Modelling and prediction of water current using artificial neural networks: A case study of the commodore channel

Water current modelling and prediction techniques along coastal inlets have attracted growing concern in recent years. This is largely so because water current component continues to be a major contributor to movement of sediments, tracers and pollutants, and to a whole range of offshore applications in engineering, environmental observations, exploration and oceanography. However, most research works are lacking adequate methods for developing precise prediction models along the commodore channel in Lagos State. This research work presents water current prediction using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). The Back Propagation (BP) technique with feed forward architecture and optimized training algorithm known as Levenbergq-Marquardt was used to develop a Neural Network Water Current Prediction model-(NNWLM) in a MATLAB programming environment. It was passed through model sensitivity analysis and afterwards tested with data from the Commodore channel (Lagos Lagoon). The result revealed prediction accuracy ranging from 0.012 to 0.045 in terms of Mean Square Error (MSE) and 0.80 to 0.83 in terms of correlation coefficient (R-value). With this high performance, the Neural network developed in this work can be used as a veritable tool for water current prediction along the Commodore channel and in extension a wide variety of coastal engineering and development, covering sediment management program: dredging, sand bypassing, beach-contingency plans, and protection of beaches vulnerable to storm erosion and monitoring and prediction of long-term water current variations in coastal inlets. Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, Commodore Channel, Coastal Inlet, Water Current, Back Propagation

Growth, nutrient digestibility, ileal digesta viscosity, and energy metabolizability of growing turkeys fed diets containing malted sorghum sprouts supplemented with enzyme or yeast

Growth, apparent nutrient digestibility, ileal digesta viscosity, and energy metabolizability of growing turkeys fed diets containing malted sorghum sprouts (MSP) supplemented with enzyme or yeast were investigated using 120, 28-day-old male turkeys. Six treatments were laid out in a 392 factorial arrangement of treatments with three dietary inclusion levels of MSP (0, 50, and 100 g/kg) and supplemented with 200 mg/kg yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) or 200 mg/kg of a commercial enzyme. The experiment lasted for the starter (day 28–56) and grower phases (day 57–84) of the birds. Each treatment group consisted of 20 turkeys replicated four times with five birds each. Data were analysed using analysis of variance while polynomial contrast was used to determine the trends (linear and quadratic) of MSP inclusion levels. Irrespective of dietary supplementation with enzyme or yeast, final body weight (BW), total BW gain, and feed intake for turkey poults from day 29–56 was reduced (p< 0.05) with increasing inclusion level of MSP. Dietary supplementation with yeast resulted in increased (p< 0.05) feed intake while enzyme supplementation improved (p 0.05) with MSP inclusion levels.Enzyme supplementation reduced (p< 0.05) ileal viscosity but had no effect (p>0.05) on AME. Inclusion of MSP resulted in poor growth performance. This confirms earlier studies that utilization of MSP by poultry is rather poor. Supplementation with enzyme or yeast did not lead to any appreciable improvement in performance of turkeys in this study

Community-based Forest Resources Management in Nigeria: Case study of Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, Mambilla Plateau, Taraba State, Nigeria

In Nigeria, human communities are found within or beside forest ecosystems, depending onthese ecosystems for survival. Their forest exploitation is considered a threat to conservation efforts,leading to constant conflicts between Government, law enforcement agencies and the communities. Thebest solution is a win-win system of participatory community-based forest resources management, inwhich the communities are regarded as stakeholders rather than as threats. This paper explains theadoption of this approach in Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, Mambilla Plateau, where the communities weretrained in establishment and management of forest plantations with readily available market for theirtimber; employment for some of the community youths as well as community development projects.This paper calls for the adoption of this system in other protected areas in Nigeria, while theGovernment should provide basic amenities for the communities as alternatives to those forest products.Keywords: Community-based forest management, Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, Protected areas, Nigeria

Evaluation of selected parameterizations of aerodynamic resistance to heat transfer for the estimation of sensible heat flux at a tropical site in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Aerodynamic resistance to heat transfer, rah is a well-known and important parameter for the estimation of sensible heat flux near the earth's surface. The values are highly variable over different surface types and conditions; and routinely can be determined from semi-empirical schemes incorporating parameterizations for surface-atmosphere energy exchanges. This study evaluated the performances of seven selected parameterizations of rah in order to establish the influence of aerodynamic resistance in the estimates of sensible heat flux over a grass canopy. The estimated values of rah employing different parameterizations were used to estimate sensible heat flux and the results were compared to direct eddy covariance measurements. The findings revealed that parameterization schemes by Thom (1975) and Xie (1988) performed best for the estimation of rah and sensible heat flux at the study location. Schemes by Verma et al. (1976), Choudhury et al. (1986), Viney (1991) and Mahrt and Ek (1984) performed moderately, while that of Hatfield et al. (1983) had the least performance.&nbsp

Variation of Rainfall and Humidity in Nigeria

Thirty-one year (1979-2010) annual rainfall and relative humidity for eight stations scattered over Nigeria have been analysed. Rainfall is highly variable in both time and space, particularly in sub-humid tropical regions like West-Africa. The analysis was done using statistical package. The mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation for both relative humidity and rainfall for the study area were calculated. The results shows that the range of the standard deviation  for relative humidity for the study areas lie between7.0 and10.5 while its range of the coefficient of variation is between 0.02 and0.35.Coefficient of variation for the rainfall for the period of study is between 0.25and5.65, increasing  from the coastal areas into the hinterland. The monthly  analysis also show that period of highest rainfall falls between June or July and August or September for the locations nearest to the coast and those closer to the Sahara desert respectively. The trend of the rainfall in Nigeria within the study period is 0 .654per annum. Keywords: Trend, rainfall, humidity analysis, coefficient of variation, distributional patter

Performance characteristics and apparent nutrient digestibility of broiler chickens fed diets supplemented with phyto-additives

A 56 d study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary inclusion of Moringa (Moringa oleifera) leafmeal, Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf meal and Bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) meal on the growth performance and apparent nutrient digestibility of broiler chickens. Four hundred (400) 1- d old unsexed Ross 308 broiler chickens were randomly allotted to five diets consisting either a basal diet without supplement (negative control) or basal diet with 5mg/kg commercial  antibiotic (positive control) or basal diet with 5mg/kg phytobiotics (moringa leaf meal (MLM),neem leaf meal (NLM) and bitter leaf meal (BLM) for 1-56 d. Each dietary treatment consisted of 4 replicates of 20 birds with a replicate being an experimental unit. The phyto-additives were assayed for chemical compositions. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of tannin, alkaloids, flavonoid, Phenol and Saponin. Birds fed diets supplemented with commercial antibiotic and MLM were heavier (p&lt;0.05) while those on control and NLM had poorest weight at 28 d and 56 d. MLM and BLM diets were more consumed (p&lt;0.05) by the starter birds. However, feed consumption was not influenced by the diets at the finisher phase. Birds on phyto-additives had higher percentage (p&lt;0.05) of survival  compared to those control and antibiotics at 28 and 56 d. Best feed:gain was achieved when the diet was supplemented with commercial antibiotics at 28 d and antibiotic and MLM at 56 d. The digestibility of dry matter (86.96%) and ash (75.34%) were higher (p&lt;0.05) in birds given feed containing antibiotic improved (P&lt;0.05) digestibility of crude protein and ether was observed in Birds fed diet containing commercial antibiotics.Keywords: Broiler chickens, phyto-additives, and performance characteristic Caracteristiques de performance et digestibilite apparente des nutriments des poulets de chair supplementes en phytoadditifsUne étude de 56 jours a été réalisée dans le but de déterminer les effets de  l’inclusion alimentaire de la farine de feuilles de Moringa (Moringa oleifera), de la farine de feuilles de Neem (Azadirachta indica) etde la feuille amère  (Vernonia amygdalina) sur la croissance et la digestibilité apparente des poulets de chair. Quatre cents (400) poulets de chair Ross 308s des deux sexes, âgés d’un (1) jour, ont été aléatoirement répartis à cinq régimes comprenant soit un régime de base sans supplément (témoin négatif), soit un régime de base avec 5 mg / kg d’antibiotique commercial (témoin positif) ou un régime de base avec 5 mg / kg de phytobiotiques (farine de feuilles de moringa - MLM, farine de  feuilles de neem –NLM- et farine defeuilles amères -BLM) pendant 1 à 56  jours. Chaque traitement diététique consistait en 4 répétitions de 20 oiseaux, une répétition étant une unité expérimentale. Les phyto-additifs ont été étudiés pour déterminer leurs compositions chimiques. Le dépistage phytochimique a révélé la présence de tanins, d’alcaloïdes, de flavonoïdes, de phénol et de saponine. Les oiseaux recevant des suppléments d’antibiotiques commerciaux et de MLM étaient plus lourds (p &lt;0,05) que ceux soumis au régime témoin, et ceux  recevant NLM avaient le poids le plus faible aux jours 28 et 56. Les régimes MLM et BLM étaient plus consommés (p &lt;0,05) par  les jeunes oiseaux.  Cependant, la  consommation d’aliments n’a pas été influencée par les régimes en phase de finition. Les oiseaux recevant des phyto-additifs avaient un  pourcentage de survie plus élevé (p &lt;0,05) que les témoins et les antibiotiques à 28 et 56 jours. Meilleur aliment : gain obtenu lorsque le régime était complété avec des antibiotiques commerciaux au jour 28 et des antibiotiques au jour 56. La digestibilité de la matière sèche (86,96%) et des cendres (75,34%) était plus élevée (p &lt;0,05) chez les oiseaux recevant desaliments contenant des antibiotiques améliorés (P &lt;0,05), la digestibilité de la protéine brute et de l’éther a été observée chez les oiseaux recevant des antibiotiques  commerciaux. Mots-clés : poulets de chair, phyto-additifs, et caractéristiques de performanc

Knowledge and attitude towards Zoonoses among workers in selected zoological gardens in Nigeria

An exploratory questionnaire-based survey of zoological workers (n=152) was carried out from April&nbsp; 2016 to March 2017 in Ibadan (Oyo State), Ilorin (Kwara State) and Jos (Plateau State), Nigeria to&nbsp; assess local knowledge and attitude towards zoonoses among zoological workers. A combination of&nbsp; closed and open-ended questions, focused group discussions and ranking techniques were employed&nbsp; to gather information on perceptions concerning the type of zoonotic diseases prevalent in the study&nbsp; area, level of risk, mode of transmission and methods of preventing disease transmission from animals&nbsp; to humans. The results revealed that 44.1% of the respondents had good level of awareness about&nbsp; zoonoses. Rabies (99%), tuberculosis (41%), bird flu (47%) and Ebola virus disease (EVD) (44%)&nbsp; were considered the four most common zoonotic diseases in the study area. Among the respondents,&nbsp; 42.1% and 57.2% perceived zoonoses are transmitted by direct contact and attending to sick animals&nbsp; respectively. Constant hand washing was indicated by 45.4% of the respondents as the mode of&nbsp; prevention of zoonoses in the study area. It is necessary that the Government provide the vaccination facility to all the zoological workers against the relevant zoonotic diseases. The level of awareness about the risks associated is needed to improve through proper education, training, and establishment of written infection control policies in the various zoological gardens in the country

Feeding value of shrimp meal for growing pigs

En 16 cerdos Large White x Landrace en crecimiento, se estudió el efecto de la harina de gambas (SM) sobre la digestibilidad de los nutrientes, hematología, niveles de crecimiento y calidad de la carne. Se formuló una dieta control a base de soja y maíz con harina de pescado (FM) y otra, en la que la FM se sustituyó por SM. La digestibilidad fecal aparente fue determinada en cuatro cerdos por dieta. El consumo de SM redujo (p<0,05) la digestibilidad fecal aparente de la materia seca, proteína bruta, fibra bruta y cenizas. En la dieta con SM se redujeron (p<0,05) la ganancia de peso y la relación pienso/ganancia. La inclusión de la SM en la dieta no afectó a la calidad de la carne pero redujo la proteína total y albúmina de la sangre. Entre todos los tratamientos los niveles medios de proteína, lípidos y cenizas de la carne fueron respectivamente 72,0; 24,8 y 3,3 p.100. Los resultados indican que la alimentación con SM a alto nivel, para reemplazar a la FM, deprime la producción porcina