Archives-December 

U.S climate change policy has evolved under various administrations. It has passed through two environmental eras. In the first environmental era which started in 1960’s and ended in 1990’s main focus was on addressing environmental issues domestically by passing a number of environmental legislations. However by the end of 1990’s U.S. realized that climate change issues are beyond the control of sovereign states and only through international cooperation it can be tackled. However U.S was not willing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the only existing international emission reduction treaty, pointing out that it excludes developing countries from committing to binding emission reduction targets. Though Clinton administration had signed Kyoto Protocol in 1997, in 2001 George W Bush administration rejected the treaty completely. In the context of framing a new climate change treaty replacing Kyoto Protocol by world nations, if it has to be successful, at first it should ensure the participation of United States, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter. Apart from that, participation of key developing countries is also important; however their emission targets must be set up after considering their population size and per capita income.

Seven species of marine macro algae belonging to Chlorophyta, Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta were surveyed, collected from Coromandal coast, India and studied for their lipid composition and its accumulation for the future biodiesel production. Variability of chemical components and production of lipid granules are specific in macro algae and there is also an evidence for temporal variability in macro algal lipid composition. The lipids of algae have wide application in production of fuel. It was observed that lipid composition of macro algae in the sequence of members belonged to Phaeophyta > Chlorophyta > Rhodophyta. In this study we successfully localized the lipid bodies of seven macro algal strain by their ultra structural studies and Nile blue stain method. However, further research work should be carried out from different marine macro algae species for biofuel production to meet out the energy crisis globally in future.

Wavelet analysis is one of the most powerful and latest tool in the field of signal processing. It provides the better resolution in time and frequency domain simultaneously. Because of these properties of the wavelet it can be effectively used in EMG signal processing in order to determine the certain changes in amplitude at certain frequencies. At different levels of various mother wavelets we can get the useful resolution component from the EMG signal. In this paper, a single-channel electromyogram acquisition system Biopac MP36 was used to obtain the surface electromyogram signal. Single pair of surface electrodes was used to measure and record the EMG signal on forearm muscles. Then different levels of Daubechies Wavelet family were performed to analyze the EMG signal. We have used root mean square (rms) value of the EMG signal at different level of wavelet coefficients and reconstructed wave. The experimental results shows that rms feature vector provides very good performance for the classification of patterns.

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.

Anorectal malformations (ARM) comprises, a wide spectrum of diseases, which can affect girls and boys, and involve the rectum and distal anus as well as the genital and urinary tracts. ARM occurs in around 1 in 5000 live births. Defects range varies from the very minor or “low” which are easily treated with an excellent functional prognosis, to those that are difficult to manage, complex, are often associated with other anomalies known as “high”, and have a poor functional prognosis. The surgical approach to repairing these defects changed intensely in 1980 with the introduction of the posterior sagittal approach, Better imaging techniques, and a improved knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the pelvic structures at the time of birth.

Transposition of the great vessels is a type of congenital heart defect involving an abnormal arrangement of any of the great vessels such as the superior vena cava, pulmonary arteries and aorta. Congenital heart diseases concerning the primary arteries are further divided into sub-group called transposition of great arteries. There are different forms of anomalies like Dextro-transposition, Levo-transposition and Dextrocardia. It was first announced about two centuries ago, but the treatment became effective from the mid 21st century. Today the survival rate for infants is greater than 90%.

A single feed compact rectangular microstrip antenna is presented in this paper. L & H slits are introduced on the edge of the patch to study the effect of the slit on radiation behavior with respect to a conventional microstrip patch. The resonant frequencies are obtained at 2.21, 2.4, 4.36 & 6.41 GHz with corresponding bandwidth 15.18 MHz, 11.85 MHz, 15.14 MHz, 78.91 MHz and return loss of about -23.62, -13.58, -11.46 & -15.65 dB respectively. The antenna has been reduced by 61% when compared to a conventional rectangular microstrip patch. The characteristics of the designed structure are investigated by using MoM based electromagnetic solver, IE3D.

This study aims to analyze and compare errors made by students when using simple tenses in essay writing. The comparison was made after 6 months. The respondents of the study consisted of secondary school students from the Alpha and Beta classes and UiTM Kelantan groups which consisted of first and third diploma students from three different programmes. All respondents were asked to write an essay twice, with 6-month gap based on the same writing stimulus. In total, there were 107 essays written by respondents in each writing session, giving a grand total of 214 essays being analyzed. The results indicated an increase in errors amounting to 4.47% among students in the Alpha group but there is a reduction of 13.76% among the Beta group which was the weaker group. As for UiTM students, Diploma in Banking students showed an increase in the amount of errors by 8.2%. On contrary, Diploma in Business and Diploma in Information Management students showed a decrease in the amount by 23.79% and 3.4 %, respectively. The results of the study also indicated that there were some similarities in the types of errors made by the students.

The issue of copyright infringement spans across different sectors of the economy: ranging from the film industry, music, literary, as well as academics (plagiarism); just to mention but few. Software industry is another sector that is plagued with the menace of the software piracy. The practice started date back to late 1970s, and has eaten deep into the industry. The losses recorded by the software developers and the benefits users are been deprived of, prompted many researcher to suggest different measures (legal, physical and technical) to controlling this illegality. Employing means of battling this unscrupulous act has two-edged benefits. On the side of the developers, their intellectual properties are guarded, and the gains of their labours are not been reap by another. For the users, the originality of the product is assured and the users can benefits from regular update and maintenance routines. In this paper, our focus is on the technological control of this ‘unwanted stranger’. Previous models were studied and adequately examined. The existing serial key and image splitting models were adopted to form a hybrid model type. The outcome of our design, testing and implementation, shows a reduction in the level of possible access by pirates or unauthorised users.

Despite all the "talk" of lean production, it is obvious that many manufacturers have yet to grasp the full benefits of this philosophy, the strong weapon what Japanese used it to overcome American (and the other strong economies) giant organizations. So many organizations like to know their organization how far from lean standard benchmark system, and fill these gaps. The main goal of this research that is a competitive benchmarking, is introduction a simple mathematical model to shows positions of an Iranian automaker relative to Toyota, and helps them to calculate the size of their gaps between them and lean benchmark (Toyota).