Archives-June... 

This research evaluates the effectiveness of the process of the employee performance management and development system at a public hospital in Kwa- Zulu Natal, so as to identify the limitations and recommend appropriate remedial measures. A qualitative research method was used for this study. Respondents were interviewed using a standard set of questions that were compiled in the form of a questionnaire. Using purposive sampling, 15 participants were selected and interviewed from a target population of 1200 employees from the Hospital. Findings from this study indicated that the employee performance management and development system has impacted positively on the overall performance of the Hospital in Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), however, it was noted that these benefits are being marred by certain limitations, which include dissatisfaction of employees, lack of genuine commitment, inducement of conflicts, and poor improvements in performance. On this basis, it was recommended that the management of the Hospital should consider using measures that train and develop their evaluators on the key concepts in performance management and development, ensure the defining of appropriate goals and objectives during the planning process, fairness and equity during evaluation and rating of the employees’ performance, communication, the allocation of sufficient funds for accomplishing activities related to performance management and development, and constant review of how evaluators conduct evaluations.

The formation of graphene oxide–polyaniline was studied experimentally and theoretically. Both methods reveal that there is an existence of graphene oxide–polyaniline due to the interaction between oxygen functional groups of graphene oxide and polyaniline. The intercalation of polyaniline into layers of graphene oxide expands the space distance of layers in graphene oxide. The presence of polyaniline in composites can be proved by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and cyclic voltammograms of obtained composites. The formation of graphene oxide – polyaniline was also proved by theoretical calculation of adsorption energy when polyaniline interacts with graphene oxide

Facebook use are much in vogue these days. Taking into concern the exponential growth in membership on this social networking site, this study was therefore planned. The purpose of this research was to find out the relationship between facebook usage and its influence on peer relationships. A random sample for the same was collected from the tricity area i.e. Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. A group of 60 subjects in the age group of 19-21years were administered a questionnaire on facebook usage. Correlation and descriptive analysis ( mean, S.D and t-ratio) were applied. Results revealed non significant relationship between SNS usage and interpersonal relationships with friends.

Public procurement is crucial to government service delivery. For decades procurement performance has been attracting great attention from practitioners, academicians and researchers due to poor levels of performance. Despite Government efforts for improvement, it is still marred by shoddy works, poor quality goods and services. Stakeholders complain about poor service delivery. Benefits deriving from improved procurement performance at Coast General Hospital (CGH) are dependent on systems and staff. The general objective of this study was to assess factors affecting procurement performance in public hospitals in Kenya with specific focus on the CGH. This study analyzed the factors affecting procurement performance in the public hospitals in Kenya. The research aimed to establish how procurement staff training, procurement information communication technology, supplier management and procurement ethical practices affect procurement performance of the public hospitals in Kenya. The literature review introduced theoretical literature, conceptual framework, empirical literature, critique of existing literature, summary and research gap. Various theories like Principal-Agency theory, Technology Acceptance Model, Transaction Cost Economics Theory, and Technology Diffusion Theory have been incorporated to enhance theoretical understanding of this study. Descriptive research design was used and a stratified random sampling method was used to pick a sample of the respondents who were provided with the questionnaires. The target population comprised of 74 employees from the CGH. In collecting the data, open-ended and closed-ended questions were used. A sample of 62 respondents from within each group in proportions that each group bear to the population as whole was taken using Slovin’s formula: n=N/ (1+Ne²). The data collected was analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The quantitative data generated was keyed in and analyzed by use of Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) that generated information which was presented using tables, frequencies and percentages. The multiple regression model was used to show the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables. The regression analysis showed that supplier management was the most related factor affecting procurement performance in public hospitals in Kenya with the strongest positive (Pearson correlation coefficient=.834) effect on procurement performance of public hospitals. In addition, staff training, ethical practices, and information communication technology were positively correlated to procurement performance of public hospitals with Pearson correlation coefficient of .761, .717 and .685 with p-values of .002<0.05, .003<0.05 and .060<0.05 respectively. However, the study established that information communication technology was the least related factor affecting procurement performance. The study recommends that the management of public hospitals in Kenya should therefore adopt supplier management, procurement staff, ethical practices and information communication technology thus ensuring value for money, improved quality service, reduced delivery time and effective procurement performance.

This study attempts to examine the relationship between the variables (communication for 5S System, training for 5S System, reward and recognition for 5S System and top management role for 5S System) with the employees’ motivation in implementing 5S System. The sample size of respondents is 150 and all of them are the employees from Nibong Tebal Paper Mill Sdn. Bhd (NTPM) and Muda Paper Mill Sdn. Bhd. This present study focused on manufacturing firms that are situated in northern area (Penang) and both are manufacturing paper based products. All the respondents are given the questionnaire and their responses are analyzed. In the findings of this present study shows that communication for 5S System and training for 5S System were found to have a positive significant relationship with the employees’ motivation in implementing 5S System while not for the other two variables (reward and recognition for 5S System and top management role for 5S System).

The transesterification reaction is actually replacement of alcohol group from an ester by another alcohol. The reaction was carried out by varying different parameters, like amount of catalyst in reaction, ratio of methyl alcohol to oil, temperature and stirring on the reaction; to find the best conversion of oil to biodiesel. In this paper fuzzy logic is applied to the transesterification reaction studies and the result is compared with the experimental results.

The study was carried out to assess genetic diversity among nineteen oil palm accessions collected for conservation, evaluation and future incorporation into Oil Palm Research Institute (OPRI) breeding programmes. Genetic diversity and relationship among the nineteen accessions were evaluated using 10 microsatellites. The number of alleles revealed by each of the polymorphic loci ranged from 2 to 3 with an average of 2.5. Cluster analysis resolved the nineteen accessions oil palm accessions into two clusters. The percentage similarity between the oil palm accessions ranged from about 63% to 100%. This study suggest that there was not much genetic diversity among the nineteen accessions used in the study compared to other similar genetic diversity studies in oil palm using microsatellites.

This paper dwells on combinatorial optimization with a view to unveiling various techniques for solving problems therein. We are interested in the combination of exact techniques (ET) and metaheuristics (MH) to provide optimal solutions or mainly to generate better heuristic solutions. In doing this, we were able to give a kind of categorization of the possible combinations, their usefulness and areas of applications.

Intensity of competition necessitates many industries, especially the petrochemical industry, to adopt new marketing paradigm named as successful marketing. In this turbulent environment, petrochemical industries have to change their way of response to market; therefore, it is not unexpected that the implementation of successful marketing programs face with various factors. Thus, this study investigates and identifies successful marketing factors in Laleh petrochemical Company and specifies their importance. This study is an applied research in terms of objective which has gathered information from both interviewing with experts and distributing the questionnaires. The results of theoretical investigation was reached to six individual, organizational, product, price, promotion and distribution elements as key factors of successful marketing. After identifying, these factors were prioritized using Fuzzy TOPSIS technique and based on the comments received from the experts of petrochemical industry. The results showed that the product-related factors have the most importance, and organizational, personal, promotion, price, and distribution factors have the next ranks respectively. Finally, the components of each of these factors were also prioritized.

Croton hirtus L’Herit is a poorly known exotic species naturalizing in Tamil Nadu with faster rate. Critical analysis of this taxon with recently described Chrozophora baskarani from Sirumalai hills proved that both of them are identical. Hence, the later is merged with Croton hirtus. The present communication throws light on the identity and distribution of this little known alien species.