volume 3 ~ issue 12

Cottonseed oil, an example of a renewable resource was treated with different amounts of 2% (MACOSO1), 5% (MACOSO2), 10% (MACOSO3) and 15% (MACOSO4) of maleic anhydride, and 2% (FUCOSO1), 5% (FUCOSO2), 10% (FUCOSO3), and 15% (FUCOSO4) of fumaric acid. The physicochemical properties of the maleinized and fumarized cottonseed oil samples were evaluated and compared with the pure cottonseed oil. The acid and saponification values of maleinized and fumarized samples were greater than that of cottonseed oil. The colour of fumarized samples were yellow-brown and were brighter than the colour of cottonseed oil, which was brown. The iodine value of both maleinized and fumarized samples decreases and were lower than that of cottonseed oil. The percentage double bonds used up was greater in maleinization than in fumarization of cottonseed oil. The lower volatile organic component of both maleinized and fumarized samples implies that they could be a better monomer for synthesis of eco-friendly polymer.

KEY WORDS: Acid value, Cottonseed oil, Fumarization, Iodine value, Maleinization

This study covers statistical analysis of the major tribological factors affecting the dry sliding wear behaviour of Al–SiCp–brake pad system. The composite material for investigation was developed by stir casting technique from Al 6082 alloy by incorporating 15% SiCp by weight. The factors selected for investigation were temperature, load and sliding velocity keeping sliding distance constant. The wear test was done on Pin on Disk wear testing machine. Commercially available brake pads were used as the pin material. Hardness survey, Optical microscopy and SEM were used to characterise the materials before and after the wear tests. Worn surfaces and debris were characterised using SEM to understand the wear mechanisms. ANOVA results show that temperature is the most dominant factor affecting the wear rate.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) known as well as rapid prototyping or 3D printing is popular discussion subject at a moment. It is called to be the third industrial revolution and also forecasted to widely replace the traditional industrial manufacturing methods. By using AM it is possible to produce effectively parts that are very difficult or even impossible to manufacture using traditional methods. However, AM has limitations that put challenges to the design of such parts. The hype around additive manufacturing is partly understandable. There are still several drawbacks that must be kept in mind. For example when talking about heavy steel parts AM cannot compete against traditional manufacturing methods in terms of costs and processing time unless the parts are redesigned for AM. The development of the AM technology is fast and more efficient solutions should be able to see after some years.

Keywords - 3D-printing, additive manufacturing, design rules, engineering design, rapid prototyping

The use of inorganic material to modify un-plasticized Poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) was studied. Composites containing different amounts of clay with 0 to 80 parts per hundred part of PVC were prepared using compression molding press. It was discovered that the strength, toughness, elastic modulus of PVC/Fired clay composites increase with particle loading to 10% and decreases beyond that. PVC/Fired clay has higher Modulus of Elasticity at 10% particle loading. Results show that elongation at break decreased with increase in filler loading. Embrittlement test result showed signs of crumbling or flaking after 21 days with composites composition within 20 to 60 parts per hundred PVC while other composites composition of 70 to 100 parts per hundred PVC remained ductile throughout the time of study. Natural weathering and accelerated ageing of PVC/Fired clay, after 6 months of exposure, developed visual colour change. The modulus of elasticity, toughness and elongation at break, decreased initially then increased and finally leveled up with exposure time. Micrographs of the sample taken after 70 days of outdoor exposure show wearing a way of sample surfaces. There was a progressive increase in water absorption, density, hardness and conductivity of each sample tested.

KEYWORDS: Un- Plasticized, Poly (Vinyl Chloride), Composite, Fired Clay, Modification.

Light weight Metal matrix nano composites (MMNCs) have significance in aerospace, naval and other light weight applications. The ultrasonic cavitation based technique is found to be effective method to disperse nano particles uniformly and to produce a wide range of MMNCs. In this study, the uniform dispersion of nanoparticles in aluminum (AA7075) matrix resulted in enhanced mechanical properties. Various weight percentages of SiC nano particles are reinforced into the aluminum matrix. It is observed that there was a reasonably uniform dispersion of particles in the matrix. The hardness values, impact strengths and microstructures with various weight percentages are compared and presented.

Key Words: Metal matrix nano composites, Ultrasonic cavitaion, Silicon carbide nanoparticles.

Wear is the predominant factor that controls the life of any machine part. Metal parts often fail their intended use not because they fracture and wear which causes them to lose dimension and functionally. Different categories of wear exit, but most typical modes ar. Hardfacing is one of the most useful and economic ways to improve the performance of components submitted to severe wear conditions. A study was made to compare the microstructure and abrasion resistance of hardfacing alloys reinforced with primary chromium carbides. The hardfacing alloys were deposited onto M.S. plate by shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process. Two different commercial hardfacing electrodes were employed to investigate the effect of the microstructure. The abrasion tests were carried out in a dry sand-rubber wheel abrasion machine according to the procedure A of ASTM G65 standard. Microstructure characterization and surface analysis were made using optical and scanning electron microscope. The result shows that the wear resistance is determined by the size, shape, distribution and chemical composition of the carbides, as well as by the matrix microstructure. The best abrasion resistance was obtained in microstructure composed of chromium carbide alloy. Hardfacing is a deposition of different metal over the parent metal to achieve required properties.

KEY WORDS: Abrasion resistance, Hardfacing alloys, Microstructure characterization, Wear mechanism, welding.

This study covers statistical analysis of the major tribological factors affecting the dry sliding wear behaviour of Al–SiCp–brake pad system. The composite material for investigation was developed by stir casting technique from Al 6082 alloy by incorporating 15% SiCp by weight. The factors selected for investigation were temperature, load and sliding velocity keeping sliding distance constant. The wear test was done on Pin on Disk wear testing machine. Commercially available brake pads were used as the pin material. Hardness survey, Optical microscopy and SEM were used to characterise the materials before and after the wear tests. Worn surfaces and debris were characterised using SEM to understand the wear mechanisms. ANOVA results show that temperature is the most dominant factor affecting the wear rate.

A study was conducted to determine the prevalence of B.cereus in uncontrolled fermented milk (nono) sold on some streets of Kaduna town, Nigeria, and to study the influence of pH and temperature on its survival during storage. Forty-three samples of nono were purchased from 10 different sellers and plated unto sterile plates of nutrient agar for total aerobic plate count (TAPC) and Mannitol Egg yolk Polymyxin (MYP) agar for B.cereus isolation. Mean TAPC ranged from 4.4 ± 0.7 to 5.4 ± 0.8 log10 cfu/ml for the nono samples analyzed while mean B.cereus counts ranged from 0.3± 0.7to1.3± 0.8 log10 cfu/ml. A B.cereus strain (about 8.5 log10 cfu/ml) isolated from retail nono was inoculated into sterile nono samples following pH adjustment to 3.7, 4.3 (challenge samples), 3.8 and 4.2 (control samples). Samples were stored at refrigeration temperature (4-10oC) for 72 h, and at ambient temperature (26-28oC) and 37oC for 24 h. Samples were analyzed for B.cereus counts on sterile nutrient agar at intervals of 24 h. Bactericidal effects were observed for samples at lower pH levels of 3.7 and 3.8 at 24 h of refrigeration and which were sustained for up to 72 h at pH 3.7. B.cereus appeared to be uninhibited during storage at ambient (26-28oC) temperature and at 37oC at all pH levels at the end of 24 h. The presence of B.cereus in nono, a widely consumed ready- to- eat product is of health significance owing to its ability to cause food poisoning. Findings of this study suggest B.cereus cells are suppressed in heat-treated nono during storage at refrigeration at pH level of 3.7 for up to 72 h.

Keywords - B.cereus, survival, Nono, pH, temperature

The high failure rates and economic implications of regularly maintaining Overhead lines hasnecessitated the need for using Underground Cable system. This paper covers the current carrying capacity of underground cables under three states namely, the steady, transient and short circuit states. Also covered is the reactive power generated in underground cables during operation

The reliability of Port Harcourt distribution network using Choba as a case study was assessed and analysed using various reliability indices in this paper. The network under study was modelled in NEPLAN (power system software) simulation environment using data obtained from Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) between June-November 2012. The overall system performance was then determined and possible ways of improving this were mentioned If this work is implemented in the power distribution network, it would stand out in its ability to evaluate and predict the reliability of an existing distribution system. It will also aid companies when planning to embark on a system that is reliable and efficient. Reliability of Power Distribution System (RPDS)

This research is aimed at discovering filled polyester with desirable and superior properties using naturally occurring particulate: seashell, snail shell and hybrid (combination of seashell and snail shell). The mechanical (flexural,tensile,impact and hardness) and physical(water absorption) properties of sea shell, snail shell, and sea shell-snail shell-reinforced composites were investigated. The shells were ground and sieved using 250 microns hand sieve. The test specimens were prepared using polyester resin with different compositions and prepared in accordance with ASTM standard. From the result, hybrid sample of 30wt% reinforcement showed the highest resistance before shattering relative to other samples the flexural test was performed on, the surface hardness of the hybrid at 15wt% reinforcement was also greatly enhanced. Therefore for applications where flexibility is of top priority, hybrid reinforcement of 30wt% should be used in place of neat polyester. Snail shell sample of 5wt% reinforcement showed to absorb the highest amount of energy before shattering relative to other samples, for this, snail shell reinforcement of 5wt% can be used in place of pure polyester where impact strength is a major factor.

Key Words: Hybrid, sea shell, snail shell, unsaturated polyester, composite

The computer is becoming more important in our daily life with the development of ubiquitous computing. Computer applications require interaction between human and computer. This interaction needs to be unrestricted and it had made challengeable to traditional input devices such as keyboard, mouse, pen etc. Hand gesture is used in people's daily life frequently. Hand gesture is an important component of body languages in linguistics. They are more natural in interaction, compared with those devices mentioned above. Human computer interaction becomes easy with use of hand as a device. Use of hand gestures to operate machine would make interaction interesting. Gesture recognition has gained a lot of importance. Hand gestures are used to control various applications like windows media player, robot control, gaming etc. Use of gesture makes interaction easy, convenient and does not require any extra device. Vision and audio recognition can be used together. But audio commands may not work in noisy environment. In this paper the idea to use hand gestures to control windows media player.

Key Words: Hand Gestures, Skin Color Detection, Human Computer Interaction, Windows Media Player.

The natural radiation of soil samples from three local governments areas that make up Owerri city in Imo state, Nigeria were measured using gamma ray spectrometer. The mean values obtained were 167.2 ± 10.5 (), 19.7 ± 1.9 () and 18.1 ± 3.3 () for 40K , 226Ra and 232Th respectively. These values were used to evaluate the radiological health hazard indices using standard analytical methods. The results showed that the mean value of radium equivalent activity is 58.5, while the values of absorbed dose rate () and annual effective dose equivalent () are 27.1 and 132.78 respectively. The values of external and internal health hazard indices are 0.16 and 0.21 respectively. All these values obtained are lower than their world permissible United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) values for such environment. This shows that the risk due to radiation contamination in the city of Owerri is low.

Key Words: concentration, gamma ray spectrometer, health hazard indices, Owerri, world standard values.

In this paper, we introduce a new approach for image compression. At higher compression rate, the decompressed image gets hazy in GIF and PNG, an image compression technique. In order to overcome from those problems artificial neural networks can be used. In this paper, gradient decent technology is used to provide security of stored data. BP provides higher PSNR ratio, with fast rate of learning. Experiments reveal that gradient decent technology works better than Genetic algorithm where the image gets indistinguishable as well as not transmitted in a secured manner.

Key Words: Image-compression, back propagation, gradient decent, artificial neural network, genetic algorithm

Segmentation of text from badly degraded document images is very challenging tasks due to the high inter/intra variation between the document background and the foreground text of different document images. In this paper, we propose a novel document image binarization technique that addresses these issues by using adaptive image contrast. The Adaptive Image Contrast is a combination of the local image contrast and the local image gradient that is tolerant to text and background variation caused by different types of document degradations. In the proposed technique, an adaptive contrast map is first constructed for an input degraded document image. The contrast map is then binarized and combined with Canny's edge map to identify the text stroke edge pixels. The document text is further segmented by a local threshold that is estimated based on the intensities of detected text stroke edge pixels within a local window. The proposed method is simple, robust, and involves minimum parameter tuning.

The paper highlights the contribution of organization and government in rural development in Nigeria, with all effort put in the development of rural area in Nigeria, rural area are still like nothing has ever be done in that direction. This paper points out ways of good measures to be taken in order to improve the living standard of rural dwellers, after the failure of previous administrations in the development of rural areas in Nigeria due to poor and no coordinated governance. Recommendations were also forwarded; if strictly adhere to may lead to drastic improvement in the rural development in Nigeria.

Key Words: rural development in Nigeria: problems and prospects for sustainable development

In this paper, we introduce a new approach for image compression. At higher compression rate, the decompressed image gets hazy in GIF and PNG, an image compression technique. In order to overcome from those problems artificial neural networks can be used. In this paper, gradient decent technology is used to provide security of stored data. BP provides higher PSNR ratio, with fast rate of learning. Experiments reveal that gradient decent technology works better than Genetic algorithm where the image gets indistinguishable as well as not transmitted in a secured manner.

Key Words: Image-compression, back propagation, gradient decent, artificial neural network, genetic algorithm

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block cipher system is widely used in cryptographic applications. The main core of AES block cipher is the substitution table or SBox. This S-box is used to provide confusion capability for AES. In addition, to strengthen the S-Box against algebraic attacks, the affine transformation is used. The requirements of information security within an organization have undergone several changes in the last few decades. With the fast evolution of digital data exchange, security of information becomes much important in data storage and transmission. The proposed paper presents a combinational logic based s-box implementation for subBbyte transformation in advanced encryption standard (AES) algorithm in verilog code language, this combinational logic based s-box is small area occupied and provide high throughput .this is a two staged pipelined combinational logic based s-box.the fact that pipelining can be applied to this S-Box implementation as compared to the typical ROM based lookup table implementation which access time is fixed and unbreakable. In this paper, the construction procedure for implementing a 2 stage pipeline combinational logic based S-Box is presented and illustrated in a step-by-step manner.. Finally, for the purpose of practicality, the depth of the mathematics involved has been reduced in order to allow the reader to better understand the internal operations within the S-Box. the simulation and synthesis is done in modelsim and Xilinx software ,output result has been included.

Key Words: sbox,encryption,sub byte

In this paper we design a new diffusion chamber which can used to record the number of alpha particle emitted by radon gas. A mathematical calculation is carried out to find the efficiency and sensitivityfor CR39 detector.. The software employed is the latest version of Monte Carlo code and SRIM2013. The result shows the influence of the initial energy on the detector parameter. Our calculations also show that, the best radius of detector is 1.5 cm and the best radius of the chamber is 3.5 cm for any experimental work i.e. the chamber radius should be as twice in size as the detector radius.

Key Words: detection probability, detection efficiency, CR39, LR115, Monte Carlo, SRIM2013

In this paper, we introduce a new approach for image compression. At higher compression rate, the decompressed image gets hazy in GIF and PNG, an image compression technique. In order to overcome from those problems artificial neural networks can be used. In this paper, gradient decent technology is used to provide security of stored data. BP provides higher PSNR ratio, with fast rate of learning. Experiments reveal that gradient decent technology works better than Genetic algorithm where the image gets indistinguishable as well as not transmitted in a secured manner.

Key Words: Image-compression, back propagation, gradient decent, artificial neural network, genetic algorithm

Nowadays, electricity has become an important part of human lives. Electricity is needed to light up houses, buildings and even transports. Electricity comes from generators which produce power that are useful for loads. But, not all power that flow from generators is useful for a power system. Although reactive power is needed on power system, a high amount of it will cause problems such as the reduction of active power generated and poor voltage regulation. The reactive power consumption by loads must be compensated and this could be done by installing shunt compensator on the electrical network. An approach has been done to study about the performance of the system with and without compensator installed. This research presents a comprehensive study on the shunt compensation method. There were three methods used in finishing this research which are collecting data from electricity utility, literature review writing, and simulation using PowerWorld Simulator. The simulated network is evaluated in terms of its performance with and without compensator installed.

Key Words: Shunt capacitor, power factor, voltage regulation, power loss, shunt compensation

Fleming\'s left hand rule and right hand rule, (dc generator how to part 2) is not satisfied at some point in you tube. but in this theory are all points satisfied. or clamp meter error or dc motor on the load, the coil is why the increase flow of current.

This paper presents the economic analysis and environmental evaluation of a passive solar cooking system for sustainable application in the developing countries. The newly developed cooker was evaluated according to the two standard figures of merits F1 and F2, through; Temperature stagnation and water boiling tests. Sample cooking tests were conducted indoors under simulated solar radiation. Comparative performance tests of a painted and non-painted cooking pot were also undertaken and the result shows the painted pot heat gains was 22% compared to the non-painted cooking pot. The economic and environmental benefits of the system includes, reducing the daily burning of fuel wood, which would reduce deforestation, environmental and other ecological degradations. Over a 3rd of the world population relied on fuel wood and biomass for their daily cooking needs and daily fuel wood requirement per person is 1.3 kg, using the cooker once daily could bring an annual savings of 1,281.2 Million tons and 114.2 Million tons of fuel wood and CO2 respectively.

Key Words: Stagnation, Comparative, Economic and Environmental benefits

The stabilizing and robust control performance condition formulated using polynomial objective constraint with Relax Linear Matrix Inequality (RLMI) is presented in the paper. To achieve the objective performance, a two part fuzzy controller consisting of a stabilizing and robust controllers is developed, Linear Matrix Inequality constraint relaxed using a scaling parameter is formulated, the developed controller and the RLMI conditions were then applied for the control load frequency deviation in a single area power system network. Simulation results obtained, showed that the RLMI has some merit over the so called strict LMI in providing better transient performance.

Key Words: Robust performance, Relax Linear Matrix Inequality

Recent advancement in wireless communication has led to the development of low cost, small devices that possess sensing, signal processing and capabilities of wireless communication. WSN consist of two terms i.e. wireless network and sensors. A wireless network is any type of computer network that uses wireless data connections for connecting network nodes and Sensing is a process of gathering information about a physical object, including the occurrence of events (i.e., changes in state such as a drop in temperature or pressure). An object performing such a sensing task is called a sensor. A WSN consist of a large number of sensor nodes having wireless links for communicating. It is a kind of ad-hoc network. Its main aim is to monitor the physical conditions like pressure, temperature. Advancement in technology is mainly due to the decrease in the size of sensors.

Key Words: GAF, Protocols, SMECN, SPIN, Wireless sensor network,

This paper intends to highlight potential ways of utilizing social media for educational purposes. Social media in particular social websites have become a familiar trend especially among younger audiences. Information is spread rapidly through these websites which is an asset that can be taken advantage of in many ways. After a brief introduction about the emergence of social media, the ways in which social media is defined is then discussed. Social media utilization in knowledge management and knowledge sharing is then presented along with the various advantage and disadvantages in using social media websites. The current tendencies of adopting these websites in higher education institutions are then examined considering the appearance of modern learning methods. Organizations today are increasingly distributed and networked; making it more challenging to share knowledge therefore using social media has become more and more popular to increase efficiency within organizations which is discussed later in the paper. The final section of the paper is dedicated to proposing recommendations for the future.

Key Words: Social Media, Higher Education, Social Networks, ESN

Confidential data in an enterprise may be illegally accessed through a remote interface provided by a multiplecloud, or relevant data and archives may be lost or tampered with when they are stored into an uncertain storage pool outside the enterprise. Therefore, it is indispensable for cloud service providers (CSPs) to provide security techniques for managing their storage services. To overcome these problems we present a Consistency as a service auditing cloud scheme. We prove the security of our scheme based data fragmentation on multiple clouds. So the proposed system has data fragmentation, data security and storage on multiple cloud services. We used trusted third party to store the data on multiple cloud and find the data access by untrusted cloud service providers. In this system the client data divide into multiple pieces and send to the multiple clouds with help of trusted third party. If any of the untrusted cloud service providers try modify the data the alert will send to trusted third party about illegal access of untrusted cloud service provider.

The paper is based on physiognomy. It deals with the measurement of the facial features to enable one for judging the character of a person based on the person's facial features. There is a popular saying, Face is the index of mind. Hence the Personality can be derived from the facial features. It is said that facial features like face shape, ear length, forehead length and forehead width, eye distance or the entire body features are related to the thinking pattern. This relation is made use of to identify the personality of an individual. Personality Identification can be used in several applications, among them one of the application is military selection. The experimentation so far has been conducted on several people and the results obtained from the implementation of the paper match with the character of the people involved in experimentation. This method is cost effective, time reducing and highly time efficient technique that involves personality identification by measuring the facial features.

Keywords - Physiognomy, Facial features, Personality Identification, Measurement of facial features

The development of any country mainly depends on the transport system, trading etc. One of the major transport systems to connect all the villages and cities are roads. The economic design of pavement results in saving countries economy.The construction of roads in most of the places across the world faces major problems due to work sub grade soil. One such weak sub grade often encountered is black cotton soil. Due to the presence of clay mineral called montmorillonite, the clay mineral exhibits large swelling and shrinkage under the wet and dry conditions and due to which the vertical movement is experienced in the pavement and there by the failure of pavement takes place. The total load coming on to the pavement should be properly dispersed through the sub grade. As the black cotton soil is having less bearing capacity the strength of the sub grade is improved by using the locally available abundant waste materials like coconut coir, fly ash. In the present study an attempt is made to find out the improvement of strength in black cotton soil mixed with varying percentage of coconut coir and fly ash by conducting a series of Unconfined compression strength (U.C.S) and california bearing ratio (C.B.R) tests.

Keywords - Black cotton soil, coconut coir, Fly ash, bearing capacity, sub grade, U.C.S, C.B.R

paper proposes an algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for optimal network reconfiguration of a distribution system in the presence of Distributed Generators (DGs) and Shunt Capacitor Banks to balance the feeder loads and to eliminate overloading conditions. The system Load Balancing Index (LBI) is used to represent the loading conditions and maximum system loading capacity. This index value should be low in the optimal network reconfiguration for load balancing. A 69-node system with DG units and Capacitor units are considered for verifying the effectiveness of PSO algorithm and results are presented. The simulation results shows that by operating the on/off patterns of proper tie switches and normally closed switches betters the load balancing in the system and also improves the voltage profile.

Keywords - PCapacitor Placement, Distribution systems, Distributed Generators, Load Balancing Index(LBI), Network Reconfiguration

A number of different design of improve wood cooking stove has for long been constructed from different part of the world. The main idea behind the development of this technology is to reduce the burden on forest and other biomass option as well as reducing their associated health risk and environmental pollution. It is therefore very much important to develop a more efficient design. Different ICS have different efficiency, it is of great importance therefore, to compare between the different types of design to minimize the amount of fuel wood consumed during cooking. In this paper, two model of improved cooking stove were constructed in piece from two different soil sample taken all within Sokoto State. A water boiling test was conducted and model A2 happens to be more efficient.

Keywords - kaolin, an organic binder.