Archives-December 

Cloud computing is clearly one of today’s most enticing technology areas due, at least in part, to its cost-efficiency and flexibility. However, despite the surge in activity and interest, there are significant, persistent concerns about cloud computing that are impeding momentum and will eventually compromise the vision of cloud computing as a new IT procurement model. In this paper, we characterize the problems and their impact on adoption. In addition, and equally importantly, we describe how the combination of existing research thrusts has the potential to alleviate many of the concerns impeding adoption. In particular, we argue that with continued research advances in trusted computing and computation-supporting encryption, life in the cloud can be advantageous from a business intelligence standpoint over the isolated alternative that is more common today

This study attempts to analyze Surrealism in Oldooz and the Crows, a short story written by the Iranian author Samad Behrangi. Surrealism is a cultural movement founded in 1920s by the French poet and critic Andre Breton. The surrealists favored in the function of the world of unconscious mind in integrating fancies and dreams to the phenomenal world in order to elaborate a higher reality. They also were interested in Freud's theories about unconscious mind and the power of free imagination especially in Children. Moreover, they insisted on the automatic writing avoiding regular artistic conventions and restrictive rule. In this regard, the researcher tries to discuss the imaginative freedom and childhood dreams propounded in Behrangi's short story Oldooz and the Crows to consider whether this literary work can be considered as a surrealist work or not.

This paper presents three algorithms and one proposed algorithm to find relevant pages for a given Web page (URL). The first algorithm comes from the Pagerank analysis of the Web pages. It is intuitive and easy to implement. The second one takes advantage of HITS to identify relevant pages more precisely and effectively. The third one shows the advantages and limitations of Weighted Pagerank algorithm and the final proposed algorithm based on Topic Sensitive Pagerank algorithm. These algorithms could be used for various Web applications, such as enhancing Web search. The ideas and techniques in this work would be helpful to other Web-related researches.

Discipline is the epicenter of success of a school and members of a school are required to strictly adhere to various standards or codes of behavior. Student discipline is a crucial factor in not only academic achievement but also success in other school activities. The challenge of managing student discipline is pervasive and constant. The issues of management strategies and student discipline in secondary schools in Kenya are viewed by many as contemporary problems that may turn into a crisis if not checked. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of selected strategies used in managing student discipline by secondary schools in Kericho West District, Kericho County. The objectives of the study will be; to determine the effectiveness of guidance and counseling in enhancing student discipline, to find out the effectiveness of communication as a strategy in management of students discipline, to investigate the influence of student motivation on student, to examine the effectiveness of students’ participation in decision making in enhancing students’ discipline and to determine the principals’ effectiveness in managing students’ discipline in secondary schools in Kericho County. The study adopted Bandura’s (1997) social learning theory. This study employed the descriptive survey research design. A population of 135 was considered which composed of 45 principals, 45 deputy principals and 45 head of departments in charge of guidance and counseling of all public secondary schools in Kericho West District.

Routing protocols govern the prime path for data communication amongst network nodes. These protocols are employed once there is a major growth in organisations were, static routes are uncontrollable. Distance vector routing protocols which is one of the two main routing protocols for communication uses data packets sent over Internet Protocol (IP). This routing protocols are classified into Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) and Routing Information Protocol (RIP). They are dynamic Internet Gateway Protocols (IGPs) which route packets within one Autonomous System (AS). However, RIP is considered an effective solution for small homogeneous networks. An organisation who needs to expand its network cannot use the RIP due to its limitations of fifteen hop counts. This problem has been a major concern in corporate organisations which hence the need for an improved distance vector routing protocol. EIGRP although, is a Cisco proprietary protocol based on Diffused Update Algorithm (DUAL) was introduced in this research to serve as an extension to an organisation’s network. Packet flowing from RIP network interface if exhausted its maximum hop count, can re-route its packet through EIGRP network interface. With this improvement, organisations have no worries of changing the entire routing protocol.

Naturally occurring radionuclides of terrestrial origin (also called primordial radionuclides) are present in various degrees in all media in the environment, which includes the human body itself. Their concentrations in the environment decrease continually by decaying. In this study, the specific activities of different natural radionuclides were determined by using gamma-ray spectrometry. The analysis of two radionuclides (214Bi, 234m Pa) that belong to the 238U series and one radionuclide 228Ac belonging to the 232Th series, 40K, 226Ra, and 137Cs, was done for soil samples obtained from different locations in Iraq, which include factories, hospitals, and other facilities. The analysis of radionuclides measurement was done by using the high purity Germanium (HPGe) detector coupled with a computer-based high-resolution multichannel analyzer. The results showed that the average specific activities of 228Ac in sample 6, 214Bi, 234m Pa, and 226Ra in sample 2, 40K in sample 10, and 137Cs in sample 21 were higher than other samples. However, the activity concentrations of the analyzed radionuclides were very low in most samples.

Abstract Aim of present study was to evaluate in vitro antimicrobial activity of crude extracts of Acacia nilotica. The extracts exhibited antimicrobial activities with zones of inhibition ranging from 6 to 22 mm and exhibited appreciable activity against all the clinically important bacterial and fungal species. Overall maximum Inhibition zone (22mm) was observed in extract of methanol and chloroform (75:25) against Bacillus subtilisand minimum (4mm) in extract of methanol and chloroform (50:50) against Dreschlera avenacea. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of carbohydrates, proteins, alkaloids and flavonoids in the extracts. The antimicrobial effect of the extract was compared with the standard drugs (Ciprofloxacin for bacterial and ketokenazole for fungus). Crude extracts of A.nilotica inhibited the growth of various bacteria and fungi thus showed its broad spectrum antimicrobial potential, which may be employed in the management of microbial infections.

In this paper, we employ Multiple Linear Regression Model to fit a model of Gross Domestic Product Per Capita of Nigeria using some World Development Indicators (WDI) as explanatory variables. Data were collected from 1981 to 2013. The five WDI are OER-Official Exchange Rate (LCU Per US$, Period Average), BM-Broad Money (% of GDP), INF-Inflation, GDP deflator (Annual %), TNR-Total Natural Resources Rents (% of GDP) and FDI-Foreign Direct Investment, Net Inflows (% of GDP).At the end of the analysis it was discovered that the OER and BM are statically significant while INF, TNR and FDI are not statistically significant. The average estimated GDP per capita of Nigeria when the effect of OER, BM, INF, TNR and FDI are zero is $-360.81. Also, 1 unit increase in OER-Official Exchange Rate (LCU Per US$, Period Average) will lead to a significant increase in GDP per capita by $4.42 (4.42USD); if BM-Broad Money (% of GDP) increases by 1% then GDP per capita will increase by $25.17; if INF-Inflation, GDP deflator (Annual %) increases by 1% then GDP per capita will decrease by $0.08; if TNR-Total Natural Resources Rents (% of GDP) increases by 1% then GDP per capita will decrease by $0.63 and if FDI-Foreign Direct Investment, Net Inflows (% of GDP) increases by 1% then GDP per capita will increase by $13.52. (Note: All the estimated parameters are significant at 5% without exception). 71.1% of the total variation in GDP per capita of Nigeria can be explained by the variations in OER-Official Exchange Rate (LCU Per US$, Period Average), BM-Broad Money (% of GDP), INF-Inflation, GDP deflator (Annual %), TNR-Total Natural Resources Rents (% of GDP) and FDI-Foreign Direct Investment, Net Inflows (% of GDP) while the remaining 28.9% could be explained by other variables other than the ones used in this model.

Speaker identification followed by speech recognition system is developed. The system makes use of MFCC (mel frequency cepstrum coefficients) to process the input signal and extract the features. VQ (Vector quantization) is used to identify the speaker. LPC (Linear Predictive Coding) and BNN (Back Propagation Neural Network) technique of hyperbolic tangent function under ANN (Artificial Neural Network) is used for speech recognition system. The implementation is done using MATLAB. The results of the developed system proved to be efficient and faster.

In the current paper, firstly literature is reviewed and various R & D assessment models in different industries are studied and finally, an assessment model selected that can evaluate R & D capabilities with the approach to new products development in automotive industry. Meanwhile this model has been tested in that article by structural equations and AMOS software, and also it was divided into 9 main classes with 29 indexes. In this research For the research purpose, firstly face validity, and then content validity was calculated using CVR form and Cronbach's reliability was calculated for research tool. Following approval of these items, questionnaires were distributed among 40 experts in Iran Khodro Co. working in engineering, new products development, quality and other units cooperating with R & D unit. Then, scores were given to 29 indexes by automotive industry experts and final score of 29 indexes and 9 main dimensions were evaluated. Considering obtained scores it was specified this company has highest capability in financial capability (80.83%) and technology capability (80.08%) dimensions compared to other dimensions. Also, it has lowest capability in strategic capability (61.38%) and customer and market capability (62.03%)dimensions compared to others. In addition, intellectual capital (70.17%), organizational structure (71.17%), research and design (73.17%), management (73.42%), and new products development process (77.50%) capabilities are in average level compared to other dimensions. Finally, some recommendations are made regarding dimensions and indexes with lower score in the organization.