Utilization of wildlife resources in Nigeria

1987 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Primary purposes of this study were to determine: which wildlife species are being used by the people, in what quantity, and during what season; the effect of religion, culture, and tribal festivals on game species utilized; the game species utilized or consumed in different ecological zones; which game species and parts of wild animals are used for healing and preventive medicine in each ecological zone; and to assess the economic and recreational values of the utilized wildlife. The three ecological zones surveyed for consumptive uses of wildlife resources in Nigeria were: savanna (Bauchi, Plateau, Niger, and Kwara states), deciduous (Anambra and Bendel states), and rain forest (Oyo and Cross River states). For nonconsumptive uses, three national parks (Kainji Lake National Park, Yankari Game Reserve, and Jos Wildlife Park) and four zoological gardens (Ibadan, Jos, Enugun, and Ogba) were surveyed. Data were collected from farmers, hunters, and visitors in each of the conservation areas through a person-to-person questionnaire interview. This study confirmed that small game were the most abundant wild animals in the three zones surveyed and most of them were located in the savanna region. This study indicates that a major proportion of animal protein consumed by farmers and hunters in the regions came from wild animals. Farmers and hunters in the savanna preferred using small game (rodents) and big game (duikers) more than in the other zones. Wildlife species were used more during installation ceremonies (of a new chief, Emir, Oba, and Obis) than in other cultural festivals. In the rain forest more species were used for installation ceremonies than in any region surveyed. During Muslim festivals in Nigeria, farmers rarely used wildlife species, but some were used to supplement income. Christians used many different wild animals for religious festivals, but more were used during the Easter period in the deciduous region than the rain forest and savanna regions. Expenditures per visitor in the three national parks showed more per capita expenditures from foreigners than Nigerians. The number of nights stayed in the national parks and game reserves is the major factor in determining how much money the visitor spent

Enhancing the Performance of Three White-rot Fungi in the Mycoremediation of Crude Oil Contaminated Soil

Contamination of soils by petroleum hydrocarbon is on the increase, particularly in the oil producing areas of Nigeria. White-rot fungi have enzymes which are capable of turning these organic compounds into harmless substances. This work investigated the performance of three white-rot fungi (Pleurotus tuber-regium, P. ostreatus and P. pulmonarius) for the remediation of different concentrations (0, 1, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20% w/v) of crude oil contaminated soils with sawdust and poultry manure as bedding materials. Ten grammes of each of the white-rot fungi were separately inoculated in each bottle containing exhaustively cropped topsoil (200 g), rice straw (40 g) and wheat bran (20 g). Each treatment was conducted in three replicates and arranged in a 3 x 6 x 3 complete randomised design. The bottles (54) were incubated for zero, one and three months in a dark room, exposed to light, watered daily thereafter for twelve days for fruiting bodies to spring out and harvested. P. ostreatus had best agronomic performance and P. tuber-regium removed hydrocarbons and heavy metals more than either P. ostreatus or P. pulmonarius under similar experimental conditions. The yield and mycoremedial performance of the three tested white-rot fungi demonstrated potentials for cleaning-up petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soil, but their performance reduced from 5.0% (w/v) crude oil substrate contamination

Female Labour Force Participation and Economic Growth Nexus: Evidence from Nigerian Economy

This paper examines the female labour force participation and economic growth nexus in Nigeria. Time series data for the period of 1981 to 2015 were used. With the establishment of cointegrating relationships, we used the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimation technique to obtain the long run elasticity coefficients. The major finding shows an inverse relationship between Female labour force participation and economic growth. Therefore, the study recommends that active labour market policies are needed particularly in Nigeria to promote women’s labour market participation in the interest of overall economic growth and development in Nigeria

EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEM

This study focused on the experimental evaluation of an air-conditioning system of its coefficient of performance. The performance of any vapor compression system is evaluated by the operational coefficient of performance (COP). The aim was to evaluate the effect of parameters that affect the COP of a refrigeration system. Measurements of important operational parameters such as the evaporator and condenser temperatures were studied and measured from the system. Other relevant parameters such as the humidity of both the supply air and that of the space to be conditioned were also studied and measured. Experimental data were generated for 30 days to determine the performance of the air-conditioning system. Performance evaluation of the system was determined in terms of refrigerating capacity and COP. In this present study, the load was estimated, refrigerating effect, work input, and COP was estimated. The estimated results from the experimentation showed that the operational COP of the air-conditioning system range from 3.41 0.02 to 4.98 0.02. Efficiency requirement in Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) for the air- conditioning system was estimated as 9.2. The coefficient of determination, R2 value also showed that the variables being compared have a strong correlation

Biomethane Production and Applications

Biomethane production generally involves the cleaning to remove minor unwanted components of biogases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and moisture (H2O) and upgrading in a process that involves the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) to increase the concentration of CH4 to 95–99% and reduce CO2 concentration to 1–5%, with little or no hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Biomethane gas is a flexible and easy to store fuel having similar properties and applications as natural gas with no need to modify the settings for natural gas devices and equipment. Biomethane can be used for industrial and domestic applications ranging from thermal and power generation and feedstock for processes like the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) for fuel manufacturer and direct power generation in hydrogen or biogas fuel cells like production of green hydrogen. Therefore, biomethane promises to play a leading role in the energy transition through hydrogen, electricity, and other renewable fuels production. Biomethane production by biogas upgrading methods include the pressure swing adsorption, which has an option of temperature swing adsorption, absorption technics based on amine, membrane separation, cryogenic separation, and biological separation. The technology adopted may depend on factors such as costs, quality of products, location, and technology maturity and requirements

Qualitative Assessment of Surgical Repair of Three Types of Unilateral Cleft Lip

Objective: To assess the effect of the three types of unilateral cleft lip (UCL) [cleft lip only, cleft lip and alveolus, and cleft lip alveolus and palate] on the outcome of the repair. Material and Methods: This study was a case series of effect of types of UCL on the outcome of the repair. Fifteen subjects each were in three UCL phenotypes groups. Evaluation of the scar, lip, and nose was done qualitatively by both parents/guardians and professionals using a modified form of the criteria described by Christofides et al. (2006). Results: In the assessment of the surgical scar, the parents found a difference between the three types of cleft in terms of texture, shape, and width of the scar and presence of columella deviation. The professional assessors, however, only found the three types of cleft to be different in the presence of alar flattening. Conclusion: Differences truly exist in the outcome of surgical repair of the three types of unilateral cleft lip, especially in the aesthetics of the nose and in the width and shape of the residual lip scar. Thus, it is important to consider this in the assessment of UCL repair because putting the subtypes together might have a negative impact on the assessment

From Kyoto to Paris:An Analysis of the Politics of Multilateralism on Climate Change

The Earth Summit of 1992 held in Rio de Janeiro awakened the consciousness of the world to the danger of climate change. The establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change provided the platform for parties to negotiate on ways of moving forward. The global acknowledgement of the weightiness of the climate change and the future of the planet galvanized international agreements to this regard. Consequently, a landmark agreement was brokered in 1992 at Kyoto, Japan and 2015 in Paris, France. However, the strong issues of national interest tend to bedevil the implementation that would take the world forward on climate change. The chapter therefore examined multilateralism from the platform of climate change conferences and analyzed the political undertone behind disappointing outcomes even when most of the negotiators realized that the only way to salvage the impending doom is a multilateral binding agreement when nation-state can subsume their narrow interest

Effect of Computerized Maintenance Management System on a Cement Production Plant

This study evaluated effect of Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) on a cement production plant. The materials used included a Computer and Networking system and maintenance software. Preliminary study of plant assets was carried out to identify critical plant assets and key performance indicators such as Plant Reliability Factor (RF), Number of Stoppage for Incidents (NSI) and Production Losses (PL) in 2013. The CMMS software implementation in 2015 used the data obtained. The result obtained from this implementation showed that the RF (%) for Limestone Crusher (LC), Cement Mill (CM) and Kiln were 46, 76, 86; 51, 79, 88; 59, 88, 92 in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. The corresponding NSI for the three plants were 824, 472, 82; 788, 462, 56; 431, 420, 46 in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. The Production Losses for the whole plant were $22.54m,$21.587m and $19.365m in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively

Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Nigerian Indigenous Chicken Populations Inferred from Microsatellite Markers

Knowledge of genetic diversity is a prerequisite for better utilization of any genetic resource. However, such information is insufficient for Nigerian indigenous chicken (NIC). Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of NIC was extracted from FTA® paper and amplified with predefined microsatellite primer sets. A total of 180 chickens: northeast (NE; n=44), north[1]west (NW; n=25), north-central (NC; n=42) and southwest (SW; n=69) were genotyped along with 15 microsatellite markers to assess genetic diversity, demographic and population stratification. All microsatellites typed were found to be polymorphic (mean PIC = 0.53), and a total of 44 distinct alleles were detected. For all the loci, average inbreeding values (FIS) were ranged from -0.01 (NW chickens) to 0.17 (SW chickens), with an average value of 0.12, thus suggesting heterozygote excess. Most of the microsatellites deviated from Hardy[1]Weinberg equilibrium. SW and NC chickens related more closely having a genetic distance value of 0.02. The cluster analyses using STRUCTURE program indicated there were three primary populations, which provided evidence of extensive sharing of genetic variability, revealing varying levels of admixture among the studied population. The AMOVA analysis result indicated the proportion of genetic variation due to differences among populations and within populations was 5.46% and 96.56% respectively. Our results revealed multiple waves of introduction of diverse gene pools, and high panmixia has created and maintained a unique set of Gallus biodiversity in Nigeri