Welcome to FUTOSpace
FUTOSpace is the Federal University of Technology, Owerri open-access repository that collects, preserves and make available in digital format the intellectual output of the university's community:
Communities in FUTOSpace
Select a community to browse its collections.
- This community features addresses and speeches delivered by the University management and other official visitors to FUTO
- A community of media or content used to convey information about an event organized at the university
- This community features books, book chapters and books published by faculty members in the university
- This Community features the proceedings of conferences, seminars and workshops hosted by the FUTO or other bodies but had staff from FUTO attending and making presentations
- This community features research articles from FUTO staff published in journals hosted by FUTO
- A community of series of scholarly public lectures designed to commemorate a faculty member's appointment to a professorship
- Scholarly resources with relevant discussion points for use by faculty as teaching lectures, student reading content, and study guides
- A community of printed document containing information about activities in FUTO
- A community of series of lectures aimed at educating FUTO staff and the public about a specific area of study
- A community of question(s) administered to FUTO students in an examination
- Published Research Outputs
- Theses and dissertations by students and staff from all the Schools in FUTO
Recent Submissions
Analysis of gender equity opportunities and resource use in cereal value chain: Evidence from youth engagement in rice value chain in South-East, Nigeria
(Federal University of Technology, Owerri, 2023-09) Tim-Ashama, Akunna Chinenyenwa
The study analyzed gender equity opportunities and resource use in cereal value chain: evidence from youth engagement in rice value chains in Nigeria. it identify the actors and gender roles along rice value chain; examine by gender, the socioeconomic characteristics of actors along the rice value chain; determine the level of gender equity gap in opportunities along the rice value chain; determine the technical efficiency and sources of inefficiency among male and female actors along the rice value chain; determine the value added and the share of the value added by gender along the rice value chain; estimate the factors affecting value added by gender along rice value chain and, identify the constraints to youth engagement in the rice value chain, by gender. A multistage sampling technique was adopted for this study. The sample size consists of 476 youth rice value chain actors randomly selected from 48 villages across three states in South-East Nigeria. The data were collected using questionnaires and analyzed using Modified Gender Equity Index (MGEI), stochastic meta-frontier, value addition and multiple regression models. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages, charts and mean were also used to realize some additional results. Results from MGEI show that the level of gender equity opportunities for youth rice producers, processors and marketers were -0.21, -0.21 and -0.04, respectively, indicating inequity against the female youth. The mean technical efficiency for male and female producers are 0.64 and 0.59, processors 0.70 and 0.69 and marketers 0.52 and 0.61. The determinant factors of technical inefficiency among male and female youth in the study area were level of education, membership of cooperative society, years of experience and access to credit. The overall value-added per tonne by the male youth actors was ₦52,281 and the female youth actor was ₦52,229. The share of the value-added by male youth producers, processors and marketers were 51.65%, 49.41% and 47.78% while the female youth were 48.38%, 50.59%and 52.22%, respectively. Some factors affecting value added by actors in rice value chain were level of education, years of experience, capital invested, information and distance to actor’s node. The major constraints to youth engagement in rice value chain include lack of capital to start up, lack of access to credit, drought, lack of access to better technology, high cost of hiring/operating machines, lack of technical knowhow/skills, and stressful nature of rice value chain. In addition, the female processors added marital challenges and responsibilities as a major challenge while male marketers included lack of government support as an important challenge. This study recommends that Policies and interventions that ensure equal access to resources, opportunities, and decision-making power for both male and female youth actors should be implemented through targeted training programmes, awareness campaigns and capacity-building initiatives that promote gender equality. In addition, access to affordable credit and financial services for youth involved in rice value chain should be strengthened through establishment of financial institutions and mechanisms specially targeting youth in agricultural sectors.
Hydrogeophysical and aquifer protective capacity studies of Enugu and Environs South Eastern Nigeria
(Federal University of Technology, Owerri, 2022-08) Udeh, Moses Harry
Hydrogeophysical Studies of Enugu and environs were carried out using geophysical and hydrogeological method. This study was designed to evaluate the aquifer system of the study area as well its protective capacity and vulnerability by applying the models (Lc and IEC, GOD and DRASTIC), and also to evaluate soil corrosivity of the area by utilizing the topsoil (first layer)resistivity values obtained from the interpreted VES results. A total of eighty-five (85) vertical electrical sounding points were made in the study area that has three to nine geo-electric layers using the digital ABEM SAS 4000 model Terrameter with its accessories. The Schlumberger electrode configuration was adopted for data acquisition with half current electrode separation (AB/2) of 500mand half potential electrode separation (MN/2) of 55m. Nineteen (19) parametric soundings were carried out near existing boreholes where pumping data was available for correlative purposes and to constrain model predicting parameters. The aquifer resistivity of the area ranged from a value of 2.8Ωm to 88745.0 Ωm, with a mean value of 5434.6 Ωm. The estimation of the characteristics of the aquifer hydraulic using the new set of model equations showed that hydraulic conductivity values varied between 1.05m/day and 34.06m/day with a mean value of 5.59m/day, while transmissivity values varied between 25.70 m2 /day and 2767.81 m2 /day with a mean value of 500.05m2
/day. Generally, the groundwater potentials of the area are classified into three categories: moderate, high, and very high potential zones. The multiple geophysical models were used together to develop maps of hydraulic parameters. The obtained GOD, and DRASTIC models were together used for the production of the vulnerability map. Results based on the GOD model clearly show that about 60%ofthe study area is within the class of extremely low groundwater vulnerability zones, 33%is within the class of low vulnerability zones, and 7% of the area is within the class of moderate vulnerability zone. Also, results based on the DRASTIC model revealed that about 31% of the study area is within the low class of vulnerability zones, 67% is within the class of moderate zones, while 2%is within the high class of vulnerability zones. The evaluated soil corrossivity of the area showed that 78%of the area is practically non-corrosive (PNC) and can be rated as moderately competent to highly competent strata; 13% of the area is said to be slightly corrosive, which is rated as moderately competent to incompetent strata; and the remaining 9% is moderately and very strongly corrosive, which is rated as an incompetent material to construct on. The aquifer protective capacity of the study area were determined using longitudinal conductance technique. The protective capacity of the area classified into zone of excellent, very good, good, moderate, weak and poor protective capacity rating. Similarly, Integrated Electrical Conductivity technique was also used to determine the protective capacity of the area, the result indicates that the aquifer system in the study area has low protective capacity and the areas are susceptible to contamination based on the IEC technique.
Solar Energy
(Federal University of Technology, Owerri, 2017-11-15) School of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Advanced Heat Transfer
(Federal University of Technology, Owerri, 2017-11-13) School of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Bioavailability and genotoxity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on two edible vegetables (Amaranthus hybridus and Telfiaria occidentalis)
(Federal University of Technology, Owerri, 2023-11) Ukachukwu, Chidinma Ogochukwu
Bioavailability and genotoxic effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were investigated in two edible vegetables (Amaranthus hybridus and Telfairia occidentalis) using; physicochemical properties, biotolerence of the vegetables to PAH, molecular characterization, and health risk assessment of consumption of exposed vegetables. The study assessed PAH content in different tropical urban environment using soxhlet extraction flame ionization detection (SEGC-FID) method, physicochemical properties of soil, biotolerance of the two vegetables exposed to different concentrations of spent engine oil, benzo(a)pyrene (B[a]P), benzo(k)fluoranthene (B[k]F) and benzo(ghi)perylene (B[ghi]P) in plant species, and health risk associated with the consumption of contaminated vegetables. The health risk assessment was done using health assessment models such as screening value (SV), incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) and margin of exposure (MOE). Molecular characterization of exposed plant species was carried out to determine the level of toxicity on the DNA, through DNA band breaks. This was carried out with three inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers (UBC 811, UBC 827, UBC 808). SE-GCFID method was used for the separation and identification of PAH. The results showed that a total of fourteen PAHs were detected in the different tropical urban environment which includes: acenaphthylene, phenanthrene, 1-2 benzanthene, acenaphthalene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, flourene, naphthalene, dibenzo(a,h)anthracene, anthracene, benzo(ghi)perylene, fluoranthrene and pyrene. The soil physical properties showed that the moisture content and bulk density where higher in the polluted soil, while porosity was higher in the unpolluted soil. However, the soil textural class remains sandy. In soil chemical properties; soil pH was low, effective cation exchange capacity, exchangeable base, exchangeable acidity and organic carbon were higher in the polluted soil samples. The biotolerance of the two vegetables exposed and unexposed to the pollutants showed low growth performance in the polluted plants as concentration increases. However, there was a significant difference (P<0.05) between the unexposed and the exposed plants using analysis of variance Dunnet multiple
comparison. The result of the genomic effect of these pollutant revealed alteration at genetic level through DNA insertion deletion and changes in band intensity. The three primers showed polymorphism level of 65%, 58% and 18% . The health risk assessment from dietary consumption of PAH contaminated vegetables showed low health risk concern in SV, ILCR and MOE. However, prolong exposure to these pollutants can affect humans as it possesses a high potential to bioaccumulate through the food chain. The study was able to suggest the presence of PAH component in the different tropical urban environs of Owerri. Also the impact of PAH on growth performance of the two plants species showed that it is concentration dependent which was reflected in the DNA of plants species as polymorphism occurred showing variations in DNA.