Demographic Variables Influence on Household Participation on Small Savings in Indigenous Voluntary Organisations at Wolaita Sodo Town, Ethiopia

Savings and credit scheme aims at poverty alleviation to the poor and low income families. Equb, Mahiber and Eddir are very old traditional institutions and indigenous voluntary organisations in Ethiopia that maintain their importance up to till today. Informal financial institutions such as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) and their participants have received growing attention over the last two decades. They become even more and more relevant as time goes on and as the economy becomes stronger. This study assessed the influence of demographic factors of saving behaviour of the household members of Wolaita Sodo town, Ethiopia. The study has been conducted on the basis of the primary data collected through structured questionnaire. The data was collected from 385 household who participate in the small savings survey at 95% confidence level. Judgemental sampling technique was used to choose the respondents. Questionnaire was prepared using five point Likert scale to measure the response on continuous scale. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used as data analysis tool. The analysis of variance of demographic variables on household participation on small savings showed that gender, marital status and educational status were statistically insignificant to predict the household participation on small savings whereas Age, expenditure factor, level of income and family size were statistically significant to predict household participation on small savings. Keywords: Financial Institutions, Interest Rate, Behaviour, Credit, Mobilization, Savings DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-1-0

Group Manifold Reduction of Dual N=1 d=10 Supergravity

We perform a group manifold reduction of the dual version of N=1 d=10 supergravity to four dimensions. The effects of the 3- and 4-form gauge fields in the resulting gauged N=4 d=4 supergravity are studied in particular. The example of the group manifold SU(2)xSU(2) is worked out in detail, and we compare for this case the four-dimensional scalar potential with gauged N=4 supergravity.Comment: 22 pages, revised section 3, typos corrected. Published versio

Understanding the Meaning of “Project Success”

Fortune 500 organizations are executing their tasks using projects. Project management is the area of concentration across the world. Different stakeholders have a different perspective about project success. The meaning of project success had been explained in this article. In addition, the Project Critical Success Factors (CSFs) were mentioned. The research of Standish Group on project success and project success metrics was presented. Earlier research on the meaning of project success and project critical success factors was highlighted. The works of Jeffery K. Pinto and Dennis P. Slevin, David and Adam, DeLone and McLean, and The Standish Group Research were discussed in this article. The methodology included secondary research based on literature view of prominent empirical studies and the literature reviews by making note of findings and observations from those studies. The initial literature collected led to further search of articles based on their references. The research findings indicate that the top of the most success factors for many projects include project objective, top management commitment, competent project team, and user involvement

Loan Customers Loyalty Switching Behavioural Determinants in Ethiopian Banks

In this competitive global banking markets, customer switching is injurious to every bank. Banking sector reforms and emerging of foreign and domestic private banks with vast range of new banking products have changed the banking perspective. This diversity could make a positive or negative impact on banks customers’ loyalty and switching. This study investigates the seven factors namely Price, Reputation, Service Quality, Location, Promotion, Customer satisfaction and Switching cost which the loan customers may consider while switching to other banks. The study was undertaken between Jan 2017 – May 2017.A causal cross sectional survey was conducted among 450 purposively selected loan customers (who have taken loan more than 100000) of seven banks of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to identify the predictors of switching behavioural determinants among customers. Based on the findings it can be concluded that Price, Service quality, Location, Customer satisfaction and switching cost variables significantly affects switching behavior of loan customers while Reputation and Promotion by the bank do not have significant effect on switching behavior of customers. Out of five significantly effecting factor Location (accessibility of the bank) is the most important factor followed by Price (loan interest rate) followed by service quality (consideration, personalized attention to the customer). Keywords: Loyalty switching behavior, Loan customers, Price, Reputation, Service quality, Location, Promotion, Customer satisfaction, Switching cos

Design And Implementation Of Electrical Transmission Line Monitoring And Controlling System

As the electric transmission line is spread widely at long distance location is become difficult to monitor, control the power supply in the transmission line. Physical inspection at every location and troubleshooting is not feasible. Same problem is still facing at traffic monitor and control units as every square which are currently controlled manually by operator. Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) provides access over remote location with centralized monitoring and controlling on different channels so it can be utilized for electric transmission line monitoring. While the WSNs are capable of cost efficient monitoring over vast geo-locations, several technical challenges exist. To overcome these problems in regional areas proposed system is designed to monitor and control the electric transmission line using WSN. Here we are building a wireless node which can centrally monitor and controlled through base station or the wireless cluster head. A centralized server will be responsible to see the electric poll status and control the poll activities to enable or disable power in particular area. As it is not feasible to monitor the central server full time, So the proposed system is designed to have emergency alert system for remote user with the help of a GSM modem will be connected to the central server which will send the emergency alert SMS to administrator and user. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150712

Many-Polaron Effects in the Holstein Model

We derive an effective polaronic interaction Hamiltonian, {\it exact to second order in perturbation}, for the spinless one-dimensional Holstein model. The small parameter is given by the ratio of the hopping term ($t$) to the polaronic energy ($g^2 \omega_0$) in all the region of validity for our perturbation; however, the exception being the regime of extreme anti-adiabaticity ($t/\omega_0 \le 0.1$) and small electron-phonon coupling ($g < 1$) where the small parameter is $t/\omega_0$. We map our polaronic Hamiltonian onto a next-to-nearest-neighbor interaction anisotropic Heisenberg spin model. By studying the mass gap and the power-law exponent of the spin-spin correlation function for our Heisenberg spin model, we analyze the Luttinger liquid to charge-density-wave transition at half-filling in the effective polaronic Hamiltonian. We calculate the structure factor at all fillings and find that the spin-spin correlation length decreases as one deviates from half-filling. We also extend our derivation of polaronic Hamiltonian to $d$-dimensions.Comment: Content changed. Accepted in Phys. Rev.

RARE SIDE EFFECT OF TOPIRAMATE - A CASE REPORT

Topiramate (sulfamate-substituted monosaccharide) is a broad spectrum newer anti-convulsant. It is also used in prophylaxis of migraine, cluster headache, bipolar affective disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, post herpetic neuralgia, relapse prevention in alcohol dependence syndrome, add on treatment for antipsychotic induced weight gain. Acute Myopia and angle closure glaucoma are some of the rare side effects of topiramate. This case highlights the development of myopia in a middle aged patient with alcohol dependence syndrome while he was on topiramate therapy. KEYWORDS:&nbsp;Topiramate; Alcohol dependence syndrome; Angle closure glaucoma; Myopia

RARE SIDE EFFECT OF TOPIRAMATE - A CASE REPORT

Topiramate (sulfamate-substituted monosaccharide) is a broad spectrum newer anti-convulsant. It is also used in prophylaxis of migraine, cluster headache, bipolar affective disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, post herpetic neuralgia, relapse prevention in alcohol dependence syndrome, add on treatment for antipsychotic induced weight gain. Acute Myopia and angle closure glaucoma are some of the rare side effects of topiramate. This case highlights the development of myopia in a middle aged patient with alcohol dependence syndrome while he was on topiramate therapy. KEYWORDS:&nbsp;Topiramate; Alcohol dependence syndrome; Angle closure glaucoma; Myopia

Efficacy of drugs in controlling microalbuminuria of diabetic nephropathy

Background: Beneficial effect in reducing microalbuminuria of diabetic nephropathy with angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) is proven. This study has directly compared the renoprotective effects of ARB and ACE inhibitors in persons with type-2 diabetes.Methods: In this prospective, double-blind, controlled trial, 100 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were chosen and randomly assigned to either receive ACE inhibitor (ramipril 5 mg, 50 patients) or ARB (losartan 50 mg, 50 patients). The endpoint was a reduction in 24 hrs urine microalbuminuria after a period of 3 months treatment. Results: At the end of 3 months treatment, the mean reduction of 24 hrs urine microalbuminuria in the ramipril group was 25 mg as compared to 38 mg in the losartan group; (t value=1.11, p=0.27). There was no statistical difference in the mean reduction when compared between the two groups. Significant reduction of blood pressure especially systolic blood pressure was noted in the losartan group as compared to those who received ramipril.Conclusion: Losartan was not inferior to ramipril in providing renoprotection in subjects with type 2 diabetes and early nephropathy. Losartan showed a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure, though not much reduction was seen with ramipril. Despite this, both drugs have shown a reduction in microalbuminuria, which supports the fact that reduction in microalbuminuria is independent of the antihypertensive action of ramipril or losartan

Ballistic behavior of boron carbide reinforced AA7075 aluminium alloy using friction stir processing – An experimental study and analytical approach

AbstractHigh strength-to-weight ratio of non-ferrous alloys, such as aluminium, magnesium and titanium alloys, are considered to be possible replacement of widely accepted steels in transportation and automobile sectors. Among these alloys, magnesium is self explosive and titanium is costlier, and aluminium is most likely to replace steels. Application of aluminium or its alloys is also thought of as an appropriate replacement in defence field, especially to enhance the easiness in mobility of combat vehicles while maintaining the same standard as that of conventional armour grade steels. Hence most of the investigations have been confined to aluminium or its alloys as base material and open an era of developing the newer composite materials to address the major limitation, i.e. tribological properties. The surface composites can be fabricated by incorporating the ceramic carbides like silicon carbide, carbides of transition metals and oxides of aluminium using surface modification techniques, such as high energy laser melt treatment, high energy electron beam irradiation and thermal spray process which are based on fusion route. These techniques yield the fusion related problems, such as interfacial reaction, pin holes, shrinkage cavities or voids and other casting related defects, and pave the way to need of an efficient technique which must be based on solid state. Recently developed friction stir processing technique was used in the present investigation for surface modification of AA7075 aluminum alloy, which is an alternative to steels. In the present investigation, 160 μm sized boron carbide powder was procured and was reduced to 60 μm and 30 μm using high energy ball mill. Subsequently these powders were used to fabricate the surface composites using friction stir processing.Ballistic performance testing as per the military standard (JIS.0108.01) was carried out. In the present work, an analytical method of predicting the ballistic behavior of surface composites was developed. This method was based on energy balance, i.e., the initial energy of impact is same as that of energy absorbed by multi layers. An attempt also has been made to validate the analytical results with the experimental findings. Variation between the analytical and experimental results may be accounted due to the assumptions considering such as isotropic behavior of target and shearing area of contact as cylindrical instead of conical interface As the analytical model yields the ballistic performance in the closer proximity of experimentally obtained, it can be considered to be an approximation to evaluate the ballistic performance of targets