Archives-J 

Shipping covers 90% of goods transport globally. According to current estimates presented in Third IMO GHG Study 2014, international shipping emitted 796 million tones of CO2 in 2012, which is about 2.2% of the total global CO2 emission. One of the methods of reducing CO2 is by applying wind energy devices such as Flettner rotor for ship propulsion. Ships fitted with Flettner rotors are tested and simulated over various ship routes claiming a fuel saving up to 30% for average ship speed. In this paper the progress of Flettner rotor application exclusively for ship propulsion is reviewed and summarized.

The present study comprises of an investigation of captopril a potent ACE inhibitors used orally to treat hypertension, as a feasible candidate for transdermal drug delivery. The present research work was undertaking to formulate a Transdermal drug delivery system of captopril, to investigate the effect of different penetration enhancers, and to study the in vitro permeation characteristics of the drug through the excised rat skin. In the present study, Transdermal patches of captopril were formulated using EC, PVA, PVP, PEG6000. All the formulation were used in combinations and penetration enhancers like DMSO, DMF, PG used in each groups. The effect of penetration enhancer in permeation through rat skin, revealed that DMF showed better result. In vitro skin permeation studies indicated that PVA: PEG6000 matrix type film may be fabricated in to effective system and DMF showed better result. The penetration enhancer DMF demonstrated the highest flux of 0.102 mg/cm2/hr and followed by PG 0.073 mg/cm2/hr from CE2 AND DE2 respectively.

Invasive Salmonella Typhimurium infection is in a flux in resource poor settings in Kenya. However, sequence analysis of the strains in the study areas have not been determined. This study aimed to determine the distribution and genetic diversity of S.Typhimurium. Single locus sequence typing (SLST) based on fliC gene indicated S.Typhimurium isolates exhibited geographic restriction in addition to intraspecies diversity. The dominant strain isolated belonged to S.Typhimurium strain UK-1 lineage in both study areas. Data on genetic diversity is vital in monitoring the disease in the study areas.

Graffiti takes the form of written language whose authorship always remains anonymous. It precisely refers to any wall writing, pictures and symbols or markings of any kind on any surface anywhere no matter what motivates the writer. Most graffiti are viewed as illegal or vandalism of property by those in authority. Secondary school students use graffiti as a form of communication when they feel other channels to express themselves, have been blocked by those in authority. The study at aimed at identifying the communicative strategies employed in graffiti writing and the influence of graffiti on learning of English language and classroom learning environment in our schools. Graffiti texts were collected in ten secondary schools purposively sampled in the Larger Laikipia East District in Laikipia County. Out of one thousand graffiti texts collected, two hundred were randomly sampled for analysis. Twenty English teachers were purposively sampled to take part in an interview. One hundred students were randomly sampled to fill in questionnaires. A Focused Group Discussion (FGD) was carried out with another group of five students randomly sampled across the classes in each school. The data collected from this exercise were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to arrive at inferences and conclusions. The study used a sociolinguistic approach to the study of graffiti. The study was guided by General System Theory. The findings of the study were that students used varied communicative strategies like humour, symbolism, irony, short forms, acronyms and abbreviations in their graffiti writings. It was also established that teachers expressed varied opinions that graffiti influenced learning of English language and classroom learning environment in secondary schools. The findings of this research may contribute to the study of sociolinguistics in general and communication in schools in particular. It has been established that students use graffiti to communicate a lot of information that would be beneficial to the head teachers, quality assurance officers, students’ counsellors, policy makers and other stakeholders. Classroom teachers may also use graffiti to establish the unspoken students problems and behaviour and thus prevent entropy of the school system.

Recently in this laboratory the economical, environmental, solvent free, mild and having simple work-up reaction condition was developed for the green synthesis of a novel series of 1-substituted-3-(4-pyridinoimino)thiocarbamides (IIIa-e) having high product yield and avoid treacherous byproducts. The interactions of 4-cyanopyridine (I), concentrated hydrochloric acid and various thiourea (IIa-e) were carried out in microwave oven to synthesize (IIIa-e). The green chemistry parameters were maintained. The synthesized compounds were recrystalised and the structure of synthesized compounds were justified and established on the basis of elemental analysis, chemical characteristics and spectral studies.

Good optical quality single crystals of pure and glycine doped zinc tris thiourea sulphate (ZTS) were grown from aqueous solution by slow evaporation technique at ambient temperature. The grown crystals were subjected to various studies such as powder X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectral analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA)-Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies and second harmonic generation (SHG). Powder X-ray diffraction of pure and glycine doped samples reveals some minor structural variations. Changes in intensity patterns and slight shift in peak positions are observed because of doping. The UV-vis spectrum shows that the materials have wide optical transparency in the entire visible region. The SHG efficiency of the crystals was found to increase substantially with increase in glycine concentration. The presence of dopant has been confirmed and analyzed by FTIR. TGA and DSC analysis confirmed that the thermal stability of grown crystal is increasing with the doping concentration of glycine. Mechanical properties of the grown pure and glycine doped crystals were studied by using HMV-2T microhardness testor.

This study is aimed at assessing & comparing the levels of some heavy metals in most commonly sold and/or consumed soft and alcoholic drinks in Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria. Three brands each of soft drink (Coke, 7Up & Maltina) and alcoholic drinks (Orijin, Trophy & Goldberg) were bought and analyzed for copper, chromium & lead using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric technique. 30 mL of each of the sample was digested, after allowing the sample to stand for 24 hrs for gas evaporation, using dry ashing method; 10 mL of concentrated HNO3 was added to the ash, filtered and made up to 30 mL mark with 0.1 M HNO3. The digested samples were analyzed for Cu, Cr & Pb using Buck Scientific Model 210VGP Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Results showed that overall mean levels of Cu were 0.05 ± 0.03 mg/L and 0.09 ± 0.04 mg/L for soft & alcoholic drinks respectively. Chromium was below detection limit of the FAAS and can be inferred to be below tolerance limit set by NIS (0.05mg/L). Lead was detected in both sampled drinks at a concentration ranging from 0.010 - 0.140 mg/L for soft drinks and

This paper analysed cowpea markets and consumers’ preferences in Ogbomoso metropolis using a household hedonic approach. 60 cowpea sellers were selected by a purposive random sampling technique in four major markets from Ogbomoso North (Sabo market and New Waso market) and Ogbomoso South (Arada market and Caretaker market) Local Government Areas of Oyo State, Nigeria. 50% of the cowpea sellers were male and female respectively. 96.67% of them sell more than one varieties. 96.67% of respondents sell a combination of varieties i.e. Peu/Drum, Sokoto, Mala, Olo and Oloyin for their nutritive value, popularity and availability which may be used for boiled whole grain cooking, fried cowpea balls (akara), and steamed cowpea cake (moin-moin). Over 50% of respondents (cowpea marketers) use storage chemical which reduces the attack of weevils to be able to sell cowpea that has no or few numbers of bruchid holes. The mean prices of peu/drum cowpea, sokoto cowpea, mala cowpea, olo cowpea and oloyin cowpea are ?359.67, ?291.83, ?324.00, ?376.00, and ?394.17. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) which was used capture price-quality relationship of the type of cowpea purchased by consumers revealed that there is a significant relationship between the number of holes in each of the cowpea varieties and their respective prices in the various markets sampled in the study area. Hence, the numbers of holes appear to be the major determining factors affecting the prices of various cowpea types in the study area.

Hepatoprotective activity and antioxidant status of ethanolic extracts of 200,400,600 mg/kg of Alpinia purpurata rhizome was evaluated against Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in rats. Acute and short-term toxicity studies were performed initially in order to ascertain the safety of ethanolic extracts of Alpinia purpurata rhizome. After 48 hrs of CCl4 induced, the extract was administered daily for 15 days. After administration of the last dose followed by 18 h fasting, rats were then sacrificed for observation of hepatoprotective activity. The effect of ethanolic extracts of Alpinia purpurata on the CCl4 treated rats. Ethanolic extract showed significant (p<0.05) hepatoprotective effect by lowering the serum levels of various biochemical parameters such as serum glutamic oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), alkaline phospatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TBL), total cholesterol (CHL) in the selected model and liver biochemical parameters (lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzymes) were estimated. These biochemical observations were in turn confirmed by histopathological examinations of liver sections and are comparable with the standard hepatoprotective drug Silymarin (25.0 mg/kg body weight, p.o) which served as a positive control. Treatment with ethanolic extracts of Alpinia purpurata decreased the levels of lipid peroxidation and increased the levels of glutathione, superoxide dismutase and catalase. The ethanolic extracts of Alpinia purpurata rhizome exhibited hepatoprotective effect by modulating lipid peroxidation and augmenting antioxidant defense system in CCl4 treated rats.

This study was undertaken for analyzing the impact of dividend payout on the stock prices, profitability, liquidity and risk of the company. Stock price and dividend payout ratio are the dependent variables of this study. It was qualitative research in which primary data was used. Data was collected with the help of questionnaire from 30 respondents. Several statistical tools and different types of techniques such as regression analysis, T-tests, correlation and covariance were applied for getting accurate and useful results. In this research one framework model was designed, that were tested with the help of five hypotheses. Rejection of null hypothesis revealed the positive impact of profitability, leverage and liquidity on the dividend payout. It was also observed that dividend payout has significant impact on the variation of stock price.