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We are very happy to announce that from 30th June 2018, Dr.Charles Chikwendu Okpala has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Production Engineering. Dr.Charles Chikwendu Okpala working as Lecturer in Industrial/Production Engineering Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. The appointment of Dr.Charles Chikwendu Okpala 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.

The effects of growth hormones and cutting positions on stem cuttings of Griffonia simplicifolia were investigated. The stem cuttings were treated with IBA and NAA at 0mg/L, 100mg/L and 200mg/L with different cutting positions (top, middle and bottom). Cuttings were assessed for root length, roots number, shoot number and sprout percent weeks after planting. Highest root length (16.69cm) at upper cutting position and highest root number (4.05) at middle nodal position were observed in cuttings with no auxin. For shoot number (2.94) and sprout percentage weeks after planting (15.18), cuttings with no hormone also had the highest mean value.

African oil bean (Pentaclethra macrophylla Benth) is one of the numerous tree plants in the tropics found abundantly in the Eastern part of Nigeria where the seed called ugba – a non timber forests product is not only consumed as a delicacy but highly revered and recognized as one of the cultural menu recipes for traditional ceremonies. The study was all about the profitability of marketing the seed within Ibadan metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was employed using structured questionnaires to interview the traders. The result revealed among many others that the business was female gender – driven, dominated by Igbo traders (78.12%) and quite profitable. The average profit per 98.6kg bag was ?23675. Profitability (?0.29) tells that for every one Naira investment, 29kobo is realized as profit and the profitability ratio (0.22) with regard to sales reveal also that for every one Naira sales or returns 22kobo comes in as net income. Notwithstanding the profit margin, the business was however not without some constraints against which some recommendations were made.

Expert systems, which are the most commercially successful result of research in artificial intelligence, are software entities that follow the cognitive abilities of human experts in complex decision making situation. As one of the primary activities in computer science and dependent heavily on the rapid development in computer technology, Expert systems have been eagerly adopted by industries and applied to a wide range of applications. Expert systems belongs to a field of intelligence knowledge based systems the constitute one of the principle field of activity of computational intelligence, a field which been referred to as the science that attempts to reproduced human intelligence using computational means.

The Government of Kenya started the implementation of Free Primary Education programme in January 2003 and Free Day Secondary Education in 2008. Basic education is critical as it lays a foundation for the subsequent levels of education. To implement the Free Primary Education, the Kenya Government progressively increased budgetary allocations to primary education from an expenditure of Kshs 745.08 million in 2001/2002 financial year to Kshs 18.30745 billion in 2007/2008 financial year. While there has been improvement in pupils’ enrolment in primary and secondary schools, its effect on retention and participation of pupils/students in basic education has not been determined. This paper, therefore, looks at factors that affect retention and participation of pupils/students in basic education. Changes in enrolment should be accompanied by improvement in quality of instruction and retention if the set goals of basic education are to be achieved. The paper is based on a study that investigated the factors that affect retention and participation of pupils/students in basic education. The study was carried out in twenty four counties in Kenya. Descriptive survey research design was used. The study targeted learners in primary and secondary schools, teachers, school administrators, BOG/ SMC’s and education officials. The research instruments used to collect data were questionnaire and interview guide. They were piloted and validated for reliability. Means and standard deviations were used to describe the data gathered during the main study. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings were presented in form of tables, pie charts and graphs. It is expected that the findings of this study will provide insightful reference that can help enhance pupils/students retention and participation in education.

The study has been conducted to see if Advertising in News papers influence the news content of newspaper and if newspapers can publish content against thier advertisers, incase of them being involved in any controversy. The research included respondents in the form of a focus group of 20 media practitioners from Islamabad. The ages of the respondants were between 25 to 35. The data was collected through an open ended questionnaire and decoded manully to learn about the topic. The data interpreted proved the assumptions positive which said that the newspaper has to compromise its credibilty to keep the advertisers happy. It also learnt that the newspapers will not publish any content against thier advertisers.

Friction-stir welding has received a huge interest in the last few years. The many advantages of this promising process have led researchers to present different theoretical and experimental explanation of the process. The way to quantitatively and qualitatively control the different parameters of the friction-stir welding process has not been paved. In this study, a refined energy based model that estimates the energy generated due to friction and plastic deformation is presented. The effect of the plastic deformation at low energy levels is significant and hence a scale factor is introduced to control its effect. The predicted heat energy and the obtained maximum temperature using the present model are compared to the theoretical and experimental results available in the literature and a good agreement is obtained. 

In the changing market scenario, the study of the supply chain model in a fuzzy environment is gaining phenomenal importance around the globe. In such a scenario, it is the need of the hour that a real supply chain is operated in an uncertain environment and the omission of any effects of uncertainty leads to inferior supply chain designs. This work presents a fuzzy possibilistic linear programming approach to make strategic resource – planning decisions in multi-product and multi-time period two-echelon supply chains. In this model, demand rate, holding cost, transportation cost, packing charge and toll fees are considered as triangular fuzzy numbers. The objective of the proposed model is to provide an optimal inventory level for the warehouses and distribution centers and also, minimizing the total cost related to transportation, inventory carrying, packing and toll fees of the entire supply chain for a finite planning horizon. An industrial case demonstrates the feasibility of applying the proposed model to real world problem in a two-echelon supply chain under uncertain environment. In addition to that, if the efficiency of the transportation will be increased by using the light weight eco-friendly plastic pail rather than the traditional one, then the reduction of the total cost in the supply chain is also analyzed.

The levels of fatty acids, phospholipids and sterols were determined in the testes of bulls, bucks (goats) and African giant pouch rats found in Nigeria. Results showed testes weights variations were (gram wet weight): 48.6-48.5 (bulls); 23.4-23.5 (bucks); 5.72-6.04 (African giant pouch rats). Crude fat range was 2.65-3.00 g/100 g dry weight; SFA varied from 27.0-48.0 % of total fatty acids; total unsaturated fatty acids varied from 52.0-73.0 %; PUFA range was 13.2-15.3 %; PUFA/SFA range was 0.274-0.565; MUFA/SFA range was 0.810-2.13; AA/DGLA range was 18.8-74.5; LA/ALA range was 2.81-19.1 whereas n-6/n-3 range was 4.38-10.4 and EPSI (PUFA/MUFA) range was 0.265-0.370. In the phospholipids, lecithin (phosphatidylcholine) was highest in all the samples with values of 236-307 mg/100 g or 44.7-45.7 %. Among the sterols only cholesterol was of any significant level with values of 260-378 mg/100 g or 99.992-99.994 %. Chi-square (X2) analysis showed that SFA, AA/DGLA and LA/ALA were significantly different among the samples. In phospholipids, the following parameters were signicantly different among the samples: Cephalin, Lecithin, Ptd-L-Ser (PS) whereas all phospholipid parameters were significantly different among themselves in the bulls, bucks and the African giant pouch rats. Cholesterol was also significantly different among the samples.

The research is about problem related to the heat stress among inside pipe welders at heavy industrial yard. Heat stress occurrence will causes several problems that affected the workers capability, health, perception and judgment in which it will reduces the efficiencies of work. The objectives of the research studies is to show the time region that worker might suffer from heat stress, compared the heat stress before and after safety procedure been executed, showed the correlation between several factors that contributes to the heat stress among workers and proposed a better work practice to the industry management. Methodology used in these research is done by heat environment monitor (QuesTemp34) which to measure the WBGT index. Analysis done by using QSPII to compare actual WBGT index with recommended WBGT index from ISO 7243 and SPSS software to evaluate the questionnaire. Expected result from the research is to identify the duration time of heat stress highly to occur and to compare the reduction of heat stress level between two conditions which is with and without blower.