Archives-February 2016

The present research is aimed to discover the skeletal and social measures and principles affecting the formation of collective memories in urban designing and to scrutinize and examine them compared to Shemiranat Gateway. In old cities, the gateways were considered as a place for passage but by emersion of modernity, progress of technology, increase in the speed of human beings’ movement, ease of access and development of communications, and replacing the old transportation vehicles by new automobiles, the form and shape of the cities and towns, too, underwent remarkable changes. The change in the skeleton of the cities caused some functions such as the gateways to be forgotten and lose their spatial concept, so new concepts emerged proportionate to the needs of the modern cities. The city’s entrance point was replaced by the suburban areas; and the middle space between the inside and outside of the city was expanded so much that it went beyond the human perception. But the concept of passage still remained in the minds and the difference between “here” and “there” didn’t fade despite the change in the concept of distance compared to its old form. By breakdown of the hedges, the skeleton of the city entrances and gateways have changed but their location still reminds the citizens’ collective memories and can provoke the people’s memories. The method of the present research is based on logical reasoning which, first, introduces the urban space and middle spaces and recognizes their relationship through the documentary studies and, then, extracts the measures and factors which affect the formation and maintenance of the collective memories on the city’s entrance area with regard to the existing challenges in any area; it ultimately suggests solutions, appropriate to the 21st century human’s needs, under three issues, that is passage, presence, and crisis management, in order to reinforce the above-mentioned factors.

Fourier-Mellin transform has many properties such as linearity, scaling, shifting, differentiation property etc. Mainly linearity and shifting property is used for image registration in medical field. Due to such properties transform has many applications like visual odometry, detection of human face, the comparison of plant leaves which is based on Fourier-Mellin transform.In present work we discussed about linearity, scaling, shifting, differentiation, first shifting property of two-dimensional fractional Fourier-Mellin Transform.

This study the impact of company financial leverage and growth opportunities on the investment decisions using information on Iranian companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange. This paper aims to answer is whether financial leverage influences the investment decisions in Iranian context. By answering this question, the author attempts to add to the existing literature by bringing new evidence on the relationship between leverage and investment decisions of firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange in Iran. For the study purpose, the 92 companies with the desired condition were selected for this purpose and panel data with fixed effects was used to test hypotheses. The results of this research show that companies with higher Financial Leverage adjust their investment decisions. The results of this study can be used by shareholders, managers and finance researchers.

The diversity and population density distribution survey of primate was conducted in Sambisa Game Reserve. The study noted three diverse primate species dominant that include Baboon (Papio anubis), Tantalus monkey (Cercopithecus tantalus) and Red patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas). The aim of the study was to determine density estimate, population structure and the relative abundance between species and habitat disturbances. Information on the objectives of this study is not sufficiently documented, it is therefore right to carry out such study so as to provide baseline information that could be used to plan conservation management strategies for primate. The line transect sampling method was used for the enumeration. The data obtained was analysed using the software package DISTANCE 6.0 to determine population density estimate. The result showed that primate population was concentrated in three ranges of the reserve (Kwada, Yuwe and Jeltere). Balda range has suffered habitat disturbances resulting into insignificant number of primate. The mean encounter rates (MERs) for the three species were 1.85km-1, 0.94/km-1 and 1.58km-1 for baboon, Patas monkey and Tantalus monkey respectively. Baboon had the highest estimated density of about 12km-2. The estimated density of Tantalus monkey in the study area was about 11km-2. Patas monkey had a density estimate of about 7km-2. There was a significant difference in the pattern of primate species densities for morning and evening count. The result indicated less activity in the evening for all the 3 primate species in the study area. The mean encounter rate for Baboon were 1.15 km-1 (n=110) and 0.71 km-1 (n= 68) individual animals for morning and evening sightings respectively. Similar results were obtained for the density estimate of both Tantalus and Patas monkey. The relative density for the three primate species across the four ranges in the reserve revealed that Baboon was not recorded in Balda range and only 2 individuals sighted in Jeltere. Kwada and yuwe ranges had the highest abundance of 119 and 57 individuals sighted respectively. The population structure showed declining trend as number of juveniles was relatively lower than adult population. However, the relatively higher percentage of female adults may result in population growth, if majority of them are within the breeding age. The diversity of primates in Sambisa Game Reserve is distributed throughout the reserve within a wide range of habitat types. The highest numbers of primate species were found in the centre of the reserve (Kwada and Yuwe) where habitat disturbances were controlled.

Easier access to botanicals and the return to traditional means of pest control have cast a new spell on botanicals. Botanicals are cheap, efficient and not prone to induce resistance in the pest. Among the studied botanicals used as pesticides worldwide, the neem tree and the tobacco plant have proved to be the richest in active compounds and are some of the potent sources of natural biocides. Bioassays were carried out on the gall wasp Leptocybe invasa on Eucalyptus grandis using neem, tobacco and neem/tobacco mixture each at concentrations of 5, 10 and 15g/l and observations on oviposition, gall development and adult emergence were made at two week intervals for a period of 12 weeks. Results showed that tobacco had the highest insecticidal effects in reducing oviposition rate, whilst the mixture of neem/tobacco reduced gall formation. Neem was potent at reducing adult emergence and for all extracts, an increase in concentration led to a decrease in oviposition, gall formation and adult emergence. Results from this study point to the feasibility of using these extracts in the control of L. invasa on Eucalyptus from the devastation of this pest.

Firms over the years have sought for ways of marketing their products to enable them achieve their marketing objectives, including sales and profits. As a result, they have experimented with various marketing strategies over the years. All these marketing strategies have had varying degrees of success. However, until recently, trade shows, which was practiced hundreds of years ago was not part of the tools, even though it holds the key to the success of industry. Trade shows have been identified as a cost-effective tool for promoting products of all kinds and origins. Trade shows bring both sellers and buyers together under one roof to transact business. This way, firms interact with their prospective customers or dealers more directly at a relatively cheaper cost. In recent times, there has been the proliferation of trade shows in Ghana. Researchers identified potential benefits firms could derive from participating in such exhibitions as the motive behind such a move. The outcome of the research conducted has shown that indeed positive results are derived from participating in such fairs. These have been discussed thoroughly. Other issues that cropped up in the study included evaluating performance or effectiveness of participation, preparations firms made towards participating and challenges exhibitors faced during the participation of such fairs.

The titanium dioxide powder was prepared on p-type porous silicon by sol-gel process. The morphology of TiO2 sensing film surface was imaged by atomic force microscope (AFM) model AA3000 SPM from Angstrom Advanced Inc. The average roughness of the film surface is 25 nm. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns shows of TiO2nano-particalprepared by the solgel method arepolycrystalline, the anatase phase with the preferential orientation of the crystallites along the [101] direction,at2? =25.253°theresultisinagreementwiththe ASTM Card (PDF 21-1272).The resistance of the TiO2nano-partical sensors reduces with the presence of vapor ethanol.

The study investigates the significant determinants of stock returns of all non-financial listed companies in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), Pakistan from 1998-2011 by using panel data techniques. In addition, this study further categorized into Syariah and Non-Syariah compliant firms to examine the significant differences of stock determinants. All listed stocks in Karachi Meezan Index (KMI) are entitled as Syariah complaint firms, rest of the firms listed in KSE all index are identified as non-Syariah complaint firms. As Syariah complaint firms don’t use any unethical means to cater its stock prices, so, it was hypothesized that Syariah stocks follow the fundamental of the companies. Size, book to market, leverage, dividend yield, earning to price, cash flow to price and discretionary accrual represents the fundamentals while market premium, stock price volatility and trading volume indicates the stock market variables. Fixed effect model and Random effect model is applied for statistical estimations. Hausman test is further used to find the most significant model. Modified wald test find the heteroskedasticity, final results were robust to counter the heteroskedasticity issue. The results of all non-financial listed firms confirmed the significant positive market premium, size, stock price volatility and trading volume whereas significant negative book to market ratio. Market premium, leverage and stock price volatility are the only significant determinants of Syariah complaint firms. Insignificance of BM and TV confirms that Syariah stocks follow the fundamentals instead of noise trading. In a nutshell, Syariah complaint firms respond to fundamentals although non-Syariah complaint firms follow noise trading in Pakistani context.

As a result of one-pot three-component reaction of ketoaziridines with two aromatic aldehydes in presence of ammonium acetate 1,3-diazabicylo[3.1.0]hex-3-ene derivatives were achieved. These compounds exhibit good photochromic behavior in solution and crystalline phase. The photochromic behavior of compounds 4(a-e) was investigated using absorption spectral changes.

The level of implementation of quality control program (QCP) in diagnostic radiology facilities in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria, was investigated. A total of thirty (30) diagnostic radiology centres took part in the study. A two part structured self completion questionnaire of thirty six items was the instrument used for data collection. Result shows that the level of implementation of quality control programme (QCP) in these diagnostic radiology facilities was low, importance of QC to the facility and radiation safety notwithstanding. This low level of implementation of QCP was identified with some fundamental factors namely, lack of radiation safety officers (RSO), lack of retraining programme for the medical personnel, lack of adequate funding, power and QC test equipment for the facilities. The aim of this investigation is to study the level of implementation of quality control programme which enhances radiation protection in diagnostic radiology facilities.