Archives-December 

Maize stover consists of the leaves and stalks of maize plants left in a field after harvest and it makes up about half of the yield and is similar to straw. Ensiling maize stover with urea makes it a urea treated maize stover. Centrosema pubescens is a legume in the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae and tribe Phaseolae. It is native to Central and South America and cultivated in other tropical areas as forage for livestock. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of urea treatment on chemical composition; feed intake, blood urea and ammonia of maize stover. The potential of such a stover for growth performance of calves were investigated using 8 N’dama calves of 5 to 8 months of age and an average initial live weight of 92.5 kg. The animals were divided into two groups each of which were individually fed to appetite on basal diets of either untreated maize stover and Centrosema pubescens (Diet T1) or 5 % urea treated maize stover and Centrosema pubescens (Diet T2) for 90 days. In addition all the calves were allowed free access to mineral/vitamin blocks and ample drinking water ad libitum. Urea treatment increased the crude protein (CP) content of maize stover in Diet T2 by 22.12% and also a highly significant difference (p<0.01) in the crude fibre (CF) content over the untreated stover in Diet T1. Besides, compared with the untreated stover, urea treatment brought an improvement of 28% in daily feed intake. These improvements in terms of chemical composition, daily feed intake and dry matter intake led to a highly significant (p<0.01) live weight gain of animals fed on the urea treated stover diet compared with those fed on the untreated stover diet. However, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in blood urea levels but significant existed in feed cost/kg gain and linear body measurements between the animals fed on Diet T1 and those fed on Diet T2. Generally, with the added advantage of Diet T2 being more cost effective than Diet T1, feeding urea treated maize stover may be considered as one of the strategies that bring about an efficient utilization of crop residues for livestock feeding in Eastern part of Nigeria. However, its economic advantage over other alternatives must carefully be examined under the prevailing price conditions before it is implemented in an area.

The paper sought to assess the effects of multimedia advertisement features on customer satisfaction in 5-star hotels in Kenya. The study was conducted in Nairobi which is the capital city of Kenya between the month of July and September, 2015. The city is endowed with top rated high class hotels ranging from (1) to (5) star luxury hotels which are competing against each other. Classified hotels are trend setters in the tourism and hospitality industry. High classified hotels distinguish themselves by offering superior products and customised services. The mentioned reasons provided a good setup to conduct this research study. The research design for the study was explanatory research design. The target population comprised of the customers of the hotels listed. The total number of hotel rooms from which the sample was derived was 2500 rooms drawn from 15 five-star hotels. Purposive sampling was undertaken in order to distribute the sample size proportionately in accordance to the hotel room capacity. The customers were stratified and then systematic random sampling was used to select the samples who gave responses to the research instruments. The study established that multimedia online advertisement has significant effect on customer satisfaction by improving the interactivity and customer involvement with the brand it also enhances the presentation of the contents.

Abstract. This paper is aimed at finding an optimal estimator of the normal population mean when the coefficient of variation. The paper proposes an “Efficient Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) Estimation Approach [Using Two ‘Sample Standard Deviation’, for improving the well-known Searls’ Usual MMSE Mean Estimator (1964)] for Normal Population with Known Coefficient of Variation”. The ‘Relative Efficiencies [as compared to the usual unbiased sample-mean estimator ] estimator, per the proposed approach, has no simple algebraic form, and hence is not amenable to an analytical study determining its relative gainfulness, as compared to the usual unbiased sample mean estimator. Nevertheless, we examine the relative efficiency of our estimator with respect to the usual unbiased estimator , using an illustrative simulation study with high replication. MATLAB R2013a is used in programming this illustrative “Simulated Empirical Numerical Study”.

Concerning the increasing incidence of temporomandibular joint disorders and their impact on health status, this study was conducted to assess the knowledge of general dentists and dental specialists on temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in Shiraz.A questionnaire including 20 questions about knowledge of anatomy, signs and symptoms, diagnosis and treatment was given to 50 randomly selected general dental practitioners and specialists, in Shiraz, Iran. The answers were analyzed with SPSS14. Out of 50 participants consisting of 26 men and 24 women (mean age of 38.9±10.8 and mean years of practice 12.5±10.4), 41 were general dental practitioners and 9 were specialists. Mean score of diagnosis and treatment knowledge of all participants was 27.4 ±4.9 out of 40 achievable scores. There was a significant difference between the knowledge of specialists and that of general dental practitioners (P < 0.05). Age, gender, years of practice and university of education did not make any significant difference to the scores.The results of this study indicated an acceptable knowledge of participants regarding TMD.

In this paper, Periodic Component Analysis is used to extract the fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) from the abdominal and thoracic maternal electrocardiogram. The thoracic ECG (TECG) is assumed to be almost completely maternal while the abdominal ECG (AECG) is considered to be composite as it contains both the maternal and fetal ECG signals. Three channels of signal, from chest leads and five from abdominal leads from DaISy data set are used . Extracted signals consist of mixture of components including maternal ECG, fetal ECG and random noise. Periodic Component Analysis (?CA) is used to isolate the fetal ECG from maternal ECG signal. Generalized Eigen Value Decomposition is used to decompose the ECG record. It uses phase-wrapping of the R-R interval, for extracting the most periodic linear mixtures of a recorded dataset. Comparison with Independent Component Analysis (ICA) demonstrates the quality of this method. This method is therefore of special interest for the decomposition of ECG and the extraction fetal ECG from maternal ECG signal. The average sensitivity and accuracy of this method is 99.04% and 94.56% respectively. By using one thoracic signal and three abdominal signals this method is able to achieve 100% sensitivity and accuracy.

Having realized that the students at post graduate level need to have language skills to communicate effectively in professional context, the present paper has attempted to identify the communicative capabilities of Business students by conducting a survey on their business English knowledge level. The study used a well-defined questionnaire containing questions related to business letters, reports, memos, emails, minutes of meetings, telephonic conversation and presentations, testing the communicative competency of the respondents. The test was conducted to assess the language skills of the students after they finished a specific course in Business English. Students performance was evaluated and presented through a graph. The assessment outcome manily focusing on the factors that affect the learning of business English is discussed.

The present land use land cover investigation made by using Recent and High resolution data IRS-Resource sat 2, L4FX. In this study proposes a 2014 land use land cover assessment of the study area. Based on land use land cover classification, the study area contains a seven type of classes. The Seven classes are Deciduous Forests, Build up/Mine area, Agriculture/ crop land areas, Evergreen and Semi evergreen forests, Cultivation and Plantation, Barren Land and Water bodies are occupying areas of 27%,18%,18%, 16%,15%, 6%, 0.4% respectively. Classified image was carried into accuracy assessment. The accuracy assessment gives a result of overall accuracy - 90%, Kappa Accuracy - 88%, Producer Accuracy - 90% and User Accuracy - 91%.

The education system of Bangladesh is broadly divided into three stages. These are primary, secondary and higher education. To meet up the demand of education of the country, the government has the highest responsibility. The government of Bangladesh is trying to play her role since its inception. Doing her duty, many methods and techniques of providing education have been using. In the modern age of 21st century, Information Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the latest techniques around the world including Bangladesh to use in the field of education. It is said that the present time is the blessing of ICT. All the sectors of a country like, education, health, agriculture, business, travel, transport, industry etc. can’t work properly with expected outputs without use of technology. Many applications are now being used in all those sectors. Bangladesh is also on the track to utilize the application of ICTs. As a matter of it, Bangladesh has established an ICT policy in 2009, to implement and engage ICTs for some definite purposes. In education sector of Bangladesh, ICTs have been using for many purposes. Computer and internet based technologies have been using in a scattered and limited way for e-learning & distance learning such as in storage of data, video documentary production etc. But the prospects of ICTs in education sector comprising primary, secondary and higher level are multidimensional. Establishing e-learning or online education system, adopting modern educational management, ensuring equal opportunity of education, increasing global connectivity among the educational institutions, providing education for distanced and distressed people etc. could be able to achieve with the help of ICTs. Bangladesh is far behind in the field compared to other countries in the world. Some problems are also identified in this regard. These are lack of computers and lab facility with internet connectivity, inadequate infrastructure, lack of fund and comprehensive policy etc. which hinders to get the maximum benefits from ICTs in education sector. If all these hinders would quickly be minimized, the education system of Bangladesh, especially the secondary and higher stage could be able to produce its outcomes quickly and the government would be able to manage all the education sectors very effectively and efficiently. The present article deals with all these factors and important issues in detail with due attention.

This paper explores the findings of a qualitative phenomenological study of teaching practicum as a critical component of teacher training program at a leading private University in Kenya. This phenomenological study evaluated the teachers prevailing understandings of the teaching practice phenomenon (Borg and Gall, 2007). It focuses on exploring the issues and concerns related to the planning, teacher placement, implementation and administration of teaching practicum. It addresses the teacher trainees’ experiences, challenges, pedagogic and philosophical concerns during the teaching practicum. The participants in the study were selected using purposive sampling techniques. These were teachers who had completed the mandatory course requirements in a private university and were taking the final units in readiness for the final examination before graduation. The participants took their teaching practicum in their teaching duty stations, under the mentorship of a cooperating teacher and were supervised by two faculty members during the first term of the school calendar. The research design used a phenomenological interpretive methodology that gave prominence to the participants’ subjective meanings (Cohen and Manion, 2000). The participants in the study were 78 teachers who took part in the teaching practicum in the last phase of their teacher training program. Data were collected from professional journals, reflective papers and portfolios prepared by the teachers during and after the teaching practicum. Analysis of data was done by coding the teachers’ experiences into broad themes. Following the emerging perspectives and challenges during the practicum, suggestions are made to improve aspects of planning and pedagogy the teaching practicum.

This study assessed information needs and dissemination of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The study focused on the adequacy of existing holdings in the research institute determines the recency of materials in the library and evaluate the environmental condition of the library. The study was a descriptive survey which involved the design of questionnaire that was administered to staff and library clientele. The findings revealed that the highest percentage of the library clientele were researchers 45.8%, followed by the administrative and accounts staff 45.9% and planning officers accounted for 8.3% being the least among the library users. Also, majority 61% agreed that the materials were adequate. The study further showed that majority 64% of the materials were relatively recent. The study further revealed that 33.3% of the respondents described the environment as conducive for reading and learning. This study concluded that the agency is living up to its mandate as an institution for science, technology and innovation management (STI). However, the information needs of the agency needs to be explored to assist the management to provide current materials for the use of the staff and other users.