Development Inequalities in Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria

This paper examined the spatial inequality of development among thirty Local Government Areas of Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria. Based on the results of Principal Component Analysis and Logistic Regression applied to 45 indices of development in all the LGAs for year 2001, the paper identified four major components and six predictor variables as determinants of development inequalities among the LGAs in the State. It revealed regional inequalities of development in the state. Many development indicators are concentrated in a few Local Government Areas that are urban based. Majority of the LGAs are lagging behind on the components of development. This portends serious implications for development planning in the state. It can be concluded that the economy of the entire state is largely underdeveloped. African Research Review Vol. 1 (1) 2007: pp. 25-4

Local Aetiology and Pathways to Care in Malaria among the Ibibio of South-coastal Nigeria

There is a parallel between local and bio-medical perceptions of malaria among the Ibibio people of South-coastal Nigeria, as in many other societies of sub-Saharan Africa where malaria is endemic. Despite the fact that this accounts for resilience of the disease, earlier studies on malaria in Africa focused on causes, prevalence and socio-environmental factors. Local meanings of malaria and their influence on therapeutic choices have been largely ignored. This study examines local perceptions of malaria among the Ibibio and explains how attitudes are generated from indigenous meanings. It also examines how such attitudes inform a local aetiology of malaria. Similarly, our study examines how local meanings of, and attitudes towards malaria, set the pathway of care in malaria management among the Ibibio. Through qualitative and descriptive ethnography, Key Informant Interview (KII), Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and the textual analysis of documents, our study seeks to establish that malaria is caused by parasites–protozoa. 83% of the respondents held that malaria is due to witchcraft, exposure to sunlight and eating of yellowish food items such as yellow maize, paw-paw, orange and red oil. These local perceptions are drawn from local conceptions which in turn encourage malaria patients to seek assistance outside modern health care facilities. This also discourages local communities from attending health education workshops that link malaria with germ theory and care. Treatment of malaria is thus mostly home-based where a wide variety of traditional remedies is practiced. Our study concludes that the lack of convergence between local knowledge-contents and bio-medical explanations account for a high prevalence rate and the lack of effective management. For proper management of malaria, there is a need to understand local knowledge and indigenous concepts in order to establish a convergence between bio-medical explanations and indigenous perceptions. Only then can a community acceptable means of changing bio-medical perceptions of the disease be facilitated

Appraisal of Natural Durability of a Lesser – Known Boscia anguistifolia (A. Rich) Wood Using Ground Contact Test

The optimal utilization of lesser-known wood species is dependent on their natural durability. In this study, the natural durability of a lesser-known wood species (Boscia anguistifolia) using ground contact test was carried out. Wood blocks of Boscia anguistifolia and Ceiba petandra (reference species) with dimensions of 20 x 20 x 300 mm were obtained from the axial and radial direction of the trees. The wood blocks were conditioned and their moisture content determined before exposure to ground contact for 12 weeks after which their weight loss was determined. Data obtained were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 probability level. The moisture content of B. anguistifolia and C. petandra ranged from 12.80 – 18.02 % and 12.73- 16.63%, respectively while the weight loss of B. anguistifolia and C. petandra ranged from 5.10 – 69.11% and 37 – 50 % respectively along the axial position. It was observed that the core wood in the base portion of B. anguistifolia has the lowest weight loss value of 5.10% while the reference species has a value of 39.73%. Conclusively, B. anguistifolia is moderately durable at the base part of the species when compared with the reference non-durable species used in this study

Effect of abiotic stress (salinity) on the fruit quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L)

This research was conducted to evaluate the effect of salinity on the fruit quality of three varieties of tomato. The work was carried out at the nursery of the Federal College of Forestry Jos, Plateau State within the dry season between January and April, 2018 by irrigation. After the plants of the three varieties of tomato (Roma vf, Tima and UTC) had grown in their various bags for four weeks, four different salt concentrations including the control (0.00M, 0.05M, 0.08M and 0.10M) were added to the various bags accordingly. These treatment-combinations were replicated three times and laid out using the Randomized Block Design. The parameters assessed include number of fruits per plant, fresh weight of fruits at maturity, thickness of pericarp, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight and salt tolerance index. The data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance and the means were separated using the Least Significant Difference. No significant differences (due to the effect of different salt concentrations) were observed in all the parameters studied except for pericarp thickness. There were significant differences (p≤0.05) due to variety in the number of fruits per plant, fresh weight of fruit and fruit pericarp. The study revealed that Tima variety had the best pericarp thickness of about 6.00 cm (fruit quality), highest number of fruits and heaviest fruits. Roma vf had the highest salt tolerance index (127.70%). A mild salt concentration (0.08M) improved the pericarp thickness

Maize genetic improvement for enhanced productivity gains in West and Central Africa

During the past 45 years, the genetic improvement programs of IITA and its partners have made spectacular progress in developing high-yielding crop varieties that offered best-bet solutions to major production constraints, such as, cassava mosaic, maize streak, Striga, soybean rust, insect pests, and even drought. These have led to dramatic increases in the production of cassava, maize, soybean, cowpea, and yam in sub-Saharan Africa that have directly contributed to increases in food availability and indirectly to improvements in national economies. This section presents the status, progress, and achievements, and also outlines future work on crop improvement by genetic enhancement in IITA's six crops

Effect of hemodialysis on total antioxidant status of chronic renal failure patients in government hospitals in Lagos Nigeria

Background: Renal failure is accompanied by oxidative stress, which is caused by enhanced production of reactive oxygen species and impaired antioxidant defense.Aim: To assess the effect of hemodialysis (by cellulose membrane dialyzer) on plasma total antioxidant status and lipid peroxidation of patients in chronic renal failure before and after dialysis.Objective: The finding would serve as guide to administration or otherwise of supplementary therapeutic antioxidant before or after hemodialysis. Also, it will assist in the choice of antioxidant impregnated over the conventional nonimpregnated dialyzer membrane.Materials and Methods: Twenty-five patients (14 men and 11 women, aged 24-75 years; median 61) with end-stage renal failure who were undergoing hemodialysis for the first time were recruited. Plasma level of potassium (K+), sodium (Na+), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, total antioxidant status (TAS), and lipid peroxidation (MDA) were measured, before and after hemodialysis.Results: The mean ± SD of plasma level of TAS (1.10 ± 0.3 mmol/L trolox Eq) for males and (1.09 ± 0.2 mmol/L trolox Eq) for females postdialysis were significantly reduced (P < 0.05) in comparison with (1.72 ± 0.4 mmol/L trolox Eq) for males and (1.83 ± 0.7 mmol/L trolox Eq) for females predialysis, respectively. However, the mean ± SD plasma level of MDA (6.03 ± 0.4 nmol/ml) for males and (6.71 ± 0.7 nmol/ml) for females were significantly increased postdialysis (P < 0.01) compared to predialysis (3.98 ± 0.8 nmol/ml) for males and (4.05 ± 0.9 nmol/ml) for females, respectively.Conclusions: Based on the outcome of this study, it is suggested that antioxidant-impregnated dialysis membranes and/or exogenous supplementary antioxidant would be beneficial to patients with chronic renal failure. Removal of reactive oxygen species could improve the health and general quality of life of uremic patients

Assessment of community factors influencing the effectiveness of improved cassava production technologies in Osun State, Nigeria.

This study investigated community factors and their influence on the effectiveness of improved cassava production technologies in Osun State. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to select cassava farmers in the study. In the first stage, 40 percent of the LGAs in each of the 3 ADP agricultural zones were selected. In the second stage, two communities were purposively selected from each of the twelve LGAs giving a total of twenty-­‐four communities. The third stage involved the proportionate sampling of 25 percent of the population of registered ADP cassava farmers in each of the selected communities giving a total of three hundred and twelve cassava farmers. Data were summarized with frequency counts, percentages, mean and correlation coefficient. The results show that effectiveness of improved cassava production technologies was significantly and positively related to community participation (r = 0.128; p≤ 0.05) and infrastructural facilities (r = 0.157;p≤ 0.01). The results of the study reveal that leadership participation and infrastructural facilities have influence on the effectiveness of improved cassava production technologies. It is therefore recommended that infrastructural facilities such as access roads, electricity, cassava processing centers should be made available in the rural communities to facilitate the effectiveness and success of agricultural programmes. Also, farmers should be actively involved in the planning and execution of development programmes

Smart Vehicular Traffic Management System using RFID Technology

Public places are often characterized with incessant traffic congestion, especially during special occasions and events, as large number of automobiles attempt to use the same parking lot concurrently. This usually result in confusion and dispute, auto crashes, waste of time and resources, and release of more carbon into the ecosystem. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology offers effective solution for distant object identification without requiring a line of sight. In this paper, the authors developed an intelligent, cost-effective, and eco-friendly park management system for scalable traffic control using RFID and Solar photovoltaic (SPV) technologies. Pre-registered and visiting vehicles are assigned tags to access designated parking lots. However, large-scale implementation of the technology for intelligent park management requires a stable power supply with no threat to our ecosystem. SPV-powered UHF RFID readers transmit vehicle information via wireless data links to a host system application at the SPV-powered central database management system for further processing. This system will ensure effective traffic control during peak periods in order to avoid crashes, save time and resources, and as well save our plane

Selection of maize genotypes resistant to pink stem borer and sugarcane borer.

Maize is an important economic crop grown in Nigeria. Its production is dramatically affect by the pink stem borer—Sesamia calamistis (Hampson, Noctuidae) and sugarcane borer—Eldana saccharina (Walker, Pyralidae) that are endemic in Southeastern Nigeria. In areas of stress, existing genotypes may marginally do well due to their inherent capabilities. Therefore, it is possible to find useful genes in such areas of stress, since such genes have been responsible for the survival of host crops over the years. Evaluation study was conducted for a range of agronomic characteristics and resistance attributes for 209 local maize collections from Southeastern Nigeria along with three improved check varieties. Field trials were conducted at three locations in a total of four environments in 2001. Highly significant genotypic variances as were noted in all the traits, are indicative of the magnitude of variation that exists among the genotypes, thus providing the opportunity of selection for desirable traits. Furthermore, four traits, namely, leaf feeding, ear damage, stalk lodging and yield were used from across the environments to construct a rank summation index (RSI), which was used to rank the entries for resistance to stem borers. This RSI led to the identification of 11genotypes which represents the best 5% of the 212 genotypes in resistance ability. Genotype AMA TZBR-WC1 (from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan) had the best overall resistance levels, followed by genotypes SE NG-77 and SE NG-67 (from Umuahia North), SE NG-62 (from Ikwuano), SE NG-148 (from Ukwa West), SE NG-106 (from Bende), SE NG-119 (from Isiala Ngwa), SE NG-33 (from Ikwuano) and SE NG-65 (from Umuahia North)