Indigenous and scientific knowledge: the choice and management of cultivation sites by bedouin in Upper Egypt

This paper investigates the ways in which some bedouin in the Nubian Desert of southeastern Egypt take decisions about both the choice of site for cultivation and the subsequent management of their soils. It explores the complementarity of formal and informal sciences and how each might profitably inform the other. Results show that the bedouin understand the physical limitations and nutrient supply properties of soils, but not aspects such as pH. Decisions on the choice of cultivation site are often made with regard to other perceived risks, such as soil loss and intermittent inundation, rather than just soil quality. It is also apparent that there exists among bedouin a plurality of indigenous knowledge mediated by factors such as experience, wealth levels, household circumstances and production priorities. Understanding indigenous knowledge is essential in helping to develop better use of the soil in this area, about which little is known and which has only a short history of small scale cropping

System Design for Mobile Phone Data Backup

This study briefly looked into how mobile phones work. It then considered the design of the system (graphical user interface, the application and the database) used for mobile phone data backup.  This system backs up mobile phone and Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) data (contacts and SMS) on the computer storage. It also allows for easy retrieval and restoration of the data to phone memory when the need arises. The objectives considered in the design include:  user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for user interaction; modular subroutines, methods and functions that retrieves data from the phone and stores it on the computer memory; modular subroutines, methods and functions that retrieves data from the SIM and stores it on the computer memory; modular subroutines and functions that send data from the computer back to the phone; portable database for storing and retrieving the data. The design employs several intuitive system design tools (mainly of graphical nature) to make the concept being discussed as lucid as possible. Some of the tools used include context diagram, data flow diagram, state diagram, use case diagram, deployment diagram, entity relation model etc. Keywords: Mobile Phone, Data Backup, System Design, GSM, Phone Data

Security Algorithm for Preventing Malicious Attacks in Software Defined Network (SDN)

This paper explores the success record of the Internet as well as its shortcoming in the area of network configuration, response to fault(s), load and change(s) that led to the concept of Software Defined Network (SDN).These are the factors that separated combined net­work’s control from forwarding planes for easier optimization, programming of network and centralization of control logic capabilities. These had also led to new different challenges, that open doors for new threats that were not existing or harder to exploit. SDN prototype embraces third-party improvementas a result of hard work, that later makes the SDN vulnerable to potential trust issue on its applications (apps).This makes it possible for an intruder toinsert malicious content/programs into the network packets and then forward into the network.Codes were written to implement the designed algorithm using white/blacklist source identification combined with Hash Bayes' Theorem (W/B+HBT) content filter as a security measure to prevent the malicious attack(s). It was shown that new transaction(s) from known attack source(s) are classified as Blacklist and dropped, while those known as whitelist are forwarded to their respective destination as a legitimate packet(s) (W/B). Those from unknown sources were treated using Hash Bayes’ Theorem (HBT) content filter. The result of the implementation is able to record 10% false positive (FP) and false negative (FN) and 90% true positive (TP) and true negative (TN) (accurate classification of packets) for the presented algorithm

Farmer perceptions and responses to soil degradation in Swaziland

Soil degradation is globally concerning due to its adverse effects on the environment and agricultural production. Much of Swaziland is at risk from degradation. This paper assesses farmer perceptions and responses to soil degradation in 2002 and 2014, focusing on two land uses that underpin rural livelihoods: arable land and rangeland areas. It uses repeat household surveys and semi-structured interviews, in two case study chiefdoms in the country’s middleveld (KaBhudla and Engcayini) in the first longitudinal study of its kind. We find that observations of land degradation are perceived mainly through changes in land productivity, with chemical degradation occurring predominantly on arable land and physical degradation and erosion mainly in rangeland areas. Changes in rainfall are particularly important in determining responses. While perceptions of the causes and impacts of degradation largely concur with the scientific literature, responses were constrained by poor land availability, shorter and more unpredictable cropping seasons because of changing rains and low awareness, access to or knowledge of agricultural inputs. We suggest that sustainable arable land management can be enhanced through improved access to alternative sources of water, use of management practices that retain soil and moisture and greater access to agricultural inputs and capacity building to ensure their appropriate use. We suggest collaborative management for settlement planning that integrates soil conservation and livestock management strategies such as controlled stocking levels and rotational grazing could improve land quality in rangeland areas. Together, these approaches can help land users to better manage change

A Simple Data Driven Yoruba Language Dictionary

The language of a people is an integral part of their lives, because it is synonymous with their identity, culture and environment. Traditionally, the language people speak tells others about their identity but in a country like Nigeria where a lingua franca, English has been adopted, the identity of the people is being suppressed such that the first language of some Nigerians is English instead of their mother tongue and in some extreme cases the indigenous language has been lost. The use of a lingua franca, globalization and civilization should not bring about the death of our indigenous languages, instead, amid all these, Information Technology as the bedrock of our time can be harnessed to propagate our indigenous languages. This work focused on the development of an electronic Yoruba language dictionary that is data driven. The tools and techniques used in this work produced results. Keywords: Yoruba, dictionary, database, language translation, machine learnin

A Java Simulation-Based Performance Evaluation of Mobile Agent Platforms.

Mobile agents are emerging as a promising paradigm for the design and implementations of distributed applications .Manyof these Mobile Agent platforms have been developed, new one, and new versions of old agents, kept on appearing everyyear, so choosing the right or most suitable platform for a particular application area; based on their performance is achallenge for both the developers and the users. This paper carried out a qualitative comparison across three selected, Javabased Mobile Agent System, Aglet Tracy, and JADE. Two of them (Aglets and JADE) were selected for quantitativeevaluation on their time of transfer/retrieval of compressed data files. In our implementation, Aglet version 2.02 and JADE3.4.1 were used. A java simulation program was developed and used in measuring the performance of the two mobileagents, using transmission time and compressed time as performance metrics. In this paper work, a unique portnumber(2080) was chosen for the loading of classes and mobility of agents. Ten dummy data files (also refer to as Load orMessage) were created with sizes ranges from 100Kb to 1 Mb. A gzip compression tool was used to compress each of thesefiles and sent through the Aglet and JADE enabled network. The transmission time (in milliseconds) for each correspondingfiles size (in Bytes) in the two Mobile agents were recorded. We deduced from our qualitative results that, Tracy plug-infeatures give users room for reusability and extension. Aglets provide weak security and poorly scalable. JADE has astrong security, scalable and its multi agent feature will enrich its usage on the internet. Our quantitative results show thattransferring/retrieving of compressed data file is faster in JADE than in Aglets. The integrity of the files are also kept safe, inboth mobile agents, that is after decompressions they can still be reused.Keywords: Aglet, Gzip, JADE, Compression ratio, Mobile Agent Networ

Design of A Mobile Phone Data Backup System

This study examined how mobile phones work, the design of the graphical user interface, the design of the application and the design of the database used for the K-Backup system.  This application backs up mobile phone and Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) data (contacts and SMS) on the computer storage. It also allows for easy retrieval and restoration of the data to phone memory when the need arises. The objectives considered in the design included:  user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for user interaction; modular subroutines, methods and functions that retrieves data from the phone and stores it on the computer memory; modular subroutines, methods and functions that retrieves data from the SIM and stores it on the computer memory; modular subroutines and functions that send data from the computer back to the phone; portable database for storing and retrieving the data. Keywords: Mobile Phone, Data Backup, System Design, GSM, Phone Data

Temperature-Humidity Index (THI) in rabbits’ pens at different building orientations and openings: a measure of animal comfortability in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Natural ventilation for rabbits’ comfortability when subjected to different building orientations and side openings when stocked and when  unstocked were studied. It was 3 x 2 x 3 factorial design. There were 3 factors: season at two levels (dry and rainy seasons); building  orientations (Or) [two levels: 45o and 90o to the directions of prevailing wind] and ventilation openings (Op) [four different levels: 20%,  40%, 60% and 80% side openings]. Two phases in the experiment were the monitoring of the outside climate (temperature, relative   humidity) and in-building climate conditions at stocked and unstocked. The measurements were taken two times a day at 10.00 hr and  14.00 hr. There was interaction among the Or, Op and THI inside stocked building (THIin) but the interaction between Or and Op did not  significantly affect THIin at stocking. This interaction accounts for why 900 Or have low THI values. The Or significantly affected (p ≤ 0.05)  temperature, humidity and THIin during rainy seasons. There were higher concentrations of air moving in from surrounding of the  building especially in the 90o Or pens and especially with higher percentage of openings like 60% and 80% and therefore rabbits in those  pens could be adjudged to be in thermo-comfort zone

Effects of floor space area in battery cages on the bird weight and egg production of olympia black layers

The impact of varying floor space area in battery cages have been evaluated on the weight and egg production of olympia black laying birds. The experiment was carried out using battery cages with varying floor spaces area of 300 mm by 300 mm, 380 mm by 380 mm and 460 mm by 460 mm also stocked with 2 and 3 birds per cage cell. The experimental birds used were 45 Olympia black layers, which are seventeen weeks old and the experiment lasted for twelve weeks. The birds’ weights were measured while egg production was determined on weekly bases. Design expert software 6.0.8 version was used for experimental design and analysis of the experiment. The results obtained shows that Cage cells 380 mm × 380 mm with 2 birds gave the optimum weight of birds to be 1.46 kg and also gave the optimum egg production of 7 eggs per bird per week while cage cells (300 mm × 300 mm) with 3 birds gave the lowest productivity with egg production 4 eggs per bird per week. There was a significant effect of stocking density on the weight of bird and egg production at P ˂ 0.05. The study was able to established a template for the development of battery cage, which caters for maximum productivity and welfare of laying birds Keywords: Stocking density, battery cages and egg production. DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/10-7-05 Publication date: September 30th 201