Optimised Residential Loads Scheduling Based on Dynamic Pricing of Electricity : A Simulation Study

This paper presents a simulation study which addresses Demand Side Management (DSM) via scheduling and optimization of a set of residential smart appliances under day-ahead variable pricing with the aim of minimizing the customer’s energy bill. The appliances’ operation and the overall model are subject to the manufacturer and user specific constraints formulated as a constrained linear programming problem. The overall model is simulated using MATLAB and SIMULINK / SimPowerSystems basic blocks. The results comparing Real Time Pricing (RTP) and the Fixed Time Tariff (FTT) demonstrate that optimal scheduling of the residential smart appliances can potentially result in energy cost savings. The extension of the model to incorporate renewable energy resources and storage system is also discussedNon peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The Ecowas Protocol, Emerging Military Threats and the Relapse of Democracy in West Africa: Lessons from Cote D´Lvoire and Niger Republic.

Several scholars of International diplomacy and policy analysis (Zounmenou and Loua, 2011 Gbeho, 2011, Erunke 2012; Bah and Kwesi, 2012) have attempted to redefine the increasing roles of the Economic Community of  West Africa (ECOWAS), which has of late, traversed the confines of regional economic growth and stability, regional cooperation and trade linkage between and amongst member states within the west Africa sub-region to a more or less political and security concerns. This is ideological persuasion by intelligentsia is informed by the need to expand the socio- economic horizon of the sub-regional group to encompass diverse interests, engender  and deepen democratic space, instil good corporate  governance and ultimately guarantee continuity in constitutionally sanctioned governance pattern in Africa in line with international best standards and practices. Consequently, the emerging trends of military interregnum and mindless intervention through the barrel of the gun (which of course, is considered to be a culpable aberration) no longer finds a pride of place in the minds and hearts of all well meaning democracy and patriots alike. Hence the dire need and unequivocal quest for a constitutionally validated system of governmental operations in all its contents and character. This tendency informs the distaste for military autocracy, dictatorship and other Unitarianism and the entire philosophies it proclaims, and any attempt to plunge the West African enclave to this ugly monumental soldiering stands to be vigorously resisted with every sense of concern and vindictiveness. However, of recent past the entire Africa state system appears to have relapsed and wondered backward towards the path of the old order of coup d’etat, which is a characteristic of the continental albatross dating back to the early days and years of the  emergence of colonialism in the 1960s (Erunke and Lemun,2012). Thus, the defining ideologies of this political era, which was literally domineering, exploitative and repugnant to fundamental social change raised a lot of critical questions in the sub-consciousness of pan - Africanists - the likes of Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, W.E.B Du Bois of the black American Negro world, to mention but a few. These radical scholars therefore constituted arrow heads who fought gallantly for the freedom and emancipation of Africa and African Diaspora from the tutelage of slavery (Erunke and Lemun, 2012), therefore fostering the quest for self-determination of the entire black race. Nonetheless the freedom sought for was to help locate and redefine African path to greatness through group consciousness, regional integration and cooperation geared towards setting up widely acceptable group values in the interest of the entire region, nay, continent (Bah and Kwesi, 2012).  Aside form the socio-economic dynamics of ECOWAS as an institution, there has been an increasing push to diversify these roles beyond economic integration to matters of politics which has constituted the determining force in the sub-region. Politics in the wider usage here incorporates issues of war, peace, conflict resolution, dialogue and the entire gamut revolving around the preservation of the dictates of the constitution of the land to avoid undue pressures from social forces within the system. Significantly, Loua and Zoumenou (2011) then argued further that first, in 1991, ECOWAS adopted a declaration on political principles that took into consideration governance issues as a way of intensifying peace, guide the constitution of member states as well as enhance security efforts.  However, the declaration was never, fully implemented as its scope was limited and hence, lacked critical political support.  Moreover, on 24th July, 1993,   ECOWAS reviewed its founding Treaty in Cotonou and in 1999, it adopted a protocol relating to the mechanisms for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping, Security and democratic stability, respectively.  It can be argued here by way of observation that all of these developments constituted the institutional and normative transformation   process of the organization as far as peace, security and democratic stability is concerned.  By extension, however, it can be said that there are a number of innovations in the revised treaty.  Nevertheless, the principle of gradually introducing super nationality to the implementation of community decisions was one of the major changes introduced. For example, in the preamble of the treaty, ECOWAS leaders stated that the integration of member states into a viable regional community may demand the partial and gradual pooling of national sovereignties to the community within the context of the collective political will (Loua et al, 2011). It follows logically that the incorporation of a security dimension in the integration project and the bold stance taken so far to address issues of governance and political instability to adopt to changing environments and realities is an attempt to play an effective role in the transformation of West Africa from a poor and war-ridden region to a politically stable entity devoid of military interruption and intervention thereby proposing the region to a socio-economically and politically prosperous entity. It is in the light of this context that the next focus of this paper dwells

The Comparison of the Performance of ARIMA and MA Model Selection on Road Accident Data in Nigeria

In this research work, time series model selection was performed by given consideration for a number of models that most suitable for the incidence of accident cases in Nigeria. Among the candidate models considered are the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Moving Average (MA) models each at various parameters specifications. Results from this work showed that the best models that are suitable to describe the accident cases in Nigeria are the ARIMA(3,1,1) and MA(0,1,2) according to the Mean Square Error (MSE) and Akaike Information Criteria (AIC). National data set on cases of accident in Nigeria

Evaluation of the influence of maternal parity on neonatal anthropometric parameters among Hausas in Kano state

Maternal Parity has been shown to increase the risk of adverse neonatal outcomes, such as intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), prematurity, and mortality. The study was designed to evaluate the influence of maternal parity on neonatal anthropometric parameters among Hausas in Kano. Five hundred and twenty one subjects (mothers and babies) participated in the study. Questionnaire was used to collect the biodata, parity and other anthropometric variables (birth weight, birth length, head circumference, chest circumference, thigh circumference, mid upper arm circumference, hand length, hand breadth, foot length, foot breadth).The anthropometric variables were measured using standard procedures.One way ANOVA was used to determine the differences in neonatal variables across different categories of parity. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 20 statistical software was used for data analyses. The result shows that the mothers within the 1st category of parity give birth to babies with lower birth weight and smaller thigh circumference when compared with 2nd, 3rd and 4th. However, in birth length, head circumference and chest circumference of the neonate the differences (p < 0.001) were observed only between 1st and 2nd category of parity. Moreover, the mid upper arm circumference has similar pattern with addition to 3rd categories. In conclusion, the parity of the mother was found to influence the neonatal  anthropometric variables.Keywords: Maternal Parity, Neonatal Anthropometry, Hausa

Influence of Spirituality and Modesty on Acceptance of Self-Sampling for Cervical Cancer Screening.

INTRODUCTION: Whereas systematic screening programs have reduced the incidence of cervical cancer in developed countries, the incidence remains high in developing countries. Among several barriers to uptake of cervical cancer screening, the roles of religious and cultural factors such as modesty have been poorly studied. Knowledge about these factors is important because of the potential to overcome them using strategies such as self-collection of cervico-vaginal samples. In this study we evaluate the influence of spirituality and modesty on the acceptance of self-sampling for cervical cancer screening. METHODOLOGY: We enrolled 600 participants in Nigeria between August and October 2014 and collected information on spirituality and modesty using two scales. We used principal component analysis to extract scores for spirituality and modesty and logistic regression models to evaluate the association between spirituality, modesty and preference for self-sampling. All analyses were performed using STATA 12 (Stata Corporation, College Station, Texas, USA). RESULTS: Some 581 (97%) women had complete data for analysis. Most (69%) were married, 50% were Christian and 44% were from the south western part of Nigeria. Overall, 19% (110/581) of the women preferred self-sampling to being sampled by a health care provider. Adjusting for age and socioeconomic status, spirituality, religious affiliation and geographic location were significantly associated with preference for self-sampling, while modesty was not significantly associated. The multivariable OR (95% CI, p-value) for association with self-sampling were 0.88 (0.78-0.99, 0.03) for spirituality, 1.69 (1.09-2.64, 0.02) for religious affiliation and 0.96 (0.86-1.08, 0.51) for modesty. CONCLUSION: Our results show the importance of taking cultural and religious beliefs and practices into consideration in planning health interventions like cervical cancer screening. To succeed, public health interventions and the education to promote it must be related to the target population and its preferences

A qualitative focus group study concerning perceptions and experiences of Nigerian mothers on stillbirths

Objective To explore the experiences and perceptions of stillbirth among mothers from a tertiary medical centre in Kano, Northern Nigeria. Design Qualitative, interpretative. Setting Tertiary healthcare facility, Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital (MMSH), Kano, Northern Nigeria. Sample Mothers who had given birth to a liveborn baby at the MMSH in the prior 6 months (n = 31). In order to capture the experiences and perception of stillbirth within this cohort we approached mothers who had in a previous pregnancy experienced a stillbirth. Of the 31 who attended 16 had a previous stillbirth. Methods Semi-structured Focus Group Discussions, consisting of open-ended questions about stillbirth, beliefs, experiences and influences were held in MMSH, conducted over 1 day. Results Our findings highlight that this is a resource-poor tertiary facility serving an ever-growing population, increasing strain on the hospital and healthcare workers. Many of the participants highlighted needing permission from certain family members before accessing healthcare or medical treatment. We identified that mothers generally have knowledge on self-care during pregnancy, yet certain societal factors prevented that from being their priority. Judgement and blame was a common theme, yet a complex area entwined with traditions, superstitions and the pressure to procreate with many mothers described being made to feel useless and worthless if they did not birth a live baby. Conclusions As access to healthcare becomes easier, there are certain traditions, family and social dynamics and beliefs which conflict with scientific knowledge and act as a major barrier to uptake of healthcare services. The findings highlight the need for investment in maternity care, appropriate health education and public enlightenment; they will help inform appropriate interventions aimed at reducing stigma around stillbirth and aide in educating mothers about the importance of appropriate health seeking behaviour. Stillbirths are occurring in this area of the world unnecessarily, globally there has been extensive research conducted on stillbirth prevention. This research has highlighted some of the areas which can be tackled by modifying existing successful interventions to work towards reducing preventable stillbirths

Incidence and sociodemographic, living environment and maternal health associations with stillbirth in a tertiary healthcare setting in Kano, Northern Nigeria. Short title: Incidence and factors associated with stillbirth in Kano, Nigeria

Background Almost two million stillbirths occur annually, most occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Nigeria is reported to have one of the highest stillbirth rates on the African continent. The aim was to identify sociodemographic, living environment, and health status factors associated with stillbirth and determine the associations between pregnancy and birth factors and stillbirth in the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital, Kano, Nigeria. Methods A three-month single-site prospective observational feasibility study. Demographic and clinical data were collected. We fitted bivariable and multivariable models for stillbirth (yes/no) and three-category livebirth/macerated stillbirth/non-macerated stillbirth outcomes to explore their association with demographic and clinical factors. Findings 1,998 neonates and 1,926 mothers were enrolled. Higher odds of stillbirth were associated with low-levels of maternal education, a further distance to travel to the hospital, living in a shack, maternal hypertension, previous stillbirth, birthing complications, increased duration of labour, antepartum haemorrhage, prolonged or obstructed labour, vaginal breech delivery, emergency caesarean-section, and signs of trauma to the neonate following birth. Interpretation This work has obtained data on some factors influencing stillbirth. This in turn will facilitate the development of improved public health interventions to reduce preventable deaths and to progress maternal health within this site

Antibiotic resistance genes in the gut microbiota of mothers and linked neonates with or without sepsis from low- and middle-income countries

Early development of the microbiome has been shown to affect general health and physical development of the infant and, although some studies have been undertaken in high-income countries, there are few studies from low- and middle-income countries. As part of the BARNARDS study, we examined the rectal microbiota of 2,931 neonates (term used up to 60 d) with clinical signs of sepsis and of 15,217 mothers screening for blaCTX-M-15, blaNDM, blaKPC and blaOXA-48-like genes, which were detected in 56.1%, 18.5%, 0% and 4.1% of neonates’ rectal swabs and 47.1%, 4.6%, 0% and 1.6% of mothers’ rectal swabs, respectively. Carbapenemase-positive bacteria were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and showed a high diversity of bacterial species (57 distinct species/genera) which exhibited resistance to most of the antibiotics tested. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter cloacae/E. cloacae complex, the most commonly found isolates, were subjected to whole-genome sequencing analysis and revealed close relationships between isolates from different samples, suggesting transmission of bacteria between neonates, and between neonates and mothers. Associations between the carriage of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and healthcare/environmental factors were identified, and the presence of ARGs was a predictor of neonatal sepsis and adverse birth outcomes

Characterisation of Staphylococci species from neonatal blood cultures in low- and middle-income countries

Background: In low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) Staphylococcus aureus is regarded as one of the leading bacterial causes of neonatal sepsis, however there is limited knowledge on the species diversity and antimicrobial resistance caused by Gram-positive bacteria (GPB). Methods: We characterised GPB isolates from neonatal blood cultures from LMICs in Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa) and South-Asia (Bangladesh and Pakistan) between 2015–2017. We determined minimum inhibitory concentrations and performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) on Staphylococci isolates recovered and clinical data collected related to the onset of sepsis and the outcome of the neonate up to 60 days of age. Results: From the isolates recovered from blood cultures, Staphylococci species were most frequently identified. Out of 100 S. aureus isolates sequenced, 18 different sequence types (ST) were found which unveiled two small epidemiological clusters caused by methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in Pakistan (ST8) and South Africa (ST5), both with high mortality (n = 6/17). One-third of S. aureus was MRSA, with methicillin resistance also detected in Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus haemolyticus and Mammaliicoccus sciuri. Through additional WGS analysis we report a cluster of M. sciuri in Pakistan identified between July-November 2017. Conclusions: In total we identified 14 different GPB bacterial species, however Staphylococci was dominant. These findings highlight the need of a prospective genomic epidemiology study to comprehensively assess the true burden of GPB neonatal sepsis focusing specifically on mechanisms of resistance and virulence across species and in relation to neonatal outcome

Utilization of amino resin for emulsion paint formulation: Effect of urea formaldehyde viscosity on urea formaldehyde and soybean oil copolymer composite

In our continuous desire to develop a paint binder from amino resin, the effect of urea formaldehyde (UF) viscosity on a copolymer composite derived from the copolymerization reaction between urea formaldehyde (UF) and soybean oil (SBO) to give urea formaldehyde/ soybean oil copolymer composite (UF/SBO) was investigated. Some physical properties of (UF/SBO) obtained at different viscosities (5.11 -260.04 mPa.s) were evaluated. The melting point, density and formaldehyde emission were found to increase with increase in UF viscosity while the dry time, moisture uptake refractive index and elongation at break were found to decrease with increase in UF viscosity. UF viscosity below 150.00 mPa.s was found to produce UF/SBO copolymer composite that is soluble in water. The processing of UF/SBO copolymer resin for emulsion paint formulation should be carried out below this viscosity level. The copolymer composite was found to be ductile throughout the viscosity range studied (5.11 -260.04). This takes care of the inherent brittleness associated with the traditional UF and will give paint formulators freedom of choice as regards processing viscosity of UF/SBO. The results obtained from this experiment will offer formulator different options and to control formulation processes towards developing UF/SBO copolymer composite as a paint binder for emulsion paint formulation