Background: Reproductive management practices play crucial roles to maximize the reproductive performance of cows, and thus contribute to farm profitability. We aimed to assess the reproductive management of cows currently practiced in the dairy farms in an urban farming system. Methods: A total of 62 dairy farms were randomly selected considering all size of farms such as small (1-5 cattle), medium (6-20 cattle) and large farms (> 20 cattle) from selected areas of Dhaka city in Bangladesh. The reproductive managementrelated parameters viz. estrus detection, breeding method, pregnancy diagnosis, dry cow and parturition management, vaccination and treatment of reproductive problems etc. were obtained in a pre-defined questionnaire during the farm visit. Results: The visual observation method was only used (100.0%; 62/62) for estrus detection irrespective of size of the farms; while farmers observed cows for estrus 4-5 times a day, but only for 20-60 seconds each time. Regardless of farm size, 89.0% (55/62) farms used artificial insemination (AI) for breeding the cows. Intriguingly, all farms (100.0%) routinely checked the cows for pregnancy at 35-40 days post-breeding using rectal palpation technique by registered veterinarian. However, only 6.5% (4/62) farms practiced dry cow management. Notably, all farms (100.0%) provided nutritional supplements (Vit D, Ca and P) during late gestation. However, proper hygiene and cleanliness during parturition was not practiced in 77.4% (48/62) farms; even though 96.7% (60/62) farms treated cows by registered veterinarian for parturition-related problems. Conclusions: While farmers used AI service for breeding and timely check their cows for pregnancy; however, they need to increase observation time (30 minutes/ observation, twice in a day: early morning and early night) for estrus detection, consider dry cow management and ensure hygienic parturition for maximizing production.

Foaling is a process of giving birth to foal which is prompt and forceful event in equine breeding. Dystocia is declared when 2nd stage of parturition exceeds from 20 min without fetal movements in mare. Dystocia is very challenging situation for both mare and veterinarian. Survivability of mare and foal, and subsequent fertility of mare depends on efficient management. Therefore, the current report described a rare case of wry neck (torticollis or unilateral bent neck) resulted in dystocia, that was efficiently resolved by partial fetotomy and repulsion technique in mare under field conditions. Intensive post operative care was performed to avoid infection and to achieve fertility subsequently.

This study advances the literature by addressing the issues surrounding Sunday trading and provides in-depth insights into family-run small and medium size businesses (SMEs), employees and consumers attitudes and perception towards Sunday Trading. The results of semi-structured interviews found immense support for extending Sunday Trading hours and highlighted the socio-economic change. The arguments against Sunday Trading were found to be redundant. Sunday is the second busiest shopping day of the week. Lack of experienced Sunday workforce was found to be a major concern. Non-resident parents and parents with small children were amongst the supporters for reforming Sunday Trading act. Sunday is the new Saturday. The findings justify recent trends towards the creation of more pleasurable shopping environments that offer family activities to entice the customers into stores. Finally, more efforts should be made to understand and cater for the needs of the shoppers who believe reforming the Sunday Trading law is a necessity of today’s modern Britain. The findings demonstrate that Sunday Trading offers different benefits to consumers, employees and SMEs. The findings provide important implications for policy makers and practitioners.

Well-dispersed Ag3VO4 nanoparticles @polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were synthesized by an easily controlled, template-free method as a photo-catalyst for the degradation of methylene blue. Their structural, optical, and photocatalytic properties have been studied by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy equipped with rapid energy dispersive analysis of X-ray, photoluminescence, and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. The characterization procedures revealed that the obtained material is PAN nanofibers decorated by Ag3VO4 nanoparticles. Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue investigated in an aqueous solution under irradiation showed 99% degradation of the dye within 75 min. Finally, the antibacterial performance of Ag3VO4 nanoparticles @PAN composite nanofibers was experimentally verified by the destruction of Escherichia coli. These results suggest that the developed inexpensive and functional nanomaterials can serve as a non-precious catalyst for environmental applications.

본 연구는 본국 대비 현지국의 발전 수준이 한국 다국적기업 자회사의 성과에 미치는 영향을 살펴보았다. 사회심리학이론의 집단 간 편향에 대한 기존 연구들에 기반을 두어 본 연구는 본국에 비해 현지국의 발전 수준이 높을수록 다국적기업에 대한 현지국 직원들의 국수주의적인 내집단 편향이 강하게 나타날 것이라고 주장하였다. 현지국 직원들의 국수주의적인 내집단 편향은 다국적기업 자회사에 부정적인 영향을 미치기 때문에 본국 대비 현지국의 발전 수준은 다국적기업 자회사의 성과에 부(-)의 영향을 미칠 것으로 가정하였다. 또한 집단 간 접촉이론에 기반을 두어 자회사의 주재원 활용 정도는 본국 대비 현지국의 발전 수준과 다국적기업 자회사 간의 관계를 정(+)의 방향으로 조절할 것이라고 가정하였다. 47개국에서 경영활동을 수행하고 있는 818개 한국 다국적기업의 1,453개 해외자회사들을 대상으로 이상의 주장들을 실증적으로 검증하였다.

Salmonellosis is one of the life-threating diseases of goat in Bangladesh. Therefore, the present study was designed to study the prevalence of Salmonellosis, and isolation and characterizations of the Salmonella spp. from apparently healthy and diarrheic goat. A total of 47 faces samples were collected from selected place and cultured onto different prescribed medium to isolate it. In this study, 12.76% (6/47) samples were found to be positive for Salmonella spp. During culture on SS agar medium, all of the Salmonella isolates produced round, smooth, opaque, translucent and black color colonies on SS agar media. All of the isolated Salmonella spp. fermented dextrose, maltose and mannitol with production of acid and gas but did not ferment sucrose and lactose. However, these isolates had showed Indole and Voges-Proskauer test negative, Methyl-Red test positive. All of these isolates were subjected to rapid plate agglutination test with polyvalent “O” (Poly ‘O’) and polyvalent “H” (poly ‘H’) antisera where positive agglutination were observed. They were highly sensitive to ciprofloxacin, spiramycin and gentamycin; moderately sensitive to oxytetracyline, streptomycin and amoxicillin; less sensitive to sulphamethoxazole and resistant to penicillin-G. Based on the present findings, it may be concluded that the investigated Salmonella spp. from goats might be S. typhimurium, S. enteritidis, S. brandenburg, S. salford, S. newbrunswick, S. newport or S. dublin. Further study will be needed, therefore it requires further characterization using other serological and molecular techniques.

Potting media are an integral part of potted plants production system, formulated by a mixture of various raw materials to act as a substrate for plant support and source of nutrition. There is a wide range of potting media available, which are used for quality production of high-value plants worldwide. In this study, quality assessment of Dracaena plants grown in different potting media like: mushroom compost, peat, sand, farmyard manure, coconut coir, and leaf compost in different combinations were carried out. A mixture of sand, mushroom compost, coconut coir, and peat proved to be the best, by promoting root and shoot growth, leaf area, fresh and dry weights of root and shoot, and also improved overall quality of the plant. Media containing garden soil alone or a mixture of sand and leaf compost produced the lowest quality of plants with considerable reduction in most of the growth parameters. Anatomical parameters showed weak relation to media composition as compared to other morphological features. The best medium was made with sand, mushroom compost, coconut coir, peat, that produced plants with thick epidermis and larger pith cells, but thin endodermis and smaller metaxylem vessels in their roots. As moisture availability was sufficient enough in this medium combination, the development of water storing tissue may not contribute significantly. However, epidermis can play a decisive role in protecting roots from external environmental hazards.

The paper is devoted to the field work carried out by outstanding psychologist Alexander R. Luria and his team in isolated villages in Uzbekistan and mountain Kyrgyzstan (1931- 1932) and its place in cross-cultural studies. Many people of these places never went out of own villages. That time, in the Western social science racist theories that interpreted the differences in ways of thought in terms of biology were popular. These theories were based on application of "standard intellectual tests" to illiterate peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America. A. Luria has criticized these "standard intellectual tests", and results of his survey gave strong proof of ties between level of social conditions and peculiarities of mental processes but not between race and mind. Long before the famous Western works on comparative psychology and cultural anthropology (J. S. Bruner, M. Cole, P.M. Greenfield, J. Gay, C. Levi-Strauss, etc.) published in 1950-1970-s, the A. Luria' research expedition has anticipated the main directions and results of future crosscultural studies.

This empirical research is aimed at testing the relationship of the big five personality traits namely openness to experience, extraversion, consciousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and risk aversion with the investment intention of individual investors belonging to Balochistan, Pakistan. The primary data is collected through a self-administered questionnaire (a structured form that consists of a series of closed-ended and open-ended questions) from a sample of 397 active individual investors belonging to different districts of the province. The data is empirically analyzed by applying the Partial Least Square (PLS) path modeling technique by using the estimation package available in Smart-PLS. The findings of this study suggest that all the variables are statistically significant with investors’ investment intention with risk aversion as the strongest predictor. Moreover, openness to experience, extraversion, consciousness, agreeableness, and risk are significantly and positively related to an investor’s investment intention, whereas neuroticism is negatively related to an investor’s investment intention. The results extended by this study can be used by financial planners and investment bankers to channelize the available financial resources in diversified portfolios. The results will help financial planners to make available diverse investment alternatives for investors in Balochistan, thus catering to their unique needs. Academia must offer courses on contemporary finance paradigm based on behavioral finance to enable future business graduates to make wise financial decisions.

The study attempts to assess the level of environmental sustainability awareness in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the process, the study tries to assess the impact of extracurricular activities in increasing awareness of environmental sustainability. A survey questionnaire was administered to the students of Prince Sattam University and other universities of Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire comprises statements on simple environmental conservation activities, which we come across on a daily basis. Hypothesis testing is used to identify significant differences across different categories of respondents. Further, the method of binary logistic regression is used to analyze the data. Though all the respondents agree that conserving the environment is important still there are significant differences across categories when it comes to believing in and practicing environmentally-responsible behavior. The results show that environmental awareness can be increased using awareness activities on sustainability issues in a University setting. The study concludes that increasing the number of extracurricular activities on environmental topics as only 38% of the respondents reported any activity related to the environment in the past year. The findings of this study suggest that increased awareness of environmental issues can boost the sustainability awareness, which will ultimately lead to a sustainable environment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of the capital structure of firms operating in a developing economy, Pakistan. The quantile regression method is applied on a sample of 183 non-financial companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange during the period of 2008-2017. Specifically, the empirical analysis focuses on changes in the coefficients of the determinants according to the leverage ratio quantiles of the examined listed firms. The findings show that the capital structure of Pakistan listed firms differs between firms in different quantiles of leverage. These differences are significant with the sign of explanatory variables changes with the level of leverage. The research result found tangibility, profitability and age to be positively related to leverage among listed firms in Pakistan. However, size, liquidity and non-debt tax shield (NDTS) are negatively related to leverage. A firm’s growth and risk are found to be insignificant predictors of capital structure in Pakistan listed firms. Moreover, the study also found a significant impact of industry characteristic on leverage. The findings of this study indicate that an individual firm’s finance policy needs to be responsive to the firm’s characteristics and should match with the different borrowing requirements of listed firms.

This paper aims to empirically study the determinants of liquidity of Indian listed firms. To account for profit persistence, we apply a (pooled, fixed and random) effect models to a panel of Indian listed firms that covers the time period from 2010 to 2016. This study consists of 2154 firms operating in Indian market. Liquidity (LQD) of Indian firms is measured by liquid assets to total assets, whereas bank size, capital adequacy, profitability, leverage, and firm age are used as internal determinants. Further, economic activity, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate are the external factors considered. The findings reveal that leverage, return on assets, and firm age are the essential internal determinants that impact the liquidity of Indian listed firms. Furthermore, among the internal determinants, the results indicate that firm size, leverage ratio, return on assets ratio, and firm age are found to have a significant positive association with firms’ LQD, except leverage ratio and firm age has a negative relationship with firms’ LQD. From this result, this article has provides helpful ideas and empirical evidence on the inner and external determinants of the companies mentioned in India is very useful to bankers, analysts, regulators, investors and other stakeholders.

The process of resettlement in 1937 and adaptation to new places in Central Asia had a dramatic character for Koreans. However, the Koryŏ saram’s history cannot be reduced to a plethora of sad pages. Koreans could and have achieved amazing results in many spheres and have obtained high status in the USSR and later, in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Among them there were/there are the Heroes of Socialist Labor (the highest non-military title in the USSR), Vice-Prime Minister, ministers and vice-ministers, senators, members of National parliament, winners of Olympic Games and World championships, rectors of universities, outstanding scholars and businessmen, etc. Koryŏ saram have lived in different political and economic systems, and in various ethnic environments. Their identity is composed of a multicultural character which includes elements of traditional Korean, Central Asian, Russian, Soviet and Western cultures. This has led to the flexible behavioral models. After collapse of the USSR, Koreans have faced with new challenges that imply new attitudes to the strategies of Koreans and Korean organizations. This article is based on the ideas that have been published and presented at various conferences and in the various works in the 1990s and the early 2000s. However, in the present article these ideas are generalized taking into consideration the changes over the past years.

Blackleg disease caused by Leptosphaeria maculans, is the most devastating disease of Brassica germplam worldwide that causes million tonnes of crop losses per year throughout the world. To date, a total of 12 race-specific resistance genes of Brassica napus to L. maculans have been reported but linkage mapping analysis reveals that all of those loci are located in A genome i.e., in B. rapa chromosomes. B. oleracea has high ancestral synteny with B. rapa through their evolution. We believe that presence of qualitative resistance is possible in B. oleracea germplasm. The present study was therefore planned to find out any race-specific qualitative resistance gene present in C genome of B. oleracea. A total of 16 microsatellite markers were used which are linked to seven different Rlm and Lep genes of B. napus to screen 32 inbred lines of cabbage. Primers were designed based on homology assessment in corresponding nucleotide sequence available in Bolbase (a B. oleracea genome database, http://www.ocri-genomics.org/bolbase/index.html), located in B. oleracea scaffolds/chromosomes. Out of 16 SSR markers, 13 were found polymorphic which indicates possible existence of resistant genes in cabbage lines. The inbred lines are then assessed against two L. maculans stains with known avirulent genes. Some inbred lines were hypersensitive against gene-specific virulent strains of L. maculans that confirmed existence of Rlm1, Rlm2, Rlm4, LepR3 and LepR4 in the cabbage lines. In this way we were able to select out resistant and susceptible lines against each resistant gene. The gene-specific polymorphic SSR marker regions were cloned and sequenced and candidate SNPs were identified for confirmation of their functionality.

Purpose This research primarily assesses – interactive quality in the service encounters of Ethiopian Telecom from the customer and contact personnel perspectives. Research design, data, and methodology – After reviewing the literature on service encounters and interactive quality, two separate questionnaires and structured personal interviews were conducted to collect the opinions of 400 customers and 100 employees of Ethiopian Telecom. The researchers used convenience sampling; the responses, measured on a five-point Likert-type scale, were analyzed through chi-square tests conducted on SPSS 17.0. Results – Regarding the outcome expected by customers, encounter effectiveness is very low. Regarding accessibility and materiality, the corporation’s personnel are freely accessible, relatively well-dressed, and have access to sophisticated office equipment and physical facilities. Finally, with regard to agent satisfaction, the telecom’s contact employees are shown to gain little professional satisfaction from service encounters. Conclusion – The study clearly presents the areas in which interactive quality strongly affects both telecom customers and employees; this will help the corporation take corrective action. This is of utmost contemporary importance for both practitioners and researchers.