Compressive strength and workability of laterized quarry sand concrete

This paper presents an experimental study on workability and compressive strength of concrete using various combinations of lateritic sand and quarry sand as complete replacement for conventional river sand fine aggregate. Quantity of lateritic sand varied from 0 to 50% against quarry dust at interval of 10%. Concrete cubes were prepared for two mix ratios: 1:1.5:3 and 1:2:4 and three water/cement ratios: 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7 and were cured and tested in the laboratory for compressive strength. Slump tests were also carried out for each mix. For each mix and water/cement ratios, control samples were also prepared using river sand as fine aggregate. The resulting concrete cubes fall within the range for normal weight concrete and although laterized quarry dust concrete had poorer workability, their compressive strength compare favourably with those of conventional concrete. The use of laterized quarry sand concrete for structural members is therefore recommended when laterite content is not more than 50%.Keywords: Compressive Strength, Concrete, Lateritic Sand, Quarry Sand, Workabilit

A Preliminary Survey on the Parasites of Free Range Chicken in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

A preliminary study was carried out to assess the parasitic burden of domesticated and free range chicken in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. A total of twenty birds where purchased from five popular markets in Abeokuta namely, Itoku, Kuto, Lafenwa and Osiele and examined for presence of parasites. The skin and feathers of the birds were also combed to check for ectoparasites. Afterward, the birds were slaughtered and the intact gastro-intestinal tract were then separated and opened to check for endoparasites. All parasites found were collected into petri-dishes and examined under microscope for identification. Two species of ectoparasites Menacanthus stramineus with a prevalence of 90.0% and Lipeurus caponis with a prevalence of 60.0% were recovered. Three species of endoparasites found consisted of two nematodes (Ascaridia galli and Heterakis gallinarum) and one cestode (Raillietina echinobothridia). Ascaridia galli and Raillietina echinobothridia were seen in the small intestine and Heterakis gallinarum in the caecum.  Raillietina echinobothridia had the highest prevalence of 80.0% followed by Ascaridia galli and Heterakis gallinarum each with 60.0% prevalence. The results show that free-range chickens in Abeokuta carry high parasitic burden which could be a big constraint to their productivity and commercial value

Comparative evaluation of carcass quality and sensory characteristics of meat of rabbits fed Vernonia amygdalina and Mucuna pruriens

Reduction of total fat and cholesterol contents as well as alteration of lipid profile to a more unsaturated kind are some methods for improving quality of meat. One of the safest strategies for achieving this is through dietary inclusion of natural occuring herbs. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Vernonia amygdalina meal (VALM) and Mucuna pruriens meal (MPM) on performance, carcass and sensory quality of rabbits. Seventy-two weaned rabbits were randomly allotted to three dietary treatments, each replicated 3 times with 8 rabbits per replicate. Diet 1 was the control, diets 2 and 3 comprised of 15% each of VALM and MPM respectively each representing a treatment. At the end of 12th week, carcass evaluation, meat lipid profile and sensory evaluation were carried out. Results showed significant (P<0.05) increase in feed intake and daily weight gain for rabbits fed diets 2 and 3 as well as lower feed conversion ratio for rabbits fed diet 3 compared to the control. Rabbits on diet 3 indicated significan (P<0.05) increase in pre-slaughter weight, dressed weight as well as prime cuts (forelegs, thoracic cage, loin and hind legs). Meat lipid profile showed significant (P<0.05) reduction in total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, and VLDL while HDL increased for T3 and T2. Meat protein values showed significant (P<0.05) increase in T3 followed by T2 while abdominal fat decreased as against the control. Sensory evaluation showed significant (P<0.05) decline in tenderness from T3 to T2 without adverse effect on overall acceptability. Inclusion of the VALM and MPM in rabbit diets therefore improved performance, carcass quality and sensory characteristics

PREVALENCE AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH URINARY SCHISTOSOMIASIS AMONG INFANTS AND PRESCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN IN SETTLEMENTS AROUND OYAN RESERVOIR IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

The need for more information on the risk factors for schistosomiasis among infants and preschool-aged children as become important for the development of health education programme since this age group is currently excluded in preventive chemotherapy programmes.  Therefore, the prevalence and intensity of, and risk factors for, infant and preschool-aged children infection with Schistosoma haematobium were explored in two endemic settlements around Oyan Reservior in Ogun State, Nigeria. Mothers and caregivers’ knowledge of the disease, water contact activities of their preschooler, age at first exposure and control measures were recorded using a structured questionnaire. Of the 86 preschooler screened from the two settlements 46 (53.5%) were infected, with an overall geometric mean intensity of 0.36 eggs/10 ml urine. The prevalence of egg-patent S. haematobium infection was 27.8% in Ibaro and 72.0% in Imala-Odo respectively. There were significant differences in prevalence (P=0.0005) and intensity (P=0.0006) of infection between the two communities, however, these did not increase significantly with age in both communities.  Interviews revealed that preschoolers were exposed to infected reservoir water as early as after birth, while older preschoolers frequently visited water bodies on their own to play, bath and wash cloth. There was significant reduction in prevalence of schistosomiasis among preschool-aged children in Ibaro community compared to Imala-Odo community; this could be attributed to awareness about the disease, and its mode of transmission.  Intensive health education still remains the alternative for reducing transmission in preschoolers in the absence of standardized treatment dosage for them.Â

Review of Mathematical Modelling of the Time Dependent Schrodinger Wave Equation using Different methods

This paper focuses on the principle of time dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) which simplified so many reviewed ideas, class room teaching, research ideologies and personal study meant for advanced knowledge. In this research work,  the enlightenment of the basic concept of Schrödinger wave equation to improve knowledge about simple ways for mathematical understanding in deriving TDSE using different technique in more comprehensive approach. The research shows clearly that TDSE can be derived using time independent equation, wave mechanics, classical & Hamilton-Jacobi’s equations. Different methods and ways by different researchers/scholars have been used in the past. In this paper, we review the quantum field theoretic route to the Schrodinger wave equation which treats time and space as parameters, not operators. Furthermore, we recall that a classical (nonlinear) wave equation can be derived from the classical action via Hamiltonian-Jacobi theory. By requiring the wave equation to be linear we again arrive at the Schrodinger equation, without postulating operator relations. The underlying philosophy is operational. Surely, a particle is what a particle detector detects. This leads us to a useful physical picture combining the wave (field) and particle paradigms which points the way to the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. However, the result provides a comprehensive well derived derivation, derived using various approaches, which would make this research a unique one from different areas of specializations

Detection of the abnormal GIST in the prior mammograms even with no overt sign of breast cancer

Can radiologists distinguish prior mammograms with no overt signs of cancer from women who were later diagnosed with breast cancer from the prior mammograms of women reported as normal and subsequently confirmed to be cancerfree? Twenty-three radiologists and breast physicians viewed 200 craniocaudial mammograms for a half-second and rated whether the woman would be recalled on a scale of 0 (clearly normal) to 100 (clearly abnormal). The dataset included five categories of mammograms, with each category containing 40 cases. The categories were Cancer (current cancer-containing mammograms), Prior-Vis (prior mammograms with visible cancer signs), Contra (current âñormal' mammograms contralateral to the cancer), Prior-Invis (priors without visible cancer signs), and Normal (priors of normal cases). For each radiologist, four pairs of analyses were performed to evaluate whether the radiologists could distinguish mammograms in each category from the normal mammograms: Cancer vs Normal, Prior-Vis vs Normal, Contra vs Normal, and Prior-Invis vs Normal. The Area under Receiver Operating Characteristic curves (AUC) was calculated for each paired grouping and each radiologist. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed the AUC values were above-chance for all comparisons: Cancer (z=4.20, P<0.001); Prior-Vis (z=4.11, P<0.001); Contra (z=4.17, P<0.001); Prior-Invis (z=3.71, P<0.001). The results suggest that radiologists can distinguish patients who were diagnosed with cancer from individuals without breast cancer at an above-chance level based on a half-second glimpse of mammogram even before the lesion becomes apparently visible (Prior-Invis). Apparently, something about the breast parenchyma can look abnormal before the appearance of a localized lesion

Global processing provides malignancy evidence complementary to the information captured by humans or machines following detailed mammogram inspection

The information captured by the gist signal, which refers to radiologists’ first impression arising from an initial global image processing, is poorly understood. We examined whether the gist signal can provide complementary information to data captured by radiologists (experiment 1), or computer algorithms (experiment 2) based on detailed mammogram inspection. In the first experiment, 19 radiologists assessed a case set twice, once based on a half-second image presentation (i.e., gist signal) and once in the usual viewing condition. Their performances in two viewing conditions were compared using repeated measure correlation (rm-corr). The cancer cases (19 cases × 19 readers) exhibited non-significant trend with rm-corr = 0.012 (p = 0.82, CI: −0.09, 0.12). For normal cases (41 cases × 19 readers), a weak correlation of rm-corr = 0.238 (p < 0.001, CI: 0.17, 0.30) was found. In the second experiment, we combined the abnormality score from a state-of-the-art deep learning-based tool (DL) with the radiological gist signal using a support vector machine (SVM). To obtain the gist signal, 53 radiologists assessed images based on half-second image presentation. The SVM performance for each radiologist and an average reader, whose gist responses were the mean abnormality scores given by all 53 readers to each image was assessed using leave-one-out cross-validation. For the average reader, the AUC for gist, DL, and the SVM, were 0.76 (CI: 0.62–0.86), 0.79 (CI: 0.63–0.89), and 0.88 (CI: 0.79–0.94). For all readers with a gist AUC significantly better than chance-level, the SVM outperformed DL. The gist signal provided malignancy evidence with no or weak associations with the information captured by humans in normal radiologic reporting, which involves detailed mammogram inspection. Adding gist signal to a state-of-the-art deep learning-based tool improved its performance for the breast cancer detection

Cross-Location Analysis of the Impact of Household Socioeconomic Status on Participation in Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in West Africa

This study explores the relation between household socioeconomic status (SES) and participation in urban and periurban agriculture (UPA) in three West African cities. We used a structured questionnaire to survey 700 randomly selected households: 250 in Kano, Nigeria, 250 in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, and 200 in Sikasso, Mali. Multiple correspondence analysis was applied on household asset variables to create an index of assets which was used as a proxy for household SES. The results showed no significant differences in households’ rate of participation in UPA across socioeconomic groups. Participation in UPA was rather significantly (P < 0.001) and positively related to household size. Interestingly, the analysis revealed that field crop cultivation and gardening were more common among households in the low and medium SES groups while those in the high SES group were more likely to keep livestock