bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Factors Determining Nurses Hospital Information System Usage
Authors: Kamalzadeh takhti Hesamaddin , Abdul Rahman Azizah Binti , Abedini Samireh
Published: February 2019

This study employs the combined technology acceptance model (TAM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB) (i.e., C-TAM-TPB) that extended with self-efficacy and knowledge of information technology to examine HIS acceptance by Malaysian nurses. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in three public hospitals in Malaysia to gather data from practicing nurses with experience of using HIS. Structural equation modeling using the partial least squares (PLS) method was utilized to evaluate measurements and structural models. The results stress that a nurses intention was significantly influenced by three factors, including his or her attitude, the subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. The results also indicate that the model can explain over half of the variance in the intention to use HIS.
Strategy Identification For Sustainable Key Performance Indicators Delivery Process For Scholarly Publication and Citation
Authors: Dhillon Sharanjit Kaur , Ibrahim Roliana , Selamat Ali
Published: February 2019

Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is one of the performance measurement tools that assist someone in monitoring their performance against the target set by the management. Despite many implementations in delivering the KPIs, they are still unable to perform. It would involve investigating the current strategies undertaken by the management on how they deliver KPIs to academic staff in the Research Alliance of K-Economy (RAKE). This paper aims to investigate the problems of non-achieving KPI targets among academic staffs of RAKE. It also aims to highlight four areas of the strategy implementation that can be developed to deliver improved publication and citation outcomes for the targets set. The literature is reviewed and the targeted respondents extensive experience in the issues related to scholarly publication and citation is drawn on. The four areas of strategic implementation are discussed as a guide. The paper finds that the imposed strategies can be applied to achieve the targets set by management if initiatives are taken by all levels of academic staffs as well as the involvement by the top management of the institution. The paper has immediate practical benefits for academic staffs of RAKE that it provides a four steps guide for improving the publication and citation culture among the RAKE staffs by utilizing knowledge management. This will result in greater outcome for the management of the University in maintaining the status as a Research University (RU) in Malaysia. It can be concluded that the strategies imposed can be applied at the beginners level. Existing work has produced a sustainable KPI delivery process framework using Viable System Model (VSM) where it shows that there is a need to have integration among the university databases. However, this framework does not highlight details on how knowledge management contributes to the strategic initiatives of successful KPI delivery process.
Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions by Indian firms- An Analysis of Pre and Post Merger performance
Authors: Sahni Kanika , Sahni Nancy
Published: February 2019

The corporate sector all over the world is restructuring its operations through different types of consolidation strategies like mergers and acquisitions in order to face challenges posed by the new pattern of  globalisation, which has led to the greater integration of national and international markets.. The intensity of cross-border operations recorded an unprecedented surge since the mid-1990s and the same trend continues (World Investment Report, 2000).The objective of the study is to analyse and compare the pre and post-merger and acquisition financial performance of four firms- Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy, Tata Steel and Hindalco through ratio analysis. For this, the data was being collected for three years before and after the acquisition from Capitaline database. Then to compare the changes, SPSS tool- Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test  was being applied. The study concluded that cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions of the selected firms have resulted in no significant change in the financial  performance of these firms.
A Comparative Analysis of Different Clustering Approaches for Software Process Improvement
Authors: Rana Rajni , Suri Dr. P.K.
Published: February 2019

Software development team tries to increase the software quality by decreasing the number of defects as much as possible. Number of defects remaining in a system provides an insight into the quality of the system. Software defects are one of the major factors that can decide the time of software delivery. The proposed system will analyze and categorize the software defects using some cluste ring approach and then the software defects will be measured in each clustered separately. Clustering is the process to present the data in an effective and organized way. There are number of existing clustering approaches but most of them suffer with problem of data distribution. If the distribution is non linear it gives impurities in clustering process. The proposed work is about to use defect prevention for process improvement with the help of clustering algorithms.
Innovative Service-Oriented Information System for supporting Mobility in Ubiquitous Spaces: A Role Driven Approach
Authors: Bousselmi Ayoub , Zgaya Dr. Hayfa , BourdeaudHuy Thomas , Hammadi Mr. Slim
Published: February 2019

Conventional architectures based on a central servers are not suitable and cannot scale well in a distributed and high dynamic computing enviroment. Futuristic ubiquitous landscape requires the development of robust, reliable and flexible distributed information systems capable of large scaling and supporting the large amount of simultaneous user requests. In this paper, we propose an innovative information system based on intelligent agents, which is capable of optimizing the search task and managing the services within a coalition of intelligent agents. Users will request a set of information services provided by information providers distributed among a Big Data Network (BDN). The system is divided into two subsystems. The first subsystem is responsible for the search optimization task using an evolutionary algorithm. It generates optimized Workpans for mobile agents that collect needed data from the BDN. The scond subsystem is composed of coalitions of peer agents whitch are endowed with the ability of role switching. A peer agent is by default a passive agent (client), once it receives a given service it can switch its role to become an active agent (service provider) for a given period of time. We provide in the end of this paper simulations supporting our claims about role switching performances and statistical results about the coalition of agents before and after role switching.
Image Retrieval Based on WBCH and Clustering Algorithm
Authors: Shirsath Asmita Bhaskar , Chouhan M. J. , Uke N. J
Published: February 2019

Research on content-based image retrieval has gained tremendous momentum during the last decade. Color, texture and shape information have been the primitive image descriptors in content based image retrieval systems. In order to get faster  retrieval result from large-scale image database ,we proposed image retrieval system in which image database is first pre-processed by Wavelet Based Color Histogram (WBCH) and K-means algorithm and then using Hierarchical clustering algorithm we index the previous result and then by using similarity measures we retrieve the images from pre-processed database. Experiments show that this proposed method offers substantial increase in retrieval speed but needs to be improved on retrieval results.
Impact of Customer Retention Practices on Firm Performance in the Retailing Sector: A comparison between a foreign and home grown retailer in Malaysia
Authors: Gengeswari K , Padmashantini P.
Published: February 2019

As customers are the backbone of any business, firms without customers would not be able to sustain their performance. This is because such firms are believed to have no revenues, no profits and therefore no market value. Accordingly, managing customers is deemed to be very crucial business agenda in which the key focus has been switched in recent years from attracting new customers to preserving existing ones. Both practitioners and scholars have discovered that it is much easier and cheaper to retain the exiting customers than investing on the potential customers. A decent customer retention level is believed to be a significant contributor towards improvement in the overall firm performance. A glimpse on the existing researches on customer retention highlights that financial sector has been thoroughly investigated which leave a room for a detailed investigation on customer retention within retailing sector. Accordingly, this study intends to explore the customer retention practices adopted by service-oriented firms in general and retailers in particular. As a comparison study on a foreign and home grown retailer, this study examines factors that retain customers and the subsequent impact of retention practices on firms performance. This study had carried out mall-intercept surveys among 400 shoppers at two major retailers within Klang Valley, Malaysia. Findings show that influencing factors of retention practices and type of retailer (namely foreign and home grown) significantly influences the retailers customer retention practices. It was also discovered that the inclusion of retailers type had enhanced the relationship between influencing factors and retailers retention practices. In addition, it was also found that customer retention practices significantly affect retailers performance at a moderate level. This study has uncovered that customers are in deed price sensitive despite being loyal and retained by firms. Hence, it is advisable for retailers to pursue a genuine pricing strategy to appeal to price conscious customers. The pricing strategy ideally should be transparent (i.e. no-bogus sales), clarity (i.e. provide accurate details of merchandises), simplicity (i.e. avoid psychological pricing) and trustable (i.e. provide accurate balances).
Benchmarking of Undergraduate Computing Curricula in Kenya
Authors: Mungai Joseph , Nganga Wanjiku
Published: February 2019

This study investigated the quality of undergraduate computing curricula at Kenyan universities, how they compare locally and regionally with equivalent programs and how closely they meet the ICT sector needs. It was guided by four objectives i.e. to undertake an ontological mapping of computing curricula, to identify appropriate benchmarking criteria, to develop and test a benchmarking tool, and to investigate the alignment of these curricula to computing skills requirement. The study was deemed important by the plethora of academic computing programs of varying degrees of utility and credibility, which are a product of the escalating demand for computing education in Kenya given the development of Vision 2030 and the rapid growth of the ICT industry. To achieve its objectives, the study adopted a quantitative and qualitative cross-sectional descriptive survey of computing curricula offered locally (in Kenya) and regionally (from best practicing countries, USA and India). A sample of 70.3% was drawn from the target population for ontological mapping. Two research instruments, i.e. a questionnaire and a document analysis framework that were administered to a cross-section of 11 public/private universities. The study established that there are 24 undergraduate computing programs under 6 titles, viz. BSc., BCom., BTech., BB., BEd. and BEng. The two most populous programs are BSc. Computer Science (CS) and BSc. Information Technology (IT), which were selected to help identify two benchmarking criteria: Percent weight allocation of core hours within ACM knowledge areas and Relative performance capabilities of computing graduates. Using these criteria a benchmarking tool was developed and tested, which depicted disparities among the respondents in the percent weight allocation of core hours in CS programs. Similarly, it portrayed overlaps in the relative performance capabilities of CS and IT graduates, an outcome that queried the uniqueness of these programs. As such, its results indicate that the quality of the two computing programs is relatively insufficient. However, it further establishes that the computing curricula are aligned to meet the top 3 highly demanded computing skills i.e. Networking, Software development and Internet skills albeit insufficient percent weight allocation of core hours in Software development. It therefore recommends further testing and refining of the established benchmarking tool, the need to re-focus the computing programs and supports the call to institute a regulatory body and qualifications framework for computing education and skills.Â
Mergers and Acquisitions: Does it really Enhance Managerial Commitment? Evidence from Commercial Banks in South East Nigeria
Authors: U.J Onwumere Josaphaet , A Onodugo Vincent , Ugbam O.C , Ibe Imo Godwin , Monanu Oge
Published: February 2019

Corporate mergers and acquisition has become a highly popular strategy in recent years. Thus, much attention has been focused on its outcomes. It has served as a substitute for innovation, a greater means of diversification. The banking sector is often referred to as an engine growth of the economy. The intermediation role which the sector plays in national development cannot be overemphasized. Thus, given the recent consolidation exercise in the Nigerian banking sector, we explored the impact of mergers and acquisition on managerial commitment in this paper. We adopted the descriptive survey method and primary data were obtained using oral interview and questionnaire. The population of this study comprised all consolidated banks in Nigeria and the total sample size for this study was 384 respondents from commercial banks in South East Nigeria. The Chi-square (X2) non-parametric statistic was used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that mergers and acquisitions have significant positive effect on managerial role and commitment of managers of commercial banks in Nigerias South East Region. We, therefore, recommend that incentive measures such as improved pay and good working environment should be promoted in commercial banks during mergers and acquisitions as these will further enhance managerial commitment.
A Scheme for Generating Provenance-aware Applications through UML
Authors: Chacko Anu Mary , Chacko Anu Mary , S D Dr. Madhukumar
Published: February 2019

The metadata that captures information about the origin of data is referred to as data provenance or data lineage. The provenance of a data item captures information about the processes and source data items that lead to its creation and its current representation. A provenance-aware application captures and stores adequate documentation about process executions to answer queries regarding provenance. Provenance information is very useful when we need to know the inter dependency of data to find error propagation or information flow. Provenance collected also helps to understand what went different in two identical workflows with same inputs but producing different outputs. Currently, most of the provenance systems designed is domain specific. Through this paper, we propose a general methodology for making an application provenance-aware from the basic UML design diagrams. As a starting point we have analyzed UML Class diagrams to generate information to make application provenance aware.
Religions in progress or regress: Inner strength matters, from the Buddhist perspective
Authors: Peow Poey Tiang
Published: February 2019

Religions in general offer remedies to aching minds and therefore humans seek relief for their problems in life. Spirituality is always a matter of concern and people who follow different religions are constantly searching for it. Man becomes helpless in extreme difficulties and it is quite natural that religions play significant roles in human lives. It is mainly because the complexities in life are being increased day by day and to encounter this people take refuge in spirituality. All religions offer some sort of solutions and so they are relevant among the followers. Therefore, they play decisive roles in the life of individuals. Religions are not only sets of beliefs, but they also provide guidelines to the peoples life. They become ideals of people, strengthening their inner values and morals in life. But increased institutionalization of religions and some of the practices and customs may distract people from them. Involvement of religions in politics in certain areas in the globe has also created a negative attitude among the common people. Communal tensions, terrorism, atrocities and even war are caused because of the differences of the opinions among followers of different religions. There might be strong reasons why people are deviated from religions and the practices. In order to address those issues, Buddhism as a philosophy answers the basic problems of life, as it explains the causes of conflicts and the needs for the enlightenment. In this paper, I attempt to show how the inner strength of individuals can be a very crucial aspect that can help man to achieve wisdom in all aspect, and in so doing we argue that new outcome and religious education would be necessary to help the society as well as the individuals to that end. This paper also argues that the development of mutual understanding and a peaceful survival of mankind necessitate religious education and interaction between various ideologies.
Process Optimization by DMAIC Approach in Algerian Industry
Authors: Athmane Dr.Mechenene , Hichem Aouag
Published: February 2019

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the improvement of the performance of the functioning of the SCIMAT company. For that purpose, we made a diagnosis of all workshops to identify the possible axes of improvement and to choose the solutions to be implemented.This diagnosis is made by implementation of DMAIC methodology of Six sigma approach at SCIMAT company in Algeria, DMAIC is the five-step approach that makes up the Six Sigma tool kit, and its sole objective is to drive costly variation from manufacturing and business processes. The five steps in DMAIC are Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. As the backbone of the Six Sigma methodology, DMAIC delivers sustained defect-free performance and highly competitive quality costs over the long run.
Strategic Management as a key for Superior Competitive advantage of Sanitary Ware Suppliers in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Authors: Hafez Attallah Al-NadyBaha Baha`a Abdul , Shelash Al-Hawary Sulieman Ibraheem , Naser Alolayyan Main
Published: February 2019

Strategic Management has become an essential nowadays as managerial techniques have been developed and used successfully by many of professional business corporation such as General electric and the Boston Consulting Group. Initially strategic Management was of most use to professional corporations operating in multiple industries. Increasing risk of error, costly mistakes, misunderstanding market needed and even economic ruin are causing todays professional managers in all organizations to take Strategic Management seriously in order to keep their companies competitive in an increasingly volatile environment. In this study we will focus on Suppliers who deal with sanitary ware (Bathroom accessories, Mixers, Bathtub) in Makkah and Jeddah Cities, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Mostly people in Makkah and Jeddah Cities prefer to purchase from various outlets vendors / retailers who are available usually in same area, according to their convenience, preference and selection. Increases in expectations and changing culinary style of consumers make the Sanitary Ware (Bathroom accessories, Mixers, Bathtub) business dynamic in general. Despite the increasing interest in the area there are very little researches on Superior Competitive Advantage of sanitary ware vending service in our domestic market. Keeping these conditions in view, this study tries to explore the current scenario in which Sanitary Ware (Bathroom accessories, Mixers, Bathtub) has become a flourishing business for a lot of Suppliers as it has been successful in attracting a large mass of customers and projects.This study analyses Strategic Management as the key for Superior Competitive Advantage of Sanitary Ware (Bathroom accessories, Mixers, Bathtub) in Makkah and Jeddah Cities.  The present survey has been done with 112 retailers who purchase sanitary ware from sanitary ware suppliers companies in Makkah and Jeddah Cities. It identifies the most relevant understanding of StrategicManagement as the key for Superior Competitive Advantage, and determines their influence in choosing of Sanitary Ware outlets. The results show that Strategic Management as independent variable has a positive influence on Superior Competitive Advantage of Sanitary ware suppliers in Makkah and Jeddah Cities.
Development of the Emotional Intelligence Scale
Authors: Mehta Sandhya , Singh Ms.Namrata
Published: February 2019

This paper describes the development of the Emotional intelligence Scale EI(PcSc)scale as tested on pilot study of 200 respondents. The EI(PcSc)scale is a self-report questionnaire comprising two parts: personal competence and social competence that measures six facets of emotional intelligence in the workplace. Estimates of internal consistency for the subscales ranged from .78 to .91.
Quality As Competitive Advantage
Authors: Alghamdi Hind , Bach Christian
Published: February 2019

Since 1970s quality has become a target for most organizations in the United States and most firms have spent millions of dollars on quality activities in order to reach defect-free productions [1]. This paper aims to discover how quality becomes a competitive advantage in different organizations. It includes some of the organizations that won Malcolm Baldrige Award in 2012 and shows what kind of criteria that made them qualified to win the award. The paper came up with a model called Performance Excellance shows the factor that lead to excellence performance in an organization. On the other hand, the paper aims to show what quality means from customers perspective. There is a survey conducted among 100 users of smartphones in order to discover what kind of features users prefer and is quality on of them or not. The results of the survey came up with the importance of quality from customers perspective. It shows that quality is one of the most important features users are looking for in a smartphone
Alliance between agents and optimization in warehouse logistics
Authors: Safa Gharbi , ZGAYA Hayfa , HAMMADI Slim
Published: February 2019

Nowadays, logistics has become an important part in the supply chain due to the effects of globalization. A warehouse is a large building where goods are stored, and where they may be shipped, catalogued, or received. When considering the level of effort involved in warehouse operations, the greatest expenditure of effort is in the picking process. In warehouse, the major goal is to improve the efficiency, accurancy and safety of warehouse operations. Supply chain managers focus to gain maximum efficiency for minimum cost. Therefore, Warehouse Management Systemd (WMS) first appeared on the market in the 1980s and have been developed to handle warehouse resources and track and monitor warehouse real-time operations. There are many application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that can be found embedded in items especially in supply chain management. Verification is one of the crucial issues of RFID technology. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of a location using the RFID as an active technology in warehouse management field. In this content, our objective is to combine multi-agent systems and optimization algorithms in order to localize the operator by integrating the indoor positioning system and then optimize operator roote during the picking mission. In this paper, we present an Optimizer Based Agent Communication of Operator Work plan in Warehouse (OBACO2W). Order pickers, using the pick by voice technique, receive and execute the orders sent by the WMS. The purpose of logistics is to establish efficient and satisfy customers requirement. So, we aim to enhance workers productivity by assigning to the order pickers the shortest path for the picking mission. We must first locate the picker adopting the RFID technology. Multi-agent modeling problem can be divided into skills and knowledge to autonomous entities called agents, to provide links and dialogue between these entities by means of communication and interaction. In a multi-agent system, the change of status of certain objects in the environment of change agents can affect their behavior and decisions. Thus, to optimize their choices and to guide their taken decisions, these agents can be equipped with optimization approaches suited to their skills and knowledge. Hence the alliance between the multi-agent systems and optimization methods; these two approaches are perfectly complementary.
Challenges of Channel Conflicts Management in Soft Drink
Authors: Egede Ehikwe Andrew , Egboro Felix O
Published: February 2019

Producing products that customers want, pricing them correctly and developing well designed promotional plans are necessary but not sufficient conditions for customer satisfaction. The final part of the Jigsaw is distribution, the place element of the Marketing Mix. Products need to be available in adequate quantities, in convenient locations and at the time when customers want to buy them. Producers need to consider not only the needs of their ultimate customers but also the requirements of channel intermediaries, those organizations responsible for facilitating the distribution of products to customers. When producers and channel members are independent, inevitably conflict occurs from time to time. The intensity of conflict can range from occasional, minor disagreements that are quickly forgotten, to major disputes that fuel continuous bitter relationships. This paper focused on the challenges of channel conflicts management in soft drink industry with particular reference to coca-cola. The paper x-rayed the channels of distribution, generally and specifically in coca-cola; causes of channel conflicts and conflict resolutions. Recommendations were made on how best channel conflicts could be resolved through partnership approach, market partitioning, co-operation and adoption of super ordinate goals.
Connected Facility Quality and Customers Consummation: A learning Study Report of the Selected Commercial Banks in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
Authors: Al Motairi Mohammad , Al Meshal Soad , Alam Aftab
Published: February 2019

Online banking is one of the main functions of modern banking in existing banking operations across the globe. Online banking operations improve the performance of the banking industry and helps customers to reduce their transaction costs. This study aims to investigate the relationship between online banking services offered by Al Rajhi Bank, National Commercial bank and Riyadh Bank. Various dimensions such as movable, tangible assets, reliability, responsiveness and empathy as determinants of customer satisfaction have been used. These dimensions are based on the SERVQUAL model developed by Han and BEC (2004). The reliability and validity of the dimensions were examined by the alpha value of the Cronbach test. The value of this test is 0.74, representing a good internal scale consistency. Descriptive statistics and dichotomous l ogistic regression model have been used to study the relationship various dimensions and customer satisfaction. The sample size is consisting of 100 customers. Purposive sampling technique was used to select customers who familiar with online banking. Thus various university students were selected from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. The names of these universities are: King Saud University, University of Islamic Imam Muhammad Bin Saud and Prince Sultan University. The study shows that the selected dimensions; tangible, reliability, responsiveness and empathy are important determinants of overall satisfaction of the customer, but with different levels. Moreover, the study shows that tangible property and reliability to improve most influential dimensions of the overall probability of the customers satisfaction with the rest of the dimensions proposed in this study.
Asexual Propagation of Four Medicinal Greek Endemic Plants of Lamiaceae Family With Conservation Priority From The Collection of The Balkan Botanic Garden of Kroussia, N. Greece
Authors: Sarropoulou Virginia , Maloupa Eleni
Published: February 2019

Conservation of endemic rare-threatened plants and sustainable exploitation of biodiversity with emphasis on medicinal-aromatic plants and plants with horticultural/ornamental value can be achieved through ex situ conservation activities. For this purpose, propagation experiments with cuttings were performed on four local Ionian endemic species with conservation priority, Stachys ionica Halácsy, Teucrium halascyanum, Thymus holosericeus Celak and Thymus plasonii Adamovic (all Lamiaceae). For propagation, softwood tip cuttings (3-5 cm) were cut at early autumn from mother plants collected from the wild and maintained in open-air mother plantations. For experimentation, the base of cuttings was immersed for 1 min in solutions of four concentrations of IBA (0, 1000, 2000 and 4000 ppm). Cuttings were placed on a peat:perlite (1:3) substrate in the bench of greenhouse heated mist system. Most suitable treatment for T. halascyanum (3 ½ weeks) proved to be 1000 ppm IBA (32.13 roots 1.72 cm long, 100% rooting). Accordingly, 2000 ppm IBA gave 100% rooting for both S. ionica (28.5 roots 1.56 cm long,) (3 weeks) and Th. holosericeus (4.4 roots 1.76 cm long) (7 weeks). T. plasonii cuttings treated with 2000 ppm IBA gave 85.71% optimum rooting with 8.67 roots 1.78 cm long.
Effect of planting date and density on calendula and peppermint herbs
Authors: Mohammadian Rahim , Tahmasebpour Behnam , Samimifar Peyvand
Published: February 2019

A factorial experiment was conducted with a completely randomized design to evaluate the effects of planting date and density on calendula herbs and peppermint. It had 3 replicates and was done in Khosroshahr research farm, Tabriz in 2006. Under studied factors were: 3 planting dates (10 May, 25 May and 10 June) in 4 densities (25, 35, 45, 55) of the plant in square meters. The results of variance a nalysis showed that there was 1% probability significant difference between the effects of planting date and bush density on the leave number, bush height and the bush dry weight. But the mutual effect of the plant date in mentioned traits density was insignificant. Regarding the traits mean comparison, the total maximum dry weight was about the 55 bush density in mm. Also, the bush high density in mm causes the bush growth and its mass reduction. When there is the density grain, the flower number will increase due to bush grain in surface unit. Overall, we can conclude that 10 June planting and 45 bush density in mm is the most suitable items and results in favored production with high essence for these crops.
COST OF MILK PRODUCTION AND BREAK EVEN ANALYSIS OF MEMBER AND NON MEMBER OF DAIRY COOPERATIVE SOCIETY FOR MILCH ANIMALS (COW & BUFFALO) IN DISTRICT ETAWAH OF U.P.
Authors: Chandra Ashish , Dubey Dr. A. K. , Srivastava Dr. Sachin Kumar
Published: February 2019

This study covered 150 cooperative member milk producers and 150 non-member milk producers which were post- stratified into Landless, Marginal, small, medium and large herd size categories. Breakeven point is a point where no profit no loss status achieved where MR = MC. In this study breakeven point analysis was done to estimate the minimum quantity milk to be produced to cover the total cost on all categories (members and nonmembers) of households of milch animals (Cow and buffalo). And also in this study the researchers have find out the Total cost of milk production per liter for member and non member categories. This study is helpful to find out the total cost of milk production in all categories as well as members and nonmembers of dairy cooperative society are able to find out the breakeven point of the whole business.
Total phenolics and antioxidant activity of a functional gel based on AÇAÍ (euterpe oleracea martius) pulp
Authors: Carvalho Lucia Maria Jaeger
Published: February 2019

The beneficial effects attributed to açaí and its derivatives are associated with its significant content of phenolic compounds, which has stimulated multiple/many researchers to identify these compounds and demonstrate their pharmacological properties, which include anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. The aim of this study was to determine the concentration of total phenolic compounds and the antioxidant activity of lyophilized pulps and functional gels of açaí. The antioxidant activity was the determining variable for the choice of the best formulation for the supplement. Pulp L exhibited higher antioxidant activity than the others according to the DPPH method, as well as higher content of total phenolic compounds. For the antioxidant activity, gels 3 and 4 did not differ significantly for the DPPH method, whereas in the ORAC method, gels 1 and 3 showed greater Trolox equivalents. It was concluded that gels 3 and 4 which had higher concentrations of lyophilized açaí pulp, showed higher concentrations of total phenolic compounds and consequently higher antioxidant capacity as demonstrated by the two methods applied and by the results obtained in the statistical analysis. Functional açaí gel may be used by adults who are involved in physical activities to reduce oxidative stress.
Effect of Silver Nanoparticles on Seed Germination of Crop Plants
Authors: Almutairi Zainab , Alharbi Amjad
Published: February 2019

Engineered nanomaterials have increased for their positive impact in improving many sectors of economy including agriculture. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been implicated nowadays to enhance seed germination, plant growth, improvement of photosynthetic quantum efficiency and as antimicrobial agents to manage plant diseases. In this study, we examined effect of AgNPs dosage on seed germination of three plant species; corn (Zea mays L.), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai) and zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.). Therefore, this experiment designed to study the effect of AgNPs on germination percentage, germination rate, mean germination time, root length, fresh and dry weight of seedling for the three spices. Seven concentrations (0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 mg/L) of AgNPs were examined at seed germination stage. The results showed that the three spices revealed different dosage response to AgNPs on germination percentage and the measured growth characters. Germination rate values were enhanced for the three plants in response to AgNPs. Significant enhancement in germination percentage values for watermelon and zucchini plants were observed by treatment with AgNPs in comparison with nontreated seeds. AgNPs showed toxic effect on corn roots elongation whereas watermelon and zucchini seedling growth were positively affected by certain concentration of AgNPs. This study showed that exposure to AgNPs caused both positive and negative effects on plant growth and germination.
Response of Four Species of Tropical Timber Seedlings to Urea and Folivert Fertilisers in Nursery.
Authors: Andrew Egbe Enow , Limbi Tata Blessing , Ayamoh Enow Elsie
Published: February 2019

This study explores the effects of different levels of urea and folivert (composite fertilizer) on seedlings growth and chlorophyll concentration of Albizia zygia, Blighia welwitschii, Lophira alata and Pterocarpus soyauxii. The rate of fertilizer application per 5.87kg pot with topsoil was 3, 6, and 9g of both urea and composite fertilizer and a control (top soil only) and it was a complete randomized design. Results indicated that plants treated with 3g of urea produced the highest number of leaves in Albizia zygia seedlings only while 9g of composite fertilizer had the best growth performance in all the other growth variables.  Albizia zygia and Blighia welwitschii, seedlings had the best results in soil treated with 6g of composite fertilizer, while Lophira alata and Pterocarpus soyauxii seedlings showed best growth in soils treated with 9g of composite fertilizers for all other parameters. Seedlings of species supplied with 9g of urea gave poorest growth performance.  Low root/shoot ratios were obtained for all seedlings except for those of Albizia zygia treated with 6 and 9g of urea that had root/shoot ratios greater than 1.0. The effect of fertilizers on chlorophyll concentration was significantly different only for L. alata (P=0.05). This study therefore brings to light the need to fertilize timber tree seedlings in order to improve on their early growth performances in the field and high doses of nitrogen should be discourage.
Farmers' Intention to Leave The Agricultural Sector in East Java, Indonesia: A Crisis Through Non Agricultural Job Opportunities Challenges
Authors: Yuliati Nuriah - , Dr Kusnandar , Soedarto Teguh , Rahayu Endang Siti
Published: February 2019

Farmers' intention to leave the agricultural sector is a crucial reasoned action for the future of the Indonesian agricultural sector. The aims of research are describe the type of livelihood that sustains the farm household's economy, and analyze the influence of Job Opportunities toward Farmer's Intentions Leaving the Agriculture Sector. The sampling was done by multistage sampling so that 360 households of paddy farmers were obtained in six villages, Bangil sub-district, Pasuruan Regency, Province of East Java. Data analysis using descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) PLS analysis with Warp PLS software. The findings of the study indicate that the relatively large number of non-agricultural jobs carried out by the household labor of farmers, most of them are trade and factory employees. The best job opportunity is in line with farmers' favorite choice for non-agricultural livelihoods. Employment opportunities have a positive and significant impact on farmers' intention to leave the  agricultural sector.
A Study of Academic Achievement of School Students having illiterate and literate parents
Authors: Kaur Malkeet
Published: February 2019

The study aims to study the academic achievement of school students having illiterate and literate parents. The sample of the study comprised of 100 school students from Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. The findings indicated that students having literate parents scored higher than the students having illiterate parents.
QUALITY ASSURANCE IN TEACHER EDUCATION
Authors: Singh HARMANDEEP , Kaur Arjinder
Published: February 2019

Quality became very common word nowadays. What actually quality means. It is very familiar term but its meanings and uses vary widely. In general term quality is the position of a product or process attribute on good bad scale. It is often associated or linked with defects and deficiencies in products or process
Teaching in Vocational Schools: Educational Alignment versus the Promotion of Talents
Authors: Koppitz Tina
Published: February 2019

Teaching and learning has fundamentally changed in the last thirty years. In this period, a wide range of novel teaching theories has been established. Recent research states that a teachers professional identity consists of a cognitive, psychological and also a social perspective. The identity of a teacher emerges when s/he interacts with his/her students or other people. As a result of these interactions, teachers treat the questions â€œwho are they? and who do they want to become?. These questions pose different views on educational methodologies today. On the one side some professionals argue for learning in a community which supports establishing an average basis of knowledge among all pupils. This approach especially helps the struggling pupils, since a key component is that pupils learn from each other and align their knowledge. On the other side, however, others vote for an individual learning program. Here, in particular talents are promoted. The question is, what approach is more promising for the society of tomorrow. This work deals with the underlying theories, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these learning theories and, as an example, additionally incorporates a focused view on the Austrian education system
THE EDUCATION OF ROMA IN GREECE
Authors: Vergidis Dimitris K
Published: February 2019

In this paper we examine schooling as a factor in the social integration of the Roma who are Greek citizens. It refers to the living conditions of the Greek Roma and the transformation which their social organization is undergoing, taking their economic activities as a starting point.  In order to tackle the educational exclusion of the Roma, two different educational policies have taken shape. There is the official educational policy which argues that the educational exclusion of the Roma should be dealt with through positive discrimination so that the romani children can be integrated into regular schools.  On the other hand, out of criticism of the role of the school in the reproduction of social inequalities, springs the demand for a different educational policy which would adapt schooling to the culture of the Roma and respond to their particular needs.
Quality of Primary Education in India: An Inter-state Perspective
Authors: Mehra Dr.Anjali , Bali Urvashi , Arora Nitin
Published: February 2019

The present study analyzes the interregional disparities in the quality of primary education in rural India. The study is based on the Annual Status of Education Report, 2010 prepared by Pratham. Quality of Education Index (QEI) has been constructed using three indices: (i) Quality of Teaching Index, (ii) School Infrastructure Index and (iii) Learning Achievement Index. It has been observed that Kerala is the only state which scores the highest in all the three indices whereas states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand and majority of North Eastern state are at the bottom. At the regional level a high quality knowledge base on education system reform needs to be developed.
Towards Human Development Sustainability of Developing Countries
Authors: Othman Abdul Kadir
Published: February 2019

Human development has long become the main concern of countries across the globe to ensure that the people enjoy long, healthy and cherished lives. Human development, among other things, is related to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Most developing countries are dependent on FDI to develop their economies. However, before making substantial investment, foreign investors have to consider a number of things, which have yet to be determined by the existing studies. This study attempts to examine the relationships between the variables that significantly contribute to the FDI. Six hypotheses were developed to test the interrelationships among the variables. Data from thirty-eight countries were obtained from various sources including the World Bank, Davos Economic Forum and various websites. Results of correlation analysis showed that only three hypotheses were accepted and others were rejected. Corporate Governance Index is significantly related to Global Competitiveness Index and Human Development Index. Global Competitiveness Index is significantly related to Human Development Index. The other hypotheses were not supported. The findings are beneficial to business leaders and policy makers of developing countries in developing appropriate strategies to ensure outstanding corporate governance practices.
Development induced Displacement
Authors: Lone Raoof Ahmad
Published: February 2019

To every political policy, economic and development project on the one side there is welfare in terms of benefits reaped by some section of population and on the other side it increases sorrows and despair to others. Each year, millions of people around the globe are relocated and resettled away from their homes, lands and livelihoods in order to make way for large-scale development projects such as dams, reservoirs, power plants, roads, plantations, urban renewal, and oil, gas, and mining projects. This forced relocation is known as development-induced displacement. Development has uprooted people not only from homes, but homelands to which they may have been tied by old ancestral bonds. Displacement deprives people from many things, some of them are fundamental to their lives, including homes, productive assets, culture, livelihoods, environmental conditions suited to their skill and practices, community networks and sense of belonging. The determination of the extant of deprivation, plight and sufferings depends on what they face at new location and resource they enjoy there. If proper compensation is being provided in terms of economic incentives and rehabilitation then both the developmental project and displacement can be justifiable. The paper will provide an overview about development induced displacement cases, how many people it affects, what are primary causes and main impacts. It will also highlight certain recommendatory measures for sustainable development and welfare oriented development enjoyed by all in equal sense.
HANDWRITING IDENTIFICATION USING ANFIS
Authors: Devi T.
Published: February 2019

A new method for handwriting identification was presented.Individual characters was separated from a word choosed from a paragraph of handwritten text image which is given as input to the system. Then each of the separated characters are converted into column vectors of 625 values that are later fed into the adaptive neural fuzzy inference system(ANFIS), which was calculate membership function(MF) and normalized firing strength.In our paper we were used triangular membership function and compare with others MF.The networks has been designed with single layered neural network corresponding to a character from a-z, the outputs of all the column vector is fed into network the which has been developed using the concepts of correlation, with the help of this the overall network is optimized with the help of column vector thus providing us with recognized outputs with great efficiency.
Familiarizing pupils 4-6 years old with forms of spatial representation. The use of photography as an auxiliary tool
Authors: Zacharos Konstantinos , Kilia Maria , Ravanis Konstantinos
Published: February 2019

One of the research and teaching interests in early childhood education is the understanding of spatial concepts and orientation in space. The present study, which is a pilot study, attempts to investigate whether pre-school students can recognize familiar locations in photographs, the locations being in this case parts of their schoolyard, and furthermore if they can extract information from the photos and orient themselves in space. The sample of the study was made up of 18 children aged 4 to 6 years from a Greek kindergarten. The subjects of the sample underwent individual interviews. Qualitative analysis of the findings showed that photographs may be a useful tool for teaching spatial concepts such as those which concerned us in this investigation.
Preparing critical teachers in University: The role of practicum in teachers education
Authors: Raikou Natassa
Published: February 2019

The text refers to the study of the preparation of future teachers at the University, focusing on the cultivation of critical reflection, as a necessary qualification for professional development. Special emphasis is given to practicum in education as part of their education, because in this area the student has the opportunity to be tested, to think and to reflect upon educational practices. This issue emerges from a survey conducted in the context of training preschool teachers in a Greek University. During the investigation, the need to strengthen the reflective skills of future teachers, as well as the potential benefits for their better preparation emerged.