A comparative study of Zinc (II) ions removal by a locally produced Granular activated carbon

Physiochemical properties of wastewater effluent from the plants of a brewery in Lagos, Nigeria were analyzed. The adsorption capacity of Granular activated carbon from animal horns when compared with the available commercial Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC) has been presented. Kinetics of adsorption was also investigated. The adsorption isotherms could be well defined with Freundlich model instead of Langmuir model for both GAC studied. The experimental data, when applied to the first and second-order kinetic models, followed the first-order with r² = 0.931 for GAC from animal horns while commercial GAC followed the second-order with r² = 0.936. The results illustrated how animal horns, a solid waste disposal menace from the abattoir at the Oshodi market in Lagos metropolis, was used as an effective biosorbent for the removal of Zn 2+ ions; offering a cheap option for primary treatment of the wastewater effluent

Performance evaluation of conventional exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) and p-value cumulative sum (CUSUM) control chart

This paper is aimed at comparing the performances of the conventional Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) and p-value Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) control chart. These charts were applied in monitoring the outbreak of pulmonary tuberculosis in Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara for a period of eighty four (84) calendar months. Line chart and histogram were plotted to test for stationary and normality of the data. Autocorrelation plot was also used to study the randomness of the data. The results of the control charts show that conventional EWMA chart detects shifts faster in monitoring process mean than the p-value CUSUM control chart. Keywords and Phrases: Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA), p-value, Cumulative Sum (CUSUM), Autocorrelation, Randomnes

Comparative effects of local Coagulants on the Nutritive Value, In vitro Multienzyme Protein Digestibility and sensory properties of Wara.

Wara, a Nigerian soft cheese, was produced from cow milk using different crude coagulants obtained (1) the juice of Calotropis procera, (2) an aqueous solution of calcium chloride, (3) an aqueous solution of alum (4) steep waste water from pap production. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of these coagulants on the yield, proximate analysis, mineral composition, energy content, in vitro multienzyme protein digestibility and sensory evaluation of Wara. The result revealed no significant difference (p≤0.05) in the yield of the cheese (31.5=32.5%) from the different coagulants. The protein (25.56%), Mn (0.23), Zn (1.9) of Calotropis procera coagulated cheese was significantly higher (p≤0.05) fat (21.9%), Fe (1.7), Mg (54.3), K (56.5), Ca (43.6), Na (45.2), energy (8.1 cal g-1) and in vitro multienzyme protein digestibility (80.3-92.6%) than the cheese produced by other coagulants. Calcium chloride coagulated cheese had the lowest content of protein (17.85%), Fe (0.993), Zn (0.785) and in vitro multienzyme protein digestibility (80.7-83.6%). Alum coagulated cheese had a high content of protein (23.64%), Fe (1.583), Ca (36.9) and Na (31.4). The results obtained from sensory evaluation showed that Calotropis procera coagulated cheese gave the best coagulum. The locally used coagulant in Nigeria for cheese production, steep waste water, appears to be promising because of its high content of minerals, though the sensory quality could be improved

The Influence of Maternal Education on Childhood Survival Among Married Couples of Childbearing Age in Edo State, Nigeria

The main target of this paper was about childhood survival and how to continuously sustain it for socio-economic development. Thus, the study examined the extent of influence which maternal education has on childhood survival among married couples in Edo State of Nigeria. A sample size of six hundred (600) respondents was drawn by multi stage sampling method. Data were collected by social survey method comprising questionnaire and interview. The researchers were mainly interested in answers to the following research questions. (i) What are the likely causes of childhood mortality in Edo State? (ii) Can medical interventions without mother’s education be effective enough to reduce childhood mortality? And (iii) Does maternal education positively influence a child’s health and survival? Data analyses were based on percentage. Findings revealed some likely causes of childhood mortality, and considered education as the bedrock which makes other variables more effective for any course of action. Thus, maternal education positively influences a child’s health and survival because educated mothers are more knowledgeable to seek medical advice for their children. However, some recommendations were made on how to boost and sustain child survival rate. Keywords: Childhood Survival, Maternal Education, Mortality, Nigeria. DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/63-04 Publication date: January 31st 202

Asset based wellbeing of poverty of artisanal fish farmers in delta state, nigeria

This research carried out in Delta State, Nigeria, focuses on the empirical application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA), an asset based measure of wellbeing which can be used to assess level of poverty among households in rural areas of developing countries. The study employed questionnaire-based household survey data collection methods. The final wealth index was derived using data collected from 430 artisanal fishing households in riverine Delta State communities. Data on 16 variables measuring multiple aspects of household wealth status were used to extract the set of principal components utilized in the construction of the index. Two key statistical tests, the KMO and Bartlett’s tests, showed the appropriateness of the data for PCA. Results revealed that five major factors influence the wealth status and hence the wellbeing of households: home infrastructure, energy sources, durable home assets, water sources and mobility. Therefore, it is suggested that any efforts to improve the wellbeing of farm households in the study area as well as in other regions with similar socio- economic settings should consider these factors as entry point to poverty alleviation

Effect of Types of coagulant on the Nutritive value and in vitro multienzyme Protein Digestibility of Tofu

Tofu is popularly consumed in Nigeria because of the various nutritional and medicinal attribute associated with soybean products. In Nigeria, Tofu a coagulated product of soymilk is usually produced at household level using various types of coagulants such as Calcium chloride. Alum and steep water (effluent from pap produced from maize). This study therefore sought to assess the effect of the various type of locally used coagulants on the proximate, mineral, energy and antinutrient composition, and in vitro multienzyme protein digestibility of Tofu. The result of the study revealed that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the yield of the Tofu (17.5 – 18.3%), however alum coagulation gave the highest yield, while Calcium chloride gave the lowest yield. The protein (17.6%), fat (6.2%), Mn (0.3), Mg (34.2), energy (6.6 cal/g) and in vitro multienzyme protein digestibility (75.8 -77.6%) of steep water coagulated tofu was significantly higher (P< 0.05) Fe (1.6), Ca (23.5), K (33.9) and Na (21.1) than the tofu produced by other coagulants. The tofu produced by Calcium chloride had the highest Zn (0.6) content but the lowest energy content (5.3 cal/g) and in vitro multienzyme protein digestibility (61.6 – 63.5 %). It could therefore be concluded that of all the locally used coagulants in Nigeria for Tofu production steep water (effluent from pap produced from maize) which is considered to be waste appeared to be the most promising, although it has the least sensory acceptability, however further research will be carried out on how to improve its sensory quality

Kinetic Models for Drying Techniques—Food Materials

Drying operations can help in reducing the moisture content of food materials for avoidance of microbial growth and deterioration, for shelf life elongation, to minimize packaging and improving storage for easy transportation. Thin-layer drying of materials is necessary to understand the fundamental transport mechanism and a prerequisite to successfully simulate or scale up the whole process for optimization or control of the operating conditions. Re- searchers have shown that to rely solely on experimental drying practices without mathematical considerations for the drying kinetics, can significantly affect the efficiency of dryers, increase the cost of production, and reduce the quality of the dried product. An effective model is necessary for the process design, optimization, energy integration and control; hence, the use of mathematical models in finding the drying kinetics of agricultural products is very important. The statistical criteria in use for the evaluation of the best model(s) has it that coefficient of determination (R2) has to be close to unity while the rest statistical measures will have values tending to zero. In this work, the essence of drying using thin-layer, general approaches to modeling for food drying mechanisms thin layer drying models and optimization of the drying processes have been discussed

Inhibition effect of Vernonia amygdalina extract on the corrosion of mild steel reinforcement in concrete in 0.2 M H2SO4 Environment

Inhibition effect of Vernonia amygdalina (bitter leaf) extract on the corrosion behaviour of embedded mild steel rebar in concrete immersed in 0.2% H2SO4 solution was investigated by potential measurement, pH and gravimetric methods using the extracts concentrations of 25, 50, 75, and 100%. The results were further analysed using the two-factor ANOVA test. Potential measurement was performed using a digital voltmeter and a copper/copper sulphate reference electrode. Compressive strength of each block sample was determined after the experiments. Weight loss values were obtained from the gravimetric method, and the inhibitor efficiency was computed from the corrosion rate of each of the tested samples. Results showed that varied concentration of V. amygdalina and the test exposure time significantly affect both the corrosion potential of embedded steel rebar in concrete and the pH of the medium. The extracts gave appreciable corrosion inhibition performance of the embedded steel rebar at 25 and 50% concentrations with the weight loss of 500 (0.5 g) and 400 mg (0.4 g) and corrosion rates values of 0.000240 and 0.000180 mm/ yr, respectively. The highest inhibition efficiency (60.68%) was achieved at 50 and 39.94% at 25% concentrations, respectively. The 100 and 75% concentrations gave negative inhibitor values of �51.52 and �20.11%. The ANOVA test confirmed the results at 95% confidence, and further showed that concentration of V. amygdalina had greater effect on potential and pH measurement