Effect of cooking on the nutritive value of koko/kosai—A traditional breakfast meal of the hausas in Northern Nigeria

The effect of cooking on the nutritive value of koko/kosai was assessed by chemical analysis. There was significant loss in the proximate composition due to cooking. In addition, losses of some mineral elements and vitamins were observed. The losses in potassium, iron, zinc and phosphorus were found to be 23%, 6·7%, 25% and 13·3%, respectively.Losses of vitamins B₁, B₂, C and carotene were found to be 20%, 46%, 37% and 9·6%, respectively.The amino acid pattern of the koko/kosai was only slightly affected by the traditional method of cooking employed. Some suggestions and recommendations are made on how to retain most of the nutrients when cooking the meals.     

One-dimensional Hadamard naturalness-preserving transformreconstruction of signals degraded by nonstationary noise processes

The problem of reconstructing a time-varying one-dimensional signal from segments of its Hadamard naturalness preserving transform (NPT) is considered. Closed-form reconstruction formulas are derived for specific formats of available Hadamard NPT segments. Two fast reconstruction schemes, which in a single iteration provide the same solution as the general iterative reconstruction algorithm, are introduced for these formats. Simulation results of the algorithms when applied to first-order Gauss-Markov and image signals are good. However, the reconstruction of speech signals is poor due to the poor estimates derived from the available segments of the transformed signal. The reconstruction algorithm is proposed for interframe two-layer packet transmission of image signals over an Orwell-ring-based network. Good pictorial results are obtained at up to 50% packet loss rate     

Design of Compacted Lateritic Soil Liners and Covers

Laboratory tests were conducted on three lateritic soil samples to illustrate some pertinent considerations in the design of compacted lateritic soil liners and covers. The three design parameters investigated are hydraulic conductivity, desiccation-induced volumetric shrinkage, and unconfined compressive strength. Test specimens were compacted at various molding water contents using four compactive efforts. The compaction conditions were shown to have some relationship with soil compaction using either the plasticity modulus or the plasticity product (i.e., clay index). For construction quality assurance purposes, the traditional approach was compared with the modern criterion. Deficiencies associated with the traditional approach for soil liners found in literature also apply to lateritic soils. Overall acceptable zones were constructed on the compaction plane to meet design objectives for hydraulic conductivity, volumetric shrinkage strains, and unconfined compressive strength. The line of optimums was identified as a suitable lower bound for overall acceptable zones of lateritic soils. The volumetric shrinkage strain was also identified as the second most important design parameter for lateritic soils. The shapes of the acceptable zones were affected by the fines contents of the soils.