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Over time, there has been shortfall in the recorded academic performance of undergraduates in Nigeria. This is traced to lazy thinking or cognitive ease and the habit of procrastination which could result from low academic self-regulation. Little is known of cognitive easing as a primogenitor of academic performance. Also, there is dearth of literature on how procrastination influences academic performance in the country. This study therefore fills in the gap by investigating the influence of cognitive ease and procrastination on academic performance among university students in Akungba. Participants 250 (125 males), (125 females) were purposively selected. Cognitive ease was measured using cognitive reflection questionnaire by Shane Fredericks, Procrastination was also measured using the procrastination scale while the Academic performance was measured using students’ CGPA. Results using ANOVA showed no significant influence of cognitive ease and gender on student Academic Performance. However, Procrastination was found to be significant [F (1,190) = 4.09, p < .05]. Based on this finding, it was recommended that psycho-education be provided to assist students combat procrastination especially in academics. Further research on cognitive ease is also encouraged for a conclusive stand on its influence of academic performance.

Existing conventional modes of transportation of people consists of four unique types: rail, road, water, and air. These modes of transport tend to be either relatively slow (e.g., road and water), expensive (e.g., air), or a combination of relatively slow and expensive (i.e., rail). Hyper loop is a new mode of transport that seeks to change this paradigm by being both fast and inexpensive for people and goods. Hyper loop is also unique in that it is an open design concept, similar to Linux. Feedback is desired from the community that can help advance the Hyper loop design and bring it from concept to reality. Hyper loop consists of a low pressure tube with capsules that are transported at both low and high speeds throughout the length of the tube. The capsules are supported on a cushion of air, featuring pressurized air and aerodynamic lift. The capsules are accelerated via a magnetic linear accelerator affixed at various stations on the low pressure tube with rotors contained in each capsule. Passengers may enter and exit Hyper loop at stations located either at the ends of the tube, or branches along the tube length .In this study, the initial route, preliminary design, and logistics of the Hyper loop transportation system have been derived. The system consists of capsules that travel between Amaravathi, Vijayawada and Vijag. The total one way trip time is 35 minutes from county line to county line. The capsules leave on average every 2minutes from each terminal carrying 70 people each (as often as every 30 seconds during rush hour and less frequently at night). This gives a total of 77.4 million people per tube that can be transported each year on Hyper loop. The total cost of Hyper loop is under $6 billion USD for two one-way tubes and 40 capsules. Amortizing this capital cost over 20years and adding daily operational costs gives a total of$20 USD plus operating costs per one-way ticket on the passenger Hyper loop

Malaria is still a problem during pregnancy in Ghana and is associated with maternal anemia, premature delivery, intrauterine growth retardation and low birth weight. Ghana adopted The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation that all pregnant women living in sub-Saharan Africa countries with stable malaria transmission to receive Intermittent Preventive Treatment during pregnancy (IPTp) using two doses of Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine, use Insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) and effective case management. There is a low patronage of prevention tools like ITNs in country. This study aims at determining knowledge of malaria preventive strategies among pregnant women in Tamale Metropolis, Ghana. A cross-sectional hospital based study was conducted between February - May 2011,where a pretested questionnaire was administered to 100 pregnant women atTamale west Hospital who were purposely sampled.100 pregnant women were studied, 93% were knowledgeable about malaria preventive stratergies. Giving the health impact of malaria in pregnancy, there is a need to intensify efforts to provide health education on malaria and preventive measures as well as to encourage preventive practices among pregnant women in the global world.

Table of contents for the month of January 2018

Methane is a potential greenhouse gas emitted from natural sources like wetlands, enteric fermentation in livestocks and human activities like landfills, coal mining, wastewater treatment plants and manure management to mention a few. Methanogens are obligate anaerobes present in diverse anoxic environment, forms an exclusive component of gut ruminants and have been found to have health implications in animals and recently reported in human hind gut and possible role in pathogenesis. The practical problem faced with the research in methanogens is the difficulties in isolation and detection of the organisms in the environmental samples and the in this regard antibodies may pave way for novel applications, Generation of antibodies from egg yolk have already been demonstrated to be more beneficial than other sources. Egg yolk antibodies can be generated by injecting whole cell suspensions of methanogen strains into the veins of white leg horn chickens followed by harvesting of egg yolk antibodies, their characterization, evaluating the IgY antibodies affinity to whole cell suspension and purified antigen, further optimization of antigen antibodies reaction and development of DOT-ELISA for detection of methanogens. It is already reported that the feeding of ruminants with anti-methanogens antibodies can reduce the load of methanogens in the gut of cattle that may lead to reduction in global methane emission

Today the world is moving faster. In this there is no time to serve the loving disabled in their family. Even though any care taker stays with them to help, they could not serve them heartily, especially during eating. During eating everyone will take their own time to chew the food. Someone might chew it faster and someone may consume more time. The care taker cannot serve them by spending their time with them. For providing freedom of eating to the disabled, a feeding system is designed for them. This research paper deals with the proposal to facilitate the feeding problem for physically challenged person. The “Automatic Food Feeder” has a conveyor belt with attached spoon to take the food from the parabolic bowl. It is in turn connected to an AC servo motor controlled by ATMEGA32 microcontroller. The user gives the instruction through the microcontroller and the servo motor rotates at a particular angle which is preset and hence the spoon takes the food from the bowl and comes to a position perpendicular to the user, so that the user can have their food at ease. This system gives freedom of eating to the disabled. Indeed this system will help the physically challenged person to rely on themselves instead of depending on others. Moreover the physically challenged can have food with their family members in dining table as like normal person.

We are very happy to announce that from 1st April 2018, Mr. Saba Razaq Salman Al mansoury has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Solid State Physics and Materials. Mr. Saba Razaq Salman Al mansoury working as Assistant Lecturer, Physics Department, College of Education For Pure Sciences, University of Babylon, Iraq. The appointment of Mr. Saba Razaq Salman Al mansoury as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to elixirpublishers@gmail.com.

Diagnosis is the identification of the nature of an illness or other problem by examination of the symptoms. The ability to correctly diagnose and assess periodontal disease has received considerable attention in the last decade. Traditional clinical diagnostic methods such as periodontal probing, probing attachment level and radiographs are suitable for most clinical situations but do suffer from a number of drawbacks such as clinical or radiological measurements of attachment loss are not precisely accurate and if not carried out very carefully can be misleading. Recent innovations in periodontal diagnostic techniques have overcome these limitations.

This work studies the experimental approach employed in performance investigation of thermoelectric materials using Orthorhombic Tin Sulphide (SnS) crystals as a case study. The sample material was joined with Lead Telluride (PbTe) to form a closed couple in the module. The two junctions of the couples where held at different sets of temperature causing varying sets of temperature gradients with 30°C/m difference between each set. The result obtained reveals that SnS and PbTe module has a high thermoelectric conversion efficiency which ranges from 1.92% to 4.84% for the range of temperature gradient of 60°C/m to 180°C/m. These ranges of thermoelectric conversion efficiency are better than those of commercial thermoelectric modules which has efficiencies of between 0.5% to 1%. It is also seen that SnS module can operate as both low and high temperature thermoelectric material.

The attached paper is my two cents worth on emotional intelligence and professional commitment. Emerging interdisciplinary research and studies from education, business, psychology, and behavioral medicine are showing clear and significant contributions of emotional intelligence to human performance, personal health, and resilience. Emotional knowledge, skills, and intelligence hold a major key to improving education and helping students, teachers, faculty, and student development professionals attain higher degrees of achievement, career success, leadership, and personal well-being. The learned ability of emotional intelligence integrates well with the student development model of education and the historical values of the student personnel point of view. There are many important issues and challenges facing education at the public school and higher education levels. While academic achievement and scholastic performance have been the primary thrust of recent reform efforts, other equally important issues have taken center stage in education. Physical safety, healthy emotional development, standards of excellence and equalitarianism, a global economy and world perspective, changing workforce demands and the nature of work, multi-cultural and diversity issues, retention through graduation, and personal/career needs of students and educators are just a few examples.