2D ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY TOMOGRAPHY FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF MINERALS’ OCCURRENCES IN UGONEKI, EDO STATE, SOUTH-SOUTH, NIGERIA

Geophysical investigation using the 2D Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) was carried out to assess the subsurface of Ugoneki and its environs in order to investigate for minerals. A total of six (6) traverses, 200 m long each, three (3) transverse lines were in the North-South direction and the other three (3) traverses in the West-East direction using the Wenner electrode configuration. 2D Wenner resistivity data were acquired along each traverse. The data were inverted to reveal a spatially continuous resistivity distribution in 2D within the study area. The 2D results reveal a depth of 39.6 m across each traverse. Resistivity values vary from 87.1 – 3423 Ωm in the entire study area. From the standard resistivity table, the following solid and non-metallic type of minerals can be delineated in the study area which is representative of sandy clay, lateritic clay sand, sandstone and limestone with resistivity values that range from 87.1 – 89.9 Ωm, 1201 – 1462 Ωm, 2069 – 3423 Ωm, and 2069 – 3423 Ωm respectively. The implication of this research is to know the type and the particular location where these non-metallic solid minerals are located in the subsurface for future exploration. The results of resistivity values are compared with those in the literature and are found to be in good agreement. In order to quantify these minerals, it is also recommended to use higher dimension (3D) of resistivity method (ERT) in the study area.

ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF EDO STATE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM EXTENSION SERVICES AMONG SMALL-SCALE CASSAVA FARMERS

This study assessed the expectations of cassava tuber farmers from the agricultural extension service providers in Edo State, Nigeria. It examined the support presently given to cassava farmers by the extension service viz-a-viz the needs of the farmers. To achieve these objectives, data were collected from 196 cassava tuber producers, randomly sampled from the three agricultural zones in the State. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential (multiple regression, Friedman and Cochran tests) statistics. Cochran test (χ2 = 596.35; p<0.01) revealed that information delivery on available improved varieties (0.939), land clearing/preparation methods (0.878), cassava stem treatment (0.872), recommended planting distance/spacing (0.867) and fertilizer application methods (0.857) were significant areas in which farmers have been supported by the extension service. Friedman test results (χ2 = 135.52; p<0.05) revealed that linking farmers to input suppliers (mean rank = 9.17) and training on proper cutting of cassava stems (mean = 9.10) were among the most significant needs. Multiple regression revealed that farm size (p<0.05) was the only variable significantly correlated with the extension needs of the farmers. The major constraints facing cassava tuber producers included high cost of improved varieties (mean = 3.85) and farming inputs (mean = 3.82) as well as poor access roads for transportation of cassava tubers. Taking advantage of group formation and linkage to credit were recommended.

EVALUATION OF QUALITY OF POULTRY FEEDS SOLD IN KATSINA METROPOLIS, KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA

In Katsina metropolitan, a variety of poultry feeds are available, and the quality and standards of these feeds are critical for the production of eggs and meat. As a result, the quality of selected chicken feeds sold in Katsina metropolitan was assessed by performing proximate analysis using AOAC methodology. Super starter, grower concentrate, broiler finisher, broiler starter, broiler super starter, layer mesh, grower mesh, and layer concentrate were among the samples used. The percentage mean to standard deviation was used to express the findings. The crude protein content of the diets studied ranged from 0.46 ± 0.00 percent to, 8.24± 0.02 percent, ash content 6.31± 0.01 percent – 33.30± 0.04 percent, crude fiber content 1.03 ±0.00 percent – 3.21± 0.00 percent, lipid content 0.11± 0.00 percent, 2.30 ±0.00 percent, moisture content 4.28 ±0.25 – 6.66 ±0.78 percent, and carbohydrate content 51.78± 2.68 – 83.72 ±0.57 percent. Although there was variation in the mean and standard deviation levels among the samples analyzed, such variations were not statistically significant (P>0.05) according to a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the difference in the mean levels of parameters evaluated in eight samples

COMPUTATIONAL SOLUTION OF TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN A THIN ROD OVER A GIVEN INTERVAL I={x├|0

In this paper, two analytical–numerical algorithms are formulated based on homotopy perturbation method and new iterative method to obtain numerical solution for temperature distribution in a thin rod over a given finite interval. The effects of different parameters such as the coefficient which accounts for the heat loss and the diffusivity constant are examined when initial temperature distribution (trigonometry and algebraic functions) are considered. The error in both algorithms approaches to zero as the computational length increases. The proposed algorithms have been demonstrated to be quite flexible, robust and accurate. Thus, the algorithms are established as good numerical tools to solve several problems in applied mathematics and other related field of sciences

A STUDY OF INTESTINAL HELMINTHS OF SWINE FROM CHIKUN AND JEMA’A LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

A study was conducted between May and August, 2018 to determine the prevalence of intestinal helminths of pigs in Chikun and Jema’a Local Government Areas, Kaduna State. 203 faecal samples were collected, processed and examined under light microscopy. Intestinal helminths recorded were: Ascaris suum (57.1%), Oesophagostomum dentatum (37.0%), Hyostrongylus rubidus (14.8%), Metastrongylus elongates (8.9%), Strongyloides (4.5%), Stepanurus dentatum (2.5%), Trichuris suis(1.5%), Globocephalus urobuslatus (2.0%) and Physocephalus sexalatus (1.5%). The overall prevalence of helminth infection in both LGAs was 71.9%. Pigs in Jema’a LGA had significantly higher prevalence (87.9%) than pigs from Chikun LGA (56.7%). Female pigs had relatively higher (74.4%) infection than male pigs (68.6%). This pattern was also reflected in Chikun LGA where female pigs had a prevalence of 63.9% compared to 46.5% in males, however, the reverse was the case in Jema’a LGA where males had 90.7% prevalence and females 85.7%. In Chikun LGA, the highest prevalence of 58.6% was recorded among pigs aged 25-36 months, followed by pigs aged 5-12 months with prevalence of 57.1%, and the least prevalence of 55.0% was recorded in pigs aged 13-24 months. The prevalence of intestinal helminthosis in pigs tends to decrease with age in Jema’a LGA. The presence of these parasites in pigs examined indicates a potential public health problem in Chikun and Jema’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna state. Enlightenment of pig farmers on the need for periodic veterinary care and restriction of stray pigs through legislation formulation and enforcement are recommended as control measures

COMPARATIVE EXTRACTION OF Mn AND Pb USING EDTA AND CITRATE TO ASSESS THEIR MOBILITY FROM TWO DUMPSITES IN ZARIA METROPOLIS

An estimate of the labile fractions of different trace metals (Mn and Pb) in soil from two dumpsites with complexing agents (EDTA and Citrate) was carried out. The dump sites used for this study receives both commercial and domestic wastes. Physiochemical parameters and the total metal concentrations of the soil was determined, extraction with EDTA and Citrate were used to study the potential metal extraction capacity at different time intervals and the extraction rates of metal released as a function of time (between 0 to 24 hr). The relatively low levels of silt, clay, organic matter and CEC indicates high permeability, hence leachability of heavy metals in the soil and suggest that it might be amenable to remediation by soil washing. The removal efficiency showed that complete solubilization of metals did not occur, as not all the complexing agents added to the soil, was bound to the target metal. This might be due to the presence of other ions such as Ca and Fe which form relatively high stable complexes. EDTA yielded much more than citrate for both metals under consideration. Lead was extracted more than Manganese, which suggest Lead has been more labile in solution than Manganese and EDTA as a stronger complexing agent than citrate. The level of extraction was constant for the period of 60 min to 720 min after which it increased considerably

SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF COVID-19 TWEETS

Sentiment analysis involves techniques used in analyzing texts in order to identify the sentiment and emotion dominant in such texts and classify them accordingly. Techniques involved include but not limited to preprocessing of texts and the use a machine learning or lexical based approach in classifying these texts. In this research, attempt was made to adopt a machine learning approach to classify tweets on Covid-19 which is considered a global pandemic. To achieve this noble objective, a cross-dataset approach was applied to train four machine learning classification algorithms: Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF) and Naïve Bayes (NB), as well as K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm (KNN). The final result will not only assist us in knowing the best performing algorithm, it will also assist in creating awareness on Covid-19 with the final objective of destigmatizing the patients through the analysis of sentiments and emotions on Covid-19 and finally use the same result for containing the spread of the pandemic

GROWTH RESPONSE, NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY AND COST ANALYSIS OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF BUCKS FED DIETS CONTAINING GRADED LEVELS OF COWPEA (Vigna unguiculata) HUSK WITH GMELINA (Gmelina arborea) LEAVES AS BASAL DIET

A total of twenty (20) growing WAD bucks of about 7 - 9 months and having average weight of 9.64 kg were used in an 84 day trial to investigate the performance response of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats fed diets containing cowpea husk (CPH). Cowpea husk used for the study was collected from Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. Four experimental diets were formulated to replace maize offal with cowpea husk and designated A (0%), B (25%), C (50%), and D (75%) and used to feed the bucks. Results showed that none of the performance parameters showed treatment effect (P>0.05). The mean daily weight gain was 56.55 g/day, 52.75 g/day, 42.81 g/day and 50.49 g/day for diets A, B, C and D respectively. The mean daily feed intake ranged between 458.40 g/day -503.00 g/day, with treatments D and B having the highest and lowest numerical values, respectively. The apparent nutrient digestibility coefficient of dry matter (DM), crude fibre (CF), ash, nitrogen free extract (NFE) showed significant differences (P<0.05) among the treatments and some crude fibre fractions like neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) were significantly different (P<0.05) among the treatments means. The concentrate feed cost/kg diet was between ₦63.85-₦73.74. The cost/kg weight gain was best for treatment B (₦617.05). The production efficiency was less than one for all the treatments. Cowpea (vigna unguiculata) husk can be used in the diets of West African dwarf goats without adverse effect on the performance indices and profitability

ROBUST PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR RANDOM EFFECT PANEL DATA MODEL IN THE PRESENCE OF HETEROSCEDASTICITY AND INFLUENTIAL OBSERVATIONS

Panel data estimators can strongly be biased and inconsistent in the presence of heteroscedasticity and anomalous observations called influential observations (IOs) in Random effect (RE) panel data model. The existing methods (LWS, WLSF, WLSDRGP) address only the problem of IO but fail to remedy the combine problem of heteroscedasticity and IOs. Therefore, in this research we develop a method that will remedy the combine problem of heteroscedasticity and IOs based on robust heteroscedasticity consistent covariance matrix (RHCCM) estimator and fast improvised influential distance (FIID) weighting method denoted by WLSFIID. The simulation and numerical evidences show that our proposed estimation method is more efficient than the existing methods by providing smallest bias, and smallest standard error of HC4 and HC5.

EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS ON PLANKTON ASSEMBLAGE IN AJIWA RESERVOIR, KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA

The effect of environmental (Physicochemical) and biological (plankton) parameters of Ajiwa reservoir were studied for a period of eight months (March–October 2018). Field and laboratory activities were carried out using standard protocols. Mean monthly values of Temperature ranged between 25.87±3.57°C–29.46±0.66°C, Electrical conductivity was between 32.00±3.46µs/cm–210.00±95.39µs/cm. Dissolve Oxygen, Total Dissolved Solid and Biological Oxygen Demand Means of monthly values ranges between 5.53±0.39mg/l–9.35±0.62mg/l, 33.087±0.06mg/l–84.01±4.37mg/l, and 2.69±0.34mg/l–7.27±1.88mg/l. While phosphate and nitrate means of monthly values ranges between 0.04±0.02mg/l–0.09±0.03mg/l, 0.03±0.01mg/l–0.09±0.02mg/l. Four Phytoplankton phyla dominated by Chlorophyta (387org/L), Euglenophyta (160 org/L), Cyanophyta (83 org/L) and Bacillariophyta (63 org/L) were recorded in the reservoir. The Zooplanktons fauna comprises of Rotifers (180 org/L), Cladocerans (149 org/L) and Copepods (78 org/L). Correlation matrix showed that there were significant correlation between Phytoplankton, Zooplankton and Physicochemical parameters. The composition of planktons in the reservoir were affected by seasonal variations and fluctuation of physicochemical parameters