This paper examines the degree of Exchange Rate Pass-Through to prices in Tunisia and Morocco, using the two recent methods developed by Edwards (2006) and Gerlach and Gerlach-Kristen (2006). Based on quarterly and annual data from 1980 to 2010, our results show that, whatever the method used, the nominal exchange rate does not play the role of a shock absorber mechanism in these two countries.

Tolmetin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug commonly used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and periarticular disorders. In this work, we prepared and evaluated tolmetin release from mucilage extracted from Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L) as a natural gel base. The in vitro release of tolmetin from natural gel base was studied using Franz diffusion cells with cellophane membrane placed between the donor and the receptor compartments. Possibility of solid state changes of Tolmetin with Okra seed mucilage (OSM) was studied using differential scanning calorimetery (DSC). The anti- inflammatory activity of tolmetin from natural gel base was evaluated using the carrageenan induced rat paw edema method. The results revealed that the in-vitro release of tolmetin from OSM without any additives was about 75 % after 180 minutes. The drug was transformed from solid state to amorphous one indicating that there is a physical interaction between tolmetin and OSM in gel form. At the same time there is no interaction was observed in case of physical mixture. Finally, tolmetin from OSM gel base gave a significant anti-inflammatory activity when compared with reference.

Thin films of antimony sulphide were successfully deposited on glass substrates by chemical bath deposition technique. Morphological studies and structural analysis were performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) respectively. Optical characterization was done using an AVASPEC-2048 UV-VIS-NIR spectrophoto- meter in the wavelength range of 200-900nm. Optical studies reveal a direct band gap of about 1.6eV. The thickness of the film was calculated from surface profile analysis and estimated at about 0.7μm.

A specific implementation of cultural algorithm is presented here for solving the following two variable integer programming problem with n constraints: Maximize or Minimizeare signed integers. A cultural algorithm consists of a population component almost identical to that of the genetic algorithm and, in addition, a knowledge component called the belief space. As the integer programming problem is a constrained optimization problem, the constraints including nonnegativity and integer restrictions are availed as the knowledge component and used to build the belief space.

Purpose: The present paper tries to understand the improvement in retail sector in India, especially the modern retail formats, its attribute, type of goods and impact of consumers’ demography on choice of emerging retail formats. Methodology: A self-structured questionnaire has been used for collecting the data from 100 urban consumers of three major cities of Punjab i.e. Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana. Stratified random sampling method has been used for the study. Findings: The findings of the paper reveal that consumers’ prefer modern retail formats due to its significant product attributes like improved quality, variety of brands and assortment of merchandise and store attributes like parking facility, trained sales personnel and complete security. The major results of the study depict that consumers prefer malls and specialty store to purchase various shopping goods like clothing, footwear and jewellery. Further the results highlight that the modern retail formats are extremely preferred by young consumer’. Originality: The paper is first of its kind to take all the important aspects together like modern retail formats, type of attributes and products and the demographic profile of consumers’. With all these aspects, paper tries to study the changing consumers’ behavior towards shopping from the modern retail formats.

The leptin receptor (LEPR) is a member of the cytokine receptor family with two cytokine domains and a single trans membrane domain, which plays an important role in body weight homeostasis through regulation of food intake and energy expenditure. It also influences other pathways like hematopoiesis, reproduction, angiogenesis, and immune processes upon interacting with ligand leptin. Leptin is an adipocytokine produced in adipose tissue. Since obesity is one of the known risk factor as well as the LEPR expression and leptin levels were shown to be associated with the development of mammary ductal carcinoma, an attempt has been made to evaluate the role of LEPR Q223R polymorphism with breast cancer susceptibility in south Indian population as well as with confounding epidemiological and clinical factors. The present study included 194 breast cancer cases and 186 age matched control samples for the analysis of LEPR Q223R polymorphism through PCR-RFLP method. The frequency of RR genotype was significantly elevated in breast cancer compared to control subjects (χ2= 6.567; df=2, p= 0.037)). Similar trend was also observed with respect to high BMI and post menopausal status. No significant association was found with stage of the disease.

This paper presents a systematic procedure and details of the use of experimental and analytical modal analysis of a welded structure used for vibration based damage identification. First an experimental modal analysis was conducted on the undamaged welded structure model used for vibration based damage identification. Using impact hammer test, when the test structure is fitted to the multi-axis electro dynamic vibration shaker .In this experimental modal analysis frequency response functions are calculated from measured input force and output response of a structure using piezoelectric accelerometers from the frequency response function the peaks were identified. To compare the experimental modal analysis values finite element modal analysis was conducted using ANSYS software version 11.0. It has been observed from the results the natural frequencies obtained from the experimental modal analysis and ANSYS software version 11.0 shows a good consistency in comparison.

The digital images are corrupted by impulse noise due to errors generated in camera sensors, analog-to-digital conversion and communication channels. Therefore it is necessary to remove impulse noise in-order to provide further processing such as edge detection, segmentation, pattern recognition etc. Filtering a noisy image, while preserving the image details is one of the most important issues in image processing. In this paper, we propose a new method for impulse noise removal in Microarray images. The proposed iterative algorithm search for the noise-free pixels within a small neighborhood. The noisy pixel is then replaced with the value estimated from the noise-free pixels. The process continues iteratively until all noisy-pixels of the noisy image are filtered. The performance of the proposed method is tested using impulse noise corrupted microarray images. The experimental results show the proposed algorithm can perform significantly better in terms of noise suppression and detail preservation in microarray images than a number of existing nonlinear techniques.

The expert interviews carried out in the UK in 2009 show that the concepts of deregulation, liberalization and globalization in air transport are realities that cannot be overlooked. The results of these interviews will also support the contention that SIDS will eventually adopt policies which will, in the long run, be beneficial to these developing countries wishing to stay in operation within a highly competitive environment. Although all interviews were confined to the UK, it would be fair to mention that because of the nature of international transport that literally cut across borders most if not all of the concepts and ideas discussed at the interviews are global issues that would probably be applicable to any part of the world. Moreover, most if not all, of the interviewees have international exposures and have handle projects and consultancy works overseas. Although, the views expressed by the interviewees may not always be coherent, there is a common thread throughout as to the present and sometimes very precarious situation. Most of the interviewees are optimistic for the future and some of the themes that keep recurring are: consolidation, the necessity for alternative sources of energy and the rise in cost of operations. Another issue that got specific attention and focus was the environmental concern and global warming.

The dichotomy in policy making regarding the hotel industry and air transport, makes it imperative for the government to formulate clear policy processes in order to avoid conflicting situations among stakeholders. This paper looks at the various issues regarding policy theories and examines the various theories that have made their mark in other countries. It has often been contended that the national carrier, the hotel industry and government have often been looking in different directions instead of coming up with consistent policies common to all stakeholders where all could deploy efforts to consolidate the tourism industry and at the same time contribute to economic growth. Several policy theories are available namely Policy Network Analysis (PNA), Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), Prospects Theory, Power Elites Theory and Community organization Theory among others. Most of the above are analyzed and compared and the two theories that come close are the PNA and ACF with a preference for the latter for various reasons developed in the paper. Governments have to pay considerable attention to new policies in the implementation of an open sky policy and must assess its impacts so as to ‘protect’ their respective national carriers.