A Risk Analysis and Safety Context on Nigeria Road

The starting point of this work was analysing of data from road safety corp.  Applying safety to tanker/trailer on Nigeria road.  Road transport system was studied.  Accident was examined using Haddon Matrix. The three basic factors of road crash human, vehicle and road environment was pin point. However, a ban of trucks on Nigeria road was scrutinized with time lag effect on other industries. Tankers / Trailers expected casualty was estimated using probabilities. The summary table of Tankers / Trailers Road Traffic Crashes between  2007- 2010 by RSC was used in the work. Recommendation and conclusion Keywords: Safety on road, Expected Casualty, Accident, Risk on road, Hazard theor

EFFECT OF GOEMETRY ON THE ANALYSIS OF THERMAL EXPLOSION OF A STRONGLY EXOTHERMIC CHEMICAL REACTONS

This study is devoted to investigate the effect of geometry on thermal explosion of a strong exothermic chemical reaction with variable pre-exponential factor under Bimolecular, Arrhenius and Sensitised reaction rate, neglecting the consumption of the material are examined. Analytical solutions are constructed for the governing nonlinear boundary-value problem using perturbation technique together with a special type Hermite-pade approximation and important properties of the temperature field including bifurcations and thermal criticality are discussed. It is shown that temperature field is highly influenced by the geometry

Symmetric Variants of Logistic Smooth Transition Autoregressive Models: Monte Carlo Evidences

The Smooth Transition Autoregressive (STAR) models are becoming popular in modeling economic and financial time series. The asymmetric type of the model is the Logistic STAR (LSTAR) model, which is limited in its applications as a result of its asymmetric property, which makes it suitable for modelling specific macroeconomic time series. This study was designed to develop the Absolute Error LSTAR (AELSTAR) and Quadratic LSTAR (QLSTAR) models for improving symmetry and performance in terms of model fitness. Modified Teräsvirta’s Procedure (TP) and Escribano and Jordá\u27s Procedure (EJP) were used to test for nonlinearity in the series. The performance of the AELSTAR and QLSTAR models showed that TP and EJP realized time series with improved symmetry as indicated by the lower relative frequencies than that realized with the existing LSTAR model. The AELSTAR model performed better than QLSTAR model at higher nonlinearity, and the selection of both models showed evidence of asymptotic property. The AELSTAR and QLSTAR models showed improved symmetry over the existing asymmetric LSTAR model

Specifying Asymmetric STAR models with Linear and Nonlinear GARCH Innovations: Monte Carlo Approach

Economic and finance time series are typically asymmetric and are expected to be modeled using asymmetrical nonlinear time series models. Smooth Transition Autoregressive (STAR) models: Logistic (LSTAR) and Exponential (ESTAR) are known to be asymmetric and symmetric respectively. Under non-normal and heteroscedastic innovations, the residuals of these models are estimated using Generalized Autoregressive Conditionally Heteroscedastic (GARCH) models with variants which include linear and nonlinear forms. The small sample properties of STAR-GARCH variants are yet to be established but these properties are investigated using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. An MC investigation was conducted to investigate the performance of selections of STAR-GARCH models by classical nonlinear selection approaches. The ARCH(1) and GARCH(1,1) models were the linear GARCH specifications while the Logistic Smooth Transition-ARCH (LST-ARCH(1,1)), Logistic Smooth Transition- GARCH (LST-GARCH(1,1)) and Asymmetric Nonlinear Smooth Transition-GARCH (ANST-GARCH(1,1)) models were the nonlinear GARCH specifications. The nonlinearity parameter in the variance equations and Autoregressive (AR) parameters were varied along with different sample sizes. With the assumption of normality, the results showed that the selection of LSTAR models were actually affected by the structure of the innovations and this improved as sample size increased. Misspecification tests showed that these models cannot be misrepresented in the real sense

Studies on Some Physical Properties of Dikanut Seeds

The physical properties of dikanut seeds sold in Nigerian markets were determined.   The dried seeds were evaluated for the principal dimensions, weight, volume, true density, bulk density, and porosity, angle of repose, static coefficient of friction and specific heat capacity.   The average three principal dimensions were 2.375, 1.592 and 0.778cm.  The seeds had an average weight of 1.904g, volume of 2.38cm3, density of 0.832g/cm3, bulk density of 0.475g/cm3, porosity of 43%, and surface area of 3.468cm2.   Angle of repose and coefficient of friction varied quadratically with moisture content.   The specific heat capacity of dikanuts was measured at four moisture contents and eight temperatures.   The specific heat of dikanut varied from 1.9333J/g?C to 6.075J/g?C for moisture contents between 3% and 30% and those that were used to model multiple simple regression equations expressing specific heat as a function of moisture content. Key words: Dikanut, seed, dimension, specific heat capacit

Wind energy evaluation for electricity generation using WECS in seven selected locations in Nigeria

This paper statistically examine wind characteristics from seven meteorological stations within the North-West (NW) geo-political region of Nigeria using 36-year (1971–2007) wind speed data measured at 10 m height subjected to 2-parameter Weibull analysis. It is observed that the monthly mean wind speed in this region ranges from 2.64 m/s to 9.83 m/s. The minimum monthly mean wind speed was recorded in Yelwa in the month of November while the maximum value is observed in Katsina in the month of June. The annual wind speeds range from 3.61 m/s in Yelwa to 7.77 m/s in Kano. It is further shown that Sokoto, Katsina and Kano are suitable locations for wind turbine installations with annual mean wind speeds of 7.61, 7.45 and 7.77 m/s, respectively. The results also suggest that Gusau and Zaria should be applicable for wind energy development using taller wind turbine towers due to their respective annual mean speeds and mean power density while Kaduna is considered as marginal. In addition, higher wind speeds were recorded in the morning hours than afternoon periods for this region. A technical electricity generation assessment using four commercial wind turbines were carried out. The results indicate that, while the highest annual power is obtained with Nordex N80–2.5 MWas 14233.53 kW/year in Kano, the lowest is in Yelwa having 618.06 kW/year for Suzlon S52. It is further shown that the highest capacity factor is 64.95% for Suzlon S52–600 kW in Kano while the lowest is 3.82% for Vestas V80–2MW in Yelwa

Rethinking Nigeria’s Strategic Relationship with its Immediate Neighbours

This paper strengthens the perspective that the national security and development of a state are predicated upon the good and strategic relationship of countries with their immediate neighbours. It centres its argument around the fact that the global system in the 21st century has been characterized by ups and downs that have shaken the grounds of global peace and security and that growing diminution of the “global village”, due to increasing interdependence of states and non-state actors,has necessitated an ever-rising need for collective security on global and regional scale. Nigeria’s foreign policy has often been said to be characterized by the principle of good neighbourliness for the purpose of secure neighbourhood and national security. Indeed, the numerous security challenges of the country at present, such as ethnic conflicts,religious fundamentalism, power tussle and insurgency, require shared security intelligence, regional military cooperation and of course, good neighbourliness. This enterprise constitutes a search for a deeper understanding of ‘good neighbourliness’ and suggests a redefinition of that stance to reflect realpolitik. The paper seeks to critically identify the new ways in which Nigeria can strategically relate with its immediate neighbours, including Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Equatorial Guinea and nearby countries that do not share boundaries with it. Emphasis is made on the need for the government to pursue dynamic, tactical and strategic defence policy, which will include ensuring the impenetrability and prevention of infiltration of its boundaries, in view of the fact most of the national security problems testing the corporate existence of Nigeria todayare from its borders

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

Determinants of adoption and intensity of use of balanced nutrient management systems technologies in the northern Guinea savanna of Nigeria

As part of a major effort to address soil fertility decline in West Africa, a project on Balanced Nutrient Management Systems (BNMS) has since 2000 been implemented in the northern Guinea savanna (NGS) of Nigeria. The project has tested and promoted two major technology packages, including a combined application of inorganic fertilizer and manure (BNMS-manure) and a soybean/maize rotation practice referred to as BNMS-rotation. This study employed Tobit model to examine factors that influence the adoption and intensity of utilization of BNMS technologies in the NGS of Nigeria. Results showed that less than 10% of the sample households adopted at least one of the two components of the technology package by the end of 2002. However, by 2005 the adoption of BNMS-rotation had reached 40% while that of BNMS-manure had reached 48%. A number of factors such as access to credit, farmers’ perception of the state of land degradation, and assets ownership were found to be significant in determining farmers’ adoption decisions on BNMS-manure while off-farm income was found to be significant in determining farmers’ adoption decisions on BNMS-rotation. Extension services and farmer-to-farmer technology diffusion channels were the major means of transfer of BNMS technologies.Adoption, BNMS-manure, BNMS-rotation, Northern Guinea Savanna (NGS)., Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Investigating the prevalence and causes of prescribing errors in general practice : the PRACtICe Study

Report prepared by the University of Nottingham, University of Reading and University of Hertfordshir