Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research

10-16

Authors: Igwebuike JU, Medugu CI, Kwari ID, Augustine C, Peter J, Bashir IM

A total of one hundred and eighty (180) two weeks old broiler chickens were used for 49 days feeding trial to investigate the effects of Moringa leaf powder (MOLP and Baobab leaf powder (BLP) to replace commercial premix on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and carcass characteristics. Six (6) experimental diets designated as treatments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were formulated. T1 contained (0.30% synthetic premix), T2 (0.15% synthetic premix + 0.15% MOLP), T3 (0.15% synthetic premix + 0.15% BLP), T4 (0.15% MOLP + 0.15% BLP), T5 (0.30% MOLP) and T6 (0.30% BLP). The chickens were randomly allotted to the six (6) treatments and each treatment consisted of 30 chickens which were replicated thrice with 10 chickens per replicate in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Result obtained revealed that, final live weight, total weight gain and total feed intake were significantly (P<0.05) different among treatment groups with the exception of feed conversion ratio. Highest final liveweight, total weight gain and total feed intake were observed in T3. Similarly, significant (P<0.05) differences were observed in nutrient digestibility’s among all the treatments. Carcass and organs weight showed no significant (P>0.05) differences in all the treatment groups. Numerically however, final live weight, slaughter weight, plucked weight, dressed weight and dressing percentage were higher in T3. It can be concluded that MOLP and BLP can completely be used to replace commercial premix in broiler chickens diets without adverse effects on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and carcass components.

24-30

Authors: Enwuso A. Igwe, Captain G. Ottos

Current practices in the design of bituminous paving mixtures require a compromise between the properties of asphalt paving mixture. Properties of particular interest to the highway or pavement engineer are stability, flexibility, tensile strength, stiffness, fatigue and skid resistance. All of these properties help to define the overall durability of the pavement which is of paramount interest in design of bituminous mixtures – bituminous pavement. The present study investigated the use of hydro carbon fillers obtained from recycled polyethylene wastes (RPEW) to increase durability of bituminous pavements submerged in water. The study was simulated in the laboratory by submerging bituminous concrete mixtures resembling bituminous pavements in the field and studied the impact of the RPEW on the submerged concretes. Results obtained revealed that addition of RPEW to these concretes increased retained strength of the concretes (RSI). Finally, the addition of RPEW to the concretes reduced the loss of stability/strength in the concretes using both first durability and second durability indexes. In general, the reduction in loss of stability/strength implied increased durability.

44-55

Authors: Reza Chabock, Mohammad Ali Riahi, Mahmoud Memariani

Description of the reservoir characteristics is one of the most important topics in petroleum engineering. Petrophysics is the study of the rock properties and its interaction with fluids. Petrophysical interpretation describes laboratory techniques to investigate data and measurements inside the well in order to infer the reservoir properties such as shale volume (Vsh), porosity (Ø), permeability (K), the net to gross thickness of reservoir (net / gross), water saturation (Sw) and determination of the productive zone (pay zone). In this paper, these parameters have been calculated for one of the oil reservoirs in south west of Iran. Multimin is the method which was used to conduct this study. After acquiring the data and making corrections on the data the logs were interpreted using statistical method of multimin which is a powerful interpretation technique. This method has been chosen because of its advantages compared to the determine method. In the determine method, interpretation is step by step and the results of each step will affect the results of the next step. Whereas, in Multimin method the whole unknowns (shale volume, porosity, etc.) can be calculated simultaneously. The core analysis for lithology confirms the Multimin analysis. According to the results for the average porosity and average permeability were 0.3 and 13.25 md respectively.

67-72

Authors: Fu Dong

Through analysis of factors affecting spontaneous combustion in close distance coal seam, the evaluation hierarchy model of coal spontaneous combustion in near distance seams is established by applying the basic principle of analytic hierarchy process (AHP),the speed of working face is the primary factor affecting the coal spontaneous combustion, followed by coal seam spacing, the interlayer pressure difference and geological structure, the active choice for mine coal spontaneous combustion prevention measures.

83-91

Authors: John Chibunna Babington, Chamhuri Siwar, Rawshan Ara Begum, Ahmad Fariz Mohamed, Ezerie Henry Ezechi

This study investigated the influence of various independent (explanatory) variables on the e-waste awareness level of consumers. A logistic regression model was used to evaluate the impact of the independent variables on e-waste awareness level among employees and students of UKM. Two sets of independent variables were applied to two categories of consumers (employees and students). The independent (explanatory) variables for the employee category were income, academic qualification, age, job position, faculty/institute and residence whereas faculty/institute, residence, program of study, opinion on e-waste collection and recycling and perception on repair and refurbishment of personal EEEs were the independent (explanatory) variables for the student category. The finding of the model shows that academic qualification (X2) and job position (X4) were significantly related with the employees’ awareness on e-waste with a p-value of 0.01 respectively. In the student category, the results of logistic regression show that students’ opinion on e-waste collection and recycling (X4) was significantly related to student awareness with a coefficient of 1.3. The results of the logistic regression for both categories have shown the independent variables that influences consumer e-waste awareness in UKM. These results can serve as a basis for further improvement on e-waste awareness in UKM.

99-110

Authors: S. Suleiman, M.S. Burodo, Issa Suleman

The research paper deals with credit scoring in banking system, using First Bank of Nigeria (FBN), plc as case study. The aim of this study was to improve the predictive power of binary logistic Regression models using principal components as input for predicting applicant status (i.e. Creditworthy or Non- creditworthy) for the new applicant (customer). The developed model was compared with binary logistic regression models. Performance indicator such as Prediction Accuracy (PA), Nagelkerke R Square (R2), Index of Agreement (IA), Normalised Absolute Error (NAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) were used to measure the accuracy of the models. Results showed that the use of principal component as inputs improved Binary logistic regression models prediction by reducing their complexity and eliminating data co-linearity. Based on eigenvalues over six factors were retained. The factors accounted for 72.4 percent of the variance. The combination of items with loadings greater than 0.40 were considered as separate between important and less important factors.

116-127

Authors: Abbaz T, Bendjeddou A, Villemin D

Density functional theory calculation with B3LYP using 6-31G(d,p) basis set have been used to determine ground state molecular geometries. The first order hyperpolarizability (β0) and related properties (β, α0 and Δα) of pyrazino-fused TTFs 1-4 is calculated using B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) method on the finite-field approach. The stability of molecule has been analyzed by using NBO/NLMO analysis. Molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) surface was plotted over the geometry primarily for predicting sites and relative reactivities towards electrophilic and nucleophilic attack. The delocalization of electron density of various constituents of the molecule has been discussed with the aid of NBO analysis. The electronic properties, such as excitation energies, HOMO and LUMO energies, were calculated bysame method cited above.

137-148

Authors: Anietie N. Okon, Daniel T. Olagunju, Julius U. Akpabio

In the petroleum industry, most active bottom-water drive reservoirs are completed strategically to handle produced water problems that may arise during the production of oil and gas. The water production may come in the form of a tongue, cone, cusp or a combination of all depending on the location, magnitude and direction of water movement. Thus, several attenuation methods have been developed to circumvent excessive water production as a result of water coning. Among these methods are selective water plugging, chemical shut-off, horizontal wells, downhole oil-water separation (DOWS) technology, etc. Recently, studies on DOWS technology have put forward two completions methods, namely, downhole water sink (DWS) and downhole water loop (DWL). Both completions approaches have mitigated water coning tendencies and improved oil recovery in bottom-water drive reservoirs. For DWS technology, the challenges of high cost of lifting fluids (i.e. oil and water) and handling huge volume of produced water at the surface is a concern. The DWL technology seems to surmount these limitations of the DWS technology, but lacks successful field application history unlike its DWS counterpart. Additionally, DWS completion is effective in large and active bottom-water (aquifer) while DWL completion is effective in both large and small aquifer with large reserves. Thus, oil companies should implement DWL completion as water coning control techniques to justify its theoretical robustness over DWS completion.

156-159

Authors: I. Kocaman, H. C. Kurc, C. B. Sisman

This study was carried out in order to determine the climatic project criteria related to planning of animal production facilities in Thrace part of Istanbul Province depending on different seasons. As a result of the study, it was found that the project outdoor temperature could be taken as 1.0 oC for winter season and 26.6 oC for summer season. Also project indoor temperature could be taken as 13.0 oC for winter season and 25 oC for summer season. While, 95.6 % and 84.1% of outdoor relative humidity were recommended for winter and summer seasons respectively, 75 % and 80 % of indoor relative humidity were suggested for winter and summer seasons respectively.

168-174

Authors: İlhan Kocaarslan, Mehmet Taciddin Akçay

Electrification system of a railway is designed with regard to some design parameters. While the electrification system is designed, the minimum voltage rating required by the traction force in the course of operation needs to be provided. The maximum value of the voltage drop occurring on the line determined by the distance of traction power centers. This value needs to be kept within certain limits for the continuity of the operation. In this study, analysis of electrical and operational effects of the supply voltage specification together with the Comparison of 750 V and 1500 V DC option was researched. The minimum catenary voltage value was calculated for 750 V and 1500 V option and the results were compared for a railway line. The loss of a transformer station and the loss off two near substations that affects the vehicle traffic especially studied.

180-192

Authors: Shawki A. Abouel-seoud, Mohamed N. Mansy, Mohamed I. Khalil, Ahmed A. Abdel-hamed

Vehicle bi-fuel petrol engine condition diagnosis is very important for reducing the downtime, maintenance cost; and improving the safety, reliability, and lifespan of the engines. The present work reports the results concluded by long term experiments to a defected vehicle bi-fuel petrol engine system, with the reduction of the lubricant oil level of 50 % is considered as a fault. . For 100% and 50% lubricant oil levels, recordings every 30.0 min were acquired and a total of 7 recordings (~ 3.0 h of test duration) were resulted until the termination of the test. 50% lubricant oil levels fault is assured by increasing the test period to the point of where the engine condition has enough wear and friction to be in the plastic deformation region. An experimental procedure is developed to assess the severity of the bi-engine condition fault. The bi-engine in its two fuel phases with lubricant oil level of 50% (fault) was tested under accelerated fault conditions, where a comparative analysis of condition monitoring indicators for various faults detection has been done. The experimental localized fault residual (difference between 100% and 50%) signals (vibration acceleration and emission components signals) in the two phases were subjected to the same diagnostic indicators such as RMS, spectral kurtosis, skewness and crest factor. The results look promising, where the RMS value analysis could be a good indicator when compared with the other indicators in terms of early detection and characterization of faults.

203-209

Authors: Serap Akdemir

Properties of the ambient conditions in cold storage are very important for cold stored products. The homogeneity of storage environment conditions increases the storage time of stored products. The differences between the ambient temperature and relative humidity values were measured for different Y axis and levels (top, medium, base) for empty cold store with chiller unit. Spatial variability was tried to be determined at different levels. According to the results; mean temperature and relative humidity was measured as 2.82oC and 87.86% for top, 2.81oC and 88.24% for middle level and 2.82oC and 87.93% for base level in the empty cold storage. There isn’t big differences between levels in the experimental cold store with chiller. All the results showed that distribution of the ambient temperature and relative humidity were less than the conventional cold stores which has evaporative cooling system.

218-227

Authors: Ashour NE, Mostafa EAM, Saleh MMS, Heiba SAA, Haiba AAA

The aim of this experiment was to evaluate two seeded semi-dry female date palms grown under El Wadi El Gedeed governorate comparing with the commercial cultivar namely Sewi. The obtained results reveal that, Sewi date palm recorded the highest value of vegetative parameters such as height and girth of trunk and leaf length. Also, the same cultivar produced the highest value of fruit chemical properties such as TSS%, non-reducing sugars % and total sugars content in both studied seasons. The highest bunch weight (20.3 and 20.0 kg) was recorded from the selected date palm El Wadi (1). The highest yield/palm was recorded with seeded date palm El Wadi (2) since it recorded 200 and 203.3 kg in the first and second seasons, respectively. From the other site, fingerprinting analysis using RAPD has been performed to investigate the phylogenetic relationships among the two seeded female genotypes date-palms grown at El Wadi El Gedeed region with Sewi cultivar. The RAPD-PCR with nine primes detected a total number of 57 fragments, 38 bands of them were polymorphic with a ratio of 66.67% out of them 16 unique bands with a ratio of 28.07%, and 19 bands were monomorphic with a ratio of 33.33%. The genetic variability and relationships among the three accessions of the Egyptian date palms were estimated in the term of similarity using Dice coefficient. The phylogenetic tree revealed high similarity value between El Wadi (2) and Sewi (0.826) while, revealed little value between El Wadi (1) and Sewi cultivar (0.556).

236-267

Authors: Edisson Sávio de Góes Maciel

In the present work, a study involving a spectral method to solve the reactive Euler and Navier-Stokes equations under condition of entry flow in Mars is performed. The Euler and Navier-Stokes equations, in conservative and finite volume contexts, employing structured spatial discretization, are studied. The Van Leer and the Liou and Steffen Jr. schemes are used to perform the numerical experiments. The Euler backward method is applied to march the schemes in time. The spectral method presented in this work employs collocation points and variants of Chebyshev and Legendre interpolation functions are analyzed. The “hot gas” hypersonic flows around a blunt body and around a double ellipse in two-dimensions are simulated. The convergence process is accelerated to steady state condition through a spatially variable time step procedure, which has proved effective gains in terms of computational acceleration (see Maciel). The reactive simulations involve Mars atmosphere chemical model of nine species and fifty-three reactions, based on the Kay and Netter field model. N, O, N2, O2, NO, CO2, C, CO, CN species are used to perform the numerical comparisons. The results have indicated that all Legendre variants of the spectral method predicted the stagnation temperature value with errors inferior to 25.00% for the inviscid case, whereas the Chebyshev variants of the spectral method predicted the stagnation temperature value with errors inferior to 13.00% for the viscous case.

302-339

Authors: Edisson Sávio de Góes Maciel

In the present work, a study involving a spectral method to solve the reactive Euler and Navier-Stokes equations is performed. The Euler and Navier-Stokes equations, in conservative and finite volume contexts, employing structured spatial discretization, on a condition of thermochemical non-equilibrium, are studied. The spectral method presented in this work employs collocation points and variants of Chebyshev and Legendre interpolation functions are analyzed. High-order studies are accomplished to verify the accuracy of the spectral method. The “hot gas” hypersonic flows around a blunt body, around a double ellipse, and around a reentry capsule in two-dimensions are performed. The Van Leer and the Liou and Steffen Jr. flux vector splitting algorithms are applied to execute the numerical experiments. The Euler backward integration method is employed to march the schemes in time. The convergence process is accelerated to steady state condition through a spatially variable time step procedure, which has proved effective gains in terms of computational acceleration (see Maciel). The reactive simulations involve Earth atmosphere chemical model of seven species and eighteen reactions, based on the Blottner model. N, O, N2, O2, NO, NO+, and e- species are used to accomplish the numerical comparisons. The results have indicated that the Chebyshev collocation point variants are more accurate in terms of stagnation pressure estimations. In the inviscid case such errors were inferior to 16.16%, while in the viscous case such errors were inferior to 10.0%. The Legendre collocation point variants are more accurate in terms of the lift coefficient estimations. Moreover, the Legendre collocation point variants are more computationally efficient and cheaper.

346-353

Authors: Sebahattin Kaya, Ramazan Meral, Hasan ER, Hüccet Vural

Evapotranspiration (ET), one of the important components of the hydrological cycle, is called the sum of water losses given to the atmosphere through evaporation from the soil surface and perspiration from the plants. Accurate and reliable estimates of ET in irrigated agriculture are important for the planning and management of irrigation and water resources and for the effective use of water resources. For direct determination of ET, it is necessary to have special tools available and a sound measurement of various physical parameters or the soil-water balance in lysimeters. It is not easy to determine the ET directly because these methods are often expensive and require well trained research staff for measurement. Therefore, it is important to obtain ET by indirect methods. The most common method used in indirect estimation of ET is to correct the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) values with the plant coefficient (Kc). In this method, ETo is calculated for a standard surface using reference parameters and agro-meteorological data, and ET is then multiplied by the appropriate plant coefficient to yield ET. The FAO Penman-Monteith (FAO PM) equation has been proposed as the standard method for the calculation of ETO and requires solar radiation, temperature, humidity and wind speed data. All of these data may not be available in most places. However, in the absence of solar radiation, humidity and wind speed data, ETo can be calculated by different methods such as FAO PM equation from maximum and minimum temperature data. In this research, it was aimed to determine the method that best predicts the mean monthly ETO under the conditions of Erzurum Plain using the monthly mean maximum and minimum temperature data measured at the Erzurum Meteorological Station of Turkish State Meteorological Service for a 15 years period between 1996 and 2010. Calculation of evapotranspiration using maximum and minimum temperature values in FAO PM equation (FAO PMtemp), Hargreaves-Samani (HS) equation and two different models of Hargreaves-Samani equation calibrated locally with linear and non-linear methods (HSlin-adj and HSnonlin-adj) were used as the methods. Based on FAO PM equation, the determination coefficient (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), standard error (SE) and relative error (RE) were used as criteria. The HSnonlin-adj model was the best performing method (R2 = 0.992, RMSE = 0.185 mm day-1, MAE = 0.147 mm day-1, SE = 0.19 mm day-1 and RE = 0.07).

363-368

Authors: Shihab A. Hameed, N. Redha, Mohammed Sh. Ahmed, Ahmed Sh. Ahmed

In this era of IT and mobility, mobile application becomes an essential software application in software industry. Medical and healthcare applications are widely used in human life. With the increasing capabilities of mobile phones, software industry finds it as an important paradigm to develop mobile-health which increased tremendously. Chronic diseases become one of the famous diseases nowadays. It affects many people around the world. This makes people start to miss their comfortable life and may be their ability to perform their job properly. Patients with chronic diseases suffers from providing updated information to the medical doctors, high cost of visiting doctors and treatments, and some of the medical applications are complicated in term of usage. To overcome such weaknesses, this paper offers a suitable solution that can figure out and control the chronic disease. Mobile healthcare application offers updated information for doctors about patients, low cost, user friendly and can be used by different ages and cultures to help them to manage their chronic disease effect or pain. This paper will focus on back pain chronic disease where many people suffer. A prototype is developed to help people controlling their pain by recording or analyzing their pain and sharing their pain records with doctor or physiotherapist. The prototype is allowing chronic people to be energetic by providing them the exercises’ video which can reduce their pain. This will help people to reduce their pains and allowing them to self-manage themselves in order to have a better life.

374-380

Authors: Anas Y. Daou, Yehia. A. Daou

With the growing use of finite element for structural analysis and the importance of satisfying code design criteria, the need for model reliability and proper interpretation cannot be overemphasized. However, there are alarming reports on the potential of computer errors resulting from user inexperience, size and shape of finite elements, other operating system or hardware related errors. Significant errors may also be created due to opening holes. This paper describes the errors that occur in finite element analysis due to several effects such as size and shape of finite elements, size, shape and positions of opening holes in reinforced concrete structures. The variable parameters in this study are the size and shape of finite elements, size and positions of opening holes. The analysis was carried out using finite element software “Ansys”. The problems considered in this study are represented by cantilever shear walls with and without openings. Square and circular shapes located on the center line and near the compression and tension sides were considered. Vertical and horizontal loads were applied to the walls that simulated the gravity and seismic loads in residential buildings with moderate conditions. The effect of size and shape of finite elements, size and positions of opening holes were studied and conclusions in this regard were obtained.

388-393

Authors: Debasree Paul, Subrata Chandra Das, Tarikul Islam, Md. Abu Bakar Siddiquee, Md. Abdullah Al Mamun

The effect of dyeing temperature has been studied on the color strength and color fastness properties of single jersey cotton knitted fabrics dyed with Novacron Red S-B reactive dye (1%) using conventional exhaust dyeing method. Same bath scouring and bleaching are done and conventional exhaust dyeing method employed by IR laboratory sample dyeing machine. Various dyeing temperature such as 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80ºC are used and other parameters are kept fixed. The color strength (K/S), color fastness to washing and color fastness to rubbing are examined and evaluated. It is observed that the value of K/S increases with the increase in temperature from 40ºC to 60ºC and then up to 80ºC the value decreases. The overall color fastness properties to washing and rubbing for the dyed samples range from good to excellent.

401-412

Authors: Mahmoud A. Fouad, Taher Halawa, Amir Ahmed

In this study CFD simulations are conducted on two parts of sloping tunnel to study the effect of slope of tunnels on the smoke management at truck fire taking in consideration that ventilation system is semi-transverse ventilation system, background velocity direction which effects the smoke movement when the direction is in the same direction of tunnel slope or in the opposite direction, ANSYS Fluent program is used to investigate the temperature and velocity variations along tunnel length, the tunnel used to be case study is Dartford west tunnel which its slope is 4 %, the heat released rate (HRR) of the truck fire with flammable loading is 30 MW which is the general case according to PIARC 1999, also truck fire is considered one of the big dangerous fires that may happen in any tunnel, the results shows that the slope of tunnel effects the smoke movement along tunnel length and this effect depends on many parameters such as direction of air and direction of slope if it is up or down, etc.

424-432

Authors: Rocío Ramírez-Ramírez, Guillermo Alfonso De la Torre-Gea

Access to information is a right to request, seek and receive information generated by the public administration, which is considered as one of the main instruments to promote transparency, accountability and citizen participation, the goal is advance in the construction of a society that makes use of its rights and at the same time takes part of its responsibility for the making of decisions. Access to information creates a link between citizens and rulers, so that the former can learn about the actions of their rulers, and for the government to regain the lost confidence of its citizens. The present article to show the findings found when studying the municipalities of the state of Oaxaca through its web pages, analyzing them mainly in the matter of access to information. For this, the municipalities that have a web portal will first be identified, then the type of information will be evaluated, and finally the extent to which such information could be of benefit to the users.

440-444

Authors: K. Essaadaoui, M. Ait El Fqih, M. Idiri, B. Boubeker

In this work, we present a simulation investigation of static finite element of reinforced concrete beam reinforced by carbon fiber reinforced polymer subjected to a load of 500 kN. Preliminary results in term of simulation using a code-program (abaqus) are presented. The material model was simulated in abaqus finite element package and is capable of developing the stress-strain curves. The beam was loaded in three-points. The mechanical properties of the steel and the concrete used in our simulation are obtained from the data of the literature. The results obtained in terms of constraints and displacements are discussed. By this study, we intend to contribute to a better understanding stress-strain by using steel fiber as reinforcement in concrete beam.

450-462

Authors: Eisa E. Hekal, F.S. Hashem, M. Abdel Wahab

The performance of propylene glycol (PG) on the grindability, setting and hardening of Portland (OPC) and Portland-Limestone cements (PLC) was studied. Propylene glycol was added to OPC clinker with percentage ratios; 0, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05 wt.% of the OPC clinker. PLC was made by replacing 5 and 10 wt. % of OPC with limestone. PG offers better grinding aid performance with higher Blaine areas. Besides, presence of PG shows higher water of consistency and lower initial and final setting times. The mechanical properties of mortar specimens made from OPC and PLC admixed with PG were improved especially in the first 7 days. This explained due to increase in the cement fineness which leads to an increase in the degree of cement hydration, as well as to improvement in the interfacial transition zone between the cement paste and sand particles, thus resulting in an enhancement in the strength. DTA and SEM results confirmed the improved properties achieved due to admixing OPC or PLC with PG.

472-476

Authors: Emuedo OA, Omokhafe KO, Ohikhena FU,Uzunuigbe EO, Uwumarongie AMD, Chukwuka AN, Ugiagbe-Ekue U, Omorogbe JA, Ehiwe D

The efficacy of Mortex as a stimulant for latex production in Hevea trees was investigated using NIG 805 clone in the clonal garden of Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria, Iyanomo, Benin City. A total of forty-five (45) trees were used for the experiment; comprising 5 different treatments in three replicates. Each replicate comprised of 3 trees. The investigation spanned a three month period for two consecutive years. Stimulation was done once monthly and tapping done using the ½S, d/3 tapping mode. Data collected include initial volume (volume of latex flow within the first five minutes after tapping), final volume (volume of latex flow two hours after tapping), dry rubber content (DRC) and weight of cup lump. Results were analysed using ANOVA. The result for both years showed a significant difference in the volume of latex produced between trees stimulated with Mortex 50 and Mortex 25. The Mortex 50 stimulated trees produced the highest mean final volume of latex at 184.17ml/tapping/tree, followed by the trees stimulated with Mortex 25 at 119.47ml/tapping/tree. The Mortex 25 stimulated trees gave a higher DRC than Mortex 50, while trees stimulated with Mortex 50 gave a higher cup lump weight. However, it was observed that the control gave the highest DRC.

486-491

Authors: Nwabineli Emmanuel Onochie, Obarezi Jacob Ebe, Ugorji Humble Ihunanya, Nwokoye Ogonna Samuel

This paper discusses the occurrence and search for groundwater at school of Agriculture Mgbakwu, in Anambra State, Nigeria as indicated by result of vertical electrical soundings (VES). The project area lies within Longitudes 7°6’ E -7° 54’E and Latitudes 5°56’N-6 °52’N, and covers an area spread extent of about hundred plots of land within over seven main geological formations. The thickness, lateral extent and transverse resistance of the aquiferous layers were determined by the geoelectrical survey. Water table information from existing boreholes and hand dug wells records were used to compliment the survey. The data acquired was also used in delineating the geoelectric sections. The study was carried out using the Schlumberger electrode configuration. The interpretation of the resistivity curves over the study area within geologic terrain often referred to as sedimentary environment indicates that the area have groundwater potential. The experiment conducted over the area showed a total depth of 580 and 650 feet respectively which corroborated with ground water data acquired from the existing boreholes and hand dug wells in the study area.

503-506

Authors: Musa MA, Idi-Ogede AM, Yakubu SO, Nda AA

Processed sundried and smoke dried catfish were obtained from custom market, Maiduguri, Borno State. A total of 100 fish samples (Clarias gariepinus) were purchased. 50 fish samples were sundried while the remaining 50 samples were smoke dried. Two weeks later, twenty-five each of the sundried and smoke dried were re-sundried and re- smoked dried respectively. Both samples were subjected to nutritional proximate analysis. Proximate content of the re-sundried samples were found to be lower than those of sundried, smoked and re-smoked dried respectively. It was concluded that processing method is a critical factor in proximate quality of fish products.

513-520

Authors: B. Ramulu

The significance of extent of influence of ambient environment on the electronic systems depends on the field of application. Environmental tests, comprising of general and location specific tests are used as a means of getting an insight into the ability of a system to perform as per design in the target environment under influence of all parameters, capable of influencing it. The objective of environmental testing is to evaluate systems, equipment, apparatus, components, etc. in terms of determining their ability to withstand environmental conditions. Environmental testing is usually done during both prototype and production stages. This paper provides an insight into the relevance of environmental tests as applicable to electronic systems.