups but all the respondents are participating in various kinds of public meetings. The participation in self help groups did show significant impact on some of the key decision-making areas of family life such as family planning, children’s marriage and sending girl child to school. The results reveal that majority (88 percent) of the respondents could take decisions with regard to family planning, 66 percent had a say in their children’s marriage. With regard to sending girl child to school 78 percent of the respondents could express their view. Majority (82 percent) of the respondents revealed that in all other decisions of the family they were consulted. The overwhelming responses of the respondents, clearly speaks of the change within themselves and their influence among the community members. There are still grey areas of concern where the intervention of social work practitioners are felt, especially in terms of creating a better understanding of their role in the intricate family matters and decision making processes. Gandhi’s concept of Community Development through Woman Empowerment can be a reality with the strides in the right direction ahead.

Widow inheritance is a prevalent cultural practice among some Asian and Sub Saharan African communities and has been found to affect the lives of widows. The general purpose of this study was to establish socio-economic implications of widow inheritance rituals. The objectives of the study were to: describe the rituals associated with widow inheritance, decipher the underlying cultural meaning and value of widow inheritance rituals and explore the socio-economic implications of widow inheritance rituals. The theoretical framework was anchored on Clifford Geertz theory of the interpretation of culture. This theory puts emphasis on the uniqueness of a ritual that one may not find even in a similar culture. The uniqueness derives from their loci. Descriptive research design was adopted in this study. The study population was 214 people of Kagan clan in Homabay County. Simple random sampling was used to select 48 widows, 7 Luo elders and 10 HIV intervention officers. The study sample therefore, comprised a total of 65 key informants. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data from the sampled respondents. The test-retest approach was used to determine the reliability of the research instruments and validity of the instruments was ascertained by presenting the questionnaires and interview guide to experts who are authorities in the study area for scrutiny and advice on the instruments. Qualitative thematic analysis was the main method adopted in analysing data. The researcher found out that despite the original good intensions of widow inheritance rituals, the current practice involving professional inheritors, an alternative as cleansing ritual, has made widows vulnerable to HIV and AIDS and the practice was degrading and humiliating the widows. The study concluded that widow inheritance has got adverse effects on widows’ socio-economic lives. Therefore the study recommended that community based education targeting the Luo elders, widow inheritors and inherited widows should be enhanced so that safer sexual practices are adopted even as widow inheritance rituals continue. In addition, widows and inheritors empowerment through education is necessary to enable them make informed choices.

Information processing model developed for management and psychological literature were from the basis of four general models, which provide a guiding framework for research. These models were term as rational, limited capacity, expert, and cybernetic models of information processing and behavior. Previous researcher argued that each model provides a different explanation of processing in several theoretical domains and has different methodological implications. However, the findings of the present study advanced and tested using structural equation modelling on the data collected from a sample of 118 Malaysian companies suggest that integrated information processing model is more appropriate in explaining extent of environmental scanning and information processing capacity and having a significant bearing on the quality of the decision made.

Potculture experiment was conducted to study the effect of different sources of phosphorus on soil phosphorus availability, uptake, yield and quality of groundnut. Four organic sources (farmyard manure, poultry manure, vermicompost and sewage sludge) were evaluated in comparison with single super phosphate, all applied on equal P basis @ 34 kg P2O5 ha-1. The six treatments, including a no-P as control were replicated four times in a completely randomized design.The results revealed that the addition of phosphorus markedly increased the phosphorus uptake and there by increased the pod yield. Among the sources poultry manure recorded the highest yield 0.4 g pot-1 and was followed by farmyard manure 37.1 g pot-1. Phosphorus sources significantly increased the oil content but no significant impact among sources. Phosphorus application significantly increased the crude protein percentage. Among sources, crude protein content was higher in poultry manure treatment (12.83). Highest available phosphorus content was recorded in poultry manure treated soil (28.5 kg ha-1) and Farmyard manure was the second best source of available phosphorus.

A numerical method for solving fuzzy Volterra-Fredholm integral equation of the second kind will is introduced. We convert a nonlinear fuzzy Volterra-Fredholm integral equation to a nonlinear system of Volterra-Fredholm integral equation in crisp case. We use Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM) to find the approximate solution of this system and hence obtain an approximation for fuzzy solution of the nonlinear fuzzy Volterra-Fredholm integral equation. Also, some numerical examples are included to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the proposed technique.

This study sets out to examine the stylistic strategies in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It set out also to look at the concept of ‘style’ as it is employed by George Orwell to drive home his message. This study set out also to examine using the approaches found relevant by the researchers, especially those that found favour within the systemic functional linguistic circle. This study examines as well, style as linguistic choice as employed by George Orwell in the text Animal Farm by making the different characters in the story behaving like human beings who happen to have the same nature as animals. All these will be examined by the researchers

A new heteropolyacid-based cation exchanger [Bismuth(III) tungstomolybdate (BTM)] has been synthesized and characterized using chemical stability, pH titration, distribution studies, thermal stability, FTIR, X-Ray analysis and TGA curve analysis. It exhibits 1.05 meq/g ion exchange capacity for sodium ions. The chemical stability of the material has been tested in acidic, neutral and basic media. Its distribution behaviour for nine metal ions has been studied. Ion exchanger column was used for binary separation and hardness causing metal ions removal.

This paper presents two polyester/vinylester blended nanocomposites in which first, blend filled with nanoclay and the second blend filled with nanoiron particles separately and both were reinforced with aramid fibers. Commercially available nanoclay used as it easily for the composite preparation, whereas nanoiron was synthesized using two compounds Fecl3 6H2o and Fecl24H2o under the presence of ammonium using chemical reduction method. The effects of water immersion on mechanical properties as flexural strength, interlaminar shear strength and impact energy of ironnano and nanoclay filled and unfilled quasi-isotropic aramid fibers reinforced polyester/vinylester blended nanocomposites were investigated. Interlaminar shear strength and flexural strength were obtained with the variation of immersion time (0, 95, 155, 195 and 245 days) and weight percent of filler contents viz. (0, 3, 5, and 6wt. %). Impact energy was measured for dry and wet (after conditioning of 245 days) samples as a function of the variation of filler content. Flexural strength, interlaminar shear strength and impact energy increase with increasing filler content in polymer HFRP (hybrid fiber reinforced Plastics) blended nanocomposites. Immersion in water results in a significant increase of flexural strength, interlaminar shears strength and impact energy, increasing with immersion time. Ironnano particles containing HFRP nanocomposites show higher values of flexural strength, interlaminar shear strength and impact energy than those of nanoclay filled and unfilled HFRP blended nanocomposites as ironnano particle settles around the fibers, thus increasing the toughness.