Urban Sustainability Concepts and Their Implications on Urban Form

Since the middle of the 1980s, there has been a demand for urban centres to be more sustainable. City planners and administrators have had to lean towards the various city sustainability concepts in their schemes. The concept of “sustainable city” which became prominent as a progenitor for the others can still be deployed as the basis for most of the newer concepts. More recent concepts like “smart city” and “resilient city” have their essence in high technology and socio-environmental ideals that relate more with post-modern living. The urban form which is the most physical entity in the city is always evolving. The implementation of these concepts are likely to impact on the urban form in a way that may alter its organic or planned evolution. This study is a bibliometric survey of 5 of the urban sustainability concepts and their relevance in urban morphology. The paper analyses the core issues in each of the concepts and relates them to the aspects of the urban form they are more likely to alter with view of how such effects may determine the morphology. The five city sustainability concepts for this research are easily the most common with reference to SCI and SSCI databases and are therefore more relevant to current research. They are sustainable city, smart city, eco-city, low carbon city and green city. Green city and eco city may result in less compact urban forms while the rest are explicitly supportive of more compact urban forms

Moringa Regimen Corrects Nicotine-induced Deficits in Behaviour, Altered Energy Metabolism and Neurotransmitter Processing in Rat Brain

Background: Nicotine is the addictive component of tobacco smoking. It has been reported to have a negative neuromodulatory role in the CNS. Moringa oleifera is a medicinal plant with reported antioxidant, anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. Aim and Objectives: This study was purposed to investigate the neuronal adaptation potentials of Moringa Oleifera (MO) on nicotine induced behavioural decline and perturbed bioenergetics. Material and Methods: Twenty-four adult male Wistar rats were used. The treatment regimen was as follows; control group received distilled water, MO group received 200 mg/kg of MO, Nicotine Group received 1.38 mg/kg body weight of nicotine, and Nicotine + MO group received combined treatment of 200 mg/kg body weight of MO after 1.38 mg/kg body weight of nicotine for 28 days. The animals were subjected to Morris water maze for spatial memory, Y maze for working memory and elevated-plus maze tests for anxiety levels after which they were sacrificed for spectrophotometric analysis of global protein expression, neural bioenergetics (lactate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase), and Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) levels. Results: Nicotine infusion caused a reduction in the escape latency period, increased the percentage incorrect alternation, and elevated the anxiety levels of rats. These observations were indicative of decreased synaptic activity in the brain. Together with, nicotine induced chromatolytic changes in cells of the frontal cortex and hippocampus. Co-administration with MO prevented nicotine-associated memory decline, perturbed glucose bioenergetics, induced chromatolysis and histomorphological distortion in the frontal cortex and hippocampus. Conclusion: Our data demonstrate that MO administration enhances experience-dependent neuroplasticity and cognitive behaviour function in laboratory animals, modulates energy metabolism and reduced oxidant stress possibly through enhanced production of key antioxidant enzymes against the damaging effects of nicotine. It provided evidence that MO can be further developed as a means to protect the brain from oxidative stress-induced injury

Undergraduates’ Readiness for Utilizing Cloud Computing for Learning in Nigerian Universities

Cloud computing is one of the newer technological tools users to have access to storage, space, processing and networking resources. However, studies revealed that learners enjoyed numerous benefits of cloud computing for fun; but not on the domain for learning. This study investigated undergraduates’ readiness to utilize cloud computing resources for learning in Nigerian Universities. The study adopted descriptive research design, using quantitative survey method. Two research questions and one hypothesis were answered and tested respectively. The instrument employed was a researcher-designed questionnaire which contained two sections to ascertain Nigerian undergraduates’ readiness for utilizing cloud computing for learning. A total of three hundred and ninety-eight (398) copies of questionnaires were retrieved out of 450 copies that were administered representing 88.44% responses were randomly sampled. Frequency counts, percentages and mean were employed to answer the study’s research questions while the hypothesis was tested using t-test. The findings of the study revealed that majority of undergraduates are ready to utilize cloud computing for learning. However, there was no significant difference between male and female undergraduates’ readiness to utilize cloud computing for learning. The study therefore concluded that undergraduates are ready to utilize cloud computing resources for pedagogical experiences despite perennial challenges encountered on their usage. The study recommended that Nigerian universities should encourage undergraduates to explore inherent benefits of cloud computing in other to improve their learning; irrespective of students’ gender

Endurance Sports Medicine : A Clinical Guide

Endurance Sports Medicin