Selected physical and mechanical properties of velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) were studied at two moisture content levels of 13% and 20% (db). Compression strength characteristics were conducted under quasi-static compressive force at longitudinal and latitudinal (lateral) loading positions and the rupture forces, compressive strength, modulus of deformability, toughness, stiffness and force at bio-yield point determined as the mechanical properties at varying loading positions. Results indicated that volume (7.398 -9.416 mm 3 ), surface area (73.289 -111.782 mm 2 ), geometric mean diameter (9.18 -11.68mm), and weight (0.872 -1.055 g) of the velvet bean seed increased linearly with increase in moisture content. Also, the bulk density, specific gravity (0.118 -0.112 g/mm 3 ), sphericity (0.737 -0.704) and aspect ratio (0.776 -0.719) decreased linearly with increase in moisture content. These indicate that Velvet beans have wide size ranges and no single sample of the grains can effectively represent the other. In the case of the force-deformation characteristics, result indicates that the force and corresponding deformation to rupture of velvet bean seeds were found to vary from 525N, 5mm in longitudinal loading position to 800N, 7mm in lateral loading position at 13% moisture content and 131.25N, 3mm in longitudinal loading to 237.5N, 4.75mm in lateral loading at 20% (wb) moisture content.

The effects of abattoir wastewater pollution at New Artisan River in New Artisan, Enugu East, Enugu State of Nigeria were investigated. The study involved the collection of water samples at the designated points from the New Artisan River where the abattoir wastewaters are discharged. The physical, chemical and bacteriological analyses of the wastewater samples were conducted using standard analytical methods. Results of the laboratory tests were analyzed using statistical tests. The results obtained were compared with World Health Organization (WHO) and other international standards. The results obtained were pH; 6.54 at 25.0 o C, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD); 5009(mg/L),chemical oxygen demand (COD); 3820(mg/L), total suspended solids (TSS); 97.3(mg/L) , total dissolved solids (TDS); 56.7(mg/L) , conductivity; 113(µS/cm) , , dissolved oxygen (DO); 8.60(mg/L) , turbidity; 24.0(NTU), colour; 117(Pt-Co), total solids (TS); 154(mg/L), total hardness (TH); 42.0(mg/L), calcium; 10.4(mg/L), coliforms; 9000(cfu/ml) and E-coli; 7500(cfu/ml) . Analyses of the results showed that the samples were highly polluted. Hence, appropriate measures are herein suggested as a means to control pollution discharge in New-Artisan River in order to enhance the quality of human and aquatic life

The physical and aerodynamic properties of black and white sesame were determined at Moisture Content(MC%) range of 8.5 – 30.6%(d.b).The major, minor, intermediate, arithmetic mean, geometric mean diameters and sphericity, projected area of the two varieties were 2.96 – 3.94mm, 1.47 -2.40mm,0.54 -1.26mm,1.66 – 2.50mm, 0.78 - 3.66mm and 26.53 – 93.45, 1.91 – 42.08mm2 respectively.The increase in MC resulted decrease in true density from 1038.61 – 994.93 kg/mm2 and 1039.61 – 998.47 kg/mm2 for white and black sesame seed respectively.The terminal velocity of white sesame seed ranged from 3.12 – 7.82m/s while black sesame seed ranged from 3.16 – 7.94m/s at MC range of 8.5 – 306% (d.b).The drag coefficient were 3.750.31 and 2.26 – 0.23 for white and black sesame seed respectively as MC ranged from 8.5 – 30.6% (d.b) while Reynold number varied from 2363.9 – 23067.3 and 3401.5 – 15121.6 for white and black sesame seed respectively at MC range of 8.5 - 30.6% (d.b).The properties of sesame seed determined varied significantly with variety and MC.This findings are the prerequisite in the design and selection of sesame seed separating machine. A pneumatic separator can be designed with provision for effective separation of undesired light material with average terminal velocity below 5.17m/s and 5.67m/s for white and black sesame seeds respectively.

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