Morphology and Properties of Zn-Al-TiO2 Composite on Mild Steel

The influence of TiO2 composite and dispersed pure Al particle on zinc alloy electrodeposited on mild steel was studied from chloride bath solution.Microstructural and mechanical properties of the alloy were investigated. The structure, surface morphology, and surface topography of the deposited alloys were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM).In addition, hardness of the coated alloys was measured. It was found that the obtained Zn-Al-TiO2 alloyexhibited more preferred surface morphology and mechanical strength compared tothe substrate. The result shows the existence of interaction between TiO2 compounds and zinc alloy particulate. It also exhibited well bright dominate zinc coating on steel surface

Chromosome studies in a small African barb species Enteromius cf. punctitaeniatus from Opa Reservoir, Ile-Ife, Southwestern, Nigeria

Enteromius cf. punctitaeniatus is a Cyprinid fish obtained from the Opa Reservoir, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Using the conventional Giemsa staining procedure, we provided the first cytogenetic information of E. cf. punctitaeniatus. Gill cells were used to make mitotic chromosome preparations. The diploid number (2n) of 50 chromosomes was identified in E. cf. punctitaeniatus and consistent with the diploid chromosome number recorded for small African barb species. Also, the number of chromosomal arms (NF) was 80 and within the range known for small African barb species. The karyotypic formula was 18m + 2sm + 2st + 28T. The longest and shortest chromosomes in the diploid set are 0.65 m and 0.24 m long, respectively. There was no karyological evidence of sex chromosomal dimorphism discovered in this study

Chromosomal studies of the African dotted catfish Parauchenoglanis monkei (Keilhack 1910)

The chromosomal data within the genus Parauchenoglanis is scarce. The two main species of the genus identified in Nigeria are P. buttikoferi and P. monkei. The chromosome of P. monkei was assessed in this study to provide information on the diploid number and karyotype. Samples (n=40) were collected in Opa River, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The chromosomes of the specimen were extracted using the Giemsa staining technique. The mitotic chromosome spread has a diploid chromosome number of 2n=50. The autosomal fundamental number was 55, while the karyotype formula was 2n=2M+ 8m+40T. The diploid chromosome number of 50 obtained for P. monkei is within the range for catfishes

Electrochemical and Mechanical Properties of Mild Steel Electro-plated with Zn-Al.

Surface enhancement of engineering materials is necessary for preventing service failure and corrosion attack in the industries. Deposition was performed to obtain a better surface adherent coating using electroplating technique. Zn-Al film was developed with zinc and aluminum powder particles dissolved in nitric acid and sodium hydroxide respectively, to form solutions containing Zn2+ and Al3+ ions. Anomalous co-deposition on mild steel resulted into surface modification attributed to the complex alloys that was developed. The effect of deposition potential was systematically studied using Focused-ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM), Atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR). Thick, adherent, smooth and uniform Zn-Al coating was deposited with relatively high deposition rate of 1.0 V. Experimental results indicated that the introduction of Al into the coating does significantly alter the chemical and mechanical properties of the mild steel. The microhardness value was increased by 92%; wear rate was decreased by 90% and a significant increase in the corrosion resistance was achieved based on the formation of stable deposited particles of Zn-Al

Comparative Studies of Microstructural, Tribological and Corrosion Properties of Plated Zn and Zn-alloy Coatings

Difficulties in choosing appropriate material(s) for a particular application and the control of environmental menaces cannot be over emphasized. Films of Zn and Zn–Al were electrodeposited on mild steel substrates using Zn and Zn–Al alloy plating solutions respectively. Focus ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) images and Atomic force microscope (AFM) were used to study the surface morphology, the topography and the surface adherent properties of the coatings. The elemental composition and the phases evolved in composite coatings were measured by means of X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The cyclic voltammetry techniques were used to explain deposition process. The microhardness measurements and the electrochemical and wear behaviours of the deposits were investigated. Experimental results showed that Zn-Al coatings had homogeneous distribution of the fine particles deposited. These coatings had higher corrosion and wear resistances over the Zn deposited coatings as well as the substrate

Impact of Pavement Roughness on Traffic Safety under Heterogeneous Traffic Conditions

H ighway safety is a major priority for public use and for transportation agencies. Pavement roughness indirectly influence drivers' concentration, vehicle operation, and road traffic accidents, and it directly affect ride quality. This study focuses on analyzing the influence of pavement roughness on traffic safety using traffic, pavement and accident data on dual and single carriageway operated under heterogeneous traffic conditions in South-west, Nigeria. Traffic crash data between 2012 and 2015 was obtained from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and International Roughness Index (IRI) data from the Pavement Evaluation Unit of the Federal Ministry of Works, Kaduna. Crash road segments represented 63 percent of the total length of roads. IRI values for crash and non-crash segments was a close difference of 0.3,This indicates that roughness is not the only factors affecting occurrence of traffic crashes but a combination with other factors such as human error, geometric characteristics and vehicle conditions. Crash severity was categorized into Fatal, serious and minor injury crashes. In all cases, the total crash rate increases with increase in IRI value up to a critical IRI value of 4.4 and 6.15 for Sagamu-Ore road and Ilesha-Akure-Owo road respectively, wherein the crash rate dropped. The conclusion is key in improving safety concerns, if transportation agencies keep their road network below these critical pavement conditions, the crash rate would largely decrease. The study concluded that ride quality does not directly affect traffic crash rate. Keywords: Pavement conditions, traffic safety, International Roughness Index, crash rate, carriageway

Effects of supplemental Vitamins E and C on growth performance and physiological responses of broiler chicken under environmental heat stress

Growth and physiological responses of broiler chicken fed supplemental Vitamins E and C in feeds under heat stress was evaluated. One hundred and twenty Arbor acre broiler chickens were used for the experiment. At day-old, the birds were acclimatized for 7 days, after which the birds were randomly allotted into 4 treatment groups which was replicated three times with 10 birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design. Four experimental diets were formulated in which the first treatment (T1) served as the control without vitamin, second treatment (T2) had 100mg of vitamin C per kg of feed, third treatment (T3) had 200mg of vitamin E per kg of feed, and fourth treatment (T4) had combination of 100mg vitamins C and 200mg Vitamin E per kg of feed. Data were collected on feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, environmental temperature, relative humidity, rectal temperature, pulse rate and respiratory rates of the chicken. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and Analysis of Variance using SAS (9.13). There were no significant effects on growth performance parameters monitored. Physiological indices showed mean values of 40.08 ± 5.85 0C, 67.41 ± 7.22 beats/min and 60.34 ± 5.84 breathes/min for rectal temperature, pulse rate and respiratory rate of the broiler chicken, respectively. There were low and positive correlations between rectal temperature and pulse rate of the chickens (r = 0.23); rectal temperature and respiratory rate (r = 0.15); pulse rate and respiratory rate (r = 0.32). There were significant (p<0.05) effects of Vitamins C and E on rectal temperature, respiratory rate and pulse rate of the chickens. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that Vitamin C supplement was most effective than Vitamin E and their combination in suppressing thermo-physiological responses of the broiler chicken. Keywords: Humidity, response, temperature, physiology, supplemen

INHIBITIVE ACTION AND SYNERGISTIC PERFORMANCE OF 2-AMINOETHANOL AND N,N-DIETHYLETHANAMINE ON COPPER IN HYDROCHLORIC ACID SOLUTION

The corrosion inhibition action of copper alloy in 1 M HCl solution in the presence of 2-aminoethanol (A) and N,N-diethylethanamine (D) at 298 oK was investigated using gravimetric and linear polarization method. Surface studies of the copper alloy sample were observed by the help of high resolution scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS). The evaluations were taken after 48 h interval for 288 h while the concentration of the inhibitor was varied from 5 to 10% w/v. The result of the examination shows that 2-aminoethanol (A) and N,N-diethylethanamine (D) has a good corrosion inhibition effect for copper alloy in 1 M HCl solutions and its efficiency attains above 96% at 10% w/v concentration. The linear polarization result affirmed that 2-aminoethanol (A) and N,N-diethylethanamine (D) acts as a mixed type corrosion inhibitor. Their adsorption on copper alloy has been found to obey Langmuir adsorption of inhibitor applied. The outcomes from all approaches are in good agreement with each other

The roles of biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation on selected soil biological properties and tomato performance

Field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of biochar application and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inoculation on selected soil biological characteristics, shoot P and fruit yield of two tomato genotypes. Result indicated that mycorrhizal inoculation significantly (p< 0.05) increased shoot P (0.72 g P kg-1) and number of AM spores (47.90 spores / 25 g soil) compared to non-mycorrhizal plants, but no significant difference was observed in tomato fruit yield, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN). Application of 20 t ha-1 of biochar significantly (p< 0.05) increased tomato fruit yields and number of AM spores when compared with the control. However, 10 and 15 t ha-1 of biochar rates gave comparable performance as 20 t ha-1 of biochar in most cases. No significant differences were observed in shoot P, MBC and MBN among biochar rates. Thus, AM inoculation enhanced P nutrition while biochar improved AM spores abundance as well as tomato fruit yields. The 20 t ha-1 of biochar could be used to improve AM spores abundance as well as tomato fruit yields.Keywords: Biochar; AM Fungi; Biological Properties; Tomato Performanc