ASSESSMENT OF LOW BONE MASS USING PERIPHERAL DUAL X-RAY ABSORPTIOMETRY (PDXA) IN DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS

  Objectives: The main aim of this study was to assess the low bone mass in younger adults using peripheral dual X-ray absorptiometry (pDXA) and also to find the co-relational aspect of Indian, Nepal-Bhutan, and Afghanistan men.Methods: In this study, 70 younger adults aged from 18 to 25 years were incorporated. In every adult, bone mineral density (BMD) of the left forearm (LF-BMD), right forearm (RF-BMD), left calcaneum (LC-BMD), and right calcaneum (RC-BMD) were measured by pDXA. The back-propagation neural network classifier is used in the classification of low bone mass and healthy controls, and the statistical tool was used to find the co-relational aspect of various BMD measurements.Results: The LC-BMD positively correlated (p<0.05) with subject's body weight and body mass index (BMI) r=0.40 in Indian men. The LC-BMD and RC-BMD were positively correlated (p<0.05 and p<0.01) with BMI (r=0.549 and r=0.63) in Nepal-Bhutan men. In Afghanistan men, LF-BMD and RF-BMD are positively correlated (p<0.05 and p<0.01) with BMI (r=0.49 and r=0.80). The accuracy of the classifier was found to be 94.3% and 97.1% with RF-BMD and RC-BMD in the total population.Conclusion: The result suggested that the forearm and calcaneum BMD measured by pDXA shows statistically high significant correlation with BMI, which can be used for screening purpose, and also it will be helpful in the evaluation of low bone mass in the developing countries

Online Education and its Effect on the workforce

The use of technology in education, commonly defined as electronic learning (e-learning), is commonplace in the curricula of the 21st century. The role of e-learning in professional development and workforce advancement, and more specifically, its impact on Louisiana`s workforce, was analyzed. Broader statewide efforts to address barriers and challenges that impact local adult learning opportunities are also examined. This paper also reviews the benefits of online education as it impacts on students, institutions, state and federal government, and the society in its entirety. Two models are proposed: the first addresses outreach programs to improve enrollment and retention of adult students; the second discusses methodologies to ensure the successful implementation of online programs to help those adult students to succeed

Comparative Study of Job Stress among Teaching Staff of Library and Information Science in Higher Institutions in Nigeria.

The research is on comparative study of job stress among teaching staff of library and information science in higher institutions in Nigeria. Concept of job stress has been of great debate among employers in different organizations and higher institutions since the last decades. Causal-comparative research design was adopted in the study and population comprised of lecturers in library and information science department in four higher institutions in Nigeria. From the research hypotheses and questionnaires used as research instrument showed that there is significant difference between level of job stress in Federal, State and Private Higher Institutions in Nigeria. Percentage count table and Chi- square statistics was used to analyzed the questionnaire and hypotheses. The findings showed that there is a very high job stress in the four institutions under stud. It was also found out that job stress has lots of negative effects on health and family of academic staff. It also found out that the  cause  of job stress among teachers in higher institutions include: too much courses allocation , fear of being laid off , overtime working hours , too much administrative duties(100%), too many number of students to supervise for  projects or thesis works and  frequent meetings(66.67%) as well as lack of information to work with. Therefore, the researchers made recommendations to the aforementioned negative effects and causes of excessive job stress among academic staff in higher institutions in Nigeria. Keywords: Job stress, workplace, education, higher institutions and library school staf

An improved IAR sorghum thresher

Nigeria is the one of the major sorghum producing countries in the world with annual yield over Six million tons, however, threshing and cleaning of sorghum have remain serious problems to farmers due to high drudgery involve in traditional method. This shows that a little mechanization exist in post- harvest operation of such crop and affect the production. To address such problems, IAR sorghum thresher was developed at the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) Samaru, Zaria. Complete randomize design was used as the experimental design with three replications. The effect of the independent variable on the dependent variables was determined using ANOVA. The results showed that the moisture content is highly significance on the threshing and cleaning efficiency while their interaction was not significance at the same probability level (0.05). It was also observed that moisture content, feed rate and speed are highly significance on the throughput capacity, mechanical grain damage and scatter losses. Similarly all their interaction between the factor show similar effect

Simulation of Skimming Flow over Moderate Stepped Spillways Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK PREDICTION OF PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF BIOFUEL PRODUCED FROM SWEET POTATOE (IPOMOEA BATATA)

Fossil fuel depletion and the harm it causes to the environment has led to the development of alternative fuels. In this research, biofuel (ethanol) was produced and characterized from sweat potatoes. Blends of premium motor spirit with 0% (E0), 2% (E2), 4% (E4), and 10% (E10) of the produced biofuel at various percentages were separately used to power a four-stroke, single-cylinder SI engine on an engine test bed, and data of the engine performance - brake power, brake torque, brake mean effective pressure (BMEP), and the exhaust gas temperature reported in each test. The results of the physicochemical analysis revealed that the physical state of the biofuel is colorless, the viscosity at 300C, density, calorific value, and pH level are 0.9834 mPa.s, 0.85 g/cm3,19 kJ/kg, and 1.82, respectively. It was observed that an increase in ethanol in the blend increases the performance of the engine, although the BMEP at E0 gave the highest value of 0.3 bar compared to other blends.  An artificial neural network (ANN) model for predicting engine performance characteristics was developed, trained, validated, and tested using the reported data. The result of the ANN model revealed that the Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm (LMTA) with 10 hidden layer neurons offers the best fit for the features for both training, validation, testing, and overall. With the R for training equal 1, validation equal to  0.99468, testing equal to 0.90103, and overall R equal to  0.93842 as compared to the rest in terms of the number of neurons and training algorithms.

Performance Indices and Physiological Changes in Pearl Guinea Fowls (Numida Meleagris) Supplemented with Molasses Through Drinking Water

. The study was aimed at evaluating the performance indices and physiologic changes in pearl Guinea fowls (Numida meleagris) supplemented with molasses through drinking water. A total of thirty-two (n=32) day-old pearl Guinea fowls raised to 12-week-old were used for the study. The fowls were randomly allocated to two groups (control and experimental) of 16 fowls each, with each having two replicates. Experimental fowls were given 5 mL molasses per litre of drinking water for 8 weeks, while control fowls were given only drinking water. Performance indices which include: feed consumption, water intake and percentage weight gain were measured. Rectal temperature was measured and blood samples were collected to evaluate the changes in haematological parameters, serum triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) concentrations. Results revealed that the molasses-treated fowls had significantly (P<0.05) higher percentage weight gain, blood total protein, packed cell volume and mean corpuscular volume compared to control. However, the feed consumptionwas significantly lower (P<0.05) in the molasses-treated fowls compared to control. In both groups, rectal temperature increased significantly (P<0.05) during the afternoon hours and was lower (P<0.05) in molasses-treated fowls than control during the evening hours. There was no significant difference in other haematological parameters, serum glucose, T4 and T3 betweengroups. In conclusion, molasses supplementation decreased feed consumption, improved body weight gain and enhanced nutritional status and erythropoiesis in Guinea fowls

Knowledge, attitude and practice of safety measures among cooking gas refill attendants in Zaria Metropolis, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Cooking gas refill attendants play important role in the use of gas in Zaria. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and safety measure practices among cooking gas refill attendants in Zaria metropolis, Kaduna State, Nigeria. A cross sectional study was conducted in January, 2019 among cooking gas refill attendants using structured interviewer-administered questionnaire and checklist. It was a whole-population study of 121 participants. The data was collected using Open Data Kit (ODK) software version 1.21.1 installed in an android device and analyzed using SPSS version 25.0. The results were summarized and presented in tables and charts; p value was set at &lt; 0.05 for statistical significance. Majority (79.6%) of the respondents were within the productive age group of 25 to 44 years with median age 36 years, married (57.9%) and more than half (52.1%) of the respondents had secondary education and all respondents were males. The overall scores for knowledge, attitudes and safety practices were 81.0%, 90.1% and 75.2% respectively but with various deficiencies. Those that attended training were 78.0%. Finding from the checklist showed that 5.8% of the inspected fire extinguishers were expired. The respondents’ knowledge, attitude and safety measures practices were associated with level of education, age and ethnicity. Majority of the gas refill attendants had good knowledge, attitude and safety measure practice, however, with some deficiencies. There is need for training and supervision to ensure use of personal protective equipment and replacement of the expired fire extinguishers