Thermodynamic Analysis of a Gas Turbine Power Plant Modelled with an Evaporative Cooler

Performance of a gas turbine is mainly depends on the inlet air temperature. The power output of a gas turbine depends on the flow of mass through it. Inlet air cooling increases the power output by taking advantage of the gas turbine’s feature of higher mass flow rate when the compressor inlet temperature decreases. This is precisely the reason why on hot days, when air is less dense, power output falls off. A rise of 1°C temperature of inlet air decreases the power output by 1%. In this paper the performance enhancement of gas turbine power plants by cooling the compressor intake air with an evaporative cooler is studied. This study investigated the effect of inlet air cooling system on the performance of an existing gas turbine power plant in Nigeria. The results show that for each 5oC decrease of inlet air temperature, net output power increases around 5-10% and the first and second law efficiencies increase around 2-5%. It is shown that the amount of this increase is higher when the pressure ratio is high and turbine inlet temperature is low. The results of this study shows that retrofitting of the existing gas turbine plant with inlet air cooling system gives a better system performance and may prove to be an attractive investment opportunity to the Nigeria government and stakeholders of the plant

Sustainable Housing Development in Africa: Nigerian Perspective

The subject, 'Sustainable development' is relevant and applicable in all areas of development and management. Its grand characteristics are its abilities to enhance, protect as well as sustain growth in all ramification. This paper aims at defining sustainability or sustainable development by emphasizing the importance and implications of cultural values, which is believed to be a source of a sustainable development, by positioning 'cultural values' as a critical key to sustainable development in Africa. It seeks to promote the blend of low-cost indigenous practices and high technology of the contemporary building practices (trado-modern approach) for mass housing development for low income earners. In order address the ever growing concern of housing poverty, it is a vital necessity to review cultural legacies embedded in society. Sustainable strategies which dictate a new direction in this mainstream will bring a positive impact on the environmental, social and economic systems. The paper reviews literature on African developments in relation to low-income mass housing provision in Nigeria. It is relevant in sustainability in its emphasis on adherence to cultural values which is believed to be a pillar for sustaining any development. The paper is a developmental discourse on Nigerian perspective with an overview of Sub-Saharan Africa for low-cost (affordable) mass housing development. Key word: Africa; Nigeria; culture; Indigenous architecture; Sustainable developmen

Managing Transition and Student Support Services for Ethnically Diverse College Students with Learning Disabilities

Postsecondary transition for students with disabilities continues to be challenging

Empirical assessment of the effects of cashless policy on financial inclusion in the Nigerian emerging economy

The present study examined the effects of cashless policy on financial inclusion in the Nigerian emerging economy. The necessary data were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria Economic Reports as well as Statistical Bulletin and the ordinary least squares method was applied to analyze the data. The findings reveal that the cashless policy maintained a non-significant relationship with financial inclusion both in urban and rural areas of Nigeria. The findings show that the cashless policy had a significant effect on increasing customers’ deposits in commercial banks of Nigeria. Volume of Automated Teller Machine (ATMVL) maintains a positive and significant effect on financial inclusion indicators in urban center compared with the rural areas. Volume of Point of Sales (POSVL) shows more significant and positive influence on financial inclusion in urban area than the rural area. However, Web Based Technique (WBTVL) reveals a non-significant effect on financial inclusion both in urban and rural centers. The study therefore recommends that more branches of commercial banks and ATM centers/outlets should be opened in rural urban centers with efficient network systems and security in order to enhance banking penetration and by extension effectiveness of the financial inclusion and poverty reductions

Appraisal of the Nigerian Red Cross Society’s Intervention on the Protracted Refugee Situations of the Displaced Bakassi People

Protracted refugee situations have constituted serious welfare and security challenges for displaced persons especially in Nigeria. Most of the time, government show little or no concern in providing their basic needs. As such, non-governmental organisations intervene to assuage the associated humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately, the government often relax in their responsibilities when non-governmental organisations intervene, pretending that their basic needs have been met. It is in the light of this circumstance, that it was deemed necessary to appraise the intervention of the Nigerian Red Cross Society on the protracted refugee situations of the displaced Bakassi people and ascertain the basic needs met and the ones that still need the serious attention of the government. The findings showed that although the Nigerian Red Cross Society intervened in the areas of food supply, social services, medical care, and skill acquisition, they are not sufficient for government to ignore the pathetic conditions of the displaced Bakassi people. It is therefore recommended that the Nigerian government should partner with non-governmental organisations in attending to the basic welfare and security needs of the displaced Bakassi people

Fault Tolerance in Intranet Information Systems for Tertiary Health Institutions

The critical nature of information and data in some systems like health sector requires a system that gives optimal tolerance to fault without trading off or compromising system integrity, availability and security in order for the system to afford greater efficiency. The main thrust of this work is to examine health system information flow and application(s) in the light of fault tolerance and come up with application software of higher tolerance to fault that can be deployed as an intranet in a tertiary health institution for sharing Patients’ Case Notes among care givers. Besides extensive literature review on the work, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, one of the teaching hospitals in Nigeria, was chosen as a case study. The various departments and users are interviewed and interacted with in order to, among other things, gather system requirements. The software development technologies used are ASP.NET with Visual Basic as language and Microsoft SQL 2005 Express Edition. The platform used is Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition. The web server used is Internet Information System (IIS). Keywords: fault tolerance, information system, health institution, health care, case note

A Survey of Determinants of Decision-making by Managers in the Aviation Industry in Nigeria

This paper examined access to and use of information systems, personality traits and decision-making by managers in the aviation industry in Nigeria. The stratified random sampling technique, complemented with a questionnaire, was used to collect data from 1,238 managers in aviation parastatals in Nigeria. However, only 945 responded, giving a response rate of 76.3 percent. The study found that personality traits (r = 0.330, P< 0.05) and information systems access (r = 0.170, P<0.05) and use (r = 0.350, P<0.05) had significant relationships with decision-making of the respondents, when taken together, significantly determined decision-making of the respondents.  Use of information systems was found to make the greatest relative contribution (32.0 percent) in determining the decision-making of managers in the aviation industry in Nigeria. Personality traits should be considered when recruiting managers for the aviation industry. Keywords: information systems access, use, personality traits, decision-making, aviation industr

Hazard Perception and Demand for Insurance Among Selected Motorcyclists in Lagos, Nigeria

This study examines hazard perception effects on the demand for insurance withspecial focus on motorcycle riders in Lagos state. For this purpose, the researchershave been able to examine selected hazard perception determinants and theireffects on the insuring attitude and desire of motorcycle riders. An explanatoryresearch design was employed and a convenience sampling type of the nonprobabilitysampling technique was adopted.  Data was gathered by interviewsconducted at motorcycle parks along the Lagos-Badagry expressway.  The sampleconsisted of 126 respondents made up of commercial motorcycle riders within thesample areas. Data collected was analysed using multiple regression technique.The study was able to establish some level of contributory linkage between hazardperception and demand for motorcycle insurance. The findings show that whiledread and trust both appeared to have significant effect, publicity and controllabilityboth have positive contributory effect; furthermore, choice expressed an inverserelationship with demand for insurance among the motorcycle riders. The studytherefore recommends pre-loss and post-loss measures among the motorcycleriders so that unforeseen motorcycle risks can be managed. Also, insurancecompanies should endeavour to invest more on enlightening the motorcycle riders in order to lessen their dread of loss outcome, and thus, design policy that can instil trust in motorcycle riders in insurance as a loss control measure

Local Fractional Operator for a One-Dimensional Coupled Burger Equation of Non-Integer Time Order Parameter

In this study, approximate solutions of a system of time-fractional coupled Burger equations were obtained by means of a local fractional operator (LFO) in the sense of the Caputo derivative. The LFO technique was built on the basis of the standard differential transform method (DTM). Illustrative examples used in demonstrating the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method show that the solution method is very efficient and reliable as "“ unlike the variational iteration method "“ it does not depend on any process of identifying Lagrange multipliers, even while still maintaining accuracy