There is an intuitive relationship between the creation of engineering careers and the social innovation in any country. In the global scenery a nation’s economy is the main driver of its social innovation. As in all countries, engineering careers in Mexico have always been closely related to the economic activity through the assimilation, operation and maintenance of the technological platforms used by the nation’s public and private organizations to perform their operations. Technological change has been a major factor influencing engineering education in last decade provoking that Mexican engineers needed to expand their actuation areas to attend more than just the industry’s operative needs. Today Mexican engineers are also involved in research and development innovation projects. Through an investigation of the history of the creation and evolution of the engineering careers based in the available data of the Facultad de Ingenieria (FI) de la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), in this paper we intend to show that in the country engineering careers and professionals always have had a relevant actuation in its development and have been behind the economic and social innovation processes.

A macro analysis of various inquiry into the nature and causes of Africa’s crises may revealed a continent placed on perpetual slavery. From trans-Atlantic slave trade to colonialism; from colonialism to flag independence and Neo Colonialism; from trade imperialism to human trafficking; from the rampaging momentum of globalization to erosion of Africa culture and communal morality; from ‘Tokunbo’ Syndrome and currencies; Africa seems to be on a verge of internationallyinspired perpetual servitude. The costs of these old and modern vices are enormous and the task of salvaging them is not less so. While the paper exposes the two divides, it goes to argue that, the actualization of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) remain a must for Africa as a continent, if she must survive the present socio- economic and political disempowerment eating deep to her efforts at meeting aims and objectives of the millennium Development Goods(MDG).

This paper explores the role of opinion leader (one form of reference group member) in customer/consumer decision making on cement product purchasing. The study has focused on pertinent literature, quantitative and qualitative studies to assess how opinion leaders make the brand choosing decision and recommend cement brand to customers. Cement is a semiengineering and high involvement product and therefore customers need to go through an extensive information search process. In such case opinion leader and reference group largely influence the decision making process of customers. This paper is an attempt to investigate the variables that influence the brand choosing decision of the architects- a major opinion leader group in cement industry. The qualitative research reveals some variables (BUET Test, Price, Availability, Delivery of order, Raw material, Goodwill, Initial setting time, Commission and Gift) that are considered when architects make suggestion for choosing the cement brand.

The research paper emphasizes on the need of assessing those variables which are responsible for affecting the levels of cognitive dissonance in the consumer behaviour. The paper signifies the impact that the family and friends have in the post purchase dissonance levels of the consumer. The results revealed that more the influence of family and friends in the decision making process, more degrees of dissonance will be felt by the consumer. The paper also depicts that the personality of the shopper would also affect the levels of dissonance. The confident shopper would experience lesser level of dissonance whereas a confused shopper would experience lower level of dissonance. Likewise, the purpose for which the product is to be used will also have an impact on the levels of dissonance. If the product is being purchased for some special purpose, then the dissonance level would be higher.

It has been widely argued that agriculture is undergoing a process of vertical integration with allied industries to which contract farming is most acceptable. As a continually evolving process, contract farming has taken many dimensions and has become the most popular issue in cotton production. An analysis was done on 50 Zaka district cotton farmers inorder to come up with the real operations on the ground concerning cotton production by the smallholder communal farmers. The rationale was to compare the two farming systems in terms of productivity and viability of cotton production concerning contracted and self funded farmers. Questionnaires and interviews were used in data collection whilst the respondents were the sampled farmers from Zaka district to obtain primary data. Agritex, Cottco and Windmill were the sources of secondary data about production trends and activities in the district. The data was analyzed using the t-test and profitability ratios. The difference in yield of the two groups of farmers was insignificant considering the two seasons. However cotton farming proved viable despite the system used by the farmer with self funding proving to be more profitable considering the current economic situation. From the study it proved better for the smallholder communal to produce cotton on their own to increase market access until proper regulations are put in place with also the economy changed its atmosphere. Also the researcher recommended that the government should put strong regulations that protect both the farmers and the cotton companies in terms of prices and problem solving of other issues.

The study was designed to investigate the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills via the provision and utilization of facilities and equipment in Lagos State Public Junior Secondary Schools. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Population for the study included the 288 public Junior Secondary Schools in Lagos State out of which 60 were randomly selected for the study. A questionnaire was developed, validated and used to collect data for the study. Data collected were analyzed through the use of Pearson Product- Moment Correlation Coefficient Analysis. The findings reveal that, from the provision of facilities, students were able to acquire entrepreneurial skills moderately; also that the more the students utilize provided facilities, the more they acquire entrepreneurial skills and finally, that as the facilities are provided so are they utilized by the students.

Numerous precious researches that have been conducted at professional and academia level have established Islamic banking to be superior and a viable manner of banking in terms of profitability and stability. The objective of the study would be to analyze the performance of Islamic banks and conventional banks during the crisis and after the crisis. The study will further focus on finding the steps that have been taken by the banks so as to reduce the effects of crisis. The study will be examined by comparing the performance of Islamic and conventional banks based in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) during the period of 2008 – 2011 by deploying the CAMEL testing factors. A sample of 17 Islamic banks and 10 conventional banks were selected to study the objective. Using the 2 tailed t test, our study found out that after crisis Islamic bank increased their LLR, while conventional banks increased their LLR and EQTA. During the four year period of 2008 – 2011, Islamic banks possessed adequate capital structure but have recorded lower ROAE and poor management efficiency. Asset quality and liquidity for both the modes of banking system have not recorded any significant difference.

Proto-type commercial grade Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) with on-chip low noise JFETs have been realized using silicon bipolar technology at Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Bangalore. Noise analysis articulating the relationships of various noise sources on the electrical parameters of the fabricated SDD and JFET have been discussed. TCAD device simulations have been performed for the SDD and on-chip JFET for static (dc) and dynamic cases. The static case simulations revealed values of critical dc performance parameters like leakage current, anode capacitance etc. Dynamic simulations meant to study the effect of radiation, revealed the relationship between drift time & drift distance within the detector. Analytical modeling of the I-V characteristics of the SDD has also been performed to predict the leakage current behavior for various other designs fabricated at BEL.

The object of present paper is to derive an integral pertaining to a product of Fox’s H-function [1], generalized polynomials Srivastava [7], general class of multivariable polynomials Srivastava and Garg [8] and H-function of multivariables given by Srivastava and Panda [9] with general arguments of quadratic nature.This paper is capable of yielding numerous result involving classical orthogonal polynomials hitherto scattered in the literature.

The study on status of phenolics and amino acid content in leaf of 8 years old Thomson Seedless grapes grafted on different rootstock was conducted during the year 2008 - 2009. Leaf samples were collected at different growth and development stage of a vine. The status of phenols and amino acid at four major growth stages in the leaf of Thompson Seedless grapevine grafted on different rootstocks using high performance liquid chromatography was studied. The differences for phenolic compound at different stages were observed. The accumulation of amino acid in leaf in grape rootstock was found to be stage specific. The concentration of phenolic and amino acid was found to be increased and decreased from one stage to another and was more specific in different rootstocks showing that individual rootstock has capacity to synthesize their food differently.