MARRIAGE PRESSURES AND PERCEPTION OF SINGLEHOOD AMONG YET-TO-MARRY WOMEN IN IBADAN METROPOLIS

Despite the critical disapproval of singlehood in most African societies, Nigeria inclusive, it is most appalling that the age at which women make their first nuptial bliss is becoming late in recent times. Statistics have shown that the number of single women have doubled within a short space of time. The available chunk of studies have paid sufficient attention to the factors responsible for singlehood among older women. However, little studies have examined how different source marriage pressures influence how single women view themselves. Against this background, this article examines the sources of marriage pressures and how they influence the perception of singlehood among women in Nigeria. The study draws heavily on Marx Weber Social Action theory. A total of 24 yet-to-marry women selected through a multistage sampling technique were extensively interviewed. The study found that beside the direct marriage pressure from parents experienced by yet-to-marry women, they are also faced with indirect marriage pressure during gatherings with family, friends, and co-workers. The pressures sometimes translate to the women perceiving themselves as being judged, though most of them feel independent and free. They are of the opinion that they need to be careful in selecting a partner in order not to fall victim of a failed marriage despite having waited for long.     &nbsp

ICT INFORMAL SECTOR JOBS AND SATISFACTION AMONG THE YOUTHS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

The youths are the greatest assets of any nation. However in Nigeria, one of the vital socio-economic challenges in Nigeria is youth unemployment. In a quick reaction to this milieu, the informal sectors have been a veritable avenue to provide economic opportunities to the teaming youth. However, most past studies have focused on job satisfaction in the formal sector, while few have evaluated how informal sector jobs meets the entrepreneur needs, wants, or expectations – satisfaction, especially from the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) angle. Against this background, the study examined ICT Informal Sector Jobs and Satisfaction among the Youths in Osun State, Nigeria. Institutional theory was adopted to give theoretical explanation to issues of interest. Data was gathered among 168 youths who were purposively selected for the study through questionnaire administration. Findings revealed that engagement in ICT informal sector jobs have positively influence youth job satisfaction. The study concluded that, though ICT informal sector jobs play a positive role in youths job satisfaction, however, those who venture into sale of phones and its accessories were more satisfied than others. As a result of this, this study suggests that governmental organisations, non- governmental organisation and other concern bodies should encourage Nigerian youths, through the provision of funds, to venture into ICT informal sector jobs, especially sale of phones and sale of phone accessories as they increase youth wellbeing, enhance nature of work and gives a positive feeling towards their jobs

MOTIVATION AND ETHICS: CRITICAL FACTORS FOR SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY IN NIGERIA

The primary function of any government is to ensure an equitable distribution of public goods and services to its citizens. Despite the material and human resource in Nigeria, Nigerians have been short-changed by the quality of public service delivery in the country. Against this backdrop, this paper: examined the issues affecting public service delivery and demonstrated how motivation can enhance ethical behaviours among public servants. Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from year 2000 to 2016 was used to argue the position of the paper. The study discovered, among other things that certain Human Resource (HR), political and institutional factors have led to the erosion of moral conduct by public servants. While measures such as reforms and campaigns have been taken to curb political and institutional issues, limited remedial actions have been proffered to tackle that of HR. These have negatively affected public service delivery in Nigeria. Therefore, apart from putting some ethical principles in place, there is need to motivate public servants to get at their best. In addition to this, good behaviour is to be rewarded and bad behaviour is to be punished across all public services in the country, by a truly independent and incorruptible statutory body. By doing this, sanity and equitable service delivery will be achieved.     &nbsp

DYNAMIC BEHAVIOUR OF A MODELED TRANSPORTATION NETWORKED CONTROL SYSTEM FOR T-JUNCTION

Traffic congestion has been the major problem on most Nigeria roads. This is particularly due to the rapid increase in urban migration. Majority of the traffic control schemes adopted in the country to alleviate this problem are the fixed time controllers employed at all signalized intersections. This has resulted in increased traffic jam especially during the peak periods at most intersections on our highways. In this study, a fuzzy logic system to control traffic on signalized intersection has been proposed. The Fuzzy Logic Controller regulates the traffic signal timing, the green light extension and phase sequence to ensure smooth flow of traffic, thereby reducing traffic delays and thus increasing the intersection capacity. A fuzzy logic traffic control simulation model was developed and tested using MATLAB/ SIMULINK software. Comparative analysis was carried out between the fuzzy logic controller and a conventional fixed-time controller in order to determine the efficiency of the developed system. Evaluation results of the fuzzy logic traffic controller shows that vehicles spent less time at the intersection compared to the fixed time controller, that is, improved vehicular movement. Moreover, simulation results show that the fuzzy logic controller has better efficiency and that a huge improvement could be realized by adapting it in controlling traffic flow at intersections. &nbsp

Investigation of Low Clouds Attenuation on Earth Space Path for some West-Africa Stations

The study investigate the contribution of low clouds, to signal fade rate, at Ka band in the satellite communication links on earth-space path(s) to NigComSat 2, from three tropical locations in West Africa. Extracted cloud cover statistical data such as average cloud amount, average base height, and frequency of occurrence, were used to obtain the monthly variations and seasonal variations for Lagos (6.55o, 3.35o), Bouake (7.73o, -5.07o) and Bamako (12.53o, -7.95o). Cloud attenuation statistics were computed for each of the three stations for their respective uplink and downlink. The uplink and downlink attenuation ranges between about 0.2 to 1.6 dB and 0.1 to 0.8 dB respectively for Lagos; for Bouake between 0.005 to 0.035 dB and 0.003 to 0.016 dB respectively; finally, for Bamako between about 0.2 to 2 dB and about 0.1 to 1 dB respectively. The stations downlink attenuation sets of values are generally about twice their corresponding uplink attenuation values

Tropospheric Scintillation and its Impact on Earth- Space Satellite Communication in Nigeria

The study investigates the impact of tropospheric scintillation on fixed satellite communication link on earth-space path for frequencies between 10 and 50 GHz for 37 stations in Nigeria. Elevation angles of 5º, 55º which are typical look angles for links over the Atlantic Ocean region and Indian Ocean region, look angles to the Nigeria Communication Satellite was also considered. Meteorological climatic data retrieve from satellite such as; profiles of temperature, pressure, and relative humidity, were validated with the available ground data in Nigeria. These data were reprocessed to derive radio propagation input parameters, such as; water vapour density integrated water vapour content and radio refractivity. Secondly, the International Telecommunication Union Propagation model (ITU-P 618, 2009) was used to estimate tropospheric scintillation for time unavailability between 0.01 to 10% in an average year. The result shows that scintillation fade depth is between 4.0 to 19.0 dB and 0.2 to 1.3 dB at 5º and 55º elevation angles respectively. For links to NigComsat scintillation fade depth is between 0.05 to 1.26 dB for all the 37-locations. The results will help in designing, planning and quick integration and expansion of satellite telecommunication services in the six regions of Nigeria

Proposed Model for the Estimation of Rain Attenuation: At Ku-Band at Ota, a Tropical Location

This study proposes a model for calculating rain attenuation on earth-space path carried out in Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria, a tropical location. The beacon signals from a geostationary satellite - ASTRA 28°E (2E/2F/2G) was monitored, recorded and analysed using a spectrum analyzer operating at frequencies of 12.245 GHz. Rain rates at the station of the antenna receivers were also logged and analysed. The rainfall rate cumulative distributions and the resultant rain attenuation are obtained and presented. The results obtained showed that the cumulative distribution of the measured rainfall rate is not in agreement with ITU-R prediction. Rainfall rate at 0.001 %, 0.01 %, 0.1 % and 1 % were fed into the existing Simple Attenuation Model (SAM) and corresponding rain attenuation were obtained. The measured rain attenuation from the beacon signal was compared with sixteen existing rain attenuation models in literature only SAM model was closed to the measured result at the location. SAM model overestimated and underestimated the rain attenuation for this location at some percentage of time. Hence, a modified SAM model is proposed using newly obtained specific attenuation coefficients. The proposed modified model is found to be close to the measured rain attenuation

ATMOSPHERIC GASES ATTENUATION IN WEST AFRICA

Atmospheric gases variations were evaluated to have major effect on Ku-band and above at 0.01 % unavailability of an average year on both uplink and down link. The International Telecommunication Union Radio Propagation Recommendation (ITU-RP 676, 2012) data bank was used for the computation of gaseous attenuation for West Africa. Monthly and yearly mean of temperature, pressure and relative humidity were used as input parameters obtained from ITU-R study group 3 data base. The results presented on contour map show that total atmospheric absorption signal fade attenuation values at C, Ku, Ka and V bands is between 0.015 to 0.09 dB, 0.04 to 0.9 dB, 0.04 to 1.4 dB and 0.2 to 3.2 dB respectively for both uplink and downlink frequencies. Generally, consistent signal absorption due to Oxygen and water vapour are higher in the western region than southern part of West Africa

Dataset of surface water vapour density in southeast,Nigeria

In thisdataarticle,analysisofsurfacewatervapourdensityin Southeast, Nigeriawerereported.Themeteorologicaldatawere obtained fortheperiodof39yearsbetween1973and2012from National OceanicandAtmosphericAdministration(NOAA)Clima- tology Centre.Fivestationsconsideredintheresearcharea includes: Enugu,Onitsha,Abakaliki,AbaandIhiala.Descriptive statistics wereusedtoshowanincreaseinmonthlyvariationof surface watervapourdensity(SWVD)minimumvalueofabout 7.15g/m3 at EnuguinJanuarytomaximumvalueofabout21.96g/ m3 at OnitshainApril.Hence,theseasonalvariationforSouthEast indicate peakvaluewithinthemonthsofMarchtoMayinthe rainyseasonandalowervaluearoundDecembertoFebruary which isthedryseason.Theresultsfromthisdatawillhelp engineers inproperdesignandplanningofradiowavepropagation and satellitecommunicationsystemsinsoutheastern,Nigeria

Extraction Of Fetal Electrocardiogram Using An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy System

In this paper, adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was used for the cancellation of maternal electrocardiogram (MECG) in fetal electrocardiogram extraction (FECG) from the composite abdominal electrocardiogram (AECG). This technique is used to estimate the MECG present in the abdominal signal of a pregnant woman. The FECG is then extracted by subtracting the estimated MECG from the abdominal signal. In the furtherance of extraction, MATLAB (version 7.6) was used to code the system in order to generate the maternal heartbeat signal and the fetal heartbeat signal which were added to form the measured signal. For the fetal heartbeat signal to be recovered from the interference (maternal heartbeat) signal, a reference signal (which is a clean version of the original maternal heartbeat signal) was introduced in the system. It is this signal that cancelled the maternal heartbeat signal in the measured signal, thereby leaving the fetal heartbeat signal as an error signal. However, though the recovered signal still contained some traces of the maternal heartbeat signal, performance of the soft computing technique applied is in terms of the capability of adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system in removing the overlapping between the MECG and the FECG signals. The results obtained show that this method is a simple and powerful means for the extraction of Fetal Electrocardiogram.   Keywords: Fetal Electrocardiogram Extraction (FECG), Neuro-fuzzy system, Noise Cancellatio