Archives-December  

The phytochemical screening, proximate composition, mineral elements and quantitative assay of anti-nutrients of the seeds of Cassia hirsute have been evaluated. The brown seeds have pungent smell and are bitter and unpleasant to taste. The phytochemical screening indicated the presence of alkaloids, tannins, saponins, phenols, sterols, triterpenes, glycosides and carbohydrates; phlobatannins and flavonoids were absent. The proximate composition of the seeds was 8.7% moisture, 7.7% ash, 7.0% fat, 10.5% protein, 13.2% fibre and 52.9% carbohydrate with estimated caloric value of 316.20 kCal/100g sample. The mineral elements determined in the seeds include K, Ca, Na, Fe, Mg and P, heavy metals such as Pb, Cr and Cu were not present. The antinutrient assay revealed that the total tannins, oxalate and phytic acid contents were high but hydrocyanic acid was not detected. The high values of these toxic materials suggest that the seeds are not suitable for consumption as food, but the solvent extract may be suitable as fumigant to dispel insects, rodents and snakes.

The phytoremediation capability of Eleusine indica on Copper and Nickel contaminated soil samples was investigated using standard techniques. Soil sample and seeds of E. inidca were collected from a farmland in Obe, Nkanu West L.G.A of Enugu State. 0%, 1%, 2% and 3% potted treatments of Copper and Nickel contaminated soil were made for three samples (initial sample, sample without plant and sample with plant). The plant samples were subjected to Bioaccumulation factor and Translocation factor examination while the Soil collected from these samples were subjected to soil analysis tests (Metal determination, pH, Soil moisture content, total organic carbon, and cation exchange capacity). The results from the study revealed Eleusine indica as a phytoremediator having BAF>1 for Cu (0% = 1.25, 1% = 1.35, 2% = 1.31 and 3% = 1.36) and Ni (0% = 1.31, 1% = 1.53, 2% = 1.80 and 3% = 2.06) contaminated soil samples. The translocation factor (TF) were also observed to be greater than 1 (TF>1) in all the treatments for both Cu and Ni contaminated soil. Heavy metal contamination of soil reduces its total organic carbon and increases its cation exchange capacity. Eleusine indica is a hyperaccumulator, its root stores more heavy metals and thus suitable for phytoremediation.

Subcapsular hematoma of the liver represents an unusual clinical phenomenon in the pregnancy and postpartum period. Serious complications can be devastating in terms of fetal and maternal mortality. We present a case of a multiparous patient of 44 -year-old at 37 weeks of gestation, admitted for preeclampsia. The woman underwent an emergency Cesarean section (C-section) with the extraction of a live foetus. Few hours after delivery, she complained of intense abdominal and epigastric pain. Diagnostic work-up was suggestive of a subcapsular right lob hepatic hematoma which was successfully managed conservatively in a multidisciplinary team. We will try through this case to highlight the interest of imaging (ultrasound and scanner) for an early diagnosis at the non-ruptured stage, a prerequisite for a good prognosis.

Power remains a germane ingredient of national development. It serves as bedrock of societal growth as it is needed in almost area of economy ranging from education, health, transportation, Information and Communication technology and manufacturing. Educational institution serves as centers of innovation where cutting edge researches are carried out to improve societal wellbeing and at the same time provide affordable solution to various problems facing nature. For this research to be effectively carried out, stable supply of electricity is needed as most equipment needed for the research are powered by electricity. Unfortunately, Nigeria power system has been facing a lot of challenges that sabotages the stability of its supply. This review takes a look at the available resources inherent in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions that can provide a substitute and at the same time complement the existing supply. Biogas been a renewable energy product was identified and estimated to be a veritable means of generating independent power for the academic community. It was evaluated based on reasonable population prediction that a total of 177,000m3 of biogas corresponding to energy generation of 221.25MWh can be generated daily from total waste in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. Challenges facing adoption of biogas policy were highlighted and recommendations were made.

This study was conducted to determine the potentials of Sodom apple (Calotropis procera) extract as a sole coagulant of soymilk during soy cheese production. Four alum concentrations were prepared and used as control treatments: A5 (0.5 % conc.), A10 (1.0 % conc.), A15 (1.5 % conc.) and A20 (2.0 % conc.). Four strengths of Calotropis procera extracts (CPE) (C15, C20, C25 and C30) were obtained from 15 g, 20 g, 25 g and 30 g respectively of the fresh plant. Each of the concentrations of alum and CPE was used as a sole coagulating agent of soy milk and the effects on clotting time, product yield, whey volume and organoleptic properties of the curd were assessed. The average milk clotting time, curd yield, and whey volume were significantly (P < 0.05) influenced by the type and concentration of coagulant used to achieve curdling. The average clotting time, curd yield, and whey volume were in the ranges of (6.0 - 31 minutes), (120.2 – 207.8 g/l), and (495.0 – 785.0 ml/l) respectively. Treatments A20 and C30 recorded the shortest clotting times of 6.0 and 9.0 minutes respectively whereas treatment A5 had the longest clotting time (31.0 min). The curd yields were high in treatments A10 (207.8 g/l), C30 (191.2 g/l) and C25 (183.9 g/l) whereas A20 recorded the least curd yield (120.2 g/l). In the alum treatments, positive correlation (r = 0.585) was observed between soy milk clotting time and soy curd yield. On the contrary, there was strong negative correlation (r = - 0.803) between clotting time and curd yield when CPE were used as coagulants. The different concentrations of alum and C. procera added to soy milk had significant (P < 0.05) effects on the organoleptic properties (taste, colour, texture and overall acceptability) of the soy cheese produced. The soy cheese flavour did not vary significantly (P > 0.05) among the treatments. Generally, it was observed that the 25g CPE can be used to substitute for alum in soy curd formulation.

The objective of this paper is to predict the failure load of the composite laminates during tensile loading using an online Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring and Artificial Neural Network. Bidirectional glass/epoxy laminates were subjected to tensile loading. The laminates were made for 12 layers of bi-directional glass mat in an epoxy matrix. The AE data recorded during the tensile testing was used to predict the failure load. The parameters such as amplitude, count, duration, energy, peak to count and rise-time were used for the analysis. Feed forward back propagation neural network model was generated from acoustic emission cumulative counts data taken during loading of bi-directional glass/epoxy tensile specimens. Cumulative counts recorded up to 50% and 75% of the failure load were used as the input data for simulation. The results show that the developed non-destructive method is capable of predicting the failure of composites subjected to tensile loading with an error of 3.5% and 7.6% for cumulative counts of 50% and 75% of loads respectively.

Determination of the proximate and anti-nutritional composition of two common edible insects: yam beetle (Heteroligus meles) and palm weevil (Rhynchophorus phoenicis) was carried out and the results showed that they both contained an appreciable levels of protein (38.10 and 50.01% respectvely), with moisture, ash, fibre, lipid, carbohydrate and gross energy levels being:(1.01, 5.78, 3.00, 32.01, 20.10% and 521.41Kcal/kg) and (1.16, 4.92, 2.56, 21.12, 20.23% and 480.02Kcal/kg) respectively. The results of the anti-nutritional analysis revealed that oxalate (total and soluble) were (29.00 and 19.32mg/100g) and (21.72 and 14.01mg/100g) for yam beetles and palm weevils respectively. These results were fairly high compared to other anti-nutritional components of the studied insects but generally fall within nutritionally accepted values. The lower values of phytic acid, HCN and tannins (0.311, 2.651 and 0.42mg/100g) and (0.276, 2.531 and 0.481 mg/100g) respectively for yam beetle and palm weevils. These results were generally far below toxic levels in men. Statistically, there exists positively high significant difference between the compositions of the two insects at r0.05 and n-2 degree of freedom while the index of forecasting efficiency (IFE) was very high at 99.5% which indicates that the error of prediction was very minimal. The moisture, ash and crude fibre of the insects were very low compared to fish meat and beef. These insects therefore could serve as additional promising sources of protein and fat for the teaming population and animal feeds formulations.

The problem of generating bivariate normal distributions is drawing the attention of the reliability analyst. Amongst those approaches, the characterization approach and the modelling approach are very appealing. In fact characterization approach is of interest to both theoreticians and applied workers. Here we have used a bivariate normal distribution for application from Mutivariate normal distribution through characterization approach. In our application we have considered days of Menstrual Cycle with Melatonin hormone as variable combined with LH, Estradiol and Progesterone hormones as variables as women stress effects. In many applications involving functions of random variables one may be interested in only the mean & variance of these functions. Furthermore, one may have available data from which the mean, variance and perhaps correlation coefficients among the variables can be calculated. Here we express the statistics of a function of a several random variables as a function of statistics on its component. In the discussion which follows the joint density is assumed to be a multivariate normal. The mean and variance of four variales have been utilized in the application part. From the clinical point of view menstrual changes due to secretion of hormones Melatonin, LH, Progesterone, Estradiol which are first sign of ovarian function. The curve for moment generating function of the above four variables are obtained here and explained by using a figure in the mathematical results. Keywords: Melatonin, LH, Progesterone, Estradiol

Educational Institution is a home away from home and it is a place of knowledge acquisition. It aims in developing the adolescents to fulfill the requirements of the needs of the society. It strives hard in implementing new tactics to enhance the academics, but it still fails in achieving it due to many reasons one among is, addiction to social networks. As we are living in techno world, we are bound to be a member of social networks (SN) and the adolescents are not an exception to it. In this present scenario we are highly dominated by our inventions and the best example is social networks. Though it is featured with many beneficial attributes its impact on adolescent’s academics is worse which indeed troubles the parents and bring them to a conclusion that social networks has connection with adolescent’s academic performance which is considered significant by the educational institution. To find the attribute which cause a strong impact on adolescent’s academic performance, induced linked fuzzy relational mapping using hexagonal fuzzy number approach is used which is a novel method.

The potential use of custard apple peel powder for the removal of Cu (II) from waste water has been investigated in batch mode experiments. Influences of parameters like initial Cu (II) concentration (20-60 mg/l), pH (5-7), and biomass dosage (25-35 g/l) on Cu (II) adsorption were examined using response surface methodology. The Box-Behnken experimental design in response surface methodology was used for designing the experiments as well as for full response surface estimation and 15 trials as per the model were run. The optimum conditions for maximum removal of Cu (II) from an aqueous solution of 20 mg/l were as follows: adsorbent dosage (28.139 g/l), pH (6.40213) and initial Cu (II) concentration (17.6572 mg/l). The high correlation coefficient (R² =0.991) between the model and the experimental data showed that the model was able to predict the removal of Cu (II) from waste water using Custard apple peel powder efficiently.