Archives-March 2023

In the contemporary settings of 2020 and after, international airlines' alliance ground staff operations environment, a possible deficit in the formulation and implementation of effective strategies to ensure a diverse and inclusive workforce has the potential to affect an organization dearly and adversely. From exhaustive review and analysis, some U.S.-based international airline alliance leaders appear concerned with the challenges faced to ensure an inclusive and diverse workforce, as it has deleterious potential to negatively affect corporate sustainability and profitability. Grounded in the transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies U.S.-based international airline alliance leaders in ground staff operations use to successfully manage a diverse workforce to ensure organizational sustainability and profitability. Data were collected using semistructured interviews in computer-mediated conferencing format with five airline alliance leaders located in the state of Georgia, who held at least 2 years of successful experience in implementing strategies to manage a diverse workforce. Content and thematic analytical approaches served to analyze the data, leading to the emergence of a major theme of the importance of diversity and inclusion. From extensive research and the subsequent analysis of the data, a key recommendation is for airline alliance leaders to align diversity, equity, and inclusion policies with corporate human resources strategy. The expectations of contributing to positive social change are assured in employment, and the context of this study is possible if airline alliance business leaders display the management qualities in fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce, where the employee has opportunities to realize their potential within the enterprise.

Excessive wood consumption in Burkina Faso has led not only to deforestation, but also to soil degradation. The preservation of ecosystem balances, the management of soil fertility and the safeguarding of forests are major issues for future generations. It is in this context that our work has focused on the development of an energy conversion technology that effectively uses little-used agricultural residues (cotton stalks, bare corn cobs, rice husks, etc.). This device is a multifunction family furnace that produces biochar for soil amendment and provides alternative energy for household needs. The physical and mathematical modeling of the oven based on the nodal method whose equations were solved by implicit finite differences allowed to describe its thermal behavior. K-type thermocouples were used for the experimental study to validate the mathematical model. Indeed, the pyrolysis temperature of the bare corn cobs is on average 450 °C. The model allowed us to show that the thickness of the pyrolysis chamber influences the pyrolysis temperature and reduces the pyrolysis time. For a thickness of 8 cm of the pyrolysis chamber, the average pyrolysis time is 1 hour 30 minutes. The study also showed that the variation of the ambient temperature does not influence the pyrolysis temperature. Moreover, the thickness of the insulation chamber affects the external wall temperature but not the pyrolysis temperature.

In recent time, copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) are versatile nanomaterials that find wide array of utilizations in biomedicine, molecular biology, dentistry, dye degradation, catalysis, among others. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of Cu-NPs synthesized from copper tailings and reagent grade copper salt. Chemical reduction method was used to synthesize Cu NPs from copper tailings and reagent grade copper salt using sodium tetrahydroborate (NaBH4) as the reducing agent. The synthesized copper nanoparticles were characterized using different analytical techniques such as: quantitative X-ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results of XRD identified three major mineral phases tenorite Syn, garnet and quartz in tailing (87.3%, 7.8%, and 4.9%) and reagent grade salt (90%, 6%, and 4%) respectively and confirmed the formation of face-centered cubic (FCC) metallic copper. SEM revealed irregular shape particle morphology with rough surface and particle of 31.3 nm for Cu tailings and 37.6 nm for Reagent Cu nanoparticles. XRF revealed high elemental composition of copper in both synthesized nanoparticles from tailings and reagent salt with 85.15% and 85.98% respectively, BET surface area are 342.11 m2/g and 464.95 m2/g for Cu tailings and reagent salts respectively, and FTIR revealed the specific functional groups O-H, C=O, C-O and Cu-O stretching for both tailings and reagent grade Cu-NPs. However, this type of study has not been reported in an accredited journal. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) confirms the thermal stability of these Cu-NPs up to 325 °C. In conclusion, synthesized TCu-NPs and and RCu-NPs were pure, highly crystalline, nano-sized and the quality of the nanoparticles from tailings was slightly lesser than the reagent grade salt due to the presence of impurities. KEYWORDS: Copper tailing, reagent grade copper salt, chemical reduction, copper nanoparticles, characterization

The Bangladesh National Building Code specifies and regulates the general requirements for structural design and design criteria in Bangladesh (BNBC). In the previous two decades, the introduction of new civil engineering techniques, expertise, and materials has resulted in changes to design parameters and methodologies. As a result, BNBC 2017 was written to reflect the change. To further understand the changes in design and analysis, a systematic parametric structural study of RC frame structures was performed, utilizing both codes via FEA for high seismic and high wind zones (Mymensingh) and low seismic and low wind zones (Chapainawabgang). According to the analysis results, the newer code provisions often result in a less economical design with a greater safety margin when compared to the design-based code provisions. The examination of various analysis and design outputs establishes a well-defined comparison between the two seismic zones. The essential distinction between the two seismic zones based on lateral load (wind and earthquake) is provided. In the case of RCC structures, analysis and design are carried out to demonstrate the change in reinforcement required for different column and beam sections, while the building height remains constant. According to BNBC 2017, this comparison study establishes a clear picture of changes in structural details, cost effectiveness, and safety in between the high seismic and low seismic zones by locating two buildings (Mymensingh and Chapainawabganj).

Despite the use of appropriate teaching and learning approaches and the government of investing resources to promote quality education, there is a continuous record of poor academic performance among students in National Examinations in Kenya. There was therefore need for a study to be conducted to establish the factors that affect their performance.The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between Self Esteem and student academic performance. The study was anchored on The Marsh/Shavelson model self-concept. The study employed Ex-post facto research design. The study targeted students from public secondary schools in Nyeri County. Krejcie and Morgan (1970) formula was used to calculate the sample size of the students while Purposive sampling was used to select 25 teacher counselors making a total of 409 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis. The quantitative data from the questionnaire was first be subjected to preliminary processing through validation, coding and tabulation in readiness for analysis with the help of the statistical package for social science (SPSS) to analyze data. Descriptive statistics was presented using frequencies and percentages. Pearson Correlation Coefficient was employed to determine relationship that exists between the independent (Self-esteem) variables and dependent variable (student academic performance). In addition, regression analysis was employed to test the relationships in the study. Qualitative data was transcribed, thematically classified and arranged before they are reported in narrations and quotations according to research objectives. Major findings from the study indicated that there was a significant positive correlation between Self-esteem and student academic performance (r = .800; p = .000) showing a strong correlation between Self-esteem and student academic performance. This study therefore, recommended that there is need for the teachers and education stakeholders in the ministry of education and beyond should give great attention to student self-concept as it affects student academic performance in schools and that schools should promote self-advocacy skills. Strong advocacy skills lead to greater self-confidence. It is also important to for the teachers to understand student background. Schools should design effective feedback mechanism to encourage students to compare present performance against a goal and also against previous performance.

Detailed Granulometric and petrographic analysis of the Agbani Sandstone outcrops were carried out within Ihuokpara, Southern Benue Trough, Nigeria. The aim was geared towards deciphering provenance and reconstructing the paleo-environment of deposition. The study area is underlain by Agbani Sandstone and Awgu Shale. They are Coniacian in age. A total of twelve (12) sandstone samples were collected and used for analysis. Out of the twelve sandstone samples, two (2) was deployed for thin section petrographic analysis, while ten (10) was deployed for grain size analysis. The petrographic results from two (2) sandstone samples from different locations reveal dominance in quartz (60% – 65%), feldspar (10%-13%), mica (10%-10%), limonite (15%-8%) with clay matrix and rock fragment less than 3% framework components of the sandstones respectively. These sandstones are mineralogically and texturally sub-mature and have been classified as lithic arkose on the basis of QFR diagram. Quartz in these sandstone samples is monocystalline in nature and feldspars are represented mainly as plagioclase. Provenance of the sandstone deposits within the study area was inferred to be from Abakaliki folded belt or Cameroun Basement Complex, due to the amount of detrital clay and degree of sorting. The textural parameters from the ten (10) samples show that the Agbani Sandstone are moderately to well sorted, medium grained, very negatively skewed and very leptokurtic grains in nature and suggest that the sand was deposited in a fluvial environment.

This project proposes a real time fuzzy assisted particle swarm optimization (PSO) based energy management strategy for the multi-source electric vehicles (EVs). In pure EVs the major on-board energy source is the battery which is generally accompanied with other sources such as fuel cell (FC), ultra capacitor (UC) to improve its life time. The energy management algorithm which is formulated as an optimization problem in this project provides optimum sharing of energy sources to meet the vehicle load requirement at every instant without any prior knowledge about the driving profile. The proposed algorithm is simple, efficient and can be easily implemented in a low cost embedded system.

Lymphoma is a malignant proliferation of lymphatic system cells. Large B-cell lymphoma is one type of the large list of lymphomas. It could occur in the lymphatic system or other body organs outside it. The clinical expression of this kind of tumors can be really variable. Usely there are general signs such as fever, heavy sweating at night and losing of weight. In addition to symptoms related to the local development of the tumor. In this article, we are about to present a case of tonsillar lymphoma which clinical expression could be confused with any benign tonsillar lesion.

Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It’s a major health problem in developing countries such as in north Africa. the incidence of tuberculosis in developing country is increasing, but also in the developed ones due to immunodeficiency. Most clinician do not consider tuberculosis when they are faced a symptomatology that refers to a lesion in the nasopharyngeal area., so often lead to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment. Biopsy and histopathological examination should be done in every case to avoid misdiagnosis. Nasopharyngeal tuberculosis has an excellent prognosis and it has complete resolution if treated properly.

Table of contents for the month of March 2023