Heavy Metal Concentrations in Road Side Soils from Selected Locations in the Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria

Assessing the concentration of potentially harmful heavy metals in road side soils in Lagos metropolis is imperative in order to evaluate the potential risks to people and the environment. This is due to rapid increase in the use of vehicles for day to day transportation coupled with lack of emission standards which has raised serious concern about vehicular pollution. This paper reports the results of the investigation of heavy metal concentration in road side soils of selected areas in Lagos metropolis as a result of vehicular pollution. Locations considered were motor parks, garages and roadsides in Alimosho-, Agege-, Ikeja-, and Oshodi/Isolo-LGA of Lagos State. Seven locations that spans across the four local governments were selected on the basis of their high concentration of vehicular traffic. Three sites with low traffic concentration were also selected outside the seven locations to act as control sites. Soil samples were collected at each location for a period of three months in the dry season. The concentrations of six heavy metals (manganese, nickel, lead, chromium, zinc, and iron) in the samples were determined with an atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS). All the monitored heavy metal pollutants where compared with European Union (EU) regulatory standard. Results show that the concentrations of heavy metals in the soil samples from the seven locations were within safe limits though higher than in the control sites. It is evident that as time goes on, these heavy metals may pose health hazards. The study reveals that vehicular-related pollution in Lagos metropolis is indeed significant with possible severe health consequences

Building a Computer-Based Expert System for Malaria Environmental Diagnosis: An Alternative Malaria Control Strategy

As a predominant environmental health problem in Africa, malaria constitutes a great threat to the existence of many communities. The harmful effects of malaria parasites to the human body cannot be underestimated. In this paper, an expert system for malaria environmental diagnosis was presented for providing decision support to malaria researchers, institutes and other healthcare practitioners in malaria endemic regions of the world. The motivation behind this work was due to the insufficient malaria control measures in existence and the need to provide novel approaches towards malaria control. A malaria expert system prototype was developed that involved a knowledge component, the application component (AC), the database system component (DC), the Graphical User Interface (GUI) component and the User component (UC). The User interface component was implemented using the Java Programming language. The application component was implemented using the Java Expert System Shell (JESS) and the Java IDE of Netbeans while the database component was implemented using SQL Server

Gender, age and religion as determinants of eating habit of youth in ikenne local government of Ogun state, Nigeria.

The study examined the influence of Age, Gender and Religion on eating habit of youth. It made use of simple random technique in selecting 400 youths within Ikenne local government of Ogun State, Nigeria. The age range of the respondents was between 15 years and 40 years with the mean age of 25.2 and standard deviation of 3.291. The ex-post facto research design was employed. A 20 item questions by Snell &Johnson (1997) named psychology of eating questionnaire (PEQ) was adopted with four subscales and used in generating data for the study. Data analysis involved the use of analysis of variance, and independent t-test. The results indicated that the three variables age, gender and religion taken together accounted for 30.2% of the variance in eating habit pattern and were found to the significant with {F3.397} = 5.214 . On the basis of this finding, it is then suggested that: Eating habit is affected by gender and age, nutritionist, social workers and those concerned with health should create more awareness on the poor eating habit as regards to healthy living. Key words: Gender, Age, Religion, and eating habi

THE IMPACT OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT ON ENTERPRENEURSHIP PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA

The business environment has been a vital point to consider in evaluating entrepreneurial performance, researches haveestablished that there is relationship between entrepreneurial activity and the environment in which it is domiciled. Thispaper x-rayed the impact or especially the influence of the Nigerian business environment as it affected the productivity ofthe entrepreneur operating in the country. The paper is structured into various parts. The first is the introduction followed bypart two which looked at the definition of the keywords, explained the nature of the business environment and its componentparts, also discussed the importance of the business environment to an entrepreneur. Conceptual issues relating to this paperwas deliberated upon. The study depended on resources from academic publications, reports and publications of governmentagencies and other stakeholders in the field of entrepreneurship in Nigeria and outside the country. The paper thereforeargues in conclusion that the government is the vital organ that can lead to a beneficial business environment. It alsorecommends the inclusion of entrepreneurship in the curriculum of schools, ensuring that the NYSC period is loaded withworkshops and seminar on entrepreneurship.Keywords: Business Environment, Entrepreneurship, Nigerian Business Environment

Numerical Investigation and Improvement of Aerodynamic Performance of Savonius Wind Turbine

Higher demand for energy has lead to increase in the consumption of conventional energy which has become more expensive and scarce. There is the need to generate power from renewable sources to reduce the demand for fossil fuels and growing concern due to increase in the effects of climate change, such as global warming and acid rain generated by extensive and deliberate use of fossil fuels in the electric generating plants and transport system. In this work, the aerodynamic characteristics of Savonius wind turbine were investigated numerically by varying the rotor configuration (semi-circular and segment of circle) and overlap ratio so as to obtain the optimum design configuration which could give better performance of Savonius rotor. Comparison between the static torque coefficient at different overlap ratios of 0%, 20%, and 40% for the two configurations were studied using Solidworks CFD software. The flow around the rotor with overlap ratio variation was analyzed with the help of velocity, pressure contours and static torque coefficient equation of the rotor. It was observed from the analysis that the overlap of 20% was the optimum overlap condition at which pressure, velocity differences and coefficient of static torque across the rotor were the highest for both configurations and that segment of a circle produced the highest characteristics for better performance. Keywords: Overlap ratio, aerodynamic, Savonius, Static torque coefficient, rotor configuration

Modelling and forecasting hourly electricity demand in West African countries

The Economic Community of West African States aims to achieve 100% electrification rates by 2030 in all member countries. To achieve this ambitious target, electricity generation capacities need to be increased significantly. Forecasting hourly electricity demand is imperative for capacity planners in optimizing investment options and ensuring reliable electricity supply. However, modelling hourly electricity demand in developing countries can be a challenge due to paucity of historical demand data and methodological frameworks that adequately capture technology transitions and urban-rural communities. In this study, we address this gap by developing an hourly electricity demand model for 14 West African countries in the year 2016 and 2030. The model takes into account electrification rates, available household appliances, occupancy patterns of household members, type of day, available daylight hours and hourly weather conditions. Annual electricity demand in non-residential sectors and electricity access rates in urban and rural households are forecasted using multiple regression analysis. We validated the developed model using actual 2016 monthly and annual electricity demand data. The results show the seasonal variations of electricity demand, with hourly electricity demand in dry seasons relatively higher than demand in wet seasons. The results also indicate that in 2030, electricity demand in the West African region is estimated to be five times its 2016 level. The methodology presented in this study can be applicable for modelling hourly electricity demand in developing countries that have scarce historical hourly demand data, a significant electricity supply-demand gap, and varying electricity access rates in urban and rural areas

Quantifying the integration of renewable energy sources in West Africa’s interconnected electricity network

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) aims to provide access to affordable electricity to all countries in the region by installing electricity interconnections between countries and creating an integrated electricity market. In this study, we develop a multi-regional economic dispatch model of the West African power system, and quantify the impact of increasing cross-border electricity trading and renewable energy sources on: electricity generation cost, carbon emission, electricity supply and rapidly growing demand. Our results indicate that increasing cross-border electricity trading significantly reduces unserved electricity demand that comes from load shedding in the region. However, in the 2030 scenario where only existing and currently planned generation plants are operational, increased cross-border electricity trading increases electricity generation from heavy fuel and diesel power plants by 16% and 8% respectively. Consequently, this results in an increase in total electricity generation cost and carbon emission in the region. In two scenarios where all fourteen countries in the region are interconnected, average marginal costs in most of the net importing and net exporting countries decrease and increase respectively, due to insufficient generation capacities in several countries. A key finding from our study is that most of the planned interconnections by WAPP could be underutilized in 2030, thus providing an opportunity to integrate unexplored hydro and solar resources in the region

Parametric Evaluation of a Parabolic Trough Solar Collector

A parabolic trough collector was studied to determine its performance parameters when stationary and when tracked. The overall heat loss coefficient, heat removal factor, efficiency function, flow factor and its thermal efficiency are the factors of interest. Optimum values obtained for the collector when tracked were as follows: Collector efficiency function, 12m2K/Kw; heat removal factor, 0.59, flow factor, 0.76; overall heat loss, 0.02KW/m2K and thermal efficiency of 56%. Keywords: parabolic trough, performance, parameters

Customer-led conceptual design system

This research work is aimed at carrying out a feasibility study for the design of a Customer-Led Design (CLD) system that will allow individuals or users with little or no technical know-how of engineering design but with an idea of what they want to bring the idea into reality through the customer driven-design system. Customer-Led design (CLD) is a customer co-design process of products and services which meet the needs of each individual customer/user with regard to certain product features VI and all operations are performed within a fixed solution space, characterized by stable but still flexible and responsive processes. Outstanding developments have been recorded in the Customer driven design systems in some areas such as shoes, kitchen and computers industries that have allowed customers to create their own product from the pre-defined catalogue of options made available by the manufacturers or designers. However, some customers might have an idea of a product which may not be in the pre-defined database of the manufacturer or designer and which the customer wants to have, especially mechanically oriented products and this is what has led to undertaking this research work. The activities that were carried out to achieve the objective of the project to date involved developing a hybrid (hierarchical and chain-type) classification system to group the products into classes and sub-classes using attributes such as applications, external and internal motions, shape, weight and material types etc.. Also, each of these classes was also grouped hierarchically linking one section of classification to another in a chain type that will eventually lead the customers to their intended product. Other aspects were the configuration of products which makes it possible to add and/or change functionalities of a core product by suggesting similar products if the requested product is not found, a coding system for mechanical designs and applying it to each product according to their position in the hierarchy, the use of a database to store and retrieve information about the products and the modification of the selected similar product to suit the user's/customer's desired product. While similar designs may have been implemented in some industries, this offers the customers more flexibility in designing their own products with varieties of products from different family of products which are not inherent in the other systems