Assessment of the Nutritional Composition, Microbiological and Sensory Attributes of Maize-based fortified food with Peanut and Carrot Blends

This research assessed the nutritional composition, microbiological and sensory attributes of maize-based fortified food with peanut and carrot blends. A total of six composite flour samples were formulated using varying ratios of maize, peanut, and carrot: (MPC1) 100% maize flour (control), (MPC2) 90% maize, 5% peanut, and 5% carrot, (MPC3) 80% maize, 15% peanut, and 5% carrot, (MPC4) 70% maize, 20% peanut, and 10% carrot, (MPC5) 60% maize, 25% peanut, and 15% carrot, and (MPC6) 50% maize, 30% peanut, and 20% carrot. The proximate, mineral, vitamin, antinutrient, and functional properties of these fortified food samples were assessed using established methodologies. The proximate analysis revealed a significant increase (p<0.05) in moisture, crude protein, fat, crude fibre, ash, and energy content of the fortified samples, with values ranging from 1.63% to 3.80%; 3.08% to 44.43%; 2.39% to 15.16%; 3.58% to 7.04%; 2.34% to 3.80%; and 381.75 to 432.52 KJ/100g, respectively, as the supplementation of peanut and carrot flours increased. Conversely, the carbohydrate content decreased from 86.98% to 27.64%. The mineral content of the fortified samples also showed a significant increase (p<0.05) with higher levels of peanut and carrot flour supplementation. The findings of this study indicated a statistically reduction (p<0.05) in the antinutrient profiles of the fortified food samples. Additionally, the vitamin content significantly increased (p<0.05) with the addition of peanut and carrot flours. The overall viable counts were significantly low, and there were no detectable coliform or fungal counts. Although, the result of sensory evaluation indicated that the control sample was more organoleptically acceptable than the substituted samples, incorporating these nutrient-rich and functional ingredients in the production of maize-based cereals may broaden the application of peanut and carrot flours in the creation of various cereal types and other cereal-based food items

Residual Effects of Selected Organic Mulches on Soil Physico-chemical Properties and Yellow Pepper (Capsicum chinese) Yield in Awka, South-Eastern Nigeria

A study on the residual effects of selected organic mulches on soil physico-chemical properties and yield of yellow pepper (Capsicum chinese) was conducted in the Department of Soil Science and Land Resources Management (LRM) Research farm, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Oil palm fiber (OPF), rice husks and neem leaves (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) were used as mulching materials and the residual effects were evaluated on the second year. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with five replications. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and means were separated using Least Significant Difference at 5% level of probability. The physical properties of the plots mulched with oil palm fiber had the least value for moisture content (22.98), hydraulic conductivity (14.4) and total porosity (49.54) among the mulched plots, while the least value for bulk density was found in soils mulched with Neem leaves (1.30). The soil mulched with neem leaves tended towards neutrality (pH = 6.2) compared to the others; had the highest values for available phosphorus (24.14), nitrogen (0.33), calcium (9.02), magnesium (4.46), effective cation exchange capacity (15.7) and base saturation (93.59) and the least values for aluminum (0.32) and hydrogen (0.64), which are indicators of a healthy and productive soil. The plots mulched with rice husk produced the highest value (2.2kg/2m) on yield among the mulched plots. Among the organic mulches tested in this work, neem leaves   and rice husk proved to be better for the production of yellow pepper

BOARD ATTRIBUTES AND TAX PLANNING OF LISTED CONSUMER GOODS COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

The board of directors of a company is expected to develop tax planning strategies to lower the taxable amount owed to the tax authority in order to improve shareholders’ wealth and avoid fraud, but not to engage in tax evasion. This study examined the impact of board attributes on tax planning of listed consumer goods companies in the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE). Ex-post facto research design was used and the population of the study comprised all consumer goods companies which were consistently listed at Nigerian Stock Exchange for the period 2011-2021. Data for the study were obtained from the annual reports and accounts of all listed consumer goods companies for the period under review. Multiple regression analysis technique was used in analyzing the data. The findings revealed that both board gender diversity and board independence has positive and significant impact on Effective Tax Rate of listed consumer goods companies in Nigeria

Prediction of Heart Disease using Autoencoder with LightGMB and Gradient Boosting

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) refers to heart disease. CVD is seen to cause majority of death in world. Because of this problem many researchers have been drawn to this area to develop models and systems to predict occurrence of heart disease for early treatment. This study developed a Heart disease predicative model using Autoencoder with LightGBM and Gradient Boosting. The Dataset used was gotten from kaggle.com. One Hot Encoding, SMOTE were used to pre-processed the dataset. Feature extraction was done using Autoencoder. Two classification methods: LightGBM and Gradient Boosting were employed to build the predictive model. The result shows that Autoencoder perform very well with low values of MSE, RMSE, MAE and High Value of F2 score. The result of LightGBM  shows a specificity of 95.7%, precision value of 95.7%, recall value of 94.7% ,F1 value of 95.2% , AUC value of 0.99 and Accuracy value of 95 While the results of Gradient Boosting shows Specificity of 91.7%, Precision value of 91.5%, Recall value of 90.0% ,F1 value of 91.0% , AUC value of 0.96 and Accuracy value of 90. The study concluded that LightGBM perform better that Gradient Boosting. The Model is recommended to the health sector management to guide their decision making. Its potential integration with predictive model and clinical validation will assist greatly in improving  the heart disease diagnosis and prevention. Further research could be done with more validating metrics, more deep learning techniques

Language and Identity in Computer-Mediated Communication: A Study of Select Blockchain Communities

   The rapid proliferation of blockchain technology has not only transformed financial systems but has also fostered the emergence of distinct online communities. Research has primarily focused on the technical, ethical, and financial aspects of blockchain technology, with limited attention given to its linguistic dimension. These communities exhibit unique linguistic practices that both shape and reflect their members\u27 identities. Therefore, this study is aimed at investigating the interplay between language and identity within select blockchain communities, to understand how linguistic behaviours in computer-mediated communication (CMC) contribute to identity construction and community cohesion. This study is framed by Gerry Philipsen\u27s Speech Codes Theory, which offers a framework for analyzing the cultural codes embedded in communication. It employs a netnography research design, using data sampled from distinct social media groups dedicated to blockchain discourse. Textual data from posts, comments, and interactions were subjected to content analysis to identify speech codes and their functions in constructing community identity. The findings reveal that blockchain communities utilize a distinct lexicon, marked by technical jargon, memes, and ideologically charged phrases. Additionally, language usage reflects underlying tensions between inclusivity and exclusivity, particularly in the negotiation of novice versus expert identities. The study concludes that language is central to identity construction in blockchain communities, functioning as both a tool for social bonding and a mechanism of gatekeeping. This research contributes to understanding the role of language in digital identity formation and offers insights into the cultural dynamics of emerging technological communities

LEADERSHIP STYLES AND PERFORMANCE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

This study examines the relationship between leadership styles and performance of Federal Government Agencies in Anambra State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study evaluates the influence of transformational leadership on employee intrinsic motivation and transactional leadership on operational efficiency. Data were collected from a sample size of 200 staff members using copies of structured questionnaire, and linear regression analysis was applied to test the hypotheses. The results revealed a significant positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee intrinsic motivation (β = 0.635, p = 0.000), explaining 56.6% of the variance in intrinsic motivation (R² = 0.566). Similarly, transactional leadership significantly influenced operational efficiency (β = 0.720, p = 0.000), accounting for 48.2% of the variance in operational efficiency (R² = 0.482). These findings underscore the critical role of transformational leadership in fostering employee engagement and intrinsic motivation, while transactional leadership enhances structured task execution and operational efficiency in the public sector. The study concludes that effective leadership styles tailored to organizational contexts significantly improve performance outcomes. The study recommends that public sector organizations adopt transformational leadership practices to inspire and empower employees, fostering innovation and motivation. Simultaneously, transactional leadership should be leveraged in scenarios requiring task-oriented focus and regulatory compliance to enhance operational efficiency

FISCAL POLICY AND AGRICULTURAL SECTOR OUTPUT GROWTH IN NIGERIA

The quest for every government to maintain a stable and steady economic growth continues to mount great pressure on policy makers to design and implement adequate and effective policies to spur the activities of the real sector.  This paper examined the impact of fiscal policy tools on agricultural sector output growth in Nigeria with annual data from 1980 to 2023. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique was employed for the analysis and the empirical results confirmed that government expenditure on agricultural sector and domestic capital formation had positive and significant effect on agricultural output. Value added tax had negative and insignificant effect on agricultural sector output. Other findings showed that exchange rate had a negative but significant impact on agricultural output in the short run while in the long run exchange rate had a positive and significant impact on agricultural output. Inflation rate had a negative and insignificant effect on agricultural output both in the short run and long run periods. Based on the findings, the paper recommends policies such as increase in government budget on agriculture as necessary and sacrosanct to expand the activities of the real sectors especially that of agricultural sector in order to meet the target of sustainable development goal two (ZERO HUNGER) and also to curb food insecurity through direct domestic production.&nbsp

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ECONOMIC INDICES AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN NIGERIA

Energy consumption in Nigeria was observed to have been very low in spite of the nation’s abundant resource endowments. Successive administrations within the period churned out assorted policy measures aimed at improving energy access. This therefore, prompted an investigation of the impact of selected economic indices on energy consumption in Nigeria from 1990 to 2022. The study is anchored on the energy ladder theory in view of its suitability and central postulation that energy consumption is a function of economic indices. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method was employed to estimate the parameters of the model and the result revealed that economic growth, trade openness, urbanization and governance had positive impacts on the total energy consumption while energy prices and carbon emissions had negative impacts on the total energy consumption. The Granger causality tests revealed the presence of unidirectional causality running from renewable energy consumption to energy prices and also from trade openness to renewable energy consumption. Hence, the study concludes that Nigeria’s energy consumption is largely dominated by nonrenewable energy consumption. The study recommends that there should be removal of subsidy on fossil fuels and the proceeds channeled towards renewable energy resources. Also, should be investments on energy infrastructures to enhance accessibility, adoption of improved trade laws and stricter enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws.&nbsp

TESTING THE USE OF AEROMAGNETIC DATA FOR THE DETERMINATION OF DEPTH TO MAGNETIC BODIES IN NKALAGU AND ENVIRONS

High resolution aeromagnetic data of Nkalagu and its environs in South-Eastern Nigeria has been acquired and analyzed using slope method, in order to determine the depth to magnetic bodies, as well as delineate the basement morphology and the structural features within the study area. The qualitative assessment of total magnetic intensity (TMI) and residual anomaly maps of the study area reveal that the study area possesses high magnetic intensities which ranges from 7890 nT to 8114 nT and -110 nT to 104 nT respectively. The analytical map reveals that the structural trend  within  the  study  area  is mainly Northeast-Southwest and (NE-SW) directions which agree  with  the  fault  orientation within the Benue Trough, also The area is intensely fractured with major regional faults trending in Northeast-Southwest (NE-SW) direction. Five (5) selected magnetic profiles were taken perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic anomalies, namely K-Kᴵ, L-Lᴵ, M-Mᴵ, N-Nᴵ, and O-Oᴵ. The slope method analysis revealed that the study area possess a two layer depth model; the shallower and deeper bodies which varied from 1.68 km to 2.05 km and 2.84 km to 6.38 Km respectively. The basement tomography map suggest thick sediment with their contours widely spaced at the northern and Eastern parts, and shallow sediment toward the Western part with contours closely spaced. The 3-D tomography map shows the presence of peaks (uplifts) and depressions, a typical expression of folds. The findings suggest that the study area is highly fractured and possesses possible mineralization path and the existence of high Cretaceous sedimentary thickness may favour hydrocarbon accumulation