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EFFECTS OF THERMOMECHANICAL TREATMENTS ON THE CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF Al-Cu Alloy
Get PDFIn this work, the quest is to study the influence of thermo mechanical ageing on Aluminium alloy in which Aluminium is the principal element (parent metal) with traces of other elements such as Copper, Magnesium, Iron, and Zinc. Aluminium is subject to internal stresses and strains when it is overheated.The development of Al-9.37Cu alloy was characterized through metallographic examinations. The alloy having been cast using Die –Casting method was subjected to series of treatment such as solution treatment, water quenching and air-quenching as well as over –ageing. The result showed that the strength of Al9.37Cu was greatly enhanced when the alloy was rolled, and aged. This was as a result of the growth of large precipitates along and near the Aluminum grain boundaries which interfere with the movement of dislocations when the metal yields. However, when the alloy was heated beyond 200oC (500oC), the tensile values were observed to decline as a result of equilibrium tetragonal phase which is fully in –coherent and was characterized with low strengthening effect due to fibrous structures.Self-sponsore
Blogging Medical Information Sources to Users: the Case of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti Medical Library
Get PDFThe ubiquitous Internet continues to increase sources of information to information seekers in this
present age as information are lodged in different web platforms ranging from digital libraries,
databases, repositories, and lately social media platforms. More often than not, information seekers are
limited in their quest to popular search engines as Google, inadvertently short-changing themselves of
the other many sources that search results may not reveal. So, as we were faced with the need to bring
our databases and other useful electronic resources together, using a Web 2.0 tool, we deployed the
weblog so as to better serve our users and help them gain access to useful information they might have
been missing. In this paper, we describedhow we used weblog to meet the need and create access to
medical information sources and resources for easy retrieval
In Vitro Studies on the Antioxidant Property and Inhibition of -Amylase, -Glucosidase, and Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme by Polyphenol-Rich Extracts from Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) Bean
No full textThis study sought to investigate the antidiabetic and antihypertensive mechanisms of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) bean through inhibition of -amylase, -glucosidase, angiotensin-1 converting enzyme, and oxidative stress. Methodology. The total phenol and flavonoid contents of the water extractable phytochemicals from the powdered cocoa bean were determined and the effects of the extract on -amylase, -glucosidase, and angiotensin-1 converting enzyme activities were investigated in vitro. Furthermore, the radicals [1,1-diphenyl-2 picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2..-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), hydroxyl (OH), and nitric oxide (NO)] scavenging ability and ferric reducing antioxidant property of the extract were assessed. Results. The results revealed that the extract inhibited -amylase (1.81 ± 0.22 mg/mL), -glucosidase (1.84 ± 0.17 mg/mL), and angiotensin-1 converting enzyme (0.674 ± 0.06 mg/mL [lungs], 1.006 ± 0.08 mg/mL [heart]) activities in a dose-dependent manner and also showed dose-dependent radicals [DPPH (16.94 ± 1.34 mg/mL), NO (6.98 ± 0.886 mg/mL), OH (3.72 ± 0.26 mg/mL), and ABTS (15.7 ± 1.06 mmol/TEAC⋅g] scavenging ability. Conclusion. The inhibition of -amylase, -glucosidase, and angiotensin-1 converting enzyme activities by the cocoa bean extract could be part of the possible mechanism by which the extract could manage and/or prevent type-2 diabetes and hypertension
Information Literacy Search Skills of Students in Five Selected Private Universities in Ogun State, Nigeria: A Survey
No full textThe study investigated the knowledge of information literacy and search skills of students in five
selected private universities in Ogun state, Nigeria. It also examined students’ ability to
distinguish diverse information sources as well as assess the effectiveness of information literacy
programmes of private universities. The sample consists of 359 respondents drawn
proportionately from a population of 400 from the selected universities. Descriptive survey
method was used to elicit data through the Monash University Library Questionnaire on
Information Literacy in this study. The data collected were analyzed using simple percentages. It
was found that preponderance of respondents have low knowledge of information literacy skills,
showed high deficiency in identifying diverse information sources and the various information
literacy programmes of the respondents’ institutions lacked hands-on. The study concluded that
sound information literacy skills is a desideratum in knowledge acquisition in the twenty-first
century and recommended inter alia; that information literacy skills be integrated into the
secondary and tertiary schools’ curricula. Thus, the need for an enhanced and continuous
library user education geared towards empowering students to be sufficiently familiar with
information sources, mutual collaboration between teachers and librarians to ensure integrated
mode of lecture delivery, constant advocacy and sensitization outreaches
Promotion of Nigeria's International Image by the Activities of the Nigeria Police Force
No full textThe Nigeria Police Force has contributed much to peace keeping, maintenance of law, order, training and development of police personnel in other countries. The Police Force has used its membership of Interpol to prevent irans-border crimes. That is why the Force has laudable image abroad. However; the Police Force has always been rejected by Nigerians since its foundation by the British and it has always been at logger head with the public. In the post independent era the Nigeria government redefined the goals of the force as contained in the police Act, yet the force continues to have strained relationship with the public who perceive it as an instrument of stale oppression. The involvement of police in politics derailed her during the military era. It left negative effects on the police personnel and equipment. The consequence is the frustration being vented on the public who sees the police as criminals in uniform. This study highlights the contrasting image of the Police Force abroad as good peace keepers and at home as criminals in uniform. The researchers used both primary and secondary sources. There are many social ills in the country, especially bribery and corruption, which are working against the social, economic, political, and psychological development of Nigerians and the country as a whole. As an institution saddled with the responsibility of maintenance of law and order citizenship education is an avenue and tool by which the educational system can produce a force that is capable °flaking the 'ask of nation-building seriously. If the living condition of police is improved upon and good equipment are provided there will be a change of attitude by the police with a positive impact on Nigerians
THREATS AND CHALLENGES OF TOURISM TO INDIGENOUS CULTURE IN SOME SELECTED TOURISM SITES IN AKWA IBOM, NIGERIA
No full textThe study was conducted to assess tourism activities and
the possible threats it may be posing to indigenous
culture, human lives and environment at Oron and Itu
villages in Akwa, Ibom, Nigeria. Data were collected with pretested
and validated questionnaires which were randomly
administered to workers traders and inhabitants at the tourism
sites. The total respondents were150. Simple frequency and
mean score were used to analyze the data. The study revealed
that inspite of some confirmed benefits of tourism to host
communities, some negative effects, which constitute threats
were identified. Some of these threats include; environmental
pollution, displacement from farm land, biopiracy of local plants,
unfair labour and wages etc. The study made recommendations
to the government and stakeholders
Negotiating Globalization through Hybridization: Hip Hop, Language Use and the Creation of Cross-Over Culture in Nigerian Popular Music.
Get PDFThe process of globalization has been of a tremendous impact on African societies
while the status-quo of expressive cultures have obviously not remained the same due
to this factor with popular music gradually becoming homogenized to fit into the
western stereotypes. The Nigerian popular music has been greatly influenced by the
dictates and progression in the international scene due to global communication and
cultural flows as exemplified by the popularity and proliferation of hip hop culture
among the youths from the 1990s. It is quite evident that English is more or less the
official language of popular music while the glorification and promotion of foreign
music styles especially hip hop and its cultural expressions is almost making the local
music practices less fashionable. This paper explores the Nigerian popular music
practice through the current mainstream hip hop and identifies how its practitioners
have successfully formulated a sub-genre dubbed 'Afro hip hop' through hybridization
whereby African identity is portrayed and maintained by asserting linguistic
independence with the use of Nigerian languages as medium of delivery through codeswitching. This is also followed by appropriating indigenous popular music style
especially fújì and highlife to create a fusion that appeals to home-grown sensibilities
while still subscribing to the global hip hop community. This paper reveals the
effectiveness of 'Afro hip hop' as hybrid music and how it is being used as a strategy
of resistance towards seemingly popular music homogenization brought about by
globalization
Internal migration and welfare of street traders in the urban informal economy of Nigeria
Get PDFThis study examines the employment and income opportunities being enjoyed by migrants and non-migrants in street trading sub-sector of the urban informal economy in Nigeria. The welfare implication of such employment was also examined in the study using both the logistic model and the modified Mincer's model. The data for the study was generated from a cross-section study conducted in four geopolitical zones of Nigeria in the year 2011. These zones are the South-West, South-East, South-South and the Northern parts of Nigeria. The main instrument of data collection was the questionnaire administered in the selected cities. Analysis of data revealed that majority of street traders interviewed are migrants, and about 72 percent of them reported improvement in welfare. According to the result of the earnings function estimated, migration variable is a statistically significant variable affecting welfare, among others. Therefore the need for policy measures that will create income and employment opportunities in the rural areas and cities cannot be over-emphasised
ECG parametric modeling based on signal dependent orthogonal transform
Get PDFIn this letter, we propose a parametric modeling technique for the electrocardiogram
(ECG) signal based on signal dependent orthogonal transform. The technique involves
the mapping of the ECG heartbeats into the singular values (SV) domain using the left
singular vectors matrix of the impulse response matrix of the LPC filter. The resulting
spectral coefficients vector would be concentrated, leading to an approximation to a sum
of exponentially damped sinusoids (EDS). A two-stage procedure is then used to estimate
the model parameters. The Prony's method is first employed to obtain initial estimates of
the model, while the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) method is then applied to solve the nonlinear least-square optimization problem. The ECG signal is reconstructed using the EDS
parameters and the linear prediction coefficients via the inverse transform. The merit of
the proposed modeling technique is illustrated on the clinical data collected from the MITBIH database including all the arrhythmias classes that are recommended by the
Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). For all the tested
ECG heartbeats, the average values of the percent root mean square difference (PRDs)
between the actual and the reconstructed signals were relatively low, varying between a
minimum of 3.1545% for Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVC) class and a maximum
of 10.8152% for Nodal Escape (NE) class
Hybrid technique using singular value decomposition (SVD) and support vector machine (SVM) approach for earthquake prediction
Get PDFMost of the existing earthquake (EQ) prediction techniques involve a combination of
signal processing and geophysics techniques which are relatively complex in computation
for analysis of the Earth's electric field data. This paper proposes a relatively simpler and
faster method that involves only signal processing procedures. The prediction of the EQ
occurrence estimation using a combination of singular value decomposition (SVD)-based
technique for feature extraction and support vector machine (SVM) classifier is presented
in this paper. Using the proposed method, the Earth's electric field signal is transformed
into a new domain using SVD-based approach. In this approach, the time domain signal
is projected on the left eigenvectors of impulse response matrix of the linear prediction
coefficient (LPC) filter. Several features have been extracted from the transformed signal.
These features are used as input for the SVM classifier in order to predict the location of
the forthcoming EQ. Once the location is determined, a similar approach is used to
estimate its magnitude. Finally, the time estimation of the forthcoming EQ is estimated
based on the statistical observation. The occurred EQs during 2008 in Greece are used
to train the classifiers, whereas those occurred from 2003 to 2010 in the same region are
used to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. In predicting the location of
the future EQs, the proposed system could achieve 77% accuracy. As for the magnitude
prediction, the proposed system provides an accuracy of 66.67%. Moreover, the
predicted time for the EQ with magnitude greater than Ms = 5 is 2 days ahead, whereas
for magnitude greater than Ms = 6 is up to 7 days ahead