Archives-December 

Different parts of Moringa oleifera shoot are reportedly useful for nutrition, medicine, water purification and as raw material for the industry. It is however hypothesized that the growth and mineral composition of Moringa could be affected by the medium in which it is growing. Consequently, a factorial experiment involving three pre-determined soil depths of 0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm at four soil water levels: 100, 75, 50 and 25% Field Moisture Capacity (FMC ) was conducted in Ibadan, South western Nigeria, to investigate the effect of soil depth and water stress on the growth and mineral composition of Moringa shoot. The total N, C, P, K, Mg and Ca contained in the soil samples collected from the three soil depths were in the order of 0-15>15-30>30-45 cm. As a result, Moringa plants produced in the surface soil (0-15 cm) was superior in height; stem girth, number of leaves and dry matter yield irrespective of water- stress condition. Reduction in FMC from 100 to 50% did not significantly affect growth performance. Surface soil produced stems and leaves richer in mineral composition (Ca, Mg, K, Fe, Cu and Zn) than subsoil. Therefore, growing moringa on a fertile-soil is better for animal health.

Development of a suitable lightweight system in which a sensor is airborne for carrying out surveillance. The sensor should remain airborne for a minimum of 2 minutes at a minimum height of 30 meter and above to do imaging of a proportionate area below. Recognizable real time video information should be transmitted to the ground receiver point suitably located in the observation area. Sensor should be able to detect man-sized objects in above-mentioned conditions. Proposed solution should take up design of configuration and identification of suitable options for sensor, data link, ground observation & control points and other support system(s). System configuration details comprising of sensor, data link, observation, data processing mechanism and support system should form part of the design. There are many approaches for motion detection in a continuous video stream. All of them are based on comparing of the current video frame with one from the previous frames or with something that we'll call background. The camera IC will provide high level functionality for all applications. This camera IC is controlled by microcontroller which is connected to it. The camera automatically focuses the object up to 50 m and is controlled by microcontroller.

Cloud computing enables highly scalable services to be easily consumed over the Internet on an as-needed basis. A software agent offers a new computing paradigm in which a program, can suspend its execution on a host computer and can transfer to another agent enabled computer on network so that it could run there. Such mobile agents are used when there is limited capacity in computers. But at times, the systems could not be able to run even the mobile agents. This paper proposes an approach to execute mobile agents on any sort of systems even with limited capacity of Cloud. A platform that supports various mobile agents depending upon the capacity of the system will be developed. The mobile clients are differentiated into two types depending upon their capacity and the corresponding mobile agent is chosen for the traversal.

The volume calculation of MR Image segmented and estimate the affected intensity of Alzheimer’s disease is dealt with this paper. It is concerned with Voxel Based Morphometry to render the first part segmentation. The result gives an active region which further needs an estimation to justify the diagnosis. As in this case the image is in form of voxels. When properly processed, classified images can represent foundations for diagnostic purposes. A VBM - fuzzy approach was used to take advantage of Voxel Based Morphometry’s ability to fine segmentation based on voxel comparisons of GM, WM & CSF and membership degrees andfunctions of fuzzy logic, respectively. The method of VBM is done with SPM. The method is based on the spatial properties of the MR Brain image features and makes use of SPM multi-scaled representations of the image. A fuzzy classifier is created on basis of the previous segmented data. The method showed high quality classification for images of complex components in determining the intensity of Alzheimer’s and GUI is used as front end for the user comfort.

Performance evaluation in the public organisations helps achieving multiple objectives such as transparency of costs and outcomes, improved service quality, increased employee motivation and so on. On the other hand, its improper transposition of an instrument developed for operations management, which may cause serious distortions when applied to the public organisations, is unpleasant to some organisations. In this study, we investigated the factors that affect adoption and implementation of performance measures and rank them using TOPSIS technique. We found that internal interest groups in the adoption stage and external internal groups in the implementation stage rank first in terms of importance.

The ability to track the real-time location and movement of robots offers a range of useful applications in areas such as safety, security and the supply chain. Real-time Ultra Wide Band Location determination is a technology that uses Ultra-wideband (UWB) and aims at delivering high positional accuracy in harsh industrial environments that previously caused problems for traditional location systems due to electromagnetic interference. Ultra Wide Band systems can calculate the location of tags which are designed to be mounted on assets or worn by a person. They transmit UWB signals that are received by sensors which contain an array of antenna and ultra-wideband radio receivers. The data from these sensors combined with dedicated software uses algorithms to work out the angle of arrival (AOA) of the UWB signal from the tag which is then compared to the time difference of arrival (TDOA). This information is determined between pairs of sensors connected by timing cables. The combination of AOA and TDOA measurement technologies delivers a precise three dimensional location system that is powerful, reliable, and robust for harsh industrial environments. This research examines the use of ultra wide band technology in tracking items such as mobile robots.

Numbers of studies in animal models have shown changes in hemoglobin content after lead administration during gestation and lactation, still lead induced hematological changes are not well established. In the present study, hemoglobin content of normal and lead exposed pregnant and lactating Swiss mice were compared. Pregnant females were exposed to heavy metal lead orally on diet containing 4.5% lead nitrate and lead acetate trihydrate during gestation to 3^rd week of lactation. Hemoglobin content and blood cell counts were examined on 15^th day of gestation and on 1^st, 11^th and 21^st day after birth. The results indicated that in lead intoxicated pregnant females, hemoglobin content decreased. From the results of above study it can be concluded that high levels of lead exposure during gestation and lactation can severely damage heme synthesis.

Nine plantain samples from some communities in the Bibiani mining town and surrounding towns/villages, Abrofrem, Akwawuakrom, Beposo, Besie, Fahiakorbor, Kofikrom, Hwenampori and Old Town – all in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai District – have been analysed using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) for their levels of the essential elements, Ca, Cl, Cu, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Zn. The aim of the study was to determine the levels of the above essential elements in the plantain samples and also to establish whether the mining activities have had any impact on the levels measured. The concentrations of Ca, Cl, K, Mg and Na referred to as major nutrients measured were in the ranges; 495 – 1895 mg/kg for Ca, 1076 – 3019 mg/kg for Cl, 1800 – 17000 mg/kg for K, 946 – 1337 mg/kg for Mg, and 42.34 – 83.20 mg/kg for Na. The micro/trace elements measured in the samples were in the ranges, 2.55 – 25.44 mg/kg for Cu; 7.40 – 17.20 mg/kg for Mn and 8.25 – 67.96 mg/kg for Zn. The results supported the claim that plantain contains high levels of K and low levels of Na. However, with regard to the RDA/AI values of the various nutrient elements, it could be said that plantain is relatively richer in Mn, followed by Cu and Mg than K. This was due to the fact that relatively lower amount of plantain is required to meet the RDA/AI values of those elements than K. The levels of the nutrient elements measured in the plantain samples did not give any indication of impact of mining activities which could have resulted in loss of soil fertility since the results obtained in this work compared favourably with the results obtained in a similar study conducted by Danso et al (2006) in a non mining area. The only difference observed in the results obtained in this work from that of Danso et al (2006) was with the levels of Mg and Mn. The levels of Mg and Mn measured in this work were however, consistent with the geology of the area as well as their respective RDA/AI values.

The environment friendly natural fibers used in this study are taken from leaf stalk portion of palm tree. Portions of these fibers are alkali treated while the remaining kept raw. Both these fibers are sandwiched separately with glass fibers to form two set of plates by reinforcing into polyester resin matrix blend with coconut shell powder using hand lay-up method. Specimens are tested as per ASTM standards. The results reveal that alkali treatment improved fiber quality and a novel composite was developed to producing automobile parts.

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and genetic profile of the rotaviruses involved in gastroenteritis among children in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Two hundred and five stool samples were collected from children (1-5yrs) presenting diarrhea at the paediatrics Departments of five hospitals. The stool samples were screened, using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Sixteen stool samples were found positive, representing 7.8% prevalence. Children within 1-2years had 4.39% while those within 3-5years recorded 3.41%.During dry season, the prevalence was more (4.87%) compared to the rainy season (2.93%). Identification of the rotavirus strains using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) revealed genotypes such as G1, G2, G8, P4, P8, and P6. Hospital and community based studies should be encouraged in order to have a more clear picture about the prevalence and the strains of the virus in circulation in the studied area.