Archives-December  

The cultivation of fresh tomatoes at Tono irrigation scheme by mostly the lowly educated youth is bedevilled by so many challenges. However, even though the full cost of producing fresh tomato at Tono appear to be increasing rapidly over the years under review, the venture is still economically beneficial but with decreasing profitability by using conventional statistics. The average return on investment for 2006 dry season was 4.22 while that for 2010 dry season was 2.34. Thus, there was a general decline in profits over the years. Time series analysis was therefore, carried out to forecast for the next five years which confirmed the declining profits nature of the industry. It was realised that, various interventions from government and policy markers were needed to arrest the appalling situation and make the industry one of the keys to alleviating the chronic poverty in the Upper East Region of Ghana.

Herbal preparation of Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub. bark had been considered as effective, economical and safe ethnomedicine for various ailments in Indian traditional system of medicine. The present study was aimed to investigate scientifically the antidiabetic potential of B. monosperma bark. Both kinds diabetes; insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) were induced in the rats by treating with alloxan monohydrate (150 mg/kg b wt ;ip) and hydrocortisone (5mg/100g b wt; ip) respectively. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels were measured at periodic intervals during the test period. The blood samples were collected with care sino-ocular puncture method and serum was isolated by centrifugation to analyze plasma glucose and serum lipid profile. The results of preliminary phytochemical analysis depicts that B monosperma bark has the presence of steroids and tannins and absence of terpenoids, glycosides, alkaloids and flavonoids. The moisture content and total ash values of bark was 3.0%and 9.7% respectively. The treatment with bark aqueous extract of B monosperma substantially declined the plasma glucose level in both IDDM and NIDDM animal subjects by 7.2% and 26.6% respectively. This treatment also appreciably (P= 0.05 and P=0.01) lowered the serum lipid profile. In conclusion, the aqueous extract of Butea monosperma reflected hypoglycemic and hypocholesterolemic potential through glucose and lipid profile lowering activity in experimental animals. It supported the folklore state of antidiabetic potential of the plant.

Twenty samples of domestic water sourced from different underground wells in Gidan Dare and Gidan Igwai areas of Sokoto were collected and analyzed in the laboratory. The pH and the electrical conductivities (EC) of the water samples were also determined. The mean results obtained from the analyses were pH (7.68, 6.72) and electrical conductivities (1061µs/cm, 1057µs/cm) for Gidan Dare and Gidan Igwai, respectively. The results also showed mean arsenic concentrations of 0.110mg/L and 0.217mg/L for Gidan Dare and Gidan Igwai water samples respectively, which are above the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water guideline. Wells in Gidan Dare and Gidan Igwai were found to be contaminated with abnormal concentration of arsenic, high enough to cause serious adverse health effects to its consumers. The high arsenic concentrations could be attributed to both natural and anthropogenic activities such as erosion, underground weathering, toxic chemicals, improper waste and sewage disposal waste from industries, agricultural activities and vehicular emissions.

Salt stress as a major adverse factor can lower leaf water potential, leading to reduced turgor and some other responses, and ultimately lower crop productivity in arid and semi arid zones. To better understand salt stress responses in crop plants, we compared effects of salinity stress on growth, chlorophyll content and osmotic components in cresses that were grown in controlled environment in Hoagland nutrient solution containing 0, 5o, 100, 150 and 200 mM NaCl, respectively. Proline, soluble carbohydrates, chlorophyll ‘a, b’ and carotenes of leaves were determined 30 days after initiation of salinity stress. The results reveal that salinity caused significant decreases in growth of cress plants as measured by fresh weight. By increasing NaCl levels from 0 to 200 mM, the content of chlorophyll a and b, and carotenes reduced. Maximum reduction was observed at 200 mM of NaCl. Mean values of data showed that Lepidium sativum had the maximum reduction of chlorophyll a and b, and carotenes under salinity stress. In this study, salinity had no significant effect on soluble carbohydrate but the proline content varied among the cresses whether the plants were grown with or without salinity stress.

P2P networks has been used over the years to overcome the problem of node failure & service availability in the client server network but it is found that the some nodes in P2P networks actually process less number of requests as compared to the number of request forwarded to a particular node. But as the number of requests send at a node increases the number of request processed at a particular node increases. This paper presents the comparative analysis of resource utilization in peer to peer networks.

The State of the art of concrete filled steel tubular columns is presented in this paper. Experimental data has been collected and compiled in a comprehensive format listing parameters involved in the study. Areas of further research are presented and results of ongoing experimental and numerical investigations are also shown.

Cover change study was carried out within and adjacent to peri-urban mangroves of Mtwapa in Kilifi County using medium resolution Landsat (1990; 2000), SPOT (2009) imageries and a mangrove species vector map of 1992. The objective of the study was to assess the temporal mangrove cover change with respect to the immediate land cover changes surrounding the creek. Between 1992 and 2009 Mangrove forest cover saw a loss of 21%. Land-cover from 1990 to 2009 revealed high rate of upland deforestation (3.85% yr-1) and an increase in agricultural land (13.9% yr-1). There is need for reforestation and conservation of the remaining patches of upland forests as well as establishment of riparian zones to enhance soil retention to minimize sedimentation.

This paper presents a novel approach to the design and implementation of CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Devices) based DAS (Data Acquisition System) for varies application. This technique performs the acquisition of physical signal, conversion of analog signal to digital signal and storing of the information. The core heart of the proposed system is CPLD, which allows individual modules on a chip to work independently from each other which is configured and programmed to acquire real time data. The data for the process is acquired using suitable temperature and gas sensors. Signal conditioners are designed for each sensor and are tested in real time. The ADC0808 (analog to digital converter) is adopted for this system, which is a high speed monolithic CMOS device with an 8-bit, 8-channel analog-to-digital converter using successive approximation as the conversion technique. Cool Runner-II CPLD by Xilinx is used as the main controller from which all modules are implemented in VHDL using Xilinx ISE Design Suite9.2 and simulated using Isim.

In a deregulated electricity industry, congestion is most likely to occur and FACTS devices have been proven to be very effective in mitigating this challenge. In this paper a sensitivity based analysis is used to determine the optimal place to locate series FACTS devices, the device used for the investigation is Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC). This approach was tested on the South East Nigerian 11 – bus network. The Power System Analysis Toolbox (PSAT), was used for the simulation of the system. The load flow results obtained showed the effectiveness of the method.

Pedagogical content knowledge exerts significant driving influence in educational research of teachers. PCK is a basic guarantee for teachers to become expert educators. For physics teachers, PCK is a knowledge synthesis which is developed in a specific teaching situation. PCK development of physics teachers needs the accumulation of time and experience. There are many methods to develop physics teachers’ PCK, such as self-study, teaching reflection and school-based educational research.