Archives-October 2017

This paper has presented a control strategy for improving transient response performance for a plastic extrusion process.. A dynamic equation of a single screw plastic extruder was obtained. The main control variable is the screw speed in relation with the pressure and the temperature. A high degree of speed accuracy is required to ensure the optimal performance of the extrusion process. In order to adequately control the screw speed in relation to the pressure, a model reference adaptive control (MRAC) which combines a proportional integral and derivative (PID) control strategy was developed and integrated with obtained dynamic equation of a single screw plastic extrusion process considered in this context. The gain parameter of the MRAC was selected for different values and simulations were performed in Matlab/Simulink environment by altering the adaptive gain. The implemented system in Matlab/Simulink shows that the developed controller improved the transient response performance of the process. This resulted to a fast response, near zero-overshoot, and improved transient performance.

The book under review is an outcome of the author’s successful completion of post-graduate studies hence the title, “Family Influences on Creativity of School Children” is perfect chioce shared by both the thesis and this book . Written against a background of empirical research conducted in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya, the book provides authoritative and incisive analysis of factors ingrained in the family that influence the development of creative talents in children. The first set of factors are those that parents and/or those significant others in the family can readily execute toward the child. Secondly are factors that are naturally predetermined. Factors in the first set include parental love; parent-child interaction; socio-economic status of parents; quantity and quality of time spent with child; home-based activities; and language. The second consists of gender, and a child’s position of birth in relation to other siblings. These factors are discussed in detail in Chapter Three. Save for a few misgivings such as substituting painting and drawing for arts and craft and vice versa, this book qualifies to make profound academic mileage among scholars especially those inclined towards early childhood education and development. Also, it can make good educative piece among the general public.

Software engineering is well known for its significance on software development complexities minimization. Due to software engineering significance researches were carried out to improve software engineering practices. However, there are some identified problems that lead to software development complexities like the lack of understandable collaboration or communication between software stakeholders during software development. And to this identified problem a research was carried out to solve this problem by proposing a collaboration model for software stakeholders’ collaboration during software development. However, the model proposed was restricted to a waterfall software process model. This study used segment of the framework used for developing the waterfall software process based collaboration model to develop an iterative software process based collaboration model for software stakeholders during software development. And this study proposed model will help minimize the problem of lack of understandable collaboration between software stakeholders during software development

The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between the Stature and Popliteal Height Sitting, PHS. 161 male occupational bus drivers were randomly selected for anthropometric characterization of Stature and PHS using standard measuring equipment. The data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 and Design-Expert 6.0.8. Then regression model was used to estimate PHS. The model shows that there is a linear relationship between the Stature and PHS with coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.8258 (p < 0.0001). The model mitigates time required for gathering anthropometric data. Designers would find this as a huge working tool for adequate productions.

The examination was intended to comprehend the explanations for the rising criminal conduct among men and furthermore to find out about their life amid detainment. Unlawful activity is an essential factor that upsets family life and security of the general public. The idea of bad behavior perpetrated by them has changed from milder illegal activity to a terrible crime. The financial factors behind committing their crime, their observation towards society and correctional facility organization are dissected by utilizing essential information which is gathered by meeting 30 detainees of two prisons of Karnataka. The information was collected by using organized meeting. The discoveries demonstrated that lower financial state of the prisoners had constrained them to perpetrate unlawful activity. The absence of social insurance, framework and business openings are the significant issues looked by the inmates in prisons. Their observation towards the general public and correctional facility organization has fundamentally disintegrated. Results are deciphered as far as present speculations and suggestions for future are called attention to.

Banks often drive their cost lower through investments in efficient-scale facilities and operation, tight cost and overhead control, and cost minimizations in such areas as service, selling and advertising. They often sell no-frills, standardized services and products to the most typical customers in the industry. Thus, banks seek a competitively valuable way to reduce cost by concentrating and maintaining efficiency through all activities in order to effectively control every expense and find new sources of potential cost reduction. This study limited itself to the variables of interest. The secondary data was derived from Equity Bank data for a period of 2008 to 2016. The study was conducted in Equity Bank, Homa Bay Branch. This study employed a descriptive research design. The study was conducted at Equity bank and targeted 75 respondents. The researcher used a questionnaire as research tool to collect data. The researcher with the help of supervisor and research expert was able to use the Content Valid Index (CVI). Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics specifically frequencies, percentages, likert scale analysis and multiple regression. The data was presented using frequency tables, figures and Charts and then findings were interpreted. The findings of this study reveal Competitive strategies affect the performance of Equity Bank. The study recommends that the bank should encourage integration of competitive strategies in the bank operation system to enable employees to feel integrated in the workplace and this will boost performance. This will create sustainable competitive edge hence sustainable and superior performance by the bank. Further the study recommends a further study be conducted on the same area in different banks on the effect of competitive strategies on Banks’ performance.

Plants are an integral part nature. These are the life sustaining force on the earth. Local communities regularly use medicinal plants for treatment of diseases, wounds, fractures and other ailments. Tribal areas in the district of Nagaur were visited to collect informations on ethnomedicinal plants used by local people, Vendors, Ojha, Bhopa, Bhagat, Vaidyas and Sadhus. The preset investigation in aimed to create awareness about the ethnomedicinal value of the plants and their uses to draw the attention of pharmacologists, phyto chemists and pharmaceutical.

This work employs geoelectrical method to evaluate the resistivity of subsurface materials, characterize the aquifer hydraulic properties and delineate potential groundwater zones at Mpu town and its environs, Enugu state, Nigeria. Mpu lies within latitudes 050 57’ 0’’ and 060 02’ 0’’ N and longitude 0070 40’ 0’’ and 0070 45’ 0’’E with area extent of 55.37square km. The study area is underlain by Awgu Shale, with its lateral arenaceous facie; Owelli Sandstone outcropping north of Oduma. Fifteen (15) vertical electrical soundings (VES) were carried out within the study area, using the Schlumberger electrode configuration. Interpreted VES data shows predominance of Q and H curve type, indicating a fractured – clay/shale subsurface. Georesistivity layers show a clay/shale - sandy shale - dry shale - fractured shale sequence. Contour maps of resistivity, thickness, overburden depth, transverse resistance, longitudinal conductance, aquifer transmissivity and hydraulic conductivity were constructed. Computed aquifer transmissivity show trends with good signals and recorded transmissivity value of 135m2/day. Thus, indicating moderate yield. Low yield areas correspond to high hydraulic conductivity zone. Low and moderate groundwater potential zones were delineated. Comparisons of georesistivity sections and various contour maps show fairly good match in analysis. The study will serve as a useful guide for groundwater development in the study area.

Improved agricultural technologies are found to be important in improving the well-being of rural households in Ethiopia. However, the adoption of these technologies is low in the country. Thus, identifying factors that influences farmers' decisions to adopt in their geographical and social contexts is pertinent. The study was undertaken in three purposefully selected rural Kebeles of Tarmaber Woreda namely Koso-ber, Yitam-na-kosta and Yizaba-na-woyin. Farm households categorized into worse-off/poor (41.5%), medium (52.2%) and better-off/rich (6.7%) based on such indicators as land size, livestock holdings (mainly oxen for plough), the number of times that a family feeds its members per day, housing conditions, land renting and/or sharecropping arrangement, household labour force availability, loan status, membership of cooperatives and ability to send children to school. Income loss, vulnerability to crop failure and asset depletion, alcoholism and social isolation are locally believed causes of poverty and extension input adoption. The survey result from cross-section sample of 125 farm households shows that educational status, availability of labour access to extension service, size of land holding, oxen possession, membership of cooperatives, and perceived distance of the market were found to be positive correlates of adoption of chemical fertilizers and improved seeds. The public services should reach poor households in remote area.

Despite the fact that men constitute a large portion of Nigerian media coverage, it appears that we know little about how they are represented in Nigerian newspapers especially by female writers/journalists. Most studies concerned with gender portrayal in Nigerian media tend to focus on how women are represented mainly by male writers/journalists (e.g. Odejide 1996, Daniel 2011, Adewoye et al 2014). This paper examines the many complex, subtle and contradictory patterns of linguistic representation of men in female-authored articles in Nigerian newspapers. It does so by employing methods of and insights from critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics tools to analyze 200 female-authored articles on gender and other related issues published in five Nigerian newspapers namely; The Guardian, Vanguard, The Punch, Daily Trust and New Nigerian from 1999 to 2014, a period that has witnessed an unprecedented surge in the wave of gendered discourses in Nigerian print news media. Using Lawrence Anthony’s AntConc version 3.4.3w concordance package, collocational profile of the node word MEN (and its singular variant) was extracted and investigated, and results obtained show that Nigerian female authors generally depict men as both the “problem” and the “answer.” This is evidenced by the prevalence of discourses that construct men as oppressors on one hand, and providers and leaders on the other. These contradictory patterns of representation are understood in this paper as examples of “textual heterogeneity” as exemplified by the range of different identities women have constructed for men. Moreover, these patterns of representations can also be seen as both reinforcing and resisting patriarchal social order existing in our society.