Archives-October 2018

This study investigated the feelings of loneliness felt by older adults in Keelung City as well as the relationship between demographic variables, voluntary service participation, social support, and the feelings of loneliness felt by older adults. This study looked at the predictive ability of demographic variables, voluntary service participation, and social support in predicting levels of loneliness. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on a population consisting of older adults aged 65 and above. Purposive sampling was used to obtain a valid sample of 364 people. Tools used include the UCLA Loneliness Scale and a structured questionnaire (prepared by the author) which factored in demographic variables, voluntary service participation, and social support. Statistical analysis of the data obtained was carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 (Windows version). Significant differences were found for education level and self-perceived health status. Respondents who graduated from high school or above felt lower levels of loneliness compared to respondents who were illiterate or had only graduated from elementary school; respondents who perceived themselves as having poor health felt greater levels of loneliness compared to normal or healthy respondents. Voluntary service participation and social support were found to be significantly and negatively correlated to the level of loneliness, indicating that respondents felt lower levels of loneliness when they had stronger intentions of participating in voluntary service or received stronger levels of emotional and social support. Together, voluntary service participation, social support, education level, and self-perceived health status explained 36.4% of the variance in loneliness levels. Of these factors, voluntary service participation was the main predictor of loneliness, followed by social support.

We conducted a study on the causes of deforestation and forest degradation in KATAKO village. Our problem had revolved around the following questions: what is the most active activity in the village KATAKO? Where are the fields of the population of the village KATAKO? What are the causes of deforestation and forest degradation in KATAKO village? What are the socio-economic impacts of anthropogenic activities in the KATAKO village forest? Does the population of KATAKO village know the ecological consequences of deforestation and forest degradation in their environment? To better understand the different issues of our investigation, we formulated the hypotheses according to which: the activity most exercised by the population of the village KATAKO would be the itinerant agriculture on brulis; the fields of the population of KATAKO village would be located in the forest; the causes of deforestation and forest degradation in KATAKO village would be shifting cultivation and logging; the socio-economic impacts of human activities in the KATAKO village forest would be the subsidy to the needs of the families and the payment of the costs of studies; the population of KATAKO village would notice the climatic disturbance as one of the ecological consequences of the deforestation and the degradation of the forest in their environment. To achieve our objectives, we used the retrospective method based on the documentary technique and the prospective method, which had focused on the technique of questionnaire survey, carried out in three stages including a pre-survey, the choice of sampling and the counting. Sampling was determined by interviewing 50 randomly selected people in KATAKO village. After analysis, the following results were obtained: the activity most exercised by the population of the village KATAKO is itinerant agriculture on brulis with 48%; 92% of the respondents prefer to install their fields in the forest; 44% of respondents say that deforestation and forest degradation in the village of Katako are caused by itinerant agriculture on brulis; 52% of respondents say that anthropogenic activities in the forest allow them to provide for their families; 40% of respondents admitted that deforestation and forest degradation in KATAKO village is causing climate perturbation. 

Alcohol abuse is a major global contributing factor to death, disease and injury. Alcohol abuse results in approximately 2.5 million deaths each year, with a net loss of 2.25 million lives, considering the estimated beneficial impact of low levels of alcohol use on some diseases in some population groups. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of religious affiliations on alcohol abuse among public school teachers in Nyeri County. The study used both correlational design and phenomenological design. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in determining the relationship existing between religious affiliation and alcohol abuse and establishing the perception of teachers on alcohol abuse respectively. The study utilised the stratified sampling methodology to select participating teachers in each sub-county and level of the school (primary or secondary). The study had a sample size of 385 respondents. The ratio of primary school teachers to secondary school teachers in the overall teacher population was 5:3 which was also observed in the sample mainly attributed to the high number of primary schools as compared to secondary schools. A sampling frame was obtained from Teachers Service Commission (TSC) providing a list of all teachers in the county and the schools they teach in. The study utilized the stratified sampling methodology to select participants, where strata used was the subcounty and type of school (primary/secondary). A sample of 385 teachers was selected from a population of 6,264 from Nyeri County. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was coded and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The religious affiliations and alcohol abuse had a weak correlation of .290). However, religious affiliation had no significant effect on alcohol abuse among the teachers at .096. The study concludes that there is a relationship between religious affiliation and alcohol abuse among school teachers in Nyeri County. The study recommends religious affiliations to be encouraged as a part of prevention strategies.

This study was conducted to determine the association between Human Resource Management Practices and employees’ performance in selected banks within Kano metropolitan city. A survey research design was adopted and Random sampling technique was used to collect data for the research. A questionnaire with the total of 28 items was distributed among employees of banks for data collection. To investigate the relationship between the independents variables and dependents variables, Pearson correlation coefficients were used. The result indicated that HRM practices (compensation, Performance Appraisal and training) have positive impact on employees’ performance. 

This study includes, comparing management, and teachers’ demographic factor on private and public sectors universities. It was descriptive in nature. It focuses on teachers’ demographic variations of grade, income, experience in determining students’ satisfaction, to measure the effects of students’ demographic variations of family income, parental qualification and profession in determining their level of satisfaction. As managements’, and teachers’ demographic variations were also taken as independent variables while their scores of respondents on research instruments were taken as dependent variables. For sampling a stratified random sample of 700 respondents was collected from respondents of three distinct groups’ i.e. students, management, and teachers. Three different tools were developed and use to get the views of students, management and teachers in public and private sector universities. Collected data was analyzed statistically (descriptive and inferential statistics). Various statistical tests such as mean, Standard Deviation, Analysis of variance, correlation and regression were used to explore research variables with the help of SPSS 21. It revealed that the university students are more satisfied from experienced and highly paid professors.

Hausa and Dakkarci (C’lela) languages are two different languages with closer phonological, morphological, syntactical, as well as semantic structures. Many factors have contributed to the current similarities in the languages, existing in the same area. Nevertheless, they share different features. In view of this, the paper is intended to look at the comparative analysis of Hausa and Dakkarci(C’lela) languages in their sentence construction.

The research sought to assess the impact of ISAL and JLL schemes on rural women’s livelihoods. The research was carried in the form of a case study, in which a sample of 60 women from a population of 123 was used. Purposive and simple random sampling procedures was employed in selecting elements from a population of 123 women. Questionnaires and interviews were used in triangulation to collect data on the sample. After analyzing the collected data, the researcher observed that ISAL and JLL schemes improve rural women’s livelihoods through increased household income, improved access to good health, acquisition of household and productive assets. However, there were institutional and beneficiary’s challenges such as poor infrastructure, late loan recovery, inadequate loan sizes, and lack of markets, loan defaults and economic hardships which hinders the effectiveness of ISAL and JLL schemes. The study recommended that ISAL and JLL schemes must make sure that beneficiaries has collateral security before they offer them loans.

Human resources are one of the vital assets for the success of every organization. In similar manner, in universities, each student’s performance in every schools determines the sustenance or depletion of the institution’s competitive edge towards its competitors. Hence this tracer studies was conducted to determine the present personal and professional profile as well as the IT skills and competencies possessed by the Information Technology (IT) graduates in the Philippines to evaluate the relevance and quality of the programs the universities offered and to prescribe the IT skills and competencies that are sought-after by the labor industries nowadays in the IT field.

The major sources for cracking in the bridge decks are the settlement cracking. As these cracks continued growth due to the factors effect on the durability of the structures such as chloride and sulfates attacks, corrosion if the reinforcement, freeze-thaw damage and others. So these cracks considered a very severe problem at the life time. The object of this paper is to assess the effect of pozzolanic materials on the settlement cracking of concrete. 85 mixes were cast to explore the aim of this research. The main variables were type of concrete (self-compacted concrete, normal concrete), type of supplementary materials (silica fume, fly ash). 1, 2.5, 5, 7.5% of silica fume as a replacement of cement content was used. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 % of fly ash as a replacement of cement content were used. The results clearly that the supplementary materials enhanced the micro-structure of the mixes by reducing the settlement cracking compared with the control mixes. Fly ash reduces the settlement cracks more than silica fume. Settlement cracking didn't observe for the self-compacting concrete mixes. Out of this research; decreasing the settlement cracks yield to get better the durability of the structures, eliminate the abrasion and corrosion of the reinforcement. This yield to decreases the cost needed for maintenance and increases the life time of the structures.

Chronic oesophagitis dissecans secondary to lichen planus is a rare and often unrecognized pathology. The diagnosis is based on clinical (recurrent dysphagia and presence of cutaneous or genital lesions of lichen planus) endoscopic (desquamative esophagitis with proximal or multiple stenosis) and histological features. The treatment is still not well codified and the long-term prognosis remains unknown. We report a case of a woman with this affection with a 5 years follow up.