Archives-April 2012

Volatile oils of Dioclea reflexa (Fabaceae) roots were obtained by hydrostillation and analysed using GC and GC-MS. A total of 15 compounds were identified; hydrocarbons being the dominating group of the compounds representing 69.27 %. Oxygenated monoterpenoids identified included terpinen-4-ol (2.47 %), myrtenal (1.69 %), verbenone (1.25 %), trans-pinocarveol (2.86 %) and thymol (1.30 %); also stearyl iodide (10.33 %) was identified.

The concentrations of copper and zinc in Sarotherodonmelenotheronfrom the Fosu Lagoonwere measured to assess the extent of contamination with these metals. The lagoon is a closed lagoon situated within the Cape Coast Municipality of Ghana. Atomic Absorption Spectrometry was employed to estimate the mean concentrations of copper and zinc within a three (3) month period from 16th September, 2005 to 2nd December, 2005. The concentration of copper was found to be in the range of 10.647mg kg-1 to 26.146mg kg-1 and that of zinc ranged from 4.138mg kg-1 to 96.236mg kg-1.The mean concentrations of copper and zinc were 19.665 mg kg-1 and 38.615mg kg-1 respectively. The mean concentration for copper was within the acceptable limit for human consumption whilst that for zincexceeded the FAO’s acceptable limit of 30mg kg-1. The hazard index for Copper exceeded 1. There is therefore, a very high probability of severe adverse health effect on the consumption of this fish species harvested from the Fosu Lagoon especially for children of 0 – 1 year. It was moreover, observed that no correlation existed between the values obtained for copper and zinc. This is a sharp contrast to literature.

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) experience frequent link failures caused by channel interference, bandwidth demands causes severe performance degradation in WMNs .Link failure will lead to produce a sequence of disruptions to deliver the packets to the destination. To overcome this ART rerouting the traffic via an alternative path from a node whose local link is down without the need to wait until the source node knows about the failure. This is achieved by creating a new backup routing table based on the original routing table which is computed by the dijkstra algorithm. The goal of these algorithms is to reduce loss of packets, end-to-end delay time, improve throughput.

This article presents information about Consumers International (Global Association of Consumer Unions) and its offices at various regions. It is also discussed about the role of Consume Voluntary Organisation in the society, benefits in having a Consumer Voluntary organization.

Increased number of old population recently raises various social, economic and health issues. The various kinds of health hazards among old people include low mental health, depression, dementia and morbidity. There are several factors which affects the overall mental health of a senior citizen (people above 60 years). The primary objective of the present study was to identify the predictors of loneliness and depression among old people. The study included a sample of 60 old individual above age 60 from different old age homes. We interviewed each participant individually for a period of 30 minutes-1 hour to know about their internal self and overall psychological functioning. Qualitative analysis showed that social support and harmony in family life plays a crucial role for loneliness and depression among old people.

In this paper, a compact, low cost and high radiation efficiency antenna structure, planar waveguide, substrate integrated waveguide (SIW), dielectric resonator antennas (DRA) design using Advanced Design System (ADS) tool is presented. Since SIW is a high Q waveguide and DRA is a low loss radiator, then SIW-DRA forms an excellent antenna system with high radiation efficiency at millimeter-waveband, where the conductor loss dominates. The impact of different antenna parameters on the antenna performance is studied. Experimental data for SIW-DRA, based on two different slot orientations, at millimeter-wave band are introduced and compared to validate this antenna model. The measured gain for SIW-DRA single element showed a broadside gain of 5.51 dB. The Return Loss/Reflection coefficient is found to be -48.617 dB at the Cut off frequency 33.02 GHz.

The raising of environmental issues has drawn attentions of businesses to participate in green practices. The conceptual framework of this paper underpinned the theory of Resources Based View (RBV) by identifying four firms’ key resources namely physical capital resources, human capital resources, organisational capital resources and financial resources. In this article, these four resources were proposed to be positively influence fast food restaurants to adopt green practices. This is in line with the literature whereby resources played as productive assets role in helping firm to accomplish activities. Activities that will be discussed in this study are adoption of green practices. If this is true, then the conceptual framework is expected to show positive results, indicating that firm resources determine the adoption of green practices among fast food restaurants. Hence, fast food restaurants should manage and utilise resources to adopt green practices in their daily business operations.

Spelling is a way of representing the sounds of speech. In order to spell a word, you first say that word to yourself. Then you choose letters to represent the sounds you hear. Clearly, it is important to know how sounds and spellings match up. You are not aware of this process when you write familiar words because you have memorized their spellings. Writing these words is automatic. A good speller can write a great many words without thinking about which letters to use. But there are many times when you must choose the letters carefully; for example, when you write new words or words you have not used often. There are two reasons why you must make a choice. First, the same sound may be spelled in different ways as in meat, meet and mete. Second, nearly half the letters in the alphabet can stand for more than one sound! There are 39 English speech sounds but only 26 letters in the alphabet. Obviously, some letters must do extra work. This is particularly true of vowel letters.

Airborne beta activity measurements have been carried out on the site of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC). The GAEC is a nuclear institution in Ghana that is involved in the application of nuclear techniques in research, radioisotope production and utilization, operation of a research reactor and processing of radioactive waste. Ludlum model 333-2 air beta monitor was used to conduct the measurements. Monthly averages of gross beta activities ranged from 1.2 to 3.0 mBq/m3. The gross beta activities measured were found to be due mainly to decay products of natural radioisotopes. Monthly total suspended particulate mass concentrations ranged from 22 to 110 µg/m3. Gross beta activities and particulate mass concentrations partially correlated. Based on these results, it could be stated that present ambient airborne radioactivity has minimal radiological consequences on the environment and inhabitants of the study area. Mass concentration levels would however need to be regulated.

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.