MORPHOMETRIC STUDY OF THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM OF GIANT AFRICAN LAND SNAIL Archachatina marginata ovum (Pfeiffer) (Pulmonata: Achatinidae) FOUND IN ILE-IFE, SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA.

The morphometry of the reproductive organs of the giant African land snail, Archachatina marginata ovum from wild collection at Ile-Ife, southwest Nigeria, was assessed during March - May (early rainy season) and August – October (late rainy season) of 2010. A total 134 snails were dissected and clas-sified into one of five different reproductive states (low mating readiness; high mating readiness; egg production; gravid and post reproductive). The five states were observed in snails collected during the early rainy season, whereas the gravid state was not observed in the collections during late rainy sea-son. Albumen gland was considerably enlarged at egg production state forming about 60 % of the total weight of the reproductive system, while vas deferens was significantly longer in snails at high mating readiness state. The sizes of the reproductive organs were not substantially related to the size of the snail as the coefficient of determination (r2) of the relationship were in most cases below 0.5. The over-all results indicated that variations in the morphology of the reproductive organs of A. marginata ovum are mostly state dependent and less related to the size of the snail and thus could be used reliably to categorise the snails into reproductive states

Financial Intermediaries and Capital Market Development in Nigeria

This study investigates the impact of financial intermediaries on capital market development in Nigeria employing co-integration. To capture the activities of financial intermediaries, five proxies were used to explain financial intermediaries which include credit to the private sector to GDP, broad money supply and total bank savings while on the other hand, market capitalization was used to capture capital market development covering the period of 1981 to 2016. The result revealed that in the long run, credit to private sector and money supply will lead to an increase in capital market development while banks total savings and government expenditure results to a decrease in capital market development in the long run. The study recommends that the Central Bank of Nigeria should ensure that the domestic credits provided by the banking sector are directed into their appropriate uses and government expenditure be directed to productive sectors and recurrent expenditure be reduced by government. Credit facilities should also not be restricted to the large-scale manufacturing industries only, but it should also be extended to small and medium scale enterprises

IDENTIFYING INFLUENTIAL BLOGGERS ON THE WEB

Blog has take an important aspect of internet since the introduction of Web 2.0 technology because blog as been away to influence others who read the blogs. People now have interest in finding materials and friends on the internet.Many users visit blog sites to read the posts and comment on them. Most people do read blog to gather informationon things that are important before take major decision about them. Because blogger always share their experienceon a topic for others to comments and through this others share their own experience. With the impact thatinfluential blogger have in a community. The benefits of achieving competitive advantages in a blog community byidentify influential blogger have created several research gaps and the popularity of these services has make theproblem of identifying the most influential bloggers significant, since its solution can lead to major benefits for theusers of this services i.e. education, politic, participatory journalism, advertising, searching, commerce etc. Thecurrent works in this regard ignore some important aspects of the blogsphere. This paper focuses on using acrossbreed method as an improvement to the existing methodologies. With the introduction of new parametersFBCount and Mining Comments the new approach show that the score of each blog post reflect quality andgoodness of blog post. A program prototype was designed to calculate the influential bloggers. The results obtainedconfirm that current approach could significantly identify influential of bloggers on the web and the proposed modelhas better performance than other approaches. There are still a few of avenues for the future research. Future workcan include full implementation of the program prototype and try to improve on it to directly get the parameters usedfrom the blog post on the web in a blog community, more parameters like twitter shares, G+1s Pin shares etc can beincluded into the literature and check for the behavior of the influence and future research can investigate more timein deciding weight parameter that is crucial for tuning between different influential factors.Keyword: Blog, Blogger, Social networks, Blogosphere, Influential bloggers, Influential, Models

The Challenges of e-Tailing in Employment Creation: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

As more and more manufacturers and retailers turn to e-tailing to increase profits and capture new customers, the emphasis on online shopping means more opportunities for web designer jobs and developer jobs, not to mention an increase in the number of marketing jobs and content roles. This paper investigates the retail sector contribution and strategies for job creation. The research is based on a wide and broad literature review of the latest trends in the Nigeria retail industry, followed and supplemented by quantitative research of the key retailers in the country. The work, among others things identifies the drivers of change and related factors that have a bearing and influence on employment creation based on the emerging opportunities and threats (e.g. Technology). The study also evaluates the effect of e-retailing on job creation in Nigeria and as well investigates the challenges for managing e-tailing in a developing economy. To achieve the spelt objectives, the study utilizes survey design; and data was collected though a self-administered questionnaire from a number of 302 respondents who were retailers in three selected open markets in Ibadan Metropolis, Oyo State Nigeria. Statistical technique software SPSS was employed to aid the data analysis. Having analyzed the data, the study found out that e-tailing has brought about changes in the ways people buys and this affects many traditional retail outlets. It was also discovered that e-tailing is still ineffective in Nigeria economy. The work among other things, recommends that brick and mortal retailers should strengthen their operations in order to continue being in business. The work in addition to that also advised that Nigeria manufacturers and retailers should go electronic so as to face the digital rivals created by e-tailers

Microanatomical effects of ethanolic extract of Cola nitida on the stomach mucosa of adult wistar rats

The study investigated the microanatomical effects of the extracts of Cola nitida on the stomach mucosa of adult male Wistar rats. Twenty adult male wistar rats were randomly divided into four equal groups of A, B, C and D (n=5). Animals in experimental groups B, C and D were given 600mg/kg body weight of crude extract of Cola nitida each by oral intubation for five, seven and nine consecutive days respectively, while group A (control) received equivalent volume of distilled water. Twenty four hrs after the last administration, the animals were sacrificed; tissues were harvested and fixed in 10% formol saline for histological analysis. The study revealed necrotized surface epithelium, degenerated gastric mucosa, and loss of glandular elements in the stomachs of experimental groups’ vis-à-vis the control group. These observations were days-dependent; as those groups which received the extract for higher number of days were seen to be adversely affected. In conclusion, Cola nitida at 600mg/kg body weight can cause gastric lesion in animals. This lesion may be pronounced if the administration continued for days. Cola nitida should, therefore, be taken with caution to avoid gastric complications.Keyword: Cola nitida, necrotized, degenerated, stomach mucosa, microanatomy, glandular element

Capital Flight and the Economic Growth: Evidence From Nigeria

This research examined the impact of capital flight and its determinants on the Nigerian economy using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to analyze data source from the period of 1981 to 2015. The variables included current account balance, capital flight, foreign direct investments, foreign reserve, inflation rate, external debt, and the real gross domestic product. It was to examine the existence of a long run relationship among the variables studied. The result indicates that capital flight has a negative impact on the economic growth of Nigeria. Therefore, there is a need for government to implement policies that will promote domestic investment and discourage capital flight from Nigeria

Histology, Condition Factor, and Bioaccumulation Analysis of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) Exposed to MC-LR

Reproductive dysfunctions in several fish species have been linked to eutrophication due to the presence of cyanobacteria which contain biotoxins known as microcystins. In this study, microcystin-LR (MC-LR) from microcystins cells was isolated from water samples of Eleyele and Iju rivers, as well as two Clarias gariepinus fish ponds (Pond A was fed on poultry dropping, while Pond B was fed on artificial feed). C. gariepinus fish samples from the four sources were compared based on the histopathology of the liver and gill tissues (using haematoxylin and eosin stain, viewed under a binocular dissecting microscope) and growth exponent using Le Cren’s cube law, and condition factors of the fish specimens were determined using Fulton’s formula. The mean microcystis cells in the water samples from the four sources were determined by chromatographic separation using Varian ProStar 330 Diode Array Detector. The order of microcystis cells in the sites was Iju River> Pond B> Pond A> Eleyele River. The condition factors among the fish were in the order of Pond A> Eleyele River> Pond B> Iju River. Consistently, histopathological alterations in the liver, gills and muscles were most observed in samples from Iju River and Pond B. These fishes also exhibited marked slenderness characterized by growth exponent <3. The relative robustness of fish from Pond B, followed by Eleyele River, is attributable to relatively low concentrations of MC-LR in the water coupled with purposeful feeding of the fish in captivity, compared to the natural habitats where fish forages based on the availability of food. The study provides data for informed decisions on the proper management of fish contamination with microcystins in aquaculture facilities and natural aquatic habitat