Trend Analysis of Teenage Pregnancy in Nigeria (1961-2013): How Effective is the Contraceptive Use Campaign

Teenage pregnancy (TP) is a recurrent global and public health problem. It poses both social and health challenges. Considering the massive campaign on the use of modern contraceptives to prevent TP in recent decades, we assessed trends in TP in Nigeria between 1961 and 2013. Pregnancy and contraception history of 70,811 women who were at least 20 years old when the Nigerian DHS was conducted in 1990, 2003, 2008, and 2013 respectively were used for the study, and descriptive statistics, time analysis techniques and multiple logistic regression were used to analyze the data at 5% significance level. The overall prevalence of TP between 1961 and 2013 was 49.5% which fluctuated insignificantly during the studied period. The TP prevalence among women who entered adulthood in 1961 was 39.2%; it peaked in 1978 at 58.9% before its unsteady decline to 39.6% in 2012, and then rose sharply to 55.6% in 2013. We predicted TP prevalence as 49.0%, 49.9% and 51.0% in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. The odds of TP were over 4 times higher in the North East and 5 times higher in the North West than in the South West. Teenagers with no education had higher odds of TP and it was higher among teenagers from the poorest households (OR=5.64, 95% CI: 5.36-5.94). Rather than reducing with the worldwide acknowledged increase in contraceptive campaigns, TP increased over the years studied. As far as TP is concerned in Nigeria, the impact of the campaign on MC use is far from being effective. To achieve the objective of fewer TPs, fewer resources should be spent on access to contraception and instead diverted to areas more likely to achieve results such as improvements in educational achievement amongst girls

Knowledge Discovery in Online Repositories: A Text Mining Approach

Before the advent of the Internet, the newspapers were the prominent instrument of mobilization for independence and political struggles. Since independence in Nigeria, the political class has adopted newspapers as a medium of Political Competition and Communication. Consequently, most political information exists in unstructured form and hence the need to tap into it using text mining algorithm. This paper implements a text mining algorithm on some unstructured data format in some newspapers. The algorithm involves the following natural language processing techniques: tokenization, text filtering and refinement. As a follow-up to the natural language techniques, association rule mining technique of data mining is used to extract knowledge using the Modified Generating Association Rules based on Weighting scheme (GARW). The main contributions of the technique are that it integrates information retrieval scheme (Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency) (for keyword/feature selection that automatically selects the most discriminative keywords for use in association rules generation) with Data Mining technique for association rules discovery. The program is applied to Pre-Election information gotten from the website of the Nigerian Guardian newspaper. The extracted association rules contained important features and described the informative news included in the documents collection when related to the concluded 2007 presidential election. The system presented useful information that could help sanitize the polity as well as protect the nascent democracy

Statistical exploration of dataset examining key indicators influencing housing and urban infrastructure investments in megacities

Lagos, by the UN standards, has attained the megacity status, with the attendant challenges of living up to that titanic position; regrettably it struggles with its present stock of housing and infrastructural facilities to match its new status. Based on a survey of construction professionals’ perception residing within the state, a questionnaire instrument was used to gather the dataset. The statistical exploration contains dataset on the state of housing and urban infrastructural deficit, key indicators spurring the investment by government to upturn the deficit and improvement mechanisms to tackle the infrastructural dearth. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to present the dataset. The dataset when analyzed can be useful for policy makers, local and international governments, world funding bodies, researchers and infrastructural investor

Trends of Share Pricing In the Nigerian Stock Market

With the rapid development of the capital market in Nigeria, in recent years, coupled with the role it plays in the sphere of national growth and development, there is need for investors to put more attention to shares being traded on the stock market and how these prices tend to move over the years. This research paper tends to examine the roles, functions, rules and regulations of the capital market in share pricing. The research paper also identifies the factors and the various theories that are responsible in the changes of share prices over time. In this research paper, a specified model is used. Also, statistical and economic tools are used to show extent of the positive relationship that exist between share prices and exchange rate. The paper examines the market capitalization effects on share prices, while a negative relationship exist between share prices and inflation. The research paper which is centered on trends of share prices in Nigeria Stock market between 1988-2011 showed that market capitalization (MCAP) and exchange rate (EXRT) are very good determinants of share prices movement, while inflation (INFL) is not. Key Words: Across the board; Bear; Bull; Dividend; Bond: Equity; Offer for sales; Share; Stock Market; Underwriting.

In-Vitro Adsorption of Fluoroquinolones on Some Pharmaceutical Adsorbents

Purpose: Drug overdose and poisoning are common clinical problems and could occur with the fluoroquinolones – a new series of synthetic antimicrobial agents. It therefore becomes important to study the adsorption of the fluoroquinolones on pharmaceutical adsorbents which could serve as possible antidotes for the emergency treatment of fluoroquinolone overdose or poisoning when they occur. Method: The rate and extent of adsorption of the fluoroquinolones on some pharmaceutical adsorbents, namely activated charcoal, kaolin and bentonite were investigated spectrophotometrically Results: The fluoroquinolones adsorbed on activated charcoal rapidly and attained equilibrium within fifteen minutes. The fluoroquinolones however adsorbed on kaolin and bentonite less rapidly and attained equilibrium within two hours. Activated charcoal and bentonite had high adsorption capacities for the fluoroquinolones while kaolin had low adsorption capacities for them. Conclusion: Because of the rapid rate of adsorption and high binding capacities exhibited by activated charcoal for the fluoroquinolones, it could be an effective antidote for the fluoroquinolones in cases of overdose or poisoning. Activated charcoal has shown a superior behaviour to both bentonite and kaolin in the adsorption of the fluoroquinolones. Keywords: Adsorption, bentonite, fluoroquinolones, kaolin, pharmaceutical adsorbents > Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 5 (1) 2006: pp. 533-53

Effect of oil mass flow rate on temperature profile in oil wells

In several design calculations including the development of programs to optimize production, engineers and scientists require accurate prediction of temperature drop due to flow in oil wells. The purpose of this research is to create mathematical models to predict the effect of oil mass flow rate on temperature distribution in oil wells. A numerical mathematical model is developed to study the parameters affecting the dynamic and static temperature profiles in oil wells in production and shutting operation. The temperature distribution of the oil from the reservoir to the surface and the temperature distribution in the wall tubing of the oil well and casing, cement sheaths, and surrounding formation is studied. The natural flow of oil wells in Alwahat area located 70 Kilometres south of Marada area east of Libya in the Zaggut field called (6Q1-59) is taken as a study case. In production case, different mass flow rates in winter and summer seasons are studied. The temperature profile in the horizontal direction is estimated at different depths. The Results show that the surface temperature of crude oil increases with the rise in mass flow rate

Socio-Demographic Variables and Personality Profiles of Patients with Substance Use Disorder in a Drug Abuse Treatment Facility in Nigeria

Studies in Nigeria on substance abuse have examined the use/abuse/misuse of substances among selected groups. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between sociodemographic variables, personality types and substance abuse/misuse among patients admitted in a drug abuse facility. This cross-sectional study carried out between 2008 and 2011 with 65 participants who underwent psychological assessment in the drug abuse unit of Federal Neuropsychiatry, Uselu made use of a semi-structured socio-demographic questionnaire to get information on age, gender, occupation, level of education, marital status, duration of substance use and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Version-2 (MMPI-2) to assess patients’ personality. It was concluded that male, unemployed, single, likely to be in a tertiary institution or holds a certificate of one tertiary institution are more likely than other categories to abuse psychoactive substance; while antisocial, passive-dependent and passive-aggressive personality appear to be the most common personality type. Keywords: Sociodemographic; personality profile; substance use disorder, substance abuse patients

Novel pGreen/pSoup dual-binary vector system in multiple T-DNA co-cultivation as a method of producing marker-free (clean gene) transgenic rice (Oriza sativa L) plant

The possibility of producing marker-free transgenic rice plants using a novel dual binary pGreen/pSoup vectors, in multiple T-DNA co-cultivation, was investigated and demonstrated to be feasible. The T-DNA in pSoup (pRT47) vector was engineered to contain the selection marker hygromycin phosphotransferase (aphIV) gene (plus intron in 5′ UTR), and the green fluorescent protein (gfp) as a reporter gene both driven by the CaMV35S promoter and the nopaline synthase terminator. T-DNA in the pGreen (pRT18) vector harboured the phosphinothricin acetyl transferase (bar), as selection marker gene, and the b- glucuronidase (gusA) plus intron as a reporter gene, both driven by the maize 5′ ubiquitin region and the nopaline synthase terminator. Both the pGreen and pSoup plasmids were transformed into E. coli strain DH5α using the PEG-transformation technique and into Agrobacterium strains AGL1using a freeze-thaw method. AGL1 was then used to transform embryogenic nodular units (ENU), derived from mature seeds of the model rice genotype Nipponbare. Selection on herbicide (PPT) or antibiotic (hygromycin) of co-cultured ENUs led to the production of numerous independently transformed callus clones containing both T-DNAs from the selected and unselected vector. While co- ransformation frequencies were 71% and 80% for the hygromycin only and herbicide (PPT) only selection, respectively, data showed that co-expression frequency is most useful for the production of marker free transgenic rice. About half (50%) of the independent transgenic plant lines contained at least one unlinked T-DNA integration. In this work, we showed for the first time, that the novel dual-binary pGreen/pSoup can efficiently produce marker-free transgenic rice.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (6), pp. 531-540, 200

Attitude towards Child Abuse: Identified Predictors in Some Health Care Centre in Lagos State

When most people imagine a child molester, they envision an ugly man in a trench coat coaxing children with biscuit. They don't picture the family member, the neighbor next door, the friendly parishioner, or a trusted co-worker. They don't think of mom or dad. Efforts to understand the etiology of abuse have led researchers to examine the personal history of parents who abuse their children. Hence this study considered the attitude of parents towards child abuse with the aim of identifying the predicting variables. Parents from five health centres in Lagos State were selected as participants in the study using 120 participants comprising sixty (60) males and (60) females. Attitude towards child abuse was measured with a twenty five item questionnaire developed by the researchers based on the list of items published as tip-off of child abuse and neglect by the American Humane Association and the Nigeria culture. It was found that masculine gender and participants aged 40 an above are important variables in predicting attitude of parents towards child abuse. Findings from this study provide a guide for more focused prevention, investigation and treatment efforts of abused children. Keywords: Attitude towards child abuse, parent