PROCESSING OF TRIGLYCERIDES TO DIESEL RANGE HYDROCARBON FUELS: EASILY PRACTICABLE SMALL SCALE APPROACH

Lipid fraction of biomass has been identified as carbon neutral substitution to fuels from fossil sources in the transportation sector. Although, the diesel engine, invented by Rudolph Diesel over a century ago first ran on peanut oil, the current combustion engines are designed to run on hydrocarbon fuels derived from petroleum. Therefore, a substitute for diesel fuel from renewable source will need to have identical or closely similar properties. The most popular of the existing technology for processing vegetable or animal oils is based on the conversion of the triglycerides constituents to fatty acids methyl esters (FAME). FAME technology does not produce diesel fuel with identical properties as petro-diesel. Other alternative processing routes are dilution of the vegetable oils, emulsification, pyrolysis and hydrotreating. These routes are discussed in this paper. Appropriate technologies for small scale production of diesel range hydrocarbon fuel from vegetable oil without the need for co-reactants such methanol or hydrogen as part of the feedstock is emphased. Also alternative catalyst systems in place of the expensive precious metal supported catalysts are suggested

Bleaching of Palm Oil by Activated Local Bentonite and Kaolin Clay from Afashio, Edo-Nigeria

The bleaching potential of Afashio kaolin (AFK), from Edo state in Nigeria, for removal of pigments from palm oil was investigated in comparison with that of local bentonite (BN). Both AFK and BN were activated by acid treatment. Batch experiments were conducted to study the effects of adsorbent dosage (2 – 8 %), contact time (0 – 1.5 hr) and temperature (60 – 90oC) on pigment adsorption. Four adsorption isotherms were used to model the equilibrium data for both adsorbents (AFK and BN), namely Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips and Redlich-Peterson models. The Sips model provides the best correlation and adsorption occurred in monolayer. Kinetic adsorption data were analyzed using the pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and intraparticle diffusion models. The regression results showed that the adsorption kinetics was more accurately represented by the pseudo-first order kinetic model. Intraparticle diffusion studies reveals that pore diffusion is the controlling mechanism. Thermodynamic parameters, ?G, ?H and ?S, were calculated as a function of both temperature and adsorbent dosage. The values of enthalpy change were positive and greater than 40 kJ/mol in all cases, indicating that the bleaching process is endothermic and chemisorption in nature. The results suggest that AFK could be employed as low-cost alternative for removal of pigments from vegetable oil though BN is better. Keywords: Afashio kaolin, bentonite, bleaching, equilibrium isotherms, kinetic models

A Primary Study for Checking the Occurrence of Plant Parasitic Nematodes with the Crop Banana at Agricultural Areas of Palakkad Taluk, India

The reviews on production of banana during the recent years were not a satisfying one with respect to fourth position of Kerala in area of cultivation in India. Among so many factors for this declination, plant parasitic nematodes also found as a major negative factor. Thus the present study tried to prove this predict and conducted a survey in the unexplored rhizosphere region of an important crop banana (Nendran) in Palakkad taluk of Kerala, India during the post monsoon season of 2017. A total of twenty seven samples each were collected from banana rhizosphere soil and roots and processed for this study. The analysis revealed that the most abundant nematode population was Radopholus spp. and most frequently occurred genus was Meloidogyne spp. in the studied banana fields. The major diversity showing area were Elappully panchayath for rhizosphere soil samples and Kannadi panchayath for root samples. Different plant parasitic nematodes such as Aphelenchus spp., Criconemoides spp., Dory laimoides spp., Helicotylenchus spp., Hoplolaimus spp., Meloidogyne sp p., Pratylenchus spp., Radopholus spp., Rotylenchulus spp., Tylenchoryn chus spp. and Tylenchus spp. were observed in both soil and root samples examined

PREDICTING STUDENTS«¤?? ENROLLMENT USING GENERALIZED FEED-FORWARD NEURAL NETWORK

An important obligation of educational planning is the projection of students«¤?? enrollment which forms the basis for many of the investment decisions. Enrollment projection provides information for decision making and budget planning hence, it is important to the development of higher education. As many factors have impacts on the enrollment number, and for the above reasons, students«¤?? population and enrollment number should be considered as a chaotic system. In this research, a Generalized Feed-Forward Neural Network (GFFNN) for students«¤?? enrollment prediction was proposed. The architecture of the proposed model was in-line with eight steps involved in developing a neural network model for predicting a chaotic system. The data used was obtained from Academic Planning and Quality Control Unit of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ogun State Nigeria. The results from the study showed that the mean absolute percent error of GFFNN has an average of 0.0101% unlike linear regression and autoregression models that were compared with it, with an average of 0.0570% and 0.0725% respectively. The proposed methodology is expected to assist the school management to adequately plan for the future needs of the students in the provision of facilities.ª¤

PREDICTING STUDENTS«¤?? GRADE SCORES USING TRAINING FUNCTIONS OF ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK

The observed poor quality of graduates of some Nigerian Universities in recent times has been traced to non-availability of adequate mechanism. This mechanism is expected to assist the policy maker project into the future performance of students, in order to discover at the early stage, students who have no tendency of doing well in school. This study focuses on the use of artificial neural network (ANN) model for predicting students«¤?? academic performance in a University System, based on the previous datasets. The domain used in the study consists of sixty (60) students in the Department of Computer and Information Science, Tai Solarin University of Education in Ogun State, who have completed four academic sessions from the university. The codes were written and executed using MATLAB format. The students«¤?? CGPA from first year through their third year were used as the inputs to train the ANN models constructed using nntool and the Final Grades (CGPA) served as a target output. The output predicted by the networks is expressed in-line with the current grading system of the case study. CGPA values simulated by the network are compared with the actual final CGPA to determine the efficacy of each of the three feed-forward neural networks used. Test data evaluations showed that the ANN model is able to predict correctly, the final grade of students with 91.7% accuracy.ª¤

Bioactive metabolites in improved cowpea seeds

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has developed some pest and disease resistant cowpeas. From these the seeds of 8 cowpea cultivars were extracted with ethanol, and partitioned into chloroform and water-soluble fractions, the water-soluble fraction was further extracted with ethyl acetate. Residues from ethanol, chloroform and ethyl acetate soluble fractions for each of the 8 cowpea cultivars were screened against brine shrimp larvae. The seed extracts of cowpea cultivars IT93K – 596 – 9 – 12, IT90K – 277 – 2 and IT93K – 452 – 1 were found to be most active, indicating that they contain cytotoxic compound(s).African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (6), pp. 513-516, 200

Recursive Algorithms for Computing the Cramer-Rao Bound

Computation of the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) on estimator variance requires the inverse or the pseudo-inverse Fisher information matrix (FIM). Direct matrix inversion can be computationally intractable when the number of unknown parameters is large. In this correspondence, we compare several iterative methods for approximating the CRB using matrix splitting and preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithms. For a large class of inverse problems, we show that nonmonotone Gauss-Seidel and preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithms require significantly fewer flops for convergence than monotone “bound preserving” algorithms.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/85866/1/Fessler94.pd

ANALYTICAL SOLUTION OF THE RELATIVISTIC KLEIN-GORDON WAVE EQUATION

In this study, the solution to Klein-Gordon equations with focus on analytical methods is discussed. The analytical methods used in this research are the Variational Iteration Method (VIM) developed by Ji-Huan He, Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM) by Adomian and New Iterative Method (NIM) developed by Daftardar Gejji and Jafari. The modified Adomian Decomposition method by Wazwaz was used to solve the linear inhomogeneous and nonlinear Klein-Gordon equations to accelerate the convergence of the solution and minimizes the size of calculation while still maintaining high accuracy of the analytical solution. All the problems considered yield the exact solutions with few iterations. The solutions obtained were compared with the exact solution and the solutions obtained by other existing methods. The solutions obtained by the three methods yield the same results and all the problems considered show that the Variational Iteration Method, Adomian Decomposition Method and New Iterative Method are very powerful and potent in solving Klein-Gordon equations and can be used to obtain closed form solutions of linear and nonlinear differential equations (ordinary and partial)

The Challenges and Panaceas to Power Distribution Losses in Nigeria

Energy losses in the distribution network and its subsystems have been issues of great concerns in Nigeria’s power sector. For decades, several studies have been conducted on the challenges facing the power sector in Nigeria with most focus directed on the distribution subsystems. The major challenge in the distribution system is the high energy losses which are detrimental to the techno-economic benefits of the power systems. However, details of the distribution system challenges and the probable solutions have not been efficiently presented. In this study, some of these challenges are presented and the potential solutions are proposed. The features of the Nigeria distribution network, the technical and non-technical sources of losses as well as the identified challenges are presented before discussing the potential solutions. The panaceas so provided were from the understanding of some published works and other related materials as well as the in-depth understanding of the authors. This article can serve as a guide for the utilities and stakeholders in the power sector for efficient management operations and improved customer service delivery

Phytochemical Screening and Antioxidant Activity of Balanites Aegyptiaca Root Bark Extracts: Influence of solvent

Communication in Physical Sciences 2020, 5(2):156-164 Author: A. Usman, Y. Mohammed, H. O. Muhammed, N. L. Usman and A. H. Zakari Received 24 April 2020/Accepted xx xx xxxx 2020 Balanites aegyptiaca (L) Del is a medicinal plant used in Africa’s folk medicines to treat wide range of diseases. Phytochemical screening of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca (L) Del root indicated the presence of flavonoids, saponins, tannins and phenols.The ethanolic extract of the plant root had in addition carbohydrate, cardiac glycoside and steroids while n-hexane extract indicated the presence of anthraquinone, carbohydrates, cardiac glycoside, terpenoids and resins. The extracts were also evaluated for their free radical scavenging potential, total phenolic and total flavonoid contents. The antioxidant activity was determined using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, the total phenolic content was evaluated using Folin-Ciocalteau assay, while the total flavonoid content was assessed by the aluminium chloride colorimetric assay. The results obtained revealed that the ethanolic extract exhibited higher total antioxidant capacity in the range of 55.23±0.4 to 81.04±0.9% while concentrations in the aqueous extract ranged from 20.15±0.2 to 35.11±0.2% compared to 80 % of standard ascorbic acids. Estimated total phenolic content in aqueous and ethanolic extracts were 179.48±1.99 and 260.07±2.31 mg/gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g respectively. However, the total flavonoid content for aquoues and ethanolic extracts were 69.17±0.32 and 95.52±0.41 mg/ quercetin equivalent (QE)/g respectively. Total phenol and flavonoid were absent in normal hexane extract. The results obtained from the study indicated that the choice of solvent can influence the components that can be extracted from Balanites aegyptiaca (L) Del root and that for optimum extracts to be obtained, the best solvent is ethanol