Overcrowding, Age and Gender Differences in the Manifestation of state Anxiety among Undergraduate Students in a Nigerian Public University

Most students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria have a hard time procuring adequate accommodation. Hence, they are usually left with the option of having to share a room with many people resulting inover-crowded hostels. This study sought to examine the effect of over-crowding, age and gender on the state anxiety levels of undergraduates in a Nigerian public university. 192 participants were selected from male and female students residing in the hostels and off-campus with age range of 16 – 30 (mean age = 22.80; SD = 2.70). Average person per room was used to determine how crowded the room was and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory form Y – 1 (STAI – Y1) was administered on the participants. A three-way ANOVA showed a non significant interaction effect between overcrowding, age and gender on the manifestation of anxiety among university undergraduates, F(2, 180) = 2.22, p = 0.11. The result also revealed a significant main effect of gender on the manifestation of state anxiety among undergraduates, F(1, 180) = 18.212, p = 0.00, where males manifested more anxiety than female undergraduates. There was also a significant interaction effect of overcrowding and gender F(1, 180) = 5.67, p = 0.02. It was concluded that university undergraduates should be provided with adequate accommodation in higher institutions they attend in order to reduce overcrowding and state anxiety among undergraduates

Students' Opinion on Substance Use,Violent Behavior and Possible Intervention Strategies in a Nigerian Public University

This study investigated students’ opinion on substance use, violent behavior and possible intervention strategies in a Nigerian public university. Two hundred and ninety three participants consisting of 147 males and 146 females with the mean age of 23.67 (SD=3.77) were sampled. A questionnaire designed to elicit student’s opinion on substance use prevalence and proclivity for violent behavior as a result of substance use was administered on the participants using a descriptive cross-sectional research design for data collection. Analysis revealed that majority of the students saw substance abuse as a problem in the university (80.5%), and majority have witnessed violence resulting from substance use (61.4%). Alcohol and marijuana were the top two on the list of substances abused by male and female students and it was reported that violent behaviors like sexual assault, physical assault and violent crimes were common to students after they had abused substance. It was suggested by the respondents that the university authority should use regulation and enlightenment to control substance abuse and use punishment and counseling among others to control violent behavior among student

Harmony-disharmony therapy: a treatment method of African origin

The harmony restoration theory of health (HRT) is an existential phenomenological theory of health and ill health from an African perspective. The theory emanated from years of clinical practice of Peter Ebigbo in the mid 90s has its basic tenet, "he who is at peace with his world does not fall sick" and this is the root from which all other tenets of the harmony restoration theory stems. The harmony restoration theory of health was borne out of the African concept of illness. In Africa, the mind, the body and the society interact to produce health and ill-health. From clinical practice, it was observed that the African personality has three components, namely: the endocosmos, which is the relationship between the individual and himself; the mesocosmos, the relationship between the individual and the significant others in his environment; and the exocosmos, the relationship between the individual and his God or gods. This paper examines the HRT, traces its origin from the African traditional and contemporary religion, the sociocultural, personological aspect of its derivation, its development and how it is applied in the treatment of psychological disturbances as well as in maintaining positive health. It also examines two case studies where the harmony restoration therapy was used and lastly, makes a case for its further exploration by other health care practitioners

Trend Analysis of Landcover/ Landuse Change in Patani L.G.A, Delta State Nigeria

This study examines the use of GIS and Remote Sensing in trend analysis of landcover/landuse change in Patani L.G.A, Delta State Nigeria from 2005 to 2015. Thus the study is to carry out a multi-temporal analysis of development trends, thereby detecting the changes that have taken place between these periods. Two Landsat images, Landsat 7ETM+ (2005) and Landsat 8OLI (2015) were acquired, classified and change detection analysis was performed to determine the multi-temporal landcover/landuse changes between the years. The results showed that vegetation decreased from 16673.73 hectares in 2005 to 15973.9 hectares in 2015 covering 75.45% of landcover/landuse class in the study area, built up area gained from 3684.03 hectares in 2005 to 4346.37 hectares in 2015 covering 20.53 % in the study area, while water bodies also increased from 812.29 hectares in 2005 to 849.78 hectares in 2015 covering 4% of the study area. The study also indicated that the annual growth rate of Built up area has increased at 0.82% from 2005 to 2015, vegetation decreasing significantly at the rate of -0.21% from 2005 to 2015, and water bodies also increasing at a rate of 0.22% from 2005 to 2015. The results from this study can serve as a base for decision making and planning for urban planning and regional developments in Patani L.G.A

On-Site Excreta Treatment and Disposal in West Africa

In operation, liquid from the test facility is circulated through the RHS core. The liquid is heated by passing over the resistance heaters. If the test facility\u27s calibrations are under investigation, the RHS input power and temperatures are compared with those recorded by the test facility. If a collector is under test, the RHS is placed in series with the collector. The power input to the RHS is placed in series with the collector. The power input to the RHS core heaters is adjusted to give a temperature rise through the RHS equal to some fraction (usually one-half to one) of the temperature rise across the collector. Since the same mass flow passes through both the RHS and the collector, the energy gain in the collector is simply the RHS input power multiplied by the ratio of the temperature rises

Research Notes : United States : Evaluation of soybean germplasm for stress tolerance and biological efficiency : To evaluate soybean germplasm and cultivars for stress tolerance toward - Soil Acidity

Field experiments conducted on a silt loam soil with six culti-vars under four pH ranges (5.9-6.7, 5.7-6.5, 5.3-6.0 and 5.0-5.6) in-dicated significant tolerance of \u27Bedford\u27 and \u27Forrest\u27 under acid soil pH ranges. The two cultivars were superior to \u27Bragg\u27, \u27Braxton\u27, \u27Co-237\u27, and \u27Tracy M\u27 in 1981 and 1982 trials. However, lowering of pH to 4.6-5.4, 4.5-5.4, 4.1-5.1, and 3.8-4.5 resulted in nullified seed formation in all the cultivars

Sleep Pattern and Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students

There have been studies that demonstrate the impact of sleep on both implicit and explicit memory. Of particular interest is that sleep has been shown to aid memory consolidation. This holds some implication for students, most of whom sleep for considerably very little amount of time, whereas they require sufficient amount of sleep to consolidate memory for material learned during the day. This study was therefore designed to investigate the possible impact of sleep on the academic achievement of undergraduate students. The study participants were 300 undergraduate students drawn from about twenty Department of a private university in Nigeria. 152 of the participants were female and the rest were male. The School Sleep Survey Habit Scale previously validated in Nigeria by one of the authors (IDO) was used to measure sleep habit, while academic performance was measured as self-reported grade. The result of Analysis of variance using SPSS XX showed a significant effect of Sleepiness on Academic Performance F (8, 211)=3.73, P<.01, and on Cumulative Grade Point Average, F (4, 190) = 3.82, P<.005. The study also showed that stimulant intake significantly impacted on Sleep habit. It was concluded that to enhance student's academic achievement counseling centres should endeavour to include sleep in their orientation programme for students. Besides, it would be necessary not to cram up the programme in such a manner that would rob the students of adequate rest and sleep

Constraints to Occupational Diversification among Rural Women in Anambra State, Nigeria

The study was carried out in Anambra State, Nigeria to ascertain constraints to occupational diversification among rural women. Questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 462 rural women. Percentage, mean scores, standard deviation, factor analysis and student’s t-test were used for data analysis. Major constraints to occupational diversification were grouped into labour, institutional, technical and social problems. The study identified solutions to problems to include provision of adequate physical infrastructure such as roads, electricity and pipe-borne water in rural areas (74.2%), provision of social amenities such as hospitals (73.6%), establishment of industries in rural areas to create job opportunities (72.9%) and appropriate government policy on women empowerment (65.8%), among others. There was a significant difference between means of farm and non-farm income. The mean of farm income was ₦31,022.8 while the mean of non-farm income was ₦125,364 (t= 12.136; p≤0.05). The study recommends the inclusion of non-farm occupations in rural extension services especially value chain of cash crops as a means of improving income generation

Constraints to Occupational Diversification among Rural Women in Anambra State, Nigeria

The study was carried out in Anambra State, Nigeria to ascertain constraints to occupational diversification among rural women. Questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 462 rural women. Percentage, mean scores, standard deviation, factor analysis and student’s t-test were used for data analysis. Major constraints to occupational diversification were grouped into labour, institutional, technical and social problems. The study identified solutions to problems to include provision of adequate physical infrastructure such as roads, electricity and pipe-borne water in rural areas (74.2%), provision of social amenities such as hospitals (73.6%), establishment of industries in rural areas to create job opportunities (72.9%) and appropriate government policy on women empowerment (65.8%), among others. There was a significant difference between means of farm and non-farm income. The mean of farm income was ₦31,022.8 while the mean of non-farm income was ₦125,364 (t= 12.136; p≤0.05). The study recommends the inclusion of non-farm occupations in rural extension services especially value chain of cash crops as a means of improving income generation

Harmony-Disharmony Scale: Development and Initial Factorial Validation

The Harmony Restoration Theory (HRTheory) propounded by Ebigbo (1995, 2001a) is an African psychodiagnostic theory of health. It is a theory of harmony-disharmony, psychopathology, psychotherapy and a useful attempt to account for the aetiology of psychopathology in the African. Central to the theory is the notion that psychopathology arises from the disharmony in the cosmos of an individual. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a measuring scale, harmonydisharmony scale (HD Scale), for determining the areas of the cosmos which an individual needs harmony restoration before the initiation of harmony restoration therapy. Method - Based on the harmony restoration theory of health and Harmony restoration therapy, 120 items with 40 items per subscale were generated focusing on the three aspects of an individual‟s cosmos viz: endocosmos, mesocosmos and exocosmos needing harmony restoration. The outcome, a 120 likert-type scale, was administered to a cross-section of University undergraduates. The 258 responses obtained from the respondents (124 males and 128 females) aged 16 to 29 years (21.02 ± 4.083, mean ± s.d.) were subjected to factor analysis. Results - The data was examined to assess the suitability for factor analysis and was found suitable with good R-matrix, Bartlett‟s test of Sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) sample sufficiency. A 3-factor model emerged from the result of the factor analysis with 59 pure and valid items loading on factor 1, 23 items loading on factor 2 and 16 items loading on factor 3. The factors retained their original theoretical names viz: endocosmos, mesocosmos and exocosmos. Conclusion - The finding of this study is consistent with the harmony restoration theory on the African personality consisting of three components. Suggestions on ways to advance this area of research were made and a short version of the harmonydisharmony scale was proposed