Access to information is a fundamental condition for enabling citizens’ active participation in the modern democratic systems. The availability of sufficient required information to citizens makes the accountability of the government possible. It is the age of information led globalization. Individual and societies are getting far more connected than ever before. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the prominent characteristics of the modern age. The innovative, integrative, easily available and user friendly communication technologies are enhancing citizen’s access to information. Consequently, citizens are becoming far more empowered. This phenomenon has profound political, economic and social impacts. Relying on the existing research, this article juxtaposes the findings from different researches and presents them in a meaningful compact way.

The frequency of superficial fungal infections is more in hot and humid climate. Seasonal variation of skin diseases, a subject of much epidemiological interest, has been studied for centuries. The present study report is on dermatophytoses in different clinical conditions such as age, sex and seasonal impact in Warangal District, A.P. A retrospective study was done on all new outpatients visiting a single dermatologist Dr. Ramesh, at the Ramesh skin hospital, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. The study population comprised of all new subjects visiting the outpatient department, from January to December, from 2008- 2010. The total number of cases was recorded according to the month wise prevalence.

Architecture and design constitute one of the major economic growth areas in any country. Nigeria increasingly needs to compete in knowledge, development and innovation. Such and all human activities are carried out within some form of shelter or organized open spaces which are contributions or products of architecture to the built environment and the economic growth of the nation. This phenomenon is of enormous and unquantifiable dimension in developing economies like Nigeria. This paper therefore examines succinctly the economic impact of architecture on corporate businesses and the contribution it has made to the social development of the nation. It recommends the way forward for exploring architectural potentials in the tourism industry for boosting the economic base of Nigeria as a means of attracting foreign revenue in support of emerging advocacy for diversification of oil revenue base of the nation.

Effective implementation of competitive tendering has the potential for assuring transparency, accountability, fairness, justice and ethical standards in public works procurement. It promotes sound contract practices and growth of indigenous technology. Furthermore, it can reduce time and cost, promote competition, hamper corruption, and strengthen the public service system. Although, competitive tendering appears to be the most acceptable method of selecting contractors everywhere, its implementation in Chad is facing many challenges despite the reforms put in place in 2003 resulting in a very poor performance of government procurement. The lack of effectiveness assessment of the tendering processes at pre-contract stage is one of the main causes. Previous studies have identified a baseline of 38 standards practices along with five critical phases of the competitive tendering, seven relevant criteria and 13 key related measurable indicators. The adopted method is quantitative strategy. Respondents were asked to pair-wise compare phases, criteria and indicators using an Analytic Hierarchy Process scale and relative and composite weights of all identified variables were computed. Based on these findings, a framework for assessing the effectiveness of competitive tendering process at pre-contract stage is developed. The assessment process involves the assessment of elementary effectiveness at each phase and the overall effectiveness. An application example is given at the end for illustration. In conclusion, the study demonstrated the practical application of AHP in the evaluation of the overall performance in public works procurement. Authors believed that this framework will be adopted by the construction projects managers and recommend its computerization for easy usage.

Since independence, Africa is not mistress of her destiny, particularly in terms of industrialization strategy. Development paradigms followed over the last fifty years by African states are not developmentalist. They revealed their limit in the socio-economic transformation. Today, more than ever before, Africa needs a development agenda driven from the bottom up. The objective of this article is to revive the debate on alternative policies of industrialization in Africa: an endogenous industrialization policy, inclusive and progressive. While there may be a specifically African way in development, it is clear that the small cottage industry could be a pivot of development. The new industrialization policy must do from informal sector a nursery or incubator of industrialization and therefore a catalyst for structural transformation of the continent.

The study aims to find the effect of credit risk on profitability of the banking sectors of Bangladesh. The study uses an unbalanced panel data and 172 observations from 18 private commercial banks from 2003 to 2013. The study uses NPLGL, LLRGL, LLRNPL and CAR as credit risk indicators and ROAA and ROAE and NIM as profitability indicators. Using OLS random effect model, GLS and system GMM the study finds a robust negative and significant effect of NPLGL, LLRGL on all profitability indicators. The analysis also finds a negative and significant effect of CAR on ROAE. As an additional analysis, the results reveal that the effect of the implementation of Basel II is significantly positive on NIM but significantly negative on ROAE. The analysis reveals some significant policy implications for increasing profitability and protecting banks from crisis.

This study was carried out to determine the calorific values of charcoal produced from the wood of Gmelina arborea, Tectona grandis and Pentaclethra macrophylla (Bentham). The purpose of this study is to find out the calorific values of charcoal from these different species at different levels and positions in the tree. The wood species were subjected to three different treatments. The results shows that there were significant differences (p<0.05) between the treatments and parameter measured (Top sapwood, Middle sapwood, Base sapwood, Top heartwood, middle heartwood and Base heartwood). T3 gave the highest calorific value of charcoal produced, while middle heartwood gave the best result for all treatments. Based on this investigations T3 (Pentaclethra macrophylla (Bentham) can be used for charcoal production. Forest depletion by man is one of the causes of climate change. Bearing this in mind, we need to exploit our forests in a sustainable manner. Households, especially in the rural settlements rely very much on fuel wood for cooking. This has contributed in no small measure to the depletion of our forests. Extension agencies need therefore to take advantage of the result of this study toencourage households to use charcoal, especially that derived from Pentaclethra macrophylla.

Structural reliability analysis was carried out on the Mansonia altissima timber, to ascertain its structural performance in timber roof truss system. Structural analysis of the timber truss was in accordance with Eurocode 5 (2004) and was carried out under the Ultimate Limit State of loading. A developed MATLAB (2010) programme was employed for reliability analysis of the timber roof truss of Mansonia altissima timber so designed, to ascertain its level of safety using GA-based First-Order Reliability Method. The uncertainties in the strength and load variables were accommodated in the reliability analysis. The result of the analysis revealed that the Joint failure mode is the critical safety index that is minimum safety index among the failure modes of the truss under the design conditions. The Mansonia altissima timber was found to be a satisfactory structural element for timber roof truss at depth of 75mm, breadth of 50mm and under the ultimate limit state of loading with the corresponding of 2.58. Sensitivity analysis proves that the degree of reliability of the timber roof truss can be improved if crosssections of species, diameter of nail at joint, pitch of truss and loadings are suitable selected.

This paper, highlights the specificities of influencing strategies used by Moroccan companies listed in Casablanca Stock Exchange. It attempts to evaluate their impact in terms of stockholders’ value creation. In fact, this document shed the light on the findings of a study of 232 influencing actions used by 31 listed companies. After a thorough analysis leading to identify 5 different categories of lobbying behaviors, we proceed with an event study to determine the most efficient lobbying strategies.

In This paper wind, solar and fuel cells based stand alone cogeneration systems are presented for remote area utilities applications. This type of co generation system output voltages are not constant or stable in always. The generated output voltages are directly connected to the loads, without battery bank or energy storage devices. The PI, fuzzy control method was proposed in this paper using svpwm, such that the output voltage of converter circuit is constant even though input voltages are fluctuation conditions. A three phase multilevel inverter with static and dynamic load was examined to validate for proposed work in MATLAB environment.