Plasma volume in normal and sickle cell pregnancy

Plasma volume (PV) rises by up to 50% in normal pregnancy, a phenomenon associated with a favourable pregnancy outcome. A previous study of pregnant women with sickle cell (haemoglobin SS) disorder found that PV paradoxically contracts in late pregnancy. A cross-sectional study was performed to determine PV (Evans blue method) and volume regulatory hormones and electrolytes in pregnant women with haemoglobin (Hb) SS and in non-pregnant and Hb AA controls. PV rose in pregnant HbAA and was significantly correlated with plasma angiotensinogen. Non-pregnant Hb SS women had supranormal PV measurements and reduced glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Their PV did not rise in pregnancy and was not correlated with angiotensinogen. Their plasma renin concentration also failed to rise significantly by 36 weeks gestation and was significantly less than in Hb AA pregnancy although aldosterone concentration was raised as expected. A general vasoconstriction in pregnancy can cause inactivation of the renin-angiotensin system and could explain this, with aldosterone being elevated by non Angiotensin II dependent stimulation such as plasma potassium, which was significantly higher in the pregnant Hb SS women. Further studies demonstrating a deficiency of vasodilator substances in pregnant Hb SS women will strengthen this hypothesis

The inclusion of guidance and counseling program into basic education curriculum for quality assurance

The study examined the inclusion of guidance and counselling programme into basic education curriculum for quality assurance in basic education. The study employed the use of descriptive research design. The sample consisted of two hundred basic education teachers in primary and junior secondary schools in Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State. Four research questions were raised. The use of self – designed questionnaire was employed which was validated by experts from curriculum studies and Educational Foundations and Counselling. The data gathered was analyzed with mean rank and standard deviation. The findings of the result shows the various guidance and counselling programmes to be included into basic education curriculum, the benefits derived from the inclusion of guidance and counselling programmes into basic education curriculum, the relationship between basic education and guidance and counselling and the challenges on the inclusion of guidance and counselling into basic education curriculum. Based on the findings, the study makes the following recommendations among others: Formal vocational education to be introduced at the Basic education level, so that pupils would be guided into the right thinking of appropriate careers to be perused, training and retraining of professionally qualified counsellors on regular basis and they should be involved in the formulation and implementation of curriculum for the basic education programme, well trained and competent Guidance and Counselling personnel, with thorough theoretical and practical knowledge, must be employed at schools. These people can help teachers to cope and deal with learners efficiently, government should provide adequate funds to all basic education in the country

Financial Development and Human Development in Nigeria

This study examines the relationship between financial development indicators and human development in Nigeria from 1990-2019. It investigates the effect of broad money supply/Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on Human development; it examines the impact of credit supply/GDP on human development and assesses the link between market capitalization and human development. The study employs expo-facto research design and Autoregressive Distributed Lag to examine the relationship between Financial Development and Human Development. Previous studies in Nigeria had focused on financial development and economic growth, financial deepening and economic growth. Therefore, this study is a response to the dearth of relevant empirical studies on financial development and human development in Nigeria. From the results, the long run net effect of broad money supply/GDP on human development is negligible and positive. M2/GDP in Nigeria only account for the extent of monetization rather than financial intermediation. The long run net effect of credit supply/GDP on human development is negligible and positive. The long-run effect of M2/GDP, CPS/GDP are statistically significant but has no power to substantially influence human development in Nigeria. The study suggests that banks should effectively perform their intermediation roles and effort should be made by the policy makers to widen/broaden the Nigeria capital market activity. Policy makers should concentrate on financial system and their roles for effective money supply and credit supply while implementing economic policies

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: IMPACT ANALYSIS FROM NIGERIA

Abstract: This study examined the impact of agricultural productivity on economic growth in Nigeria between the periods of 1981 to 2015. The Johansen cointegration test was employed to determine the existence of long run relationship between agricultural productivity and economic growth. Error Correction Model (ECM) was employed to determine the short run impact of agricultural productivity on economic growth. From the results, it was found that the agricultural labour productivity and agricultural value added were the positive determinants of economic growth. The study concluded that improvement in the performance of the agricultural sector has a significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria. Therefore, the government should encourage labour force participation in the agricultural sector by increasing investment in the agricultural sector

Effect of Heat-Moisture Treatment on Equilibrium Moisture Content Models for Cassava Starches

The level of water contained in food products is known to affect several unit operations in food processing including drying, storage, and thermodynamics phenomena which are related to the sorption attributes of food. Heat-moisture treatment as an aspect of the thermodynamic properties of the food affects sorption phenomena and invariably the associated empirical models for the sorption behaviour. In this study, effect of heat-moisture treatment on sorption moisture isotherms for cassava starch at 27, 32, and 37oC, respectively was determined for selected cassava genotypes (TMS 97/4763 and TMS 98/0510) including its impact on equilibrium moisture content (EMC) empirical models. The moisture isotherms were sigmoidal indicating effect of temperature and show the influence of the heat pre-treatment. Six widely recommended three parameters sorption models were fitted to the EMC data from the gravimetric method. Desorption isotherms appears well fitted than adsorption isotherms. Analysis shows that due to the heat-moisture treatment, the Modified Oswin Equation (MOE) and Modified Halsey Equation (MHE) models are the preferred empirical equations for the modelling of the emc data for the cassava starches. Keywords: Cassava starch, equilibrium-moisture-content, heat-moisture treatment, sorption, isotherms

Effect of drying conditions on energy utilization during cocoyam drying

Cocoyam samples soaked in sodium metabisulphite (SM) and water blanched (WB) were oven dried at 50, 60 and 70° C and microwave power levels of 385, 540 and 700 W while untreated samples were sun dried. The effect of drying on selected properties of cocoyam was studied. The drying time generally reduced with increase in drying temperature and power level used. The use of SM pretreatment resulted in lower drying times compared with WB pretreatment. Effective moisture diffusivity values (Deff) for all the drying conditions varied from 5.27 x 10-8 to 2.07 x 10-6 m2/s and SM samples had higher values than WB samples.  Activation energy values for oven drying were 37.41 KJ/mol and 61.79 KJ/mol and that for microwave drying were 38.59 and 41.91W/g for SM and WB samples respectively.  The energy consumption varied from 125.1 to 142.8 kWh and 308 to 396.7 Wh while that of specific energy requirement varied from 86.2 to 106.5 kWh/kg and 1.49 to 2.03 KJ/kg water for oven drying and microwave drying respectively

Analysis of food insecurity and hunger on nigeria’s poverty level

Food insecurity is lack of access to an adequate supply of affordable and wholesome food for a population. As a results of years of food decline, the number of individuals who experience poverty and consequently hunger have begun to rise on continual basis This study focuses on the food insecurity, hunger and poverty in Nigeria. The indicator of poverty is poverty rate while the indicators of food insecurity and hunger were food production index, prevalence of food inadequacy and number of the undernourished. The study employed autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model using time series data from 1990-2021. The study showed that food production index had negative impact on poverty level (p=.0008; t=-3.859645; coef. at -0.133758) and that undernourishment had significant negative impact on extreme poverty level (p=.0001; t=-4.861845). The study also found that the direction of causality between food production, hunger, and extreme poverty level showed that both food production and hunger granger caused extreme poverty (t=-4.152609, t=-2.250300 & t=5.317666 > t=2.0000).  The study suggested that in order to increase affordability, a distribution system for increased food production must be put in place to improve malnourishmen

Datasheet showing the impact of work environment on productivity in higher education institutions

Abstract: This research paper provides datasheet on the summary of the investigation conducted to determine the effect of both internal and external environment on staff and students’ productivity in some selected Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Nigeria. It is generally acknowledged that the productivity of Nigerian HEIs is rather low, this survey examines the effect of the external environment on staff and student productivity in Nigerian HEIs, evaluates the effect of the internal environment on staff and student productivity in Nigerian HEIs, and determines the effect of psychosocial environment on staff and student productivity in Nigerian HEIs. Data were gathered based on conclusive research design. Stratified and convenience sampling techniques were adopted. The research instrument was confirmed to have all the necessary psychometric values considered appropriate for the research. Some descriptive statistical analyses were carried out to further clarify the data and provide the necessary platform for further analyses

Prostacyclin, thromboxane and glomerular filtration rate are abnormal in sickle cell pregnancy

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy increases the risk of morbidity and mortality in sickle cell disease. We previously showed pregnant women with sickle cell disease to have a relatively low plasma renin concentration in late pregnancy, associated with a lack of the expected plasma volume expansion. We hypothesized this to be due to increased systemic vascular resistance through an imbalance between the vasodilator prostacyclin and vasoconstrictor thromboxane, associated with decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR). OBJECTIVE: To compare estimated prostacyclin, thromboxane and GFR in non-pregnant and pregnant women with hemoglobin SS (HbSS) and AA (HbAA). STUDY DESIGN: Four groups of 20 normotensive, nulliparous women were studied in Lagos, Nigeria: pregnant HbSS or HbAA women at 36-40 weeks gestation; non-pregnant HbSS and HbAA controls. We measured stable metabolites of prostacyclin and thromboxane A2 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; GFR using the Cockcroft-Gault equation. Data analysis was by independent (Student's) t-test or Mann-Whitney U test for comparisons between any two groups of continuous variables, univariate ANOVA for multiple groups and Pearson's correlation coefficient for degree of association between variables. RESULTS: HbSS women had lower serum 6-keto-PGF1α concentrations than HbAA, whether pregnant or non-pregnant (P<0.001; P<0.004 respectively). Conversely, pregnant HbSS women had higher serum TxB2 (P<0.001); non-pregnant HbSS women had non-significantly higher TxB2 concentrations. The 6-keto-PGF1α:TxB2 ratio was markedly increased (pro-vasodilatory) in HbAA pregnancy (P<0.001) but reduced in HbSS pregnancy (P = 0.037). GFRs (mL/min) were higher in non-pregnant HbSS than HbAA (P<0.008) but only marginally raised in HbSS women in late pregnancy (P = 0.019) while markedly raised in HbAA pregnancy (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The lower ratio of prostacyclin-thromboxane metabolites in HbSS pregnancy may indicate endothelial damage and an increased tendency to vasoconstriction and clotting. If confirmed by subsequent longitudinal studies, interventions to increase prostacyclin and reduce thromboxane, such as low dose aspirin, may be potentially useful in their management

Reproductive maternal and newborn health providers’ assessment of facility preparedness and its determinants during the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos, Nigeria

The global COVID-19 pandemic is predicted to compromise the achievement of global reproductive, maternal, and newborn health (RMNH) targets. The objective of this study was to determine the health facility (HF) preparedness for RMNH service delivery during the outbreak from the perspective of RMNH providers and to determine what factors significantly predict this. An anonymous cross-sectional online survey of RMNH providers was conducted from to July 1–21, 2020 in Lagos State, Nigeria. We conducted a descriptive and ordinal regression analysis, with RMNH worker perception of HF preparedness for RMNH service delivery during the outbreak as the dependent variable. In all, 256 RMNH workers participated, 35.2% reported that RMNH services were unavailable at some time since March 2020, 87.1% felt work-related burnout, 97.7% were concerned about the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and related guidelines, and only 11.7% were satisfied with the preparedness of their HFs. Our final model was a statistically significant predictor of RMNH worker perception of HF preparedness explaining 54.7% of the variation observed. The most significant contribution to the model was communication by HF management (likelihood ratio chi-square [LRCS]: 87.94, P < 0.001) and the availability of PPE and COVID-19 guidelines (LRCS: 15.43, P < 0.001). A one-unit increase in the level of concern about the availability of PPE and COVID-19 guidelines would increase the odds of observing a higher category of satisfaction with HF COVID-19 preparedness. Adequate support of RMNH providers, particularly provision of PPE and guidelines, and appropriate communications about COVID-19 should be prioritized as part of HF preparedness