COMPARISON OF AGRICULTURE WITH OIL ENHANCEMENT: SURVIVING STRATEGY FOR ECONOMIC MELTDOWN IN NIGERIA

This paper compares the place of Agriculture and Oil in repositioning Nigerian economy towards a path of steady economic growth with a view to establishing which strategy (agriculture or oil enhancement) that  is appropriate to checkmate the associated pains of ongoing global economic, financial and food crisis in the country. The secondary data used in this study are those relating to the contributions of Agriculture and Oil to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Principal variables) while Manufacturing and Service Sectors serve as control variables. These were obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Reports and Accounts and were analysed using Ordinary Least Square after conducting Augmented Dickey Fuller Unit Roots (ADF), Granger Causality Test as well as Johanson Co-integration Test while Actual Fitted and Residual plot was generated to test the presence of auto or serial correlation in the data. The study reveals that although Oil contributes more to export earnings in Nigeria, it has little contribution to GDP due to its associated vices of communal classes, uneven development, its limited life and crowd out of other sectors of the economy. This is in comparison with Agriculture that has more impact on GDP, generates more employment opportunities, reduces world food crisis and has no identifiable vices. It is recommended that Nigerian economic base should be diversified from oil dependence to agricultural advancement with a view to generating employment opportunities, raising the standard of living and improving economic growth.Â

A field-grown transgenic tomato line expressing higher levels of polyamines reveals legume cover crop mulch-specific perturbations in fruit phenotype at the levels of metabolite profiles, gene expression, and agronomic characteristics

Genetic modification of crop plants to introduce desirable traits such as nutritional enhancement, disease and pest resistance, and enhanced crop productivity is increasingly seen as a promising technology for sustainable agriculture and boosting food production in the world. Independently, cultural practices that utilize alternative agriculture strategies including organic cultivation subscribe to sustainable agriculture by limiting chemical usage and reduced tillage. How the two together affect fruit metabolism or plant growth in the field or whether they are compatible has not yet been tested. Fruit-specific yeast S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (ySAMdc) line 579HO, and a control line 556AZ were grown in leguminous hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) (HV) mulch and conventional black polyethylene (BP) mulch, and their fruit analysed. Significant genotype×mulch-dependent interactions on fruit phenotype were exemplified by differential profiles of 20 fruit metabolites such as amino acids, sugars, and organic acids. Expression patterns of the ySAMdc transgene, and tomato SAMdc, E8, PEPC, and ICDHc genes were compared between the two lines as a function of growth on either BP or HV mulch. HV mulch significantly stimulated the accumulation of asparagine, glutamate, glutamine, choline, and citrate concomitant with a decrease in glucose in the 556AZ fruits during ripening as compared to BP. It enables a metabolic system in tomato somewhat akin to the one in higher polyamine-accumulating transgenic fruit that have higher phytonutrient content. Finally, synergism was found between HV mulch and transgenic tomato in up-regulating N:C indicator genes PEPC and ICDHc in the fruit

EFFECTS OF NON-LINEAR MAGNETIC CHARGE ON INDUCTION FURNACE OPERATION DURING THE HEATING CYCLE

This research studying the electromagnetic behavior of the induction furnace when its core is a magnetic material taking into consideration the effect of the non-linear dependence of the magnetic flux induced in it due to the applied magnetizing force. Since the magnetic characteristics are severely affected by temperature rise in a non-linear way, so as the specific electric resistance of the charge material, this work deals with studying the effect of temperature on the non-linear characteristics of a magnetic core simultaneously with that on the specific electric resistance to show the electromagnetic behavior of the furnace during heating operation. The distribution of the current density, flux density and the magnetizing force at different temperatures inside the furnace and on the charge surfaces are determined for different temperatures. Also the flux distribution is plotted at these cases. This study will be the base for future work on the electromagnetic-thermal coupled analysis for the induction furnace

Wastewater Treatment in Baghdad City Using Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) Technology

In this study, a laboratory scale system of Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) was used to treat municipal wastewater from a domestic community in Baghdad City to get the water free from BOD for reuse in the irrigation or discharge to the river. The aim of the described experimentation was the comparison of a low cost MBBR and an activated sludge system (AS); the other aim from this research is to derive successful MBBR wastewater reuse projects in Iraq. Laboratory experiments were conducted in two parts, firstly at BOD5 load of about (150-200) mg/l, filling ratio of plastic elements in the MBBR reactor was 40%. Aerobic reactor consumed most of the biodegradable organic matter. The BOD5 removal efficiencies were 78 and 90% for MBBR & AS respectively. Second part when BOD5 load about (900-1300) mg/l used (synthetic wastewater)، filling ratio is 67%. The removal efficiencies of BOD reached 73 % for AS and about 88% for MBBR

A survey of voice pathology surveillance systems based on internet of things and machine learning algorithms

The incorporation of the cloud technology with the Internet of Things (IoT) is significant in order to obtain better performance for a seamless, continuous, and ubiquitous framework. IoT has many applications in the healthcare sector, one of these applications is voice pathology monitoring. Unfortunately, voice pathology has not gained much attention, where there is an urgent need in this area due to the shortage of research and diagnosis of lethal diseases. Most of the researchers are focusing on the voice pathology and their finding is only to differentiating either the voice is normal (healthy) or pathological voice, where there is a lack of the current studies for detecting a certain disease such as laryngeal cancer. In this paper, we present an extensive review of the state-of-the-art techniques and studies of IoT frameworks and machine learning algorithms used in the healthcare in general and in the voice pathology surveillance systems in particular. Furthermore, this paper also presents applications, challenges and key issues of both IoT and machine learning algorithms in the healthcare. Finally, this paper highlights some open issues of IoT in healthcare that warrant further research and investigation in order to present an easy, comfortable and effective diagnosis and treatment of disease for both patients and doctors