Conservation of plant genetic resources for sustainable development: a Nigerian perspective

The paper discusses issues on conservation of plant genetic recourses in relation to sustainable development within a Nigerian context. It considers general concepts of the loss of biodiversity and various approaches to their conservation at the global level, focusing on major and minor food crops, underutilised species, wild relatives of food crops and diversity within species, which gives rise to crop varieties. The paper further situates conservation concerns within an Africa framework, highlighting current challenges and efforts at conservation across Africa. It examines the range of ecological zones in Nigeria, and their component abundance of plant genetic resources, as well as the threats and pressures that face them due to rapidly expanding human populations and the resultant urbanisation. Highlighting the significance of wild relatives of crop plants to the Nigerian plant genetic resources, it concludes by reviewing ex situ and in situ conservation activities in Nigeria and the need to provide a robust, long-term and environmentally sound basis for the conservation of plant genetic resources for sustainable development

Assessment of safety of water craft in Lake Kainji, Nigeria

Assessment of Safety of Water Craft in Lake Kainji was conducted. A total of 50 questionnaires were administered to five randomly selected fishing areas along the lake. The items used in planning a lake trip shows that 30.23% and 28.68% used pole and paddles, while 19.38% and 16.25% used outboard engine and bamboo stick respectively. Majority of the respondents (32.92%) used Styrofoam as a life saving facility followed by bamboo (Kala, 24.37%), while empty tanks/jerry can accounted for 15.85%, life bouy contributed 13.41 % of the life saving appliances. The major causes of accidents onboard include wave action/wind, free stump, overloading and stones in the lake. Others include wild aquatic animals and unskilled operators. 59.68% seek for help by shouting, while 32.26% by raising paddle up and whistle when seeking for help in boat in distress. Out of the respondents, 70.21 % maintained boats by washing regularly, while 29.79 by washing occasionally. Finally, recommendations were made on how to improve efficient maneuverability for fishing and transport boats in Lake Kainji

Comparison of Antioxidant Capacity of Mango (Mangifera indica), Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) and Guava (Psidium guajava) Pulp Extracts at Different Maturation Stages

The total polyphenols, flavonoids, lipid-soluble antioxidants (CALT) and radical scavenging ability of the pulp extracts of mango (Mangifera indica), pawpaw (Asimina triloba) and guava (Psidium guajava) were investigated at different maturation stages for the purpose of determining the antioxidant capacity and the possibility of using these fruits at every maturation stage for the prevention of lipid oxidation. The pulps of these fruits were extracted at different maturation stages; unripe (UR), about to ripe (AR) and ripe (RP). The extracted pulps were freeze-dried and used for the analyses. The total phenolic content was determined by spectrophotometry (Folic Ciocalteu’s method) while 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) was used for the radical scavenging ability. The various antioxidant activities were compared with standard antioxidants such as gallic acid, rutin, α-tocophenol and ascorbic acid. The results showed that all the fruits investigated at different maturation stages possessed high quality antioxidants (those that can scavenge free radicals, function as metal chelators or donate hydrogen atoms). Radical scavenging ability of the fruit pulps was significantly affected (P < 0.05) by the different maturation stages. The unripe fruits (mango, pawpaw and guava) have the highest antioxidant properties suggesting that the antioxidant capacity of the fruits decreased as the fruits ripened. Keywords: Fruits, antioxidant capacity, maturation stage

Records of Diatoms and Physicochemical Parameters of Seasonal Ponds in Zaria- Northern Nigeria

A study of diatoms species composition, associated with four ponds in Zaria, Northern Nigeria was carried out between November 2005–January 2006 and June–August 2006. Twenty three taxa of diatoms were recorded in the study. Multivariate analysis showed that there were significant positive and negative relationships (P < 0.05) between some physicochemical parameters and diatom species in these ponds. CCA results showed that Synedra and Actinocyclus were closely associated with TDS, DO and water hardness; Nitzschia, Frustulia, Navicula and Coscinodiscus with NO-N and alkalinity; and Cyclotella, Tabellaria and Achnanthes with phosphate phosphorus 3 levels

Challenges of Utilizing Agricultural Information Sources by Small Scale Farmers in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

This paper discusses the challenges of utilizing agricultural sources by small-scale farmers in Nasarawa State of Central Nigeria.  Poorly trained extension workers contribute significantly to inadequacy of interpersonal communication strategy which lent cognizance to the use of mass media support in conducting information dissemination to farmers in the area.  It was discovered that mass media strategy in the absence of education, material resources, appropriate infrastructure and technical skills was unlikely to eradicate inaccessibility and ineffective information utilization among rural farming community.  There is need for extension managers to improve both the quality and quantity of their extension personnel through continued staff recruitment and training. Keywords: Inter-personal channels; mass media, dissemination of information, persuasion, Johari windows, process of communication

Preliminary Study on the Kinetics and Mechanism of the Oxidation of Naphthol Green B by Dichromate Ion in Aqueous Hydrochloric Acid Medium

- The kinetics of the oxidation of naphthol green B (NGB3-) by Cr2O7 2- has been studied in aqueous hydrochloric acid medium at an ionic strength, I = 0.50 mol dm-3 (NaCl), H+ =1.0 10-4 mol dm-3 (HCl) and T = 25 1C. The redox reaction displayed a stoichiometry of 1:1 and obeys the rate law: -dNGB3-/dt = k2NGB3-]Cr2O7 2- . The second order rate constant increases with increase in acid concentration and in the ionic strength of reaction medium. The rates of reaction displayed a positive salt effect. Addition of acrylonitrile to a partially reacted mixture in the presence of excess methanol did not lead to gel formation. Added cations and anions inhibited the naphthol green B - Cr2O7 2- reaction. Results of the Michaelis – Menten plot gave no evidence of intermediate complex formation during the course of the reaction. Based on the results obtained, the reaction is believed to proceed through the outersphere mechanistic pathway

Stability Analysis of a Mathematical Model for Onchocerciaisis Disease Dynamics

In this work, we propose a Deterministic Mathematical Model that Combines Infectious but not Blind and Infectious Blind Compartments for Onchocerciasis Transmission and Control. Onchocerciasis is usually the term used to describe river blindness, it is a disease that causes blindness, and the second largest cause of blindness after trachoma. It mainly affects the eyes and the skin. The equilibrium states of the model are obtained. The disease free equilibrium state is analysed for stability; the condition for its stability is obtained as an inequality constraint on the parameters. Results shows that although, a 60% treatment coverage rate of infected and infectious blind individuals only is better than 80% treatment coverage rate of infected but not blind individuals only. Also, all the four control strategies reduce the effective reproduction number below unity. A 40% coverage rate of fumigation and treatment of infectious but not blind is better than a 40%coverage rate of fumigation only. It further reveals that a 30% coverage rate of fumigation and treatment of infectious blind is better than 80%coverage rate of fumigation only or fumigation and treatment of infected but not blind only. We are able to show that disease free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium exists and are both locally and globally stable, and we computed the Rc of the model and showed that it is a parameter to test for stability, we also use the Jacobi stability technique to show that disease free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium are both locally and globally stable. The sensitivity analysis results shows that the most sensitive parameter is ρ while the least sensitive is  μvKeywords: Onchocerciasis, Mathematical model, Equilibrium state, Deterministic, Effective reproductive number, Stability

Tackling 3D ToF Artifacts Through Learning and the FLAT Dataset

Scene motion, multiple reflections, and sensor noise introduce artifacts in the depth reconstruction performed by time-of-flight cameras. We propose a two-stage, deep-learning approach to address all of these sources of artifacts simultaneously. We also introduce FLAT, a synthetic dataset of 2000 ToF measurements that capture all of these nonidealities, and allows to simulate different camera hardware. Using the Kinect 2 camera as a baseline, we show improved reconstruction errors over state-of-the-art methods, on both simulated and real data.Comment: ECCV 201