Effect of Soaking Water Temperature and Time on some Rehydration Characteristics and Nutrient Loss in Dried Bell Pepper

Sun-dried bell pepper was rehydrated at soaking water temperatures of 31°, 37°, 55°, 72° and 90°C, respectively. As the soaking water temperature increased from 31 to 72°C, rehydration ratio and coefficient of rehydration increased from 4.26 to 5.93 and 64.56 to 93.49 respectively while a further increase in soaking temperature to 900C, resulted in a decrease from 5.93 to 4.57 and from 93.49 to 75.77 respectively for the two parameters. At higher soaking water temperatures, larger amounts of vitamin C leached into the soaking water. However for Ca and Fe larger amounts were leached into the soaking water at lower soaking temperatures.

E-COMMERCE ADOPTION AND SMALL MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce can be regarded as the utilization of electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks to aid the sharing of business information among trading partners, coordination and implementation of business transactions. Existing studies in Nigeria concentrated on factors that limit Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in adopting e-commerce technology and most of these studies were examined from consumers perspectives, however, little or no study have examined the impact of e-commerce adoption on the performances of SMEs. This paper employed the use of a quantitative research approach to analyse the behavior, experience, perspective of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises operators towards electronic commerce adoption in Nigeria. Based on the quantitative approach imbibed in this study, questionnaire was used to capture data that examined the objectives of the paper. The questionnaire was distributed both manually and electronically to total sample of over 250 SMEs. Data collected were analysed using descriptive analysis. The study showed that e-commerce has potentials to improve the performance of SMEs operators if factors limiting the adoption of e-commerce like security issues, under developed infrastructures, poor delivery logistics and poor courier systems, infrastructure facilities, incompatibility of business with e-commerce etc. The paper recommended improved infrastructural facilities and better strategies that will improve consumers and business technological knowledge and ensure favourable environment for e-commerce adoption. JEL: O33, M113, M31  Article visualizations

Capital Investment Decisions on Entrepreneurial Agricultural Projects in Kwara State

The purpose of this study was to assess the adequacy of the capital investment decisions of Youth Integrated Agricultural Project in Kwara State. The project has two parts: Youth Integrated Farm Training Centre and Farm Settlements. The Youth Integrated Farm Training Centre has produced 650 farmer-graduates, who are now working in the three locations where Farm Settlements are. The sixth batch consisting of 66 farmer-graduates provided the population of the study. From this population a purposive sample of 46 potential respondents was selected. These people filled a researcher-developed questionnaire. Thirty six correctly filled copies of the questionnaire were collected from the respondents. The responses of the thirty six framer-graduates were analyzed based on four research questions derived from the four objectives of the study. The major findings from this analysis were: (i) The Kwara State Government has invested a total of N65,408,129 on the Youth Integrated Agricultural Project in the last ten years; (ii) Seventy two percent of the  respondents disagreed with the statements that the allowance paid to the  trainees was sufficient. Moreover, ninety two percent of them disagreed with the statement that the empowerment packaged given to them to work in the Farm Settlements was adequate. In the same vein, seventy six percent disagreed that infrastructure in the Farm settlements were adequate; (iii)        But the respondents agreed that infrastructure in the Farm Training Centre were adequate. In sum the State Government’s capital investment decisions were not enough to make the Youth Integrated Agricultural project an unqualified succes

Risk factors for Plasmodium falciparum hyperparasitaemia in malarious children

Background: Hyperparasitaemia is a feature of childhood severe malaria but there is little information on the risk factors for hyperparasitaemia in malarious children Methods: The risk factors associated with Plasmodium falciparum hyperparasitaemia, defined as asexual parasitaemia > 250,000/μl, at presentation were evaluated in 3338 malarious children enrolled prospectively between 2008 and 2010 in an endemic area of southwestern Nigeria. Results: At enrolment, 97 (3%) of 3338 malarious children had hyperparasitaemia. In a multiple regression model, 3 factors were found to be independent risk factors for the presence of hyperparasitaemia at enrolment: an age ≤ 11 years (Adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.85, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.23-6.61, P = 0.014), fever (AOR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.23-3.29, P = 0.005), and enrolment after year 2008 (AOR = 0.42, 95% CI 0.24-0.73, P = 0.002). Duration of illness ≤ 3 d was associated with increased risk of hyperparasitaemia. There was no association between season and hyperparasitaemia. Compared to non-hyperparasitaemia, hyperparasitaemia was associated with an increased risk of progression to cerebral malaria (P < 0.0001). The risk of progression in hyperparasitaemic children was higher in < 5-year olds (P = 0.02). Conclusion: Young age and presence of fever are independent risk factors for hyperparasitaemia which is associated with an increased risk of progression to cerebral malaria. The findings have implications for case and community management of childhood hyperparasitaemia and for malaria control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa where severe malaria is relatively common

Capital Investment Decisions on Entrepreneurial Agricultural Projects in Kwara State

The purpose of this study was to assess the adequacy of the capital investment decisions of Youth Integrated Agricultural Project in Kwara State. The project has two parts: Youth Integrated FarmTraining Centre and Farm Settlements. The Youth Integrated Farm Training Centre has produced 650farmer-graduates, who are now working in the three locations where Farm Settlements are. The sixthbatch consisting of 66 farmer-graduates provided the population of the study. From this population apurposive sample of 46 potential respondents was selected. These people filled a researcher-developedquestionnaire. Thirty six correctly filled copies of the questionnaire were collected from therespondents. The responses of the thirty six framer-graduates were analyzed based on four researchquestions derived from the four objectives of the study. The major findings from this analysis were: (i)The Kwara State Government has invested a total of N65, 408,129 on the Youth Integrated AgriculturalProject in the last ten years; (ii) Seventy two percent of the respondents disagreed with the statementsthat the allowance paid to the trainees was sufficient. Moreover, ninety two percent of them disagreedwith the statement that the empowerment packaged given to them to work in the Farm Settlements wasadequate. In the same vein, seventy six percent disagreed that infrastructure in the Farm settlementswere adequate; (iii) But the respondents agreed that infrastructure in the Farm Training Centre wereadequate. In sum the State Government&rsquo;s capital investment decisions were not enough to make theYouth Integrated Agricultural project an unqualified success

Modelling the Water Absorption Characteristics of Different Maize (Zea Mays L.) Types during Soaking

Water absorption characteristic of six different types of maize namely; dent corn (white and yellow), corn flour (white and yellow), popcorn and sweet corn during water soaking were studied at four different temperatures of 30, 40, 50 and 60 o C.The water absorption data fitted very well into both Peleg’s and Becker's models as to correspondingly determine the saturation moisture content (hydration equilibrium moisture content) and moisture diffusivity. The water absorption capacity and saturation moisture contents of each maize type increased as the water soaking temperature increased. The absorption kinetics followed the Fick's law of diffusion during the first hours of soaking. The determined diffusion coefficients values varied from 10.6 to 13.5 × 10-11 m2/s for sweet corn, 6.74 to 8.88 × 10-11 m2/s for white flour, 5.27 to 7.09 × 10-11 m2/s for yellow flour, 4.44 to 5.79× 10-11 m2/s for popcorn, 4.25 to 5.69 × 10-11 m2/s for dent white corn and 3.28 to 4.68 × 10-11 m2/s for dent yellow corn, respectively. An Arrhenius–type equation was used to relate the moisture diffusivity (diffusion coefficient) of dent corn (white and yellow), corn flour (white and yellow), popcorn and sweet corn to temperature, and the energy of activation for dent corn (white and yellow), corn flour (white and yellow), popcorn and sweet corn was estimated. The values determined were 8.17, 9.59, 7.83, 8.45, 6.61 and 8.01 kJ/mol for dent white corn, dent yellow corn, white corn flour, yellow corn flour, sweet corn and popcorn, respectively. Keywords: Maize varieties; Water absorption; Peleg’s model; Becker’s model; Arrhenius-type equatio

Formal Verification of Neural Network Controlled Autonomous Systems

In this paper, we consider the problem of formally verifying the safety of an autonomous robot equipped with a Neural Network (NN) controller that processes LiDAR images to produce control actions. Given a workspace that is characterized by a set of polytopic obstacles, our objective is to compute the set of safe initial conditions such that a robot trajectory starting from these initial conditions is guaranteed to avoid the obstacles. Our approach is to construct a finite state abstraction of the system and use standard reachability analysis over the finite state abstraction to compute the set of the safe initial states. The first technical problem in computing the finite state abstraction is to mathematically model the imaging function that maps the robot position to the LiDAR image. To that end, we introduce the notion of imaging-adapted sets as partitions of the workspace in which the imaging function is guaranteed to be affine. We develop a polynomial-time algorithm to partition the workspace into imaging-adapted sets along with computing the corresponding affine imaging functions. Given this workspace partitioning, a discrete-time linear dynamics of the robot, and a pre-trained NN controller with Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) nonlinearity, the second technical challenge is to analyze the behavior of the neural network. To that end, we utilize a Satisfiability Modulo Convex (SMC) encoding to enumerate all the possible segments of different ReLUs. SMC solvers then use a Boolean satisfiability solver and a convex programming solver and decompose the problem into smaller subproblems. To accelerate this process, we develop a pre-processing algorithm that could rapidly prune the space feasible ReLU segments. Finally, we demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms using numerical simulations with increasing complexity of the neural network controller

The Impact of Non-Residential Tertiary Institutions on Housing in Lagos: A Case Study of Lagos State University

Tertiary institutions generally are to provide quality education to students on a full time basis and this requires domiciling the students in an area accessible to the school. This study examines the impact of the absence of students’ hostel accommodation at the Lagos State University (LASU), due to the policy of the school as non-residential one. It examines the impact of the students accommodation on housing dynamics. The researchers carried out a 15% sampling size in which 173 questionnaires were administered. For the purpose of this research, the systematic random sampling was used so as to minimise bias and enhance the probability of selecting a representative sample.The primary data included direct personal observations, oral interviews and use of questionnaire.The secondary data sets were sourced from Institutions and Government Organizations relevant to the study.The results show that there is high demand for housing units within the area because of nearness to the University campus. There is high occupancy ratio of 6-7 people per room, high rise building is commonest and accommodate up to 140 people. It is concluded that the off campus accommodation by the students in the study area led to high demand for housing units with increament in rent, development of shanty, and illegal expansion of existing building

Barriers to Technological and non-Technological Innovation Activities in Malaysia

The complication of innovation activities has resulted to a massive increase in the adoption of external networks by Small, Medium to Large (SML) firms. The main objective of this study is to investigate the barriers to technological and non-technological innovation activities in SML firms both in the service and manufacturing sectors in Malaysia. It was reported that the gathering and distribution of data on innovation activities of a nation is unquantifiable to the prosperity and development of that nation. However, National Innovation Survey (NIS) in Malaysia dates back to the initial survey carried out in 1994 to gather data on innovation activities among SML firms in areas such as inventions, product developments, process creation, development and organizational change. The research philosophy adopted was multiple regression analysis executed on the collected interview data. Aside that, T-tests was also used to compare the means of variables between the randomly chosen domestic and foreign companies. In this research, the data was analyzed using Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS) version 18. Descriptive data analysis were used to explain the findings and were presented in the forms of tables and figures to describe the amount of innovation activities and the barriers to innovation activities in both the manufacturing and services sector