First Detection of the Crab Pulsar above 100 GeV

We present the detection of pulsed gamma-ray emission from the Crab pulsar above 100 GeV with the VERITAS array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Gamma-ray emission at theses energies was not expected in pulsar models. The detection of pulsed emission above 100 GeV and the absence of an exponential cutoff makes it unlikely that curvature radiation is the primary production mechanism of gamma rays at these energies.Comment: 5 pages, proceedings of the TAUP 2011 conference in Munich, German

The Effects of Iron Filling On Some Mechanical and Physical Properties of a Sawdust Particleboard

This research work was aimed at producing particleboard from sawdust (matrix) and iron filling (particulate) under the same conditions as ordinary particleboard produced from sawdust alone and their properties compared. Sawdust –iron fillings particleboards were produced using a sawdust of particle size 1.18mm and iron fillings of size 300μm, 20g binder (urea formaldehyde) concentration, hot pressing temperature of 160°C, applied pressure of 10 tons equivalent to 12.5Mpa, hot pressing time of 12 minutes throughout the production of the particleboards. The weight of sawdust was kept constant (50g) while the weight of iron filling was varied (i.e from 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50g). A controlled sample of only sawdust particleboard was produced and tested under the same condition as those of the sawdust- iron filling particleboard. The mechanical properties tested showed that the particleboard from 40g iron filling has the highest mechanical properties (MOR, MOE and UTS of 255.20Mpa, 432.43Mpa and 22Mpa). Particleboard produced from only sawdust alone was found to have the least mechanical properties that is MOR, MOE and UTS of 140.63Mpa, 46.19Mpa and 7Mpa respectively. The water absorption and thickness swell test results showed that the particleboard of 40g iron fillings has the highest water resistance capacity and least thickness swell of 33.69% and 5.87% respectively

High temperature salting of fish mince

Freshly caught miscellaneous fish were transported to the laboratory, gutted and washed before mechanical separation into bone and mince. Seven batches of the mince were then treated with seven different concentrations (Wt/Wt) of sodium chloride before cooking. The cooked mince was divided into two groups, pressed and unpressed. Percentage residual salt of the salted cooked mince, cooked water and salted pressed mince was determined. Also, the moisture content of the salted cooked mince and salted pressed cake was determine

Digital Speed Control of DC Motor for Industrial Automation using Pulse Width Modulation Technique

Precise speed control is an important requirement for efficient industrial automation. Direct current (DC) motors have been extensively used for this purpose. The conventional method employs analog circuits to control the speed of the DC motor by varying the voltage of the armature while the field voltage is kept constant. In this paper, a digital speed control of DC motor using pulse width modulation technique was implemented by replacing analog circuit with an Atmel AT89S52 microcontroller circuit. An experimentation of the design showed that the DC motor can run forward motoring, forward regeneration, reverse motoring and reverse regeneration. This digital approach proved to have increased precision and greater control efficiency. Thus, a centralized control of several motors can also be achieve

Analysis of Agricultural Value Chain Finance in Smallholder Palm Oil Processing in Delta State, Nigeria

This study analysed agricultural value chain finance in smallholder palm oil processing in Delta State, Nigeria by ascertaining the socioeconomic characteristics of palm oil processors and determining the effect of palm oil processors’ socioeconomic characteristics on the choice of credit channel in the value chain finance. Multi-stage random sampling procedure was applied to select 240 respondents from 12 communities in four local government areas. Data were obtained through the use of structured questionnaire and analysed by the use of descriptive and inferential (multinomial logit) statistical tools. Findings indicate that over 75% of the respondent palm oil processors are females while 70.42% are aged between 31 and 50 years and 69.17% are married. Also, 97% of the respondents had formal education while 85% have palm oil processing experiences of between 6 and 15 years and more than 51% have household size of between 7 and 10 persons. The multinomial logit model result suggests that the choice of source of credit channel by palm oil processors is significantly related to gender (p>0.10), age (p>0.01 and 0.10), education (p>0.01 and 0.05), level of income (p>0.01) as well as membership of organization (p>0.01 and 0.10) and location of business (p>0.05 and 0.10). The coefficients of the variables are positive which implies that the probability of the respondents accessing value chain finance from any of the sources relative to the formal finance increases with respondents’ gender, age, education, experience, level of income as well as membership of organization and location of business. It is the recommendation of the study that governments should implement measures that will bring down the interest rate paid on agricultural loans. Keywords: Agriculture, Value chain finance, Palm oil Processing, Multinomial logit

Public Policy Influences on Academia in the European Union: A Snapshot of the Convergences Among HRM–Industrial Relations and CSR–Stakeholder Approach

The aim of this research is to examine the public policy influences on academic investigations that contain a substantial convergence among human resource management–industrial relations and corporate social responsibility–stakeholder approach by means of using bibliometric and content analyses of relevant publications in the Scopus and ScienceDirect databases. Totally, 160 publications were subject to bibliometric, cluster, and summative content analyses. In this context, this study claims that public policy in the EU influences academic investigations and scholars. The investigation draws attention to the importance of active participation of different public institutions and key stakeholders (e.g., trade unions, works councils, academic associations) that prepare a basis for collaboration, solidarity, and communication for strengthening EU social model, social dialogue, collective bargaining, and the protection of social rights. The research findings illuminate the fact that European public policies have significant effects on shaping and encouraging investigations that are considered within the scope of IR–HRM and CSR–SA. One of the most crucial recommendations of this study is that the investigations which are out of this framework can be considered quite idealistic. Therefore, researchers may attempt to publish more scientific investigations in frame of IR–HRM and CSR–SA to enhance the comprehensiveness and depth of these two clusters

Gamma Ray Spectrometric Analysis of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORMS) in Gold Bearing Soil using NaI (Tl) Technique

In this work, the radioactivity in the gold bearing samples collected from the artisanal mining sites in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area, Kaduna State have been determined, experimental measurements of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activities concentration in the gold bearing samples have been carried out using a NaI(Ti) gamma ray spectrometer. The measured activity concentration for 226Ra have been found to lie in the specific ranges from 1.0545±0.4983Bq/Kg to 3.8355± 0.3476Bq/Kg while the  mean concentration is 2.383±0.4415Bq/Kg for 232Th, the activity concentration ranges from 9.3501±1.0260Bq/Kg to 66.7047±0.5700Bq/Kg, while the mean activity concentration of 232Th is 32.3644±9.3440Bq/Kg, for 40K,the activity concentration ranges from 120.9953±6.5319Bq/Kg to 815.8631±10.504Bq/Kg, while the mean activity concentration is 383.7924±72.5436Bq/Kg. The mean absorbed dose rate in the study area is 35.7334nGy/hr; while the mean annual effective dose rate is 0.032mSv/year which is lower when compared with tolerable limits of 1mSv/year. Keywords; Natural Radionuclides,Aactivity Concentrations, Absorbed Dose

Management and Evaluation of Patient Satisfaction to Health Care in the Pediatric Clinic of the University Clinical Center of Kosovo

The aim of this research is to reflect the real data with the approach of health services in the University Clinical Center of Kosovo and also have received different opinions from parents of children who have been hospitalized in the pediatrics clinic than they were satisfied with the provision of this clinical services offered.Keywords: health management, evaluation of satisfaction of patients to health services, Pediatrics Clinic

Comparative study and experimental analysis of pellets from biomass sawdust and rice husk

Sawdust and rice husk are available in abundance and indigenous in Nigeria but have not been exploited because they cannot be used directly in combustion processes due to their loose form unless by pelleting or briquetting. This experimental study assesses the potential of pellets from sawdust (SD) and rice husk (RH). Pallet samples collected from mills were thereafter optimized in ratios (i.e. 90%RH:10%SD, 80%RH:20%SD, 70RH:30SD, 60%RH:40%SD, 50%RH:50%SD, 100%RH and 100%SD) using mixing ratio optimization model. Seven samples were produced using a manual screw press machine and were subsequently categorized in terms of calorific value (CV), proximate and ultimate analyses using the ASTM standards. Results showed that the 100%RH pellets have higher CV of 31,026.3kJ/kg and the 100%SD a value of 26,088.3kJ/kg while the optimized pellets range from 25,867.39kJ/kg to 27,063.60kJ/kg. The CV decreases with increasing ash content of the pellets. It was also observed from the proximate analysis that the 100%RH has low percentages of moisture content, volatile matter and ash content compared to others. The optimized pellets showed that SD has the tendency to reduce the sulfur content in RH; hence, a promising alternative source of energy to the conventional fossil fuel