Seasonal Variability of Rainfall and its Decadal Anomaly over Nigeria: Possible Role of Solar and Geomagnetic Activities

This study investigates seasonal variations of rainfall and its decadal anomaly over Nigeria and the possible role of solar and geomagnetic activities. Sunspot number and geomagnetic aa index were used as solar indices. Monthly mean rainfall data from Nigeria Meteorological Agency was used in this study. Bivariate and power spectral density analyses were employed in analyzing the data. Rainfall anomaly was calculated using the mean of the base period, 1981 – 2010. Seasonally, rainfall varies from the coastal areas to the hinterland from January to December during rainy and dry seasons. On the decadal rainfall anomaly, positive anomalies increases steadily towards the coastal regions; indicating an increase in rainfall characteristic, whereas negative anomalies increases towards the northern regions; depicting decrease in rainfall characteristic. This was confirmed from the Mann-Kendall trend test. These variations are evidence of climate change. Correlation analysis revealed that the correlation of rainfall with sunspot and aa index were statistically insignificant. The spectral analysis revealed signatures of solar and geomagnetic activities on the rainfall spectrum. We therefore infer that, in addition to anthropogenic activities, solar and geomagnetic activities might play important role in the observed climate change in Nigeria; since rainfall is used as climate change indicator

Determinants of Choice of Storage Systems for Root and Tuber Crops in Benue State, Nigeria

Determinants of Choice of Storage Systems for root and tuber crops in Benue State of Nigeria were examined. The specific objectives were to determine the factors affecting choice of storage systems by root and tuber crop farmers; and determine the relationship between choice of storage systems and farm productivity. Data were collected from 288 root and tuber crop producers in eight Local Government Areas and 32 wards, using a multi-stage sampling technique. Structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data collected were analysed using logit model and Mann-Whiney U test. The results indicate that total output, gender, educational level, household size, and farm size significantly affect the choice of storage systems by root and tuber crop producers. The results also reveal that the output of farmers who utilized only the local storage systems exceeds those who utilized both the local storage systems in addition to the modern storage techniques. It was recommended that strategies and policies aimed at encouraging root and tuber crops farmers to adopt a particular storage technique should take into consideration their socio-economic characteristics. Also research efforts aimed at improving the effectiveness of the local storage systems using locally sourced materials should be encouraged

Development of A Fingerprint Biometric Authentication System For Secure Electronic Voting Machines

            Democratic government in the world today rely on electronic voting as the foremost means of providing credible, transparent and fair elections for the electorate. There is a need for developed electronic voting systems to be security enhanced to ensure the authenticity of the developed system. Traditional paper balloting systems suffer from vote tampering, multiple voting and illegal voting by unregistered voters. They are also, susceptible to under aged voting due to the difficulty in authenticating the identity of prospective voters. Manual collation and publication of vote results also leads to slow response times and inaccuracies in published results. This research paper proposes a system to combat the current challenges through the development of a fingerprint biometric authentication system for secure electronic voting machines. It uses a fingerprint biometric sensor, integrated via Python to verify users of the system. The inclusion of biometrics improves the security features of the system. The secure voting system is built using PHP and easy to use Graphical User Interface was designed using HTML and CSS. Users are required to interact with the machine via a 7” touchscreen interface. From the results, it shows that the developed machine has a minimum response time of 0.6 seconds for specific operation, an FAR of 2%, FRR of 10% and overall system accuracy of 94%. The developed machine is able to combat the challenges of authentication of users, thereby guaranteeing the transparency, credibility, integrity and vote authenticity of the elections

Influence of Some Selected Supplementary Cementitious Materials on Workability and Compressive Strength of Concrete – A Review

Premature deterioration of our nation’s concrete structures has been a persistent and frustrating problem to those responsible for maintaining them as well as to the public. One of the ways to minimize these problems is to make the concrete less permeable by densifying the cementitious paste. This densification is achieved by using a lower water-cement ratio and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Many researchers have successfully provided a rundown of the current facts about the favorable use of supplementary cementitious materials. These summaries contain a limited number of SCMs considered. This paper reviews the influence of twelve (12) selected supplementary cementitious materials, which are; Cupola Furnace Slag Powder (CFSP), Blast Furnace Slag Powder (BFSP), Silica Fume (SF), Fly Ash (FA), Rice Husk Ash (RHA), Metakaolin (MK), Coconut Husk Ash (CHA), Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA), Wood Waste Ash (WWA), Sugar Cane Bagasse Ash (SCBA), Corn Cob Ash (CCA), Bamboo Leaf Ash (BLA), workability and compressive strength of concrete, thus providing a larger database of the current facts about the favorable use of industrial and agricultural byproducts in the concrete industry. Review of literature and careful observation of results were used in generating the useful information provided in this paper. This review considered the compressive strength and workability of concrete containing partial substitute of ordinary Portland cement by the aforementioned supplementary cementitious materials. The chemical compositions of each of these selected supplementary cementitious materials were also reported. This study revealed that the incorporation of these twelve SCMs significantly improves the strength and workability of concrete. It is therefore recommended that arrangements be made by those interested in this paper for processing of these SCMs into commercial cement rather than being disposed of as wastes

Comparative Study of the Protective Effect of Granulated Sugar and Garri Meal on Petroleum-induced Changes of Lipid Profiles in Albino Rats (Rattusnorvegicus)

Crude oil contaminated diet has been reported to induced changes in lipid profile of rats. In this study, 60 albino rats in 6 groups were fed with crude oil contaminated sugar-garri diets at varied concentrations to monitor petroleum-induce lipid profile changes using standard methods. The lipid profiles estimated were total cholesterols, triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and Low density lipoproteincholesterol.The data showed that, the levels of total cholesterol (Mmol/l) increased from 2.89+0.08 in sugar fed rats compared with 3.05+0.12 in Gari fed rats. The concentration of triglycerides(Mmol/l) reduced from 1.10+0.51 in sugar fed rats to 1.06 + 0.03 in Gari fed rats while the high density lipoprotein cholesterol(Mmol/l) concentration of 2. 01+0.08 was significantly higher than 1.89 + 0.03 in Gari fed rats (P<0.05).There was no significant difference in Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (Mmol/l) concentrations of 0.68+0.11 in sugar fed rats compared with 0.83 + 0.10 in Gari fed rats. The effect of pre-treatment of the diet with sugar reduced petroleum-induce changes in lipid profile than gari during the exposure of the albino rats to the petroleum diet suggesting that sugarcould possibly ameliorate petroleum-induce changes in lipid profile as shown by the significantlowering of the cholesterol and Low density lipoprotein cholesterol than gari in albino rats. Keywords: lipid, Petroleum, Sugar, Gari, Cassava, Change

Hepatitis C Virus infection in apparentenly healthy individuals with family history of diabetes in Vom, Plateau State Nigeria

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important public health problem worldwide. Its association with, and predisposing nature for diabetes mellitus (DM) has been long established. This research was carried out to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) amongst people with possible genetic predisposition to diabetes mellitus living in and around Vom, Plateau State, Nigeria. 188 subjects were screened after they filled a structured questionnaire to determine some of their demographic data, social habits and possible risk factors. 5 ml of blood was collected from each subject and sera separated out. Biotech's third generation ELISA Kit for HCV antibodies was used for the screening. Liver enzyme analysis was carried out on positive samples to determine their disease status. A prevalence of 14.36% was recorded with the highest seropositive group being those in the age bracket of 18 – 37 years. 13(13.40%) of males and 14(15.38%) of females were sero-positive. Liver enzyme analysis of sero-positive subjects showed increased levels which may imply early onset of liver damage. These result showed that these individuals could later suffer diabetes which may be triggered by their HCV infection if not treated. This is not over-looking the economic significance of their ill health, assuming they progress to cirrhotic HCV or develop hepatocelluar carcinoma due to HCV chronicity

Failure Trend of Transport Infrastructure in Developing Nations: Cases of Bridge Collapse in Nigeria

Sustainable transport system must be supported by resilient infrastructure such as bridges. Bridge is an essential transportation structure that offers unique solutions for road and rail traffic to cross rivers, gorges and difficult ground conditions or for reducing conflict points in transportation system by carrying one mode of traffic over the other. Due to its pronounced economic importance to the society, bridge design aspects must go beyond the physical bridge structures and must cover all the factors that impact on the safe operation throughout its serviceable life span. The environment and the obstacle it crosses, the soil which carries it, the self-weight, imposed dead weights and the moving live loads must be adequately taken care of. The considerable conflicting factors of the site’s soil characteristics, river hydrology, ecosystem environmental impact, aesthetics, historical and archaeological impacts, permanent and transient loads, construction technologies and construction materials bring together a vast expertise of professionals. These sizeable factors must be well managed and harnessed by the vast team of experts involved to guarantee a positive outcome. The vast decay of Nigerian transport system is visible in all complimenting infrastructure including bridges. Cases of bridge collapse abound in Nigeria within the last decade. This research studies the failure trends of bridges in Nigeria and forty five documented cases are considered for the research. Structural health monitoring approaches were combined with statistical measures to assess the causes and to proffer solutions to the failure trend. Poor maintenance, torrential rainfall/flooding, terrorist attacks,faulty design, poor materials and construction quality and truck overloading were found to be the major causes of bridge failures in Nigeri

Active case finding and evaluation of IL-6 production among household contacts of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in a high disease setting

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a top infectious disease killer worldwide and remains a huge public health concern. However, most TB case findings are limited to self-referral (passive case finding), when individuals develop symptoms of TB. Only 15% of disease burden in Nigeria are reported. In view of this, it is important to assess the latent and active disease burden amongst HHC of TB patients suffering from pulmonary TB. In addition, it has been suggested that IL-6 levels could be used as a prognostic marker in exposed individuals. IL-6 levels were assessed in this cohort.Methods: A total of 205 subjects participated in this study, comprising 62 pulmonary TB index cases and 143 of their household contacts. Also, 54 apparently healthy subjects were recruited to serve as controls. Active case finding was performed amongst the HHC, using sputum and blood samples; they were tested for active TB. Blood samples were also collected for measuring IL-6 levels.Results: Findings reveal 6.3% previously undiagnosed active TB among the HHC of the TB patients and a significantly higher number of latently infected TB cases compared to the control population (p=0.0078). There were significant differences when comparing HIV co-infected index group to their HIV negative counterparts (P=0.032). Significantly different IL-6 levels were found among the study groups and sub-groups (p<0.0001), with significantly higher levels in TB mono-infection compared to in TB/HIV co-infection (p=0.031).Conclusions: These results demonstrate the importance of active TB case finding for TB control and the possible role of IL-6 as a diagnostic marker in TB control

Experimental Study on Sand Transport Characteristics in Horizontal and Inclined Two-Phase Solid-Liquid Pipe Flow

An experimental investigation on the hydraulic transport of sand particles in pipelines is presented in both horizontal and 30° upward inclined orientations. The pipe, with an internal diameter of 0.0254 m, had sand transported in various water superficial velocities at low and high sand concentrations [0.1%–10% volume-to-volume ratio (v/v)]. Sand particles were polydisperse (144–250 μm) with