Compliance to agrochemical safety practices among arable crop farmers in Ola-Oluwa Local Government Area OF Osun State, Nigeria

The study examined the compliance to agrochemical safety practices among arable crop farmers in Ola-Oluwa local government area of Osun state. Random sampling was used to select 127 farmers from the list of 254 registered farmers provided by the Arable Crop Farmers Association, 110 were retrieved in the study area. Data was obtained using structured interview schedule and described statistically with PPMC for the hypotheses. The study revealed that most (65%) respondents were male, 43.6% in the age of 41-49 years. Majority (65.5%) of the respondents was married and had primary education (26.4%). Most of the respondents accessed information safety practices through Farmers association (146), Radio (117) and Television (109). Also, majority of the respondents indicated their low compliance to agrochemical safety practice before application (57.0%), during application (63.5%) and after application (52.6%). Major constraints to safety practices identified by respondents in the study area were poor reading attitude of farmers (129), lack of technical knowhow on safety practices (120) and farmers’ poor literacy level (120). PPMC analysis used for the hypotheses revealed that there was significant relationship between the respondents’ income generated and their compliance to agrochemical safety practices (r=21.256, p=0.019). Also, there was significant relationship between respondents’ sources of information and their compliance to safety practices (r=10.231, p=0.012). It is therefore recommended that information on agrochemical safety practices should be simplified to avoid ambiguity and easy interpretation due to their literacy level. Keywords: Agrochemical, Safety Practices, Arable Crop Farmer

Applying the Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy to Four Multicomponent Childhood Obesity Interventions

Applying the Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy has the potential to facilitate identification of effective childhood obesity intervention components. This article evaluates the feasibility of coding Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Consortium interventions and compares reliability between external taxonomy-familiar coders and internal intervention-familiar coders. After training, coder pairs independently coded prespecified portions of intervention materials. An adjudication process was used to explore coding discrepancies. Reliability between internal and external coders was moderate (prevalence and bias-adjusted kappa.38 to.55). Reliability for specific target behaviors varied with substantial agreement for physical activity (.63 to.76) and moderate for dietary intake (.44 to.63). Applying the taxonomy to these interventions was feasible, but agreement was modest. Coding discrepancies highlight the importance of refining coding to capture the complexities of childhood obesity interventions, which often engage multiple recipients (e.g., parents and/or children) and address multiple behaviors (e.g., diet, physical activity, screen time)

Antimicrobial activity of Plumbago zeylanica plant extracts and its application in water and laboratory disinfection

This study was carried out to investigate the antimicrobial activities/ potentials of Plumbago zeylanica components (leaf, stem and root) on four bacterial species, Baccilus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia with the aim of using the active part of the plant to be used in water and laboratory disinfection. The plant parts crude extract was concentrated using a rotary evaporator and dried in a freeze drier. Different concentrations of the plant parts were then prepared from the dried plant extract and tested on the four pathogens using agar diffusion methods. The results indicated that active antimicrobial properties are concentrated more in the roots been very effective against Escherichia coli even at low concentration. However, at higher concentration all the plant extracts became effective against the bacteria. The study concludes that the roots of Plumbago zeylanica possess the highest antimicrobial potentials for disinfection. Then, the root extract was tested on effluent water and the results showed significance reduction level of Escherichia coli

Energy optimization of quadratic thermal convection on two-phase boundary layer flow across a moving vertical flat plate

The need for a consistent and reliable energy supply to improve productivity is steadily increasing both in industrial and residential settings. The fulfillment of this requirement can be effectively achieved by implementing quadratic thermal radiation, such as utilizing an appropriate thermoelectric generator to supply power and optimizing the optical heat process. This research investigates the three different thermal radiation models, namely linear, quadratic, and nonlinear thermal radiation on the two-phase boundary layer flow of a dusty nanofluid across a vertically moving flat plate. The nanofluid is composed of aluminum oxide (Al203) and nanoparticles suspended in water (H20) based fluid. Furthermore, quadratic Boussinesq approximation and Prandtl's boundary layer approximation are utilized. The Chebyshev collocation spectral method is employed to address the non-linear problem. The effect of different parameters, such as thermal Grashof number, momentum dust, magnetic field parameter on the fluid flow, and temperature profiles are considered to visualize the findings. The findings show that linear thermal radiation exhibits the lowest thermal transport, followed by quadratic thermal radiation, with nonlinear thermal radiation demonstrating the highest thermal transport. The velocity of the dusty nanoliquid is decreased when a transverse magnetic field is present. Additionally, it is observed that the existence of aluminum oxide nanoparticles of 3% volume concentration in particulate H20 effectively increases the thermal transfer of the fluid system