SMEs Succession Education and Family Business Succession: A Conceptual Review

This research focused on investigating the effect of succession education on family-owned business succession in small and medium-scale enterprises in Nigeria. The study adopted a conceptual review of extant literature and theories. Findings from extant literature revealed that level of education, on-the-job training, mentorship and willingness to learn have a strong impact on family-owned business succession in small and medium-scale enterprises. Succession education can form effective resilience to address the challenge of family business succession. The study highlighted the necessity for family-owned SMEs to promote succession education for their potential successors since the higher the level of education of the incumbent and successors are, the more likely the success of the succession process. It is also recommended for the potential successors to be exposed to learning the business early to enable them to acquire adequate on-the-job training for a smooth transfer of ownership and entrepreneurship which is intended to enhance sustainability among Nigerian family-owned businesses

Addressing operational complexities through re-inventing leadership style:A systemic leadership intervention

This research investigates leadership practice in private organisations in Nigeria. It focuses on learning about theapplication of leadership styles to address operational complexities in organisations. The research is based on acase study of a commercial livestock farm in Nigeria using systemic intervention as the methodology. Datacollection tools, such as a workshop, semi-structured interviews, boundary setting and participant observation,were applied. Key leadership issues identified in the case study were addressed via the creation of an effectiveapproach from different leadership underpinnings. Part of thefindings is the difficulty in sustaining the imple-mentation of a particular leadership style(s) due to unstructured nature of complexities involved in the deter-mination of suitable leadership style at different stages of the research. The research wrapped up with thesuggestion for further research on systemic leadership intervention to consider exploring the public sector, as wellas the need to further review on the use of CATWOE in the research process, to avoid the occurrence of mar-ginalisation in its apllication

Polyphenolic Contents and Antioxidant Potential of Stem Bark Extracts from Jatropha curcas (Linn)

We assessed the polyphenolic contents and antioxidant potential of the aqueous, ethanol and methanol stem bark extracts of Jatropha curcas. The total phenol, flavonoids, flavonols and proanthocyanidin contents of the extracts were evaluated to determine their effect on the antioxidant property of this plant, using standard phytochemical methods. The antioxidant and free radical scavenging activity of ethanol, methanol and aqueous extracts of the plant were also assessed against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2′-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), ferric reducing, nitric oxide (NO), superoxide anion, (O2−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) using spectroscopic methods and results were compared with that of butylated hydroxyl toluene (BHT) and ascorbic acid as standards. The concentrations of different classes of phenolic compounds were higher in methanol and ethanol extracts compared to aqueous extracts. There was correlation between total phenol, total flavonoids, total flavonol and total proanthocyanidins (r = 0.996, 0.978, 0.908, and 0.985) respectively. There was correlations between the amount of phenolic compounds and percentage inhibition of DPPH radicals scavenging activity of the extract (r = 0.98). Findings from the present study indicated that J. curcas is a potential source of natural antioxidants and may be a good candidate for pharmaceutical plant based products

Massive Pleural Fluid Collection in Adult Nigerians

Background. There are no available literatures on massive pleural effusions (MPE) in our country. Aim. To determine the aetiology of MPE and compare the mortality rate between malignant and nonmalignant MPE in adult Nigerians. Methods. A prospective study of all the patients diagnosed with nontraumatic pleural fluid collections for one year in two tertiary federal hospitals in Southern Nigeria. A total of 101 consecutive patients with pleural fluid collections were studied. Diagnoses were made by clinical features and laboratory and radiological investigations. Results. Forty-eight patients (47.5%) had MPE with a mean age of 43 years ± 14.04 and 35 were females. Thirty patients (62.5%) were diagnosed with nonmalignant conditions (21 from pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and 9 from other causes). Haemorrhagic pleural collections were from malignancy in 12 (30.8%) and from PTB in 6 (15.4%). Straw-coloured collections were from malignancy in 9 (23.1%), from PTB in 8 (20.1%), and from posttraumatic exudative effusion in 3 (7.7%). Compared with nonmalignant MPE, patients with malignant collections had higher mortality within 6 months (8/18 versus 0/30 with a P value of 0.000). Conclusion. The presentation of patients with nontraumatic haemorrhagic or straw-coloured MPE narrows the diagnosis to PTB and malignancy with MPE cases being a marker for short survival rate

Re-Strategising Government Palliative Support Systems in Tackling the Challenges of COVID-19 Lockdown in Lagos State, Nigeria

This research covered the palliative material distribution project in Lagos State, Nigeria, during the lockdown and restriction on movement because of COVID- 19 pandemic. The study engaged reports from extant literature and tertiary data sources such as the newspapers, the Internet, and website source. Relevant data gathered from these sources were conceptually analysed and discussed along with extant literature. The research also adopted the use of rich pictures for further presentation of the research. A key finding from the research is the need to redesign the distribution process and consider proper structuring of the project. And further engagement with the affected stakeholders to address crucial issues such as marginalisation that can defeat the purpose, which is to emancipate the affected indigents of the State from the harrowing effects of COVID-19 lockdown and other emergencies-related critical incidences such as starvation and criminalities. The study proposed a model for a resilience approach to effectively address the current palliative distribution process challenges in Lagos State, the epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria

www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph Prevalence of Multiple Antibiotics Resistant (MAR) Pseudomonas Species in the Final Effluents of Three Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facilities in South Africa

Abstract: The final effluents of three (Alice, Dimbaza, and East London) wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were evaluated to determine their physicochemical quality and prevalence of multiple antibiotics resistant (MAR) Pseudomonas species, between August 2007 and July 2008. The annual mean total Pseudomonas count (TPC) was 1.20 × 10 4 (cfu/100 mL), 1.08 × 10 4 (cfu/100 mL), and 2.66 × 10 4 (cfu/100 mL), for the Alice, Dimbaza, and East London WWTPs respectively. The effluents were generally compliant with recommended limits for pH, temperature, TDS, DO, nitrite and nitrate; but fell short of target standards for turbidity, COD, and phosphate. The tested isolates were highly sensitive to gentamicin (100%), ofloxacin (100%), clindamycin (90%), erythromycin (90%) and nitrofurantoin (80%); whereas high resistance was observed against the penicillins (90–100%), rifampin (90%), sulphamethoxazole (90%) and the cephems (70%). MAR index ranged between 0.26 and 0.58. The study demonstrated that MA

Re-Strategising Government Palliative Support Systems in Tackling the Challenges of COVID-19 Lockdown in Lagos State, Nigeria

This research covered the palliative material distribution project in Lagos State, Nigeria, during the lockdown and restriction on movement because of COV/D- 19 pandemic. The study engaged reports from extant literature and tertiary data sources such as the newspapers, the Internet, and website source. Relevant data gathered from these sources were conceptually analysed and discussed along with extant literature. The research also adopted the use of rich pictures for further presentation of the research. A key finding from the research is the need to redesign the distribution process and consider proper structuring of the project. And further engagement with the affected stakeholders to address crucial issues such as marginalisation that can defeat the purpose, which is to emancipate the affected indigents of the State from the harrowing effects of COVID-19 lockdown and other emergencies-related critical incidences such as starvation and criminalities. The study proposed a model for a resilience approach to effectively address the current palliative distribution process challenges in Lagos State, the epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria