Modeling a Small Scale Business Outfit With M/M/1 Markovian Queuing Process and Revenue Analysis

This article presents a queuing model on the operation of a small business which are often visited with a lot of set- backs and uncertainties.  Probability models were derived for two system characteristics namely the customers' inter-arrival rate (It), the service time per customer (Yt), and the Service charge (Ct) per customer was also recorded. This data collected were subjected to single factor analysis of variance with fixed effect to confirm whether the data came from the same population distribution. However it was observed that the inter-arrival time for the customers was exponential, service rate also exponential.............

Optimization of Entrepreneurship by the Application of Linear Programming Technique

This study tries to factor O.R (optimization) into entrepreneurship for the purpose of profit maximization. Primary data from an entrepreneur was collected. The data analysis, optimization application software (TORA) was used. The optimal solution were X2 (moccasin) = 9.09 and X3 (Italian) = 6.36 for a profit of Zmax = N2836.36 and it was concluded that the entrepreneur (shoe producer) should produce 9.09 units of moccasin and 6.36 units of Italian shoes for a daily profit of N2836.36 and that they should not produce X2 (paddock) and X4 (cover front) types of shoes in the face of the constraints posed by the operating environment. Keywords: Entrepreneur, optimization, profit maximization.

Africa in Contemporary World Politics:The Dynamics and Effects of Domination

Africa has always been part of global politics but majorly on the receiving end. After over five decades of independence, this situation has not changed and there is little reason to believe that positive change is to be expected under the prevailing configurations of power. Against, this background, this paper takes a critical look at the place of Africa in the contemporary world politics. It interrogates its politics of domination, examines the dynamics of that domination and its impacts which it summed under the rubrics of insecurity. Noting that under the established practices, rules and behavioral patterns of the global community that the vicious cycle of domination cannot be broken, the paper made radical recommendations on how best to escape domination. Key words: Domination, power of chaos, vicious cycle

Antimicrobial and antihelminthic properties of shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa)

The phytochemical, antimicrobial and antihelminthic screening of the crude extract of three types of Vitellaria paradoxa (shea butter) was investigated in this study. The crude extracts were dissolved in di-methylsulfoxide. The phytochemical constituents of the crude extracts were accessed and compared. Clinical isolates under aseptic conditions were collected from the Medical Microbiology Laboratory, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and further morphological and biochemical tests were carried out to identify this clinical isolates as; Staphylococcus sp., Escherichia sp., Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella sp., Streptococcus sp and Candida sp. Inoculums were prepared and adjusted to 0.5ml Mc Farland standard of each test bacterium. It was spread onto sterile Muller Hinton Agar plates so as to achieve even growth. The plates were allowed to dry and a sterile cork borer (6.0mm diameter) was used to bore wells in the agar plates. Ofloxacine and Fluconazole was used as bacteria and fungi control respectively. The crude yellow extracts exhibited inhibitory activities that were found to be higher than crude white and ivory colored extract on all the test organisms. Despite the crude yellow extract exhibited higher inhibitory activities than the other extracts; the antibacterial activity was low in 10-1 to 10-4 dilutions for some bacteria. The crude extracts revealed the presence of Alkaloids, flavonoids, Cardiac glycosides, saponnin, and carbohydrates. Anthraquinnone and phlobatannin were absent in the extracts. This study also revealed that shea butter has no anti-helminth effect after 24hours exposure of the eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichuria in the shea oil sample rather; the DMSO used as control killed the eggs. This calls for further investigation

A Case for Adoption of Industry-Wide Application of Solar Disinfection of Packaged Drinking Water Before Distribution in Nigeria

The study makes a case for adoption of an industry-wide application of solar disinfection (SODIS) in the disinfection of packaged water at the production stage. To do this, 60 samples, comprising 12 brands of bottled water and 18 brands of sachet-packaged water were randomly purchased from street vendors in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria and investigated. One sample was hidden from sunlight while the other sample was exposed to a day of sunlight before the two samples were subjected to microbial analysis for the determination of total coliform (TC) using the method of multiple-tube fermentation technique (MPN). Results show that 63% of packaged water vended in Nsukka is not fit for consumption. The risk of contamination is about 44% higher in sachet water when compared with bottled water (relative risk = 1.44). Exposing packaged water to a day of sunlight reduces the risk of consuming contaminated water by about 97% (relative risk reduction value = 0.97). Advocacy of industry-wide application of SODIS may hold the key to ending widespread contamination of packaged water and the resulting life-threatening illnesses that have decimated the population of developing countries

Exponentiated Inverse Power Pranav distribution: Properties and Application

In this article, we proposed a new distribution known as the Exponentiated Inverse Power Pranav distribution for modeling lifetime data sets with monotone and non-monotone shapes in their hazard rates. Along with some of the basic properties, we however, studied the maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the proposed distribution. The model was subjected to life application with a dataset and compared to other sub-models. The new distribution was found to have a best fit more than the competing sub-models. Keywords: Pranav distribution, Inverse Power Pranav distribution, Exponentiated distributions, Maximum Likelihood estimation, Exponentiated Inverse Power Pranav distributio

Indigenous Description of Soils in Some Communities in Emuoha Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

Local people and small holder farmers have knowledge of their land based on soil and land characteristics that remain largely unknown to the scientific community. It is therefore important for researchers to understand farmers’ knowledge of soil classification and management. A study was carried out using a semi structured questionnaire to elicit indigenous knowledge of soil description from households in three different communities (Rumuche, Isiodu and Eliberada) in Emuoha Local Government Area of Rivers State. It was found that farmers’ soil classification was based mainly on top soil colour, texture and other criteria such as erodibility, drainage and crop yield. The fertility rating of the different soil was established from laboratory analysis of the soils.Keywords: indigenous knowledge, soil description, ethnopedologyJournal of Agriculture and Social Research (JASR) Vol. 11, No. 1, 201

Algorithm for Fingerprint Verification System

Extraction of minutiae based features from good quality fingerprint images is more effective for fingerprint recognition in comparison with features from low quality fingerprint. In this paper, a new technique for fingerprint feature extraction based on ridge pattern is proposed. Robust features are extracted from fingerprint image notwithstanding the quality of the image. The variation within different person fingerprint is established using centre of gravity of the fingerprint image as the reference point for effective classification. Similarity measure in term of Euclidean distance is compute for test fingerprint image

ENSURING SAFETY IN THE GAME OF FOOTBALL: THE ROLE OF THE REFEREES

This paper focused on the role of referees in ensuring safety in the game of football. It highlighted the concepts of referee, officiating and posited how referees can ensure safety in football. It concluded by stating that most incidents in the game of football matches are as a result of spectators and fans reaction to unsafe acts of the referees and that referees who are major producers of football should not be a source of regret to consumers of the game. It recommended among others that; there should be comprehensive and well organized training schedule for referees. The assessment for promotion of referees should include practical sessions. Modules of safety courses should be integral part of referees training schedule and safety seminars and workshops should be organized for referees locally and internationally.  Article visualizations

SCHOOL COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP: PROPULSION FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE PRACTICES IN SECONDARY SCHOOL IN NIGERIA

This paper focuses on the impact of school community relationship as propulsion for quality assurance practices in secondary schools in Nigeria. The study is an impulse which presents and explains such conceptual issues as: education, quality assurance, and the roles of government in planned curriculum, school and community partnership building, Importance of school community relationship, school community partnership building, school management and leadership and effective quality assurance of teacher and student. The paper therefore sought and found quality assurance in education as a systematic management, monitoring and evaluation procedure adopted to measure the performance of school administration, and improvement drives coming from principals/teacher quality and instructional effectiveness as essential factors in the classroom as inputs/outputs drive. Furthermore, it recommended that Parents and teachers should not allow the management of their schools to the hands of the school administrators alone hence their contribution is vital and necessary for the development of the schools. School managers should create a conducive environment for old students associations to effectively operate in their schools and where they are not in existence, the school heads should find ways of bringing the old students together for the benefit of the school and the community in general. Schools should also provide enough advisory committee members that can be able to guide both teachers and learners to achieve their objectives in life and the plans of the school. Then recommended that, partnership envisaged cuts across different, but mutually inclusive groups of stakeholders: the private sector, international development agencies and families of learners being the utmost benefactors of the products of the educational system, who needed to be co-opted into the pursuit of quality education in secondary schools in Nigeria by government.  Article visualizations