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The averages concentrations of 238U, 232Th and 40K measured in the samples collected in this study are 130.6±38.7 BqKg-1, 137.9±39.7 BqKg-1 and 1120.1±245.2 BqKg-1 respectively. The absorbed dose rate in air at a height of 1m above the ground surface was estimated. The calculated radiation absorbed dose ranges from 95.4±3.2 nGyh-1 to 300.4±5.5nGyh-1 with an average of 193.2±44.5 nGyh-1 .The effective dose rates were calculated for human exposure to the gamma radiations and were found to be in the range (0.23±0.01- 0.74±0.02) mSv y-1, which is below the ICRP limit of 1 mSv y-1 for members of the general public.

The bark of the cinnamon tree has a long history both as a spice and as a medicine. It has been reported that the healing abilities of cinnamon come from three basic types of components in the essential oils found in its bark. This present study was to assess the microbial contamination that might arise as a result of recommended drying methods and the efficacy of extracts from different dried cinnamon parts on selected microorganisms. Oven dried samples recorded no microflora due to the high temperature in the oven destroying all vegetative cells in the samples. The root bark samples had a higher microbial count than the stem barks. None of the extracts from both the dried stem and root barks was effective at inhibiting the growth of E. coli. Cold water and ethanol extracts of the stem bark did not have an inhibitory effect on S. aureus. Hot water extracts of the shade dried samples did not show any inhibitory effect on Pseudomonas aeruginosa. For the inhibition of P. aeruginosa, oven dried samples showed a higher zone of inhibition than samples dried under shade.

The Niger Delta of Nigeria is the largest mangrove Forest in Africa and the chief source of wealth to the Nigeria state. This naturally endowed region has become a hot bed of hostage taking, violence, insurgency, crude oil bunkering and gang war. This paper writes on the causes and effects of militancy and kidnapping in the Niger Delta region, its implication on Nigeria economy and transnational cooperating in the region. The study adopts the Marxian political economy approach. It relied heavily on primary data. The study reveals that the tensions that rob the region of its peace and stability were the long years of neglect and the people’s quest to get a reasonable share of the states resources. The study also examine the role of the Nigeria state in ameliorating the situation. It recommends that current measures at restoring peace and infusing a massive infrastructure in the area should be maintained. Lastly, the provision of life sustaining skills for the youths of the region should be continued. This will enable the youths to survive without recourse to militancy and kidnapping.

Ce(IV) ion and sulphate ion loaded MCM-41 materials effectively catalyze the condensation of 1,2-aromatic diamine with 1,2-diketones to afford quinoxaline derivatives under milder reaction conditions. Significant role of concentration of Ce(IV) ion has been investigated and comparative studies of catalytic efficiencies of both Ce-MCM-41 and sulfated MCM-41 have also been discussed.  Both reagents are found to efficient and reusable with consistent catalytic activity.

Experiments were conducted to assess the relatedness of different subfamilies of Erebidae family using RAPD-PCR technique. The genomic DNA of thirteen different species of Erebidae moths belonging to different subfamilies of Erebinae, Calpinae and Hypocalinae were subjected to RAPD-PCR analysis. A total of 300 bands were scored with five RAPD primers, of which 291 were polymorphic bands while 9 were monomorphic bands; the percentage of polymorphism was 97%. Dendrogram revealed that the thirteen species were grouped into three major clusters and four subclusters.

NiO NPs and Barium doped NiO NPs calcined for different periods of time (3hr, 4hr) at 700?C were synthesized through co-precipitation method. XRD analysis confirmed that all the samples exhibit FCC cubic structure. The doping of barium and also increasing the calcinations time of Ba:NiO increases the crystallite size .Optical absorption spectra reveal that energy gap decreases from 3.75 eV to 3.35 eV due to the increase in crystallite size.PL spectral analysis shows that emission intensity decreases with decreasing grain size. . The morphology of the NiO NPs and Ba:NiO NPs has been analyzed by FESEM and SEM respectively The results of antimicrobial activity of NiO NPs and Ba:NiO (4 hrs) against E-Coli indicated that NiO NPs have excellent inhibitory activity.

Hippuric acid 1 cyclized by using cyanuric acid (TCT) as environmentally benign catalyst to 2-phenyloxazol-5(4H)-one 2 further treated with aromatic aldehyde-Friedel Craft reaction to benzoylaminoketones 3 and finally cyclized using the same reagent (TCT) gives good yields of substituted 2,5 diaryloxazoles 4a-h under the reflux condition.

The prolonged slump in crude oil prices and the exchange rate uncertainty can adversely impact global stock market. Malaysia also feel the pinch where in August 2015, its stock market index has plunged to its lowest level in more than three years since June 2012. Thus, this study is conducted to discover the relationship between crude oil prices and exchange rate to the Malaysia stock market index. Crude oil price, exchange rate and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) are chosen as independent variables while Malaysia stock market index as the dependent variable is proxy by FBMKLCI. This study used monthly time series data covering 74 observations from July 2009 to August 2015. Employing correlation matrix test, our result shows that all independent variables have significant relationship with FBMKLCI. On the other hand, regression analysis indicates that only exchange rate and DJIA is significant in determining the movement of FBMKLCI while crude oil price is not significant. The finding further indicates that changes in DJIA will positively affecting FBMKLCI while changes in exchange rate have negative influence on FBMKLCI.

In this paper, we propose a new optional randomized response model based on Gupta and Shabbir (2007) two-stage randomized response model which unbound the assumption that the mean of the scrambling variable S is ‘unity’ [i.e. ]. We derive the estimator of the sensitive variable, mean, and show that our method is more efficient than other randomized response models suggested by Eichhorn and Hayre (1983) and Gupta and shabbir (2007) estimators. A numerical illustration is given in support of the present study.

Bread is one of the major products of baked foods and is consumed worldwide. Autoclave of pumpkin seed help to increase the nutrient content of the bread. The objective of this study was to optimize the refined wheat flour, autoclave pumpkin seed powder and butter with respect to bread-making quality. The optimal Design was employed with the following variables of weight loss, porosity and specific volume of the bread. Models developed adequately described the relationships and were confirmed by validation studies. Refined wheat flour showed the greatest effect on models, which effect impaired porosity and specific volume of autoclave pumpkin seed bread. The optimum set of the independent variables was obtained graphically in order to obtain the desired levels of 100g for refined wheat flour, 10g for autoclave pumpkin seed and 6g for butter. Organoleptic evaluation of autoclave pumpkin seed bread shows that variation 4 with 100g refined wheat flour; 10g autoclave pumpkin seed and 6 g of butter had obtained high score for overall acceptability.