Latest Articles
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
Assessment of pavement performance is essential in determining the serviceability and structural state of the pavement structure. Pavement failure and deterioration always commence immediately after the road has been opened to traffic. Several factors contributing to pavement failure and damage include traffic load, soil, environmental, economic, and stress distribution factor. Therefore, flexible pavement failure and deterioration are well-defined by alligator cracks, concentrated potholes, ruts, settlement, and localised depression. Pavement evaluation determines highway sections' functional and structural conditions for frequent monitoring or planning for maintenance. Kampi ya Moto-Eldama Ravine- Kamwasor (B77) road is a Kenya National Highways, Authority (KeNHA) class B road constructed in 2008. The length of the road is approximately 79.5 Km. However, the pavement had numerous distress features which developed even before the design life of the pavement was attained. The study, therefore, concentrated on evaluating the performance of the pavement to identify the type and level of severity of pavement distress; to establish a surface condition by measuring the level of roughness and rut depth and to perform a visual evaluation survey of the existing flexible pavement distresses; to identify the reason of structural and functional failures on Eldama Ravine-Kamwosor, and finally, to establish the residual structural strength of the existing flexible pavement and suggests the most viable maintenance intervention measures.
ABSTRACT
A well-known prediction of the Lorentz transformation (LT) of Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity (SR) is that when two observers exchange light signals, they will both measure a red shift (lowering in frequency). An experiment with gamma rays was reported by Hay et al., in 1960 in which an absorber is mounted at the rim of a high- speed centrifuge while the source is located near the rotor axis. There is general agreement that because of its acceleration, the clock attached to the absorber must be retarded relative to the gamma ray source. Despite the claim that this result is a confirmation of the Symmetry Principle, the fact remains that the slowing down of the absorber clock means that the frequency of the signals it receives from the source will be greater than the standard value, i.e. a blue shift will be observed because more waves are counted per second by virtue of the absorber clock’s reduced rate. This experience therefore stands in direct contradiction of the Symmetry Principle. In addition, it is pointed out that the three space-time predictions of the LT (equal speeds of light, time dilation and FitzGerald length contraction) are incompatible with one another. An alternate theory is presented (Uniform Scaling method) which is in full agreement with the results of the ultra-centrifuge experiment and also avoids any incompatibility with regard to it space-time predictions.
ABSTRACT
Einstein’s light speed postulate (LSP) is reviewed. It claims that the speed of light is independent of both the state of motion of the light source and that of the observer. An example is considered in which a light source is initially stationary in the rest frame of the observer. The light source then moves away with constant speed v relative to the observer. At the same time a light pulse is emitted in the same direction. According to the LSP, the speed of the light pulse is equal to c relative to both the stationary observer and the light source. It is shown that the LSP is unable to justify what happens after time T has elapsed, however, namely that the distance separating the light pulse from the observer is the same (cT) as it is for the light source. This is impossible since the observer and light source are no longer located at the same position in space. This procedure is referred to as “distance reframing.” It can also be used to prove that the above example is satisfactorily described by applying the Galilean velocity transformation (GVT). It leads to the conclusion that the speed of the light pulse relative to the stationary observer is c+v. i.e. greater than c, in direct contradiction to the longstanding claim of Einstein’s Special Relativity Theory (SR). One of the consequences of this development is that Einstein’s famous example of lightning strikes on a passing train is shown to be incorrectly interpreted as proving that the strikes do not occur simultaneously for a rider on the train and an observer on the station platform.
ABSTRACT
The zero point of function is an important feature of function, and it is an important medium for communication between function and equation. This paper analyzes and summarizes the existence, number and distribution of zero points of real and complex functions, and illustrates them with examples, aiming at deepening readers' understanding of zero points of functions and playing a certain reference role for teachers' teaching and students' learning.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
The research conducted in this article was used to prove that there is an increase in employee engagement of productivity increasing activities when a scoring system is utilized by employees. Previous research conducted proved that it is possible to evolve a scoring system that takes into account not just activities tied to productivity, but also factors relevant (and tailored) to individuals based on bias, relevance, location, etc. In this research article, we show that when a set of subjects were asked to utilize a scoring system to grade activities conducted (with a control group of subjects who did not utilize a scoring system), the group using the scoring system were more likely to engage in activities that enhanced productivity compared to the control group.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
Public participation is important because it helps to close the gap between the public, private sector and the government. However, a successful devolution process in Kenya is hampered by a lack of/inadequate public participation in county governments. Communications gaps are one of the arguments made for this development. The main objective of the study was to develop a sentiment analysis model for use in public participation forums in County Governments in Kenya. The study was conducted through the design thinking process. The population of interest of this study comprised of county management and staff also area residents in Nakuru, Busia and Baringo counties who have participated in public participation forums before. The Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) approach was used to create the cloud NLP package and obtain user sentiment magnitudes for the sentiment analysis model. Following that, cross validation was utilized to assess the performance indicators during the design stage, and users took part in the model's assessment. The overall conclusion of validation is that the model performed as expected and recorded instrumental results in increasing effective public participation in county governments in Kenya and strengthen the devolution process. This study recommends that the model can be cascaded to all the counties in Kenya to improve the efficiency of public participation.
ABSTRACT
Seepage is among the major causes of damage to dams and other hydraulic structures. Studying the hydraulic gradient and drift beneath hydraulic structures give a general idea about their safety. The objective of the paper is to develop a mathematical model of the effect of cut-off in controlling seepage beneath dams and other hydraulic structures. Analytical method was applied in the solution of the derived differential equation. The model exhibited a fairly constant reduction in the drift from upstream to downstream. A comparison of model shows that it compared favourably with the existing model with the advantage of being more simplified and easy to apply.