Properties Evaluation of Natural Weathered Polyester/Nano-Locust Bean Pods Ash (LBPA) Composite

Nano-Locust bean Pod Ash (LBPA) reinforced polyester matrix composite was developed via Sol-gel techniques to investigate the mechanical and physical properties of the composite after weathering. The mechanical and physical test samples were prepared according to ASTM standard. The composite were subjected to weathering tests to study the effect of natural weather and its degradation on the properties of the composites. The moisture absorption of the composite after 24 hours as well as the weight loss of the test samples after degradation was evaluated. Percentage water absorption of the composite increased with increase in percentage reinforcement composition. The percentage weight losses also increase as the percent reinforcement in the composite increases. Weight loss of the test samples after 30 days shows the highest weight loss values. Approximately 54%, 11%, 86%, and 43% drop in values after 90days exposure was recorded for impact, tensile, flexural and hardness test values respectively. The reduction in modulus values recorded for tensile and flexural was approximately 51% and 8%. Keywords: Nanosized LBPA; polyester composite; Natural weathering; Properties  

Nutritional and Sensory Characteristics of Bread Produced from Wheat and Cassava Flour, Fortified with Sorrel Seed Protein Isolate

The possibility of making bread from composite flour containing 60-80% wheat flour, 10-25% cassava flour and 5-15% Sorrel seeds protein isolate was investigated. The proximate composition, mineral constituents, functional and sensory evaluation were analyzed using standard methods.  The results of the analysis showed that crude protein (8.80±0.36 to 18.70±0.35) and crude fibre (0.77±0.02 to 1.58±0.04) contents of the composite breads increased significantly with increased incorporation of cassava flour and sorrel seed protein isolate flours. The moisture (34.00±1.00 to 32.04±1.00), ash (1.22±0.03 to 0.66±0.03), carbohydrate(54.99±0.25 to 46.83±0.77) and fat (0.24±0.01 to 0.20±0.02) contents were  observed  to  decrease  significantly  with  corresponding  increase  in  the  percentage  of  the  composite  flours from 5-25% for both cassava flour and sorrel seed protein isolate flour. The results of the mineral contents showed that calcium element increased as the level of composite flour increased, while sodium, potassium and magnesium decreased as the level of inclusion increased. The functional properties, water and oil absorption, and swelling index of the composite flour showed varying degrees of variation from the control sample (100% wheat flour). The results of the sensory evaluation showed  that there were no significant  differences  (P>0.05)  in taste, texture, colour, flavour, appearance  and  overall acceptability, however, the  mean  sensory  scores  decreased  with increased  addition  of  cassava flour and  sorrel seed protein isolate  in the composite flour.  The outcome of the research showed that, nutritious bread could be produced from the composite flours of wheat, cassava and sorrel seeds protein isolate.Keywords: Bread, Wheat, cassava, Protein Isolat

Diagnostic potentials of loop area in vectorcardiography

No Abstract. NQJHM Vol. 8 (2) 1998: pp. 83-8

Corelates of echochardiographic left ventricular mass in young arabs

No Abstract. NQJHM Vol. 6 (3) 1996: pp. 142-14

Dynamic Behaviour of Flow through Multi-Stage Restricting Orifices

Abstract -Orifices are widely used as flow restriction devices for the sake of pressure control, flowrate control or both. In these cases, the use of restricting orifices often result in high hydraulic losses, severe erosion in the presence of solid particles; cavitation in liquid flows, choking is gas flows in addition to noise and vibration. In this paper, the characteristics of flow through a multi-stage orifice plates fitted in a horizontal pipe of 25.4mm internal diameter has been investigated. Computational fluid dynamics calculations were performed using the realizable k-ε eddy viscosity model to predict the flow features. The effects of various parameters such as pipe flow velocity in the range 1−4m/s, orifice spacing of 1D and 2D, and orifice plate diameter ratios of 0.63 on axial velocity and pressure distributions were obtained. The location of vena contracta associated with the first orifice was found to be independent of addition of second orifice but varies with orifice diameter ratios while the presence of vena contracta downstream of the second orifice was found to depend on the orifice spacing. Not only the flow structure between the two orifices and downstream the second orifice was found to depend on the orifice spacing but also the total pressure drop and hydraulic losses. Orifice spacing of 1 and 2 pipe diameters gave the highest and lowest pressure recovery respectively compared to single orifice arrangement. The current study provides an insight into methods of pressure control without redesigning the complete flow system

Performance Evaluation Models for a Secure Agent-Based Electronic Commerce

Agent-based applications on internet are gaining more attention because of tremendous benefits one can derive from it, especially when you can dispatch your agent to do shopping for you. However security has been a major challenge to its development. Several security techniques such as cryptography, steganography have been deployed to combat security vulnerabilities of mobile agent system and certain reliable level of security has been obtained. This research paper shows how to evaluate the performance of a secure agent-based system. In this research, a secure agent-based application was developed using crypto-steganography security technique which is a combination of cryptography and steganography. Performance evaluation models were formulated based on work load and execution time of the agent