The Influence of Neighborhood Characteristics on the Existence of Asthma in Children

Asthma is one of the leading chronic diseases in children 17 years of age and under with nine million American children suffering from it. Previous studies to understand causal factors of disease including asthma tend to focus on the individual and sociocultural characteristics but there is little to no research using neighborhood characteristics, a factor that does influence health. Research shows that other community‐level environmental factors like collective efficacy, community structural factors, and neighborhood safety can affect a persons’ psychosocial well-being, and in turn increase morbidity. For this reason, researchers suggest that the need to understand asthma and its associated risk factors within the social and neighborhood contexts. This study examines if the neighborhood in which a child lives influences the child’s likelihood of having asthma

Evolution of Inter-Community Boundaries in Africa

L'auteur présente un modèle de l'évolution des frontières entre communautés en Afrique. Il est présumé que les communautés limitrophes ont des centres différents d'où elles mènent leurs explorations progressives et entrent en contact sur la frontière. La ligne de démarcation n'est pas fixe avant qu'il n'y ait une prise de possession effective de la frontière, et l'on peut se représenter son évolution par différentes étapes : (i) l'étape d'expansion où les communautés s'étendent à partir de leurs différentes zones centrales ; (ii) l'étape de contact où explorateurs et population migrante se heurtent à des obstacles physiques et humains gênant leur expansion ; (iii) l'étape de stabilisation pendant laquelle chaque côté réclame exclusivement des parties de la frontière dont il cherche à exclure l'autre, tentative pouvant provoquer des conflits concernant les revendications frontalières ; (iv) l'étape de répartition lors de laquelle des membres voisins de communautés différentes résolvent les conflits provenant de la stabilisation et se mettent d'accord sur le tracé de la frontière ; (v) l'étape de délimitation où l'on s'accorde sur la longueur entière de la frontière entre deux communautés et où on la définit ; (vi) l'étape de démarcation au cours de laquelle on arpente et marque la frontière ; (viii) l'étape d'administration pendant laquelle on surveille la frontière périodiquement.L'auteur se sert d'exemples de situations réelles observées dans l'ouest du Nigeria pour illustrer chaque étape du modèle.Amodel of the evolution of inter-community boundaries in Africa is presented. It is assumed that adjacent communities have different cores from which they progressively explore and interact in the frontier between them. The boundary is not fixed before there is effective occupation of the frontier and its evolution can be visualized in different stages : (i) expansion stage when the communities spread out from their different core areas ; (ii) contact stage when explorers and migrants come against physical or human hinderances to their expansion ; (iii) stabilization stage when each side lays exclusive claim to parts of the frontier from which it seeks to exclude the other. Attempt to exclude others may lead to conflicts on rights to sections of the frontier ; (iv) allocation stage when adjacent members of different communities resolve disputes arising from stabilisation and agree on the boundary between them; (v) delimitation stage when the entire length of the boundary between two communities is agreed upon and defined ; (vi) demarcation stage when the boundary is surveyed and marked ; (vii) administration stage during which the boundary is periodically supervised. Examples of real situations in Western Nigeria are used to illustrate each stage of the model

Aspects of the political geography of Nigeria: with particular reference to the problem of unification

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Circumcision mishaps: A continuing challenge in the developing countries

Objective: Circumcision has been described as the most commonly performed surgical operation in the boys and is probably the oldest surgical procedure in man. This prospective study was aimed at establishing the pattern, treatment outcome and cost of major complications of neonatal circumcision seen in a tertiary center in Nigeria.Methods: Consecutive cases of complications of circumcision presenting at the Paediatric Outpatient Department in a tertiary centre in Nigeria were prospectively studied over a period of 3 and half years from July 2003 to December 2006. Information regarding the age of the patient, time of circumcision, the surgeon, place of circumcision was recorded as well as the type of mishap; outcome and cost of management were noted.Results: Forty five patients with major complications of circumcision representing 6.2% of the patients. Their age at presentation ranged between 2 weeks to 10 years (Median = 3months). All the patients were circumcised during the neonatal period. The commonest complication reported is urethro-cutaneous fistula in 25 (56%), Meatal Stenosis in 4(8.9%), Severe bleeding in 4(8.9%), Epidermoid cyst in 3 (6.7%), and 2 (4.4%) cases each of Buried penis, penile amputation, penile degloving with glans amputation, glanular adhesions and redundant prepuce respectively. The cost of treatment for the repairs varies from 4500 -35,000NGN (40-305 Dollars)Conclusion: The prevalence of complications of circumcision is high in our environment

Evaluation of Maintenance Culture in Manufacturing Industries in Akure Metropolitan of Nigeria

The appraisal and the evaluation of maintenance culture, enhancing productivity through optimal machine availability and utilization in manufacturing industries has been carried out in the Akure metropolitan. Mathematical models were used to assess the performance of maintenance personnel in the four prominent manufacturing industries in Akure, Nigeria. The results obtained indicated that production machines are already getting old, thereby resulting to frequent breakdown. Maintenance analysis were generally poor due to poor review or monitoring of maintenance performance, low degree of planning, improper execution of preventive maintenance, lack of necessary spare parts, and inadequate maintenance personnel. Some useful suggestions were made in order to increase the effectiveness of maintenance in the industries. Keywords: Maintenance culture, Manufacturing industries, Evaluation, Akure metropolita

DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A RICE DE-STONING MACHINE USING VIBRATING SIEVES

A rice de-stoning machine using vibrating sieves was designed, fabricated with locally sourced materials and tested. The performance of the machine was evaluated and the results obtained showed that the feed regulator opening has significant effects on the de-stoning rate, de-stoning efficiency and rice losses. The best performance was obtained at feed regulator opening of 20 mm. Above 20 mm opening, the higher the feed regulator opening the higher the de-stoning rate and grain losses, and the lower the de-stoning efficiency. The average capacity of the machine was found to be 31.84 g/sec. and the average efficiency also was 98.3%.     &nbsp

Nutritive value of Stylosanthes guianensis and Lablab purpureus as sole feed for growing rabbits

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritive value of Stylosanthes guianensis and Lablab purpureus as sole feed for growing rabbit. Thirty-six cross-bred growing rabbits of mean weight 515 ±2.3g were used for the study. The animals were randomly allotted to 3 different treatments. The animals in T1 were fed S. guanensis only, while animals in T2 and T3 were fed solely on L. purpureus andsunflower leaf (control), respectively. Feed intake and weight gain were measured on daily and weekly basis respectively. The results showed that rabbits fed S. guanensis and L. purpureus compared favourably with those fed sunflower leaf in terms of feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio. The results also revealed that the nutrients digestibility (dry matter, crude protein and crude fibre) were also better in rabbit fed S. guanensis and L. purpureus. The dressing percent, lung weight, heart andkidney weight were not affected by the dietary treatment

Anthropometry Survey of Nigeria Paraplegics

Measurements of body features and other physical parameters of the human body were taken by the authors of Nigeria paraplegics. Several anthropometric measurements, both static and dynamic categories were taken ranging from height, forward reach to Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC). Data collected were analyzed using percentile basis for the 5th, 50th and 95th percentile. The result of this survey as presented will serve as a guide and provide anthropometric databank for designers of utilities, workspace and equipments for Nigeria paraplegics. Keywords: Anthropometry, Paraplegics, Survey, Nigeria Journal of Science & Technology (Ghana) Vol. 28 (3) 2008: pp. 70-8

Optimization with Constraint Learning: A Framework and Survey

Many real-life optimization problems frequently contain one or more constraints or objectives for which there are no explicit formulas. If data is however available, these data can be used to learn the constraints. The benefits of this approach are clearly seen, however there is a need for this process to be carried out in a structured manner. This paper therefore provides a framework for Optimization with Constraint Learning (OCL) which we believe will help to formalize and direct the process of learning constraints from data. This framework includes the following steps: (i) setup of the conceptual optimization model, (ii) data gathering and preprocessing, (iii) selection and training of predictive models, (iv) resolution of the optimization model, and (v) verification and improvement of the optimization model. We then review the recent OCL literature in light of this framework, and highlight current trends, as well as areas for future research

An analytics-based heuristic decomposition of a bilevel multiple-follower cutting stock problem

This paper presents a new class of multiple-follower bilevel problems and a heuristic approach to solving them. In this new class of problems, the followers may be nonlinear, do not share constraints or variables, and are at most weakly constrained. This allows the leader variables to be partitioned among the followers. We show that current approaches for solving multiple-follower problems are unsuitable for our new class of problems and instead we propose a novel analytics-based heuristic decomposition approach. This approach uses Monte Carlo simulation and k-medoids clustering to reduce the bilevel problem to a single level, which can then be solved using integer programming techniques. The examples presented show that our approach produces better solutions and scales up better than the other approaches in the literature. Furthermore, for large problems, we combine our approach with the use of self-organising maps in place of k-medoids clustering, which significantly reduces the clustering times. Finally, we apply our approach to a real-life cutting stock problem. Here a forest harvesting problem is reformulated as a multiple-follower bilevel problem and solved using our approachThis publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under Grant Number SFI/12/RC/228