WATER USE EFFICIENCY OF OKRA AMENDED WITH SAW-DUST UNDER DEFICIT IRRIGATION IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT

Enormous funds are spent annually on providing moisture for crop use throughout each planting cycle. The sharp depletion of moisture available for planting necessitates essential amendment measures, keenly focused on moisture conservation. A research trial consisiting of an experimental design of 12 samples arranged in a specific order to meet the research requirement. Treatment samples of soil–sawdust were mixed proportionally at (25%-75%, 50%-50%, 75%-25%, 100%-0%) with varying water application of (100%, 50% and 25%). Growth stages amongst samples were visible owing to variance in height and yield. The amended samples greatly conserved moisture through a wide margin by the difference in bucket weight. Rates of moisture conservation in amended samples correspondingly declined with a descending sawdust application; samples with greater sawdust application showed higher moisture conservation. The growth and yield of the amended samples to the leave-alone samples greatly varied. The leave-alone samples proved to be less moisture conservative, but showing high- moisture usage potential&nbsp

EFFECT OF TILLAGE METHODS ON SOIL PHYSICAL AND STRENGTH PROPERTIES UNDER AMARANTHUS HYBRIDUS PRODUCTION IN A SANDY-LOAM ENVIRONMENT

Amaranthus hybridus (African Spinach) production is a common vegetable in many southwestern parts of Nigeria. Many farmers grow it for its high source of protein and vitamins under different soil conditions without taking into consideration the tillage method that best gives the highest yield. A field study was conducted on a sandy loam soil in the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization, Ilorin. Nigeria during the raining season of 2017 to investigate the effect of tillage methods on soil physical properties, penetration resistance and shear strength under Amaranthus hybridus production. The experiment was a completely randomized design with three replications. Tillage methods were disc plough (DP), disc harrow (DH), combination of disc plough and disc harrowing (DPH) and zero tillage (ZT). Soil physical parameters investigated during the growth stages of the crop were soil bulk density, soil moisture content, penetration resistance, shear stress and total porosity. Average bulk density for DP, DPH, DH and ZT were 1.33, 1.30, 1.25 and 1.50 g/cm3 respectively. Shear stress increased with depth in all the plots. Maximum values at the 14-21 cm depth were 132, 104, 166 and 16 mPa for DP, DPH, DH and ZT respectively. The average penetration resistance on the DP, DPH, DH and ZT at the 14-21cm depth were 84.3, 82, 178 and 97 kPa respectively. Amaranthus hybridus yield was highest on the DPH plots with an average weight of 10 stands weighing 108g.  Disc ploughed + harrowing was the best tillage practice considering the soil physical properties, penetration resistance and shear stress of the plots for the optimum yield of Amaranthus hybridus on the sandy loam field

Information Security in Health Care Centre Using Cryptography and Steganography

As the volume of medicinal information stored electronically increase, so do the need to enhance how it is secured. The inaccessibility to patient record at the ideal time can prompt death toll and also well degrade the level of health care services rendered by the medicinal professionals. Criminal assaults in social insurance have expanded by 125% since 2010 and are now the leading cause of medical data breaches. This study therefore presents the combination of 3DES and LSB to improve security measure applied on medical data. Java programming language was used to develop a simulation program for the experiment. The result shows medical data can be stored, shared, and managed in a reliable and secure manner using the combined model.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, 1 tabl

Management of erectile dysfunction: perceptions and practices of Nigerian primary care clinicians

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a prevalent health problem in many societies, but the diagnosis is seldom documented in primary care. The objective of this study was to investigate the perception and practices of clinicians regarding the management of ED in primary care settings in Nigeria. Methods A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was applied to a purposive sample of clinicians attending conferences/workshops organised by the Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria and Update Courses of the Faculties of Family Medicine of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and the West African College of Physicians. Information was obtained on their professional characteristics, experiences with the management of ED and possible barriers to the effective management of ED. Results A total of 187 completed questionnaires were analysed. Most (87.2%) of the respondents were general practitioners, while the rest were specialists in various fields (excluding sexual health) who worked at the primary care level. One hundred and forty-seven respondents (76%) reported that ED was common in their clinical practice. Over half (56.2%) of the respondents ascribed a high priority to ED management in their day-to-day clinical practice, while 33.2% and 10.6% of them ascribed medium and low priority to ED management respectively. Although 80.8% of the respondents agreed that ED patients could benefit from orthodox treatments, only 18% of them had ever prescribed any medication for affected patients; most (82%) of them either counselled or referred ED patients to secondary or tertiary care level for further management. Most of the clinicians (62%) would not take a sexual history unless the patient brought it up. The reported barriers to the management of ED include lack of a standardised protocol (64.2%), inadequate experience in ED management (85.6%), preference of patients for native medication (42.3%), and the high cost of modern medication (48.1%). Conclusion The clinicians acknowledged the high prevalence of ED in the primary care setting and recognised that they had a role to play in managing affected patients. The identified barriers to the management of the condition point to the need for education of both clinicians and patients, as well as the provision of guidelines for the management of ED in primary care settings.South African Family Practice Vol. 49 (9) 2007: pp. 1

Biodegradation of Three Agricultural Wastes by a White-Rot Fungus, Pleurotus pulmonarius (Fries) Quelet

Abstract: Studies were carried out on the degradation of cotton waste, rice straw and cocoa pod husks using Pleurotus pulmonarius in cultures incubated for 0-60 days. The proximate composition, percentages of nitrogen, carbon, potassium and phosphorus, pH, lignin contents, organic matter and enzyme production were determined using the substrates degraded by P. pulmonarius. Crude protein increased significantly throughout the incubation period from 1.27% in the control to 12.63% in cotton waste, 6.65% to 14.82% in rice straw and in cocoa pod husk from 7.04% to 13.82%. Crude fibre decreased significantly in cotton waste and cocoa husk from 5.88% to 5.31% and from 39.88% to 34.95% respectively but an increase was observed in rice straw from 18.42% in control to 28.08% after 60days of incubation period. The nutrient contents, pH values, organic matter showed significant differences of (P≤0.05) in the three substrates as the days of fermentation increased. Lignin contents of treated cotton waste and cocoa husk were degraded by Pleurotus pulmonarius but an increase was observed in the rice straw. Cellulase activities decreased significantly in contrast to the lignase activities where a consistent increase was observed on the degraded substrates as the incubation period increased

Use of Bamboo and Earth Materials in Construction for the Provision of Affordable Building Structures for Sustainable Development at Kuje Area Council, Abuja

The study was carried out on the use of bamboo and earth materials in building construction in provision of affordable housing at Kuje area council Abuja. The purpose of the study was to determine the status of the use of bamboo and earth materials in construction at Kuje area council Abuja, identifying the factors limiting the use of bamboo and earth materials in construction at Kuje area council Abuja, examine the strategies that will improve the use of bamboo and earth materials in construction at Kuje area council Abuja. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A population of 80 respondents, comprising of 20 engineers and 60 craftsmen was used for the study. A structured questionnaire was developed by the researcher and was used as an instrument for data collection. The instrument was validated by three lecturers in the department of industrial and technology education, federal university of technology Minna. The data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation, while t-test statistic was used to test three hypotheses at 0.05level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that there are limitations in the use of bamboo for building construction in the Kuje Area Council. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that the use of bamboo and earth materials in building construction should be introduced as part of the curriculum for construction education at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in order to sensitize the students to their potential uses and benefits. The government should employ a policy of adapting bamboo and earth materials that require minimal amounts of capital and foreign exchange and makes use of available raw materials and skills in small-scale operations and suggestion were also made for further research works

Single-top Wt-channel production matched with parton showers using the POWHEG method

We present results for the next-to-leading order calculation of single-top Wt-channel production interfaced to Shower Monte Carlo programs, implemented according to the POWHEG method. A comparison with MC@NLO is carried out. Results obtained using the PYTHIA shower are also shown and the effect of typical cuts is briefly discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

Effect of climate change on sporulation of the teleomorphs of Leptosphaeria species causing stem canker of brassicas

Leptosphaeria maculans and L. biglobosa are closely related sibling fungal pathogens that cause phoma leaf spotting, stem canker (blackleg) and stem necrosis of oilseed rape (Brassica napus). The disease is distributed worldwide, and it is one of the main causes of considerable decrease in seed yield and quality. Information about the time of ascospore release at a particular location provides important data for decision making in plant protection, thereby enabling fungicides to be used only when necessary and at optimal times and doses. Although the pathogens have been studied very extensively, the effect of climate change on the frequencies and distributions of their aerially dispersed primary inoculum has not been reported to date. We have collected a large dataset of spore counts from Poznan, located in central-west part of Poland, and studied the relationships between climate and the daily concentrations of airborne propagules over a period of 17 years (1998–2014). The average air temperature and precipitation for the time of development of pseudothecia and ascospore release (July–November), increased during the years under study at the rates of 0.1 °C and 6.3 mm per year. The day of the year (DOY) for the first detection of spores, as well as the date with maximum of spores, shifted from 270 to 248 DOY, and from 315 to 265 DOY, respectively. The acceleration of the former parameter by 22 days and the latter by 50 days has great influence on the severity of stem canker of oilseed rape

Coherent Parton Showers with Local Recoils

We outline a new formalism for dipole-type parton showers which maintain exact energy-momentum conservation at each step of the evolution. Particular emphasis is put on the coherence properties, the level at which recoil effects do enter and the role of transverse momentum generation from initial state radiation. The formulated algorithm is shown to correctly incorporate coherence for soft gluon radiation. Furthermore, it is well suited for easing matching to next-to-leading order calculations.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

Use of Neem Leaf, Pawpaw Seed and Moringa Seed as Natural Coagulants for Surface Water Treatment

Access to save water is a serious issue affecting people of all ages for those living in remote communities where availability of improved water sources is limited; the quality of water and its treatment has become an increasing concern in developing nations like Nigeria, where proper treatment is lacking. The high cost of treated water makes most people in rural communities to employ readily available sources which are of low quality exposing them to water borne diseases. This study assessed the use of natural coagulants such as: Papaya, Sodom apple, Neem, Moringa oleifera, in the treatment of surface water. Physical, chemical and bacteriological analysis before and after treatment with each coagulants was carried out.  Aluminum Sulphate was also used as a chemical coagulant. From the experiment Moringa seed was the best coagulant of all the seeds used to treat the water samples. The following parameters showed its result before and after treatment with Moringa oleifera: pH (7.6, 7.8), Total alkalinity (180, 126), Calcium hardness (156, 140), Calcium ion (62.4, 56), Magnesium hardness (14, 36), Magnesium ion (3.42, 8.78), Chloride (55, 62.8), Sulphate (50, 60), Silica (4, 2), COD (28.4, 4.13), Colour (50, 20), Turbidity (5.73, 3.98), Total solids (836, 696), Total suspended solid (642, 384), Total dissolved solid (194, 312), fell within the WHO guideline for drinking water except total hardness which is given as (170, 180). This could be as a result of high mineral content.  The result obtained for the heavy metals and bacteriological analysis also showed that Moringa oleifera was the most active agent of all the coagulant used. Therefore, Moringa seed can be used conveniently as an alternative to Aluminum sulphate for the treatment of surface water for drinking purposes without causing detrimental effect on human health