An Application of Discriminant Analysis On University Matriculation Examination Scores For Candidates Admitted Into Anamabra State University

The study was carried out on the university matriculation examination (UME) scores of candidates admitted in the department of Industrial Chemistry for 2009/2010 session with the aim of using discriminant function to achieve a sharper discrimination between those “accepted” and those not accepted” in the department. The data for this study was collected from the Anambra State University admission office. The data collected were analysed using average scores, Hotellings T2 distribution and discriminant analysis.   The result of the analysis showed that the average scores of those candidates accepted using the four university matriculation examination UME) subjects in higher compared to the average score of not accepted candidates. The hotellings T2 distribution used showed that the population mean vectors of the two groups (accepted and not accepted candidates) are different. Discriminant function found for ‘accepted’ and ‘not accepted’ candidates and classification rule also used showed that they are candidates that are wrongly classified or misclassified. Keywords UME scores, mean, hotellings T2 distribution, Discriminant analysis, discriminant function, classification rule

Relating Communication Competence to Teaching Effectiveness: Implication for Teacher Education

There is wide practice of attributing students’ achievement to teacher effectiveness. Some school authorities take this further by querying teachers over poor performances of their students. Although the teacher is just one factor among many that determine students’ performances, the teachers’ attributes and qualities are very important in the teaching and learning processes. Thus, it is important that teacher education emphasizes those qualities that will make the teacher more effective. The teacher has need of knowledge of content and communication skills to be effective. While several attributes have been used to describe an effective teacher, content knowledge and communication skills remain outstanding. This paper posits that teacher education should emphasize both content knowledge and communication skills instead of relegating communication skills because one cannot be achieved without the other. It follows up the contention by conceptualizing communication, exploring teacher communication competence, and finally suggesting the introduction of Teacher Communication Skills (TCS) course in the curricula of teacher education across levels. Keywords: Communication competence, Teacher effectiveness, Teacher Communication Skills (TCS

Treatment of Brewery Waste Water in a Fluidized Bed Digester

This study examined anaerobic fluidized- bed reactor performance employed to treat brewery waste water in terms of treatment efficiency on COD and BOD5 reduction under different hydraulic retention time (HRT). It employed a fluidized-bed digester, with liquid volumetric flow rate of 1.7 x 10-6m3/s, superficial velocity of 0.0012 m/s and 0.00026m/s which achieved the velocity  required to fluidize 20g activated carbon bed of height 0.03m with 0.384 voidage. The pressure drop across the fluidized-bed was calculated to be 1.848 N/m2. The COD and BOD5 concentration reduction efficiencies were monitored .The results obtained indicate that as HRT increases, the concentration of COD and BOD5 initially at 7137.67 COD mg/l and 2177 BOD5 mg/l decreased to final concentration of 1845.92 mg COD/l and 154.17 mg BOD5/l respectively at10h. The COD and BOD5 reduction efficiencies were observed to be 74.1% and 92.9% at the 10h HRT. The experimental data obtained for COD reduction in this work was used for determination of kinetic parameters from modified mixed-flow equation based on Michaelis-Menten’s kinetics and the correlation coefficient was  0.944 .The maximum substrate utilization rate, rmax and the Michaelis-Menten’s constant, KM, were determined to be 301.5 mg COD/l. h and 1345 mg COD/l respectively. Correction factor (F) of 1.1 when applied to the data will fitted simple mixed flow Michaelis Menten kinetic model well. The deviation from typical Michaelis Menten kinetic model can be attributed to acclimatization time required for effective digestion, flow dynamics in the reactor and existence of multi-organism media which would have promoted other side reactions. Organisms identified from the anaerobic digester include clostridium spp, peptococcus anaerobus, bfidobacteriums spp, desulphoribrio spp, corynebacterium spp, lacto. Keywords: Anaerobic decomposition; Brewery wastewater; Fluidized-bed reactor; Modified Michaelis-Menten’s kinetics

Physiological Response Of Laying Birds To Neem (Azadirachta Indica) Leaf Meal-Based Diets: Body Weight Organ Characteristics And Haematology

A 12-weeks feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of Neem (Azadirachta indica) leafmeal (NLM) on body weight gain, carcass and organ characteristics and haematological values of laying hens. The leaves were harvested, chopped to facilitate drying in the sun until they became crispy but still greenish in coloration. The Sun-dried leaves were milled using a hammer mill to produce the leaf meal. Four layers diets were formulated to contain the NLM at 0%,5%, 10% and 15% dietary levels respectively and were used to feed 120 Shikka brown layers already 10 months in lay. The birds were divided into 4 groups of 30 each and randomly assigned to the 4 treatment diets in a completely randomized design (CRD). NLM did not show any appreciable difference in weight gain between the birds at 0% and those at 5%, 10% dietary levels. Carcass weight, dressed weight, liver, heart and gizzard weights were significantly (P<0.05) increased at 5% dietary level of NLM. There were no significant difference in Hb and PCV between birds on O% and 5% treatment diets. However, these differed significantly (P<0.05%) from those of birds on 10% and 15% treatment diets. There were variations in the differential WB count , marked lymphocytopenia adversely affected the total leucocyte counts in the birds on 5%, 10% and 15% treatment diets. The results of this study suggest that laying birds could tolerate 5%- 15% dietary levels of NLM without deleterious effects

Effect of Germination and Cooking on the Nutrient and Poly-Phenol Content of Lima Bean (Phaseolus lunatus)

The present study focused on the effect of germination and cooking on the nutritive properties of lima bean seed. Lima beans cultivars were cooked at 1hr 30mins and germinated at 35oC for 5 days. Dried pulverized samples of raw, cooked and germinated samples were analyzed for proximate composition, mineral content and polyphenol activity respectively. The results show germination has improve the protein content from 18.80 to 27.10 %. Mineral composition, increases with germination for calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, zinc and magnesium. The heavy metals reduce on germination for lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel and selenium. The phenol content increases on germination for total flavonoids, phenol content and total antioxidant assay activity. Thus, the study indicated that germination has improved the nutritional composition of lima beans than cooking of the beans flour. Germinated lima bean flour can be successfully used in food formulation. Keywords: Germination; cooking; lima bean; Polyphenol content

Economic feasibility of on-farm fuel ethanol production from cassava tubers in rural communities

A simple process for on-farm bioethanol production from cassava, using cassava koji supplemented with crude liquid enzyme and yeast was described. On a small scale, a fed-batch mode where 4 kg of koji, 2 kg of gelatinized cassava flour and 30 g of yeast cells were mixed and allowed to ferment for two days, followed by addition of 1.5 kg of cassava flour and fermenting for another three days, gave higher ethanol concentration of 7.05% (0.34 g-ethanol/g-cassava flour) than when 3.5 kg of gelatinized cassava flour, 4 kg of koji and 30 g of yeast cells were mixed at the same time and allowed to ferment for five days. The process was scaled up 100 times and economic feasibility was evaluated. The total investment cost was seven million, five hundred thousand Nigerian naira (₦) (US$46,875). With a payback period of five years, the cost of cassava tubers represented 71.73$0.641/l), which is not profitable considering the current market price of ethanol (US$0.597-0.748/l). The process becomes profitable only when the price of fresh cassava tuber is reduced to ₦5,000/ton (US$31.25/ton). At this price, the ethanol production cost would be ₦58.53/l (US$0.366/l). The process is recommended for vertically integrated system (on-farm process) where the cassava produced in the farm is used, thereby shielding it from high and fluctuating market prices of cassava.Keywords: Fuel ethanol, bioenergy, koji, economic analysis, cassava ethanolAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(37), pp. 5618-562

Product Lifecycle Engineering and Management a Life Line for SMEs in Nigeria: An Appraisal

In this 21st century and beyond characterized with rapid development change in technology and innovations, organizations must relentlessly improve their product processes and systems, if they hope to outperform their competitors and maintain relevancy. Invariably, every product has 'life', starting with the design/development, followed by resource extraction, production, use/consumption, and end-of-life activities. However,, Product Lifecycle Engineering and Management (PLM), represents a very important approach for achieving a more sustainable paradigm of work and life, a more sustainable product development, manufacturing, use and dismissal. It is remarkable to note that SMEs account for 97% of all businesses in Nigeria, employs 50% of Nigeria's workforce, and produce 50% of Nigeria's industrial output, but most of these companies (SMEs) are short-lived. The sustainability of these companies and their products' lifecycle has become imperative in order to increase their contributions towards economic, social, political, environmental, and technological development of the Nigeria nation. This paper therefore, shows that effective and efficient PLM will inevitably play a vital and unprecedented role in creating sustainable product environment for SMEs in Africa and most especially fast growing economy like Nigeria. Keywords: Lifecycle, Management, Sustainability, SMEs, ICT Solution, Product Life, Developmen

Factors Affecting Biogas Production during Anaerobic Decomposition of Brewery effluent- wastewater in a Fluidized Bed Digester.

This  work determined the dependency of biogas and carbon (iv) oxide production on microbial concentration X (Cfu/l), hydraulic retention time (HRT), ratio of total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) and total alkalinity K, during anaerobic decomposition of brewery effluent wastewater in a fluidized-bed reactor system. The volume of biogas and carbon (iv) oxide produced were monitored as the treatment time progressed. For  brewery waste water volume of 2 litres treated in the bioreactor, the volume of biogas rich in methane, produced in this work was described as s-curve with initial volume of biogas produced as 0.003l  at 4h HRT and maximum volume of 0.0045l at 8 h HRT.Similarly,0.0033l of carbon(iv)oxide was recorded at 2 h HRT and it achieved its maximum of 0.0042l at 8 h HRT. Total microbial count was conducted on the reactor sample water. The maximum concentration of the gases recorded at 8 h HRT corresponded to the favourable operating environment and good system stability ratio  (VFA/Alkalinity)&lt;0.5 achieved. Key words: Anaerobic decomposition, brewery wastewater, fluidized-bed reactor, Biogas, carbon (iv) oxide

Creating Rich and Representative Personas by Discovering Affordances

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this recordIEEE During the last decade, information system designers have used the persona technique to put user needs and preferences at the center of all development decisions. Persona development teams draw on qualitative data, quantitative data or a combination of both to develop personas that are representative of the target users. Despite the benefits of both approaches, qualitative methods are limited by the cognitive capabilities of the experts, whereas quantitative methods lack contextual richness. To gain the advantages of both approaches, this article suggests a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach to create user personas based on the patterns of the affordances they actualize rather than merely the actions they take. It enriches personas by referring to the purposes fulfilled through affordance actualizations, and it grounds personas in readily available objective log data. This study illustrates the practical value of the proposed methodology by empirically creating personas based on real user data. Furthermore, it demonstrates its value by having practitioners compare the suggested method to that of qualitative-only and quantitative-only methods.Concordia Universit

ADSORPTIVE REMOVAL OF DYES FROM SYNTHETIC WASTEWATER USING ACTIVATED CARBON FROM TAMARIND SEED

Activated carbon prepared from seed (Tamarindus indica) was utilized for the removal of orange G and safranin O dyes from aqueous solution. Chemical activation using orthophosphoric acid (H3PO4) was employed for the preparation of activated carbon. The effect of various factors namely; particle size, pH, adsorbent dosage, ion concentration, and contact time was studied to identify the adsorption capacity of the tamarind seed. The percentage of dye adsorbed was found to be dependent on these factors. The Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherm models are fitted into the graphs, but the Freundlich isotherm model is best-fitted into the experimental data. The pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, Elovich, and Bhattacharya-Venkobachor kinetic models were also fitted into the graphs, but pseudo-second order is best fitted into the experimental data. The thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy, entropy, and free energy were evaluated using the Van’t Hoff equations. The negative free energy (∆G) and negative enthalpy (∆H) indicate the feasibility and exothermic nature of the adsorption process. The positive entropy (∆S) shows the increased randomness of the solid/solution interface during the adsorption process. The chemical functional groups, crystalline nature, and the surface morphology of the carbon adsorbents were studied by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Characteristics of the activated carbons were determined using standard methods