Archives-December 

The level of trace elements in groundwater from the southernwestern periphery of the Volta Lake (Manya Krobo area) was determined and their origin assessed by estimating pH, TDS, saturated index (SI), hardness, alkalinity, hardness alkalinity ratio (HAR), groundwater acidification (Aci) and acid neutralizing capacity (ANC). Aluminum, manganese, iron and vanadium concentrations in groundwater at most areas were higher than originally anticipated (i.e. in excess of the WHO recommended guideline values) of a non-mining area. Dissolution of aquifer materials probably enhanced by moderately acidic waters is responsible for mobilization of trace elements in the groundwater in the area. The groundwater samples are generally undersaturated with respect to most of carbonate phases. Though pH showed slightly acidic waters, calculated groundwater acidification (Aci) was low (in fact, negative) and hardness alkalinity ratios (HAR) were consistently less than unity suggesting influence of weak acid probably of natural origin. The positive acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) values recorded throughout indicated a long-lasting superfluous in the acid-buffering capacity of the groundwater in the Manya Krobo area along the Volta Lake. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate other trace metals removal techniques into borehole operations beyond removal of iron.

Five brands of cigarette were randomly sampled and analyzed for heavy metals. The brands include Aspen, Benson, Dunhill, Pall-mall and Rothmans. From the result obtained, concentration of Zinc was found to range between 11.1 - 4.15 mg/kg, concentration of Copper ranges between 13.65 - 4.55 mg/kg and Iron concentration ranges between 7.4 - 1.85 mg/kg. Nickel and Lead concentrations were found to range between 30.75 - 7.7 mg/kg and 32.6 - 17.4 mg/kg respectively. Lead was found to be highest in three brands (Rothmans, Pall-mall and Benson) respectively while Nickel was highest in two brands (Aspen, Rothmans) respectively. Generally the levels of the content of some of the metals in all the brands were low compared with the values set by world health organization (WHO) and accepted by standard organization of Nigeria (SON), it was believed that continuous bio-accumulation of heavy metals through smoking of cigarette may lead to additional health complication apart from the inherent dangers to which cigarette is known for.

The aspirin–perchloric acid complex crystal is grown by the vapor diffusion method for the first time. The colorless needle shaped crystals are obtained after 5 weeks duration. These crystals are characterized by powder XRD, FT–IR, FT–Raman, UV–Visible spectroscopy, SEM and melting point studies to confirm the formation of complex crystal of aspirin –perchloric acid. The powder XRD, FT–IR and FT–Raman studies reveal the presence of perchloric acid with the medicinally important drug of aspirin in the complex form. The UV–Visible spectroscopy study shows that the optical window is found to be reduced in the presence of perchloric acid. But there is no change in the transparency of the both crystal in the visible region. The SEM analysis reveals the complex crystal has the distinct morphology in shape from the pure aspirin crystal. The melting point of complex crystal is found to be 110?C. Finally, these studies conclude that mixing of perchloric acid with aspirin changes the all physico-chemical properties of the pure drug compound of aspirin. The property change of aspirin–perchloric acid complex can be used to improve the medicinal activity of the drug compound in the biological systems.

Abstract Vegetation structure of different strata were analysed in dry deciduous forests of Ballavpur Wildlife Sanctuary in lateritic zone of West Bengal. 1212 woody stems ? 1cm belonging to 21 species, 19 genera and 12 families were enumerated from 25 randomly placed quadrats of 10m x 10m each. Acacia auriculiformis obtained the highest stem density and Importance value index while dipterocarpaceae had the highest family importance value. Tree density ranged from 4 to 1498 N ha-1 and they occupied total 22.49 m² ha-1 basal area. All the species showed a clumped distribution. Number of species in the tree layer was positively correlated with number of species in the shrub, sapling and seedling layers while herbs showed negative correlation with shrubs and seedlings. Conversion of saplings into trees was satisfactory but success of seedling conversion to sapling was low. This study provides the first report on the vegetation of Ballavpur Wildlife Sanctuary. Keywords: Ballavpur Wildlife Sanctuary, distribution pattern, lateritic zone, species diversity, regeneration, vegetation structure.

Many years ago, a necessity in human daily life made him to cogitate about the possible ways to take advantage of nature and invent an important tool. At that time, the first and most crucial need of human was to make bread to eat. To make bread, they needed to crush the wheat into powder. To achieve this end, the hard-working people of Khuzestan Province tried to use hydropower by building mill and operating it. Near Dez River in Dezful city, there is an old and ruined installation, namely watermill, which is thought to date back to 1700 years ago to Sasanid Dynasty. It is obvious that these watermills were operative throughout the centuries. Watermills can be found in a limited number of areas in Iran, as the rotation of the wheels of this type of mill requires powerful and continuous hydropower. Dez River in Dezful city has all the necessary requisites. This very powerful river made the people of the city, from which the river passes, to benefit from the water power. In the past, the watermills operated with the water power of the river and transfer of this power into the reservoirs. In this way, the river flow was accelerated, which caused the rotation of the mill wheels and millstone and, as a result, crushing the wheat. With the invention of machine, the mills were neglected. Nowadays, only ruined buildings of these mills have remained, which are the reminder of the age of prosperity and fertility. The method of the current research is of descriptive-analytical type. Data gathering was done in library and fieldwork methods. Following the study of the history of Dezful watermills, we investigated the quotations from tourists, the books which have been remained from that time, and the belief of indigenous people to find the place, application, and the architecture of these windmills. At the end, we conclude that these mills are the indicators of the creativity and initiation of our ancestors and updated technology of that time. That is, they were aware of the hydraulics and the capacity and behavior of water to fulfill their daily and physical demands. This fact made the design of these mills sustainable and noble during the centuries. They can be a model for human to build a comfortable environment to live. In this way, such examples of architecture, being recognized as windmill, in Dezful have become the focus of attention during the recent years.

Well-2 of Koko field was drilled as an exploratory well, and various analytical tests aimed at determining the petrochemical characteristics of the reservoir sand, was utilized in the evaluation of the hydrocarbon prospect of the area. The gamma ray log, resistivety/inductivity log, compensated neutron were used in getting the above information, through the identification of the various lithologic units present in the well. From the information got from the various logs, it can be inferred that the hydrocarbon prospect of the area is low at the present depth of investigation.

This paper tests the effect of authentic leadership on gender directly. ``Authentic leaders know who they are, what they believe and value, and . . . act upon those values and beliefs while transparently interacting with others (Avolio, Gardner, Walumbwa, Luthans, & May, 2004, p. 803). `` Theorists accept that this self-aware, value-oriented behavior automatically produces positive outcomes in followers’ attitudes, behavior, and performance by acting via mediational processes that inherit followers’ trust, hope, and other positive emotions (Avolio et al., 2004). The aim of this perspective article is to present the argument that authentic leadership is a gendered representation of leadership. It is first presented a brief history of leadership theories and definitions of authentic leadership. Then critique authentic leadership and offer arguments to support the premise that authentic leadership is not gender-neutral and is especially challenging for women. This paper attempts to shed light on what we know and don’t know about authentic leadership. Paper mainly includes 4 sections. It starts with the introduction and in that part authentic leadership is broadly defined. In section 2, theoretical roots in other words literature review on the subject will be presented. Causes of effects on gender will be explained and authentic leadership et cetera will be discussed in detail. In addition to these, model will be presented based on traditional leadership theories and positive leadership theories. In section 3, after explaining the gender differences among authentic leadership, insight will be brought up for discussion and comparison with these 2 different groups. Section 4 will include further research, discussion and conclusion. Besides giving insight about authentic leadership for comparison purposes between different genders, the purpose of this paper is to provide information for the potential researchers about basic aspects of authentic leadership.

The foreign bodies of the oropharynx constitute a frequent emergency in the child. Management assumes a general rule that any foreign body that has penetrated through the natural pathways can be extracted by the same routes. The particularity of this foreign body and the difficulties encountered during its extraction.a 6-year-old girl admitted to take charge of a foreign body. This is a pen hat trapped in the para-pharyngeal space, examination of the oral cavity finds the extremity Distal of the cap of the visible hat through a 1 cm wound between the left lateral wall of the oropharynx without active bleeding, CT showed the foreign body enclosed in the left parapharyngeal space and which came into contact with l. The vascular axis of the neck without vascular lesions. The extraction was difficult since the hat was hung like a hook under the mucosa. It was performed under general anesthesia by the natural route.

Software Engineering upholds the productivity of quality software products that meets the customer requirements. Requirements engineering ensures the customer satisfaction through the selection of requirements through elicitation processes. Requirement elicitation promotes prioritizing a set of requirements that enables the stakeholders for conformance to the requirements to be built. Requirement prioritization process solves critical decision making problems towards the selection of requirements among group of inappropriate requirements. The main objective of the comparison of the prioritization techniques concludes the differences between them in terms of cost and time. This paper compares and elaborates the prioritization technique that provides a deep study of their constraints, objectives and selection basis of the requirements.

This paper suggests a new exponential ratio-type estimator for estimating the population variance using information of two auxiliary attributes in SRSWOR based on the adaption of the estimator presented by Lu et al. (2014). Problem is extended to the case of two phase sampling. The expressions for the mean square error of the proposed estimator have been derived. The proposed estimator has been compared theoretically with the usual unbiased estimator, usual ratio type estimator, estimator proposed by Chauhan et al. (2009) and the estimator proposed by Singh et al. (2009) and the conditions under which the proposed estimator are better than some existing estimators have also been given. An empirical study has also been carried out using two population data sets to demonstrate the efficiencies of the proposed estimator.