Archives-October 2011

Landfilling affects soil macro-fauna, which are important in soil fertility. The effects of landfilling practices on macro-faunal abundance and diversity at Aba-Eku landfill, Ibadan, Nigeria were investigated. Dumpsite and control soils were sampled bimonthly from April-August, 2010. Macro-fauna were extracted via Tullgren funnel and classified accordingly. Shannon-Weiner and Simpson’s dominance were used for analysis. 928 macro-fauna; (605: dumpsite; 323: control) in three phyla: mollusca, arthropoda and annelida were observed. On the dumpsite, this comprised ten orders; with molluscan order Stylommatophora (51.7%) dominating vegetated portions of the dumpsite. The remainder were arthropod orders; including isoptera (14.7%), isopoda (8.1%) and coleoptera (7.9%). Thirteen families including Porcellionidae (8.1%) were also observed. Some organisms observed on the dump site included Porcellio scaber (8.1%) and Aspavia armigera (2%). Arthropods (77.1%) dominated the control. Ten orders including coleoptera (21.98%) and isoptera (19.2%) were observed. This comprised ten families including the Iulidae (15.2%). The dumpsite (2.174) showed a higher diversity than control (1.645); while the control had higher dominance (0.84) than the dumpsite (0.593). Molluscsan dominance suggests tolerance to heavy metal contamination from metal wastes disposed. Coleopteran dominance on the control may be associated with the presence of the grasses - Tridax procumbens and Panicum maximum.

Moringa oleifera is a highly valued plant, distributed in many countries of the tropics and subtropics. It has an impressive range of medicinal uses with high nutritional value. Different parts of this plant contain a profile of important minerals. Results of the study revealed the presence of elements such as sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn). Hazard quotients (HQ) and Hazard Index (HI) were calculated for samples from Otiakrom and Techiman. The HI values for both study areas were less than unity (HI<1) meaning no chronic risks are likely to occur when three tablespoonfuls of dried Moringa powder is consumed daily. It is recommended that intake of the powder should be based on advice from a nutritionist to avoid the risk of toxicity increasing in vulnerable groups including, children, pregnant women and the aged.

Heavy metals contamination was carried out with the aim to assess the levels of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and chromium (Cr) in various fruits and vegetables sold in Ghanaian markets. A total of 350 fruits and vegetable samples were tested and analyzed by Atomic Absorption spectrometry. The test results showed that the average concentrations detected were ranged from below detection limit to 0.56, below detection limit to 0.08, 1.24 to 6.32, 2.32 to 21.4 and below detection limit to 1.06 mg/kg for Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn and Cr, respectively. The highest mean levels of Pb and Cd were detected in lettuce, Cu and Zn in cucumber and Cr in carrot samples. The daily intakes of Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn and Cr through fruits and vegetables have also been estimated. The levels of metals were all below the permissible limits by WHO/FAO. For there were heavy metals present in the fruits and vegetable samples, consumption of fruits and vegetables there was no zero risk. But the exposure of consumer did not exceed the acceptable daily intake (ADI). This study suggests that a yearly monitoring program for heavy metal in foodstuffs is necessity.

A sound fiscal position is an essential pre-requisite for achieving macroeconomic stability and is a critical ingredient of sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. Better fiscal management helps mobilize domestic savings, increase efficiency of resource allocation and achieve other worthwhile development goals. On the other hand, lax fiscal policy limits options open to the government for economic recovery, sustainable growth and poverty alleviation. The present study evaluates the fiscal situation in Pakistan and sheds light on its implications for Economic Growth and poverty reduction. Study finds that Pakistan economy have shown great resilience over the years against disastrous events. However, situation of poverty reduction is not satisfactory; Pakistan’s health and education indicators depict a dismal picture when compared with the countries with same level of development. As revenue generation efforts was only partially successful and Pakistan was unable to generate adequate revenues to meet expenditure. Consequently, successive governments have tried to reduce the deficit by reducing the development expenditure which hampered the growth process and resulted in a decline in human development indicators and increased the incidence of poverty.

Groundwater samples from the Ayensu Basin in the Central Region were investigated to ascertain the concentration of trace metals.  Twelve (12) trace metals were analysed in twenty nine (29) groundwater samples from the study area. Fe, Zn, Cd, Ni, Pb, Cr, Hg, and Ag were analysed using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) whiles Cu, Al, Mn and As were determined by Instrumental Neutron Activation analysis (INAA). Cd, Ni, Pb, Cr, Hg, and Ag were found below detection limits of <0.002, <0.010, <0.010, <0.006, <0.001 and <0.002 respectively. The detectable trace metals measured mean concentrations in the order; Fe (1.136±0.336 mg/L) > Al (0.856±0.459 mg/L) > Cu (0.382±0.379 mg/L) > As (0.287±0.232 mg/L) > Mn (0.269±0.212 mg/L) > Zn(0.090±0.080 mg/L). Mean concentrations of Al, As and Fe exceeded the WHO limits of 0.2 mg/l, 0.01 mg/l and 0.3 mg/l for drinking water. The trace metals concentrations were found to be generally low and therefore the groundwater from the localities are suitable for domestic use.

This paper aims to study the effectiveness of the current education systems from the point of view of satisfying the industry demand for workforce. The current system is translated into the terminology of supply chain management (SCM), as it can be formulated as a ‘push system’ in SCM. As opposed to this education system which is highly centralized and lacks cooperation between the stakeholders, a new ‘pull system’ is proposed in this research. The proposed system incorporates high level of cooperation between the educational institutions and the stakeholders in the policy-making process. Shift from a push system to a pull system is considered along with a shift from the current paradigm of social sciences to the new paradigm, named as Quantum Paradigm. The concepts of SCM are evaluated through the window of quantum theory. The research also covers management issues for the educational leaders in practice.

In this paper we will compute a new algorithm for new graph which its vertex is a graph.

The seeds of Azadirachta indica A. Juss. popularly known as neem collected from five cities of Accra metropolis was studied. Trees with wide girth and different seed weight were observed. Maximum residual oil content was noticed in trees from Haatso. Weight of the seeds had no effect on the oil yield. Seed oil content in most of the cities was not significantly correlated with morphological parameters of seeds. A.indica seed oil extracted was analyzed for their physicochemical properties such as viscosity at 28 ^oC (0.07 kg/ms), pH (5.7), acid value (1.102 ml/g), iodine value (71.0 gI₂/100g) and free fatty acid value (48.35 ml/g). The maximum mean percentage oil obtained (52.5 %) makes the commercialization of the seeds of Azadirachta indica in Ghana a possible and profitable venture. The result also confirms the oil to be good quality and can find application in industrial purposes.

Recent developments in the quantitative analysis of brain functional complex networks, based largely on graph theory, have been rapidly translated to studies of modeling. The brain functional complex network models have features of small-world topology --- such as short average path length, high clustering coefficient and modularity. In this article, we discuss the investigate methods about the modeling to brain functional network in diverse process and provide an accessible introduction to the basic principles of modeling. We also highlight some of the technical challenges and key questions to be addressed by future developments in this rapidly moving field.

Flood discharge is one of important factors in designs and hydrological works. Because of non-facilities and non-hydrometric equipment in basins without statistics or with deficient statistics especially in small watersheds, estimation of maximum instantaneous flood discharge is one of main problems in watershed projects. In this stud with the aim of determination of acceptable method to estimate maximum instantaneous flood discharge in small watersheds, two methods one base to basin area and other based to physiographical feature and precipitation were studied. The results showed that among methods related to basin area, Horton method with residual sum of squares 2.8(RMSE=2.8) and among methods related to basin- physiographical feature and precipitation, curve number with RMSE=20.6 had least error .so, determined as the best methods. FHWA method because of having most amount of RMSE=5924.5 had the least efficiency for determination of peak discharge in this area.