Innovative Mobile Service system (IMSS) Supporting Farmers and Farming Activities

Climate change is altering known weather and rainfall patterns and subtly altering seasons in Ghana and the world over. The weather changes exert impact on farming and farming activities leading farmers and farming activities into state of disarray.  Knowing, for instance, when to plant and to harvest is the basis for success in agricultural pursuit, but this is gradually eluding the Ghanaian farmer due to impact of climatic change on weather. In Ghana like many other African counties knowledge on weather and climatic change is based on understanding or experience passed onto generations through ancestral heritance. But the speed and scale of this change is making the traditional knowledge less accurate and unreliable, thus impacting negatively on agricultural productivities. As part of measures to pre-informing Ghanaian farmers about adverse effects of climatic change on agriculture, we postulate this Innovative mobile service system (IMSS) that would pre-inform or caution farmers on the nature of imminent climatic condition within the predicted period.   The stimulus for this article is based on the extraction of data from microwave links on precipitation and evaporation; an idea that was proven by Hidde Leijuse in his PhD thesis; “Hydrometreorological application of Microwave links to measuring evaporation and precipitation”.   The data gathered for the write-up of this article was from the above mention document, text books on innovative systems design and search on the Internet on impact of climatic change and contribution of the agriculture sector to the Ghanaian economy. Keywords: GDP, Mobile Services System, ISP, SADA, FM, NCA, MoFA, Content, c2c, Developer, Database, IMSS, Service Provider, Content Provider, b2c, g2

Anti cancer activity of mangiferin from methanol extract of fruit of Mahkota Dewa (Phaleria macrocarpa (Scheff.) Boerl.)

Phaleria macrocarpa (Scheff.) Boerl known as Mahkota Dewa is one of Indonesia's traditional medicines from family of Thymelaeaceae. Traditional medicine practitioners claim that the chemical compounds in mahkota dewa retains antihistamine, antioxidant and anti cancer effects. In this study, one compound has been successfully isolated from methanolic extract of Mahkota Dewa's fruit as single compound known as mangiferin. To ensure whether this compound; mangiferin contribute to the anti cancer activities, the cytotoxic effect on a breast cancer cell line; MCF-7, cervical cancer cell line; HeLa, and human colon adenocarcinoma cell; HT-29, was examined. The results show that Mahkota Dewa can be promising sources of natural products with potential anti cancer

Attitudes of Palestinian Undergraduate Students Towards Native and Non-Native English Language Teachers and Their Relation to Students’ Listening Ability

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and non-native English language teachers and their relation to students' listening ability. To achieve this purpose and to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses, the researchers adopted both the descriptive and inferential approaches. For collecting data, a questionnaire and a listening test were designed and distributed among 120 Palestinian undergraduate students to find out their attitudes towards both their NES and NNES and their relation to students' listening ability. After the statistical analysis, the major findings of the study revealed that attitudes of Palestinian undergraduate students towards Native and Non-Native English language teachers were moderate in all items and sections, except for the teaching culture which was found to be with low attitudes for native teachers. The findings also pointed out that the listening ability of Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and non native English language teachers were higher for those who studied with native teachers compared to those who studied with non native teachers. The findings also highlighted that there were significant differences in the mean scores of the listening ability for Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and non native English language teachers due to university. Based on the research findings some recommendations are finally presented. The researchers concluded that students generally have positive attitudes towards both teacher types (Native and Non-Native English language teachers), but the highest degree of the respondents’ preferences and attitudes are for and towards non native. Furthermore, the relation between attitudes towards both teacher types and listening ability isn't found. There is more than one explanation for this, may be students have an innate ability to listen to many types of speakers and comprehend and being guided through the process of listening may lead the students to get rid of the feelings of fear from speakers when they listen. Keywords: Attitudes, Palestinian undergraduate students, native and non-native, language teachers, listening abilit

Attitudes of Palestinian Undergraduate Students Towards Native and Non-Native English Language Teachers and Their Relation to Students’ Listening Ability

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and non-native English language teachers and their relation to students' listening ability. To achieve this purpose and to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses, the researchers adopted both the descriptive and inferential approaches. For collecting data, a questionnaire and a listening test were designed and distributed among 120 Palestinian undergraduate students to find out their attitudes towards both their NES and NNES and their relation to students' listening ability. After the statistical analysis, the major findings of the study revealed that attitudes of Palestinian undergraduate students towards Native and Non-Native English language teachers were moderate in all items and sections, except for the teaching culture which was found to be with low attitudes for native teachers. The findings also pointed out that the listening ability of Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and non native English language teachers were higher for those who studied with native teachers compared to those who studied with non native teachers. The findings also highlighted that there were significant differences in the mean scores of the listening ability for Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and non native English language teachers due to university. Based on the research findings some recommendations are finally presented. The researchers concluded that students generally have positive attitudes towards both teacher types (Native and Non-Native English language teachers), but the highest degree of the respondents’ preferences and attitudes are for and towards non native. Furthermore, the relation between attitudes towards both teacher types and listening ability isn't found. There is more than one explanation for this, may be students have an innate ability to listen to many types of speakers and comprehend and being guided through the process of listening may lead the students to get rid of the feelings of fear from speakers when they listen

Do trade partners’ labour standards affect ASEAN’s labour standards?

This paper investigates the impact of foreign labour standards on domestic labour standards in ASEAN countries. The study employs a set of cross-sectional time series data that covers the period from 1995-2008 for its empirical analysis. Three different labour standards indicators, namely numbers of strikes and lockouts, cases of occupational injuries, and trade union density rates–are used as a proxy for labour standards. The results evince a race to the bottom for labour standards, represented by cases of injuries. In contrast, the effect of trade partners’ trade union density rate is negative and significant; however, the number of strikes and lockouts has an insignificant effect. The findings of the study suggest that there may be a race to the bottom in terms of working conditions among ASEAN countries, but not on the standards that measure the rights of workers

Reliability and factor structure of the General Health Questionnaire-12 among university students

The 12- item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) has been translated into many languages and widely used in different settings and countries. Its reliability and psychometric properties were extensively studied in many population groups which suggested that it measures psychological distress in multidimensional construct. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the reliability and factor structure of the Bahasa Malaysia version of the GHQ-12 among university students attending a health program at a Malaysian public university. Method: The cross sectional survey was conducted on 306 undergraduate students aged between 18 to 27 years old who visited the booth set up for mental health screening at a health program. The screening was conducted using a self-administered, validated Bahasa Malaysia version of GHQ-12 questionnaire. Results: Using exploratory factor analysis, the Bahasa Malaysia version of GHQ-12 was found to have a three factor structures namely depressive symptoms, self-esteem and perceived abilities which accounted for 58% of the item variance. The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale was found to be high (0.84) with each factor having acceptable inter-item consistency ranging from 0.61 to 0.82. Conclusion: The findings of the study show that the Bahasa Malaysia version GHQ-12 is reliable and has good structural characteristics. It can assess a few domains of the psychological status of university students. It also helps in providing more information on the domain which may become a focus target of intervention in the prevention of mental illness

Treatment of dye wastewater by functionalization of bentonite-methylene blue with sodium persulfate

Bentonite has been effectively used in many studies for the removal of methylene blue (MB) laden waste waters. This is due to its high swelling ratio, good adsorptive properties and environmentally friendly characteristics. In spite of this, prolonged use renders the BMB non-functional and cause for discard. Sodium persulfate (SPS), has been reported to be an excellent flocculating agent for the functionalization of spent adsorbent due to some of its unique properties. In this study, the functionalization of spent bentonite-methylene blue (BMB) adsorbent in dye wastewater treatment was carried out using SPS at varying temperature conditions. Results revealed that the addition of SPS to MB-loaded adsorbent demonstrated efficient adsorption, high flocculation efficiency as well as faster equilibrium (60 min). The BMB loaded adsorbent showed 95% removal efficiency up to three cycles. A plausible mechanism was proposed and discussed on the basis of the results. Thus, exhausted BMB was found to be effectively used for treatment of coloured wastewater on an industrial scale. © 2019, Dorma Journals. All rights reserved

Prevalence of psychological stress among undergraduate students attending a health programme in a Malaysian University

Psychological stress among undergraduate students is associated with poor academic results, physical ill-health and psychiatric disorders. The objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence of psychological stress and its associated factors among undergraduate students attending a health programme in a local university. This is a cross-sectional study among undergraduate students attending a health programme in a local university. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) was used to determine the presence of psychological stress at a cut-off point of 4 and above. Analysis was conducted to determine any association between gender, ethnicity, year of study in the university, recent health-seeking contact with a doctor, and psychological stress among the participants. The prevalence of psychological stress among undergraduate students attending a health program in a Malaysian University was 49.3%. There was no significant association with any of the socio-demographic factors studied (p>0.05). The prevalence of psychological stress in this study was significantly high, and irrespective of gender, ethnicity, year of study in the university, and recent health-seeking contact with a doctor. Hence, the findings of this study show that it may be a useful strategy to integrate such health programs regularly in activities of colleges and universities, with the aim of promoting mental health and wellness among the students