DYNAMIC BEHAVIOUR OF A MODELED TRANSPORTATION NETWORKED CONTROL SYSTEM FOR T-JUNCTION

Traffic congestion has been the major problem on most Nigeria roads. This is particularly due to the rapid increase in urban migration. Majority of the traffic control schemes adopted in the country to alleviate this problem are the fixed time controllers employed at all signalized intersections. This has resulted in increased traffic jam especially during the peak periods at most intersections on our highways. In this study, a fuzzy logic system to control traffic on signalized intersection has been proposed. The Fuzzy Logic Controller regulates the traffic signal timing, the green light extension and phase sequence to ensure smooth flow of traffic, thereby reducing traffic delays and thus increasing the intersection capacity. A fuzzy logic traffic control simulation model was developed and tested using MATLAB/ SIMULINK software. Comparative analysis was carried out between the fuzzy logic controller and a conventional fixed-time controller in order to determine the efficiency of the developed system. Evaluation results of the fuzzy logic traffic controller shows that vehicles spent less time at the intersection compared to the fixed time controller, that is, improved vehicular movement. Moreover, simulation results show that the fuzzy logic controller has better efficiency and that a huge improvement could be realized by adapting it in controlling traffic flow at intersections. &nbsp

Agricultural Production and Economic Growth in Nigeria: A VAR Approach

Prior to the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities in 1952, Nigeria relied almost exclusively on agriculture for its sustenance. The sector contributed more than 80 percent of total government revenue and generated over 75 percent of total employment. However, this contribution was truncated in the late 1970s as the country shifted focus in favor of oil exploration and exportation. What is the extent of agriculture’s contribution to economic growth in recent times had remained a theoretical puzzle. This study is undertaking with the objective of investigating the impact of agriculture on economic growth in Nigeria and offers a theoretical framework for understanding the co-evolution of the structural and institutional factors that contributed to several sectorial interactions among the core determinants of agricultural productivity and long-term economic growth in the country for the period 1980-2017. Adopting a vector autoregressive (VAR) model as a technique of analysis, the study found positive and significant impact of agricultural output on economic growth for the period of investigation. The study also explored the contributions of the various components of agricultural productivity and found that crop production contributes more significantly to agricultural development than the other sub sectors of the agricultural economy. The study conclude with some recommendations such as putting in place agricultural growth promotion plans that could guarantee the practice of agriculture as a business, investing in agricultural infrastructure development to encourage all-year farming to ensure food security and sustainability, subsidizing agricultural inputs to farmers as well as strengthening the linkages between agriculture and other sectors of the economy for rapid industrialization among others. JEL CLASSIFICATION CODE: E31, O11, 047, O55, Q10 DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-6-06 Publication date:March 31st 201

Design and Implementation of a Cost Effective Real Time Vehicle Tracking System Using Telit GM862

This paper gives the description of the design and implementation of a Real Time Cost Effective Vehicle Tracking System making use of Telit GM862 Module. The Module was installed in a vehicle as the Vehicle Unit while a mobile hand set was used as the Remote Tracking Device. The Module was configured using hyper-terminal on a computer system where the necessary properties and parameters were set. SMSATRUN service was also activated on the module. The SMS information to query the location was sent from the Remote Tracking Device using GSM/GPRS modem on any chosen GSM network to the Vehicle Unit (Module). The Vehicle Unit responds with an SMS message of the location information to the Tracking Device with an authorized mobile number on the GSM Network. The coordinates of the location received are then displayed on Google Map

MODIFIED MODULUS PROJECTION ALGORITHM FOR ERROR CONTROL IN REDUNDANT RESIDUE NUMBER SYSTEM CODE

This paper presents a modified modulus projection algorithm for decoding Redundant Residue Num-ber System (RRNS) codes. RRNS code is maximum-minimum distance block codes. RRNS has found wider applications in the field of signal processing especially for error control. The essence of this modification is to reduce the required computation overhead and speed up operation. The proposed method involves conversion of received residues into mixed radix form. Based on the error detecting capability of RRNS code under study, moduli projection is carried out iteratively to determine the corre-sponding integers. The proposed algorithm considerably reduces the number of required iterations involved in the recovery process, therefore improving the speed of decoding operation

Saturate hydraulic conductivity, water stable aggregates and soil organic matter in a sandy-loam soil in Ikwuano lga of Abia state

A study was carried out along a toposequence in Ikwuano LGA. of Abia state to evaluate changes in saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) and percent water stable aggregates (WSA%). Five points: crest (A), upper slope (B), middle slope(C),lower slope (D) and Valley bottom (E), along the toposequence with an average distance of about 150m apart were delineated and samples for soil analysis collected from two depths (0-15cm and 15-30cm) using core samplers and auger. Samples were collected from each topo-unit at the respective depths in triplicate. Samples were analyzed for soil properties like; Ksat, WSA (%) and percent organic carbon (OC %), Data from the analysis were subjected to ANOVA using a split plot in RCBD. Results indicated that for both slope positions, WSA, Ksat and OC were significantly different with depth (P≤ 0.01). These properties also varied significantly (

Identification of novel MET fusion transcript amplification in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary CNS malignant tumor with a 15.2% 2 year survival rate for tumors diagnosed between 2008 and 2012. Amplification of MET proto-oncogene has been identified in 4% of glioblastomas, leading to high expression and ligand independent activation in some cases. Our goal was to develop MET-amplified GBM models to study signaling and investigate response to MET inhibitors as a therapy for GBMs. We identified 2 GBM patients (HF3035 and HF3077) with MET gene amplifications after low-pass whole genome DNA sequencing of 13 cases. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses confirmed heterogeneous MET amplification in HF3035 and HF3077 tumors, in 63.5% and 83.0% of nuclei, respectively. In vitro neurosphere cultures derived from these tumors showed drastic depletion of MET amplicons, to 15.5% MET in HF3035 (P7) and 1.5% in HF3077 (P11). FISH in the metaphase neurosphere spreads showed that MET amplification was extrachromosomal. Interestingly, MET-amplified neurospheres were strongly selected for after intracranial (IC) implant in immunocompromised mice. HF3035 and HF3077 PDX presented MET amplified in high frequency: 79.5-86.5% for HF3035 and 47-65% for HF3077. Met expression levels by RNAseq were congruent with the oscillating gene amplification pattern. In depth RNA sequencing analysis using PRADA has revealed genomic rearrangements involving MET, yielding three novel MET-CAPZA2 fusion transcripts. For both cell lines exon 1 of CAPZA2 was fused to exon 2 of MET, resulting in full length MET coding region, with altered 5\u27 cis-regulatory sequences. For HF3035 samples, we observed an additional in frame fusion of exon 1 of CAPZA2 to exon 6 of MET, resulting in a truncated MET transcript with 13 codons from CAPZA2. Co-expression of the wild-type and fusion MET transcripts in the tumors and PDXs were validated using PCR. MET and p-MET levels were high thoughout the parental and PDX tumors. Capmatinib, which is a selective c-MET inhibitor was administered to the PDXs orally 5days/week. The treatment was effective in improving survival of HF3077 IC PDXs (p=0.028) and decreasing subcutaneous tumor size to 30% of the controls after 2 week treatment (t-test, p=0.017). However, treatment of HF3035 IC PDXs did not significantly improve survival (p=0.313). Kaplan-Meier survival curves were compared by log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test, sig. set at p\u3c0.05. MET and p-MET detection by IHC of control and capmatinib treated xenografts show complete inhibition of p-MET, but did not affect MET overexpression in HF3035 PDX. Our results show that highly amplified regions are susceptible to genomic arrangements and the formation of fusion genes. Under investigation, is the basis for the strong selection for MET expressing cells in vivo and potential novel roles for MET in tumor progression