Capital Investment Decisions on Entrepreneurial Agricultural Projects in Kwara State

The purpose of this study was to assess the adequacy of the capital investment decisions of Youth Integrated Agricultural Project in Kwara State. The project has two parts: Youth Integrated Farm Training Centre and Farm Settlements. The Youth Integrated Farm Training Centre has produced 650 farmer-graduates, who are now working in the three locations where Farm Settlements are. The sixth batch consisting of 66 farmer-graduates provided the population of the study. From this population a purposive sample of 46 potential respondents was selected. These people filled a researcher-developed questionnaire. Thirty six correctly filled copies of the questionnaire were collected from the respondents. The responses of the thirty six framer-graduates were analyzed based on four research questions derived from the four objectives of the study. The major findings from this analysis were: (i) The Kwara State Government has invested a total of N65,408,129 on the Youth Integrated Agricultural Project in the last ten years; (ii) Seventy two percent of the  respondents disagreed with the statements that the allowance paid to the  trainees was sufficient. Moreover, ninety two percent of them disagreed with the statement that the empowerment packaged given to them to work in the Farm Settlements was adequate. In the same vein, seventy six percent disagreed that infrastructure in the Farm settlements were adequate; (iii)        But the respondents agreed that infrastructure in the Farm Training Centre were adequate. In sum the State Government’s capital investment decisions were not enough to make the Youth Integrated Agricultural project an unqualified succes

Prevalence of HIV-infection among under-5 children with protein energy malnutrition presenting at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Nigeria

Background: HIV infection is a major health problem worldwide. It is  associated with Protein-Energy Malnutrition (PEM) among under-5 childrenwith attendant high morbidity and mortality.Objective: To determine the prevalence of HIV-infection among children presenting withvarious subtypes of PEM.Methodology: Children suffering from PEM aged below 5 years admitted into the Paediatric units of UDUTH, Sokoto between October 1st, 2010 and April 30th, 2011 were tested for HIV infection using ELISA tests and HIVDNAPCR. Nutritional status was determined using the modified Wellcome Classification and socioeconomic classification was by the scheme developed by Oyedeji,s. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 statistical package. P-value . 0.05 was considered significant.Results: One-hundred under-5 children (64 males, 36 females) with PEM were studied. The mean (±SD) age was 19.8&#177 9.2 months and the majority were aged 12.0-23.9 months. Twentyseven of the 100 children withPEM had HIV-infection giving a prevalence rate of 27%: 59.3% in males and 40.7% in females. Among the HIV-infected children, the 24.0 . 35.9 months age group was the most affected (53.8%). Infected and non-infected children were comparable in terms of age (χ2=7.35, p=0.12) , gender (χ2=0.36, p=0.55) and socioeconomic (χ2=3.01, p=0.25). Themode of transmission was maternal to child transmission in all cases. The highest prevalence of HIV infection was found among marasmus subgroup (65%). Twenty-two (81.5%) of the 27 cases were discharged home, whilefive patients died giving a case fatality rate of 18.5%.Conclusion: HIV infection is common among under-5 children with PEM with no age, gender or socioeconomic predilection. The clinical type of PEM most often affected is marasmus.Key words: Protein-energy malnutrition, HIV-infection, Under-

On-site underground background measurements for the KASKA reactor-neutrino experiment

On-site underground background measurements were performed for the planned reactor-neutrino oscillation experiment KASKA at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata, Japan. A small-diameter boring hole was excavated down to 70m underground level, and a detector unit for $\gamma$-ray and cosmic-muon measurements was placed at various depths to take data. The data were analyzed to obtain abundance of natural radioactive elements in the surrounding soil and rates of cosmic muons that penetrate the overburden. The results will be reflected in the design of the KASKA experiment.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, final version for publication. Table 1 and Fig.5 have change

Enhancement of the Positron Intensity by a Tungsten Single Crystal Target at the KEKB Injector Linac

International audienceA new tungsten single-crystalline positron target has been successfully employed for generation of the intense positron beam at the KEKB injector linac in September 2006. The target is composed of a tungsten single-crystal with a thickness of 10.5 mm. The positron production target is bombarded at an incident electron energy of 4 GeV, and the produced positrons are collected and accelerated up to the final injection energy of 3.5 GeV in the succeeding sections. A conventional tungsten plate with a thickness of 14 mm has been used previously, and the conversion efficiency (Ne^+/Ne^-), the ratio between the number of positrons (Ne^+) captured in the positron capture section and the number of the incident electrons (Ne^-), was 0.20 on average. By replacing the tungsten plate with the tungsten crystal, it increased to 0.25 on average. The increase of the conversion efficiency has boosted the positron intensity to its maximum since the beginning of KEKB operation in 1999. Now this new positron source is stably operating and is contributing to increasing the integrated luminosity of the KEKB B-factory

Measurement of neutral mesons in p + p collisions at √s = 200 GeV and scaling properties of hadron production

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured the invariant differential cross section for production of K^_, ω, η', and φ mesons in p + p collisions at √s = 200 GeV. Measurements of ω and φ production in different decay channels give consistent results. New results for the ω are in agreement with previously published data and extend the measured pT coverage. The spectral shapes of all hadron transverse momentum distributions measured by PHENIX are well described by a Tsallis distribution functional form with only two parameters, n and T, determining the high-pT and characterizing the low-pT regions of the spectra, respectively. The values of these parameters are very similar for all analyzed meson spectra, but with a lower parameter T extracted for protons. The integrated invariant cross sections calculated from the fitted distributions are found to be consistent with existing measurements and with statistical model predictions

Bulletin

https://openspace.dmacc.edu/bulletin/1104/thumbnail.jp

Indication for the disappearance of reactor electron antineutrinos in the Double Chooz experiment

The Double Chooz Experiment presents an indication of reactor electron antineutrino disappearance consistent with neutrino oscillations. A ratio of 0.944 $\pm$ 0.016 (stat) $\pm$ 0.040 (syst) observed to predicted events was obtained in 101 days of running at the Chooz Nuclear Power Plant in France, with two 4.25 GW$_{th}$ reactors. The results were obtained from a single 10 m$^3$ fiducial volume detector located 1050 m from the two reactor cores. The reactor antineutrino flux prediction used the Bugey4 measurement as an anchor point. The deficit can be interpreted as an indication of a non-zero value of the still unmeasured neutrino mixing parameter \sang. Analyzing both the rate of the prompt positrons and their energy spectrum we find \sang = 0.086 $\pm$ 0.041 (stat) $\pm$ 0.030 (syst), or, at 90% CL, 0.015 $<$ \sang $\ <$ 0.16.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, (new version after PRL referee's comments