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Monodora myristica (Gaertn.) Dunal is a valuable but underused tropical tree of the Annonaceae or custard apple family. Monodora myristica seeds were dehulled, thermally processed by roasting (10, 20, 30min) and boiling (10, 20, 30min), milled into flour and defatted. Raw (control) Monodora myristica seeds were dehulled, milled into flour, and defatted without any thermal processing. The effects of thermal processing on the functional and pasting properties of flour samples were investigated. Thermal processing had no significant (P ≥ 0.05) effect on the water absorption capacity and swelling power of flour samples. Processing had no significant (P ≥ 0.05) effect on the bulk density of Monodora myristica seed flour samples. Flours processed by boiling exhibited significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) oil absorption capacity and solubility than the roasted samples. Processing (roasting) did not significantly (P ≥ 0.05) affect the emulsion capacity of flour samples. The roasted flour sample (RO30) had significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) peak, trough, setback, and final viscosity value among processed flours. Roasted samples had a significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher breakdown viscosity value than the boiled samples. Thermal processing had no significant (P ≥ 0.05) influence on the peak time of Monodora myristica seed flour. Flour samples from boiled seeds would withstand heating and shear stress compared to other processed samples because of their low breakdown viscosity value. On the other hand, flour from roasted seeds had the highest setback viscosity and would withstand breakdown better than others. Boiled and roasted seed flours of Monodora myristica would be useful in the pasta, noodle, and bakery industries.

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The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between energy consumption and foreign direct investment in Nigeria over the period of 1990 to 2017. Consequently, Data were collected from UNCTAD World Bank database, World Data Atlas and CBN Statistical Bulletin respectively. Cointegration, DOLS and Granger Causality approach were employed to address the objective of the study. The major findings in this study are summarized as follow. Energy consumption and FDI inflow have a significant negative relationship with each other. There is a significant positive relationship between energy consumption and oil exports. However, openness of the economy and energy consumption have a non-significant negative relationship. In the same vein, there is an existence of a unidirectional causality which runs from FDI to oil exports in Nigeria. There is one way causal relationship running from energy consumption to oil exports. FDI inflows Granger Causes energy consumption. Meanwhile, energy consumption Granger Causes openness of the economy. Due to the findings that emerged in this study, it is important that this study recommends the following to the policy makers in Nigeria since energy consumption does not drive FDI inflows the policy makers in the country should provide a conducive climate that will facilitate the accessibility of foreign investors to primary energy consumption in the country. Also, the country should improve the value addition to the production of primary energy so that its consumption could be competitive in the global market.Keywords: Energy; Consumption; FDI; Oil Exports and NigeriaJEL Classifications: F21, F23DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.8489

This study was conducted to examine the influence of female genital mutilation on women sexual activities in Oke-Ona community, Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun-State, South-West Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria with respect to: sexual satisfaction, sexual desire and virginal penetration experience. In order to achieve its aim, the study raised three hypotheses, each on sexual satisfaction, sexual desire and virginal penetration experience. These hypotheses were tested through t-test statistical method via the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 23rd version. Results showed no positive interaction between genital mutilation and sexual satisfaction [t (109) = .560, P>.05]. It also revealed no significance in the mean difference frequency of sexual desire of genitally mutilated women compared to those not genitally mutilated [t (109) = - .640, P>.05]. Besides, the findings indicated no significant difference in the mean difference in the vaginal penetration experience between genitally mutilated women and those not genitally mutilated [t (109) = −1.523, P>.05]. Furtherance to the conclusions drawn, the implications of the findings were discussed and recommendations were made.

Drying provides extended shelf life to agricultural crops in general and thus proper design of dryer will assist in drying them to acceptable level and quality. To design adequate dryer, necessary drying parameters of drying materials is necessary. This work involves experimental determination of effective drying parameters such as moisture content, moisture diffusion coefficient, density (true and bulk), specific heat, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of ginger and to analyze these parameters in relation to each other. Fresh ginger rhizomes were washed to remove soil from the field, peeled and washed again in clean water and sliced into thin pieces. The sliced ginger was heat-treated by adding 200ml of clean water and steaming for 5–8 minutes in an aluminum pot, to a temperature of 85–90 oC, and a light brown colour. Microwave oven, calorimeter, desiccators, thermometers, triple beams balance, micrometer screw gauge were used to determine the drying parameters of ginger. Effect of temperature and moisture content on some thermal properties was determined. The results of the experiments shows that average initial moisture content for the ginger samples was 72.31%, the true and bulk densities of the sample increased linearly from 0.5809 to 0.6338g/cm3 and 0.7405 to 0.7972 g/cm3 respectively between the temperatures of 45 – 75 °C. The specific heat capacity of ginger varied from a minimum of 1.568kJkg-1K-1 to a maximum of 2.026kJ kg-1K-1, with temperature in the range of 45oC to 75oC and moisture content in the range of 24.43 to 46.19 % (d.b). The thermal conductivity of ginger samples varied from 0.316×10-3 to 9.763×10-4 Jm-1S-1 oC; as the moisture content and temperature increased. Thermal diffusivity of the ginger increased linearly from 3.149×10-8 to 4.438×10-8 m2s-1 for ginger with increase in moisture content and temperature. Conclusively, the experimental study analysis show that specific heat of ginger varies with temperature. Also, there is variation in length, breath and thickness of ginger when subjected to temperature. Therefore, it can be said that ginger do shrinks when it is subjected to heat.

In the present investigation, African arowana ( Heterotis niloticus ) fish samples were subjected to drying and smoking separately in order to evaluate the effect of low and elevated temperatures on the chemical and microbiological qualities of resulting product. The different temperatures used during drying included 50°C (SampDried50), 60°C (SampDried60), 80°C (SampDried80) and 100°C (SampDried100) and 120°C (SampDried120). Cold smoking (smoking at 45-50oC) and hot smoking (smoking at 75-80oC) were also used in producing smoked Heterotis niloticus . Analysis of the dried and smoked Heterotis niloticus samples indicated that the SampDried120 had the highest protein content of 37.98% while 4.12% was recorded for the SampSmoked75-80 sample as the highest ash content. Free fatty acid (FFA) was lowest (0.31 KOH/g lipid)) in the SampSmoked75-80 sample while 0.31 (mg MDA/kg) was recorded as Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value for SampDried120. The SampDried120 sample recorded the highest potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and sodium contents (mg/100g), having respective values of 76.38, 43.04, 64.37, 21.20 and 134.24. Similar results were recorded for the essential amino acids of the Heterotis niloticus samples, with the SampDried120 sample having highest values. Evaluation of microbiological quality showed that Pseudomonas , coliforms and Staphylococcus were lower in the smoked samples than others. This investigation concluded that hot smoking and drying at elevated temperatures of 80, 100 and 120°C could extend shelf life of Heterotis niloticus as a result of reduction TBA and FFA values; furthermore, there were higher values of protein and ash than in other samples.

Publisher Summary Many crops in developing countries, such as plantains, soybeans, tigernuts, and breadfruits, possess inherent nutritional values and therapeutic properties that could be exploited for enhancement of human nutrition and well-being. Such nutritional values could be transformed into human use by wheat-composite flour technology for bread production. Composite flours are mixtures of different vegetable flours–rich in starch, protein, and/or other nutrients–—with or without wheat flour. The ingredients used in composite flours depend on the availability of raw materials in the country concerned. The goal is to minimize cost of production compared to the cost of imported wheat because this would enable affordability of the final product by consumers. The presence of at least 70% wheat flour is required for good dough formation in wheat-composite flour for bread production. Irrespective of the low level of flour from crops that could be successfully adopted in composite flour/bread technology, it will accrue in great savings of the scarce resources of most developing countries, especially in Africa, where wheat cultivation does not thrive for climatic reasons.