Abstract: Millions of girls are forcibly married during the
transitional period between puberty and adulthood. At a stage of
vulnerability cultural practices, religious rights and social standards
place her in a position where she is catapult into womanhood. An
advocate against forced child marriage could argue that child rights,
cultural rights, religious rights, right to marry, right to life, right to
health, right to education, right to be free from slavery, right to be
free from torture, right to consent to marriage are all violated by the
practice of child marriage. The author is this advocate and this paper
will present how some of these rights are violated and establish the
need for change.
Abstract: Chatter vibrations, occurring during cutting process,
cause vibration between the cutting tool and workpiece, which
deteriorates surface roughness and reduces tool life. The purpose of
this study is to investigate the influence of cutting parameters and
tool construction on surface roughness and vibration in turning of
aluminum alloy AA2024. A new design of cutting tool is proposed,
which is filled up with epoxy granite in order to improve damping
capacity of the tool. Experiments were performed at the lathe using
carbide cutting insert coated with TiC and two different cutting tools
made of AISI 5140 steel. Taguchi L9 orthogonal array was applied to
design of experiment and to optimize cutting conditions. By the help
of signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance the optimal cutting
condition and the effect of the cutting parameters on surface
roughness and vibration were determined. Effectiveness of Taguchi
method was verified by confirmation test. It was revealed that new
cutting tool with epoxy granite has reduced vibration and surface
roughness due to high damping properties of epoxy granite in
toolholder.
Abstract: Noninvasive diagnostics of diseases via breath
analysis has attracted considerable scientific and clinical interest for
many years and become more and more promising with the rapid
advancements in nanotechnology and biotechnology. The volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath, which are mainly
blood borne, particularly provide highly valuable information about
individuals’ physiological and pathophysiological conditions.
Additionally, breath analysis is noninvasive, real-time, painless, and
agreeable to patients. We have developed a wireless sensor array
based on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)-functionalized single-walled
carbon nanotubes (SWNT) for the detection of a number of
physiological indicators in breath. Seven DNA sequences were used
to functionalize SWNT sensors to detect trace amount of methanol,
benzene, dimethyl sulfide, hydrogen sulfide, acetone, and ethanol,
which are indicators of heavy smoking, excessive drinking, and
diseases such as lung cancer, breast cancer, and diabetes. Our test
results indicated that DNA functionalized SWNT sensors exhibit
great selectivity, sensitivity, and repeatability; and different
molecules can be distinguished through pattern recognition enabled
by this sensor array. Furthermore, the experimental sensing results
are consistent with the Molecular Dynamics simulated ssDNAmolecular
target interaction rankings. Thus, the DNA-SWNT sensor
array has great potential to be applied in chemical or biomolecular
detection for the noninvasive diagnostics of diseases and personal
health monitoring.
Abstract: This research paper portrays a comparative analysis of
thermomechanical behaviour of Shielded Metal Arc Welding
(SMAW) and Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) of low carbon
steel of AISI 1020 grade butt joints. The thermal history has been
obtained by experimental work. We have focused on temperature
dependent cooling rate as depicted by Adam’s two-dimensional
model. The effect of moving point heat source of SMAW and GTAW
on mechanical properties has been judged by optical and scanning
electron micrographs of different regions in weld joints. The
microhardness study has been carried to visualize the joint strength
due to formation of different phases.
Abstract: This paper discusses the thematic structure of Yoruba
popular music of Southwest Nigeria. It examines the use of themes
and variations in early and contemporary Juju music. The work is an
outcome of a research developed by the author in his doctoral studies
at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, with the aim of analyzing the
thematic and motivic developments in Yoruba popular genres.
Observations, interviews, live recordings and CDs were used as
methods for eliciting information. Field recordings and CDs of
selected musical samples were also transcribed and notated. The
research established the prevalent use of string of themes by Juju
musicians as a compositional technique in moving from one musical
section to another, as they communicate the verbal messages in their
song. These themes consist of the popular ‘call and response’ form
found in most African music, analogous to the western ‘subject and
answer’ style of the fugue or sonata form, although without the tonic–
dominant relations. Due to the short and repetitive form of African
melodies and rhythms, a theme is restated as a variation, where its
rhythmic and melodic motifs are stylistically developed and repeated,
but still retaining its recognizable core musical structure. The
findings of this study showed that Juju musicians generally often
employ a thematic plan where new themes are used to arrange the
songs into sections, and each theme is developed into variations in
order to further expand the music, eliminate monotony, and create
musical aesthetics, serving as hallmark of its musical identity. The
study established the musical and extra-musical attributes of the
genre, while recommending further research towards analyzing the
various compositional techniques employed in African popular
genres.
Abstract: The effects of the contact ball-lens on the soda lime
glass in laser thermal cleavage with a cw Nd-YAG laser were
investigated in this study. A contact ball-lens was adopted to generate
a bending force on the crack formation of the soda-lime glass in the
laser cutting process. The Nd-YAG laser beam (wavelength of 1064
nm) was focused through the ball-lens and transmitted to the soda-lime
glass, which was coated with a carbon film on the surface with a
bending force from a ball-lens to generate a tensile stress state on the
surface cracking. The fracture was controlled by the contact ball-lens
and a straight cutting was tested to demonstrate the feasibility.
Experimental observations on the crack propagation from the leading
edge, main section and trailing edge of the glass sheet were compared
with various mechanical and thermal loadings. Further analyses on the
stress under various laser powers and contact ball loadings were made
to characterize the innovative technology. The results show that the distributions of the side crack at the
leading and trailing edges are mainly dependent on the boundary
condition, contact force, cutting speed and laser power. With the
increase of the mechanical and thermal loadings, the region of the side
cracks might be dramatically reduced with proper selection of the
geometrical constrains. Therefore the application of the contact
ball-lens is a possible way to control the fracture in laser cleavage with
improved cutting qualities.
Abstract: The plastic industry plays very important role in the
economy of any country. It is generally among the leading share of
the economy of the country. Since metals and their alloys are very
rarely available on the earth. Therefore, to produce plastic products
and components, which finds application in many industrial as well
as household consumer products is beneficial. Since 50% plastic
products are manufactured by injection moulding process. For
production of better quality product, we have to control quality
characteristics and performance of the product. The process
parameters plays a significant role in production of plastic, hence the
control of process parameter is essential. In this paper the effect of
the parameters selection on injection moulding process has been
described. It is to define suitable parameters in producing plastic
product. Selecting the process parameter by trial and error is neither
desirable nor acceptable, as it is often tends to increase the cost and
time. Hence, optimization of processing parameter of injection
moulding process is essential. The experiments were designed with
Taguchi’s orthogonal array to achieve the result with least number of
experiments. Plastic material polypropylene is studied. Tensile
strength test of material is done on universal testing machine, which
is produced by injection moulding machine. By using Taguchi
technique with the help of MiniTab-14 software the best value of
injection pressure, melt temperature, packing pressure and packing
time is obtained. We found that process parameter packing pressure
contribute more in production of good tensile plastic product.
Abstract: The paper is focused on the application of the security
audit method on the selected objects of the critical infrastructure. The
emphasis is put on security audit method to find gaps in the critical
infrastructure security. The theoretical part describes objects of the
critical infrastructure. The practical part describes using of the
security audit method. The main emphasis was put on the protection
of the critical infrastructure in the Czech Republic.
Abstract: The customers use the best compromise criterion
between price and quality of service (QoS) to select or change
their Service Provider (SP). The SPs share the same market and
are competing to attract more customers to gain more profit. Due
to the divergence of SPs interests, we believe that this situation is a
non-cooperative game of price and QoS. The game converges to an
equilibrium position known Nash Equilibrium (NE). In this work, we
formulate a game theoretic framework for the dynamical behaviors
of SPs. We use Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to find the price and
QoS strategies that maximize the profit for each SP and illustrate
the corresponding strategy in NE. In order to quantify how this NE
point is performant, we perform a detailed analysis of the price of
anarchy induced by the NE solution. Finally, we provide an extensive
numerical study to point out the importance of considering price and
QoS as a joint decision parameter.
Abstract: The increase of technogenic and natural accidents,
accompanied by air pollution, for example, by combustion products,
leads to the necessity of respiratory protection. This work is devoted to the development of a calorimetric method
and a device which allows investigating quickly the kinetics of
carbon dioxide sorption by chemisorbents on the base of potassium
superoxide in order to assess the protective properties of respiratory
protective closed circuit apparatus. The features of the traditional approach for determining the
sorption properties in a thin layer of chemisorbent are described, as
well as methods and devices, which can be used for the sorption
kinetics study. The authors developed an approach (as opposed to the traditional
approach) based on the power measurement of internal heat sources
in the chemisorbent layer. The emergence of the heat sources is a
result of exothermic reaction of carbon dioxide sorption. This
approach eliminates the necessity of chemical analysis of samples
and can significantly reduce the time and material expenses during
chemisorbents testing. Error of determining the volume fraction of adsorbed carbon
dioxide by the developed method does not exceed 12%. Taking into
account the efficiency of the method, we consider that it is a good
alternative to traditional methods of chemical analysis under the
assessment of the protection sorbents quality.
Abstract: Effective internal control system in the bursary unit of
tertiary educational institutions is geared toward achieving quality
teaching, learning and research environment and as well assist the
management of the institutions, particularly when decisions are to be
made. While internal control system exists in all institutions, the
outlined objectives above are far from being achieved. The paper
therefore assesses the effectiveness of internal control system in
tertiary educational institutions in Nasarawa State, Nigeria with
specific focus on the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia. The study is
survey, hence a simple closed ended questionnaire was developed
and administered to a sample of twenty seven (27) member staff from
the Bursary and the Internal audit unit of the Nasarawa State
Polytechnic, Lafia so as to obtain data for analysis purposes and to
test the study hypothesis. Responses from the questionnaire were
analysed using a simple percentage and chi square. Findings shows
that the right people are not assigned to the right job in the
department, budget, and management accounting were never used in
the institution’s operations and checking of subordinate by their
superior officers is not regular. This renders the current internal
control structure of the Polytechnic as ineffective and weak. The
paper therefore recommends that: transparency should be seen as
significant, as the institution work toward meeting its objectives, it
therefore means that the right staff be assigned the right job and
regular checking of the subordinates by their superiors be ensued.
Abstract: Sub-Saharan Africa is described as the second fastest
growing in mobile phone penetration in the world more than in the
United States or the European Union. Mobile phones have been used
to provide a lot of opportunities to improve people’s lives in the
region such as in banking, marketing, entertainment, and paying for
various bills such as water, TV, and electricity. However, the
potential of mobile phones to enhance teaching and learning has not
been explored. This study presents an experience of developing and
delivering SMS based quiz questions used to assess mastery of
subject content knowledge of science and mathematics secondary
school teachers in Tanzania. The SMS quizzes were used as a follow
up support mechanism to 500 teachers who participated in a project
to upgrade subject content knowledge of teachers in science and
mathematics subjects in Tanzania. Quizzes of 10-15 questions were
sent to teachers each week for 8 weeks and the results were analyzed
using SPSS. Results show that teachers who participated in chemistry
and biology subjects have better performance compared to those who
participated in mathematics and physics subjects. Teachers reported
some challenges that led to poor performance, This research has
several practical implications for those who are implementing or
planning to use mobile phones in teaching and learning especially in
rural secondary schools in sub-Saharan Africa.
Abstract: In Algeria, the most impressive and most known
prehistoric art is the painted or engraved rock art which is present
with abundance in several regions. The existence of rock art in Great
Kabylia region has been known for over sixty years. The main purpose of this research is to show the dangers facing
these rock paintings and engravings and what are the arrangements
for their protection and recovery. As every vestige destroyed is a part of the world's memory which
disappears, some steps have to be taken in order to protect these
historical and archaeological heritages.
Abstract: The aim of sustainable architecture is to design
buildings with the least adverse effects on the environment and
provide better conditions for people. What building forms make the
best use of land? This question was addressed in the late 1960s at the
center of Land Use and Built Form Studies in Cambridge. This led to
a number of influential papers which had a great influence on the
practice of urban design. This paper concentrates on the results of
sustainability caused by climatic conditions in Iranian traditional
architecture in hot-arid regions. As people spent a significant amount
of their time in houses, it was very important to have such houses to
fulfill their needs physically and spiritually as well as satisfying their
cultural and religious aspects of their lifestyles. In a vast country such
as Iran with different climatic zones, traditional builders have
presented series of logical solutions for human comfort. These
solutions have been able to response to the environmental problems
for a long period of time. As a result, by considering the experience
in traditional architecture of hot–arid climate in Iran, it is possible to
attain sustainable architecture.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the questions raised through the
work of Unit 5: ‘In/Out Crisis, emergent and adaptive’; an
architectural research-based studio at [ARC] University of Nicosia. Students were asked to delve into state of Art Technologies in
order to propose sustainable Emergent and Adaptive Architectures
and Urbanities, the resulting unprecedented spatial conditions and
atmospheres of the emergent new ways of living are deemed to be the
ultimate aim of the investigation. Students explored a variety of sites
and crisis conditions seen through their primary ingredient identified
as soil, water and air and their paired combination. Within this
methodology, crisis is seen as a mechanism for allowing an
emergence of new and fascinating ultimate sustainable future cultures
and cities by taking advantage of the primary materiality of the sites.
Abstract: The paper will focus on the strategic development
deriving from the evolution of the traditional courtyard spatial
organization towards a new, contemporary sustainable way of living.
New sustainable approaches that engulf the social issues, the notion
of place, the understanding of weather architecture blended together
with the bioclimatic behavior will be seen through a series of
experimental case studies in the island of Cyprus, inspired and
originated from its traditional wisdom, ranging from small scale of
living to urban interventions. Weather and nature will be seen as co-architectural authors with
architects. Furthermore, the building will be seen not as an object but
rather as a vessel of human activities. This will further enhance the
notion of merging the material and immaterial, the built and unbuilt,
subject-human, and the object-building. This eventually will enable
to generate the discussion of the understanding of the building in
relation to the place and its inhabitants, where the human topography
is more important than the material topography. The specificities of
the divided island and the dealing with sites that are in vicinity with
the diving Green Line will further trigger explorations dealing with
the regeneration issues and the social sustainability offering
unprecedented opportunities for innovative sustainable ways of
living. Opening up a discourse with premises of weather-nature, materialimmaterial,
human-material topographies in relation to the contested
sites of the borders will lead us to develop innovative strategies for a
profound, both technical and social sustainability, which fruitfully
yields to innovative living built environments, responding to the ever
changing environmental and social needs. As a starting point, a case study in Kaimakli in Nicosia, a
refurbishment with an extension of a traditional house, already
engulfs all the traditional/ vernacular wisdom of the bioclimatic
architecture. The project focusses on the direct and quite obvious
bioclimatic features such as south orientation and cross ventilation.
Furthermore, it tries to reinvent the adaptation of these parameters in
order to turn the whole house to a contemporary living environment.
In order to succeed this, evolutions of traditional architectural
elements and spatial conditions are integrated in a way that does not
only respond to some certain weather conditions, but they integrate
and blend the weather within the built environment. A series of
innovations aiming at maximum flexibility is proposed. The house
can finally be transformed into a winter enclosure, while for the most
part of the year it turns into a ‘camping’ living environment. Parallel to experimental interventions in existing traditional units,
we will proceed examining the implementation of the same
developed methodology in designing living units and complexes.
Malleable courtyard organizations that attempt to blend the
traditional wisdom with the contemporary needs for living, the
weather and nature with the built environment will be seen tested in
both horizontal and vertical developments. Social activities are seen as directly affected and forged by the
weather conditions thus generating a new social identity of people where people are directly involved and interacting with the weather.
The human actions and interaction with the built, material
environment in order to respond to weather will be seen as the result
of balancing the social with the technological sustainability, the
immaterial, and the material aspects of the living environment.
Abstract: Internal circulation two-platen clamping system for
injection molding machine (IMM) has many potential advantages on
energy-saving. In order to estimate its properties, experiments were
carried out in this paper. Displacement and pressure of the components
were measured. In comparison, the model of hydraulic clamping
system was established by using AMESim. The related parameters as
well as the energy consumption could be calculated. According to the
analysis, the hydraulic system was optimized in order to reduce the
energy consumption.
Abstract: The fundamental issue in understanding the origin and
growth mechanism of nanomaterials, from a fundamental unit is a big
challenging problem to the scientists. Recently, an immense attention
is generated to the researchers for prediction of exceptionally stable
atomic cluster units as the building units for future smart materials.
The present study is a systematic investigation on the stability and
electronic properties of a series of bimetallic (semiconductor-alkaline
earth) clusters, viz., BxMg3 (x=1-5) is performed, in search for
exceptional and/ or unusual stable motifs. A very popular hybrid
exchange-correlation functional, B3LYP along with a higher basis
set, viz., 6-31+G[d,p] is employed for this purpose under the density
functional formalism. The magic stability among the concerned
clusters is explained using the jellium model. It is evident from the
present study that the magic stability of B4Mg3
cluster arises due to
the jellium shell closure.
Abstract: Direct Torque Control (DTC) is an AC drive control
method especially designed to provide fast and robust responses. In
this paper a progressive algorithm for direct torque control of threephase
induction drive system supplied by photovoltaic arrays using
voltage source inverter to control motor torque and flux with
maximum power point tracking at different level of insolation is
presented. Experimental results of the new DTC method obtained by
an experimental rapid prototype system for drives are presented.
Simulation and experimental results confirm that the proposed system
gives quick, robust torque and speed responses at constant switching
frequencies.
Abstract: A geoelectric survey was carried out in some parts of
Angwan Gwari, an outskirt of Lapai Local Government Area on
Niger State which belongs to the Nigerian Basement Complex, with
the aim of evaluating the soil corrosivity, aquifer transmissivity and
protective capacity of the area from which aquifer characterisation
was made. The G41 Resistivity Meter was employed to obtain fifteen
Schlumberger Vertical Electrical Sounding data along profiles in a
square grid network. The data were processed using interpex 1-D
sounding inversion software, which gives vertical electrical sounding
curves with layered model comprising of the apparent resistivities,
overburden thicknesses, and depth. This information was used to
evaluate longitudinal conductance and transmissivities of the layers.
The results show generally low resistivities across the survey area
and an average longitudinal conductance variation from
0.0237Siemens in VES 6 to 0.1261Siemens in VES 15 with almost
the entire area giving values less than 1.0 Siemens. The average
transmissivity values range from 96.45 Ω.m2 in VES 4 to 299070
Ω.m2 in VES 1. All but VES 4 and VES14 had an average
overburden greater than 400 Ω.m2, these results suggest that the
aquifers are highly permeable to fluid movement within, leading to
the possibility of enhanced migration and circulation of contaminants
in the groundwater system and that the area is generally corrosive.