Impact of Isra’iliyyat reports on the Islamic creed of contemporary Muslims

In Islamic literature sacred histories and particularly narratives of the Prophets and saintly people have suffered much distortion and manipulation by Qassasun3 or simply storytellers. The trend gave writers unprecedented chance of being storytellers, and it is from such works that they draw their tales4. The spread of Islam and its subsequent acceptance by Judaism and Christianity paved way for assimilation and exchange of ideas and tradition among the adherents of the three religions. This trend of sourcing information from other religions in order to understand Islam is considered by some scholars to be a potential threat and possible cause for confusion among the Muslims. It has however affected Islam in various ways. One of such ways is the pattern, method and the manner in which inauthentic reports known as Isra'iliyyat reports are brought into the Islamic traditions particularly by Qur‘an commentators5. Regrettably, the trend has seemingly affected the foundational principles of Islamic faith (Aqidah) such as the belief in Allah (S.W.T.), His Prophets, and previous (sacred) revelations such as Taurat (Torah), Zabur (Psalm) and Injil (Gospel). The paper, in line with this backdrop, attempts to answer the questions listed here and other relevant ones in order to unravel the impact of Isra‟iliyyat reports on the Aqidah of contemporary Muslims. How do the Isra'iliyyat reports spread among the contemporary Muslims and how best it could be handled? How often did Isra'iliyyat reports treat certain aspects dealing with Islamic Aqidah? To what extent does the use of Isra'iliyyat reports affect Islam and harms the Muslim faith? How to identify Isra'iliyyat reports and assess their usage on the basis of sifting technique? Does the understanding of the Glorious Qur‘an require any additional information sourced from Isra'iliyyat? Is the use of Isra'iliyyat necessary for Muslims? How rapid and accelerated was Isra'iliyyat reports since the time of the Sahaba (the Prophet‘s Companions) and their followers to the present time? Was it permitted to use Isra'iliyyat reports in areas that do not contradict the Shari'ah or downgrade one of the Prophets of Allah? To achieve the objectives of the research, we adopted analytical phenomenological methodology.Keywords: Impact, Isra'iliyyat, Aqidah Contemporary Muslims, Inji

Synthesis and characterisation of some mixed ligands adducts of benzoylacetone and salicylaldehyde

A series of four mixed ligand complexes were synthesized by reacting benzoylacetone and salicylaldehyde with different metal chlorides in ethanolic medium. The complexes have been characterized by molar conductance measurements and spectral techniques such as IR and Uv-visible electronic spectra. Decomposition temperature was also determined. The results indicated that the compounds have bands at 400-500cm-1, with very sharp melting points. This proved the formation of metal-oxygen bond, purity and high thermal stability of the compounds that could lead to a high antimicrobial activity.Keywords: Adduct Synthesis, Ligands, and Complexe

Causal Relationship amongst Risk Factors Impacting the Adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Nigeria

As the performance of BIM could be impaired when unidentified risks are present during implementation, it has become important for the construction industry of different countries to identify these risk factors as well as the causal relationships amongst them. In Nigeria, while risk factors impacting implementation of BIM have been identified, no attempt exist to unravel the causal relationship amongst these risk factors. This study thus, aims to assess causal relationship amongst risk factors impacting BIM implementation in Nigeria. Through extensive review of literature, risk factors totalling up to 54 were identified and assessed via a questionnaire survey administered to 256 construction firms in major cities of Nigeria, namely; Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna. Categorisations existing in previous literature were used as a basis to group the risk factors into 5 constructs, namely; technological, management, financial, legal and environmental factors while Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to assess the causal relationship. It was found that technological risk factors’ effect on management factors was strong and positive. In turn, management factors’ effect on environmental factors was strong and positive as well. This implies that risk factors requiring much attention are the technological factors. The study’s findings provide construction organisations in Nigeria with knowledge of risk factors possessing highest cause and effect on others, thereby enabling appropriate risk mitigation strategies. The study concludes that construction organisations in Nigeria intending to adopt and implement BIM should formulate risk-response strategies for technological risk factors. Also, findings from the study provide a platform for risk factors to be assessed at project as well as industry levels

Development of Digital Resistivity Meter

A digital resistivity meter was designed and constructed using microcontroller (PIC16F877A) and other carefully selected components. The meter was developed, using the state of the art technology, to measure the earth’s electrical resistivity through application of direct current electrical resistivity method. It was designed as a system with various subunits implemented as modules, to help greatly in trouble shooting the system in case of system failure. This meter injected currents of 0.1mA, 1mA and 10mA and two, 6V batteries connected in series powered it. Its capability of accepting analog input and displaying digital output gives it advantage of minimizing errors associated with output display. Microcontroller operated using a configuration of hardware components and functional software written and burnt into the microcontroller’s memory. The meter was tested with a specially designed test unit and the generated results were compared with the calculated values, the two agreed. Keywords: Electrical resistivity, microcontroller, analog, digita

Causal Relationship amongst Risk Factors Impacting the Adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Nigeria

As the performance of BIM could be impaired when unidentified risks are present during implementation, it has become important for the construction industry of different countries to identify these risk factors as well as the causal relationships amongst them. In Nigeria, while risk factors impacting implementation of BIM have been identified, no attempt exist to unravel the causal relationship amongst these risk factors. This study thus, aims to assess causal relationship amongst risk factors impacting BIM implementation in Nigeria. Through extensive review of literature, risk factors totalling up to 54 were identified and assessed via a questionnaire survey administered to 256 construction firms in major cities of Nigeria, namely; Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna. Categorisations existing in previous literature were used as a basis to group the risk factors into 5 constructs, namely; technological, management, financial, legal and environmental factors while Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to assess the causal relationship. It was found that technological risk factors’ effect on management factors was strong and positive. In turn, management factors’ effect on environmental factors was strong and positive as well. This implies that risk factors requiring much attention are the technological factors. The study’s findings provide construction organisations in Nigeria with knowledge of risk factors possessing highest cause and effect on others, thereby enabling appropriate risk mitigation strategies. The study concludes that construction organisations in Nigeria intending to adopt and implement BIM should formulate risk-response strategies for technological risk factors. Also, findings from the study provide a platform for risk factors to be assessed at project as well as industry levels

Unsteady magneto hydrodynamic poiseuille oscillatory flow between two infinite parallel porous plates

Alfred studied on the steady Magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) Poiseuille flow between two infinite parallel porous plates in an inclined magnetic field. The case of steady Poiseuille flow without oscillatory to extend the existing work. The study examines the unsteady MHD Poiseuille oscillatory flow between the two infinite parallel porous plates in a magnetic field. The motion of two dimensional unsteady oscillatory flow of viscous, electrically, conducting, incompressible fluid flowing between two infinite parallel plates at constant pressure gradient was examined. The analytical expression for the fluid velocity obtained was expressed in terms of Hartmann number. The effects of the magnetic inclinations, Hartmann number, suction/injection and pressure gradient to the velocity are presented graphically. It was discovered that the increase in the Hartmann number and suction/injection leads to the increase in the velocity

Simultaneous Distribution Network Reconfiguration and Optimal Placement of Distributed Generation

A reliable, eco- and nature-friendly operation has been the major concern of modern power system (PS). To improve the PS reliability and reduce the adverse environmental effect of conventional thermal generation facilities, renewable energy based distributed generation (RDG) are being enormously integrated to low and medium voltage distribution networks (DN). However, if these systems are not properly deployed, the reliability and stability of the PS will be endangered and its quality can be dreadfully jeopardized. Among the measures taken to avoid such is optimizing the location and size of each RDG unit in the DNs. These networks are generally operated in a radial configuration, though they can be reconfigured to other topologies to achieve certain objectives. Both RDG placement/sizing and DN reconfiguration are highly non-linear, multi-objective, constrained and combinatorial optimization problems. In this study, a hybrid of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and real-coded Genetic Algorithm (GA) techniques is employed for DN reconfiguration and optimal allocation (size and location) of multiple RDG units in primary DNs simultaneously. The objectives of the proposed technique are active power loss reduction, voltage profile (VP) and feeder load balancing (LB) improvement. It is carried out subject to some technical constraints, with the search space being the set of DN branches, DG sizes and potential locations.  To ascertain the effectiveness of the technique, it is implemented on standard IEEE 16-bus, 33-bus and 69-bus test DNs. The proposed algorithm is implemented in MATLAB and MATPOWER environments. It is observed the power loss, voltage deviation and LB are found to be reduced by 32.84%, 12.33% and 24.03% of their respective inherent values in the biggest system when the system is reconfigured only. With the optimized RDGs placed in the reconfigured systems, a further reductions of 46.27%, 25.92% and 36.65% are observed respectively. &nbsp

Prevalence of Mosquitoes in Gidan Yunfa Community of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria

Different species of mosquito serves as a vector for transmitting malaria. Malaria is still a serious public health problem in Nigeria. Knowledge of the mosquito species, their diversity, and their composition would help immensely toward proper implementation of the different control strategies. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of mosquitoes and feeding or biting period in Gidan Yunfa community of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria. The Larvae and Pupae were collected from breeding sites. Adult mosquitoes were sampled using CDC light traps (situated indoor and outdoor) and Pyrethrum Spray Catch methods. Mosquitoes were identified morphologically. A total of 6,410 adult mosquitoes with 2,142 (33.42 %) obtained from CDC light traps and 4,268 (66.58%) from the larval collections were identified belonging to 3 genera Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex. A maximum number of mosquitoes were caught with CDC traps. The abundance of the different genera varied significantly (P<0.05) with Anopheles having the highest occurrence (54.75%) followed by Culex mosquitoes with 40.42%. Aedes has the least abundance with 8.05%. The indoor and outdoor feeding habits of the different species varied significantly (P<0.05). Nature of the houses and tethering of animal in residential houses and abundance of breeding places may explain the reason behind the higher prevalence of the mosquito in this community

Artificial Intelligence Approaches in Student Modeling: Half Decade Review (2010-2015)

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) are special classes of E-learning systems designed using Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches to provide adaptive and personalized tutoring based on the individuality of students. The student model is an important component of an ITS that provides the base for this personalization. During the course of interaction between student and the ITS, the system observe student’s actions and other behavioral properties, create a quantitative representation of these student’s attributes called a student model