Assessment of On-Farm Travel Characteristics of Small Scale Farmers In Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria

Transport needs of the farmers have not been properly quantified, most importantly on the farm which is the main hub of his activities. A study was conducted to assess on-farm travel characteristics of small scale farmers in Nigeria during farming activities. On-farm movement parameters such as working speed, workrate, field efficiency, power consumption and distance travelled were evaluated for some farm operations. The working speed during planting of maize and fertilizer application (manual) were both 0.088 m/sec; bed construction had a working speed of 0.013 m/sec. The workrate of planting operation was 0.044 ha/hr while bed making operation had a workrate of 0.0062 ha/hr. The results showed that operations like bed construction, ridging and weeding which were more tedious operations had lower workrate, working speed and travel distance compared to the less tedious operations like planting and fertilizer application. Also more power was consumed for ridging and bed construction than planting or fertilizer application. &nbsp

WATER USE EFFICIENCY OF OKRA AMENDED WITH SAW-DUST UNDER DEFICIT IRRIGATION IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT

Enormous funds are spent annually on providing moisture for crop use throughout each planting cycle. The sharp depletion of moisture available for planting necessitates essential amendment measures, keenly focused on moisture conservation. A research trial consisiting of an experimental design of 12 samples arranged in a specific order to meet the research requirement. Treatment samples of soil–sawdust were mixed proportionally at (25%-75%, 50%-50%, 75%-25%, 100%-0%) with varying water application of (100%, 50% and 25%). Growth stages amongst samples were visible owing to variance in height and yield. The amended samples greatly conserved moisture through a wide margin by the difference in bucket weight. Rates of moisture conservation in amended samples correspondingly declined with a descending sawdust application; samples with greater sawdust application showed higher moisture conservation. The growth and yield of the amended samples to the leave-alone samples greatly varied. The leave-alone samples proved to be less moisture conservative, but showing high- moisture usage potential&nbsp

Water Pollution: Effects, Prevention, and Climatic Impact

The stress on our water environment as a result of increased industrialization, which aids urbanization, is becoming very high thus reducing the availability of clean water. Polluted water is of great concern to the aquatic organism, plants, humans, and climate and indeed alters the ecosystem. The preservation of our water environment, which is embedded in sustainable development, must be well driven by all sectors. While effective wastewater treatment has the tendency of salvaging the water environment, integration of environmental policies into the actor firms core objectives coupled with continuous periodical enlightenment on the present and future consequences of environmental/water pollution will greatly assist in conserving the water environment

Biomaterials for Drug Delivery: Sources, Classification, Synthesis, Processing, and Applications

A way to avoid or minimize the side effect that could result in drug delivery to cells with increased efficiency and performance in the health rehabilitation process is to use biocompatible and biodegradable drug carriers. These are essentially biomaterials that are metallic, ceramic, or polymeric in nature. The sources of these materials must be biological in its entire ramification. The classification, synthesis, processing, and the applications to which these materials are put are the essential components of having suitable target cell drug carriers. This chapter will be devoted to discussing biomaterials suitable as drug carrier for use in the health-related matters of rehabilitation

A Positive-Weight Next-to-Leading-Order Monte Carlo for Heavy Flavour Hadroproduction

We present a next-to-leading order calculation of heavy flavour production in hadronic collisions that can be interfaced to shower Monte Carlo programs. The calculation is performed in the context of the POWHEG method. It is suitable for the computation of charm, bottom and top hadroproduction. In the case of top production, spin correlations in the decay products are taken into account.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures. Few misprints corrected, references updated, final remarks adde

Single-top Wt-channel production matched with parton showers using the POWHEG method

We present results for the next-to-leading order calculation of single-top Wt-channel production interfaced to Shower Monte Carlo programs, implemented according to the POWHEG method. A comparison with MC@NLO is carried out. Results obtained using the PYTHIA shower are also shown and the effect of typical cuts is briefly discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

DRYING CHARACTERISTICS OF KEREWA TOMATO UNDER INFRARED DRYING

 In Drying characteristic for infrared drying of tomato slices were investigated. The drying experiments were carried out using Kerewa local varieties of tomato at five infrared drying power (150, 250, 300, 400 and 500 W) with slice thickness of 10 mm. For all drying powers there was a reduction in moisture content with increased drying time, the drying took place in the falling rate period. The drying time reduced as the infrared heating power increased from 150 to 500W. The diffusivity obtained for the tomato slices were within the range specified for fruits and vegetables with a value of 5.6132 x 10-7 m/s2.  Blanched tomato varieties had better rehydration capacities than all unblanched samples

NLO QCD corrections in Herwig++ with MC@NLO

We present the calculations necessary to obtain next-to-leading order QCD precision with the Herwig++ event generator using the MC@NLO approach, and implement them for all the processes that were previously available from Fortran HERWIG with MC@NLO. We show a range of results comparing the two implementations. With these calculations and recent developments in the automatic generation of NLO matrix elements, it will be possible to obtain NLO precision with Herwig++ for a much wider range of processesComment: 26 pages, 28 figure

Comparative Efficacy of Clinic-Based and Telerehabilitation Application of McKenzie Therapy in Chronic Low-Back Pain

Studies on validation of telerehabilitation as an effective platform to help manage as well as reduce burden of care for Low-Back Pain (LBP) are sparse. This study compared the effects of Telerehabilitation-Based McKenzie Therapy (TBMT) and Clinic-Based McKenzie Therapy (CBMT) among patients with LBP. Forty-seven consenting patients with chronic LBP who demonstrated ‘directional preference’ for McKenzie Extension Protocol (MEP) completed this quasi experimental study. The participants were assigned into either the CBMT or TBMT group using block permuted randomization. Participants in the CBMT and TBMT groups received MEP involving a specific sequence of lumbosacral repeated movements in extension aimed to centralize, decrease, or abolish symptoms, thrice weekly for eight weeks. TBMT is a comparable version of CBMT performed in the home with the assistance of a mobile phone app. Outcomes were assessed at the 4th and 8th weeks of the study in terms of Pain Intensity (PI), Back Extensors Muscles’ Endurance (BEME), Activity Limitation (AL), Participation Restriction (PR), and General Health Status (GHS). Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Alpha level was set at p< 0.05.Within-group comparison across baseline, 4th and 8th weeks indicate that both CBMT and TBMT had significant effects on PI (p=0.001), BEME (p=0.001), AL (p=0.001), PR (p=0.001) and GHS (p=0.001) respectively. However, there were no significant differences (p>0.05) in the treatment effects between TBMT and CBMT, except for ‘vitality’ (p=0.011) scale in the GHS where TBMT led to significantly higher mean score. Mobile-app platform of the McKenzie extension protocol has comparable clinical outcomes with the traditional clinic-based McKenzie Therapy, and thus is an effective supplementary platform for care of patients with low-back pain

QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF WATER SUPPLY IN MURTALA MUHAMMED INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, LAGOS, NIGERIA

This research assessed the quality of water and by implication the functionality of the treatment plant units in Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Nigeria. Raw water samples were collected at eight different points from the plant to the end users for three consecutive months. Physico-chemical properties of collected samples were analysed using standard methods and compared with the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. The values of properties obtained for plant raw and treated water ranged from .19 - 7.4, 24.60 - 26.00oC, 3.79- 0.00 NTU, 33.30-16.70Hazen,0.17 -0.00mg/l and 36.7 -44.30 ppm, for pH, temperature, turbidity, hazencolour, iron content, total dissolved solid respectively. While the values obtained for total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, residue chlorine, odour, electrical conductivity, nitrate, BOD and  Dissolved Oxygen, were 7.3 -5.7mg/l,3.7 -3.00 mg/l3.7-2.7mg/l,0.00 -0.00mg/l,46– 72µs/c, 0.59 - 0.56 mg/l,  3.23 - 4.17mg/l and 2.66 - 2.75 mg/l respectively. The values of parameters for the treated water were in all cases always better than those obtained for the raw water. All the physico-chemical properties obtained for the treatment line were within WHO standard except for raw water pH whose value was lower than the recommended WHO value. This observation showed that the treatment units improved the quality of the treated water and it is safe to use as potable water