A Political Economy of Wellbeing/Wellness in Nigeria

Since the turn of the new millennium, which was the period of clear comparison and computation of the misery index, Nigeria had always record low in the index for the report. Within the last three years, the misery index that was published has shown that Nigeria is the sixth (6th) most miserable country that one can reside. This measure of misery index was also substantiated by the recent report from the World Bank on the issue of poverty, inequality, and wellness. However, it seems to be an intensified interest in how Nigeria will overcome such an unpleasant pattern. In this research, the study examined how macroeconomic indices in enhancing people’s wellbeing—utilising economic growth, monetary policy position, and governance efficiency as, unemployment, interest rate, and inflation rate for macroeconomic performance indicators. The conclusions drawn suggest that economic growth, resulting in the advancement of wellbeing via allocative as well as distributive productivity is possible. Second, there is a stiffening effect on the wellbeing of contractionary monetary policy which increases interest rates and unemployment rates. The outcome extracted also shows that unnecessary domestic lending characteristics of the Nigerian economic system invalidate the wellbeing of the Nigerian people. Therefore, it proposed that the monetary authority reevaluate its present position on sustaining a high level of rediscount rate. Received: 17 November 2021 / Accepted: 30 December 2021 / Published: 5 January 2022

Use of eco-benign periwinkle shell particle for making composites and study their effect on the thermal and mechanical properties of novel HDPE composites

In this investigation, the shell powder of Littorina littorea commonly called periwinkle was used as an eco-benign filler in High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) to form periwinkle/HDPE composites (PHPC). Understanding the effect of different particle sizes of periwinkle shell powder (PSP) and optimizing their influence on PHPC is the main scope of work. Periwinkle shell (PS) particle sizes from <53 μm to 150 μm were chosen as reinforcement. The different PSP size like <53 μm, 53 μm, 75 μm, 90 μm, 105 μm and 150 μm chosen in this study were named as PHPCL53, PHPC53, PHPC75, PHPC90, PHPC105, and PHPC150 respectively. The composites were fabricated by incorporating 1 weight % of PSP into HDPE matrix using compression molding technique and then subjected to morphological, thermal, and mechanical characterizations. Morphology studies using scanning electron microscope (SEM) confirms 150 μm PSP had best dispersion whereas 75 μm PSP resulted with agglomeration. PSP had little influence on the thermal stability of HDPE except for PHPC150 which showed rise in degradation temperature when compared to the neat sample. Mechanical properties such as hardness, Young’s modulus, impact strength, and flexural modulus were enhanced by the addition of PSP. Whereas, a decrease was noted in elongation at break (%) and flexural strength of PHPC indicating the stiffening effect of filler on HDPE. In order to understand the particle size influence better, the extension evaluation method (EEM) was performed for all samples and PHPC150 was found to be the best performing among all particle sizes.

Nonlinear Free and Forced Vibrations of a Hyperelastic Micro/Nanobeam Considering Strain Stiffening Effect

In recent years, the static and dynamic response of micro/nanobeams made of hyperelasticity materials received great attention. In the majority of studies in this area, the strain-stiffing effect that plays a major role in many hyperelastic materials has not been investigated deeply. Moreover, the influence of the size effect and large rotation for such a beam that is important for the large deformation was not addressed. This paper attempts to explore the free and forced vibrations of a micro/nanobeam made of a hyperelastic material incorporating strain-stiffening, size effect, and moderate rotation. The beam is modelled based on the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, and strains are obtained via an extended von Kármán theory. Boundary conditions and governing equations are derived by way of Hamilton’s principle. The multiple scales method is applied to obtain the frequency response equation, and Hamilton’s technique is utilized to obtain the free undamped nonlinear frequency. The influence of important system parameters such as the stiffening parameter, damping coefficient, length of the beam, length-scale parameter, and forcing amplitude on the frequency response, force response, and nonlinear frequency is analyzed. Results show that the hyperelastic microbeam shows a nonlinear hardening behavior, which this type of nonlinearity gets stronger by increasing the strain-stiffening effect. Conversely, as the strain-stiffening effect is decreased, the nonlinear frequency is decreased accordingly. The evidence from this study suggests that incorporating strain-stiffening in hyperelastic beams could improve their vibrational performance. The model proposed in this paper is mathematically simple and can be utilized for other kinds of micro/nanobeams with different boundary conditions.

Nonlinear electromechanical analysis of axisymmetric thin circular plate based on flexoelectric theory

Flexoelectricity will dominate the electromechanical coupling of intelligent components in MEMS/NEMS due to its size-dependency. This paper focuses on investigating the flexoelectric responses of intelligent components of the circular plate type, which are commonly used in MEMS/NEMS. Utilizing Hamilton’s principle, the nonlinear flexoelectric circular plate model is presented by combining von Kármán plate theory and flexoelectric theory. The equilibrium equations and all boundary conditions are obtained and then discretized. The nonlinear static bending of the simply supported axisymmetric flexoelectric circular plate is investigated by combining DQM and iteration method. The distributions of dimensionless bending deflection and electric potential are analyzed under different loads. Moreover, the nonlinear free vibration behaviors are also investigated by combining the Galerkin method and Lindstedt–Poincaré Method. The flexoelectric effect and stiffening effect of strain gradient are revealed. This paper will be helpful to promote the application of flexoelectric intelligent components of the circular plate type, which are encountered commonly in engineering.

Tutorial on Acoustic Fluid Loading of Structures

Any vibrating structure is loaded by the fluid surrounding it. Whether air, water, or something else, the fluid loading adds a spatially distributed resistance (in phase with the vibration) and reactance (out of phase with the vibration) over the structural surfaces. The resistance absorbs energy, and damps structural vibrations. The reactance is either mass-like, effectively adding to the structural density, reducing resonance frequencies and vibration amplitudes; or stiffness-like, increasing resonance frequencies. Usually, mass-like reactance is caused by fluids external to a structure, and stiffness-like reactance is caused by enclosed volumes of fluids. This tutorial uses analytic methods to compare and contrast external and internal fluid loading on a flat rectangular plate and demonstrates the effects of fluid loading on plate vibration and radiated sound. The well-known stiffening effect of the internal Helmholtz resonance is demonstrated for a thin panel and a shallow entrained cavity. The differences between heavy (water) and light (air) external fluid loading are also demonstrated, with significant reductions in resonance frequencies and peak vibration amplitudes for water loading.