Sun Girl Makeover: Evidence of Social Responsibility or Commercial Necessity?

Use of pin-up photographs in Nigerian newspapers has always attracted harsh comments from readers. And when the most popular and longest surviving Page-3-Girl, Sun Girl, came out looking more decent after a surprising makeover in 2013, some critics interpreted it as a straight victory for audience participants whereas many critics dismissed it as hyper-commercialism in the garb of social responsibility. But the debate was limited to social media conversation and opinion articles in the print media without an empirical proof to support any of these positions. This study was, thus, designed to empirically find out the motivation for the makeover in the hope that the findings would deepen the understanding of participatory communication in developing economies. Three instruments were employed in data collection: after ascertaining the difference between the old and the new Sun Girl through document analysis, and interviewing the editors responsible for the page, the study was triangulated with a survey that provided data on audience perception of the motive for the makeover. The findings indicated that the motivation was a timely response to audience complaints on the one and a deft commercial strategy for sustaining the most popular page in the newspaper on the other.Peasron test of relationship conducted also indicated that there is a strong statistically significant relationship between perceived social responsibility, perceived commercial necessity and the makeover. And this result is consistent with the responses of the editors as well as the literature that shaped the study. Thus, it was concluded that the makeover was a historic victory for an audience accustomed to apathy and culpable silence. For Daily Sun, it was a strategic step revealing that social responsibility and commercial interests could find a common ground and may be profitable in the long run. Keywords: Pin-up girl, social responsibility, female models in newspapers, gate keeping

Sun Girl Makeover: Evidence of Social Responsibility or Commercial Necessity?

Use of pin-up photographs in Nigerian newspapers has always attracted harsh comments from readers. And when the most popular and longest surviving Page-3-Girl, Sun Girl, came out looking more decent after a surprising makeover in 2013, some critics interpreted it as a straight victory for audience participants whereas many critics dismissed it as hyper-commercialism in the garb of social responsibility. But the debate was limited to social media conversation and opinion articles in the print media without an empirical proof to support any of these positions. This study was, thus, designed to empirically find out the motivation for the makeover in the hope that the findings would deepen the understanding of participatory communication in developing economies. Three instruments were employed in data collection: after ascertaining the difference between the old and the new Sun Girl through document analysis, and interviewing the editors responsible for the page, the study was triangulated with a survey that provided data on audience perception of the motive for the makeover. The findings indicated that the motivation was a timely response to audience complaints on the one and a deft commercial strategy for sustaining the most popular page in the newspaper on the other.Peasron test of relationship conducted also indicated that there is a strong statistically significant relationship between perceived social responsibility, perceived commercial necessity and the makeover. And this result is consistent with the responses of the editors as well as the literature that shaped the study. Thus, it was concluded that the makeover was a historic victory for an audience accustomed to apathy and culpable silence. For Daily Sun, it was a strategic step revealing that social responsibility and commercial interests could find a common ground and may be profitable in the long run. Keywords: Pin-up girl, social responsibility, female models in newspapers, gate keeping

Effects of Vitamin C Treatment on Serum Protein, Albumin, Beta-Globulin Profiles and Body Weight of Trypanosoma Brucei-Infected Rattus Noregicus

The effect of vitamin C supplements on serum protein profile and body weight of Trypanosoma brucei-infected rats was investigated. The rats were inoculated with trypanosomes intraperitoneally and samples were collected on fourth, eight, twelfth and sixteenth days of post infection (pi). Sixty (60) parasite free-albino rats were used, which were divided into four groups. Group A (control) was left uninfected with trypanosomes, group B and C were infected with Trypanosomes and treated with 40mls and 60mls of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), respectively. Trypanosoma brucei infection caused significant (p<0.01) decreases in serum total proteins, albumin, beta globulin and body weight levels in untreated rats. Consumption of Vitamin C, however, prevented these diseaseinduced anomalies in the treated infected rats. Analyses of the sera using Bradford method and cellulose acetate electrophoresis showed that Vitamin C infected the state of serum protein, albumin and gamma globulin in the trypanosome-infected treated rats. It was concluded that consumption of the Vitamin C ameliorated the pathological changes in serum protein and body weight of T. brucei – infected rats.Keywords: Trypanosoma brucei, Rattus norvegicus, Ascorbic acid, Body weight, Serum protei

Organisational Revitalisation through Human Capital Development Practices: A Case of Abia State Public Sector

Every organisation before its inception presumes that it will get people with requisite knowledge, talents, skills and abilities (Human Capital). Due to the dynamic nature of business world, the development of human capital becomes essential if they are to keep abreast with current trends. In other words, people are vehicles for organisational revitalisation. Admittedly, the stance of human capital in the public sector is bleak having been compromised by increased politicisation of recruitment processes, decline in standards of professionalism, fraudulent practices and corruption. Although transformations have been taking place in the public sector, sporadic decay is still evident at different levels of government. Therefore, there is need to put up stringent measures to mop up the system of corruption which has plunged the nation into paucity of funds needed for economic growth and development. Importantly, the change needed in the public sector should not be lopsided but rather should adopt a holistic view. In this regards, there is need to re-engineer every fundamental element in the organisations for the needed revitalisation in the public sector to take root. Hence, this paper seeks to ascertain effects of Human Capital Development practices in revitalising the public sector such that the result will aid employees in the public service to individual and collectively shun every facet of corruption, apathy and unbecoming attitudes toward their work. Also, the paper seeks to assert the ripple effects transformed individuals would have in the revitalisation of the public sector, economic and social development of the nation. Keywords: human capital, human capital development, organisational revitalisation, public secto

Improving Nigerian health policymakers’ capacity to access and utilize policy relevant evidence: outcome of information and communication technology training workshop

Information and communication technology (ICT) tools are known to facilitate communication and processing of information and sharing of knowledge by electronic means. In Nigeria, the lack of adequate capacity on the use of ICT by health sector policymakers constitutes a major impediment to the uptake of research evidence into the policymaking process. The objective of this study was to improve the knowledge and capacity of policymakers to access and utilize policy relevant evidence. A modified "before and after" intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on the target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. A 4-point likert scale according to the degree of adequacy; 1 = grossly inadequate, 4 = very adequate was employed. This study was conducted in Ebonyi State, south-eastern Nigeria and the participants were career health policy makers. A two-day intensive ICT training workshop was organized for policymakers who had 52 participants in attendance. Topics covered included: (i). intersectoral partnership/collaboration; (ii). Engaging ICT in evidence-informed policy making; use of ICT for evidence synthesis; (iv) capacity development on the use of computer, internet and other ICT. The pre-workshop mean of knowledge and capacity for use of ICT ranged from 2.19-3.05, while the post-workshop mean ranged from 2.67-3.67 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in mean of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 8.3%-39.1%. Findings of this study suggest that policymakers' ICT competence relevant to evidence-informed policymaking can be enhanced through training workshop

Enhancing the Capacity of Policy-Makers to Develop Evidence-Informed Policy Brief on Infectious Diseases of Poverty in Nigeria

Background: The lack of effective use of research evidence in policy-making is a major challenge in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). There is need to package research data into effective policy tools that will help policy-makers to make evidence-informed policy regarding infectious diseases of poverty (IDP). The objective of this study was to assess the usefulness of training workshops and mentoring to enhance the capacity of Nigerian health policy-makers to develop evidence-informed policy brief on the control of IDP. Methods: A modified “before and after” intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on the target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. A 4-point Likert scale according to the degree of adequacy; 1 = “grossly inadequate,” 4 = “very adequate” was employed. The main parameter measured was participants’ perceptions of their own knowledge/understanding. This study was conducted at subnational level and the participants were the career health policy-makers drawn from Ebonyi State in the South-Eastern Nigeria. A one- day evidence-to-policy workshop was organized to enhance the participants’ capacity to develop evidence-informed policy brief on IDP in Ebonyi State. Topics covered included collaborative initiative; preparation and use of policy briefs; policy dialogue; ethics in health policy-making; and health policy and politics. Results: The preworkshop mean of knowledge and capacity ranged from 2.49-3.03, while the postworkshop mean ranged from 3.42–3.78 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in mean of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 20.10%–45%. Participants were divided into 3 IDP mentorship groups (malaria, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis [LF]) and were mentored to identify potential policy options/recommendations for control of the diseases for the policy briefs. These policy options were subjected to research evidence synthesis by each group to identify the options that have the support of research evidence (mostly systematic reviews) from PubMed, Cochrane database and Google Scholar. After the evidence synthesis, five policy options were selected out of 13 for malaria, 3 out of 10 for schistosomiasis and 5 out of 11 for LF. Conclusion: The outcome suggests that an evidence-to-policy capacity enhancement workshop combined with a mentorship programme can improve policy-makers’ capacity for evidence-informed policy-making (EIP

DESIGN OF DRIP IRRIGATION SET FOR SMALL VEGETABLE GARDENS

The need for an affordable small scale irrigation system in most small gardens in Nigeria today is on increase and as a result an attempt has been made to design a drip irrigation set for small vegetable gardens. The drip irrigation set dimensionally consists of a main line diameter of 12.7 mm, three lateral lines of diameter 19.05 mm and emitters of diameter 1.5 mm spaced 60 cm along the lateral lines. The emitters discharge rate was found to be 2.12 litres / hour and this will hopefully complete one irrigation of the area (5 m x 10 m) designed for 4 hours at peak consumptive use periods, employing two shifts of the three laterals