AN EXAMINATION OF TECHNICAL, ECONOMIC AND ALLOCATIVE EFFICIENCY OF SMALL FARMS: THE CASE STUDY OF CASSAVA FARMERS IN OSUN STATE OF NIGERIA

This study examined empirically production effi ciency of cassava farms in Osun state of Nigeria using farm level data. The stochastic frontier production and cost function model was used to predict the farm level technical and economic effi ciencies respectively. The predicted technical effi ciency and economic effi ciency are the basis for estimating allocative effi ciency of the farms. Estimated results however, show that cassava farms in the study area exhibit decreasing positive return-to-scale giving the value of return to scale (RTS) of 0.840 obtained from the analysis, meaning that cassava farmers were effi cient in allocating their resources. Additionally, the analysis reveal that predicted effi ciency measure disaggregated into technical (TE), economic (EE) and allocative effi ciency (AE) with a view of examining not only TE but EE and AE when measuring productivity shows that mean TE, EE and AE of 0.903,0.89 and 0.807 were obtained from the analysis respectively meaning that TE appears to be more signifi cant than AE as a source of gain in EE. The policy implication of these fi ndings point to the fact that cassava farms in the study area were effi cient in allocating their resources considering their scope of operation and the limited resources

Adaptation of plastic waste to energy development in Lagos: An overview assessment

In view of the financial challenges experienced currently by government at all level in Nigeria occasioned by dwindling oil and gas revenue, this paper evaluates the possibility of adapting plastic waste to energy development for sustainable growth. Volume of wastes for the month of January, July and September, 2014 were reported to be 340,016.62m3, 302699.59m3 and 298791.81m3 respectively as contained in a report released by LAWMA. These specific months were primarily used as a case study to portray the fact that all measures put in place by government may not after all give required results. Although governments is making spirited efforts to reduce waste volume to considerable size, there appear to be unsurmountable obstacles ahead. These published waste volume results show clearly that wastes generated in Lagos is on the high side and concerted efforts need to be sustained in other to effectively contain these wastes. At a time, government is finding it difficult to generate adequate power supply to residence, the authors therefore recommend that alternative source of energy could be explored from these wastes which invariable may boost the economic fortunes of the people. The authors equally discussed some of the energy recovery process that may aid the reduction of waste volume in Lagos state. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v35i1.1

Accumulation of heavy metal pollutants in soil and cassava leaf and their effects on soil microbial population on roadsides in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Acute toxicity of heavy metals is a rare phenomenon in nature but the intake of sub-­‐lethal doses over an extended period is of great concern. This research investigated the heavy metal concentrations in soil and cassava leaf and assessed the effects of the metals on microbial populations along Ogbomoso-­‐Oyo, high traffic density (HTD) (A) and Ogbomoso-­‐Ife Odan, low traffic density (LTD) (B) roads. The results show that the metals were statistically higher in concentration at A (Pb= 0.53, Cd= 0.57. Cr =0.19, and Zn= 4.67 mg/kg) than B (Pb= 0.36, Cd= 0.40, Cr= 0.12, and Zn= 2.70 mg/kg) road. The mean metal content of cassava leaf indicated that all the metals were higher in the leaf at high traffic density than at low traffic density road. Also, at A 20-­‐30 m recorded lowest heavy metal concentration in the leaf (except Zn = 3.87±0.35 mg/kg) than the distances closer to the road. The same trend was observed at B except that Zn was highest (2.90±0.20 mg/kg) at 10-­‐20 m than 0-­‐10 m and 20-­‐30 m from the road edge. The total microbial count was significantly higher at low traffic density (17.23 Cfug1(x105)) than high traffic density (11.58 Cfug1(x105)). Total microbial count and Total fungi count were found to be lowest at 20-­‐30 m away from the road compared with 0-­‐10 and 10-­‐20 m. The results of this research show that crop cultivation along the roads within 30 m from the roads constitutes a potential source of chronic heavy metal toxicity to the general populace who feed on the crops

Effect of genotypes on soyabean seed quality development under West African Rainfed conditions

Effect of genotypes on soyabean seed quality development was monitored under rainfed conditions at Abeokuta between July and November, 1997. A consistent increase in rate of normal germination and seedling emergence occurred among early harvests. Greatest germination rate was detected in seeds harvested around physiological (functional) and harvest (full) maturity stages. Seedling emergence was significantly influenced by seed harvest date in all soyabean entries. Germination and emergence increased as soyaben seed development progressed and was greatest for seeds harvested between R7 and R8 in all soyabean cultivars. Enforced desiccation to 10% moisture content promoted germination of seeds harvested around physiological maturity stages. The onset of desiccation tolerance fell between physiological and harvest maturity stages in all the six soyabean cultivars. The rapid decline in seedling emergence of artifically dried seeds at 50d after mtff as against 60d after mtff for normal laboratory gemination indicated that seedlots of initial good germination may not necessarily produce high seedling emergence under good seeding condition due to differences in genotypes. Association of seed characters such as seed size, seed weight, germinability and emergence ability is essential in soyabean breeding to facilitate selection of genotypes with good seed quality, thereby reducing elaborate storage and screening methods

Simulation Model for a Frequency-Selective Land Mobile Satellite Communication Channel

This paper investigates a three-state simulation model for a frequency-selective land mobile satellite communication (LMSC) channel. Aside from ionospheric effects, the propagation channels for LMSC systems are also characterized by wideband effects due to multipath fading which makes the channels time-variant and exhibit frequency-selective distortion. Hence, an adequate knowledge and modelling of the propagation channel is necessary for the design and performance evaluation of the LMSC systems. A three-state simulation model for a frequency-selective LMSC channel, which is a combination of Rayleigh, Rician and Loo fading processes, is developed. The propagation characteristics of the proposed LMSC channel model are presented, and comparisons are made with the Rayleigh, Rician and Loo fading channels using bit error rate (BER) as the figure of merit. The simulation results show that the degree of fading experienced by the LMSC link depends on the length of time the mobile terminal is in a particular state or location, depending on the assumed probability of occurrence of each fading process; and it is observed from the BER results that the propagation impairment of the LMSC fading channel is relatively lower than that of Rayleigh and Loo fading channels but higher than the Rician fading channel. Keywords: mobile, multipath fading, propagation channel, satellite communication, wideband.

KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY IN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS AND REGRESSION MODELS

In this paper, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Regression Analysis models were considered to determine which ofthem performs better. Prediction was done using one hidden layer and three processing elements in the ANN model.Furthermore, prediction was done using regression analysis. The parameters of regression model were estimated using LeastSquare method. To determine the better prediction, mean square errors (MSE) attached to ANN and regression models wereused. Seven real series were fitted and predicted with in both models. It was found out that the mean square error attached to ANNmodel was smaller than regression model which made ANN a better model in prediction.Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, Regression, Least Square, Processing Element, Hidden Layer, Mean Square Error.

Factors Influencing Aged Preferences for Healthcare Services in Selected Rural Communities of Ayedaade Local Government Area, Osun State

Over the years, there has been a growing recognition of the challenges of aged healthcare and care preferences especially the rural aged and the need for it to be addressed. Hence, this study examined factors influencing aged preferences for healthcare services in three rural communities of Ayedaade Local Government Area of Osun State by adopting combinations of methods. A total of 127 structured questionnaires were administered to the elderly (60 years and older) in the designated localities. In addition to this, nine people were interviewed in the three communities studied. It was revealed that health personnel such as doctors, nurses, among others were rarely available and those available were not responsive at the healthcare facilities. Also, the healthcare facilities had limited number of rooms and the available roomsand beds were in poor conditions. The study further revealed traditional care as the aged most preferred healthcare in the three communities and factors such as distance to the health, long waiting time and literacy level were found to be influencing their preferences. The study suggested the need to put into consideration aged preferences in planning choices connected to health care services especially those in the rural areas. Also, there is the need for health care services provided to be monitored appropriately by the relevant government agencies.&nbsp

Performance of RS and BCH Codes over Correlated Rayleigh Fading Channel using QAM Modulation Technique

The quest for a reliable reception of the replica of a transmitted signal over wireless medium has become very important in the transmission and reception of information. In order to mitigate the effect of the degradation of the transmitted signal, error correction techniques are employed to reliably recover the erroneous bits inherent especially when the channel is in deep fading. In this paper, the performance of Reed Solomon (RS) and Bose-Chaudhuri-Hochquenghem (BCH) codes over correlated Rayleigh fading is presented. This work also investigated the effect of error correction code in the variation of the modulation order of the QAM. The simulation was carried out by encoding randomly generated data using both RS and BCH codes and then modulated by varying the modulation order of the quadrature amplitude modulation before transmitted over a correlated Rayleigh distributed channel. At the receiver, the received signal was demodulated and decoded. The bits in error received were detected and corrected to retrieve back the original transmitted signal. The system was evaluated in bit error rate and the result showed that BCH code performs better for higher modulation order. Keywords: Correlated channel, Rayleigh fading, M-QAM, RS code, BCH code