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

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

Genome-wide association study of prevalent and persistent cervical high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection

Background: Genetic factors may influence the susceptibility to high-risk (hr) human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and persistence. We conducted the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify variants associated with cervical hrHPV infection and persistence. Methods: Participants were 517 Nigerian women evaluated at baseline and 6 months follow-up visits for HPV. HPV was characterized using SPF10/LiPA25. hrHPV infection was positive if at least one carcinogenic HPV genotype was detected in a sample provided at the baseline visit and persistent if at least one carcinogenic HPV genotype was detected in each of the samples provided at the baseline and follow-up visits. Genotyping was done using the Illumina Multi-Ethnic Genotyping Array (MEGA) and imputation was done using the African Genome Resources Haplotype Reference Panel. Association analysis was done for hrHPV infection (125 cases/392 controls) and for persistent hrHPV infection (51 cases/355 controls) under additive genetic models adjusted for age, HIV status and the first principal component (PC) of the genotypes. Results: The mean (±SD) age of the study participants was 38 (±8) years, 48% were HIV negative, 24% were hrHPV positive and 10% had persistent hrHPV infections. No single variant reached genome-wide significance (p < 5 X 10− 8). The top three variants associated with hrHPV infections were intronic variants clustered in KLF12 (all OR: 7.06, p = 1.43 × 10− 6). The top variants associated with cervical hrHPV persistence were in DAP (OR: 6.86, p = 7.15 × 10− 8), NR5A2 (OR: 3.65, p = 2.03 × 10− 7) and MIR365–2 (OR: 7.71, p = 2.63 × 10− 7) gene regions. Conclusions: This exploratory GWAS yielded suggestive candidate risk loci for cervical hrHPV infection and persistence. The identified loci have biological annotation and functional data supporting their role in hrHPV infection and persistence. Given our limited sample size, larger discovery and replication studies are warranted to further characterize the reported associations