Science and Development Journal

A Review on the Biologically Active Substances and Nutritional Value of Field Pumpkin (Curcubita pepo L.)

2024-07-11T14:34:04+00:00

Field pumpkin (Curcubita pepo) is an herbaceous annual leafy vegetable widely used as food and medicine around the world. Field pumpkin constitutes an important component in man’s diet, especially in developing countries. It is one of the most palatable leafy vegetables ever known in the Southwestern Nigeria. It is needed to complement staples in diet, supplying essential minerals and vitamins that may not be obtained wholly or solely from staples. Field pumpkin have hidden sources of essential nutrients such as proteins, vitamins, dietary fibres, minerals and phytonutrients of high biological activities. The nutraceutical product, medicinal value, nutri-protective effects and its use in therapeutics has not been widely exploits. A survey from literatures shows that more than 40 different active compounds were isolated from Cucurbitaceae family. Meanwhile, different parts of field pumpkin contain high content of diverse bioactives ranging from vitamins to plant bioactives compounds. Nutraceuticals derived from different parts of this leafy vegetable can be used as products for enhancing clinical conditions like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases. It can also serve as antiinflamatory, haepatoprotective, anticancerous and neuroprotective. Exploitation of different parts of field pumpkin and their consumption can contribute and offer various nutraceuticals that can be of therapeutics and pharmacological benefits.

Exploration of the Relationship between air Quality as an Environmental Factor on well-being and performance of working Oxen in semi-arid climate of

2024-07-11T14:51:11+00:00

Smallholder farmers in arid and semi-arid climates rely on draught animals, highlighting the importance of understanding the welfare and well-being of the draught animals. This study was carried out to investigates the interplay between air quality, physiological responses, and work performance of oxen in semi-arid conditions. The Air Quality Index (AQI) ranges from 28.64 to 48.26, averaging 39.02. Respiration rates vary from 17.06 to 21.45 bpm (mean: 19.07 bpm), while pulse rates range from 26.90 to 86.42 bpm (mean: 54.03 bpm). Rectal temperatures span from 33.47°C to 41.25°C (mean: 37.41°C). Field capacity ranges from 1135.63 kg to 2373.99 kg, with an average of 1737.04 kg, and ploughing efficiency from 0.46 m²/min to 2.28 m²/min (mean: 1.24 m²/min). Draught Animal Power (DAP) varies from 11.35 mW/ha to 46.36 mW/ha, averaging 20.77 mW/ha. The results showed that weak correlations exist between AQI and pulse rate, ploughing efficiency, and DAP (p<0.05), but not with respiration rate and rectal temperature (p>0.05). The study concluded that further research on air quality and physiological responses and performance of oxen are warranted as part of comprehensive animal welfare and management strategies for working oxen under semi-arid climate conditions.

Evaluation of Pressure Compensating Drip Emitters fitted in a Polyvinyl Chloride Pipe

2024-07-11T14:57:08+00:00

Evaluating the effect of pressure head on the water distribution uniformity in a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) drip irrigation system is important in irrigation water management and could serve as the basis for optimizing water use efficiency and improving crop productivity. This laboratory study was to evaluate pressure compensating (PC) drip emitters fitted in a PVC pipe. A 6.00 m length PVC pipe with five selected randomized emitter points on each lateral were considered for five (5) different operating pressure heads (OPH) (1.60, 1.40, 1.20, 1.00, and 0.80 m) at 10, 20, and 30 minutes dripping interval and was repeated three (3) times each. PC drip emitters used in this study had a design or manufacturing discharge rate of 10 L/h and a 3/4 mm emitter diameter at an emitter interval of 0.35 m for corn planting specification. Uniformity Coefficient (UC) values for all OPHs were above 90% and classified as excellent based on criteria for assessing drip irrigation system. Emission Uniformity (EU) values decreased as OPH was reduced. Low EU values showed that OPHs of 1.00 m and 0.80 m were highly unrecommendable for the adoption of PVC drip irrigation systems. Larger values for average emitter discharge (Qvar) were obtained as OPH was reduced. Larger Qvar values proves unacceptable drip emitter characteristics. Flow variations is essentially kept minimum as the OPH is increased. Except for the 1.60 m OPH, the coefficient of variation (CV) for all OPHs was unsatisfactory. As a result, the 1.60 m OPH is recommended over the other OPHs considering the lateral length in the study.

Comparative Analyses of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing and Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing in Long-Haul Optical Data Transmission

2024-07-11T15:25:00+00:00

Although optical fiber communication is best known for transmitting information at a high rate, there is a growing demand to push the data rate even higher. To increase the overall data rate without increasing the number of fibers, Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is used. The two types of WDM technologies mainly used to transmit information at a very fast and high speed are Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM). In this research, we simulated both DWDM and CWDM systems with a payload of 10 Gb/s over 2, 4, 10, and 16 channels at distances of 5 km, 20 km, 50 km, and 100 km. Further on, a practical implementation of DWDM and CWDM systems with a payload of 10 Gb/s over 2, 4, 10, and 16 channels at distances of 1 km, 2 km, 3 km, 4 km, and 5 km was conducted. Both DWDM and CWDM systems were compared using the quality factor (QF), eye-opening factor (EOF), optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR), and received optical power (ROP). Both simulation results and practical results revealed that CWDM had a relatively better performance than DWDM. The results also showed that the quality and integrity of the signal decreased with increasing distances and increasing number of channels.

Potential Application of Cold Plasma Technology to control Aflatoxin contamination in Tropical Food Product

2024-07-11T15:30:43+00:00

Tropical foods, especially cereals and legumes, have been found to show elevated levels of aflatoxin contamination. This poses serious health risks to humans and animals that consume such foods. Also, these contaminated food products face frequent rejection at the international markets due to safety concerns thereby leading to food wastage, economic losses to producers, and reputational damage of the country where the aflatoxin-infested food products originate. Therefore, the need for an effective and innovative decontamination strategy other than the conventional methods to overcome these concerns has become necessary and urgent. Cold plasma technology, as a non-thermal food preservation technique, has emerged as a promising food decontamination intervention for mycotoxins inactivation thereby ensuring the safety of food and extended shelf-life. This review sought to demonstrate the potential application of cold plasma technology in causing the degradation of aflatoxin B1 in some selected foods. The application of cold plasma was observed to be effective in degrading the most toxicologically bioactive form of the aflatoxins, by rendering them less harmful than the original aflatoxin B1 molecule. Several studies confirmed the effectiveness of cold plasma treatment of various food matrices to inhibit the activities of aflatoxin-producing fungi: Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. The plasma technology assisted in the disintegration of the toxigenic aflatoxin molecules (B1, B2, G1 and G2) accumulated in foodstuffs such as cereals and nuts (groundnuts). In view of its aflatoxin-control efficacy, sustainability due to low running cost, and minimal impact on the nutritive value of foods, this review proposes the adoption and utilization of cold plasma as a food preservation technique by agro-based businesses and commercial food processing companies. This will help reduce the levels of aflatoxins in foods to acceptable local and international standards to enhance food security, profitability for businesses in the food supply chain, national revenue maximization through food export, and guaranteed food safety for the global consumers.