Monitoring Gaseous and Particulate Air Pollutants near Major Highways in Abeokuta, Nigeria

High traffic volume and traffic congestion on Nigerian roads have led to increase in the concentration of pollutants in the air t posing health risks for human population. This study investigates air quality due to vehicular emissions in some busy roads in Abeokuta metropolis, Nigeria. Air pollutants such as CO, CO2, NO, NO2, SO2, H2S) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) were determined using an active sampler for both dry and wet seasons. The results shows concentration of CO in the urban air ranging from 1.58 – 8.50 ppm during the dry season and 1.22 – 25.75 ppm for wet season, while CO2 ranges from 11800 – 26900 ppm for dry season and 9200 – 26700 ppm in wet season. NO ranged from 0.04 – 2.60 ppm for dry season and 0.02 – 0.66 ppm for wet season while NO2 ranged from 0.09 – 3.40 ppm in dry season and 0.04 – 1.12 ppm in the wet season. SO2 ranged between 0.06 – 2.18 ppm in dry season compared to 0.05 – 0.82 ppm in wet season. SPM varies between 51.00 – 642.25 ppm in dry season and 29.50 - 170.75 ppm in wet season. High concentrations of CO2, NO, NO2, SO2, H2S and SPM were obtained during the dry season compared to the wet season and can be attributed to vehicular emissions due high traffic volume on the roads. The concentrations of pollutants examined were above the World Health Organization (WHO) limits at all the sites.Keywords: Gaseous Pollutants, Air Quality, Abeokuta Metropolis, Transportation, health

A Network Topology for Composable Infrastructures

This paper proposes a passive optical backplane as a new network topology for composable computing infrastructures. The topology provides a high capacity, low-latency and flexible fabric that interconnects disaggregated resource components. The network topology is dedicated to inter-resource communication between composed logical hosts to ensure effective performance. We formulated a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model that dynamically creates logical networks to support intra logical host communication over the physical network topology. The MILP performs energy efficient logical network instantiation given each application's resource demand. The topology can achieve 1 Tbps capacity per resource node given appropriate wavelength transmission data rate and the right number of wavelengths per node

Energy Efficient Placement of Workloads in Composable Data Center Networks

This paper studies the energy efficiency of composable datacentre (DC) infrastructures over network topologies. Using a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model, we compare the performance of disaggregation at rack-scale and pod-scale over selected electrical, optical and hybrid network topologies relative to a traditional DC. Relative to a pod-scale DC, the results show that physical disaggregation at rack-scale is sufficient for optimal efficiency when the optical network topology is adopted, and resource components are allocated in a suitable manner. The optical network topology also enables optimal energy efficiency in composable DCs. The paper also studies logical disaggregation of traditional DC servers over an optical network topology. Relative to physical disaggregation at rack-scale, logical disaggregation of server resources within each rack enables marginal fall in the total DC power consumption (TDPC) due to improved resource demands placement. Hence, an adaptable composable infrastructure that can support both in memory (access) latency sensitive and insensitive workloads is enabled. We also conduct a study of the adoption of micro-service architecture in both traditional and composable DCs. Our results show that increasing the modularity of workloads improves the energy efficiency in traditional DCs, but disproportionate utilization of DC resources persists. A combination of disaggregation and micro-services achieved up to 23% reduction in the TDPC of the traditional DC by enabling optimal resources utilization and energy efficiencies. Finally, we propose a heuristic for energy efficient placement of workloads in composable DCs which replicates the trends produced by the MILP model formulated in this paper

On Energy Efficiency of Networks for Composable Datacentre Infrastructures

This paper evaluates the optimal scale of datacentre (DC) resource disaggregation for composable DC infrastructures and investigates the impact of present day silicon photonics technologies on the energy efficiency of different composable DC infrastructures. We formulated a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to this end. Our results show that present day silicon photonics technologies enable better network energy efficiency for rack-scale composable DCs compared to pod-scale composable DCs despite reported similarities in CPU and memory resource power consumption

Honey health benefits and uses in medicine

The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and other free radicals during metabolism is an essential and normal process that ideally is compensated through the antioxidant system. However, due to many environmental, lifestyle, and pathological situations, free radicals and oxidants can be produced in excess, resulting in oxidative damage of biomolecules (e.g., lipids, proteins, and DNA). This plays a major role in the development of chronic and degenerative illness such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, aging, cataract, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases (Pham-Huy et al. 2008; Willcox et al. 2004). The human body has several mechanisms to counteract oxidative stress by producing antioxidants, which are either naturally synthetized in situ, or externally supplied through foods, and/or supplements (Pham-Huy et al. 2008).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of an Aqueous Palm Oil Extraction System

Continuous attempts have been made to re-examine the aqueous extraction of palm oil (through pit technology) and device a means of improving the technology particularly for the small-scale processors. A novel aqueous batch extraction system was developed and was subsequently evaluated for its performance in palm oil processing. The crude oil produced from the traditional pit technology and aqueous batch extraction system were compared and evaluated using a 23 factorial experimental design. The factors considered were fruit sterilization time, variety of fruit and processing technology. The crude oil produced at different factor levels was assessed for its solid impurities, moisture content and oil content. The result indicates that the crude oil yield from batch extraction system are higher with values of 30.4%, 30.9%, 42.0% and 43.2% compared with pit technology method with 26.8%, 27.7%, 38.6% and 39.6% respectively. The throughput of the batch extraction system (120kg of mash/ h) was found to be higher than pit technology that could take only 65kg of mash / h. Keywords: palm oil, aqueous-extraction, traditional-method, mechanical system, efficiencyDiscovery and Innovation Vol. 19 (3) 2007: pp. 202-20

Disaggregation for Energy Efficient Fog in Future 6G Networks

We study the benefits of adopting server disaggregation in the fog computing tier by evaluating energy efficient placement of interactive apps in a future (6G) fog network. Using a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model, we compare the adoption of traditional server (TS) and disaggregated server (DS) architectures in a fog network that comprises selected fog sites. We also propose a heuristic for energy efficient and delay aware placement of interactive fog apps in a fog network which effectively mimics the MILP model formulated in this paper. Compared to a non-federated fog computing layer, federation of selected fog computing sites over the metro-access network enables significant reductions of the total fog computing power consumption (TFPC). Relative to the use of TSs in the fog network, the adoption of DSs improves the energy efficiency of the fog network and enables up to 18% reduction in TFPC. To minimize response time, more instances of interactive fog apps are provisioned in a fog network that is implemented over a network topology with high delay penalty. Our result also shows that the proximity of metro-central offices and radio cell sites to geo-distributed users makes them important fog sites for provisioning delay-sensitive fog applications

Network Topologies for Composable Data Centers

Suitable composable data center networks (DCNs) are essential to support the disaggregation of compute components in highly efficient next generation data centers (DCs). However, designing such composable DCNs can be challenging. A composable DCN that adopts a full mesh backplane between disaggregated compute components within a rack and employs dedicated interfaces on each point-to-point link is wasteful and expensive. In this paper, we propose and describe two (i.e., electrical, and electrical-optical) variants of a network for composable DC (NetCoD). NetCoD adopts a targeted design to reduce the number of transceivers required when a mesh physical backplane is deployed between disaggregated compute components in the same rack. The targeted design leverages optical communication techniques and components to achieve this with minimal or no network performance degradation. We formulate a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to evaluate the performance of both variants of NetCoD in rack-scale composable DCs that implement different forms of disaggregation. The electrical-optical variant of NetCoD achieves similar performance as a reference network while utilizing fewer transceivers per compute node. The targeted adoption of optical technologies by both variants of NetCoD achieves greater (4 - 5 times greater) utilization of available network throughput than the reference network which implements a generic design. Under the various forms of disaggregation considered, both variants of NetCoD achieve near-optimal compute energy efficiency in the composable DC while satisfying both compute and network constraints. This is because marginal concession of optimal compute energy efficiency is often required to achieve overall optimal energy efficiency in composable DCs

Milk yield and rectal temperature in West African Dwarf goats as affected by wattle and litter size

This study was conducted to investigate milk yield and rectal temperature in West African Dwarf (WAD) goats as affected by wattle and litter size. A total of 28 lactating does were used for the experiment. 13 does had wattle (bilateral) while 15 had no wattle. 14 does had twin birth while the other 14 had single birth. The goats were fed at 5% body weight with combination of concentrate and grass (Panicum maximum and Pennisetum purpureum) in ratio 50:50 twice per day in the morning and evening (zero grazing). The lactating does were hand milked once per day (08.00) and thrice per week for the period of 12 weeks. The goats were housed in cross ventilated pens with slatted floor. Rectal temperature was taken after milking of each animals using digital thermometer. Data collected were analysed using SAS (2010) in a randomized complete block design. The results showed that wattle and litter size had significant effect on milk yield and rectal temperature in WAD goats. Wattled animals produce significantly (P<0.05) higher milk yield of 297.72 g/day compared to their nonwattled counterparts (255.11 g/day). Animals with wattle however had higher rectal temperature of 39.35ºC compared to animals without wattle (39.23ºC). Also twin littered does produced daily milk milk yield of 292.74 g/day significantly (P<0.05) higher than single littered counterparts (257.04 g/day). The interaction between wattle and litter size showed that there was no significant difference in daily milk yield in wattled animals regardless of the litter size. However, in non-wattle animals, does with twin birth produced daily milk yield of 283 g/day significantly (P<0.05) higher than 235 g/day for does with single birth. Also, wattled does with single birth had significantly (P<0.05) higher rectal temperature of 39.43ºC when compared with wattled does with twin birth. However, in nonwattle animals, does with single birth had significantly lower rectal temperature of 39.18ºC as compared with does with twin birth (39.29ºC). It was concluded that WAD goats with wattle and twin birth produces more milk than those without wattle and single birth. Therefore, WAD goats with wattle should be selected for lactation purpose especially those with twin birth.Keywords: wattle, litter size, WAD goats, milk yield, rectal temperatur