Towards Developing Grid-based Portals for E-Commerce on-Demand Services on a Utility Computing Platform

Trends and current practices in the design and development of grid-enabled portals(GeP) reveal the need to identify and fulfill certain additional relevant requirements in order to build applicable and usable grid-enabled portals for evolving computing platforms such as the utility computing (UC). This paper reports an investigation of the minimum relevant additional requirements that must be fulfilled to attain effective GeP design for UC. A GeP prototype for the Grid-based Utility Infrastructure for Small, Micro, and Medium Enterprises (SMME) Enabling Technology (GUISET) initiative – a UC platform was developed, and an analytic evaluation experiment undertaken in the study to elicit these additional requirements using a set of benchmark requirements (standards) revealed that it fulfilled the minimum requirements to be suitable for UC context. The result of the study underlines the need for more controlled experiments in portal prototyping in order to foster the practice of GeP design for UC

IMPROVING THE DEPENDABILITY OF DESTINATION RECOMMENDATIONS USING INFORMATION ON SOCIAL ASPECTS

Prior knowledge of the social aspects of prospective destinations can be very influential in making travel destination decisions, especially in instances where social concerns do exist about specific destinations. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an ontology-enabled Hybrid Destination Recommender System (HDRS) that leverages an ontological description of five specific social attributes of major Nigerian cities, and hybrid architecture of content-based and case-based filtering techniques to generate personalised top-n destination recommendations. An empirical usability test was conducted on the system, which revealed that the dependability of recommendations from Destination Recommender Systems (DRS) could be improved if the semantic representation of social attributes information of destinations is made a factor in the destination recommendation process

Nitrogen and weed management in transplanted tomato in the Nigerian forest-savanna transition zone

Weed infestation and inherent low soil fertility are among primary reasons for low yields of tomato in Nigeria. Field trials were carried out during the wet season of 2015 and 2016 to evaluate yield response of tomato to nitrogen (N) application and weed control methods in the forest-savanna transition zone of Abeokuta, Nigeria. Positive relationship exists between growth of weed species and increase in N application. Across the years of study, increase in N up to 90 kg/ha increased weed density by 11–25%, however, the increased N gave the transplanted tomato competitive advantage and thus enhanced weed smothering. Pre-transplant application of butachlor (50% w/v) or probaben® (metolachlor 20% w/v+prometryn 20% w/v) each at 2.0 kg a.i/ha followed by supplementary hoe weeding at 6 weeks after transplanting (WAT) significantly reduced weed density by at least 15% and increased fruit yield of tomato by at least 32%, compared to use of the pre-transplant herbicides alone, across both years of study. The greatest tomato fruit yield of 12.2 t/ha was obtained with pre-transplant application of butachlor at 2.0 kg a.i/ha followed by supplementary hoe weeding at 6 WAT, averaged for both years. In general, this study suggests that increased application of N up to 90 kg/ha, and complementary weed control by pre-transplant herbicide and hoe weeding at 6 WAT would improve yield of tomato in the forestsavanna transition zone of Nigeria

Improving the Dependability of Destination Recommendations using Information on Social Aspects

Prior knowledge of the social aspects of prospective destinations can be very influential in making travel destination decisions, especially in instances where social concerns do exist about specific destinations. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an ontology-enabled Hybrid Destination Recommender System (HDRS) that leverages an ontological description of five specific social attributes of major Nigerian cities, and hybrid architecture of content-based and case-based filtering techniques to generate personalised top-n destination recommendations. An empirical usability test was conducted on the system, which revealed that the dependability of recommendations from Destination Recommender Systems (DRS) could be improved if the semantic representation of social attributes information of destinations is made a factor in the destination recommendation process.Content-based filtering; Recommender Systems; Ontology; Social Attributes, Destination recommendation

A Product Line Architecture for Evolving Intelligent Component Services in Tourism Information Systems

The challenge facing developers of Tourism Information Systems (TIS) is the need to evolve more intelligent and dependable tourism support services. However, these kinds of information systems have largely identical functionalities and delivers almost similar services. The systems differ mostly in the customized information contents they deliver and the scope of the tourism interest that is being promoted. The peculiarity of the e-Tourism domain makes it ideal for product line development. In this paper, a reference Tourism Product Line Architecture (TPLA) as a platform for evolving intelligent component services is proposed. The TPLA is a layered architecture of core reusable components that can be leveraged for the development of a TIS product family. The architecture is extensible and its components are formally specified as possessing intrinsic intelligent attributes and the semantic awareness that are desirable for the next generation of Tourism Information Systems

Effects of Pig Dung and Poultry Manure With Plant Residues on the Production of Some Fruit Vegetables

The field experiment was carried out during the raining season at Organic Agricultural Farm of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Nigeria. Compost was prepared using pig dung and poultry manure with plant residue. It was applied at the rate of 0 and 10t ha-1 replicated three times. The observation on growth parameter showed that at 5 WAP okra with composted poultry manure was low although there was increase at 7 and 9 WAP. The observation on growth parameter showed that at 5 WAP okra with composted poultry manure was low than composted pig manure and no amendment but later showed increase in height at 7  and 9 WAP while pepper with poultry manure was higher than composted pig manure and no amendment which later increase in highest. Observation on yield parameter revealed that okra with composted pig manure had the highest number of fruits than pepper with composted pig manure. The soil micro biological parameters after adding compost showed that pepper with no amendment had the highest viable counts than pepper composted pig dung and poultry manure than okra with composted pig manure and no amendment. Fungal counts were high in un-amended soil planted with pepper than all other treatments. Microbial biomass carbon was high in soil amended with composted poultry manure planted with okra than all other treatment. Microbial biomass phosphorus was high in soil amended with poultry manure planted with okra than other treatments and microbial biomass nitrogen was high in soil amended with poultry manure planted with pepper and that of okra with pig manure. The soil microbiological parameters were affected by treatments

Design, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of a Domestic Dish Washing Machine

Plate washing is a daily activity across the globe which involves a lot of energy to accomplish manually or mechanically. The objective of this work is to design and fabricate a dish washing machine that is efficient and easy to operate. Stainless steel and mild steel was used for the construction of the machine considering their availability, cost reduction and corrosion resistance. The motor used a power of 0.75hp (559.5 W), voltage of 240V and a speed of rotation of “1200 r.p.m” which was reduced to “100 r.p.m” using a reduction gear of velocity ratio (V.R) “12:1”, the shaft torque being “53.4 N-m”. The plates were washed and rinsed in a separate basin using a liquid detergent and clean water following appropriate measure per cycle. Detailed design drawings of all the machine parts were drawn using AutoCAD. The performance analysis of the machine shows that the number of plates washed and the time taken were 20 plates per minute (1min), 5 plates per minute for the machine and manual operation respectively. The capacity of the machine is 20 plates per minute (1880 per hour). The machine washes plates without breakages.Keywords: Washing machine; motor; transformer; gear, plates; detergen

Dithionite and Oxalate Extraction of Iron and Manganese in Some Basement Complex Soils of Southwestern Nigeria

In soil, the presence of free iron oxide serve as important parameters in understanding its development and they are known to influence soil properties. Their influence gives rise to different soil management problems which may inhibit the level of agricultural production. Iron and Manganese were extracted from the basement complex soils of Egbedi area in Osun State, Southwestern-Nigeria. Both Dithionite citrate bicarbonate method and acid ammonium oxalate method were used for the extraction. Dithionite citrate bicarbonate extractant removed both the crystalline and non-crystalline iron and manganese oxides from the soil while the Acid ammonium oxide method removed the non-crystalline or amorphous iron and manganese oxides from the soil. Representative samples were obtained from six (6) well described profile pits. These samples were subjected to analysis for both their physical and chemical properties. Results indicated that soil texture was generally sandy at the surface with increasing proportion of clay with depth. Percentage gravel content showed an irregular trend which indicates the nature of the parent material. The pH values of the soil ranged from 4.7 - 6.4 indicating strong acidity to slight acidity. Magnetite was also dissolved by the Acid ammonium oxalate extractant and this was reflected in the active Fe ratio. Horizons with an active Fe ratio greater than one served as an indicator to the presence of magnetite in such horizons hence values ranging between 1.19 and 4.32 were recorded as active iron ratio in respective horizons. Thus the extraction of iron oxides with Acid ammonium oxalate alongside Dithionite citrate bicarbonate is essential in the differentiation and identification of horizons with magnetite

Using Constraint Reasoning on Feature Models to Populate Ecosystem-driven Cloud Services e- Marketplace

Service providers leverage cloud ecosystems and cloud e-marketplaces to increase the business value of their services and reach a wider range of service users. A cloud ecosystem enable participating services to combine with other services, along their QoS properties; while the e-marketplace provides an environment where atomic services interconnect in unprecedented ways to be traded on the marketplace platform. Noting the unprofitability, impracticality and error-prone nature of performing ad hoc service combination of atomic services, the concern addressed in this technical report is how to guide the combination of atomic services participating in an ecosystem in a seamless manner. In this technical report, we proposed the use of feature models to model the inter-relationships and constraints among the atomic services, which is transformed into a constraint satisfaction problem and off-the-shelve constraint solvers are used to determining valid combinations. The collection of valid combinations become the blueprint that guides service composition and populates the e-marketplace service directory; users can then make service selection decisions based on the list. The applicability of the approach proposed in this report is demonstrated via an example of Customer relationship management as a service ecosystem