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Relative Comparison of Resultant Effects of Global Warming on Variability of Rainfall and Water Resources in Saki and Osogbo, Western Nigeria.
Get PDFSMALL-SCALE GOLD MINING AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS: CASE OF WOZOLI SILOBELA WARD 22, KWEKWE DISTRICT (ZIMBABWE)
Get PDFThis paper explores the socio-economic impact of small-scale gold mining on deprived local communities in theWozoli community.Causal and push factors such as drought and lack of formal employment have been identified as the most determining factors that drive communities to informal small scale gold mining. Cluster sampling of 5mines and the attendant working groups/syndicates were employed provide feasibility and practicality to the data collection process. While snowball sampling was used to identify mining sites.Data were collected through questionnaires to miners in 5 selected mines, field observation and interviews were held with stakeholders and community leadership. The results of the study revealed that small-scale gold mining has transformed the socio-economic situation of Wozoli community in Silobela (Kwekwe). The sector has promoted direct and indirect employment, agglomeration of economic activities in the community and its finances diversified livelihoods. However, the study also noted that miners do not sell all the gold through official designated channels but tended to favour black market which offers relatively high prices. Consequently, it became evident that the informal mining sector has an insignificant contribution to local and national treasury because it is prone to corruption, illicit flows and smuggling of gold at the expense of the national economy. Additionally, informal mining has had a devastating impact on the local environment which has been attributable to the use of rudimentary mining techniques and failure to implement EIA provisions. The authors recommend the need for enabling policy framework, formalisation of mining groups in local communities as well as competitive prices to small scale gold miners so as to curb smuggling and black market
The Impact of Psychological Capital on the Operational Performance of Firms
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to examine the impact of psychological capital on the operational performance of firmsduring 2008 to 2014. So, the components of psychological capital, including self-confidence, hope, optimism and resilience, and their impact on the operational performance of the subsidiary firms of Parsian Bank were studied. The results obtained from regression analysis of the firms’ data, at the confidence level of .95 and usingthepanel model with fixed effects, suggest that the components of psychological capital have a direct influence on the operational performanceof the subsidiary firms of Parsian Bank
SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECT IN DIGITALIZING POLITICS: A STUDY ON THE STUDENTS WHO STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF INONU
Get PDFWith internet and social media the importance of political communication has increased. Therefore political actor also which is one of the important parts of political communication has started to use social media as political aim. Especially the internet and social media have enhanced the interest of on the political topics of the citizens and has presented a interactive communication opportunity between voters. Consequently, social media became a ideal communication tool used in political communication. The relationship between the usage of social media with the political content and political attitude has focused on political competence, political interest and political participation.
The usage of social media in political area has become important with opportunities which are given to citizen regarding learning politicians' activities, disputing the political topics each other, communicating with the deputies elected and attending to political system actively. Especially it is appearred as an important component in individualizing politics, building political consciousness and shaping political behaviours (especially on the youth). Because the online access to information regarding political content particulary have grown up increasingly in the young population.
In this point, the search has aimed to put forth the social media usage as political aim of Turkish youth who study at university. The search has limited to the students of the University of Inönü which is one of the biggest universities of East Anatolian Region and has continued to operate for 1974 in Turkey.
The data picked up from the students of the University of Inönü was analized and commented the results through SPSS
Physical Properties of Pure and Nano Agdoped Liquid Crystalline Compounds Containing 1,3,4-Oxadizole Unit
Get PDFDielectric properties and other physical properties such as electrical conductivity (AC) and relaxation time or activation energy have been studied for two systems pure LC [V]6,6, [V]7,6, [V]8,6, [V]6,7, [V]7,7 and [V]8,7 and their doped with silver nanoparticles. The results show the increasing in real dielectric permittivity έ with increasing length terminal chain. So the real dielectric permittivity increasing with raising temperature. To compare between the values of at (400) Hz and (4000) Hz we observe these values at the low frequency are larger than that in high frequency. Generally, one can see that the doping of Ag nano particles effectively reduced the permittivity of the LC materials with its large electric dipole moment. The electrical conductivity value for pure LC samples in general increases with increasing temperature. So we observed increasing of electrical conductivity values at high frequency. The time scale is discussed in terms of the Arrhenius plot. Generally, with increasing the temperature the time period that spend by molecules at the transition state will increase. The activation energy Ea values show the increase in the activation energy to the doped systems.
Green Synthesis of Graphite Oxide as Metal free Catalyst for Petrochemicals Production
Get PDFGraphite oxide was synthesized by the modified Hummer’s method. The degree of the oxidation of the graphite was systematically controlled via the oxidation time, KMnO4 : Graphite wt. ratio and the addition of the phosphoric acid to the oxidation media. The Physicochemical properties of the synthesized graphite oxide are investigated by using different techniques ; XRD, FTIR, zeta potential, and TEM. It was found that the structure of the expanded graphite can be easily and remarkably disordered by oxidation. Three phases of interlayer distances were identified at 3.4 , 4 and 6A⁰ , specified for the pristine graphite, intermediate and the fully expanded graphite oxide respectively These phases were cooresponding to the compositions : epoxide, carboxyl and hydroxyl groups respectively . as confirmed by FTIR.The catalytic activity of the prepared graphite oxide samples was tested for petrochemical production from the ethanol conversion reaction at different reaction temperature 100-250oC and resulted pressure ranging 40-92 atm . The converted products were mainly composed of acetone, ethylene, acetaldehyde, diethylether, and heavyhydrocarbons( >c). Acetone was found to be the main product at all reaction temperatures with selectivity ‘‘53-94%’’. XRD and TEM analyses of the prepared samples confirmed the transformation of the prepared graphite oxide into graphene like material at reaction temperature 250oC
Effect of Partial Replacement of Pt-Based Catalysts with Fe- and Co-for Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Pem Water Electrolysis: A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study
Get PDFThe adsorption of Ptn (n = 1−4) clusters and co-adsorption of Ptn-Co and Ptn-Fe on the defect-free anatase TiO2(101) surface have been studied theoretically at density functional theory (DFT) level. The most stable configurations are observed due to Pt2 and Pt3-clusters adsorbed on the titania surface. The electronic structure analyses show that the Fermi level is pinned by Pt, which reduces the band gap from ~3 eV of the clean surface to significantly less than 1 eV for Pt3. For the co-adsorption of Fe-Pt and Co-Pt, there is a strong bond formation of Fe and Co with the surface O and Ti atoms. In both cases, Fe and Co stay far away from the Pt atom. Due to strong interaction of adsorbed elements with Ti, the co-adsorption energy is larger than the corresponding Pt3 adsorption energy. The higher stability of the co-adsorption of Fe-Ptn compared to the Co-Ptn is in agreement with the electrochemical experimental results which confirm that Fe-containing catalysts deposited on titanium dioxide support (Ebonex) will be higher efficient than Co-containing ones toward oxygen evolution in proton-exchange membrane water electrolysis. The observed effect can be explained with formation of solid solution between the metallic components and a realization of synergetic effect
Analysis of Using FDI in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China
Get PDFImproving the use of FDI is an important strategy for the further development of Ningxia economic society． This paper analyzes the use of FDI in Ningxia and points out that the use of FDI in Ningxia still has great potential. The paper proposes that Ningxia should improve the investment environment for further improvement of using FDI
The Empirical Analysis on the Carbon Emission Transfer by Sino-EU Merchandise Trade
Get PDFBy using input-output analysis method, this paper analyses the China and European Union’s corresponding transfer amount of carbon emissions caused by Sino-EU trade in 2002, 2007 and 2012.Furthermore, the influence degree of scale, structure and intensity on the amount of carbon emission transfer of China and European Union in a specific period of time was analyzed by using the method of LMDI. The result shows that there exists carbon emissions transfer from European Union to China. Scale effect always has a positive influence on the transferred amount of Chinese and European carbon emissions during the study period. The negative effect of structure to the transferred carbon emissions of China is weakening and the effect of intensity to the transferred carbon emissions of China is from the positive influence to negative one. For the EU, the effect of structure and intensity remain relatively stable state
Dependence and Value at Risk in the Stock Markets from the Americas: A Copula Approach
Get PDFThis work applies copula modeling to estimate the degree of dependence among the nine major equity markets from the Western Hemisphere, seven emerging markets from Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico) and the two mature markets from North America (Canada, United States). The relevance of copula-measured dependence is assessed estimating Value at Risk for bilateral portfolio investments, comparing it with conventional VaR methodologies. The data encompass daily time series for the 1992-2009 period