Vol 11, No 2 ,2010: African Scientist

Methanolic extracts of the leaves of Phyllanthus amarus and stem of Phyllanthus muellerianus were studied for antileishmaniasis activity, phytotoxicity and cytotoxicity. The antileishmanial activity was evaluated in vitro using promastigote culture of Pakistani leishmanial strain (L. major) in 96 well micro titer plate bioassay, while phytotoxicity was assessed using the Lemna bioassay and cytotoxicity using brine shrimp lethality assay. Methanolic extract of stem of P.

Methanolic extracts of leaf, stem and root of Acalypha wilkesiana were investigated with the goal of establishing its acclaimed potency as an anthelmintic and antimicrobial agent. Antimicrobial assay was carried out using the agar cup plate diffusion method. The extracts were tested against 8 human pathogenic microorganisms (5 bacteria and 3 fungi). The leaf and stem methanol extracts exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activities.

A study was conducted on growth and yield of cowpea (Vigna unguiculalta L) under different mulch materials on an Alfisol in the Teaching and Research farm of Ambrose Alli University, in Ekpoma, Nigeria. Mulch materials increased the soil pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorus and carbon exchange capacity of the soil over control. At 3 and 6 weeks after planting, cocoa husk and empty fruit bunch recorded significant higher plant height, leaf area and number of leavers of cowpea plant over cassava peels and control.

This paper addresses the problem of reliability improvement of k -out of - n system. It first looks at how series system is improved through the improvement of individual components with most reliable components. It also used redundancy (cold and hot) to improve the series system reliability.

This paper examines the interactions between two spheres in an unbounded fluid. Using bispherical coordinates, no-slip and far-field boundary conditions, an exact solution of Stokes equations for the translational motion of two spheres of arbitrary size and arbitrary orientation with respect to their directions of motion are obtained. This solution is in form of truncated infinite series. The various hydrodynamic forces exerted on the spheres are calculated.

The exploitation of supported metals and metallic oxides catalysts is increasingly becoming an issue of special interest in the petroleum industry. This is consistent with necessary need for mitigating separation, recycling and reusability problems coupled with increased production costs associated with free metals, unsupported or homogeneous catalyst systems.

Potentiometric investigations of complexes formed by chromium (III) ion and amino acids have been carried out. The dissociation constants of the amino acids, the stepwise formation constants and the overall stability constants of the metal ions and amino acids complexes were determined. The dissociation constants of the amino acids determined are; alanine (10.29), arginine (12.02), asparagine (9.39), glycine (9.87), histidine (7.01), lysine (9.28), methionine (9.68), phenyalanine (9.61), proline (10.53), threonine (10.31), tryptophan (9.77), and valine (10.28).

The quality of ground water in some selected land fill sites within Kano metropolis were assessed during the wet season for pH, turbidity, conductivity, total solids (TS) suspended solids (SS), total dissolved solids (TDS), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Dissolved oxygen (DO), chloride, sulphate nitrate, phosphate, Zinc, Lead, Nickel, Cadmium, Iron, Manganese, Copper, and chromium. The analysis revealed that some samples were acidic and some alkaline with a pH range of (6.80 – 7.75) and at the methogenic stage.

Information is a key resource for agriculture and rural development. Communication of information is a major function of extension aimed at the promotion of Agricultural development. This study is aimed at determining the influence of information communication technologies in dissemination of information to urban farmers in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) of Borno State, Nigeria. Primary data for the study was obtained by administering questionnaire to the farmers through random sample of 60 respondents and 10 extension agents from 6 out of 15 wards of the MMC.

A field survey was conducted at Jere local government area of Borno state (longitude 110 571N and Latitude 130 951E). The main objective of the study is to investigate the socio-economic factors affecting the adoption of integrated weed management. The cost and return analysis shows high profit that an average of N118.133.50, N25, 725.53 and N92, 406.2 were respectively recorded as total revenue, total variable cost and gross margin by the respondents.