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Effects of Four Different Food Additives on the Oxidative Stress Markers of Wistar Albino Rats
Get PDFThis work investigated the effects of food additives on the oxidative stress markers and liver marker enzymes. Food additives are products added to the basic food stuff with an aim of improving its flavor, aspect, texture, color, taste, and value. Thirty (30) Wistar rats were divided into five groups of six rats each. Group A received a daily dose of distillated water and normal rat pellet, Group B, C, D and E received 20 mg/kg body of Aspartame, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium nitrite and sodium sulfite respectively. The duration for exposure of these animals to food additives was 30 days and the groups were observed daily for general conditions. At the end of feeding the animals, blood samples were collected and analyzed. The result of the analysis showed that ALT significantly (p<0.05) increased with sodium nitrite and sodium sulfite while ALP increased significantly (p<0.05) with sodium sulphite. The oxidative stress biomarker, catalase showed a significant increase with sodium benzoate and sodium sulphite. The results revealed that the food additives are injurious to the animals. The toxicity of the food additives studied at 20 mg/kg are in the order of Sodium nitrite > Sodium benzoate > Sodium sulphite > Aspartame
Plasmonics: A Path to Replace Electronics and Photonics by Scalable Ultra-fast Technology
Get PDFSemiconductor devices, circuits, and components are dependent upon miniaturization for transporting huge amounts of data at a high speed these provide the ability to control the transport and storage of electrons. Current communication systems are based on either electrons or photonics. These modern electronic devices for information processing and sensing are functioning almost close to their fundamental speed and bandwidth limitations which a serious problem. The performance of electronic circuits, as well as photonics, is now becoming rather limited when digital information needs to be sent from one point to another. Plasmonics is a new technology a kind of photonics-based on surface plasmons viable. Surface plasmons are a way of guiding light. Surface Plasmon (SP) based circuits, which merge electronics and photonics at the nanoscale, may offer a solution to the size-compatibility problem. Optical fiber communication (OFC) is a well-known light enabled information transmission mechanism communicates very effectively over large distance. Surface plasmons, on the other hand, can guide light only over distances of tens or hundreds of microns. Surface plasmons are the electromagnetic (optical) waves get generated from the interaction between light and the mobile conduction electrons on the surface of a metal. The surface plasmons created by the interaction of light near the surface possess unique advantages like the high speed of communication which is very essential for the current generation of electrical and medical fields
Analysis of the Weak Soil Behavior, Modified Through Cementation
Get PDFThe purpose of the study is to conduct thorough theoretical research and literature overview regarding possible ways of soil stabilization on the basis of this practice increasing demand. In particular an emphasis is made on the chemical technique for weak soils strengthening, due to its prevalence and various practical and economic advantages. Great amount of promiscuous data was analyzed and organized; in addition on its basis an attempt is made to provide convincing calculation technique for further usage in engineering soils` stabilization practice. Besides, various factors which could influence on the results` accuracy are identified with corresponding recommendations for further possible research on this issue
The Impacts of Continuance Commitment to Job Performance: A Theoretical Model for Employees in Developing Economies Like Tanzania
Get PDFContinuance commitment of employee and job performance are inevitably linked to each other, and it is well known that employee continuance commitment is affected by intrinsic motivation of individuals. This study aimed to assess the impacts of continuance commitment to job performance in developing economies like Tanzania. People in developing economies have low commitment due to internal factor such as a desire for earning high size of payment. I focused on the determination of continuance commitment impacts on job performance from a sample of 116 public and private sector employees of industrial and government corporations. In multiple linear regression analysis on the impacts of continuance commitment and job performance two predictors; social capital and human capital show the significant relationship between two variables while the size of payment shows a very little contribution to job performance
Unconstrained and Constrained Predictive Control for the Multivariable Process with Non-minimum Phase
Get PDFNon-minimum phase Multi-input Multi-Ouput (MIMO) systems are known to be difficult to control. Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithms are powerful control design methods widely applied to industrial processes. The handling of various input constraints in the MPC problem of ARIMAX non-minimum phase MIMO systems is considered. This approach is applied for control of industrial quadruple tanks. However, there is no easy way to solve the problem of constraints. The methods based on the quadratic programming (QP) technique are used to solve the constrained optimization problem. A comparative study of unconstrained and constrained control system behavior is given. Some illustrative simulation results for a considered system are presented and discussed. Encouraging results are obtained that motivate for further investigations
Investigating the Utilization of Ground Palm Kernel Shells for Partial Replacement of Cement in Concrete Using Nondestructive Method
Get PDFThe objective of this research is to investigate the utilization of palm kernel shells in ground form (GPK) for partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in concrete by investigating its optimal strength using nondestructive ultrasonic pulse velocity method for both cubic and cylindrical concrete test specimen. In all a total of 135 cubes and 66 cylinders of concrete were prepared. The dimension of the cubic concrete specimens was 150 × 150 × 150 mm and that of the cylindrical specimens were 110 mm and 500 mm diameter and length respectively. The mix design of the GPK shells used as a partial replacement for OPC ranged between 0% and 50% by weight of cement using mix ratio of 1:2:4 with water to cement ratio of 0.8. The concrete specimens were test at curing periods of 7 days, 28 days and 60 days for the cubes and 7 days and 28 days for the cylinders. Based on the results and the analysis done, it was generally observed in all cases that, as the mix ratio is increased, the ultrasonic pulse velocity, modulus of elasticity and the density decreased and as the curing period increased, these values increased across all the mix ratios. The ultrasonic pulse velocity and the density of the specimens shows that concretes containing GPK “fuel” shells has higher values than those containing GPK ordinary shells. Generally, the density, ultrasonic pulse velocity and the modulus of elasticity of concrete containing GPK shells decrease as the replacement percentage increase
Mechanical and Physical Properties of Polyester Reinforced Glass Fibre/Orange Peel Particulate Hybrid Composite
Get PDFThis study was focused on the development of hybrid composed using orange peel particulate dispersed in an unsaturated polyester resin reinforced with chopped strands of E-glass fibers. Orange peel particulate of about 350µm sieve size, of varying weight percentage (3, 6, 9,12 and 15) wt.% and E-glass fiber of constant weight percentage 25.1wt% was used as reinforcements in a polyester matrix. The effect of the orange peel particulate on the physical and mechanical properties of the resulting composite such as tensile strength, bending strength, impact strength and hardness strength was investigated. The results showed remarkable improvement in mechanical properties with increase in percentage of particulate reinforcement. Tensile strength varies from 50.0 to 62.6 MPa, Hardness values varies between 28.6 and 40.8HRB, Impact energy at room temperature, varies between 5.0 to 7.4 Joules, as a function of fiber weight fractions and the flexural strength varies from 74.0 to 85.2 MPa. The best mechanical properties were obtained at 15 Wt.% particulate reinforcements. The results of the physical tests show that the water absorption increases as the weight percentage of the particulate reinforcement increases and the same condition also holds for the density
A Macroeconomic Analysis of Agricultural Sector in Nigeria
Get PDFThis paper attempts to study the Nigerian agriculture industry as a panacea to growth as well as an anchor to the diversification agenda of the present government. To do this, the time series data of the four agriculture subsectors of crop production, livestock, forestry and fishery were analysed as stimulus to the Real GDP from 1981-2016 in order to explicate the individual contributions of the subsectors to the RGDP in order to guide the policy thrust on diversification. Using the Johansen approach to cointegration, all the variables were found to be cointegrated. With the exception of the forestry subsector, all the three subsectors were seen to have impacted on the real GDP at varying degrees during the time under review. The crop production subsector has the highest impact, however, taking size-by-size analysis, the livestock subsector could be of much importance due to its ability to retain its value chain and high investment returns particularly in poultry. Therefore, it is recommended that, the government should intensify efforts to retain the value chain in the crop production subsector, in order to harness its potentials optimally through the encouragement of the establishment of agriculture cottage industries. Secondly, the livestock subsector is found to be the most rapidly growing and commercialized subsector. Therefore, it should be the prime subsector to hinge the diversification agenda naturally. Lastly, the tourism industry which is a source through which the impact of the subsector is channeled to the GDP should be developed, in order to improve the impact of such channel to GDP with the sole objective to resuscitate the forestry subsector
Classroom Management Strategies and Student Learning
Get PDFGreat teachers build great institutions. The teachers who have been playing a central role in human learning and effective teaching are believed to be the shapers of society. Usually, the effectiveness of an instructor is measured on the basis of the performance of his pupil. There exist many factors which affect the performance of the class. Classroom management is one of the important factors which matters a lot in the process of student learning. Classroom management can be considered as an art which varies from teacher to teacher i.e. every teacher has a unique style of managing his class but still there exist some general classroom practices. In this article, the emphasis is given on some of the general classroom management practices, following which can enhance the effectiveness of student learning
Comparative Proximate Composition of Maize (Zea mays L.) Varieties Grown in South-western Nigeria
Get PDFMaize, a highly cultivated multipurpose cereal has different varieties grown globally. Six majorly known varieties (Hybrid red solo- V1, Red solo- V2, Solo- V3, Popcorn- V4, Small white- V5 and Big white- V6) found in south-western Nigeria were purposefully selected because of their abundance across the region and were analyzed for their proximate composition. Their composition of different nutrients varied; % crude fat was significantly higher in V5 (4.25%), V4 had a significantly higher % ash content of 1.93%, % crude protein ranged from 9.32% – 15.75%, V2 had a significantly low % crude fibre of 0.86%, while V1 had a significantly higher % carbohydrate content of 74.40%. Knowledge of the levels of nutrients present in the different varieties will help in choosing the variety that can suit any intended purpose. V6 (Big white) seems to be the most preferable for human and animal consumption because of its significantly high content in protein and crude fibre coupled with a considerably high fat content