Archives-December 

The quality of three marine fish species smoked with a gas smoker (Abuesi Gas Fish Smoker) and a fuelwood smoker (Chorkor Smoker) were analyzed. The aim was to evaluate the nutritional profile and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) levels in smoked fish from these smokers. The three fish species were the yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares, the common white grouper Epinephelus aeneus and barracuda Sphyraena sphyraena. The Abuesi Gas Fish Smoker produced significantly better quality-smoked fish than the Chorkor smoker. The protein, moisture, fat, total carbohydrate and ash contents of the gas smoked fish were in the range of 54.23 - 70.32%, 13.69 - 24.73%, 5.28 - 8.76%, 2.97 - 13.21% and 2.77 - 4.27% respectively, whilst that of the fuelwood-smoked fish were 43.38 - 43.75%, 22.00 - 46.5%, 2.00%, 5.26 - 25.78% and 2.85 - 6.50% respectively. Total PAH concentration ranged between 321.7 – 514.41 ?g/kg for gas-smoked fish and 1038.8 – 1550 ?g/kg for fuelwood-smoked fish. PAH concentrations per fish species in the two different fish smokers were significantly different. The EU maximum residue limits (MRLs) for PAH4 and BAP were met in the Gas Fish Smoker but not in the Chorkor Smoker. It is concluded that the gas fish smoker is a better choice, in terms of fish quality, than the fuelwood smoker.

Electronic banking (e-banking) system has become an important practice among commercial banks in Nigeria. The introduction of this banking system has improved banking efficiency in rendering services to customers and the public. However the gains of e-banking has been associated with some hinderances ranging from internet failure to arbitrary withdrawal of money by customers which negates the cashless policy being heralded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It was in line with this that the study aims at examining the challenges facing this banking system and the prospects accruable to its adoption. Among the various suggestions made in this study- to benefit maximally from e-banking- include provision of enabling environment that can guarantee safety of lives and cash deposits of customers, provision of an interrupted power supply and internet service in order to enjoy efficient services from the banks. Lastly, enforceable e-banking regulations should be put in place to back up the cashless policy already initiated by the CBN. This will go a long way to reduce money laundering and reckless withdrawal of cash and thereby boosting capital formation and investment in the economy.

Attitudes can be described as an evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people or events (Robbins & Judges, 2007), it’s because employee’s attitudes can reflect from the emotion on attachment to the particular organization and amplify employee’s productivity. This study particularly examines the importance employee attitudes that can be revealing from the aspect on affective commitment. Commitment is a manifestation of individual owns self and reflect values standard that are basic to an individual’s existence as a person. Based on the result shown that the commitment a closely associate with the attitudes of each employee in an organization. Organizational commitment can be classified into three (3) aspects which are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. The objective of this study is to measure the employee attitudes among non academic in UiTM Kedah by using the affective commitment. 100 samples were selected involved eight departments in UiTM Kedah. The results show affective commitment is positively influence the employee commitment. In conclusion, it is hoped that this paper will give some insight to promote the importance on affective commitment among the government servant especially the non-academic staff in UiTM Kedah in order to increase their level of efficiency concerning the attitudes stability towards their own organization attached.

Social work is one of the unique training and profession which strives to enhance the human being through sustain their capabilities and inherent strengths. In practice arena the profession is using various models, approach and intervention modalities to meet the needs and to ameliorate the problems of individual, families, groups, organisation and community. The prime goal of social work practice is to empower the individuals at different level. Empowerment has been a consistent theme within the social work profession for over a century. Hence NASW (1996) directed in its ethical preamble that “The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty”.

This work assessed the enrichment of lettuce and cabbage on display for sale along some busy roads in Accra with some essential elements using instrumental neutron activation analysis and atomic absorption spectrometry. The background levels of Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn, in lettuce and cabbage harvested from a vegetable farm were determined. The amount of the metals deposited on the vegetables after deliberate exposure along a busy road for three days were also determined. Background levels of elements in the vegetables in mg/kg were, Fe (162.97) > Mn (58.28) > Zn (10.78) > Cu (4.61) for lettuce and Fe (44.91) > Mn (20.95) > Zn (6.69) > Cu (1.16) for cabbage. The levels of all the elements increased in both vegetables after deliberate exposure with the third day recording the highest levels. The total amount of elements deposited on the vegetables after exposure for three days in mg/kg were Fe (22.27), Mn (11.8), Cu (1.68) and Zn (3.17) for lettuce and Fe (18.76), Mn (12.83), Cu (1.59) and Zn (5.58) for cabbage. Rates of enrichment of the vegetables by elements in mg/kg/day were, Fe (9.09) > Mn (3.93) >Zn (1.06) > Cu (0.56) for lettuce and Fe (6.25) > Mn (4.28) > Zn (1.86) > Cu (0.53) for cabbage.

Composite flours were prepared by blending acha and Bambara flours in ratios 90:10, 80:20, 70:30 and 60:40. Functional, pasting and chemical properties of the blends were evaluated. Cold extruded spaghetti samples were produced from the composite flours and 100% wheat flour as control. Proximate composition, mineral content, anti-nutritional, colour, cooking qualities and sensory acceptability of the spaghetti samples were determined. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in water absorption and oil absorption capacities between the control and the experimental samples. Loose and packed bulk densities, dispersability, water absorption and oil absorption capacities of the composite flours were as follows: 0.59 to 0.66 g/ml, 0.91 to 0.95 g/ml, 79 to 80 g/ml, 2.14 to 2.26 g/ml and 2.15 to 2.18 g/ml compared with wheat flour 0.48 g/ml, 0.77 g/ml, 75 g/ml, 2.26 g/ml and 2.46 g/ml, respectively. Swelling power of composite flour at 90 and 100oC were essentially the same, while slight differences occurred at 60, 70 and 80oC. Moisture, ash, fat, crude fiber, protein and carbohydrate contents of the blends were 12.58 to 12.91%, 1.00 to 2.50%, 2.30 to 2.40%, 0.25 to 1.00%, 12.58 to 14.63% and 67.09 to 71.20% compared with wheat flour 13.17%, 1.5%, 2.25%, 1.32%, 10.21% and 71.56%, respectively. Phytate, tannin and trypsin inhibitor contents of the extruded products were significantly reduced. The Ca and Zn of the composite spaghetti were higher than that of wheat spaghetti. Significant differences were observed in the colour of experimental spaghetti samples. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) between the cooked weight of composite spaghetti and wheat spaghetti. The overall acceptability of the experimental samples was about 60% of the control spaghetti.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent difficulties in social communication and interaction and restrictive, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, activities, and interests. Children with autism also experience sensory processing issues and it is a part of diagnostic criteria for Autism. The executive functions are fundamental cognitive skills for achieving good performance in life, as well as in the school and social environment, allowing people to face new and complex situations and the major components of executive functions are working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. executive functions in an early age evaluating a group of ASD preschool children and confirmed the presence of a significant deficit in some aspects of executive functions in subjects with ASD. The research indicated that children with ASD are often reported problem in executive function in order to have poor working memory capacity, difficulties in switching attention between tasks, and inhibition response problems, which can seriously affect their school performance and everyday functioning. An attempt has been made to review on executive functions in children with autism.

This research aims to examine the factors that influencing the Bumiputera Furniture Entrepreneurial Creativity in Kelantan, Malaysia. There are four (4) factors being studied, which is personality traits, environment, behavior and challenge. Based on some previous research, these four elements are very effective in assessing the level of creativity and innovation among entrepreneurs, especially those involving the manufacturing and production industries. Questionnaires were used as a method of data collection and were distributed to 57 furniture entrepreneurs. Then the data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 14.0 to test the reliability, the further analyzed using frequency analysis, descriptive-mean tests, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Regression Analysis. In general, the result of this study shows that there is a significant relationship between personality traits, environment and behavior with creativity of Bumiputera’s furniture entrepreneurship in Kelantan. This study is expected to produce a creative entrepreneur in the furniture production, thus will contribute to long-term success. In the academic world, researchers could then see how far the value of creativity among entrepreneurs furniture influenced by four factors referred to.

Much has been written about the putative virtues and vices of federal and unitary systems of government, but little experimental testing of the impact of such systems on the quality of governance has been conducted, The study was focused on the factors influencing the performance of federal Government of Somalia, a case study of Somali Federal Government, this time scope provides adequate information to the problem under investigation. The target populations of this study was120 include the elected leaders in various political fields. They included Members of Parliament of the Federal Government of Somalia, Community leaders, Youth leaders and Women leaders. The researcher used closed questionnaires. The researcher directly distributed questionnaires to the respondents. The sample size consisted of92 participants selected from the accessible population the Slovene's formula used to determine the minimum sample size. Data collected was analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The descriptive statistical tools were used to help in describing the data and determining the respondents? degree of agreement with the various statements under each factor. The data was analyzed and processed electronically using statistical package for social scientists (SPSS version 22) to analyze the factors influencing the performance of federal government of Somali. At the end of this study, the researcher is hopeful of coming up with recommendations that ensured peaceful coexistence of people in Somalia, while recognizing their diversity .it was found in this study clan interest table 4.5.3 shown the results researcher revealed that 79.7%percentage with the mean of 1.9% of the respondents mentioned that were agree that the main problem of Somalia the performance of federal government of Somali is clan interest. The study also revealed that an increase in clan interest and clan based federalism of Somalia positively affect the factors influence the performance of federal government of Somalia. The study recommends federalism was accomplishing the task of preserving natural unity through the distribution of powers and sovereignty between the central government and autonomous territorial entities operating within it. It ensured the peaceful coexistence of peoples, while recognizing their diversity and also to established formation fair division of natural resources between federal government and regional states.

False smut, caused by Ustilaginoidea virens, has recently been found in temperate agro-climatic conditions of Kashmir and is sporadic where rice is cultivated. In this study, rice false smut was surveyed in major rice production areas of Kashmir during two seasons. Disease incidence and severity varied significantly between seasons and locations. Seed germination in smut infected samples was 72.4% which is 21.45 per cent lower than the non - smutted samples (92.20%). Shoot and rood length were reduced to the extent of 32.53 and 22.65 per cent, respectively. Rice genotypes Jhelum and Shalimar rice-1 were found resistant while Pusa sughandh 3 and 5 were highly susceptible to false smut. Kashmir valley being mono cropped area of rice in Kharif season, further studies are needed to investigate the viability of the fungal spores and sclerotia during winter, variation between fungal isolates, ability to produce mycotoxins and devise control measures using integrated disease management practices.