DETERMINANTS OF FOOD SECURITY STATUS AMONG RURAL FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN NORTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

This study was carried out to examine the determinants of  food security status among rural Farm households in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Interview guides were employed to elicit information from randomly selected 180 respondents from 12 agricultural cells (villages) from two agricultural zones of Kaduna State. The result of the logistic regression model shows the factors that determine the food security status of the respondents in the study area. It was revealed that four out of the seven variables included in the model were significant. The determinants of food security in the study area were age, extension contact, source of labour and per capita income of the respondents. The result of marginal effect shows that the probability of food security among the farm households is more responsive to a change in age than to extension contact, source of labour and per capita income. Keywords: Rural Farm households, Food security, Agricultural cells, Marginal effect

Assessment of the level of farm mechanization technology utilization in poultry production in Kaduna state, nigeria

The study was conducted to assess the level of farm mechanization technology  utilization in poultry production in Chukun and Igabi Local Government Areas,  Kaduna State. Purposive sampling was used to select wards, multi–stage to choose villages and simple random to pick 140 responding farmers. Frequency distribution, percentages and means were the analytic tool used. Majority of the producers (75%) were aged forty years and below. All the producers had formal education. More than half of the producers (65%) were in poultry. About 57% were  non-members of cooperatives. The major source of technology (68%) was local market. Majority of the producers (79%) adopted hand tool technologies. A few of the producers (18%) adopted battery cage, (4%) feed mill and (4%) incubator. The benefits of the technologies were 36% proper use of space, 21% easy handling of large flocks, 18% decrease in cost of production. The constraints were 46% inadequate access to capital, 18% lack of electricity and water and 14% poor  extension contact. Majority of the producers adopted hand tools and were  non-members of cooperatives thus could not enjoy economies of scale. Provision of adequate fund to producers and formation of cooperative were recommended.Key words: Poultry, chicken, technology and production

Effect of fertilizer levels and plant spacing on the performance of Mucuna prureins (velvet bean) in the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria

Fertilizer recommendation for crop and plant spacing is dynamic process in view of the generation of new knowledge with management practices. Information such as (phosphorus levels and plant spacing) on maintaining adequate soil fertility is very much important for producing better forages for livestock. Leguminous crop such as Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) can alleviate some of these problems. Field experiment was conducted to access the effect of phosphorus fertilizer application level at 0, 80 and 120kg/ha and plant spacing interval of 30, 60 and 90cm of Velvet bean. Application of 80kg/ha of phosphorus fertilizer significantly influenced the performance of Mucuna plant such as plant height, number of branches and forage yield. Plant spacing interval of 30cm resulted in better stand count, taller plant, higher number of branches and forage yield per plant. Famers in Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria can adopt the application of phosphorus fertilizer at 80kg/ha and using narrower spacing (25cm by 30cm) for better yield of Mucana, thereby increasing farm output and animal performance.Keywords: phosphorus level, plant spacing, Mucuna pruriens, Velvet bea

Production, Characterization and Valuable Applications of Exopolysaccharides from Marine Bacillus subtilis SH1

Exopolysaccharides (EPSs) are high molecular weight polymers consisting of different sugar residues they are preferable for replacing synthetic polymers as they are degradable and nontoxic. Many microorganisms possess the ability to synthesize and excrete exopolysac­charides with novel chemical compositions, properties and structures to have potential applications in different fields. The present study attempt to optimize the production of EPS by marine Bacillus subtilis SH1 in addition to characterization and investigation of different valuable applications. Effect of medium type, incubation period and pH were studied using the one factor at a time experiments. It was shown that the highest productivity (24 gl–1) of exopolysaccharides was recorded by using yeast malt glucose medium with pH 9 at the fourth day of incubation. Experimental design using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize various nutrients at different concentrations. The finalized optimized medium contained (gl–1) glucose (5), peptone (2.5), yeast extract (4.5) and malt extract (4.5) increased the production of EPS to 33.8 gl–1 with1.4 fold increase compared to the basal medium. Chemical characterization of the extracted EPS showed that, FTIR spectra exhibited bands at various regions. Moreover, HPLC chromatogram indicated that the EPS was a heteropolysaccharide consisting of maltose and rhamnose. The study was extended to evaluate the potentiality of the extracted poly­saccharides in different medical applications. Results concluded that, EPS exhibited antibacterial activity against Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus faecalis and the highest antibacterial activity (7.8, 9 and 10.4 AU/ml) was against S. faecalis at 50, 100 and 200 mg/ml respectively. The EPS exhibited various degree of antitumor effect toward the tested cell lines (MCF-7, HCT-116 and HepG2). In addition, EPS exhibited antiviral activity at 500 μg/ml. The antioxidant capacity increased with increasing the concentrationof the sample. Scanning electron microscopic analysis showed that EPS had compact film-like structure, which could make it a useful in the future applications as in preparing plasticized film

Stability properties of asphalt mixture incorporating coconut shell

This study aims to evaluate the effect of coconut shell at varying percentages as an aggregatereplacement on the stability properties of the asphalt mixture. The performance of thespecimen was evaluated through stability, stiffness, density and flow tests. Five coconut shellpercentages namely 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% by weight volumes were used as aggregates replacements in asphaltic concrete. The mixture design incorporating the penetration grade 60/70 bitumen was used for specimen testing. The optimum content of bitumen for asphalt mixtures was 5%. Test results showed that ththe stability, stiffness, density and flow of specimen increased with the increase of coconut shell content to a peak level (10%) and then decreased with further additions of coconut shell. Results also indicated that 10% coconut shell was the optimum replacement as an aggregate in the asphaltic concrete.Keywords: stability; coconut; stiffness; density; flow

Seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus antibodies amongst blood donors in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Kaduna

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the most common transfusion transmissible infections hence the introduction of routine screening for its antibodies in blood donors in most blood banks. Methods: This was a retrospective study in which the blood donor screening register for all intending donors were reviewed and analyzed. Results: There were 4,731 potential donors with age range 20-41years. Eighty six (1.8%) were sero-positive to HCV antibodies with a decreasing incidence over the period under review. The highest incidence was recorded the age group 31-40 years. Aim: To determine the sero-prevalence of HCV among blood donors in ABUTH Kaduna. Conclusion: HCV infection is not uncommon in our environment hence the need to emphasize it’s routine screening among all potential donors.

Interactive Visualization of the Largest Radioastronomy Cubes

3D visualization is an important data analysis and knowledge discovery tool, however, interactive visualization of large 3D astronomical datasets poses a challenge for many existing data visualization packages. We present a solution to interactively visualize larger-than-memory 3D astronomical data cubes by utilizing a heterogeneous cluster of CPUs and GPUs. The system partitions the data volume into smaller sub-volumes that are distributed over the rendering workstations. A GPU-based ray casting volume rendering is performed to generate images for each sub-volume, which are composited to generate the whole volume output, and returned to the user. Datasets including the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS - 12 GB) southern sky and the Galactic All Sky Survey (GASS - 26 GB) data cubes were used to demonstrate our framework's performance. The framework can render the GASS data cube with a maximum render time < 0.3 second with 1024 x 1024 pixels output resolution using 3 rendering workstations and 8 GPUs. Our framework will scale to visualize larger datasets, even of Terabyte order, if proper hardware infrastructure is available.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, Accepted New Astronomy July 201

Effects of short term feeding of some marine microalgae on the microbial profile associated with Dicentrarchus labrax post larvae

AbstractThis study investigates the microbial profile and antimicrobial activity of four marine microalgae species, Tetraselmis chuii, Nannochloropsis salina, Isochrysis galbana and Chlorella salina used in aquaculture of Dicentrarchus labrax in the post larval stage to estimate which was the best algal species that could be used as a green water technique and achieving the maximum rate of growth and survival of D. labrax post larvae. The results represented a significant increase in the length and width of D. labrax at p<0.05 recorded in the case of enrichment with I. galbana followed by N. salina, and the most weight was recorded in the case of N. salina as compared with the control. Significant increase in percentage of survival of D. labrax was recorded in the case of C. salina and T. chuii (70% and 60.1%, respectively) as compared with the control (22%). The antibacterial activity (AU) of the different microalgal ethanolic extracts against fish indicator pathogens was determined. The results indicated that the ethanolic extracts of C. salina and T. chuii have the most positive records against the fish indicator pathogens (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Vibrio damsela, Vibrio fluvialis and Aeromonas hydrophila). The current study was extended to determine the GC–MS of ethanolic extract of C. salina and T. chuii. The main constituents detected in the ethanolic extract were organic acids like hexadecanoic acid, octadecanoic acid, and an acyclic diterpene alcohol like phytol

A Histopathological Exploration of the Madurella mycetomatis Grain

Although the Madurella mycetomatis grains seem to interfere with the host defense mechanisms and impede the antifungal drugs penetration, yet their histological features are not fully known and hence this study was set out to determine that. The study included 80 patients with confirmed M. mycetomatis eumycetoma. After informed written consent, surgical biopsies were obtained from the excised tissues during the patients' surgical treatment. All sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin, Grocott's hexamine silver, Periodic Acid-Schiff's, Masson-Fontana, Perl's Prussian Blue, Von-kossa's, Formalin Inducing Fluorescence and Schmorl's stains. Modified bleaching technique was used. The concentrations of Zinc, Copper, Calcium, Iron, Lead, Cobalt and Nickel were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The M. Mycetomatis grai