Restructuring, National Security and Nigeria’s Relationship with the External World

Nigeria as a nation has been experiencing security challenges at alarming level in the last few years. This has taken various forms such as kidnapping from ransom, herders and farmers clashes, organized crimes, and cybercrimes, implosive movement of small and light arms. Trans border crimes, human trafficking, and slavery among others. This has affected Nigeria’s external relations with the outside world negatively in various ways, such as constriction of bilateral trade volume, cold diplomatic relations, low tourism attraction, low educational exchang e, reduction of military trainings abroad, refusal of arms purchase, low foreign investments among others. The diversity nature of the Nigerian state stands a gap in finding solutions to the myriads of problems as Nigeria’s image abroad has been dented badly. Restructuring the Nigerian state in various spheres has been the agitation of many Nigerians in the recent time. This paper therefore examines restructuring the Nigerian state, National security and its implications on her relationship with the external world. It is a qualitative paper that focused on secondary sources of information, and adopted structural functional theory as its framework of analysis. The paper argued that restructuring the political structures in Nigeria will advance quality security in Nigeria. It is the opinion of the paper that improves security in the country will enhance robust Nigerian’s relationship with the external world. The paper recommended among others, the restructuring of political economic and social structures through the instrument and legitimacy of national conference. This has to be backed by legislations from the national and state assembly. Keywords: Restructuring, External Relationships, National Security, Political Structure, National Conferenc

EMERGING TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS SUITABLE FOR VIABLE COTTAGE SUGAR PORDUCTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract Unlike the large scale (vacuum pan) industries, the economic viability of sugar production has not favoured the growth of cottage industries in most developing countries. Among other technological factors, problems such as in-efficient juice extraction and low crystallization rate of syrup were identified as major contributing factors for the inefficient and low overall performance of cottage sugar factories in many developing countries. Since the potential for sugar production is enormous in many of these countries, there was need to develop efficient technologies that could extract cane juice and also efficiently crystallize the concentrated Syrup. As a result, two new innovations: cane cutter/juice expeller to extract cane juice efficiently and combined air/water cool crystallizer to increase the crystallization rate were developed to replace the older technologies for cottage sugar production in Nigeria. The cottage level sugar production plant developed in the National Cereals Research Institute Badeggi, Nigeria was used to conduct the research work. The former set of machineries using rollers to extract sugarcane juice was used to process approximately 1,000 kg of sugarcane. ISSN: 2278 -7798 International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR) Volum

Diurnal Temperature Range as Index of Climate Change in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The study focused on determining the Diurnal temperature range trend as an index of climate change in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The study relied on remote sensing data- the ERA5 – Temperature, which is the fifth generation reanalysis from ECMWF. The data for the period of forty (40) years was extracted and used to analyze the annual range, diurnal temperature, trend analysis and daily maximum and minimum temperatures. The results shows a decrease in the trend analysis for the decadal and pentad which means that the difference between the daily maximum temperature and daily minimum temperature is no longer wide. However, the trend analysis carried out for the annual DTR shows a positive trend which shows that the Maximum daily temperature is higher than the daily minimum range in the study area. The study recommended for more intense study of DTR in order to stop over generalizing the index of climate change over a macro area

Synthesis and Characterization of Iron Oxide from Clay Ore for Biomedical Applications

Capstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.The purpose of this project is to synthesise and characterize iron from clay ore which would be used in biomedical applications. Two sources of clay samples were obtained from the Savannah and Volta Region for the studies. The clay sample from the Savannah Region revealed a milky colour, while the clay sample from the Volta Region had red colour. The as-received clay was characterized with X-ray fluorescent (XRF) spectroscopy to determine the major oxides and elemental compositions. The results from the XRF studies shows that, the Savannah and the Volta clays contains 10.2 mass%, and 8.49 mass% hematite (Fe2O3). Iron synthesis was achieved via chemical leaching with phosphoric acid, and hydrochloric acid. The leached substance was analysed with ultraviolet visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. Kinetics of iron released was analysed using kinetic modules such as Zeroth order, First order, Second order, and Higuchi model. The results agreed with the Zeroth and Second model with a linear fit and regression coefficient, R2 = 0.994 and R2 = 0.998 respectively. The iron in solution was precipitated from solution using sodium hydroxide to enhance the yield of the iron. The implications of the results were discussed for the synthesis and further characterization of conjugated iron nanoparticles for biomedical applications.Ashesi Universit

Automation of Integrated System for Grain Beverages Processing

The research work focus on design and construction of automatic system for integrated plant for grain beverages processing. A grain beverage processing plant is a complex system that integrates several operations (blending of soaked grains, mixing the slurry, extracting the aqueous liquid and discharging of the paste out of the machine) together and finished in one go. Incorporating an automatic system into the integrated system simplify its mode of operation. Essential design consideration, analysis and calculations were carried out in order to determine and select materials of appropriate strength and sizes for various part of the automatic system. The major parts of the automatic system includes power supply unit, transformer, filter capacitor, voltage regulator, power indicator, pre-set buttons, time controller, eprom, display unit, controllers, limiting sensor, solenoid valve and electro-mechanical switch. The system was designed to have two controllers, one interfaced with the button network and the other organized the operational time (blending, sieving and paste expelling) in minute. Results of the testing revealed that the highest machine output of 90.24 L/h was obtained from speed of 1650 rpm using the integrated machine with automated system, low value of output of 52.64 L/h was obtained from the same speed using the integrated machine with semi-automatic system. The least machine output of 32.59 L/h was obtained from the same speed using the integrated machine without the automated system. The machine output was found to be influenced by both the automatic system and machine speed. The automatic system allows efficient work flow, reduces human labor, ensure safety and hygiene product production by eliminating human interference. Also it increased the machine output by 67%, reduce operational time by 65% and completely eliminating human interference with the product

Variability Effect of Some Mechanical Parameters of an Automated Machine on Grain Drink Production Output

A single response optimization model based on Response Surface Methodology was employed to determine the best combination of the functional machine parameters such blade type, basket orientation and speed of a developed automated grain drinks processing machine to attain the maximum drink output. The automated grain drinks processing machine blend soaked grains, mixed the slurry, extract the aqueous liquid and expel the paste from the machine all in single unit. The experiment was based on central composite rotatable design (CCRD). The experimental result showed that the developed regression model could describe the performance indicators within the experimental range of the factors been investigated. Blade type and speed of rotation were found to be significant (ple 0.05), while basket orientation was insignificant. Numerical optimization carried out produced optimum values of 3-blade assembly, basket orientation of 33.44o and speed of 1385 r.p.m and the blending efficiency was 8.47 lires from 400g of soya beans

Nano-Rheological Behaviour of Cassava Starch-Zinc Nanocomposite Film under Dynamic Loading for High Speed Transportation of Packaged Food

This research was undertaken to determine the nano–rheological behaviours of cassava starch–zinc–nanocomposite films under dynamic loading for assessing their suitability as food packaging materials in high speed transportation. The films, with thickness ranging between 15 ± 0.22–17 ± 0.13 µm, were prepared by casting mixtures of 24 g cassava starch, 45–55% (w/w) glycerol and 0–2% (w/w) zinc nanoparticles in plastic moulds of 8–12 mm depths. The effects of the nanoparticles, thickness and glycerol on the rheological properties of the films, including the Young’s modulus, creep, hardness and plasticity index were determined using nanoindentation technique. The results show that the Young’s modulus and hardness of the films varied inconsistently with glycerol concentration and nanoparticles due probably to their isotropic nature and sensitivity to slight change in load. The plasticity index was lower for 15 µm film, which absorbed 40 pNm and dissipated 0.5 pNm during loading and unloading stages, respectively. The response of the 15 µm film to creep was higher than 16 µm and 17 µm films, and this may be consequence of lower wear at higher loads. This implies that the nanocomposite film might be suitable for high speed transportation of packaged food

Comparative study on cane cutter / juice expeller and roller model Sugarcane juice extraction systems

Abstract Two types of cane juice extraction systems have been developed through research efforts to extract sugarcane juice in the small scale sugar processing technology in Nigeria. The first type of juice extraction system that was developed is the roller model where whole sugar cane stalks of 3 to 4 are fed into rotating rollers to extract juice from the canes. The two juice extraction systems were roller cane crusher and cane cutter/juice expeller. About 1000 kg of approximated quantities of sugar cane samples in three replications were crushed to extract the juice in each juice extraction system. The brix of the juice and quantity collected were recorded and weighed for each sample. The baggasse were subjected to sun and oven drying in order to expel the remaining moisture. The weight of moisture left in the baggasse, juice extraction efficiencies and machine capacities were computed in order to determine the process parameters. Results indicated that the cane juice cutter and expeller system which is the new model performed better than the roller cane juice extractor as the new model recorded higher average juice extraction efficiency of about 98% with corresponding higher sugar recovery of about 9% which are comparable with results obtained by the 3-4 sets of multiple roller juice extraction system usually adopted in crushing sugarcane in large scale sugar manufacturing factories. The extraction efficiency of the roller model juice extractor was found to vary from 55-65%. Also, unlike the low baggasse temperature of about 28 0 C obtained with the roller juice extraction system, the baggasse temperature of the cane cutter juice expeller immediately after juice extraction recorded over 65 0 C, therefore was utilized as source of heat energy for the open pan boilers without additional energy requirement for drying

Dynamics of Streptococcus mutans Transcriptome in Response to Starch and Sucrose during Biofilm Development

The combination of sucrose and starch in the presence of surface-adsorbed salivary α-amylase and bacterial glucosyltransferases increase the formation of a structurally and metabolically distinctive biofilm by Streptococcus mutans. This host-pathogen-diet interaction may modulate the formation of pathogenic biofilms related to dental caries disease. We conducted a comprehensive study to further investigate the influence of the dietary carbohydrates on S. mutans-transcriptome at distinct stages of biofilm development using whole genomic profiling with a new computational tool (MDV) for data mining. S. mutans UA159 biofilms were formed on amylase-active saliva coated hydroxyapatite discs in the presence of various concentrations of sucrose alone (ranging from 0.25 to 5% w/v) or in combination with starch (0.5 to 1% w/v). Overall, the presence of sucrose and starch (suc+st) influenced the dynamics of S. mutans transcriptome (vs. sucrose alone), which may be associated with gradual digestion of starch by surface-adsorbed amylase. At 21 h of biofilm formation, most of the differentially expressed genes were related to sugar metabolism, such as upregulation of genes involved in maltose/maltotriose uptake and glycogen synthesis. In addition, the groEL/groES chaperones were induced in the suc+st-biofilm, indicating that presence of starch hydrolysates may cause environmental stress. In contrast, at 30 h of biofilm development, multiple genes associated with sugar uptake/transport (e.g. maltose), two-component systems, fermentation/glycolysis and iron transport were differentially expressed in suc+st-biofilms (vs. sucrose-biofilms). Interestingly, lytT (bacteria autolysis) was upregulated, which was correlated with presence of extracellular DNA in the matrix of suc+st-biofilms. Specific genes related to carbohydrate uptake and glycogen metabolism were detected in suc+st-biofilms in more than one time point, indicating an association between presence of starch hydrolysates and intracellular polysaccharide storage. Our data show complex remodeling of S. mutans-transcriptome in response to changing environmental conditions in situ, which could modulate the dynamics of biofilm development and pathogenicity