Influence of dietary supplementation with sunflower oil and quebracho tannins on growth performance and meat fatty acid profile of Awassi lambs

The inclusion of QT in the diet increased the content of the conjugated linoleic acid in the lamb meat above that achieved with SF supplementation only. Addition of the combination of QT and SF to the diet enhanced the content of conjugated linoleic acid (C18:2 c9t11) of the lamb meat. This could be due to the reduction in the bio-hydrogenation of unsaturated fatty acids in the diet. The results suggest that inclusion the combination of QT and SF in lamb diets improved the healthy fatty acids content in the meat without an adverse effect on animal performance.The influence of dietary supplementation with quebracho tannins (QT) or/and sunflower oil (SF) on growth performance and fatty acid profile in meat of Awassi lambs was studied. Seventy-two lambs were assigned randomly to nine diets (8 per group) in the experiment following a 32 factorial design with all possible combinations of two factors, SF and QT each at three levels i.e. 0 (control), 20 or 40 g/kg diet DM. A significant SF ×QT interaction was observed on the conjugated linoleic acid content of intramuscular fat (P =0.007), but not on average daily weight gain (P=0.11). Addition of QT at 40 g/ kg DM significantly increased average daily gain comparing to control diet

Ensuring Effective and Efficient Teaching and Learning Religious Studies in Nigerian Schools Using Photographic Series

The purpose of this study was to find out the extent to which the use of photographic series with sound in teaching religious studies could enhance the performance of students in selected junior secondary school in Remo Educational zone. It also investigated the extent to which talking photographic series could enhance the retention and the attitude of the students. Two hundred students in JSSIII were selected from five secondary schools through simple random sampling technique. They were also randomly divided into 2 groups, the experimental and control groups. The study adopted the pre-test, posttest group design. The instruments used were a series of photographs with sound prepared by the researcher and the students containing “churches and its relevance to the society”, Religious studies Achievement Test (RSAT) and Attitude towards Religious Studies Questionnaire (ATRSQ). These instruments were validated using construct validity, difficulty and discriminating index. The reliability coefficient for the RSAT was found to be 0.75. The results showed that the use of photographic series in instruction significantly improved the performance of students in the subject. Secondly if effectively used, it can improve the retentive ability of students and finally, photographic series do not seen to have any statistical effect on the attitude of students towards the subject.African Research Review Vol. 2 (2) 2008 pp. 69-8

Preparing the Staff of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife to Appreciate and Use Information and Communication Technology for Solving Work Place Problems and Managing Change

This paper examined the various efforts the management and administration of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife made to prepare and encourage its staff and students to appreciate and use ICT for solving work place problems and to manage change. It was also designed to investigate the extent to which accelerated computer/internet usage, job type; age and sex have affected the attitude of O.A.U Staff towards computer and Internet. The study adopted the survey research design. Samples of 600 staff were selected through stratified sampling techniques. The result obtained showed that 94% of the staff of OAU use computer. Also academic staff (49.2%) used computer and Internet more than any other categories of staff. Not only this, female staff (58%) used computer more than their male staff (42%). In addition age is a correlate of ICT usage. Staffs between ages 25 and 40 are usually more favorably disposed to using ICT than staff that is above 40 years. (X2c = 15.67). African Research Review Vol. 1 (3) 2007: pp. 175-19

In-situ upgrading of Napier grass pyrolysis vapour over microporous and hierarchical mesoporous zeolites

This study presents in-situ upgrading of pyrolysis vapour derived from Napier grass over microporous and mesoporous ZSM-5 catalysts. It evaluates effect of process variables such catalyst–biomass ratio and catalyst type in a vertical fixed bed pyrolysis system at 600 °C, 50 °C/min under 5 L/min nitrogen flow. Increasing catalyst–biomass ratio during the catalytic process with microporous structure reduced production of organic phase bio-oil by approximately 7.0 wt%. Using mesoporous catalyst promoted nearly 4.0 wt% higher organic yield relative to microporous catalyst, which translate to only about 3.0 wt% reduction in organic phase compared to the yield of organic phase from non-catalytic process. GC–MS analysis of bio-oil organic phase revealed maximum degree of deoxygenation of about 36.9% with microporous catalyst compared to the mesoporous catalysts, which had between 39 and 43%. Mesoporous catalysts promoted production olefins and alkanes, normal phenol, monoaromatic hydrocarbons while microporous catalyst favoured the production of alkenes and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. There was no significant increase in the production of normal phenols over microporous catalyst due to its inability to transform the methoxyphenols and methoxy aromatics. This study demonstrated that upgrading of Napier grass pyrolysis vapour over mesoporous ZSM-5 produced bio-oil with improved physicochemical properties

Growth performance, nutrient digestibility and health status of broilers fed varied levels of Xylopia Aethiopica phytoadditive.

Phytoadditives have gained potential role as one of the alternatives to antibiotics in animal nutrition since it has been confirmed to have no residual effect on the animal tissue and this study was therefore conducted to investigate the effect of inclusion levels of Xylopia aethiopica (Negro pepper) as a replacement of antibiotics on growth performance, blood profile, nutrient digestibility and organs response of boiler chickens. Two hundred and forty (240) day old chicks were randomly divided into five treatments of 48 birds each and housed in 4 replicates of 12 birds each. This experiment lasted for a period of 8 weeks and birds were placed on the same feed ad libitum except the inclusion of test ingredient in treatments 2-5. Diet without Xylopia aethiopica served as the control (T1). Diets in T2 to T5 were supplemented with 10g, 20g, 30, 40g of Xylopia aethiopica per kg feed. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design. All data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance using SPSS version 21 and significant means were separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test of the same software. The response of the broilers to dietary treatment were measured by feed intake, final weight, FCR, Cost/kg Weight gain, blood profile, organ responses and nutrient digestibility. There were significant differences (P<0.05) across the treatment in growth parameters except total feed intake and daily feed intake. The final live weight of broilers fed 10g of Xylopia aethiopica per kg feed (T2) was the highest (1858.50g/bird) while those fed 40g of Xylopia aethiopica per kg feed (T5) had the least (1411.33g/bird). This result suggested limit to the inclusion levels of the Xylopia aethiopica in the diet of broiler chickens. Addition of Negro pepper reduced the cost of per kg weight gain. Dietary treatment significantly (P<0.05) increased serum aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, globulin, cholesterol, but significantly reduced alkaline phosphatase. The nutrient digestibility of broiler chickens fed varied level of Xylopia aethiopica were significantly affected (P<0.05) in all parameters across the treatments and the broiler on treated groups had better nutrient digestibility. Relative organ weight of broiler chickens fed varied levels of Xylopia aethiopica were not significantly affected (P>0.05) across the treatments. It is recommended that supplementation of 10g of Negro pepper should be added to broiler diet for improved body weight gai

Response of Guinea Grass (\u3cem\u3ePanicum maximum\u3c/em\u3e Jacq) to Application of Cow Dung in South West Nigeria

The yield of forage species from the world\u27s grazing land is limited by poor soil and unproductive species (Jones & Wild, 1975; Cooke, 1982). The use of manure on pasture land not only represents a low cost disposal method but also a means of recycling nutrients for plant growth and counteracting the decreasing organic matter content in most agricultural soils. In agro-pastoral production systems, the interaction between crops and livestock is important. Manures are used mainly to complement inorganic fertiliser in the production of food crops. There is a dearth of information on the response of pasture grass to application of cow dung and so the response of two Panicum maximum ecotypes to cow dung was evaluate