Asian Journal of Advanced Research and Reports

The article centres on the socio-political dilemma that Greece has been experiencing due to the 2008 economic crisis and the subsequent economic reforms. These reforms, despite being widely unpopular, have had an impact on all aspects of life, including education and the education system. Although educationists and educators as such cannot do much in terms of restoring the economic and socio-political equilibrium in the country, they are able to raise a prophetic voice about what should be done. As one such voice, this article discusses, based on analysis of the situation in Greece through the lens of the social space and ethical / moral action theory, how economic and socio-political equilibrium could be restored in Greece (and in other countries similarly afflicted by emerging economic reforms). Steps such as the following are suggested and discussed: the concept of education to be revisited; a new approach to education in the form of schooling to be considered; education policy to be revised; the education system to be restructured; the curriculum to be reshaped and concrete steps to be taken to put all of the theory outlined in this article into practice.

Aim: The main purpose of this study was to determine college students’ attitude towards reading against the backdrop of perceived poor habit of reading among Bhutanese students and evidences showing decline in attitude towards reading observed among students as they matured.

Study Design: Descriptive survey.

Place and Duration of the Study: Gedu College of Business Studies (GCBS), a constituent college under the Royal University of Bhutan, during the 2019 academic session.

Methodology: The authors administered Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) questionnaire to 500 freshmen.

Results: A descriptive statistical analysis of questionnaires returned revealed a positive attitude towards reading. Specifically, from the two types of reading, the respondents preferred recreational reading slightly more than the academic reading. In addition, an independent-samples t-test revealed a statistically significant attitudinal differences between genders towards reading. In both cases, female-respondents were found more positive towards both recreational and academic reading than their male counterparts.

Conclusion: Analysis of the data revealed that the freshmen of GCBS held positive attitude towards reading with slight preference being given to recreational reading. Also, from the two genders, independent-samples t-test showed that females were more positive towards reading than males.

Aim: To explore, understand and interpret the lived experiences of the smoking cessation process and the meaning participants attach to their experiences of the cessation process. A qualitative exploratory study of the lived experiences of people who have stopped smoking can generate useful information that specifies the supportive factors that can be taken into consideration when planning smoking cessation interventions.

Study Design: A qualitative study design using an interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted in this study to explore the smoking cessation experiences of the participants.

Place and Duration of Study: School of Health and Social Care, London South Bank University, London, UK.

Methodology: An exploratory phenomenological study was conducted with seven participants. A qualitative semi-structured interview guide was developed by the researcher after a preliminary review of significant literatures and in line with other standardised schedules. All face-to-face semi-structured interviews with participants were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. All interview transcripts were analyzed using the interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) method.

Results: Based on IPA method, ten themes emerged and these were put together into two groups. The first group of themes are the participant’s experiences of the smoking cessation process. All the participants narrated experiences of symptoms due to Nicotine withdrawal. Also, experiences of their social environment, relapse as well as loneliness and boredom, emerged as themes. The second group of themes explored how participants made sense of their smoking cessation experiences. All the participants expressed how they made sense of their feelings, understood their situation and coped with their cessation experiences which they termed a difficult process. Also, confidence, self-regulation, motivation, feelings of fear and the importance of time, emerged as themes.

Conclusion and Recommendation: According to participants, the smoking cessation process is a difficult process due to the many challenges and barriers associated with it. Therefore, the importance of self-confidence, motivation and social support cannot be overemphasized for a successful cessation. However, further research is recommended with respect to gender and the smoking cessation process.

Aims: This study was undertaken to monitor the different effects of spent Toshiba and Dell laptop battery on the growth and germination indices of Selenastrum capricornutum Prinz, Zea mays L. and Phaseolus vulgaris L.

Study Design: Five treatments and the controls designs designated as 6.25%, 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 100% and CTRL were set up in triplicates and incubated at 25 ± 2°C for 72 h and 5 days.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Uli Anambra State, Nigeria during May, 2019 - December, 2019.

Methodology: The algal growth inhibition was analyzed using spectrophotometric method while growth and germination indices were adopted for the seed growth inhibition.

Results: The result revealed that the positive control K₂Cr₂O₇ had the lowest ErC₁₀ (-86.65 mg/L) and the highest ErC₉₀ (130.92 mg/L) while the spent Dell battery sample had the highest ErC₁₀ (10.18 mg/L) and spent Toshiba battery sample had the lowest ErC₉₀ (75.52 mg/L) on Selenastrum capricornutum growth rate, respectively. Boric acid standard toxicant had the highest EC₅₀ (-12.62 mg/kg and -14.30 mg/kg) on Z. mays and P. vulgaris while Toshiba and Dell battery samples had the lowest EC₅₀ (-73.03 mg/kg and -22.37 mg/kg) on Z. mays and P. vulgaris, respectively.

Conclusion: The study revealed that both S. capricornutum, Z. mays L. and P. vulgaris L. were very good bio-monitoring models for spent Toshiba and Dell laptop battery contamination assessment; and are therefore recommended for E-wastes bioassays.

The purpose of this research work is to compare the antimicrobial activities of conventional antibiotics and Ocimum gratissimum mediated nanoparticle against microorganisms isolated from endosphere of leguminous plants and selected clinical organisms. The microorganisms are becoming a resistant reservoir to conventional antibiotics, there is a great need, to research into plant mediated nanoparticles, to combat this great menace of resistant organisms, this therefore was the basic hypothesis of this research work. The Endophytic Leguminous plants used for this research work were Mucuna pruriens, Calopogonium mucunoides and Vigna unguiculata. The plants were randomly collected from Federal College of Agriculture, Akure (7.2704° N, 5.2241° E).Endophytic bacteria were isolated, identified and characterized from the endospheres of the leguminous plants using biochemical test, sugar fermentation and Bergey’s manual. The antimicrobial susceptibility test for endophytic isolates and clinical isolates were performed using Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique.The same procedure was repeated for the two sulfur nanoparticles The sulfur nanoparticles were synthesized using Sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate, citric acid (C_6 H_8 O_7,AR) with leaf extract of Ocimum gratissimum, SNP1 and SNP2 (Solid reflectance spectrum); SNP1/SNP2 was synthesized in the presence/absence of O. gratissimum and characterized on shimadzu UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer UV-3100 with a MPCF-3100 sample compartment. The probable number of organisms isolates from the leguminous plants ranges between 109-1022 cfu and all the endophytic isolates were found to be Gram positive rods. The probable organisms isolated from the leguminoius plants were Microbacterium lacticum, Cellulomonas flavigena and Bacillus spp including;B. pumilus, B. subtilis and B. amylolyticus. Bacillus subtilis. All endophytic bacteria were resistant to antimicrobial susceptibility test using Cephalosporins (oxoid) and multiple susceptibility disc with a diameter between 11mm and 20mm. Endophytic bacteria were susceptible to the SNP1 sulfur nano particles with a diameter between 9mm and 14mm diameter zones of inhibition. The clinical isolates were susceptible to multiple susceptibility disc with of diameter of 11mm and 20mm. Antimicrobial susceptible to SNP1 ranges between  18-20mm zones of inhibition  to SNP2.This study discovered that nanoparticles has better antimicrobial efficacy against both endophytic isolated bacteria and clinical isolates. The present of Ocimum gratissimum drastically increases the efficacy of sulpur mediated nanoparticles. it can be deduced that the Ocimum gratissimum mediated nanoparticle as a potential alternative to antibiotics in this widespread antibiotics resistance era.