Volume 3, No. 1, 2015

Road transport is one of most important factors that affect the development of agriculture and the socio-economic status of a people. It is a significant avenue of evacuating farm produce and their distribution to various destinations. This research work was undertaken to investigate the effect of road transport on agricultural development in Ayamelum Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria. Survey trips were made to the study area for primary data collection. A structured questionnaire designed for data collection was administered on 20 farmers randomly selected in each of the seven communities of the study area. Descriptive, graphical and analytical statistical methods were used to analyze the data obtained. The findings reveal that road transport has both negative and positive effects on agricultural development and general socio-economic status of the communities in the study area.

Keywords: Economic status, Productivity, Rural dwellers, Transportation

Problems of energy use are many and include poor accessibility of electricity to rural areas, high cost of gasoline and diesel oil which are used for powering farm equipment, irrigation pumps, maize mills, vehicles, electricity generation and environmental hazards such as destruction of forests, green house effect, acid rain, the partial destruction of ozone layer and the exhaustion of fossil and uranium supplies. To alleviate these problems, alternative sources of energy such as biogas from organic wastes, ethanol from cellulosic carbohydrate and sugar-containing wastes, vegetable oil from seeds and solar energy from sun should be harnessed. Fully discussed in this paper are methods of harnessing these energy supplies which are useful in energy conservation and the development of new policy.

Keywords: Fossil Energy, Energy utilization, Biogas production, Renewable energy

The complementary effect of organic and inorganic fertilizers on the growth and yield of maize (Zea mays) was studied in the Teaching and Research Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Anambra State University, Igbariam campus. The treatment comprised of no fertilizer application, 10 t/ha of poultry manure (PM), 5 t/ha of PM combined with 75 kg/ha urea, 10 t/ha of PM combined with 75 kg/ha of urea and sole 150 kg/ha of urea. These were arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. Results showed that the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers significantly increased the plant height, number of leaves, stem girth, leaf area and leaf area index and number of cobs, ear length, ear diameter, weight of ear, weight of cob, 100 grain weight, grain yield t/ha and above ground weight (yield parameters), particularly 10 t/ha poultry manure combined with 75 kg/ha urea, followed by 10 t/ha poultry manure. The application of 5 t/ha poultry manure combined with 75 kg/ha urea performed better than 150 kg/ha urea as well as the no fertilized plants. The application of organomineral fertilizers, especially 10 t/ha poultry manure combined with 75kg/ha was recommended for enhanced maize production in Igbariam, Anambra State, Nigeria.

Keywords: Complementary rate, Growth, Maize, Poultry manure, Urea, Yield

The overhead costs of managing solid waste in an effective, efficient and sustainable manner in an area has been known to be very high and the means of generating enough fund to sponsor the project is scarce. The paper focuses on developing a cost estimation and waste production forecasting models for sustainable solid waste management. Equations were generated from the study based on the functional relationships among the waste production and evacuation cost parameters. Results of the study show that the mean value of the optimum evacuation quantity that minimizes the objective cost function in a thirty six month period as 1364 chain-up bin loads and the value of optimum total cost as NGN 9933904 (about USD 49669). The results also showed clearly that ASWAMA must have used about NGN 1.5m to NGN 5m (about USD 7500 to USD 25000). In each months of January 2012 to December 2014 in managing waste in Awka city. A forecast made in the study reveals that the quantity of solid waste that will be produced in Awka in the next months of January to May 2015 will vary from 2422 to 2588 chain-up bin loads per month, which will require about N1.5m to N5.6m (about USD 7500 to USD 28000) each month to evacuate as to keep the quantity of solid waste generated in the city at < 30%. The decision is left for the Anambra State Government to make should ASWAMA management present such a request to it. Finally it is hoped that application of these models will in no small measure assist the Anambra State Waste Management Authority and other solid waste managers in their waste evacuation cost estimation and scheduling to ensure improved, effective, efficient and sustainable service delivery to their clients.

Keywords: Data analysis, Evaluation, Heuristics, Implementation, monitoring, Model, Solid waste management

Efficient data filtering algorithm for Big Data technology Telecommunication is a concept aimed at effectively filtering desired information for preventive purposes, the challenges posed by unprecedented rise in volume, variety and velocity of information has necessitated the need for exploring various methods Big Data which is simply a data sets that are so large and complex that traditional data processing tools and technologies cannot cope with is been considered. The process of examining such data to uncover hidden patterns in them was evolved, this was achieved by coming up with an Algorithm comprising of various stages like Artificial neural Network, Backtracking Algorithm, Depth First Search, Branch and Bound and dynamic programming and error check. The algorithm developed gave rise to the flowchart, with each line of block representing a sub-algorithm.

Keywords: Big data, Filtering, Variabilty, Velocity, Volume

This paper presents a method of accurately estimating, measuring and calibrating Crude oil tank by adopting the “Corresponding Tilt Angle and Displacement Method”. Test for level of tilt was conducted by carrying out a bottom survey for the tank, the level of tilt was determined with the aid of surveying instrument , which was used in determining the easting and northing position of the tank . A deformation analysis shows that a great degree of linearity exist when Displacement was plotted against corresponding angle with r2 value ranging from 0.995067, 0.99189, 0.859067 and 0.975067 for tank B,C,D and E respectively. The result shows that tank D is the most degraded with r2 value of 0.8590 within a stable air temperature of ±3oC, The final calibration result shows that 10000 barrels has reduce to 9750.67, while the 20000 barrels has reduced to 19901.34 barrels, thereby suggesting that a recalibration of the crude oil tank should be carried out every 24 months since the last calibration was done 48 months ago.

Keywords: Calibration, Crude oil, Measurement, Tilt