Numerical simulation of turbulent heat transfer and fluid flow in different tube designs

Numerical simulation was carried out to study the heat transfer, friction factor and thermal performance of water inside different tubes induced with different twisted tapes. The purpose is to ascertain which of the tube designs gives the best performance when compared with the plain tube. The tubes were under uniform wall heat flux condition and Reynolds number in the range 5000 ≤ Re ≤ 20000 were considered. RNG κ − ε equation model was selected for the numerical simulations and RANS equations were employed to render the Navier-Stokes equations tractable. The best performance was obtained when the tube was fitted with alternate-axis triangular cut twisted tape. Its Nusselt number and friction factor are respectively 2.07 – 3.33 and 10.65 – 13.1 times better than that of a plain tube and its thermal performance factor is 1.35 – 1.43 times better than that of the tube with plain twisted tape

Identification of Pathogenic Viruses Using Genomic Cepstral Coefficients with Radial Basis Function Neural Network

Human populations are constantly inundated with viruses, some of which are responsible for various deadly diseases. Molecular biology approaches have been employed extensively to identify pathogenic viruses despite the limitations of the approaches. Nevertheless, recent advances in the next generation sequencing technologies have led to a surge in viral genome sequence databases with potentials for Bioinformatics based virus identification. In this study, we have utilised the Gaussian radial basis function neural network to identify pathogenic viruses. To validate the neural network model, samples of sequences of four different pathogenic viruses were extracted from the ViPR corpus. Electron-ion interaction pseudopotential scheme was used to encode the extracted sample sequences while cepstral analysis technique was applied to the encoded sequences to obtain a new set of genomic features, here called Genomic Cepstral Coefficients (GCCs). Experiments were performed to determine the potency of the GCCs to discriminate between different pathogenic viruses. Results show that GCCs are highly discriminating and gave good results when applied to identify some selected pathogenic viruse

MICROFINANCING AND MICRO-ENTERPRISE GROWTH IN NIGERIA

Microfinance is an effective way for the economic active poor to increase their economic security and thus reduce poverty. This paper assesses the impact of micro financing on the growth of micro and small entrepreneurs in Southwest Nigeria. Data were sourced through questionnaires administered to 198 MFBs in Lagos and Ogun State Nigeria. To achieve the objective of the study a growth analysis was carried out using a loan demand model specified and estimated using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) econometric technique. Also, a linear Probability model was specified and estimated to measure the log of odds of obtaining loans from the microfinance banks by the customers. The study found out that the micro enterprises experienced positive percentage change as well as positive annual sales growth as a result of micro financing. Another interesting finding is that the enterprises owned by male microentrepreneurs generate more employment than those owned by their female counterparts while employment declined in the enterprises owned by those with no formal education. The study recommends that MFBs should seek long term capital from the Pensions and Insurance Companies in the country. This will enable them grant larger volume of loan and to greater number of people who will improve their outreach level

Audit Committee Financial Expertise: Antidote for Financial Reporting Quality in Nigeria?

Audit committee financial expertise is vital to the quality of financial reporting. This study empirically investigates the impact of audit committee financial expertise on the quality of financial reporting. The financial reporting quality was measured by reliability (total accrual quality) and relevance (audit report lag). Fifteen money deposit banks were selected and data was collected for the period (2003-2012). Analyses were carried out using Correlation, Ordinary Least Square and Panel Lest Square. The study found, after controlling for firm size, audit type, age of firm, audit committee meeting and audit committee size, that, audit committee financial expertise showed a negative coefficient for total accrual quality and audit report lag. This means financial expertise has a positive significant impact on financial reporting quality in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommends that more attention should be given to the financial expertise of directors being recommended to the audit committee

Capital Market and Economic Growth in Nigeria

This study seeks to evaluate the contribution of capital market to the growth of Nigeria’s economy. To achieve this objective, an error correction model was estimated for economic growth in Nigeria, using Vector Error Correction techniques on an annual time series data spanning from 1981 to 2014. The data were subjected to Phillip Perron Unit Root Test at level and first difference. The result shows that, at one percent significance level, all the variables were stationary at first differencing. The result of the normalized cointegrated series further reveals that market capitalization rate, total value of listed securities, labor force participation rate, accumulated savings and capital formation are significant macroeconomic determinants factors of economic growth in Nigeria. It was then recommended that, for the capital market to realizes its full potentials, its environment must be enabled to promote and encourage investment opportunities for both local and international investors, since the stock market operates in a macroeconomic environment. Consequently, an improvement in the Nigerian trading system with the aim of increasing the ease with which investors can purchase and sell shares, could guarantee the stock market liquidit