The Composition of Spesies and Changes in Reef Fishes Community at Ecoreef Rehabilitation Site, Manado Tua Island, Bunaken National Park

The study conducted from 2006 to 2012 with an interval of every two years in the ecoreef area of ​​ Manado Tua island found 2,936 individual reef fishes of 181 species that include into 32 families. Species composition value of the 10 dominant species of reef fishes was 55.48% of the total species. The highest number of species was Plotosus lineatus with schooling behavior which only discovered in 2010 at a depth of 3 meters. Ecoreef area of Manado Tua island, when analyzed from the abundance and biomass of reef fishes exhibited a succession of reef fish that have been stable, with peak abundance and higher biomass in 2008 and 2010. Reef fish found in ecoreef seemed to start a new living and become a new habitat for them. These were indicated by the highest biomass during the previous year but the number of individuals and spesies were decline. There was no change in the structure of reef fish communities in the ecoreef area of Manado Tua Island, which characterized by non significant different ecological index between the years. Cluster analyses grouped reef fish species into 2 groups i.e., the group of 2006 and the group of 2008, 2010, and 2012. Early survey in 2006 showed lower abundance of reef fish species for allegedly associated with low ecoreef organisms

Screening and identification of antibacterial agents produced by Aspergillus species from the soil of Bayero University Kano

This study was conducted to isolate antibiotic producing fungi in soil samples collected from Bayero University, Kano. Soil samples were suspended in deionised distilled water and inoculated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) by spread-plate method for the isolation of fungi. Primary screening of antibiotic producers was conducted using agar well diffusion method. All the isolates were identified to be in the genus Aspergillus. Out of the sixty (60) fungal isolates, three (3) species (A. flavus, A. fumigatus and A. niger) were selected for fermentation process and extraction of metabolites using ethyl acetate. The extracts were dried and subjected to disc diffusion assay against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The extracts showed inhibitory activity against all the test organisms at concentration of 1000μg and 800μg with little or no activity at 600μg against the tests organisms. Highest activity was observed from the metabolites of A. fumigatus on all the test organisms with MIC values of 250μg/ml. Thin layer chromatography of all the three extracts revealed four sports per chromatogram. The chromatogram study reveals many bioactive compounds such as Oleic acid, n-Hexadecanoic acid known to have antibacterial activity against range of bacteria. Similarly, the extracts showed some level of toxicity to brine shrimp. The extracts were found to have some pharmaceutical applications and therefore should be subjected for further bioassay such as anticancer and antioxidant.Keywords: Antibiotic producing fungi, Soil, Aspergillus, Oleic aci

An improved IAR sorghum thresher

Nigeria is the one of the major sorghum producing countries in the world with annual yield over Six million tons, however, threshing and cleaning of sorghum have remain serious problems to farmers due to high drudgery involve in traditional method. This shows that a little mechanization exist in post- harvest operation of such crop and affect the production. To address such problems, IAR sorghum thresher was developed at the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) Samaru, Zaria. Complete randomize design was used as the experimental design with three replications. The effect of the independent variable on the dependent variables was determined using ANOVA. The results showed that the moisture content is highly significance on the threshing and cleaning efficiency while their interaction was not significance at the same probability level (0.05). It was also observed that moisture content, feed rate and speed are highly significance on the throughput capacity, mechanical grain damage and scatter losses. Similarly all their interaction between the factor show similar effect

Semi-analytical approach to criteria for ignition of excitation waves

We consider the problem of ignition of propagating waves in one-dimensional bistable or excitable systems by an instantaneous spatially extended stimulus. Earlier we proposed a method (Idris and Biktashev, PRL, vol 101, 2008, 244101) for analytical description of the threshold conditions based on an approximation of the (center-)stable manifold of a certain critical solution. Here we generalize this method to address a wider class of excitable systems, such as multicomponent reaction-diffusion systems and systems with non-self-adjoint linearized operators, including systems with moving critical fronts and pulses. We also explore an extension of this method from a linear to a quadratic approximation of the (center-)stable manifold, resulting in some cases in a significant increase in accuracy. The applicability of the approach is demonstrated on five test problems ranging from archetypal examples such as the Zeldovich--Frank-Kamenetsky equation to near realistic examples such as the Beeler-Reuter model of cardiac excitation. While the method is analytical in nature, it is recognised that essential ingredients of the theory can be calculated explicitly only in exceptional cases, so we also describe methods suitable for calculating these ingredients numerically.Comment: 31 page, 20 figures, as resubmitted to Phys Rev E on 2015/09/20 and accepted on 2015/09/2

ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE - SECTORS PARTNERSHIP (PPP) IN HOUSING DELIVERY IN, NIGER STATE. NIGERIA

Abstract: One of the greatest challenge confronting both rural and urban residents in Niger State is the need to provide adequate shelter. This study examined the individual significant contribution of the public and private sector in public-private partnerships (PPP) in housing contracts in Niger State, Nigeria. The study review that PPP has so far achieved little success in providing decent and unaffordable housing accommodation to Nigerlites. Accordingly to Niger State housing corporation 2 bedrooms flat worth N3,500,000.00 and 3 bedrooms flat worth N4,500,000.00 so it’s clear that the houses are unaffordable to low and medium incomes earners. The researcher finding that the private sector in Niger State can be said to have contributed very little to the development of an urban project in the state, however, even this insignificant level of participation has been serious challenges by poor funding and lack of policy framework to regulate it activities. Therefore, it is paramount importance that the state should develop a regulatory framework and partner with the private sector in this regard so as to ensure that the resident of Niger State has access to this important component of the human environment. Researcher concluded that to ensure the effective participation of the private sector in housing delivery in Niger State in general and Minna in particular, the following recommendation has been put forward (1) Aside from providing enabling environment for the private sector to develop real estate, government should also invest more in provision of site and services scheme this will hasten the development of estate sector.  (2) The establishment a power federal mortgage bank (FMB) and  urban development bank would guarantee investors access to loan and other facilities needed for mass housing development.(3) strengthening the activities of the Niger State Ministry of land and housing in order to ensure that both the formal and informal neighborhood save provided with sanction and neighborhood facilities and (4) The establishment of a PPP steering committee in the Niger State that would be responsible for the general oversight of state’s PPP arrangement. (5) Finally, the study recommends that to ensure the success of public and private partnership in housing delivering, all tiers of government must strive to complement the weakness of the public sector with the strength of the private sector.

Analisis Pertumbuhan Tanaman Kayu Putih (Melaleuca Cajuputi Sub SP. Cajuputi) pada Kawasan Hutan Lindung Dusun Malimbu dan Dusun Badung Resort Malimbu Kphl Rinjani Barat

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui faktor karakteristik lahan yang mempengaruhi perbedaan pertumbuhan Kayu Putih di Malimbu dan Badung dan menentukan Kelas kesesuaian lahan Kayu Putih di Malimbu dan Badung. Penelitian ini dilakukan di kawasan hutan lindung Dusun Malimbu dan Badung Resort Malimbu KPHL Rinjani Barat. Parameter yang diukur adalah pertumbuhan Kayu Putih meliputi diameter, tinggi dan volume, serta faktor lingkungan meliputi ketinggian tempat, suhu udara, dan sifat fisika tanah (tekstur tanah, kadar air tanah, kedalaman efektif, bulk density, porositas tanah dan suhu tanah). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ׃ 1). Rata-rata diameter, tinggi, volume dan jumlah tanaman Kayu Putih umur 22 bulan di Badung sebesar 3,33 cm, 3,29 m, 2355,83 cm3 dan 32 tanaman/plot, sedangkan di Malimbu sebesar 1,43 cm, 1,87 m, 241,85 cm3 dan 22 tanaman/plot; 2). Faktor yang berpengaruh nyata pada taraf toleransi 95% (α = 0,05) terhadap diameter Kayu Putih adalah fraksi pasir, suhu tanah, kedalaman efektif dan ketinggian tempat, sedangkan terhadap tinggi Kayu Putih adalah fraksi pasir, bulk density dan kedalaman efektif; 3). Kesesuaian lahan aktual Kayu Putih di Malimbu tergolong Kelas N1r dengan faktor pembatas media perakaran (drainase tanah), sedangkan di Badung tergolong Kelas S3w dan S3wr dengan faktor pembatas ketersediaan air (bulan kering) dan media perakaran (drainase tanah)

Effect of Casting and Mould Cooling Temperatures on the Warping Phenomenon of Aluminium at High Pressure Die- Casting

Abstract. The effect of molten aluminium pouring temperature and hot oiltemperature for mould heating and cooling on the warping phenomenon ofthick-thin section aluminium high-pressure die-casting process was investigatedon a four cavities hard disk drive mould. Nine combinations of moltenaluminium A380 pouring temperature of 660ºC, 690ºC and 720ºC and hot oiltemperature of 150ºC, 200ºC and 250ºC were being studied. Magmasoftsimulation software was used to simulate the molten aluminium flow in themould and distortion to understand the die-casting cooling pattern in responseto different molten aluminium temperature and mould cooling parameterssettings. Actual casting was carried out to produce the parts according tosimulation settings. Warping data was collected and analysed using Minitab 17.It was found that each mould cavity had different cooling pattern resulting indifferent warping magnitude. Pouring temperature at 660ºC and 720ºC both hadhigher warping distortion then 690ºC. Hot oil temperature at 150ºC had higherwarping distortion than 200ºC and 250ºC. The lowest warping distortion wasestablish at molten aluminium pouring and hot oil temperature of 690ºC and200ºC respectively

A report of natural enemies of papaya mealybug, paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) in Peninsular Malaysia

Papaya mealybug is notorious pest of papaya & other horticultural crops. Keeping in mind the role of parasitoids and predators in pest management, an exploratory study was conducted on the availability of natural enemies of recently introduced papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus in Selangor and Negri Sembilan states of Peninsular Malaysia. Results revealed the presence of two predators (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri and Apertochrysa sp.), one primary parasitoid (Acerophagus papayae) and three hyperparasitoids (Chartocerus sp., Marietta leopardina and Cheiloneurus sp.). Among all natural enemies recorded, populations of C. montrouzieri and A. papayae were frequently recorded from all sampled locations of the two states. Accordingly, these two species should be exploited for their potential to manage populations of P. marginatus below threshold levels