Development of technologies to harness the productivity potential of salt-affected areas of the Indo-Gangetic, Mekong and Nile River basins

This project emphasized the development and deployment of high-yielding salt-tolerant rice varieties and nonrice crops, together with matching management practices, to enhance and sustain system productivity in coastal and inland salt-affected areas. Integrated and participatory approaches were designed and implemented at the research, delivery, and uptake levels to tackle the enormous complexity of challenges in these areas. More intensive and diversified cropping systems were validated to improve farmers’ income and livelihood and preserve the environment. Apparently, tremendous opportunities exist to make use of these marginal resources to meet the rising and pressing demands for food and water

Demand for energy among households in Ijebu Division, Ogun State, Nigeria

This study examines the influence of householdsÂ’ socio-economic characteristics on household demand for electricity, petrol, diesel, kerosene, firewood, domestic gas, and transport in commercial vehicles. Primary data obtained in a cross-section survey of 90 households selected across six communities in Ijebu-Division of Ogun State, Nigeria was used in estimating a system of energy demand equations and elasticities. The study reveals that an average household in the sample had about five members, headed by a 52 year old male that had about nine years of formal education. The mean monthly household consumption expenditure was N 15,458.63, of which about 25% was expended on the seven commodities. While the influence of education and household size on household energy use were insignificant; income (budget size), household ownership of electrical/electronic appliances and automobiles, as well as age of household heads exercised significant influence on the relative shares of some/all of the seven energy commodities in household budgets in the study area. The income effects were positive for all the energy commodities, except firewood. Demand for petrol, diesel and domestic gas were income elastic. Thus, the study concludes that improvement in income would cause increase in demand for electricity and petroleum products in the study area, but worsening real income would place greater demand on biomass fuel.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Mechanistic understanding of iron toxicity tolerance in contrasting rice varieties from Africa: 1. Morpho-physiological and biochemical responses

Iron (Fe) is a fundamental element involved in various plant metabolic processes. However, when Fe uptake is excessive, it becomes toxic to the plant and disrupts cellular homeostasis. The aim of this study was to determine the physiological and biochemical mechanisms underlying tolerance to Fe toxicity in contrasting rice varieties adapted to African environments. Four varieties (CK801 and Suakoko 8 (tolerant), Supa and IR64 (sensitive)) selected from our previous work were analysed in more detail, and the first part of this study reports morphological, physiological and biochemical responses induced by Fe toxicity in these four varieties. Morphological (shoot length, root length, number of lateral roots), physiological (photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, fluorescence, relative water content and cell membrane stability) and biochemical (tissue Fe, chlorophyll pigments, soluble sugars, protein and starch) traits were measured, as appropriate, on both shoot and root tissues and at different time points during the stress period. Fe toxicity significantly (P ≤ 0.05) reduced growth and metabolism of all the four varieties. Tolerant varieties showed more lateral roots than the sensitive ones, under Fe toxic conditions as well as higher photosynthesis rate, chlorophyll content and cell membrane stability. Strong dilution of Fe concentration in cells was identified, as one of the additional tolerance mechanisms used by CK801, whereas Suakoko 8 mainly used strong mobilisation of carbohydrates at the early stage of the stress period to anticipate metabolite shortage. Traits associated with Fe toxicity tolerance in this study could be specifically targeted in trait-based breeding programs of superior lowland rice varieties tolerant of Fe toxicity

Physicochemical evaluation of industrial potentialities of Getso Kaolin

Fossil fuel depletion has prompted the need for alternative sources of energy and income generation. Kaolin is an abundant solid mineral found in many parts of Nigeria, whose economy is over dependent on oil. However, lack of detailed study, characterization and analysis made it difficult for investors to show interest in this manufacturing sector. In this study kaolin from Getso, Kano state, northern part of Nigeria was characterized using pH measurement, X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis (XRF), Thermogravimetric-Derivative Thermal Analysis (TG-DTA), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red Analysis (FTIR) to establish its potentialities for industrial applications. The XRF analysis indicated that Getso kaolin consists mainly of silica, 47.07% and alumina, 39.20% with other metal oxides like iron (III) oxide as minor component, while the XRD and FTIR results indicated that the main mineral present in the sample is kaolinite with small amounts of mica and quartz. The pH was found to be 7.2, which qualified it for very good industrial applications. The chemical composition of Getso kaolin was found to be comparable to the theoretical composition and that of commercial kaolin making it suitable for some industrial applications like paper, adhesives, plastics, fiberglass, rubber and paints.Keywords: Getso Kaolin, Characterization, Theoretical kaolinit

INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT SOURCES AND LEVELS OF NITROGEN AND ROCK PHOSPHATE ADDITION ON MAIZE PRODUCTIVITY AND SOIL FERTILITY

n/

Extended Entropy Maximisation and Queueing Systems with Heavy-Tailed Distributions

Numerous studies on Queueing systems, such as Internet traffic flows, have shown to be bursty, self-similar and/or long-range dependent, because of the heavy (long) tails for the various distributions of interest, including intermittent intervals and queue lengths. Other studies have addressed vacation in no-customers’ queueing system or when the server fails. These patterns are important for capacity planning, performance prediction, and optimization of networks and have a negative impact on their effective functioning. Heavy-tailed distributions have been commonly used by telecommunication engineers to create workloads for simulation studies, which, regrettably, may show peculiar queueing characteristics. To cost-effectively examine the impacts of different network patterns on heavy- tailed queues, new and reliable analytical approaches need to be developed. It is decided to establish a brand-new analytical framework based on optimizing entropy functionals, such as those of Shannon, Rényi, Tsallis, and others that have been suggested within statistical physics and information theory, subject to suitable linear and non-linear system constraints. In both discrete and continuous time domains, new heavy tail analytic performance distributions will be developed, with a focus on those exhibiting the power law behaviour seen in many Internet scenarios. The exposition of two major revolutionary approaches, namely the unification of information geometry and classical queueing systems and unifying information length theory with transient queueing systems. After conclusions, open problems arising from this thesis and limitations are introduced as future work