Effect of Coarse Aggregate Sizes and Replacement Levels on the Strength of Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) Concrete

The maximum coarse aggregate size used in concrete can impact on its strength. An investigation of the effect of coarse aggregate size and replacement level of granite with palm kernel shell (PKS) on the compressive and tensile strengths of PKS concrete were investigated. Mix proportion by weight of 1:1½:2 with w/c of 0.50 were used. All samples were tested at 7 and up to 90 days. Results showed that both compressive and splitting tensile strengths increased with increase in aggregate sizes. Both strengths however decreased with increase in replacement levels of granite with PKS. Optimum replacement level of granite with PKS was 25% with compressive and tensile strengths of 22.97 N/mm2 and 1.89 N/mm2 respectively at maximum coarse aggregate size of 20 mm. However, at 50% PKS content, which results in lightweight concrete, compressive strength was 18.13 N/mm2 which is above the minimum value of 17 MPa for lightweight concrete

Influence of Curing Age and Mix Composition on Compressive Strength of Volcanic Ash Blended Cement Laterized Concrete

This study investigates the influence of curing age and mix proportions on the compressive strength of volcanic ash (VA) blended cement laterized concrete. A total of 288 cubes of 100mm dimensions were cast and cured in water for 3, 7, 28, 56, 90 and 120 days of hydration with cement replacement by VA and sand replacement by laterite both ranging from 0 to 30% respectively while a control mix of 28-day target strength of 25N/mm2 (using British Method) was adopted. The results show that the compressive strength of the VA-blended cement laterized concrete increased with the increase in curing age but decreased as the VA and laterite (LAT) contents increased. The optimum replacement level was 20%LAT/20%VA. At this level the compressive strength increased with curing age at a decreasing rate beyond 28 days. The target compressive strength of 25N/mm2 was achieved for this mixture at 90 days of curing. VA content and curing age was noted to have significant effect (α 0.5) on the compressive strength of the VA-blended cement laterized concrete

Assessment of Genetic Diversity among Selected Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Lines Based on SSR Markers

Genetic diversity in eight Nigeria, two Benin Republic and five United Kingdom cultivated tomato lines was assessed using simple sequence repeat (SSR). Genotyping was carried out with 15 SSRs. Among the markers used, 11 SSR markers were polymorphic. For the SSR analysis, the total number of polymorphic alleles was 33 , with a mean of 3.00 and the average polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.36. The genetic diversity within the lines was considerably moderate (0.31). The Estimates of Rogers ' distance varied from 0.03 to 0.66. The 15 lines were clustered into two major groups and a singleton based on unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) cluster analysis of the SSR-based genetic distance (GD) estimates. Group I included 10 lines from all the geographical regions evaluated, and the group II consists of 4 lines which are essentially from Nigeria. TM09 (UK line) grouped separately forming a singleton. Understanding the genetic diversity among the tomato lines is a good starting point for establishing and maintaining collections, gem1plasm ba11ks and proper characterisation of Nigerian tomatoes in order to preserve the genetic variabilit

Design and Implementation of an E-deliberation System Case Study: Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing

The adoption of ICTs by the government has provided opportunities for interaction between the government and her citizens. This has also introduced new steps to be taken towards the future of democracy. The future of democracy entails full participation and engagement of citizens in socio-political and economic decision-making through e-deliberation system. This is already being adopted in some continent including Europe and Asia but yet to be fully embraced by African countries such as Nigeria. Citizen participation in decision-making is very important as their views, opinions and perspectives must always be taken into consideration. The main aim of this study therefore is to investigate the salient requirements for the design and implementation of an e-deliberation system, which creates a platform for deliberation between citizens and their representatives in government and government ministries and agencies. The case study used in this study is the Federal Ministry of Power, works and Housing in Nigeria. The outcome of this research work is a system prototype developed which is aimed at fostering citizen’s participation & engagement in Government decision-making via e-deliberation. The system prototype was developed using PHP, JavaScript, CSS, bootstrap and XAMPP server. Although a fully scale functional evaluation of the system is in-view, however, the first hand user testing done revealed that that system achieved its basic minimum requirements