Mycotoxin Contamination of Bush Mango,Cashew Nuts,Okra,Sesame and Sorghum Marketed in Nasarawa State,Nigeria

Food crops(bush mango(n=12),roasted cashew nut(n=12),dried okra(n=12),sesame(n=35)and sorghum(n=36))sold in markets in Nasarawa state,Nigeria,were analyzed using a LC-MS/MS mycotoxin method.The hepatocarcinogenic aflatoxin B_(1) was detected in 42%,25%and 19%of bush mango,dried okra and sorghum samples at mean concentrations of 19.2μg/kg,8.27μg/kg and 4.75μg/kg,respectively,while fumonisin B_(1) contaminated 9%of the sesame(mean:12.5μg/kg)and 47%of the sorghum(mean:461μg/kg)samples.At least 19%of the sorghum samples were co-contaminated with aflatoxin B_(1) and fumonisin B_(1).The nephrotoxic ochratoxin A was detected in bush mango,sorghum and,for the first time to the best of our knowledge,in dried okra.These vended food crops in the local markets are therefore prone to mycotoxin contamination,which may pose a health threat to consumers,and require intentional mitigation efforts.

Petrographic Evaluation of the Ranks and Technological Applications of Some Coal Deposits in the Anambra Basin and Middle Benue Trough of Nigeria

The coal resources of Nigeria occur mainly within the Benue Trough which includes the Anambra Basin. In the Lower Benue Trough/Anambra Basin, sub-bituminous coals occur within the Maastrichtian Mamu Formation in Enugu （Enugu State）, Owukpa （Benue State）, Okaba （Kogi State） and Ogboyaga （Kogi State）. High-volatile bituminous coals occur within the Turonian-Coniacian Awgu Formation in the Middle Benue Trough around Obi/Lafia （Nasarawa State） with outcrop exposures at Jangwa-Shankodi. Organic petrographic results show that huminites dominate the maceral composition of the Anambra Basin coals and have vitrinite reflectance values that range from 0.40% to 0.63 Ro%. In the coals from the Middle Benue Trough, vitrinite macerals predominate the petrographic composition and Ro values range from 0.81% to 1.25%. Based on the petrographic composition and rank evaluation, the sub-bituminous coals in Enugu, Owukpa, Okaba and Ogboyaga （Anambra Basin） are optimum for combustion and electric power generation and sub-optimum for liquefaction, while the high-volatile bituminous coals in the Obi/Lafia area （Middle Benue Trough）, apart from being optimum for liquefaction, are the most suitable as raw material for coke making （carbonization） in steel manufacture and as exploration targets for coal-bed methane gas and liquid hydrocarbons.

Advocacy and Use of Advocates as a Quick Win in Scaling Up Biofortification in Nigeria: The Case of Building Nutritious Food Basket (BNFB) Project

The Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) Project explored advocacy and the use of advocates as a model strategy for scaling up biofortification in Nigeria during its three-year implementation. In addition to its direct advocacy efforts, the BNFB project identified and selected key personnel across disciplines, gender and sectors, based on some selected criteria, as Advocates to support the scaling up of biofortification by raise of investments, resource mobilization, the inclusion of biofortification in relevant policy documents, strategies and plans of action. To realize these, the selected 32 Advocates were empowered to mainstream biofortification into their existing and/or potential programs/projects, as well as create awareness and demand for biofortified crops within their spheres of influence. Training and retreats were organized for the Advocates to strengthen their capacities in advocacy and promotion of biofortification and biofortified crops, while a social platform was launched to share opportunities, experiences and address issues around biofortification within the Advocates. As a result of these efforts, biofortification was included in three key national policies, strategies/plans of actions with resource allocation, and investments, over USD3 million were raised for biofortification. The Federal Government of Nigeria and some external governments became committed to biofortification programs while biofortified crops were mainstreamed in at least two national programs in Nigeria. Biofortified crops were included in the Home-Grown School Feeding Program of two states. The use of Advocates proved to be a resultful strategy in the biofortification scaling up model of BNFB as the advocates, upon being trained, looked out within their sectors and disciplines to mainstream biofortification into their programs. They gave timely information on potential opportunities to follow up with in influencing favorable policies;they mobilized resources nationally, regionally and locally;they facilitated wider coverage of biofortification within a short time. However, the influence of the Advocates was limited to their number and locations;thus, for a quick win in Nigeria, there is a need to raise advocates in all the 36 states of the country while giving equal priority to national and state level advocacy. As a lesson, to engender adoption of biofortification, participation/leveraging on existing programs in advocacy works faster and easier than starting afresh in Nigeria.

Liberation Size and Beneficiation of Enyigba Lead Ore, Ebonyi State, South-East Nigeria

This research work centered on the determination of Liberation Size and Enrichment of Enyigba Lead Ore in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. The study reviews the fundamental operations in mineral processing i.e. the comminution process for the release and liberation of the valuable minerals particles from the ore association, and the eventual separation and concentration of the valuables from the gangue. The ore was pulverized, sieved to liberation size and beneficiated. The mesh of grind was found to be 189 μm, and the liberation size was established to be 63 μm sieve size having the highest percentage of lead of 15.1% then enriched to 69.8% by froth flotation method and was assessed by using x-ray fluorescence (XRF). The lead concentrate by weight was obtained to be 81.80%, confirmed being of high economic grade having surpassed 60% wt Pb element in an ore. It is hoped that this will enhance its development to meet both local and international demand for potential investment opportunities.

Comprehensive Value Chain Development of Natural Resources for Economic Diversification: The Apiculture Approach

The present economic challenges in Nigeria call for a serious sustainable environment-friendly agricultural enterprise with a great potential that improves export earnings. It is our fervent believe that the contribution of the apiculture sector to its sustainable human development and specifically increases the income of beekeepers and traders of bee products through improved commercialization of quality bee products in Nigeria which will in turn lead to a drastic increase in the GDP of the nation. The overall goal of the Nigeria Apiculture Value Chain (AVC) Development Program is to contribute to an increase income of beekeepers and other actors on the AVC through increase in production capacity, stimulate the efficiency and competitiveness of the AVC products by improving standards, processing capacity so as to access higher value niche markets through Fairtrade International (FLO) certification or organic certifications and to achieve a total sales value of over $5 million by 2035 (Sustainable Development Goal SDG) target on Food Security. Apiculture provides highly desirable products such as honey, comb/wax, pollen, propolis, bee venom, royal jelly, apilarnil and apilanil prop, value added products and pollination services. It is of note to stress the need to urgently embrace the use of modern techniques in keeping honeybees for industrial development of Nigeria and also to enhance exportation of the products to earn growth in the Nigeria’s GDP by diversifying the monolithic economy that is presently based on crude oil exportation.

Effects of Model Structural Complexity and Data Pre-Processing on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Forecast Performance for Hydrological Process Modelling

The choice of a particular Artificial Neural Network (ANN) structure is a seemingly difficult task;worthy of relevance is that there is no systematic way for establishing a suitable architecture. In view of this, the study looked at the effects of ANN structural complexity and data pre-processing regime on its forecast performance. To address this aim, two ANN structural configurations: 1) Single-hidden layer, and 2) Double-hidden layer feed-forward back propagation network were employed. Results obtained revealed generally that: a) ANN comprised of double hidden layers tends to be less robust and converges with less accuracy than its single-hidden layer counterpart under identical situations;b) for a univariate time series, phase-space reconstruction using embedding dimension which is based on dynamical systems theory is an effective way for determining the appropriate number of ANN input neurons, and c) data pre-processing via the scaling approach excessively limits the output range of the transfer function. In specific terms considering extreme flow prediction capability on the basis of effective correlation: Percent maximum and minimum correlation coefficient (Rmax% and Rmin%), on the average for one-day ahead forecast during the training and validation phases respectively for the adopted network structures: 8 7 5 (i.e., 8 input nodes, 7 nodes in the hidden layer, and 5 output nodes in the output layer), 8 5 2 5 (8 nodes in the input layer, 5 nodes in the first hidden layer, 2 nodes in the second hidden layer, and 5 nodes in the output layer), and 8 4 3 5 (8 nodes in the input layer, 4 nodes in the first hidden layer, 3 nodes in the second hidden layer, and 5 nodes in the output layer) gave: 101.2, 99.4;100.2, 218.3;93.7, 95.0 in all instances irrespective of the training algorithm (i.e., pooled). On the other hand, in terms of percent of correct event prediction, the respective performances of the models for both low and high flows during the training and validation phases, respectively were: 0.78, 0.96: 0.65, 0.87;0.76, 0.93: 0.61, 0.83;and 0.79, 0.96: 0.65, 0.87. Thus, it suffices to note that on the basis of coherence or regularity of prediction consistency, the ANN model: 8 4 3 5 performed better. This implies that though the adoption of large hidden layers vis-à-vis corresponding large neuronal signatures could be counter-productive because of network over-fitting, however, it may provide additional representational power. Based on the findings, it is imperative to note that ANN model is by no means a substitute for conceptual watershed modelling, therefore, exogenous variables should be incorporated in streamflow modelling and forecasting exercise because of their hydrologic evolutions.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers(PBDEs)concentrations in soil,sediment and water samples around electronic wastes dumpsites in Lagos,Nigeria

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers(PBDEs)were listed in the Stockholm Convention as POPs because of their bio-accumulative,long-range and toxicity characteristics.Therefore,these should be managed and assessed by Parties of the convention in an environmentally sound manner.This present study assessed the status of PBDEs contamination at e-waste dumpsites in Lagos,Nigeria.Soil and sediment samples were collected from 3 e-waste dumpsites and water samples were collected from rain water ponds located within the e-waste dumpsites vicinities and control sites over a period of two years.The concentrations of ∑7PBDEs in soils from the e-waste dumpsites at 0e15 cm depth for the first and second year ranged from 141 to 302 ngg^(-1)dry weight,respectively while that of the control soils was 13.2 e27.2ngg^(-1)dry weight.These high concentrations may be attributed to the fact that open burning of electronic waste was the regular method of reducing the volume of e-waste at the sites.PBDE levels across the soil profile from 0 to 45 cm depth showed a gradual increase in PBDEs accumulation in the topsoil and migration into the sub-soil over the period of 2 years,but with no significant difference(pvalue=0.89).Sediments and water from the rain water ponds around the dumpsites were found to be contaminated by PBDEs with levels ranging from 51.4 to 85.8ngg^(-1)and 14.4 to 27.4ngg^(-1),respectively,while levels in control for sediment and water are 11.5ngg^(-1)and 2.43ngg^(-1)respectively.These,however indicates that there was significance difference between the PBDEs levels in water and sediment from the study sites with those of their respective controls(p-value for water was 0.01,while that for sediment was 0.03).The levels of PBDEs in this study sites were higher than those of the respective control.The range of PBDEs in e-waste dumpsites was comparable to those reported in USA and Europe but lower than those from China.Environmental samples from the e-waste dumpsites in Lagos were contaminated with PBDEs,there is therefore the need for proper disposal methods for end-of-life products especially those containing PBDEs in Nigeria.

Proctor cone penetrometer for in-situ soil strength studies in Nigeria

Investigations of in-situ or laboratory soil strength properties,particularly the resistance of soil to penetration,usually referred to as cone index(CI)are often required in soil tillage and traction studies.This helps in the analysis of the interactions of both tillage tools and tractive elements with the soil.However,penetrometer,the instrument used for measuring this important parameter(CI),is not readily available in Nigeria.Following the recommendations in ASAE standards,a functional proctor cone penetrometer for soft soils has been developed and calibrated.The major parts include the handle,made of half-inch galvanized pipe,constructed in such a way that it can be screwed on and off the pressure shaft conveniently,the graduated pressure and penetration shafts made of stainless steel;the spring loaded pressure chamber,and a cone probe.The penetrometer was calibrated by applying known forces on the handle while noting corresponding penetrations and displacements on the graduated pressure shaft.A performance test was carried out on a clayey loam soil to compare the readings obtained from the developed penetrometer and an imported one.The major difference between the two is that while one is very expensive and scarce to come by,the other is produced locally with locally sourced materials and technology.The cost of the imported one is ten times more than that of the local one.The mean CI obtained for twenty-four random samples on the soil surface for the test area at 18 cm depth was found to be 1.4358 MPa for the local,and 1.5096 MPa for the imported.Regression analysis of the two sets of values of CI for the local and the foreign showed a strong correlation(R2=0.779,P<0.05).This implies that the locally produced proctor penetrometer is reliable for measurements of CI at 0-18 cm soil depth for soft soils.