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This paper presents a study on the selection and optimization of the elevator system for commercial buildings. Since the elevator industry began in 1853, elevators become more and more common in people’s daily life. Now, elevator system design is an important part of commercial building service design. A good elevator system can contribute marks for the performance of commercial building. This study includes an assessment of the utilization of this vertical transportation to run the daily matters of the building productively and safely according to the regulations and standards. In addition, it will also look into the method to arrange the transportation in a building which has high-flow of people. 1st Avenue Penang, Malaysia is chosen as the observation site in this study. It is hoped that this study will provide some useful insight on the transportation system (elevators) in the commercial building.

Management, being a collection of processes like decision making, problem solving and planning needs application of appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes from the management personnel. Proper management of resources like human, material, time and finances should translate to improved performance. Such practices as staff development, supervision, staff empowerment, supervision, communication, resource allocation and utilization and leadership styles when properly coordinated should lead to good performance. Kakamega Central District has in the past five years, from the 2007 to 2012, registered negative deviation by public primary schools in the Kenya Certificate Primary Education (KCPE) performance. Previous studies have attributed poor academic performance to environmental conditions, school enrolment, poor teacher-pupil ratio, inadequate resource materials and government policies. This study sought to establish by investigation the causal link between management strategies and pupils academic performance in KCPE in Kakamega Central District. It is hoped that the findings and recommendations of this study will be of importance to heads of schools in terms of solutions for the future empowerment of teachers in order to improve their performance and the performance of pupils in their national and any other examinations. The information obtained can assist school administrators to develop strategies for involving teachers, pupils and the community in decision making, goal formulation and job satisfaction which in turn will positively influence the overall performance of their schools. The findings also add to a wealth of knowledge, skills and techniques in improving primary school head teachers in their management of schools which foster the teachers’ relationship with administrators leading to job satisfaction and good content delivery which brings excellent academic performance. Theoretically, the study tends to provoke leadership that fosters empowerment of teachers so as to improve their performance. First, it identifies opinions, concerns and preconceived notions the teachers have about the head teachers or school administrative structure. Essentially, the idea is to equip, help, educate and encourage the school management regarding management practices which are affordable and culturally appropriate in addressing low productivity in schools. Schools need information on practices that hinder them from optimizing performance. Finally, the study also elicited some other underlying problems that affect institutions’ performance other than those known to the researcher.

Mathematics teachers are expected to integrate technology in their teaching to enhance pedagogical practice and student achievement. However, importance has not been placed on preparing teachers to use ICTs in their instruction. This paper reports on a study conducted to explore the feasibility of ICT use in mathematics teaching at the secondary school level. Based on an expanded variation of the Technology Acceptance Model, a survey of student teachers were collected at local universities in Kenya. It explores the factors affecting the integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in instruction. A questionnaire was administered to 110 student-teachers of mathematics seeking to get their attitudes to ICT in learning and teaching and their initial experiences of the application of ICT in mathematics instruction. In-depth interviews with the student-teachers, as well as university lecturers and teachers, revealed a range of issues that reflected how student-teachers perceive integration of ICT’s in mathematics instruction. Recommendations are offered for the improvement of the ICT experiences for student-teachers during training and improved ICT infrastructure in schools. The overriding conclusion is that schools must be supported and resourced properly, and pre- service teachers must have effective ICT training.

Equity markets are the reflection of macro-economic policies of the state is generally considered as a controversial hypothesis. Therefore it is required to explore the relationship among economic variables and equity prices in context to Pakistan economy. This study comprised on monthly data regarding to the period (6/2004-6/2010). Variables under study are Foreign exchange rate, Money supply M1, Inflation rate, Interest rate, Industrial production index and Karachi stock exchange (KSE 100 index). Descriptive statistics, Augmented dickey fuller test, Johansen’s cointgeration test is used to test the hypothesis and for the purpose of impact study, Ordinary least squares applied. The results indicate that only Interest rates have long run relationship to the equity market. All remaining variables have negative while interest rate has a positive, but having insignificant impact on the equity returns. The results are not favored in predicting the equity returns in Pakistan context.

The present study empirically investigates the risk and return relationship by loading the macroeconomic information in standard CAPM in addition to market information. One hundred financial and non financial companies listed on Karachi Stock Exchange are investigated over a period of January 2005 to August 2011. Monthly data is used for the company asset prices, market portfolio and macroeconomic variables in this study. The macroeconomic variables are used as additional risk forces in the model. The study makes use of CAPM with unconditional and conditional specification for the prediction of future asset prices. The time varying conditional information and lagged macroeconomic variables are added in the model. The GARCH (1, 1) – M technique is applied to capture the conditional volatility clustering of asset returns. The findings of the current study reveals that conditional multifactor CAPM have better results than unconditional multifactor CAPM model. The residuals and conditional variances have significantly positive impact and are helpful in explaining time varying behaviour of asset returns. The macroeconomic variables such as oil prices, foreign exchange rate, foreign exchange reserves, inflation rate, interest rate, and money supply play significant role while industrial production index, unemployment rate, and market returns have inconclusive role in this study. The study concludes that macroeconomic risk factors play a prominent role in explaining stock returns.

The study attempted to examine the problem of student’s militancy, causes of irritancy and find out possible solution as they are related to the educational institution in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The population of the study includes 20 colleges including fifty per cent private and 50 % public (both genders), their principals and teachers. The sample included 20 colleges (both genders) in public and private sectors. Thus ten colleges including five male and female were randomly selected in public sector and the same proportion in private sector, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Both close-ended and open-ended questionnaires were the tools of the study, which were fielded to principals and teachers. The role of unionism, its advantages, disadvantages, causes of irritancy and suggested measures for solution of problem remained the focus of the study. The data were subjected to analysis, which were given both quantitative and qualitative treatment. The outcome of the study was that the student militancy adversely affected student’s learning and wastage of the valuable time that they could otherwise utilize for purposeful and co-curricular activities. The data were collected at source and analyzed through statistical measures. The outcome of the study was that there were both advantages and disadvantages of student’s unions, which largely depended on their use and misuse. The proposed measures included a couple of implementable suggestions for addressing the problem areas.

The present paper reviews the comparative effect of different transition metal complexes derived from hexaminecobalt(III) chloride metal complex on the thermal properties of polyaniline nanocomposites. These metal complexes are obtained through photo-substitution route in which some of the amine ligands of the hexaminecobalt(III) chloride metal complex are photochemically substituted by different organic ligands like 1,10 phenenthroline, pyrazine and imidazole. It is observed that the metal complexes thus synthesised containing both organic and inorganic moieties enhance the thermal stability of polyaniline to a great extent as compared to simple hexamine metal complex filled nanocomposite. However, as far as the role of different incorporating organic ligands of metal complexes on the thermal properties of polyaniline nanocomposites are concerned, there seems to be little or no effect.

This study was designed to examine the effects of different concentrations of endosulfan on accumulation of antioxidants and total phenolics, in an aquatic fern Azolla microphylla Methods: Azolla microphylla were collected from paddy fields, Department of Biological Sciences, SHIATS, Allahabad. Fronds were cleaned, washed and experiment was carried at an interval of 3 and 7days using 0, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400 and 600 ppm concentrations of endosulfan. The total phenol content was estimated by Folin–Ciocalteu assay and its antioxidant activity was determined by free radical scavenging DPPH assay, Ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) assay and Guaiacol peroxidase (G-POD) assay. The highest total phenolic content (TPC), enzyme and antioxidant activity was observed at 200 ppm and 100 ppm after 3rd and 7th day of incubation respectively. After that there was there was gradual decrease in phenolic content and antioxidant activity. Total phenolic content and antioxidant activity showed increment at lower concentrations however a significant reduction in TPC and antioxidant activity was observed at higher concentrations suggesting a loss in antioxidant power of this potential eco-friendly fern.

Water supply payment system is old fashioned has many problem and need improvement. In this paper a new approach was designed that is based on pay method where you buy amount of water in advance. Water companies have difficulties in accessing conventional water meters in remote places. Inefficiency is increased with growing number of population .It has high cost and difficulties in delivering water bills. This paper discusses a pre-paid SMS based water dispensing system that solves these problems by allowing the amount of flow of water pre-paid to pass through based on low cost intelligent control system that uses microcontroller, solenoid valve, turbine flow meter and GSM server. This system accurately controls the amount of water paid for in advance without human intervention or need for conventional water meters by turning solenoid valve on and allowing certain amount of water to pass through the flow meter until credit expires shutting the solenoid valve. The software application provides real time information about the credit left and quantity of water consumed both locally on LCD and remotely by SMS server as well as date and time and validity of credit if applicable.

Education is a basic right and essential part of human rights as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For the right to education to be realized, the process of learning should reflect the needs and aspirations of society. Technology is one such avenue through which education objectives may be achieved. Whereas evidence shows an increase in investment in ICTs in education in Kenya, perceptions of teachers on use of ICTs as a teaching and learning tool in secondary school agriculture has not been studied much, more so in Bungoma County. The purpose of this study was to establish the teachers’ perceptions on use of ICTs in the teaching and learning of secondary agriculture in Bungoma County. A descriptive research design was employed. The target population of the study consisted of 498 agriculture teachers of secondary schools in Bungoma County. Purposive sampling was used to select 120 respondents. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Validity of the instrument was ensured by input from the supervisors from the Department of Agricultural Education and Extension at Egerton University. Reliability was established by pretesting it with 30 agriculture teachers from the neighbouring Kakamega County. Data was collected and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20. The results were presented in frequencies, means and percentages. The study established that the perception of agriculture teachers towards the use of ICTs in teaching and learning was positive as a higher frequency of teachers agreed that use of ICTs in teaching and learning was useful. The study also established that few teachers used ICTs in teaching of agriculture as compared to other subjects as a higher percentage of agriculture teachers agreed that preparation of a lesson that involved use of ICT in teaching and learning was more demanding than the conventional approach. The study recommends that teachers of agriculture should have opportunity to train in use of ICT for teaching and learning, and also develop initiatives at personal level to improve their ICTs skills.

Terpolymer resins (o-APUF) synthesized by the condensation of o-aminophenol and urea with formaldehyde in the presence of acid catalyst, were proved to be selective chelation ion-exchange copolymers for certain metals. The chelating ion-exchange properties of these terpolymers were studied for Fe(III), Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions in the form of their metal nitrate solutions. A batch equilibrium method was employed in the study of the selectivity of metal ion uptake involving the measurements of the distribution of a given metal ion between the terpolymer sample and a solution containing the metal ion. The study was carried out over a wide pH range, shaking time and in media of various ionic strengths of different electrolytes. The ion-exchange capacity of metal ions has also been determined experimentally and compared with other commercial resins. Besides ion-exchange properties, the terpolymer resins were also characterized by viscometric measurements in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO), UV-visible absorption spectra in non-aqueous medium, infra-red spectra, nuclear magnetic resonance spectra and C13 NMR spectra. The physico-chemical and spectral methods were used to elucidate the structures of o-APUF resins. The morphology of the terpolymers was studied by scanning electron microscopy; showing amorphous nature of the resins therefore can be used as a selective ion-exchanger for certain metal ions.

The preparation of berbamine-loaded chitosan-agarose microspheres was studied. Optimum preparing parameters were determined by orthogonal experiments as follows: ratio of berbamine to chitosan (w/w) is 1:10; percentage of emulsifier (span 80, v/v) is 6%; volume of glutaraldehyde is 2 mL; and reaction temperature is 70°C. Under these optimal conditions, the encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of microspheres are 84.57% and 8.44%, respectively. The berbamine-loaded microspheres were spherical with smooth surface, uniform size and without aggregation morphology. In vitro release studies showed that berbamine was released from microspheres in a significantly sustained fashion.

Phosphorus is important for finger millet production in many tropical African soils with low phosphorus fertility. Knowledge of redirection of this limited resource for reproduction is fundamental in realization of potential yields. The effect of four phosphorus levels (0, 12.5, 25.0 and 37.5 kg ha-1 P2O5) and three varieties (U-15, P-224 and a local check) on the days to flowering and maturity of finger millet were evaluated in three agro-ecologies in Kenya during the raining seasons of 2014-2015. Phosphorus application significantly (P<0.05) increased early flowering and physiological maturity in Kakamega and Busia. The varieties elicited significantly different days to 50% flowering and maturation periods in all the study sites. The days to flowering and maturity were found to be lowly but negatively correlated with the grain yield of finger millet in all the sites.

The innovation of generic technology for the development of the manufacturing sector has an important basic role, and for the generic technology research and development, there is lack of effective attention. Especially in manufacturing industry, the development of generic technology still can't meet the national economy and the needs of the development of manufacturing industry. Especially compared with foreign countries generic technology innovation development and application there is a considerable gap. On the basis of introducing the classification and features of manufacturing generic technology, this paper analyzes the influence factors and main body of generic technology innovation in the manufacturing industry. Finally, it derived the process model of manufacturing generic technology innovation from the process model of manufacturing technology innovation

The organizational learning theory and the competitive advantage theory are hot focuses in academia recently. But both of them are always expounded respectively and connective researches are rare. This paper is to attempt to combine the two together and carry on the research. Relative models of organizational learning have been introduced in the process of cultivating the enterprise’s sustainable competitive advantage. On this basis, an integrated organizational learning model has been put forward as an effective tool to cultivate the enterprise’s sustainable competitive advantage.

Human affiliative behaviors are indispensable for the physical and psychological wellbeing and normal development of individuals. However, how to study the neurobiology of affiliation from temperamental domain is little examined. Based on theoretical arguments about affiliative behaviors in temperamental domain, this review clarifies the concept of affiliative temperament, and then provides a review of the neurobiology of affiliative temperament by the integration of the mirror neuron system (MNS), the dopaminergic reward system, and the neuropeptides. Reviews show that affiliative temperament is firstly a complex and as a part of it, emotional contagion roots in the MNS from the birth. Secondly, the dopaminergic system relating to affiliative temperament can be divided into the regulative system including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulated cortex (ACC), and the evaluative system including superior temporal sulcus (STS), ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (NAcc), insula, and amygdala. Thirdly, oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VAP) modulate neural circuits in VTA and NAcc. Finally, structural and functional abnormalities in affiliation-related brain circuits contribute to the pathogenesis of psychopathological disorders as well as antisocial behaviors.

Climate change and climate variability and financial institutions’ unwillingness to give loans have resulted in many farmers losing confidence in dry land agriculture. Traditional crop insurance methods have also presented challenges due to the risk related to adverse selection and moral hazard resulting in high transaction costs for individual assessment. This study focused on developing a weather index based insurance model that uses artificial neural networks to estimate potential evapotranspiration (ETO) and consequently yield reduction due to moisture stress. Weather data from 2012 to 2015 for Kutsaga area in Harare was used for the study. Seasonal weather data were used as input data to the first model to predict the ETo. The output ETO and effective rainfall data together with the crop factor (Kc), yield reduction factor (Ky), root zone depth (RzD) and root zone moisture (RzM)were used as input data for the second network to compute % yield reduction. Data for maize for the 2012-13 growing season was used for training the network and validating the estimated ETO and % yield reduction. The estimated ETO compared very well with the calculated values with R2 values of above 0.84. The estimated yield reduction % indicated even high accuracies with R2 values of above 0.91. The 2014-2015 growing season resulted in crop loss due to mid-season dry spells and the model predicted a 100% crop loss which means the farmer had to be compensated for the value equivalent to cost of inputs. The model has got potential to be used by insurance companies using weather based data and, with mobile banking transaction costs can be reduced.Climate change and climate variability and financial institutions’ unwillingness to give loans have resulted in many farmers losing confidence in dry land agriculture. Traditional crop insurance methods have also presented challenges due to the risk related to adverse selection and moral hazard resulting in high transaction costs for individual assessment. This study focused on developing a weather index based insurance model that uses artificial neural networks to estimate potential evapotranspiration (ETO) and consequently yield reduction due to moisture stress. Weather data from 2012 to 2015 for Kutsaga area in Harare was used for the study. Seasonal weather data were used as input data to the first model to predict the ETo. The output ETO and effective rainfall data together with the crop factor (Kc), yield reduction factor (Ky), root zone depth (RzD) and root zone moisture (RzM)were used as input data for the second network to compute % yield reduction. Data for maize for the 2012-13 growing season was used for training the network and validating the estimated ETO and % yield reduction. The estimated ETO compared very well with the calculated values with R2 values of above 0.84. The estimated yield reduction % indicated even high accuracies with R2 values of above 0.91. The 2014-2015 growing season resulted in crop loss due to mid-season dry spells and the model predicted a 100% crop loss which means the farmer had to be compensated for the value equivalent to cost of inputs. The model has got potential to be used by insurance companies using weather based data and, with mobile banking transaction costs can be reduced.

This paper advances research on strategic entrepreneurship and small firm competitiveness from the Resource-Based perspective. Several scholars have explained the Resource-Based View mainly in the context of the large firms. The paper considers a review of literatures on strategic entrepreneurship and the Resource-Based View and contends small firms lack resources compared with the large ones, however, their “opportunity-seeking” activities is a rare resource. It is opined an understanding of the interactions of these concepts, that is, the simultaneous pursuit of “opportunity- and advantage-seeking” positions is critical for small firms that operate in dynamic competitive environments to create and sustain competitive advantages.

Leadership is vital in raising and maintaining educational standards, providing clear leadership for staff and students, running the school effectively, and helping develop the ethos and vision for the school as a whole. The study sought to assess the perceived influences of leadership styles on students’ performance, investigate the leadership roles and practices school administrators adopt to improve students’ achievements, elicit the viewpoints of school administrators, teachers and students on their preferred leadership styles. The study adopted a descriptive study design. A total of 286 respondents were sampled from a total population of 6,425. Simple random sampling procedure was used to sample students and teachers, while all the six (6) head teachers of the selected schools were used for the study.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, women engaged in small scale farming are believed to produce about 80% of crops used in feeding their families. This study was carried out to determine socio-economic factors influencing level of participation of rural women in crop farming in Kakelo Location, Homa Bay County, Kenya. Levels of participation in crop farming were determined with respect to farming activities in which the respondents participated such as land preparation, planting, weeding, pest and disease control, harvesting and storage. The level of participation was determined on a scale of 0 (“no participation”) to 4 (“full participation.”). The study was done using descriptive cross-sectional design involving stratified cluster sampling method to select participants. A sample size of 288 women among a population of 17 812 in the study area was interviewed using questionnaires. Chi-square test was used to establish association between socioeconomic factors and level of participation. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study found out that only 21.2% of the respondents reported full participation in crop farming. Women with formal employment reported highest level of 41.7% full participation (X2=0.69, P=0.79). Also, acquisition of education, at least up to high school, improved the level of participation of the women in crop farming (X2=32.92, P=0.00). Education and formal employment increased the women’s access to credit and technical information, which improved level of crop farming. Acreage of cultivated farmland did not appear to have any significant association with level of participation in crop farming. The study revealed that out of the 288 respondents, none of them had ever received any agricultural extension service within the location in the last five years. In conclusion, the fact that only 21.2% of the respondents in Kakelo Location, Homa Bay County, Kenya, reported full participation in crop farming indicated dismal contribution by majority women to improvement of household food security. Therefore, it is recommended that more effort should be put into increasing level of rural women participation in crop farming.

The central issue in this work is to examine the role the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) played in the 2015 Presidential election in Nigeria. To unravel this, we employed the historical and phenomenological method in our analysis and arrived at the finding that CAN ahead of the 2015 presidential election was divided along denominational and ideological lines and consequently could not speak with one voice. Given this finding, the paper maintains that the age-long denominational rivalry between the Catholic Church and Protestants is far from being over; hence the difficulty in arriving at a unanimous decision. The paper concludes with Darrel Lee that “the body of Christ can only thrive when believers work together in harmony” (Ehianu, 2007:119)

The Uganda Vision 2040 is a blue print identifying the development paths and strategies to operationalise Uganda’s Vision statement which is to transform the Ugandan from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years. The vision aims at transforming Uganda from a predominantly peasant and low-income country to a competitive upper middle-income country. This paper explored how higher education can contribute to the achieving of the Uganda vision 2040. The findings indicated that higher education influences development of improved technology, knowledge transfer, promotes national unity, promotes democracy, supports innovation and increase productivity which are all important if Uganda is to achieve the Vision 2040. Thus, this paper suggests that for higher education to contribute the achieving of Uganda Vision 2040, it is necessary for the government of Uganda to engage higher education in the process of implementing the vision 2040. The government of Uganda also needs to support the institutions of higher education such that they are able to develop the capacities they need to be able to help the country achieve its Vision 2040.

The main objective of this study is to ensure the tourists are served by professional tour guides who can meet their satisfactions’ and eventually improve the tour guides livelihood as well as tourism industry growth. Open-ended level of education and lack of barrier to guiding carrier might have affected the performance of tour guides in Lushoto District Tanzania for long time. The post-training evaluation has revealed that 13 (66%) of the respondents have noted increase in number of visitors in their organization after training. This has been justified by 10 (50%) of the respondents who claimed to note income increase than a year before which has boosted tour guides livelihood. The findings have shown tour guides have changed in behaviour and the way they think and act, which helped them to avoid committing mistakes which they were doing before the training. And 18 (90%) of the respondents justified that by being able to list some of the do and don’ts which proves how serious they are on the ethics matters. Indeed, the training has brought the tour guides together through the formed Usambara Local Tour Guides Association (ULTGA) and will be able to get government ID cards first and finally be given license after attending two months training. A good number of respondents 13 (67%) admit to abide on tour guides ethics and 15 (75%) of respondents are using marketing techniques to attract tourists in their organizations than before. Tour guides have shown enthusiasm to become professional guides.

Biofertilzers are substances obtained from living microorganisms with the potential to supply crops with useful nutrients. Commonly used Biofertilizers supply nitrogen and phosphorus, and these nutrients are the most limiting ones in Sub-Saharan African. Nitrogen has a higher leaching capacity and thus more losses are experienced in agriculture than what is up taken by crops for growth while P sources are getting depleted. Despite many soils lacking these elements, the peasant farmers cannot afford their high cost. On the other hand, if supplied in higher amounts, lead to pollution of ground and surface bodies and eutrophication in the water bodies in the catchment areas. Biofertilizers are therefore considered to be eco-friendly and cost effective. These micro-organisms once inoculated in the soil show different modes of action that promote nutrient availability to crops. These mechanisms include; scavenging for nutrients from soil layers, solubilization of some inorganic compounds, and production of growth promoting metabolites, decomposition, and fixation of the free nitrogen from the atmosphere. However, the use of these biofertilizers has different challenges which may contribute for low adoption by farmers. The review therefore seeks to understand mode of application, mechanisms of plant uptake and the reasons that dissuade farmers from adopt these noble techniques.

A lot of researches on student learning styles found that each student exhibits unique characteristics, learns differently and possess a particular learning style (Zhang, 2000). However, it is not clear if students need to possess certain learning styles to be high achievers. Therefore this study aims to explore the learning style/s of a high achieving student. An interview was conducted on a student who has achieved excellent grades in the study with at least two semesters in the President’s List. The results showed that the student has not adopted any specific learning styles in her study; rather combination of styles has been utilized.

The purpose of this study is to address the gaps in the literature and compare the job satisfaction between school leavers and college graduates. Specifically, the proposed study sought to expand the existing, yet limited research exploring job satisfaction between school-leavers and college graduates. In this study, the comparison includes these factors: the job itself (work conditions, employment benefits, job challenge, job security, and educational benefit), pay, opportunities for promotion, supervisor, and coworkers (Wei & Kopischke, 2001). This study used MSQ as a data gathering tool. The questionnaires were administered to 89 male respondents, 55 are school-leavers and 34 are graduates, and 121 female respondents, 60 are school-leavers and 61 are graduates. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was employed as a tool to conduct independent t-test, and descriptive statistical analysis. The results showed insignificant differences of job satisfaction between the variables. Several recommendations for future studies were also listed.

The purpose of this study is to address the gaps in the literature and to examine the predictors of job satisfaction. In this study, the hypothesized predictors influencing one’s job satisfaction are a) gender, b) age, c) level of education, d) salary, e) role in the job, and f) years of working in the organization. This study used Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) as a data gathering tool. The questionnaires were administered to 89 male respondents, and 121 female respondents. For data analysis, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was employed. In addition to conducting a multiple regression analysis (MRA), descriptive statistical analysis was also carried out as part of the data analysis. Of all the predictors studied, results indicated gender as the only significant predictor of one’s job satisfaction. Several recommendations for future studies were also listed.

This study was undertaken to assess the characteristics of solid waste generated in the three campuses of the university viz Abuja, Delta and Choba campus. Open dumpsites were identified in each campus and a representative sample of solid waste (5kg) was obtained. The results showed that food waste contributed the highest percentage composition of 35.9% in Choba followed by Abuja (25.49%) and Delta Park (17.39%). Paper had the highest percentage composition of 26.45% in Delta Park, followed by Abuja Park (23.14%) and Choba (10.71%). Wood had the least composition of 1.96% in Abuja Park but absent in Delta and Choba Park. The results further showed that food waste had the highest composition of M.S.W generated in Choba (Weight kg) 3.55, followed by Abuja Park (2.6) and Delta Park (2.1) while wood had the least weight generated of 0.20 in Abuja Park and absent in Delta and Choba Park. The data analysis revealed that there was no significant difference in the composition of waste in the different campuses at p<0.05. It is believed that given the characteristics of these waste streams, an integrated solid waste management system in the University will enhance the adequate utilization of the various categories of solid waste in the areas of resources, recovery and waste-to-energy.

Malaria and HIV infections are co-endemic throughout most of the topical and sub-saharan Africa and both present major threat to public health. A study on the prevalence of HIV Co-infection, Malaria interaction and CD4+ count was carried out on 1000 patients attending a tertiary health facility in Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State using Cyflow cytometer and Microscopy for parasite detection. Five Hundred HIV positive individual were examined for the presence of malaria Parasite and CD4+ count level, Two Hundred and Fifty individuals were used to determine malaria intensity in relation to CD4+ count level in HIV negative patients. The results showed higher malaria prevalence of 38.5% and prevalence according to age showed a higher prevalence of 45.8% among age group 31-40 and a lower prevalence of 31.5% among age group 41-50 at p =0.029. females had higher rate of infection with 20.1% prevalence than males with 18.4% in relation to sex at P=0.333 (P>0.05). malaria intensity had highest prevalence of 50.8% and a lowest intensity level of 16.7% at P=0.033. Hence the study suggest that malaria and HIV co-infection requires special medical attention. Further studies to elucidate the interaction between Malaria and HIV for better management are recommended.

Physico-chemical parameters of brackish and freshwater of the New Calabar River were studied between October to December, 2016, using standard methods. The comparative results showed the mean temperature (27.77±0.170 and 28.00±0.180C), pH (7.12±0.01 and 6.23±0.03), total dissolved solids (2657.00±24.0mg/L and 9.90±0.14mg/L), salinity (6269.95±67.25mg/L and 7.19±0.04mg/L), dissolved oxygen (6.34±0.06mg/L and 6.09±0.01mg/L), biochemical oxygen demand (17.53±0.11mg/L and 51.06±0.20mg/L) for brackish and freshwater respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) in pH, TDS, TSS, DO, BOD and COD whereas temperature showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) when both water bodies are compared. The physico-chemical parameters from both water bodies were favourable for fish production although some were to a large extent above the WHO limits. The study revealed the need for continuous pollution monitoring and management programme of surface water in Rivers State and Nigeria as a whole.

This study was conducted to ascertain the level of pollution caused by industrial and domestic wastes in New Calabar Rivers and their effects on the benthic fauna of the river between July – September, 2010. Three stations were selected within the study area. Sediments samples were collected using hand trowel twice a month for the period of three months while water samples were aseptically taken from the three stations using sterile screw capped bottles. The result showed that 12 taxa of benthic invertebrates were identified from the New Calabar River. Gastropoda and crustacean were the most abundant classes. The class Gastropoda had the highest number of families (4) with 4 species while crustacean consisted of 3 families with 3 species. Oligochaeta had 2 families and was represented by 2 species other classes such as Hirudinea 2 families and 2 species and Insecta with a single family and 1 speciies. Class Gastopoda had the highest percentage species composition (30.8%). Insecta 23.1%, Oligochaeta, Crustacea and Hirudinea had 15.4%. Turbificid sp. and Libyodrilus sp. had 33.8% relative abundance, Gastropoda 27.0%, while Hirudinea, Insecta and Crustacea had least abundance of 4.1%. Physico-chemical parameters for the various stations were analyzed as: Biochemical Oxygen Demand ranged from 3.6mg/L – 15.5mg/L, COD (4.0mg/L – 19.3mg/L), Ammonia (0.01mg/L – 0.4mg/L), temperature (240C – 270C) and Dissolved Oxygen 8.0mg/L to 0.8mg/L. The deterioration of this water body has cause adverse effects on human and the ecosystem, therefore a constant supervision of companies operating within the area is required to ensure effective treatment of the effluents before discharge. Keyword: Effluents, Sediments, Species, Companies & Samples.

Ogbum-nu-Abali Creek of Port Harcourt metropolis was undertaken to assess the impact of human activities in relation to physico-chemistry between March – May, 2006. Results of physico-chemical parameters showed that most of the parameters were higher than the maximum permissible limits for surface waters and discharge of wastewaters into surface waters. Results further showed that pH ranges from 6.20 – 6.70 with a mean value of 6.54 mean values of parameters included: conductivity (1602.03 ?s/cm), TSS (174.78mg/L), TDS (5187.577mg/L), Turbidity (8.12NTU), BOD5 (27.95mg/L), DO (4.51mg/L), Oil and Grease (5.77mg/L), Phosphate (0.443mg/L), Lead (0.3mg/L), Fe (2.74mg/L), Manganese (11.54mg/L), Chromium (0.33mg/L) and Temperature (28.170C) respectively. The creek was transparent, foamy, slimy, slightly smelly and no animal life was sighted in it due to deterioration of water quality as evident by high BOD and low oxygen content. It is pertinent to state that anthropogenic activities in and around the creek have given rise to alteration of the physico-chemical characteristics of the water quality rendering it unfit for recreational exercise, therefore, the abattoir at Ahiamakara leading to Nkpogu community should be discontinued to avoid water pollution. Keywords: Anthropogenic activities, pollution, discharge, creek, and rivers.

This study was to compare the effect of maggot meal and coppens feed on the growth and survival rate of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings. The feeding trial lasted for 85 days with 135 specimens of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings of average initial weight of 1.33g, fed with 5% of their total body weight twice daily with maggot meal, coppens feed and a combination of maggot meal and coppens feed. The study was completely randomized and had three treatments and three replicates in the ratio (50:50). The result for growth showed mean final weight of 24.12g, 21.92g, 22.89g for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet respectively. Mean weight gains of 22.77g, 20.59g and 21.57g for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet, was not statistically significant at P<0.05. it also showed that there was an increase in length of fish from a mean initial length of 5.49cm, 5.32cm 5.37cm for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet to a final length of 17.5cm, 16.13cm and 16.21cm for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet, mean length gains of 12.01cm, 10.80cm and 10.84cm for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet respectively, was not statistically significant at P<0.05. The mean specific growth rate (SGR) was 3.39, 3.28 and 3.33 for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet respectively but not statistically significant at P<0.05. The feed intake was 46.57g, 43.91g and 44.96g for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet respectively was not statistically significant at P<0.05. The feed conversion ratio 0.51, 0.52 and 0.52 for maggot meal, coppens feed and control respectively was not statistically significant at P<0.05. The result further showed that maggot meal performed better than coppens feed but not statistically different at P<0.05. This shows that maggot meal can replace coppens feed in the culture of the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings. Therefore, farmers are encouraged to grow maggots in large quantity so far it can be used to culture Clarias gariepinus.

 Disputes have existed in all cultures, religions, and societies since time immemorial, as long as humans have dwelt the earth. Nations, groups, and individuals have tried throughout history to manage conflicts in order to minimize the negative and undesirable effects that dispute may pose. Disputes can develop in any situation where people interact, in every situation where two or more persons, or groups of people, perceive that their interests are opposing, and that these interests cannot be met to the satisfaction of all the parties involved. The phrase dispute resolution is simply a collection of procedures intended to prevent, manage or resolve disputes and refers procedures ranging from negotiation to state sanctioned mechanisms called litigation. As volume of international economic transactions rise, resultant disputes require efficient and effective resolutions. There are many regional and international investment and commercial dispute resolution centers. By relying on secondary data sources and qualitative data description and analysis, this article firmly argues that Addis Ababa which is capital city of both Ethiopia and Africa has great prospect to become regional commercial and investment dispute resolution center. It suggests also that all concerned bodies should act to tap this opportunity.

Shareholders are normally owners of the corporation’s assets and the fact that such assets are controlled by the management body is the cause for many of the problems dealt by corporate governance. Shareholders meeting as management organ can play sizeable roles in corporate governance. The problem addressed by this article is therefore what necessary measures can further strengthen the shareholders controlling mechanisms on the corporation upon which they invested their capital. Even though there are many theories concerning their roles in corporate democracy, none of them seem to win the battle. The query of the paper is how to enhance role of shareholders in corporate governance. The paper mainly uses doctrinal research method. Therefore the rules governing shareholders meetings should be well designed in a way of enabling them play their part. It may include access of electronic voting, possibility of voting by mail, facilitating sufficient information disclosure mechanisms, adopting advisory voting and the rules necessary to such vote, facilitating easy exit mechanism to shareholders dissatisfied by majority holders, introduction of stock exchange market could enhance shareholders governance role. Moreover possibility of derivative suits by shareholders is also another mechanism that should be available to them to promote control.

This research was carried out in Keta Municipality of Volta Region of Ghana to investigate how resources are used in the production of chili pepper. A simple random technique was used to select 100 chili pepper farmers from three communities in Woe, Keta Municipality. The data was collected from December 2010 to January 2011. The Cobb-Douglas production function was used to determine the resource use efficiency of inputs used by the farmers. The findings of the study showed that the farmers were operating in stage two of the production frontier. This was shown from the elasticities of the various inputs, showing diminishing return which is a characteristic of the stage two of the production function. However, the farmers were found not to be efficient in allocating the resources for production in the study area. The ratio of the marginal value product (MVP) and the marginal factor cost (MFC) was found to be less than unity for all the inputs except labour and organic manure. The study recommends that the farmers should reduce the level of those inputs that are being over used. They should rather increase the use of organic manure and maintain the quantity of labour use.

This paper analyzed the latest development of ESL teaching and gave a new definition about college English teacher from postmethod’s perspective. Through discussion on difficulties faced by college English teachers, this paper also analyzed the characteristics about college English teachers’ professional development, and gave new thoughts and methods for college English teachers to promote their professionalization.

This research discusses the English listening comprehension problems of university international students from China. The research used a qualitative method to collect data from three China’s students taking English Listening Comprehension (ELC) in University Sains Malaysian (USM). This study is a research report related to the problems encounter by China’s students in ELC learning. Interview was conducted to investigate students’ perspective through the main question concerning the problems from the China’s students in their ELC self-learning process in three steps, which is the pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. Findings from this study indicated that the main problem faced by the China’s students was the lack of prior knowledge in English vocabulary, this inhibit their understanding in the listening process. Moreover, the differences in the ascent of the native speakers prohibit the proper understanding of the listening content, the short span of concentration, and the learning habit of China’s students were discussed as the problems of the ELC learning. This enhances the data availability and the interpretative analysis. In order to validate the data and the analysis, researcher experiences and documents analysis were conducted. This research laid a good foundation for further research; it provided useful information concerning the effective strategies to enhance students’ listening skills and will improve the instruction of English listening class to achieve the win-win situation.

In order to improve the efficiency of the work in daily life, we adopt the office automation (OA) system to assist the management and service. By the online function and automatic management with the system software, the daily works ran well, the working efficiency got improved. The practice implies that it is feasible to apply the OA system to the daily work and management.

Sustaining Competitive Advantage is an issue of most concern to companies in the service industry in order to keep up with the increasingly competitive environment, as well as to attract new customers and retain the existing ones. Strategies with proper resources and drivers to sustain the advantages is what companies are trying to work on. Service quality strategy is one of these drivers and is a considerable aspect for customers and their perceptions about different bus companies in this case. With increasing competition for customers on the Nairobi-Mombasa route in Kenya, bus companies are slowly shifting from profit-orientation to service-orientation in a bid to woo customers. Service quality is strategic key to ensure survival in this cut-throat competition. The general objective of this research study was to establish the role of service quality strategy in sustaining competitive advantage in the public transport business, with particular analysis of Modern Coast Express. The specific objectives of this project were to find out how customer relationship strategies, loyalty scheme strategies and strategic brand management influenced sustainable competitive advantage in the bus company. From this, research questions were derived on how the three variables influence sustainable competitive advantage. The study employed a survey research design in data collection which was descriptive in nature. Quantitative data collection method was adopted whereby data was gathered using questionnaires administered to the respondents. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis were used to analyze the research variables. In general, results revealed that customer relationship strategies, loyalty scheme strategies and strategic brand management have significant and positive effects on sustainable competitive advantage at Modern Coast Express. This research recommends that to gain and sustain competitive advantage in public transport business in Kenya, managers should take into consideration and develop customer relationship strategies, loyalty scheme strategies and strategic brand management.

This study introduces a inflated multi-layered clustering protocol for ad hoc wireless sensor networks (WSNs), where the size of clusters is variable. So that the closer clusters to the base station (BS) have a smaller size than farther ones. Moreover, in each cluster, using some intelligent fuzzy rules and in a decentralized way, a novel sub tree strategy is determined. In this way, some parent nodes are chosen that are responsible for collecting and aggregating data from their adjacent or dinary nodes and sending them to its cluster head, directly or via other parent nodes, which substantially decreases intra-cluster communication energy costs. Furthermore, these two compatible techniques can fairly mitigate the hot spot problem resulting from multi-hop communication with the BS. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol outperforms two energy-efficient protocols named DSBCA and LEACH in terms of functional network longevity for both small-scale and large-scale sensor networks.

Part or all of the mesh can be eliminated by using the compact support, the orthogonality and other properties of the wavelet function and the meshless algorithm to enhance the computing capability. A meshless algorithm was proposed based on the wavelet basis function. Combine the advantages of both wavelet function and meshless method. Wavelet transform is introduced into the element-free method to build the form that wavelet basis function meshless method formula. The method is applied in analysis of electromagnetic field. We give the method of discrete model, and use Lagrange multiplier method realizing essential boundary conditions. Numerical examples show the new method is effective for solving electromagnetic field.

The Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is a parameter estimation method which performs to the general data frame of maximum-likelihood estimation, including some applications to data analysis and statistics. There is the work by Dempster, Laird and Rubin (1977) on the key features of defining the EM algorithm. Logistic mixtures, unlike normal mixtures, have not been studied for the EM algorithm. In this paper, we express the theorem about a relationship between the gradient of the log likelihood and the step in parameter space taken by the EM algorithm in their multivariate extension for the mixture logistic distribution (see Malik and Abraham (1973)). The literature on determination of the number of modes in logistic mixture models has focused primarily on univariate mixtures. In fact, there is a simple description of modality when one is mixing two univariate components. In particular, an analogue of the techniques such as the paper written by Robertson and Fryer (1969) allows to attain the results in the case of the convex combination of two item response functions (IRFs) for the unidimensional dichotomous 1-parameter to 4-parameter logistic (1PL to 4PL) item response theory (IRT) models.

In order to improve the English teaching effect, we adopt the information system as the assistance with the English teaching. By the online function and automatic management with the system software, teachers and students got more communication and achieved more effective results, especially on spoken English. The practice implies that it is feasible and effective to apply the information system to the English teaching.

Enterprise informatization is a procedure in which IT is applied into the field of enterprise production, technology, and management, to improve the cost-effectiveness of exploration of informational resources and obtain financial profits. Enterprise informatization consists of three main aspects, the automation and flexibility of production, the integrative management and the systemic organization. The capacity of enterprise informatization is a resources-based capability, which has technical, manageable and organizational properties; it is divided into the three categories, which include information technology capability, information organizing capability and information innovation capability. Enterprise informatization capability can improve business performances, in this study we do the research on informatization capability how to increase enterprise’s competitive advantages in synergy, integration of customer relationship management, e-supply chain management, as well as global opportunities.

Mathematics has double characters including science and technology. What sort of technology the mathematics is? The direct research object of mathematics is mode, and the mode is the carrier of information, and the evolvement of mode is the process of information processing and information conversion. Therefore, mathematics is the technology of information processing and information conversion.

As mercury (Hg) amalgamation is an inexpensive, quick and simple way to extract gold, it is currently the method most commonly used in Artisanal gold mining in Ghana and most developing countries. However, the activities of these Artisanal miners result in the release of Hg into the environment by amalgamation tailings and amalgam burning. These amalgamation tailings often left behind forms Hg “hotspots” in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem, forming the main source of Hg dispersion. An investigation was conducted in the Asutifi district, hosts for several artisanal gold mining centres to ascertain the levels and the degree of mercury contamination in amalgamation tailings. The degree of contamination were assessed using mathematical model index approach, geoaccumulation index (Igeo) and enrichment factors (EF). The average Igeo for Hg in tailings (0.5) denoted uncontaminated to moderately contaminated, whilst the EF indicated very high to extremely high enrichment.

In this paper, a helical coil tube in tube heat exchanger was designed and used in carbon dioxide solar assisted heat pump system (SAHP) to provide hot water for domestic applications and to operate an air gap membrane desalination (AGMD) unit. Both theoretical and experimental studies to investigate the performance of the gas cooler with Glycol Ethylene 50% and water as coolants were performed. The experimental part to study the behavior of the carbon dioxide in the supercritical region was conducted on the R744 heat pump test rig located at Department of Energy and Process Engineering – NTNU. On the other hand, FEA using ANSYS Fluent 18.1 was used to conduct the theoretical analysis. The study includes effect of inlet temperature of both coolants, effect of discharge pressure, effect of mass flow rate of water, and logarithmic mean temperature difference (LMTD). Good agreements between Experimental and simulation results were achieved. Results showed that the outlet temperature of the refrigerant from the gas cooler decreased from 81 oC to 40 oC, with 0.085 bar average pressure drop due to the heat rejection process. The outlet temperature of the refrigerant from the gas cooler in case of water is 8 oC lower than with ethylene glycol 50%. The outlet temperature of water reached 57 oC which is enough for domestic applications and to operate the AGMD unit to produce fresh water. It is observed that the pressure drop in the refrigerant by using water as coolant is higher by 0.2 bar than when ethylene glycol 50% used. Results also revealed that the value of LMTD of the gas cooler using ethylene glycol 50% is 24.3 % higher than the LMTD value when using water.

Automated extraction of popular news from the freely accessible news corpora is becoming important in today’s internet world. Because of the availability of large volumes of news wire sources, it is hectic for the human beings to search and decide whether it is popular or not. This necessitates a tool which should extract hot news in a period of time. Term weighting is a useful technique which extracts salient features from the text documents. Though, there exist different tools based on different term weighting algorithms, these are inaccurate in the extraction of hot news. In this paper, a new feature extraction algorithm for long running events based on frequency, position, scattering and topicality is proposed. Experimentation has been done on different retrospective news wire sources. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is suitable for extracting hot news.

Issues related to inequality in access to land, compensation and land use administration often become difficult to tackle especially in post conflict situations where settlers and the indigenes live in disharmony breeding further grievances that eventually lead to more conflict. This study examined issues related to settled land for resettlement scheme and compensation to native of a community in Bauchi State of Northern Nigeria. The study used descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse 350 questionnaires administered. The findings of the study revealed that 65.7% of the displaced persons settled on land not officially allocated to them while over 70% of the natives indicted that they were not satisfied with the compensation exercise. The study recommended among other things that land belonging to a community should not be allocated to settlers from other communities for resettlement purposes as this breeds further conflict and where land is compulsorily acquired for overriding public interest it should be adequately compensated.