Financial intervention programme requires information on farm’s financial capacity. Yet there is dearth of empirical information on the fund security status of small scale poultry agribusiness to warrant a bailout intervention. This study was carried to ascertain the financial capacity, financial security baseline and fund security gap/shortfall of poultry farms so as to make advocacy for a bailout intervention. A total of 280 small scale poultry farmers were randomly selected, and studied. Primary data were collected from respondents with the aid of structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (mean, percentage and frequency distribution) and logit model were used in the analysis of data. The result of the study showed that about 20% of the small scale poultry were fund secured, while 80% had fund capacity (N519, 238) that is below the fund security threshold (NI,000,000). The result revealed that majority depended on meager personal savings and cooperative loans as sources of financial capital. The variables that had positive and significant (P<0.05) relationship with fund security in the model were operator’s educational attainment, age of the farm, retained earnings, membership of credit associations and volume of loan obtained. Family withdrawals, had significant and negative relationship (P<0.05) fund security status of poultry farms. It was recommended that there should be adequate and timely release of financial interventions through loan-able funds and grants by relevant financial institutions that will save the poultry farms from fund insecurity.

A Streptomyces sp., Strain TN71 was isolated from Tunisian Saharan soil and has been selected for its antimicrobial activity against phytopathogens. In an attempt to increase its anti-Fusarium sp., activity, GYM+S (glucose, yeast extract, malt extract and starch) culture medium was selected out of five different production media. Plackett–Burman design was used to select yeast extract, malt extract and CaCO3 as parameters having significant effects on antifungal activity and a Box–Behnken design was applied for further optimization. The analysis revealed that the optimum concentrations for anti-Fusarium sp., activity of the tested variables were yeast extract 5.03 g/L, malt extract 8.05 g/L and CaCO3 4.51 g/L. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs): the Multilayer perceptron (MLP) and the Radial basis function (RBF) were constructed to predict anti-Fusarium sp., activity. The comparison between experimental with predicted outputs from ANN and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) were studied. ANN model presents an improvement of 14.73%. To our knowledge, this is the first work reporting the statistical versus artificial intelligence based modeling for optimization of bioactive molecules against phytopathogens.

Abstract \nThe paper examined corporate social responsibility (CSR) and non-financial organizational performance in Etisalat telecommunication company United Arab Emirates. It views CSR as corporate activities that contribute to stakeholders’ wellbeing. It assumes that stakeholder-oriented CSR would improve non-financial organizational performance. The research question explores the relationship between stakeholder-oriented CSR and improved corporate image/reputation and enhanced products competitive advantage in Etisalat telecommunication company United Arab Emirates. The place of study consists of all the Etisalat offices in the seven emirates of U.A.E while the duration of study is between January and December 2017. A descriptive research design was used in executing the study, using 385 randomly selected employees of Etisalat in U.A.E, for questionnaire administration. The sample size of 385 was determined from a population of 10,000 employees consisting of 3,600 locals and 6,400 foreign nationals, using Yamane 1964 sample size determination formula at 5% level of significance for sampling error. Results from the data analysis indicated that significant relationship exists between stakeholder-oriented CSR and improved corporate image/reputation and enhanced products competitive advantage in Etisalat telecommunication company United Arab Emirates and recommends among others: sustenance of the current CSR practices in Etisalat, continuous monitoring of changing expectations of key stakeholders to identify areas of support, continuous consultation with key stakeholders in decision making, continuous review of organizational CSR practices to align with industrial best practices and continuous provision of resources to sustain existing stakeholder-oriented CSR practices.

In this study, the effects of 10 different parameters on the individual risk were evaluated in the safety of natural gas transmission pipelines based on the designed scenarios. To this end, the PHAST software was used to model different scenarios. The case study of the research was also 30 km of the Iran Gas Trunkline 1 (IGAT-1). The results indicated that the parameters of gas pressure, increased gas mass flow rate, pipeline diameter and air humidity (especially up to 25%) have a fairly large effect in determining the distance to the pipelines boundaries. On the other hand, the parameters of the composition of natural gas percentage, gas temperature, reduced tap closure time and the intensity of sun\'s radiation have little effect on determining the safe boundaries of natural gas pipelines. Also, weather stability and wind speed at day and night will not have a significant effect on the results of the pipeline boundaries and the wind stability and wind speed of F-2 can be used with confidence in studies of determining the boundaries of the pipeline. The results revealed that with increased air temperature, the rate of individual risk, and thereby, the boundaries of the pipeline will be reduced. Therefore, it was suggested to use the average lowest ambient temperature in the pipeline boundaries studies as a conservative assumption. On average, one can say that for each degree of temperature rise, the individual risk distance decreases by about 2 meters.

Objective: Traditionally Aegle marmelos and Mucuna pruriens are applied on cuts and wounds. The present study was aimed at exploring the in vitro wound healing potential using CAM assay of Aegle marmelos and Mucuna pruriens and identification of active compounds that may be responsible for its wound healing action. \nMethods: Methanolic extract of Aegle marmelos leaves and Mucuna pruriens seeds were subjected to differential bioguided fractionation. Fractions were screened and flavonoid fraction was finally obtained for further investigation. HPLC analysis and spectroscopic techniques, including ultraviolet (UV) light, infrared (IR) light, mass (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were used for identification and confirmation of bioactive compounds. The effects of isolated fractions of Aegle marmelos and Mucuna pruriens on number of new blood vessels and angiogenic inhibition (%) on chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) were assessed.\nResults: Study revealed gallic acid (AM-3-03), quercitin (AM-4-01-01) and rutin (MP-4-03-01-01-01) compounds in the crude methanolic extract and bioactive compounds were identified and confirmed with standard gallic acid, quercitin and rutin using HPLC and UV spectroscopic methods. The isolated fractions promoted angiogenesis as evidenced by in vitro chick chorioallantoic membrane model. The isolated fractions were found to have better angiogenic properties from neovascularization studies. The results were statistically significant when compared to the control group (p<0.05). \nConclusion: These findings suggest that bioactive fraction of Aegle marmelos and Mucuna pruriens may enhance faster wound healing in vitro.

Keywords: Larvicidal, Mortality, Ovicidal, Eggs, Azadirachtin, Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis , Culex pipiens\nUnder the laboratory conditions, toxicological evaluation of two compounds Azadirachtin and Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis ( B.t.i ) against eggs of mosquito Cx. pipiens and biological effect of these compounds on larvae, pupae and adult emergence , the ovicidal activity was determined after 24 h of exposure to concentrations of Azadirachtin and B.t.i. The results indicated high reduction in percentage of egg hatch resulted from treated eggs by azadirachtin, estimated by 31.41% at 1mg /L and 91.51% at 0.125 mg /L, the obtained results show a high mortality with the increase in the concentration, and prolongation in larval and pupal developments resulted from treated eggs by azadirachtin, estimated by 4.55 days at 0.125mg/L and 7.66 days at 1 mg/L in first instar , larval and pupal duration increased with the increase in the concentration of azadirachtin. The results indicated high augmentation in the percentages of the malformations with the decrease in the concentration of azadirachtin. In contrast, in adult stage, the results indicated high reduction in total eggs laid, percentage of hatchability and longevity. No effect was observed after treated eggs by B.t.i. From the re