Technical Efficiency and its Determinants in Water Melon Production in Borno State, Nigeria

This Study examined technical Efficiency of Watermelon in Borno State, Nigeria. Primary data collected through the use of structured questionnaire from 120 randomly selected watermelon farmers from six (6) villages in the two local government areas were used. Stochastic frontier production function was used to analyze the technical efficiencies of watermelon farmers. The results of the stochastic frontier function analyses revealed a mean technical efficiencies levels of 86%, implying that there was scope for increasing efficiencies by 14%. The main sources of technical inefficiencies were years of farming experience, extension contact, membership of cooperative societies, amount of credit obtained and educational level. The study recommends that extension contact, years of cooperative membership and access to credit were the sources of the inefficiencies and should be addressed through adequately trained and equipped extension workers, right use of credit facilities and the formation of cooperative societies and making membership a condition for microcredit benefit

Rainfall interpolation analysis on river Kaduna catchment for climate change assessment

The Inverse Distance Weighing (IDW) technique for rainfall interpolation considered by researchers as a suitable method for predicting missing rainfall records was used to estimate missing rainfall records in River Kaduna Catchment area from 1979-1990. Distances among respective rainfall stations were used to calculate the weighing factor for stations with missing records and radius of influence of 22.5-201km. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was used to test the accuracy of the assessment and the results were validated using correlation coefficient. From the results of the analysis through optimization of steps of α values and radius of influence, the smaller the optimum parameter value the better the prediction and in most cases the accuracy increases at short optimum search radii, also small amount and long duration rainfall values enhances the prediction potential of the IDW.Keywords: Rainfall data, Inverse Distance Weighing, Interpolation, Optimum parameter

Genetic variability and interrelationships of grain yield and its components of irrigated rice in Gezira

Nineteen genotypes of irrigated rice were evaluated at the Gezira Research Station Farm, Wad Medani, Sudan, for two consecutive seasons (2004 and 2005) in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. This study was conducted to estimate the genotypic and phenotypic variability, broad sense heritability and traits correlation with grain yield. The highest genotypic coefficient of variation and genetic advance were recorded for plant height and number of panicles/m2, and the lowest for number of tillers/plant, days to 50% flowering, days to 50% maturity and panicle length, in both seasons. High heritability estimates (>80%) were recorded for plant height, days to 50% flowering, days to 50% maturity and 1000-grain weight. The highest estimate of heritability combined with the highest genetic advance as percentage of the mean was shown by plant height and 1000-grain weight, in both seasons. The high yielding genotypes were WITA5 (TOX 3255-82-1-3-2), IRI 3240-108-2-2-3(SAHEL.108)(FKR44) and TOX 3081-36-2-2-3-1. Their grain yields were 4.9, 4.9 and 4.6 t/ha, respectively. Grain yield/ha was significantly and negatively correlated with the percentage of unfilled grains/panicle, plant height and days to 50% flowering. How-ever, it was significantly and positively correlated with number of tillers/ plant, number of panicles/m2, number of filled grains/panicle and 1000-grain weight, in both seasons. Path coefficient analysis indicated that number of filled grains/panicle, 1000-grain weight and number of panicles / m2 were the most directly related traits to grain yield/ha

Acute oral toxicity of two products from a microbial pest control agent (Beauveria bassiana) on physiological status aspects of male albino rats

Background: Synthetic pesticides have accumulated in environment causing harm to humans and ecosystems. As a result, the use of biopesticides in agriculture and public health has expanded as a substitute for traditional pesticides. Purpose: To investigate the acute oral toxicity of Beauveria bassiana, on physiological status aspects of male rats. Material and Methods: Metabolic crude (MC), and wettable powder formulation (2.5% WP) from the local isolate of B. bassiana (AUMC 9896) were tested on adult Sprague Dawley (SD) male rats by single oral dose. Results: There was no evidence of death or toxic symptoms in any of the treated groups. In contrast, each product caused a significant increase in the body weight gain and relative liver weights of B. bassiana-exposed male and reduced the brain somatic index with WP only as compared to the control. The studied bioinsecticide also caused a substantial rise in total erythrocyte and absolute differential leucocyte counts, while red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and platelet count (Plt) were decreased significantly. Furthermore, male rats exposed to both types of B. bassiana, aspartate aminotransferases (AST), total protein (TP), albumin (Alb), AST/ALT, triglyceride, and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL) were elevated compared to the untreated group, whereas alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, globulin (Glb), Alb/Glb, urea content, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) count fluctuated between increased and decreased. Also, B. bassiana-treated rats had lower serum cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (HDL) values.Conclusion: These results suggest that both treatments have slight effects on complete blood count (CBC) of treated male rats and marked effect on liver function, lipid profile, body weight gain and somatic index of the liver and brain

Optimal parameters selection of particle swarm optimization based global maximum power point tracking of partially shaded PV

This paper presents optimal parameters selection of particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for determining the global maximum power point tracking of photovoltaic array under partially shaded conditions. Under partial shading, the power-voltage characteristics have a more complex shape with several local peaks and one global peak. The two proposed controllers include dynamic Particle Swarm Optimization, and constant particle swarm optimization. The developed algorithms are implemented in MATLAB/Simulink platform, and their performances are evaluated. The results indicate that the dynamic particle swarm optimization algorithm can very fast track the GMPP within 128 ms for different shading conditions. In addition, the average tracking efficiency of the proposed algorithm is higher than 99.89%, which provides good prospects to apply this algorithm in the control search unit for the global maximum power point in stations

Investigating droplet separation efficiency in wire-mesh mist eliminators in bubble column

AbstractEffects of design parameters on performance of wire-mesh mist eliminators were experimentally investigated in 15cm bubble column. The demisters performances were evaluated by droplet collection efficiency as a function of wide ranges of operating and design parameters. These parameters include: droplet size exiting the demister (250–380μm), specific surface area (236–868m2/m3), void fraction (97–98.3%), wire diameter (0.14–0.28mm), packing density (130–240kg/m3), and superficial gas velocity (0.109–0.118m/s. All demisters were 15cm in diameter with 10cm pad thickness, made from 316L stainless steel layered type demister pad wires. Experiments were carried out using air–water system at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure. The experimental data on the droplet removal efficiency were obtained using Malvern Laser Droplet Sizer. The removal efficiency was found to increase with the increasing the demister specific surface area, packing density, and superficial gas velocity. In contrast, the removal efficiency was found to increase with decreasing the demister void fraction and wire diameter. The separation efficiency is correlated empirically as a function of the design parameters. A good agreement was obtained between the measured values and the correlation predictions with ±5% accuracy

Detection and Identification of Helicobacter pullorum in Poultry Species in Upper Egypt

This work aimed to detect, identify and study the epidemiology of Helicobacter pullorum in avian species in Upper Egypt. A total of 1800 samples, including cloacal swabs, cecal swabs and livers were collected from chickens, turkeys and ducks in five different governorates in Upper Egypt. Using conventional phenotypic methods for isolation and identification, Helicobacter pullorum could be identified only from chickens with percentage 39.33% and no presence of the organism in turkeys and ducks. Sixteen randomly selected phenotypically identified Helicobacter pullorum isolates were confirmed using PCR assay based on 16S rRNA gene. In conclusion, conventional phenotypic methods for detection and differentiation of Helicobacter pullorum are often hampered by many limitations, while molecular methods, and PCR, in particular, have marked an important step forward in bacterial diagnostics and can provide a sensitive and rapid alternative method for detection and identification and highlights the potential of PCR technology in routine detection and identification of pathogens

Synthesis of Bulk Calcium Oxide (CaO) Catalyst and its Efficacy for Biodiesel Production

The numerous limitations of the conventional homogenous catalysts have become a great challenge for researchers in the area of biodiesel. Therefore, alternative catalysts for clean and environmental benign process is the solution. Calcium oxide catalyst was prepared from hydrated lime and it was used to produce biodiesel to test its efficacy. It was used to catalyze transesterification of Jatropha curcas oil and methanol at 600C reaction temperature for 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 minutes reaction times and the corresponding biodiesel yield of 94.76%, 98.67, 100.00, 89.92 and 99.08% were obtained. The components of methyl ester found in the five samples of the biodiesel are listed. Key words: synthesis, calcium oxide, catalyst, biodiesel, productio