Archives-December 

Carburizing, though a widely used industrial thermo chemical diffusion process, it is associated with the problem of shape and size distortion in the carburized parts.  These distortions are troublesome as they adversely affect the performance of the parts in terms of life, and trouble free operation. The main objective of our present work is to optimize the distortion level, optimum case depth, and surface hardness value of the carburized parts made of EN 353 material. Taguchi’s mixed level series Design of Experiment was selected for optimization.  The significance of our study was that all the three stages of carburizing (Pre carburizing, Carburizing and Post carburizing) were considered for optimization.  An orthogonal array and ANOVA were employed to investigate the influence of major parameters on the three response variables namely Distortion level, Surface hardness and Case depth and optimum conditions were arrived at by applying high penetration depth, high hardness and low distortion are better as the strategies.

Previous studies emphasizing that psychological interventions and pharmacological medications may have a small effect on depressive symptoms in coronary artery patients, and no beneficial effects on reduction of inflammatory markers and mortality rates. Recently there is increasing interest in whether positive psychological states have predictive power over and above depressive symptoms for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. The present study has intended to test and compare the correlation of plasma high sensitivity C-reactive protein and cortisol awakening response’s flexibility with positive psychological states and depression in 54 coronary artery patients. The results of this study indicated that the correlation between high sensitivity C-reactive protein and psychological states only for life satisfaction and subscale of hope "pathways in regard to goals" are significant. Moreover the correlations of cortisol awakening response’s flexibility with happiness, hope and depression were marginally significant. It is possible that directly building the positive psychological states may counteract negative symptoms and may also buffer against their negative biological outcomes.

This paper presents the effect of Treated Domestic Waste water (TDW) and lime dosage on cube compressive strength of cement mortar prepared with ordinary port land cement and Portland pozzolana cement. The treated domestic waste water was used as replacement to portable water in the proportion of 0,25,50,75 and 100%. From all the replacements, 50% TDW is noticed as effective based on cube compressive strength. This replacement was kept constant and the lime is added to the effective replacement of portable water in the proportion of 0 to 30 with an increment of 5% by weight of water. From the results is found that, for OPC and PPC mortars the optimum dosages were noticed as 20 and 25% respectively. To compute compressive strength results for lime based mixes a regression model was developed and it was verified with experimental results.

In this paper, fatigue damage accumulation were studied using three methods i.e. Miner, new non-linear model and experimental method. The prediction of fatigue lifetimes based on Miner method are uneconomic and non-conservative respectively. However satisfactory predictions were obtained by applying the non-linear damage rule (present model) for 5052-H34 aluminum alloy. Many shortcomings of the Miner methods are related to their inability to take into account the surface treatment effect.

The goal of this paper is to design and implementation of wearable device which can be use as a guide to blind people by allowing them to imaging and response to spatial information by using IR transceiver then give an alarm as a vibration to skin by using a mobile vibrator. This vibration is give alarm to blind person to avoid obstacle, its look like sensory appendages of insects. This device can be used instead of dogs or cane to help blind people also it can be used by workers whose work in dangerous construction locations.

Cholesterol is a component of cell membrane and a precursor for steroid hormones and bile acids synthesized by the body cells and absorbed with food. Cholesterol has been identified as one of the major factors that affect and sometimes destroy the normal functions of the heart blood vessel. This study determines the cholesterol level of some selected bank workers of Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) at Accra New Town Municipality between the ages of thirty five – forty five years respectively. Out of the twenty five (25) samples assayed four males were found above the normal cholesterol range of 3.5 - 5.5 mmol/l, and six females were found above the normal cholesterol range. In all 10 were found above the normal range while 15 were found within the normal range (3.5 - 5.5 mmol/l). The result shows that 40% of the women had high level of cholesterol while 60% of the men had a high level of cholesterol. In all 60% of the bank workers had high cholesterol level as compared to the reference range while 40% of the bank workers had their cholesterol levels within the reference range. About 26.66% were found to be females who were obese whilst 40% were also obese males.

Dyke-Davidoff-Masson syndrome is a rare entity characterized by hemi cerebral atrophy/ hypoplasia secondary to brain insult in fetal or early childhood period. We present a case of a 10-month-old girl, presenting since 5 months right sided body weakness and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Brain MRI revealed hemicerebral atrophy of the left hemisphere with dilated ventricles on the same side, cerebral infarction, elevation of the sphenoid wing and petrous temporal bone, and slight calvaria hypertrophy.

System Dynamics Modeling quality of work life at academic sector,” includes all aspect of employee’s life, specially his work and work environment. Quality of work life programs encourage employees, make balance between professional, personal & social life and ultimately enhances employee job satisfaction. Factor that are favorable for quality of work life are job satisfaction, working environment, career and professional growth, motivation and rewards, fare salary and compensation, communication and job security. Workload, occupational stress and un-fair compensation are factors that affect the quality of work life.

Low soil fertility and drought condition are main crop production challenges that threatening food security in semi-arid areas. Use of fertilizer at micro dose rates together with in-situ rainwater harvesting using infiltration pits (IP) or tied ridges (TR) are low-input strategies to cope with these challenges. This research was conducted to investigate effects of integrating fertilizer micro dose rates and in-situ rainwater harvesting using IP and TR on groundnut yield and its household profitability to Tanzania smallholder farming groups. Field experiments were conducted from 2015/2016 to 2016/2017 cropping seasons. Infiltration pits and tied ridges increased groundnut yield significantly by 20.2 to 32.6 % and 34.2 to 46.6% respectively over flat cultivation. Fertilizer micro dose at 50% of recommended rate significantly increased yield by 50.8 to 64.7 % over zero application. Integration of TR with fertilizer at RR resulted into highest groundnut yield ranged from 1,034 to 1,096 kg/ha and highest NP ranged from 1,027 to 1,081 USD/ha. The integrations of TR and fertilizer micro dose at 50% of recommended had significant higher yield ranged from 748 to 1,086 kg/ha and higher NP ranging from 405 to 662 USD/ha compared to famer practice. The integrations of micro dose rate of 50% of recommended rate and tied ridges is therefore recommended to small holder’s famers located in semi dry areas of central Tanzania. This will enable farmers to achieve highly agronomic and economic performances compared to farmer practices.

Terrestrial heating is so real in Mwea that it has significantly reduced water levels in the canal; a catastrophe complexed with uphazard and unscheduling of irrigation in the scheme to the detriment of crops at its termini. In that view therefore, an experiment was set out at KALRO-Mwea to investigate on the effect of irrigation scheduling on yield components and grain yield of two Nerica rice varieties. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design in split-plot arrangement and replicated thrice. Four irrigation schedules (Daily (control), Every 3 days, Every 5 days and Weekly) formed main plots and two rice varieties (Nerica 4 and Nerica 11) formed the sub plots. Results indicated positive influence though not significant on filled grain number, shoot biomass, root biomass, unfilled grain number, productive tillers, panicle number, 1.5 m² plot grain weight, moisture content, and on grain yield in both seasons, while significant effect was exerted on 1000-grain weight, where highest and least 1000-grain weight of 55.92 g and 41.0 g in Nerica 4 on every 3 days and weekly schedules in season 1 were recorded respectively, while significant effect was elicited on unproductive tillers in season 2 where highest of 1.783 unproductive tillers in Nerica 11 on every 5 days’ schedule was recorded, while least of 0.75 unproductive tillers in Nerica 4 on weekly schedule was also recorded. Positive though insignificant effect was also observed in unproductive tillers in season 1, while the same was observed in 1000-grain weight in season 2. Grain yield (ton/ha) did not present any significant effect due to irrigation schedule treatments in both seasons, although variation in means of grain yield was observed, where highest grain yield of 1.003 tons / hectare was produced in Nerica 4 on weekly irrigation schedule in season 2, while least grain yield of 0.863 tons / hectare was produced in Nerica 11 on every 3 days’ irrigation schedule in both seasons. Nerica 4 outperformed Nerica 11 in productive tillers, 1.5 m² plot grain weight, 1000-grain –weight and on grain yield, while Nerica 11 outperformed it in unproductive tillers, filled grain yield, unfilled grain yield, shoot biomass, root biomass, panicle number, and on moisture content in yield. Nerica 4 on weekly schedule, while Nerica 11 on control, and on every 5 days’, and both on every 3 days’ schedule are recommended to farmers for adoption.