Contemporary issues in building collapse and its implications for sustainable development

This paper examines contemporary issues in building collapse and its implications for sustainable development in Nigeria. It explores whether the approach to construction by industry stakeholders is in line with the principles of sustainable development following the spate of building collapses in Nigeria. The rationale for the investigation stems from the view by scholars that construction industry stakeholders’ do not seem to consider the future in their current activities. The study establishes that the approach to construction by industry stakeholders do not match sustainable principles, and contributes to general under perforxmance of buildings. The paper recommends an overhaul of planning and implementation policies for building development regulations (e.g., building codes). The Nigerian government, as a major construction stakeholder should initiate sustainable construction measures and enforce this as best practice for the construction industry

Performance, carcass, haematology and blood chemistry of broilers fed on cooked wild cocoyam [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] corms as partial substitutes for maize

A 28-day feeding experiment was carried out to investigate the performance, carcass and health status of broilers fed Cooked Wild Cocoyam [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] Corm (CWCC), as partial substitutes for maize. One hundred and twenty (120) 4-weeks old Hybro broiler chicks were randomly distributed to four dietary treatments of three replicates each. There were 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design experiment. Four diets were formulated such that diet 1 contained no CWCC and served as the control, while diets 2, 3 and 4 contained 10, 20 and 30% CWCC respectively. Results indicated that the highest weight gain (304.48g/b/wk) obtained in the control reduced to 260.87, 254.58 and 253.03g/b/wk respectively for birds fed 10, 20 and 30% CWCC-based diets (P < 0.05). The feed conversion ratio (2.56) of birds fed with 0% CWCC-based diet increased to 2.92, 3.12 and 3.24 respectively for those fed 10, 20 and 30% CWCC-based diets (P < 0.05). Mortality was the same across all dietary treatments. The dressed weight (64.78%) of the control decreased to 62.93, 61.01 and 60.57% respectively for birds fed 10, 20 and 30% CWCC-based diets(P < 0.05).The heart weight (HW) and gizzard weight (GW) differed significantly (P < 0.05) across the dietary treatments. All the haematological parameters did not differ (P > 0.05) among the dietary treatments. The value of cholesterol was 134.54, 132.80, 125.48 and 121.91mg/dl respectively at 10, 20 and 30% CWCC. Cost of a kilogramme of feed significantly (P < 0.05) decreased from ₦50.01 (control) to ₦38.42 (10% CWCC), ₦36.84 (20% CWCC) and ₦35.26 (30% CWCC) respectively. Cost of feed per kilogramme weight gain (₦127.86) obtained in birds on control (0% CWCC-based diets) was significantly (P<0.05) higher than ₦112.19, ₦114.82 and ₦114.36 respectively for 10, 20 and 30% CWCC-based diets. Although substitution of maize with CWCC at 10-30% was cheaper than control with no adverse effect on bird’s health, however, the weight gain, dressed weight, cost per kg feed and cholesterol level decreased (P < 0.05) with increasing substitution levels and birds fed 10% CWCC-based diets had the least cost of feed per kg live weight gain. Therefore, 10% level of substitution was recommended for optimum profitabilityKeywords: Cooked wild cocoyam, anti-nutrients, broilers, blood indices, replacement, performanc

An empirical analysis of construction organisations’ competitive strategies and performance

Purpose – The essence of strategy formulation is to assist an organisation obtain a strategic fit with its environment and help enhance organisational continuous improvement in achieving performance excellence. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the type of competitive strategies used by construction organisations in attaining their strategic goals in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs an inductive research approach using a well-structured questionnaire to elicit information from large construction organisations based in South Africa. Findings – The research identifies five strategic attributes that could assist organisations to grow their businesses and enhance their returns. It reveals that all Porters’ generic competitive strategies are significantly related to organisational financial performance measures except focus strategy. The research found that three generic competitive strategies are positively related to non-financial performance and that differentiation and cost-leadership strategies are capable of assisting organisations’ achieve their financial performance goals. Practical implications – The study results will be of immense benefit to chief executive officers as well as managers of construction organisations in growing their businesses and enhancing their corporate performance. Originality/value – The paper contributes both theoretically and empirically to the current discussion and findings on competitive strategy and its relationship with organisational performance. The results presented in the paper have important implications for the implementation of competitive strategies in construction companies and future studies in the area of strategic management

Schistosomiasis presenting as acute appendicitus

No Abstract.The East African Medical Journal Vol. 83 (10) 2006: pp. 528-53

Impact of organisational structure and strategies on construction organisations' performance

There is an age long interest that the strategic management literature requires a better understanding of how the structure and strategy of an organisation influence its corporate performance. This standing interest increases the number of studies on structure-strategy-performance trilogy, but yet the outcomes are inconclusive. This paper examines how organisational structure and strategies influence organisation’s corporate performance, and investigate whether organisational structure has a moderating impact on the association between organisational performance and strategy. This is achieved by undertaking a Meta-analysis of literature on strategic management and explores the elements of organisational structure with respect to strategies and corporate performance. Based on the identified dimensions in literature, a questionnaire survey approach was adopted to obtain quantitative data from large construction organisations in South Africa. The data were analysed using correlation and regression analysis. The results revealed that organisational structure has an explanatory effect on the relationship between strategy and organisational corporate performance. The study provides a better understanding of the relationship between organisational structure, strategies and performance. It will also contribute to current discuss on the strategic planning practices in the global construction environment

A Novel Approach for the Simultaneous Analysis of Common and Rare Variants in Complex Traits

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been successful in detecting common genetic variants underlying common traits and diseases. Despite the GWAS success stories, the percent trait variance explained by GWAS signals, the so called “missing heritability” has been, at best, modest. Also, the predictive power of common variants identified by GWAS has not been encouraging. Given these observations along with the fact that the effects of rare variants are often, by design, unaccounted for by GWAS and the availability of sequence data, there is a growing need for robust analytic approaches to evaluate the contribution of rare variants to common complex diseases. Here we propose a new method that enables the simultaneous analysis of the association between rare and common variants in disease etiology. We refer to this method as SCARVA (simultaneous common and rare variants analysis). SCARVA is simple to use and is efficient. We used SCARVA to analyze two independent real datasets to identify rare and common variants underlying variation in obesity among participants in the Africa America Diabetes Mellitus (AADM) study and plasma triglyceride levels in the Dallas Heart Study (DHS). We found common and rare variants associated with both traits, consistent with published results

Gene Copy Number Analysis for Family Data Using Semiparametric Copula Model

Gene copy number changes are common characteristics of many genetic disorders. A new technology, array comparative genomic hybridization (a-CGH), is widely used today to screen for gains and losses in cancers and other genetic diseases with high resolution at the genome level or for specific chromosomal region. Statistical methods for analyzing such a-CGH data have been developed. However, most of the existing methods are for unrelated individual data and the results from them provide explanation for horizontal variations in copy number changes. It is potentially meaningful to develop a statistical method that will allow for the analysis of family data to investigate the vertical kinship effects as well. Here we consider a semiparametric model based on clustering method in which the marginal distributions are estimated nonparametrically, and the familial dependence structure is modeled by copula. The model is illustrated and evaluated using simulated data. Our results show that the proposed method is more robust than the commonly used multivariate normal model. Finally, we demonstrated the utility of our method using a real dataset

Genome scan linkage analysis comparing microsatellites and single-nucleotide polymorphisms markers for two measures of alcoholism in chromosomes 1, 4, and 7

BACKGROUND: We analyzed 143 pedigrees (364 nuclear families) in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) data provided to the participants in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 (GAW14) with the goal of comparing results obtained from genome linkage analysis using microsatellite and with results obtained using SNP markers for two measures of alcoholism (maximum number of drinks -MAXDRINK and an electrophysiological measure from EEG -TTTH1). First, we constructed haplotype blocks by using the entire set of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in chromosomes 1, 4, and 7. These chromosomes have shown linkage signals for MAXDRINK or EEG-TTTH1 in previous reports. Second, we randomly selected one, two, three, four, and five SNPs from each block (referred to as Rep1 – Rep5, respectively) to conduct linkage analysis using variance component approach. Finally, results of all SNP analyses were compared with those obtained using microsatellite markers. RESULTS: The LOD scores obtained from SNPs were slightly higher but the curves were not radically different from those obtained from microsatellite analyses. The peaks of linkage regions from SNP sets were slightly shifted to the left when compared to those from microsatellite markers. The reduced sets of SNPs provide signals in the same linkage regions but with a smaller LOD score suggesting a significant impact of the decrease in information content on linkage results. The widths of 1 LOD support interval of linkage regions from SNP sets were smaller when compared to those of microsatellite markers. However, two linkage regions obtained from the microsatellite linkage analysis on chromosome 7 for LOG of TTTH1 were not detected in the SNP based analyses. CONCLUSION: The linkage results from SNPs showed narrower linkage regions and slightly higher LOD scores when compared to those of microsatellite markers. The different builds of the genetic maps used in microsatellite and SNPs markers or/and errors in genotyping may account for the microsatellite linkage signals on chromosome 7 that were not identified using SNPs. Also, unresolved map issues between SNPs and microsatellite markers may be partly responsible for the shifted linkage peaks when comparing the two types of markers

An Estimate of the Incidence of Prostate Cancer in Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Prostate cancer (PCa) is rated the second most common cancer and sixth leading cause of cancer deaths among men globally. Reports show that African men suffer disproportionately from PCa compared to men from other parts of the world. It is still quite difficult to accurately describe the burden of PCa in Africa due to poor cancer registration systems.We systematically reviewed the literature on prostate cancer in Africa and provided a continentwide incidence rate of PCa based on available data in the regio

Genetic drivers of heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a heterogeneous disease that develops through diverse pathophysiological processes1,2 and molecular mechanisms that are often specific to cell type3,4. Here, to characterize the genetic contribution to these processes across ancestry groups, we aggregate genome-wide association study data from 2,535,601 individuals (39.7% not of European ancestry), including 428,452 cases of T2D. We identify 1,289 independent association signals at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10-8) that map to 611 loci, of which 145 loci are, to our knowledge, previously unreported. We define eight non-overlapping clusters of T2D signals that are characterized by distinct profiles of cardiometabolic trait associations. These clusters are differentially enriched for cell-type-specific regions of open chromatin, including pancreatic islets, adipocytes, endothelial cells and enteroendocrine cells. We build cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores5 in a further 279,552 individuals of diverse ancestry, including 30,288 cases of T2D, and test their association with T2D-related vascular outcomes. Cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores are associated with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy across ancestry groups, highlighting the importance of obesity-related processes in the development of vascular outcomes. Our findings show the value of integrating multi-ancestry genome-wide association study data with single-cell epigenomics to disentangle the aetiological heterogeneity that drives the development and progression of T2D. This might offer a route to optimize global access to genetically informed diabetes care