The Role of Extension in Cooperative Management and Administration in Nigeria

Nigeria has not been able to solve her food problem and the rural dwellers that produces almost the entire food the nation consumed has continued to remain in a poorest condition, despite the millions of naira spent by government on rural and agricultural development. People join cooperative movements to better their economic conditions and other benefits it provides.  Cooperatives are different from business organizations because unlike business organizations, cooperatives are more services rented rather than profit oriented. Cooperatives is a voluntary association of individuals who come together to ensure goods and services at cost. When farmers decide to form themselves cooperatives they each extend a part of their business. It is against this backdrop that this paper intends to evaluate the roles of extension in cooperative management and administration in Nigeria

The Moderating Effect of Institutional Shareholders on the Relationship between Board Attributes and Auditor Selection among Listed Financial Service Firms in Nigeria

The study examines the moderating effect of institutional ownership on the relationship between board attributes and auditor selection among listed financial service firms in Nigeria. It investigated whether institutional shareholding moderate the relationship between board size, board independence, board gender diversity, board meeting attendance and auditor selection among listed financial firms in Nigeria. The study used secondary data extracted from the published financial statements of the sampled firms for the period 2007 to 2020. The population of the study consists of 53 listed financial service firms in Nigeria. The study adopts correlational research design using logistic regression as a tool of analysis.  This study presents evidence that higher levels of institutional ownership strengthen the effect of board attributes (gender diversity and board meeting attendance) on auditor selection. Hence, the result implies that managers may face stringent monitoring when institutional investors, board gender diversity and board meeting attendance interacts. Such superior monitoring may compel managers to consider hiring an industry specialist auditor to audit the firm which leads to boosting the firm’ value. The finding of this investigation has an important policy implication on enhancing sound corporate governance practices, particularly for firms operating in developing countries where the market for corporate control is ineffective

Effect of different heat processing methods on the proximate composition of Piliostegma reticulatum seed meal

Plants (legumes) are important sources of dietary protein for both human and animals, but the presence of antinutritive factors affect the nutritional quality of the legumes. Unless these factors are destroyed by processing methods, they can exert adverse physiological effects when ingested by animals. To improve the nutritional quality of legumes for animal feed, it is important to establish a processing method that  will remove or reduce these antinutritive factors The objectives of this study is to determine the  processing method suitable for processing P. reticulatum seed for animal feed formulation. The proximate composition of the raw and differently heat processed P.reticulatum seed were investigated using  Association of Officials Analytical Chemists (AOAC, 1990). Complete randomized experimental design  with triplicates replications was applied. The raw seed revealed the following result moisture (7.27%),  crude protein (34.20%), crude fire (6.05%), ether extract (5.51%), ash (7.21%), nitrogen free extract  (47.03); the result of 30 minutes boiled seed was moisture (7.26%), crude protein (36.01%), crude fibre (4.71%), ether extracts (7.10%), ash (8.09%) and nitrogen free extracts (44.08%); 60 minutes boiled seed indicated the following results moisture (6.25%), crude protein (31.54%), crude fibre (3.33%), ether extract (8.22%),ash (14.01%) and nitrogen free extract (42.90%); traditionally boiled seed results were moisture (7.07%), crude protein (28.48%), crude fibre (3.07%), ether extracts (12.89%), ash (11.76%) and nitrogen free extracts (43.78%); 40 minutes toasted seed results were moisture (1.91%), crude protein (31.94%), crude fibre (5.29%), ether extracts (11.21%), ash (13.02%) and nitrogen free extracts (38.62%); The results of 80 minutes toasted seed were moisture (5.16%), crude protein  (20.96%), crude fibre (5.24%), ether extracts (9.04%), ash (8.74%) and nitrogen free extracts  (55.69%); 120 minutes toasted seed results were: moisture (10.24%), crude protein (24.12%), crude fibre (3.42%), ether extracts (9.03%), ash (11.27%) and nitrogen free extracts (52.16%) and the traditionally roasted seed record the following results moisture (3.20%), crude protein (31.37%), crude fibre (2.60%), ether extracts (8.15%), ash (12.91%) and nitrogen free extracts (44.20%). In the  proximate analysis, T2 (30 minutes boiled seed) had the highest crude protein content (36.01%), disadvantaged when compared with T3 (60 minutes boiled seed), T5 (40 minutes toasted seed) and T8 (traditionally roasted seed) in the other parameters. Among these treatments (T3, T5 and T8), T3 has an advantage over the others in terms of moderate crude protein (CP) and nitrogen free extract and also had the highest ash content. T1 (raw seed), although has high (34.20%), but recorded the highest crude fiblre and the lowest ash content. Thus from this finding of this study, T3 appeared to be the best in terms of proximate composition for animal feed formulation.Keyword : Piliostigma reticulatum, seed, heat processing, proximate composition

Optimal Allocation and Sizing of Distributed Generation for Power Loss Reduction using Modified PSO for Radial Distribution Systems

For the purpose of improving the voltage profile and power losses reduction, this paper proposes allocation and sizing of Distributed Generation (DG) in radial distribution system (69 IEEE bus test system.). A simple and effective approach for power loss reduction (PLR) value is employed for the allocation while the sizing was by using the results from the allocation as local optimum in a modified PSO called Ranked Evolutionary particle swarm optimization (REPSO) in order to obtain the global optimum. Load simulations in power flow yielded improvement not only in power loss reduction but also in voltage profile. The proposed algorithm was found to be faster and gives more accurate results than the EP and PSO algorithms. Keywords: Distributed Generation, Evolutionary programming,, Particle Swarm Optimization, Allocation and sizing, Power loss reduction

Effect of Piagetian Formal Operations on Mathematics Performance of Senior Secondary Students in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Effect of formal operation abilities on mathematics performance of Senior Secondary Students in Kaduna State was investigated. The population of the study was all the SS III students in the state. Their number was 62,565. A sample of 400 students of equal numbers of males and females was drawn, from those offering arts and science subjects. Two paper and pencil tests were developed and used to generate data for analysis, namely, Formal Operations Test (FOT) and Mathematics Performance Test (MPT).The FOT was to assess students’ level of formal operations while the MPT was developed to test their performance in mathematics. The results of the study showed that mathematics performance was low. Second, the numbers of students who always use and those who never use formal operations abilities were about equal. Third, results in the FOT and MPT were significant and positively correlated. Fourth, there was significant difference between the MPT scores of those students who always use and those who never use the abilities in favour of the former. Implications deduced were that this study confirmed that not all SS students use the abilities always and some never use them. Results of the analysis also indicated that formal operations significantly affect students’ performance in mathematics. Those who always use the abilities performed better than those who never use them. This indicated that the widely experienced poor performance in mathematics, especially among senior secondary students, is partly as a result of students not always using formal operations abilities. Lastly, findings indicated that knowledge of students’ level of formal operations can be used to understand, predict and improve their performance in mathematics. It was recommended that teachers of mathematics should endeavour to diagnose and identify their students’ level of formal operations so that they help raise those students who sometimes use and those who never use the abilities to be using them always. It was also recommended that governments should be convening and sponsoring workshops that will evolve programs for accelerating students’ cognitive development for use by teachers in normal mathematics lessons

Direct Participation of Civilians in Hostilities as an Exception to Civilians Immunity in Armed Conflict: A Critical Review

Notion of direct participation in hostilities has been a complex and contentious phenomenon within the realm of armed conflict, especially where the armed conflict involves non state armed actors. The notion covers a situation where a person carries out specific acts which by their nature or purpose form part of the conduct of hostilities between parties to an armed conflict. In this circumstance, a person loses his immunity and becomes a legitimate target since he ceases to be harmless. Though it is usual that civilians and civilian objects enjoy immunity against direct attack, but where either of the belligerents is an armed group, there is problem of how to deal with members of such armed groups. This problem emanates from the fact that membership of the armed group is drawn from the civilian population while during armed conflict, the general population is made up of civilians and members of such group, and it creates a problem of identity. Likewise, the problem may also be attributed to lack of legal framework defining the status of members of armed groups and the notion of direct participation in hostilities. Therefore, the article analyses the notion of direct participation with a view to determining when civilian or a member of an armed group loses immunity against attack.  Key Words: Combatant, Civilian, Hostilities, legitimate Target, Armed Grou

Design and Construction Technique for Low Embodied Energy Building: An Analytical Network Process Approach

Energy performance in the construction industry is one of the significant features to be assessed in order to achieve sustainability in the built environment. There is a limited amount of literature on the analytical network process (ANP) in achieving sustainability towards reducing embodied energy. The aim of this study was to achieve buildings with less embodied energy through design, construction techniques and automation using ANP in order to promote sustainable construction. Data collection was primarily done by way of a well-structured questionnaire and an expert opinion survey. The responses retrieved from the questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ranked accordingly. An ANP model was developed using multi-criteria decision-making based on the expert survey and used to prioritize and assign an important weighting for the identified criteria. The findings showed that multi-criteria decision-making with ANP when effectively employed will help in achieving sustainable buildings with low embodied energy. Reducing the amount of cement through design and building information modeling is the most significant factor towards achieving buildings with less embodied energy

Techno-economic analysis of gas turbine compressor fouling and washing.

Gas turbine engines ingest large quantities of air from the surrounding atmosphere that often contains contaminants of different concentrations depending on the type of environment, atmospheric condition, seasonal changes, and wind direction. Deposition of contaminants and build-up on the compressor blades lead to compressor fouling. On-line and off-line compressor washing have been shown to relatively improve engine performance by decelerating or eliminating (in the case of off-line) the rate of engine degradation due to fouling during operation. There are a number of influencing parameters that determine the economic benefits of washing, some of which include the frequency of washing, effectiveness of washing liquid, and the power output produced. This research explores the cost-benefit analysis for on-line washing from 72hrs to 480hrs frequency, focusing on the viability of compressor washing for various gas turbine engines or rated capacities, ranging from a 5MW single machine to a 300MW unit. Fouling degradation trends obtained from actual machine operation have been implemented in this study. The application of different washing frequencies and time-based recoveries of lost power shows a significantly higher return on investment for the larger engines in comparison to the smaller engines. This is partly because the washing equipment cost, though increases with engine size, does not increase proportionally. Some of the key aspects captured in this study are the capital and maintenance costs used for washing, relating to the different engine sizes, thus ensuring a more indicative basis for comparing the viability of the different engines. This also includes the estimation of washing liquids utilized based on their respective typical mass flows. The study also presents an economic benefit for off-line washing from 720hrs to 4320hrs, focusing on costs that are related with off-line washing, specific cost of energy produced and net profit after deducting washing cost for different engines, related to their rated capacity. The result shows that at higher losses, off-line or on-line washing should be directly proportional to deposition or rate of degradation, and as the degradation rate increases, off-line or on-line washing is more frequent. However, when the degradation rate decreases, off- line or on-line washing should be less frequent. When off-line and on-line washing at different combinations are incorporated, the study shows that adopting the least possible off-line washing case combined with a fair amount of on-line washing case of 36 times a year provides higher net profit after deducting washing cost compared to other washing combinations. The study also presents an optimization method for on-line and off-line washing capable of evaluating compressor washing performance and economics using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithms approach. The result shows an optimum on-line washing frequency ranging from 90hrs to 110hrs for all the engine sizes at 7.2% power drop except for light-duty engine that was found to be not viable.PhD in Aerospac

Synthesis, characterisation and antimicrobial evaluation of the alkyd resins derived from castor seed oil

No AbstractKeywords: Alkyd resin, Castor Seed Oil, Phthalic anhydrid

Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standard and Accounting Information Quality

The aim of this paper is to review previous literatures on IFRS adoption and whether the adoption will help in improving accounting quality.Many countries both developed and developing adopts or permits the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (‘IFRS’) by publicly listed companies with the aim of achieving higher information quality and accounting comparability. However, based on the reviewed articles the empirical evidence proved to be conflicting with some evidenced the benefits of IFRS adoption on the accounting information quality although many state that’s these benefits of the adoption defend largely on other external factors such as countries’ legal and level of enforcement, culture and investor protection while others found no any benefits arising from the IFRS adoption in respect of information quality. Keywords: IFRS, Adoption, Information Qualit