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The Due process policy is a product of the Fderal government public procurement reform of 1999. The policy was meant to be an anticorruption device aimed at ensuring probity, transparency, accountability in the procurement of public goods and services. The need for the reform is long overdue. However, in order to assess the implementation of the Due process policy in procurement of construction projects, the study took a survey study of construction projects awarded and executed in federal higher educational institutions in the southwest Nigeria. The study revealed that although cost overrun on such projects was at 19% due to the lump sum nature of the due process reform, time overrun was at the rate of 108%. Financial capability of the client followed by prompt payment were identified respectively for timely completion while delayed payment has the highest contribution to time overrun at 36%. Financial incapability of the contractor has significant contribution to delay in completion of the projects. The study observed that the contracts were awarded on short contract duration, it concluded that the excessive time overrun on such projects is not good for the construction industry in Nigeria as it does not only erode the contractor's profit, it also deprives the client from having his project as at when due. It therefore suggested that there is need to ensure that realistic contract periods are quoted and that the federal government should endeavor to assess the success of the reform so far in order to address the grey areas.
KEY WORDS: Due Process, cost overrun, time overrun, performance, prequalification
[1] Esenwa, O. F Jr. (2004) – "Project Procurement Method in Due process on How to Execute Capital Projects Effectively" Technical meeting of the Department of Physical Planning and Development. Abuja.
[2] Wahab, K.A. (2006) – Federal Government Economic Reforms, Human Development and Due Process. Proceedings of the 1st Annual Lecture of the School of Environmental Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure.
[3] Flanagan, R. & Norman, G. (1997) – Putting risk into perspective. Risk Management and Construction. London. Oxford.
[4] Wittig, A.W. (1999) – Building Value through Public Procurement: A Focus on Africa. Proceedings of the 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference. Geneva, Switzerland, available on-line at /www.transparency.or/iacc/9th-iacc/papers/day2/ws2/d2ws2-www.wittig.html/#eval. (accessed 19th October, 2005).
[5] Okereke-Onyeri, F. A. (2008) – The Procurement Act". Proceedings of the workshop of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors Lagos, Nigeria.
Improvement of the nutritional quality of cereals is important in reducing malnutrition in disadvantages communities. The focus of this study was to develop a nutritionally rich wheat-cow pea flour blend. Different quantities of cow pea flour were blended with wheat flour. The flours were tested for colour, falling number, water and protein content. Sensory evaluation was carried out on the cow pea blended bread samples to evaluate quality. There was an increase in protein content of cow pea blended flour. The volume of bread increased with increasing cow pea protein. The palatability and texture of the blended bread was highly acceptable. :
KEYWORDS : blend, cow pea, dough, flour, protein content, wheat
[1] L. Munck, Improvement of nutritional value in cereals, Hereditas, 72(1), 1972, 1–128.
[2] S.W.J. Bright, P.R. Shewry and D.D. Kasarda, Improvement of protein quality in cereals, Critical Reviews in Plant Science, 1(1), 1983, 49-93.
[3] S. Matz, The chemistry and technology of cereal as food and feed, (Delhi, CBS Publishers and Distributors, 1996).
[4] H. He and R.C. Hoseney, Effect of the quantity of wheat flour protein on bread loaf volume, Cereal Chemistry, 69(1), 1992, 17-19.
[5] C. Khan, Plant food for human nutritional, Journal of Food and Agriculture, 37, 1987, 201-228.
[6] K. Rao, Chemical Composition of Protein, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 20(1), 1984, 105-110.
The pattern of blood flow and detection of the same with the help of oscilloscope by indirect method through human brachial artery is the separate approach for reducing time of the treatment in medical science. The Physicians used to measure the blood Pressure by using Pneumatic Cuff encircling the upper arm of the patient. An inflatable section of this Cuff is inflated by a small hand pump and the blood Pressure is released after measuring the exact pressure. The Cuff is inflated to a Pressure greater than blood Pressure in the large brachial artery and Cuts off blood flow through brachial artery of the arm. This squirting blood results a display by an oscilloscope. This flow of blood through brachial artery of the human body will be detected with help of Pressure Transducer (Piezoelectric Transducer) similar to the Transducers used for direct Pressure measuring device. Any physician can estimate the condition of the blood circulation through the heart of the patient as well as the blocked passage of the vein/artery connected to heart of the patient by using an oscilloscope as a display device or using Monitor. Physician can detect primarily the heart condition of the patient. This type of special equipment can be helpful to cope up with the modern treatment.
KEY WORDS: Monitoring, Indirect method, Blood flow through brachial artery, Oscilloscope.
[1] AAMI, Medical Instrumentation series 103, blood pressure measurement: A comparison in Techniques;
[2] Guide to Physiological pressure Monitoring, Hewlett-Packard Company 1978 (Part No. 5952-5237).
[3] Recommendations for human blood pressure Determination by Sphygmomanometers, New York: American heart Association,1967;
[4] Geddes L.A. The direct and indirect measurement of blood pressure, Chicago. Year book Medical Publishers, Inc 1970.
[5] Franklin, D. L. Techniques for measurement of blood flow through Intact vessels, Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, 3(1965) 27-37.
[6] Burch, G. E. and N. P. Depasquade, Primer of Clinical Measurement of blood pressure. St. Louis Mo. The C.V. Mosby Company, 1962.
[7] Bartholomew, D. Electrical Measurements and Instruments, Boston, Allyn and Bacon. Inc, 1963.
[8] Benchimol,.Non-Invasive Diagnosing Techniques in Cardiology, Baltimore. Md. The Williams and Wilkins Company,1977.
Infrared (IR) cameras are used in various night vision applications such as driver assistance system, surveillance system, military applications. During video acquisition, the IR frames are affected by different types of noises such as Gaussian, salt & pepper. This paper proposes a novel method for IR image enhancement using normalisation and beta function. This method which enhances the contrast of an image and its histogram is equalized. The histogram analysis and the psnr value indicate that the proposed method is superior over the existing techniques
[2] Kurak, C.W., Jr., "Adaptive histogram equalization: a parallel implementation," Computer-Based Medical Systems, 1991. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual IEEE Symposium , vol., no., pp.192,199, 12-14 May 1991.
[3] Ehsani, S.P.; Mousavi, H.S.; Khalaj, B.H., "Iterative histogram matching algorithm for chromosome image enhancement based on statistical moments," Biomedical Imaging (ISBI), 2012 9th IEEE International Symposium on , vol., no., pp.214,217, 2-5 May 2012.
[4] Storn R, Price K. Differential Evolution-a Simple and Efficient Heuristic for Global Optimization over Continuous Spaces. Journal of Global Optimization, 1997, pp.341-359.
This study assessed the household food security and physical activity of women living in Obukpa rural community. A total of two hundred (200) subjects were randomly selected for the study. Data was collected using structured and validated questionnaires. The data collected was analysed using frequency distribution, percentages, means and standard deviations. The results showed that households spent between ₦2000 - ₦4000 on food per week. Twenty three percent of the households depended solely on home made food production as the source of family food while 64.5% of the subjects reported that they also depended on low-cost food because of their low socio-economic level. The subjects reported that in order to be food secure in the households, 23.5% of the subjects bought food on regular basis, 16.5% practiced bulk buying, 25% used available piece of land for home garden/farm. Cassava (garri) was always available and had the highest frequency of 12.5%, followed by pumpkin leaf which had 10%. About 70% of the subjects considered (perceived) themselves normal, 19.5% believed they were moderately fat or overweight while only 10.5% considered themselves too fat or obese. Using BMI assessment, 8.5% of the subjects were underweight, 52.5% were of normal weight, 23.5% were overweight and 15.5% were obese which contraindicated their self-perception. Based on the findings, food and nutrition education is recommended to enlighten the respondents on the importance of household food security on their health status and also the importance of physical activity (exercise) for healthy living.
KEYWORDS: Food security, household, physical activity
[2]. Food and Agriculture Organisation. Food and Agriculture: the state of food security in the world. FAO of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. 2003, pp 13-17.
[3]. National Population Commision. Census 2003.
[4]. Dewey K.G. Tackling the double burden of malnutrition. What actions are needed at the individual and family level? Standing Committe on Nutrition News, 2003 32, 16-20
[5]. Osagie C. Making world food day amidst hunger in Nigeria. Thisday Newspapers, Nigerian publishers. 2009
[6]. Ngongi A.N. The practical challenges of overcoming hunger. Standing Committee on Nutrition News. 1999 No. 18, pp 12
[7]. Abdullahi A. Food policy and food security in Nigeria. In food demand and market studies in the drier savanna of Nigeria. Proceedings of a methodology and stakeholders workshop 7-8 September; Kaduna Nigeria. 1999.
This paper applied the use of a stochastic weather generator at the site of a hydrological model to simulate the impact of climate change on a Tropical River flooding, aimed at developing a quantitative understanding of the changing behavior of hydrological systems under climate change. Prior to the simulation, the model was calibrated and validated with historical data, to obtain process parameters. Simulations with the model indicates an increase in the magnitude and frequency of flooding events associated with higher return periods
KEYWORDS: Hydrological, Climate change, Flood, Statistical, Frequency distribution
Hydrological Modeling Of The Impact…
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[2] Garba H (2013) Predicting the potential effect of climate change on the hydrological responses of Kaduna River North West Nigeria using a hydrological model phD thesis Department of Civil Engineering Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna.
[3] Booij MJ (2005); Impact of climate change on river flooding assessed with different spatial model resolutions. Journal of hydrology 303, 176-198.
[4] Jacobs P, Blom G and Linden G (2000); Climatologically changes in storm surges and river discharges. Proceedings of the ECLAT-2, KNNI workshop climate research unit, Norwich pp 35-48. IPCC; (2007), Climate change: 2007; the physical sciences basics, 4th assessment report (AR4); Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group 1, Geneve.
[5] Kumar CP (1993); Estimation of ground water recharge balance using soil moisture balance approach, Scientist E1 National Institute of Hydrology; Roorkee-247667 Uttarachal.
Landslides are predominant natural disasters occurring in hilly terrains, often characterized by rugged hills with steep slope associated with loose unconsolidated soil. With its peak occurrences during the monsoon season, the magnitude of its effect can be disastrous depending on certain additional controlling factors - both natural and man-made. This necessitates the analysis and preparation of landslide hazard zones which would be helpful for disaster mitigation and developmental planning activities. The present study encompasses the spatial analysis of landslide prone areas in Lawngtlai town using high resolution satellite data along with field data in a GIS environment. The analysis includes various terrain parameters like, lithology, geological structures, slope morphometry, geomorphology and land use/land cover for deriving landslide hazard zones in the town. The various parameters were classified, ranked and weighted according to their assumed or expected importance in inducing slope instability based on apriori knowledge of the experts. A heuristic method has been applied for the assignment of ranks and weights. Landslide hazard zonation map is prepared showing five hazard classes ranging from very low hazard to very high hazard. The study indicates that a majority of the town area falls under Moderate hazard zones, which further signifies that slope stability is still a major concern when taking up developmental activities. In this context, the landslide hazard zonation map prepared in the present study will be useful for carrying out mitigation programmes as well as for planning and implementation of future developmental schemes within the town.
KEYWORDS: GIS, Heuristic, Landslide Hazard Zonation, Lawngtlai, Remote Sensing
[2] Chandel, B.S. Vishwa, Brar, Karanjot Kaur and Yashwant Chauhan, RS & GIS Based Landslide Hazard Zonation of Mountainous Terrains. A Study from Middle Himalayan Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh, India. International Journal of Geomatics and Geoscience 2(1), 2011, 121-132.
[3] Parag Jyoti Dutta and Santanu Sarma, Landslide susceptibility zoning of the Kala-Pahar hill, Guwahati, Assam state, (India), using a GIS-based heuristic technique, International Journal of Remote Sensing & Geoscience, 2(2), 2013, 49.
[4] GSI (2011), Geology and Mineral resources of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura (Revised), Geological Survey of India, Misc. Publication No. 30 Part IV, Vol. 1(2), pp. 30-35.
[5] G.S. Mehrotra, K. Mahadevaiah and D.P. Kanugo, Landslide Hazard Zonation – A guide for Future Planning and Developmentof Himalaya (Abstr.). Proc. of the Indian Geological Congress, 1993, 103- 104.
[6] M. Raju, V.K. Sharma, V.K. Khullar, S.A. Chore and R. Khan, A Comprehensive Report on Landslide Hazard Zonation of South Mizoram. Progress Report for the Field Session 1997-1998, Geological Survey of India, North Eastern Region, Shillong, 1999.
[7] Nesatalu Hiese and Jenita Mary Nongkynrih, Landslide Hazard Zonation Mapping of Kohima Town. Indian Landslides 3(2), 2010, 41-46.
This paper was a review for antibacterial metallic coating patents in Japan mainly. Antibacterial matters are divided into three groups: organic materials, photocatalyst such as titanium oxides and metals. Each category has its own functional mechanism. In this paper, we focused on metallic elements. Generally, they bind with proteins existing at outer membranes leading to various enzyme inhibitions. And most of the patents available for practical applications have been concentrated on silver, copper and their compounds. We summarized the trend of antibacterial metallic coatings in Japan including our research activities and discussed about the future scope in this paper.
[1] JPO. Antibacterial compounds shown by patents and their application. Guidebook for patent map in various technology fields 2013; Available from: http://www.jpo.go.jp/shiryou/s_sonota/map/kagaku24/0/c-01.htm.
[2] Kanematsu, H., Antibacterial Materials for Safety, Security and Reliability, ed. H. Kanematsu. 2010, Chiba, Japan: Yoneda Shuppan Co,. 154.
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A fuzzy rules based system for removing false and spurious minutiae is experimented in this paper. Removal of false minutiae begins only after their extraction is complete from the enhanced fingerprint image. Hence this process is named as post processing activity in the enhancement process. The proposed methodology is simple and proved effective in removing false minutiae from the extracted minutiae of a fingerprint image. It also proved to be effective with respect to its implementation as it needs less computational effort.
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[5.] Farina A, Kovcs-Vajna Z M, Leone A. Fingerprint minutiae extraction from skeletonized binary images [J].Pattern Recognition, 1999, 32 (5): 877–889.
[6.] Hung D.C.D. Enhancement and Feature Purification of Fingerprint Images, Pattern Recognition, 1993, 26(11): 1661-1672.
The multi-objective optimization was carried out by first formulating separate weight and cost objective functions, and then forming a convex combination of the objectives. Compared to other multi-objective schemes, this method was simple to implement, requiring no additional modifications to the GA, since laminate fitness was still represented by a single value (i.e., by the combined cost and weight objective functions). However, results showed that this was not the most viable means of multi-objective optimization since it prevented the GA from finding the entire set of Pareto-optimal designs. This fault lies not with the GA, but with the fact that there is no convex combination of objective function values that will yield a Pareto-optimal point if the point does not lie on the Pareto-optimal curve, a phenomenon which occurred in this study. Nonetheless, further research is required to either improve on the ideas discussed in the paper, find better methods when using GAs for multi-objective optimization problems. The multi-objective scheme used in this work also required the scale factor to be adjusted in fine increments in order to obtain the set of Pareto-optimal designs for each loading condition, making this method somewhat computationally expensive. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the GA's ability to handle more complex composite optimization problems through simple modifications to the basic GA. These which discussed how to accommodate multiple materials in the stacking sequence. Further modifications, which are provided here, focus on the optimization formulation for such problems, and demonstrate one way of easily incorporating multiple objective functions into a genetic algorithm.
[1]. Callahan, K. J., and Weeks, G. E., "Optimum Design of Composite Laminates Using Genetic Algorithm." Composite Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1992, pp. 149-160.
[2]. Nagendra, S., Haftka, R. T., and Gurdal, Z.,"Design of Blade Stiffened Composite Panels by a Genetic Algorithm." Proceedings of the 34th Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, La Jolla, CA, April 19-21, 1993, pp. 2418-2436.
[3]. Nagendra, S., "Optimal Stacking Sequence Design of Stiffened Composite Panels with Cutouts." Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, June 1993.
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[5]. Orvosh D. and Davis L., "Shall We Repair? Genetic Algorithms, Combinatorial Optimization, and Feasibility Constraints." Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Genetic Algorithms, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1993, pp. 650.
[6]. Nagendra, S., Haftka, R. T., and G¨urdal, Z., "Stacking Sequence Optimization of Simply Supported Laminates with Stability and Strain Constraints. " AIAA Journal,Vol. 30, No. 8, 1992, pp. 2132{2137.
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