Design and construction of portable surface aeration pump for tanks and small ponds

The maintenance of adequate dissolved oxygen level is very important in the economy of any aquaculture system. An easy to construct aerating device was created using 0.5 hp water-pump, shower rose, Styrofoam, and rubber hose. The aerator works by drawing water from below and discharging it into the atmosphere as a spray. The spray is aerated as it splashes into the water surface. The aerating device has an average spray of 1.2 unit and doubles the dissolved oxygen content of 37.8 m super(3) tank in one hou

Voltage Collapse and the Nigerian National Grid

A modern electric power system network (PSN) is typically a large and complex engineering system whose healthy existence is crucial to industrial and socio-economic development of Nations. Voltage instability and collapse contribute to large extent to system collapse or blackouts and it is one of the major concerns for today’s electric power system operations. The Nigerian National grid (NNG) experiences on an average of thirty-five (35) system collapse every year over the past ten (10) years. This paper presents an overview and classification of system collapse on the NNG. Keywords — Voltage collapse, Voltage instability, and Nigerian National Grid (NNG

Experimental and analytical study on mixed sediment (sand-mud) transport processes

Estuaries and tidal inlets are often characterised by the co-existence of cohesive (i.e. mud: clay and silt, D65 um) sediments in different fractional concentrations. Knowledge of the dynamic sedimentation behaviour of sand mud mixtures is therefore crucial to the physical understanding and prediction of the time dependent structure (i.e. mixed or segregated), composition and erodibility of sediment bed deposits developing within these sedimentary environments. The current study develops and applies a new, non-invasive electrical resistivity measurement technique (ERMT) to capture both temporal and spatial changes in density, porosity and composition of the evolving sand-clay bed deposits, complemented by timelapsed images of the sedimentation processes. A series of settling column tests are then conducted to investigate spatial and temporal variations in sediment bed structure and composition resulting from differential settling of a range of sand-clay mixtures over three different parametric conditions (i.e. sediment composition, initial mixture concentration and ambient pore fluid salinity). Further experiments on erosion and deposition of mixed-sediment beds are conducted with benthic annular flume. Therefore, discussion, analysis and critical reflection on the current experimental results and findings have provided new insight into mixed (sand-clay) sedimentation and erosion processes. The results show that the formation of segregated (sand-clay) bed layers within bed deposits is largely controlled by the initial fractional composition (i.e. relative sand and clay concentrations). Specifically, mixtures with low clay contents are shown to form well-defined (sand-clay) layer segregation within the resulting deposits, while higher clay contents result in more transitional segregation patterns or no layer segregation (for very high clay concentrations). The physical mechanism under which these different segregation types can be generated are illustrated through predictions from an existing polydisperse hindered settling model of Cuthbertson et al. (2008). This model indicates that the degree of bed segregation, and time scale over which this occurs, correlates well with the difference in predicted hindered settling characteristics and upward displacements associated with the sand and clay fractions, respectively. From the erosion experiments, a negative correlation between the proportion of cohesive sediment and the inception of erosion is further established. Specifically, a 5% clay fractional content within sand-clay sediment bed is identified as the critical cohesive fractional content that delineates the non-cohesive and cohesive bed erosion regimes

Performance Improvement of Wireless Network Based on Effective Data Transmission

A major requirement of any computer network is scalability. This can be as a result of increase in the number of users, upgrading due to technological advancement, additional services, or the need for performance improvement. This will inevitably require changing infrastructure, deploying new applications, and dealing with security which definitely touches both hardware and software, in the sense that, the complexities of the hardware, software and firmware increase with the attendant growth of the network and maintainability. However, for the network to remain reliable and efficient, it is necessary that, implementation and administration of it requires a means of monitoring both the model of the network structures and processes occurring in them. The efficiency and throughput of the network depend on improving the effectiveness of data transmission carried out by the network protocols. This paper discusses the use of a protocol to meet the technological challenge towards improving the performance and throughput of a wireless network based on effective data transmission

Banking and the Customer: A Neo-Institutional Reconfiguration

The article provides an alternative approach to previous dynamics of relationship amongst key actors in the banking industry. It sees the re-emergence of the global banking industry from the ruins of the last financial crisis as an opportunity for its reconfiguration. This reconfiguration was premised on a neo-institutional inquisition that finds accommodation for strategic choice, institutional theory and legitimacy; before placing these theories within the context of banking. This generated a conceptual outcome in a customer legitimacy model called legitimacy pyramid for the banking industry. This is a proposition for banking industry re-configuration to move beyond a dialogue of regulator cum banks and embrace a ‘trialogue’ that recognise the customers’ voice and accords it primacy. Keywords: banking, financial crisis, legitimacy, bank customer, neo-institutional theor

ECONOMIC BURDEN OF A NEGLECTED TROPICAL DIS-EASE IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF HUMAN AFRICAN TRYP-ANOSOMIASIS

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a category of diseases that cause severe infection to over one billion people worldwide. They impact the world’s poorest people, decrease the quality of life and productivity of employees, hinder physical and cognitive growth, contribute to maternal and child disease and even death. Despite the risks, they are overshadowed by the efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and considered to be “other diseases” that are not really catered for. Hence, this paper analyzed the economic burden of neglected tropical diseases in Africa from 2000 to 2018. Data used were Gross Domestic Product (GDP), human African trypanosomiasis reported cases, current health spending, net official development assistance, consumer price index and exchange rate. The second-generation econometric methods were employed: cross sectional dependence, slope homogeneity, Westerlund cointegration, Pesaran and Smith MG, Pesaran CCEMG and Eberhardt and Teal AMG estimation. Findings confirm the following: first, cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity exist among African countries; second, there is a long run relationship between GDP and NTDs; third, NTDs impacted negatively and significantly GDP, therefore, they stand as a serious detriment to economic growth in Africa. The study suggested that governments in Africa should raise funds to eradicate NTDs and provide an improvement of the environmental conditions that lead to their spread, such as clean water, enhanced sanitation initiatives and vector control

Online Mobile Phone Recharge System in Nigeria

An e-portal system that allows mobile phone users to recharge their phones online without necessary purchasing any recharge card is proposed. With this e-portal system, users simply provide the amount to be loaded on the specified phone number and some series of validation are performed before finally recharging the phone with the specified amount. This e-portal system also eliminates the burden of generating random numbers as recharge cards and the subsequent huge database accompanied with the storage of these randomly generated numbers. Mobile service providers are still faced with the challenges of inefficient bandwidth utilization and congestion in the transmission channel. One of the main reasons for this congestion is the toll placed on the network by the need to reload/recharge phone credits in order to enable calls. The solution proposed in this paper is meant to improve bandwidth utilization by taking the process of recharging off the mobile clients

Customer Reactions to Bank M&A: Evidence from the Nigerian Banking Industry

Reaction of customers to M&A was investigated using a mixed method framework based on two Nigerian banks in a study that aims at positioning the customer as an actor who is impacted by other M&A actors. Customer and employee narratives were quantitatively tested to ascertain impact on post-M&A customer satisfaction. Customer implications of M&A found expression through five main constructs. The inter-relationship between these constructs and post-M&A customer satisfaction resulted in a divergent-convergent spectrum of M&A-Customer dynamics.Specific findings reveal increased role for technology, but recurrent downtime hampered satisfaction. Credit reality sees objective criteria prioritized over relationship consideration. Customers’ anxiety about new lending regime did not result in any significant threat to post-M&A satisfaction. Employee commitment in the wake of M&A seems superficial. Job insecurity and stress occasioned by casualization, unrealistic targets and erosion of employee dignity resulted in fraud becoming a post-M&A consequence. Rebranding risks being construe as a vanity project. Legitimacy for the regulator rested on socio-economic stability despite reservations by some bankers. The damaging proposition for customer satisfaction by merger as compared to acquisition meant that customer impact assessment can be an alternative decision making tool in choice of growth strategy. Keywords: Merger, acquisition, customer satisfaction, change, strategy, banking