Archives-December 

We are very happy to announce that from 20th January 2011, Dr.Amit Bhatnagar has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on the Chemical Engineering. Dr.Amit Bhatnagar is currently working Faculty of Engineering University of Porto(FEUP), Chemical Engineering Department Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering (LSRE) Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto Portugal. The appointment of Dr.Amit Bhatnagar as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links with Iran and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to chiefeditor@elixirjournal.org. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief

Cancer is currently the cause of 12% of all deaths worldwide. The number of cancer deaths annually will increase from about 6 million to 10 million. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide, with nearly 1 000 000 new cases diagnosed per year, and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. The causes of breast cancer remain largely unknown, but certain reproductive and hormonal factors are clearly related to risk. It is reported that one in 22 women in India is likely to suffer from breast cancer during her lifetime. The medical records of 200 patients treated at the Mahavir Cancer Institute and research Centre for breast cancer between 2005 and 2008 with perspective age of first pregnancy and menstrual status were reviewed. In present study we can observe that breast cancer cases were more found in pre menopausal women i.e.: 59 % than post menopausal women i.e.: 41%. Most women of the study were belonging to low socieo-economic status from rural area. They have average first pregnancy on 17.95 years of age. Thus it is concluded that early pregnancy having no protective role in breast cancer but they develop breast cancer in early age.

Learning about the different aspects of human beings as the most complicated creature in the world, has always been an issue for scientists. Unlike other creatures man is the only creature who is able to think about his own existence and has the ability to grow mentally and spiritually; all these are possible through Education. Education is transferring knowledge and skills by an educator; there are too many opinions on the way of this very act of transfer. Rumi (Molavi), the famous Iranian poet of the 7th century presented very glorious points of views on education relying on Islamic and Iranian rich knowledge. This paper is an attempt to know his ideas and educational methods through analyzing sample verses of his poems in his world-known masterpiece, “Mathnawi”. The implications for current educators will be discussed by considering his division of educational aims into general and specialized categories.

Centrifugal pumps are the most widely used pumps due to their simple construction and ease of installation. As use of centrifugal pumps is very common they need to be efficient and low power consuming. Performance of a centrifugal pump depends on various factors like blade angle, blade thickness, number of blades, blade shape, blade outlet diameter etc. In the present analysis the effect of blade shape on the performance of centrifugal pump is shown by designing the blade profile using Concentric Circular Arc Method and Point By Point Method. For both the methods design parameters are kept same and CFD analysis is done to obtain the performance of pump at different flow conditions. Various results are evaluated and compared through charts and graphs.

The effect of three different rates of poultry droppings (0kg/ha, 12kg/ha, 24kg/ha) and plant spacing (30cm x 50cm; 40cm x 50cm; 50cm x 50cm) and the soil chemical properties and yield of cucumber was studied in a field trial at Igbariam south eastern, Nigeria. The experiment was conducted as a 3x3 factorial laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with two replications. The result of the study showed that poultry droppings and plant spacing significantly (p=0.05) increased the growth and yield of cucumber and improved the soil chemical parameters assessed. The values obtained increased as the rate of poultry droppings increased from zero level and decreased as the planting distance increased. The closest plant spacing (30cm x 50cm) and poultry droppings at the rate of 24kg/ha recorded the highest value in both crop and soil parameters assessed in this trial. Though the result of Mg2+ showed a decrease as the rate of poultry droppings increased and Ca2t result did not follow any particular trend. The spacing and poultry droppings interaction was significant for fruit yield (Weight of fruit), length of fruit and vine length, but generally showed non-significant for all the soil parameters measured. The result of the study showed that cucumber production could be enhanced at 24kg/ha poultry droppings and at a closer plant spacing of 30cm x 50cm for optimum yield.

Globalization has forced organization to change their operating strategies and adopt to the business environment in order to stay relevant. All organizations have moved to considering their service delivery as the new measure of organizational performance. More attention is thus shifting to factors that affect service delivery of various organizations as a whole or their core departments. This calls on the standards regulating agencies and more so the departments concerned with this to be at their utmost performance thus at their best service delivery. The most notable of these organizations is Kebs within the Kenyan context. The market surveillance department has the most important role in ensuring compliance to the standards. However, the performance of this department is not yet at par with the required standards under a global economy. Studies have thus been conducted to determine the reasons for this poor performance. Most of these studies fall short by giving mere symptoms of the problem but not the root cause which is strategic management. The main objective of the study was therefore to determine the effect of strategic management practices on service delivery by the surveillance department of Kebs this was supported by specific objectives which were to determine the effects of strategic formulation on service delivery by the surveillance departments of Kenya bureau of standards; to determine the effects of strategic planning on service delivery by the surveillance departments of Kenya bureau of standards; to determine the effects of strategy implementation on service delivery by the surveillance departments of Kenya bureau of standards and to determine the effects of strategic evaluation on service delivery by the surveillance departments of Kenya bureau of standards. The study was carried out in kebs as it is the main standards regulatory agency in the country and has all the elements in the other agencies thus the findings can be inferred to the others as well. The data for the study was collected from managers of KEBS ranging from junior management, middle level employees to senior management. The study used a sample based on the 10% of the target population therefore using 60 targeted respondents from whom responses was collected using Likert scale questionnaires. These were then sorted for consistency and accuracy leading to the use of 49 questionnaires which were coded and analyzed using mean and standard deviation followed by a simple regression analysis from which the findings of the study were drawn. The study found that there is a direct relationship between strategic management and service delivery. The highest contributor to this is strategic monitoring and evaluation followed by planning and implementation. It is thus surprising that the study found out that monitoring and evaluation was the weakest of the three strategic management variables. As a result, recommendation is made to have more emphasis on monitoring and evaluation, have stronger implementation as well as more attention on the weak areas of planning especially internal analysis and external analysis and involvement of junior employees in the process.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) remain at great risk for HIV infections. This study purpose was to assess effectiveness of MMT intervention in preventing infections among MSM in Nairobi. A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control-group design with pre-and post-test was adapted. 188 MSM was randomly selected into Hoymas and Ishtar Nairobi. Tail was treatment that went to Hoymas while head was control which went to Ishtar. Findings revealed there was reduced risky behavior in experimental group between pretest –and post-test data. This study recommends MMT for psycho-behavioral personality/temperament interventions. It is cost effective; no side effects can be personalized treatment plan and incorporated in HIV treatment. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that MMT was effective in reducing risky sexual behavior among MSM. It can be tailored for individuals psychological and behavioural and as a strategy for dealing with personality and sexual decision making.

Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.) Schott can provide a solution to the problems of hunger, inadequacy and food insecurity facing many developing countries such as DR Congo, as it is adapted to humid tropical climates and is richer in nutrients than most root and tuber crops. However, its large-scale culture is confronted with the unavailability of propagation material related to its mode of multiplication and growth. In fact, the pronounced dominance imposed by the terminal bud inhibits bud burst and the development of lateral buds that can be used during planting. To try to solve this problem, a study was carried out by experimenting the PIF method in Kisangani. It consisted in evaluating the longevity of the bulbs in relation to their size, to estimate the production of the offspring with regard to the longevity of the mother bulbs and to evaluate the temporal evolution of the vigor of the obtained shoots. The observations made were based respectively on the diameter of the mother bulbs, the neck diameter of the weaned offspring, the lifespan of mother bulbs and the order of weaning. It was then established the relationship between the longevity of the mother bulbs and their size, the number of offspring formed and the lifespan of the mother bulbs and finally between the diameter of offspring formed and the order of weaning. The results obtained showed that: The longevity of the mother bulbs was independent of their size (P = 0,905);There is a positive correlation between the longevity of mother bulbs and the number of offspring formed. This relationship was translated by the equation: Number of offspring formed = 0,847 + 0,004X (X = longevity of mother bulbs). This equation indicates that the number of offspring formed increases moderately with the longevity of the mother bulbs (r = 0,346). The longevity of the bulb explains to 10,9% the increase in the number of the offspring formed (R2 = 0,109);There were no significant differences between the tested substrates with respect to the longevity of the mother bulbs (P = 0,227);There is a close relationship between the weaning order and the vigor of trained and weaned offspring.

Of the 2,900 species of flowering plants in Kotagiri hill of Nilgiri biosphere reserve in Southern India, 126 species from 37 families are endemic, they are listed by plant species.

Synthetic dyes are essential raw materials in numerous industrial processes, which include textile, food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. However, they constitute environmental pollutants when discharged as wastewater effluents without adequate treatment. This work is focused on the treatment of a dye, Eosin Red, through the photocatalytic degradation process using anatase nano titanium dioxide. The light source for this experiment is an 8 W monochromatic UV bulb, which provides wavelength of sufficient energy to overcome the anatase titanium dioxide band energy of 3.2 eV. Dye concentration reduction was determined using a UV/Vis Spectrophotometer, with 519 nm as the wavelength of maximum absorbance of Eosin Red dye. The result obtained showed a significant degree of ER photodegration and highlighted the dependence of the photodegradation process on some influencing parameters like initial concentration of dye, catalytic loading, contact time, and pH. The kinetic study in this research indicates that the photodegradation of Eosin red dye strongly follows pseudo-first-order kinetics, as is evident in the R2 and k’ values of 0.998 and 0.0115 min-1 respectively of 10ppm Eosin red