Fuelwood Depletion and Alternative Sources of Energy in the Guinea Savannah Ecosystem of Nigeria

Population pressure and poverty are the main reasons of firewood depletion in the Guinea Savanna ecosystem of Nigeria. In the near future the fuelwood will be increasingly scarce and expensive. Currently, the acute scarcity and deficit in wood supply has resulted in enormous increase in price either by the way of monetary outlays on fuel for the urban or labour on the part of fuelwood collectors in the rural areas. Over 80% of Nigeria’s population that depend on fuelwood is worsened by the widespread use of insufficient cooking methods, the most common of which is still an open fire. The open fire system has a very low terminal efficiency and the smoke is also harzadous to human health, especially to women and children who mostly do the cooking in homes. Equally, the biomass energy resources of the nation have been estimated to be significant, which can be used for the production of the briquette as an alternative cooking fuel. The contents of this work will provide better alternative on efficient use of biomass resources and other alternative renewable energy devices capable of revolutionizing the cooking systems particularly in the rural areas of Nigeria. Key words: Fuelwood, Energy, Ecosyste

A Systematic Review of Franchising as an Alternative Business Model

In today’s business world, franchising has become a viable alternative business model for expansion to many entrepreneurs. As a result, this paper aims to systematically review underlying issues of franchising systems and make suggestions for further research based on identified gaps. The study adopted the Systematic Quantitative Assessment Technique (SQAT) in analysing 91 English peer-reviewed journal articles from 2009-2018 on franchising from six high quality academic databases: Emerald, Elsevier, Springer, Sage, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley. The study reveals a significant work in franchising articles with 17 and 15 papers out of 91 reviewed articles drawing attention to conflict management and market selection processes respectively. 61 out of 91of the articles were empirical in nature and the theoretical background upon which majority of the papers rested on was Agency theory and Resource Scarcity theory. A large number of the studies were conducted in the USA and Europe, whilst the least were from Africa and none from South America, with survey and Panel data being the most prominent research methods. The study also presented evidence of a growing trend in the number of franchising articles within the ten years. The findings of this research provide an x-ray of discourses on the Franchising research topic, showing intricacies that will serve as guides for existing and prospective researchers in the field. The significant contribution of this study is that it is a new addition to the franchising field, offering insights to act as guides for future researchers

Evaluation of Some Metals Content and Physicochemical Properties of Some Major Rivers as Sources of Irrigation Water in Mid-Benue Trough

Irrigation Water were sampled from some major rivers in the mid-section of Benue Trough for two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012 and analysed for some metals contents and physicochemical properties. The results showed that irrigation water were slightly (pH 6.5) to moderately (pH 5.5) acidic and good for irrigation with minimal or no liming. Very low pH delays nutrients uptake by plants and therefore plant metabolism. Levels of total soluble salts, Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , Na + and K - were within the acceptable limits for irrigation water. Salinity of water was low and ranged from 0.00 to 0.05 dsm -1 with EC from 64.30 to 104.50 μmhos which falls below the upper limit of standard for irrigation water (2,000 μmhos). Total suspended solids concentrations were  rom 9.00 to 13.00 mgl-1 . These ranges are relatively low to medium compared to the standard limits and may pose no harm or threat to plants irrigated or cause damage to pumps if screens are not used to exclude them. The anions: NO3 - , HCO3 - , CO3 2- , Cl - SO4 2- levels were however less than the upper limit for irrigation water. Therefore, the waters were highly suitable for irrigation without improvement. Trace elements were 0.44 to 0.93 mgl -1 for Fe, 0.03 to 0.12 mgl -1 for Mn, 10.00 to 14.00 mgl -1 for Cd, 3.00 to 5.00 mgl -1 for Pb and 0.25 to 0.45 mgl -1 for B (maximum application rates should not exceed that which allows normal crop growth as plant uptake is so small). In general terms therefore, qualities of irrigation water in the study sites conformed to the specifications for irrigation water

Seroprevalence of ruminant brucellosis in three selected local government areas of Taraba state

A serological survey of brucellosis was carried out in three selected local government areas of Taraba state to determine the current status of the disease in the field, especially in the nomadic Fulani breeding herds. A test using the Brucella abortus Rose Bengal Plate Test antigen to test the sera of bovine, ovine and caprine for presence of Brucella abortus antibodies and Milk Ring Test antigen was also carried out to determine the presence of Brucella abortus antibodies in milk of lactating cows. A total of 555 samples, comprising 330 sera samples and 225 milk samples were examined. 50 sera samples of bovine and 30 sera samples each of ovine and caprine, making 110 samples and 10 millitre of milk samples from 75 lactating cows were examined from each of the selected local government areas of Jalingo, Zing and Ardo-kola in Taraba state. Overall prevalence of brucellosis from the sera and milk samples were 60(18.2%) and 17(7.65%) respectively. There was a statistically significant association between the serological tests (P<0.05). Sera samples examined showed that 32(21.3%) bovine, 10(11.1%) ovine and 18(20%) caprine were positive using Rose Bengal Plate Test(RBPT) in the three local government areas, with Jalingo recording 22(20%), Zing 21(19.1%) and Ardo-kola 17(15.5%). Whereas milk samples examined using Milk Ring Test (MRT) showed that Zing recorded 9(12%), Ardo-kola 6(8%) and Jalingo 2(3%) positive results. This result showed that Jalingo recorded the highest sero-prevalence rate of 20%, while Zing recorded the highest prevalence of 22% in milk of lactating cows. There was no significant statistical association between location, age and sex (P>0.05). There is need to carry out more studies to determine the current status of the disease in the remaining local government areas and in humans.Keywords: Brucellosis, MRT, RBPT, Seroprevalence, Taraba stat

Prevalence of early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness amongst males and females in Jos, Nigeria

Background: Mental illness is a psychological, emotional and mental health problems that affects the physical, behavioral and occupational functioning of an individual. The understand of the signs and symptoms of the disorder in a typical setting and by ordinary people or even among the literate is often difficulty; talk more of the early warning signs and symptoms of the illness. This is because some Africans still attribute the causes of mental illness to supernatural sources such as witchcraft, evil people, wicked people and demonic attacks etc. It thus becomes imperative to take a look at the general symptoms of mental illness.Objective of Study: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness among males and females in Jos.Result: A total of 657 participants took part in the study. Participants were randomly selected. They comprised of 390 males who fell within the age range 17-65 with a Mean age of 29.09 and a standard deviation of 10.05 and 267 females who fell within he age range 16-60 with a Mean age of 31.28 and a standard deviation of 17.08. The study found out that that there was a significant difference in the prevalence of the early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness among the males and females (X2 = 10.5 >P.05 = 7.87). A higher proportion of females (75.41%) presented with the early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness.Conclusion: The result shows that a higher proportion of the sample (66.61 presented with the early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness by both males and females indicates that the society is sitting on a time bomb. This is because if these individuals are not checked and manage at this early stage, they can become fully blown victims of mental illness in later years. Thus mental health professionals and good policy should move quickly to prevent mental illness in the society.Keywords: Early warning Signs, Symptoms, Mental Illnes

On certain semigroups of contraction mappings of a finite chain

Let [n] = {1, 2, . . . , n} be a finite chain and let Pn (resp. , Tn) be the semigroup of partial transformations on [n] (resp. , full transformations on [n]). Let CPn = {α ∈ Pn : (for all x, y ∈ Dom α) |xα−yα| ≤ |x−y|} (resp. , CT n = {α ∈ Tn : (for all x, y ∈ [n]) |xα−yα| ≤ |x−y|} ) be the subsemigroup of partial contraction mappings on [n] (resp. , subsemigroup of full contraction mappings on [n]). We characterize all the starred Green’s relations on CPn and it subsemigroup of order preserving and/or order reversing and subsemigroup of order preserving partial contractions on [n], respectively. We show that the semigroups CPn and CT n, and some of their subsemigroups are left abundant semigroups for all n but not right abundant for n ≥ 4. We further show that the set of regular elements of the semigroup CT n and its subsemigroup of order preserving or order reversing full contractions on [n], each forms a regular subsemigroup and an orthodox semigroup, respectively

Assessing the Job Selection Criteria of Accounting Students: a Normative Approach

This research assessed to what extent final-year Muslim accounting students in Malaysia considered Islamic principles when choosing a job after graduation. 356 final-year Muslim accounting students in four Malaysian universities were surveyed using an open-ended job selection scenario. The result shows that reality does not live up to the ideal. Only 16% of the respondents apply Islamic principles in making a job selection decision. The remaining 84% are more concerned with other criteria such as personal interests, salary considerations, and company reputation

Chemical Information from Proximate and Elemental Composition of Acalypha hispida Leaf

Communication in Physical Sciences 2020, 5(2): 240-245 Authors: Abdulazeez, N. C. Nwokem, I. L. Ibrahim, H. L. Zubairu, A. Uthman and M. Abubakar Received 17 May 2020/Accepted 28 May 2020  Proximate and elemental compositions of plant leaves can provide useful information on the nutritional benefits of the plant. Proximate and elemental analysis of Acalypha hispida leaves were conducted using official and recommended methods. The result obtained indicated that the plant leaf contain moisture (11.02%), crude fat (6.05%), total ash (10.17%), crude protein (13.17%), crude fibre (10.36%) and carbohydrate (48.65%). Analysis for the presence of some elements indicated the presence of essential elements, which included iron, zinc and copper. The toxic lead was also found to be present in the plant leaves as Fe, Zn, Cu and Pb. Iron had the highest mean concentration of 20.7mg/g while concentrations of Zn, Cu, and Pb were 0.230, 0.778 and 1.729 mg/g respectively. Concentration of these metal ions were within the tolerance and safe limits for the human nutrition