Archives-December 

The study was conducted to determine the level of contamination of grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus) meat with p,p- DDT, p,p-DDE, hexachlorocyclohexane isomers, lindane (?-HCH) and ?- HCH, dieldrin, aldrin, endrin, endrin aldehyde, endrin ketone, alpha-endosulfan, endosulfan sulfate, chlordane, heptachlor and methoxychlor. The paper reports the levels of organochlorine pesticide residues in the meat of 15 grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus ) samples obtained from the Gomoa district, a vegetable farming area in the Central Region of Ghana. The results indicated that all the analyzed samples were contaminated with the studied organochlorine pesticides. Aldrin and heptachlor were the principal contaminants in all the samples. The levels of organochlorine pesticide residues detected in all the meat samples were below the accepted maximum residue limits (MRL), as adopted by the WHO/FAO Codex Alimentarius Commission.

Present paper is an important study for constructing magic squares of odd orders. This magic squares have been formed using the properties of Latin squares. Here, reduced Latin square is used and it is formulated by using the cyclic shifting method with the entries (????, ????,...., ????) (????(????- ????),.... ???? power ???? ).This work has been generalized for magic square of order ???? power ????, when ???? is odd and ???? by using the mathematical formula ?????????(???????????? ???? power ????): ????= ????, ????,..., ???? power ????. The method is tested for ????, ???? power ???? and ????.

The aim of this study is to validate the psychometric properties of the short form of the Coolidge axis II inventory in clinical and non-clinical populations. The short form of the Coolidge axis II inventory is a 70-item self-reporting tool for measuring personality disorders based on DSM book criteria. In the study of the psychometric properties of this instrument the mean internal scale reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha) was obtained for both clinical and non-clinical population (n = 630) 0.79 and for clinical population (N = 120) 0.82. The average retest reliability (two weeks) of this instrument was 0.80. There was good convergence validity between these tools with the personality diagnostic questionnaire 4 (PDQ 4). In addition, the structural validity results showed that this tool has a good structural validity. This tool has good validity and reliability in both clinical and non-clinical samples.

The present dissection shows that there are some positive points contained in the legal texts on the election of governors and vice-governors of province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) in force since 2006. This is the case, including the strict limitation of the duration and the number of mandates of the elected governors. It is mentioned thereafter, and unfortunately, in the Congolese regulation on the election of this category of authorities, a series of the resulting problems formula to remove or improve. In the number of these, one can insert those with the size of the election colleges, the adopted electoral system, the application criteria, the obligations and bans around the electoral campaign which binding less candidates and convincing less the national community on the concern to reach free elements, fair and transparent. It is also clearly demonstrated that the provincial provisions leave a wide open aims to the trade of the voices and, on the occurrence of the voting results in inadequate with the expectations of the populations. Legitimacy, political stability and the vision for development from our Provinces thus found destroyed from the start of the third republic instituted in 2006 after a long period of political crises and wars in the country. So, some proposals for the revision of those provisions contained in both the Constitution (Articles 197 paragraph 4 and 198) as in other relevant laws (Election Act: Articles 159, 161, 162 and Law on Free Administration of provinces: Article 23).

In our country most of the population has agriculture as a primary source of income. Agricultural output consist of 16% of India GDP but in most parts of our country there is scarcity of water. To give boost to agriculture the earliest leaders of the country had given primary importance to irrigation projects. But day by day it’s becoming need of the hour to utilize micro irrigation techniques like drip and sprinkler irrigation. In our country most of the farmers utilize conventional process of pipe collection. But it effects the life of pipes, while collecting the pipes it forms scratches, minute holes, bends and while utilizing next time its efficiency has been decreased so these paper deals with the application of a simple mechanism to coil the pipes and collect it without bending or forming twist and increasing its efficiency and long life. It deals with very basic but un-noticed problem related to drip irrigation pipes.

The production of genetically modified food using Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins (proteins) and Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA) is not new; various food crops have been transformed to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses using the lectin (agglutinin) from Galanthus nivalis. The rice samples used in this work were analysed for the presence of the genetically modified material. Two of the rice samples used gave dot fluorescence of 223.513 and 150.032 with calculated GNA amount of 14.02 and 9.19 ng respectively. The samples contained GNA between 0.031 and 0.07 % per 1µg; the values are significant indicating that the samples express significant amount of the lectin, which implies that the rice analysed are genetically modified. Thus this study identified rice that has been genetically modified with the lectin from Galanthus nivalis using the immunoblot method.

Determination of optimum turning parameters in turning operations is one of the important tasks of process planners. The importance of this task is due to the fact that the values of turning parameters affect such objectives as turning time, turning cost and surface roughness. Thus, this problem is a multi-objective decision-making issue meaning that a parameter setting which satisfactorily achieves one of these objectives, it may not be good with respect to other objectives. Therefore, a rational compromise is to be made among these objectives. This paper determines the best cutting parameters considering relevant constraints in turning operations using a genetic algorithm coupled with an Analytic Hierarchy Process approach. The main stages of the proposed approach are two folds: (a) the non-dominated turning parameters being in the Pareto frontier are identified through a genetic algorithm, and (b) the AHP method is used to select the most suitable values for turning parameters from amongst the non-dominated solutions obtained in the first stage. Application of the proposed approach is demonstrated though an illustrative numerical example.

Sensitivity to environmental issues shifts consumer behavior towards supporting the growth and diffusion of green marketing and environmental conscious consumer behavior including consumer preference for greener technology, increase in demand for greener products and greater acceptance of green packaging. Consumers do express strong concerns for the environment, but their attitudes are often not reflected in consumption practices and these attitudes need to be explicitly studied. Results indicate that young consumers concern on green packaging product through the elements of reuse, reduce, recycle and refill. The elements of reuse and refill come most due to economic reasons. This finding emphasizes that the increasing importance environmental dimension in product packaging which consist of ethics, behaviors and attitudes can be blended together with economic advantage. We also propose that the attention in environmental consumer research should be shifted from general attitude studies towards the study of actual product choices and benefits to customers.

Leadership development is a new initiative that has no precedents upon which to draw. While leadership has been recognized for centuries as essential prerequisite to society’s development, there is no “school” for leadership development. Head nurse/ ward- in – charge have been an established part of the nursing structure and are expected to facilitate staff nurses in their roles as patient caregivers. Nurse leaders have a responsibility to create effective properly functioning units to support the work of nurses. This paper presents an initiative in this direction, by developing the leadership practices of head nurses using a leadership development package. A quasi experimental pretest- post test control group design was used. The findings of the study revealed that the leadership development package could bring in significant improvement in the leadership practices of the head nurses.

To develop a sustainable concrete using new supplementary cementitious material (SCM) like Lime sludge which is produced in paper industry while producing paper. It was replaced partially with Ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The properties of concrete investigated include compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength and sorptivity keeping optimum percentage of Lime sludge supposedly supplementary cementitious material (SCM). Also compared the cost of sludge based concrete with conventional concrete. In this work, M25 grade was developed and test results indicate that the use of Lime sludge with cement in the concrete has improved the performance of concrete on mechanical properties and cost economical.