Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research

10-19

Authors: Lilibeth S. Lumapas

The study used a quasi-experimental design with the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of the developed online PBL module in teaching Physics. The development of the online PBL module made us of Neo LMS as its learning platform. The compliance to ISO 9126 software standard and to its content characteristics were evaluated by twenty (20) Information Technology and Physics teachers, respectively. In this study, statistical procedures and techniques using IBM SPSS Version 20 were used. A sample of sixty (60) Grade 9 students were purposively selected to determine the significance of the developed online lessons using PBL approached. They were divided into Control Group and Experimental Group. The Control group was taught the lessons using ‘face-to-face” mode of delivery while the teaching and learning process of the Experimental Group made use of the electronic platform. The instruments used in this study were adopted from ISO 9126 survey questionnaire, content evaluation form, and a pre-test and post-test. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, Mean, and paired t-Test. Result of the validation of the developed online PBL module showed that the Mean ratings of expert evaluators revealed that the online module contain qualities of a strongly agree for technical characteristics and agreeable for lesson content. The post-test scores of the Experimental Group were less than Control Group’s scores. It suggested that the use of the developed online PBL module, as a supplementary tool in learning Physics for Grade 9, did not improve the learning outcome of the students.

24-34

Authors: Godwin J. Udo1, Edet W. Nsi, Nyeneime W. Akpanudo, Otobong D. Akan

Seasonal variation of heavy metal concentrations in crude oil polluted water around major tributaries in Ibeno, a coastal area, in Niger Delta. Nigeria was investigated using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer Unicam 939 model. The concentrations in mg L-1 of heavy metals in water during the dry season was in decreasing order of: Mn(2.80±0.93), V(1.53±1.42), Ni(1.50±1.53), Fe(0.86±0.25), Cd(0.27±0.21), Co(0.19±0.25), Zn(0.09±0.13), Pb(0.02±0.01), corresponding values obtained for the wet season were Mn (3.13±0.79), V(1.88±1.45), Ni(1.45±1.04), Fe(1.05± 0.25), Cd(0.10± 0.13), Zn(0.07± 0.10), Co (0.06±0.05), Pb(0.02± 0.02). All the eight heavy metals investigated were detected in all the water samples. The mean concentrations in mg L-1 of Ni(1.50), Cd(0.27), Co(0.19) and Zn(0.08) were higher during the dry season in comparison to corresponding mean concentration values obtained during the wet season. Conversely, mean concentrations in mg L-1 of V(1.88), Mn(3.13) and Fe(1.06) were higher in the wet season compared to similar dry season values. The measured concentrations were generally variable and inundating, except Pb which was consistent for both seasons. The mean concentrations of Ni, V, Cd, Pb, Fe and Mn, in the surface water samples in dry and wet seasons were higher than WHO, guidelines for heavy metal in water. The health implications of the heavy metals have been highlighted.

43-51

Authors: Ikechukwu I.F., Agu C.S.

A motorized cassava mash sieving machine comprising of a 3HP electric motor, pulverization unit, sieving unit, collection unit and fiber outlet was designed and developed. This machine breaks and sieves dewatered cassava mash and also make way for the fiber to leave the system through the fiber outlet thereby reducing drudgery and eliminating time wastage during the process. This machine also eliminated human contact with the cassava during the process unlike the existing semi-mechanized and traditional sieving method. Performance test analysis revealed that the developed machine after four experimental runs with different feed rate was 93.37% and sieves an average of 4.75kg of cassava at 99 seconds with an average throughput of 174.46kg/hr. at 25% moisture content, compared with a manual/traditional process, were an individual breaks and sieves same at 469.5 seconds at an average efficiency of 85.95% having a throughput of 38.42kg/hr. Thus, this innovation saves energy and time and also improves hygiene in cassava mash sieving for garri production.

65-74

Authors: Itolima Ologhadien

The morphological impacts of marine aggregate extraction at three licensed dredging sites situated at close proximity on the Okpoka river, Port Harcourt, Nigeria were assessed using hydrographic and geotechnical data as input into Ackers – White and van Rijn sediment transport equations to predict the annual transport volume and recovery rate of the dredged burrow. The average value of annual sediment transport rate volume was 2.04 x 106m3, thus the volume of dredged burrow was 6.5x106m3, which a recovery rate of 3.2years was obtained. The quality of EIA and EIS reports were poor in two aspects (i) Physical data on Sediment characteristics, Hydrodynamics, Hydrographic/Bathymetric data and Dredging method were scanty and (ii) EIS lacks adequate average on the impacts of the project on socio – economic, ecology, landscape, human health, fisheries on the environment. Since the EIS is indicative of the EIA process, the study recommends that (i) the project proponent must engage competent EIA consultants who are bias in engineering and physical sciences (ii) separate hydrographic/bathymetric survey consultants be commissioned for adequate coverage of the physical environment, and (iii) the regulator must insist on quality EIA and EIS reports, effective mitigation of identified impacts and must demonstrate integrity in handling the EIA process.

82-89

Authors: Zubair AR, Olayemi S

Modelling and simulation of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna on MATLAB platform is presented in form of three algorithms. The design algorithm which computes the dimensions of the rectangular microstrip patch antenna is based on the transmission line model. The cavity model algorithm analysis the rectangular microstrip patch antenna. The radiation pattern algorithm plots the radiation patterns of the antenna. The algorithms developed were used to model and simulate three different specifications of rectangular patch antenna. The results obtained are found to compare favourably with existing records.

96-106

Authors: Ayodeji Ireti Fasiku

The prevalence of network infrastructure in enterprise and the fact that Internet Protocol (IP) is the protocol that connects, locates and identifies devices on a network has made Voice over internet protocol a powerful service platform for transferring voice calls on a network. As a result, voice over internet protocol has been a predominant technology within the past few years that organizations use to transmit voice over an IP network. However, like any other technology, it has a number of benefits and promising attributes that gives it edge over the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) though a number of risks are also associated with it. This paper describes the Voice over Internet Protocol technology.

113-118

Authors: D.V. Lande, C.V. Prishchepa

The methodology of automatic detection of the event basis of information operations, reflected in thematic information flows, is described. The presented methodology is based on the technologies for identifying information operations, the formation of the terminological basis of the subject area, the application of cluster analysis with cluster centroids, determined by analyzing the terminology of the information flow. The clusters formed in this way reflect the main events occurring during the information operations and reveal the technique for their implementation.

136-145

Authors: Erhan Kahya, Selçuk Arın

This study aims to determine the physiomechanical properties of kiwi fruit that affect robotic harvesting. Coordinate axis values obtained by a camera is the most important input in a robotic harvesting system. Surface area of the fruit was used in determining the coordinates. As a result of the analysis, a correlation was found between measured values and robotic harvest. Measurements and calculations suggest that surface area and height, width, thickness and sphericity values are significantly correlated. It is understood that these factors have a direct effect on the surface area of the fruit. It was determined that the surface area is the value to be used for robotic harvesting. Since the coordinates are determined according to the midpoint of the surface area of the fruit, x and y coordinates vary for each fruit.

152-158

Authors: Djibril NDIAYE, Lemrabott ould Habiboulah, Issa DIAGNE, Youssou TRAORE, Seydou FAYE, Baba MBENGUE, Gregoire SISSOKO

Use of flax as thermal insulation on a cylindrical calorimeter is proposed in this study. Flax used has medium diffusivity α = 8.10-7 m2.s-1 and average thermal conductivity

163-172

Authors: Andrei Kalinin, Vladimir Titov

Rapid identification and assessment of the content of animal fats and plant oils in the food and blood of patients are possible, as is known, using Raman spectrometry. On the other hand, the applicability of IR spectrometry for quality control of fat and oil products is well known. It is important to simplify and reduce the cost of these applications for practical use. The aim of the work was to test the applicability of near-infrared (NIR) spectrophotometers for the differentiation and analysis of fat-oil products, taking into account the isomeric forms of triglycerides. Using the method of projection on latent structures, Raman and NIR spectrometers were calibrated to determine the proportion of milk fat and palm oil and the fractions of 7 fatty acids in fat and oil mixtures. It was found that the prediction parameters of calibration (reliability, accuracy and selectivity) for the proportions of milk fat and palm oil, both using the Raman spectra and the NIR absorbance spectra, is much better than the determination of the same fat and oil proportions calculated from the content of 7 fatty acids. This fact reflects the sensitivity of prediction both using the Raman spectra and the NIR absorbance spectra not only to the length of the carbon chain and the degree of unsaturation of the fatty acid, but also to different positional isomers of triglycerides. The data obtained were used to formulate the technical requirements for the use of a portable NIR spectrometer for express analysis of fat-oil products.

182-192

Authors: Odesanya B.O., Bakare T.E., Adeyemi M.M.

Due to the worldwide concern that good quality freshwater may become a scarce resource in the near future, developing countries and countries with transition economies have increased their interest in water quality monitoring programs during the past decades. In Nigeria (South- Western) different kinds of environmental problems, caused by a disordered economic growth and the excessive water use associated with it, are affecting both the availability and the quality of freshwater. The Asejire Dam, located in Oyo State, drains an important agricultural watershed. Considerable amounts of water are extracted for use in irrigation agriculture and for the production of drinking water for the City of Asejire. The river also receives the city’s urban waste water, which – until recently – was discharged without any previous treatment. Surface water pollution in the watershed is supposed to be mainly related to the disposal of organic waste and the low dilution capacity of the river during the dry period, when discharge rates are low. Comparing four methods of evaluating surface water quality, the CWQII is a feasible method for evaluating the water quality conditions of Asejire River and its tributaries. The SFE method only considers the most prominent factor and not all factors are considered in the resulting water quality evaluation. This means that the SFE method is limited in its ability to characterize the comprehensive water quality condition. Because of overemphasizing the influence of the maximum factor, the Comprehensive Water Pollution Index method and Nemerow-Sumitomo Water Quality Index method cannot effectively evaluate the comprehensive water quality condition.

199-209

Authors: S. Nagavalli, Dr. G. Ramachandran, Dr. R. Saminathan

In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), the benefits of exploiting the sink mobility to prolong network lifetime have been well recognized. In physical environments, all kinds of obstacles could exist in the sensing field. Therefore, a research challenge is the determination of efficient dispatch of the mobile sink to find an obstacle-avoiding shortest route. This research article presents an energy-efficient routing mechanism based on the cluster-based method for the mobile sink in WSNs with obstacles. According to the cluster-based method, the nodes selected as cluster heads collect data from their cluster members and transfer the data collected to the mobile sink. In this work, the mobile sink starts the data-gathering route periodically from the starting site, then directly collects data from these cluster heads in a single-hop range and finally returns to the starting site. However, due to the complexity of the scheduling problem in WSNs with obstacles, the conventional algorithms are difficult to resolve. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the method.

214-218

Authors: Merve Arıbaş, Özen Özboy-Özbaş

The gluten proteins are the storage proteins of wheat that are responsible for cohesive and viscoelastic properties of dough, withhold gas during fermentation and to set of dough during baking. Gluten also finds place in pet foods and sausage-type products besides bakery. On the health point of view, gluten consumption may cause negative effect for some people who have suffering celiac disease, wheat allergy and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. In some medical journals, media tools and medical doctors also assert that gluten is responsible risk of obesity, neuropsychiatric symptoms, cardiovascular risk and metabolic syndrome for healthy people. Even, it is claimed that consumption of gluten-containing foods such as bread is a danger on health for every person. Due to the many claims like these, gluten-free diet became more popular among people. On the contrary, there are also many claims which do not support consumption of gluten-free diet for healthy people. Some researchers indicated that gluten restriction is not beneficial on heart health for people without celiac disease. Gluten-free diet reduces consumption of whole grains which are known beneficial for heart health. It may indirectly increase the risk of heart disease and type-2 diabetes. So, gluten plays important roles both in human health and food industry. It can be concluded that except for people suffering from gluten, people need not to eliminate gluten from their diet.

225-236

Authors: Jaafar A. Kadhum

Renewable energies such as solar or wind power have been used as a permanent source of energy over the past two or three decades, and are now widely used in many countries of the world as small units for domestic use or state-level units as energy farms. To improve the operation of these systems, solar tracking is used. A solar tracker is device that keeps a solar panel face toward the sun. Tracker devices are used to reduce the angle of incidence between the incoming sunlight direction and a solar panel surface. This thing acts to increases the capacity of energy which can produced from solar radiation on the same solar panels. The generation ability of a solar power plant is largely dependent on the intensity of the sun radiation, so the changing of sun position during the day causes a variable shining intensity, therefore solar tacking systems can be consider as an essential part of solar power system. This paper presents the design and constructs a simple and economical single and double axis solar tracking system. The effect of single and dual axis solar tracker system are examined at Baghdad city in four selected days of four seasons at 2016. The influence of each case on solar energy systems were, the single axis tracker system tends to 35% improvement of power generated relative to fix panel, while double axis tracker system tends to 38% rise in output power.

243-248

Authors: Siti Maonah, Alfauzi Yanto, Humiras Hardi Purba

Current Indonesian market demands halal status for all products marketed in Indonesia. This requirement is increasing by the establishment of law No.33 year 2014 on halal product assurance. Halal status apply both in finished products and its ingredients. LPPOM MUI or Assessment Institute for Food, Drugs, and Cosmetic, The Indonesian Council of Ulama (AIFDC –ICU) is an Indonesian organization to conduct halal certification process. To obtain halal certificate, company have to implement eleven criteria of halal assurance system. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how the implementation is going and which criteria have the highest priority for improvement using Important Performance Analysis (IPA). The results reveal that the priority of improvement are management review and product. Involvement of top management and new procedure to filter product description are some alternative for improvement.

256-258

Authors: Mehmet Ali SEVIK, Nuran CANSIZ

Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), a member of the genus Potyvirus, is one of the most important viruses infecting a wide range of plant species, primarily from the Brassicaceae family. The family includes a large variety of economically important crops belonging to different genera. Turnip (Brassica rapa var. rapa) is an important cole crop in Turkey. The tuberous root of turnip is used as food, and forage. TuMV has adapted to such diversified cruciferous crops. The study was designed and carried out to detect the response of turnip plants to TuMV in a greenhouse at Faculty of Agriculture, the University of Ondokuz Mayis, during late autumn season. Seeds of turnip were germinated in plastic pods. The experiments were performed in four replications with positive and negative controls. Twenty seedlings were grown for each experiment and were inoculated with sap from TuMV-infected plants. Weekly observations were recorded according to the disease rating scale (0-9) throughout the 8-weeks duration of each experiment. In turnips, TuMV showed chlorotic or necrotic local lesions, systemic vein clearing and veinal flecking developing into severe mosaic. Host reaction studies showed that the mean weekly scales were 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 1.1, and 2.0, respectively. Average infection rate was detected as 27.3% using DAS-ELISA after eight weeks.

270-277

Authors: Nguyen Hoang Luong Ngoc

Investigations on geopolymer-based materials are always interesting topics for researchers. Geopolymer is environmentally friendly material which has been potential applications for many different fields such as technical materials, building materials, insolation or refractories, and others. This study used fly ash (FA) and rice husk ash or rice hull ash (RHA) as raw materials for geopolymerization process to develop novel materials with high porosity. Both FA and RHA are industrial waste of coal fired thermal power plants and agricultural wastes, respectively that need to be managed to reduce their negative impact to the environment. FA and RHA contain high alumino-silicate resources were mixed with sodium hydroxide solution for 10 minutes to obtain the geopolymer pastes. Sodium hydroxide solution was used as an alkaline activator to form geopolymer paste. The geopolymer paste was filled into 5-cm cube molds according to ASTM C109/C109M 99, and then cured at room temperature for 28 days. These products were then tested for compressive strength and volumetric weight. Results indicated that the material can be considered lightweight with a compressive strength at 28 days that are in the range of 18.3 to 35.5 MPa, volumetric weight around 800kg/m3 and water absorption is under 215.65 kg/m3. The properties of raw materials and geopolymer products were also determined by analytical techniques that included chemical composition by X Ray Flourescence (XRF), mineral composition by X Ray Diffraction (XRD), and structural bonds by Infrared spectroscopy (IR).

283-292

Authors: Ali Muhittin Albora

A good distinction from potential anomaly maps and the identification of building boundaries is an important problem. In this way, the locations of the geological structures being sought can be determined precisely. In this article, the Cellular Neural Network (CNN) method is proposed in order to determine the structure boundaries and to distinguish between regional and residual anomalies. CNN provide fast and parallel computational capability for image processing applications due to its filtering structure. The behaviour of CNN is defined by two template matrices that are adjusted by a proper supervised learning algorithm. After training stage for geophysical data, Bouguer anomaly maps can be processed and analysed. CNN is employed to analyse Bouguer anomaly maps, which are important to extract useful information in geophysics. At first, CNN performance is tested on synthetic geophysical data, which are created by a computer. Then, Bouguer anomaly maps of Dumluca ore field has been analysed and results are reported comparing to real drilling results.

297-316

Authors: Akobo, I. Z. S., Thankgod, Ode, Eleghe, Alla Moses

The demand of concrete has led to the depletion of granite and gravel, this has made conventional aggregate expensive. Hence, sourcing for alternative local material for the construction of concrete becomes necessary. A mathematical model was developed to predict and optimize the compressive strength of Granite – palm kernel shells aggregate concrete using Henry Scheffe’s regression theory. Concrete Cubes were cast consisting of thirty (30) different mix ratios. The first fifteen (15) mix ratios were used to determine the coefficients of the model and the second fifteen (15) mix ratios were used to validate the model. The results obtained from the mathematical model agreed favourably with the experimental data. Adequacy of the model was tested using fisher f-test at 95% confidence level and found to be adequate. A compressive strength of 23.86 N/mm2 was predicted by the mathematical model with mix ratio of 0.546:1:1.67:2.14:1.6 (water : cement : sand : granite : palm kernel shells). A Java computer programme was coded to select the optimized compressive strength of granite – palm kernel shells aggregate concrete.

325-331

Authors: Aina, Jacob Kola, Ayodele, Michael Olu

The paper reviewed the application of the brain-based learning model to solve teaching and learning problems in science education. The starting point was the reviewing of the challenges to the teaching and learning in science education, and the article believed the solving of the problems is possible through the brain-based learning. The brain-based learning is strategies gleaned from research in neurology and cognitive science used to enhance teacher instruction. The authors highlighted twelve principles of the brain-based learning. The application of the paradigm was viewed in different ways to improve students’ academic performance. The paper recommended investigative research in Nigeria to obtain more empirical results on the effectiveness of the brain-based learning.

336-339

Authors: M. N. O. Sadiku, S. R. Nelatury, S.M. Musa

Concerns about climate change and global warming are driving increasing renewable energy legislation. Green or renewable energy is a form of energy that does not contribute to climate change or global warming. It uses energy sources that are continually replenished by nature. It can fulfill the need for energy while saving the planet. This paper briefly reviews major types of renewable energy and their usage.

350-356

Authors: Ahmed A. Abdel-Naby

Cleaning up oil spills can be a measure challenge to engineers. Cleaning process is carried out mainly using mechanical surface skimmers. Floating booms are used to contain the spilled oil in one region and prevent it from spreading out. Booms also increase the oil thickness by gathering the oil in smaller area and increasing oil recovery rate and oil recovery efficiency for the mechanical skimmer used, which allows the skimming process to be more effective. In the present experimental study a hybrid system is proposed and built. Surface weir skimmers are built in with the floating boom. When the skimmer is deployed, it surrounds the oil spill and begins with the recovery process at the same time. By combining the equipment altogether, the recovery process is more efficient. The problem of synchronizing the two procedures will no longer exist, since they will be designed to operate simultaneously.

374-380

Authors: Ahmed A. Abdel-Naby

Increasing of oil spill due to accidental events, pipeline breakdown and uncontrolled oily wastewater are of the extremely dangerous, harmful to the environment and eventually affects human life. New technologies and/or modifying the exiting techniques are of great importance to be achieved to control the spilled oil. Many types of oil skimmers as mechanical devices used in cleanup oil spill are developed, designed and modified to improve their performance. Weir skimmer is one of these skimmers that is used as an oil skimming mechanical device by setting its edge on the interface of oil/water surface in the controlled area. High oil recovery rate (ORR) is one of the main advantages for weir skimmer but its oil recovery efficiency (ORE) is too low due to the higher water content in the collected volume of oil/water. In the present study, the weir skimmer is modified to improve its performance by constructing two identical weir skimmers on a portable boat as a floating equipment in addition to two adjustable collecting arms attached to the boat sides. The suggested model is tested for different arms angle 60o, 90o, 120o, 150o and 180o at different boat speed ranging between 0.0-0.5 m/s to obtain the model performance. A better performance is reported and obtained based on boat speed and arms angle to be recommended.

388-396

Authors: Daniel Abi Alice, Nyam Joseph Arin

The environmental impact caused by buildings accounts for 18% of global emissions today or an annual equivalent of 9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and the usage of energy in such buildings accounts for more than 30%, even up to 70% in some cases. Generating electricity from fossil fuels such as diesel, natural gas and petrol, negatively affects the environment. A large part of the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere come from energy generation. This research aimed at identifying commercially and behaviorally low-cost ways of reducing energy consumption in the residential, public and private sectors in Nigeria, thereby reducing our carbon footprint on the environment and also sustaining it at the same time. Questionnaires, interviews, literature review and observations were used as sources of data to gather information. Findings revealed ignorance of energy efficiency measures among respondents chiefly responsible for energy wastage in Nigeria. Energy-management strategies were identified from the literature and tested against current practice. The study discovered a vast majority of households and public institutions resort to informal power supply which contributes to global warming. The alarming rate at which generators are being used in Nigeria is a cause for concern, although this is due to the intermittent nature of electricity supply in the country. The research highlighted guidelines for the development of energy efficiency policy and legislation which in turn will strengthen regulatory measures to use energy efficiently. The research proposes a good energy management framework for the residential, public and private sector, thereby eliminating the need to alternate electricity supply in Nigeria. The study concluded that energy efficiency is important both to the environment and economic development of the country.

407-412

Authors: Fei-Yang Zhao, Bo Ren

The novel coupling Ito systems are obtained with the dark parameterization approach. By solving the coupling equations, the traveling wave solutions are constructed with the mapping and deformation method. Some novel types of exact solutions are constructed with the solutions and symmetries of the usual Ito equation. In the meanwhile, the similarity reduction solutions of the model are also studied with the Lie point symmetry theory.