Application of Geogrids on the Geotechnical Properties of Subgrade Materials under Soaked Condition

Highway construction is one of the main engineering design and construction in civil engineering in many countries all over the world. Existing studies have shown that civil engineers engaging in highway construction have several challenges during road construction especially as it is related to the topography of the site ,inadequate subgrade soil and high water table, inspite of this challenges ,the application of geogrids as a geotechnical property is imperative to improve the subgrade of soils with soaked condition. Soil samples were labeled (A, B& C) at random. These samples were taken to the Laboratory for experiments to identify and determine the Grain size analysis, atterberg, compaction and California bearing ratio by placing the geo-grids at varying depths and in single layer under soaked conditions (48hrs) to determine the strength of the soil samples. The geogrids were introduced in three independent single layers i.e. 2/5, 3/5 and 4/5 the distance from the base of the mould. Samples A, B&C (3%, 9% &6%) respectively, shows that the strength of subgrade is considerably increased by introducing geo-grids reinforcement in the soil. It is found that geo-grids placed at 3/5 the distance from the base showed higher CBR value(15.1%,14% & 12.2%) than when placed at 2/5 (12.8%,11% & 8.8%) and 4/5(11%, 10% & 8.3%) distances from the base. The differences in the behavior of the soil under soaked conditions improve on increasing the number of layers of geo-grids. As a subgrade stabilizer it has shown great effect of improvement. It can be used to improve poor lateritic materials due to its low maintenance, corrosion resistance and increment in the service life of road pavement. This application of geogrids is a means to improve the strength of basic engineering and geotechnical properties of poor subgrade soils under soaked condition. This  will reduce land wastage, uneconomical design of road construction. Geo-grids should be employed as a modernized form of improving road construction on poor subgrade materials. Keywords: geogrids, CBR, highway construction, soaked conditions, reinforcement, subgrade

Customer satisfaction in business organizations - Case study of Prisma (A subsidiary of KPO)

Customer satisfaction is can be seen as one of the main instruments that ensure the existence and survival of a business organization. It is very important for the business organizations to consider offering what the customers want rather than offering quality goods and services which may not meet up with the customers’ expectation. Therefore, business organizations have to possess a framework in their organizational structure towards satisfying their customers so that they can maintain their existence, survival and success. Satisfying a customer today leads to retention and attraction of new customers as a result of the current customers of the business organization being satisfied. In this same vein, this thesis focuses on how business organizations could satisfy their customers in order to lead to their long life success. The case study company is Prisma a Subsidiary of KPO which is a hypermarket that sells varieties of consumable goods, consumer durables and services to their customers. Prisma KPO also operates in other towns in the region of the Central Ostrobothnia in Finland. In the thesis serious theoretical analysis and explanation was carried out in order to shine more light on how to go about satisfying customers. It analyzed the process that businesses could take towards satisfying customers, the difficulty that could be encountered when striving to satisfy customers and the advantages that could emanate from satisfying customers and how to improve on customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The thesis also uses a questionnaire and interviews in the process of researching for customer satisfaction feedback for the case study company and the research shows that customers are satisfied to an extent but there are some needs of the customers that still have to be met

Benchmarking Sustainability Performance of Ports

Sustainable development agendas are challenging the world and ports, in particular, to find ways to become more efficient while meeting economic, social and environmental objectives. Although there has been a considerable body of documentation on green port practices and performance in Europe and America, there is limited synthesis about evaluation of sustainable practices in the Canadian ports context. This research aims to provide a modeling framework for benchmarking the sustainability performance of ports and to identify targets for improvement. A two-step approach is proposed. First, a review of literature and initiatives employed by global port authorities is conducted to identify major sustainability performance indicators. Second, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to evaluate port performance while taking into account the dimensions of sustainable development. The DEA models evaluate both undesirable and desirable outputs for ports. Three categories of models are proposed namely; ignoring undesirable output, treating undesirable output as input, and directional distance function under variable and constant returns to scale. A case study for 13 North American ports is conducted. The results indicate that performance evaluations vary with economic and social criteria. The indicators and methodology undertaken can be used by ports and other industrial service sectors for improving green performance

Spaces of the informal economy: reimagining street trading through accessibility distribution analyses in Lagos

Street traders operate in and around spaces that facilitate optimal interactions with potential customers - a distribution pattern which coincides with the busiest and most central parts of a city. In Lagos, street trading is ubiquitous and its appropriation of public space is contentious for spatial governance. Attempts at regulation exacerbate the precarious status of street traders and are mostly unsuccessful, and this is due to the limited understanding of the spatiality of street trading. The locations where street trading thrives are thus investigated in this thesis to unravel what aspects of spatiality creates the milieu that encourages their activities - an area of research that has received little attention in recent years. The aim is to contribute to the discourse on inclusive urban practices and policies in developing country cities. In literature, the determinants of street traders workplace locations are referenced to externalities from locational centrality and potent human activity (Dewar and Watson 1990; Monnet et al. 2007; Skinner 2008b; Skinner 2008a; Dobson et al. 2009). However, this body of work has not employed a systematic analysis in the study of such locations. This gap in research is addressed by using a novel methodological framework known as ‘Spatial Design Network Analysis for Street-Based Enterprises’ (sDNA-sBEL), which combines the systematic analyses of multi-scale network accessibility distribution with morphological properties of urban form. As a principle of sDNA-sBEL, open-source data and freeware applications were used to ensure replicability and accessibility to a broader audience. The sDNA-sBEL analyses identified that the most prolific street trading locations in Lagos have high values of macro-scale betweenness – spaces traversed most frequently while Lagosians take the shortest routes for long distance (inter-city) vehicular journeys. However, other compositional spatial factors must coincide with macro-scale betweenness to sustain street trading

British Standard and Euro Code: Model of Singly Reinforced Rectangular Concrete Under Actions

Upgrading are desired Changes on any standard in operation. Meanwhile context understanding are required to achieve positive impact on the subject system. In same vein, codes of practice are always revised and that users should be made to use the latest edition of any relevant standard. Thus a model is developed to describe the sectional analysis difference with predicting implications of various combinations of sectional dimensions in structural reinforced concrete elements with reference to the two codes.  The method adopted is purely mathematical technique of modeling, concept and application. Based on the previous behavioural knowledge of such using BS code, Okeniyi et al (2012), a concrete rectangular section of singly reinforced status was also used as a case study. The section was analyzed from stress-strain relationship to formulate the governing equations and the same was specified by breadth b, total depth h and moment of resistance MR. This was simulated to describe the relationship between the variable parameters and predict the behavior of a rectangular section under loads with reference to British Standard and Euro Code. The model, thus defines clearly sectional analysis difference increasing understanding for better structural design skill. Keywords: Reinforced Concrete, Stress-Strain Relationship, Rectangular Section and Moment of Resistance DOI: 10.7176/CER/12-6-05 Publication date:June 30th 202

Application of GIS in Water Management of Eleyele Catchment, South-Western Nigeria

Eleyele dam has drastically reduced in capacity since its inception in 1942. There are frequent flood incidences within the dam catchment area- noteworthy of them is the August, 2011 flood incidence. This research studies the hydrological condition of Eleyele catchment through the use of Geographic Information System. The topographical maps, digital elevation measurement maps (DEM) and hydrological maps of the Eleyele catchment were produced through GIS watershed delineation process for the year 1967 and year 2014.The results show that there is an average lowering of elevation of about 14.63m within the catchment which has greatly affected the hydrological pattern of the catchment. The Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) of the catchment was used to produce flood risk map. The map showed that 25.24% of the catchment is prone to flooding. The study showed that there is a change in topography of Eleyele Catchment within the period studied. This is due to the urbanization of the area. Keywords: Eleyele Dam, Flood Incidences, Hydrological Condition, GIS, Watershed Delineation Process, Triangulated Irregular Networ

Factors associated with mortality in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: A Case Report

Background: The management of children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) remains a major challenge in developing countries. Case presentation: We report an adolescent male who was diagnosed with T1DM at the age of 11 years when he presented at a private hospital with diabetic ketoacidosis. He received emergency treatment there and was subsequently referred to our tertiary hospital for expert care. All through the management, there was poor clinic attendance, poor glucose monitoring, poor compliance with insulin therapy, and ultimately, poorly controlled diabetes. Later, he developed diabetic autonomic neuropathy which manifested as unawareness of bladder fullness with secondary enuresis and fecal incontinence. He was also severely malnourished. At his last admission, seven years after the initial diagnosis, he presented with burnt hands and feet, which were injuries sustained from putting his extremities in naked flames when he lapsed into a coma during a religious activity. He received multidisciplinary management but died a few weeks later. Discussion and conclusion: This case is being reported to draw attention to the plight of children with T1DM from the low socioeconomic class in developing countries. In such children, poverty and ignorance may have profound negative effects on the management and outcome of T1DM