Ohmic Heating as Alternative Preservation Technique - A Review

The quest for new technologies in heating has drawn the attention of researchers to focus on energy saving and efficient techniques in heating food materials. Ohmic heating is one of these technologies because it heats both phases of food (liquid and solid) simultaneously by internal energy generated from electrical power. Using this method, the product undergoes minimum structural damage, retains its nutritional value, and is processed within a shorter time than with conventional heating methods. The technique also gives excellent processed quality products with lower energy cost. The heat energy generated during ohmic heating is transferred directly into the foods. The electrical conductivity of food products is linear with different temperature ranges and varies with heating time, food structure, and its constituents. As such, ohmic heating can be applied in different pre-processing and processing operations like drying, evaporation, dehydration, blanching, fermentation, extraction, sterilization, and pasteurization. This paper highlights ohmic heating as an emerging alternative novel heating technology to meet the demand for industrial and domestic food processing. Recommendations were made for further research to provide a more robust analysis of ohmic heating performance

Understanding adverse drug-related emergency department visits: development of a conceptual model through a systematic review

Background: The burden of adverse drug event (ADE)-related emergency department (ED)visits is increasing despite several preventive measures. The objective of this paper was todevelop and validate a conceptual model for a better understanding of ADE-related ED visitsand to guide the design and implementation of effective interventions.Methods: The development of the model involved a systematic review of the literatureusing PubMed and Embase databases. Studies reporting the risk factors associatedwith ADE-related ED visits were included. The methodological qualities of the includedstudies were assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The model wasmapped and validated using face and content validity by an expert panel. Deficiencies andtargeted interventions were identified, and steps for the design and implementation wererecommended.Results: The literature search generated 1361 articles, of which 38 were included in thereview; 41 risk factors associated with ADE-related ED visits were identified. All factors weremapped, and the model was validated through face and content validity. The model consistedof six concepts related to sociodemographic factors, clinical factors, ADE-related to ED visits,ADE while in the ED, outcomes, and consequences. Interventions could be targeted at thefactors identified in each concept to prevent ADE-related ED burden.Conclusion: A conceptual model to guide the successful design and implementation ofstrategies to prevent ADE-related ED visits and the occurrence of ADE at ED was developed.Clinicians should take these factors into consideration to prevent untoward events, especiallywhen treating high-risk patients

Investigations of nickel (II) removal from aqueous effluents using electric arc furnace slag

The tendency of electric arc furnace (EAF) slag to the adsorb nickel(II) from aqueous solution has been investigated through batch experiments. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) Analysis. Analysis was characterized in order to give inside to the properties of electric arc furnace slag (EAFS). The adsorption result revealed that the maximum up take by the EAFS was 160.92mg/g at an equilibrium time of 216hr. The pseudo-second order kinetic fitted well with the kinetic data, showing a high determination coefficient (R2) of over 0.996. The adsorption isotherms of nickel(II) on this adsorbent for both linear and non linear isotherms were well described by Langmuir model, this is because it shown a good fitting to the experimental data when compared to other isotherm models. Moreover the nickel(II) adsorption was found to be dependent on the adsorbent dosage, contact time and initial metal ion concentration. From the result it can be deduced that EAFS could be used to effectively adsorb nickel(II) from aqueous solution

Investigating the Effects of Pentanol and Biodiesel Blends on the Performance and Emission Characteristic of Compression Ignition Engine

Emissions from use of fossil fuels have consistently posed significant threat to the environment and wellbeing of man. This has prompted several studies aimed at finding solution to the emissions and their effects. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of adding pentanol and biodiesel from Moringa Oleifera seed to pure diesel content of 70% by volume. pentanol and biodiesel make up the remaining 30 percent by volume and were also varied, with pentanol percentage being increased from 2 percent to 8 percent so as to carefully monitored the effects of adding pentanol while the Moringa oleifera biodiesel made up the balance for the 30%. These blends were labelled according to the percentage composition of biodiesel and pentanol (B28P2, B26P4, B24P6, B24P6, and B22P8). The physicochemical properties of all blends such as viscosity, density, pour point, acid value and iodine value determined. From the result of the engine performance and emission tests, B24P6 blend has been noted to have the best engine performance parameters, haven shown the best engine brake power of 19.787 kW, and with the highest engine brake thermal efficiency of 19.78%.While in term of engine emission, B22P8 blend, have the lowest Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission, with a value of 82.4994 ppm which is about 3% lower than that of pure diesel, while B26P4 have the lowest carbon monoxide (CO) emission among all the samples tested with value of 6.1556 ppm which is about 58% lower than that of Petro diesel. However, blends appeared to have good brake mean effective pressure except for B22P8 which have the lowest BMEP, that’s about 2.8% lower than that of Petro diesels. Conclusively, the addition of Moringa oleifera biodiesel with pentanol improved the diesel quality, yielding good improvement in engine  performance and emission. Keywords: Diesel, biodiesel, pentanol, biofuel blends, Moringa oleifera seed, engine emission

Modification and Performance Evaluation of Active Solar Dryer for High Moisture Tomato Crop

In this study, two active solar cabinet dryers with capacity each to dry 10 kg of fresh vegetable were fabricated. The drying cabinet of the first dryer was fabricated using plywood and is refer to as unmodified dryer (UM) while the second dryer with white transparent glass and is refer to as modified dryer (MD). The performances of the two dryers in terms of total drying time, final moisture content obtained and preservation of nutritive values of the dried vegetable were investigated using tomato as sample. Ten kilogram of the sample were sliced to about 1cm and neatly arranged in the drying chamber for the drying process in a period of two days (8am-6pm). The results revealed that there was a reduction in total drying time of 2.5 hours, from 18 hours in UM to 15.5hours in MD which corresponds to reduction in moisture content (wet basis) from initial value of 92% to final moisture content of 12- 13.3%. The results further revealed that maximum drying rate of 6.9 kg/h was observed for UM dryer and 9.4 kg/h for MD both obtained within 8 hours of drying time.  The average temperature recorded in the MD was found more than the UM by about 13°C at 3.00pm. The efficiency of the MD in terms of reduction in total drying time was 13.89% higher than the UM. Proximate analysis result shows the composition of the dried tomato in the UM to be protein, 0.76%; lipids, 1.00%; vitamin E, 0.0083%; moisture content, 13.3%; ash, 0.60% and crude fiber, 1.80%. However, the composition of dried tomato in MD were protein, 0.69%; lipids, 0.90%; vitamin E, 0.0080%; moisture content, 12%; ash, 0.58% and crude fiber, 1.78%

Facilitating Community Development through Institutional Engagements: Reflections from 2016 Nigeria IACD Conference

This article reports on recent experiences of the conference/workshop management team and the host (Kwara State University - KWASU) of the fourth meeting of the Nigerian members and potential members of the International Association for Community Development (IACD) and the third National Community Development Consultative Conference/Workshop, held in Malete, Kwara State Nigeria from 11 to 14 October 2016. In reviewing the meeting and conference/workshop, the following sub-topics were used for organizing the contents of the article: community development and institutional engagements in Nigeria; IACD National Association in Nigeria; conference/workshop theme and overview; participations/state representatives and conference streams; keynote addresses; conference mobile learning workshop; conference/workshop assessment; and conclusion. The article also draws out implications of the conference/workshop for community development practice and professionalism in workplace settings within national contexts with mandatory institution supports. Finally, brief perspectives of the next Nigeria IACD conference to be held in Kano State are also provided. Keywords: Community Development, Institutional Engagements, Nigeria, IACD-Nigeria Conference 201

Crop Coefficient of Tomato under Deficit Irrigation and Mulch Practices at Kano River Irrigation Project, Nigeria

This work determined the effects of deficit irrigation and mulching practices on crop coefficient (Kc) of tomato in the Kano River Irrigation Project (KRIP) Kadawa, Kano, Nigeria. Experiments comprised of four levels of water application depths (40, 60, 80, and 100% of weekly reference evapotranspiration) and four levels of mulching (No-Mulch (NM), Rice-Straw-Mulch (RSM), Wood-Shaving-Mulch (WSM) and White-Polyethylene-Mulch (WPM)) was conducted to examine changes in Kc value. The mean Kc values (early, developmental, mid and late stages) of fully irrigated treatments were 0.70, 0.81, 1.07 and 0.78; 0.64, 0.76, 0.99 and 0.71; 0.60, 0.73, 0.94 and 0.69; and 0.53, 0.66, 0.86 and 0.62 for NM, RSM, WSM and WPM respectively while that of deficit irrigation ranged from 0.17 to 1.13 across the treatments, noting that the highest Kc was observed under NM treatments. Statistical analysis reveals that the effect of various levels of irrigation and mulching practices on Kc of tomato was highly significant at P＜0.05 level of significance with a high mean value of 1.13 obtained at I100 and NM respectively. It was concluded to encourage tomato farmers in KRIP to adopt the use of their rice straw for mulching cum deficit irrigation (20%) towards conserving irrigation water for sustainability. Also, results obtained from this study can be used as a guide to farmers in irrigating tomato crop and to engineers in the design of irrigation systems

Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Otitis Media amongst Children Aged 0–48 Months in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Acute Otitis media (AOM), an inflammation of the middle ear, is a common infection in children worldwide. It poses significant health challenges as it is the leading cause of hearing loss. This paper therefore investigate the prevalence and risk factors associated with Otitis media amongst 120 children aged 0–48 months attending hospital in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Ear swab specimens were collected using sterile swab sticks for bacterial isolation and identification. Information on sociodemographic and potential risk factors associated with otitis media was obtained from parents of the children via questionnaire. Streptococcus pneumoniae (20%) and Staphylococcus aureus (18.3%) were the major causative agents of AOM. The prevalence of AOM was found to be higher among male children (54.2%) than females (45.8%) in the age group 0-12 months. The highest rate of occurrence was found among children whose mothers had low socioeconomic status (61.7%), low educational level (45.8%), unemployed (71.7%), use bottle-feeding method (52.5%), procumbent position during feeding (81.7%), use cotton buds for ear cleaning (80%), poor feeding hygiene (56.7%) as well as children who have not taken pneumococcal vaccine (68.3%), and those with symptoms related to respiratory tract infections (78.3%). In conclusion, AOM is highly prevalent in Adamawa majorly affecting children less than one year. The main predisposing factors are bottle feeding, procumbent feeding position, poor hygiene, not vaccinating, use of cotton bud and upper respiratory tract infections. There is a need to inform mothers about the risk factors associated with AOM

How safe is recreational soccer playing as a health enhancing physical activity for apparently healthy adults in Maiduguri, Nigeria?

Soccer is a competitive sport, but its suitability as a recreational health enhancing physical activity has not been explored among adults in Nigeria. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the cardiovascular responses and changes in rating of perceived exertion (RPE) following recreational soccer game among amateur soccer players. Method: Sixtyseven apparently healthy young men conveniently selected from three non-professional football clubs in Maiduguri participated in the study. The participants were pre-screened for any cardiovascular ailment before engaging in recreational soccer playing for a total of 30 minutes. Participants' base line cardiovascular measurement and RPE were taken before and after the soccer session. Descriptive statistic of mean was used to summarize physical characteristic of the participants and one-way repeated measures Analysis of Variance were used to compare the cardiovascular parameters of the subjects at rest, after soccer and into recoveries. Results: The mean age and body mass index of the participants were 23±4.3 years and 19.5±2.6 kg/m respectively. The result shows significant heightened heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP) and RPE immediately following soccer playing by 67.4 ± 19.9 bpm, 19.6 ± 10.6 mmHg, 19.1 ± 14.9 mmHg and 9.2 ± 2.3, respectively. It also shows significantly (p<0.05) higher derived values including mean arterial pressure (MAP) and rate pressure product (RPP) after soccer playing compared to the baseline resting values. HR and RPP were still higher than the baseline values eight minutes into recovery, while SBP, DBP, MAP six minutes into recovery were comparable to the baseline value and were even lower than the baseline values eight minutes into recovery. Conclusion: This study found heightened cardiovascular response and RPE after 30 minutes of soccer playing among non-professional soccer players in Maiduguri. The finding suggests that soccer playing may be too strenuous physical activity to be recommended for meeting the physical activity requirements for health enhancing benefits among apparentl

A review on activated carbon: process, application and prospects

Activated carbon (AC) is used in different states of applications after its discovery as a strong and reliable adsorbent. An overview on AC is presented together with revisiting the sources of AC generation; methods used to generate AC comprising of pyrolysis activation; physical activation; chemical activation and steam pyrolysis. The important factors affecting the AC production, the possible applications of AC and their future prospects are also discussed. AC is applied in water, wastewater and leachate treatments in many countries, especially to polish the color, remove the odor and some heavy metals. It is cheap and available, and can be produced from agricultural waste materials, e.g. rice husk, palm oil shell and coconut shell. The AC’s fine and porous structure and an extremely large particle surface area (>1000 m2/g) results in making it possessed powerful adsorptive properties. Therefore, the adsorption process using AC is found to be a potentially viable method of removing pollutants from aqueous solutions