Performance Evaluation of Six Microorganisms Utilized for the Treatment of Lead Contaminated Agricultural Soil

This work focused on the ability of six indigenous microorganisms (Arthrobacter nicotiniae, Bacillus substilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Trichophyton interdigtae and Onychocola canadensis) isolated from contaminated agricultural soil obtained from Ishiagu forest in Ebonyi State, Nigeria for the removal of lead (Pb) ion from the soil. The weights of organisms, nutrient dosage, temperature, pH and stirring frequency were optimized for the removal of the metal ion from the soil. The data revealed that Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Arthrobacter nocotiniae were found to reduce the metal concentration below recommended standard at time 14 days with respective efficiencies of 58.25 %, 60.64 % and 60.80 % at the 14 days; and 78.25 %, 76.19 % and 79.78 % at time 35 days; while Proteus mirabilis, Onychocola canadensis and Trichophyton interdigtae were found to reduce the metal concentration at time 21 days with respective efficiencies of 51.74 %, 44.65 % and 48.08 % at time 21 days; and 59.67 %, 51.13 % and 55.27 % at time 35 days. The study showed that the organisms can be utilized to remove Pb ion from the contaminated soils. Arthrobacter nicotiniae showed the greatest removal capacity with time, followed by Bacillus substilis, and then Klebsiella pneumoniae; before Proteus mirabilis, Trichophyton interdigtae and Onychocola canadensis in that order.Keywords: Bioremediation, contaminated soil, removal efficiency and lea

Properties of a Discrete Quantum Field Theory

A scalar quantum field theory defined on a discrete spatial coordinate is examined. The renormalization of the lattice propagator is discussed with an emphasis on the periodic nature of the associated momentum coordinate. The analytic properties of the scattering amplitudes indicate the development of a second branch point on which the branch cut from the optical theorem terminates.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Exploring Features for Predicting Policy Citations

In this study we performed an initial investigation and evaluation of altmetrics and their relationship with public policy citation of research papers. We examined methods for using altmetrics and other data to predict whether a research paper is cited in public policy and applied receiver operating characteristic curve on various feature groups in order to evaluate their potential usefulness. From the methods we tested, classifying based on tweet count provided the best results, achieving an area under the ROC curve of 0.91.Comment: 2 pages, accepted to JCDL '1

Designing zeolite catalysts for shape-selective reactions: Chemical modification of surfaces for improved selectivity to dimethylamine in synthesis from methanol and ammonia

The relative contributions of external and intracrystalline acidic sites of small pore H-RHO zeolite for the selective synthesis of methylamines from methanol and ammonia have been studied. Nonselective surface reactions which produce predominantly trimethylamine can be eliminated by “capping” the external acidic sites with trimethylphosphite (TMP) and other reagents, thus improving the selectivity toward the formation of dimethylamine. For small pore zeolites, neither the zeolite pore size nor the internal acidic sites is significantly affected by this treatment. In situ infrared and MAS-NMR studies show that TMP reacts irreversibly with the zeolite acidic sites via a modified Arbusov rearrangement to form surface-bound dimethylmethylphosphonate

Fee - Based Library Services in Private University Library Challenges and Prospect

The article discussed issues on fee-based library services in private university libraries - challenges and prospects. It is limited to the need for fee-based library services in university libraries, challenges of fee-based university library services and solutions to the challenges of fee-based university library services. The study is limited to Private University Libraries in Anambra State-Nigeria. The private university libraries are:-Madonna University Library-Okija Campus, Tansian University Library-Oba and Paul University Library-Awka all in Anambra State. The findings from the study are quite revealing. It was discovered that fee-based library services are already in existence in the three(3) private universities understudy though at a very low level. It was also discovered that the library are already rendering book binding services, photocopying services, internet connectivity, computer typesetting, membership registration fees and over-due book charges. There is no written fee-based library services policy on ground in the three(3) private university libraries. This has resulted in the half-hazard organization management of the existing fee-based library services. The library staff runs the fee-based library services like ordinary library services. It has resulted to the inability of the library management to give proper account and take proper decision on the operations and guideline of fee-based library services. Keywords: Fee-based Services, University Library, Information Marking.

VARIATIONAL ITERATION METHOD FOR CAUCHY PROBLEMS OF NONLINEAR PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION.

In this paper, we consider the numerical treatment of the nonlinear parabolic-hyperbolic partial differential equation of the form......More details are available in the PDF of article