volume 2 ~ issue 9

Oil-in-water emulsions were produced from the oil extracts as well as with olive oil. Some of the properties characterized were droplets size concentration and distribution which ranged from 28μm to 142μm. Visible layer boundaries of emulsion rose from 0.00mm to 3mm. Emulsion stability of samples were 38.46% (olive oil), 35.71% (n-hexane oil) and 34.97% (petroleum ether oil). Emulsion capacity of olive oil was 35.7%, while that of n-hexane and petroleum ether oil were 32.1% and30.4% respectively. Emulsion stability indices for olive oil, n-hexane and petroleum ether extracts oil were 0.65±0.02, 0.71±0.18, and 0.69±0.12 respectively. Microbial contamination was 2.67x104 cells/ml for olive oil emulsion, 2.67x105 cells/ml from-hexane and petroleum ether oil emulsion. These results indicate potential and good emulsion stability. It is suggested that fluted pumpkin seed oil may be used in emulsion production due to its great stability.

There has been a large influx of refugees in Kenya from the neighboring countries due to their political instabilities. In this study, the number of refugees entering Kenya every year for a period 1993 to 2010 was analyzed using time series methods. Autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation function are calculated for the collected data. The appropriate Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model was fitted. The validity of the developed model was then checked using standard statistical techniques. Since the ARIMA model has a forecasting power, it was used in forecasting the number of refugees in Kenya.
Keywords: Influx, Refugees, Time series, Autocorrelation, Forecasting.

This paper evaluates the engine performance using biodiesel from waste palm kernel oil (WPKO) and mixed waste vegetable oils (WVOs), which were compared with diesel fuel. A four stroke single cylinder air cooled diesel engine was used. The engine performance was determined by measuring brake power, brake specific fuel consumption, thermal efficiency and exhaust temperature. The properties of the biodiesel blends were also determined in the laboratory. Among the properties determined, sulphur content and cetane index showed some significant differences in values between the biodiesel blends and diesel fuel. The results indicated that BM10 (90% diesel + 10% mixed WVO biodiesel) and BM5 (95% diesel + 5% mixed WVO biodiesel) blends showed the least sulphur content of 113.6 ppm and 1290 ppm respectively compared to 1348 ppm for diesel fuel. For cetane index, both biodiesel blends of WPKO and mixed WVOs gave higher values than diesel fuel. In terms of engine performance, BPK10 (90% diesel+10% waste palm kernel oil) and BPK20 (80% diesel+20% waste palm kernel oil) indicated higher brake power, higher thermal efficiency but lower exhaust temperatures at all engine loading conditions. Brake specific fuel consumption was lower in most cases for BPK10 and BPK20 blends than the rest of the other blends. Therefore, it can be concluded that 10% and 20% blends of waste palm kernel oils (BPK10 and BPK20) can be used as an alternative fuel in diesel engine without any significant modification of the engine and that the viscosity of BPK20 was similar to that of diesel fuel
Keywords: Alternative fuels, blends, fuel properties, performance test, waste vegetable oils.

This paper involved designing a double slope indirect cabinet type solar dryer. Good method of preservation such as drying is required to keep the crops at the right or safe moisture, content needed, this dryer is designed purposely to attain this safe, moisture content of the crops (tomatoes), which 'is an improvement of the traditional methods of sun drying which is not controlled. A special consideration is focused on the required design parameters based on Kano climate. The dryer generates higher air temperature and consequently low air relative humidity, which are both conducive to improve drying rates and lowered final moisture contents of the dried products.. Over 50% savings in time can be achieved by using solar crop dryers as against the traditional sun-drying.
Keywords: Moisture content, double slope, Relative humidity, Solar constant and solar altitude

The physical and chemical properties of oil extracted with n-hexane and petroleum ether from fluted pumpkin seeds were determined. Extraction with n-hexane gave 46.20% oil yield, while petroleum ether had 44.67%. The saponification value was higher in pumpkin oil extracted with petroleum ether (154.4+0.08mgKOH/g) when compared to n-hexane extract (147.2+0.05). The iodine value of the oils from petroleum ether and n-hexane were (104.7±0.07mgI2/g) and (104.7+0.07 mgI2/g) respectively. The refractive indices of the oils were 1.4348 and 1.4349 for n-hexane and petroleum ether oil extracts respectively. Peroxide value was not significantly different (p>0.05) for the petroleum ether extract (0.22 ± 0.00), when compared with n-hexane (0.20±0.01).
Keywords: Saponification, refractive indices and peroxide.

Every year the hazard of flood and erosion causes severe problem to the people living in the floodplain of the river Subansiri. Bank line migration due to erosion is a common feature in the Subansiri river. A study on bank erosion and bankline migration of the present course of the Subansiri river through the Ghagar nala indicates that the area is currently under active erosion. The study was carried out using the satellite imagery of 1995 and 2010 and it shows that shifting of the bankline due to erosion is more pronounced in both the banks compared to shifting due to sedimentation. The study of the width change also indicates that the width of the Subansiri river through Ghagar nala has been increasing from 1995 to 2010 eroding a large portion of land along the both banks of the river.
Keywords: Subansiri river, flood, floodplain, erosion and sedimentation, bankline migration

Present paper emphasizes on the strength characteristics of air entrained concrete using admixtures. The main function of air entrained agent is to increase the workability of fresh concrete, and durability of hardened concrete. For this purpose, three different air entrained agents are used in the concrete preparation those are Olive Oil, Oleic Acid, and Hydrogen Peroxide. The dosage of admixtures is chosen in the concrete production as 0%, 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% by weight of cement. By adding admixtures into the concrete, Workability of fresh concrete has been increased and strength of the concrete decreased.
Keywords: Air entrainment agents, Air entrained concrete, strength of concrete, Olive Oil, Oleic Acid, and Hydrogen Peroxide.

Privacy Preserving Data Mining (PPDM) has become a popular research area. How to balance between privacy protection and knowledge discovery in the sharing process is an important issue. This paper focuses on Privacy Preserving Utility Pattern Mining (PPUPM) and presents two algorithms, HUISA and DSICA, to achieve the goal of hiding sensitive itemsets so that the adversaries cannot mine them from the modified database. In addition, we reduce the impact on the sanitized database in the process of hiding sensitive itemsets. The experimental results show that HUISA achieves the lower miss costs than DSICA does on two synthetic datasets. In the other hand, DSICA generally has the smaller deviation between the actual databases and sanitized databases than HUISA.
Keywords: Data Mining, Utility Pattern Mining, Sensitive Database, Privacy

Management of waste is a global environmental issue that requires special attention for the maintenance of quality environment. It has been observed that amount, size, nature and complexity of waste generated by man are profoundly influenced by the level of urbanization and intensity of socio-economical development in a given settlement. The problem associated with its management ranges from waste generation, collection, transportation, treatment and disposal. The study involves a kind of multi-criteria evaluation method by using geographical information technology as a practical instrument to determine the most suitable sites of landfill location in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo state. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) 2002 and updated 2012 were used to map the most suitable site for waste disposal in Owo LGA. The result indicates that sites were found within the study area. The most suitable sites in the study area are located at 200metre buffer to surface water and 100metre to major and minor roads. The selected areas have 2500metres buffer zone distance from urban areas (built up areas). The study purposes acceptable landfill sites for solid waste disposal in the study area. The results achieved in this study will help policy and decision makers to take appropriate decision in considering sanitary landfill sites.
Keywords: Solid waste disposal, GIS, landfill, Landsat

MANET is a collection of wireless mobile nodes forming a network without using any existing infrastructure. There are various challenges that are faced in the Ad-hoc environment. These are mostly due to the lack of resources of these networks. They are usually set up in situations of emergency, for temporary operations or simply if there are no resources to set up elaborate networks. The solutions for conventional networks are usually not sufficient to provide efficient Ad-hoc operations. The wireless nature of communication and lack of any security infrastructure raise several security problems. This paper focuses on the comparative study of handling receiver collisions in watch dog using Enhanced Adaptive Acknowledge (EAACK). The key issues concerning these areas have been addressed here. The main focus has been laid on study of EAACK approach and its limitation.
Keywords: AACK, EAACK, MANET, Receiver Collision, Watch Dog

Phytochemical analysis of Acalypha wilkesiana, Sena alata, and Leucaena leucocephala and pepperomia pellucida was carried out. The result of the Phytochemical analysis of the ethanolic leaf extracts of A. wilkesiana revealed a high presence of tannins and glycoside, a moderate presence of saponin, flavonoids, Phylobatanins and glycosides (reducing sugar) and slight presence of alkaloids and cardiac glycosides. Peperomia pellucida has no Phylobatanins and glycoside from (Glycosides) with moderate presence of tannins, flavonoids, glycosides (reducing sugar) and cardiac glycosides and slight presence of saponin and alkaloids. Leucaena leucocephala revealed slight presence of phylobatanins, alkaloid and cardiac glycosides and high presence of tannins and Glycosides (reducing sugar and glycoside) with moderate presence of flavonoids and saponin. Sena alata extract revealed moderate presence of tannins, flavonoids, phylobatanin and cardiac glycosides, a slight presence of saponin; alkaloids was absent. The ethanolic extracts of the four plants contain useful active organic constitutents which could play a vital roles in fish health and human diseases treatment.
Keywords: Acalypha wilkesiana, Sena alata, and Leucaena leucocephala and pepperomia pellucida, ethanolic extract, Phytochemical analysis.

Ethanolic extracts from 7 plant species were screened for antibacterial activity against streptococus sp., Bacillus cereus, Klebsiella sp., Enterobacter aerogenes and Escherichia coli, Extract of Acalypha wilkesiana has a broad-spectrum antibacterial activity on all the tested organisms, but the extract of Leucaena leucocephala showed the highest inhibitory activity only on Klebsiella sp. These plants served as an alternative to synthetic antibiotics.
Keywords: Fish pathogens, Plant extracts, antibacterial activity

The effects of heat and mass transfer on unsteady free convective oscillatory flow of an optically thin fluid past a porous plate in presence of radiation have been investigated. The flow is characterized by the second-order fluid model. Analytical solutions for velocity, temperature and concentration of the governing equations of fluid flow are obtained by using perturbation technique. Also, the coefficients of skin friction, rate of heat transfer and rate of mass transfer at the plate are calculated. The profiles of velocity and skin friction are presented through graphs for various values of physical parameters to discuss the effects of the visco-elastic parameter involved in the solution
Keywords:

Nworie river flows through some major parts of Owerri namely, Federal Medical Centre, Alvan Ikoku College of Education etc. It serves as a source of water for many human activities. Since majority of inhabitants sees it as a good substitute for drinking water due to the collapse of the Owerri water scheme, attempts are being made to determine the water quality in order to ascertain its suitability for human consumption and other uses. Water samples were taken from four different locations along the whole length of the river for physiochemical analysis. The results indicated that the mean pH, TDS and electrical conductivity values are;6.125, 51.75mg/l and 103.5 siemens respectively. The concentration of calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium are 2.05, 0.118, 12.63 and 2.403 respectively while the concentration of zinc, lead, copper, casmium and iron are 0.845, 0.0125, 1.193, 0.056 and 0.575 respectively. The low level of pH implies that the river is acidic. The results of the mean concentration of metals such as lead, iron, copper and cadmium indicate that the river is unhealthy for human consumption without treatment.

Optimum soil fertility, structure and the presence of substrates among others have been noted to influence the spatial and temporal distribution of nematodes in agricultural soils. Experiments to investigate nematode distribution on soybean field amended with six different composts were carried out in 2009 and repeated in 2010. Composts prepared from fresh plant leaves of: Chromolaena odorata, Tithonia diversifolia and Carica papaya stacked with poultry manure and cattle manure were applied at the rate of 6 tha-1 two weeks before planting.---
Keywords: Nematode distribution", substrates", composts", crop rotation

To evaluate the effect of different plants extracts and namely rhizome of turmeric, rhizome ginger, neem leaf, tobacco leaf, tobacco leaf extract in water, tobacco leaf extract in cow's urine, and cow's urine at different concentrations (70%, 60%, 50%, 40% and 30%) on the growth and sclerotia formation of Sclerotium rolfsii, causal agent of foot and root rot disease of betel vine. Radial growth and formation of sclerotia were recorded. Radial growth inhibition percentage was calculated thereafter. In all the cases, the growth inhibition was found to be increased with the increase of concentration No growth of the tested fungi was observed in all concentrations of tobacco leaf extract in cow's urine, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40% concentration of cow's urine alone, and 70% and 60% concentration of tobacco leaf extracts in water and consequently no sclerotia were formed. In other concentration of tobacco leaf extracts in water (50%, 40% and 30%) growth inhibitions were 92.7%, 69.87% and 47.28% respectively. Considerable growth inhibitions were observed in all concentrations of turmeric rhizome which were 47.16%, 50.04%, 55.97%, 56.43% and 57.13% at 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% and 70% concentrations respectively. Few sclerotia were formed in the plates treated with tobacco leaf extract in water at 50% and 40% (14 and 53 respectively). Less than 50% sclerotia were formed at all concentration of turmeric rhizome extract.
Keywords: Botanical extract, Cow's urine, Sclerotium rolfsii

The antimicrobial activities of leaf extract of Ocimum gratissimum and Vernonia amygdalina was investigated. 100 diarrheic stool samples were collected, 20 showed sign of growth. This means that 20 isolates were isolated and identified from 12females & 8males; these were 9 Escherichia coli, 7 Salmonella sp and 4 Shigella sp. The anti diarrheic activities of Ocimum gratissimum (efinrin) and Vernonia amygdalina (ewuro) were tested against Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp and Shigella sp .They produced different sized zones of inhibition against the growth of the organisms. The anti diarrheal effect of the extract were carried out using well diffusion method where the extracts was found to have an inhibitory effect on Salmonella sp with zones of inhibition ranging from 10-30mm, Shigella sp ranged from 17-30mm and 12-23mm for Escherichia coli at concentration ranging from 6.25-100g/ml. Statistically, there was no significant difference in the efficiency of wild basil extracts on the growth of Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp and Shigella sp also, there was a significant difference in the effect of bitter leaf extracts on the growth of Salmonella sp and Shigella sp whereas on the growth of Escherichia coli, there was no significant effect. The antibacterial agents used served as control.
Keywords: diarrhoea/dysentery,ocimum gratissimum,vernonia amygdalina,antibiotic disc

Nigeria's power system rank one of the most unstable. That is why the federal government is making frantic effort to improve its reliability through massive expansion programme. In this paper, the south east grid network is singled out for study and analysis, with the view of making it very reliable. Power world simulator software was used for the study and analysis. At the end, some lines were recommended for doubling which are Afam-Alaoji, Benin-Onitsha, Sapele-Benin and Onitsha-Alaoji. The transmission lines were assumed to be single circuits for the analysis.
Keywords: Power system, line violation, contingency analysis, over-load, simulation. network shows that Sapele-Benin and Afam-Alaoji have been made double circuits; therefore, the remaining circuits to be doubled are Onitsha-Alaoji and Benin-Onitsha transmission lines. It is expected that the new lines will strengthen the grid robustness and also reduce the frequent incidents of avoidable system collapses

Response Surface methodology (RSM) was employed to study the effects of the four fermentation process variables namely pH, temperature, Glucose concentration and agitation rate for the production of L-Glutamic acid by immobilization cells of Corynabacterium glutamicumATCC13032.Among eight variables four significantly effecting parameters studied by using Central Composite Design (CCD).The predicted optimal sets of conditions for the maximum percentage yield of Glutamic acid were as follows pH-5.8855,Temperature -29.860C,Glucose Concentration -100.91g/L and Agitation rate -160.48 rpm. The determination coefficient (R2) was 0.99988, which ensures adequate credibility of this model. By scaling up fermentation from flask to bioreactor, we obtained promising results.
Keywords: L-Glutamic acid, Immobilized cells, Central composite design (CCD), Sodium alginate, Fermentation and Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032

The study investigated foam production and stability of Sanya Roots (SR) with two synthetic surfactants (SS1 and SS11) as well as their emulsion capacity. The data showed that enormous foam was produced in all the investigated materials by the use of Ross-Mile method with foam accumulate measuring systems. The disappearance of the foam from Sanya Roots (SR) and commercial/synthetic surfactants (SS1 and SS11) was observed at 3 h, 8 h and 7.2 h respectively. This could be attributed to their physical nature and bubble formation. Foam production and stability was studied by measuring the height after 5 minutes, and by varying the concentration it was observed that SR, SS1 and SS11 fell at the range of 3.2- 5.4 cm. As foam deposit in water bodies is a contributory factor for low biodegradability, therefore the fast disappearance of Sanya Roots (SR) foam at equal concentration with SS1 and SS11 shows that the plant root may be better than the synthetic surfactants in biodegradability and eco-friendly properties. Foam production for Sanya Roots (SR) between 0.1 to 3.0 g concentrations yielded a foam height between 3.5 to 6.0 cm while SS1 and SS11 were between 4.5 to 5.6 cm and 4.2 to 5.7 cm respectively at the same concentration range. The investigation equally showed that Sanya Roots (SR) is good emulsifier as it promotes emulsion formation at both low and high concentration. The comparative similarity of Emulsion formation for 1 g at 1 h and 48 h was obtained as 98.3 % and 70.0 % for Sanya Roots; 95.0 % and 64.2 % for SS1 and 96.7 % and 65.0 % for SS11.On varying the concentration of SR, SS1 and SS11 at the same time range of 1 h to 48 h it was observed that emulsion capacity of SR, SS1 and SS11 decreases with increase in storage time. Therefore Sanya Roots are surface active, that is, it must have the capacity to lower the surface tension at the oil-water interface, both substantially and rapidly at a concentration typically used during emulsification. The study showed that Sanya (Securidaca longepedunculata) Roots can be regarded as a natural surfactant for its highly remarkable surface properties on comparison with commercial/synthetic surfactants like SS1 and SS11. Hence Sanya Roots could be used as a foaming, emulsifying, wetting and cleansing agent. This will therefore go a long way to erase the fear of depletion of the main source of synthetic detergent which is petroleum.
Keywords: Sanya, Foam, Biodegradability, Concentration, Emulsion, Synthetic Surfactant

From the inception of the public procurement mechanism in Nigeria, there has been a growing rift between the public sector clients and contractors as to the satisfaction and appropriateness of the time frame allocated for preparation and submission of tenders. This study is aimed at investigating the adequacy of the current tendering duration practiced in Nigeria. The aim was achieved through questionnaire administered to obtain the views of public clients and contractors respectively. A T-test analysis conducted on 78 public building projects was employed to ascertain the mean differences between the time frame currently allowed and that considered adequate. Results revealed that a surprising 75% of the contractors believe that the time frame presently stipulated is sufficient, and this was attributed to a number of subjective issues such as inexperience, incompetence, inappropriate estimation techniques and tendency to cut corners to secure contracts while 84% of clients also support this. The T-test statistic revealed a mean of 3.05 for tendering duration presently allowed and 3.15 for which it was inferred that there is no significant difference between both means. It was however recommended that some form of construction regulatory framework be established to assess the expertise of tenderers, regulate contracting practice/business, checkmate quacks and incorporate standard tendering durations for various project complexities into the Procurement Act (2007). Concerted efforts should be made on the part of the Executive and Legislative arms of Government towards securing timely approvals of national budget to reduce pressure on procuring entities.
Keywords: Adequacy, projects, Public building, Tendering duration, Nigeria.

The use of Electronic Pest Control Devices has been bedeviled by lots of controversies bothering on their effectiveness. The arguments are that they are ineffective, partially effective or very effective. This work reviewed the underlying factors that led to the introduction of Electronic Pest Control Devices, their advantages over other pest control measures, and examined the controversies surrounding their usage. Investigation reveals that habituation is the reason behind the controversy while delay of habituation by the introduction of variability is a way out of the controversy. Design considerations and practices to technically fortify the device and aid in the delay of habituation were also proffered.
Keywords: Pests, conventional pesticides, habituation, design considerations.

Reed-Solomon (RS) codes have been widely employed for error correction in modern digital communication and data storage systems. Currently, for decoding RS codes with random-error correction, numerous literatures have given extensive studies on theoretical algorithms as well as hardware implementations [4], [5], [8], [9]. However, for specific RS burst-error decoder design, although some dedicated algorithms had been reported [3], [7], the VLSI implementations for these burst-error correcting algorithms are still under-investigated which are limited by their cubic computation complexity. In this brief, starting from a recent theoretical work, a low-complexity reformulated inversionless burst-error correcting (RiBC) algorithm is developed for practical applications. Then, based on the algorithm, a unified VLSI architecture that is capable of correcting burst errors, as well as random errors and erasures, is firstly presented for multi-mode decoding requirements. This new architecture is denoted as unified hybrid decoding (UHD) architecture.
Keywords: Burst errors, RS codes, Unified Hybrid Architecture

This study sought to establish the problems commercial banks in Kenya are facing when implementing agency banking. In addition, the study sought to establish the solutions commercial banks are employing to counter these problems. The research adopted descriptive survey approach focusing on three commercial banks in Kakamega County that are currently operating agency banking model. The population of the study consisted of three commercial banks, KCB Group, Equity Bank and Co-operative Bank with a target respondent of 30 staff members and 90 bank agents. The respondents were drawn from a target population of 90 bank employees and 150 bank agents. Primary data was obtained from questionnaires and interview schedules as research instruments. The analysis was done using descriptive statistics with an aid of a computer software SPSS version 20.1. The qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. The study found out that 51.3% of the agency implementation can be explained (r2 = 0.513.) by fraud, literacy levels, technological issues and liquidity problems. The study recommended that commercial banks need to proactively engage in training their staff and agents on fraud prevention and improving the technology they use in agency banking. Commercial banks must also find ways to deal with the liquidity issues experienced by their agents in order for agency banking model to work.
Keywords: Agency banking, Commercial banks, Implementation problems

The development of an equivalent shaft diameter model is presented. The model is dependent on the masses, diameters, moduli of rigidity and densities of the members of a solid series composite shaft and ensures that the equivalent shaft whose length is subsequently determined has the same mass as its composite. Calculations of the equivalent diameter, length and mass of the equivalent shaft were performed in Excel spreadsheet and its mass was compared to that of the composite. Geometric modeling and analysis of the composite shaft and its equivalent were done in Pro-Engineer software to validate the model. Also, dimensional analysis was used to check the correctness of the expression. This technique can be used in determining the torque and power requirement of shaft-machine element subassembly by converting the machine element and shaft to their equivalent shaft of equal mass and computing its diameter and length, with which the polar moment of inertia, torque and power transmitted by the subassembly are determined.
Keywords: Equivalent length, Diameter, Composite shaft, Machine elements, Torque, Power requirement

Environmental contamination of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] and pentachlorophenol (PCP) has become a serious concern for tannery effluent. This study was conducted to isolate few efficient bacterial strains from treated tannery effluent which is tolerant to both Cr (VI) and PCP and could be employed for simultaneous bioremediation of both the pollutants. Fifteen bacteria resistant to high Cr(VI) and PCP concentrations simultaneously were isolated from tannery effluent by enrichment culture technique. Among them, five bacteria having high MIC values for Cr(VI) (850-950 mg/ L) and PCP (1100-1350 mg/ L) were selected for further studies. They exhibited remarkable ability to tolerate the presence of different heavy metals in addition to Cr(VI) and PCP. These bacteria appears to have great potential for simultaneous detoxification of Cr(VI) and PCP from tannery and other industrial effluents.
Keywords: Tannery effluent, Hexavalent chromium, Pentachlorophenol, Bacteria and Simultaneous bioremediation.

Compaction of Agricultural soil is a concern to many Soil Scientist, Agricultural Engineer, and farmers. The use of agricultural machineries has cause extensive soil degradation, especially in the upper layers of soils. This study was conducted to assess the effect of soil compaction on soil physical properties of some soils in Southern Adamawa. The soil particle analysis ranges from 64.35% sand, 22.50% silt, and 8.15% clay. The models relationship between bulk density and penetration resistance was noted and last strong. The consistency of the soil was recorded with low plastic index of 1.75 and liquid unit of 15.15. As result of compaction, bulk density increases in penetration resistance with significant consequence for crop root development, although there was no definite relationship with penetration resistance
Keywords: Soil compaction, soil properties, penetration resistance, bulk density

This research work mainly focuses on the application of principles of George Box and Gwilym Jenkins to estimate the appropriate models that can be used for forecasting retail prices of imported and local rice in Nigeria. The Dickey Fuller test was carried out to confirm if the series is stationary or non stationary. From the results obtained, conclusion was made that, series for both rice are non stationary, this will lead us to differencing of the data in estimating the Autoregressive Integrated Moving-Average (ARIMA) models. Usually, first order differencing is always recommended in order to obtain the appropriate ARIMA model. An attempt was made in identifying the respective models with the aids of Autocorrelation Function (ACF) and Partial Autocorrelation Function (PACF) plots, possible ARIMA models were estimated based on the description of the ACF and PACF plot. The model with the least Mean Square Error (MSE) value is chosen as the best model for both imported and local rice which is ARIMA (2,1,1). Models estimations for imported and local rice have the same number of parameters, this shows that prices of both rice exhibits similar pattern.
Keywords: Stationary, Autocorrelation, Autoregressive, Moving-Average, and Forecasting

This work is directed at studying the effect of temperature differenceon the Thermal Shock Resistance (TSR) of Onibode fireclay materialdeposit from Ogun State South West Nigeria. TSR is one the very important properties of refractory materials which determines the durability or life spanof the material in service. As a result, thermal shock resistance of the materials was studied under different temperatures to determine the behavior of the materials upon addition of alumina in different proportions. Thermal shock resistances of the materials at 9000C, 1.0000C, 1,1000C, 1,2000C, 1,3000C and 1,4000C, respectivelyof different batches of experimental samples were recorded.The result of the experiment revealed that, with the increase in temperatures, the thermal shock resistance of the material decreases. This has been attributed to the state of the material leaving a very high temperature to very low temperature zones which affects the material structures; as expansion and contraction of the materials at elevated and low temperatures were very high due to the porosity of the materials. Consequently, the shock on the material will be very high leading to the decrease in the cycles recorded.

With the subsequent increase of food growing especiallyin rural areas, there is an accompanying need for preservation method. This has led to a substantial increase in the number of driers, yet expensive for local farmers to acquire.This paper condensed and comprehensive work done with the aim of reducing the cost of drying and also for practical demonstration of some of the theoretical knowledge acquired. It was discovered that the drier is efficient since the heat leakage was found to be very low
Keywords: Drier efficiency, microbiological growth, heat leakage, coefficient of thermal conductivity and convection heat transfer

A study was carried out to investigate how naturally-occurring fibers can be extracted by chemical retting method. In this study, banana fibers were obtained through chemical retting using banana trunk. The retting was conducted in four different media of different concentrations; 0.0M NaOH(aq), 0.01M NaOH(aq), 0.05M NaOH(aq) and 0.1M NaOH(aq) solutions respectively. In the pH study of the process, the pH of all the retted solutions converged at the range 6.71 to 7.60 while the optimum pH was found to be 7.39. The moisture content and moisture absorption calculated from the study showed moisture content of 94.88% and moisture absorption of 14.92%. Fiber yields of 0.25% to 0.55% were obtained from the four solutions studied. This, in large scale production will find application in composite development for various applications and an appropriate scenario of conversion of waste to wealth
Keywords: Chemical retting, fiber, Sodium hydroxide, Banana, Alkaline treatment

The cyanogenic potential of cassava, Manihot esculanta crantz and its environmental effect were investigated. The cyanide was extracted via cold dilute orthophosphoric acid extraction. The extract was hydrolysed using sulphuric acid for break down of linamarin to yield cyanide and the yielded cyanide was quantified using silver nitrate, ammonium hydroxide and potassium iodide as the indicator. Two varieties of cassava of high cyanogenic potential were studied. Cyanogenic potential of 399.36mgHCN/Kg fresh cassava tuber (IITA Black) and 1322.88mgHCN/Kg fresh cassava tuber (local variety) were obtained while 936.00mgHCN/Kg (IITA Black) and 719.68mgHCN/Kg (local variety) were obtained from the leaves. The environmental effect of these cyanogenic concentration based on lethal dose of 60mg/70kg weight adult was made, and it showed that with 45million tons of cassava produced in Nigeria within 2008 would be catastrophic to the entire universe but harnessing this cyanogenic potential would bring about environmentally friendly cassava processing.
Keywords: cassava, cyanogenic potential, linamarin, hydrolysis

The castor seeds collected in Kapil – Lankan District in Pankshin LGA of Plateau State, Nigeria. The seeds were prepared for use by removing the endocarp, sun-drying for seven days and milled to flour. A soxhlet extraction was used for the extraction of the oil, using hexane as solvent. The oil was recovered by simple distillation of the solvent. The residual oil obtained was investigated for physicochemical parameters and fatty acid composition. The results obtained for physical parameters were: moisture content (0.300± 0.01%), specific gravity (0.948± 0.02), refractive index @28oC (1.792± 0.01), fire point (256.000± 1.20oC), flash point (225.000 ± 2.10 oC), smoke point (215.000 ± 1.00 oC), viscosity @ 28 oC (0.425 ± 0.12), pH (5.800 ± 0.00), turbidity (5.000 ± 1JTU). For the chemical parameters, results obtained were: free fatty acid (7.400 ±0.07% as oleic acid), acid value (14.800± 0.14 % as oleic acid), saponification value (180.770± 0.32mgKOH/g oil), peroxide value (158.640 ± 2.20Meq/Kg), iodine value (58.390 ± 0.71wijs) and total fatty acid composition of 88.41%identified. The extraction yield of 48.32±1.85% makes the commercialization of the seed in Nigeria possible and profitable. Also, the result of the analysis confirms the oil to be of good quality and can find application in food industry as food additives as well as industrial purposes such as cosmetics, soaps, paint and even energy generation
Keywords: castor seed, extraction, oil, physicochemical properties, fatty acid composition

The chemical forms of some heavy metals in soils around a cement factory was studied by determining soil Cu, Ni, and Co species using standard solvent extraction and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric techniques. The Chemical pools of the metals indicated that the metals were distributed into six fractions with most of the metals residing in the non-residual fractions, suggesting how readily the metals are released into the environment. Considering that the metals mostly occur in the most available forms, it is most likely that the metals must have been derived from anthropogenic source.
Keywords: Metal species, Heavy metals, Farmlands, Cement dust

This study identified and analysed the pattern recognition features of African bust. It also developed and evaluated a Modified Principal Component Analysis (MPCA) for recognizing those features. The developed MPCA used varying number of eigenvectors in creating the bust space. The characteristics of the bust in terms of facial dimension, types of marks, structure of facial components such as the eye, mouth, chin etc were analysed for identification. The bust images were resized for proper reshaping and cropped to adjust their backgrounds using the Microsoft Office Picture Manager. The system code was developed and run on the Matrix Laboratory software (MatLab7.0). The use of varying values of eigenvectors has proven positive result as far as the system evaluation was concerned. For instance, a sensitivity test carried out revealed that thirteen out of seventeen bust‟s images were recognized by selecting only vectors of highest eigenvalues while all the test images were recognized with the inclusion of some vectors of low energy level. That is, the modification made to the Conventional PCA gave rise an increment of about twenty five percent (25%) as far as recognizing the test images was concerned. The study concluded that the Modification made to the conventional PCA has shown very good performance as far as the parameters involved were concerned. The performance of the MPCA was justified by the identification of all the test images, that is, the MPCA proved more efficient than the Conventional PCA technique especially for the recognition of features of the African busts.
Keywords: Eigenvectors, Bust recognition, Modified Principal Component Analysis, African Bust.