Transformation after Early Ecclesiastical Architecture in Nigeria (1845-1980)

Transformation in ecclesiastical architecture had always been noticed from its evolution as each epoch tried to express its own time. This study examined the characteristic factors that led to the transformations from the early period of ecclesiastical architecture in Nigeria to the second phase of its development. The study area was Lagos because it was the cradle of ecclesiastical architecture in Nigeria and its nature being one of the metropolitan cities in the world encouraged the spread of Christianity which is adjudged to be an urban phenomenon. Since the study was explorative and historic in nature, qualitative research methods were adopted. The findings showed that early Churches in Nigeria were established by foreign missionaries and the administration and construction of their church buildings including financing and supply of labour with materials depended largely on foreign input. The second phase witnessed indigenization of the foreign established Churches and the establishment of African Independent and Pentecostal ones. The patronage of local input in terms of labour force and supply of materials was becoming obvious

The Charrette’s Role in Sustainable National Development: Participatory Education, Community Development and Governance Practices in Nigeria

The role of architecture in education, business, practice, community and national development cannot be underestimated; as it combines expression, technology and the satisfaction of human needs in terms of social, cultural, behavioural, psychological and other specific and generic needs in the particularity of the users. But today, to what extent can architecture influence the process of design in planning for user-clients in different societal categories; individual, group, communities, and nation at large. The neglected participatory role of Charrette as an inclusive design, planning and practice tool in the societal development had given room to challenges faced by the client-users (individual, group, community, and citizens), architect-designers, planners and leaders in governance and civic engagement service providers. Among such challenges are: inabilities to identify the true-specific needs of the concerned people across the age spectrum, anonymity problems of a group of people in the neighbourhood that makes the decision makers to neglect the unique needs and governance characteristics needed for development in different facets of the economy. This study aimed at the role of charrette as participatory practice in order to explore its application to client-users, group, organizational and national needs. It employed the secondary data from literature with emphasis on the Charrette roles in national development and primary data on participatory pedagogy from four (4) selected architectural schools in South-west Nigeria. It also examined the preferences of teachers and students in participatory practices in architectural design studio course on the relationship between man and environment as an important way of meeting his needs. The results showed that aspects of participatory pedagogy were not predominant in all schools investigated. This paper recommended that the parametric indices of development should be infused in favour of Charrette participatory methods of decision making processes in client-users’ design, organizational algorithmic programme charts, community and national development at various levels of governance practice

Characteristics of Early Ecclesiastical Architecture in Lagos State in Nigeria

Considering the fact that the period between 1854 and 1929AD has been identified as the first phase of emergence and development of ecclesiastical architecture in Nigeria, this, therefore, became the earliest period and this study examined the characteristics of the church buildings during this period. Among the churches that were built during this period, five were significantly prominent and still exist. This study examined two because those buildings shared similar characteristics. As the study was an explorative one and historical in nature it adopted qualitative method of non-participant observation, historical and unstructured interview methods of gathering data using descriptive method of analysis. This study found that Churches were dominated by foreign established missions as indigenous ones were yet to evolve. Gothic style dominated the period characterised by its usual strong focus on verticality, pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses, large stained glass windows, ornaments and pinnacles. Construction works and financing relied heavily on foreign input. It also noted that construction materials were imported and the church buildings were more of foreign monuments rather than industrial or make-shift. Nigerian cultural, geographical, geological, climatic, existing religious and social factors were not major considerations. The study concluded that the characteristics of the early church buildings were significantly at variance with the current trends

Casual Factors in Evolving Housing Typologies in Benin traditional Architecture

Houses built in Benin Nigeria, have undergone evolutionary process from the traditional courtyard house to contemporary house type which is rather western style, but have spaces that respond to cultural needs. The morphology of the architectural designs illustrates a house space separated into quarters and sections revealing depth, segregation, controls and levels that explain the design in relation to culture and lifestyles of folks. The structure of domestic spaces resulting in evolution of house typologies in Benin can be traceable to economic, cultural, religious and social factors affecting the residents. The paper however examined evolving house types in Benin in order to identify factors responsible for evolution of spaces in house typologies. The result of the finding revealed that the attitudinal questions solicited and responses elicited were analysed using factor analysis, ultimately the factors responsible for evolution of house typologies were identified

A BINOMIAL MODEL APPROXIMATION FOR MULTIPLE TESTING

Multiple testing is associated with simultaneous testing of many hypotheses, and frequently calls for adjusting level of significance in some way that the probability of observing at least one significant result due to chance remains below the desired significance levels. This study developed a Binomial Model Approximations (BMA) method as an alternative to addressing the multiplicity problem associated with testing more than one hypothesis at a time. The proposed method has demonstrated capacity for controlling Type I Error Rate as sample size increases when compared with the existing Bonferroni and False Discovery Rate (FDR).     &nbsp

Biodegradation of Wastes using Partially Purified Cellulose-Enzyme from Gut of Oryctes rhinoceros larvae from Rafia Palms in Itokin, Lagos State, Nigeria

Conversion of urban wastes to utilizable sugars is very important as a vital step towards reduction of environmental pollution. Consequently, this work was aimed at obtaining cellulase from the gut of Oryctes rhinoceros larvae from raffia palms in Itokin, Lagos State, Nigeria to evaluate its degradability potential on different plant leaves and selected plastic bottles. Cellulase from Oryctes rhinoceros larvae was partially purified by a combination of precipitation with ammonium sulphate and fractionation with gel filtration on Biogel P- 100. The cellulase degradability potential was examined on tree leaves from cashew, banana, maize, lemon, cassava, pawpaw, mango, almond and palm respectively, while the plastics were from bottles of teem,pepsi, eva, mirinda, cascade, still, coke, devana and nestle respectively. Data obtained show that the enzyme- cellulase has a specific activity of 2.38 Unit/mg with 32% yield with higher degradability potential on samples from plant origin than the materials from industrial wastes

Capital Gains Tax on Investment, Infrastructural Facilities Provision and Gross Domestic Products in Nigeria

This paper examined the influence of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on Investment (INV), Infrastructural Facilities Provision (IFP) and Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted with data obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) tax reports, 2017. The data collected were presented in descriptive statistics and correlation analysis performed. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) Unit Root test was used to ascertain the stationarity of variables, and the Johenson Co-integration trace and Eigenvalue test was used to show the long-run relationship of variables. The test of hypotheses using OLS regression models revealed that Capital Gains Tax is positively and significantly related to investment and infrastructural facilities in Nigeria. It is recommended that government should ensure that capital gains tax is properly administered, efficiently managed and accounted for, to enable the citizenry reap the benefits it confers on investments, Infrastructural facilities provision and gross domestic products in Nigeria. Keywords: Capital Gains Tax, Gross Domestic Products, Infrastructural Facilities    Provision, Investment DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/57-06 Publication date:July 31st 201

Group B Streptococcus Carriage during Late Pregnancy in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

This study determined the prevalence of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) in late pregnancy and the antimicrobial susceptibility of isolated GBS as well as the impact of GBS infections on pregnancy related clinical outcome with a view of providing an epidemiological baseline data for policy formulation in the teaching hospital. It is an observational and cross-sectional hospital based study. One hundred and fifty pregnant women from 35-40 weeks of gestation were purposively selected and included in the study from May to December 2010. Vaginal swab samples were aseptically collected from the subjects after informed consent. The samples were assayed for presence of GBS. The susceptibility pattern of the isolated GBS to different antibiotics were assessed using disc diffusion and agar dilution techniques based on the Clinical and Laboratory Standards institute(CLSI) standards. The result showed prevalence of 11.3% GBS vaginal colonization which increased with age. There was no significant association between GBS colonization status and age (p >0.05)), gestational age (p >0.05)), gravidity (p >0.05) and obstetric risk factors (p >0.05)). There was no incidence of GBS infection observed. Although, all (17) the GBS isolates were 100% resistance to penicillin, ampicillin, cefoxitin and clindamycin. Resistance to cefotaxime (11.8%), erythromycin (64.7%) and vancomycin 70.6% were observed. Group B Streptococcus colonization in vagina in late pregnancy has been established in the antenatal clinic of the teaching hospital with the attendant risk to the fetus in the population of those affected. There were high and multiple resistance patterns of the GBS isolates to different antibiotics in this study. This calls for a review of the present hospital policy to include the routine screening of GBS during antenatal visits and surveillance

Mineral Content of Grasses from Natural Pasture in South West Nigeria

Nigeria’s grassland grows on uncultivated land on which animals have access for grazing. These are found along roadsides and fallow lands in the coastal forest zones of Nigeria. Most of the natural grassland/rangeland assumes more important proportions in the open derived savanna zones of the country. Ruminant production during dry season is limited by low productivity of pasture forages, which often contain too low mineral concentration to meet the minimum requirement for optimal productivity of livestock (Annison and Bryden, 1998)