Soil investigation reports form basis of decision making in the choice of site and design of foundation, with a view to avoiding failures in foundations. Unfortunately, detailed tests are most often time not carried out either as a result of huge financial involvement or scarcity of good laboratory equipment. The study therefore, establishes relationships between the index properties and the strength (detailed) properties of the tropical soil in the South-east. For the purpose of the study data on the various laboratory tests of the tropical soil samples sourced from different construction sites in the South-east of Nigeria were collated. With the results of the mechanical and physical properties of the respective soil samples eight regression models were therefore formulated, which explain the relationships of the respective soil properties to one another. In order to ensure reliability of the models, tests for significance of coefficients of the respective predictive variables and fitness of the models were carried out hence; only three of them were proven adequate. These final models as (i) YCBR1 = 6.09 + 0.79G - 0.08S + 0.03M - 0.09C + 0.24 LL - 0.30PL (ii) YCBR2 = 0.42 + 0.93G + 0.05M and (iii) Y1UCS = 14.12 + 2.40CBR were finally established. By this development in tropical region of Nigeria, when test values of the index properties are obtained, CBR properties would be calculated using the first model. Having obtained the CBR value, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) can therefore be calculated using last model. Base on this analysis it is therefore concluded that the Index properties of the soil have significant relationships with its Strength properties.

The paradigm shift of data from static to fast flowing data is an important move in the industry, to accommodate growing size of data. The velocity and volume of data are continuing to expand which has started to make its impact in business and other applications of Big Data. The paper describes the paradigm shift of data from static data to streaming data for data analytics beyond Hadoop. It describes how the first generation of Hadoop applications were largely built for batch-oriented paradigm . Streaming data is essentially different from traditional data handling patterns and comes with its own set of challenges and requirements. New applications such as Storm, Flume, Kafka, and other technologies are evolving to bring in an era of real-time analytics Data is generated incessantly from thousands of sources simultaneously and it can be of various type such as log files, mobile and web data, transaction etc. The sections of my paper are Introduction followed by Streaming data, Hadoop, Streaming data analytics, Apache Spark, Comparing Streaming models and Streaming analytics use cases followed by conclusion. The information presented is from secondary source i.e. journal, conference proceedings and websites.

Abstract: A new effective method for pricing American option under the Black-Scholes model using pseudo inversion matrix is proposed and justified. The bases for a pseudo inversion matrix to price an American Option under the Black-Scholes model depend on the complete understanding of the discretization process and stability principles. For the past years, a lot of researchers have applied pseudo inversion matrix in solving system equations, like reconfigurable control system (RCS), Hermitian differential-algebraic system etc. This paper presents a simple pseudo inversion method for American option valuation under Black-Scholes model, through a drifted financial derivative system, discretized from Black-Scholes financial PDE. An illustrative example is given in concrete setting.

Occupational hazards associated with health are present in every occupation, and they are the leading cause of death and mortality. Occupational safety at the workplace improves the employees’ health and increases their productivity. In the medical profession, Nurses constitute the largest group of healthcare workers, and experience a higher rate of workplace hazards exposure than other health care workers. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices among nurses concerning occupational hazards in a public hospital. The research method was descriptive cross-sectional. The data was collected from Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital Lahore Pakistan. The data was collected from nurses by using questionnaires. The result showed that 67.5% nurses were with high knowledge about occupational hazards. Overall positive attitude was 56.91 % and overall practice level was 57.72% which is insufficient. The practical implication of the study is to improve the practices and reduce the exposure of occupational hazards. There should be training and educational meetings for the nurses to enhance the occupational safety, develop policies on all aspects related to occupational hazards

Field reports by Veterinarians indicate that Isometamidium Chloride used in the treatment of trypanosomosis is not efficacious. This study was designed to determine the efficacy of 2% of this drug in the treatment of single and mixed infections of T. Congoense and T. brucei in Red Sokoto Bucks. Twenty four (24) Red Sokoto Bucks, 8 months - 1 year old were randomly selected and divided into four groups viz (I, II, III, and IV) of six each. These were used to investigate the relapse of infections of single and mixed trypanosome parasites. Group 1 served as un-infected control; Group II and III were inoculated with 2 ml of 1 x 106 Trypanosoma brucei and T. congolense respectively while Group IV were inoculated with 2 ml of 1x106 parasites each of T. congolense and T. brucei . Animals in the infected groups were treated on day 14 post patency with Isometamidium Chloride at the dose rate of 0.5 mg/kg IM. The Bucks were monitored pre-infection, post-infection and post treatment daily for rectal temperature, weekly body weight, PCV, WBC, total proteins and clinical signs. There was aparasitaemia 12hours after treatment. Relapse of the parasites were observed in all infected and treated group of Bucks two weeks post treatment. A buck died in Group II, three goats died in Group III while all goats died in Group IV. Isometamidium Chloride was observed to be efficacious against T. brucei and T. congolense 12 hours after treatment and this was maintained for two weeks when there was a relapse of the parasite. The need for further studies to determine the reason for the relapse is imperative and may necessitate a repeat of treatment two weeks later.

Evidence based nursing is the process in which nurse is able to make clinical decisions by using the best available research evidence, their clinical expertise and patient preferences. The goal of this study is to gain knowledge about the recent awareness, perception, skills, and barriers for the implementation of Evidence based practices among the nurses of government hospitals Lahore Pakistan. There is approximately, over a half billion dollars per year spent on treatment, and medical follow-ups that did not follow the guidelines of evidence based practices [1]. A quantitative descriptive cross-section research design was used to evaluate nurses’ awareness, perceptions and barriers for implementation of Evidence Based Practice in healthcare. A convenient sample of 500 clinical nurses was selected. Tool; a structured questionnaire to collect socio-demographic data such as age, education level, and experiences, nurses awareness, perception and barriers for implementation of evidence based practice. A five-point Likers scale used. The finding of this study shows that awareness of nurses related to evidence based practices were (36%, 64%) satisfactory. The perception of participant was 55.48%. The Barriers for research utilization was 68.49% and barriers to research resource information were 71.92%. The study concluded that overall results awareness of Nurses about Evidence Based Practices was satisfactory but still they need to be excellent level of awareness. The barriers related to research utilization and research resource information were a big hurdle in evidence based practices and perceptions of skills were negative

Institutional repositories are increasingly being fronted as a major way in which universities can disseminate research output globally. Despite the immense potential benefits they present to scholars, their use is significantly low. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of institutional repository in promoting access and use of local content by academic staff at Kenyatta University. Using a mixed method research paradigm, a sample size of 91 academic staff, was drawn through stratified random sampling method. Also the university librarian (1) and 3 institutional repository staff was used as key informants. Data was collected using interviews and questionnaires. Major findings indicate that academic staff contribute a range of content, albeit limited in number, into the institutional repository, the level of usage of the institutional repository is unsatisfactory and therefore need for improvement; to promote the access and usage of the institutional repository, Kenyatta University has put up a number of ICT infrastructures. Academic staff faces a number of access related challenges which include but not limited to, low internet bandwidth, institutional repository downtimes, and access barriers such as passwords; the profound barriers to effective usage of the institutional repository were: plagiarism, quality control, research impact, and long item submission procedure. The study concludes that access and use of local content at the Kenyatta University institutional repository is unsatisfactory.

The insurance sector in India has witnessed the different phases viz. open competitive market, nationalised market, liberalised market and highly competitive market. After the foundation of IRDAI, private insurance players started entering the life insurance industry in India. At present, there are twenty three private life insurers and one public life insurer. The structure of the insurance industry has undergone a drastic change since liberalisation. It has been observed that the total business, earnings and market share of giant LIC of India have been affected. In this context, the present paper is an effort to appraise the performance of LIC of India on the basis of New Business in India under Individual Assurance in respect of Annual Premium, Number of Policies and Sum Assured.

Linguistic sexism exists in almost every aspect of social and cultural life. In recent years, it has become an important research object. Previous studies have covered the topic of linguistic sexism, but the reasons still need to be further studied. Therefore, through sociolinguistic study, the proverbs about appearance and inwardness of female, as well as the proverbs contrasting male and female in the aspects of social status, age, behavior and marriage are illustrated. The paper will show the linguistic sexism in English proverbs, analyze the reasons and propose its development tendency.

Demographic factors are the socioeconomic characteristics of a population expressed statistically such as age, sex, education level, income level, marital status, occupation, religion, etc. The actions resorted to by customers after a dissatisfaction episode have always been a topic of research. The broad area covered in this study is consumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction and complaining behaviour. The consumers considered are the inpatients who were dissatisfied with any service during their hospital stay. This study is an attempt to identify the type of demographics of inpatients who have the propensity to complain post dissatisfaction with the hospital services. A total of 312 inpatients who were admitted and discharged from 100+ bedded private and cooperative hospitals across nine districts belonging to northern, central and southern Kerala were surveyed. Their action after being dissatisfied was studied with a dichotomous scale and thus categorized as either complainers or non-complainers. Data pertaining to a total of eight sociodemographic variables were collected with categorical scales whereas their length of hospital stay and self assessment of medical awareness was collected with a continuous scale. The study revealed that except occupation, none of the other variables had an effect on the complaining behaviours of inpatients.

Catheter associate Urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is common health care–associated infection and widely found in hospitals and long term care facilities. Recent studies reported urinary pathogens showing resistance to most commonly prescribed antibiotics. Area specific study to find out the pathogen responsible for CAUTI and their resistant pattern which will be helpful for clinician to choose proper treatment and strategies to prevent infection in future. The infection rate was 52% among 200 patients using indwelling catheter. It was anticipated when catheter was used for longer period infection rate up to 60%. E. coli was most frequent detected bacteria and amikacin found most effective among the antibiotic we tested. Overall hospital stay and financial burden of patients increased due to CAUTI compared to the patients without infection.

In recent years, especially in the field of management, concepts such as competitive intelligence and knowledge management have gained a rising interest as a result of information explosion. Nevertheless, these concepts need an additional effort to perceive the common features in both practice and research. Nowadays, numerous studies consider knowledge as the lifeblood of companies and as a valuable organizational resource. In a knowledge based context, there has been growing awareness about the importance of knowledge as an organizational performance driver. In this sense, how do competitive intelligence and knowledge management interact to create knowledge and optimize organizational performance? Drawing upon the literature review and analysis of both competitive intelligence and knowledge management processes, we discuss several important research concerns surrounding the role of these two concepts in achieving organizational performance. The main purpose of this article is to shed some light on competitive intelligence and knowledge management as powerful catalysts for knowledge creation, and as the foundation for organizational performance.

Visceral leishmaniasis may be considered as a rare opportunistic infection in adult with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. We report the second case in the world and the first one in Morocco. It is about a 70-year-old patient, with chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with chemotherapy. He presented fever, splenomegaly and axillary adenopathy. The blood count showed persistent pancytopenia. The bone marrow aspiration showed the presence of Leishman’s bodies. The patient was lost to follow-up.

The corrosion inhibitory potentials of Bamboosa vulgaris leaves extract in 1M HCl solution was studied using gravimetric and gasometric techniques. The results obtained from both gasometrical and gravimetric analysis showed decrease in corrosion rate of mild steel immersed in the 1M HCl solution containing Bamboosa vulgaris leaves extract from the corrosion of the mild steel immersed in the blank uninhibited 1M HCl solution. There was a more pronounced decrease in corrosion rate as the concentration of the plant extract was increased from 200mg/l to 1000mg/l. The decrease in corrosion rate is attributed to inhibition of plant extract on the corrosion of mild steel. Inhibition efficiency of Bamboosa vulgaris leaves extract increased with increase in the concentration of its extract. However the corrosion inhibition properties of Bamboosa vulgaris leaves extract is suggested to be as a result of the formation of a protective shielding layer which might have developed around the metal surface under the corrosive medium conditions owing to the organic nature of the Bamboosa vulgaris leaves extract. The formation of the shielding layer is as a result of Bamboosa vulgaris phytochemical molecules adsorption to the metal surface, forming iron (11) complexes with the metal. The adsorption of the plant extract on the metal surface fitted into Langmuir adsorption isotherm, Freundlich adsorption isotherm, and Temkim adsorption isotherm, but best fitted into Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The calculated values of apparent free energy of adsorption are all negative indicating spontaneous adsorption of Bamboosa vulgaris leaves extract on the metal surface.

In manufacturing industries production scheduling is always a key to the company’s economic growth and profitability. It defines the appropriate timing system for production. It also establish just-in-time system of the company under study. In this research work, the researcher makes use of 36x75x40 size of foam product which was analyzed using response surface, integer programming and linear programming optimization tools to optimize the production output of the product. The result shows that maximum production output of the product using response surface, integer programming and linear programming were 1854 units, 2160.0 units and 2172.7 units respectively over any given monthly production. The results were recommended to the case company for optimum use in scheduling there monthly production output.