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Detecting tree cover loss in Damaturu town using multi-temporal landsat imagery

Damaturu, the administrative headquarters of Yobe State, Nigeria has been experiencing a rapid developmental change in its physical landscape due to the monumental impact of urbanization in the last two to three decades, and this development has been occurring progressively at the detriment of the urban trees. No attempt has been made singularly to investigate the extent of this negative development as it keeps on progressing at an alarming rate. Thus, this study aimed at detecting and mapping the changes occurred in the last three decades, so as to the find out the extent of the change. For this purpose, the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) of 1986, and Landsat Eight/8 (OLI) scene of 2016 was acquired and used. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and change detection technique of image differencing was employed to detect the changes. The threshold parameter of 45% and 48% were used respectively for the increased (gain) and decreased (loss) option to obtain the image differencing (Highlight change map) result in ERDAS Imagine software version 15. Findings revealed that there are a significant tree cover canopies gain and loss amounting to an area cover of 2,193.75 and 1150.38 Hectares of land respectively. People’s quest of land for shelter, administrative status of the town, as well as lack of strong environmental bye-laws were identified as the main drivers of the observed changes. Overall, the study provides the valuable information required for sustainable urban development. This study also demonstrates the usefulness of medium resolution Landsat imageries and change detection techniques in observing environmental changes at a local level.

Published by: Modibbo Babagana-Kyari, Yusuf Maina-Bukar

Author: Modibbo Babagana-Kyari

Paper ID: V4I5-1249

Paper Status: published

Published: September 28, 2018

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Research Paper

The effects of devolved public project management on quality of public building projects in Kenya: A case of Busia County in Western Kenya region

The construction sector is a key player for sustainable development. Both levels of government in Kenya (National and County) have identified the construction sector as a driver of the development agenda. The devolved units (counties and constituencies) have invested quite a substantial amount of public funds in infrastructure development and yet social audit and media reports have raised the concern over the poor quality of the projects undertaken by these devolved units. This study, therefore, sought to investigate the project management process to determine its effects on the quality of public building projects. A case involving sixty-four projects sampled from Busia County and its seven constituencies was carried out. The study was a sample survey whose data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and physical observation exercise. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square good-for-fit tests. The findings indicated the very low participation of the public works officers as project managers in the construction process of the public building projects undertaken by devolved units. The participation rate was at 15% which implied that the projects were constructed without a professional project management process. The physical observation assessment revealed the quality of the public building projects stood at 34% compliance to building specifications and standards which is inadequate to meet the required standards. It is concluded that the involvement of public works officers as project managers in the construction management process of public building projects undertaken by the devolved units was inadequate and impacts negatively on the quality of the projects. In order to achieve the sustainable development as far as the infrastructural development is concerned, the involvement of professional project managers in the construction process was critical. This, therefore, called for the development of the legal and quality frameworks to guide the construction sector at the devolved units.

Published by: Wamalwa Chrispinus Waswa Mukoche, Kerre B. Wanjala, Simiyu John. W

Author: Wamalwa Chrispinus Waswa Mukoche

Paper ID: V4I5-1268

Paper Status: published

Published: September 28, 2018

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Research Paper

Design and development of grey water reuse system

Grey water is an alternative source of water which can potentially save a significant quantity of precious drinking water. The present study emphasizes primarily on the treatment of grey water to make it fit for serving various purposes. This paper provides an insight into the design of laboratory scale grey water treatment system, comprises of oxidative mineralization, disinfection, and filtration of grey water. Laboratory scale treatability trails were performed by the means of synthetic grey water and real grey water. Grey water treatment system demonstrated satisfactory removal of contaminants which was evident from the COD removal efficiency of 85% and 90%, TSS removal efficiency of 98% and 86%, and faecal coliform with removal efficiencies of 99% and 96% respectively. It could be inferred from the study finding that the treated water possed low turbidity value (< 1 NTU) and was free of suspended solids. Thus this study explored the capability of the grey water treatment system to carry electrochemical oxidation of grey water contaminants and making treated water fits for reuse. This implies that this treatment technology possesses the potential to be considered as a viable alternative to conventional grey water treatment systems.

Published by: Parameshwaramurthy P. M., Sadashiva Murthy B. M., Krupa Kadekoppa

Author: Parameshwaramurthy P. M.

Paper ID: V4I5-1275

Paper Status: published

Published: September 28, 2018

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Review Paper

A review on brain tumor segmentation techniques

Brain tumor segmentation is the vital requirement on preplanning of surgical treatments that may aid the pathologists to accomplish successful surgical operations on the human brain. In present days brain tumor surgical operations are progressed in the manual approach on hospitals that intakes excess time. Manual brain tumor segmentation is tedious and much depends on the individual operator that may not an advisable one. The literature on brain tumor segmentation consists of many papers related to tumor detection. This paper is a review paper to analyze the recent five papers related to human brain tumor segmentation. This paper analyzes them invariant potential ways to help green researchers to find their research area.

Published by: Nisha B., Victor Jose M.

Author: Nisha B.

Paper ID: V4I5-1208

Paper Status: published

Published: September 27, 2018

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Research Paper

A search for the source of high content of sodium chloride (NaCl) at Crater Lake Lonar, Maharashtra, India

Highly saline and highly alkaline nature of lake water is observed at Lonar Crater from ancient time till today. The formation of this lake is related to the formation of the crater by the impact of a meteorite forming Soda Lake. The existence of NaCl (Sea salt/common salt) in such a large quantity at Lonar, where the source is unknown because the formation of NaCl salt is a natural process and it may have started before the sea came into existence after the formation of the earth. The surrounding basaltic rocks has no NaCl salt or Chlorides content. A search was conducted to find the source of NaCl, which constantly maintained high salinity and at the same time high alkalinity from ancient time. Three edible salts i.e., Halite rock salt (mineral form of NaCl), Kala namak (Black salt) and Sea salt (common salt) having similar physical properties as representative samples were taken for comparison with respect to Lonar salt. After analysis of the three salts namely Halite (rock salt), Kala Namak and Sea Salt, the major component found was NaCl in various amounts. It was found that the major component NaCl was also present in Lonar Salt which suggested that the source of high salinity may be from the remains of an ancient dried up sea which existed before volcanic eruption of 65ma, or there may be store house of NaCl salts beneath the basaltic rocks which reflects the primitive ecosystem lying under primitive basaltic rock, totally unknown and have not been excavated. This paper reports the findings and the work carried out to search for the source of high content of NaCl (sea salt also known as common salt) existing at the Crater Lake, Lonar on preliminary basis.

Published by: Raju D. Jadhav, Harishchandra B. Mali

Author: Raju D. Jadhav

Paper ID: V4I5-1242

Paper Status: published

Published: September 27, 2018

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Research Paper

Exponential stability in time-delay systems

In this paper, we defined exponential stability for nonlinear time-delay systems with delayed impulses. We derive the Lyapunov-based sufficient conditions for exponential stability. We show that the nonlinear impulsive time-delay system without impulse input delays is exponentially stable under the conditions. It is shown that the stable nonlinear impulsive time-delay system. It is a magnitude of the delayed impulses is sufficiently small, under the same conditions. The delayed impulses do not destroy the stability of the sizes of the impulse input delays.

Published by: D. Deepika, S. Ramadevi, S. Mehar Banu

Author: D. Deepika

Paper ID: V4I5-1264

Paper Status: published

Published: September 27, 2018

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