Consolidation of water management and efficiency parameters for development of green building rating system

Water generation and distribution involve activities that leads to energy consumptions in various ways. This leads to GHG emission which make it important for various sustainable development assessment. Hence it is important to develop some consolidated parameters to cover water in building life cycle assessment (LCA). Development of rating system involves the utilisation of some parameters and points allocation. These parameters and points allocation varies between countries and their rating systems. This study aim at reviewing water management and efficiency category and the extent of parameters and points allocation across some rating systems. The purpose of the review is to develop a consolidated parameters that will universally cover building life cycle assessment. Eleven rating scheme’s categories, parameters and points allocation were reviewed. Specifically, water generation, distribution and usage was further elaborated for this study. The parameters were reviewed from the context of their, adaptability, preference, prevalence, relevance and measurability of parameter to suit the universal concept of sustainable building assessment. The review shows that the variations of the parameters and points distribution are based on social, economic and environmental need of the country. The highest parameters and points allocation signifies the need of efficient water generation, distribution and usage and lack of enough fresh water for daily activities. The lowest consideration is due to advancement in sustainable water generation, distribution and usage. The study consolidated the parameters in to nine parameters covering the strategies for reducing unnecessary water usage and other sourcing consequences. They also cover the approximate accounting of GHG emission from water consumption and its reduction. The study can be used by researcher, organisations and countries developing rating schemes. As the study harmonised parameters covered the entire sustainable building and greenhouse gas assessment in term of water generation, distribution and usage

INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY OF NIGERIAN AMALGAMATION SINCE 1914

This work examines the politics surrounding the idea and process of amalgamating the areas later to be known as Nigeria. The central problematic of the work rests on the attempt to answer, how, the politics of the two Nigerias was a means to achieving political and economic ends by the amalgamators. Using both primary and secondary data predicated on the Realist Theory, the work has attempted to establish the historical relationship between the Great Britain i.e. the amalgamators and the United Nigeria, as the amalgamated. The paper argues that, since 1914 the interaction between the two entities is characterized by statism, self-help, and survival, with Nigeria been the junior partner at the receiving end and worse-off. The paper found that the triad conspiracy between the Nigerian traditional leaders, the former colonial rulers and the current military and political forces is still alive and kicking at the detriment of the citizenry. Finally, the work recommend that Nigeria should be rational in formulating and executing both its domestic and foreign policies so as to forestall the chances of losing the next century as it did the last one

An Improved Method for Predicting Heat Exchanger Network Area

Successful application of pinch analysis to any process, be it for grassroots design or retrofit, depends upon the extent to which set targets are achieved in practice. This entails predicating the three stages of process integration namely targeting, synthesis and detailed design on the same basis. There exist gap between these three stages largely due to inaccuracies in film heat transfer coefficient and inability to replicate same at the various stages. This paper presents an improved methodology for area targeting that is consistent with detailed design of an exchanger not just because it is premised on the same basis of pressure drop constraints but, more importantly, because it allows, for necessary variation of stream properties with temperature. The validity of the methodology has been tested using two case studies from the literature. The results obtained in all studies reveal a difference of less than 2% between targeting, synthesis and detailed design with the new methodology. This is contrary to the difference of as high as 59% between targeting and detailed design obtained with the state-of-the-art methodology. There is therefore an excellent agreement between the three stages of process integration arising from the new methodology. Keywords: heat exchanger network, area targeting, synthesis, detailed design, pressure drop, film heat transfer coefficient

Theoretical and Empirical Explanations on the Continued Relevance of Local Conflict Resolution Institutions Among the Afar Community of Ethiopia

Various scholars, to make sense of either the decline or viability of local institutions of conflict resolution, have put various explanations forward. In this article, I shall discuss the relevance and limits of existing analytical frameworks and explore new explanatory possibilities. Most studies view local institution’s vitality in reference to the relative weakness of state institutions. By the same token, their continuity is considered to be transient, implying that as soon as the state becomes strong it incorporates local institutions with which the viability of the latter is doomed to diminish. Henceforth, This article has explored the issue of the vitality of local institutions of conflict resolutions among the Afar from two perspectives. The first one is internal explanation for the continued relevance of local institutions. The second is external explanations with a special reference to state institutions and their mode of incorporation into the Afar cultural world. DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/81-01 Publication date: January 31st 202

Examination of Hausa Terms and Concepts Used over Electronic Media in the Non-Speaking Hausa Area

Specifically the study analyses the use of Hausa in three different areas i.e. a) the eastern Hausa dialect area where we sample Kaduna and Kano States b) the western Hausa dialect area where we sampled Sokoto and Katsina States and c) the non-Hausa speaking area where we sampled Adamawa and Plateau States all in Nigeria. Never the less for the sake of comparation we have considered some foreign electronic media that broadcast programmes in Hausa. Among these electronic media we distinguished between the African electronic media whereby we sampled Niger and Cameroon republics, which are Francophone neigboring Nigeria and the foreign electronic media whereby we sampled BBC-Hausa service and the VOA-Hausa service. Through various instruments of research, the study comes up with various performances of the Hausa Broadcasters in terms of IOVs, IOAs, IOCs, and IOIs. The study identifies that there are various degrees of variations among Hausa Broadcasters in the use of terms and concepts in the electronic media in all the areas. These variations are observed at different levels i.e. among Hausa Broadcasters in the same electronic media within the same dialect area and across electronic media. These variations occasion various degrees of performances among Hausa Broadcasters in terms of IOAs. The study further identifies various degrees of performances in terms of IOCs, which result in various degrees of performances in terms of IOIs. The performances of the Hausa Broadcasters result in confusions and breakdown of communication as reported by Hausa listeners. These variations and inconsistencies in the use of Hausa terms and concepts over the electronic media are tied up to various factors. The lack of a language monitoring body saddled with the responsibility of supervising Hausa language development in the media may be the cause of such discrepancies in the use of terms of concepts over all the electronic media that broadcast and feature programmes in Hausa within Nigeria as well as outside

The Vitality of Indigenous Religious Institutions Maintaining Social Cohesion Among the Gurage People of South Central Ethiopia

This paper is designed to examine the origin, development and dynamics of the traditional religious and social cohesion institutions of Bozhe, Og'yet, shana and bittar among the Gurage of South Western Ethiopia through following historical and contemporary approaches. Following the propagation of Islam and Christianity into the Gurage land, these indigenous institutions have been changed drastically through the processes of syncretization and accommodation. Despite many of the Gurage people were converted either to Christianity or Islam through the historic processes of religious syncretizm, they continued worshipping the Bozhe and Og'yet deities and make use of the indigenous institutions of shana and bittar to handle different dispute cases. At present, the Gurage people show their preference to the indigenous institutions of bittar and shana to handle ritually sanctioned cases that cannot be resolved by state institutions. Therefore, this study needs to examine the role of these indigenous religious and social cohesion institutions in maintaining peace and stability at individual and tribal levels among the Gurage

The Intertwinement of Spiritual and Local Healing Practices Among the Gurage People of South-Central Ethiopia

This study mainly focuses on the Syncretized processes and practices of scriptural and local healing and its interlacement with extraordinary healing power of traditional cults that have been ubiquitous for centuries among the Gurage ethnic groups who mainly inhabit the south central Ethiopia. Following the introduction of Islam and Christianity into the Gurage Land, the newly converted into either of the two religions, especially those agents of traditional cults, were remained claiming that they have an extraordinary power to cure diseases which were previously believed to be healed only through performing traditional ritual rites. This study also intends to explore the extraordinary heal power of the traditional deities that are used to cure various kinds of diseases through their ritual agents. Thus, an ethnographic study on the processes and practices of spiritual knowledge of healing will be carried out and how ritually sanctified disease, which were defined under the frame of the Sufi Islam religious denominations, especially the Sufi shrine of Abret, are cured. The main data gathering tools that are opted for employing in the selected research area are unstructured and semi structured interview, focus group discussion and participant observation. DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/58-02 Publication date:September 30th 201

ANALYTICAL METHOD DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION FOR THE SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF EMTRICITABINE AND TENOFOVIR BY REVERSED-PHASE HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY IN BULK AND TABLET DOSAGE FORMS

  Objective: A simple rapid, accurate, precise, and reproducible validated reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography method was developed for the determination of emtricitabine (EMB) and tenofovir (TEN) in bulk and tablet dosage forms.Methods: The quantification was carried out using symmetry Premsil C18 (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) Younglin (S.K.) gradient way using mobile phase comprising of methanol:water (70:30 v/v) pH 3 and a detection wavelength of 273 nm, and injection volume of 20 μL, with a flow rate of 1 ml/minutes.Results: In the developed method, the retention time of EMB and TEN were found to be 3.1667 minutes and 7.5000 minutes. The developed method was validated according to the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines.Conclusion: The linearity, precision, range, robustness was within the limits as specified by the ICH guidelines. Hence, the method was found to be simple, accurate, precise, economic, and reproducible. Hence, it is worthwhile that the proposed methods can be successfully utilized for the routine quality control analysis EMB and TEN in bulk drug as well as in formulations

A Robust Variable Step Size Fractional Least Mean Square (RVSS-FLMS) Algorithm

In this paper, we propose an adaptive framework for the variable step size of the fractional least mean square (FLMS) algorithm. The proposed algorithm named the robust variable step size-FLMS (RVSS-FLMS), dynamically updates the step size of the FLMS to achieve high convergence rate with low steady state error. For the evaluation purpose, the problem of system identification is considered. The experiments clearly show that the proposed approach achieves better convergence rate compared to the FLMS and adaptive step-size modified FLMS (AMFLMS).Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 13th IEEE Colloquium on Signal Processing & its Applications (CSPA 2017