Traditional Coping Mechanism and Environmental Sustainability Strategies in Nnewi, Nigeria
Nnewi is situated some 30 kilometres South East of Onitsha in Anambra State in the southeastern part of Nigeria. This highly commercial town has undergone rapid urbanisation and industrialisation within the past two decades, since the end of the 1967–1970 Nigerian civil war. The Igbo community of the study area had traditionally employed bioconversion methods and other indigenous technology to process or recycle bio and non-degradable wastes. Industrialisation has enjoyed priority status in this locality as a requirement for modernisation and economic progress. The rapid urbanisation, aggressive industrialisation, and the attendant uncontrolled population growth have had a deleterious impact on the environment. There is now a wide range of industrial wastes that are released daily into the environment. Effects of these activities on the socio-cultural practices of the people, plant genetic resources and the environment are highlighted. In addition to palliative measures suggested here, a call is made to revisit the successful indigenous waste treatment and management technology formerly practised by the Igbo community. The importance of combining modern biotechnological approaches with the indigenous technology, norms and practices of Nwewi people to effect suitable waste treatment and management, as well as improving the living habits and the education of the people about their environment, is recommended.
Screening of Biodegradable Function of Indigenous Ligno-degrading Mushroom Using Dyes
Abstract The process of biodegradation in lingo-eellulosie materials is critically relevant to biospheric carbon. The study of this natural process has largely involved laboratory investigations, focused primarily on the biodegradation and recycling of agricultural by-products, generally using basidiomyeetes species. In order to collect super white rot fungi and evaluate its ability to degrade lingo-eellulosie material, 35 fungal strains, collected from forests, humus soil, livestock manure, and dead trees, were screened for enzyme activities and their potential to decolorize the commercially used Poly-R 478 dye. In the laeease enzymatic analysis chemical test, 33 white rot fungi and 2 brown rot fungi were identified. The degradation ability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) according to the utilized environmental conditions was higher in the mushrooms grown in dead trees and fallen leaves than in the mushrooms grown in humus soil and livestock manure. Using Poly-R 478 dye to assess the PAH-degradation activity of the identified strains, four strains, including Agrocybe pediades, were selected. The activities of laeease, MnP, and Lip of the four strains with PAH-degrading ability were highest in Pleurotus incarnates. 87 fungal strains, collected from forests, humus soil, livestock manure, and dead trees, were screened for enzyme activities and their potential to decolorize the commercially used Poly-R 478 dye on solid media. Using Poly-R 478 dye to assess the PAH-degrading activity of the identified strains, it was determined that MKACC 51632 and 52492 strains evidenced superior activity in static and shaken liquid cultures. Subsequent screening on plates containing the polymeric dye poly R-478, the deeolorization of which is correlated with lignin degradation, resulted in the selection of a strain of Coriolus versicolor, MKACC'52492, for further study, primarily due to its rapid growth rate and profound ability to decolorize poly R-478 on solid media. Considering our findings using Poly-R 478 dye to evaluate the PAH-degrading activity of the identified strains, Coriolus versicolor, MKACC 52492 was selected as a favorable strain. Coriolus versicolor, which was collected from Mt. Yeogi in Suwon, was studied for the production of the lignin-modifying enzymes laeease, manganese-dependent peroxidase (MnP), and lignin peroxidase (LiP).
The parallel waveform relaxation stochastic Runge–Kutta method for stochastic differential equations
For large-scale non-autonomous Stratonovich stochastic differential equations, we study a very general parallel waveform relaxation process which is on the basis of stochastic Runge–Kutta (SRK) method of mean-square order 1.0 in this literature. The convergence of the whole parallel numerical iterative scheme can be guaranteed and the scheme provides better properties in terms of decreasing the load of the computation and operating speed. At the same time, the related limit method is also introduced as the continuous approximation derived from the iterative scheme. In the approximation interval, it is worth noting that the mean-square order of the parallel numerical iterative scheme can be kept consistent with the previous SRK method at any arbitrary time point, not just at discrete points. Some numerical simulations are presented to elaborate the computing efficiency of the parallel numerical iterative scheme.