May 2011

This paper considers various models for first birth interval to a married woman with an aim to pick up a model which is best fit. For fitting the various models, the Bayes estimates of the parameters involved in the models are obtained using WinBUGS based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique. The comparison of the models regarding their fitness is made on the basis of DIC criterion. The data used in the present study is taken from National Family Health Survey III Uttar Pradesh.

We propose a solution to determine the optimal elastic matching of a deformable template to an image. The central idea is to cast the optimal matching of each template point to a corresponding image pixel as a problem of finding a minimum cost cyclic path in the three-dimensional product space as well as in four-dimensional product space spanned by the template and the input image. We introduce a cost functional associated with each cycle, which consists of three terms: a data fidelity term favoring strong intensity gradients, a shape consistency term favoring similarity of tangent angles of corresponding points, and an elastic penalty for stretching or shrinking. The functional is normalized with respect to the total length to avoid a bias toward shorter curves. Optimization is performed by Lawler’s Minimum Ratio Cycle algorithm parallelized on state-of-the-art graphics cards. The algorithm provides the optimal segmentation and point correspondence between template and segmented curve in computation times that are essentially linear in the number of pixels. A new approach to 4-D shape-based segmentation and tracking of multiple, deformable anatomical structures used in cardiac MR images can be implemented here. We propose to use an energy-minimizing geometrically deformable template (GDT) which can deform into similar shapes under the influence of image forces. The degree of deformation of the template from its equilibrium shape is measured by a penalty function associated with mapping between the two shapes. By minimizing this term along with the image energy terms of the classic deformable model, the deformable template is attracted towards objects in the image whose shape is similar to its equilibrium shape. This allows the simultaneous segmentation of multiple deformable objects using intra-as well as inter-shape information. Simulated Annealing (SA),a stochastic relaxation technique is used for segmentation while Iterated Conditional Modes (ICM),a deterministic relaxation technique is used for tracking.

Islamic banks are said to possess ethical identity because their social goals are just as important if not more important than financial goals because of the fact that they are based on religious foundations, i.e. the Islamic Shari’ah which has as its ultimate goal, the betterment of society. Islamic banks are thus expected to portray a high level of corporate social responsibility which would be evident in their social reporting practices as evidenced in their annual reports. This study replicated the Haniffa and Hudaib study by examining the social reporting practices of the Islamic Bank of Britain made through its annual reports against an ideal level of social disclosures that an Islamic bank ought to make, over the years 2005-2009. The findings revealed that at present, the Islamic Bank of Britain has much more in common with its conventional counterparts than it does with banks that are supposedly based on Shari’ah. Indeed, the core dichotomy expected between an Islamic bank and a conventional bank in relation to Islamic ethics was not clearly shown.

For many years, academic performance among learners in primary schools has been inclined towards gender orientation. Boys have performed impressively in mathematics and sciences while their female counterparts have done quite well in languages. This study sought to investigate the effects of gender role stereotyping on academic aspirations of primary school pupils. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The study population comprised of the 62 primary schools in Butula district of Western province in Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to select 20 of the 62 primary schools. A sample size of 236 class eight pupils who participated in the study, were selected using simple random sampling technique. In addition, a total of 20 teachers and 1 education officer were selected purposively to give information concerning the effects of gender role stereotyping on academic aspirations of primary school pupils. Data from the teachers and pupils was collected through administering the questionnaire while an interview schedule was used to collect data from the education officer. Both qualitative and quantative methods were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that male pupils had high aspirations for mathematics and science subjects whereas female pupils had high inclination for languages. The results indicated that gender role stereotyping created masculine and feminine perception among learners towards certain subjects. The study also revealed that teachers did little to guide pupils against aspiration for academic on the basis of gender role stereotyping.

This study explores why women in India experiences of impact of partners presence and absence in their professional perception. Two focus groups were conducted in Tamil and English language with working high profile (class-I level) women of Institutions and other organizations. 50 married and 50 single women (widow) participated with a mean age of 42 years (range 29–52years). Normative survey method was adopted in this study. The study was carried out with five dimensions are 1) Professional competency2) Professional qualities 3) Professional attitude. 4) Professional psychology. 5) Concern to the society. The appropriate statistical techniques were applied to draw the results .The findings are interpreted in light of participants' professional perception in the presence of husband and absence made much affect on professional perception. But the study revealed that their partners really helped in improving their skill by the way of suggestion and the ability of partner they reached the present position without much difficulty.

Thum is amorphous because it has broadened its corpus to include not only the Luo lyre, but also the fiddle, accordion and guitar musics unlike what was before the coming of Europeans. The introduction of the acquired instruments became a threat to the well-being of thum. To counteract the threat, thum players adopted the trappings of the acquired instruments, reduced the size, painted the resonator, and tuned it to an octave higher than before. Further changes included the introduction of the toe-ring, ankle-bells, transfer of the sound hole from the membrane to the back of the resonator, change of costumes and the increased size of dance teams. The European way of life offered a challenge to those members of society who refused to identify themselves with their traditional cultures. The Catholics were moderate than the Protestants and most of the young people attending Protestant schools had no respect for their traditional cultures. In areas where European influence was minimal, young people played and attended parties of thum performance. The structure and meanings of the genres in the context of Luo society and culture reveal the great influence of the Luo lyre on modern genres. However, the lyre has changed because of the innovation of individuals. Although the similarities of styles may be due to the influence of a common cultural tradition and music conventions, the peculiarities are partly determined by different instruments, the decisive factor in the distinctive style of the genres being the composers’ own personality and individual creativity.

This study aims to investigate EFL learners’ viewpoints toward English test delivered in different modes; namely, computer-adaptive test (CAT), computer-based test (CBT) and conventional paper-pencil test (PPT). The participants were forty-nine (N=49) students from two colleges in Taiwan who had experience of taking all these three types of English tests. Additionally, five graduate students were invited to validate the contents of AHP questionnaire. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was the major research method employed by the present study to construct the framework of research. After a series of pair-wise comparisons processed with Expert Choice 2000 software package, weights of three objectives (convenience, fairness and computer experience) and six sub-objectives (physical limitation, immediate feedback, anxiety, accessibility, text presentation and response requirements respectively) were calculated to deduce the alternative. Among the three objectives, convenience ranked the highest followed by fairness and then familiarity. Subsequently, conclusion was drawn that CAT is the mode that best fitted EFL learners’ expectation on English tests.

The theoretical relationship between FDI and export growth can be explained by using the flying geese model, Vernon’s product life cycle theory and the new growth model. These three theories have different explanations of FDI flows; however, they all agree that FDI has an influence on the recipient economy. First, MNE subsidiaries exploit the host country’s factor endowments for lowering production costs to increase their export competitiveness. Therefore, the host country’s export expansion by MNE subsidiaries is to be expected (capacity-increasing effect). Secondly, the host country’s export can be increased by domestic firms through the spillover effects of FDI such as competition and transfer of knowledge (spillover effect). This study attempts to estimate the potential effects of FDI inflows on export growth in Cameroon over the 1980-2003 period. We separate the effects of FDI into supply capacity-increasing effects and spillover effects. The major hypothesis of the study is that FDI has had a positive impact on Cameroon export performance. Using the Engle-Granger two-step co-integration procedure we find evidence that FDI inflows contributed to higher supply capacity and spillover effects in Cameroon, leading to higher export growth during the period of study.

Over the past two decades, there has been an explosion in the number of civil society organizations in Kenya. The rapid increase has been as result of development gaps left by the government, which needs to be filled; significantly as well there has been increased competition for the scarce donor funds among Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) which donors prefers currently to be utilized on intangible projects like capacity building, while on the other hand the community prefer physical projects like construction of school which answers their needs directly. The study sought to establish the effect of organizational capacity building on community development. The study was based on systems theory by Miller and Rice (1967). The study adopted the Ex Post facto research design and incorporated research instruments such as questionnaires, interviews, observations and focus group discussions in data collection among the samples of 198 respondents selected through simple random and stratified sampling. The study established that; firstly, there are two forms of organisational capacity building secondly, training has a positive impact on community development and thirdly, community engages in monitoring and evaluation fourthly, CSO’s have attained their objectives to some extent. The study concluded that, CSOs offer Civic education, training, and engages in advocacy and that CSOs are dependent on donors and that is why they to have a weak financial base and are not self sustaining. The study recommended that CSOs should diversify on their sources of funds and review their systems and structures.

A study was undertaken to econometrically analyse the association between the socio-economic characteristics of farm women and the extent of their participation in dairy cow keeping. The sample households consisted of 30 women respondents each from the categories of landless, marginal, small and large farmers in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu. The coefficient of multiple determination (R2) obtained for the model fitted was 0.949 The independent variables such as age of female head, community, average hired labour hours and number of small ruminants in animal units significantly influenced the average time spent by women on large ruminants keeping. The coefficient for age of women head indicated that every unit rise in this variable above the mean level would result in an increase of average time spent by females by 0.732 minutes per day per household. The coefficient for average hired labour hours utilised for small ruminants keeping indicated that every unit increase in these variable would decrease the time spent by women by 48.73 minutes. Significant and positive coefficient for the variable community indicated that lower caste women spent more time on large ruminants keeping. The significant negative coefficient for total large ruminants in animal units indicated that every unit increase in this variable would decrease the time spent by women by 5.11 minutes.

This review article will present the concrete educational, research strategies and a discussion of the genetics into the dental curriculum. Dentists are now entering the era in which genetics and genomics will play a vital role in both oral health research and dental practice. Dental professionals should understand the basic concept of genetics and genetic disorders that contribute to common dental concerns where more than 300 genes have so far been associated with tooth development is under strict genetic control.

This investigation examines uptake of heavy metals, Zinc and Nickel in the tissues of the fish, Cyprinus carpio exposed to lethal and sublethal concentrations of Singanallur waste water for 3,10 & 20 days. The concentration of zinc varied from 0.29mg / gm to 0.72mg / gm (Liver), 0.56mg / gm to 0.58mg / gm (Kidney), 0.33mg / gm to 0.52mg / gm (Muscle) and Nickel concentration was varied from 0.54mg / gm to 1.60mg / gm (Liver), 10.81mg / gm to 3.63mg / gm (Kidney) and 0.75mg / gm to 1.31mg / gm (Muscle). Accumulation of Zinc was increased progressively on 3,10 & 20 days in the following order: Muscle> Kidney>Liver. In the case of nickel the order was: Liver>Muscle>Kidney. Zinc and Nickel were found to be toxic to the fish, which will biomagnify up the foodchain and will ultimately be toxic to human beings.

Carrier based preparations of Azospirillum lipoferum (AZ 204) inoculant, developed using two different sources of biochar (acacia wood and coconut shell) were evaluated in comparison with lignite for their suitability as a best alternate to lignite for biofertilizer production. The survival of the microbial inoculant was estimated over a period of 180 days. Among the different carriers, coconut shell based biochar recorded a maximum population of log 10.79 cfu g-1 of carrier on 180 days after inoculation with a maximum moisture content of 25.22%. It was also found that seedling vigour index of green gram (CO 3) was paramount in response to coconut shell based biochar. In addition, coconut shell based biochar was found to increase the survival of Azospirillum lipoferum upto 180 days (6 months) of storage period at a required population compared to acacia wood based biochar and lignite.

Edible vaccines or Food Vaccine hold great promise as an easy-to-administer, cost-effective, easy-to-store, and socio-culturally willingly acceptable vaccine delivery for the developing countries. Edible vaccines offer exciting opportunities for significantly reducing the burden of diseases like hepatitis, cholera & measles, mainly in the developing world where the administrating & storage of vaccines is at major concern. The search for methods of vaccine delivery not requiring a needle and syringe has been accelerated by recent concerns regarding pandemic disease, bioterrorism, and disease eradication campaigns. Needle‐free vaccine delivery could aid in these mass vaccinations by increasing ease and speed of delivery, and by offering improved safety and compliance, decreasing costs, and reducing pain associated with vaccinations. Edible Vaccines are prepared by molecular farming with the help of genetic engineering. Preparation of Edible Vaccines are involving the introduction of selected desired genes into plants and inducing these genetically modified plants to manufacture the encoded proteins. This process is known as transformation and the altered plants are called transgenic plants. The vaccine is administered through the consumption of the edible plant as food, preferably in the form of a fruit or vegetable juice which can be taken orally.

Soil properties are governed by biotic and abiotic components including land use management. Hyphae of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are considered to be primary soil nutrient promoters and there is a positive correlation between AMF hyphae and soil fertility in natural systems. Both past and recent evidences prove that, these symbiotic fungi are present in most terrestrial ecosystems especially in tropics and play a major role in both the growth of plants and important ecosystem processes. AM has a cementing capacity to maintain soil health. Acquisition of minerals by AM in the soil ensures increased crop productivity. This paper traces the role of AM on soil physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties that influence the sustainable agriculture.

The extent of bioavailability of iron and zinc from meals is of great health concern since these micronutrients play key role in mental performance and immune response in human beings. In this study the bioavailability of iron and zinc from maize and bean composite was investigated and found to at 13% for iron and 27.7% for zinc. The inclusion of cabbage enhanced the bioavailability of both to 98.8% and 83.9% respectively to the extent that the differences in the concentrations of iron and zinc in the non-digested and digested samples were not significant (iron, p=0.12 : Zinc, p=0.263). There was a significant difference between concentration of iron and Zinc in the basic mixture when non-digested and digested were compared with p= 0.004 for iron and 0.012 for zinc respectively. In the samples where cabbage was included, there were no significant differences in the concentrations of iron and zinc between the non-digested and digested (iron, p=0.12, zinc, p=0.263) an indication of high bioavailability. The inclusion of potatoes reduced the bioavailability of iron and zinc to 76.86 % and 38.9% respectively. This is due to matrix effect where the potato introduces stronger physico-chemical interactions. The composite with maize, beans, cabbage and potatoes have a bioavailability of 76.2%, p= 0.249 for iron and 71.76%, p = 0.405 for zinc). This is an indication that cabbage has a higher enhancing effect than the potatoes. The generally high bioavailability of iron and zinc from a composite of beans and maize can be due to the interaction between the metal ions and tridentate amino acids in the beans where the chelate formed enhances their bioavailability. This interaction increases mucosal membrane permeability and lipo-solubility of the metal ions. The recommendation is that dietitians should educate people on best combination of foods that will enhance the bioavailability of not only iron and zinc but all micronutrients since they are of health importance to pregnant and lactating mothers, young children, adolescents and the elderly. Other alternatives include double fortification of salt with iron and zinc and bio-fortification.

Heavy metal contamination in the aquatic environment is a potential threat for aquatic organisms, when exposed to significant amounts of metals as consequences of industrial, agricultural and anthropological activities. Heavy metals at high concentrations can cause harmful effects on metabolic, physiological, and biochemical systems of fishes and it causes long-term eco-toxicological effects. The aim of the present study was to assess the glycogen content in gill, liver and kidney of the fish Hypophthalmichthys molitrix exposed to sublethal concentrations of cadmium chloride 1/5th (high), 1/10th (medium) and 1/15th (low) of the 96 hour LC50 values for the period of 7, 14 and 21 days. The exotic fish, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix was exposed to sublethal concentrations of cadmium chloride for various exposure periods (7, 14 and 21days). Glycogen levels were measured both in control and experimental fish. During various exposure periods, the glycogen levels were (P<0.05) significantly decreased in the experimental fish over the control.

The ever-increasing demand in the use of software in business, industry, administration, games and researches have made software engineering and development more complex. This calls for the need for higher-level abstraction of software systems in order to develop real-world systems that meets the new challenges facing software engineering and development process. This paper presents component-based software engineering (CBSE) as a solution to the complexities facing software usability and applicability. This technology (CBSE) addresses the development of systems as an assembly of components, the development of components as re-usable entities, and the maintenance and upgrading of systems by customizing and replacing such components (parts). The author assesses the challenges of this emerging technology and discusses its solutions, merits (attractions), and implications for the software engineering and development process in a developing country like Nigeria.

Software provides a means for productive activities of man and industries. Indeed the strength, intelligence and vastness of the use of computer lie on the software. Sequel to the above, this paper discusses the component- based system development life cycle, reusability and identifies the acquisition and elicitation of requirements in combination with COTS selection as a multi- criteria decisions process which possess great problem. It suggests the use of cyclic life cycle paradigm as a solution to this great problem. The paper compares Component- Based Development cycle with the Cyclic Life Cycle model, and software architecture with component- Based Development and concludes that the component- Based approach and architectural design play vital role in product configuration management. Finally, it compares Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Component- Based systems modeling. The UML can be used for both component and system modeling while the Component- Based design should best concentrate on interface definitions and collaboration between the components through the interfaces. Finally using an appropriate diagram, the paper presents the various aspects of Component- Based Architecture which include conceptual architecture, implementation architecture and deployment architecture.