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Poor colonization of hives by African honeybees is one of the constraints facing the beekeeping sector. This study aimed to determine the influence of some hive cover modifications on the colonization of African honeybees in Awka. The hive covers of top bar hives were modified by insulating them with different materials and grouped into four treatments, namely: T1 (plywood), T2 (warped boards), T3 (polyvinyl chloride ceiling material), and T4 (foam). At various months, data on the ambient microclimate (temperature and relative humidity) and the number of hives colonized per treatment were collected. The colonization rate was highest in treatment 1 (100%), followed by treatment 2 (33.33%) while treatments 3 and 4 (0.00%) had the least. Hive treatments did not significantly affect the colonization of honeybees (p = 0.09). Treatment 1 colonized in the months of July, October, and November, while that of Treatment 2 occurred in December. Months had significant effect on the mean colonization of African honeybees (p

The purpose of this research was to find out the growth performance of albino rats orally administered with honey from Apis mellifera adansonii and refined granulated sugar at varying quantities. Twenty-five (25) healthy albino rats used in the study were grouped into five treatments based on the dose of natural honey and granulated sugar as follow: T1 (1.02g of honey kg BW), T2 (1.40g of honey kg BW), T3 (1.02g of granulated sugar kg BW), and T4 (1.40g of granulated sugar kg BW). However, rats in T5 were not administered honey and refined granulated sugar hence served as the control. The data on fructose and micronutrients concentrations of natural honey and refined sugar as well as data on the weight gain and feed intake of the albino rats were determined after 28 days. According to the findings of this study, the fructose concentration was higher in natural honey (195.78mg/ml) while refined sugar (30.225mg/ml) recorded the least value. Also, copper (0.15ppm) and manganese (0.05ppm) had the highest mean concentration in natural honey, while iron (0.04ppm) and zinc (0.07ppm) were higher in refined sugar. The study's findings revealed that the highest feed intake by albino rat was recorded in T1 (148.16g) while T5 (140.27g) had the least. There were no significant differences in albino rat feed intake among the five treatments (p>0.05). The highest weight gain was recorded by the albino rat in T1 (69.84g) while T5 (32.28g) had the least. There were no significant differences in the weight gain of the albino rats among the five treatments. This study's findings led to the conclusion that the doses of natural honey used did not significantly increase the weight gain of albino rats.

This paper is devoted to study the buckling response of axially compressed rectangular thick plate based on the exact polynomial potential functional. The governing and equilibrium equation of an isotropic plate was derived based on the three-dimensional (3-D) static theory of elasticity, to get the relations between the rotations and deflection. These equations are solved in the form of polynomial analytically to obtain the exact displacements and stresses that are induced due to uniaxial compressive load action on the plate. By incorporating deflection and rotation function into the fundamental equation and minimized with respect to deflection coefficient, a new expression of the determination of the critical buckling load was established. This expression was applied to solve the buckling problem of a clamped thick rectangular plate which was simply supported at the first and freely supported at the third edge (SCFC). A graphic representation of results showed that, as the aspect ratio of the plate increases, the value of critical buckling load decreases while as critical buckling load increases as the length to breadth ratio increases. This implies that an increase in plate width increases the chance of failure in a plate structure. This theory obviates the numerical approximations in the thickness direction thereby guaranteeing accuracy in the solution of the displacement along the direction of thickness axis of the plate, hence, a significant lessening of the cost of computation.

SETTING: In July 2019, the Anambra State (south-east Nigeria) TB Control Programme implemented the integration of TB case-finding with the polio vaccination campaign with the support of the WHO. OBJECTIVE: To improve TB case-finding from communities leveraging already existing polio structures. DESIGN: Vaccination teams were trained to ask for symptoms of TB in each household and to document details of people presumed to have TB. Community TB workers subsequently tracked those identified for subsequent sample collection. We report the numbers detected, and the proportion of wards that reported people with TB. Regression analyses were used to estimate the relationship between ward characteristics and reporting. Odds ratios (ORs) with associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) are also reported. RESULTS: Of 281 people with presumptive TB, 32 were diagnosed with TB; 21% (70/330) of wards identified at least one presumptive, while 5% (18/330) of the people were identified with TB. Peri-urban slums were most likely to identify presumptives (adjusted OR [aOR] 11.52, 95% CI 1.62–81.79), while Riverine areas were most likely to identify a person with TB (aOR 3.59, 95% CI 1.16–11.01). CONCLUSION: Integrating community TB case-finding into house-to-house vaccination campaigns can boost case detection. This approach proved effective in areas perennially underserved by routine healthcare services.

In this paper, direct variational calculus was put into practical use to analyses the three dimensional (3D) stability of rectangular thick plate which was simply supported at all the four edges (SSSS) under uniformly distributed compressive load. In the analysis, both trigonometric and polynomial displacement functions were used. This was done by formulating the equation of total potential energy for a thick plate using the 3D constitutive relations, from then on, the equation of compatibility was obtained to determine the relationship between the rotations and deflection. In the same way, governing equation was obtained through minimization of the total potential energy functional with respect to deflection. The solution of the governing equation is the function for deflection. Functions for rotations were obtained from deflection function using the solution of compatibility equations. These functions, deflection and rotations were substituted back into the energy functional, from where, through minimizations with respect to displacement coefficients, formulas for analysis were obtained. In the result, the critical buckling loads from the present study are higher than those of refined plate theories with 7.70%, signifying the coarseness of the refined plate theories. This amount of difference cannot be overlooked. However, it is shown that, all the recorded average percentage differences between trigonometric and polynomial approaches used in this work and those of 3D exact elasticity theory is lower than 1.0%, confirming the exactness of the present theory. Thus, the exact 3D plate theory obtained, provides a good solution for the stability analysis of plate and, can be recommended for analysis of any type of rectangular plates under the same loading and boundary condition. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-01-05 Full Text: PDF

In this work, a new 3-D modified trigonometric displacement model was used to study the structural behavior and bending analysis of rectangular thick plate which was clamped in one edge and other three edges simply supported. The theoretical model whose formulation is based on static elastic principle as already reported in the literature are presented herein, obviating the shear correction coefficients while considering shear deformation effect and transverse normal strain/stress in the analysis. The equilibrium equations are obtained using 3-D kinematic and constitutive relations. An exact solution of deflection and rotation are obtained from the equilibrium equation using the general variational principle. The minimization, energy equation yields the general equation which was used to obtain the 3-D trigonometric displacement model of the plate. The percentage difference between the present work and those of 2-D Refined Plate Theory (RPT) with an assumed displacement and 2-D Refined plate theory (RPT) with derived function is 1.43% and 5.15% respectively. More so, percentage difference between the present work and those using polynomial shape function is 3.29%. The result showed that the 3-D trigonometric model for the present work predicts the vertical displacement and the stresses more accurately than RPT and polynomial displacement model. It is concluded that the 3-D trigonometric model gives an exact solution unlike polynomial and can be used with confidence in the analysis of thick plate under the particular initial condition.

In this study, the rate of seepage flow through the dam was investigated using both experimental and numerical modeling techniques. Two different types of soil samples were collected at a depth of 1m from the Auchi site in Edo State, Nigeria. The soil samples were subjected to preliminary tests such as the sieve analysis, the limit state (liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index), and the specific gravity test. Notable differences in the Geotechnical properties of two samples of soils were observed. The sieve analysis indicated that the particles passing through a 200-sieve number of size 0.075mm were 14.32% and 13.48% respectively. The liquid limit of sample 1 and sample 2 was determined to be 35% and 30%, the plastic limit 20.5% and 24.3%, the plasticity index 14.5% and 5.7% and the specific gravity of the two samples 2.63 and 2.65 respectively. Shear test was conducted to obtain the bearing capacity of soil using Terzaghi principle thereafter, the finite element analysis was used by applying SEEP/W of the Geo Studio program to determine the rate of flow of seepage through the dam. The result of the analysis showed that earthen dam without considering the core gave 12% difference in the seepage through the earthen material, the core of hydraulic conductivity 10 times less than that of the homogenous material gave 19.06% percentage difference seepage rate of flow with consideration of core with k 10 times less than homogenous material and the core of hydraulic conductivity 100 times less results gave 17.86% percentage difference for core of k 100 times less than homogenous material. Recommendations were made based on these results to reduce the rate of flow of seepage through the dam.

This work studied the critical load analysis of rectangular plates, carrying uniformly distributed loads utilizing direct variational energy calculus. The aim of this study is to establish the techniques for calculating the critical lateral imposed loads of the plate before deflection attains the specified maximum threshold, qiw as well as its corresponding critical lateral imposed load before the plate reaches an elastic yield point. The formulated potential energy by the static elastic theory of the plate was minimized to get the shear deformation and coefficient of deflection. The plates under consideration are clamped at the first and second edges, free of support at the third edge and simply supported at the fourth edge (CCFS). From the numerical analysis obtained, it is found that the critical lateral imposed loads (qiw and qip) increase as the thickness (t) of plate increases, and decrease as the length to width ratio increases. This suggests that as the thickness increases, the allowable deflection improves the safety of the plate, whereas an increase in the span (length) of the plate increases the failure tendency of the plate structure.

The emergence of the fourth industrial revolution is perceived to have profound effects on many spheres of society. Such effects within the business environment are anticipated to be radical digitalised changes in the production process posing challenges for enterprises. Given the contribution of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to the nation's development, these institutions are engulfed in challenges detrimental to their growth. Specifically, for a transforming economy such as South Africa, the article provides insight into the growth determinants, and various internal and external challenges facing SMMEs in readiness for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). The article is a descriptive study and adopted a quantitative research approach. A sample of 155 was drawn from a target population of 264 using a disproportional-stratified sampling technique. The results of the study suggest varying degrees of effects of internal and external factors to the business environment with factors pointing at market share, investment in technology, high taxes, and high competition. The article concludes by suggesting shared business strengths for the growth of SMMEs. It provides insightful information on the state of SMMEs in South Africa and proposes a framework for policy makers aimed at repositioning SMMEs to tackle the anticipated challenges with the advent of the 4IR.

Ecological impact of improper disposal of growing agricultural waste is huge. These low cost, renewable, and biodegradable materials can be utilized in production of eco-friendly polymer composite. However, further property enhancement can be achieved by hybridization. This work evaluated the feasibility of enhancing the properties of Bambara nut shell particulate (BNSp) reinforced polyester composite by incorporation of clay. Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 23.98 MPa was recorded for the hybrid composite of 3 wt% clay + 12 wt% BNSp compared to 19.86 MPa for 12wt% BNSp polymer composite. DMA analysis showed a damping factor of 0.586 at 89.51 °C for 3 wt% clay + 12 wt% BNSp composite. Clay addition modifies and improves the properties of agro-waste reinforced polymer composites with clay/BNSp/polyester composite exhibiting higher mechanical properties compared to the BNSp reinforced polyester composite due to the ability of the clay to insert themselves between the layers of the polyester matrix. This work also showed that Bambara nut is a potential low-cost filler material for polymer composites and can be used in areas requiring medium strength but lightweight materials.

Conservation laws and symmetries of partial differential equations (PDEs) are very useful in finding new methods for reducing PDEs. In this paper, we study the conservation laws and symmetries of a class of a famous fourth-order Kuramoto Sivashinsky (KS) equation. The invariance properties of the conserved vectors with the Lie point symmetry generators are examined using the Double reduction method. With the Double reduction method, the equation is reduced into solvable PDEs or even ordinary differential equations. Some of these reductions yielded some important differential equations that have been investigated by many reseachers. Furthermore, we obtain important and nontrivial solution in terms of generalized Hypergeometric function which possesses significant features in evolution phenomena. Our results not only contributed extra features to the already existing solutions in literature but are also useful in the analysis of wave propagation in plasma, solid state and fluid physics.

Aims: Selection of a suitable solvent is important and utilized in the extraction of desirable chemical components in medicinal plants. Study Design: Chemical analysis of various extracts of Leea guineensis leaves using standard analytical procedures. Place and Duration of Study: Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, between March 2019 and August 2019. Methodology: Leaves of Leea guineensis were extracted with six solvents categorized into polar (Acetone, Methanol and Aqueous) and non-polar (Ethyl acetate, Hexane and Chloroform) types using cold maceration method, the qualitative and quantitative phytochemical assay was done on the respective extracts using the standard methods. Results: Phytochemical screening of the non-polar solvent extract revealed the presence of flavonoids, alkaloids and saponins for all the solvents, while tannin was present only in ethyl acetate extract. For the polar solvent extracts, all the secondary metabolites determined were present except terpenoids and phlobatanins. In the quantitative test, alkaloid levels ranged from 1.31-38.25 mg/100 g, saponin: 2.01-14.35 mg/100 g, flavonoids: 1.10-6.25 mg/100 g, Tannin: ND-4.62 mg/100 g, terpenoids: ND-1.02 mg/100 g, cardiac glycosides: ND-0.84 mg/100 g, Anthraquinone: ND-2.58 mg/100 g and phlobatanins: ND-0.95. The results obtained for each of the phytochemicals are significantly different (p

The paper examines the role cluster initiative management can play for women entrepreneurs in small medium enterprises in the South African informal sector economy as forms of employment. It looks ...

The biological wastewater treatment processes include bioremediation of wastewater which involves aerobic treatment and anaerobic treatment, phytoremediation of wastewater and mycoremediation of wastewater using technologies such as activated sludge and biofilm systems. On the other hand, the chemical wastewater treatment processes include chemical precipitation, ion exchange, neutralization, adsorption and disinfection. Therefore, this chapter intends to provide a detailed information on the treatment of effluent waste and sewage sludge with respect to its associated microorganisms and transport activities. In a bid to achieve this, this chapter will address the various biological waste treatment processes in relation to the activities or role of microorganisms. Due to the convolute interface interaction between microbes and material surfaces, the critical review will also entail taking a cue from microbial transport in alluvial streams in order to understand the microbial transport in effluent waste (liquid) and sewage sludge (solid).

Adolescents living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are struggling with accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, and COVID-19 has escalated the problem. The purpose of this review was to identify and assess the existing literature on the impact of the pandemic on SRH needs and access to services by adolescents in LMICs. A scoping review was conducted to collate findings on the topic. Searches were performed on eight databases. Data were extracted and categorized into various themes. After removing duplicates and performing a full-text reading of all articles, nine articles were included in our review. Our findings generated several themes related to adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include (1) limited access to sexual and reproductive health services, (2) school closure and increased rate of early marriages, (3) sexual or intimate partner violence during COVID-19, (4) disruption in maternity care, (5) adolescents’ involvement in risky or exploitative work, (6) intervention to improve sexual and reproductive health services during COVID-19, and (7) policy development related to adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Several recommendations were made on policies—for instance, the use of telemedicine and community-based programs as a way to deliver SRH services to adolescents during and after a pandemic.

Heterotopic pregnancy, coexistence of living or dead intrauterine pregnancy, single or multiple, with extra-uterine pregnancy located in the oviduct, ovary, uterine cornua, cervix or rarely peritoneal cavity. Heterotropic pregnancy is relatively uncommon in spontaneous conception with 1 in 30,000 cases reported, the incidence of heterotopic pregnancy increases to 1 in 3900 when conception is enhanced with various assisted reproduction techniques (ART). It is an ectopic pregnancy coexisting with intrauterine pregnancy. But is the incidence of heterotropic pregnancy rising? A case was reported from our centre in 2018 by Ejikeme et al, and we have recorded another two cases in the period of one year. Ectopic pregnancy has been described as a great masquerader, which makes diagnosis and management of heterotropic pregnancy a dilemma to attending physician. We present a case of an unbooked 26 years old G4P3+0 who has no family history of multiple gestation and presented at gestational age of 8 weeks and 5 days with 2 days history of abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding and 2 hours history of loss of consciousness. She later had exploratory laparotomy with left salpingectomy and manual vacuum aspiration of Retained Products of Conception with good outcome. In conclusion, spontaneous heterotropic pregnancy is a rare occurrence, however with advent of artificial reproductive technology and increase incidence of pelvic inflammatory disease, the incidence could be higher than earlier suspected.

An experimental investigation on the hydraulic transport of sand particles in pipelines is presented in both horizontal and 30° upward inclined orientations. The pipe, with an internal diameter of 0.0254 m, had sand transported in various water superficial velocities at low and high sand concentrations [0.1%–10% volume-to-volume ratio (v/v)]. Sand particles were polydisperse (144–250 μm) with a

It has been discovered that the production of cost-effective biofuels most especially from renewable material is the only dependable solution that could resolve climate change, transportation sector, and energy security. There are several disadvantages alluded to the utilization of petroleum diesel which include the high cost of production and the various hazards which affect our healthy environment and human health. The discovery and the production of fatty acid methyl esters microorganisms that are oleaginous in nature have been discovered as the only sustainable solution that could serve as a permanent replacement to all the adverse effects and challenges encountered during the production of petroleum. This chapter intends to provide comprehensive details about the recent trends on the production of biodiesel as a safe, eco-friendly, economical, and sustainable biofuel. Moreover, the application of biotechnology such as genetic engineering, strain improvement, recent advancement in fermentation, optimization, and production were discussed in detail. Some recent strategies used in structural biology that could led to increase in the yield of biodiesel were discussed in detail such as synthetic scaffolds, knockout/knockdown of competitive pathways, types of plasmids and its copy numbers, enhancement of ribosome binding sites, promoter engineering, modification of key enzymes, directed evolution, and codon optimization. Also, we discussed extensively on the current trends and principle that regulates the metabolomics engineering of diverse microorganisms that have the potential to produce biodiesel.

Previous research work has shown that sand production with hydrocarbons has helped to increase the productivity of oil wells. However, this poses difficulties during shut down and start-up operations due to sand deposition and are aggravated when the pipelines are undulating. The hilly-terrain geometry of pipelines strongly affects multiphase flow regimes hence the need to study sand transport characteristics as it is vital in efficient pipeline design. The aim of this research work is to experimentally investigate the flow hydrodynamics that exist during sand transport in multiphase flow at different sand concentration. A 2-inch dip facility which consists of a downhill pipeline section, a lower elbow (dip) and an uphill pipeline at inclination angles of 24° is used in the study. Extensive data were collected and analysed from continuous measurement of instantaneous liquid and sand hold up using conductivity rings and flow visualisation using a high speed camera. Results show that five different flow patterns were obtained from the sand-water test both via visual observation and from the conductivity rings data namely: full suspension, streak, saltation, sand dunes and sand bed. The knowledge of flow at minimum transport condition and full suspension establishes the erosion rate over the life span of the pipeline. In contrast, the sand holdup measurement and sand dune regime which was uniquely identified using the conductivity ring method would help overcome the limitation of sand measurement in pipeline. Also, the Sand-Air-Water experiment carried out shows the influence of the pipe geometry and multiphase flow regimes on sand transport in multiphase transport pipelines.

Producing sand during oil and gas production is unavoidable. Sand is produced along with oil and gas and its deposition in pipelines is a significant risk as it can cause pipe corrosion and flow assurance difficulties. It is therefore key that flow conditions are sustained to guarantee lack of deposition of sand particles. The minimum combination of mixture velocities that guarantee continuous sand motion is known as the minimum transport condition (MTC). Here, we investigate the effect both of sand concentration and particle diameter on MTC in a horizontal pipeline in the stratified flow regime. Non-intrusive conductivity probes were utilised for the detection of sand. These sensors are commonly used for the measurement of film thickness in gas and liquid flows, but we demonstrate their use here for sand detection after suitable calibration. It was observed that at the ultra-low sand concentrations of our experiments, MTC increases with both sand particle diameter and concentration. We developed a new correlation based on Thomas's lower model but included a sand concentration correction term that also applies at low particle concentrations. The correlation's predictions compared favourably with our measurements at MTC as well as data obtained from the open literature at medium concentrations.

Slug translational velocity, described as the velocity of slug units, is the summation of the maximum mixture velocity in the slug body and the drift velocity. Accurate estimation of this parameter is important for energy-efficient design of oil and gas pipelines. A survey of the literature revealed that existing prediction models of this parameter were developed based on observation from low viscosity liquids (of 1 Pa.s or less). However, its behaviour in pipes transporting higher viscosity oils is significantly different. In this research work, new data for slug translational velocity in high-viscosity oil-gas flows are reported. Scaled experiments were carried out using a mixture of air and Mineral oil of viscosity ranging from 0.7 to 6.0 Pa.s in a 17-m long horizontal pipe of 0.0762 m ID. Temperature dependence of the oil's viscosity is given as μ=−0.0043T3+0.0389T2−1.4174T+18.141. The slug translational velocity was measured by means two pairs of two fast-sampling Gamma Densitometers with a sampling frequency of 250 Hz. For the range of experimental flow conditions investigated, increase in liquid oil viscosity was observed to strongly influence slug translational velocity. A new predictive correlation incorporating the effect of viscosity on slug translational velocity was derived using the current dataset and incorporating those obtained in literature with oil viscosity ranging from 0.189–6.0 Pa.s for horizontal flow. A comparison by statistical analysis and validation and of the new closure relationship showed a remarkably improved performance over existing correlations.

Consistent economic downturns, political uprisings, and social upheavals from the 1980s have significantly depleted the quality of higher education in Africa, particularly graduate training. While remarkable strides in graduate training have been made in countries such as South Africa relative to other parts of the continent, policy and funding challenges continue to threaten the quality of students and programs. Over the past two decades, new forms of institutional collaborations aimed at revamping graduate training in sub-Saharan Africa have emerged. Debates on how to revamp the higher education system are ongoing among scholars, policymakers, administrators, and funders, but minimal attention is paid to the students’ voices, particularly women’s that speak to the dire conditions under which graduate training is carried out. To spur more discussion about this gap in literature, we conducted focus group discussions with female graduate students in four higher education institutions in Nigeria and South Africa. Our participants identified five major challenges that graduate students often wrestle with: financial challenges, limited sources of and dated curricular materials, institutional infrastructure and program logistics, academic supervision, and gender relations among students as well as between students and scholars. These challenges, our participants assert, often place female graduate students in a more vulnerable position than their male counterparts. Our findings, though preliminary, point to the need to actively engage students, especially women, in academic debates and initiatives aimed at improving graduate training in Africa.

Slug flow is one of the most critical and often encountered flow patterns in the oil and gas industry. It is characterised by intermittency which results in large fluctuations in liquid holdup and pressure gradient. A proper understanding of its parameters (such as slug holdup) is essential in the design of transport facilities (e.g. pipelines) and process equipment (slug catchers, separators etc.). In this paper, experimental investigation of slug liquid holdup (defined as the liquid volume fraction in the slug body of a slug unit) is performed. Mineral oil with viscosity, μ = − 0.0043 T 3 + 0.0389 T 2 − 1.4174 T + 18.141 and air were used as test fluids. A 0.0254 m and 0.0762 m pipe internal diameters facilities with pipe lengths of 5.5 and 17 m respectively were used in the study. Electrical Capacitance Tomography was used for slug holdup measurements. Results obtained in the study shows that slug liquid holdup varied directly as the viscosity and inversely as the gas input fraction. Existing slug holdup correlations and models in literature did not sufficiently predict present experimental results. A new empirical predictive correlation for estimating slug liquid holdup was derived from present experimental databank and from data obtained in literature. The databank's liquid viscosity ranges from 0.189 to 8.0 Pa s. Statistical analysis of the new correlation vis-a-vis existing ones showed that the present correlation gave the best performance with an average percent error, E1; absolute average percent error, E2 and standard deviation, E3 of 0.001, 0.05 and 0.07 respectively, when tested on the high viscosity liquid–gas databank.

Lassa fever is one of the animal-borne diseases that is affecting people in some of the West Africa countries. A mathematical model for dynamics of Lassa fever is formulated. It is assumed that individuals in the population comprises of two socio-economic classes (lower and higher socio-economic class). The significant features of the model are determined and analyzed accordingly. The effects of the control measures such as treatment, external protection, and rodent control are determined and their epidemiological implications discussed.

Typhoid fever is one of the diseases that is affecting humanity globally especially in the developing countries where access to clean environment and food are limited. We formulate a dynamical system model to study the effects of multiple control measures (i.e, vaccination, treatment and environmental sanitation) in mitigating typhoid fever disease. The qualitative analysis of our model was carried out accordingly. The impact of introducing the control measures were estimated using appropriate mathematical analysis and numerical simulations.