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The phenotypic analysis and correlations of the eggs laid by black-skinned and white-skinned ectotypes of giant African land snails (Archachatina marginata var. saturalis) in Calabar, Nigeria were evaluated. Two hundred (200) snails, One hundred (100) each of black-skinned and white-skinned ectotype were used to generate eggs used for this study. The snails were divided into two mating groups, black-skinned x black-skinned and white-skinned x white-skinned. The results of the study on phenotypic traits of the eggs revealed a high significant (P<0.05) mean number of egg, mean egg weight, mean egg length and mean egg width between the black-skinned and white-skinned ectotypes. The variations in mean egg traits between the two ectotypes in this study may indicate variation in genetic composition of the snails. The results of correlation among the egg traits revealed positive and highly significant phenotypic correlation (rp) within egg traits for the two ectotypes studied. The correlation could suggest that there are direct relationships between the traits, and that selection for one trait will lead to improvement in the other trait. It is recommended that intensive production and domestication of black-skinned be carried out since it seems to have high production rate to meet the animal protein supply of the populace then the white-skinned. This is due to its larger size.

We are very happy to announce that from 29th August 2011, Prof.Sundarsingh has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on English. Prof Sundarsingh is currently working at Department of English, Karunya University, Coimbatore, India. The appointment of Prof Sundarsingh 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 chiefeditor@elixirjournal.org. Sincerely Editor-in-Chief

The banking sector has been an instrument for the economic development of any nation and its role in a developing nation like ours is a vital importance. Globally, the banking activities are undergoing rapid diversification. In order to maintain their status in the present competitive environment, banks have to concentrate to utilize the human resources efficiently for the better development. It should faster cohesive team work and create commitment to improve the efficiency of its human capital. Thus, the primary apprehension of the bank should be to bring in proper integration of human resource management strategies with the business strategies. The long-term vision for India’s banking system is to transform itself from being a domestic one to the global level may sound far-fetched at present. To take up this industry to the heights of international excellence requires combination of new technologies, better processes of credit and risk appraisal, treasury management, product diversification, internal control, external regulations and human resources at the most. The most important need in this service industry is naturally the HR. During the early phase of banking development in India after independence, opportunities for employment of the educated man-power were relatively limited. This sector was the preferred employer for the educated persons in the country in addition to civil services. In recent years, this position has changed dramatically. Certain rigidities have also developed in HR within the banking system as this system is public sector. Its hierarchical structure gives preference to seniority over performance, and it is not the best environment for attracting the best talent among the young people. How well Challenges are met will be mainly depend on the extent to which the banks leverage their primary assets i.e., HR in the context of the changing economic & business environment. In this paper a research survey is conducted to elicit the information about Recent HR practices of selected banks in India. This paper is an attempt to review the HR practices in the Indian banking sector taking place in the aftermath period of the new competition emerged with the arrival of new private banks and foreign banks through the process of liberalization.

Core mathematics is a compulsory subject for all Senior High School students in Ghana and many other African countries. Students are expected to pass in this subject before moving on to any tertiary institution. In spite of the compulsory nature of the subject, underachievement of students in mathematics at the Senior High School level has been a matter of concern to the West African Examination Chief Examiner over the years. Though available literature is replete with factors such as pupil-teacher ratio, socio-economic status of students, class size, family background that account for students’ achievement, it is clear that the success of many students depends on the teacher. It is however unclear which aspect of the teacher is statistically significant predictor of what students learn. This paper focuses on the extent to which teachers’ knowledge for teaching correlates with students’ achievement in algebra at the Senior High School level in Ghana. In all, 17 Elective Mathematics¬ teachers and 617 form Three Elective Mathematics students from ten public Senior High Schools in the Central Region of Ghana participated in the study. The samples were selected at random from four school categories; A, B, C and D according to Ghana Education Service classification. Two forms of instruments were administered; form one to students and form two to teachers, and the responses retrieved on the same day. A correlational analysis was used to test for statistical significance in the scores at 0.05 level of significance. Teachers’ knowledge for teaching was found to be significantly related to students’ achievement in algebra.

Energy is the primary need of any society. It is consumed in transportation, in industries and for the heating, lighting and water-pumping etc. To fulfil its energy demand, our society is dependent on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. But fossil fuels are conventional resources and are depleting fast. Therefore, it is necessary to find some alternatives sources, so as to fulfil the ever increasing demand for energy. This demand can be fulfilled by utilizing renewable energy sources. This paper studies various types of available non-conventional energy sources. It also includes a brief review of the work done by different researchers on mathematical modeling of solar irradiance.

In this article we are examining how new social challenges and demands towards education and teachers change education institutions with modern aims and social contracts. We are going to depict the characteristics or qualities of ‘ideal teachers’ by exploring recent literature with the results of a survey. In the fast changing world of the early twenty first century public education is also changing. As part of the changes the role of higher education will also be different both in the educational system and in this society. The role of teachers will also change. In the survey teachers reveal their professional aims and needs for the future. Finally, we are going to explore teachers knowledge base in the twenty first century in higher education system.

These studies focus on firing temperature and mineralogical analysis of the ancient pottery sample collected from the recently excavated site Pilaiyarpalaiyam in Tamilnadu, India. Clay was prepared which consists of quartz, kaolinite, illite, chlorite, feldspars and iron oxides. The samples were subjected analysis as in the received state. The characterization studies for the analysis of the composition of the pottery using FT-IR and XRD analysis reveals the skill and style of the artisan lived in the ancient civilization. The firing temperature and the firing conditions adopted at the time of manufacturing of the pottery also determined. The Pilaiyarpalaiyam samples might have been fired in the range of 800 °C.

In this paper, we study Lu’s system, and we study the stability of equilibrium point of Lu’s system. Then, we study chaos synchronization of Lu’s system by using adaptive control methods.

Whereas any delay in the civil projects result in the consumption of the state resources, decrease of profit, and loss of the opportunities, recognition of the delay factors will be of fundamental importance. In this study, after studying some of the dam-making projects of Kermanshah Province, 9 factors were introduced as the principal factors as follows with the respective priority and effectiveness: 1- Lack of suitable financing 2- Difficulties concerning ownership of lands 3- Postponed payments due to contractors 4- Lack of enough skill and experience in some of the contractors and week management practiced by them 5- Lack of efficient human force 6- Lack of materials 7- Lack of machinery 8- Inconsideration of the project shortfalls by the Client 9- Economic status and raised prices.

Thin film patterned CdS is considered to be as the most promising semiconducting materials among various structures because of its tunable physical properties which leads the material to the recent applications such as solar cells, sensors, hydrogen storage devices, modulators etc. Moreover, in order to form CdS thin films chemical bath deposition techniques is one of the easiest method among various techniques. It is due to the fact that it has many advantages such as simplicity, no requirements for sophisticated instruments, minimum wastage, economical way of large area deposition, no need of handling poisonous gases and possibility of room temperature depositions. With these advantages in mind an attempt has been made to deposit device quality CdS thin films at various temperatures by CBD technique. The thicknesses of the deposited films have been determined by gravimetry. The structural characterization is carried out by X-ray diffraction. The study confirms the polycrystalline nature of films with hexagonal structure. The structural parameters such as grain size, dislocation density, strain and lattice parameters have been evaluated. The composition of various constituents in CdS films have been determined by energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The optical properties like optical transmittance, band gap and refractive index has been studied in detail for the CdS films of various thicknesses.