Home Background And Social Value System As Predictors For Social Vices Among The Youths In Ekiti State, Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to examine home background and social value system as predictor for increase in social vices among the youths in Ekiti State, Nigeria. One thousand youths were randomly selected from two senatorial districts, out of the three senatorial districts in the state (south and central) and two hundred and fifty youths were selected from two local government areas from each of the two senatorial districts. The instrument used to collect data was questionnaire and content validity was used to validate the instrument. Also, the reliability co-efficient obtained was 0.78 which was obtained through the test-retest method which was administered on 100 youths outside the four local government areas. Data collected were analysed using regression analysis. Findings of the study showed that home background and social value system can predict effectively the involvement of the youths in social vices. The paper therefore concluded that the involvement of youths in social vices could be curbed if people could change their orientation on the way they celebrate success in the society not minding how the individual came about his/her sudden wealth and riches. It is therefore recommended that parents should be more watchful, monitor, control and counsel their wards rightly and if possible reprimand their children for wrong doings to bring the best out of them. Keywords: socialisation, parents, societal value system, home background, peer group, social vice

Orthopaedic anaesthesia for upper extremity procedures in a Nigerian hospital

BackgroundGeneral anaesthesia and regional anaesthesia have been used successfully for upper extremity orthopaedic procedures. Despite the advantages of regional anaesthesia, there is low utilisation in Nigeria. In this study, weassessed the types of anaesthesia employed for upper extremity surgeries in our centre.MethodsAfter obtaining approval from the institutional ethics committee, all the patients who had upper extremity surgeries from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012 were included in this review. Both prospective and retrospective data were gathered. The choice of anaesthesia was at the discretion of the attending anaesthetist.ResultsA total of 226 patients with a male-to-female ratio of 1.6:1 and median age of 35.0 (range 2 – 89) years, had orthopaedic upper extremity procedures during the study period. Sixty-three cases (27.9%) had general anaesthesia, 5 (2.2%) combined regional and general anaesthesia while 158 (69.9%) had regional blocks. The regional blocks comprised 145 (89%) different approaches to the brachial plexus and 18 (11%) local anaesthetic infiltrations. The arm was the site mostly operated upon; while supraclavicular and axillary brachial plexus blocks were performed in equal amounts. In 14 (6.2%) patients, brachial plexus blocks were performed with spinal anaesthesia because of concomitant iliac crest bone grafts. While the duration of surgery did not differ significantly, regional anaesthesia provided a significantly longer duration of anaesthesia than general anaesthesia (251 ± 70.8 min versus 141.3 ± 65.5 min; p = 0.0000001).ConclusionThere is a high use of regional anaesthesia for upper extremity orthopaedic surgeries in our centre, which is a positive development in a resource limited setting

Readability of science texts in use in Zimbabwe secondary schools

A ZJER investigation into the readability levels of certain prescribed science textbooks in some Zimbabwe Junior Secondary Schools.The reading levels of three recommended Junior Certificate and Ordinary Level science texts in Zimbabwe schools have been investigated .Four different readability formulae were applied in the study. It was found that the reading level of one of the texts is about 14 years. Two other texts which appear in more than one volume show expected variation in reading age. None of the texts or volumes exceed 17 years in reading age and neither does any fall below 11 years. The weaknesses of readability formulae are noted in the study while the findings are discussed to highlight areas for text improvement and caution in assigning texts to streamed classes

Desirability of Social Values and Sexual Morality among Nigerian University Undergraduates: Social Studies to the Rescue

Many cherished social values among Nigerian societies appear to have been eroded due to some contemporary issues and problems of the society. Hence, youths are now faced with lots of behavioural problems among which is sexual immorality that is seriously affecting their future developmental aspirations This paper therefore examined values and sexual morality among university undergraduates and how Social Studies Educators could restore the lost social values through effective teaching with a view to transforming the sexual immorality that is taking an alarming dimension among university undergraduates in Nigeria in recent times. The research adopted a descriptive research of the survey type and respondents were selected through multi-stage sampling techniques. A simple random technique was used to select three states at stage one, stratified random sampling was used to select two federal, two state and two private universities at stage two, while random sampling through the use of balloting was used to select two universities from each stratum and two hundred and sixty five students from each of the universities at the third stage. The total sample was made up of one thousand, five hundred and eighty one (1581). A self-designed instrument titled ‘Values and Sexual Morality Questionnaire’ (VASMOQ) was used for the study and data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as Percentage Scores, Mean, Standard Deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation,  Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-test. The study found a significant relationship between peer pressure and university undergraduates’ social values, as well as undergraduates’ sexual immorality. The study concluded by suggesting among others that educators should design a programme to introduce new contents that would incorporate relevant knowledge on social values of the society as General Studies (GST) for all university undergraduates.  All hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance

Subtropical rain attenuation statistics on 12.6 GHZ Ku-band satellite link using synthetic storm technique

Abstract: In this work, measured subtropical rain attenuation was compared with rain attenuation generated theoretically by the Synthetic Storm Technique (SST). The rain attenuation data was obtained from a Ku-band satellite TV link collocated at the site of a rain rate measurement system in Durban, South Africa (2887S, 3098E). A mathematical model developed from the measurement campaign was used to generate measured data for four years of rainfall. Annual cumulative distribution functions of SST prediction results are compared with the results of the measurement-based model. The results show SST to be a fair approximation of actual measurements. This was established by error analysis carried out to compare the error margins in SST prediction and the error margins in the in-force ITU-R prediction method. While the SST approach was shown to conform slightly less accurately to measurements than the ITU-R model, it still yields highly acceptable results in the 0 to 11 dB margin in which the said link experiences most of the measured attenuation before total channel squelching occurs

Impact Of Communication And Innovation Variables On Adoption Of Sustainable Agricultural Practices

Groundwater non-point source contamination with agricultural chemicals from conventional high-input agriculture has become one of the major environmental concerns of the 1990s

Queue arrival characteristics of catenated rainfall cells over wireless radio links

Abstract: The arrival of rain cells during rain events is an important factor applied in the deployment of site diversity for mitigating rainfall attenuation in communication systems. In this study, the queue arrival characteristics of rain cells over radio links are explored from ground measurements in Durban (29°52′S, 30°58′E) in South Africa and Butare (2°36′S, 29°44′E) in Rwanda. The results suggest that cumulative arrivals of rain cell queues influence the event duration and equivalent rain cell distance, during typical rain events

Brachial Plexus Blocks for Upper Extremity Surgeries in a Nigerian Hospital

Background: Different techniques of brachial plexus blocks are in use to provide surgical anaesthesia from the shoulder to the fingertips. However, they are perceived as time-consuming and unreliable as the sole anaesthetic for surgical procedures. Until recently (July 2008), only general anaesthesia was employed in our centre even for hand surgeries.Objective: To evaluate the use and outcome of brachial plexus blocks for upper extremity surgeries.Design: A retrospective review of patients’ records and prospective observation of patients with upper extremity surgeries.Setting: The University College Hospital, Ibadan, situated in Southwestern Nigeria with over 875 beds.Subjects: Patients who had surgeries of the shoulder, humerus, elbow, forearm, wrist and hand were studied.Results: In 2006 and 2007, only general anaesthetic accounted for the 220 upper extremity surgeries. However, in 2008, 2009 and 2010, brachial plexus blocks accounted for 6.9, 27.9 and 48.6% respectively. From a success rate of 60.0% in the first year of practicing brachial plexus anaesthesia using 40% paraesthesia technique, the second and third years were 78.9 and 96.5% respectively due to better localisation techniques (nerve stimulation alone or in combination with echo-guidance).Conclusion: Our study shows an increasing successful use of brachial plexus block techniques for upper extremity procedures

Effects of Solid Wastes on the Quality of Selected Well Water in Odo-Oro Area of Ikere, Ekiti in Nigeria

This paper presents an assessment of the impact of uncontrolled and unscientific disposal of Solid waste on ground water in Ikere Ekiti town, Nigeria. In this study, well water quality around solid waste dumpsite sites was investigated. Ground water quality analysis was carried out on water samples collected from four wells labelled 1 to 4 close to solid waste disposal sites. Physico-chemical parameters of the water samples (such as temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, BOD, COD, turbidity, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, total hardness, phosphates, sulphates, chlorides and nitrates) were measured. Results of analysis across the four samples gave a temperature range of 280C - 32.00C, pH 7.26 - 7.75, conductivity 393.0 - 416.0 µm/cm, BOD 4.0 - 4.5 mg/l, DO 7.5 - 9.9 mg/l, COD 4.0 - 70.0 mg/l, phosphates, sulphates, chlorides and nitrates 0.17 – 0.30 mg/l, 10.1 – 25.0 mg/l, 3.7 – 11.5 mg/l, and 0.113 - 0.22 mg/l respectively, total hardness 32.2 and 38.1 mg/l. evidences from the above measurements showed a substantial level of contamination across all samples of water. Based on these outcomes it was recommended that wells should be sited at least 30m from solid wastes dump site, Appropriate place should be located at the outskirt of the town for refuse / disposal, the wells should be treated at least three times in a year, the regulatory agency should employ a geologist on its staff list, preferably one trained in the area of hydrogeology, to assist in solid wastes site selection within the states, the use of groundwater monitoring wells should be considered in those areas where some doubts exist as to future effects of a particular solid wastes operation, the regulatory agency should not discourage novel methods of collecting and treating refuse leachates for certain installations where proper monitoring can be exercised. Keywords: Solid Waste, Well Water, Ground water, Dump Site, Physico-chemical, DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-7-05 Publication date:July 31st 202

Geochemical Approach and Industrial Utilization of Some Marble Bodies from Ubo River Area and Environs, Southwestern Nigeria

Marble bodies occur in Ubo River Area as lenses of rocks. Seven (07) marble samples were obtained, analyzed and subjected to X-Ray Flourescence (XRF) analysis to determine both the major and trace elemental composition of the samples. The analysis revealed high CaO values (52.23-58.10 wt. %) and moderate values for SiO2 (7.50-10.43wt. %), fairly low values for Al2O3 (2.30 – 4.21 wt. %), Fe2O3 (2.62 – 5.15 wt. %), MgO (0.42 – 0.7 wt. %), MnO (0.01 – 0.06 wt. %), K2O (0.32 – 1.55 wt. %) and Na2O (0.01 – 0.03 wt. %), respectively. Variation plots involving Na2O/Al2O3 vs K2O/Al2O3 reveal sedimentary progenitors for the rocks. The fairly high SiO2 and low K2O content is an indication of the environment of deposition and may have been in a shallow marine environment with fair input of classic sediments into the system. The relatively high CaO content, moderate SiO2content and fairly low Al2O3 and Fe2O3 values indicates a fair degree of purity of the parent rock, hence its suitability as a raw material in the industrial sector. Keywords: Clastic, Deposition, Environment, Progenitor, Marble, Chemica