This study was aimed to examine the influence of innovation toward business performance and competitive advantage as a mediator. To test the empirical models, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used. Among the software used to assist the analysis in this study were AMOS 21.0, SPSS 16.0 and Microsoft Excel 2007. The sample size of this research was 125 owners-managers of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Purwokerto Province, Indonesia. The result showed that innovation has positive effect on business performance, innovation has positive effects on competitive advantage, competitive advantage has a positive effect on business performance, and competitive advantage doesn’t mediate the influence of innovation to business performance.

The effect of date palm fruit wine on the haematological and some biochemical parameters (lipid profile, lipid peroxidation and protein) was investigated Date fruit wine was produced by fermenting the fruit must with Saccharomyces cerevisiae from Guangxi Danbaoli, China aerobically for 6 days and anaerobically for four weeks at 28 OC. During both fermentation processes alcohol content, total yeast counts and total heterotrophic counts were monitored. A total of 30 albino rats were divided into six (6) groups of 5 animals each. Group 1 (control) received the normal rat feed and water; while groups 2 – 5 were administered date fruit wine at 0.3ml/kg, 0.6ml/kg, 0.9ml/kg and 1.5ml/kg body weight respectively and group 6 (standard) received white wine (carlorossi) 1.5mg/kg body weight for a period of 28days.During the aerobic fermentation. Alcohol content increased from 0 to 5.5%, total yeast counts increased from 4.69×102 to 15.39×102 cells/ml while total heterotrophic bacterial count ranged from 2.0 to 9.0 cfu/ml. Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus spp. were encountered. During anaerobic fermentation .Yeast population dropped from 8.90×102 cells/ml to 0.92×102 cells/ml. The final percentage alcohol was 9.2%. The result after the experiment showed a general decrease in body weight across the groups compared to the control. Haematological indices showed no significant difference (p<0.05) in PVC, RBC, WBC and Hb of the groups treated with Phoenix dactylifera (PD) compared to the control. There was also a significant decrease (p<0.05) in lipid peroxidation in the liver homogenate across the groups and also in the serum of the PD treated animals relative to the standard control. There was no significant difference (p<0.05) in total cholesterol, LDL-C but elevated HDL-C in the PD administered groups compared to the control. Triglyceride was significantly reduced (p<0.05) in the PD treated groups compared to the standard control. The results of the present study showed that date fruit wine has no harmful effect on the blood tissue and vital organs such as liver etc. Thus, if properly processed and refined, it could be a good source of commercial fruit wine, with immense nutritional and health benefits.

The seeming lack of attention paid to educating customers through their mobile devices on how to do transactions electronically necessitated this study. The essence of paying particular attention on mobile devices stems from the fact that they are more handy and flexible. In view of the above, this study examined the relationship that exists between electronic learning and performance of selected Banks in Awka Metropolis. The work was anchored on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Correlation Survey Research Design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was infinite and sample size was 384 arrived at using Z score formula for infinite population. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient was adopted in analyzing the data. A coefficient of correlation (r) value of 0.950 was got which revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between M-learning and Flexibility in Service Delivery of the selected Commercial Banks in Awka Metropolis. Sequel to the findings, the study concluded that organization will perform better in delivering quality services to their customers if they focused more on training customers via their more handy devices. It was recommended among other things that management should pay more attention to training customers via their more handy devices as it provides more flexibility and convenience to the customers and this will positively affect the service delivery capacity of the banks.

Abstract: This study investigated the impact of head teachers’ support in implementing the guidance and counseling programme (GCP) in schools for the hearing-impaired pupils in the counties of Nakuru, Nairobi, Kiambu and Machakos. These counties have a total population of 776 pupils, 90 teachers and 9 head teachers. Pupils in class six to eight who comprised 243 were selected for the study. This ex-post facto descriptive survey used self-administered questionnaires and interview guide for data collection. A pilot study preceded the main study to ascertain the reliability of the questionnaire items. Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha method was used to measure the internal consistency of items. The results yielded reliability co-efficient of 0.77, 0.70 and 0.71 for the pupils’ questionnaire, teacher counselors’ questionnaire and head teachers’ questionnaire respectively. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to analyse the data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings revealed that the head teachers did not offer adequate support to the guidance and counseling programme and this coupled with challenges facing teacher counselors makes the guidance and counseling programme not to achieve the intended purposes. The study recommends that Head teachers provide required resources for the guidance and counseling programme to ensure full implementation and purpose to create awareness to teachers and parents with hearing impaired child on the importance of collaborating with them in ensuring overall development of the children through the guidance and counseling programme.

Ocular drug delivery is challenging field to pharmaceutical scientists owing to the underlying anatomical, physiological and dynamic constraints put forth by the eye. Nonetheless, there is increasing need to overcome these barriers for the treatment of sight threatening ophthalmic ailments. Novel drug delivery strategies are being explored while intravitreal injections are still a standard treatment for the efficient treatment of ocular disorders. Topical ophthalmic in situ gels could be viable platform to increase mucoadhesivity, pre-corneal residence and thereby ocular bioavailability of drugs. In this review, various topical in situ gel formulations exploited for ocular delivery are summarized.

Hormonal imbalance in postmenopausal women makes them susceptible to various menopausal symptoms and hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) is the treatment option for them. However, various concerns are involved with this therapy due to increased risk of pulmonary embolism, stroke, coronary heart disease, and even cancer. Especially long term use of single or multiple hormones at the same time appears to be more associated with unwanted disorders. However, few of the reports say that hormonal therapy with estrogens protect women against breast cancer. While there exist wide range of studies to address this issue, genetic profile of the patient are also important prior to HRT. Certain gene profile women are more or less susceptible to cancer risk. In this review we will discuss about various genetic factors related to this issue.

Cryptococcal infection is characteristically associated with immunocompromised status. In most cases, the skin lesions represent a sentinel finding for disseminated cryptococcal infection. We describe a case of a 34 year old male, a solid organ transplant recipient (SOT), on immunosuppression, presenting with necrotising fasciitis of right lower limb. On microbiological and histopathological examination, a diagnosis of disseminated cryptococcal infection was made. In this report, we describe the spectrum of disease associated with Cryptococcus, its life cycle, pathogenesis and Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (IRIS). Cryptococcosis is a serious infection among SOT recipients, with diverse clinical features. This report underscores the need for a multidisciplinary clinical research and education from the Indian perspective.

Oral submucous fibrosis has a high rate of morbidity because it causes a progressive inability to open the mouth, resulting in difficulty in eating and consequent nutritional deficiencies. Oral submucous fibrosis also has a significant mortality rate because it is a premalignant condition and malignant transformation has been noticed. Here, we report the role of collagen membrane in surgical management of OSMF Grade-IV.

Topically applied drugs need to overcome physiological, anatomical and dynamic barriers in the ocular milieu for effective ocular penetration. There exists an urgency to develop novel approaches for the treatment of ophthalmic complications such as glaucoma, uveitis, retinitis, age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa. Efflux protein pumps present in the ocular tissues restrict the ocular absorption. Novel drug delivery strategies and approaches could improve ocular bioavailability of drugs which would be beneficial for the intervention of disorders. At present, the intravitreal route is widely used for posterior ophthalmic delivery. Over the past few years, liposomal systems were being exploited and targeted for posterior ocular delivery due to their unique structural framework to entrap lipophilic/hydrophilic drugs. The present review discusses about the recent advances the niche of liposomal ocular delivery.

The rapid development of urbanization has brought about increasingly prominent ecological contradictions. Nowadays, flood has become a new urban disease in China's major cities, while storm water management turns to be a top priority for all levels of government. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a "sponge city construction technology guide" in November 2014. April 2016, Ningbo was successfully selected as the second batch of national sponge city construction pilot cities. The author investigates the current situation of Ningbo city planning, program construction as well as supervision and protection approach, according to the existing problem on organizational management, retrofit of old industrial area, and the utilization of capital in the construction process of Ningbo sponge city, combined with the relevant experience of domestic demonstration work and the city case, the author puts forward some corresponding recommendations.

The aim of the article is to describe the relationship between Europe and Islam based on the analysis of economic, cultural and social factors, including demographic changes in Europe and in the Muslim countries. This article was developeSaudi J. Humanities Soc. Sci.d due to the use of mainly qualitative research, particularly on the basis of the analysis of sources and desk research, as well as on the results of own studies on the change of value systems among the young generation of the Arabs. The entire article was adhered to the thesis on the inevitability of the civilization conflict that we are witnessing in the reality of the migration crisis, and also in the age of ‘dying’ Western civilization.

Increasing problem of resistance to conventional antibiotics has initiated an alarming situation for entire world and hence there exist an immediate need to explore better alternatives for combating resistance. This exploration of substitutes led to discovery of bacteriocins which are considered as natural antimicrobial agents. Bacteriocins are proteinaceous substances ribosomally synthesized from certain bacteria. Bacteriocins producing bacteria include both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. Bacteriocins have been classified in various classes on the basis of amino acids present, producer bacteria, and molecular masses. There are four classes of bacteriocins produced from gram positive bacteria and two classes produced from gram negative bacteria. Bacteriocins exhibit all four mechanisms of microbial inactivation used by conventional antibiotics which are inhibition of cell wall synthesis, disruption of membrane structure and integrity, interference in protein and DNA synthesis. In addition to these conventional drug targets, bacteriocins show novel mechanism of septum formation which results in termination of cell cycle. Bacteriocins have shown a wide range of applications in pharmaceutical industry as an excellent drug for multidrug resistant bacteria as well as against methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). They have also displayed inhibitory effects against peptic ulcer causing H.pylori and skin infections causing gram positive bacteria. They possess antimicrobial activity not only against bacteria but viruses and fungi are also susceptible to bacteriocins.

Forensic dental fieldwork requires an interdisciplinary knowledge of dental science. Barr bodies are known to arise from inactivation of x- chromosome in a female cell, so it also has been used as a reliable method for sex determination. The objective of this study is to evaluate the reliability and accuracy Buccal Barr bodies for sex determination. The study was conducted on 100 subjects, (50 males and 50 females) with an age range of 20 to 36 years. The method was applied on each subject and the data was collected. After obtaining the data it was coded, analysed, decoded, interpreted and statistically analysed. The sensitivity and specificity of buccal barr bodies was found to be 24% and 84% respectively with an accuracy of 54%. It is concluded that buccal Barr bodies have the accuracy (54%). Hence it can be one of the reliable parameter but more studies are required to justify role in forensic odontology for sex determination, but certain circumstances like delay in sample staining, storage incapability can alter the results. Hence, more samples with accurate sample collection and storage technique can provide better results.

Artificial denture ingestion is a multidisciplinary problem. Not only artificial but fixed dentures are also at high risk of ingestion or aspiration in case of their spontaneous or traumatic dislodgement. Clinical presentation of denture ingestion varies with the site of impaction and its associated complications with passage. It is an uncommon problem requiring awareness of many specialists including dentists, surgeons, otolaryngologists and anesthesists. Complications include obstruction, bleeding, perforation fistulae with neighbour organs. Here a patient presented to casualty with symptoms of sub-acute intestinal obstruction after alleged history of artificial denture ingestion. Patient was operated and denture was retrieved from transverse colon.

The six sigma methodology is most powerful quality improvement technique which is used for achieving, maintaining and maximizing the business success. Six sigma is based on understanding the customer needs and expectation. This study mainly focused on six sigma quality philosophy and other related philosophy that is implemented in these studies to identify the rejection problem which are facing by a manufacturing industry. The six sigma philosophy provides a step-wise quality improvement methodology in which statistical techniques is used for check the changes in the process.