Samba Openldap Performance in a Simulated Environment

The Information Technology world is developing so fast and it is been reported that Open Source tools will eventually take over proprietary tools in no to distant future. The Open Source Community is integrating its products with that of the proprietary ones and the integration of Windows machines into Linux network is evident of such practices. The purpose of this project is to implement Samba with OpenLDAP in a simulated environment. This implementation is conducted within a virtual environment by simulating the setup of Linux and Windows Operating systems by reducing physical setup of machines. Samba will act as an interface between Linux and Windows, files will be accessible to both server and client. OpenLDAP stores the user accounts and configuration files. A performance test carried out on Samba determining effect on CPU power and Memory usage shows a decrease in the CPU power and an increase in Memory usage

Social Media Content Preferences and Political Participation among Nigerian Youths

This study examines the influence of social media content preferences on political participation in Nigeria’s relatively nascent democracy. Due to mixed conclusions on the influence of news and entertainment preferences on political participation, we sampled 434 youths aged 18-35 in a Nigerian north-ern state, to investigate the differential influence of diverse social media content consumption on political participation. Incorporating the moderating and mediating influences of political efficacy and incidental news exposure, findings confirm that news and entertainment preferences are positive, significant predictors of political participation among respondents. While political efficacy moderated the influence of news preference on political participation, incidental news exposure did not mediate the influence of entertainment preference on political participation. We recommend further investigation into the influence of content preferences on political participation among Nigerian youths who constitute considerable members of the nation’s electorate

Creativity in software engineering:a systematic literature review

The competitive nature of industries and emergence of newer technologies demands an improving and creative approach in the development of software solutions. Conventional approaches to software development are characterized by sequential stiffened procedures with rigid management practices. These approaches limit the potential of alternative creative processes by impeding the adoption of one’s intuition, ability to explore, knowledge sharing and collaboration among developers. Software Engineering (SE) is a complex domain that requires intense creative activities for its sustainability; hence a firm understanding of creativity is in need. Creativity is a cognitive activity that is influenced by people, process, product and place. The study identified 89 primary studies through systematic literature review conducted to analyze, synthesize and aggregate evidences regarding the state-of-art on research of creativity in software engineering with the aim of addressing the techniques, tools, factors and measurement of creativity in software engineering domain. The findings revealed that the requirement and design phases of software development are more important stages in the development process where design decisions are made and creativity is much emphasized. Factors categorized as extrinsic and intrinsic factors are said to influence creative practices in SE domain. The adoption of creativity techniques such as collaboration, knowledge sharing and brainstorming with appropriate lightweight creativity supporting tools were identified to influence creative practices in software engineering domain, while its evaluation is difficult and subjective. In conclusion, the study advocates the adoption of creative practices with flexible management style in software development towards the building of effective and timely software. However, assertive adherence to traditional practices in software development could hamper creative practices. There exists no ultimate solution to creativity, beyond the harnessing of human cognitive capability. Hence, the management of software project should seek the development of the creative mind (engineers) with an embracing management practices for continuous deliverance of effective and novel solutions. The findings could impacts decision making of stakeholders in software engineering domain towards harnessing of creative practices

Degradation of N-(n-butyl) Thiophosphoric Triamide (NBPT) with and without Nitrification Inhibitor in Soils

Recent studies have shown that nitrification inhibitor (NI) impairs the efficacy of urease inhibitor, N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT), in reducing ammonia volatilization and urea hydrolysis rate. A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate the influence of NI (specifically 3,4-dimethyl pyrazole phosphate) on the degradation of NBPT in six soils. Soils were amended with either NBPT (10 mg NBPT kg−1 soil) or NBPT plus NI (DI; 10 mg NBPT + 2.5 mg NI kg−1 soil), incubated at 21 °C, and destructively sampled eight times during a 14-day incubation period. The degradation of NBPT in soil was quantified by measuring NBPT concentration with high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the degradation rate constant was modeled with an exponential decay function. The study showed that the persistence of NBPT in soil was not influenced by the presence of NI, as the NBPT degradation rate constant across soils was 0.5 d−1 with either NBPT or DI. In contrast, the degradation rate constant was significantly dependent on soils, with values ranging from 0.4 to 1.7 d−1. Soil pH was the most important variable affecting the persistence of NBPT in soils. The half-life of NBPT was 0.4 d in acidic soil and 1.3 to 2.1 d in neutral to alkaline soils. The faster degradation of NBPT in acidic soils may explain its reduced efficacy in such soils

Basic design of a local area network for small businesses

This thesis envisages the design of a local area network (LAN) by adopting a design model that will be suitable for small businesses with less than 20 users using the Windows operating system. The concept of hierarchical design was adopted in building the network as compared to other network design models, hierarchical models was easier to managed, expandable, and problems were easily identified and solved, as network devices were selected based on purpose and functions. The design involves dividing the network into discrete layers; each layer performs specific functions in the network. Cost and congestion in terms of network traffic flow within and out of network were considered in choosing the right bandwidth for network operation. The basic system requirement for the network devices within the LAN was established and appropriate configuration and installation were carried out to suppo11 the effective operation of the network. Each device on the network was assigned a unique hostname and IP address, taking into account standard address planning. It was ensured that no two devices had same IP address to avoid conflict. Private IP address was used as the network address. Data integrity within the network was strongly emphasized and it was achieved by implementing firewall security within the network interface considering the security policy of the organization. The network address translation concept also provides security within the network by using a public address when the users interact across the network

Kinetics and thermodynamics of urea hydrolysis in the presence of urease and nitrification inhibitors

Urease inhibitor [N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT)] and nitrification inhibitor (NI) (3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate) have been used to reduce nitrogen (N) losses from urea-based fertilizers. This study evaluated the effect of temperature, NBPT, and NI on kinetic and thermodynamic properties of urea hydrolysis in six soils. Soils were amended (250 kg N·ha−1) with urea (UR), NBPT treated urea (URNBPT), or NBPT + NI treated urea (URDI), incubated at 5, 15, or 25 °C, and destructively sampled eight times during an 18 d incubation. We measured urea hydrolysis rate by the disappearance of urea with time and determined the rate constant (k; d−1) assuming first-order kinetics. Our results showed that k increased with temperature in the order of 0.07 (5 °C), 0.12 (15 °C), and 0.20 (25 °C) across soils and inhibitor treatments. In addition, k declined in the order of UR (0.19) > URDI (0.11) > URNBPT (0.08) across soils and temperatures. Although urease inhibitor, NBPT, increased the half-life of urea from 3.8 to 8.3 d across soil–temperature, the addition of a NI significantly reduced the half-life of NBPT treated urea by approximately 2 d across soil–temperature. Thermodynamics parameters showed that urea hydrolysis was nonspontaneous, and enthalpy and entropy changes were not significantly different among inhibitor treatments in five of the six soils. We conclude that the often-reported greater ammonia volatilization from URDI than URNBPT may not only be due to the persistence of ammonium in the presence of NI but also because NI reduced the inhibitory effect of NBPT on urea hydrolysis.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Hybrid Rail Track Quality Analysis using Nonlinear Dimension Reduction Technique with Machine Learning

Track Geometry parameters from rail track inspection are regulated within unique safety limits for different track classes. This paper focuses on developing an index that combines safety and track quality because of the inefficiency of having corrective maintenance activities between routine maintenance cycles when federal geometry limits are violated. This combination is achievable by summarizing multivariate track geometry parameters, as an improvement to previous linear approaches to address the problem of inefficient track geometry maintenance programs. The use of nonlinear dimension reduction (T-Stochastic Neighbor Embedding-T-SNE) for Hybrid Track Quality Index development, and the influence of time-based parameters on track quality is evaluated in this study. Results show that probability of geometry defects are correlated with principal components but T-SNE had the best prediction on train-test splits despite its poor performance on a blind validation set. The absence of observable correlation between track geometry and acceleration data calls for further investigation.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Degradation of <i>N</i>-(<i>n</i>-butyl) Thiophosphoric Triamide (NBPT) with and without Nitrification Inhibitor in Soils

Recent studies have shown that nitrification inhibitor (NI) impairs the efficacy of urease inhibitor, N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT), in reducing ammonia volatilization and urea hydrolysis rate. A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate the influence of NI (specifically 3,4-dimethyl pyrazole phosphate) on the degradation of NBPT in six soils. Soils were amended with either NBPT (10 mg NBPT kg−1 soil) or NBPT plus NI (DI; 10 mg NBPT + 2.5 mg NI kg−1 soil), incubated at 21 °C, and destructively sampled eight times during a 14-day incubation period. The degradation of NBPT in soil was quantified by measuring NBPT concentration with high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the degradation rate constant was modeled with an exponential decay function. The study showed that the persistence of NBPT in soil was not influenced by the presence of NI, as the NBPT degradation rate constant across soils was 0.5 d−1 with either NBPT or DI. In contrast, the degradation rate constant was significantly dependent on soils, with values ranging from 0.4 to 1.7 d−1. Soil pH was the most important variable affecting the persistence of NBPT in soils. The half-life of NBPT was 0.4 d in acidic soil and 1.3 to 2.1 d in neutral to alkaline soils. The faster degradation of NBPT in acidic soils may explain its reduced efficacy in such soils

Efficacy of a new N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide formulation in reducing ammonia volatilization from urea-based fertilizers

N-(n-Butyl)thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT) has been reported to reduce ammonia volatilization from surface-applied urea and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN). A new NBPT formulation (ARM U™, 18% NBPT) that contains a polymer allowing for lower application rate of NBPT was evaluated for its efficacy relative to Agrotain® (30% NBPT) and Arborite® (24% NBPT). Trials consisted of (i) a greenhouse study that compared two rates of ARM U-treated urea (360 and 540 mg NBPT kg−1 urea) with Arborite- or Agrotain-treated urea (480 and 600 mg NBPT kg−1 urea, respectively) and (ii) a field study that compared urea and UAN treated with either ARM U (360 mg NBPT kg−1 urea) or Agrotain (600 mg NBPT kg−1 urea) at two sites. Static chambers fitted with acid-charged discs were used to measure ammonia volatilization at six or seven dates over 28 d. In the greenhouse study, ammonia volatilization was reduced by 96% with either ARM U or Agrotain and 95% with Arborite. In the field study, ARM U and Agrotain reduced ammonia volatilization from urea by 80% and 66%, respectively, across sites. Similarly, ammonia volatilization from UAN was reduced by 46% and 60% with ARM U and Agrotain, respectively. Despite the lower NBPT application rates with ARM U, ammonia reduction by ARM U, Agrotain, and Arborite was not significantly different. The addition of ARM U to urea and UAN enabled lower application rate of NBPT without compromising its efficacy.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author