Nitrogen and weed management in transplanted tomato in the Nigerian forest-savanna transition zone

Weed infestation and inherent low soil fertility are among primary reasons for low yields of tomato in Nigeria. Field trials were carried out during the wet season of 2015 and 2016 to evaluate yield response of tomato to nitrogen (N) application and weed control methods in the forest-savanna transition zone of Abeokuta, Nigeria. Positive relationship exists between growth of weed species and increase in N application. Across the years of study, increase in N up to 90 kg/ha increased weed density by 11–25%, however, the increased N gave the transplanted tomato competitive advantage and thus enhanced weed smothering. Pre-transplant application of butachlor (50% w/v) or probaben® (metolachlor 20% w/v+prometryn 20% w/v) each at 2.0 kg a.i/ha followed by supplementary hoe weeding at 6 weeks after transplanting (WAT) significantly reduced weed density by at least 15% and increased fruit yield of tomato by at least 32%, compared to use of the pre-transplant herbicides alone, across both years of study. The greatest tomato fruit yield of 12.2 t/ha was obtained with pre-transplant application of butachlor at 2.0 kg a.i/ha followed by supplementary hoe weeding at 6 WAT, averaged for both years. In general, this study suggests that increased application of N up to 90 kg/ha, and complementary weed control by pre-transplant herbicide and hoe weeding at 6 WAT would improve yield of tomato in the forestsavanna transition zone of Nigeria

Central Nervous System Depressant Properties of Treculia africana Decne

The study was carried out to investigate the central nervous system activity of Treculia africana. The central nervous system depressant properties of Treculia africana were determined using: Novelty –Induced Rearing and Grooming, Locomotor activity, Ketamine-induced sleeping time and effect on rectal body temperature. The crude extract produced decrease in rearing, grooming and locomotor activity. It also potentiated ketamineinduced sleeping time and produced hypothermic effect in mice. The crude extract possessed sedative effect, which may be through increase in the activity of GABA in the brain

Length-weight relationships of Hyperopisus bebe occidentalis in Zaria Dam

The morphometric parameters of 54 Hyperopisus hebe occidentalis obtained from Zaria Dam were investigated. The length occidentalis examined ranged from 18.9-41.0 cm and weight ranged from 25-425g, the largest male weighed 175g while the female was 425g. The length-weight relationship of H. Bebe occidentalis in Zaria showed a positive correlation (r=0.897) in both regression exponent (b>3) for both sexes showed positive allometric growth pattern. The mean condition factor obtained (0.95- 1.26). In both sexes, the condition factor generally increased with increase in individual size of the fish irrespective of sex but slightly in male than female

The Role of Services Trade in Economic Development

This paper is an attempt to investigate the impact of services trade on economic development of Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries. Our analysis is based on a panel data framework over the period 1990 to 2010 covering thirty-three countries. The paper employs the endogenous growth model to examine the nonlinearities associated with services exports and services imports in the economic development process of SSA countries under consideration. The trade data was disaggregated into travel, transport and other services. The panel data constructed was estimated using ordinary pooled, fixed effects and random effects model techniques and the efficient model was selected based on the Hausman test. The paper finds that both services exports and services imports enhance economic development process. The study also indicates that labour and capital play an important role in the SSA economies

Mass communication undergraduates’ perception of their communication competence for employability

This study evaluated the perception of mass communication undergraduates with regard to their communication competence for employability.The population sample includes 2015/16 final year mass communication undergraduates of four Nigerian tertiary institutions, namely; Lagos State University (LASU), University of Lagos (Unilag), Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) and Lagos state Polytechnic (LASPOTECH).The method of research was survey.A five point Likert scale was adopted.A total of 452 questionnaires were administered but only 405 were usable.Descriptive analysis shows that more than half of the respondents were in moderate range in their general communication competence.The result shows that majority are mostly moderate in the four communication competence contexts (public, meeting, group and dyad) as well as receivers (stranger, acquaintance and friend) contexts. The paper includes; introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion as well as, implication and conclusion and recommendation for further studies.The study also discovered that communication apprehension affect communication competence.Therefore, the finding has unlocked the prospect of further studies in this area among mass communication undergraduates in Nigeria for the purpose of assessing their level of communication competence vis-a-vis communication apprehension with implication for employability. However, this paper is limited to the communication competence of the respondents

The Performance of Traditional contract procurement on Housing projects in Nigeria.

The traditional contract procurement has been widely criticized as an ineffective procurement method because it often involves time and cost overrun on construction projects. Yet the method is still being widely used in Nigeria most especially for the procurement of housing projects. It is suspected that this procurement method may not be ineffective in all cost categories of housing projects. Therefore time and cost performances of the procurement method on 57 housing projects of varying cost categories initiated by the Nigerian government between 1993 and 1999 were studied. The category of one to five million naira (US$1.00 ≈ 92 Nigerian Naira in 1999) showed the least time overrun of 18.98% while the highest time overrun of 99.64 % was shown in the five to ten million naira. The over ten million naira category had the least cost overrun of 9.13% while the highest cost overrun of 34.55 % was shown in the less than one million naira. The one to five million naira cost category exhibited weak correlation between time and cost overruns but the five million naira and above categories showed strong correlation. It was concluded that one to five million naira cost category is quite suitable for traditional contract procurement on housing projects in Nigeria

Formulation and Environmental Impact Evaluation of Walnut and Soya Bean Oil Based Drilling Fluid

One of the oil and gas hazard that associated with drilling operation is oil based drilling fluid and its associated cutting disposition. It is highly imperative for policy maker to propagate the use of environmental friendly oil based mud for drilling operation. This paper formulated environmentally friendly oil based mud (using walnut and soya bean plant oil) that can carry out the same function as convectional oil based drilling fluid and equally meeting up with the HSE (Health, safety and environment) standard. Mud laboratory tests were carried out at standard condition on plant oil samples so as to ascertain the rheological properties of the drilling fluid formulations. The synthetic oil based was obtained from drilling company in Nigeria and was used as control experiment. At the end of the experiment, the properties of the walnut and soya beans based mud wascompared with industry oil based mud (synthetic oil based mud). All the results were shown to be similar to that of commercial synthetic oil based drilling mud which was gotten from the industry.From the results it can be seen that walnut and soya beans based mud actually gives a less toxic,better rheological properties, requires less waste disposal costs, hence making them more economically and technically viable for oil and gas drilling operation