Students and Teachers’ Views of Difficult Areas in Mathematics Syllabus: Basic Requirement for Science and Engineering Education

The research investigates teachers and students’ views of difficult areas of mathematics syllabus which is a special requirement for engineering education in Nigeria using Ogbomosho South Secondary Schools in Oyo State as case study. The population of the study consisted of all the mathematics teachers and all the senior secondary III students in all the 18 Secondary schools in the Local Government Area. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 15 mathematics teachers and 180 Senior Secondary school III Students. Two self designed questionnaires were developed to elicit information for the research questions. Appropriate hypotheses were raised based on the research questions. These questionnaires were validated and their reliability ensured. The data gathered were analyzed using frequency count, percentage, t-test and Chi-square. The results of the analyses revealed that both teachers and students, qualified and unqualified, experienced and less experienced teachers have the same views of difficult areas in teaching and learning of mathematics in the secondary schools. Based on the findings, it was therefore recommended that for engineering education to advance, teachers should endeavour to improve themselves academically, be more committed, proactive in their dealings, and see their job as service to humanity; school authorities should have more time schedule for mathematics on the time table, qualified mathematics teachers should be posted to all schools, appointment of mathematics teachers should be purely on merit and should not be politicized. Curriculum planners should be up and doing in planning for teaching of mathematics with appropriate instructional materials. Keywords: Teachers, students, perceptions, mathematics, curriculum, hypotheses, T-test, Chi-square, Evaluation, Recommendation

Wobbe Index Determination of Cattle Dung Biogas

This paper is aimed at determining the Wobbe Index (W I) of cattle dung biogas which is the amount of energy delivered to a burner through an injector or orifice especially during combustion. The biogas was produced by anaerobic digestion of cattle dung in a batch digester within two weeks. Pressure and temperature of the digester were monitored at 12 noon daily. The analysis of the combustible biogas using thermal conductivity detector (TCD) revealed CH4 at 0.562, CO2 0.395, H2S 0.018, CO 0.019 and 0.005 moles for NH3 by volume. Its calorific value (C V) using gas calorimeter Junkers was 19.5 MJ/m3.  The cumulative specific volume of the biogas rose from zero through day 1 to 0.622732 m3/kg on the sixth day before recording daily marginal increments with the rest of the days of incubation. The relative density of the biogas also had a sharp rise on the second day at 5.039208 before dropping to 2.51126 and then gradually decreased daily to the end of digestion. The Wobbe Index equally rose from zero on the first day through to 12.08434 MJ/m3, 14.07783 MJ/m3 and 15.87665 MJ/m3 on days 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively after which it had logarithmic increments. The volatile solids destroyed also recorded logarithmic rise while the bacterial growth rate followed the zigzag pattern as those of internal energy and enthalpy. It is therefore concluded that parameters like the cumulative specific volume and Wobbe Index increased throughout the incubation period while those that are directly temperature dependent varied with the temperature of the digester. Keywords: Wobbe Index, calorifc value, cattle dung, biogas, batch digester, specific volume, relative density, internal energy, enthalp

REDUCING STRESS-RELATED ISSUES FOR LOCAL WEAVERS IN ILORIN, NIGERIA: AN ANTHROPOMETRIC APPROACH

Local weaving is an occupation of making a local type of clothing in the South Western and some part of North-central Nigeria called “aso-òkè” using local methods of weaving. This method is an age-long one, which persist until today. Data were obtained from 80 male local weavers in Ilorin, Nigeria and analyzed statistically. Standard dimensions of an ergonomic chair that will help ease the disorder and stress-related injuries and illnesses experienced by these workers were obtained using a traditional method. The 95th percentile values of the Popliteal Height (HP), Heap Breath (HB) and Sitting Shoulder Height (SSH) of the local weavers used in the study were 46.17 cm, 41.8 cm and 60.2 cm respectively, and their respective mean age, mean weight and  mean height were 25.8 years, 60.4 kg and 168.94 cm

PERISTALTIC FLOW OF SOME SELECTED FOOD SUPPLEMENTS IN A MODELED OESPHAGUS

This paper presents thermal and hydrodynamic behaviours of some selected food supplements in a modelled oesophagus. These food supplements are orange juice and water melon juice while chyme was used as the base food supplement for comparison. Numerical method was adopted using Solid Works 2014 and Ansys fluent as working tools

A 3D FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF INCOMPRESSIBLE FLUID FLOW AND CONTAMINANT TRANSPORT THROUGH A POROUS LANDFILL

The paper investigated the flow of incompressible fluid and contaminant transport through a Porous Landfill using a numerical technique. A threedimensional finite element analysis technique was adopted for the solution. The problem was based on the Darcy’s Law and the Advection-Dispersion equation. The solutions of the Darcy’s and Advection-Dispersion equations were generated using Finite Element Analysis Software known as COMSOL Multiphysics. This simulation tool tracked the contaminant transport in the Landfill for 360 days at 10 days interval. It first modeled steady-state fluid flow by employing the Darcy’s Law Application Mode and then followed up with a transient solute-transport simulation by employing the Solute-Transport Application Mode from the Earth Science Module of COMSOL. The solution results obtained from this model were found to be in close agreement with reallife data obtained at the 130- million ton Bukit Tagar Mega Sanitary Landfill site, Selangor near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This showed that the model can effectively predict the trends in the distributions of pollutants from a Municipal Solid Waste Landfill into nearby land and water sources. The model is thus applicable to the issues of environmental protection and safety of groundwater

Numerical simulation of three-dimensional supersonic flow around an aerodynamic bump

This s tudy is used to compute the primitive variables of moderate supersonic flow based on finite differen ce computational fluid dynamic methods. The problem considered deals with a three - dimensional external, inviscid ,compressible supersonic flow over a thre e - dimensional arc circular bump. In this work, Euler equation was solved using time - marching Mac Cormack’s explicit technique. The flow conditions are taken at sea level and Mach number at 1.97 . To deal with complex shape of arc circular bump the so - called “body fitted coordinate system” were considered and the algebraic methods were used to generate grids over an arc circular bump. The results showed a good agreement with other published results

Effects of Geometric Ratios on Heat Transfer in Heated Cylinders: Modelling and Simulation

The application of fluid and heat transfer in electronic and nuclear technology is gaining popularity, particularly in equipment's life span and risk management.  However, further study is required for applications involving rectangular cylinders placed inside a square cavity.  This study investigates the effects of height ratio  and width ratio  for Prandtl number  on natural convective heat transfer and the flow field around the annulus of a square domain fitted internally with a heated rectangular cylinder.  The square enclosure and the inner rectangular cylinder walls were respectively maintained at cold and hot isothermal conditions. COMSOL Multiphysics (Version 5.6) software was adopted to implement the governing equations and boundary conditions. The results are presented in the form of streamlines, isothermal contours, and Nusselt number (Nu). The study reveals that the combined average Nu of the rectangular cylinder walls improves with    and Rayleigh number (Ra). The maximum Nu occurred at  and ; however, height variation at peak average Nu was 37.7% greater than width variation at peak average Nu.  This study finds applications in the cooling of electronic chips and aerospace engines

Viscous dissipation and radiation effects on MHD natural convection in a square enclosure filled with a porous medium

Numerical two-dimensional analysis using finite difference approach with "line method" is performed on the laminar magneto-hydrodynamic natural convection in a square enclosure filled with a porous medium to investigate the effects of viscous dissipation and radiation. The enclosure heated from left vertical sidewall and cooled from an opposing right vertical sidewall. The top and bottom walls of the enclosure are considered adiabatic. The flow in the square enclosure is subjected to a uniform magnetic field at various orientation angles (φ = 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90). Numerical computations occur at wide ranges of Rayleigh number, viscous dissipation parameter, magnetic field orientation angles, Hartmann number and radiation parameter. Numerical results are presented with the aid of tables and graphical illustrations. The results of the present work explain that the local and average Nusselt numbers at the hot and cold sidewalls increase with increasing the radiation parameter. From the other side, the role of viscous dissipation parameter is to reduce the local and average Nusselt numbers at the hot left wall, while it improves them at the cold right wall. The results are compared with another published results and it found to be in a good agreemen