Bilingual Publishing Co. (BPC): E-Journals
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Convection Heat Transfer from Heated Thin Cylinders Inside a Ventilated Enclosure
No full textExperimental study was conducted to determine the effect of velocity of axial fan, outlet vent height, position, area, and aspect ratio (h/w) of ventilated enclosure on convection heat transfer. Rectangular wooden ventilated enclosure having top and front transparent wall was made up of Perspex for visualization, and internal physical dimensions of box were 200 mm × 200 mm × 400 mm. Inlet vent was at bottom while outlet vents were at the side and top wall. Electrically heated cylindrical heat source having 6.1 slenderness ratio was fabricated and hanged at the centre of the enclosure. To calculate heat transfer rates, thermocouples were attached to the inner surface of heat source with silica gel. Heat source was operated at constant heat flux in order to quantify the effect of velocity of air on heat transfer. It was observed that average Nusselt number was increased from 68 to 216 by changing velocity from 0 to 3.34 m/s at constant modified Grashof number i.e. 5.67E+09. While variation in outlet height at the front wall did not affect heat transfer in forced convection region. However, Nusselt number decreased to 5% by changing the outlet position from top to the front wall or by 50% reduction in outlet area during forced convection. Mean rise in temperature of enclosure increased from 8.19 K to 9.40 K by increasing aspect ratio of enclosure from 1.5 to 2 by operating heat source at constant heat flux i.e. 541.20 w/m2
Evaluation of Plant Diversity for Sustainable and Inclusive Management in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Daressalam, Niger
No full textPlant biodiversity plays a major role for sustaining livelihood of rural population. However, unsustainable exploitation of woody plants for firewood in Niger is creating ecological challenges. This study aims to evaluate plant species composition, richness and equitability for sustainable and inclusive management in rural areas. Plot vegetation inventory method was employed. Forty-eight plots each measuring 2500 m2 were laid down systematically on a transect with the village at the centre. On each plot, plant species were identified and the number of each species counted. A total of twenty-five (25) plant species belonging to thirteen (13) families were identified among which Guiera senegalensis J. F. Gmel. accounted for 61%. The Shannon index was low (H’ = 0.45) as well as species equitability (E = 0.14). Species richness differed significantly (p < 0.000) with land use type with agroforestry parklands recording significantly higher species compared to plateaus. For effective plant biodiversity restoration and management, irrigated agroforestry is recommended to restore ecological balance and to assure and improve the quality of plant biodiversity in the study area
3D Reconstruction of Fruit Shape based on Vision and Edge Sections
No full textThe fruit industry has been known as one of the largest businesses in Malaysia, where most of the fruits pass through the peeling process well in advance before the final product as juice in a bottle or slices in a can. The current industrial fruit peeling techniques are passive and inefficient by cutting parts of the pulp of the fruit with peels leading to losses. To avoid this issue, a multi-axis CNC fruit peeler can be used to precisely peel the outer layer with the guidance of a 3D virtual model of fruit. In this work, a new cost-effective method of 3D image reconstruction was developed to convert 36 fruit images captured by a normal RGB camera to a 3D model by capturing a single image every 10 degrees of fruit rotation along a fixed axis. The point cloud data extracted with edge detection were passed to Blender 3D software for meshing in different approaches. The vertical link frame meshing method developed in this research proved a qualitative similarity between the output result and the scanned fruit in a processing time of less than 50 seconds
Monitoring Heart Rate Variability Based on Self-powered ECG Sensor Tag
No full textThis paper proposes a batteryless sensing and computational device to collect and process electrocardiography (ECG) signals for monitoring heart rate variability (HRV). The proposed system comprises of a passive UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, an extreme low power microcontroller, a low-power ECG circuit, and a radio frequency (RF) energy harvester. The microcontroller and ECG circuits consume less power of only ~30 µA and ~3 mA, respectively. Therefore, the proposed RF harvester operating at frequency band of 902 MHz ~ 928 MHz can sufficiently collect available energy from the RFID reader to supply power to the system within a maximum distance of ~2 m. To extract R-peak of the ECG signal, a robust algorithm that consumes less time processing is also developed. The information of R-peaks is stored into an Electronic Product Code (EPC) Class 1st Generation 1st compliant ID of the tag and read by the reader. This reader is functioned to collected the R-peak data with sampling rate of 100ms; therefore, the user application can monitor fully range of HRV. The performance of the proposed system shows that this study can provide a good solution in paving the way to new classes of healthcare applications
Electrical Resistivity Survey on Two Waste Dumpsites at Nguru, Potiskum, Yobe State, Nigeria to Determine the Effect of Leachates on Ground Water Aquifer
No full textThe research intends to bring out the contribution of leachate on groundwater in two dumpsites in Nguru and Potiskum all in Yobe state, Nigeria. A total of seven (7) and eight (8) VES by Schlumberger electrode with the use of Wenner electrode configuration. The results were interpreted by the use of WinRESIST for VES and IPWIN2INV for ERT. The study pointed out that, the area in question is comprised of four layers of geoelectric such as the topsoil, clay, sand, sandy clay and sand. The range of the first resistivity layer was from 6.16 Ωm to 332 Ωm in the first geo-electric layer and its thickness range from 2.77 m to 37.7 m and a depth range of 2.77 m to 37.7 m. the range of the second resistivity layer was from 16.5 Ωm to 37.9 Ωm which has the range of its thickness from 4.1 m to 10.7 m. The range of the third resistivity layer was from 101.2 Ωm to 288.2 Ωm which has the range of its thickness from 38.9 m to 99.7 m, and the first aquifer in the area. The range of the first resistivity layer was from 100.7 Ωm to 214.3 Ωm which has the range of its thickness from 28.5 m to 94 m. The fifth layer which is the second aquifer and has resistivity from 254 Ωm to 350 Ωm with a very large thickness. The range of the first resistivity aquifer is from 101.2 Ωm to 288.2 Ωm and the range of the second resistivity aquifer is from 253.8 Ωm to 350.1 Ωm. The 2D ERT profiles unveiled areas with low resistant zones and later discussed as zones penetrated by contaminants originated from dumpsites whereas high resistant zones represent areas of low or non-conductive materials in the area. Data obtained from four dumpsites indicated that leachate of the waste dumpsites penetrated into aquifers and polluted the groundwater. The existence of contaminants in the water was noted by a decrease in the formation resistant values. It is seen, from the results of the survey (geophysical) that the water in the area is polluted and it accounts for the prevalence of any disease related to water that are common in the are
Recent Progress in Superhydrophobic Coatings Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Experimental Techniques
No full textSuperhydrophobic (SH) coatings are intended to resist a surface from corrosion and thereby increases the product life duration. It is also a promisingsolution to save cleaning costs and time by providing self-clean nature tothe surface. This review article provides the most recent updates in designing SH surfaces and their characterizations adopted both in experimentaland computational techniques. To gain a comprehensive perspective, theSH surfaces present in nature those are inspiring human beings to mimicsuch surfaces are introduced at the beginning of this article. Subsequently,different fabrication techniques undertaken recently to design artificial SHsurfaces are briefly discussed. Recent progress in computations employedin the development of SH surfaces is then discussed. Next, the limitationsin SH surfaces are addressed. Finally, perceptiveness of different strategiesand their limitations are presented in the concluding remarks and outlook.Overall, this mini review article brings together and highlights thesignificant advancements in fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaceswhich may surely help the early-stage researchers/scientists to plan theirwork accordingly
How Environmental Attitudes Affect Consumers’ Willingness to Engage in Green Consumption Behaviors: The Moderating Role of “Plastic Restriction”
No full textConsumers’ willingness to engage in green consumption behavior will be guided by internal psychological factors and also influenced by external environmental factors. One of the most common external interventions is the issuance of scientific policies and regulations. The government may introduce policies and regulations that help to increase the willingness of green consumption behavior, such as energy-saving and emission reduction policies and policies to restrict plastic products. In this paper, the authors study the mechanism of the effect of environmental attitudes on consumers’ willingness to engage in green consumption behavior from the perspective of “plastic restriction”, and conclude that the magnitude of the effect of policies and regulations on the willingness to engage in green consumption behavior varies significantly at different levels of environmental attitudes. This study provides scientific implementation ideas and targeted management suggestions for the government to formulate effective external intervention policies for green consumption
Factors Affecting the Profitability of Cement Manufacturing Enterprises in Tuyen Quang Province
No full textThis study focuses on analyzing the factors affecting the production and business efficiency of cement manufacturing enterprises in Tuyen Quang province. Production and business efficiency is measured by profitability ratios including return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and return on sales (ROS). Using a quantitative research method through estimating a linear regression model based on data of two cement manufacturing companies in the period 2019-2021, the research results show that the factors affecting business efficiency of cement manufacturing enterprises in Tuyen Quang province include size of enterprise, cost ratio, average collection period, inventory turnover, fixed assets turnover and debt ratio
Dazed and Confused: The Impact of Multinational Firms on Local Labor Markets
No full textIn this high-speed globalization era, the opportunities for multinational companies (MNCs) have become vast. In such situation, these companies can obtain maximum profit only if they know how to use workforce properly. This paper aims at analyzing how these MNCs can use international workforce without violating ethics, universal labor rights, and human resource rules. For this purpose, two most favored countries i.e., China and Indonesia have been taken and compared throughout the paper. The first part of this paper deals with the introduction of the profile of above mentioned two countries and opportunities to the MNCs. The second part deals with the roles of institutions in dealing with labor workforce. The third part indicates divergent paths and the convergence of the globalization with its impact over host countries. The final part concludes the entire discussion in a few paragraphs. The entire paper has been developed keeping the scholarly work, journal articles and critical analysis factor under consideration
Influence of Board Mechanisms on Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures in Nigeria: A Study of Oil and Gas Sector of the Economy
No full textThe study examined the influence of board mechanisms on corporate social responsibility disclosure among oil and gas quoted companies in Nigeria for ten (10) years period (2012-2021). Board mechanisms variables of board independence, board size as well as board gender diversity were analyzed to determine their influence on corporate social responsibility disclosures. Data obtained from the financial statement of various sampled companies were suitably analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics, correlation as well as regression analysis by making use of E-view (9.0) econometric packages. Regression result reveals that board independence has significant and negative influence on corporate social responsibility disclosures while board size and board gender diversity have insignificant and negative influence on corporate social responsibility disclosures of various companies. The study therefore arrived at a conclusion that board independence on the board brings about improvement on corporate social responsibility disclosure among quoted oil and gas companies in Nigeria