Volume VIII Issue XII

Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) is a mixed of small based station such as femto, pico and micro cell within an existing coverage area of macro cell. It has been proposed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to provide for the high demand of data by customers. However, one major challenge of HetNet is interference which could lead to low data rate if not mitigated. In this paper we present a review of existing interference mitigation techniques in Long Term Evolution release 10 (LTE rel. 10), and conclude by proposing a new technique to mitigate interference in a femto-macro HetNet.

In this paper an advanced condition monitoring technique called ODS or Operating Deflection Shapes is made use of to find out the vibration problems associated with the structures, on or to which a rotating machinery is connected, in an oil refinery. The vibration readings are taken before and after structural modifications such as increasing the stiffness. The operating shapes are visualized using ODS software MeScope VES-4.0 Series, which gives a clear picture of the areas of the structure which are weak and need to be stiffened. Also ODS gives information about the modal parameters such as modal frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes which help in eliminating resonance in the structure by suitably modifying the structure to avoid catastrophic failure of the vibrating parts in a rotating machinery.

In automotive industry, Brake squeal is major problem and lot of research has been carried out to minimise this problem. The brake noise is considered as discomfort to discomfort by the passenger and is a failure state in the eye of the manufacturer. The audible noise generated can be related to physical vibrations occurring in the system which is termed as stick-slip effect. Thus understanding this class of vibration, which is generally friction induced by having the friction coefficient varying with relative speed, is necessary to eliminate brake noise.

One of the major causes of power losses in the Photovoltaic module is mismatch effect. Mismatch losses are a serious problem in PV modules and arrays under some conditions because the output of the entire PV under worst case conditions is determined by the solar cell with the lowest output. This paper presents study on the effect of mismatch on the conversion efficiency of solar module connected in series and parallel. Some techniques of shadowing from a single cell to three cells and six cells both in series and parallel were employed. It was found that there is power lose in series than in parallel combination as a result of shadowing some cells on the module. The power loss in series combination was found to be between 21 to 73%; while in parallel combination power loss ranges from 33 to 52%. The overall voltage in series combination has lowered from 32-10V while the current in the same series combination remains 3.2A.But in parallel combination, the current decreases from 6.1 – 3.1 A and a slight decrease change in the voltage from 22 – 20V all to the non-shaded to the shadowing of one to six cells in the module. The study observed that the percentage loss in series combination is found to be more than that in parallel combination. The total power generated by the mismatching modules is less than the power produced by one module.

Titanium dioxide nanopowder doped with aluminum (TiO2/Al) is prepared by optimized sol-gel method. The specimens are annealed at 5000C and 7000C for 1 hour in air. X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) exhibits pure anatase phase along with Al peaks in the case of TiO2/Al specimen annealed at 5000C whereas TiO2/Al specimen annealed at 7000C shows Al peaks with mixed (anatase/rutile) phase. The crystallite size of TiO2/Al specimens annealed at 5000C and 7000C are 25±5 nm and 45± 5 nm respectively. The optical band gap of Al doped TiO2 specimens are reduced to 2.60 eV for 5000C and 2.37 eV for 7000C as compared to their undoped TiO2 specimens 3.0 eV and 2.75 eV respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy is used to understand the morphology and bonds present in TiO2/Al specimens. Therefore doping of Al in TiO2 reduces energy band gap value which increases its possible applications in the field of solar energy and gas sensing.

India in the last two decades has seen ambitious women strive for empowerment competing at par with men in careers. The advent of the IT era has opened up vast job opportunities for women. Corporate organizations and Government have also recognised their pursuit and laid emphasis on gender equality, in terms of opportunities, career growth and education. However working women are faced with a unique set of challenges due to their gender and perceived pre-dominant role of a home maker. This creates an inevitable challenge for women to sustain a suitable balance between work-life and family-life. This paper aims to create a framework that consists of the key factors (primary challenges) from work-life and family-life that impact work-life balance of professional women working in the IT industry. As an exploratory study, 33 working female professionals working in the IT industry in India across various cities were interviewed to understand these diverse challenges. The factors that emerged in the study were analysed in multiple dimensions like personal, professional, social and government sphere of influence to get a comprehensive depiction of the framework. Five fundamental challenges that impact the work-life balance of a professional woman working in the IT industry emerged which include: Work-load; Gender discrimination; Support systems; Health issues; and Compromises. Details of the study are presented in the paper.

The sandy soils generally are soft and low strength and these properties of the cause to differential settlements, less shear strength and high compressibility in the soils. It is difficult to find natural soil that provided high strength and high durability in practice. Hence it is necessary to improve the engineering properties of soil. Modification techniques are applied to increase the physical and mechanical properties of the soils to the desired level. In this study, sandy soil was modified by using mixtures of waste materials such as PET fiber and marble dust. For the modification of sandy soil, PET fiber content was selected as 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% of the total weight of sandy soil samples. The contents of marble dust were 5%, 10% and 15% of the total weight of sandy soil samples. The modified sandy soil samples were subjected to the unconfined compression test and freeze-thaw test under laboratory conditions to investigate the freeze-thaw behaviors of modified sandy soil samples. The results show that the modified sandy soil samples with the mixtures of wastes have high resistance to the freeze-thaw cycles when compare with the unmodified sandy soil samples. Consequently, it is concluded that the mixtures of wastes such as PET and marble dust can be successfully used for the modification of sandy soils in the geotechnical applications.

The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of employee Relations Management (ERM) on Employee Performance (EP). To accomplish this objective 120 samples were selected randomly from the whole population (staff of Dangote Plc in Ibese Ilaro). A simple linear regression was conducted to examine how well ERM predict level of EP. The result of the test shows that there exist a strong positive relationship between ERM and EP (r=.802, p<.01); ERM has a strong positive power on EP (R2=.642) which means 64% of variance in EP was predicted from ERM; a unit change in ERM will result in 0.97 increase in EP. The regression equation for predicting EP from ERM was Y=20.1867 + 965 (X). Some diagnostics outcome of the research was not spurious. The bootstrapped 95% confidence interval for the slope to predict EP for ERM range from -2.11 - 1.712 which signifies that the model was free from outliers, the PP plot and Durbin Watson value 2.286 did not exceed (-1<>3) and that implies the observation were independent. Based on the outcome of the test it was recommended that organization should endeavor to adopt good ERM practice as a technique for enhancing productivity.

The availability of variant critical velocity predicting models with their associated coefficients with each claiming superiority, it become difficult in choosing the most appropriate models for predicting liquid loading in gas wells. Whereas most of these models are identical in their constituent variables, their coefficients are quite different and so their predicting capabilities. Therefore, it becomes imperative that the impact of these coefficients in accurately predicting the critical velocity in gas wells be investigated. Five critical velocity models were investigated using a field data and their coefficients adjusted below and above 20% while monitoring how close their predictions are to the observed values. It was observed that Turner et al. and adjusted Turner et al. models, did not cause any appreciable change in loading prediction accuracy beyond 20% rather the liquid loading prediction accuracies for these models remains invariant at 35.71%. For Ruiquing and Huiqun’s model, the prediction accuracy initially remains invariant between 28.57% and 60% increments but thereafter started decreasing. Li et al. model experienced a steady increase in prediction accuracy across the range of percentage increase whereas Coleman et al. model initially decreased mixed results. Its prediction accuracy initially decreased up to 40% model coefficient increment; and started increasing to 60% and stabilizes thereafter. This clearly shows that there exist an optimum range of conditions under which each model’s application is optimum below or above which the accuracy of the predictions becomes unreliable. It is also pertinent to note that accuracy of these models would strongly be dependent on the reliability of observed data. Therefore, it is important to constantly investigate the critical velocity of each well over time since properties of wells changes and such investigations must be based on well specific cases rather field.

This paper determines the propagation delay and on chip power consumed by each basic and universal gates and basic arithmetic functions designed using existing reversible gates through VHDL. Hence a designer can choose the best reversible gates to use for any logic circuit design. The paper does a look up table analysis of truth tables of the reversible gates to find the occurrence of the AND OR, NAND, NOR and basic arithmetic functions, useful to build complex combinational digital logic circuits.

From the view of greenhouse effect and usage of inefficient Internal Combustion engines, antransformation to the electric vehicles for the mode of transportation is required. A main drawback in the electric vehicles is the draining of the battery and the battery charging station. A different types of charging system is studied, by implementing in the automobiles the internal combustion engines will be replaceable.

For the successful drilling of oil and gas drilling, the drilling fluids are essential materials. In the drilling applications, the most commonly used drilling fluids are water based fluids. Water-based fluids are the first fluids of choice for drilling applications because of their cost effective, environmental friendly and non-hazardous nature. However, these fluids are ineffective when dealing with water-sensitive shale that can lead to shale hydration, consequently wellbore instability is compromised. The geological occurrences which is water-sensitive may require oil-based and synthetic-based fluids. A proper formulation of oil-based drilling fluid can prevent water movement from the fluid into the shale occurrence. Despite its effectiveness, oil-based drilling fluid can give negative impact to environment when the pollutant is discharged and subsequently dispersed to the sea. The ester-based drilling fluids take attention as alternative fluids in the drilling applications of water-sensitive geological occurrences such as shale formations. They are a new class of materials used to provide safe and cost-effective technology for drilling oil and gas wells. Their enhanced drilling performance decreases drilling time and provides advantaged safety, human health, and, in some cases, environmental performance above diesel oil fluids.

- Quality is usually one of the major specifications of any given software project. Of the eighteen key process areas (KPA’s) spread across the five maturity levels of the Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model Integration (SEI CMMI), Software Quality Assurance (SQA) and Software Quality Management (SQM) are the two key process areas that respectively look into the assurance and management of software quality. While SQMinvolves defining quality goals for the software products, establishing plans to achieve these goals, monitoring and adjusting the software plans to satisfy the needs and desires of the customer and end user, the purpose of SQA is to provide management with appropriate visibility into the process being used by the software project and of the products being built,. This paper discusses SQA and SQM practices in the Nigerian software industry. Issues discussed include the level and extent of implementation of the SQA and SQM KPA’s in the Nigerian software industry. The study revealed a relatively low level of performance of these KPA’s and suggested measures for improvement.

There is an alarming rate of data leakage in most social networks and not every social media user takes data security seriously. A major challenge faced by most Social Media users is the problem of data leakage. There are basically two major data leakage problems, they include Malicious Data Leakage (MDL) and Inadvertent Data Leakage (IDL) respectively. Despite the various improvements of data security by different encryption algorithms, there are still open problems and occurrences of data leakages on Social Media. In this work, we developed an improved Ant Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm for Data Leakage Detector for Social Media Users. We adopted Rapid Application Development Methodology (RAD) in this approach. We implemented with Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) programming language using Ant Bee Colony Algorithm and MySQL Relational Database Management System as backend. We compared the existing system and proposed system of the Ant Bee Colony. The results obtained show that the performance accuracy is more efficient.

Microstrip patch antennas (MPA) have become more popular in portable wireless communication systems. These antennas are light in weight, low profile, and support wideband and low in the cost of fabrication. Wireless communication deals with antenna performances, which has led to several researches on dual band and wideband antennas in which these antennas are embedded into an RF printed circuit board, so they cannot be seen from the device point of view.The L-network method was used for impedance matchingby introducing a separate network that can match the desired resistance known as the characteristic impedance and by perturbing the rectangular patch increases current path length giving rise to second order mode. The Electromagnetic full wave simulator software Antenna Design System (ADS) is used to simulate the patch antenna with parameters to be observed such as the return loss and voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR).