The study investigates the energy use pattern and economic analysis of fluted pumpkin production in tillage methods (traditional, reduced-conventional and conventional). Human power, machinery, ...diesel fuel, fertilizers, seed and pesticides energy inputs were used during the cultivation of fluted pumpkin. Input and output energy analysis method was used to estimate the input and output energy in each of the tillage methods during the production of fluted pumpkin. The energy indices of fluted pumpkin production determined were; energy efficiency, energy productivity, specific energy, net energy and energy efficiency index. The economic analysis of fluted pumpkin production in terms of total cost of production, gross monetary return, net monetary return and cost benefit ratio for the three tillage methods used were determined. The total energy required per hectare in traditional, reduced-conventional and conventional tillage methods were 6899.90, 9206.16 and 10176.84 MJ/ha, while the output energy were found to be 8912.48, 12297.8 and 12297.8 MJ/ha, respectively. The energy efficiency, energy productivity and net energy gain of 3.97, 1.50 and 1.20; 0.76, 0.86 and 0.71 MJ/kg; 1.32, 1.20 and 1.40 MJ/ha, respectively were estimated while energy efficiency index were found to be 27, 47 and 20% for traditional, reduced-conventional and conventional tillage methods, respectively. The highest net monetary return and cost benefit ratio of ₦382,000.00k and 3.05 were estimated for reduced-conventional, ₦351, 600.00 k and 2.31 for conventional tillage, while the least values of ₦220, 000.00 k and 2.11 were recorded for traditional tillage method. The result revealed that reduced-conventional tillage was better than both traditional and conventional tillage methods in terms of energy productivity, net energy gain and energy efficiency index. Economically, production of fluted pumpkin under reduced-conventional tillage shows the highest net monetary return and cost benefit ratio compared to the other two tillage methods considered.
Research work on corrosion behaviour of metals and their alloys continues to attract considerable attention because of the huge cost required to prevent corrosion and replace failed or contaminated ...components due to corrosion reactions. Different inhibitors have been used to minimize corrosion rate, but addition of nanoparticles has been reported to enhance inhibition efficiency. In this work, the influence of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on inhibition of corrosion of mild steel, stainless steel and aluminum in 1.0 M HCl were investigated. Biosynthesized AgNPs were acquired from Laboratory of Industrial Nanobiotechnology, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomoso. The particles were hitherto characterized using FTIR, UV-Vis and TEM. Five concentrations of AgNPs solution (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 μg/ml) were added to 1.0 M HCl. The corrosion inhibition effects of the AgNPs on the metal samples were analyzed using gravimetric (weight loss), potentiodynamic polarization and gasometric (hydrogen gasevolution) approaches. Gravimetric study was conducted within 2000 h of exposure, and the results showed that weight loss increased with exposure time but decreased with increased concentration of AgNPs solution. In addition, inhibition efficiency was enhanced by the addition of AgNPs solution; 52% for mild steel, 70% for stainless steel and 62% for aluminum. Gasometric results revealed that the volume of hydrogen gas evolution reduced with increased exposure time and concentration of AgNPs solution. Furthermore, potentiodynamic polarization results showed that the presence of AgNPs modified the mechanism of anodic dissolution and cathodic hydrogen gas evolution. These results indicated that AgNPs can be incorporated into the existing inhibitors towards minimizing corrosion rate.
Software testing is an activity to enable a system is bug free during execution process. The software bug prediction is one of the most encouraging exercises of the testing phase of the software ...improvement life cycle. In any case, in this paper, a framework was created to anticipate the modules that deformity inclined in order to be utilized to all the more likely organize software quality affirmation exertion. Genetic Algorithm was used to extract relevant features from the acquired datasets to eliminate the possibility of overfitting and the relevant features were classified to defective or otherwise modules using the Artificial Neural Network. The system was executed in MATLAB (R2018a) Runtime environment utilizing a statistical toolkit and the performance of the system was assessed dependent on the accuracy, precision, recall, and the f-score to check the effectiveness of the system. In the finish of the led explores, the outcome indicated that ECLIPSE JDT CORE, ECLIPSE PDE UI, EQUINOX FRAMEWORK and LUCENE has the accuracy, precision, recall and the f-score of 86.93, 53.49, 79.31 and 63.89% respectively, 83.28, 31.91, 45.45 and 37.50% respectively, 83.43, 57.69, 45.45 and 50.84% respectively and 91.30, 33.33, 50.00 and 40.00% respectively. This paper presents an improved software predictive system for the software defect detections.
A study was conducted for 22 weeks to determine the effects of concentrate supplementations at three crude protein (CP) levels, i.e. low protein diet—LPD 12.42% CP (124.93 g day
−1
); medium protein ...diet—MPD 14.18% CP (145.87 g day
−1
) and high protein diet—HPD 16.35% CP (168.19 g day
−1
) on some pregnancy variables, reproductive performance, birth types and weight of kids kidded by pregnant Kalahari Red goats grazed on
Chloris gayana
. Thirty-three matured Kalahari Red goats of first parity within age range of 2 to 2
1
/
2
years with an average body weight of 38.10 ± 1.13 kg were randomly allotted to the diets with 11 goats per treatment. Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance in a completely randomised design. It was observed that goats fed HPD had the highest (
p
< 0.05) values for products of pregnancy (10.35 kg) taken within 24hour before kidding and foetal growth rate (88.37 g day
−1
) during pregnancy. Goats fed MPD had the lowest values (
p
< 0.05) of 9.28 kg and 80.07 g day
−1
for each of the respective parameters. Afterbirth weight was also the highest and lowest (
p
< 0.05) for goats supplemented with HPD (3.38 kg) and MPD (3.04 kg), respectively. On the other hand, MPD-supplemented goats had the highest values (
p
< 0.05) for litter size (2.14) and litter weight (6.80 kg) at birth, the value which was the least for HPD supplementation. From the results obtained from this study, it could be concluded that concentrate diet supplementation with 14.18% CP improved litter size and weight at birth with resultant reduction in weights of pregnancy variables of pregnant Kalahari Red goats grazed on Rhodes grass.
First principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) were performed to investigate the structural, electronic, optical and mechanical properties of pristine GaAs compound and its ...alloy; Ga0.75Al0.25As, Ga0.75In0.25As, Ga0.75Sn0.25As, Ga0.75Ti0.25As. WIEN2K and Quantum expresso (QE) codes were adopted for calculations using generalized gradient approximation (GGA) in Perdew-Burke Erzenhoff (PBE) as exchange correlation function for both codes. Full potential linear augmented plane wave (FPLAPW) with the local orbital method was adopted as implement in WIEN2K code. In QE code, norm-conserving pseudopotentials were employed on a plane-wave expansion of the wave functions. Structural and electronic properties were elaborated since their result gives information about the optical and mechanical performance. Electronic band structure and optical parameters were performed using WIEN2K code. Underestimation of band gap observed from DFT calculations were corrected by using Modified Becke and Johnson (mBJ). Mechanical components were determined using QE with thermo_pw package. Lattice constant, volume, bulk modulus and other physical parameters were calculated for structural properties. Discrepancy in these parameters as observed in crystal structure is associated to difference in ionic radius of host and substituted atom. The results of band structure and density of states were calculated for electronic properties. All the studied compounds were semiconductors in nature except Ga0.75Sn0.25As which displayed metallic character. Optical parameters including extinction coefficient, absorption coefficient, refractive index, optical conductivity, optical reflectivity and energy loss function have been computed from the dielectric function at energy range of 0 to 25 eV using the Kramers-Kronig transformations. Calculated elastic function were used to compute the mechanical properties such as anisotropic, brittle characteristics, stiffness and many others. All the results were compared with available theoretical and experimental records.
Display omitted
Objective
Transrectal prostate biopsy is a potentially painful procedure. Our service has significant experience with caudal anesthesia for perianal procedures. This study is aimed to determine the ...effectiveness of caudal anesthesia for transrectal prostate biopsy.
Patients and methods
Seventy consecutive patients undergoing transrectal prostate biopsy were entered into the study. The patients were requested to complete a questionnaire structured to assess the pain felt during the procedure using the visual analog score (VAS). The effectiveness of the caudal anesthesia was determined by the anesthesia of the perineum and the laxity of the anal sphincter. Complications from the procedures were recorded.
Results
All the patients completed and returned the questionnaire. The average age of the respondents is 65.8 years. Among the 34 patients with caudal block, effective anesthesia was achieved in 28 patients and ineffective in six patients. However, the mean VAS for the pain from transrectal prostate biopsy was 1.49 ± 1.93 SD (range 0–6.0) for the patients with effective caudal anesthesia and 8.02 ± 1.79 SD (range 5.0–10.0) for patients with no caudal anesthesia. There was a reduced requirement for analgesics after prostate biopsy for patients with effective caudal anesthesia. Three patients (8.8%) had minor complications (transient dizziness) following the injection of the anesthetic into the caudal epidural space.
Conclusion
Satisfactory analgesia for transrectal prostate biopsy can be achieved with the use of CA and it results in better cooperation of the patient during the procedure.
Aims: This study evaluates credit impact on production efficiency of cassava farmers in southwest Nigeria.
Study Design: Cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted ...in South West Nigeria, between June 2019 and July 2021.
Methodology: Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 210 small holder cassava farmers for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on respondents’ socio-economic characteristics, production efficiency and the efficiency distribution of cassava farmers.
Results: Results show that the mean technical, allocative and economic efficiencies were (\0.55,0.91\), and (\0.50\) respectively. Results of Stochastic production frontier show farm size (\(\gamma=0.664, p<0.01\) ), labour ( (\\gamma\) (\=0.183, \mathrm{p} \leq 0.01)\) and quantity of stem cutting (\(\gamma=0.160, \mathrm{p} \leq 0.05)\) increased cassava output, while sex (\(\delta\) (\=0.797, \mathrm{p}<0.01)\), marital status (\(\delta=0.600, \mathrm{p}<0.05)\), level of education (\(\delta=0.062, \mathrm{p} \leq 0.01)\), number of extension contacts (\(\delta=0.624, \mathrm{p}<0.05)\) and credit (\(\delta=0.000004, \mathrm{p}<0.05)\) significantly influenced efficiency among cassava farmers. Also, result of Maximum likelihood estimates of cost function shows rent on land (\(\omega=0.455, p<0.01)\), price of fertilizer (\(\omega=0.078, p<0.01)\) and price of herbicide \((\omega=0.069\), (\p<0.01\) ) had positive influence on total cost incurred on cassava production while marital status (\(\delta=\) (\0.600, p<0.05)\) and credit (\(\delta=0.000004, p<0.05)\) significantly influenced efficiency among cassava farmers.
PDF
