Practitioners Position on Play and Learning in Early Childhood : Evidence of Overschooling

Play is an integral part of development in early years. Play actually is work to children because it is through it they learn skills that enhance their development in the different domain. This study investigated Practitioners understanding of play in early years. It is a cross sectional study of 193 Nursery and lower Primary school teachers in 15 schools in North Senatorial District in Southern Nigeria. The Instrument used for the study was Play and Learning Questionnaire which was developed and validated by the researcher. The results showed that most practitioners agreed that play is important in early years but about 47.7%  believe that  play does not improve learning. It was recommended that there is the need for retraining of teachers in early years of the place of play in learning and learning activities

Fine needle aspiration cytology of breast lumps with histopathologic correlation in Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria: a five-year review

Objective: To determine the histopathologic correlation of fine needle aspiration cytology FNAC of breast masses seen in the department of histopathology of the Federal Medical Center Owo, Southwestern Nigeria.Design: This is a 5-year retrospective study of breast lumps seen at Department of Histopathology, Federal Medical Centre Owo, a tertiary health care facility in Southwestern Nigeria between January 1 2010 and December 31 2014.Participants: All patients who had Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology of Breast lumps with subsequent histological confirmation over this period were included in the study.Results: In the five years under review (2010-2014), a total of 289 FNAC of breast lumps were done. The aspirates were obtained from 275 (95.2%) females and 14 (4.8%) males. There were 161 cases of FNAC with corresponding tissue for histological correlation giving a biopsy rate of 55.7%. The sensitivity of FNAC in determining the final histologic diagnosis was found to be 99.4% while the specificity was 100%. FNAC was able to determine final histologic diagnosis conclusively in 86.3% of cases.Conclusion: We therefore concluded that FNAC is a reliable diagnostic tool of breast lumps in our centre. Being a fast and cheap diagnostic tool as highlighted by previous studies, we advocate that clinicians should continue to embrace this diagnostic technique in the surgical management of breast lumps.Funding: This study was entirely funded by the authors

Diurnal Variation of TEC and S 4 Index During the Period of Low Geomagnetic Activity at Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Ile-Ife lies on the equatorial anomaly region where the ionospheric current is greatly influenced by the existence of the equatorial electrojet. The dual frequency SCINDA NovAtel GSV 4004B GPS receiver recently installed at Ile-Ife [on geographical latitude 7°33′N and longitude 4°33′E and geomagnetic dipole (coordinate) of latitude 9.84°N and longitude 77.25°E] is currently operational and recording data from the available global positioning system satellites. The receiver provides the data on total electron content (TEC) and the scintillation index (S[subscript 4]). This paper presents the first sets of results from this station. Data records for the month of February 2010 were analyzed using the WinTec-P software program and these were interpreted to discuss the diurnal variation of the TEC and S[subscript 4] index during the period considered, as having low geomagnetic activity. The vertical TEC in this study showed that the values vary widely from as low as 0 TECu about sunrise to about 35 TECu during the day. Depletion in TEC was also noticed about sunset and marked by the occurrence of scintillations with a maximum index value of 0.3. Results of the IRI models and the observed TEC differ considerably; hence, there is the need to improve IRI models for its adaptability to the Africa ionospheric conditions

Practitioners Position on Play and Learning in Early Childhood : Evidence of Overschooling

Play is an integral part of development in early years. Play actually is work to children because it is through it they learn skills that enhance their development in the different domain. This study investigated Practitioners understanding of play in early years. It is a cross sectional study of 193 Nursery and lower Primary school teachers in 15 schools in North Senatorial District in Southern Nigeria. The Instrument used for the study was Play and Learning Questionnaire which was developed and validated by the researcher. The results showed that most practitioners agreed that play is important in early years but about 47.7%  believe that  play does not improve learning. It was recommended that there is the need for retraining of teachers in early years of the place of play in learning and learning activities

Creativity, Locus of Control and Risk Tolerance as Predictors of Students’ Entrepreneurial Inclination in Nigerian Public Universities

This study investigated the relationship between creativity, locus of Control, risk tolerance and entrepreneurial inclination of students in Nigerian public universities. Two thousand, nine hundred and thirty (2930) students were sampled from the three universities.  Four valid and reliable research instruments were used in gathering data for the study. The findings revealed that the combination of creativity, locus of control and risk tolerance effectively predicted the students’ entrepreneurial inclination. In addition, creativity made the highest contribution to the prediction of the students’ entrepreneurial inclination, followed by risk tolerance, which is followed locus of control. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended among others that there should be content curriculum review, sensitization, advocacy and mobilization of support for entrepreneurship education at all levels of education system in Nigeria. Also that, to enhance the smooth implementation of the entrepreneurship education programs in schools, the teachers should be adequately trained through conferences, seminars and workshops to sharpen their skills

Further studies on canine erythrocyte fragility in the tropical subregion: the effects of sodium pentobarbitone anaesthesia in Nigerian dogs

The osmotic fragilities of the red blood cells of 5 local dogs were determined before and during sodium pentobarbitone anaesthesia using different concentrations of sodium chloride solution. It was observed that before the anaesthesia, the osmotic fragility decreased with increasing concentration of sodium chloride solution, exhibiting a sharp drop from a high (43%) at 0.5% to a low (19%) at 0.6%. Between 0.6 - 0.9% saline concentrations, the decrease in osmotic fragility was rather more gradual. Under anaesthesia, the Osmotic Fragility curve was shifted to the right of the pre-anaesthesia level. The pattern of response was however basically the same- decreasing value with increasing concentration of saline solution. The increases in osmotic fragility values recorded during anaesthesia over those of the pre-anaesthesia levels were significant (P < 0.05) for saline concentrations 0.5% - 0.8%. The values of some other hematological parameters such as the PCV, Hb, RBC and WBC only showed insignificant decreases. It was concluded that veterinary practitioners employing sodium pentobarbitone as anaesthetic agent should exercise more caution than hitherto

The effects of xylazine sedation on some haematological parameters of the West African Dwarf goat

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Application of geophysical approach to highway pavement failure: a case study from basement complex terrain southwestern Nigeria

Abstract Geophysical survey involving Schlumberger Vertical Electrical Sounding, 2-D imaging dipole–dipole technique and ground magnetic method were carried out along Ibadan-Ife Highway located in the Precambrian Basement Complex of Southwestern, Nigeria to examine the geological factors responsible for Highway pavement failure. This was with the view to detailing the subsurface geoelectric sequence, mapping the subsurface structural features within the sub-grade soil and delineating the bedrock relief as a means of establishing the cause(s) of the road pavement failure. The geoelectric sections, 2-D resistivity structures and modeled magnetic profiles revealed that the stable segments were founded on a shallow/outcropping basement near homogeneous substratum devoid of major geological features while linear features suspected to be fault/fractured zones, buried stream channels, bedrock depressions and lithological contacts were identified beneath the failed segments of the highway pavement. The geoelectric sections generally identified four geologic layers comprising the topsoil, weathered layer, partly weathered/fractured basement and fresh bedrock. Thus, the failed portions of the road are probably precipitated by very thick and low resistive substratum (clay) beneath the highway pavement and the identified suspected linear features are the major geological factors responsible for the highway pavement failure