Vol 3, No 1

Table of Contents

  1. Research Article
    Evaluating the Effects of Radiation from Cell Towers and High Tension Power Lines on Inhabitants of Buildings in Ota, Ogun State PDF
    A. Adekunle, K.E. Ibe, M.E. Kpanaki, I.I. Umanah, C.O. Nwafor, N. Essang
    Our Telecommunications industry in Nigeria has been revolutionized by the advent of mobile phone technology. This technology comes with the siting and erection of cell towers in urban centers around the country which is beginning to generate public concern as to whether the utilization of such technology is safe to human health. A case study of the effect of a cell tower with respect to buildings in Ota was done; the power densities of electromagnetic radiation on buildings around the cell tower were calculated. The calculated values were then compared with radiation norms adopted in Nigeria and other countries after which inferences were drawn. Also, the magnetic fields on buildings around the high tension transmission lines were obtained through the inverse square law and by direct measurement using a gauss meter. The results were found to exceed the safe radiation level of 0.4µT using the European standard. Possible solution to ameliorate these ill effects was proffered.

  2. Research Article
    Effect of Processing on Nutritional Composition of African Locust Bean (Parkia biglobosa) and Mesquite Bean (Prosopis africana) Seeds PDF
    M. O. Aremu, E. Y. Awala, O. D. Opaluwa, R. Odoh, T. O. Bamidele
    The African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) and mesquite bean (Prosopis africana) are both perennial tree legumes which belong to the family Leguminoseae. A comparative study was conducted on them to determine the effect of fermenting on the nutritional composition of their seeds. For this purpose, proximate, mineral and amino acid compositions were determined using standard analytical techniques. The result showed that fermented sample of Parkia biglobosa seeds had the highest content of crude protein (25.16%) and crude fat (12.27%) while the raw sample of Prosopis africana had the highest values of crude fibre (11.35%). Potassium was the most abundant mineral in all the samples with fermented P. biglobosa recording the highest value of 51.00 mg/100g. Generally, raw and fermented samples of P. biglobosa and P. africana seed flours were found to be a good source of essential minerals, and harmful heavy metals such as lead and cadmium were below the detection limit of atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The amino acid profile revealed that fermenting enhanced total amino acid (TAA), total essential amino acid (TEAA), essential alphatic amino acid (EAAA), essential aromatic amino acid (EArAA) and total sulphur amino acids (TSAA). The limiting amino acids (LAA) for raw and fermented samples of P. biglobosa were Met + Cys (TSAA) and Thr, respectively while that of P. africana was TSAA for the raw and fermented samples. Sufficient proportions of the essential amino acids were retained after fermenting of Parkia biglobosa and Prosopis africana seeds to meet FAO dietary requirement.