Search results for: Nigeria’s electricity generation

Authors: M. D. Dogara, C. G, Afuwai, O. O. Esther, A. M. Dawai

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For two decades, the inhabitants of Kujama Prison Farm faced problems of water for domestic and agricultural purposes, even after the drilling of three deep boreholes. The scarcity of this groundwater resource led to the geophysical investigation of the basement complex of the prison farm. Two geophysical techniques, vertical electrical sounding and seismic refraction methods were deployed to unravel the cause(s) of the non-productivity of the three boreholes. The area of investigation covered was 400,000 m2 of ten profiles with six investigative points. In all, 60 vertical electrical points were sounded, and sixty sets of seismic refraction data were collected using the forward and reverse approach. From the geoelectric sections, it is suggestive that the area is underlain by three to five geoelectric layers of varying thicknesses and resistivities. The result of the interpreted seismic data revealed two geovelocity layers, with velocities ranging between 478m/s to 1666m/s for the first layer and 1166m/s to 7141m/s for the second layer. From the combined results of the two techniques, it was suggestive that all the three unproductive boreholes were drilled at points that were neither weathered nor fractured. It was, therefore, suggested that new boreholes should be drilled at areas identified with depressed bedrock topography having geophysical evidence of intense weathering and fracturing within the fresh basement.

Keywords: groundwater, Kujama prison farm, kaduna, nigeria, seismic refraction, vertical electrical sounding

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Authors: Okunola Solomon Olufemi

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The study focused on the contribution of urban agriculture to the livelihood of 107 respondents in Kwara State of Nigeria. The study employed structured questionnaire to collect relevant data for the study while descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentage were employed to analyses the objectives. Most respondents (82.9%), were one time or the other in a married state and they had formal education (80.4%) while many of the lot (58.9%) had superior education ranging from OND to Ph.D level. These farmers were either retired government workers or those trying to argument their family income or trying to be food sufficient. Most of the respondents (77.4%) had a farm size of less than or equal to 3 hectares showing that most the urban farmers were smallholders which might be as a result of stiff completion for land resource. Most of the respondents had a relatively large family size of 6 and above members. Most respondents used family labor (59.8%). Respondents in the study area also made use of the cooperatives and daily contributions for loanable funds, while few respondents utilized the formal sector. .Urban agriculture accounted for 84.4% of the Livelihood outcomes of the respondents. While non-farming activities contributed 17.6%.Most of the respondents (31.8%) participated in non-farming activities to generate extra income while their major constraints were shortage of land both in term of access and tenure (34.1%), limited access to resource and agricultural inputs (29.3%), and prohibitive urban policies and regulation (23.2%).

Keywords: poverty throes, urban agriculture, rigors of farming, non-farming, married state

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Authors: Vicente Espinola, Luis Torres, Christhian Gonzalez

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Entrepreneurship is a topic of current interest in Mexico and the World, which has been fostered through public policies with great impact on its generation. The strategies used in Mexico have not been successful, being motivational strategies aimed at the masses with the intention that someone in the process generates a venture. The strategies used for its development have been "picking of winners" favoring those who have already overcome the initial stages of undertaking without effective support. This situation shows a disarticulation that appears even more in social entrepreneurship; due to this, it is relevant to research on those elements that could develop them and thus integrate a model of entrepreneurship and social innovation for Mexico. Social entrepreneurship should be generating social innovation, which is translated into business models in order to make the benefits reach the population. These models are proposed putting the social impact before the economic impact, without forgetting its sustainability in the medium and long term. In this work, we present a simple model of innovation and social entrepreneurship for Guanajuato, Mexico. This algorithm was based on how social innovation could be generated in a systemic way for Mexico through different institutions that promote innovation. In this case, the technological parks of the state of Guanajuato were studied because these are considered one of the areas of Mexico where its main objectives are to make technology transfer to companies but overlooking the social sector and entrepreneurs. An experimental design of n = 60 was carried out with potential entrepreneurs to identify their perception of the social approach that the enterprises should have, the skills they consider required to create a venture, as well as their interest in generating ventures that solve social problems. This experiment had a 2K design, the value of k = 3 and the computational simulation was performed in R statistical language. A simple model of interconnected variables is proposed, which allows us to identify where it is necessary to increase efforts for the generation of social enterprises. The 96.67% of potential entrepreneurs expressed interest in ventures that solve social problems. In the analysis of the variables interaction, it was identified that the isolated development of entrepreneurial skills would only replicate the generation of traditional ventures. The variable of social approach presented positive interactions, which may influence the generation of social entrepreneurship if this variable was strengthened and permeated in the processes of training and development of entrepreneurs. In the future, it will be necessary to analyze the institutional actors that are present in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem, in order to analyze the interaction necessary to strengt the innovation and social entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Keywords: social innovation, model, entrepreneurship, technological parks

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Authors: Yusuf Ahmad Sani, Adamu Alhaji Yakubu, Alhaji Abdullahi Jamilu, Joel Omeke, Ibrahim Jumare Sambo

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With the rising global threat of food security, cancer, and related diseases (carcinogenic) because of increased usage of inorganic substances in agricultural food production, the Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock of the Republic of Turkey organized an International Workshop on Organic Agriculture between 8 – 12th December 2014 at the International Agricultural Research and Training Center, Izmir. About 21 countries, including Nigeria, were invited to attend the training workshop. Several topics on organic agriculture were presented by renowned scholars, ranging from regulation, certification, crop, animal, seed production, pest and disease management, soil composting, and marketing of organic agricultural products, among others. This paper purposely selected two countries (Macedonia and Iran) out of the 21 countries to assess their level of development in terms of organic agriculture as compared to Nigeria. Macedonia, with a population of only 2.1 million people as of 2014, started organic agriculture in 2005 with only 266ha of land and has grown significantly to over 5,000ha in 2010, covering such crops as cereals (62%), forage (20%) fruit orchard (7%), vineyards (5%), vegetables (4%), oil seed and industrial crops (1%) each. Others are organic beekeeping from 110 hives to over 15,000 certified colonies. As part of government commitment, the level of government subsidy for organic products was 30% compared to the direct support for conventional agricultural products. About 19 by-laws were introduced on organic agricultural production that was fully consistent with European Union regulations. The republic of Iran, on the other hand, embarked on organic agriculture for the fact, that the country recorded the highest rate of cancer disease in the world, with over 30,000 people dying every year and 297 people diagnosed every day. However, the host country, Turkey, is well advanced in organic agricultural production and now being the largest exporter of organic products to Europe and other parts of the globe. A technical trip to one of the villages that are under the government scheme on organic agriculture reveals that organic agriculture was based on market-demand-driven and the support of the government was very visible, linking the farmers with private companies that provide inputs to them while the companies purchase the products at harvest with high premium price. However, in Nigeria, research on organic agriculture was very recent, and there was very scanty information on organic agriculture due to poor documentation and very low awareness, even among the elites. The paper, therefore, recommends that the government should provide funds to NARIs to conduct research on organic agriculture and to establish clear government policy and good pre-conditions for sustainable organic agricultural production in the country.

Keywords: organic agriculture, food security, food safety, food nutrition

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Authors: Willie Eselebor

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Environmental governance is not new, but may consist of a series of actions taken to establish sanity and ensure sustainable environment. While there is a growing accord linking disaster risk reduction with the management of environment and natural resources, little is known about failure to act which constitute vulnerability and how improved governance reduces risk globally. The paper reviews emerging trends in the field of application of governance tools and approaches for reducing disaster risk. The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) enjoin all stakeholders to stimulate the sustainable use and management of ecosystems, which promote the implementation of integrated environmental and natural resource planning that incorporate disaster risk reduction, including structural and non-structural measures, such as integrated management of fragile ecosystems. The methodology adopted is a case study of disaster-prone sites, prompting guided analysis on which hazards are traceable to environmental degradation, why a degraded environment reduces community resilience; how healthy ecosystems provide natural defense, and which opportunities exist to address gaps in reduction of disasters in Nigeria. The paper further analyses the interaction between disaster risk and environmental change. It is established that environmental governance remains a challenge; which implies that there is the need for a shift in traditional approaches to disaster risk management; exploring new initiatives and allowing environmental managers to be docketed as disaster risk managers in context, potentially opening up a window of dialogue on disaster risk management.

Keywords: disaster, ecosystem, environment, risk

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Authors: Cornelius Michael Ekenta

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The study determined institutional and technological factors that influence the adoption of tenera oil palm production practices with a gender dimension among smallholder farmers in Edo State, Nigeria. Primary data were generated with use of questionnaire administered to 155 males and 137 female respondents. Results show that the level of adoption of tenera oil palm production practices was low for both male and females. Tobi regression result shows that land ownership structure and affordability at 1% significance influenced male adoption of tenera oil palm production practices while age and level of income at 1% significance influenced female in the adoption. The major roles of male as reported in adopting process were purchase of seedlings, clearing of bush for planting and selling of cut bunches while the major roles of female were periodic weeding, gathering of cut bunches and mulching of palm field. The major constraint faced by male in adoption process were high cost of labour while for females is drudgery nature of the work. The study recommended that the Land Use Act of 1978 should be enforced to help women and non-indigenes to have sizeable farm lands, Government should empower Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) by employing more extension personnel to increase their contacts with the farmers.

Keywords: gender, adoption, variety, oil, tenera, Edo

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Authors: Aishik Deb, Rituparna Sinha

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We have developed an algorithm to detect the abnormal segment/"structural variation in the genome across a number of samples. We have worked on simulated as well as real data from the BAM Files and have designed a segmentation algorithm where abnormal segments are detected. This algorithm aims to improve the accuracy and performance of the existing CNV-CH algorithm. The next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach is very fast and can generate large sequences in a reasonable time. So the huge volume of sequence information gives rise to the need for Big Data and parallel approaches of segmentation. Therefore, we have designed a map-reduce approach for the existing CNV-CH algorithm where a large amount of sequence data can be segmented and structural variations in the human genome can be detected. We have compared the efficiency of the traditional and map-reduce algorithms with respect to precision, sensitivity, and F-Score. The advantages of using our algorithm are that it is fast and has better accuracy. This algorithm can be applied to detect structural variations within a genome, which in turn can be used to detect various genetic disorders such as cancer, etc. The defects may be caused by new mutations or changes to the DNA and generally result in abnormally high or low base coverage and quantification values.

Keywords: cancer detection, convex hull segmentation, map reduce, next generation sequencing

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Authors: Yasith Mindula Saipath Wickramasinghe

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Augmented reality applications require a high processing power to load, render and live stream high-definition AR models and virtual scenes; it also requires device sensors to work excessively to coordinate with internal hardware, OS and give the expected outcome in advance features like object detection, real time tracking, as well as voice and text recognition. Excessive thermal generation due to these advanced functionalities has become a major research problem as it is unbearable for smaller mobile devices to manage such heat increment and battery drainage as it causes physical harm to the devices in the long term. Therefore, effective thermal management is one of the major requirements in Augmented Reality application development. As this paper discusses major causes for this issue, it also provides possible solutions in the means of operating system adaptations as well as further research on best coding practises to optimize the application performance that reduces thermal excessive thermal generation.

Keywords: augmented reality, device thermal management, GPU, operating systems, device I/O, overheating

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Authors: Adewale Oladapo, Carolyn A. Afolami

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Agricultural production should be the major financial contributor to the Nigerian economy; however, the petroleum sector had taken the importance attached to this sector. The situation tends to be more worsening unless necessary attention is given to adequate credit supply among food crop farmers. This research analyses the effect of credit use on the technical efficiency of cassava farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from two hundred randomly selected cassava farmers through a multistage sampling procedure in the study area. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Findings revealed that 95.0% of the farmers were male while 56.0% had no formal education and were married. The SFA showed that cassava farmer’s efficiency increased with farm size, herbicide and planting material at 5%,10% and 1% respectively but decreased with fertilizer application at 1% level while farmers’ age, education, household size, experience and access to credit increased technical inefficiency at 10%. The study concluded that cassava farmers are technically inefficient in the use of farm resources and recommended that adequate and workable agricultural policy measures that will ensure availability and efficient fertilizer distribution should be put in place to increase efficiency. Furthermore, the government should encourage youth participation in cassava production and ensure improvement in farmer’s access to credit to increase farmer’s technical efficiency.

Keywords: agriculture, access to credit, cassava farmers, technical efficiency

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Authors: Oludare Olupemi Ezekiel

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This research examines the rhythmic structure of Sakara music by tracing its roots and analyzing the various rhythmic patterns of this neo-traditional genre, as well as the contributions of the major exponents and contemporary practitioners, using these as a model for understanding and establishing African rhythms. Biography of the major exponents and contemporary practitioners, interviews and participant observational methods were used to elicit information. Samples of the genre which were chosen at random were transcribed, notated and analyzed for academic use and documentation. The research affirmed that rhythms such as the Hemiola, Cross-rhythm, Clave or Bell rhythm, Percussive, Speech and Melodic rhythm and other relevant rhythmic theories were prevalent and applicable to Sakara music, while making important contributions to musical scholarship through its analysis of the music. The analysis and discussions carried out in the research pointed towards a conclusion that the Yoruba musicians are guided by some preconceptions and sound musical considerations in making their rhythmic patterns, used as compositional techniques and not mere incidental occurrence. These rhythmic patterns, with its consequential socio-cultural connotations, enhance musical values and national identity in Nigeria. The study concludes by recommending that musicologists need to carry out more research into this and other neo-traditional genres in order to advance the globalisation of African music.

Keywords: compositional techniques, globalisation, identity, neo-traditional, rhythmic theory, Sakara music

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Authors: David Obafemi Adebayo

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An occupational challenge has been identified as one of the factors that could cripple set goals and life ambitions of an Internally Displaced Person (IDP). The main thrust of this study is therefore, explore the use of life support/adjustment strategy with a view to repositioning these internally displaced persons in Nigeria in revamping their goals and achieving their life-long ambitions. The study intends to investigate whether there exist, on the basis of gender, religion, years of working experience and educational qualification any significant difference in the occupational challenges and adjustment strategies of IDPs. The study being descriptive of survey type adopted a multi-stage sampling technique to select the minimum of 400 internally displaced persons from IDP camps in Yimitu Village, Waru District in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The research instrument used for the study was a researcher-designed questionnaire entitled “Questionnaire on Occupational Challenges and Adjustment Strategy of Internally Displaced Persons (QOCASIDPs)”. Eight null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha levels of significance. Frequency counts and percentages, means and rank order, t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) (where applicable) were employed to analyze the data. The Study determined whether occupational challenges of internally displaced persons included loss of employment, vocational discrimination, marginalization by employers of labour, isolation due to joblessness, lack of occupational freedom, which were found to be true. The results were discussed in line with the findings. The study established the place of notable adjustment strategies adopted by internally displaced person like engaging in petty trading, sourcing soft loans from NGOs, setting up small-scale businesses in groups, acquiring new skills, engaging in further education, among others. The study established that there was no significant difference in the occupational challenges of IDPs on the basis of years of working experience and highest educational qualifications, though there was significant difference on the basis of gender as well as religion. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made.

Keywords: internally displaced persons, occupational challenges, adjustment strategies, Abuja-Nigeria

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Authors: P. Ghosh, S. B. Sharma

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The growing problem of food waste is causing unacceptable economic, environmental and social impacts across the globe. In Australia, food waste is estimated at about AU$8 billion per year; however, information on the extent of wastage at different stages of the food value chain from farm to fork is very limited. This study aims to identify causes for and extent of food waste at wholesaler stage of the food value chain in the state of Western Australia. It also explores approaches applied to reduce and utilize food waste by the wholesalers. The study was carried out at Perth city market in Caning Vale, the main wholesale distribution centre for fruits and vegetables in Western Australia. A survey questionnaire was prepared and shared with 51 wholesalers and their responses to 10 targeted questions on quantity of produce (fruits and vegetables) delivery received and further supplied, reasons for waste generation and innovations applied or being considered to reduce and utilize food waste. Data were computed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 21). Among the wholesalers 52% were primary wholesalers (buy produce directly from growers) and 48% were secondary wholesalers (buy produce in bulk from major wholesalers and supply to the local retail market, caterers, and customers with specific requirements). Average fruit and vegetable waste was 180 Kilogram per week per primary wholesaler and 30 Kilogram per secondary wholesaler. Based on this survey, the fruit and vegetable waste at wholesaler stage was estimated at about 286 tonnes per year. The secondary wholesalers distributed pre-ordered commodities, which minimized the potential to cause waste. Non-parametric test (Mann Whitney test) was carried out to assess contributions of wholesalers to waste generation. Over 56% of secondary wholesalers generally had nothing to bin as waste. Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis showed positive correlation (r = 0.425; P=0.01) between the quantity of produce received and waste generated. Low market demand was the predominant reason identified by the wholesalers for waste generation. About a third of the wholesalers suggested that high cosmetic standards for fruits and vegetables - appearance, shape, and size - should be relaxed to reduce waste. Donation of unutilized fruits and vegetables to charity was overwhelmingly (95%) considered as one of the best options for utilization of discarded produce. The extent of waste at other stages of fruit and vegetable supply chain is currently being studied.

Keywords: food waste, fruits and vegetables, supply chain, waste generation

Procedia PDF Downloads 303

Authors: Adegbite Bashiru Adeniyi, Olaniyi Akeem Olawale, Ayobamidele Sinatu Juliet

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The study was carried out in the 6 South Western states of Nigeria to analyze socio-economic characteristic of garri processors and their anthropometric qualities with respect to modern technologies used in garri processing. About 20 respondents were randomly selected from each of the 6 workstations purposively considered for the study due to their daily processing activities already attracted high patronage of customers. These include Oguntolu village (Ogun State), Igoba-Akure (Ondo State), Imo-Ilesa (Osun State), Odo Oba-Ileri (Oyo State), Irasa village (Ekiti State) and Epe in Lagos state. Interview schedule was conducted for 120 respondents to elicit information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools. It was observed from the findings that respondents were in their most productive age range (36-45 years) except Ogun state where majority (45%) were relatively older than 45 years. A fewer processors were much younger than 26 years old. It furthers revealed that not less than 55% have body weight greater than 50.0 kilogram, also not less than 70% were taller than 1.5 meter. So also, the hand length and hand thickness of the majority were long and bulky which are considered suitable for operating some modern and improved technologies in garri-frying process. This information could be used by various technological developers to enhance production of modern equipment and tools for a greater efficiency.

Keywords: agro-business, anthromorphic, modernization, proficiency

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Authors: Umar Shehu Umar

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Contract farming is a viable strategy agribusinesses rely on to strengthen vertical coordination. However, low contract compliance remains a significant setback to agribusinesses' contract performance. The present study aims to understand what drives smallholder farmers’ contract compliance behaviour. Qualitative information was collected through Focus Group Discussions to enrich the design of the survey questionnaire administered on a sample of 300 randomly selected farmers contracted by the Dangote Tomato Processing Plant (DTPP) in four regions of northern Nigeria. Novel transaction level data of tomato sales covering one season were collected in addition to socio-economic information of the sampled farmers. Binary logistic model results revealed that open fresh market tomato prices and payment delays negatively affect farmers' compliance behaviour while quantity harvested, education level and input provision correlated positively with compliance. The study suggests that contract compliance will increase if contracting firms devise a reliable and timely payment plan (e.g., digital payment), continue input and service provisions (e.g., improved seeds, extension services) and incentives (e.g., loyalty rewards, bonuses) in the contract.

Keywords: contract farming, compliance, farmers and processors., smallholder

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Authors: Malik Abid Hussain Khokhar, Muhammad Naveed Tahir, Muhammad Amin

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Energy demand has been increased manifold due to increasing population, urban sprawl and rapid socio-economic improvements. Low water capacity in dams for continuation of hydrological power, land cover and land use are the key parameters which are creating problems for more energy production. Overall installed hydropower capacity of Pakistan is more than 35000 MW whereas Pakistan is producing up to 17000 MW and the requirement is more than 22000 that is resulting shortfall of 5000 - 7000 MW. Therefore, there is a dire need to develop small hydropower to fulfill the up-coming requirements. In this regards, excessive rainfall, snow nurtured fast flowing perennial tributaries and streams in northern mountain regions of Pakistan offer a gigantic scope of hydropower potential throughout the year. Rivers flowing in KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) province, GB (Gilgit Baltistan) and AJK (Azad Jammu & Kashmir) possess sufficient water availability for rapid energy growth. In the backdrop of such scenario, small hydropower plants are believed very suitable measures for more green environment and power sustainable option for the development of such regions. Aim of this study is to estimate hydropower potential sites for small hydropower plants and stream distribution as per steam network available in the available basins in the study area. The proposed methodology will focus on features to meet the objectives i.e. site selection of maximum hydropower potential for hydroelectric generation using well emerging GIS tool SWAT as hydrological run-off model on the Neelum, Kunhar and the Dor Rivers’ basins. For validation of the results, NDWI will be computed to show water concentration in the study area while overlaying on geospatial enhanced DEM. This study will represent analysis of basins, watershed, stream links, and flow directions with slope elevation for hydropower potential to produce increasing demand of electricity by installing small hydropower stations. Later on, this study will be benefitted for other adjacent regions for further estimation of site selection for installation of such small power plants as well.

Keywords: energy, stream network, basins, SWAT, evapotranspiration

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Authors: Segun Jacob Ogunkunle

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The study examined the moderating effects of future career interest in science and gender on achievement in basic science of students taught in a simulated laboratory and enriched laboratory guide material environments. It adopted the pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design with a 3x2x2 factorial matrix. A total of 277 (130 males, 147 females; ± 17 years) junior secondary three students randomly selected from six purposively selected secondary schools based on availability of functional computer and physics laboratories participated in the study. Data were collected using achievement test in basic science (r=0.87) and future career interest in science (r=0.99) while analysis of covariance and estimated marginal means were used to test three hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study show that future career interest in science had significant effect on students’ achievement in basic science whereas gender did not. The interaction effect of future career interest in science and gender on students’ achievement in basic science was not significant. It is therefore recommended that prior knowledge of students’ future career interest in science could be used to improve participation in basic science practical in order to enhance achievement in biology, chemistry, and physics at the post-basic education level in Nigeria.

Keywords: future career interest in science, basic science, simulated laboratory, enriched laboratory guide materials, achievement in science

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Authors: Md. Moniruzzaman

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The energy of ocean waves across a large part of the earth is inexhaustible. The whole world will benefit if this endless energy can be used in an easy way. The coastal countries will easily be able to meet their own energy needs. The purpose of this article is to use the infinite energy of the ocean wave in a simple way. i.e. a method of efficient use of wave energy. The paper starts by discussing various forces acting on a floating object and, afterward, about the method. And then a calculation for a 73.39MW hydropower from the tidal wave. Used some sketches/pictures. Finally, the conclusion states the possibilities and advantages.

Keywords: anchor, electricity, floating object, pump, ship city, wave energy

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Authors: Chitra Rajagopal, Indra Deo Kumar, Ruchi Joshi, Binoy Bhargavan

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Role of fighter planes in modern network centric military warfare scenarios has changed significantly in the recent past. New generation fighter planes have multirole capability of engaging both air and ground targets with high precision. Multirole aircraft undertakes missions such as Air to Air combat, Air defense, Air to Surface role (including Air interdiction, Close air support, Maritime attack, Suppression and Destruction of enemy air defense), Reconnaissance, Electronic warfare missions, etc. Designers have primarily focused on development of technologies to enhance the combat performance of the fighter planes and very little attention is given to human factor aspects of technologies. Unique physical and psychological challenges are imposed on the pilots to meet operational requirements during these missions. Newly evolved technologies have enhanced aircraft performance in terms of its speed, firepower, stealth, electronic warfare, situational awareness, and vulnerability reduction capabilities. This paper highlights the impact of emerging technologies on human factors for various military operations and missions. Technologies such as ‘cooperative knowledge-based systems’ to aid pilot’s decision making in military conflict scenarios as well as simulation technologies to enhance human performance is also studied as a part of research work. Current and emerging pilot protection technologies and systems which form part of the integrated life support systems in new generation fighter planes is discussed. System safety analysis application to quantify the human reliability in military operations is also studied.

Keywords: combat effectiveness, emerging technologies, human factors, systems safety analysis

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Authors: Olurankinse Felix

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Local governments in Ondo State Nigeria are the third tier of government saddled with the responsibility of providing governance and economic services at the grassroots. To be able to do this, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provided that a proportion of Federation Account be allocated to them in addition to their internally generated revenue. From the allocation and other incidental sources of revenue, the local governments are expected to provide basic infrastructures and other social amenities to better the lots of the rural dwellers. Nevertheless, local governments’ performances in terms of provision of social amenities are without questioning and quite not encouraging. Assessing the performance of local governments in this period of dearth and scarcity of resources is highly indispensable more so that the activities of local governments’ staff are bedeviled and characterized with fraud, corruption and mismanagement. Considering the direct impact of the consequences of their action on the living standard of the rural dwellers therefore calls for the need to evaluate their level of performances using capital budgeting approach. The paper being a time series study adopts the survey design. Data were obtained through secondary source mainly from the Annual financial statements and publication of approved budgets estimates covering the period of study (2008-2012). The use of ratio analysis was employed in analyzing the comparative level of performances of the local governments under study. The result of the study shows that less than 30% of the local governments were able to harness the budgetary allocation to provide amenities to the beneficiaries while majority of the local governments were involved in unethical conduct ranging from theft of fund, corruption, diversion of funds and extra-budgetary activities. Also, there is poor internally generated revenue to complement the statutory allocation and besides, the monthly withholding of larger portions of local government share by the state in the name of joint account were also seen as contributory factors. The study recommends the need for transparency and accountability in public fund management through the oversight function of the state house of assembly. Also local government should be made to be autonomous and independent of the state by jettisoning the idea of joint account.

Keywords: performance, transparency and accountability, capital budgeting, joint account, local government autonomy

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Authors: Javed Iqbal

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The growing need for energy by the human society and depletion of conventional energy sources demands a renewable, safe, infinite, low-cost and omnipresent energy source. One of the most suitable ways to solve the foreseeable world’s energy crisis is to use the power of the sun. Photovoltaic devices are especially of wide interest as they can convert solar energy to electricity. Recently the best performing solar cells are silicon-based cells. However, silicon cells are expensive, rigid in structure and have a large timeline for the payback of cost and electricity. Organic photovoltaic cells are cheap, flexible and can be manufactured in a continuous process. Therefore, organic photovoltaic cells are an extremely favorable replacement. Organic photovoltaic cells utilize sunlight as energy and convert it into electricity through the use of conductive polymers/ small molecules to separate electrons and electron holes. A major challenge for these new organic photovoltaic cells is the efficiency, which is low compared with the traditional silicon solar cells. To overcome this challenge, usually two straightforward strategies have been considered: (1) reducing the band-gap of molecular donors to broaden the absorption range, which results in higher short circuit current density (JSC) of devices, and (2) lowering the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy of molecular donors so as to increase the open-circuit voltage (VOC) of applications devices.8 Keeping in mind the cost of chemicals it is hard to try many materials on test basis. The best way is to find the suitable material in the bulk. For this purpose, we use computational approach to design molecules based on our organic chemistry knowledge and determine their physical and electronic properties. In this study, we did DFT calculations with different options to get high open circuit voltage and after getting suitable data from calculation we finally did synthesis of a novel D–π–A–π–D type low band-gap small molecular donor material (ZOPTAN-TPA). The Aarylene vinylene based bis(arylhalide) unit containing a cyanostilbene unit acts as a low-band- gap electron-accepting block, and is coupled with triphenylamine as electron-donating blocks groups. The motivation for choosing triphenylamine (TPA) as capped donor was attributed to its important role in stabilizing the separated hole from an exciton and thus improving the hole-transporting properties of the hole carrier.3 A π-bridge (thiophene) is inserted between the donor and acceptor unit to reduce the steric hindrance between the donor and acceptor units and to improve the planarity of the molecule. The ZOPTAN-TPA molecule features a low HOMO level of 5.2 eV and an optical energy gap of 2.1 eV. Champion OSCs based on a solution-processed and non-annealed active-material blend of [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and ZOPTAN-TPA in a mass ratio of 2:1 exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 1.9 % and a high open-circuit voltage of over 1.0 V.

Keywords: high open circuit voltage, donor, triphenylamine, organic solar cells

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Authors: Abdullahi Garba

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The study investigated the effects of practical activities on performance among biology students in Zaria education zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The population consists of 18 public schools in the Zaria Education Zone with a total number of 4,763 students. A random sample of 115 students was selected from the population in the study area. The study design was quasi-experimental, which adopted the pre-test, post-test experimental, and control group design. The experimental group was exposed to practical activities, while the control group was taught with the lecture method. A validated instrument, a biology performance test (BPT) with a reliability coefficient of 0.82, was used to gather data which were analyzed using a t-test and paired sample t-test. Two research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The hypotheses were tested at p≤0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that: there was a significant difference in the academic performance of students exposed to practical activities compared to their counterparts; there was no significant difference in performance between male and female Biology students exposed to practical activities. The recommendation given was that practical activities should be encouraged in the teaching and learning of Biology for better understanding. The Federal and State Ministry of Education should sponsor biology teachers for training and retraining of teachers to improve the academic performance of students in the subject.

Keywords: biology, practical, activity, performance

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Authors: V. Morenov, E. Leusheva

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Power supplying of well drilling on oil and gas fields at ambient air low temperatures is characterized by increased requirements of electric and heat energy. Power costs for heating of production facilities, technological and living objects may several times exceed drilling equipment electric power consumption. Power supplying of prospecting and exploitation drilling objects is usually done by means of local electric power structures based on diesel power stations. In the meantime, exploitation of oil fields is accompanied by vast quantities of extracted associated petroleum gas, and while developing gas fields there are considerable amounts of natural gas and gas condensate. In this regard implementation of gas-powered self-sufficient power units functioning on produced crude products for power supplying is seen as most potential. For these purposes gas turbines (GT) or gas reciprocating engines (GRE) may be used. In addition gas-powered units are most efficiently used in cogeneration mode - combined heat and power production. Conducted research revealed that GT generate more heat than GRE while producing electricity. One of the latest GT design are microturbines (MT) - devices that may be efficiently exploited in combined heat and power mode. In conditions of ambient air low temperatures and high velocity wind sufficient heat supplying is required for both technological process, specifically for drilling mud heating, and for maintaining comfortable working conditions at the rig. One of the main heat regime parameters are the heat losses. Due to structural peculiarities of the rig most of the heat losses occur at cold air infiltration through the technological apertures and hatchways and heat transition of isolation constructions. Also significant amount of heat is required for working temperature sustaining of the drilling mud. Violation of circulation thermal regime may lead to ice build-up on well surfaces and ice blockages in armature elements. That is why it is important to ensure heating of the drilling mud chamber according to ambient air temperature. Needed heat power will be defined by heat losses of the chamber. Noting heat power required for drilling structure functioning, it is possible to create combined heat and power complex based on MT for satisfying consumer power needs and at the same time lowering power generation costs. As a result, combined power supplying scheme for multiple well drilling utilizing heat of MT flue gases was developed.

Keywords: combined heat, combined power, drilling, electric supply, gas-powered units, heat supply

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Authors: Prarthana Gowda, Tushar Sakorikar, Siva K. Reddy, Darim B. Ferry, Abha Misra

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Graphene, a two-dimensional carbon allotrope has demonstrated excellent electrical, mechanical and optical properties. A tunable band gap of grapheme demonstrated broad band absorption of light with a response time of picoseconds, however it suffers a fast recombination of the photo generated carriers. Many reports have explored to overcome this problem; in this presentation, we discuss defect induced enhanced photoresponse in a few layer graphene (FLG) due to exposure of infrared (IR) radiation. The two and four-fold enhancement in the photocurrent is achieved by addition of multiwalled carbon nano tubes (MWCNT) to an FLG surface and also creating the wrinkles in the FLG (WG) respectively. In our study, it is also inferred that the photo current generation is highly dependent on the morphological defects on the graphene. It is observed that the FLG (without defects) generates the photo current instantaneously, and after a prolonged exposure to the IR radiation decays the generation rate. Importantly, the presence of MWCNT on FLG enhances the stability and WG presented both stable as well as enhanced photo response.

Keywords: graphene, multiwalled carbon nano tubes, wrinkled graphene, photo detector, photo current

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Authors: Christopher A. Igene, Jonathan O. Ighodalo

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Youths play a critical role in the agricultural transformation of any developing nation such as Nigeria. Hence, the preparation of any nation for productive life depends on the policies and programmes designed for its youths. Studies have shown that children and youths contribute significantly in agricultural activities. Youths have vigour and prone to physical work, they constitute a great percentage of labour force in the country. It is of necessity that every policy on national development must of necessity take cognizance of the youths. Hence, the focus on youths in agricultural extension outreaches most especially, the young farmers club. It is an out-of-school education in agriculture and home economics for rural youth through learning by doing. Young farmers club in schools enables the young to learn and acquire those attributes that will enable them grown into useful and mature adult. There appears to be numerous constrains in the use of youths in extension, they are inadequate personnel, poor funding of agricultural sector, poor marketing channels, lack of good roads, others are poor input and lack of information. However, there is a need for Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) to organize workshop for secondary students and agricultural science teachers, schools to organize seminars and workshops for secondary schools who are members of Young Farmers Club (YFC). ADP should also organize agricultural show to encourage students to be members of Young Farmers Club (YFC).

Keywords: agricultural extension, agricultural role, students, youths, young farmers club (YFC)

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: L. Abubakar, B. M. Sokoto, I. U. Mohammed, M. S. Na’allah, A. Mohammad, A. N. Garba, T. S. Bubuche

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Onion (Allium cepa var. cepa L.), is the most important species of the Allium group belonging to family Alliaceae and genus Allium. It can be regarded as the single important vegetable species in the world after tomatoes. Despite the similarities, which bring the species together, the genus is a strikingly diverse one, with more than five hundred species, which are perennial and mostly bulbous plants. Out of these, only seven species are in cultivation, and five are the most important species of the cultivated Allium. However, Allium cepa (onion) and Allium sativum (Garlic) are the two major cultivated species grown all over the world of which the onion crop is the most important. Heritability defined as the proportion of the observed total variability that is genetic, and its estimates from variance components give more useful information of genotypic variation from the total phenotypic differences and environmental effects on the individuals or families. It therefore guide the breeder with respect to the ease with which selection of traits can be carried out. Heritability estimates guide the breeder with respect to ease of selection of traits while correlations suggest how selection among characters can be practiced. Correlations explain relationship between characters and suggest how selection among characters can be practiced in breeding programmes. Highly significant correlations have been reported, between yield, maturity, rings/bulb and storage loss in onions. Similarly significant positive correlation exists between total bulb yield and plant height, leaf number/plant, bulb diameter and bulb yield/plant. Moderate positive correlations have been observed between maturity date and yield, dry matter content was highly correlated with soluble solids, and higher correlations were also observed between storage loss and soluble solids. The objective of the study is to determine heritability estimates and correlations for characters among onion cultivars of North Western Nigeria. This is envisaged will assist in the breeding of superior onion cultivars within the zone. Thirteen onion cultivars were collected during an expedition covering north western Nigeria and Southern part of Niger Republic during 2013, which are areas noted for onion production. The cultivars were evaluated at two locations; Sokoto, in Sokoto State and Jega in Kebbi State all in Nigeria during the 2013/14 onion season (dry season) under irrigation. Combined analysis of the results revealed fresh bulb yield is highly significantly positively correlated with bulb height and cured bulb yield, and significant positive correlation with plant height and bulb diameter. It also recorded significant negative correlation with mean No. of leaves/plant and non significant negative correlation with bolting %. Cured bulb yield (marketable yield) had highly significant positive correlation with mean bulb weight and fresh bulb yield/ha, with significant positive correlation with bulb height. It also recorded highly significant negative correlation with No. of leaves/plant and significant negative correlation with bolting % and non significant positive correlation with plant height and non significant negative correlation with bulb diameter. High broad sense heritability estimates were recorded for plant height, fresh bulb yield, number of leaves/plant, bolting % and cured bulb yield. Medium to low broad sense heritabilities were also observed for mean bulb weight, plant height and bulb diameter.

Keywords: correlation, heritability, onions, North Western Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: Zhen Cheng, Xinyu Dai, Shujian Huang, Jiajun Chen

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Recently, explanatory natural language inference has attracted much attention for the interpretability of logic relationship prediction, which is also known as explanation generation for Natural Language Inference (NLI). Existing explanation generators based on discriminative Encoder-Decoder architecture have achieved noticeable results. However, we find that these discriminative generators usually generate explanations with correct evidence but incorrect logic semantic. It is due to that logic information is implicitly encoded in the premise-hypothesis pairs and difficult to model. Actually, logic information identically exists between premise-hypothesis pair and explanation. And it is easy to extract logic information that is explicitly contained in the target explanation. Hence we assume that there exists a latent space of logic information while generating explanations. Specifically, we propose a generative model called Variational Explanation Generator (VariationalEG) with a latent variable to model this space. Training with the guide of explicit logic information in target explanations, latent variable in VariationalEG could capture the implicit logic information in premise-hypothesis pairs effectively. Additionally, to tackle the problem of posterior collapse while training VariaztionalEG, we propose a simple yet effective approach called Logic Supervision on the latent variable to force it to encode logic information. Experiments on explanation generation benchmark—explanation-Stanford Natural Language Inference (e-SNLI) demonstrate that the proposed VariationalEG achieves significant improvement compared to previous studies and yields a state-of-the-art result. Furthermore, we perform the analysis of generated explanations to demonstrate the effect of the latent variable.

Keywords: natural language inference, explanation generation, variational auto-encoder, generative model

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: F. O Anugom

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The general functions of the university amongst other things include teaching, research and community service. Universities are recognized as the apex of learning, accumulating and imparting knowledge and skills of all kinds to students to enable them to be productive, earn their living and to make optimum contributions to national development. This is equivalent to the production of human capital in the form of high level manpower needed to administer the educational society, be useful to the society and manage the economy. Quality has become a matter of major importance for university education in Nigeria. Accreditation is the systematic review of educational programs to ensure that acceptable standards of education, scholarship and infrastructure are being maintained. Accreditation ensures that institution maintain quality. The process is designed to determine whether or not an institution has met or exceeded the published standards for accreditation, and whether it is achieving its mission and stated purposes. Ensuring quality assurance in accreditation process falls in the hands of university management which justified the need for this study. This study examined accreditation and quality assurance: the management imperative. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The design was a correlation survey with a population of 2,893 university administrators out of which 578 Heads of department and Dean of faculties were sampled. The instrument for data collection was titled Programme Accreditation Exercise scale with high levels of reliability. The research questions were answered with Pearson ‘r’ statistics. T-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses. It was found among others that the quality of accredited programme depends on the level of funding of universities in Nigeria. It was also indicated that quality of programme accreditation and physical facilities of universities in Nigeria have high relationship. But it was also revealed that programme accreditation is positively related to staffing in Nigerian universities. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommend that academic administrators should be included in the team of those who ensure quality programs in the universities. Private sector partnership should be encouraged to fund programs to ensure quality of programme in the universities. Independent agencies should be engaged to monitor the activities of accreditation teams to avoid bias.

Keywords: accreditation, quality assurance, national universities commission , physical facilities, staffing

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Authors: Tahir Nawaz Cheema, Dumitru Baleanu, Ali Raza

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In this research work, we design intelligent computing through Bayesian Regularization artificial neural networks (BRANNs) introduced to solve the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases (Covid-19). The dynamical transmission is due to the interaction of people and its mathematical representation based on the system's nonlinear differential equations. The generation of the dataset of the Covid-19 model is exploited by the power of the explicit Runge Kutta method for different countries of the world like India, Pakistan, Italy, and many more. The generated dataset is approximately used for training, testing, and validation processes for every frequent update in Bayesian Regularization backpropagation for numerical behavior of the dynamics of the Covid-19 model. The performance and effectiveness of designed methodology BRANNs are checked through mean squared error, error histograms, numerical solutions, absolute error, and regression analysis.

Keywords: mathematical models, beysian regularization, bayesian-regularization backpropagation networks, regression analysis, numerical computing

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Zinc is a vital element required for growth and development. This fact makes zinc important, particularly for children. It maintains normal cellular structure and functions. This essential element appears to have protective effects against coronary artery disease and cardiomyopathy. Higher serum zinc levels are associated with lower risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). There is a significant association between low serum zinc levels and heart failure. Zinc may be a potential biomarker of cardiovascular health. High sensitive cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and cardiac myosin binding protein C (cMyBP-C) are new generation markers used for prediagnosis, diagnosis, and prognosis of CVDs. The aim of this study is to determine zinc as well as new generation cardiac markers profiles in children with normal body mass index (N-BMI), obese (OB), morbid obese (MO) children, and children with metabolic syndrome (MetS) findings. The association among them will also be investigated. Four study groups were constituted. The study protocol was approved by the institutional Ethics Committee of Tekirdag Namik Kemal University. Parents of the participants filled informed consent forms to participate in the study. Group 1 is composed of 44 children with N-BMI. Group 2 and Group 3 comprised 43 OB and 45 MO children, respectively. Forty-five MO children with MetS findings were included in Group 4. World Health Organization age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentile tables were used to constitute groups. These values were 15-85, 95-99, and above 99 for N-BMI, OB, and MO, respectively. Criteria for MetS findings were determined. Routine biochemical analyses, including zinc, were performed. High sensitive-cTnT and cMyBP-C concentrations were measured by kits based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay principle. Appropriate statistical tests within the scope of SPSS were used for the evaluation of the study data. p<0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Four groups were matched for age and gender. Decreased zinc concentrations were measured in Groups 2, 3, and 4 compared to Group 1. Groups did not differ from one another in terms of hs-cTnT. There were statistically significant differences between cMyBP-C levels of MetS group and N-BMI as well as OB groups. There was an increasing trend going from N-BMI group to MetS group. There were statistically significant negative correlations between zinc and hs-cTnT as well as cMyBP-C concentrations in MetS group. In conclusion, inverse correlations detected between zinc and new generation cardiac markers (hs-TnT and cMyBP-C) have pointed out that decreased levels of this physiologically essential trace element accompany increased levels of hs-cTnT as well as cMyBP-C in children with MetS. This finding emphasizes that both zinc and these new generation cardiac markers may be evaluated as biomarkers of cardiovascular health during severe childhood obesity precipitated with MetS findings and also suggested as the messengers of the future risk in the adulthood periods of children with MetS.

Keywords: cardiac myosin binding protein-C, cardiovascular diseases, children, high sensitive cardiac troponin T, obesity

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Authors: Olatunbosun Samuel Adekogbe

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This paper addresses the question of musical signification, revolving around nature and its natural divides; the paper tends to examine the roles of the dispositional apparatus of listeners to react to sounding environments through music as coordinated sound that focuses on the powerful strain between vibrational occurrences of sound and potentials of being structured. This paper sets out to examine music as a simple conventional design that does not allude to something beyond music and sound as a vehicle to communicate through production, perception, translation, and reaction with regard to melodic and semiotic functions of sounds. This paper adopts the application of questionnaire and evolutionary approach methods to probe musical adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behavioural responses to musical sense-making beyond the above-sketched dichotomies, with a major focus on the transition from acoustic-emotional sensibilities to musical meaning in the selected soundscapes. It was observed that music has emancipated itself from the level of mere acoustic processing of sounds to a functional description in terms of allowing music users to share experiences and interact with the soundscaping environment. The paper, therefore, concludes that the audience as music participants and listeners in the selected soundscapes have been conceived as adaptive devices in the paradigm shift, which can build up new semiotic linkages with the sounding environments in southwestern Nigeria.

Keywords: semiotics, sound, music, soundscape, environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 59