June 2011

Tea growers in Kenya are faced with a number of challenges; the major one being mite attack. It is therefore necessary to continuously breed and screen tea varieties that are not only high yielding but tolerant to mite attack. A five year study was conducted at two ecological sites namely: Kipkebe Tea Estate farm at Sotik, West of Rift Valley and Tea Research Foundation of Kenya (TRFK), Kangaita Sub-station, near Mount Kenya. These studies were done with the aim of screening some Kenyan tea clones for their resistance or tolerance to the Red Crevice Mites (RCM) prevalent in the East of Rift Valley and Red Spider Mites (RSM) prevalent at the west of Rift Valley. Mite sampling was done on an on-going clonal Field Trial which was laid out in a completely randomised block design (CRBD) and replicated three times in each of the two regions. Mite population was estimated every month by sampling 10 mature leaves and taken to the laboratory where the mites were counted under a dissecting microscope after extracting them using a mite brushing machine. The mite data collected were transformed and subjected to analysis of variance using MSTAT statistical package. Annual mite population varied significantly (P≤0.05) in the different clones. This study showed that a number of tea clones that were tolerant to mite attack at Kipebe, Sotik and TRFKs Kangaitasub-station. Based on the results of the 36 Clones, clone AHPCG28U864 was a unique clone. It had low resistance to both RCM and RSM. On the other hand, clone EPK C/12 had high resistance to both species of mites. It was found that the Red Crevice Mite (RCM) species is the most prevalent in the Mt. Kenya region while the Red Spider Mite (RSM) species was prevalent in Kipkebe Sotik area. In both areas mite numbers were observed to be low during the rainy season and high during the dry period. This explained the fact that moisture-stressed plants are more susceptible to mite attack.

The overall objective of this paper is to determine the role played by forestry in alleviating poverty in Kenya. It also seeks to examine and analyse the extent of poverty among people living in Cherangani Hills, West Pokot; assess the benefits of forestry to rural communities; investigate the relationship between forest dependence and poverty and to make policy recommendations on ways of enhancing the contribution of forests in alleviating poverty. Two methods were used to derive data for the study. Secondary data was obtained by review of existing literature related to the subject while primary data was obtained through a survey among 200 households. The survey was based on Multistage sampling procedure. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, an interview schedule and discussions with key informants and analysed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis techniques. The findings revealed that 69.5% of the population had incomes falling below the official poverty line. Two categories of forest products had a net effect on rural poverty; timber products were mainly commercialised and traded by people with sufficient capital, while the poor mainly utilized non-timber forest products. The findings further revealed a significant positive relationship between poverty level and household size. There was a significant difference in poverty level among households having forestry as a source of income compared with those without it. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that forests act to ameliorate the incidence of poverty in the study area. It was recommended that to further enhance this contribution, it was imperative to undertake conservation programmes that were sensitive and responsive to community needs and that aimed to strike a balance between utilisation level of forest resources and their renewable rate.

In a knowledge based economy the role of small and medium enterprises is very critical for the economic development. The main thrust of this study was on the competiveness of the SMEs in a knowledge-based economy. In addition, this study also explores the challenges which are facing the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. The significance of the study will add the knowledge about the current issues relating with SMEs in Malaysia in intellectual capital perspective.

The purpose of study was to investigate students’ perception on head teacher’s role in implementation of girls’ re-admission policy. The study was to help highlight the plight of girls who drop out of school as a result of pregnancy with a view of giving them a chance to continue with education through re-admission. To achieve this objective the study examined students’ perception on head teachers’ administrative, counseling and support roles. Students’ perception was the dependent variable whereas the head teachers’ age, gender, educational level and teaching experience were independent variables. The study was based on Tinto’s (1975) model of student retention which stipulates that a student persists or drops out depending on their degree of both academic and social integration. The research design was a case study where questionnaires and interview schedule were used to collect data. Target populations were form three students, head teachers, counseling teachers, class teachers and the District Quality Assurance and Standards Officer. Sampling techniques used in the study were Simple Random, Stratified and Purposive. Reliability of the instruments was established through a pilot study in a school outside the study area. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the reliability coefficient that yielded 0.82. Validity of instruments was determined through expert judgment involving discussions with researcher’s Supervisors, Lecturers and Colleagues. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics .The study established that head teachers have not implemented the girls’ re-admission policy to the expectation as reflected in the poor discharge of administrative, counseling and support roles. It was also established that head teachers’ educational level and teaching experience have a positive influence on administrative role whereas teaching experience has a positive influence on both counseling and support roles. The study recommends that; the Ministry of Education to review the policy so as to come up with appropriate guidelines for implementation, counseling to be strengthened in schools , further training for head teachers and introduction of support program for the girls who drop out of school due to pregnancy.

A number of studies on the bioremediation techniques on the degradation of benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) contaminants by microorganisms were reported in the 1980s and 1990s. Petroleum exploration, exploitation and production in Niger Delta Area of Nigeria has resulted to high environmental degradation. However, challenges have existed for the implementation of degradable environment due to BTX contaminants as well as instability of soil characteristics due to high production effect. The research was carried out to determine the usefulness of bioremediation techniques in the degradation of BTX contaminants in soil environment. This paper thus reviews the effect of soil characteristics and its overall performance of microbes as functional parameters of BTX contaminants degradation as well as discusses the evalution of rate constant of Benzene, Toluene, Xylene and maximum specific rate constant. The result obtained from the research showed that there was significant decrease in the concentration of toluene from 46.07 mg/kg to 40.05 mg/kg, Benzene (39.06 – 36.42) mg/kg and Xylene (53.09 -52 .72) mg /kg meaning that the microorganisms are friendly with Toluene compared to other contaminants as investigated. It was recommended that bioremediation should be used in monitoring and predicting the degradation rate of BTX contaminants in soil environments upon the influences soil characteristics and composition.

Nodal explants were inoculated with basal cut surface down on medium MSB with BAP. The different concentrations BAP ranging from 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 mg/lit, were used for obtaining multiple shoots. After 45 days maximum number of multiple shoots were obtained on medium containing 2.0mg/ lit of BAP which was approximately 88 / culture. In the present study 2.0mg/ lit of BAP concentration was found to be the ideal concentration for high frequency of multiple shoots induction. This is the first report of such high frequency of multiple shoot induction. Maximum hyoscyamine 0.0390 mg/g DW and scopolamine 1.660 mg/g DW content was found at 2 mg/lit BAP. Minimum hyoscyamine and scopolamine content was found at 1 mg/lit BAP (0.0164 and 1.154 mg/g DW respectively). We found that difference in content of hyoscyamine and scopolamine was also affected by concentration of BAP i.e. increased concentration of BAP and increased number of multiple shoots showed correlation with increased concentration of hyoscyamine and scopolamine.

This study evaluates the therapeutic effect of acidophilus soy milk against intestinal infection causing pathogens. Lactobacillus acidophilus strains were isolated from curd and identified based on the colony morphology and biochemical profile. Using Lactobacillus acidophilus fermented soy milk was prepared. Its antimicrobial efficiency was identified against five pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Shigella dysentriae, Vibrio cholera and Staphylococcus aureus. Among these five pathogens Vibrio cholerae was effectively inhibited by acidophilus soy milk.

The paper aims at providing a solution for secure storage of the records in a database. The solution should be prone to less security attacks and should take the optimal time for storage. The algorithm used is AES of stream cipher category. The input and the key can be of variable length. Regarding the key for the algorithm, it is the hashed value of the original key along with the Salt value. Since stream cipher, we will encrypt byte by byte using the key. We have a Permutation box (p-box) and Substitution box (s-box) logic to make the algorithm quite complex and to avoid the security breaches. The Key will be in the rotation mode based on a simple logic being implemented in the algorithm thus making it quite complex for attacks. Thus, the records are stored in the encrypted format in the database.

Semecarpus anacardium L. (Family: Anacardiaceae) is a deciduous tree. It is well known for its medicinal properties and used as highly potent Ayurvedic medicine. The fruit is reported to be astringent, antirheumatic, carminative and vesicant. The oil obtained from the nut is used in rheumatic pain. The plant is having high ash content and low moisture content. Phytochemical composition of various extracts of plant parts and minerals were investigated. The results showed presence of secondary constituents comprising of alkaloids (3.18, 1.33 and 2.63 mg/100gm), flavonoids (2.12, 1.12 and 1.78 mg/100g) and phenols (3.22, 1.81 and 2.43mg/100gm) in roots, stems and leaves respectively. The plant is good source of minerals like Sulphur (S), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Phosphorus (P) and Iron (Fe). The IR and NMR spectroscopic analysis of petroleum extract revealed the presence of different functional groups.

Outlier detection has been a very important concept in the realm of data analysis and the complex relationships that appear with regard to patient symptoms, diagnoses and behavior are the most promising areas of outlier mining. This paper elaborates how the outliers can be detected by using statistical methods. The importance of outlier detection is due to the fact that outliers in data predict significant (and often critical) information in a wide variety of application domains. There are numerous different formulations of an outlier detection problem which have been explored in diverse disciplines such as statistics, machine learning, data mining and information theory. In fact, the study with medical data by using the DM techniques is virtually an unexplored frontier which needs extraordinary attention. In this study, the pima data set was used in the simulation carried out by TANAGRA. A total of 193 outliers were detected for the statistics namely leverage, R-standard, R-student, DFFITS, Cook’s D and covariance ratio. The results of the present investigation suggested that the extraordinary behavior of outliers facilitates the exploration of the valuable knowledge hidden in their domain and help the decision makers to provide improved, reliable and efficient healthcare services.

Afield experiment conducted in North Kordofan state of Sudan for two successive rainy seasons (2007/08- 2008/09) to investigate the effect of tillage and farm yard manure on yield components growth and yield of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.monech) in gardoud soil (Red and black). The treatments consisted of three tillage depth (0, 15 and 25 cm) and five concentrations of manure (0,6,12,18 and 24 t/ha). Split plot design with four replications was used. Character studied were number of panicles/m2 , number of grains per panicle, 100-seed weight and final grain yield (t/ha). The results showed that, the tillage and manure had significant effect on yield and yields attributes measured. Tillage depth (15 cm) was highest in highest in number of panicles/m2, number of grains per panicle and final grain yield (t/ha). Concentration manure of 24 t/ha were superior in grain yield. Tillage and manure had no significant different in 100- grain weight. Black gardoud soil had higher grain yield (1.96 t/ha) than red soil (1.75 t/ha).

Studies was conducted to find out the effect of various concentrations of IBA, NAA (i.e. 5000, 10000, and 15000 ppm) and Keradix at four times of air-layering operations (i.e. 2-3 July, 25-26 July, 17-18 August, 9-10 September) on the rootability in jackfruit through air-layering. A critical study of present findings show that the treatment of 10000 ppm concentration of IBA was found to produce highest percentage of rooted layers (82.8 %), profuse callus formation, maximum number of primary roots (19.95), longer length of longest root (15.59 cm), thickest diameter of longest root (1.45 mm), maximum percentage of layers showing secondary roots (66.6%), higher fresh (0.924 g) and dry (0.466 g) weight of roots with higher survival percentage (71.37) of layered plants in nursery beds. The best time of air-layering was recorded 2-3 July in respect of higher percentage of rooted layers (73.78), profuse callus formation and maximum weight of fresh (0.808 gm) and dry (0.404 gm) roots, higher survival percentage of layered plants (62.83%) and percentage of plants showing new growth (62.83%), while 25-26 July time of air-layering was found better in relation to maximum number of primary roots (13.68), longest length of root (13.43 cm), diameter of longest root (1.3 mm), higher percentage of layer showing secondary rooting (26.85%), length of new growth (1.87 cm) and number of leaves on new growth (2.05).

This study investigated the participation of secondary school administrators in school safety and implementation of safety policies with regard to physical infrastructure and waste disposal in some selected public schools in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design; purposive sampling was used to select the respondents comprising of school administrators i.e. 35 Head Teachers (HT), 28 Deputy Head Teachers (DHT) and 12 Head of Departments (HOD) drawn from 75 public secondary schools and 3 Quality Assurance and Standards officers (QASO) as key informants. Data collection instruments included head teachers and QASOs questionnaires, interview schedules and observation schedule. Data collected was analyzed by use of descriptive statistics and presented in tables. The study found out that only 20% of the schools had constituted safety sub-committees, none (0%) of the HTs and DHTs served as secretary or member of the sub-committee respectively as required by policy. All respondents ranked school safety last with curriculum, extra-curriculum and guidance and counseling respectively being given more priority. The study also established that HTs attitude on implementation of school safety was positive with an average score of 64.29%. Whereas 92% and 82.67% of the schools had fitted fire windows/doors without grills and fire extinguishers respectively, a paltry 16% had fitted fire alarms while none (0%) posts evacuation maps in its buildings nor has established a monitoring and evaluation system of school safety. With regard to waste disposal, a majority 65.33% employed unsustainable means of waste disposal where they would abandon pit latrines once they are filled up and excavate others and another 21.33% manually emptying them with buckets exposing workers to the risk of contracting communicable diseases. Further, only 29.33% provided learners with gloves wherever they cleaned their sanitation facilities while none (0%) undertook waste segregation. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the participation of school administrators in school safety issues was low and the overall implementation of safety policies was way below the requirements as stated in the safety manual. It was therefore recommended that: Ministry should enforce school safety programmes by ensuring all schools institute school safety sub-committees to implement safety policies and carry out induction of all school administrators on school safety.

Almost every student sincerely believes that he or she listens effectively. Consequently, very few students think they need to develop their listening skills. But, in fact, listening effectively is something that very few of us can do. It's not because listening effectively is so difficult. I have observed most of the student has just never developed the habits that would make the student effective listeners. By using different listening techniques, the student will get more information from the different sources and will increase others' trust in you, and will reduce conflict, better understand how to motivate others, and also will inspire a higher level of commitment in people you manage.

The study focuses on developing a ready use product with the advantage of the probiotics supported with the prebiotics. The approach taken was that of the ones used in the flavour industry that is the encapsulation technique. The spray drying was adopted for encapsulation. The technique is found to be encouraging and needs further standardization as a successful product for the market

The purpose of the present paper is to re-examine a number of major theoretical and empirical contributions in the field of intellectual capital with an attempt to identify the major components of intellectual capital. Today the concept of intellectual capital is increasingly recognized as one of the most important strategic assets of organizations in knowledge-based economy. In knowledge-based economy, modern and high tech enterprises not only focus on innovation of new products, services, marketing, research and development activities but also pay particular attention to the development and management of organization intellectual capital.

This study is based on the risk taking behaviour of secondary school students in Pondicherry region. The main objective of this study is to find out the secondary school students who are taking high risk to future or general activities. Pondicherry is having different types of community so who are taking risk to live in this society. The sample for the present study comprised of 1026 students from secondary schools at Pondicherry region. Purposive sampling method was used to draw the sample.

The study was carried out to assess the coverage & quality of maternal health care in an urban setting. All delivered females who were registered (116) at centre were interviewed. The results indicate that about one fifth of the total pregnant females were below 20 years & only 25 per cent were registered in first trimester. 60 per cent were received three or more ante natal visits. Majority (about 66 per cent) was having Hb concentration in the range of 9-11gm% despite that 74 per cent reported to receive more than 90 IFA tablets. More than 50 per cent of the deliveries were conducted at home. Only one third received postnatal check up. Therefore it shows that there is a strong need to concentrate on these components of maternal health care to achieve fifth MDG.

In recent years it has been acknowledged that to significantly improve biological system performance and productivity, control, including optimal control, should be implemented online. The dynamics of biological processes are highly non-linear and key variables are difficult to measure. As an aid to contributing solutions to the twin difficulties of complex dynamics and measurement difficulty a relatively simple mathematical model has been developed for the purpose of evaluating optimal controllers. In this paper a simulation of fed-batch fermentation is developed which includes the no-linear dynamics of the process using single-term Haar wavelet series (STHW) method.

Species of the freshwater prawn genus Macrobrachium are distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical zones of the world. Many species are of regional or local fishey important however only half a dozen species of genus Macrobrachium are of major economic value in India. A detailed analysis on the availability of information pertaining to the knowledge on freshwater prawns (Macrobrachium spp.) of Tamil Nadu are found in most inland freshwater areas such as lakes, rivers, swamps, irrigation channels, canals, ponds as well as estuarine areas. The present paper concludes that there are 24 species of freshwater prawns in Tamil Nadu, India.

Cloud computing is evolving as a key computing platform for sharing resources that include infrastructures, software, applications and business processes. This new approach to computing allows users to avoid upfront hardware and software investments, gain flexibility, collaborate with others, and take advantage of the sophisticated services that cloud providers offer. Security is a huge concern for cloud users. In this paper, we analyze some security requirements in cloud computing environment. One of the major threats to virtualization and cloud computing is malicious software that enables computer viruses or other malware that have compromised one customer's system to spread to the underlying hypervisor and ultimately, to the systems of other customers. This paper is concerned with discovery of the vulnerabilities in the landscape of clouds, discovery of security solutions, safeguard mechanisms by behavioral patterns and finding evidence that early-adopters or developers have grown more concerned with security

Induced mutagenesis used to investigate the different treatments of gamma irradiation viz., 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100kR and Ethyl Methane Sulphonate (EMS) viz., 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25mM on growth and yield parameters of black gram Vigna mungo var. VBN1. Present study revealed that based the physical and chemical mutagenic sensitivity of black gram was compared to control as well as treated plants. In this investigation, all the quantitative characters and yield characters were stimulated from 20 to 60kR and 5 to 15mM of gamma rays and EMS the inhibition occurred more in 60kR and 15mM. Among these two mutagens results showed EMS (15mM) was found to be more effective and improved the yield characters compared to those of gamma rays treatment.

Pollen germination and Pollen viability plays a vital role in flowering plants. Fertilization and seed set, is the principle outcome of pollen germination and pollen tube growth. These two aspects were worked out in a monocot plant, Asparagus L. family Liliaceae. Two species Asparagus racemosus Willd. (2n=20) and Asparagus densiflorus cv. Meyeri. (2n=40) were undertaken for comparative study. Pollen viability was evaluated in Acetocarmine Jelly and TTC, whereas in-vitro germination was tested in different basic medias of various concentration. It was observed that, pollen viability was high in both the species in Acetocarmine compared to TTC. It was 93% and 1.96% in diploids and 85% and 1.96% in tetraploids. In-vitro Pollen germination was good in sucrose media of concentration 10%-20% for diploid and 20%-30% for tetraploid. The genotype has an important role in germination.

A severe outbreak of leaf blight was observed in money plant (Scindapsus aureus) for the first time in Andhra Pradesh state of India during 2009-2010. Based on pathogenicity, morphology and rDNA spacer sequences, the pathogen was identified as Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissler. This report is the first of Alternaria leaf blight of money plant.

The present investigation was carried out during rabi 2004-05 at the experimental area of Division of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology -Jammu. Eight genetically diverse bread wheat varieties i.e five drought tolerant (PBW 175, RSP 81, PBW 500, K 9943 and HUW 576) and three drought susceptible (RSP 312, RSP 303 and WH 542) screened on the basis of drought response index were crossed in all possible combinations to produce twenty eight crosses (excluding reciprocals).Hybrids along with parents were evaluated for various morpho-physiological and biochemical determinants under normal (E1) and moisture-stress (E2) environments in earthen pots in a polyhouse. Both additive and dominance components of variance were significant for most of the traits under study in both E1 and E2. Significance of non-additive genetic component was indicated by number of tillers per plant, spike length in E2 and proline content in both E1 and E2, however, the additive genetic component was predominant in all other characters. To exploit both additive and non-additive gene action, biparental mating and diallel selective mating approaches are suggested.

Diacure a polyherbal formulation of eleven medicinal plants against some Microorganisms was investigated for this purpose methanol extract of diacure samples were in vitro with Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Micrococcus luteus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans as test strains. The disc diffusion method was applied in the trial was found to be the most effective against all the test strains except M. luteus.

The present study was under taken to investigate the antibacterial and antifungal activity of seeds of Jatropha curcas Linn. The powdered seed materials were extracted using chloroform and hexane solvent. The antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, (gram positive bacteria) Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium (gram negative bacteria) and fungi Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Rhizopus sp., and Mucor sp. The antibacterial and antifungal activity in vitro using the disc diffusion method, Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bacterial Concentration (MBC) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) is discussed.

India has been identified as one among 27 countries which are most vulnerable to the impact of climatic changes and global warming relating to accelerated sea level rise. A mean sea level rise between 15 cm and 38 cm is projected by the mid 21st century along India’s coast. Climate is continuously varying on time scales ranging from seasons to the lifetime of the Earth. In this background there is about 15% projected increase in intensity of tropical cyclones in the coastal regions of India. The present study highlights weather changes between the years 2007-2008 in atmospheric variability over Kuttapuli coast, South Tamil Nadu, Southeast Coast of India. During this period atmospheric data viz. atmospheric minimum and maximum temperature, pressure, relative humidity, wind speed, direction, sunshine hours and rainfall measurement were collected. During this study period drastic variation could be observed in air temperature, wind speed and direction and rainfall. Thus it is imperative that year to year variation has started to prevail in this coastal belt, which is forming a vital zone of Gulf of Mannar.

Heavy metals accumulation in soil has become a worldwide problem, leading to loss of agricultural productivity. Lead and cadmium are the toxic elements of primary importance. A study was conducted to determine the effect of different concentrations of cadmium and lead on seed germination, seedling growth, oxidative stress and antioxidant response of Chick pea (Cicer arietinum L.). Seeds were grown under laboratory conditions at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 mM l-1of metal ions. All of these metals were added as single metal solution, i.e. one experimental set contained a single metal in particular concentration. A slight stimulatory effect on seedling growth was observed, especially at low metal concentrations (0.25-0.5 mM l-1). Both lead and cadmium treatments showed toxic effects on various growth indices of chick pea at high metal concentrations (1-4 mM l-1). The level of lipid peroxidation of germinated seeds was measured as Malondialdehyde (MDA) contents and were significantly enhanced by a high Cd and Pb concentration. The activity levels of some antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1), catalase (CAT, EC 1.11.1.6) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx, EC 1.11.1.9), did not change much at low metal concentrations, but fluctuated drastically at high Cd and Pb concentrations. These results suggest that Cd and Pb toxicity causes oxidative stress in plants and the antioxidative enzymes SOD, CAT and GPx could play a crucial role against oxidative injury.

Five samples each of zobo, yoghurt and kunu were purchased from different hawkers in Umuahia and Okigwe metropolis in the Eastern part of Nigeria. The microbial qualities were determined according to standard methods. The antibiotic sensitive patterns of the bacterial isolates were also determined. Microbial count ranges from 3.5-8.9cfu/ml in zobo, 2.0-8.0 cfu/ml in yoghurt and 1.8-4.2cfu/ml in kunu. Bacteria isolated from the samples included, Pseudomonas species, Streptococcus species, Proteus species, Klebsiella species with high occurrence of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Most of the isolates were resistant to Tetracycline, Ampicillin, Gentamicin, Colistin and Cotrimoxazole. The occurrence of antibiotic resistant organisms in these drinks is of public health importance and may be responsible for prolong treatment of illness. Therefore proper quality control of these products should be encouraged so as to reduce the microbial load as well as antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a major factor in increased mortality in infancy and childhood. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of chromosomal abnormalities in Down syndrome (DS) children is important in understanding the etiology of congenital malformations. Down syndrome also called Trisomy 21, is a condition in which extra genetic material causes delays in the way a child develops, both mentally and physically and also is a major cause of congenital heart disease and the most frequent known cause of atrioventricular septal defects (AVSD). Twenty four cases of Down's syndrome were found among 160 children with congenital heart disease under the age of 1day to 14 years, of which 14(58.3%) were males and 10(41.6%) were females, while the remaining 26(16.2%) cases had normal karyotype, Among 74(46.2%) cases with multiple system malformations and 36(22.5%) cases with known and unknown congenital defects. Consanguinity was observed in normal karyotype 30(75%) and abnormal karyotype 10(25%) results in CHD patients. Down syndrome is usually identified soon after birth by a characteristic pattern of dysmorphic features. The diagnosis is confirmed by karyotype analysis and also this study was undertaken to obtain more information about the nature of heart defects associated with Down's syndrome.

This paper explain the level E.coli transport influenced by porosity, where by a mathematical model where developed including experimental analysis to generate a better solution to the rapid migration of microbes E. coli at Okrika mainland of Rivers state in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, from the result of both parameter it shows that the concentration of the microbes migrate in fluctuation form decrease at a distance of thirty meters has some high concentration of E.coli at thirty meters with a duration of hundred days, comparing it with the recommended value of World Health Organization (WHO), both result did not meet up the required water quality standard, therefore it is recommended that any ground water abstraction at the study location, should be design and those existing one that have cause a lots of water related diseases should undergo treatment analysis before it is allowed for human consumption , in other to stop the threat of human life.

Objective: To assess the utilization of antenatal care services among currently married scheduled caste women in India. Methods: The data have been extracted from National Family Health Survey -3 (NFHS-3) conducted during 2005-06, all over India. A total of 6212 currently married scheduled caste women in the age group of 15-49 were taken as the sample for the study. Cross tabulation and binary logistic regression method were applied for determining the influencing factors. Results: Out of 6212 respondents, 19.8 of the scheduled caste women not received even a single antenatal care during their pregnancy period. 15.8 percent of the women not received Tetanus Toxoid injection and one-third (33.3) of the women not received Iron Folic Acid tablets during their pregnancy period. Only one fifth of scheduled caste women (21.4) fulfilled the minimum recommendation with regard antenatal care services. Conclusion: Age, education and wealth index were significantly associated for getting full antenatal care service among scheduled caste women. However, there is an urgent need for improving the implementation of reproductive health programmes and strengthening health education for scheduled caste married women especially pregnant women.

Arm action should be efficient as it generates various components of running mechanics. While many authors recommend that the arms should be moved with elbows held at about 90 degrees, some distance running athletes have used different arms movements with varying degree of success and failure during competitions. The study investigated how different arm kinematics affected cardio-respiratory parameters and stride patterns during the steady phase of long distance running. Mean values of working heart rate (WHR), estimated percentage of maximum oxygen consumption (%VO2 max), ventilation rate (VR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were used to estimate energy cost of running with different arm actions. Ten elite Kenyan distance running athletes were tested in ten submaximal treadmill trial runs, each trial performed with different arm action for 15 minutes at a speed corresponding to individual’s 80% running effort. Repeated Measures ANOVA indicated significant difference in WHR, %VO2 max, RPE, and stride rate (SR) at p < .05. Medium effect size was observed; Omega Squared (ω2) = .20. Arm action consisting of about ±20 degrees oscillation of the hands around 90 degrees angle at the elbow is more efficient than running with arms held at 90 degrees angle at the elbows.

Literature reviewed, generally indicate that there has been and there still is a discrepancy between the actual practice and the expected role of primary school headteachers in education supervision. It is on this premise that the researcher sought to assess the training needs of primary school headteachers in educational supervision and also make recommendations on remedial measures. In order to carry out this, the research involved the study of eight macro-competency areas which included; motivation, communication, public relations, financial management, planning and co-ordination, curriculum and instruction, evaluation and staff development. These macro-competency areas were derived through content analysis and the researcher felt that they were the major ones and therefore included in the study. From these macro-competency areas, 37 specific competencies were generated and thus studied. The findings of this study revealed deficiencies between the current educational supervisory practice of primary school headteachers and the desired practice. This implied that the headteachers were inadequately equipped. On this basis, it was recommended that there was a dire need to introduce a separate, specialized and more comprehensive educational supervisory training programme alongside the traditional concurrent pre-service teacher training programmes.

The study was based on environmental assessment of petrochemical wastewater parameters discharged to Eleme River. Three methods: physical, chemical and biological were employed for the assessment on the physiochemical parameters. Laboratory tests were done on the sample using FEPA set standard for industrial effluent water test. The data obtained from the laboratory tests, further assessment was performed to examine the impact of these parameters to the receiving water body with respect to FEPA standard for industrial wastewater discharge to the inland water. The result showed that some parameters; Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), pH, Temperature and Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), TSS, pH, Temperature, and TDS of the wastewater exceeded the FEPA standard by 80%, 91%, 76%, 24%, and 71% respectively. The conceptual model used for the existing treatment plant in Eleme Petrochemical is inadequate and needs improvement. The paper presented a new model as a way forward to improve the quality of wastewater generate from Eleme Petrochemical. Therefore, a new treatment plant design calculations was carried out to modify the existing plant for optimum performance. Finally, the information obtained from this study should be useful tools for further assessment of petrochemical wastewater parameters even to other industrial wastewater in nature.

Concerns regarding global climate change have caused the transportation sector to look for alternatives to petroleum as a fuel for vehicles of all types. Bi-fuel vehicles have been recognized as being particularly efficient for urban traffic use. As these vehicles become more popular, there is a need for accurate vehicle performance test methods. Clearly the most accurate vehicle performance measurements would be obtained by using single axis dynamometers. In this paper, a research work was intended to study the performance characteristics of a bi-fuel vehicle, i.e. gasoline and compressed natural gas (CNG). Single axis dynamometers are commonly used for evaluating vehicle performance. The performance test procedure was carried out on a newly registered gasoline/CNG bi-fuel vehicle in Egypt market (Hyundai-star) and is now assessed from the European standard driving cycle. The European driving cycle shows the characteristics of vehicles operating conditions for various speeds and acceleration ranges, but does not represent realistic speed-time history of a vehicle in actual traffic. As the driving conditions are different, the assessment results using this driving cycle may not produce realistic results. The fuel injection system used is Multi-point (MP)-sequential injection. From the experimental results, it is seen that significant information can be for the bi-vehicle technology, consequently better design can be obtained.

In order to improve the capacity of the hidden secret data and to provide an imperceptible stego image quality, a new image steganography method based on image contrast is presented. A group of 2×2 blocks of non-overlapping spatially adjacent pixels is selected as the valid block for embedding the secret message. The modulo 4 arithmetic operation is further applied to all the valid blocks to embed a pair of binary bits using the shortest route modification scheme. Each secret message is also encrypted by RSA encryption algorithm to provide the system with more security. Data will be embedded inside the image using the pixels. Then the pixels of stego image can then be accessed back in order to retrieve back the hidden data inside the image. However, a secret key is needed by the receiver in order to retrieve back the data. This secret key is generated using the RSA decryption algorithm. By using the secret key to retrieve the data, it maintains privacy, confidentiality and accuracy of the data. The proposed method was tested on different gray scale images. From the experimental results, compared with the some well-known adaptive and non-adaptive steganography algorithms, the proposed method provides larger embedding capacity, while being less detectable by steganalysis methods.

In this work, a Remotely Accessible and Configurable Digital Cathode Ray Oscilloscope experiment system is designed in LabVIEW graphical development platform. The LabVIEW application is used to perform several tasks that include user interface design, publishing and sharing measured data over the web, instrument control and remote access to a system in the campus Physics lab. This paper describes how to control a digital CRO existing in a laboratory via a PC running LabVIEW from National Instruments. In addition, how to turn any LabVIEW application into a remote application accessed via a Web browser without any additional development time is explained in detail. The other instrument used in the work is a non-programmable signal generator. Ensuring instrument control and publishing the front panel on the web, students are allowed to access and control the system variables such as adjusting the CRO timebase, running Autosetup, Reading the Waveforms and acquiring continuous signals from the signal generator by the CRO. A student accesses the website through a web-browser (Internet explorer) by using an URL provided. Once the website is located, the student is required to login by putting in the name and the admission number. Once these details are verified, the user is allowed to proceed with the experiment.

This investigation has been undertaken in order to study the Self-Esteem of Higher Secondary Students in Coimbatore District. For this purpose a representative sample of 246 Higher Secondary students have been selected by using the purposive random sampling technique. Normative survey method has been used. This study has been undertaken in order to find out the levels of Self-Esteem of Higher Secondary Students and if there is any significant difference between the selected pairs of sub-samples. Self-Esteem Inventory was used to collect the data. This study reveals that the Self-Esteem of Higher Secondary Students studying in various schools of Coimbatore District is high. There is significant difference between all the sub-samples in respect of their Self-Esteem. The findings of this study very clearly indicates because of the economic affluence and social benevolence, the students at Higher Secondary stage are possessing a high level of Self-Esteem. This is really an appreciable feature and this can be taken care of by the future researchers.

In the present study an attempt has been made to isolate and characterize the type I collagen from outer skin of Sepia pharaonis. The total protein content and molecular weight of acid soluble collagen (ASC) and pepsin soluble collagen (PSC) were determined. The structure of ASC and PSC from S. pharaonis was persistent by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and UV vis spectrum. The soluble collagen was extracted by treating the skin with 0.5 M CH3COOH and centrifuged (ASC). Then residue was resuspended in 0.5 M CH3COOH and was digested with 10% (w/v) pepsin (PSC). On the basis of dry weight the ASC and PSC content was observed as 1.70% and 3.61% and the total protein content of both ASC and PSC was found to be 16.4% and 44.6% respectively. The molecular weight of ASC and PSC was calculated as 107 kDa and 73 to 117 kDa respectively. Both ASC and PSC consisted of two different α chains (α 1 and α 2), and were characterized to be type I with no disulfide bond. PSC had a higher content with high molecular weight cross-links, than did ASC. The results of this study suggest that the skin of S. pharaonis could be used as another potent source for the exploration of collagen.