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S aravanan Natarajan holds research interest in the area of condition monitoring of me-

chanical equipment. The vibration signatures of member component are indicators of the health of the component under study. These vibration signatures (signals) carry immense information in them which is being diagnosed using machine

learning methods like support vector machines (SVM), neural networks and fuzzy logic. The statistical data from these vibration signals are extracted and the predominant features which characterize the faults are iden-tified using J48 algorithm and further this data is processed using machine learning method. Unlike Fourier transform, Wavelet transform is capable of dealing with all transients in vibration signals and the researcher has made use of wavelet features also in condition monitoring of gear box under study. Both continu-ous wavelets and discrete wavelets features are used. Hilbert transform also has been used in the study and its efficiency is

evaluated. The researcher has focused his studies on a bevel gear box and analyzed various machine learning methods and found the most suitable method which learns and monitors the condi-tion of the gear box under study. He has around 11 publications to his credit. References:

1. Saravanan Natarajan, “Gear Box Fault Diagnosis using Hilbert trans-

form and study on Classification of feature by support vector ma-

chine” International Journal of Hybrid information technology, Sci-

ence& Engineering Research Support Society Publications, Australia.

Volume 7, No.4, 2014, Pages 69-82.

2. Saravanan Natarajan and Sreenath P.G, “Wavelet Analysis in Fault Diagnosis of spur bevel gear box”, International Journal of Research journal of computer science, Science & AM Publications, India. Vol-ume 02, Issue 7, 2015, Pages 8-19.

DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS SECTION

M uthuraman. S holds research interest in the area of HVACR system, Plate Heat Ex-

changer, Internal Combustion Engine, Bio Fuels, Octane Fuels, Thermodynamics and Heat Trans-fer. He performed an experimental investigation on the performance of four stroke C.I. engine fueled with pure diesel (B0D100E0) and ethanol-

diesel blends containing 10%, 20%, 25% and 30% by volume of ethanol (E) and Formaldehyde (B). This additive is used to pro-duce solubility of ethanol in diesel that acts as a bridging agent. The relevant parameters such as Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE), Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC) and Emission characteristics are calculated for ethanol-diesel blends by B5D85E10, B5D75E20, B5D70E25 and B5D65E30. It has been found out that under half load condition for the blends of B5D85E10 give minimum CO emissions and unburned HC emissions by 7.5ppm from the en-gine. He also has evaluated the Performance of CI engine using vegetable-biodiesel blending with diesel and with various blend-ing ratios. The engine performance studies were conducted with a brake-diesel engine set up. Parameters like speed of engine, fuel consumption and torque were measured at different loads for pure diesel and various combinations of dual fuel. He has investi-gated the performance of Plate Heat Exchanger with variable

Chevron Angles. He also analyzed the Demand Controlled Ventila-tion (DCV) for systems serving multiple zones and presented the result for the effective DCV. He has published a review paper on Exploration of waste cooking oil methyl esters (WCOME) as fuel in compression ignition engines. His research mainly focuses on Bio fuels and has published 21 papers in various Regional and Interna-tional journals and also has published 5 books in his field of inter-est. References:

1. S. Muthuraman, R. Ramaudayamarthandan, “The performance of four stroke surface ignition ceramic heater C.I. engine using etha-nol-diesel blend”, International Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2014, pages 38-45.

2. S. Muthuraman, Nibin T, Kathirvel S, “DEMAND CONTROLLED VENTILATION USING CO2 SENSORS FOR HVAC SYSTEM” Interna-tional Journal of Engineering Research And Management ISSN: 2349- 2058, Volume 1, Issue 4, 2014, pages 14-20.

3. S. Muthuraman, “Experimental Analysis of combustion ignition

engine using Bio-Diesel”, International journal of innovative sci-ence, Engineering & Technology, Volume 02, Issue 06, 2015, pages 527-532

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DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS SECTION

S hiyas Komabanaparambil Abdulkarim research interest is in the area of Work

Measurement Analysis. He has conducted Productivity Enhancement study in Electrome-chanical Relay Manufacturing Company through Work Measurement Analysis by reduc-

ing the production time and there by production cost through various interventions in a repetitive production task. He identi-fied the key product of the company through a Pareto analysis, and complete time study. He suggested various improvements that which includes changing workplace layout, designing new work methods, combining activities, modification of tools, allo-cating the workers to handle multiple equipment, implementing

semiautomatic machines instead of manual methods, redesign-ing the fixtures etc. and he recorded the effect of these changes by quantitatively assessing using predetermined motion time systems (PMTS). To his credit he has published more than 10 papers in various national and International journals. References

1. G. Anil Kumar, Shiyas K.A. “Productivity Enhancement of an Electro-mechanical Relay Manufacturing Company through Work Measure-ment Analysis”, Asian Journal of Engineering and Technology (ISSN: 2321 – 2462), Volume 03, Issue 04, 2015, Pages 430-435.

D r. Chandrasekaran Mariappan main re-search activities are in the area of Non-

linear differential Equations and Integrodiffer-ential Equations with nonlocal conditions in Banach spaces. He study the existence and

uniqueness of solutions based on the theorems namely Krasno-selskii’s fixed point theorem, Contraction mapping Theorem, Sa-dovski’s fixed point theorem and Schauder fixed point theorem. He also discuss the existence and uniqueness of almost automor-phic solutions to the neutral delay differential equations by using various fixed point theorems. The Fractional evolution in-tegrodifferential system with nonlocal conditions in Banach spac-es have been considered to establish the existence and unique-ness of local mild and local classical solutions based on the theory of resolvent operators, the fractional powers of operators and fixed point techniques. He also study to prove the existence of mild solutions of Cauchy problems for quasilinear integrodiffer-ential equations with nonlocal conditions in Banach spaces by applying the method of semigroup and fixed point theorem.

References:

1. M. Chandrasekaran, Dhanapalan, V, 2014, Fractional Evolu-tion Integrodifferential equations with Nonlocal Conditions in Banach spaces’, International Journal of Computer Applica-tions, Vol.96, No.2, pp.25-33.

2. Dhanapalan, V, Thamilselvan, M & Chandrasekaran, M, 2014, ‘A Cauchy Problem for Abstract Fractional Integrodifferential Equa-tions with infinite Delay’, Applied Mathematical Sciences, vol.8, no.26, pp. 1289-1296.

3. Dhanapalan, V, Thamilselvan, M & Chandrasekaran, M, 2014,

‘Existence and Uniqueness of Mild solutions for Fractional In-tegrodifferential Equations’, Applied and Computational Mathe-matics, vol.3, no.1, pp.32-37.

4. Dhanapalan, V, Thamilselvan, M & Chandrasekaran, M, 2014,

‘Existence of Uniqueness of Mild Solutions for Fractional Integro-differential Equations with Nonlocal Conditions in Banach spaces’, in The International Journal of Mathematical Analysis, vol.8, no.8, pp. 369-379.

5. Dhanapalan, V, Thamilselvan, M & Chandrasekaran, M, 2014,

‘Nonlocal Fractional Semilinear Delay Differential Equations in separable Banach spaces’, International Organisation of Scientific Research-Journal of Mathematics , vol.7, no.2, pp.119-125.15.

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D r. Wafa Al-Lawati’s research interest is to investigate the relation between the type

and bioavailability of organic matter present at depth in arsenic rich aquifer sediments and the release of arsenic from these sediments into ground waters over a range of geological/geographic environments. It has been studied that millions of people, particularly in southern,

south eastern and eastern Asia, are affected and thousands dying as a result of elevated levels of arsenic in water they consume. The mechanism by which arsenic is released into shallow reducing groundwater aquifers is a matter of intense debate. However, it is

believed that microbes play a key role in this process through the reductive dissolution of arsenic bearing iron oxy (hydroxides) and the role of organic carbon in this process is extensively recog-nized. References:

1. Athanasios Rizoulis, Wafa M. Al Lawati, Richard D. Pancost, David A. Polya, Bart E. van Dongen, Jonathan R. Lloyd., 2014. Microbially-mediated reduction of Fe (III) and As (V) in Cambodian sediments amended with 13C-labelled hexadecane and kerogen. Environmental Chemistry 11, 538-546.

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SCIENCES APPLIED BIOLOGY SECTION

D r. Vijaya Saradhi Settaluri’s main research activities are in the area of Pharmaceutical

Biotechnology, Biochemistry of Enzymes, lipids and Clinical Biochemistry. He is specialized in developing bio-analytical methods for the esti-mation of drugs, vitamins, and antioxidants using simple, sensitive, reproducible and cost effective

analytical procedures like UV and visible spectroscopy, HPLC, Fluo-rimetry and related chromatographic methods. The interests in the research field involves identification of quality control methods for estimation of drugs and biomolecules, by targeting the functional groups present in drugs and biomolecules, and then treating them with different chromogens or studying their characteristics using

HPLC and mass spectroscopy. The methods so developed are statis-tically validated for their precision and accuracy, robustness and reproducibility. Further recovery studies of the drug by the devel-oped method are carried out with biological fluids like serum and urine.

References:

1. Vijaya Saradhi Settaluri * Sheikha Saleh Abdullah Al-Salmani and Noora Hamed Nasser Al-Baddaei: Validation of Novel and Cost Effective Spectroscopic Methods for Estimation of Ke-torolac. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research 2015; 6(11): 4681-85.doi: 10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.6 (11).4681-85.

D r. Syed Najmul Hejaz Azmi’s

main research activi-ties are in the area of Pharmaceutical Analy-sis which is a branch of analytical chemistry that deals with detec-

tion and determination of drugs in vari-ous matrices. The requirement of quality, quantity, purity and safety of pharmaceu-tical formulations and to differentiate from sub-standard cheap drugs available in the market is the idea behind his re-search works. He developed new analytical methods for the quantitation of cefixime, buspirone HCl and citalopram HBr in commercial dosage forms. For this purpose, high per-formance liquid chromatography, UV-Visible spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy are used. The methods

were optimized and developed as per the International Conference on Harmonisa-tion guidelines (USA). Point and interval hypothesis tests were performed for sig-nificance of testing of the presented method with the reported or official methods. The stoichiometric ratio was investigated using Job’s and mole ratio methods. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopic spectra were taken and utilized for reaction mechanism. Linear regression equations were generated and used for determining the concentration of active drugs in commercial dosage forms. References:

1. Azmi SNH, Iqbal B, Al Mamari JK, Al Hattali KA, Al Hadhrami WN (2014) Meth-od development and validation for the determination of cefixime in pure and commercial dosage forms by spectropho-

tometry. International Journal of Chemi-cal, Nuclear, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering 8 (6) (2014) 561-567, WASET

2. Azmi SNH, Al-Ghafri LT, Al-Ghafri SS, Al-

Haribi MM (2015) Determination of buspirone HCl in commercial dosage forms by extractive spectrophotometric method and comparison by HPLC meth-od, Science Journal of Analytical Chemis-try 6, 91-99, Science Publishing Group (USA).

3. Azmi SNH, Al-Fazari A, Al Badaei M, Al-

Mahrezi R (2015) Utility of eosin Y as a complexing reagent for the determina-tion of citalopram hydrobromide in com-mercial dosage forms by fluorescence spectrophotometry, Luminescence 30 (8) 1352-1359, John Wiley & Sons.

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SCIENCES APPLIED CHEMISTRY SECTION

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DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

T auqeer Safdar is the Global Member of ISOC (Internet Society Club, USA).

His area of interest is Computer Networks and Security. Safdar, T., HYBRID OF AGILE PROCESS AND USABILITY EVALUATION METHOD, Special Issue-Agile Symposium, Malaysia, ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8, Sci.Int. 25(4),1085-93,2014. Agile software development is one of the most widely used methodologies for soft-ware development. It plans to improve software quality and responsiveness to modifying client requirements. Agile soft-ware development is based on an iterative cycle with the goal of faster distribution of solutions with on-going user participation. To improve the market value of software, usability evaluation techniques in software model helps to gain user satisfaction and increase product market value. Producing rapid solutions by agile software methods leads to the deficiency of good design and architecture is regarded to be very expen-

sive if followed. As a remedy, a proposed life cycle for agile software development has been designed. The proposed life cycle outlined in this paper integrate usability evaluation concepts and agile software methodologies for the development of interactive software. To achieve the result, a survey form was designed and conducted worldwide. The results show a greater in-terest of usability at the early stage of de-velopment along with the user participa-tion at every stage. Safdar, T., “Interference-Aware Routing in Cognitive Radio Ad-Hoc Networks: Chal-lenges and Research Directions”,BRIS Jour-nal of Advance Science & Technology, ISSN. 0971-9563 Vol.2 (3):pp. 74-82 (DOI: dx.doi.org/14.9831/0971- 9563.2014/2-, 3/BRIS.9) Cognitive radio ad-hoc network (CRAHN) is an emerging class of mobile ad hoc net-works that provides a list of available chan-nels to every node of network. It would find that the traditional routing protocols and routing metrics will not cope well for

CRAHN with interference conditions which result in varying delay and connectivity conditions among the terminals. Thus, to reach more realistic routing in cognitive environment of wireless ad hoc networks, routing metric and routing protocol should be designed to conform to traffic and prop-agation conditions. The inevitably induced latency and interference pose new chal-lenges on existing routing schemes for quality-of-service (QoS). A secondary user (SU) also known as cognitive radio user (CR) suffers from severe interference from primary users (PUs) and other secondary users (SUs). Therefore the secondary trans-mission must be confined to ensure suffi-cient operation of PUs, which thereby de-teriorates the QoS provisioning. Due to channel switching and users interference, the longer paths will be chosen for trans-missions which may create the problem of larger routing graphs and end-to-end delay.

N.Balasupramanian, T.K.George & E. Ben George are the senior faculty members of the IT department. Their field of interest is Big data Analytics and Security. N.Balasupramanian, T.K.George, E. Ben George, “An Innovative Fraud Detection Framework for Secure E-Transactions using Big Data Analytics”, European Journal of Scientific Research (EJSR), ISSN 1450 216X/1450/202X, Vol 122, No 3,May 2014,pp 342-349.

E-business will not have an existence with-out the support of e-payment. In this dec-ade, there has been a huge increase in the usage of e-transaction system. At par with this, there exists an increase in fraudulent techniques used by fraudsters. Methods for detecting and preventing frauds have become a major activity in e-business and this responsibility has been supported by the security personnel’s in charge of this framework. If there are effective measures for detection and prevention of frauds, it will increase the confidence level of cus-

tomers to opt for e-transaction in a safe and trustworthy manner. This paper focus-es on prospective threats in the e-transactions, frauds in e-transactions and the different types of frauds in e-transactions. This paper also proposes an innovative framework for fraud detection in e-transactions by using big data analytics and making the e-transactions a safe and trusted platform for the online consumers and the merchants.

D r. Tripti Sharma. Her research interests include the areas of Networking particularly adhoc networks and optimiza-

tion of network performance. Sharma T., "Optimized Battery Threshold for Better Network Connectivity", International Journal of System Assurance Engi-neering and Management, Springer Journal, June 2014, Volume 5, Issue 2, pp 181-185. This paper proposed an effective battery utilization algorithm in mobile adhoc networks, which is applied during the active data transmission phase of the network and find out the optimal value

of the battery power for better network performance. The pro-posed algorithm was implemented in Dynamic Source Routing(DSR) Protocol used in adhoc networks. Dr. Brijesh Jajal is working as a Lecturer in Department of IT. His research interest includes Digital Image processing techniques, Image forensics and Cyber Security. Ramkumar L, Brijesh J, and Binod Kumar, "A Study of novel tech-nology computing services" : International Journal of Computer Science Engineering (IJCSE), India, Vol. 3 No.04 Jul 2014, (ISSN : 2319-7323).

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This paper comprises of the methodologies used for computing, viz. Cloud computing distributed computing and Big data. A framework suggested in the paper aids the entrepreneurs using large volume of data to decide upon the strategy of implemen-tation of the computing model. Kolappan, V., R. Selvakumar (2014). Planarity of some variants of p-petal graphs, Annals of Pure and Appl. Math., Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 36 - 40.

Kolappan, V., R. Selvakumar (2014). Measuring the non planarity of p-petal graphs, Int. J. Adv. Sci. and Tech. Res., Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 554 - 560. Kolappan, V., R. Selvakumar (2014). Algorithms for drawing pla-nar p-petal graphs, J. Discrete Math. Sci. and Crypt., Vol. 17, No. 4, pp 289 - 309." Madhusudhana Rao. "Thermal diffusion and radiation effects on MHD convective chemically reactive dusty fluid-flow past a ver-tical porous plate with heat absorption" Elixir Appl. Math. 88

D r. Shabbeer Shaik is the Sr. faculty member of IT department. His re-

search area is neural networks. “E-DJ: A Novel Model Based on Speech Recognition using Neural Networks”. Pub-lished in IJARCSSE International Journal ISSN: 2277128X, vol 4, issue 1, January-2014 (www.ijarcsse.com).

This paper deals with application of the Electronic-DJ which brings-out a friendly relationship between the listener and the tuner through speech recognition. Cur-rently, most speech recognition system is based on Hidden Markov models (HMMs), a statistical framework that supports both acoustic and temporal modeling. HMMs make a number of suboptimal modeling assumptions that limit their potential

effectiveness. Neural Networks avoid many of these assumptions, while they can learn complex functions and general-ize effectively. While speaker dependent speech recognizers have achieved close to 100% accuracy, the speaker independent speech recognition systems have poor accuracy not exceeding 75%. This model gave 90% of true results.

PUBLICATIONS H. Al-Shuaily, K. Renaud, ” SQL Patterns Design and Development”, The Sixth Interna-tional Conferences on Pervasive Patterns and Applications. Venice, Italy, 2014. H. Al-Shuaily, D. Russel, " The Impact of University/ Industry Strategic Alliances in the Quality of Teaching Information technology and graduate employability” at the Ma-jan College International Conference (MIC 14), Muscat, Oman 2014 A. Al-Maskari, H. Al-Shuaily, G. Rajesh, “Employer’s Perception of Employability Skills of New Information Technology Graduates from Colleges of Technology” at the Ma-jan College International Conference (MIC 14), Muscat, Oman 2014

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DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS STUDIES ACCOUNTING SECTION

S oofi Asra Mubeen holds research in-

terest in the area of Accounting, condition monitoring of mechani-cal equipment. The re-search work focus on

Human Resource practices in Andhra Pra-desh Tourism Development Corporation. The study found moderate work stress among the management teacher in private collages in Oman. Moderate stress can be indicated as positive stress to foster individ-ual performance and organizational climate. This was also corroborated from the result reported from QWL questionnaire. The final score of QWL was reported as 3.5 in 5 point scale. It was inferred that employee were moderately satisfied from QWL in these management institutions. Perception of being competent employee and innovative employee score was reported more than the final average score of QWL. It was in-ferred that teachers in educational institu-

tions perceived them as more competent and empowerment because of the autono-my in pedagogy. In PLS analysis revealed that QWL of this educational institution are inversely related with stress with a coeffi-cient of -0.741. This clearly indicated that 100 point change in the stress would bring 74.1 point negative changes in QWL among faculty members in private management institutions in Oman. It means a 100 point increase in stress among employees would lead to deterioration of 74.1 point in QWL. But, the proposed hypothesis was not ac-cepted based on the analysis as stress was not significantly affecting the QWL among the management teachers in Oman. Pro-posed structural model was not established because T value was reported as 0.927 with p value of 0.354. The hypothesized relation-ship between Occupational Stress and QWL was not significant because path coefficient between these two latent constructs were not significant. It was inferred occupational stress is not significantly affecting the QWL

among management teachers in Oman. The study reaffirms the past research findings where these two phenomena were nega-tively associated with each other. Further, it proves the theory that if Quality of Work Life (QWL) is better in an organization, the occupational stress shall be relatively lesser among the employees in such organiza-tions. It can also be inferred that if per-ceived QWL is better in the organization, overall organizational health is better or improving there. It suggests that, the em-ployees working in such organizations are withdrawing satisfaction from the work-place. Thus the perceived occupational stress shall be lesser in such organizations and mostly an inverse relationship shall prevail between these two constructs. Also, perceived QWL was reported more com-pare to occupational stress in Oman based on descriptive statistics. Thus, collectively these finding corroborates the inverse rela-tionship between these two phenomena discussed in the study.

K . Srinivasan holds research interest in

the area of Finance and Accounting. The research work focus on Futures Returns, Trading Volume

and Market Depth in Stock Markets. This research work is mainly focused on the possible existence and stability of Day of the Week End Effect and measures the mean and conditional volatility in testing the degree of market efficiency in the BSE Sensitivity Index and S&P CNX Nifty Index by focusing on Financial Econometric Mod-el building. The weekend anomaly is stud-ied extensively in both equity and non-equity markets. The volatility pattern in stock market returns might enable inves-tors to take advantage of relatively regular shifts in the markets by designing various trading strategies in predicting the pattern of the market movements. The dataset has been retrieved from National Stock Ex-

change and Bombay Stock Exchange web-site for the period spanning from July 1, 1999 to March 31, 2014. In this study, the Asymmetric GARCH model was employed to test the impact of introducing dummy variables into the mean equation and con-ditional variance equation the assess the distributional properties between Monday to Friday. Our result of the study indicates that the lagged return in both the market were statistically significant at 1 per cent level. The risk premium in both the ex-changes is positive and indicates the risk-averse agents are willing to commit maxi-mum transactions to higher risk. In the con-ditional volatility, the coefficient was signifi-cant at 0.2726 and 0.2970 and it is clearly suggested that good news plays a crucial role in both the stock exchanges. The inclu-sion of dummy variable in the variance equation indicates that market was signifi-cant on Wednesday and Friday in BSE. On the other, the estimated coefficient for all

the days was insignificant trend except Tuesday. In comparing both the markets, it is clearly evidenced that the investors can’t predict the markets; it is mainly due to the integration in the global market make fluc-tuations in the domestic markets and ham-pered the growth of investors. Apart from that, the technological changes make the investors to create various strategies in betting the market with a positive end. Therefore, the seasonality in emerging mar-ket creates arbitrage opportunities to the market participants by using yield spreads, due to the effect of different period ac-count settlement, investor sentiment and unsystematic risk in the market. Overall, the information flow during the trading period is expected to be much higher than in the non-trading period.

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M . Krishnamurthy holds research interest in the area of Accounting, Human Resource

and Marketing. The research work mainly focus-es on Problem and Prospectus of New generation Private Sector Banks. The study would make vital contribution to the organizational community to identify factors influencing the motivation among

employees and to keep them happy around the company which will give different meaning and purpose of individual human being lives. It is in short referred as psychological word which can be described as behavior and the way a person thinks and then acts on what is important. It would subsequently help the organizations to set a goal and Motivation is a psychological process that gives purpose and direction to the behavior. Moti-vation is inner force that drives individuals to achieve personal and organizational goals. It is a drive towards purposive manner to achieve the unsatisfied needs and goals of an individual. Mo-tivated employees are more productive and always create posi-tive situations around them. Self-motivation is important feature for creating self-awareness and to treat themselves as self-respect and recognition. The researchers have selected 200

teaching and nonteaching employees of Salalah College of Tech-nology, Oman for the present study. The findings showed that the employees strongly agree that they are being paid reasona-ble salary for their work and they have vast opportunities to do their best in contributing to the community in general. The study would make vital contribution to the organizational community to identify factors influencing the motivation among employees and to keep them happy around the company which will give different meaning and purpose of individual human being lives. It is in short referred as psychological word which can be de-scribed as behaviour and the way a person thinks and then acts on what is important. It would subsequently help the organiza-tions to set a goal and find motivation every day to help and accomplish such goals to achieve the objectives framed. It is important to identify motivation which helps to implement in the organization and to keep focused on the right tract of pre-scribed goals. This study has carried out with intention to identi-fy the serious factors influencing the motivation and to suggest measures to overcome such issues to the best satisfaction of employees and organizational objectives.

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS STUDIES HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

S . Porkodi holds re-search interest in

the area of Human Re-source Management. The condition of the migrant contract workers, the majority of whom come

from South Asia, is a subject attracting in-creased attention from the governments of both sender and destination countries, as well as from international agencies and pub-lic opinion. There is an evident concern to manage this contract labour in such a way as to meet the needs of both parties, with full respect for the human and labour rights of the workers concerned. However, there is a real dearth of study on migrant condi-tions in Oman. The author felt that in such a situation there was a strong case for carry-ing out the research to identify the causal factors which determine the underlying compulsion of migration of such contract migrants workers into Oman and to anal-yses why some factors seem to play a key role in the workers’ decision to migrate while some do not in Oman. The secondary data was sourced from Oman Statistical Year Books published by Ministry of Nation-al Economy. Various policy documents like Five Year Plans (4th, 5th and 6th), Census of

Oman, Facts and Indicators of Five Year Plans provided important information on the different facets of Omani and expatriate employment. The study was conducted based on respondents who are contract laborers performing various activities in Oman. A Structured Equation model (SEM) was used for both identification and exami-nation of factors that are primarily responsi-ble for migration of low skill workers into Oman.

The results showed that 11 out of the 15 factors studied were important in influenc-ing the decision of the workers to migrate. This factor cannot be directly linked to soci-oeconomic advancement of the individual but may be more aligned to the spirit of

discovery and the hope of a better tomor-row which an increasingly open and global environment has fostered. It would benefit Oman to offer an environment which sus-tains such hopes if it continues to need such services in the near future. The research attempts to identify the factors that are critical in explaining the motives that prompt the contract workers to migrate to a new place under uncertain and challenging conditions and throw up important pointers for researchers and policymakers in both the source and destination countries.

O rganizational commitment continues to be one of the most popularly re-

searched subjects as it has significant effects on job performance and turnover, and sub-sequently on organizational performance. The overall performance of any college de-pends upon their teachers and ultimately

their level of commitment. Despite efforts

to encourage nationals to work in the public and private sectors, education sector re-mains dominated by expatriates. Cross-cultural comparisons are interesting be-cause they address the question of whether the findings obtained in one country can be generalized to other countries. Many re-searchers have examined whether organi-

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ment can be generalized across countries. Indeed, although cultural differences in com-mitment and its correlates have received scholarly interest, cross national studies are still rather limited in both number and range. Inspired by the recent comparative studies, the present research sets out to examine the cross-national invariance of organizational commitment of Omani (nationals) and Expat Teachers in Omani colleges. It compared four dimension organization commitment models among the Omani and Expat teachers work-ing in Omani college. The validated scale was adopted from Celep (2000) 25 item scale of organizational commitment in Schools/colleges. The Study was confined to Higher College of Technology, Muscat. The primary data had been collected from 130 respond-ents using the stratified probability sampling technique. Discriminant analysis was per-formed to analyze the data. The result of the study indicates that the differences found between the Omani and Expat teacher’s or-ganizational commitment may be of very little practical significance. In the findings it found that the Omani teachers are in higher side in the Institutional commitment with respect to take other lessons irrelevant to one’s branch in order to stay in this Institu-tion. Remaining all the other factors Expat teachers are slightly in higher side. The fac-tors related to Institutional commitment- Working desire created by this Institution and the Work Group commitment- helping

teaching learning process among colleagues are the top two factors which contribute much to discriminate between the Omani and Expat teachers organizational commit-ment. The present study was started with the hypothesis of there is no significant rela-tion between Omani and Expat teacher’s Organizational commitment. However, the findings in the present research rejected the null hypothesis. Hence, still OC is based on some culture specific norms and values. These studies are methodologically im-portant and informative from a cross cultural viewpoint.

Everybody deserves success in life. Success is about taking the necessary actions to con-stantly move forward towards the desired goal. Many people do not believe that they “deserve success “. They do not think that they are worthy enough for success. In fact, we are all born with the ability and desire to succeed. All good aspects of our lives: a con-scious mind, the ability to read, study and learn are something we deserve. This book “Success Do You Deserve it?- 20 points Pro-gramme” is for the person aspiring for suc-cess. We human beings have a very large inter-dependent society. We all rely on each-other. A lack of self-confidence often creates barrier among us. The authors explain for the development of self-confidence in 20 differ-ent areas, such as self-confidence in liking your own face, admitting your mistakes

frankly, eye to eye contact, appreciating oth-ers, assertiveness, helping tendency, enjoy-ing the present, planning your day, remem-bering names, approaching others , manag-ing emotions, maintaining friendship, re-specting self-respect for others, punctuality, natural bio-rhythm, time management, dressing sense, etc. This book revolves around 20 points, which, if practiced proper-ly as per advice by authors, would work like magic wand to transform your life to be-come successful in your field. It facilitates to realize your full potential. Self-esteem is an engine of life, which is required by every-body. More specifically, self-esteem boosts up your confidence, which facilitates the ability to think, ability to cope up the chal-lenges of life, feeling of worthiness and de-serving, etc. In a nutshell, one cannot realize one’s potential without healthy self-esteem. The authors give exercises and tips in this book to examine all possible areas of effec-tive personality. After a long observation and study, authors identified 20 traits of the effective personality. These traits lead to success and boost the confidence level of an individual. These points have brought suc-cess and happiness to many individuals, in-cluding Abraham Lincoln, William James, Mahatma Gandhi, A. P. J. Kalam

DEPARTMENT BUSINESS STUDIES MARKETING & RETAILING MANAGEMENT

L amya Al Hinai holds research interest in the area of Marketing and Retail Man-

agement. Volunteer is a person who voluntari-ly provides help, idea, or skill and expecting no rewards in return. People would volunteer for different reasons according to their condition or situation. Researchers that determine an

individual’s motivation to volunteer for non-profit organization founded several factors. It was suggested that individual’s decision to volunteer might be shaped by social, psychological or material incentives. Incentives effect actually differs according to several socio-demographic factors such as, gender, age, income, educa-tional level, and marital status. It is useful to study individual’s incentives to understand people’s behavior and improve the level of voluntarism base in the society. Furthermore, it would be useful for non-profit organizations and their strategies. This study tended

to understand individual’s decision to volunteer in Oman. It fo-cused on social and psychological incentives that encourage peo-ple to volunteer. These incentives were determined by gender, age, income, educational level, and marital status. This research tended to study peer pressure and the social values influence over volunteers in Oman basically, empathy and guilt. Defiantly, peers and friends have a great influence over individual’s decision to volunteer. Barely, all participants admitted that peers influenced them and then they could influence on others. However, empathy and guilt about the society were not strong factors in influencing individuals. Clearly, only few of them are volunteering because of the sense of dereliction and obligation toward community. None of participants stated that they would volunteer because of empa-thy. But, few of them are volunteering because they love to give. It is likely that people volunteer for self-concerns more.

Page No.: 9

1. Arvind Hans, Soofi Asra Mubeen, Niraj Mishra & Ameera Ha-mood Humaid Al-Badi (2015). A Study on Occupational Stress and Quality of Work Life (QWL) in Private Colleges of Oman (Muscat), Global Business and Management Research: An Inter-national Journal, 7 (3), 55 – 69

2. Shanthi. A, Thamilselvan. R & Srinivasan. K (2015). The Day of

the Week Effect and Conditional Volatility in Indian Stock Mar-ket: Evidence from BSE & NSE. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, 10(3), 7495 – 7508.

3. Krishna Murthy. M & S. Varalakshmi (2015). Employee’s Moti-

vation: An Energizer for Philosophical Thinking, International Journal of Science and Humanities, 1(2), 1057–1070.

4. Ghosal. S, & Porkodi. S (2014). Reasons for Migration of Con-

tract Labour to Oman: A SEM Approach, International Jour-nal of Management and Business Research, 4(3), 213-224.

5. Porkodi. S, Manchala Seema & Emaan Al Hinai (2014). A

Cross-Cultural Comparison on Organisational Commitment of Omani & Expat Teachers in Omani Colleges. International Journal of Management and Social Science Research Review, 1(4), .203-225.

6. Porkodi. S & Gupta. N (2014). Success: Do You Deserve It?

(20 Points Programme), VHNSN Publishing House, India. 2nd Edition, (ISBN: 978-81-8220-337-6).

7. Lamya Al Hinai (2015), Social and Psychological Incentives

and Individual’s Time Contribution to Charitable Organiza-tion (Oman), Ideal Journal for Economics & Management Sciences, 1(1) 21 - 29.

A nwar Mourssi received his M.A in TESL/TEFL from Birmingham University/ the

United Kingdom in 2006, and received his PhD in Applied Linguistics from University of the West of England, Bristol/ the United Kingdom in 2013. His major field of study is

Second Language Acquisition SLA. Dr. Mourssi has published and edited a number of research articles and books. He is now on the editorial board of some International Language Journals in Norway, Canada, Iran, Finland, Malaysia, the USA, and the UK. The book - How to prepare yourself for IELTS and Place-ment test - that he published deals with how to prepare your-self for the IELTS. It deals with the four skills which are: listen-ing, speaking, reading and writing. It gives a strong path for the Arab Learners of English on how to improve their skills related to the exam. The second part of the book deals with the place-

ment test. The target is to help Arab Learners of English to get high score in IELTS. References: 1. Mourssi, A. (2014) How to prepare yourself for IELTS and Place-

ment test, Muscat: International Press. ISBN 978-99969-1-155-9 Local Number 2014/366.

2. Mourssi, A. & A. Al Doori (2014a). Postgraduate Learners’ and

Crosslinguistic Influence of L1 (Arabic) in Acquiring Linguistic Items of L2 (English). The International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World, Volume 5 (1), 307-318.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE (ELC)

D r. Afif Othman Al Doori is a lecturer at HCT. He has been teaching for more

than 30 years. He is interested in linguistics and translation. He is teaching writing one and public speaking.

References: Mourssi, A. & A. Al Doori (2014a). Postgraduate Learners’ and Cross-linguistic Influence of L1 (Arabic) in Acquiring Linguistic Items of L2 (English). The International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World, Volume 5 (1), 307-318.

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Page No.: 10

1. Dr. Sabah Al Mawali honored at LABTECH Conference- Bahrain

Dr. Sabah got the honor of being chairperson for the Advanc-es in Environmental Monitoring sessions apart from acting as the Deputy Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Con-ference in 3rd International Laboratory Technology Confer-ence and Exhibition (LABTECH 2014) at Bahrain.

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SCIENCES

2. ISC Honors Dr. Rao in 102nd Indian Science Congress (ISC), University of Mumbai, India

Dr. Kesaraju Seetaramchander Rao has been honored on the occasion of the 102nd Indian Science Congress meeting by Dr. Kashinath Bhattacharya, the Sectional President, Envi-ronmental Science of Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), on 5th January 2015 in the University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India. Dr. Rao has been invited to deliver a talk on “Nanotechnology and Pollution” in view of his contribution in the environmental science area, in the Science Congress which is one of the world’s largest gathering of scientists, academicians, policy makers and industrialists. This is a great honor for Dr. Rao and to HCT as this gathering is a platform where research knowledge both in basic and ap-plied sciences is shared.

3. Best B. Tech Chemistry Research Poster Award on HCT Sci-

ence Open Day, 2015

Dr. Syed Najmul Hejaz Azmi and his students Amna Khalifa Khalaf Al-Mamari, Buthaina Said Khamis Al-Hosni and Manal Rashid Abdullah Al-Fazari got 1st prize in Chemistry B. Tech poster competition. The title of poster was “Development and validation of stability indicating RP-HPLC method for determi-nation of atorvastatin calcium in pharmaceutical formula-tions.”

Page No.: 11

4. Best Diploma Chemistry Research Poster Award on HCT Sci-ence Open Day, 2015

Dr. Gopala and his students Maryam Said Al-Aamri, Haleema Salime Al-Kinde and Kareema Eisa Al-AAmri got 1st prize in Chemistry Diploma poster competition. The title of poster was “Proximate and mineral compositions (major and minor ele-ments) of commercial cattle’s raw milk and dairy products.”

5. Best B. Tech Biology Research Poster Award on HCT Science Open Day, 2015

Dr. Neetha Murthy and her students Hajer salim Al-Manwar, Badria Saif Al-Khawadi, Zahra Musabah Rashid Al-Ghassani got 1st prize in Biology B. Tech poster competition. The title of poster was “Evaluation of uses of plant extracts of Prosopis cineraria (Druce), Ziziphus spina (Sidr) and Moringa peregrine.

6. Best Diploma Biology Research Poster Award on HCT Science Open Day, 2015

Dr. Pankaj Sah and his students Jawaher Mubarak Al-Naabi, Samia Nasser Al-Mamari and Zayana Nasser Al-Shukaily got 1st prize in Biology Diploma poster competition. The title of poster was “Statistical analysis of antimicrobial efficacies of aqueous and organic extracts of Glycyrrhiza glabra and Cleome brachy-carpa.”

The panel of external judges was from Department of Chemis-try, Sultan Qaboos University (Dr. Ashraf Ali and Dr. Jamal Al-Sabahi) and Department of Biology, University of Nizwa (Dr. Abdul Latif Khan and Dr. Syed Abdullah Gilani).

The awards were distributed by Dr. Ghaitha Suleiman Al-Abry, Head of Applied Biology Section on behalf of Dr. Samiya Salim Al-Jaaidi, Head of Applied Sciences Department.

Page No.: 12

DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING The following staff from Engineering & IT Department has attended the workshop on “Technology Commercialization for Re-searchers “Organized by The Research Council on 13th and 15th December 2015.

Dr. Saravanan Veerasamy – Mechanical Engineering Section Dr. Gunasekaran Thangavel – Electrical Engineering Section Dr. Lakshmi Srikanth – Civil Engineering Section. Dr. Huda Salim Al Shuaily - Information Technology.

The three day workshop aims in developing and motivating the researchers towards com-mercialization of their findings. The workshop covered various topics including Intellectu-al property rights, networking, developing entrepreneurial skills and fund generation for commercialization, marketing the products.

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SCIENCES

Dr. Sabah Al Mawali and her diploma research student participated in 3rd International Laboratory Technology Conference and Exhibition (LABTECH 2014) at Bahrain.

Mr. Ahmed Al-Dhawi carried out his research on Omani beach sediments in the Applied Chemistry section dur-ing his time here as a student as part of his Project I (A & B) course in 2011-12. His work was presented as a stu-dent’s poster as part of the poster session. His poster was placed in the top 5 in the poster competition (out

of a total of 40 posters) at the confer-ence. This work was carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Regional Municipalities & Water Re-source, Oman.

The titles of both papers with all the authors are given below:

‘Benchmarking Analytical Results of Major and Trace Elements for Oil Produced Water Samples to an Inter-national Laboratory’ Sabah M. A. Al Maawali, Nadhira Al Azri; oral presentation, LABTECH Bahrain, 28-30 October, 2014

Page No.: 13

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Dr. Huda Salim Al Shuaily participated in 1. Dr. Huda Salim Al Shuaily presented a paper in : The Sixth International Conferences on Pervasive

Patterns and Applications. Venice, Italy, 2014. 2. The first International Conference on Intelligent Cloud

Computing, ICC 2014, GUtech, Oman.

3. International Conference on Information Technology at AOU Muscat-MESM 2014

4. The Majan College International Conference (MIC 14), Muscat, Oman 2014.

5. The 2nd International conference on Applied Infor-mation and Communications Technology- ICAICT

BUSINESS STUDIES DEPARTMENT

Participation in National and International Conferences

1. Krishnamurthy. M & S. Varalakshmi (2015) presented a pa-per titled “Accountability of Credit Rating Services – A Study: in IMT Ghaziabad, India during 13th -14th December 2013.

Invited Talks and Guest Lectures 1. K. Srinvasan acted as Keynote Speaker for the International

Conference on Indian Business Research at AVS College of Arts & Science, Department of Commerce, PG & Research, Tamil Nadu, India on 21st August 2015.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE (ELC)

1. Dr. Anwar Mourssi presented in his own paper at Dhofar University First National ELT Conference, Innovation in ELT, Voices form Omani Classrooms. The title of his pa-per was “IWP as a Practical Bridge between Theories and Practices”. Based on the shortcomings found in previous methods of teaching writing and following recent works in applied linguistics and second language acquisition on form-focused instruction, explicit teaching and learning, and types of feedback, the Innovated Writing Process (IWP) approach was designed. This is one of the findings of an

empirical study in the context of Arab learn-ers of Eng-lish (ALEs) in the Sultan-ate of Oman. It is also an attempt to apply Soci-ocultural Theory in

classroom settings and to show how input can be well-processed which, in turn, can develop the second language (L2) learners’ internalized grammatical system. The method used in this study indicates that meta-linguistic feedback-

one form of interaction between the instructor and learn-ers - may be one of the most successful feedback types in helping L2 learners acquire second language linguistic items.

2. Dr. Anwar Mourssi presented in his own paper at TESOL Arabia, UAE, 2014. The title of his paper was “ALEs and Cross-linguistic Influence on SLA”. Cross-linguistic has its impact on the acquisition of Sec-ond language lin-guistic items in general and in the acquisition of the simple past in par-ticular. The pre-senter describes how he reached these findings through an empiri-cal study on a sam-ple of Arab Learn-ers of English (ALEs). The intended audiences for his presentation were teacher trainers.

Page No.: 14

3. Dr. Anwar Mourssi presented in his own paper at Sultan Qa-

boos University during SQU International ELT Conference 2014. The title of his paper was “Willingness to Communicate inside the classroom”. The presenter focused on the willing-ness of Arab Learners of English namely as ALEs and how they are to Communicate inside the classroom and willingness to communicate outside the classroom as well. The presentation was presented with Dr. Abo Oaf from Rustaq College of Ap-plied Sciences. The aim was to encourage the teacher trainers to motivate the ALEs interact with their peers and teachers as well to improve their level of proficiency in the acquisition of

L2.

4. Dr. Anwar Mourssi presented his paper in the conference - In-ternational Multidisciplinary Conference: English Language, Litera-ture, and Information Technology- held at Al Burimi University Col-lege from 2nd to 3rd May, 2015, entitled The Efficacy of Error Analy-sis on SL Learners’ Written Accuracy To learn English Language as a second or a foreign language, one should realize that language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary-makers, but is something arising out of the students' work. Many people all over the world strive to learn the English language as a second language or a foreign language, because it has become one of the most famous international languages in the world. But the question is how? The author believes that to predict or to analyze the learners’ errors may provide the teachers, researchers and the learners with valuable information in the areas of difficulties that learners may encounter. An empirical study was conducted on 37 Arab Learners of English (ALEs) which lasted four months. A de-tailed analysis was made of the errors/mistakes of the simple past tense forms in 111 written texts produced by ALEs. Written texts were collected from each subject at three stages in the experiment (after two weeks, after two months and after four months). Quanti-tative and quali-tative analyses show the effec-tiveness of error analysis on second/foreign language learn-ers’ written accu-racy. Keywords: Error analysis, SLA, Inter-lingual mis-takes, Intra-lingual mistakes, Meta-linguistic feedback, Simple

5. Dr. Anwar Mourssi presented in his own paper at HCT, Muscat, 8th January, 2014, ELC, one day workshop. The title of his paper was “How to integrate Entrepreneurial Skills in Teaching TC”. The pre-senter thinks that this is an opportunity for us to understand what entrepreneurship is all about and think about how we could align our FP curriculum or even make small changes in our daily lessons to meet this important Strategic Plan goal. Based on the findings of the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and teaching Tech-nical Communication, we think it is important for teachers and team leaders to integrate entrepreneurial skills wherever they can. This will give a clear image for our students to be aware of Entre-preneurial Skills in general.

6. Dr. Anwar Mourssi gave a workshop at HCT, Muscat, 8th January, 2014. The title of his workshop was, “How to mark references in TC Reports”. The aim of the workshop was to show the participants how to mark the part related to the references in the report that each student should hand out as a requirement for completing the course and use it as a real data for his/her presentation. 7. Mr. Prithviraj Palakkadavath gave a presentation on

“Integrating ENGL2100 Technical Communication with Entre-preneurial Skills; An Overview”, at the MPH, ELC on 8 January, 2014. In his presentation, he discussed: The definition of tech-nical communication, The TC course description, Characteris-tics of an Entre-preneur, The en-trepreneurial skills that are inte-grated with TC, and How the En-trepreneurial skills are integrat-ed in TC?

Page No.: 15

Record of ELC staff participation & presentation in national and international symposia (Research papers):

S. No Name Title Date Conference Title/Location

1. Dr. Ria Hanewald Getting A Sharp Edge In The Job Market With English Language and ICT Skills

20 February, 2015

11th International Qatar TESOL Annual Con-ference ‘Excellence in English Teaching for the Workplace’ Organized by Qatar Uni-

2. Anood Al-Shibli The influence of L1 in the acqui-sition of English articles by Oma-nis

4-7 March, 2015

Language in Focus 2nd International Con-ference on Applied Linguistics, Organized by Cukurova University Istanbul, Turkey

3. Hyiam Al-Jabri Utilizing Mobile Phones in Lan-guage Classrooms

12-14 March, 2015

21st TESOL Arabia International Conference Theory. Practice. Innovation.

4. Tayana Brushko Reading for Writing: Ideas for Body Paragraphs (was not deliv-ered due to car problem on the

16 April, 2015 7th Annual Shinas College of Technology ELT Workshop Orgainzed by ShCT English Language Center

5. Ahmed Rafi Current Trends in ELT: Exploring Possibilities

16 April, 2015 7th Annual Shinas College of Technology ELT Workshop Current Trends in ELT: Ex-ploring Possibilities. Orgainzed by ShCT

6. Thomas V. Current Trends in ELT: Exploring Possibilities

16 April, 2015 7th Annual Shinas College of Technology ELT Workshop . Orgainzed by ShCT English Language Center

7. Dr. Gayane Hovhan-nisyan

Integrating L1 into L2 Teaching Through Proverbs (was not deliv-ered due to car problem on the

16 April, 2015 7th Annual Shinas College of Technology ELT Workshop Current Trends in ELT: Ex-ploring Possibilities. Orgainzed by ShCT

Scaling and Classification of Lan-guage learning e-applications

23-24 April, 2015

Oman 15th ELT Conference Pathways, Prac-tices & Platforms in ELT. Organized by SQU

Record of staff attending national and international symposia Many of the ELC staff attended symposia events at national level. The following table lists the national symposia attended by many of our staff this academic year:

S.No National Symposia Date No. of participations

1 The ELTPN One Day Conference Organize by the British Council 14 February, 2015 36

2 7th Annual Shinas College of Technology ELT Workshop

Current Trends in ELT: Exploring Possibilities Organized by ShCT English Language Center

16 April, 2015 2

3 Oman 15th ELT Conference Pathways, Practices & Platforms in ELT Orga- 23-24 April, 2015 1

4 Buraimi University 2nd International Multidisciplinary Conference: English Language, Literature, and Information Technology

2-3 May, 2015 1

5 21st TESOL Arabia International Conference Theory. Practice. Innovation, 12-14 March, 2015 6

6 11th Annual Qatar TESOL Conference & exhibition

Title: Getting A sharp Edge in the Job Market with English Language & ICT

20-21st February 2015 1

7 TESOL Sudan 5th International Conference

Title: Specific and Updated Practical SLA Model for ALE’s

26-28th February 2015 1

8 Language in focus 2015

Title: The Role of L1 in the Acquisition of English Articles by Foundation

4- 7th March 2015 1

9 Effective IELTS Teaching, The British council 26 April - 12 May 3

Page No.: 16

ELC STAFF WHO PARTICIPATED IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, AY 2014- 2015

# Name of Staff Type of Par- Theme Conference Date Venue

1 Retna Balan Participant Theory, Practice, and Inno-

vation

The 21st TESOL Arabia In-

ternational Conference

12-14th March

2015

Dubai,

UAE

2 Bahulayan Govind Participant Theory, Practice, and Inno-

vation

The 21st TESOL Arabia In-

ternational Conference

12-14th March

2015

Dubai,

UAE

3 Christopher

Selvamony

Participant Theory, Practice, and Inno-

vation

The 21st TESOL Arabia In-

ternational Conference

12-14th March

2015

Dubai,

UAE

4 Saousan Al- Bakri Participant Theory, Practice, and Inno-

vation

The 21st TESOL Arabia In-

ternational Conference

12-14th March

2015

Dubai,

UAE

5 Asma Al- Baraiki Participant Theory, Practice, and Inno-

vation

The 21st TESOL Arabia In-

ternational Conference

12-14th March

2015

Dubai,

UAE

6

Hiyam Al- Jabri Presenter Theory, Practice, and Inno-

vation

The 21st TESOL Arabia In-

ternational Conference

12-14th March

2015

Dubai,

UAE

Participant Theory, Practice, and Inno-

vation

The 21st TESOL Arabia In-

ternational Conference

12-14th March

2015

Dubai,

UAE

7 Dr. Gayane

Hovhannisyan

Participant Pathways, Practices and

Platforms in ELT

Oman 15th International

ELT Conference

23- 24th April

2015

SQU,

Oman

8 Dr. Gayane

Hovhannisyan

Presenter Pathways, Practices and Platforms in ELT Title: Scal-

ing and Classification of Educational E- Applications

Oman 15th International

ELT Conference

23- 24th April

2015

SQU,

Oman

9

Dr, Ria Hanewald Presenter Title: Getting A sharp Edge in the Job Market with Eng-lish Language & ICT skills

11th Annual Qatar TESOL

Conference & exhibition

20-21st February

2015

Doha,

Qatar

10

Dr. Anwar Mourssi

Presenter Title: Specific and Updated

Practical SLA Model for

ALE’s

TESOL Sudan 5th Interna-

tional Conference

26-28th February

2015

Omdur-

man,

Sudan

11 Anood Al- Shibli Presenter Title: The Role of L1 in the Acquisition of English Arti-cles by Foundation stu-dents at the Higher College of Technology

Language in focus 2015 4- 7th March 2015

Cappa-docia, Turkey

12 Khalid Al-Balushi Participant Workshop of Education

Policies, Training and Inno-

26-27th April

2015

Qatar

Page No.: 17

1. 3rd International Laboratory Technology Conference and Ex-hibition (LABTECH 28-30 October, 2014) at Bahrain. – A Talk by Dr. Sa-bah

Dr. Sabah Al Mawali was selected to be a prestigious member of Technical Award Committee and a guest speak-er in 3rd International Laboratory Technology Conference and Exhibi-tion (LABTECH 2014) at Bahrain.

2. Applied Sciences Activity on Creating a Research Base: Presentation on “Procedure, participation and presenta-tion in Research Colloquia”- A Talk by Dr. Pankaj Sah

Even though enthusiasm is of prime importance in any research activity, the com-munication of research findings requires a formal procedure. Dr. Pankaj Sah, a faculty member of Ap-plied Biology section and an active member of the De-partmental Research Com-

mittee in co-ordination with Dr. Sabah Al- Maawali, Head of the Departmental Research Committee of the Department of Applied Sciences presented the procedure in presenting the ideas in research conferences to the staff of the Department of Applied Sciences on 25-09-2014 from 2:15 to 3 pm in in the Physics Laboratory - M204.

3. Applied Sciences Seminar on “How to write and publish re search papers?”- A Lecture by Dr. Pankaj Sah

The Department of Applied Sciences, HCT conducted a semi-nar on “HOW TO WRITE AND PUBLISH RESEARCH PAPERS?” on 23-10-2014 from 2-15 pm to 3-00 pm in the college auditori-um. The Department invited Dr. Pankaj Sah, faculty of Applied Biology to deliver a lecture on the above mentioned topic. Dr. Sah started his lecture by explaining the need for research publications and stated that “Research Publication is a respon-

sibility on the part of a re-searcher, without which the research work and endeavors of the researcher will go waste, as they will not be used by others for further-ance of the knowledge”. Dr. Pankaj methodically ex-plained various aspects of a research publication starting from “Abstract” to the “Conclusions with a note for further scope of the work”.

4. Applied sciences Seminar On “Nanomaterial’s And Other Materials For Various Applications- A Lecture by Dr. Masood Ahmad

Research is a very im-portant and integral part in teaching science to the undergraduate students. As a part of creating a strong scientific teaching strategies among the teaching faculty and also to inculcate a thirst for scientific research in the young Omani Students

through the teaching faculty and technical staff, as a first step, the department council at the Department of Applied Sciences, HCT through its recently formed Staff Development Committee and Research Development Committee conduct-ed a second in the series of seminars on the materials enti-tled “Nanomaterial’s and other materials for various appli-cations” on 12-02-2015 from 2-15 to 3 pm at the HCT AUDI-TORIUM.

Dr. Masood Ahmad started his lecture with the dielectric and microwave properties of lanthanum based complex perov-skites and systematically moved to the materials he used for studying the photo catalytic properties, by giving a reasona-ble argument on the scientific interest generated on Titani-um Dioxide as a potential material in the solar energy con-version. He was successful in showing that Photocatlytic deg-radation in one of his lanthanum based titanium complex followed a first order kinetics.

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SCIENCES

Page No.: 18

6. Applied Sciences Seminar on

“Nanotechnology Environment and

Pollution”- A talk by Dr. Rao

Seminar on “Nanotechnology Environ-ment and Pollution –An Objective Ap-proach” was conducted at the HCT AU-DITORIUM on 05-02-2015 from 2-15 to 3 pm by the Department of Applied Sciences, HCT. The presenter Dr. Kesaraju Seeta Ramchander Rao, a faculty member of applied biology sec-tion of Department of Applied Sciences started his talk with a note on the gene-sis of nanotechnology with a theoreti-cal prediction of the renowned physi-cist Richard Feynman through a talk

titled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," at an American Physical Soci-ety meeting at Caltech on December 29, 1959.

Dr. Rao moved on slide by slide by elabo-rating the work of Norio Taniguchi of To-kyo Science University in coining the term Nanotechnology in 1974, its current defi-nition and the multitude of fields of nano-technology like Applied Physics, Material Science, Colloid Science, Supra molecular Chemistry, Self-replicating machines, Ro-botics, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biological Engineering, Elec-trical Engineering and Electronics Engi-

neering in which the research work is in progress.

7. HCT Seminar on “Staff Training Needs towards Excellent Academic Perfor-mance: Research Awareness Session by Dr. Pankaj Sah.

Dr. Pankaj Sah was invited to deliver a talk on a research awareness session at HCT by Mr. Mohammed Talat Al Tarawneh, the Assistant Dean for Aca-demic Affairs in coordination with vari-ous Academic Heads with the theme, “Staff Training Needs towards Excel-lent Academic Performance”, held in April 22, 2015. More than 150 lectur-

ers had attended the seminar in the Multi-Purpose Hall, Higher College of Technology, Muscat. The event coin-cides with the college’s vision, “To provide high quality teaching and learning to HCT students.” Dr. Sah gave a very important research orient-ed talk where he emphasized on the importance of research publications in building the course of present and future knowledge. He cited the exam-ples of recent quality research publica-tions from Applied Sciences Depart-

ment students’ projects and explained

5. Invited Talk at Indian Science Congress (ISC), University of Mumbai by Dr. Rao

Dr. Rao delivered a guest lecture on the emerging and most popular technology of the present day i.e. nanotechnology and its relevance to the environment and unforeseen impacts lead-ing to pollution. He articulated his views on the significance of this technology and future impacts with all the statistical val-ues as to how the countries investing in this technology are spending millions of dollars and flooding the markets by com-ing out with umpteen numbers of solutions under one roof. He elucidated research work done in the recent years and the studies related to the impacts of nanotechnology which ulti-mately will have on human life and the environment, with ex-amples. While concluding, he laid emphasis on the future sig-nificance in understanding the newly emerging term ‘Nanopollution’, which presently has no major churning effect

with the policy makers and common citizens, but cautioned that sooner or later this topic will be of utmost attention.