Acoustic Analysis of Nigerian English Vowels Based on Accents

Accent has been widely acclaimed to be a major source of automatic speech recognition (ASR) performance degradation. Most ASR applications were developed with native English speaker speech samples not minding the fact that the majority of its potential users speaks English as a second language with a marked accent. Nigeria like most nations colonized by Britain, speaks English as official language despite being a multi-ethnic nation. This work explores the acoustic features of energy, fundamental frequency and the first three formats of the three major ethnic groups of Nigerian based on features extracted from five pure vowels of English obtained from subjects who are Nigerians. This research aimed at determining the differences or otherwise between the pronunciations of the three major ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to aid the development of ASR that is robust to NE accent. The results show that there exist significant differences between the mean values of the pure English vowels based on the pronunciation of the three major ethnics: Hausa, Ibo, and Yoruba. The differences can be explored to enhance the performance of ASR in recognition of NE

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and microbial load of naturally preserved smoked African mud catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822)

 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) and microbial load of naturally preserved smoked African mud catfish (Clarias gariepinus Burchell, 1822) were examined. The experimental design was Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with the treatments been the variously preserved C. gariepinus catfish (garlic, ginger, garlic-ginger homogenate preserved and the control without spices). PAH and the microbial load were determined using standard experimental procedures. All PAH values were within internationally recommend value for human consumption, the aerobic mesophilic counts of unpreserved smoked catfish was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than other preserved smoked C. gariepinus (2.51 ± 0.01- 8.98 ± 0.02 log cfu/g); while garlic-ginger preserved smoked catfish product had the lowest aerobic mesophilic counts (2.48 ± 0.01-8.92 ± 0.01 log cfu/g) during the period of the experiment. Similar trends were observed in the mould fungal, Staphylococcal, coliform, Salmonella and Shigella counts. However, Staphylococcal counts, coliform count and Salmonella and Shigella counts were not detected in the samples at the onset of the experiment. The preserved smoked fish are good and safe for human consumptions when stored at ambient temperatures (25-36oC) for 56 days. The combination of garlic and ginger provide a much stronger antibiotic effect than the individual ingredients

PROXIMATE AND MINERAL COMPOSITION OF SPICED, SMOKED CATFISH Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822)

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The Thermal Analysis of Fuel Fired Crucible Furnace Using Autodesk Inventor Simulation Software

The reasons for failure of locally made furnace in the foundries were as a result of cycles of operating temperatures that they were subjected to, which caused thermal stress and strain on the furnaces. This paper studied the simulation of thermal analysis of Fuel fired Crucible Furnace to predict the effect of thermal stress and strain on it

Double-stage features extraction for Malays vowel classification using multinomial logistic regression

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has recorded enormous development in both research and implementation such as voice commands to control electronic appliances, video games, interface to voice dictation, assistive leaving for the elderly, and dialogue systems. Rapid development on ASR can be seen on the English language, while duplicating the ASR framework for Malay language is possible, but the work demands endlessly efforts. One of common tools that is able to classify Malay vowels is Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR). However, careless on estimating the parameters of MLR may lead to producing biased classifier which inappropriate for future classification. Besides, the used on huge number of features for classification sometimes hinder MLR to perform well. This paper outlines a new idea for estimating the unknown MLR parameters with less number of features using a double-stage features extraction based on MLR (DSFE-MLR). The proposed DSFE-MLR extracted 39-MFCC from speech waveform and constructed an MLR using training set. Next, the MLR output of class membership probabilities were further extracted through MLR and evaluated using test set. Empirical evidence on Malay sample of students shows that the DSFE-MLR recorded the highest accuracy compared to other classifiers. Besides, the method is able to recognize each of five Malay vowels correctly. In general, DSFE-MLR provides an increment of accuracy for Malay speech recognition

Sero-survey of rubella IgM antibodies among children in Jos, Nigeria

Sero-survey of rubella IgM antibodies was carried out among children aged 0-10 years in Jos, Nigeria. Blood samples were collected from the subjects and sera extracted. Of the 93(100%) assayed for the rubella IgM antibody, 42(45.2%) were seropositive for rubella IgM antibody while 51(54.8%) were seronegative. A breakdown of the seropositive subjects reveals that 14(15.1%) of the infected children were males while 28(30.1%) were females. Those subjects within the age groups of 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6 years had the highest prevalence of 8(8.6%) followed by those within the age groups of 7-8, 9-10 years with 7(7.5%). Blood transfusion as a risk factor did not show any significant influence on the status of the subjects. The demographic data of the mothers of the subjects were also linked with the seropositivity of the children

British ‘Colonial governmentality’: slave, forced and waged worker policies in colonial Nigeria, 1896–1930

“This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Management & Organizational History on 22 Apr 2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449359.2019.1578669

Determination of the levels of some heavy metals in urban run-off sediments in Ilorin and Lagos, Nigeria

The concentration of zinc, cadmium, lead and iron in run-off water sediments on paved roads in Ilorin and Lagos areas of Nigeria were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric technique Zinc, iron and cadmium were found in very concentration in the Urban sediment from these cities whilst for most of the locations, lead was found to be below the detection level. Iron has the highest mean concentration while lead had the lowest level. A significant correlation was obtained between iron and zinc in Lagos (r =0.8820) and in Ilorin (r = 09937) at 95% probability level. These results suggest a probable common source for iron and zinc. The average concentrations of iron and lead were higher in Lagos than in Ilorin. (Journal of Applied Sciences & Environmental Management: 2002 6(2): 23-26

INFLUENCE OF CULTIVAR DIFFERENCES IN OKRA (Abelmoschus esculentus) ON NUTRIENT COMPOSITION AND QUALITY OF "ORUNLA"(OKRA) POWDER.

"Orunla" is a dehydrated product of okra, which is often consumed as vegetable soup in Nigeria. In this study, pods of 12 okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) cultivars were evaluated for differences in their physical characteristics and quality of "orunla" powder produced from them. Weight, diameter and length of okra pods were determined while "orunla "powders obtained from them were evaluated for yield, nutrient composition, functional and sensory characteristics. Cultivar differences significantly (p>0.05) affected the physical characteristics of okra pods and the nutrient composition and quality of "orunla" powder. Pod weight, diameter, length and appearance of okra pods varied significantly among cultivars; while "orunla" powder obtained from different cultivars of okra were significantly different (p>0.05) in their yield, moisture content, crude protein, energy, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, bulk density, dispersibility, water hydration capacity, wettability and viscosity. A significant difference (p>0.05) was also observed in the colour and sliminess of reconstituted "orunla "powders. Although, the component plot and dendogram (average linkage) grouped the "orunla" powders obtained from the twelve cultivars of okra into three groups, two cultivars (NI and ON) were the most acceptable. The differences in the properties of the okra cultivars may have implication in their potential application as food thickeners in the food industry. This study provides a baseline data which may be useful to geneticists for breeding okra samples of desirable qualities for "orunla" production.Â

Response of lowland rice-ratooned rice-fluted pumpkin sequence to fertilizer in rainfed inland valley in derived savannah of Nigeria

Trial was carried out at Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria between 2010 and 2012 to determine response of lowland rice-ratooned rice-fluted pumpkin sequence to fertilizer. Experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design arranged in split-split plot in three replicates. Three rice genotypes constituted the main treatments sown in May and harvested in August. Split fertilizers application constituted sub-plot treatments were 90:45:45 (single dose), 45:22.5:22.5 &amp; 45:22.5:22.5 (1:1), 30:15:15 &amp; 60:30:30 (1:2) and 60:30:30 &amp; 30:15:15 (2:1) NPK ha-1 at tillering and heading. N-fertilizer rates were  sub-sub plot treatment and applied to ratooned ‘NERICA L-42’ had the tallest plants compare to others. ‘Ofada’ had the lowest number of days to 50 % flowering for main and ratooned rice, while ‘NERICA L-42’ had the highest number of days to 50 % heading. ‘NERICA L-41’ variety had the highest grain yield in main and ratooned rice. Based on this study, ‘NERICA L-41’ plus its ratooned rice obtained from single dose NPK and zero N-fertilizer plots produced grain yield of 4.69 t ha-1.</p