Effects and influence of the urea component of an organomineral fertiliser on phosphorus mineralisation in a low-P index arable and grassland soil

Addition of organic waste such as sewage sludge (biosolids) has been recognised as one of the cost effective method of waste recycling practice of maintaining levels of organic matter in agriculture. Biosolids are a slow-release nutrient (N and P) which also improves soil physical and microbiological properties and as such offer a promising plant nutrient with less impact on soil than mineral fertilisers. Implementation of wastewater treatment directive 91/271//EC has caused large amount of sewage sludge production and availability. Hence, management of biosolids to provide available phosphorus through soil recycling would reduce reliance on finite rock phosphates (over 85% P-fertilisers) extraction, protect or minimise environmental problems such as eutrophication and also help the resource-limited farmers particularly in developing countries, to mitigate P-fertiliser limitation in the soil. More awareness of the impact of different agricultural fertiliser management practices on soil quality and sustainability has led to more interest of combining organic residuals with inorganic fertilisers to prevent further fertility decline and degradation of soil. Amongst recent nutrient integration, was the nutrient-balanced sludge-based (biosolids with urea and potash) called organomineral fertiliser (OMF), which shows agronomic efficiency of phosphorus management when applied to the field crops such as winter wheat. However, to manage phosphorus mineralisation effectively in the organomineral fertiliser treated soil, it is important to understand the effects of urea components in OMF during mineralisation of phosphorus in soil. This research aimed to understand the influence that the urea component of an organomineral fertiliser (OMF) has during phosphorus mineralisation in soil. Therefore urea granules were grounded into powdered form and mixed with grounded biosolids pellets as a source of phosphorus to obtain organomineral fertilisers. This whole research included two different control soil incubation experiments (1a & 1b) both observed over a 60 days period. Incubation experiment 1a (involved mixing various rates of biosolids and urea in soil) had two different soil samples from the grassland (sandy clay loam) and arable (clay loam) sites. In terms of initial soil phosphorus content, the grassland and arable soils are classified as P-index 1 and 2 respectively. Soil samples were analysed for pH, mineralisable nitrogen (NH4 + , NO3 - ), available phosphorus, microbial biomass carbon and phosphorus and phospholipids fatty acids profiles during 0, 6, 15, 20, 35, 45 and 60 days incubation period. While in the incubation experiment 1b (mixing different rates of urea with fixed quantity of biosolids in soil), soil from the same grassland, were being sampled at 10 day intervals (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60) after taking the initial sample of day 0 and analysed for pH, mineralisable P and phosphomonoesterase enzyme activities. The incubation experiments showed that, mineralisation of available phosphorus were significantly (p<0.001) higher in the biosolids and organomineral (OMF) fertiliser treated soils compared to control during 20 and 30 days period. The mean values of mineralisable P from OMF treatment for the incubation experiment 1a were 14.5 and 19.5 mg/kg in the grass and arable soils respectively. The mineralisation rates of biosolids-P from organomineral fertiliser (OMF) amended soils were also reduced significantly, as the dosages of urea component were increased according to the 50, 150 and 250Kg/N equivalents during the 60 days incubation experiment 1b. The mean available P values from the OMF amendments were 28.0, 25.7 and 23.4mg/kg respectively; according to the increasing amount of urea content at 50, 150 and 250Kg/N equivalents respectively. The overall trend of organomineral fertiliser phosphorus (OMF-P) mineralisation rate have shown significant (p<0.001) reduction with increased doses of urea components, with the fixed biosolids equivalent rate of 250Kg/ha during the incubation experiment 1b. There were no significant (p>0.01) changes in pH from both soil incubation experiment 1a and 1b, except for the urea only treated samples at the 250KgN/ha equivalent rate from the sandy clay loam grassland soil, which shows up to 1 unit increase (pH=8.1) compared to other treatments, just a day after kick-starting the incubation experiment, but eventually becomes reduced to the original pH (6.9) during the incubation period. Microbial community change in both arable and grassland soil from initial day zero showed distinct and consistent shifts in trends through the 20 and 45 days respectively, irrespective of their treatments, and then gradually shifted towards the original starting point at the final incubation study of day 60. This was however attributed to the function of change with time, since it could not be categorically assigned to the OMF application effects only, but perhaps community change effects with time could be the main factor. Even though there was no any important patterns or trends observed between the indigenous treatments, but the wide spreading and shift distances amongst treatments during 20 and 45 days were higher compared to the 0 and 60 days, and this is probably because there were more phosphorus mineralisation when microorganisms were able to access more dissolved organic carbon as shown by high biomass carbon during 20 and 35 days incubation time, and utilise it to generate energy that kept them more active within those period before it gradually becomes exhausted, since there was no external source of energy being added. Similarly, phosphomonoesterase enzyme activities in the soil treatments except for the urea only amended samples, showed significant (p<0.01) differences between days 20, 30 and 40 compared to days 0, 50 and 60 and the phosphatase activities in the OMF amendments had significantly higher acid than alkaline phosphatase activities. Organomineral phosphorus (OMF-P) mineralisation in soil during 60 days incubation in this short-term study have shown potential P release in both soils, and the OMF-P mineralisation rate was highest in the formulation having fixed biosolids with urea at 150KgN/ha equivalent compared to other formulations (50KgN/ha and 250KgN/ha) and therefore effects of urea component of the organomineral fertiliser is an important factor when considering OMF as a promising P alternative or source in low-P soil during phosphorus management. Appropriate product formulation depending on the crop needs is therefore very important for soil phosphorus nutrient management and sustainability

AN ASSESSMENT OF INDEXING AND ABSTRACTING SERVICES IN NUHU BAMALLI POLITECHNIC LIBRARY, ZARIA, NIGERIA

This paper examines the concept of indexing and abstracting, where index is define as systematic arrangement of entries designed to enable users to locate information in a document. While abstract at the other hand is an intellectual summary of an information package. The paper tried to finds out the availability and use of indexes and abstracts in Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic Library (Annex) Zaria. The paper finds out that most types of indexes and abstracts are available and mostly used by Academic staffs and Students. It concludes that subject and citation indexes, as well as subject abstract were the most highly used by the respondents in the library; this could be due to lack of awareness about the other existing types of indexes and abstracts. However, some recommendations were made which includes; public awareness to the staffs and Students about the other existing types of indexes and abstracts and also more experts should be employed because as at present only one person is in charge of Indexing and Abstracting services.

Effects of tyre steel fibre reinforcement on sandcrete blocks

No Abstrac

Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and measurement of reporting quality : a review of methodologies

This paper conceptually review the various models employed by previous studies in the measurement of reporting quality following the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) around the world. In the review, attention is paid to the nature, appropriateness and limitations of each of the models identified. It was found that, the methodologies used in studying the relationship and impact of IFRS on reporting quality are classified into qualitative, quantitative and firm-specific attributes models on one hand, and direct and indirect models on the other hand. Finally, the study calls on researchers to be wary, by selecting appropriate method that commensurates with the objectives of their studies, and their ability to adequately mitigate the limitation of the model highlighted in the review.peer-reviewe

The moderating effect of brand loyalty on service quality and customer satisfaction in the telecommunications industry in northwest Nigeria

This study investigates the moderating effect of brand loyalty on service quality and customer satisfaction in the telecommunications industry in Northwest Nigeria. A cross-sectional descriptive survey design was utilized, which permits the collection of data from respondents at a certain point in time. The convenience sampling method was used, and structured questionnaires were administered to the customers of Airtel Nigeria telecommunications company using a service performance (SERVPERF) model. Out of the 768 questionnaires administered, 390 valid responses were analyzed, and the hypotheses were tested with the aid of SmartPLS 4. The results for the direct relationships indicate that reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and tangibility were significantly and positively related with customer satisfaction, while empathy had no significant effect on customer satisfaction. For the indirect relationships, brand loyalty was not found to moderate the relationships between the five SERVPERF dimensions and customer satisfaction. The study concludes that regardless of brand loyalty, service quality remains the only driving force of customer satisfaction in the Nigerian telecommunications industry. It is therefore recommended that Airtel should find ways to transcend their competitors and ensure the continued loyalty of their subscribers, especially by tailoring services to customers’ needs. It is also recommended that the company should ensure a pleasant and seamless experience for their subscribers during calls or when accessing the internet. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) should continue to monitor the quality of the services provided by telecommunications companies and sanction those that provide sub-standard services

The practice and challenges of e-Government in Nigeria in the 21st century

This paper investigates the state of the present condition of e-government commitment in Nigeria. It also, examines the difficulties encountered in the implementation process.Layne and Lee (2001) “Stages of growth theory” was adopted to explain the position of Nigeria in the implementation and the challenges it faced on e-government.To do this,this paper used secondary data as a source to collect different articles and report.This paper finds that while e-government is present in Nigeria, it is still in its initial stage.Not only have that, the environment lacked many prerequisites for the survival and continued maintenance of e-governance due to many factors such as inadequate electricity, technical expertise etcetera.It is therefore suggested that both the government and the stakeholders should take it up as a challenge to find quick and lasting solutions to them. There must also be political will and government should have its administrative staff retrained in IT to properly manage the facilities and infrastructure necessary for e-government

An Investigative Study on Impact of Frequency Dynamics in Load Modeling

Load modeling plays a significant impact in assessing power system stability margin, control, and protection. Frequency in the power system is desired to be kept constant, but in a real sense, it is not constant as loads continually change with time. In much literature, frequency dynamics are ignored in the formulation of load models for the basic assumption that it does not affect the models.&nbsp; In this paper, the composite load model was formulated with Voltage-Frequency Dependency (V-FD) on real and reactive powers and applied to estimate the load model. 2- Area network 4- machines Kundur test network was used for testing the developed model.&nbsp; The model was trained with measurements from a low voltage distribution network supplying the Electrical Engineering department at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Both training and testing data were captured under normal system operation (dynamics). To evaluate the V-FD model performance, Voltage-Dependent (VD) model was examined on the same measured data. The work makes use of the Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN) as a nonlinear estimator. Results obtained indicate that including frequency dynamics in modeling active power reduces the accuracy of the model. While in modeling reactive power the model performance improves. Hence, it can be said that including frequency dynamics in load modeling depends on the intended application of the model

Design and construction of 2.14 m. LOA (one sheet) flat bottom canoe (punt) for pond activities

A 2.14M length overall (LOA) flat bottom canoe (punt), was designed and constructed using locally available materials. The features of the canoe are least cost material, light weight, shallow draft and easy maneuverability. The canoe's light displacement (weight empty) was 28kg, which was less.than local canoe of same size. When placed on water a draft of 5.5cm was achieved which is 14.8% of its depth (37cm). The capacity of the canoe was 200kg, and the total production cost of N8, 700.00 which was, not beyond, the reach of an average fisher folks, or any fish farmer. The canoe was easily maneuvered when propelled by paddling as it floated at a shallow draft; this makes the canoe adequate for use on shallow water bodies such as ponds and reservoirs. Such easily maneuvered craft can also be used on pond or reservoirs for recreation which include, sport fishing, canoein

Techno-economic analysis of a stand-alone photovoltaic-diesel-battery system: a case study in Nothern Nigeria

For many years, the application of renewable energy systems have significantly increased due to the negative impact realised in using fossil fuel and how it seriously affect the environment. The renewable energy source are always available for free, this have contributed to the increased in its application every day. Photovoltaic system have been considered as one of the best source of energy due to many factors, these factors include clean environment, less noise, little maintenance and clean energy. This project work examine the configuration of photovoltaic and diesel stand-alone off-grid system where the PV system alternatively generate electrical energy during the day time while the battery supply electrical power to the load from the energy it reserved during night hours or when there is no enough energy from the PV modules. The generator set is acting on standby mode as it only supply the load essentially on priority bases or during maintenance services which require complete isolation of the entire PV system. The modelling is divided into two parts; technical analysis is perform using Matlab/Simulink where the behaviour and characteristics of the system is obtained. The second part is the economic and environmental analysis performed by Homer simulation software which compare different energy system configuration and focused on initial capital cost, Net present cost (NPC), operating cost, Cost of energy and reduction in carbon emission (CO2). The Homer select the overall winning sizes from different energy configuration, based on that sensitivity analysis was perform. Lastly, the hybrid system will served as an alternative solution that will supply electrical power to the healthcare centre in northern Nigeria which require little amount of electricity to improve their medical

An Assessment of Peer Influence on Youth Involvement on Crime in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council

Peer group influence on youth crime is largely an area of interaction physically and impersonally. Physically interaction can take place in a compound, wards, schools or other socially organised activities such as youth camps, football clubs or other game activities, boys scout,   girls guide, man ‘o’ war and debating society etc and specifically to assess peer influence on youth involvement on crime in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council. And specifically to examine the demographic characteristics of youth in Maiduguri, assess whether peer have influence on youth involvement in crime in Maiduguri. The study reviewed relevant theories and in particular Differential Association Theory which explained that criminal behaviour is learnt through interaction with other individual in a process of communication. The data were obtained from primary and secondary sources which involved the use of questionnaires and review of relevant literatures. The study interviewed 180 respondents. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that most of the crimes committed are mostly by Males, so Males are prone to committing crime, and they are between the ages of 18 to 25years and have secondary or degree qualification. It also revealed that crime committed by youths were due to influence of bad friends and those youth were from large family size, and their parents don’t allow outsiders to discipline them and they are unemployed and have poor parental upbringing which characterised by poverty, homelessness and frustration among others. The study recommends that parents, government and community organisations could provide adequate jobs and enabling environments for business to thrive, as this will curb crime among the youth in Maiduguri Metropolis. Keywords: Assessment, Peer Influence, Youth Involvement and Criminal Behaviou