WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE OF FOREST TREES BY COOPERATE ORGANISATIONS

Payments for environmental services (PES) especially of the forests are considered a potential instrument to mitigate environment and development challenges faced in many tropical countries. The success of any PES scheme is highly dependent on reliable economic data and monetary values of the services provided by the forest trees and vegetation. Hence the relevance of this study which adopted the contingent valuation method (CVM) to derive a monetary valuation for the environmental service functions of forest trees in University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB) urban environment. Data were obtained from a multistage random sampling of 48 out of the 75 registered students’ Corporate Organisation made of Academic, Religion and Socio-cultural organisations and clubs. The results show that 77% of the respondents were willing to pay (WTP) various amounts ranging from N5 – N1000 monthly. One hundred naira (N100.00) was the modal value having recorded 38% response and closely followed by N200.00 with 30% response. The overall mean WTP value resulted into an aggregate estimate value of UNAAB urban forest trees environmental value of UNAAB urban forest trees environmental services which is N7,800 (US$1 = N140). The semi-log model of regression equation revealed respondents’ income, sources of income and years of existence as the socio-economic variables that significantly influenced WTP. It can be concluded from this study that the sampled respondent valued the environmental services of the forest especially the shade provided for them during their meetings to the extent that they are willing to contribute towards the continue existence of trees and by implication the forests in the University environment. Payment for environmental services either in form of voluntary donations or direct contribution towards forest tree plantings can be an incentive to the providers of the services be it private or government.Contingent valuation, Environmental services, Willingness to pay (WTP), Environmental Economics and Policy,

Lipid profile of oils from Irvingia gabonensis (Baill) seeds and its deterioration by a phytopathogenic fungal species

As a survival strategy, fungi are capable of degrading most organic substances. Fungi associated with diseased Irvingia gabonensis (Baill) seeds are suspected to possess the ability to degrade the hydrocarbon substances contained in these seeds. The work seeks to contribute to literature on the physico-chemical nature of oils from healthy and diseased seeds of I. gabonensis and to determine the corresponding extent of deterioration in this oil from Aspergillus oryzae infected seeds. Using standard laboratory methods, oils from healthy and A.oryzae infected seeds of I. gabonensis seed were extracted and subjected to a complete physico-chemical characterization. In addition, a Gas chromatographic profiling of the Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) from both oils was also done. Results from the study show that oil from I. gabonensis seed is of a high nutritive and industrial quality. Also, A. oryzae significantly (p = 0.05) affected the physico- chemical attributes and fatty acid profile of this oil, thus confirming its ability to deteriorate the quality and usefulness of this oil.Keywords: Irvingia gabonensis seed oil, oil deterioration, oil ranciditity, Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) and phytopathogenic fung

A concept guide for the Sub-Saharan African Challenge Program (SSA CP)

Describes the concept of innovation platforms and how to create them, with a focus on the Sub Saharan Africa Challenge Programme

Effect of fungi on dyes used in making Nigerian tie and dye cloths ('Adire') and shelf-life determination

Dye quality and fastness properties could only be guaranteed for a finite period of time on shelf. In this study, the shelf-life of natural indigo dye and indigo VAT dye was studied for 360 days. Physico-chemical parameters monitored includes; total viable count, viscosity, pH, specific gravity, absorbance and transmittance from 360 days. Fungi isolated from the dyes on shelf were Achaetomium strumarium, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Duitina rugosa, Penicillium citrinum and Peyronellaea prosopidis. The fungal population count was monitored monthly throughout the shelf-life study period. Multiple linear regression model was used to predict the shelf-life of the dyes from the growth data of the isolated organisms and the physico-chemical parameters. The total fungal viable counts ranged from 1.267×105 -3.213×105 spores ml-1 for indigo VAT dye and 1.453×105 - 3.347×105 spores ml-1 for natural indigo dye over the 12 months study period. The changes in the physico-chemical parameters ranged from pH 12.94±0.00-10.39±0.01 and 12.54±0.00-10.01±0.01, specific gravity 1.279±0.00-1.106±0.005 and 1.445±0.00-1.176±0.001, viscosity 1.288±0.00-1.215±0.001 cSt and 1.283±0.00- 1.176±0.001 cSt, optical density 1.627±0.002-3.323±0.001 and 1.705±0.001- 3.315±0.002, transmittance 5.573±0.003-2.652±0.001 and 6.124±0.002-2.108±0.001 for indigo VAT dye and natural indigo dye respectively. The percentage dye exhaustion of the shelf-life products determined after the study period peaked at 88±0.001 and 90±0.001 % for indigo VAT dye and natural indigo dye respectively. The shelf-life were found to be 17 months and 10 months for indigo VAT dye and natural indigo dye respectively. The synthetic indigo VAT dye has a higher shelf-life than the natural indigo dye. Imported indigo VAT dye is however recommended based on its longer shelf-life. The results further buttressed the trend where textile dyers in Nigeria and indeed the West African region largely employ imported indigo VAT dye than locally produced natural indigo dye.Keywords: Shelf-life; Nigerian tie and dye cloths 'Adire'; indigo VAT dye; natural indig

Organisational justice and employees’ work behaviour in public secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria

Efficient service delivery in educational organisations all over has become critical elements of the educational process for more reasons than one. Considering the role of education in the nation building, it calls to questions if employee work behaviour in an educational organisation fails to meet the required standard and expectation. This study examined the in influence of organizational justice on employee work behaviour in public secondary schools in Lagos state. Three research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Relevant literatures were reviewed. The study adopted ex-post-facto research design and the population for this study comprised 18,054 teachers in the 671 public senior and junior secondary schools in the six Education Districts of Lagos State. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 1,074 teachers comprising 534 and 540 senior and junior secondary school teachers respectively as participants for the study. The researcher administered 1,074 copies of questionnaire and 1,040 copies of the questionnaire were returned and good for analysis. This represented 97% return rate which is high enough for the study. The data obtained through the instrument were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation, while the hypotheses were tested using One Sample t-test and Pearson Moment Correlation. The three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that: employees’ disposition to work is poor, the two organizational justice variables tested had significant relationships to employees’ work behaviour. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended amongst others that: school principals should cultivate justice culture in their daily administrative practices as this will enhance teachers’ positive work behaviour in the school system.Keywords: Organisational Justice, Employee Work Behaviour, Procudural Justic

Identifying Chamaecrista rotundifolia accessions and Centrosema species for bridging seasonal feed gaps in smallholder mixed farms in the West African derived savanna

Information is scanty on seasonal changes in the yield and quality of forage legumes adapted to the West African savannas. Two experiments were conducted from 1992-1994 in the derived savanna zone of West Africa to determine the dry matter (DM) yield and 48-h in sacco DM digestibility of 17 accessions of Chamaecrista rotundifolia (Experiment 1), and 22 accessions of 8 Centrosema species (Experiment 2) in the main-wet (April-August), minor-wet (September-November), and dry (December-March) seasons. Accessions varied significantly in DM yield and in Sacco DM digestibility in both experiments. Based on the digestible DM yield, accessions were identified with the potential ot provide greater quantities of high quality forage. These included: Ch. rotundifolia ILCA 14165; Ce. acutifolium ILCA 12182 and 12184; Ce. macrocarpum ILCA 15594; Ce. pascuorum ILCA 9; Ce. schottii ILCA 122 and 12401; and Ce. plumieri ILCA 200; for the wet season. Promising accessions for the dry season included: Ch. rotundifolia ILCA 14172 and 14174; Ce. acutifolium ILCA 15591; Ce. arenarium ILCA 12451; Ce. brasilianum ILCA 155; Ce. macrocarpum ILCA 15594; Ce. plumieri ILCA 194; and Ce. schottii ILCA 122. Of the Ce. virginianum accessions evaluated, ILCA 509 was the best in all seasons. The potential of the promising accessions to reduce seasonal deficiencies of high quality feed, especially during the dry season, and their multiple use of soil fertility maintenance, weed control, and pest management in mixed farming systems warrant further research

Balancing throughput and latency for an aerial robot over a wireless secure communication link

With the requirement for remote control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) becoming more frequent in scenarios where the environment is inaccessible or hazardous to human beings (e.g. disaster recovery); remote functionality of a UAV is generally implemented over wireless networked control systems (WNCS). The nature of the wireless broadcast allows attackers to exploit security vulnerabilities through passive and active attacks; consequently, cryptography is often selected as a countermeasure to the aforementioned attacks. This paper analyses simulation undertaken and proposes a model to balance the relationship between throughput and latency for a secure multi-hop communication link. Results obtained indicate that throughput is more influential up to two hops from the initial transmitting device; conversely, latency is the determining factor after two hops

Bio-preservation Potential of Leaf Extracts of Ocimum gratissimum L. on Fresh-Cut Fruits of Citrullus lanatus (Thunb)

This study was conducted to assess the retail market edibility quality of Citrullus lanatus fresh-cut fruits enhanced with the extracts from the leaves of Ocimum gratissimum. Analytical graded ethanol and hexane were used to extract O. gratissimum leaves differently. The fresh-cut fruits were dipped in the extract obtained from the leaves and reconstituted with Tween 80, fruits treated with Tween 80 and untreated fruits were used as controls. The treated fruits with the extracts, fruits treated with Tween 80 and fruits without treatment were analysed for quality test using the following parametres: carotenoids, ascorbic acids, total phenolic acid, pH, total soluble solids, microbial loads and moisture contents at day 0 and at an interval of 3, 5 and 9 days. The quantitative estimations of the phytochemicals in the extracts were determined and the constituents in the essential oil of the hexane extracts were established with the use of GC-MS system, and the data generated from the study were analysed with SPSS 20.0. This study showed that there was lower reduction in moisture content, pH, ascorbic acid and potential browning values of the treated fresh-cut fruits of C. lanatus, compared to higher reduction in untreated and tween 80 treated fresh-cut fruits during the storage intervals for nine days. The treated fresh-cut fruits had higher Brix values of TSS, total phenolic acid and carotenoids contents, compared with the untreated fresh-cut fruit, which was low during the period of storage for nine days. The microbial loads in the untreated fresh-cut fruit of C. lanatus were higher than what was obtained in the treated fresh-cut fruits of C. lanatus after nine days of storage. The yield of Alkaloids from ethanol and hexane extracts were 54.25±0.09 mg/100g and 51.86±0.06mg/100g respectively. γ-Terpinene (17.21 %) and (E)-9-Octadecenoic acid (11.848 %) had the highest percentage composition of phytoconstituents present in the essential oil from Citrullus lanatus. This study was able to establish the preservation potential of Ocimum gratissiumum on fresh-cut fruits of Citrullus lanatus.Keywords: Citrullus lanatus; Food Safety; Ocimum gratissiumum; Quality parametre

Effect of Acid Contamination on the Geotechnical Properties of Cohesive Soils from Oke-Ejigbo area of Abeokuta, South-western Nigeria

Environmental degradation is a threat to the ecosystem and natural resources. The research investigated the effects of hydrochloric acid contamination on the geotechnical properties of cohesive soils obtained from Oke-Ejigbo area of Abeokuta, South-western Nigeria. The materials used are hydrochloric acid as contaminant, red clay (RCA) and white clay (WCA) soils respectively. The results of optimum moisture content, maximum dry densities, California bearing ratio and unconfined compressive strength of RCA and WCA subjected to 60 days acidic contamination period are (14.88 and 16.21%), (18.30 and 17.93 kN/m3), (5.93 and 11.29%), (89.81 and 87.54 kN/m3) respectively. The acid-soil interaction reduces the geotechnical properties of the cohesive soil samples with an increase in the period of contamination. Furthermore, the contamination period directly affects the strength of the soils due to the change in soil plasticity and structure caused by the pollutant