Acid-Catalyzed Esterification of Waste Cooking Oil with High FFA for Biodiesel Production

In this work, Biodiesel was produced from waste cooking oil (WCO) obtained from Mr. Biggs.  Since WCO usually comes with a high content of FFA and thus requires an additional acid pre-treatment process to convert the FFA to ester. Two steps (esterification and transesterification) approach was employed to convert the WCO to biodiesel. In the first step, six experimental run was carried out until the % FFA was constant. Meanwhile, the second step required five experimental runs, and the average WCO biodiesel yield (95.06 % w/w) was computed at the following variable conditions, 0.55% KOH, 5:1 Methanol/oil molar ratio, 60 oC reaction temperature and 30 min reaction time. Meanwhile, the produced WCO biodiesel possess some fuel properties which satisfied both ASTME D6751 and EN 1424 standards. The fatty acid profiles of both the WCO and WCO biodiesel revealed that both profiles contained unsaturated fatty acids. Hence, it can be concluded that WCO is a potential raw material for biodiesel production which are biodegradable, economical, environmental friendly and always available. Keywords: Waste cooking oil (WCO), esterification, transesterification, biodiesel, fatty acids profile, physicochemical analysis

Nutrient composition and suitability of four commonly used local complementary foods in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Adequate nutrition is important during infancy and childhood where a short period of malnutrition has long lasting effects on growth, development and health in the adult life. The period from six months to two years constitutes a critical window of opportunity for promoting optimal growth, health and development, while insufficient quantity and quality of complementary foods (CFs), poor feeding practice and high rate of infection have a detrimental impact on growth in these important years. This study was designed to evaluate the nutrient composition and suitability of four commonly used complementary foods in two Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional survey involving women with children aged 6-24 months old was carried out in two randomly selected LGAs to identify the commonly used CFs. A total of 300 consenting mothers (150/LGA) aged 18 to 60 years presenting their children for immunisation in the two LGAs were respondents. A pretested, semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge on breastfeeding, complementary feeding practice, and types of CFs used from the respondents. Standardised samples of the four most commonly used CFs were prepared and analysed for nutrient and anti-nutrient composition using standard AOAC methods of analyses. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Chi square test, with level of significance set at p = 0.05. Two types of unripe banana porridge, one mashed bean porridge, and mixed cereal pap with crayfish and ‘turn brown’ (soybean flour, groundnut and crayfish) were the four most commonly used CFs. One hundred grams portion of the CFs contained between 2.52 - 6.70 g crude protein, 1.26 - 7.23 g crude lipid, 8.16 - 13.97 g carbohydrates and yielded up to 415.57 kcal of energy. The mineral content ranged between 31.58 - 230.40 mg potassium, 46.78 - 184.68 mg calcium, 55.23 - 120.93 mg phosphorus, 10.37 - 23.26 mg iron, 7.53 - 18.53 mg of zinc / 100g portion. The four complementary foods were nutritionally adequate and were low in anti-nutrients (oxalates, phytates, trypsin inhibitors, saponins and tannins), hence there is little risk of malabsorption of available nutrients. Utilization of unripe banana and mixed cereals with turn brown for infants provides cheap CFs with adequate energy and nutrients, and promotes biodiversity.Key words: Nutrients, Complementary foods, Banana, Cereal, Beans

The impact of spirituality and resilience on mental distress among inmates in a northern state, Nigeria

The burden of mental illness of inmates in low and middle income countries (LMICs) prisons was higher than in the developed ones. Positive interventions common in reversing the increasing prevalence of inmates’ mental distress in developed countries are rare in Nigeria, a LMICs. This study contributed to initiate mental health promotion in Nigerian prisons through studying mediating effect of positive interventions, specifically spirituality and resilience on inmates’ mental wellbeing. Mental distress of 63 male inmates of Bida prison, North-centre Nigeria was assessed with GHQ-12. The impact of resilience and spirituality on mental distress was measured by Resilience Scale and brief Spirituality Involvement and Beliefs Scale respectively. The mean age of participants was 27.27years (SD = 1.43years) and 70% of them had mental distress. Variables with statistically significant experience of mental distress were being single and having high mean resilience score. The study demonstrated the impact of marital status, resilience and spirituality on the mental wellness of the participants. This will aid mental health promotion of inmates in Nigeria prisons

Growth regulators as vital components for cultivating hairy roots of chicory (Chcorium intybus)

This work aims to cover the experiments that have been carried out on hairy roots of Chicory using Agrobacterium rhizogenes during production thereby, highlighting the benefits of growth regulators on Chicorium intybus. The study will include; evaluation of the biomass used for producing plants through in vitro method of hairy root systems for Chicory production.The research work was partly supported by RFBR grant 18-29-12129mk

An innovative approach to biotransformation of benzaldehyde to L-PAC via free cells of Saccharomyces cerevisae in the presence of β-Cyclodextrin

Abstract- Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize L-Phenylacetylcarbinol (L-PAC) production form biotransformation of benzaldehyde via free cell of Saccharomyces cerevisae presence Beta-Cyclodextrin in this work. Specifically, response surface methodology was applied, and the effect of five variables, viz. cell weight, incubation time, acetaldehyde conc., benzaldehyde conc. and β-CD level and their reciprocal were determined. Central composite rotatable design was used to generate 50 individual experiments, which was designed to study the effects of these factors during biotransformation of benzaldehyde to L-PAC. A statistical model predicted the highest biotransformation yield of L-PAC to be 586.938 (mg/100 ml) at the following optimized variables conditions: cell weight of 5.17 g (wet. wt.), incubation time of 74.82 min, acetaldehyde conc. of 1594.05 (μg/100 ml), benzaldehyde conc. of 1300 (mg/100 ml) and β-CD level of 3.20 %. Using these variables under experimental condition in three independent replicates, an actual L-PAC yield of 587.00 (mg/100 ml) was obtained. The physical properties of the produced L-PAC suggested that its could serve as a key intermediate for the synthesis of L-ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norephedrine, nor-pseudoephedrine as well as adrenaline, amphetamine, methamphetamine, phenylpropanolamine and phenylamine. Keywords: Biotransformation, Saccharomyces cerevisae, optimization, Response surface methodology, L

APPLICATION OF RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY (RSM) AND ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK (ANN) FOR ACHIEVING DESIRE BA IN THE BIOTRANSFORMATION OF BENZALDEHYDE USING FREE CELLS OF SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISAE AND THE EFFECT OF Β-CYCLODEXTRIN

This work dwells on the production of benzene alcohol (BA) from the biotransformation of benzaldehyde using free cells of Saccharomyces cerevisae and effects of β-Cyclodextrin. Meanwhile, the properties of BA produced was evaluated. The effects of five variables considered in this research work were evaluated using RSM and ANN. The root mean square error, the coefficient of determination, the adjusted coefficient of determination and the predicted values were used to compare the performance of the RSM and ANN models. The RMSE and R2 of RSM and ANN were 2.00 and 0.0739; 0.9898 and 0.99206, respectively. The R2 adj. and the predicted values of RSM and ANN were found to be 0.98416 and 0.9889 and 327.259 mg/100 ml and 351.50 mg/100 ml. The quality of BA showed that at room temperature, BA was colourless liquid with density 1.030 kg/dm3, the boiling point and refractive index was found to be 204 ± 2 0C and 1.5453, respectively. The results indicated the ANN model to have higher predictive capability than RSM model. Thus, the ANN methodology presents a better alternative than the RSM model. The quality of produced BA was found to be in line with Analytic grade values

HISTOGRAM NORMALIZATION TECHNIQUE FOR PREPROCESSING OF DIGITAL MAMMOGRAPHIC IMAGES

Digital mammogram has become the most efficient tool for early breast cancer detection modalities and pre-processing these images requires high computational capabilities. Pre-processing is one of the most important step in the mammogram analysis due to poor captured mammographic image qualities. Pre-processing is basically used to correct and adjust the mammogram image for further study and classification.  Many image pre-processing techniques have been developed over the past decades to help radiologists in diagnosing breast cancer. Most studies conducted have proven that a pre-processed image is easier for radiologist to accurately detect breast cancer especially for dense breast. Different types of techniques are available for pre-processing of mammograms, which are used to improve image quality, remove noise, adjust contrast, enhance the image and preserve the edges within the image. This paper acquired 20 digital mammograms from Mammographic Image Analysis Society (MIAS) database and uses Histogram Normalization algorithm for pre-processing of the mammograms. A percentage of 95% was obtained. It was observed that the pre-processed mammographic images displayed breast abnormalities clearer with little or no noise

Nutritional potential of underutilized gum arabic tree seeds (acacia nilotica) and locust bean seeds (Parkia biglobosa)

Acacia nilotica seed (ANS) and Parkia biglobosa seed (PBS) are underutilised legume found to have health benefits and functional properties. Th is study determined nutrient composition of A . nilotica and P. biglobosa seed s . ANS and PBS were collected and processed properly for c hemical analysis. The proximate, minerals, vitamins, essential amin o - acids, and antinutri ent composition were analyzed to ascertain nutritional attributes and its potential in promoting dietary diversity . The raw and fermented A . nilotica se eds contained in g/100 g , protein (12.88 to 15.3 8), fat (3.29 to 4.91), ash (5.24 to 6.84), dietary fibre (1.98 to 2.66) and available carbohydrate (69.63 to 71.73), whil e the FPB contained in g/100 g, protein (18.30), fat (9.20), ash (8.69), dietary fibre (2.61), and available carbohydrate (56.27). The fermented A . nilotica (FAN) seed contained all the nine (9) essential amino acids. The raw and fermented ANS contained in mg/100 g , iron (9.67 to 12.23), zinc (0.69 to 1.13), calcium (0.17 to 0.22), sodium (0.14 - 0.21 ) while the F PB seed contained 14.86, 1.59, 0.25, and 0.24 , respecti vely. FAN and FPB contained in μg/100 g, vitamin A (148.79 and 197.81), vitamin E (15.90 and 24.69) and vitamin K (1.41 and 1.63) , respectively. The levels of antinutrient factors in all the samples were not significant. Fermented A . nilotica seed contained adequate level of some micronutrients and essential amino acids. Consumption of the seed should therefore be promoted

Effect of Storage Temperature on Some Ogi Properties

Abstract: The study aimed at investigating the effect of storage temperatures on some quality properties of Ogi putting into consideration the peculiar situation of power supply in Nigeria. Ogi was processed using traditional method and stored at different temperatures (27±3, 5 ±2, -10±3 and -20±3ºC) for a period of 12 weeks. Proximate, pH, total titrable acidity, pasting characteristics and sensory evaluation were carried out. The total titratable acidity (Lactic acid based) began to decrease as from week 2 and throughout the period of storage in ogi samples stored at ambient temperature of 27±3ºC. A similar observation was noticed in the ogi stored at 5 ±2ºC, while ogi stored at -10±3 and -20±3ºC maintained the total titrable acidity when compared with the fresh ogi. The mean values of pH were significantly different (p<0.05) in all the storage conditions, while high pH values of 3.61±0.25 and 3.65±0.05 were recorded at week 12 of ogi stored at ambient temperature and 5±2ºC respectively. There was significant difference (p<0.05) in moisture content throughout the period of storage. There was significant difference in proximate composition (p<0.05) in all the storage conditions and throughout the storage period. The peak viscosity and final viscosity of ogi stored under the ambient temperature witnessed a noticeable reduction throughout the period of storage compared with the fresh sample of ogi. Storage at 5±2,-10±3 and -20±3ºC conditions maintained the hold strength (hot paste viscosity). The range of pasting temperature for ogi samples throughout the period of storage was between 76 and 80ºC. There was no significant difference (p<0.05) in multiple comparison results of sensory evaluation and the values for consistency were 2.7 and 2.75 at weeks 8 and 10 respectively for ogi stored at ambient temperature. The acceptability results for consistency and colour showed a significant difference (p<0.05). Ogi stored at low temperatures (-10±3 and -20±3ºC) were preferred

The effect of iron overload consumed from food

The purpose of this review paper is to uncover the effect of iron overload from food, identify various forms of iron in food, the importance of estimating iron intake, types of iron overload and iron bioavailability. To sum up, studies on the effect of iron overload are limited and this study is a topic that should not be overlooked been that most individuals are liable to suffer from hemochromatosis due to lack of information.The research work was partly supported by RFBR grant 18-29-12129mk