The global financial crisis of 2007/8 is considered to be the worst after the 1930 Great Depression. Most finance scholars argue that the crisis was a sole result of the weaknesses of the interest related traditional or conventional banking system commonly used in almost all countries in the world. Islamic finance scholars contend that the crises would have been avoided, and that will never be experienced, if the world adopted Islamic banking principles rather than clinging on to the conventional banking systems. Since Islamic financial systems are linked to, and associated with the principles of Islamic religion, other scholars maintain that the conventional systems remain the best as they accommodate all persons without being aligned to the principles of a particular religion. That aside, studies show that Islamic banking has registered a reasonable growth in asset base, especially in the Islamic nations and efforts are still there to break into the economies which are non Islamic. This study analyses the basic principles of Islamic banking in comparison with the conventional systems, and looks at the challenges and opportunities that may arise in an economy when the two systems run and operate concurrently. The paper concludes that much as the two systems can complement each other in a nation, the respective regulators must weigh the benefits and costs arising from an involvement of a new banking system in an economy. The paper further provides room for further research on the subject matter on the basis of individual country’s regulations regarding its financial systems.

A cross sectional study was conducted in Addis Ababa from October 2011 to May 2012 to determine prevalence of bovine mastitis and discuss its public health implications. A total of 444 systematically selected lactating cows of different cattle breed from thirty seven (37) dairy farms were investigated. The herds were visited and the farmers interviewed about the management, housing, feed and feeding, and milking conditions. California Mastitis Test (CMT) was applied on milk samples collected from 1776 individual quarters. The overall prevalence of bovine mastitis was 68.0% (302/444) of which sub-clinical mastitis accounted for 46.8% (208/444) while 21.2% (94/444) were found to be clinical forms. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in the prevalence of mastitis among the different breeds, age groups, parity and lactation stage. Relatively higher number of farmers interviewed (20.8%) replied that they do not withhold milk from cows treated for mastitis and continue to avail it to the public without interruption. As it is economically damaging, the need to establish diagnostic facility to enable early detection for screening large number of samples was emphasized. Further work on identification of the causative agents and conducting public awareness creation about major zoonotic diseases were also recommended.

The new electrostatic generator that is driven by Asymmetric electrostatic force is a very interesting new idea, because it will continue to generate electricity by an electret without any adding energy. The theory predicts that a charge carrier transports some charges from a low potential charge injection electrode to a high potential charge recovery electrode by Asymmetric electrostatic force. However, this phenomenon has not yet been confirmed by a real experiment. Because a leak current that was produced by a high voltage power supply cancel the transported charges. Therefore, a friction charged Teflon sheet was used as a high voltage source in place of the high voltage power supply. As a result, it was confirmed by a simple experiment that the charge carrier transported +3.0nC charges from 0 volts to +160 volts.

In Multimodal biometrics system two or more biometric attributes are combined which makes it far more secure than unimodal system as it nullifies all the vulnerabilities of it. But with the prompt ontogenesis of information technology, even the biometric data is not secure. There is one such technique that is implemented to secure the biometric data from inadvertent or deliberate attacks is known as Digital watermarking. This paper postulate an approach that is devise in both the directions of enlarging the security through watermarking technique and improving the efficiency of biometric identification system by going multimodal. Three biometric traits are consider in this paper two of them are physical traits i.e. ; face, fingerprint and one is behavioral trait (signature).The biometric traits are initially metamorphose using Discrete Wavelet and Discrete Cosine Transformation and then watermarked using Singular Value Decomposition. Scheme depiction and presented results rationalize the effectiveness of the scheme.

The study covered four rice terraces clusters in the Cordillera region, Northern Philippines located in Asipulo, Ifugao, Tanglagan, Apayao Province, Bagumbayan, Tabuk City, Kalinga and Natonin, Mt. Province. The study assessed the changes that has occurred in the rice terraces and their impacts on labor dynamics and food security. To obtain the necessary data, a timeline workshop was conducted for each site involving ten farmer key informant for each study site and validated by a separate group of ten farmers. The result showed that the rice terraces started mainly as a traditional type of farming system relying mainly on human labor using farming practices developed and handed down from older generations. The modern farming innovation adopted by farmers are: substitution of traditional rice varieties to high yielding rice varieties, use of commercial fertilizers and pesticides, farm mechanization with hand tractors, rice threshers and rice mills and improvement of irrigation canals. High yielding rice varieties increased yield of rice by 50% to 70% vis a vis the traditional varieties and enhanced the food security situation in the rice terraces.

The possibility to separate a useful signal from the realization of the random process representing the sum of the harmonic signal and Gaussian noise, using the method of stochastic resonance, is shown. The results of calculation of the signal-to-noise ratio at the output of a nonlinear device, creating an effect of stochastic resonance, are given. It is shown that the nonlinear device, described by the equation of stochastic resonance, operates as a stochastic low-pass filter. A simulation model of a non-linear device possessing effect of SR is constructed.

This paper seeks to examine the relationship between capital structure and bank financial performance. This research had verified the existence of several negative relationships between capital structure (accumulated capital and annual investments) and strategic financial performance, while finding mixed results for the relationship between capital structure (accumulated capital and annual investments) and profitability.

The demand for cellular communication services is expected to continue its rapid growth in the next decade, fuelled by new applications such as mobile web-browsing, video downloading, on-line gaming, and social networking. The commercial deployment of 3G. Cellular network technologies began with 3GPP UMTS/WCDMA in 2001 and has evolved into current UMTS/HSPA networks. To maintain the competitiveness of 3GPP UMTS networks, a well-planned and graceful evolution to 4G networks is considered essential [1]. LTE is an important step in this evolution, with technology demonstrations beginning in 2006. Commercial LTE network services started in Scandinavia in December

Objectives: To determine the level of job satisfaction among academic and clinical radiographers and possibly identify areas that requires improvements in the hospitals and radiography teaching institutions. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study of 48 radiographers working in tertiary healthcare institutions and universities in northern Nigeria. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to obtain vital information about the working conditions of radiographers and degree of satisfaction they derive from their job. Data Analysis: Descriptive statistics such as mean, percentages and frequencies were generated using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) 19.0 and inferential statistics was used to compare the level of job satisfaction of academic and clinical radiographers. Results: A total of 60 semi-structured questionnaires were distributed among radiographers across northern Nigeria and 48 were retrieved representing a response rate of 80%. There were 33 males (68.8%) and 15 females (31.2%). The age of radiographers ranges from 25-50 years with a mean age of 29 years.

This article research the possibility of boosting economic growth from an outside source of funding as official development assistance, the example given is that of Cameroon. The purpose of this paper is to check the effects of ODA on economic growth in Cameroon. The data used come mainly from the World Bank, in "the book of world development indicators" on the CD -ROM (WDI 2014). Working for the period 1980-2013, the analysis was made with an error correction model. The endogenous variable is the real income growth rate per capita. Estimates made from the method of Johansen (1988), it emerges that the ODA has no effect on economic growth in the public Cameroun. Official development assistance, in its form of technology transfer, combined with good governance, could have a significant effect on economic growth.