Investigation and Scaling of Hydrogen Production by Klebsiella sp. ABZ11 for Optimal Yield and the Kinetics of Batch Fermentation Process

The slow metabolism of bacteria at low temperatures affects the catalytic efficiency of enzymes and productivity. This article investigates the use of a psychrotolerant bacteria (Klebsiella sp. ABZ11) for biohydrogen production, yield and scaling at optimal temperature, pH and glucose in a batch fermentation process within a 2-liter bioreactor using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to report the process performance. The results show 33.5°C, pH 6.75 and 9.15 g glucose as the optimal conditions. Scale-up yielded 137.56 mol/L biohydrogen, 22.13% more than production under optimized conditions. Biomass grew at 0.081/h and doubled in 17 h with 0.71 g cells to reach maximum production. Compared to 0.062/h, 22 h with 0.87 g cells in optimal condition to achieve maximum biohydrogen production. This result shows the potential of biohydrogen production using Antarctic psychrotolerant bacteria at mesophilic temperature

Influence of cowpea genotype and sorghum-cropping system on cowpea infestation by some insect pests in the sudan savannah of Nigeria

Field trials were conducted at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Agricultural Research Station at Minjibir, Kano State (12013’N, 8041’E, 500M above sea level) in the 1999 and 2000 cropping seasons to investigate the influence of cowpea genotypes and sorghum cropping system on cowpea damage by legume pod borer, Maruca testulalis (Fabricius), bean flower thrips, Megalurthrips sjostedti (Trybom) and cowpea aphids, Aphis craccivora Koch. Treatments consisted of a combination of 6 cowpea genotypes, namely, Danila, IT90K-277-2, IT95K-1091-3, IT95K-222- 14, IT96D666 and IT96D-759 and 4 row arrangements, which included 1M:1C, 2M:2C, 1M:2C and 2M:4C rows of millet to rows of cowpea, respectively. The treatments were laid out in split plot design with row arrangement and cowpea genotype as main and sub-treatments, respectively. Maruca damage ratings on cowpea were recorded based on damage to flowers and pod on the peduncles using 1-9 scale. For aphids, level of infestation was assessed by estimating number of aphid colonies on plants/plots at flowering stage using 0-9 scale, while for thrips, infestation was estimated at post-flowering stage using a scale of 1-9. Result showed that all treatments, except Danila and IT96D-759 were less susceptible to pod damage by Maruca in both 1999 and 2000. Maruca pod damage was significantly higher in 2S:4C row arrangement compared to other treatments. Significantly lower aphids and thrips population were recorded on all treatments except Danila and IT6D-759 and Danila and IT95K-1091-3 in both 1999 and 2000, respectively. The mean number of aphids was lower in 1S:1C in 2000 (2.14) and thrips infestation was highest at 2S:4C row arrangement in 1999 and 2000, respectively. The total dry matter and grain yield increased progressively from 1S:1C through 4S:4C in both 1999 and 2000. The present study suggests that sorghum-cowpea inter crop and the use of improved cowpea varieties should be adopted as control measures against the devastating effects of Maruca, aphids and thrips, thereby improving the cowpea dry matter and grain yield

Soil Moisture Contents as a Determining Factor Machinery Selection

       A simulation model to predict the daily fluctuations of soil moisture  content was developed using the Versatile Soil Moisture  Budget (VSMB) equation by employing pascal computer language.  The model was tested against actual  field data and showed fairly accurate results.  The correlation coefficient 0.99

Soil Moisture Content as a Determining Factor for Machinery Selection

By applying the soil moisture content (SMC) prediction model to the weather data for the period from 1981-1993, the suitable workdays were obtained. Testing these results from the Rahad Scheme data records showed high significance. The correlation coefficient was found to be 0.99. show the effect of timeliness cost, a utilization factor (Ut) was determined by dividing the available working days by the total days. The utilization factor is then adjusted using a range of reliability from 30-80% depending on spare part availability and skilled labour. Further analysis were made to demonstrate the effect of workable days on the selection of implement width and cost using good, bad and average rainy seasons and different levels of reliabilities. It was found that the machine width was by the rainfall frequency

Human-activity-centered measurement system:challenges from laboratory to the real environment in assistive gait wearable robotics

Assistive gait wearable robots (AGWR) have shown a great advancement in developing intelligent devices to assist human in their activities of daily living (ADLs). The rapid technological advancement in sensory technology, actuators, materials and computational intelligence has sped up this development process towards more practical and smart AGWR. However, most assistive gait wearable robots are still confined to be controlled, assessed indoor and within laboratory environments, limiting any potential to provide a real assistance and rehabilitation required to humans in the real environments. The gait assessment parameters play an important role not only in evaluating the patient progress and assistive device performance but also in controlling smart self-adaptable AGWR in real-time. The self-adaptable wearable robots must interactively conform to the changing environments and between users to provide optimal functionality and comfort. This paper discusses the performance parameters, such as comfortability, safety, adaptability, and energy consumption, which are required for the development of an intelligent AGWR for outdoor environments. The challenges to measuring the parameters using current systems for data collection and analysis using vision capture and wearable sensors are presented and discussed

Rumen Degradation Characteristics of Multinutrient Blocks in Semi-Arid Region of Nigeria

. An investigation was carried out on eleven different multinutrient blocks in the semi-arid region of Nigeria. Three crossbred steers fitted with permanent rumen cannula were used to evaluate the nutritional value of multinutrient blocks using the nylon bag techniques. A randomized design was employed to determine the ruminal degradability of multinutrients and their effect on rumen ecology. Approximately 5 g of the feed sample were weighed into duplicated nylon bags (45 µ pore size) and incubated ruminally at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h-post feeding. The results showed that the mean values of the ruminal temperature (38.7oC) and pH (6.6) were not different among different incubation. All the multinutrient blocks recorded above 59% DM degradability at 48h period of incubation. The mean values for the potential degradation of the multinutrients were generally high and ranged from 83.2 to 95.8%. It was concluded that inclusion of multinutrients in the diet of ruminants result in a significant improvement in DM degradation in the rumen

The therapeutic aspects of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) for cancer and their development: from nature to laboratory

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a group of neuromodulatory lipids and their receptors, which are widely distributed in mammalian tissues. ECS regulates various cardiovascular, nervous, and immune system functions inside cells. In recent years, there has been a growing body of evidence for the use of synthetic and natural cannabinoids as potential anticancer agents. For instance, the CB1 and CB2 receptors are assumed to play an important role inside the endocannabinoid system. These receptors are abundantly expressed in the brain and fatty tissue of the human body. Despite recent developments in molecular biology, there is still a lack of knowledge about the distribution of CB1 and CB2 receptors in the human kidney and their role in kidney cancer. To address this gap, we explore and demonstrate the role of the endocannabinoid system in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In this brief overview, we elucidate the therapeutic aspects of the endocannabinoid system for various cancers and explain how this system can be used for treating kidney cancer. Overall, this review provides new insights into cannabinoids' mechanisms of action in both in vivo and in vitro models, and focuses on recent discoveries in the field