Volume XI Issue X

Gas leakages resulting into fatal inferno has become a serious problem in household and other areas where household gas is handled and used. Gas leakage leads to various accidents resulting in financial loss as well as human injuries and/or loss. In this study a simulation and construction of liquefied petroleum gas detector using microcontroller Atmel AT89C51 was carried out. The circuit was simulated using Proteus v8.7 and a prototype of the circuit was constructed on a Vero board. The constructed device was tested by using it to measure flammable, combustible and toxic gases for optimum performance. The device readings were compared with standard measured values. The result shows that, the time of detection and the distance from burner increased when the gas concentration decreased. The device can detect gas at a minimum distance of 0.2m in 35 seconds at 1000mg/m^3 concentration and at a maximum distance of 1.4m at 96s for 225mg/m^3 concentration of gas. Test shows that the system can quickly respond to gas leakage in the kitchen making it very efficient and enabling quick response to avert dangers of fire outburst. Based on the test carried out, it is advisable for the user to place the device 0.6m-2.0m from the gas source and 0.2m to 1m above the floor. This is very important in homes, restaurants and industries that uses gas as it will serve as a protective device for gas detection in terms of gas leakage.

The study examined the economic impact of poultry production on poultry farmers in Kogi State, Nigeria. Data were collected using questionnaire from 150 poultry farmers. One LGA each was randomly selected from the three senatorial district in Kogi State; The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results revealed that the 47% were within the age of 30-39 years and 68% of the respondents have farming experience 1-5 years. The results revealed that poultry keeping help in poverty alleviation, improves standard of living and enhanced income as evidenced by mean scores of 3.26, 3.52 and 3.29 respectively. The study revealed high cost of feeds (90.5%), lack of access to credit facilities (80.5%) and incidence of diseases (80.0%) were the main constraints. Other constraints include: high mortality rate birds (70.0%); high cost of vaccines (65.5%) and poor marketing outlets for the birds (60.0%). Poultry production play an important role in the study areas. Its recommended that government should made provision for market for products, regulation of prices of inputs and possible provision of vaccine to the farmers in the study area.

Characterization and beneficiation of Ajabanoko iron ore was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, powder X-ray diffraction, magnetic separator and petrological microscopy. Chemical analysis of the ore principally revealed that the ore contained 36.4% SiO2, 28.97% Fe3O4, 9.53% CaO, 7.2% TiO2, 8.41% V2O5, 0.765% Al2O3, 0.23% PbO, 0.72% BaO, 0.65% Cr2O3, 0.19% Rb2O and 0.27% Eu2O3, the mineralogical analysis of the ore contained majorly magnetic, biotite and quartz with other minor associated minerals, petrographic studies of the thin section of the ore sample observed under polarized light revealed that the iron bearing mineral is magnetite and biotite with quartz, SEM examination revealed that the lighter portion is majorly the iron ore, whereas the dark portions are the gangue minerals. Beneficiation of the iron ore indicated that the iron (Fe) of the ore can be upgraded from 47.56% to 51.73%Fe using low intensity magnetic separation technique. Ajabanoko iron ore is classified as a low grade iron ore

The development and characterisation of polyester/ coconut shell particulate composites was studied. Polyester/coconut shell particulate composites at different weight percentage (2%, 4%, 6% and 8%) of the particles were produced using the hand lay- up method. The as-cast samples consisting of varied weight percentage of 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8% amount of the particulate were tested for physical and mechanical properties such as density, hardness, impact and tensile tests and tribological properties such as wear and friction test. The results were compared with the unreinforced sample under the same conditions. It was observed that the addition of coconut shell particulate improved the mechanical and wear properties of the polyester composites but with a reduction in the density. The tensile test results showed the 8wt% composite having maximum tensile strength of 173.24 N/mm2 and (unreinforced polyester) the least value of 131.32 N/mm2. The impact strength of polyester is the highest with the value of 0.11 J/mm2 and the strength is least for 8wt% coconut shell particulate composite with 0.0271 J/mm2. The density of the composites are lower than that of the unreinforced polyester. The hardness was found to be maximum for the 8wt% composite with a value of 75.2 HRB and least with a value of 55.5 HRB for the unreinforced polyester. The wear results showed a lower wear rate and frictional coefficient for the composite compared with the unreinforced polyester. SEM microscopy revealed uniformly distributed and strong interfacial bonding, though agglomeration of particle between the polymer matrix and reinforcement were observed. The composites produced has light weight combine with good strength and can be used in engineering applications such as in pipe production for automobile industries.

While oil exports contribute more than 90% of Nigeria's foreign exchange revenues, it is not clear that the allocation of more oil to export than to domestic utilization has been optimal. The country increased its refining capacity from 160 Mbpd in 1979 to 445 Mbpd in 1989, while in the same decade, oil exports as a percentage of production increased rapidly from 76% to 89%. By 2009, 99% of Nigeria's production went to export at the expense of domestic refining capacity utilization, which plummeted to 7% with the consequence that >80% of domestic consumption of refined petroleum products was imported. This paper examines the end-use of Nigeria's oil production. It proposes a framework within which the crude oil produced in Nigeria can be optimally delivered to maximize net income. A mathematical model for optimal allocation of crude oil, based on a transshipment framework, is espoused and applied to maximize net income, subjects to certain plausible constraints. The constraints identified total domestic refining capacity, offshore refining capacity, upstream oil production, and domestic refined petroleum product demand. The results indicate that the optimal product import&swapped/demand ratio ought to have ranged from 78% (2010) to 100% (2016) instead of the actual 76% (2010) to 87% (2016). Additionally, the optimum import&swapped/demand ratio could have resulted in more product imports than the actual in 2015, 2016 and 2017. However, the model results suggest that from 2018 to 2020, actual petroleum product imports have been consistent with the optimized import&swapped/demand ratio.

The advancement of technologies in wireless communication has led to several engineering designs for human requirements to solve a country’s problems. Ghana as a country has issues with power instability on domestic, single-phase lines, to monitor some of these line faults “example when an area power outage occurs is a problem for the power distribution company to be aware of this fault ”, this intelligent wireless street lighting with a phase-detection system is to solve this problem by automatically switch power sources to the battery which powers the streetlight when the national gridline is off, for temporal light at the location or area and also send a monitoring notification to the fault monitoring office, with the fault code for feather investigation. The project consists of a battery, inverter circuit, microcontroller, LCD, and current sensor. The system power battery stores a current of 9Ah (Ampere-hour), which means the battery can provide 9 amperes of current in one hour which can sustain three light units to the next morning. Since the system uses a 3.3 ampere the lamp, the battery can produce power within 6 hours before the power supply will be switched to the power grid for charging or for the fault to be rectified. From the data gathered, we can say that it is possible to use a streetlight to monitor line faults and also produce a two-way powering street light. The system is proven to be effective and operational.

Some of the challenges diabetic patients face in Nigeria include the unavailability of health care providers, costly healthcare services and monitoring. Also, many are unaware of the effect of diet planning and daily health monitoring in managing this life-threatening condition. Diabetics can largely gain from an effective home care management system and also from a community of patients and caregivers. This will especially help new patients to acquire more knowledge about this health condition and understand how to live with it. In this paper, we present a cost effective solution to managing diabetes, in form of a home care mobile application. Firstly, we present a design of a system used for diet planning, health information and planning. In addition, a community forum is designed for diabetes support. The implementation of an android version of the design is further presented in the paper. This was achieved using the Dart programming language and Javascript on Flutter framework. The visual studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) was used for easy integration of the software

The purpose of this study was to determine the proportion of MOCAF (Modified Cassava Flour) and rice flour that produced oyster mushroom nuggets with the best chemical quality (moisture, ash and protein content) and organoleptic (color, texture and taste). Completely Randomized Design (CRD), consisting of six treatments (MOCAF 0%: Rice Flour 30%; MOCAF 6%: Rice Flour 24%, MOCAF 12%: Rice Flour 18%, MOCAF 18%: Rice Flour 12%, MOCAF 24%: Rice Flour 6% and MOCAF 30%: Rice Flour 0%) with triplicate. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance at the 5% significance level using Co-Stat software and continued by Honestly Significant Difference (HSD). The results of this study showed that the proportion of MOCAF and rice flour that produced the best quality oyster mushroom nuggets for chemical parameters was MOCAF 0%: 30% rice flour: 60% oyster mushroom (water content 61.92%, ash content 1.80 % and protein content of 3.60%, while the organoleptic parameters were 30% MOCAF treatment: 0% rice flour: 60% oyster mushrooms (color, taste and texture preferred by the panelists).

Computer over the years has grown from single user to multi-user systems and then presently to distributed system, implying that computing resources can be distributed to different host and can be access by multiple users. This scenario is required for horizontally scaling of systems’ requirement against vertical scaling now known as distributed systems, which cannot be improved beyond certain threshold. Security in such a heterogeneous system becomes a paramount issue of concern. This paper looks at distributed system, while highlighting the security challenges inherent in such system and reviewing the various progress in providing solution to the security challenges.

A review of different configuration and orientation of greenhouse (GH) were conducted, the use of different types of cover and solar energy transmissivity into the GH were also presented. This study presents, a new configuration of (GH) implementing the use of semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) as cover to improve the performance of GH, for agricultural purposes and power generation. In this work, the solar energy intercepted by the GH cover and the extended hangout is calculated. The total energy available for conversion into electric energy was also calculated. The STPV allows photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) to pass into the GH cavity while the higher wavelength is collected and converted into electric energy. The solar energy intercepted by the STPV roof cover is 69335.78 kWh yr-1, the total energy transmitted into the GH cavity is 68842.4544 kW yr-1. The air, plants and outside temperature varies between 27- 44% inside the GH. The electrical energy produced by the STPV roofed cover was calculated to be 21.98 kWh yr-1. The total electric energy produced from the roof covered with 100% STPV is sufficient to control the GH microclimate for conducive plants growth throughout the year.

Manila has seen a surge in cycling since COVID-19 caused a great deal around the world. City dwellers resort to different means of transportation to minimize their contact with other commuters. Due to this factor, it aimed to simulate a bicycle infrastructure along Padre Faura Street in Manila to determine its effect on traffic speed and traffic congestion. This study used Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) to simulate the intersections of Taft Avenue, Mabini Street, and del Pilar Street. Twelve models were developed consisting of the current traffic situation and simulation with bicycle lanes both in morning and evening peak hours. They were validated using Geoffrey E. Havers (GEH) Values. Vehicle count, speed, and other parameters were collected manually using a video camera, and the area of study was selected using the OSM Web Wizard Application. The results indicated that the demand for cyclists during evening peak hours (4:00-7:00 PM) was much higher, especially on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. The calculated level of service ranges from B-C, showing a free-flowing to the moderate traffic situation, which would make implementing bicycle infrastructure possible. Although the traffic density may affect the vehicular speed, the results may vary depending on other factors that may be considered. Results presented that all three intersections showed an improvement in average vehicular speed during morning peak hours and only in the intersections of Taft Avenue and Mabini Street during evening peak hours.

The paper presents a method to calculate the thermal insulation of a cold store consisting of four rooms where four temperature levels must be maintained below the ambient temperature. The calculation takes into account the intermediate values of temperatures and vapor partial pressures between the layers of thermal insulation, so that the condensation of water vapor to be avoid.