Irrigation farmers motivation for participating in social networking in North Central Nigeria

The study focused on the motivation of farmers in participating in social networking on the use of irrigations in north central Nigeria.  For the purpose of the study, social networking for this study consist of water users Association, Cooperative Societies, Agricultural  Agency, Farmers Group, Family, Neighbourhood, Religious Group, Community Based Organizations, Non- Governmental Organization and Input Suppliers that are operating within the lower Niger River Basin Authority Irrigation sites at Shonga, Oke-oyi and Ejiba in North Central Nigeria. One hundred and ninety four irrigation farmers were randomly selected from three irrigation farming areas in two states of Kwara and Kogi in north central Nigeria. Data were obtained using a structured questionnaire. The Motivation for undertaking irrigation farming and their level of participation in social networking were measured through a 4-point likert scale while the data was analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson product moment correlation. The findings showed that all the respondents (100%) were male, 94.6% were married and more than half (54.1%) of the respondents had no formal education, the result revealed family had the highest mean (3.86) based on their level of participation in social networking which was followed by water users association (3.82). Respondents ranked market information (2.47) as the most important contribution of social networking to the use of irrigation while Agricultural Extension Agency (2.85) was ranked as the most effective social networking in providing access to resource for irrigation farming. The result of Pearson product moment correlation revealed that there is significant relationship between their motivation for undertaking irrigation farming and their level of participation in social networking (r= 0.159; p < 0.05). Based on the findings, it is therefore recommended among others that farmers involved in irrigation farming should come together to form functional groups that can access resources for irrigation farming. Key Words: Farmers, Irrigation, Motivation, Social Networkin

Effect of Climate Change on the Health of Rural Farmers in Offa, Kwara State, Nigeria

The study examined the effect of climate change on the health of rural farmers in Offa, Kwara State. Nigeria. For the purpose of achieving the objectives of the study Ninety-eight (98) respondents were randomly sampled from ten wards. Data were collected through interview scheduled couple with a well structured questionnaire. The data were analysed through the use of frequency count, simple percentages and Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC). The result of the study indicated that the mean age is 45.5%. 68.4% are male. 53.1% were married. 72.4% were literate with only 14.3% non-literate. The study further revealed a significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and their present health status (r=0.344, p=0.001 α=0.05) The study also revealed a significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and their perceived effect of climate change on their health status (r=0.381,p=0.001,α=0.05). More so the major source of information of the respondents on climate change were through radio/television (mean=61.3) while only few (mean=36.3) heard from research institute, majority of the respondents health status were  good (49.0%) they usually have deviation from normal health status as consequence of climate change. The common ailment they experienced is malaria (31.6%) while only few had headache and cholera (3.1%). It was concluded that their major source of information on climate change was through radio. More so it was deduced from the study that malaria is the most common and severe disease affecting the respondents with tuberculosis which is less severe. It was recommended that government should educate farmers through the mass media such as use of radio, newspaper and television on the need to plant trees to combat the effect of the ozone layers depletion which is also associated to climate change.Key words: Climate and Climate change, Ozone layers, Malaria, Health  status, Headache

Variability of the lateral ligamentous complex of the knee

The current study examined the prevalence and morphometric values of three extracapsular ligaments on the lateral aspect of the knee namely lateral collateral ligament, anterolateral and triradiate collateral ligaments in human cadavers. Twenty knees were used. The lateral collateral ligament, anterolateral and triradiate collateral ligaments were present in 70%, 5% and 25% of the cases respectively. The triradiate collateral ligament had three parts namely femoral, tibial and fibular arms with average lengths of 20.03mm, 18.14mm and 16.20mm respectively. The lateral collateral ligament was attached on the lateral condyle of femur and the apex of head of fibula. The anterolateral ligament was attached on the lateral epicondyle of femur anterior to the origin of the lateral collateral ligament and both posterior to the Gerdy’s tubercle and on the lateral meniscus. The triradiate collateral ligament attached on the lateral condyle of femur, descends as the femoral arm and divides at the joint line as the tibial arm (anteriorly) and fibular arm (posteriorly). The tibial arm was attached on the posterior aspect of the Gerdy’s tubercle while the fibular arm was attached on the anterior aspect of head of fibula. The triradiate collateral ligament and the anterolateral ligaments possessed internal attachment to the lateral meniscus and could potentiate meniscal damage. There are considerable ligament variations at the lateral side of knee which should be brought to the knowledge of surgeons and radiologists.Keywords: Knee, Lateral complex, lateral collateral ligament, anterolateral ligament, triradiate collateral ligamen

Evolution of aerial spider webs coincided with repeated structural optimization of silk anchorages

Physical structures built by animals challenge our understanding of biological processes and inspire the development of smart materials and green architecture. It is thus indispensable to understand the drivers, constraints, and dynamics that lead to the emergence and modification of building behavior. Here, we demonstrate that spider web diversification repeatedly followed strikingly similar evolutionary trajectories, guided by physical constraints. We found that the evolution of suspended webs that intercept flying prey coincided with small changes in silk anchoring behavior with considerable effects on the robustness of web attachment. The use of nanofiber based capture threads (cribellate silk) conflicts with the behavioral enhancement of web attachment, and the repeated loss of this trait was frequently followed by physical improvements of web anchor structure. These findings suggest that the evolution of building behavior may be constrained by major physical traits limiting its role in rapid adaptation to a changing environment

Central Powering of the Largest Lyman-alpha Nebula is Revealed by Polarized Radiation

High-redshift Lyman-alpha blobs are extended, luminous, but rare structures that appear to be associated with the highest peaks in the matter density of the Universe. Their energy output and morphology are similar to powerful radio galaxies, but the source of the luminosity is unclear. Some blobs are associated with ultraviolet or infrared bright galaxies, suggesting an extreme starburst event or accretion onto a central black hole. Another possibility is gas that is shock excited by supernovae. However some blobs are not associated with galaxies, and may instead be heated by gas falling into a dark matter halo. The polarization of the Ly-alpha emission can in principle distinguish between these options, but a previous attempt to detect this signature returned a null detection. Here we report on the detection of polarized Ly-alpha from the blob LAB1. Although the central region shows no measurable polarization, the polarized fraction (P) increases to ~20 per cent at a radius of 45 kpc, forming an almost complete polarized ring. The detection of polarized radiation is inconsistent with the in situ production of Ly-alpha photons, and we conclude that they must have been produced in the galaxies hosted within the nebula, and re-scattered by neutral hydrogen.Comment: Published in the August 18 issue of Nature. 1750 words, 3 figures, and full Supplementary Information. Version has not undergone proofing. Reduced and processed data products are available here: http://obswww.unige.ch/people/matthew.hayes/LymanAlpha/LabPol

Siblings Of Crohn’s Disease Patients Exhibit A Biologically Relevant Dysbiosis In The Mucosal Microbial Community: A 16s Rrna Gene Pyrosequencing Study

Introduction Reduced mucosal Faecalibacterium prausnitzii predicts disease recurrence in Crohn’s disease (CD) patients. Siblings (SIBS) of CD patients have elevated risk of developing CD and share aspects of CD phenotype including faecal dysbiosis. [1] No study has compared mucosal microbiota in CD SIBS to unrelated healthy controls (HC). Methods Phenol/chloroform DNA extraction from rectal biopsies of 21 patients with quiescent CD, 17 of their healthy SIBS and 19 unrelated HC, and PCR amplification of the V1-V3 region of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene were performed. Microbiota composition was resolved by 454 pyrosequencing. Results For each group, mucosal microbiota were classified into common/abundant (core) vs. infrequent/rare.2 In terms of both microbial diversity (Shannon-Wiener and Simpson’s indexes of diversity) and species richness, core microbiota of both SIBS and CD patients were significantly less diverse than HC. The rare microbiota diversity was lower in CD compared with HC, but was not different between SIBS and HC. Metacommunity profiling (Bray-Curtis (SBC) index of similarity with unweighted pair group averages) showed core microbial metacommunity of SIBS to be more similar to CD (SBC=0.70) than to HC, whereas the rare microbial metacommunity of SIBS was more similar to HC (SBC=0.42). As in CD patients, the species that contributed most to the dissimilarity of healthy SIBS vs. HC was F. prausnitzii, Table 1. Conclusion This is the first in depth case-control study of the mucosal microbiota of SIBS of CD patients. Dysbiosis in SIBS was characterised by reduced diversity of core microbiota and lower abundance of F. prausnitzii. This dysbiosis in otherwise healthy, but at-risk people implicates microbiological processes in CD pathogenesis and risk

The emerging structure of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: where does Evo-Devo fit in?

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) debate is gaining ground in contemporary evolutionary biology. In parallel, a number of philosophical standpoints have emerged in an attempt to clarify what exactly is represented by the EES. For Massimo Pigliucci, we are in the wake of the newest instantiation of a persisting Kuhnian paradigm; in contrast, Telmo Pievani has contended that the transition to an EES could be best represented as a progressive reformation of a prior Lakatosian scientific research program, with the extension of its Neo-Darwinian core and the addition of a brand-new protective belt of assumptions and auxiliary hypotheses. Here, we argue that those philosophical vantage points are not the only ways to interpret what current proposals to ‘extend’ the Modern Synthesis-derived ‘standard evolutionary theory’ (SET) entail in terms of theoretical change in evolutionary biology. We specifically propose the image of the emergent EES as a vast network of models and interweaved representations that, instantiated in diverse practices, are connected and related in multiple ways. Under that assumption, the EES could be articulated around a paraconsistent network of evolutionary theories (including some elements of the SET), as well as models, practices and representation systems of contemporary evolutionary biology, with edges and nodes that change their position and centrality as a consequence of the co-construction and stabilization of facts and historical discussions revolving around the epistemic goals of this area of the life sciences. We then critically examine the purported structure of the EES—published by Laland and collaborators in 2015—in light of our own network-based proposal. Finally, we consider which epistemic units of Evo-Devo are present or still missing from the EES, in preparation for further analyses of the topic of explanatory integration in this conceptual framework

The dynamics of human body weight change

An imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure will lead to a change in body weight (mass) and body composition (fat and lean masses). A quantitative understanding of the processes involved, which currently remains lacking, will be useful in determining the etiology and treatment of obesity and other conditions resulting from prolonged energy imbalance. Here, we show that the long-term dynamics of human weight change can be captured by a mathematical model of the macronutrient flux balances and all previous models are special cases of this model. We show that the generic dynamical behavior of body composition for a clamped diet can be divided into two classes. In the first class, the body composition and mass are determined uniquely. In the second class, the body composition can exist at an infinite number of possible states. Surprisingly, perturbations of dietary energy intake or energy expenditure can give identical responses in both model classes and existing data are insufficient to distinguish between these two possibilities. However, this distinction is important for the efficacy of clinical interventions that alter body composition and mass

Coherent multi-flavour spin dynamics in a fermionic quantum gas

Microscopic spin interaction processes are fundamental for global static and dynamical magnetic properties of many-body systems. Quantum gases as pure and well isolated systems offer intriguing possibilities to study basic magnetic processes including non-equilibrium dynamics. Here, we report on the realization of a well-controlled fermionic spinor gas in an optical lattice with tunable effective spin ranging from 1/2 to 9/2. We observe long-lived intrinsic spin oscillations and investigate the transition from two-body to many-body dynamics. The latter results in a spin-interaction driven melting of a band insulator. Via an external magnetic field we control the system's dimensionality and tune the spin oscillations in and out of resonance. Our results open new routes to study quantum magnetism of fermionic particles beyond conventional spin 1/2 systems.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure