Growth performance and nutritional quality of selected vegetables in response to organic and inorganic fertilizers under low and high irradiance

Vegetables form major part of human dietary/nutritional needs. It provides the necessary vitamins and minerals as well as antioxidants to boost immunity. Different vegetables however have different benefits and require different growing conditions. This study investigated the effect of two growing conditions (Screen-house and open field) and soil amendments; Mexican sunflower compost (MSC; applied at 0, 5, 10 t/ha) and NPK 15:15:15 (applied at 0, 50 and 100 kg N/ha) on the growth performance, yield, and nutritional quality of five selected vegetables (Amaranthus cruentus, Celosia. argentea, Solanum macrocarpon, Solanum nigrum and Solanum incanum). Each treatment was replicated three times and experiment arranged in completely randomized design, Compost was applied a week before seed sowing vegetables grown in the screen-house generally performed better than the open field in terms of leaf area and chlorophyll content. The response however varied based on the vegetable and the soil amendments. Solanum species, performed better than Amaranthus under screen-house than open field. Chlorophyll in the leaf responded positively to NPK fertilizer under screen-house conditions while growth parameters such as plant height, stem girth, number of leaves under screen-house and field conditions varied depending on the vegetables. The number of leaves and leaf area increased with soil amendments. Moisture, crude protein and ash contents were reduced under open field compared to screen-house. The zinc and iron contents of the vegetable leaves showed that addition of compost was superior to NPK and screen-house better than open field. It can be concluded that vegetables grown in the screen-house performed better in their respective growth parameters than vegetables are grown under the open field

Statistical Properties of the Exponentiated Generalized Inverted Exponential Distribution

We provide another generalization of the inverted exponential distribution which serves as a competitive model and an alternative to both the generalized inverse exponential distribution and the inverse exponential distribution. The model is positively skewed and its shape could be decreasing or unimodal (depending on its parameter values). The statistical properties of the proposed model are provided and the method of Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) was proposed in estimating its parameters

THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS OF PARENTS ONCHILDREN'S ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA

The relationship between the Socioeconomic Status (SES) of students and their academic 'achievement was examined in this study. The research was carried out on a randomly selected sample of 623 Junior Secondary School students from four secondary schools in Ado-Odo, Ota, Ogun State. The parental educational and occupational background was used as a measure of family social status. Student achievement is a score of the standardized Junior Secondary School Examination in English language organized by National Examination Council [NECO]. Parental Social Economic Status in particular has a significant and substantive independent effect on individual academic achievement

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION: AN IMPERATIVE FOR SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN AN INFORMATION AGE

This paper discusses the important nature of communication in modern practice for school administrators. It looks at examples of the different types of technological means to facilitate effective communication. Two hypotheses were developed to examine the relationship between successful administration and effective communication. This study adopted the descriptive research of the ex-post facto type and multi-stage sampling technique was used to select participants for this study. In all 325 participants were selected made up of 125 staff and 300 students. One survey instrument was used in this study - Communication Effectiveness Rating Scale (CRES) developed by these researchers. The findings of this study indicate that students do not value importance of communication in school and students perceived more problems militating against effective communication in school than staff

Physiological responses of cowpea simultaneously exposed to water deficit stress and varying light intensities at vegetative and reproductive growth stages

A combination of stresses as it occurs on the field poses more challenges to crop production than individual stress. Crops’ response to single stress also differs from that of combined stresses. The morpho-physiological responses of two cowpea varieties (IT89KD-288 and IT99K573-1-1) to a combination of stresses (water deficit stress and high light intensity) were investigated at different growth stages. Three levels of light intensities (L3: 259 Lux- 36%, L2: 394 Lux-55% and L1: 710.2 Lux-100%) were imposed using one, two and zero layer(s) of the net, respectively, while, water deficit stress at four levels (W1: no water stress; 0-5 bars, W2: moderate water stress; 5-15 bars, W3: moderately-severe; 15-40 bars and W4: severe water stress; 40 -70 bars) was imposed differently at vegetative and reproductive growth stages. Data were collected on the cowpea yield, Leaf Temperature (LT), Chlorophyll (C), Photosynthesis (P), Stomatal Conductance (SC) and Canopy Transpiration Rate (CTR). Exposure to W4 under L1 considerably reduced cowpea yield by 80% compared to those grown under L3 and full watering. Reduced light intensity enhanced cowpea grain yield irrespective of water deficit stress and IT89KD-288 was superior to IT99K573-1-1. Reduction in light intensity also increased the SC from 55.18 in L1 to 76.88 in 36 % L3. Full light intensity without water stress (100% light intensity), increased C content, while severe water stress reduced the C content and CTR. Photosynthesis was, however, reduced under low light intensity compared to 100% light intensity. It was also observed that water deficit stress imposed at the reproductive stage did not affect P, CTR and SC unlike that of the vegetative stage. In conclusion, reduced light intensity enhanced cowpea tolerance to water deficit and increased yield. Cowpea response was dependent on growth stage, variety and severity of stress

An Investigation of Dynamic Influence to Doctors’ Stress in Government Hospitals in Nigeria Using Logistic Regression Approach

This study examined some dynamic factors related to doctors’ stress in government hospitals in Nigeria using Lagos State as case study. The working hours and the number of patients the professionals attended to showed that they are likely to be stressed. A model was developed to predict the dynamic influence to doctors’ stress using logistic regression model. It was discovered that illness, environmental factors, profession and workloads and hours are the variables that highly influenced Doctors’ stress

Preparation of Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Biomass from Sugarcane Bagasse

In this study, the pretreatment by milling, dilute-acid hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse, and subsequent fermentation of its glucose product was performed to investigate the effects of process conditions on the production of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The hydrolysis was carried out using HCl at three substrate concentrations of 20, 25, and 30% (w/v) of bagasse to distilled water. Hydrolysis parameters (time, acid concentration, and temperature) were varied for each case of substrate concentration in full factorial experiments, and an optimum glucose yield of 1.907 g/L was obtained with the 20% (w/v) substrate concentration, at conditions of 10 min time, 0.5 M acid concentration, and 80°C temperature. Thereafter, fermentation experiment was performed with S. cerevisiae in the product of hydrolysis. An optimum ca. 207 yeast number of colonies (yield: 20, 700, 000 cfu/ml) was achieved in 40 h, and the growth of S. cerevisiae was governed by the kinetic equation, ln Xt = 8.4338 + 0.2943t

Burden, psychological well-being and quality of life of caregivers of end stage renal disease patients

BACKGROUND: Caregivers of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients play an important role in the management of the patients. Their psychological needs are often overlooked and unmet by the managing team. This study assessed the psychosocial well-being and quality of life (QoL) of caregivers of CKD patients in two hospitals in Southern Nigeria.METHODS: Burden of caregiving, QoL, depression, and anxiety were assessed using standardized instruments; modified Zarit questionnaire, modified SF-12 questionnaire and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) respectively among caregivers of CKD patients on maintenance haemodialysis and controls.RESULTS: Fifty-seven caregivers of CKD patients and aged and sex-matched controls participated in the study.Anxiety was significantly higher in caregivers compared to control (31.6% vs 5.3%, p = 0.004). Also, depression was significantly higher in caregivers (31.6% vs 3.5%, p= <0.001). Twenty-eight (49.1%) of the caregivers had mild to moderate burden and 19 (33.3%) had a high burden. The mean Zarit burden score was higher in female caregivers compared to male caregivers (18.30±8.11 vs 14.83±6.70, p = 0.09). The mean depression score was higher in female caregivers compared to male caregivers (8.58±3.83 vs 6.75±3.80, p= 0.08). There was significant positive correlation between Zarit burden and hospital anxiety score (r = 0.539, p= < 0.001) and depression score (r = 0.472, p = 0.005).CONCLUSION: Depression, anxiety and burden were common among caregivers of CKD patients especially females compared to controls. Supportive interventions for these caregivers should be included in treatment guidelines in order to improve overall patients’ outcome.Keywords: caregiver, chronic kidney disease, burden, anxiety, depressionFunding: Self-funde

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON NUMBER OF CHILDREN DESIRED AND WHAT ACCOMPLISHED IN FAMILY SETTINGS

In any family settings, racing children is a big decision that requires serious self-reflecting and communication between couples. In African settings, there is usually a rift in the agreement of the number and the gender of children to be borne by couples; while the man prefers a male child, the wife may prefer a female child instead. The number of children by the couple also determine the kinds of education those children will eventually have later. To this effect, in this research work, we want to study the Man’s proposed and ac-tual number of children; the degree of association in the man’s decision using Quasi symmetry and Homogeneous Agreement model; how well some factors (Age, Religion, Family status, Occupation, Level of education and Ethnic group) influence the number of children; and to know the stopping rule for child bearing by the man. It was observed that 16.2% of the respondents had above the number of children proposed when they stopped bearing children, 21.5% of the respondents had below the number of children proposed when they stopped while 62.3% of the respondents had the exact number of children proposed when they eventually stopped bearing children. We observed that Age and Religion influence the number of children. We also observed that the probability ( p) of having at least one male child is 0.8019 based on the available data. The chance of any newly wedded couple ever having a male child at any trial follows a geometric distribution ( ) (0.8019)(0.1981) , 1,2,3 1 f x x x . Quasi symmetry model has a better fit for agreement measure than Homogeneous agreement model

Spatial analysis of tuberculosis and risk factors at the lowest administrative level in Nigeria

BACKGROUNDFew studies have utilized modern techniques of spatial data analysis to understand the distribution of tuberculosis (TB) and its possible predictors. In 2013, an estimated 9 million new TB cases and 1.5 million deaths occurred worldwide, out of which 360,000 deaths were HIV related. AIMTo assist in planning key interventions for the control of TB at a sub-national level, the studysought to explore the spatial distribution of TB and associated risk factors at the lowest administrative level in Nigeria. METHODOLOGYThis was an ecological study carried out using number of notified TB cases for the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 2013. Bayesian spatial regression analysis was conducted to identify high-risk clusters of the disease and to assess associated factors . RESULTSAnalysis revealed that TB was significantly clustered in 138 (17%) LGAs. Significant associations were found with household size, urban residence, access to transportation, population density, number of TB diagnostic services. Other predictors, including a composite index of socioeconomic status, living in a single room, number of TB treatment centres, and total health facilities in the LGA were not significantly associated with TB incidence. CONCLUSIONThe study identified LGAs with elevated risk as well as significant factors associated with TB. This information can assist policymakers in rationally planning targeted specific interventions with the potential to effectively control TB in the country