A Laser-Guided Spinal Cord Displacement Injury in Adult Mice

Mouse models are unique for studying molecular mechanisms of neurotrauma because of the availability of various genetic modified mouse lines. For spinal cord injury (SCI) research, producing an accurate injury is essential, but it is challenging because of the small size of the mouse cord and the inconsistency of injury production. The Louisville Injury System Apparatus (LISA) impactor has been shown to produce precise contusive SCI in adult rats. Here, we examined whether the LISA impactor could be used to create accurate and graded contusive SCIs in mice. Adult C57BL/6 mice received a T10 laminectomy followed by 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 mm displacement injuries, guided by a laser, from the dorsal surface of the spinal cord using the LISA impactor. Basso Mouse Scale (BMS), grid-walking, TreadScan, and Hargreaves analyses were performed for up to 6 weeks post-injury. All mice were euthanized at the 7th week, and the spinal cords were collected for histological analysis. Our results showed that the LISA impactor produced accurate and consistent contusive SCIs corresponding to mild, moderate, and severe injuries to the cord. The degree of injury severities could be readily determined by the BMS locomotor, grid-walking, and TreadScan gait assessments. The cutaneous hyperalgesia threshold was also significantly increased as the injury severity increased. The terminal lesion area and the spared white matter of the injury epicenter were strongly correlated with the injury severities. We conclude that the LISA device, guided by a laser, can produce reliable graded contusive SCIs in mice, resulting in severity-dependent behavioral and histopathological deficits

Technical innovations in processing cassava peels into new products for feeding livestock and fish and for food safety

Poster prepared for international conference on Integrated Systems Research for Sustainable Intensification in Smallholder Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria, 3-6 March 201

We need to talk about manels: the problem of implicit gender bias in sport and exercise medicine.

In 2015, a website (www.allmalepanels.tumblr. com/) began documenting instances of all-male panels (colloquially known as a ‘manel’). This, along with the Twitter hashtag #manel, has helped drive recognition of the persistent and pervasive gender bias in the composition of experts assembled to present at conferences and other events. Recent social media discussions have similarly highlighted the prevalence of all-male panels in Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM). While, to our knowledge, all-male panel trends in SEM have not yet formally been documented or published, one need look no further than SEM conference committees, keynote speaker lists, panels and other events to see that it exists in practice. Why, in 2018, is SEM and its related disciplines still failing to identify and acknowledge the role that implicit bias plays in the very structure of our own research, practice and education? SEM is, after all, a profession that contains experts, and serves populations, of all genders. This editorial will introduce the definition, implications and manifestations of implicit gender bias and then explore how the SEM community can begin to address this issue, advance the discussion and develop a more equitable global community

VISION, MISSION AND THE 21ST CENTURY NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Marketing big organizations requires deep thinking and extraction of the essence in a nutshell fashion. It is an exercise in epiphany, that projects thinking and motivation as guides towards value-adding; what underlines the renowned ‘Yo shinai, Yo kangai’ Japanese philosophy, popularized by the Toyota Motor Company. The ‘good thinking, good product’ statement is a philosophy that is self-sustaining, needing the energy to drive the market, and sell its potentials to prospective clients. A new economic paradigm has emerged in the Nigerian university space as a result of recent proliferation of private universities. This development which encourages healthy rivalry and competitiveness calls for a compulsory revision and re-modelling of vision and mission statements for some universities, to project values and drive market orientation in an expansive client-based knowledge economy. In an economy harboring 43 Federal universities, 48 State universities, and 79 Private universities, the competition is getting stiffer by the day, and the contest between the traditional first generation universities and the avant-garde private universities is widening. The government-owned public universities have to catch up with the ideals of modernity and global competitiveness presented by the 21st century. A population of over 200 million people provides a vibrant market for university business. In this study, we shall probe the relevance of vision and mission as structuring principles in the Nigerian university space, and interrogate their perspectives on goals and objectives in a developing nation. We shall seek to know how realistic the statements are, given contextual challenges, and given that the statements in some instances, show obvious misunderstanding of basic meanings and expected functions of vision and mission statements. We shall posit that lack of proper setup of the structuring pattern is comparable to a derailed locomotive heading for oblivion. Drawing from a few number of concrete examples, we shall conclude by reiterating the importance of getting the foundation right to be able to revolutionize and reposition our universities. Article visualizations

CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: A STUDY OF ROGER MAKANJUOLA’S ‘WATER MUST FLOW UPHILL: ADVENTURES IN UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION’

Conflict is a fact of life. The tongue-and-mouth dialectical discourse in Yoruba proverb typifies the inevitability of dissonance and dissension in a complex social system. Socialization, therefore, whether primary, anticipatory, professional or re-socialization, is fraught with conflicts. Ideological contestation over socioeconomic policies forms the basis of conflicts in the university in Nigeria. Conflicts in Nigeria has its antecedents in the colonial era (Bakare, K.A., 2021). A scenario of contest is ever constant, when the leadership is perceived as a comprador capitalist by the followership. At the basis of every trade union in Nigeria is the determination to rebuff exploitative capitalism. The university with its demographics, proxemics and vast municipal requirements is prone to conflict in an expansive proportion. Having noted that conflict is a constant variable, it is important to zero down on its management, its mismanagement and its resolution, situating it within a concrete context. In our attempt to show the nuances of conflict in the university estate, we have opted to study realistic episodes of conflicts as captured by a former Chief Medical Director cum Vice-Chancellor of a foremost university in Nigeria. The book, ‘Water must flow uphill’ is an experiential rendition of the abecedarian precepts of leadership and management in two complex organizations. It is a fluid and transparent expose on ‘how to’ and ‘how not to’ manage conflicts in large organizations. Its turbulence, wisdom, severity and chicaneries exemplify the coarse nature of leadership in Nigerian universities and allied estates, as experienced by a viciously honest personality. Militancy, mismanagement, honesty of purpose, leadership botherations; all form the themes of a book which stands out in its attempt to capture unbiased facts. It is a definitive statement on the need for moral and ethical re-alignment in the Nigerian workspace, and the larger society.  Article visualizations

RE-WRITING THE PARADIGMS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

From eutaxy to entropy. In recent times, it has become a consistent phenomenon not to expect to see a Nigerian University feature in the first one thousand position in the world ranking of universities. This is a red flag that should bother all stakeholders in the Nigeria’s education sector. History has it that in the 1960’s, through to early 80’s Nigerian universities were among the trailblazers in the world. It is a known fact that universities in this part of the world had exhibited unrivalled merits and scholarship at inception and had occupied the top echelon of academic practice in Africa and the world, producing world-class scholars and professionals. Our universities today struggle for recognition in Africa, especially in the public purview where they once excelled with seamless efforts. Could this be as a result of epistemic impasse caused by abject disregard for excellence which had suddenly set in on the part of those who were supposed to teach knowledge, research knowledge and market knowledge? Or as a result of other factors extrinsic to the universities that had wrought this pestilence and had brought about a pernicious decline both in academic and administrative activities? Whatever the case may be, it is obvious that urgent measures should be introduced to reverse this obnoxious trend. Article visualizations

Border Threats and Insecurity in Nigeria

Nigeria is both the most populous and the richest country and this incontrovertibly makes her a point of destination for citizens of neighbouring countries. Worrisomely, the movements of the migrants into Nigeria are without proper documentation, as many of them explore illegal routes into the country, thus, escaping routine immigrants’ checks at the border posts by officials of the institutions in charge of border management in Nigeria. This study provided background information on the border porosity and human security in Ibarapa Community of Oyo State Nigeria. It explicated the thread of border porosity, light arms proliferation and human security along Ibarapa Community of Oyo State, Nigeria and investigated the challenges of border porosity and human security in the study area. Investigating the consequences of these challenges became significant because border porosity are still very susceptible to numerous arms proliferations emanating from poor mismanagement of the borders by the states bordering Nigeria and Nigeria herself. The influx of unchecked and undocumented migrants has continued to pose unsalutary effects on Nigeria’s national security as many foreigners were fingered as mercenaries in the recent Fulani herders and farmers conflicts in some part of Ibarapa Community in Oyo State Nigeria. Also, it is interesting to know that some members of Fulani herders while having their houses on one side of the community across the Ibarapa communities, they simultaneously have their farmlands on the other side of the thick bushes across the communities, which makes their daily activities sometimes illegal. Therefore, guarding a country\u27s borders is an extremely important job that must be given top priority in order to ensure the safety of the state and its citizens

Relationship between feed characteristics and histomorphometry of small intestines of growing pigs

The use of agricultural by-products has become the central focus in reducing feed costs in pig production. However, there is a need to determine how the gastrointestinal tract of pigs responds when subjected to fibrous ingredients. The objective of the study was to predict villi height and apparent villi surface area from physicochemical measurements of maize cob-based diets. Eighteen growing male pigs (initial bodyweight 14.3 ± 1.20 kg) were used in the experiment. The pigs were penned individually and subjected to diets containing 0 g, 80 g, 160 g, 240 g, 320 g, and 400 g maize cob meal/kg diet. Feed and water were provided ad libitum. Using stepwise regression, bulk density (BD) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) were the best predictor variables influencing villi height (VH) and apparent villi surface area (AVSA). VH produced quadratic and linear responses with BD and NDF, respectively. The equations are VH = 211.3(BD)2 – 591.0(BD) + 442.4; and VH = 0.03(NDF) + 22.8. Conversely, AVSA produced quadratic and linear responses with NDF and BD, respectively. The equations are AVSA = 0.00036(NDF)2 – 0.012(NDF) +7.25 and AVSA = - 47.12(BD) + 45.03. In conclusion, the BD and NDF of a feed could be used to predict VH and AVSA of growing pigs fed maize cobs.Keywords: maize cob meal, mucosa lining, physicochemical properties, visceral organ

An Analysis of the Role of the National Assembly in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic and its possible reform

The legislature is one of the key institutions in the democratic process, to the extent that any attack on its composition or functioning is seen as a blow against democracy. This is premised on the fact that it symbolizes democracy and avails the people the opportunity to participate in governance. However, there have been allegations of misuse of powers and gross misconduct by members of the Nigerian National Assembly which have led to the calls for its scraping or total reformation. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines the utility of the National Assembly in the democratic process in Nigeria. The paper uses two parameters: indispensable functions of the legislature and the institution’s impact in entrenching good governance in the country. Using the descriptive method, the paper examines the role of the National Assembly in Nigeria’s democratic process to determine its indispensability or otherwise. The paper found that though there are numerous issues that need to be resolved, the National Assembly is too weighty to be discarded. As a result of this, it encourages the Nigerian legislators should avoid unnecessary confrontation with the executive arm and improve on legislative-constituency relations to make the institution more effective