Effect of Financial Liberalization on the Performance of Informal Capital Market

This study examines the effects of financial liberalization on the corporate performance of informal capital market in Nigeria {Unity (IFE) NUT Cooperative Investment and Credit Society as a case study}. It employs the Ordinary Least Square method of multiple regression analysis for the period of ten years (2001-2010). Three models were formulated, the first, proxied financial liberalization variable (saving rate) with loan granted by informal capital market in Nigeria and saving mobilized by the market. The second, revealing a relationship between financial liberalization variable (lending rate) with deposit mobilised by informal capital market in Nigeria and loan granted by the market while the last, depicting relationship between financial liberalization variables (saving and lending rates), deposit mobilised with loan granted by informal capital market in Nigeria and net surplus of the market (being non-profit making institutions). This work concluded that financial liberalization has significant effect on deposit mobilised and loan granted by the market but did not have significant effect on their net surplus. It therefore, recommends that the market should be supervised, formulate policies that would enhance the performance of informal financial sector in Nigeria coupled with the reduction of the gap between lending and saving rates of banks. Keywords: Financial Liberalization, Informal Capital Market, Unity (IFE) NUT Cooperative Investment and Credit Society, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) Metho

Retrorectal Hernia: A Rare Cause of Constipation Diagnosed on Magnetic Resonance (MR) Defecography

Retrorectal herniation of the sigmoid colon is a rare condition characterized by the protrusion of a segment of the colon into the pre-sacral space and posterior to the rectum. This herniation occurs through a defect in the peritoneum, which may have developed secondary to congenital mechanisms, surgery, trauma, or inflammatory processes. Here, a case of retrorectal herniation of the sigmoid colon in an elderly female patient presenting with constipation is reported, with a review of the literature

An Improved Heat Release Rate (HRR) Model for the Analysis of Combustion Behaviour of Diesel, GTL, and HVO Diesel

Heat Release Rate (HRR) analysis is indispensable in engine research. The HRR of Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) is most sensitive to gamma (γ). The proposed HRR models in literature were largely based on γ expressed as functions of temperature. However, γ is depended on temperature as well as the excess air ratio (λ). In this work, an improved HRR model based on γ(T, λ) was used to investigate the combustion behaviour of standard diesel, Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) diesel and Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) diesel in a 96 kW, multiple fuel injection, Euro V, Direct Injection (DI) engine. The improved HRR model (Leeds HRR model) was validated for the alternative fuels by comparing the fuel masses predicted by the model to the measured fuel masses. The fuel masses predicted by the Leeds HRR model were also compared to the predictions from four HRR models that were based on γ(T). No work has been done in the past to investigate the combustion behaviour of GTL and HVO diesel in a multiple fuel injection, Compression Ignition (CI) engine. This work also featured two novel approximation techniques that were used to estimate the rate of evaporation of the injected fuel from the HRR profiles and the actual SoC from the HRR and fuel burn profiles (for the case of significant heat release bTDC). The overall average error in the predictions of the Leeds HRR model was 4.86% with a standard deviation of 2.39 while the typical error in the other models ranged from 14.66% to 19.99%. The accuracy of the HRR model of CI engines for the HRR analysis of GTL and HVO diesel is therefore, improved by using γ(T, λ). The combustion of HVO diesel was found to be the smoothest of the three fuels due to the narrow distillation range of HVO diesel

Bioenergy potential in Nigeria

The potential of waste agricultural, forest and waste material in Nigeria for energy generation was quantitatively estimated using Nigerian Government data. The current biomass capacity of Nigeria is over 200 billion kg of biomass per year. Wood fuel and charcoal account for over 80% of the energy that is consumed in households in Nigeria for cooking and heating. Wood fuel accounts for about 94% of traditional biomass that is utilized for household cooking in Nigeria. 46 million tonnes of wood fuel was used in 2014 for domestic cooking in the country. The nation’s total energy consumption in 2015 was 121 Mtoe. The analysis that was carried out in this work shows that Nigeria has the potential to generate about 62 Mtoe (2.6 billion GJ) of energy from its biomass resources (about 51% of the nation’s energy consumption in 2015). The largest resource by far is agricultural crop residues, much of which is currently burnt in the fields. The estimated bioenergy potential of Nigeria’s forest residue (8.7 Mtoe equivalent to 363 PJ) is 1.04 times greater than the energy consumed for transportation and four times greater than the nation’s electricity consumption in 2015. The costs of transportation energy (pump price of oil products) and electricity in Nigeria are still high despite the huge amount of biomass that is available in the country, from which clean and renewable fuels or energy can be produced. If the abundant bio-resources of Nigeria are harnessed to produce bioenergy, transportation fuels and electricity, then energy will become more affordable and more accessible by the general populace. The power sector of the country will also be stabilized, and electricity supplies provided for rural areas, where the agricultural waste biomass occurs

Efficiency of Histidine Rich Protein II-Based Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Monitoring Malaria Transmission Intensities in an Endemic Area

In recent years there has been a global decrease in the prevalence of malaria due to scaling up of control measures, hence global control efforts now target elimination and eradication of the disease. However, a major problem associated with elimination is asymptomatic reservoir of infection especially in endemic areas. This study aims to determine the efficiency of histidine rich protein II (HRP-2) based rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for monitoring transmission intensities in an endemic community in Nigeria during the pre-elimination stage. Plasmodium falciparum asymptomatic malaria infection in healthy individuals and symptomatic cases were detected using HRP-2. RDT negative tests were re-checked by microscopy and by primer specific PCR amplification of merozoite surface protein 2 (msp-2) for asexual parasites and Pfs25 gene for gametocytes in selected samples to detect low level parasitemia undetectable by microscopy. The mean age of the study population (n=280) was 6.12 years [95% CI 5.16 – 7.08, range 0.5 – 55], parasite prevalence was 44.6% and 36.3% by microscopy and RDT respectively (p =0.056). The parasite prevalence of 61.5% in children aged >2 – 10 years was significantly higher than 3.7% rate in adults >18years (p < 0.0001, χ2 = 60.45). RDT detected additional 29.6% asymptomatic cases but a lower specificity of 68.8% in symptomatic carriers. In 15 selected RDT positive samples, only 6 were positive by PCR and no gametocyte was detected. The results indicate that HRP-2 RDTs are a vital tool for understanding transmission dynamics and detecting immune-suppressed, recent and asymptomatic infections, thus crucial to tackle low level transmission and eliminating malaria in endemic areas

Entropy Generation of MHD Poiseuille Flow with Hall and Joule Heating Effects

In this article investigation has been conducted on the effects of Hall parameter, rotation parameter and Joule heating on the entropy generation of fully developed electrically conducting Poiseuille flow. The coupled system of ordinary differential equations for the flow are obtained, non-dimensionalised and solutions are constructed by Adomian decomposition technique. The effects of Hall current, Ion-slip, Joule heating and magnetic parameters on the velocity, temperature, entropy generation and Bejan number are explained and shown graphically. The results indicate that fluid entropy generation is induced by increase in Hall current, rotation and Joule heating parameters. Furthermore Bejan number is accelerated by Hall current, rotation, Magnetic and Joule heating parameters which signifies that heat transfer irreversibility dominates entropy generation

Hall Current and Ion-Slip Effects on the Entropy Generation of Couple Stress Fluid with Velocity Slip and Temperature Jump

In this work, analytical study of Hall current and Ion-slip effects on the rate of entropy generation of couple stress fluid is considered. The obtained partial differential equations governing the flow are reduced to ordinary differential equations by similarity variables, semi-analytical solution of the dimensionless nonlinear coupled differential equations for velocity, temperature, entropy generation and Bejan number are constructed using Differential Transform Technique. Effects of Hall current, Ion-slip, couples stress and magnetic parameters are presented and discussed graphically. From the results it is observed that Hall current and rotation parameters enhance secondary velocity, fluid temperature and entropy generation. In addition rarefaction and Hartman number reduce fluid temperature and entropy generation

Numerical Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Growth of Structural Steels Using Energy Release Rate with VCCT

This research presents the numerical evaluation of fatigue crack growth of structural steels S355 and S960 based on Paris’ law parameters (C and m) that are experimentally determined with a single edge notched tension (SENT) specimen using optical and crack gauge measurements on an electromotive resonance machine at constant amplitude load. The sustainable technique is replacing destructive, time-consuming and expensive approaches in structural integrity. The crack propagation is modelled using the 3D finite element method (FEM) with adaptive remeshing of tetrahedral elements along with the crack initiator elements provided in simulation software for crack propagation based on linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). The stress intensity is computed based on the evaluation of energy release rates according to Irwin’s crack closure integral with applied cyclic load of 62.5 MPa, 100 MPa and 150 MPa and stress ratios of R = 0 and 0.1. In order to achieve optimized mesh size towards load cycle and computational time, mesh and re-mesh sensitivity analysis is conducted. The results indicate that the virtual crack closure technique VCCT-based 3D FEM shows acceptable agreement compared to the experimental investigation with the percentage error up to 7.9% for S355 and 12.8% for S960 structural steel

Prion Infectivity and PrPBSE in the Peripheral and Central Nervous System of Cattle 8 Months Post Oral BSE Challenge

After oral exposure of cattle with classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (C-BSE), the infectious agent ascends from the gut to the central nervous system (CNS) primarily via the autonomic nervous system. However, the timeline of this progression has thus far remained widely undetermined. Previous studies were focused on later time points after oral exposure of animals that were already 4 to 6 months old when challenged. In contrast, in this present study, we have orally inoculated 4 to 6 weeks old unweaned calves with high doses of BSE to identify any possible BSE infectivity and/or PrPBSE in peripheral nervous tissues during the first eight months postinoculation (mpi). For the detection of BSE infectivity, we used a bovine PrP transgenic mouse bioassay, while PrPBSE depositions were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). We were able to show that as early as 8 mpi the thoracic spinal cord as well as the parasympathetic nodal ganglion of these animals contained PrPBSE and BSE infectivity. This shows that the centripetal prion spread starts early after challenge at least in this age group, which represents an essential piece of information for the risk assessments for food, feed, and pharmaceutical products produced from young calves

Bayesian signaling game based efficient security model for MANETs

Game Theory acts as a suitable tool offering promising solutions to security-related concerns in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (i.e., MANETs). In MANETs, security forms a prominent concern as it includes nodes which are usually portable and require significant coordination between them. Further, the absence of physical organisation makes such networks susceptible to security breaches, hindering secure routing and execution among nodes. Game Theory approach has been manipulated in the current study to achieve an analytical view while addressing the security concerns in MANETs. This paper offers a Bayesian-Signaling game model capable of analysing the behaviour associated with regular as well as malicious nodes. In the proposed model, the utility of normal nodes has been increased while reducing the utility linked to malicious nodes. Moreover, the system employs a reputation system capable of stimulating best cooperation between the nodes. The regular nodes record incessantly to examine their corresponding nodes’ behaviours by using the belief system of Bayes-rules. On its comparison with existing schemes, it was revealed that the presented algorithm provides better identification of malicious nodes and attacks while delivering improved throughput and reduced false positive rate