This research evaluates the potential of palm tree waste (PW) as an eco-friendly alternative local building material, exploiting it as partial replacement for cement in concrete. This study involved four major experiments and 92 laboratory experiments designed to establish the most optimal samples to use when replacing cement in concrete mixtures using PW. In other words, PW were divided according to three classes. Class A: short fibers, of less than 3 cm in length. Class B: powder that is remained within a sieve 200.Class C: powder form passing through a sieve 200. Experiments were conducted using Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), and involved partially replacing cement in different proportions, as follows: (5%, 10%, and 15%) of PW in each class. The physical and mechanical properties of PW concrete were tested and compared with OPC concrete. Curing periods of 7, 14 and 28 days were applied for concrete mixtures. The research reveals that 5% PW in concrete from Class C is the most effective concrete mix. Class C - 5% is judged the best option from the proposed mixtures for many reasons; i.e. physically, it has the highest compressive strength from amongst all classes, reaching 70% of the compressive strength of OPC concrete. Furthermore, environmentally, Class C is the lowest density type, being 18% lower than the bulk density of OPC concrete, and this in turn will reduce the overall amount of concrete used in the entire structure, and reduce harmful Green House Gas (GHG) emissions in the process of cement manufacturing.

This study intended to assess the behavioral phenotype and protect against oxidative stress against MPP+ tempted Parkinson’s disease in mice. Totally 7 groups of mice were used in this assessment, all the groups were treated with saline (control), MPP+, L-DOPA, Omega 3 oil, Omega 3 oil (three different concentrations) + MPP+ separately. The behavioral assessments were noted on 7th, 14th, 21th and 28th days. After the examination period the drug administrated animals were dissected and the midbrains and frontal cortex were analyses the biochemical estimations. In behavioral assessments, Catalepsy test explored the cataleptic scores increased in the test group’s and showed significant different according to the dose dependent (p<0.05). in open field test, pretreatment of omega 3 oil on mice (group V, VI and VII) made them to express notable improvement in peripheral and central activities along with rearing and grooming in 14th 21th and 28th day treatment (p<0.05). in Maze test, prior administration of omega 3 oil (group V, VI and VII) increased the hanging time significantly (p<0.05) in 21st and 28th day treatment. In biochemical test tested groups shows promising results against control group. The result the enzyme activity recovered to control like an impetus following 15 days of consistently treatment with omega-3 oil. This may shows the mechanism of the omega-3oil acts to satisfy the improvement in the cholinergic actions.

Food security is a serious issue especially in sub-Sahara Africa where the largest percentage of the world’s food insecure people resides. Although South Africa is adjudged to be food secure going by national statistics however, the same cannot be said to be the case at household or individual level. Worse still, smallholder arable crop farmers (maize farmers in particular) who are significant contributors to food security are faced with quite a number of challenges which seems to threaten their food security status. This study therefore examines the determinants of food security among smallholder maize farmers in Dingledayle village. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaire administered on a random sample size of 150 smallholder maize farmers. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse and describe socioeconomic characteristics, food poverty line was used to determine the level of food security and logistic regression model was used to examine the factors influencing food security among smallholder maize farmers in Dingledayle village.
The results of data analysis revealed age of farmer, membership of association, gender, land ownership, educational level and extension services as key determinants of food security among these farmers. While age of farmer, gender and land ownership were found to be negatively related food security status, membership of association, extension services and educational level had positive relationship with food security among the farmers. The study therefore recommends improvement in capacity building through education especially for women as this will enhance their income earning potential and ease of adopting new innovations or technology that can better their lives. Cooperative membership should also be encouraged and these where provision of more extension services or contact can assist as these factors were found to enhance food security.

Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAP) have proved effective in combating the challenges of climate variability which disadvantages smallholders, especially cereal farmers. Limited information exists on CSAP use among farmers in Nigeria. Therefore, the use of CSAP on among maize farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria was examined. Primary data was used and collected with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire from 252 randomly selected maize farmers, through a three-stage sampling procedure. Descriptive statistics, PCA and Tobit Regression model were used for data analysis. On the average, the maize farmers were 47 years old, spent 7.6 years in school and mostly (49.76%) cultivated inherited farm lands. Most maize farmers were male (82.44%), aware of CSAP (83.9%) and used CSAP (76.1%) in their maize production. The most used CSAP were improved seed varieties (59.49%), intercropping (34.81%) and application of organic fertilizer (25.96%). The level of CSAP used among the farmers was positively influenced by years of formal education, awareness of CSAP and access to credit at 1% level of significance while land acquisition by inheritance positively influenced at 10% level. It was concluded that Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices are widely used among maize farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria and the use can be further increased by improving awareness, formal education and access to credit among the farmers