Facilities improvement for sustainability of existing public office buildings in Nigeria

The study examined the building design features of a cosmopolitan public office building in Abuja. The features were classified into Spatial Plan, Structure and Facilities, to determine which of the 3 variables requires urgent sustainable improvement from end-users' perspective in existing public office buildings in developing countries. A quantitative approach was adopted while the research strategy involved survey and direct observation. Post-Occupancy Evaluation was used to collect the survey data on a massive public office building in Nigeria, which reflected the quota system and federal character of the nation, as study area. A total of 339 useable questionnaires were retrieved from the respondents, and the analysis conducted revealed that facilities requires the most urgent improvement for sustainability. It was therefore recommended that facilities should be given priority for successful sustainable improvement of public office buildings above other design features.Keywords: Existing buildings, Facilities, Performance indicators, Sustainable improvement, Users' requiremen

Formation of the motivational-valuable relation to the physical culture in students in the social-cultural environment of the higher educational establishment

The article discusses theoretical and practical questions of motivational-valuable attitude formation toward the physical culture in students. The didactic approach of purpose formation on the physical-recreational activity, process of fixing the new behavioural scheme in the modern social-cultural environment of the higher educational establishment was represented. © 2015, Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research. All rights reserved

Self-concordant Smoothing for Convex Composite Optimization

We introduce the notion of self-concordant smoothing for minimizing the sum of two convex functions: the first is smooth and the second may be nonsmooth. Our framework results naturally from the smoothing approximation technique referred to as partial smoothing in which only a part of the nonsmooth function is smoothed. The key highlight of our approach is in a natural property of the resulting problem's structure which provides us with a variable-metric selection method and a step-length selection rule particularly suitable for proximal Newton-type algorithms. In addition, we efficiently handle specific structures promoted by the nonsmooth function, such as $\ell_1$-regularization and group-lasso penalties. We prove local quadratic convergence rates for two resulting algorithms: Prox-N-SCORE, a proximal Newton algorithm and Prox-GGN-SCORE, a proximal generalized Gauss-Newton (GGN) algorithm. The Prox-GGN-SCORE algorithm highlights an important approximation procedure which helps to significantly reduce most of the computational overhead associated with the inverse Hessian. This approximation is essentially useful for overparameterized machine learning models and in the mini-batch settings. Numerical examples on both synthetic and real datasets demonstrate the efficiency of our approach and its superiority over existing approaches.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures, 3 table

SCORE: approximating curvature information under self-concordant regularization

In this paper, we propose the SCORE (self-concordant regularization) framework for unconstrained minimization problems which incorporates second-order information in the Newton decrement framework for convex optimization. We propose the generalized Gauss-Newton with Self-Concordant Regularization (GGN-SCORE) algorithm that updates the minimization variables each time it receives a new input batch. The proposed algorithm exploits the structure of the second-order information in the Hessian matrix, thereby reducing computational overhead. GGN-SCORE demonstrates how we may speed up convergence while also improving model generalization for problems that involve regularized minimization under the SCORE framework. Numerical experiments show the efficiency of our method and its fast convergence, which compare favorably against baseline first-order and quasi-Newton methods. Additional experiments involving non-convex (overparameterized) neural network training problems show similar convergence behaviour thereby highlighting the promise of the proposed algorithm for non-convex optimization.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figure

HISTOLOGICAL AND HISTOCHEMICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF Archachatina marginata ovum (GASTROPODA: ACHATINIDAE) AT DIFFERENT REPRODUCTIVE STATES

The histological and histochemical variation in association with morphological variation in the repro-ductive system of Archachatina marginata ovum was the target of this investigation. Forty- five snails were dissected and categorized into 5 different reproductive stages (low mating, high mating, high egg, gravid and post reproductive). The reproductive tracts which include: hermaphroditic duct, albu-men gland, spermoviduct and spermatheca and the ovotestis were processed for histological and histochemical staining. There were some variations in the architecture of the reproductive organs be-tween the active (high mating, high egg and gravid) and non active stages (low mating and post repro-ductive) states. The active states were generally associated with colloidal or granular secretions. Gly-cogen and alkaline phosphatase activities were associated together throughout the epithelium of the reproductive system of A. marginata ovum and they were more strongly indicated in tissues that are intimately connected to the growth and development of gametes. It was concluded that morphological variation in the secreting glands of the reproductive system of A. marginata ovum is closely associated with changes in the functional secretory activities of the glands

Dental anxiety among patients visiting a University Dental Centre

Objective: Fearful individuals often avoid care despite extensive dental needs and anxious patients feel more pain and of longer duration than less anxious patients. This study was designed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with dental anxiety among patients visiting a University Dental Centre in Nigeria. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted using an anonymous structured questionnaire randomly administered to patients attending the University College Hospital Dental Centre, Ibadan. The questionnaire requested for socio-demographic data, dental visit behaviour, history of traumatic dental treatment and level of apprehension when anticipating a visit to the dentist and physician. The level of dental anxiety was determined using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). An MDAS score of 19 and above indicated high dental anxiety. Upon examination, DMFT of each patient was determined. Result: A total of 471 respondents of which 262 (55.6%) were females participated in the study. Only 7.43% of the participants had MDAS score ≥19. About 10% of the females had high dental anxiety compared with 4.94% recorded for the males (p=0.01). Dental anxiety was more common among the younger age group, irregular oral health care seekers and among those with history of traumatic dental treatment. The respondents were more relaxed when anticipating a visit to a physician. Only gender could be used to predict high dental anxiety. Female gender significantly displayed high dental anxiety (odd ratio=3.05 and p=0.04) . The mean DMFT score for the patients was 2.48±3.30. Conclusion: The prevalence of dental anxiety among the respondents in this study was 7.43% and only gender could be used to predict dental anxiety

Impact assessment of wastewater discharge from a textile industry in Lagos, Nigeria

The quality of effluent from a wool and synthetic textile manufacturing company in Nigeria was examined by obtaining triplicate samples per week over a 6-week period. This was done to measure the waste-load and volume from the textile industry. Obtained samples were analyzed for 18 physicochemical parameters such as pH, color, turbidity, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids (TSS), conductivity, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), chloride, nitrates, phosphates, some heavy metals and odor. Heavy metals, phosphate, and color were analyzed using spectrophotometer while dissolved oxygen and BOD were analyzed using azide modification method. The effluents were found to pass the national standard for the effluent limit for 13 parameters but exceeded specified limits for pH in one sample and, COD, TSS, color, turbidity and odor in all samples. Turbidity was found to exceed national limits by 100 to 300%; COD exceeded limits by 20% to 500%; TSS exceeded limits by 10% to 110% in 5 out of 6 samples analyzed. All obtained samples were dark colored and exceeded prescribed limits by 2,000 to 3,000% in all samples. Likewise, all six samples had an offensive odor. It was recommended that strict compliance with stipulated standards was necessary for the protection of public health and the environmen

Patorani local knowledge system in fisheries resources conservation education in Galesong District South Sulawesi

The development of fishery resources is realized through one of the pillars of development, namely pro-environment (restoration and preservation of the environment) in the order of conservation and rehabilitation of marine resources. This study aimed to investigate and describe patorani culture, which is the local fishermen's knowledge of conserving fishery resources. This research used the qualitative descriptive method with a phenomenological approach by using several sets of data, including the preliminary studies. The data were collected through literature review, observation, and preliminary survey, and then they were analyzed based on understanding and public opinion through a qualitative approach. The informant is a patorani fisherman who act as the papalele, punggawa, and sawi. Primary data sources and data collection techniques are obtained mostly from participation observation, and in-depth interviews with patorani fishermen families. The data obtained were analyzed componential through three stages, namely data reduction, data presentation, and data verification. The results of this study showed that Galesong society still practices patorani culture in the utilization of coastal resources and maritime transport, including: 1) knowledge related to ceremonial preparation of fishing activities, 2) the use of technology fishing gear, 3) knowledge about the existence of spear fish, 4) knowledge in fishing activities, and 5) knowledge of the fishing voyage patorani. The fisherman's knowledge of patorani culture was derived from hereditary experience. Patorani’s knowledge comes from empirical reality as a result of interaction with the environment, both with the human environment itself and the natural environment of the sea. Finally, the local knowledge system of patorani can systematically support education on the conservation of aquatic biological resources, especially fishery resources

Growth Performance of Weaned Male Albino Rats Fed on Processed Atlantic Horse Mackerel (Trachurus trachurus)

Trachurus trachurus is a table fish, locally called kote in south-west Nigeria. Fish processing (like poaching and smoking) generates reactive di-carbonyl compounds & poly-aromatic hydrocarbons that affect its digestibility. Study determined the effect of processing methods on growth performance of weaned male albino rats reared on Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus). Chemical analyses were carried out on processed fillet; skin, head & bone (SHB) diets under standard conditions. 40 weaned male albino rats were fed with processed fillet or SHB diets for 14 days to assess protein digestibility via: feed intake, weight gain, feed efficiency ratio (FER), feed conversion ratio (FCR), water intake & faecal output. Animals fed on coal smoked fillet diet had the best growth, in terms of weight gained, FCR & FER respectively; followed by the wood smoked SHB diet (p<0.001) compared to the positive control. The best results were obtained from animals fed the smoked fillet / SHB. The SHB could be a significant source of valuable ingredients for animal feeds & human consumption. Keywords: Processing methods; Growth performance; Feed Efficiency Ratio; Feed Conversion Ratio; Trachurus trachurus, Agricultural waste / Discard