Dynamic Relationship among Education, Poverty and Economic

This study examined the dynamic relationship among education, poverty and economic growth in Nigeria from 1986 to 2011. The study employed secondary data sourced from World Bank World Development Indicators, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) annual reports and statement of accounts and statistical bulletin. The data were analyzed using Unit Root Test, Co-integration, Error Correction Mechanism, and Granger Causality Test. There is long run relationship among education, poverty and economic growth in Nigeria. There is a unidirectional causality from poverty to economic growth at 5 percent level of significance; but there is no causal relationship between education and poverty, education and economic growth and between poverty and economic growth at 5 percent level of significance. The study recommends among others that policies that can improve literacy rate such as acquisition of skills, entrepreneurship education or development, small scale enterprise that can reduce the level of poverty in Nigeria should be adopted

Locally-processed cowpea husk improved body weight gain of on-farm raised rabbits in Northeastern Nigeria

Nigeria as an agricultural country generates a large tons of crop residues. Crop residues and by-products could result in environmental burden or pollution if not recycled or consumed by livestock. Efforts are being geared towards harnessing crop residues or by-products into animal feed. An on-farm experiment was conducted to investigate if fermentation and/or enzyme supplementation would improve the growth response of locally-reared rabbits. The weaner rabbits of similar age were sourced locally and were randomly distributed to groups. The animals were fed ad libitum with commercial basal diet but each treatment group was daily supplemented with 20 g of wheat bran, fermented wheat bran, fermented and enzyme-treated wheat bran, fermented wheat bran and fermented and enzyme-treated cowpea husk accordingly in a completely randomized design. Specific contrasts were also performed. Fermented cowpea husk improved (P<0.05) body weight (day 21) and body weight gain of experimental animals compared with the control group. Other treatments were statistically similar to the control group. The fermentation process improved body weight of experimental animals fed wheat bran diets. The fermentation process enhanced feed intake of experimental rabbits fed wheat bran over the animals fed unfermented wheat bran. Enzyme supplementation improved feed intake of the animals fed wheat bran-based diets. The small intestine of rabbits fed control diet showed normal mucosal layer with normal glands without inflammation (slender arrow), the villi appeared normal (white arrow). The small intestinal photomicrographs of rabbits fed fermented wheat bran-based diet showed mild necrosis and glandular degeneration (black arrow), and the circular muscle layer was normal (grey arrow). The photomicrographs of rabbits fed a fermented cowpea husk-based diet showed normal central venules. The study concluded that fermented cowpea husk could boost rabbit production. Keywords: crop residue, nutrition, rabbit, sub-Saharan Afric

Low-cost biomass as adsorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions from industrial wastewater used for crop irrigation in developing countries

Freshwater scarcity has prompted farmers in developing countries to rely on wastewater for agriculture. However, the concentrations of heavy metals in the wastewaters are found to be above the WHO/FAO recommended thresholds. This inherently presents concern particularly as it relates human health. Although, several conventional wastewater treatment technologies exist; their applications are limited by high procurement, operation and maintenance costs. Currently, studies on biomass wastes as low cost adsorbents are gaining momentum. In this study, coco-peat was considered for heavy metals removal. In this context, batch experiments were carried out in triplicates at 3 different contact times and pH. After 2hr of contact time at pH9, the coco-peat was proven to have Cr removal efficiency of 91.6% against 73.2% using an activated bone char; and 95.0% for Pb(II) against 91.2% for the bone char. This suggests that the use of coco-peat can provide cost effective means for metal removal from industrial wastewaters

Search for leptophobic Z ' bosons decaying into four-lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Long-range Angular Correlations On The Near And Away Side In P-pb Collisions At √snn=5.02 Tev

7191/Mar294

Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of Y(1S) and Y(2S) mesons in PbPb collisions at √S^{S}NN = 5.02 TeV

The second-order Fourier coefficients (υ$_{2}$) characterizing the azimuthal distributions of Υ(1S) and Υ(2S) mesons produced in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV are studied. The Υmesons are reconstructed in their dimuon decay channel, as measured by the CMS detector. The collected data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb$^{-1}$. The scalar product method is used to extract the υ$_{2}$ coefficients of the azimuthal distributions. Results are reported for the rapidity range |y| < 2.4, in the transverse momentum interval 0 < p$_{T}$ < 50 GeV/c, and in three centrality ranges of 10–30%, 30–50% and 50–90%. In contrast to the J/ψ mesons, the measured υ$_{2}$ values for the Υ mesons are found to be consistent with zero

Phenomenological MSSM interpretation of CMS searches in pp collisions at √s=7 and 8 TeV

Searches for new physics by the CMS collaboration are interpreted in the framework of the phenomenological minimal supersymmetric standard model (pMSSM). The data samples used in this study were collected at root s = 7 and 8 TeV and have integrated luminosities of 5.0 fb(-1) and 19.5 fb(-1), respectively. A global Bayesian analysis is performed, incorporating results from a broad range of CMS supersymmetry searches, as well as constraints from other experiments. Because the pMSSM incorporates several well-motivated assumptions that reduce the 120 parameters of the MSSM to just 19 parameters defined at the electroweak scale, it is possible to assess the results of the study in a relatively straightforward way. Approximately half of the model points in a potentially accessible subspace of the pMSSM are excluded, including all pMSSM model points with a gluino mass below 500 GeV, as well as models with a squark mass less than 300 GeV. Models with chargino and neutralino masses below 200 GeV are disfavored, but no mass range of model points can be ruled out based on the analyses considered. The nonexcluded regions in the pMSSM parameter space are characterized in terms of physical processes and key observables, and implications for future searches are discussed

Forward-backward asymmetry of Drell-Yan lepton pairs in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Pseudorapidity distribution of charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions at root s=13TeV

Peer reviewe