History as an Educational Instrument for Development in Nigeria

The concern of this paper is to explore teaching of History as one among the single-most potent tools for reviving educational sector, industrial development and consolidation of national integration in Nigeria. To achieve this feat, the paper takes its roots from the role of history in human development and some integrative structures; and how the teaching of history can bring about revival cum renaissance to eradicate mediocrity of any kind. The paper uses oral interview as major primary source as well as archival materials; secondary sources are also consulted. The study concludes that prejudice, pejorative, condescending and dehumanizing references to Nigerians and their indigenous traditions, or the outright tendency to deny them any history, are attempts at reducing them as human beings, by way of isolating them from their past, their inherent cultural, creative and developmental prowess as a justification for Europeans’ domination

Attitudes toward Service Innovations in Red Meat Industry and its Consumption Effects on Nigerian Consumers

This paper focused on the Nigerian beef market, where meat safety is one of the most important issues of product quality for retailers, consumers, and the legal protection afforded consumers of the product. In today’s challenging economic climate, every business needs an organization-wide commitment to a comprehensive marketing strategy so it will stand out among the growing number of competitors competing for consumers. One of the ways of doing this is by providing quality products/services. The meat industry in Nigeria has failed to do this, thus this research was carried out to see how innovation can bring quality into this industry and some of the laws relating to consumer protection in Nigeria. The total population in Nigeria was last recorded at 170,123,740 (million) people in July 2012 (Indexmundi.com). According to Osho and Asghar (2005) the national population figure by the Nigeria Census Board is 170 million; this not only make Nigeria one of the largest meat consumers in this region of the world, but also one of the largest meat producing countries in Africa. Nevertheless, the deplorable conditions of meat products from the abattoirs to consumers are issues that could not just be swept under the rug. This paper; therefore, explored how innovation can better improve the delivery of quality meat products to Nigeria consumers. Two hundred and fifty (250) meat consumers in Lagos, Nigeria were randomly chosen from Ikotun area; where an abattoir operates and were required to answer few questions in a carefully designed questionnaire so as obtain relevant information. Chi-Square Tests and Cross tab was used in analyzing the data. The findings shows that χ2 =49.706, df=9, and p=.000; indicates that innovative steps of the meat handling improves quality of meat provided to the consumers and drastically reduces the problems presently associated with the industry; therefore, it is recommended that, the meat industry must be committed to supplying its customers with products that are safe and quality assure

Legal implications of manufacturers’ negligence and its effects on consumers: A study of South West Nigeria

The research study examined manufacturers’ negligence and its effects on consumer behaviour (cb) in South West Nigeria. The objectives of this study is to create a platform to explore the recklessness of manufacturers which is due to their negligence and its effects on cb with reference to South West Nigeria, to establish the effects of total quality management on manufacturers’ negligence, to determine the effects of consumption of sub-standard products on cb, to evaluate the impact of manufacturers’ marketing activities, to determine the effects of defective products on consumer exit, to show the effects of consumer service on cb, and to determine the effects of manufacturers’ negligence on cb. The study used survey research method with structured questionnaire and four hypotheses. Regression statistics was used to test the hypotheses and the result and findings show that f= 51.62, df= 1, and p value <0.05, thus manufacturers’ negligence has significant effect on cb

Simulation-based analytical design for aluminium recycling processing plant

Indiscriminate disposal of beverage cans as waste poses a great threat to the environment, causing flooding, landfill, and blockage of drainages, leading to land pollution and sometimes accident. Hence, there is a need to design a system capable of converting these wastes into usable products. In this study, a simulation-based analytical design for aluminium recycling processing plant was carried out to ascertain the efficiency and reliability of the design before fabrication using finite element analysis (FEA) approach. The simulation results revealed a lesser maximum stress of 6.323 MPa for the furnace outer casing under the action of load with a displacement of 0.0795 mm. The stress of the machine components is less than the yield strength of the selected materials, making the machine fit and workable. The analytical results agree with the numerical analysis; hence the conceptual design is fit for fabrication based on the design analysis and evaluation. After the design analysis and simulation, the designed recycling process plant parts are found to be under negligible deflection and stress which is far below the yield strength of chosen materials

Comparative of Ziegler Nichols, Fuzzy Logic and Extremum Seeking Based Proportional Integral Derivative Controller for Quadcopter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Stability Control

Unmanned aerial vehicle is potentially recognized in autonomous sectors where intelligence gathering, surveillance, reconnaissance missions, power line inspection, aerial video, search and rescue monitoring devices are required. It is essential in modern era control and monitoring especially a rotary unit where quadcopter performed a crucial task. However, the flight behavior of a quadcopter is determined by the synchronous speed of each of the motors as the speed changes with load torque variations. The dynamics model equation of the system, external disturbances and its parameters variation of the motor makes it difficult for the manual tuning techniques employed into the system to perform its stability operation. The purpose of this work is to employ adaptive controllers to enhance the stability performance so as to prevent the risk of human lives and financial implication that may arise from improper monitoring of the system. Therefore, Ziegler Nichols, fuzzy logic and extremum seeking controllers were employed to auto-tuned the parameters of proportional integral derivative (PID) gains controller to optimize and give a satisfactory performance of motor speed control at different operating condition. The altitude, pitch, roll and yaw parameters of the quadcopter are simulated using the x-plane II flight simulator MATLAB tools. The simulation results presented in this work show better performance for extremum seeking-PID in terms of decrease in rise time, settling time and overshoot relative to Zigler-Nichols-PID and Fuzzy-PID controllers

Discourse Strategies in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s Letter to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

The paper sets out to investigate the discourse strategies deployed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his open letter to President Jonathan on December 12, 2013 which was published in most of the nation’s major newspapers. The work adopts M.A.K Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar as its theoretical framework because of the great importance which the model attaches to meanings and functions of a linguistic expression in relation to its context of usage. The researchers, through content and qualitative analysis, identify the discourse strategies used by the encoder of the speech to have the desired maximum effects on the decoders, especially President Goodluck Jonathan. Our findings reveal that President Obasanjo makes use of six discourse strategies in the letter for achieving some aims. The discourse strategies are: references to national interest; using the vocative “Mr President”; mentioning and portraying God in different perspectives; making direct appeals to the president; making references to late Gen. Sanni Abacha and copious repetitions of Nigeria and Nigerians in the text

Simulation-based analytical design for aluminium recycling processing plant

Indiscriminate disposal of beverage cans as waste poses a great threat to the environment, causing flooding, landfill, and blockage of drainages, leading to land pollution and sometimes accident. Hence, there is a need to design a system capable of converting these wastes into usable products. In this study, a simulation-based analytical design for aluminum recycling processing plant was carried out to ascertain the efficiency and reliability of the design before fabrication using finite element analysis (FEA) approach. The simulation results revealed a lesser maximum stress of 6.323 MPa for the furnace outer casing under the action of load with a displacement of 0.0795 mm. The stress of the machine components is less than the yield strength of the selected materials, making the machine fit and workable. The analytical results agree with the numerical analysis; hence the conceptual design is fit for fabrication based on the design analysis and evaluation. After the design analysis and simulation, the designed recycling process plant parts are found to be under negligible deflection and stress which is far below the yield strength of chosen materials

Model based design and validation of a batch ohmic heating system

Using Moderate Electric Field (MEF) techniques, Ohmic Heating (OH) provides rapid and uniform heating of food products by applying electric fields to them. A range of theoretical ohmic heating models have been studied by researchers, but model validation and com-parisons using experimental data and model development using system identification techniques from experimental data have not been evaluated. In this work, numerical models, mathematical models, and system identification models for an MEF process are developed. The MEF models are developed and simulated using COMSOL and MATLAB/Simulink software. The developed models when simulated showed a volumetric rise in the overall food temperature. It was seen that upon application of electric field the resultant temperature depends on the electrical conductivity, product temperature and the magnitude of the electric field. For this reason, a systematic approach is taken to validate the developed models. Experimental data derived from a commercially available batch ohmic heater from C-Tech Innovation is used to validate the simulated models. Validation, analysis and model comparison was conducted to compare developed models with experimental data. The validated simulated model helped improve the understanding of the effect of different critical process parameters of foods with a range of initial conditions. The validated model can accurately predict the temperature of heating under varying electric field and food products with different thermo-physical properties

Energy Consumption Analysis of a Continuous Flow Ohmic Heater with Advanced Process Controls

This paper presents an analysis of the energy consumption of a continuous flow ohmic heater (CFOH) with advanced process controls for heating operations in the food and drinks industry. The study was carried out by using operational data collected from a CFOH pilot plant that was designed and constructed at the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE), Sheffield Hallam University. The CFOH is controlled by a PC and includes an onboard Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and a Human Machine Interface (HMI) so that it can be operated as a stand-alone unit with basic on/off and power setting control but without any advanced control features. The technical solution presented in this paper for heating foods demonstrates significant energy saving compared with conventional heating methods. Using the CFOH, the electric current generated in the food products by the Joule effect produces a rapid temperature increase with very high energy efficiency. This technique eliminates the low efficiency of heat transfer from the surface of vessels typically used to heat and cook food products. The analysis presented in this paper describes the energy consumption of the CFOH and compares the efficiency of the CFOH when different advanced process control techniques are used. Experimental results and analysis have shown that the CFOH can achieve an energy efficiency conversion of at least 87.9%. It has also shown that the energy conversion percentage can be increased by applying advanced controllers such as model predictive control (MPC) or adaptive model predictive control (AMPC)

Performance improvement of AA6061-T651 friction stir butt-weldment using particulate addition strategy

The joint quality performance of AA6061-T651 friction stir weldments had been investigated in this study through addition of pulverized waste glass (PWG), palm kernel shell ash (PKSA) and synthetic silicon carbide (SSC) with a bid to enhancing some selected mechanical properties. Optimized processing parameters which include 1120 rpm rotational speed, 40 mm/min traverse speed, 1.5o tilt angle) and optimum reinforcement strategy (parallel hole) established from a preliminary investigation were utilized for the friction stir welding. The mechanical properties such as the tensile strength, hardness and impact energy were then further investigated. The results showed that the mechanical properties of all the reinforced welded joints improved significantly than the unreinforced joint having a relatively reduced joint performance of 132 MPa tensile strength, hardness of 45.3 HRB and impact energy of 39.4 J. The PWG-reinforced friction stir welded joint performed optimally at a tensile strength of 212.7 MPa, 72 HRB hardness and 54.5 J impact energy followed by the SSC-reinforced joint which exhibited 173.7 MPa tensile strength, 54.8 HRB hardness and impact energy of 41.7 J. Hence, 80%, 59% and 38% joint performance was exhibited through tensile strength, hardness and impact energy of PWG-reinforced friction stir weldments of AA6061-T651 against the unreinforced weldments