Of mariology and the African theological enterprise

No Abstrac

Teachers2019; Effective Strategies for Enhancing in-Class Participation among Passive Learners in Secondary Schools

This study investigated the teachers effective strategies for enhancing in-class participation among passive learners in secondary schools It was carried out in Owerri Municipal Council Imo State The design of the study is a descriptive survey research design Two research questions and one null hypothesis were used The sample size was 210 secondary school teachers randomly composed from seven public secondary schools in the area The instrument used for data collection was the researchers self-developed 10-item questionnaire named the Teachers Effective Strategies Questionnaire TESQ It was scored on a four-point rating scale The data obtained for the study were analyzed using mean ratings and standard deviation to answer the research questions In contrast t-tested statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at a 0 05 probability level The result of data analysis revealed the strategies that can be used in enhancing in-class participation among passive learners The researcher recommended that school administrators should organize seminars and workshops for their teachers on how to effectively use the strategies in order to enhance classroom participation among passive learners and consequently improve their academic achievemen

Catholic Christianity and human genetic engineering

The 21stcentury has seen tremendous strides in science and technology. This is felt all the more in the areas of information and communication technology which has made the world, today, a global village. It is also seen, among others, in the areas of transportation, education, agriculture, health-care delivery as well as in the area of biomedical technologies, especially, genetic engineering. The paper looks at the reality of human genetic engineering. It considers what it is and the implications it holds for Christianity as it relates the image and worship of the Christian God. It is found out that it would lead, in most cases, to a distortion and diminishment in the image of the Christian God as the omnipotent Creator with the possibility even that this Christian God could, today, be created. It equally leads to a loss of faith in the worship of the same God while seeing to an increase in the faith and worship of the god of science and technology. But human genetic engineering not only occasions a distortion in the way God is perceived, it also sees to a distortion n the image of man, a consequent ‘thingification’ and ‘commodification’ of human life, as well as a distortion of the institution of marriage, and then, of the family, which ought to be the domestic Church. The paper also considers the role that Catholic Christianity has to play in the face of such implications. It is found out as well that while it does not need to condemn per se all aspects of biomedical sciences especially those that could lead to the cure of many diseases, it has the responsibility, however, to continue to draw the attention of all those involved in human genetic engineering to the fact that human life is sacred and ought to be respected and that reality is so big that it cannot only be looked at from the scientific perspective. There is also the spiritual-cum-metaphysical perspective to the same reality. It is hoped that the paper would be a valuable addition to the growing literature exploring today the interchange of religion with techno-science.Keywords: Catholic Christianity, Human Genetic Engineering, Science, Technology, Churc

Comparative studies of hepatotoxic potentials of Oxythenantera abyssinca (Rhizomes) sourced from crude oil polluted areas and non crude oil polluted areas in South Eastern Nigeria using male albino rats as model

Pollution has been one of the major problems faced by organisms and crude oil being one of the major pollutants especially to countries it serves as major component of their economy, living organisms could be directly or indirectly affected negatively by crude oil pollution. A comparative study of the effect of non-crude oil polluted Oxythenantera abyssinca rhizomes extract (NCOPOAE) and crude oil polluted Oxythenantera abyssinca rhizomes extract (COPOAE) in some biochemical parameters using albino rats. Serum liver enzyme activities and histopathology of the albino rats’ liver was assayed after a four- week treatment using standard methods. Findings showed that, mice fed with NCOPOAE had no death at 5000 mg/kg .bw making it safe while the once fed with COPOAE had a lethal toxicity dose calculated to be 3807.8 mg/kg. bw. At different doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg .bw., the extracts caused significant (p<0.05) and non-significant (p>0.05) changes on the liver enzyme activity which reflected in histopathological result compared to the control fed with feed and normal saline, indicating liver impairment with COPOAE having more of the negative effect compared to NCOPOAE and the control

Nephrotoxic potentials of Oxytenanthera abyssinca (Rhizomes) from crude oil polluted areas and non-polluted areas of South Eastern Nigeria

Oxytenanthera abyssinica is a tropical drought resistant plant. Its rhizome had been wildly used in ethenomedicine for the treatment of dysentry, rheumatism, oedema and polyuria as well as for the management of diabetes. Rhizomes of O. abyssinica used for this study were sourced from Owerezukala Anambra State that has not experienced crude oil pollution and from Akirika community in Abia State that had experienced crude oil pollution. The aim of this study is to compare the nephrotoxic potentials of methanol extract of the rhizomes in order to ascertain the possible effects of crude oil spillage on bio lives of the two areas. After the extraction of the rhizomes of O. abyssinica with 80% methanol, the extracts from non- crude oil polluted area of Owerezukala (NCOPOAE) and crude oil polluted area of Akirika (COPOAE) were dried and stored in a freezer for further studies. Sub-chronic toxicity profile was evaluated using the effects of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg b.w of the extracts on the albino rats for 28days. Kidney function tests were used for the evaluation of the integrity of the nephrocytes. Histopathology was done using standard method on kidney cells. Results showed LD50 of 5000 mg/kg and 3800mg/kg for NCOPOAE and COPOAE respectively. Exposure of rats to different doses of the extracts for 28days resulted to significant increases in kidney function test parameters with COPOAE showing more damage than NCOPOAE particularly at 200 and 400 mg/kg. This result could indicate kidney impairment. These results were confirmed by histoparthological assay, which revealed more damages in rats fed 200 and 400 mg/kg COPOAE than NCOPOAE. Histopathology of the kidney cells revealed different stages of necrotic and morphological damages at different concentrations of both extracts, changes being more in rats’ organs treated with COPOAE than NCOPAE. These results could indicate that NCOPOAE was less toxic than COPOAE from crude oil contaminated community and hence could be more beneficial in ethnomedicine

National Domestic savings, Inflation, exchange rate and Manufacturing Sector in Nigeria: ARDL Approach.

ABSTRACT This research work centered on national savings, exchange rate, inflation, and manufacturing sector in Nigeria from 1985 to 2018, a period of 34years. Data was sourced from CBN statistical bulletin various issues up until 2017 and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 2018 Statistical Bulletin, on manufacturing sector output, national savings, Exchange Rate and inflation. Data were analyzed using Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) to examine the effect of national savings, exchange rate and inflation on manufacturing sector. The ARDL result revealed that national savings has no short run effect on the manufacturing sector output but has effect on the longrun on the manufacturing sector. The exchange rate has a positive effect on the long run, but a negative effect on the shortrun on the manufacturing output, while the inflation rate has a negative relationship with the manufacturing sector output. The empirical findings showed that that national savings is not enough to alleviate investment in the manufacturing sector. Hence, it was recommended that the government comes up with policies that will encourage foreign direct investment in the manufacturing sector and raw materials for this sector should be sort for domestically

Optimal Guaranteed Services Timed Token (OGSTT) Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol for Networks That Support Hard Real-Time and Non Real-Time Traffic

In networks that support real-time traffic and non-real-time traffic over the same physical infrastructure, the challenge to the Media Access Control (MAC) protocol of such network is the ability to support  the different traffic without compromising quality of service (QoS) for any of them. Generally, timed-token MAC protocols group the diverse real-time traffic into one category and then dedicate certain portion of the available bandwidth to them. At the same time, some bandwidth are left unassigned but available to the non real-time traffic. The unassigned bandwidth, and in some cases, the unused bandwidth left by the real-time traffic are assigned to the non-real-time traffic on best effort basis. In this paper, Optimal Guaranteed Services Timed Token (OGSTT) MAC protocol is developed and analyzed. In order to provide better support for both real-time traffic and non-real-time on the same local area network, OGSTT employs the timed-token mechanisms in the Timely-Token protocol along with that of Budget Sharing Token (BuST) protocol. Some bounds on the behavior of OGSTT protocol are discussed along with the ability of OGSTT protocol to support real-time and non-real time traffic. In particular, the paper demonstrated that the performance achieved by OGSTT is better than the Timely-Token and BuST. Furthermore, OGSTT protocol can be incorporated into the Ethernet network to provide real-time performance guarantees to multimedia applications and hard and soft real-time traffic

Effect of dietary supplementation of vitamins C and E on the semen quality of local turkeys

A 56-day study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of vitamins C and E on semen quality of local toms. Twenty-four toms were procured and randomly divided into four groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4) of six birds each and replicated thrice. Birds in T1(control) were fed diets without vitamin supplementation. Birds in T2, T3 and T4 were fed diets supplemented with Vitamin C (400 mg), Vitamin E (125 mg), and vitamin E (125 mg) + Vitamin C (400 mg) in a kg diet, respectively. Semen collections and evaluations were done through to the 8th week. The samples were evaluated for ejaculate volume, progressive sperm motility (mot.), sperm concentration (SC), percentage live (LSP) and dead spermatozoa, and total sperm per ejaculate. Results showed that all semen quality traits considered differed (P < 0.01) among the treatment groups. Toms in T4 had the highest (P < 0.01) values of mot. (88.08%) and LSP (85.23%). The T2 and T3 groups had similar mot. (75.39 and 77.15%, respectively) and LSP (71.81 and 76.80%, respectively) values while the control group had the least values (54.13 and 54.69%, respectively). The SC (x109/ml) was highest in T4 (17.42). Toms in T3 had a higher SC level (14.03) than those of the T2 (11.58) and the control (8.92). It was concluded therefore, that combined supplementation of vitamins E (125 mg/kg diet) and C (400 mg/kg diet) in toms’ diet enhanced semen quality the most and thus, recommended for turkey breeding operations.Keywords: Toms, semen quality, vitamin C and vitamin

Effects of microwave power and slice thickness on fiber and ash contents of dried sweet potato (Ipomoea batata)

Investigation of microwave drying of sweet potato slices was conducted at microwave oven power settings of 90, 100, 120 Watts and slice thicknesses of 3mm, 4mm and 6mm using Fourier models and response surface methods. The slice samples dried from initial moisture content of 70.71/ to 12.7/ final (equilibrium) moisture content in the microwave oven. Fourier models adequately fitted the drying data with the following values of the fit parameters: MBE= 0.00002943 to 0.000645, R² = 0.9987 to 1, RMSE = 0.00384 to 0.01692. Effective moisture diffusion coefficient () of the samples ranged from . × −m2/s to . × − m2/s. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the effect of drying conditions on the samples parameters at 95% ( p<0.05). The results showed that slice thickness and microwave power have significant effects on the ash and fiber contents of the dried potato samples. At the microwave power of 90 W and slice thickness of 4 mm the values of Fiber and Ash retained in the dried sweet potato samples were optimal at 4.30% and 2.50% respectively, after drying for 390 minutes to an average moisture content of 14.2 gH2O/gdm. Optimized equations for predicting the percent ash and fiber contents at combined factors of microwave power and slice thickness were developed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) at 95% confidence bound. The coefficients of determination (R2) for the models are 0.7333 and 0.9655 for fiber and ash respectively. These are indications that the models can be used to predict the two food components of microwave dried potato slices. Keywords: RSM, Fourier Model, Microwave, Sweet Potato, Ash, Fibe

EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AFZELIA AFRICANA SEED UNDER COMPRESSIVE LOADING

Afzelia Africana seeds were subjected to quasi-static parallel plate compression test, using Monsanto Tensometer. The loading orientations were horizontal, vertical and edge-to-edge loading positions at four different moisture content levels of 10.6%, 12.8%, 15.2% and 18.4% wet basis (wb). Slight variations were observed in the means of the physical characteristics at varying moisture content in the range of 10.6% to 18.4%. Loading position was shown to have significant effect on all the mechanical properties studied. The rupture force increased with increase in moisture content in horizontal and vertical loading but did not show consistent trend in variation when loaded on the edges. This value was 155.68N for vertical loading, 139.27 N for horizontal loading and 81.0 N for edge-to-edge loading. Hardness ranged from 6.97 to 6.92 N/mm for horizontal loading, 6.92 to 6.67N/mm for edge-loading and 6.99 to 6.93N/mm for vertical loading respectively in the moisture content range of 10.6 to 18.4% for all cases. Rupture energy varied from 104 to 416.33 N-mm on horizontal loading, 59.96to 241.82 on edge-loading and 190.125 to 419.171 Nmm on vertical loading respectively for the same range of moisture content. Toughness varied from 43.758 to 8.865 N-m/mm, 23.563 to 5.370 and 44.667 to 16.349 N-m/mm for horizontal loading, edge-edge orientation, and vertical loading respectively, for moisture content range of 10.6 to 18.4%.Modulusof Elasticity dropped from 35.657 to 28.133 N/mm2 for horizontal loading, from 51.443 to 14.59 for edge-to-edge loading and 38.087 to 41.04 N/mm2for vertical loading in the range of moisture content of 10.6 to 18.4% respectively. The data generated in this study can be applied when estimating the energy and force needed for shelling the seeds and in making useful suggestions on the loading condition that will demand the least energy for the operation and shelling. The physical properties are also useful in process design and analysis.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v36i3.4