Arid Zone Journal of Engineering, Technology and Environment (AZOJETE)
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Evaluation of the Quality Characteristics of Composite Flour Bread Produced from Wheat-Root Tuber and Wheat-Grain Legume Flour Blends
Get PDFAdoption of composite flours for baked and non-baked goods has been trending and the underlying reasons include economic consideration, nutritional enhancement and amelioration of noncommunicable diseases through consumption of functional foods. Comparative study of the performance of popular food crop flours in bread making is not well documented although a lot work abound in the literature concerning specific blends from wheat and crop flours studied separately. But in the present study, comparative effects of 30% substitution of wheat flour with two common root tuber flours: sweet potato (Ps) and cassava (Ca) and three common grain legume flours in Nigeria: soybean (S), cowpea (Co), bambara groundnut (B) on bread quality were studied. Soybean, cowpea, and bambara groundnut were soaked and decorticated, toasted mildly and milled to obtain flours. Cassava and sweet potato roots were peeled, chopped, oven dried, milled and sieved. All purpose wheat flour was used to form blends with non-wheat flours on a constant ratio of 70:30 replacement weight basis, a total of five flour blends were obtained while 100% wheat flour served as the control. Bread were prepared using straight dough method of AACC. Thereafter, standard procedures were used to evaluate the proximate composition of the blends and bread, as well as the bread physical and sensory properties. Data generated were subjected to analysis of variance and mean values ±SE were reported. Consistently, soybean and bambara groundnut flours had significant higher content of protein, ash, crude fat and crude fibre than cassava and sweet potato flours which contained higher level of carbohydrates. The moisture contents of the flours were low and comparable. The moisture, crude protein, crude fat, total ash, crude fibre and carbohydrate contents of the flour blends and the refined wheat flour varied significantly (p<0.05) from 8.08-10.27%, 7.52-13.93%, 2.08-4.06%, 0.81-1.85%, 2.11-4.51% and 67.75-76.66% respectively. The same trend was repeated in the proximate composition of the composite flour breads although the calorific values decreased due to decrease in carbohydrate contents (58.00-47.64%), protein (6.37-11.98%), and increase in moisture (26.71-29.75%), relative to the values observed in the flour blends. Bread weights (196-223g) were comparable but the bread volumes (429-988ml) and specific loaf volumes (2.24-4.82ml/g) varied significantly (p<0.05) and wheat bread had the highest and legume flour treated breads had the least. Organoleptic properties of the wheat bread were rated better in some attributes however not significantly (p<0.05) different from those of 30% sweet potato and cassava breads. It was concluded that although nutritional value of legume containing breads were greater yet their bread volumes were depressed more, the higher protein of grain legume flours not withstanding confirming the fact that quality not quantity of the protein is the determinant factor in bread making potential of flours.
 
Traditional Sensor-Based and Computer Vision-Based Fire Detection Systems: A Review
Get PDFFire emergency is one of the dominant disasters which is threatening human society, infrastructure, and the environment in the world. Fire disaster can lead to a great number of human casualties, loss of vast natural resources and serious infrastructural damage. To minimize these such catastrophic menace, protect and save human lives and infrastructure, substantial research efforts have been devoted to developing fire detection systems using different approaches. This paper discusses fire detection systems and summarizes the state-of–the-art achievements. A total number of 60 publications related to fire detection methods are extracted from IEEE and Google Scholar database and analysed. Different fire detection methods are reviewed, and their merits and shortcomings are highlighted. The literature review presented in this paper illustrates the advantages of computer vision-based fire detection approaches over the traditional sensor-based approaches which are characterised by limited detection range, transport delay, and high false alarm. In addition, it shows that the high hardware requirement and computational complexity remain the key drawbacks of the computer vision-based methods and most of the research works made no attempt to implement such methods on embedded hardware platform such as FPGA. Further research efforts are required to design, develop, and implement computer vision-based systems for fire detection on embedded hardware targets in an efficient and computationally less intensive manner.
 
Impact of Accelerated Carbonation Curing (ACC) on the Properties of Guinea Corn Husk Ash Blended Concrete
Get PDFThere are different methods of curing concrete. These include immersion in water, sprinkling of the concrete samples, curing with sand or sawdust and open-air curing method. However, research on the use of Accelerated Carbonation Curing (ACC) method for curing concrete is very scanty. Therefore, this study concentrates on determining the impact of ACC on the properties of Guinea Corn Husk Ash (GCHA) Blended Concrete. Materials such as Portland Limestone Cement, Guinea Corn Husk Ash (GCHA), sand, and granite dust were tested for fineness, coarseness, specific gravity before they were used for producing the concrete. Characterizations, such as Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (EDXRF) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) were performed to investigate the properties of the GCHA. The batched concrete was then cured using the ACC and Water Curing (WC) methods. Mix ratios of 0%, 5%, and 10% GCHA were utilized in obtaining the highest compressive strength. Compressive strength for 0%, 5%, 10% incorporation of GCHA in concrete for both ACC and WC methods of curing at 56th day were found to be 23.3 N/mm2 and 24.5 N/mm2; 19.1 N/mm2 and 21.7 N/mm2; 11.1 N/mm2 and 11.8 N/mm2 respectively. The highest sorptivity values were obtained at 10% replacement of cement with GCHA for both ACC and WC cured samples. However, the Sorptivity values decreased as the curing age increases both for ACC and WC cured concrete. This demonstrates that both methods produced durable concrete.
 
Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Pathloss Prediction Model for LTE Network for Microcells in an Urban Environment
Get PDFOne of the challenges faced by telecommunication service providers is capacity. The capacity of a cell depends on the model used in planning the cell during deployment stage. This paper presents Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Pathloss Prediction model for Long Term Evolution (LTE) network for microcells in Benin city, Edo state, Nigeria. Received signal strength data collected with respect to distance, mobile station antenna height and base station antenna height was used to create a data base with pathloss estimated from the measured data. A feature variable consisting of of measurement data collected was used to train a 4-32-1 multilevel perceptron artificial neural network with pathloss as the label using python language on Scientific python development environment interface (SPYDER). The result of the test data shows that artificial neural network is suitable for predicting pathloss in Benin City. This is as a result of root mean square error (RMSE) values and mean absolute error values of and 0.42 obtained respectively which are less than the error value allowed for network planning. It is recommended that the result of the study be adopted in designing or expanding LTE network capacity in the areas studied in this work.
 
Reduction of Colour from Indigo Dye-Rich Wastewater by Electro-Coagulation using Iron (Fe) and Aluminum (Al) Electrodes
Get PDFIndigo dyes are important substances in the Adire Textile industry which are not environmentally friendly because they produce colored effluent. This study evaluated the performance of a batch-scale electro-coagulation (EC) technique for Indigo dye-rich wastewater treatment. A pilot-scale EC unit using Iron (Fe) and Aluminum (Al) electrodes, having a mono-polar parallel arrangement with a constant inter-electrode distance of 10 mm was developed. The Fe anode and Al cathode had effective areas of 16.50 and 22.75 cm2 respectively. The impact of pH, Sodium Chloride (NaCl), and electrolysis time on EC performance was assessed by calculating the color reduction. A three-factor three-level Box Benkhen Design with three center points was used to generate fifteen experimental runs using NaCl, pH, and electrolysis time as independent variables and color removal efficiency as the response variable. A regression analysis was performed after the results of the experimental data were fitted to a full quadratic model resulting in the generation of regression coefficients. The model was inversely transformed and modified to make it significant. The results show that the optimum pH and NaCl concentration were 3 and 4 g/l respectively with electrolysis time of 35 minutes. Under these optimum conditions, the percentage of colour removal was 32.78% with a predicted value of 80%. An R2 value of 83.45% was obtained and ANOVA verified that the accuracy of the proposed polynomial model is acceptable. Therefore, it is noteworthy that an EC technique could be used in reducing color from Indigo Dye-rich wastewater in textile industry
An Investigation of Soil Bearing Capacity for Building and Structural Foundation Design: A Case Study of Polo Area, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
Get PDFThe foundation of any structure is the back born of its stability against all kinds of deformation and this depends on the geotechnical behavior of the supporting soil. Clay soils usually posed serious threats to buildings due to shrink-swell behavior, settlements and low strength which is associated with their minerals. In this research, the safe bearing capacity of Polo soil have been investigated using direct shear laboratory analysis on twenty representative soil samples across virgin area where future development is approaching. Most of the soils were classified as lean clay with sand (CL) according to Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) although some were otherwise. The average natural moisture content of the soils at 1m depth is 8.38% with liquid limit and plasticity index of 30.2% and 15.7% respectively while that of 1.5m were 9.14%, 29.4% and 14.6% respectively. Results also revealed an average friction angle and cohesion of 21º and 18 kN/m2 at 1m and 22o and 19 kN/m2 at 1.5m depths respectively. Safe bearing capacity values ranges from 44.95 to 411.11 kN/m2 and 75.27 to 397.31 kN/m2 for 1m and 1.5m respectively using foundation widths of 0.5m, 1m and 2m. Foundation design carried out using the different safe bearing capacities and load combinations revealed that the pad footings analyzed with 1500 kN indicated that the minimum footing size that could be used is 1800mm×1800mm using 400kN/m2 safe bearing capacity. It also revealed that for a 100kN/m2 safe bearing capacity, the footing size is as much as 3500mm×3500mm which is very high and raft foundations were recommended for such situations.
 
Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Bleaching Process in Aqueous Solution using Sodium Hypochlorite
Get PDFThe kinetics of bleaching process of oxidation of typical dye with a bleaching agent - sodium hypochlorite in aqueous medium was studied. The kinetic runs were executed using spectrophotometer to changes in concentration under pseudo first order whereby concentration of NaOCl was in large excess compared with the concentration of dye. The factors affecting the reaction rate that were studied include the concentration of dye and oxidant, temperature, ionic strength and pH of the bleaching reaction medium and the presence of a variable valence metal ion The result shows that the rate of oxidation increases with increasing in temperature, ionic strength and pH. Increasing in substrate and oxidant concentrations also increase the rate of oxidation. Higher observed rate constant k1 was obtained in the presence of Fe(III)ion. The Arrhenius activation energy for the oxidation in the absence and presence of Fe(III)ion are 56.21 kJmol-1 and 51.21 kJmol-1 respectively. The result of thermodynamic parameters such as the lowering of activation energy (Ea) and the higher value of second rate constants k2 in the presence of Fe (III) ion provide further support for Fe (III) ion enhancement of rate of oxidation.
 
Assessment of Regulation Compliance and Quality of Sachet Water Factories in Ibadan North Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria
Get PDFProvision of clean drinking water is one of the basic human necessities for healthy livelihood. In Nigeria, many people relied on sachet waters as an alternative source of clean drinking water. However, complaints abound regarding lack of proper water quality standard being used which is a major health concern. This study assessed the regulatory compliance of some sachet water production companies and water quality standard in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. Questionnaires were administered on factory’s organisational structure and staffing; facilities and equipment; water treatment processes and sanitation practices, Also, Sachet water samples were analysed for the contaminants of Turbidity, Colour, Odour, pH, Nitrate, Chloride, Iron, Electrical conductivity and E-coli count. From the questionnaire analysis, the adherence level with the regulations was poor as majority (60%) of the sachet water factories have poor organisational structure and only 33% have adequate facilities and equipment. However, water quality analysis showed that most of the sachet water parameters tested were within the standard range except for pH values and E Coli count which majority (70%) falls below standard for both. The study concludes that most sachet water brands produced are unsafe for human consumption. There is need for proper monitoring by relevant agencies towards ensuring sachet water factories continuously complied with standard operations for better public health in the study area.
 
Composition and Biochemical Methane Potential from Different Typha Components
Get PDFInvasive species are recognized as one of the main causes of erosion of global biodiversity which represent one of the major environmental challenges of the 21st century. Typha is among the fifth most invasive species in West Africa, Nigeria included. Presently in Hadejia Valley Wetlands of Nigeria, typha grass has been perceived as a threat to the surrounding communities. Although some research efforts have shown it can be used as a resource material for renewable energy or animal feed, its use has not yet become a commercial practice. This study investigates compositional characteristic using in vitro digestibility and biogas production from different Typha botanical fractions using anaerobic digestion inoculated with rumen microorganisms. Treatments considered were single plant components as well as combinations. The results show that spike (seed) had the highest soluble crude protein and the leaves had the highest energy content (cellulose and hemicellulose). The leaf and stem at full maturity had a lignin content of 18-20%. Rhizome and stem contained higher ash content while root had greater total volatile solid. The spike yielded the most biogas (457 ml/g) at 60 days retention period. The root component yielded the least gas (259 ml/g) over the same period. The seed pod produced the most methane gas per weight of VS (255 ml/gVS). Blending leaf and stem or root and rhizome increased the volume of biogas generated (399 ml/g and 442 ml/g respectively) while a combination of all components of the plant decreased the volume of gas (388 ml/g – 289 ml/g). The combination of the root and the rhizome produced a higher volume of methane (254 ml/g) than either component by itself (root with 160 ml/g while rhizome 226 ml/g). Different typha components has different compositional characteristic which influence the activity of anaerobic microorganism and affect the volume and quality of biogas produced. Rumen microorganisms digest typha component and spike gives the highest gas volume per grams of typha biomass while rood produce the least volume. Combination of different typha component affect the volume of gas generation defending of which component of plants were mixed.
 
Application of Image Analysis in Food Grain Quality Inspection and Evaluation During Bulk Storage
Get PDFWith increased expectations for high quality food products and safety standards, the need for accurate, fast and objective quality determination of moisture, purity, germination and pathogen free food products and grains during bulk storage continues to grow. This paper reviews the application of image analysis in food grain quality inspection and discusses the potential of the technology for application in grain quality monitoring and evaluation during bulk storage. Image analysis procedure and physical properties of the grain bulk were also discussed. Image analysis is an automated alternative to manual inspection with less processing time and more accurate results. Human inspection has been found wanting due the bias judgment and results. Image analysis of food grains during bulk storage can only get better with its diverse applications in varietal identification, distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) testing, detection of insects and foreign bodies within the grain bulk and the detection of hot spot in the bin to mention a few. In Nigeria, image analysis will be a great tool in terms of grain quality preservation in National Grain Reserves (NGRs), providing seeds for farmers for the next planting season and reviving the grain reserves in Nigeria to boost gainful employment of citizens. An automated grain reserves using image analysis is possible in Nigeria only if appropriate government policies and funding can throw its full weight behind the innovation.