CONDITIONS OF SERVICE AS CORRELATE OF TEACHERS’ JOB PERFORMANCE IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ONITSHA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

This paper investigated the conditions of service as correlate of teachers’ job performance in primary schools in Onitsha South local government area of Anambra state, Nigeria. The study was guided by four research questions and one hypothesis. The study employed survey research design. The area of study was Onitsha South local government area, Anambra state. The population of study consisted of all the 40 Head Teachers and 309 teachers in 40 primary schools found in Onitsha South local government area, Anambra state. The total population was 349. The sample size of the study consists of the 40 Head Masters and 180 teachers randomly selected through stratified simple random sampling method from the total population of 349. The total size for the study is 220. The researcher used a self-developed instrument for collecting the data for 20-item questionnaires titled, “Conditions of Service as Correlate of Teachers Job Performance in Primary Schools” (CSCTJPPS). The data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics by mean statistics. The findings of the study showed that salary and promotion as conditions of services do not correlate with teachers’ job performance in primary schools in Onitsha South local government area of Anambra state, Nigeria. The study concluded that higher salary and promotion of teachers in primary schools can satisfy them but may not improve pupils’ academic achievement nor exert teachers to put more efforts in return to compensation for higher salaries. Also, regular increase of primary school teachers’ salaries may not worth the investment they made on the children. The study, therefore, recommended among other things: teachers should be motivated inwardly to teach and improving their job performance not only waiting to be driven by external forces such as salary, promotion, housing provision and as well as medical care. This will better improve the teachers’ job performance and pupils’ academic performance in primary schools, especially in the study area and Nigeria in general. Also, government of Nigeria and Anambra state should encourage teachers in primary schools through adequate conditions of service in other to upgrade education system and educational output.  Article visualizations

Comparing antibody responses to Onchocerca volvulus and non-parasite antigens in placebo-controlled and ivermectin-treated onchocerciasis patients

Serum antibodies to parasite-specific and non-parasite antigens were evaluated  using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Out of the 470 sera collected, 409 were from residents of an onchocerciasis hyper-endemic area, 55 non-endemic and 6 European normal sera served as control. The patients’ age, sex, skin  microfilaria densities, dermal and ocular clinical manifestations (colour of optic disc) have been well characterised. The study population had participated in a  placebocontrolled (n=191) trial of ivermectin (Mectizan®) treatment (n=218). The parasite antigens are phosphate buffered saline crude extract of adult worms of Onchocerca volvulus, a recombinant antigen (Ov1.9) and a monoclonal antibody purified antigen (Cam 1). The non-parasite antigens are deoxycholate citrate extract of optic nerve (nerve-DOC) and commercially available IgA, IgM and IgG were used to assay for rheumatoid factor (Rh-F) auto-antibodies. Generally, antibodies to parasite antigens in onchocerciasis patients were remarkably higher than control group (p<0.05) using exact F-test. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in antibodies to nerve-DOC and Rh-F in patients compared to control. Antibodies increased with increasing skin snip microfilaria load from 0.69±0.28 with 0mf/mg (n=54) as against 0.80±0.26 for those with 4-20mf/mg. Observed slight negative correlation in IgG antibody levels and severity of disc colour with mean OD values of 0.26±0.22 in those graded as having no optic nerve disease (OND) (disc 1, n=86) and 0.17±0.19 for those with severe changes (disc 3, n=49) was not statistically significant (P>0.05). An age dependent significant decrease (P<0.05) in antibodies were observed with 0.64±0.34 for 15-30yr old (n=48) compared to 0.48±0.35 for those 50yr (n=50) for PBS with a similar trend for IgG to Ov1.9 and Cam1. In conclusion, serum parasite-specific and non-parasite antibodies may not be responsible for the pathology of optic nerve disease. Onchocerciasis patients were apparently not at higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis than the control.Keywords: Onchocerciasis; Antibodies; Antigens; Immune responses; Ivermectin

Tripanosomoza deve - kratak pregled.

Camel trypanosomosis (surra), caused by Trypanosoma evansi, is the most important single cause of morbidity and mortality in camels. The disease, transmitted non-cyclically by other haematophagus flies (e.g. Tabanus) is endemic in Africa, Asia and South America, and in addition to camels other species of domesticated livestock are affected. Because of the wide geographic range of surra, its control has attracted international attention, with a focus on formulating and implementing effective strategies aimed at increasing productivity and achieving a decrease in mortality and morbidity. In this review, the clinico-pathological effects of surra are presented, as their understanding may help in the design of effective control. Anaemia appears to be a major component of the pathology of surra. Its development and persistence in the course of the disease induce anoxic conditions which manifest signs of dysfunction in various organs as a result of a fall in tissue pH and vascular damage. This is followed by the release of large quantities of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial enzymes, especially aspartate alanine transferase (AST) and alanine transferase (ALT), among others, into serum, causing further cellular and tissue damage. The net effect associated with the above changes is immunosuppression which later develops and predisposes the animals to other infections and death if untreated. Therefore, emphasis is placed on accurate diagnosis of surra, treatment with effective trypanocidal drugs such as trypan and the use of vector control methods in the control and management of this disease.Tripanosomoza deva (Surra) uzrokovana vrstom Trypanosoma evansi najvažniji je uzrok pobola i smrtnosti deva. Bolest neciklički prenose hematofagni insekti (npr. Tabanus sp.), a endemska je u Africi, Aziji i Južnoj Americi. Osim deva ugrožene su i druge vrste domaćih životinja. Zbog velike zemljopisne proširenosti, kontrola bolesti privukla je međunarodnu pozornost s težištem na oblikovanju i uvođenju djelotvornih strategija u svrhu povećanja proizvodnosti te smanjenja pobola i smrtnosti. U radu su opisani kliničko-patološki nalazi bolesti s ciljem njezina djelotvornog suzbijanja. Glavni znak bolesti je anemija. Razvoj i trajanje anemije tijekom bolesti dovodi do anoksije što se očituje znakovima poremećene funkcije različitih organa kao rezultat pada pH u tkivu i oštećenja krvnih žila. Zatim slijedi oslobađanje velikih količina citoplazmatskih i mitohondrijskih enzima, naročito aspartat aminotransferaze (AST) i alanin aminotransferaze (ALT) u serum, uzrokujući daljnje stanično i tkivno oštećenje. Usporedno s ovim promjenama dolazi i do imunosupresije koja povećava osjetljivost životinja za druge infekcije i dovodi do smrti ako se ne liječi. Kontrola bolesti temelji se na njezinoj točnoj dijagnozi, liječenju djelotvornim tripanocidnim lijekovima kao što je tripan i primjeni metoda suzbijanja vektora

Bodies of archives / archival bodies: an introduction.

Compared to other disciplines and despite its central role in research practices, the concept of the “archive” has received insufficient critical attention in anthropology until recently. Anthropologists working in collaboration with artists and curators have experimented with forms of archive/archiving, raising important questions about both the collaborative and processual nature of archives. They thereby challenge ideas about the “archive” as a static repository of history. This special section begins with the premise that archives, prone to decay, dissolution, and rearrangement, are permanently in process. This perspective enables us to engage with cleavages and links between past knowledge and future imagination, as well as the role of representation and the anarchive. Our interest is not limited to objects, but also addresses the idea of the body (or collective bodies) as archives of experience, and the archive’s potential for collaborative artistic and ethnographic practices. We ask: What forms of collaborative work does the archive offer? In what ways can the collective sensibility of the archive be explored? What can we gain from a process-based notion of the archive? What implications does this have on the role of the archive in art and anthropology, and for the practices related to it in particular

Deflationary tactics with the archive of life: contemporary Jewish art and popular culture

This paper discusses art works by Suzanne Treister, Deborah Kass and Doug Fishbone. It considers the importance of their work for contemporary Jewish identity within the terms of wider conceptual questions that preoccupy contemporary art. These concerns are challenging the perceived structures of power, the “performance” of subjectivity and the questioning of authenticity. A deflationary aesthetic is central to the critique of these structures of thinking fuelled by an interest in the relationship between Jewish subjectivity and popular culture that underpins all of these art works. I argue that popular culture plays a key role as a constituting factor in the production of contemporary Anglophone subjectivity. I use the case studies to develop the argument in the three artists’ specificities and the way they all question the idea of authenticity as a stable source of self-understanding. Suzanne Treister questions history and our relationship with historical events, specifically the Holocaust. She also explores questions of the relationship between structures of power and narratives of history. Debora Kass considers the representation of Jewish women, power and iconicity. Doug Fishbone, a younger artist, takes on self-hate as a transformative tool and as a motif that destabilizes Jewishness as a category, especially in an age of the accelerated post-internet-derived subjectivity

Concerning "the Eurocentric African Problem" (Meschac Gaba)

Even as it is often eclipsed by reference to the “contemporary,” modernity is widely celebrated in European museums and galleries. When refracted through the commitments of an avowedly Black artistic agenda, how might these institutions reconceive their understanding of modernism in light of African, diasporic, or Afropean perspectives? How might concerns with African agency be enacted in these cultural spaces as they project historical narratives and produce a “public” memory in their own image? What are the implications of the fact that critical resistance to modes of cultural appropriation may, nonetheless, reproduce a discourse that attempts to immunise itself from the association of modernism with colonialism? In the formation of modernist canons, what role might an example of African conceptual art have to play, even when consigned to a museum’s storage space? This paper explores such questions through the paradoxes engaged by Mechac Gaba’s reflections on his 1997-2002 project, “Museum for Contemporary African Art,” now owned by Tate Modern. In particular, it considers the dichotomy between “modern” and “traditional” as this has been constitutive of twentieth-century art history, informing a sense of the African presence within European museums. How might reference to the “contemporary” here relate to the potentials of decolonial cultural politics within such spaces

Investigation of livestock for presence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

The study investigated the presence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in livestock to ascertain their reservoir role and also screened for other pathogenic trypanosomes of animals in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger state, Nigeria. A total of 460 livestock comprising (cattle, sheep, goats, and dogs) selected at random were bled, examined using the buffy coat and Giemsa stained thin film and packed cell volume estimated. Questionnaire was filled for each animal on demography, awareness and management practices. An overall prevalence of 2.17% with Trypanosoma brucei, T. congolense, T. vivax and a mixed infection of T. brucei and T. congolense observed microscopically awaiting characterization. Interviews revealed high awareness (82.8%) of tsetse and trypanosomiasis described as bush disease and abortion in four cows. The PCV values were within the normal range, however, a significant decrease (P<0.05) was observed in sheep aged 7months to 4years in two communities. Therefore, the study indicated the presence of T. brucei and other trypanosomes suggesting that animal trypanosomiasis is still a problem to animal health and wellbeing in the study area. The study recommends effective integrated chemotherapy and vector control including livestock rearing under intensive management system to boost livestock production and productivity

Archive of Darkness:William Kentridge's Black Box/Chambre Noire

Situating itself in histories of cinema and installation art, William Kentridge's Black Box/Chambre Noire (2005) raises questions about screens, exhibition space, site-specificity and spectatorship. Through his timely intervention in a debate on Germany’s colonial past, Kentridge’s postcolonial art has contributed to the recognition and remembrance of a forgotten, colonial genocide. This article argues that, by transposing his signature technique of drawings for projection onto a new set of media, Kentridge explores how and what we can know through cinematic projection in the white cube. In particular, his metaphor of the illuminated shadow enables him to animate archival fragments as shadows and silhouettes. By creating a multi-directional archive, Black Box enables an affective engagement with the spectres of colonialism and provides a forum for the calibration of moral questions around reparation, reconciliation and forgiveness

How to use the world's scarce selenium resources efficiently to increase the selenium concentration in food

The world's rare selenium resources need to be managed carefully. Selenium is extracted as a by-product of copper mining and there are no deposits that can be mined for selenium alone. Selenium has unique properties as a semi-conductor, making it of special value to industry, but it is also an essential nutrient for humans and animals and may promote plant growth and quality. Selenium deficiency is regarded as a major health problem for 0.5 to 1 billion people worldwide, while an even larger number may consume less selenium than required for optimal protection against cancer, cardiovascular diseases and severe infectious diseases including HIV disease. Efficient recycling of selenium is difficult. Selenium is added in some commercial fertilizers, but only a small proportion is taken up by plants and much of the remainder is lost for future utilization. Large biofortification programmes with selenium added to commercial fertilizers may therefore be a fortification method that is too wasteful to be applied to large areas of our planet. Direct addition of selenium compounds to food (process fortification) can be undertaken by the food industry. If selenomethionine is added directly to food, however, oxidation due to heat processing needs to be avoided. New ways to biofortify food products are needed, and it is generally observed that there is less wastage if selenium is added late in the production chain rather than early. On these bases we have proposed adding selenium-enriched, sprouted cereal grain during food processing as an efficient way to introduce this nutrient into deficient diets. Selenium is a non-renewable resource. There is now an enormous wastage of selenium associated with large-scale mining and industrial processing. We recommend that this must be changed and that much of the selenium that is extracted should be stockpiled for use as a nutrient by future generations

Wealth, household heterogeneity and livelihood diversification of Fulani pastoralists in the Kachia Grazing Reserve, northern Nigeria, during a period of social transition

A mixed methods study was undertaken in the Kachia Grazing Reserve of northern Nigeria. Surveys in March, June and October 2011 included focus group discussions, key informant and in-depth household interviews, concerning livelihood practices, animal health, ownership, and productivity. In May 2011, 249 Fulani families fleeing post-election violence entered the reserve with their livestock, increasing the number of households by one third.Despite being settled within a grazing reserve, over half of households sent all their cattle away on seasonal transhumance and another third sent some away. Cattle accounted for 96% of total tropical livestock units (TLU), of which 26% were cattle kept permanently outside the reserve. While all households cited livestock as their main source of income, 90% grew crops and 55% derived income from off-farm activities. A multiple correspondence analysis showed that for each extra member of a household its TLU value increased by 2.0 [95% CI, 1.4-2.7], while for each additional marriage its TLU increased by 15.7 [95% CI, 7.1-24.3]. A strong association was also observed between small herds, small households with only one wife, alongside marked geographical wealth differences within the reserve. New immigrant families had larger household sizes (33) and livestock holdings (122 TLU) than old settlers (22 people and 67 TLU). Prior to the mass immigration, the distribution of TLU per person was unimodal: 41% of households were classified as 'poor' and 27% as 'medium', whereas post-immigration it was bi-modal, with 26% classified as 'very poor' and 28% as 'medium'.While cattle remain the principal source of Fulani income and wealth, the inhabitants of Kachia Grazing Reserve have diversified their livelihood strategies to respond to changing circumstances and stress, especially the limited availability of grazing within the reserve and political insecurity outside, resulting in continued transhumance, the maintenance of smaller livestock holdings and pushing households into poverty