Chukwudi Nwaogu, Modupeola A. Olawoyin, Samuel K. Ahado, Edwin Wallace, Richard Gardiner

Road transport is the oldest, most affordable and commonly used means of movement. The socioeconomic development of nations depends on it. In spite its benefits, it is still characterized with several setbacks in the developing countries. Though climatic forces are causative factors in this inadequacy but human negligence is also responsible. This study compared the impacts of climate seasonality and road transport inequalities on the socio-economic indices between the rural and urban areas vis-א-vis north and southern parts of West-Africa. 1,440 individual respondents were surveyed across six English-speaking countries of West Africa. The results revealed that significant differences exited on the roads conditions, transport costs-services and socioeconomic activities between the rural and urban areas as well as north and south due to climatic variations and government developmental inequalities. The study is an `eye-opener‘ for the government in each country to give more attention to rural roads development. The recommendations of this research will support the improvement of rural livelihood and reduce rural-urban drift challenges; hence promote the economic consolidation and diversification of the region. Subsequent studies on effects of climatic variations and poor roads on the intra-inter economic relations of the region is recommended.

Shubham Roy, Ankana Chowdhury, Keka Basu Choudhury

Standard high voltage impulse waveform has a very fast rising time and a comparatively slow decay time. This phenomenon can be achieved employing a standard impulse generator circuit. But, actual measurements of this waveform is very difficult due to its high voltage. In this article, the novel electrical model to achieve the IEC standard impulse voltage waveform (nearly 60 KV), that can be measured by a normal CRO maintaining the same result for different stages of the generator, is described.

Raid Kamel Naji, Hassan Fadhil Ridha

In this paper, a food web model involving prey-predator system with stage structure in the second level is proposed and studied. The existence, uniqueness and boundedness of the solution of the system are studied. The existence conditions of all possible equilibrium points are determine. The local stability analyses and the regions of global stability of each equilibrium point are investigated. Finally further investigations for the global dynamics of the proposed system are carried out with the help of numerical simulations.

Surekha Lanka, Sidra Eshan

The world of the Information Technology has changed in a dramatic way over the past few decades. With the introduction of smartphones and the use of the internet as a part of daily life, the large amount of the data is created. Generation of the data commonly known as the Big Data has created a challenge for the IT professionals. On the other hand, despite the challenges posted by the Big Data it has potential of presenting a great opportunity for the businesses and the networks to improve and optimize their services. In the research review, different technologies of the Big Data, challenges, technical details and software platforms are discussed in detail.

Margareta Maria Sudarwani

Chinese temple area as religious area of Chinese community has a special space pattern, special views and vista which is a vital part of the image of urban community. The aim of this research is to study the space pattern of Chinese Temple area in Semarang Chinatown, Central Java, Indonesia. The purpose of studying space pattern of Chinese temple area in Semarang Chinatown is to examine the link between economic and socioculture aspects of community, space pattern, and an impact on the existing regulation. This research used a rasionalistic approach by a qualitative paradigm in relation to the aim of the research above. This research used a rasionalistic approach by a qualitative paradigm, on which used framework of theory not to prove or compile hypothesis, but to analyse problems and see object in its context. This approach needs theoretical framework that based on the experts’ theories, to be constructed become grand concepts with holistic study (Muhajir, 1996). According to the result and the analysis, the writer found that both the character of physical aspect and non physical aspect of Chinese settlement forms and influense the space pattern of Chinese temple area in Semarang Chinatown. Basic of all the special pattern of Semarang Chinatown is the environment pattern especially the space pattern of Chinese temple area and their specific buildings as physical aspects, combine with the socioculture activity and the economic activity as non physical aspects. Yet the space pattern of Semarang Chinatown and their socioculture give Semarang sense of tradition, history and regional identification that remains resistance to the encroaching values of modern industrial society.

Ahmed El-Sawy, Mohamed Loey, Hazem EL-Bakry

This paper presents the architecture, components and evaluation of Arab kids tutor (AKT), an intelligent tutor system for learning handwriting Arabic alphabets. Today, children suffer from handwriting difficulty, so tutors hope to get rid of negative impact of traditional learning system. Our system contains an immediate feedback with error detection that can check multiple kinds of handwriting errors and provide an intelligent feedback to our children. Moreover, AKT use freeman chain code and mathematical algorithms to detect order and direction errors. Through the work, we indicate the children level of understanding of learning handwriting character using fuzzy sets. Experimental results indicate that the AKT successfully detect handwriting strokes errors with automatic feedback.

P.O. Ebunilo, E. K. Orhorhoro, V. Oboh, P. U. Onochie

This research work is aimed at investigating the effect of temperature on biogas yields using South-South Nigeria as a case study. 42.3Kg of biomass (kitchen biodegradable wastes) was mixed with water in ratio of 1:2 to form slurry which was charged into biogas digester. Digestion was allowed to take place for a period of four months; two (2) months with continuous rainfall and another two (2) months of dry season without rainfall. Performance analysis was carried out based on biogas yields and anaerobic digester parameters (i.e. temperature, pH-scale and pressure). Within a period of sixty two days (i.e. two months) of continuous rainfall, a total of ten (10) evacuations and 3.41Kg of biogas yields were obtained while a total of eighteen (18) evacuations and 7.53Kg of biogas yields were obtained during dry season at a shorter retention period. This show that the higher the mesophilic temperature, the higher the rate of evacuation and the shorter the retention period. Considering the fact that South-South Nigeria experiences more rainfall throughout the year which leads to drop in mesophilic temperature and on the other hand affect biogas yields, proper insulation of bio-digester and use of plastic digester will be preferable especially for a higher mesophilic temperation to be attained.

Sachhidanandayya. Hiremath, Kumar. B, Puttaraj M H.

The objective of the present work is to evaluate mechanical tests (tensile, compression and Flexural) of pultruded bars which are made up of E-glass reinforced with Epoxy resin in short-term aged test conditions. Experiment on 151 FRP pultruded bar samples with varying diameters (12, 16 & 20 mm) being carried out at two phases. In the first phase FRP pultruded bars were exposed to different diffusion aging conditions to determine their structural credibility. The second phase involved in conduction of mechanical tests (tensile, compression & flexural) using Universal Testing Machine. The tensile test on bare and aged samples shows reduced physical strength. Maximum tensile strengths of unaged FRP bars of 12mm diameter found to be 463.6 MPa, as that of 60 days aged specimen found to be 412.6 MPa. The compression tests were conducted and a maximum compressive strength of bare specimens was found to be 408 MPa, as the specimens subjected to aging for 60 days in salt water, the strength of the specimen found to be decreasing by 19.64%. The reduced tendency of strength found in flexural mode, and found that 8.3% of decreased flexural strength. All the mechanical test results show the reduced physical strength when compared between aged and unaged specimens.