Gurses' Type (b) Transformations are Neighborhood-Isometries

Following an idea close to one given by C. G. Torre (private communication), we prove that Riemannian spaces (M,g) and (M,h) that are related by a Gurses type (b) transformation [M. Gurses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 367 (1993)] or, equivalently, by a Torre-Anderson generalized diffeomorphism [C. G. Torre and I. M. Anderson, Phys. Rev. Lett. xx, xxx (1993)] are neighborhood-isometric, i.e., every point x in M has a corresponding diffeomorphism phi of a neighborhood V of x onto a generally different neighborhood W of x such that phi*(h|W) = g|V.Comment: 10 pages, LATEX, FJE-93-00

Building Collapse in Lagos State, Nigeria: Towards Quality Control in Materials, Batching and Placement of Concrete

The collapse of buildings is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria and other developing countries. Evidence from Nigeria has shown that the occurrence of building collapse is mostly prevalent in the informal sector of the building construction industry in Lagos State. Several studies revealed that building collapse is mainly caused by failure of the structural components of a building. Concrete is a dominant material for building structural components in Lagos State, Nigeria and has often been identified as the major cause in many instances of building collapse. This study evaluates the quality control aspects of concrete used especially with respect to its constituent materials, batching and placement in the informal building construction sector of Lagos State, Nigeria using structured questionnaires administered to building construction practitioners working on construction sites in the study area to gather data for the study. Data was analysed using frequency and percentages. Findings were qualitatively discussed. The study found that while the practitioners were conversant with quality assurance aspects of concrete, issues relating to quality of materials used for concrete, trial mix of concrete however, the challenges associated with outsourcing of concrete batching and placement still pose serious threats to concrete quality within the study area. The study recommends that professionals in the construction industry should be involved in all aspects of building procurement and, at the same time, subscribe to quality control measures before and after concrete casting to improve the quality of building construction

RISK PROFILING OF SECONDARY EQUITY INVESTORS FROM THE CHENNAI CITY OF INDIA BASED ON THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY MODEL

The risk taken by the investor depends on several independent variables like: personality, biological age, investment experience and income. The main aim of this article is to combine all these variables in order to build an exhaustive risk profile on the basis of the Big Five Personality dimensions. The research method applied is exploratory in nature and questionnaire survey method was employed to gather data from 436 secondary equity market investors residing in the Chennai city of India. ANOVA was employed to develop the risk profile. The outcome of the research was an exhaustive risk profile combining all the related variables and a regression model predicting the equity returns. The main conclusions of the study are that the investors with the more of the conscientiousness personality tend to take less risk. This finding was also consistent among the senior investors, high income investors and those with mediocre/ high investment experience. The study also concluded that the agreeable investors with high income/high investment experience, tend to take less risk. Only the young investors with more of the conscientiousness personality tend to take more risk and with more of the extraversion personality tend to take less risk. This study serves as a guidance for advisors to provide appropriate recommendations on the basis of the risk appetite and personality of the investors

Evaluation of Energy Use in Public Housing in Lagos, Nigeria: Prospects for Renewable Energy Sources

Even though domestic energy can be from either renewable or non-renewable sources, the former is preferred because of its role in reducing both the operational energy intensity and carbon footprint. Given the positive role renewable energy plays in the energy mix, this paper examined the pattern of operational energy use with particular reference to the renewable and non-renewable energy content in medium and high density public residential buildings in Lagos, Nigeria. A survey research method was adopted for primary data collection while data analysis was by descriptive statistics. The study found that renewable energy use in the residential units is very low. In contrast, there was high dependence of the occupants on non-renewable direct fuel combustion through the use of fossil fuel-driven privately-owned electricity generators for electricity supply as a result of the inadequate supply from the national grid. In addition to the relatively high operational energy intensity observed in the studied buildings, the findings have implications for the safety, health and wellbeing of the building occupants as well as for carbon emissions from the buildings and for overall environmental sustainability. Recommendations to increase renewable energy use in new buildings and as retrofits in existing buildings were made. Article History: Received Oct 18, 2015; Received in revised form January 14, 2016; Accepted January 30, 2016; Available online How to Cite This Article: Ezema, I.C., Olotuah, A.O., and Fagbenle, O.I, S. (2016) Evaluation of Energy Use in Public Housing in Lagos, Nigeria: Prospects for Renewable Energy Sources. Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 5(1),15-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.14710/ijred.5.1.15-2

El efecto moderador de la educación financiera en la relación entre las herramientas de toma de decisiones y los rendimientos de las acciones en el mercado secundario de acciones de la India

La toma de decisiones en el complejo mercado de valores es una tarea exigente dada la enorme cantidad de información disponible y la amplia gama de técnicas de toma de decisiones disponibles. La educación financiera de los inversores juega un papel destacado para influir en su proceso de toma de decisiones. Aunque el mercado de valores indio es el tercero más grande de Asia, solo alrededor del 3% de sus hogares invierten en mercados de valores. El nivel de educación financiera del inversor indio debe evaluarse para que haya una mayor participación en el mercado de valores y se obtengan mayores rendimientos. Este estudio tiene como objetivo determinar el efecto moderador de la educación financiera en la relación entre las herramientas de toma de decisiones y los rendimientos de las acciones obtenidos en el mercado secundario de acciones de la India. Las herramientas de toma de decisiones incluyen el análisis fundamental: (i) análisis económico, (ii) análisis de la industria, (iii) análisis de la empresa, (iv) análisis técnico y (v) recomendación deasesores. Los datos se recopilaron a través del método de encuesta de cuestionario y a través de una muestra válida de 436 cuestionarios, se probó la importancia del efecto moderador. Usando el complemento Process Macro en SPSS, se realizó el análisis de moderación. Los resultados revelan que la educación financiera solamente moderó la relación entre el análisis económico y los rendimientos de las acciones

Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Local Chicken Ecotypes in Burkina Faso Using Microsatellite Markers

The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of local chicken ecotypes from Burkina Faso using microsatellite markers. A total of 71 individuals representing local chicken populations from the Centre-East (18), Centre-North (17), Sahel (18) and South-West (18) were used to estimate genetic diversity indices, population structure and phylogenetic relationships using 20 selected polymorphic microsatellite markers. The number of alleles, mean number of alleles, mean of observed and expected heterozygosity and polymorphic information content were 127, 6.35, 0.391, 0.521, 0.539 and 0.541, respectively. The estimated overall fixation index between loci (F), among populations (FIS) and inbreeding coefficient within chicken ecotypes were 0.239, 0.267 and 0.243, respectively. Analysis of the molecular variance revealed that 77% of the total genetic diversity was attributed to within-population variation and the remaining 1% and 22% were attributed to among-regions differentiation (FST) and among-individual differentiation (FIT), respectively. The highest pairwise genetic distance (0.026) was found between the local Konde ecotype and those from the Centre-North region while the lowest distance was observed between local chickens from the Sahel and the Centre-North regions (0.003). Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree and principal component discriminant analyses confirmed the observed genetic distances between populations. The results show that local chickens in Burkina Faso have a rich genetic diversity with little differentiation between the studied populations. This study provides important information on measures of genetic diversity that could help in the design and implementation of future genetic improvement and conservation programs for local chickens in Burkina Faso

Dynamical ionization ignition of clusters in intense and short laser pulses

The electron dynamics of rare gas clusters in laser fields is investigated quantum mechanically by means of time-dependent density functional theory. The mechanism of early inner and outer ionization is revealed. The formation of an electron wave packet inside the cluster shortly after the first removal of a small amount of electron density is observed. By collisions with the cluster boundary the wave packet oscillation is driven into resonance with the laser field, hence leading to higher absorption of laser energy. Inner ionization is increased because the electric field of the bouncing electron wave packet adds up constructively to the laser field. The fastest electrons in the wave packet escape from the cluster as a whole so that outer ionization is increased as well.Comment: 8 pages, revtex4, PDF-file with high resolution figures is available from http://mitarbeiter.mbi-berlin.de/bauer/publist.html, publication no. 24. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Perspective Chapter on Promoting Circular Design Strategies in Housing Delivery in Nigeria

Circular economy principles are gradually replacing the linear economy model, which has been found to promote waste and resource inefficiency. The circular model is of particular interest to the built environment due to its benefits in resource optimization and waste minimization. Given the huge housing deficit in Nigeria and the attendant resources needed to mitigate the deficit, circular strategies are apt for the massive housing delivery required to bridge the deficit. This chapter examines the concept of circular economy as it affects the built environment. Specifically, design strategies that tend to promote circular housing delivery are examined. The public housing delivery process in use in Lagos, Nigeria’s most urbanized city is evaluated to ascertain its alignment with circular principles. The study found that even though opportunities exist for the massive deployment of circular strategies, its adoption is still very low. The chapter recommends more deliberate actions at the design and implementation stages of housing projects to promote circular economy for the housing sector in urban Nigeria

Environmental Justice and Community-Based Participatory Research in Texas Borderland Colonias

Objective An innovative academic-community partnership studied daily decisions in communities of mostly Spanish-speaking, low-income residents of colonias in Hidalgo County, TX, about risk of exposure to fish contaminated by PCBs at an Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site. Design and Sample The team used focus group interviews with colonia residents and content analysis to assess knowledge of risk related to the Superfund site, the Donna Reservoir and Canal System. Results (1) many lacked knowledge of the Superfund site contamination; (2) a few participants fished at the lake, knew people who did so, and consumed the catch, but most participants feared going there; (3) some participants remember receiving messages saying not to fish at the site, although they recalled nothing about contamination, but most participants knew of no such messages; (4) many use cell phones to get local information through personal networks and several Spanish-language news sources, but they have no consistent, culturally tailored local information source. Conclusions The findings indicate the need for further efforts to design culturally tailored means of communication and messages to inform local communities widely about the dangers related to the Superfund site and thus decrease health disparities resulting from consuming fish from the site