Removal of Lead (II) from Aqueous Solution using Banana (Musa Paradisiaca) Stalk-Based Activated Carbon

Banana Stalk Activated Carbon (BSAC) chemically prepared was used as adsorbent to remove Pb (II) from aqueous solution in a batch mode. BSAC was characterized using physicochemical properties, proximate analysis, pHpzc, and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Effects of initial concentration, contact time, temperature, adsorbent dose and pH on adsorption of Pb (II) were evaluated. FTIR showed that BSAC is rich in carboxyl, hydroxyl and phenolic functional groups. The maximum percentage removal of Pb (II) was 97.90% at equilibrium time of 120 minutes. The kinetic data of Pb (II) were analyzed using pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion models but the pseudo-second-order kinetic model gave the best fit. Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin – Radushkevich (D–R) isotherm models were used to analyze the equilibrium adsorption data, but the Langmuir isotherm model provided the best correlation (R2) of 0.998 and maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) of 200 mg/g.  The thermodynamic properties of the adsorption process, such as the Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and the entropic change have been evaluated and established that the process was spontaneous, feasible and endothermic in nature. BSAC is efficient and effective in removing Pb(II) from its aqueous solution. Keywords: Banana stalk, adsorption, kinetics, isotherm, equilibriu

PROPOSED FRAMEWORK FOR A PAPER-REVIEWER ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM USING WORD2VEC

The task of assigning papers to reviewers is crucial to the realization of a peer-to-peer review process of academic conferences. The manual process of ensuring submissions assigned to reviewers is related to their knowledge domain can be very cumbersome. Besides, poor quality reviews results from an ineffective assignment of papers. From extant literature, automated reviewer assignment systems based on distributional semantic models have been used to capture semantics with the shortcoming of limited in the bag of words models. Neural Network Language models have been used to eliminate the limitations of bag of words of models in expertise finding and product recommendation. Thus this paper proposes a framework based on neural network language models to derive suitability scores based on the semantic relatedness between a paper meant for review and a reviewer’s representation papers. The present performance of the neural network language model compared to distributional semantic models used in solving reviewer-assignment. This ensures the semantic relatedness of paper and reviewer knowledge representation in allocating a paper, which improves the overall success of the peer-to-peer review process

Soft Computing Approaches to Stock Forecasting: A Survey

Soft computing techniques has been effectively applied in business, engineering, medical domain to solve problems in the past decade. However, this paper focuses on censoring the application of soft computing techniques for stock market prediction in the last decade (2010 - todate). Over a hundred published articles on stock price prediction were reviewed. The survey is done by grouping these published articles into: the stock market surveyed, input variable choices, summary of modelling technique applied, comparative studies, and summary of performance measures. This survey aptly shows that soft computing techniques are widely used and it has demonstrated widely acceptability to accurately use for predicting stock price and stock index behavior worldwide

On Curtailing the Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic Among Religious Followers in Nigeria: An Empirical Study

Controlling religious gathering during the time of rapid spread of COVID-19 pandemic becomes a serious problem faced by governments at all levels. In fact, all other areas of human endeavor where large gatherings could take place in Nigeria such as club houses, beer parlors, ceremonial gatherings, schools and institutions, market places including kiosks and shops, airports and motor parks, commercial and other money-deposit banks, private and public offices, etcetera were kept under perfect control by government except the religious centers. The global trend of COVID-19 pandemic has become more worrisome as the incidence keeps increasing every day. Curtailing its spread among the human race should be a responsibility to be performed by every individual not only in Nigeria but also in the whole world. However, the influence of religious organizations can never be overlooked in dealing with societal attitude towards curtailing the outbreak of the pandemic. Therefore, the data used for this study were sourced via an online survey designed from Google account with a link. Having expunged incomplete information from the responses received, two thousand, three hundred and sixty useful ones were analyzed using R software. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages and graphics were employed alongside chi-squared test as statistical tools. Empirically, results reveal that it’s the responsibility of everyone to encourage curtailing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Also, it’s established that religious followers do not fear the pandemic; they only obeyed government’s lock-down directive. Though majority of the citizens (84%) consider this policy as punishment, people prefer worshipping their God (gods) at home, if possible from home while engaging with their daily commercial activities. Hence, the study also reveals that most of the religious teachings during the pandemic were meant to publicly sensitize citizens about how dangerous COVID-19 is. This was supported by approximately 73% of the respondents. We therefore recommend that representatives of religious leaders and organizations should be involved during policy formulation, especially health-related policies as evidenced from the study

Operability of Mobile Agent Applications in a Protected Environment

There is a shift toward increasingly heterogeneous networks in today�s communications environment. Such diversity requires that network operators have greater experience and increased training. Managing these diverse networks especially in institutions requires the collection of large quantities of data from a dependable network that must be analyzed before management of any activity can be comenced. In this research, we have identified the operability of mobile Agents in a protected network environment

Seroprevalence of hepatitis E among restaurant food handlers in Ibadan, Nigeria

 Background: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the causative agent of acute viral hepatitis in humans. HEV is an important public health disease in many parts of the world because it is transmitted faeco-orally.  Majority of the documented studies on hepatitis E virus in Nigeria have focused on pregnant women and animal handlers with limited data among food handlers. Thus the current study aimed at investigating the prevalence of HEV infection among food handlers operating within the premises of a tertiary care facility.Methods: One hundred and seventy seven (177) food handlers were screened using commercial Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay (ELISA) to detect IgM antibodies to Hepatitis E. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess risk factors for HEV infection.Results: HEV IgM antibodies were detected in 16 (9.0%) of the participants. Age-specific HEV IgM seroprevalence appeared to decrease with age, however there were no significant differences in HEV IgM seropositivity regarding age (P=0.251), gender (P = 0.231), marital status (P=0.735) and religion (P = 0.906). Significant risk factors for HEV IgM seropositivity included source of water for drinking (P=0.03) and the use of soap for hand washing (P=0.02).Conclusion: Our findings suggest that HEV remains a public health problem, as the virus circulates at low but considerable levels especially among food handlers; thus posing a threat to potential contacts. Proper hand washing practices as well as provision of portable water are important factors for the control of Hepatitis E

Geochemical Appraisal of Termite-Reworked Clay Soils from Basement Complex Terrain: Implications as Landfill Liners

The geochemical and mineralogical assessment was prompted by the considerable presence of Termitaria overburden on the Basement Complex outcrops in southwest Nigeria with the goal of determining their suitability as landfill liners. The X-Ray Fluorescene (XRF) and X-Ray Diffraction techniques were used to examine ten soil samples. Major oxides and mineralogical values were analysed to determine the effectiveness of soil engineering. Weathering indices and silica/sesquioxide ratios were also measured. The results of the mineralogical investigation showed that kaolinite clay mineral predominated, which is indicative of non-swelling qualities. The outcomes demonstrated that the soil is a true laterite as well as a lateritic soil. Fair carrying capacity was shown by the stability and shear resistance values of 47.15% and 48.11%, respectively. The weathering indices show severe weathering, high clay fraction, strong plasticity, and low hydraulic conductivity with an average of 95% and 0.59 weight percent, respectively. Additionally, the repackaging of the clay soils by termite activity produced greater interlocking and water film resistance. These characteristics make soils an excellent material for landfill liners due to their improved density and bearing capacity, resilience to chemical attack, and reconstructed structure. Keywords: Landfill liners. Termitaria, Kaolinite, Mineralogy and Geochemical Properties DOI: 10.7176/JEES/13-8-03 Publication date:October 31st 202

The effect of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius on multi-drug resistant micro-organisms

This study was carried out to investigate possible bacteriostatic and bactericidal activities of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius leaf extract on multi-drug resistant micro-organisms. The antimicrobial property of C. aconitifolius leaf extract was carried out on the following multi-drug resistant microorganisms; Escherichia coli, Klebsiella species, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica Gallinarum and Candida albicans. The results from this study show that none of the multi-drug resistant micro-organisms was sensitive to the leaf extract of C. aconitifolius

Prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus on the Hands of Health-Care Workers and the Environment of a Nigerian University Health Centre

Hospital-acquired infections continue to be an important public health issue with unacceptable levels of morbidity and mortality. Staphylococcus aureus is a frequent cause of infections in the hospital. This research aimed at giving a better understanding of the prevalence of S. aureus in a hospital setting in order to adequately account for its potential threat. A total of 115 samples comprising 65 environmental samples obtained from trays, bed railings, doorknobs, and other surfaces of patient wards and 50 hand swabs of health-care workers were screened for S. aureus using established microbiological techniques. Twenty-eight isolates each represented positive cultures from environmental and hand samples, respectively. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was determined for the S. aureus isolates using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion assay. The anti-biotic resistance pattern for the hand and environmental isolates respectively gave the following results: Ciprofloxacin (32.14%, 21.43%), Trimethoprim/ Sulphamethoxazole (60.71%, 67.86%), Oxacillin (28.57%, 35.71%), Erythromycin (21.42%, 17.86%), Gentamicin (42.86%, 28.57%), Tetracycline (17.86%, 21.42%), Penicillin (42.86%, 42.85%). Twelve resistant phenotypes were identified, of which Ciprofloxacin-Gentamicin- Trimethoprim/ Sulphamethoxazole (CIP-CN-SXT) was predominant. This study shows that the hands of health-care workers and the hospital environment could serve as potential vehicles of transmission of S. aureus infections, thus high-lighting the need for effective infection control measures

Comparative Study of Microwave-assisted and Conventional Synthesis of 3-[1-(s-phenylimino) Ethyl]-2H-chromen-2-ones and Selected Hydrazone Derivatives

In this study, 3-acetylcoumarin 1, used as the essential precursor was synthesized by the reaction of salicyaldehyde with ethyl acetoacetate in the presence of a catalytic amount of piperidine in solvent-free medium. Schiff bases 2-9 were obtained by the condensation reaction of 3-acetylcoumarin, 1 with various aniline derivatives while reaction of 3-hydrazinoquinoxalin-2-one with four different 6-susbtituted 3-acetylcoumarins afforded the corresponding hydrazones 10-13. Both Schiff bases and hydrazone products were synthesized under microwave irradiation method and conventional synthetic strategy for comparative study. The microwave assisted reaction was remarkably successful and gave both Schiff bases and hydrazones in higher yields at shorter reaction time compared to conventional heating method. The characterization of the synthesized compounds were structurally confirmed by analytical data as well as spectroscopic means which involved 1H-and 13C-nmr, ir, UV-visible and mass spectra