Growth, yield and NPK uptake by maize with complementary organic and inorganic fertilizers.

High and sustainable crop yields in the tropics have been reported to be only possible with judicious combination of mineral fertilizers and organic amendments. Fertilizing croppings to achieve this has usually been a difficult task to achieve. The growth and yield of maize cultivated with a complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers was assessed compared with sole organic and sole inorganic fertilizers between April and July 2003 and 2004 at Ibadan, Nigeria, in the degraded tropical rain forest zone. There was a no-fertilizer treatment as the control. The organic fertilizer was an equal mixture of composted domestic waste and stale cow dung, applied at 10 tonnes ha-1. Urea and Single super phosphate were applied as the inorganic fertilizer to supply 70 kg N and 13 kg P2O5 ha-1 respectively. The mixture of organic and inorganic fertilizer treatment consisted of half the rates used for sole organic and sole inorganic fertilizer treatments: 5 tonnes organic mixture was applied, with 35 kg N and 6.5 kg P2O5. Maize plant height at 8 weeks after planting was highest with inorganic fertilizer application while the leaf area was highest with organic fertilizer application. Stover yield and cob yields were also highest with inorganic fertilizer. Complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers however had similar plant heights; stover yield as well as cob yields with inorganic fertilizer. Nitrogen appeared chelated with organic fertilizer application. Plant ear – leaf Nitrogen was highest (1.68%) with inorganic fertilizer while the control plots had a Nitrogen content of 1.12% which was higher than 0.84% and 0.98% N from sole organic and a complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers, respectively. Plant P content was increased by 136% and 15% with organic and inorganic fertilizers, respectively, but was reduced by 15% with complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers. The K content was highest with inorganic fertilizer (1.91%). Complementary application of organic and inorganic fertilizers had a K content of 1.70% while the organic – fertilized leaves had 1.53%. Stover nutrient uptake was highest for N and K with inorganic fertilizer while the P was highest with organic fertilizer application. Cultivating maize with complementary organic and inorganic fertilizers gives a comparable cob yield as inorganic fertilizer and has nutrients higher than from sole organic fertilizer application

A Search for Alternative Solvent To Hexane During Neem Oil Extraction

The growing environmental concerns on the toxicity and flammability of hexane motivate the need to obtain a more environmentally friendly solvent capable of extracting as much oil as hexane or even more, while giving acceptable oil quality. This study therefore investigated the possibility of replacing Hexane with either Ethanol or the mixtures of both in the extraction of Neem Oil from Neem seed. It was observed that as the extraction time increased, oil yield increased, though there was little or no increase in oil yield at 5hours and 6 hours of operations. At different extraction time, Hexane produced oil yields greater than that obtained from Ethanol. Hence, Ethanol did not prove to be a good replacement for Hexane, even at higher temperature of 750C for Ethanol. Optimum temperature of extraction was found to be 550C. Surprisingly, mixtures of Ethanol and Hexane gave commendable results. Particularly, Ethanol-Hexane mixtures of 60/40, 50/50, and 40/60 % (volume proportions) gave better oil yields of 44%, 43% and 41.2% respectively than that of Hexane (40.25%) at the 6 hours of operation, thereby making the combinations good substitutes for Hexane

Maize growth, yield and soil nutrient changes with N-enriched organic fertilizers

Experiments were conducted in the growing seasons of 2005 and 2006 at Ibadan, Nigeria, in the degraded tropical rain forest zone to assess the growth and yield of maize with Nitrogen-enriched organic fertilizer made from municipal waste and cow dung (2.5t ha-1 Pacesetter fertilizer + 100kg ha-1 urea)and also with Nitrogen-fortified poultry manure. Their performance was compared with those of inorganic NPK fertilizer and no fertilizer control. Maize growth was significantly (P=0.05) affected by an enrichment of the organic manures. They had plants comparable in height with inorganic fertilizer application. At harvest, plants treated with fortified poultry manure were about 259cm tall while those treated with fortified Pacesetter fertilizer and the plants treated with inorganic fertilizer were about 253cm tall. Average plant leaf areas were similar with the fortified fertilizers and with inorganic fertilization. Length of days taken to achieve 50% tasselling was also reduced with fertilization. Inorganic fertilizer application gave plants that achieved 50% tasselling in 50days while fortified poultry manured - plants took 52days and the fortified Pacesetter fertilizer – treated plants took 53days. Fertilization of maize gave significantly (P=0.05) higher seed yields. Fortified poultry manure gave an average yield of 3.97t ha-1 while fortified Pacesetter fertilizer had an average of 3.78t ha-1.Inorganic fertilizer gave a yield of 3.70t ha-1 while a significantly lower yield of 2.48t ha-1 was given by the unfertilized plants. Maize growth and yield from the enriched organic manures were comparable with inorganic fertilizer, indicating the potentials of the use of fortified organic manures as alternatives to inorganic fertilizers. Poultry manure required lesser N-fortification to give comparable seed yields as cow dung. Although both organic manures increased the soil N and P, poultry manure gave higher values while the soil K, Ca and Mg contents were more increased with the cow dung than poultry manure. Poultry manure, fortified with 100kg Urea can be applied at 2.5t ha-1 to cultivate maize. It gives a comparable yield as inorganic fertilizer and increases the soil N and P

Inhibitive characteristics of cetylpyridinium chloride and potassium chromate addition on type A513 mild steel in acid/chloride media

Linear polarization resistance and open circuit potential methods were used to assess the inhibitive and adsorption behaviour of Potassium chromate (K2CrO4) and Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) on mild steel (MS) in HCl/NaCl solution. Results obtained show that K2CrO4 and CPC inhibit MS significantly against massive degradation. However, under open circuit potential method, inhibition efficiency of K2CrO4 decreased at higher concentration. The synergistic effect of both inhibitors is positive on the protection of mild steel against corrosion. An inhibitive efficiency of over 60% was recorded for the combined admixture. Morphological study showed that the exposed steel with the presence of K2CrO4 and CPC possess some corrosion product with lesser pitting effect compare to unprotected steel with severe surface deterioration and uniform corrosion degradation. The corrosion inhibition performance of K2CrO4 and CPC on mild steel surface was found to follow Langmuir adsorption isotherm model

Semi analytic method for solving infectious disease model

In this paper, we present a deterministic model that captures the essential dynamics of infectious diseases. Differential Transform Method (DTM) is applied to attempt the series solution of the model. The efficiency of the DTM in solving the model is confirmed by classical fourth-order Runge-Kutta method implemented in Maple 18. The comparisons between the DTM and Runge-Kutta (RK4) solutions were made and there exists positive correlation between the results obtained by the two methods. The outcome of comparison between the DTM and RK4 validates the potential of the DTM in coping with the analysis of modern epidemics

Review of Method Study Approach to Productivity Gain: A Multi-case Study of Portable Water Producing Factory

This study evaluated level of work-study approach (wsa) to productivity advancement in Southwest-Nigeria Portable Water Producing Factories (PWPF). Objectives were to, measure productivity trend (PT) and, evaluate managers’ recognition and contribution(s) of wsa to productivity growth. PT was measured from 4 years records provided by 50 employers in 50 PWPF. Questionnaires were used on the employers and 120 employees to measure adopted wsa and impacts with responses reported on the scale of 1 to 5. Data was analyzed using t-test statistical analysis. The best performed PWPF was rated 43.75%. Disloyalty, low remuneration, lack of trainings and unsafe workplace were the major factors reported to have influenced the PT. Machinery Utilization (MeU) maximization was the commonly adopted approach. The employers’ ratings of MeU statistically significantly lower (mean=3.6364, SEM= 0.06913) to that of employees (mean=3.7333 SEM=0.6645) t(169) =0.641, p=0.522. Human resources management (p=0.235) and workers’ performance evaluation (p=0.906) were also significant and rated above average. However, work-method, safe work-practices and work-demands reviews, which were key attributes of ergonomic techniques and workers-related factors (wrf), were not significant, rated below average. The author concluded that neglects of wrf in wsa, must have greatly contributed to the weak PT of the industry and should be properly addressed to enhance productivity growth. Keywords— ergonomic, industry, productivity, water, work-stud

Production of Biodiesel from Soybean Oil Using Calcium Oxide and Cow Bone as Catalysts

Biodiesel was produced from the transesterification of soybean oil using calcium oxide and cow bone (an animal waste bone that contains hydroxyapatite, a calcium phosphate mineral) as heterogeneous catalysts. The soybean oil used was characterized using gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GCMS) and the cow bone catalyst produced was characterized using X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. The effects of the variation of methanol/oil mole ratio (9–15), catalyst concentration (10–20 wt/wt%) and reaction temperature (55–65 °C) on biodiesel yield during the transesterification of soybean oil with methanol was investigated. Reaction time of 3 hours and stirring rate of 500 rpm were kept constant. It was observed that the calcination of cow bone catalyst (at 800 °C) enhanced its conversion to apatite [Ca5(PO4)3OH] and increased the yield of biodiesel obtained. Biodiesel yield results revealed an optimum condition of methanol/oil mole ratio of 9, catalyst concentration of 15 wt/wt% and reaction temperature of 55 °C. Also, the results obtained showed that the performance trends of the two catalysts used were similar. And the close values of highest biodiesel yields obtained when the two heterogenous catalysts were used separately (yields of 94.8 and 92.2% using calcium oxide and calcined cow bone catalysts respectively) implies that the use of low-cost and readily available calcined cow bone catalyst is a promising alternative to CaO catalyst

A Mini Review on the Impact of Sewage Disposal on Environment and Ecosystem

Human activities contribute immensely to the production of wastewater which emanates from residences, industries and agricultural practices that pollutes the environment and water bodies. Up to 80-90% of the wastewater produced in developing countries is disposed of into surface and groundwater which is a major cause of environmental pollution that threatens human health. According to UN report, over 80% of the wastewater produced in the world and over 95% in some least developed countries is released without being treated into the environment. This paper reviews the methods of sewage disposal, the impact on the environment, aquatic contaminant and the human health. Emphasis is placed on the impact of disposal of various contaminants in aquifers and water bodies which could make water unsafe for drinking and to perform other domestic and recreational activitie