Abstract: Neutralisation of acid-mine drainage (AMD) using limestone is cost effective, and good results can be obtained. However, this process has its limitations; it cannot be used for highly acidic water which consists of Fe(III). When Fe(III) reacts with CaCO3, it results in armoring. Armoring slows the reaction, and additional alkalinity can no longer be generated. Limestone is easily accessible, so this problem can be easily dealt with. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the effect of PVC pipe length on ferric and ferrous ions. It was found that the shorter the pipe length the more these dissolved metals precipitate. The effect of the pipe length on the hydrogen ions was also studied, and it was found that these two have an inverse relationship. Experimental data were further compared with the model prediction data to see if they behave in a similar fashion. The model was able to predict the behaviour of 1.5m and 2 m pipes in ferric and ferrous ion precipitation.
Abstract: The use of probiotics engineered to express specific enzymes has been the subject of considerable attention in poultry industry because of increased nutrient availability and reduced cost of enzyme supplementation. Phytase enzyme is commonly added to poultry feed to improve digestibility and availability of phosphorus from plant sources. To construct a probiotic with potential of phytate degradation, phytase gene (appA) from E. coli was cloned and transformed into two probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactococcus lactis. L. salivarous showed plasmid instability, unable to express the gene. The expression of appA gene in L. lactis was analyzed by detecting specific RNA and zymography assay. Phytase enzyme was isolated from cellular extracts of recombinant L. lactis, showing a 46 kDa band upon the SDS-PAGE analysis. Zymogram also confirmed the phytase activity of the 46 kDa band corresponding to the enzyme. An enzyme activity of 4.9U/ml was obtained in cell extracts of L. lactis. The growth of native and recombinant L. lactis was similar in the presence of two concentrations of ox bile.
Abstract: Snails are considered as suitable diagnostic organisms for heavy metal–contaminated sites. Biomphalaria alexandrina snails are used in this work as pollution bioindicators after exposure to chemical mixtures consisted of heavy metals (HM); zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and lead (Pb); and persistent organic pollutants; Decabromodiphenyl ether 98% (D) and Aroclor 1254 (A). The impacts of these tested chemicals, individual and mixtures, on liver and kidney functions, antioxidant enzymes, complete blood picture, and tissue histology were studied. Results showed that Cu was proved to be the highly toxic against snails than Zn and Pb where LC50 values were 1.362, 213.198 and 277.396 ppm, respectively. Also, B. alexandrina snails exposed to the mixture of HM (¼ LC5 Cu, Pb and Zn) showed the highest bioaccumulation of Cu and Zn in their whole tissue, the most significant increase in AST, ALT & ALP activities and the highest significant levels of total protein, albumin and globulin. Results showed significant alterations in CAT activity in snail tissue extracts while snail samples exposed to most experimental tests showed significant increase in GST activity. Snail samples that exposed to HM mixtures showed a significant decrease in total hemocytes count while snail samples that exposed to mixtures containing A & D showed a significant increase in total hemocytes and Hyalinocytes. Histopathological alterations in snail samples exposed to individual HM and their mixtures for 4 weeks showed degeneration, edema, hyper trophy and vaculation in head-foot muscle, degeneration and necrotic changes in the digestive gland and accumulation in most tested organs. Also, the hermaphrodite gland showed mature ova with irregular shape and reduction in sperm number. In conclusion, the resulted damage and alterations in B. alexandrina studied parameters can be used as bioindicators to the presence of pollutants in its habitats.
Abstract: There is a widespread changeover in the electrical power industry universally from old-style monopolistic outline towards a horizontally distributed competitive structure to come across the demand of rising consumption. When the transmission lines of derestricted system are incapable to oblige the entire service needs, the lines are overloaded or congested. The governor between customer and power producer is nominated as Independent System Operator (ISO) to lessen the congestion without obstructing transmission line restrictions. Among the existing approaches for congestion management, the frequently used approaches are reorganizing the generation and load curbing. There is a boundary for reorganizing the generators, and further loads may not be supplemented with the prevailing resources unless more private power producers are added in the system by considerably raising the cost. Hence, congestion is relaxed by appropriate Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices which boost the existing transfer capacity of transmission lines. The FACTs device, namely, Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) is preferred, and the correct placement of UPFC is more vital and should be positioned in the highly congested line. Hence, the weak line is identified by using power flow performance index with the new objective function with proposed hybrid Fish – Bee algorithm. Further, the location of UPFC at appropriate line reduces the branch loading and minimizes the voltage deviation. The power transfer capacity of lines is determined with and without UPFC in the identified congested line of IEEE 30 bus structure and the simulated results are compared with prevailing algorithms. It is observed that the transfer capacity of existing line is increased with the presented algorithm and thus alleviating the congestion.
Abstract: Most often, marking and assessment of multiple choice kinds of examinations have been opined by many as a cumbersome and herculean task to accomplished manually in Nigeria. Usually this may be in obvious nexus to the fact that mass numbers of candidates were known to take the same examination simultaneously. Eventually, marking such a mammoth number of booklets dared and dread even the fastest paid examiners who often undertake the job with the resulting consequences of stress and boredom. This paper explores the evolution, as well as the set aim to envision and transcend marking the Multiple Choice Objectives- type examination into a thing of creative recreation, or perhaps a more relaxing activity via the use of the mobile phone. A more “pragmatic” dimension method was employed to achieve this work, rather than the formal “in-depth research” based approach due to the “novelty” of the mobile-smartphone e-Marking Scheme discovery. Moreover, being an evolutionary scheme, no recent academic work shares a direct same topic concept with the ‘use of cell phone as an e-marking technique’ was found online; thus, the dearth of even miscellaneous citations in this work. Additional future advancements are what steered the anticipatory motive of this paper which laid the fundamental proposition. However, the paper introduces for the first time the concept of mobile-smart phone e-marking, the steps to achieve it, as well as the merits and demerits of the technique all spelt out in the subsequent pages.
Abstract: Foliage diseases in plants can cause a reduction in both quality and quantity of agricultural production. Intelligent detection of plant diseases is an essential research topic as it may help monitoring large fields of crops by automatically detecting the symptoms of foliage diseases. This work investigates ways to recognize the late blight disease from the analysis of tomato digital images, collected directly from the field. A pair of multilayer perceptron neural network analyzes the digital images, using data from both RGB and HSL color models, and classifies each image pixel. One neural network is responsible for the identification of healthy regions of the tomato leaf, while the other identifies the injured regions. The outputs of both networks are combined to generate the final classification of each pixel from the image and the pixel classes are used to repaint the original tomato images by using a color representation that highlights the injuries on the plant. The new images will have only green, red or black pixels, if they came from healthy or injured portions of the leaf, or from the background of the image, respectively. The system presented an accuracy of 97% in detection and estimation of the level of damage on the tomato leaves caused by late blight.
Abstract: This study attempts to determine kinesthetic, verbal and visual intelligences among mechanical engineering undergraduate students and explores any probable relation with students’ learning styles and academic performance. The questionnaire used in this study is based on Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory comprising of five elements of learning style; environmental, sociological, emotional, physiological and psychological. Questionnaires are distributed amongst undergraduates in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Additional questions on students’ perception of learning styles and their academic performance are included in the questionnaire. The results show that one third of the students are strongly dominant in the kinesthetic intelligent (33%), followed by a combination of kinesthetic and visual intelligences (29%) and 21% are strongly dominant in all three types of intelligences. There is a statistically significant correlation between kinesthetic, verbal and visual intelligences and students learning styles and academic performances. The ANOVA analysis supports that there is a significant relationship between academic performances and level of kinesthetic, verbal and visual intelligences. In addition, it has also proven a remarkable relationship between academic performances and kinesthetic, verbal and visual learning styles amongst the male and female students. Thus, it can be concluded that, academic achievements can be enhanced by understanding as well as capitalizing the students’ types of intelligences and learning styles.
Abstract: This study analyzed the spatial distribution of socio-economic factors in Kogi state with a view to examining its implications on the development of the state. Consequently, questionnaires were administered on both the selected individual respondents (784) in the state and on the administrative offices (local council offices, 21) to solicit relevant information on the spatial distribution of socio-economic factors in their areas. The collected data were tabulated and analyzed using percentages. The study revealed commerce/trade, education, and health care, etc. as the major socio-economic factors in the state but with marked variation/imbalance in their spatial distribution across the study area. The rural-based local government areas have far less of such important facilities. Conclusively, it was recommended that there is need for socio-economic transformation of living conditions of people in the study area especially by positively redistributing local political power and the resources that are abound in the state will be felt by everybody including the commoners.
Abstract: Utilization of solar energy can be found in various domestic and industrial applications. The performance of any solar collector is largely affected by various parameters such as glazing, absorber plate, top covers, and heating pipes. Technology improvements have brought us another method for conversion of solar energy to direct electricity using solar photovoltaic system. Utilization and extraction of solar energy is the biggest problem in these conversion methods. This paper aims to overcome these problems and take the advantages of available energy from solar by maximizing the utilization through solar tracking system using a refrigerant as a working medium. The use of this tracking system can help increase the efficiency of conversion devices by maximum utilization of solar energy. The dual axis tracking system gives maximum energy output compared to single axis tracking system.
Abstract: Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a complex combinatorial optimization problem and it is quite difficult to find an optimal solution consisting of a set of routes for vehicles whose total cost is minimum. Evolutionary and swarm intelligent (SI) algorithms play a vital role in solving optimization problems. While the SI algorithms perform search, the diversity between the solutions they exploit is very important. This is because of the need to avoid early convergence and to get an appropriate balance between the exploration and exploitation. Therefore, it is important to check how far the solutions are diverse. In this paper, we measure the similarity between solutions, which ABC exploits while optimizing VRP. The similar solutions found are discarded at the end of the iteration and only unique solutions are passed on to the next iteration. The bees of discarded solutions become scouts and they start searching for new solutions. This process is continued and results show that the solution is optimized at lesser number of iterations but with the overhead of computing similarity in all the iterations. The problem instance from Solomon benchmarked dataset has been used for evaluating the presented methodology.
Abstract: Railway crossings are complex entities whose optimal management cannot be addressed unless with the help of an intelligent transportation system integrating information both on train and vehicular flows. In this paper, we propose an integrated system named SIMPLE (Railway Safety and Infrastructure for Mobility applied at level crossings) that, while providing unparalleled safety in railway level crossings, collects data on rail and road traffic and provides value-added services to citizens and commuters. Such services include for example alerts, via variable message signs to drivers and suggestions for alternative routes, towards a more sustainable, eco-friendly and efficient urban mobility. To achieve these goals, SIMPLE is organized as a System of Systems (SoS), with a modular architecture whose components range from specially-designed radar sensors for obstacle detection to smart ETSI M2M-compliant camera networks for urban traffic monitoring. Computational unit for performing forecast according to adaptive models of train and vehicular traffic are also included. The proposed system has been tested and validated during an extensive trial held in the mid-sized Italian town of Montecatini, a paradigmatic case where the rail network is inextricably linked with the fabric of the city. Results of the tests are reported and discussed.
Abstract: This paper is to reveal developments in the areas of urban technology in Malaysia. Developments occur intend to add value intelligent city development to the ubiquitous city (U-city) or smart city. The phenomenon of change is called the development of post intelligent cities. U-City development discourse is seen from the perspective of the philosophy of the virtuous city organized by al-Farabi. The prosperity and perfection of a city is mainly caused by human personality factors, as well as its relationship with material and technological aspects of the city. The question is, to what extent to which human factors are taken into account in the concept of U-City as an added value to the intelligent city concept to realize the prosperity and perfection of the city? Previously, the intelligent city concept was developed based on global change and ICT movement, while the U-city added value to the development of intelligent cities and focused more on the development of information and communications technology (ICT). Value added is defined as the use of fiber optic technology that is wired to the use of wireless technology, such as wireless broadband. In this discourse, the debate on the concept of U-City is to the symbiosis between the U-City and the importance of local human e-participation (U-Society) for prosperity. In the context of virtuous city philosophy, it supports the thought of symbiosis so the concept of U-City can achieve sustainability, prosperity and perfection of the city.
Abstract: Drinking water is supplied to Danbatta, Makoda and some parts of Minjibir local government areas of Kano State from the surface water of Thomas Reservoir. The present land use in the catchment area of the reservoir indicates high agricultural activities, fishing, as well as domestic and small scale industrial activities. To study and monitor the quality of surface and drinking water of the area, water samples were collected from the reservoir, treated water at the treatment plant and potable water at the consumer end in three seasons November - February (cold season), March - June (dry season) and July - September (rainy season). The samples were analyzed for physical and chemical parameters, pH, temperature, total dissolved solids (TDS), conductivity, turbidity, total hardness, suspended solids, total solids, colour, dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chloride ion (Cl-) nitrite (NO2-), nitrate (NO3-), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and phosphate (PO43-). The higher values obtained in some parameters with respect to the acceptable standard set by World Health Organization (WHO) and Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) indicate the pollution of both the surface and drinking water. These pollutants were observed to have a negative impact on water quality in terms of eutrophication, largely due to anthropogenic activities in the watershed.
Abstract: Nowadays, ontology is common in many areas like artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, e-commerce, education and many more. Ontology is one of the focus areas in the field of Information Retrieval. The purpose of an ontology is to describe a conceptual representation of concepts and their relationships within a particular domain. In other words, ontology provides a common vocabulary for anyone who needs to share information in the domain. There are several ontology domains in various fields including engineering and non-engineering knowledge. However, there are only a few available ontology for engineering knowledge. Fuzzy logic as engineering knowledge is still not available as ontology domain. In general, fuzzy logic requires step-by-step guidelines and instructions of lab experiments. In this study, we presented domain ontology for Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) knowledge. We give Table of Content (ToC) with middle strategy based on the Uschold and King method to develop FLC ontology. The proposed framework is developed using Protégé as the ontology tool. The Protégé’s ontology reasoner, known as the Pellet reasoner is then used to validate the presented framework. The presented framework offers better performance based on consistency and classification parameter index. In general, this ontology can provide a platform to anyone who needs to understand FLC knowledge.
Abstract: Pulses are high in plant protein and dietary fiber, and contain slowly digestible starches. Innovative products from pulses could increase their consumption and benefit consumer health. This study was conducted to evaluate physicochemical stability of processed cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. cv. Fradel) and maple pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense L. cv. Bruno) spreads at 5 °C temperature during 62-day storage. Physicochemical stability of pulse spreads was compared after sous vide treatment (80 °C/15 min) and high pressure processing (700 MPa/10 min/20 °C). Pulse spreads were made by homogenizing cooked pulses in a food processor together with salt, citric acid, oil, and bruschetta seasoning. A total of four different pulse spreads were studied: Cowpea spread without and with seasoning, maple pea spread without and with seasoning. Transparent PA/PE and light proof PET/ALU/PA/PP film pouches were used for packaging of pulse spreads under vacuum. The parameters investigated were pH, water activity and mass losses. Pulse spreads were tested on days 0, 15, 29, 42, 50, 57 and 62. The results showed that sous-vide treatment and high pressure processing had an insignificant influence on pH, water activity and mass losses after processing, irrespective of packaging material did not change (p>0.1). pH and water activity of sous-vide treated and high pressure processed pulse spreads in different packaging materials proved to be stable throughout the storage. Mass losses during storage accounted to 0.1% losses. Chosen sous-vide treatment and high pressure processing regimes and packaging materials are suitable to maintain consistent physicochemical quality of the new products during 62-day storage.
Abstract: Traditional art is one of Nigerian cultural heritage. It is an excellent instrument for documentation and identification. Antiquities are priceless and irreplaceable. They are basically preserved for future generations. Sadly, preserving these highly prized cultural heritage is becoming a serious challenge. This paper examines the extent modernization has affected the preservation of traditional art in Nigeria. Particularly hit is the antiquities and traditional murals of eastern part of Nigeria. Participatory visual methods were used for this study. Efforts were made to reach the few surviving and aged mural artists. Oral information was collected from them as well as first hand drawings and some photographs of their works. Findings indicate that modernization has seriously affected the preservation of Nigerian artistic heritage. Further findings show that traditional mural artists are gradually dwindling and dangerously going into extinct. Antiquities are indiscriminately destroyed due to sheer ignorance and the blind quest to fit into the so called modern world.
Abstract: It was important to understand the impact of media in young adolescents. The animated film, Khun Tong Dang the Inspirations (2015), was purposefully created for teaching young children to have a positive personal trait. The current study used this film as the case study. The objective is to understand the relationship between the good characteristic of movie audiences and their perception of the good characteristic of a movie character. One-hundred students from various age ranges responded to quantitative questionnaires. The questions included their age, gender, perception about their own personal traits, perception about their experiences with others, and perception about the bravery, intelligence, and gratefulness of the character. It was found that a good personal trait has a strong relationship with the perception of bravery, intelligence, and gratefulness of the character.
Abstract: In this paper, the concept of a non-dominated sorting multi-objective particle swarm optimization with local search (NSPSO-LS) is presented for the optimal design of multimachine power system stabilizers (PSSs). The controller design is formulated as an optimization problem in order to shift the system electromechanical modes in a pre-specified region in the s-plan. A composite set of objective functions comprising the damping factor and the damping ratio of the undamped and lightly damped electromechanical modes is considered. The performance of the proposed optimization algorithm is verified for the 3-machine 9-bus system. Simulation results based on eigenvalue analysis and nonlinear time-domain simulation show the potential and superiority of the NSPSO-LS algorithm in tuning PSSs over a wide range of loading conditions and large disturbance compared to the classic PSO technique and genetic algorithms.
Abstract: Cloud computing, a technology that is made possible through virtualization within networks represents a shift from the traditional ownership of infrastructure and other resources by distinct organization to a more scalable pattern in which computer resources are rented online to organizations on either as a pay-as-you-use basis or by subscription. In other words, cloud computing entails the renting of computing resources (such as storage space, memory, servers, applications, networks, etc.) by a third party to its clients on a pay-as-go basis. It is a new innovative technology that is globally embraced because of its renowned benefits, profound of which is its cost effectiveness on the part of organizations engaged with its services. In Nigeria, the services are provided either directly to companies mostly by the key IT players such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google; or in partnership with some other players such as Infoware, Descasio, and Sunnet. This action enables organizations to rent IT resources on a pay-as-you-go basis thereby salvaging them from wastages accruable on acquisition and maintenance of IT resources such as ownership of a separate data centre. This paper intends to appraise the challenges of cloud computing adoption in Nigeria, bearing in mind the country’s peculiarities’ in terms of infrastructural development. The methodologies used in this paper include the use of research questionnaires, formulated hypothesis, and the testing of the formulated hypothesis. The major findings of this paper include the fact that there are some addressable challenges to the adoption of cloud computing in Nigeria. Furthermore, the country will gain significantly if the challenges especially in the area of infrastructural development are well addressed. This is because the research established the fact that there are significant gains derivable by the adoption of cloud computing by organizations in Nigeria. However, these challenges can be overturned by concerted efforts in the part of government and other stakeholders.
Abstract: In the last two decades, one can clearly observe a boom of interest for e-learning and web-supported programs. However, one can also notice that many of these programs focus on the accumulation and delivery of content generally as a business industry with no much concern for theoretical underpinnings. The existing research, at least in online English language teaching (ELT), has demonstrated a lack of an effective online teaching pedagogy anchored in a well-defined theoretical framework. Hence, this paper comes as an attempt to present constructivism as one of the theoretical bases for the design of an effective online language teaching pedagogy which is at the same time technologically intelligent and theoretically informed to help envision how education can best take advantage of the information and communication technology (ICT) tools. The present paper discusses the key principles underlying constructivism, its implications for online language teaching design, as well as its limitations that should be avoided in the e-learning instructional design. Although the paper is theoretical in nature, essentially based on an extensive literature survey on constructivism, it does have practical illustrations from an action research conducted by the author both as an e-tutor of English using Moodle online educational platform at the Virtual University of Tunis (VUT) from 2007 up to 2010 and as a face-to-face (F2F) English teaching practitioner in the Professional Certificate of English Language Teaching Training (PCELT) at AMIDEAST, Tunisia (April-May, 2013).