Archives-October 2012

The use of various fixed beds having higher surface area is effective in removing organic matters and nutrients from municipal wastewater. Due to the higher specific surface area, fibrous materials are often considered a better choice for increased microbial support and treatment efficiency. In the present study two naturally available fibrous materials such as sisal and Oil palm Empty fruit Bunch (OPEFB) fibers having higher specific surface area were used as packing media in two different bio-reactors for sewage treatment, under batch mode and similar experimental conditions. Experimental results obtained were satisfactory at a packing density of 50 kg/m3. The reactors were continuously aerated for different contact times. At a contact time of 72 hours and Mixed Liquor Suspended Solids(MLSS) concentration ranging from 1500-2000 mg/L, the reactors filled with Sisal and OPEFB fibers shows satisfactory COD removal of 69.5% and 73%, BOD5 of 74% and 79.7%, NH3-N of 69% and 72.7%, and Ortho-phosphate of 81% and 82.3% respectively. The study reveals that these fibrous medias could be acceptable for efficient removal of organics and nutrients present in the sewage.

Ground water quality assessment described with 46 samples collected from Thrissur district in Kerala, India. Groundwater samples were anylsed for water quality parameters using standard methods. For the better understanding and simple representation of water types, Piper plot and Schoeller diagrams were employed. Dominant water types in the groundwater are Na-Cl, Ca-HCO3, and Ca-Na-HCO_3. Major quality parameters such as pH, EC, Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO₄, HCO₃, CO₃, NO₃ and F were analysed. Results were compared with WHO standards. This inferred that the groundwater in the Thrissur district is extremely suitable for the drinking purposes.

Nowadays the international attempts to conserve the environment are mainly related to some issues such as; biologically diverse and reasonably non-touched ecosystems. Beside, the location of people live and work, for a small green space in cities and to their profits to people, much less attention is paid to this kind of nature. Much evidence show that the attendance of natural areas leads to the quality of life in many methods. Moreover, many environmental services, urban nature prepare essential social and psychological profits to human society that improves the lives of human senses and emotions. The major objective of this paper is to examine the significance of the urban nature of the welfare of the citizens and the sustainability of the city they live. Some outcomes of a survey conducted between visitors of a city park in Qazvin (The Mellat) are showed and argued. The issues examined concern the motives of people for the urban nature, the emotional dimension involved in the experience of nature and its significance for the broad welfare of the people. The results prove that the experience of nature in an urban environment is a resource of useful emotions and positive services that complete significant immaterial and non-consumptive human requests.

Nowadays in many countries, demand for counterfeit branded products increased and this event makes the study of determinants of consumers counterfeit branded products purchase behavior more worthwhile than ever before. The purpose of this paper was examining the impact of perceived brand image on consumer purchase intention of counterfeits such as clothes and shoes in the context of non-deceptive counterfeiting. The explanatory construct in this study include a brand image (Brand Personality, Perceived product attributes, Perceived benefits). This study conducted in Tehran, Iran. The sample size was 188 consumers in Tehran. The results indicated two of three dimensions of the brand image constructs appear to be significantly influential to consumers purchase intention of counterfeit branded products. The reliability of all adopted scales and validity of questions measured and discussed by conducted Cronbach Alpha coefficient and content validity.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the use of varied steel fibres with different aspect ratio in structural concrete to enhance the mechanical properties of self compacted concrete(SCC). The objective of the study is to determine and do the comparative study of the properties of concrete containing no fibres and concrete with fibres, as well as the comparison on the effects of different type and aspect ratio of fibres to the self compacted concrete. This investigation was carried out using several tests, which included workability tests of SCC, shear test, torsion test, moment etc

Capacity enhancement has been defined in multiple ways; its ultimate purpose is to leave behind better skilled and oriented individuals, more responsive and effective institutions, and a better policy environment for pursuing development goals. Enhancing the capabilities of people in the organization is the most inevitable change expected in the era of globalization and liberalization. People capability enhancement induces better knowledge, skill and aptitude and it develop better business opportunities during global change. To accelerate with new technology, new manufacturing and development process, new ways of meeting the needs of customers, of course, are in need of better capacities and capabilities of people at work. This paper tries to focus on the person's capability assessment, enhancement and its return to better business opportunities and organizational development.

Private Label brands had seen a striking expansion in recent days. Though, initially private label brands had a low-priced strategy, retailers have taken serious efforts quality improvements in recent years. The paper examines how retailers can influence the customers for private label brands by providing additional features in their product. Furthermore, the familiarity of the products may influence the purchase decision. The research method used in this study is descriptive research. Under this study a survey is conducted with the customers in and around the Coimbatore city for their preference towards private label brands. The major limitation in this study is that a few customers led some problems in the customer service area. The study was limited only to 200 customers. The time taken for the survey was between February 2012 and June 2012. The data collected is analysed with the tools like chi-square, weighted average rank and simple percentage method .The present study shows the customer preference for private label brands only in organized retail stores. Personal bias by the respondents may have script in while answering the questions.

This paper discusses the potential of using technologies in the diagnosis, study and intervention treatments of autism. The first part of paper introduces background information on autism spectrum disorder. The second part deals with review of literature survey. The third part summarizes our proposed research work on the connected topic. The fourth part concludes our work as whole.

Menopause is nothing but the complete freedom for a woman from delivering the baby. Women attain menopause at different ages depending upon their health conditions. Menopause has been understood differently in different cultures depending upon its importance and understanding. Women’s reproductive life begins with puberty and end up with menopause. In between this woman will undergo series of reproductive hazards and this cannot be revealed publically. In this paper an attempt has been made to understand ‘menopause’ in a rural setting keeping in view the farm women labourers, who are by and large illiterate and superstitious in nature.

A numerical study of viscoelastic buoyancy-driven unsteady natural convection boundary layer flow past a vertical cone embedded in a non-Darcian isotropic porous regime with transverse magnetic field applied normal to the surface is considered. The heat and mass flux at the surface of the cone is modeled as a power-law according to and respectively, where x denotes the coordinate along the slant face of the cone. Both Darcian drag and Forchheimer quadratic porous impedance are incorporated into the two-dimensional viscous flow model. The transient boundary layer equations are then non-dimensionalized and solved by the Crank-Nicolson implicit difference method. The velocity, temperature and concentration fields have been studied for the effect of Grashof number, Darcy number, Forchheimer number, Prandtl number, surface heat flux power-law exponent (m), surface mass flux power-law exponent (n), Schmidt number, buoyancy ratio parameter and semi-vertical angle of the cone. Present results for selected variables for the purely fluid regime are compared with the non-porous study by Hossain and Paul [9] and are found to be in excellent agreement. The local skin friction, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are also analyzed graphically. The study finds important applications in geophysical heat transfer, industrial manufacturing processes and hybrid solar energy systems.