Potential causes of 2007 flooding over West Africa and the Sahel

The 2007 wide-spread flooding in West Africa and the Sahel regions raised a compelling argument in the scientific community as to its intensity, complexity, causes and vulnerability assessment. The paucity of observed data, lack of regional coupled models and the improper scaling of impact has aggravated the understanding of this event. However, it is generally known that these floods result from extreme rainfall of the West African Monsoon that is modulated by Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs). Here, the influence of SST in the Gulf of Guinea (GG) along the path of the monsoon winds is examined to highlight its role on rainfall in those regions. The non-seasonal GG index and the spatial SST shows one month lead to non-seasonal cycle of rainfall. There was interannual variability of SST anomalies peaking in some years, notably summer of 2007 and that concurs well with the rainfall. The plots show stronger correlation with West Africa rainfall than with the Sahel. The SSTs lead Sahel rainfall with three months, signifying the local positioning of the Intertropical Discontinuity (ITD). The correlations are significantly higher with seasonal cycle, indicating more influence of seasonality than interannual variability akin to non-seasonal signal. When the winds weaken, the cold tongue and TIWs are damped, leading to enhanced SSTs and subsequently stronger convection and rain convergence over land. The opposite occurs when winds are stronger

Grief Reactions of Bereaved Spouses in Ilorin Metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria

Spousal death is one of the most traumatic events that can occur in marital experience and most times, engenders different reactions. The paper investigated the grief reactions of bereaved spouses in Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State. A total of 395 bereaved spouses were selected using a purposive sampling technique. Data were collected from the respondents using an instrument titled "Grief Reaction of Bereaved Spouses Questionnaire" (GRBSQ). The research questions raised were answered with percentages while the hypotheses generated were analysed using t-test statistics and three-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 alpha level. The findings of the study indicated that (90.6%) of bereaved spouses in Kwara state have positive grief reactions, while 37 (9.4%) have negative grief reactions. The study further revealed significant differences in the grief reactions of bereaved spouses in Ilorin metropolis based on age at bereavement, nature of death and length of years of loss. Based on these findings, recommendations were made on the desirability of establishing counselling centres in governmental and non-governmental organisations aside from the conventional ones in schools and hospitals. The study also stresses the need for bereaved spouses to be exposed to grief counselling to help them adjust better to their bereavement and educated on the adverse effect of complicated grief as a result of poor adjustment

Evaluation of the Efficacy of Plant Materials for the Control of Flea Beetles Podagrica spp on Okra Abelmoschus esculentus L

The efficacy of the Senegal prickly-ash Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides (Lam.) roots and the African locust bean tree Parkia biglobosa (Jacq.) pod back was study for their efficacy in the control of okra pest, Podagrica spp. The study was carried out in the laboratory and on the field in the farming season of 2018. Z. zanthoxyloides roots were obtained from Jima-Doko forest and P. biglibosa fruit back from Takunpara. Both plant materials were air-dried under shade for 120 hours. Both plant parts were pounded separately in wooden mortar with the aid of wooden pestle until the materials turns to fine particles. Determined weight of 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 grams were taken for each plant materials and soaked in water for 24 hours and stirred at intervals of an hour. The mixture were then sieved with a muslin cloth and filtered with Whatman filter paper to eliminate all finest particles of varying sizes. These concentrations were applied individually on 10 adults of Podagrica spp. in the laboratory. It was observed that the concentration of 200 – 300g performed better for both plant materials in the control of okra flea beetle. These resulted to the death of above 50% of the insect within 2 hours. These significant laboratory trials were then formulated and taken to the field. Both plant materials acted as anti-feedants and repellants against Podagrica spp. It was also revealed that Z. zanthoxyloides performed significantly (p<0.05) better than the P. biglibosa. Furthermore, short interval applications (<or=3days) of these plant materials could be a good  replacement for synthetic chemicals, hence bio-pesticides that could be adopted for organic agriculture

Micro-core decompression combined with intralesional zoledronic acid as a treatment of osteonecrosis of femoral head: a novel technique

Background: Avascular necrosis (AVN)/osteonecrosis of the femoral head is a debilitating condition affecting the hip joint and is one of the most common causes of total hip replacement. The available treatments include pharmacological and surgical options with total hip arthroplasty (THA) being the mainstay of treatment. This present study is a novel technique of combining micro core decompression with intra-lesional bisphosphonate as a treatment for osteonecrosis of the hip.Methods: A prospective study of 19 hips was done. There were 11 males and 4 females ranging 42-63 years. Four hips were stage I, ten hips were stage IIA, three hips were stage IIb and two hips were stage III.  16 hips (40%) had stage IIb and 24 hips (60%) had stage III ONFH. The minimum period of follow up was 24 months. All patients were assessed according to the Harris hip score. The operative procedure includes decompressing the avascular area with drilling then injecting the zoledronic acid locally.Results: The mean preoperative modified Harris hip score in stage I (n=4), stage IIa (n=10), stage IIb (n=3) and stage III (n=2) were 81.9, 72.7, 68.8 and 59.2 respectively. The mean postoperative modified Harris hip score at two years in stage I, stage IIa, stage IIb and stage III were 97.3, 91.1, 88.4 and 82.5 respectively.Conclusions: We found that the use of micro core-decompression with intra-lesional bisphosphonate will provide higher chances towards hip preservation especially in late cases or cases with larger lesions where core decompression may not be successful.

Restaurant Hope: Engineering a Choice-Based Service Initiative to Address Hunger

The objective of this service-learning project was to humanize the face of hunger for volunteers by empowering patrons attending a soup kitchen with the choice of selecting their meal for dinner. This experience helped foster an emotional connection between patrons and volunteers. A traditional soup kitchen utilizes a single-option, inexpensive meal approach that is cooked and delivered by volunteers. However, this service project, entitled Restaurant Hope, addressed these issues by providing patrons with a diverse menu. In addition, patrons were given the opportunity to request more food (to try other options on the menu) and take home leftover food depending on availability. Choices patrons made in terms of menu preferences were tracked. Volunteers, soup kitchen administrators, and patrons were interviewed to obtain feedback on this service initiative and how it impacted their perceptions on the issue of hunger in their local community

Determination of Vertical Movement for Deformation Monitoring of a Bridge Using GPS Technique

Deformation analysis using height differences is imperative to the determination of vertical movements in engineering structures, landslide areas and crustal deformations. GNSS technology and data processing software have made these observations much more convenient, accurate and cost-effective tool for monitoring of natural and man-made structures. Here, we determine the vertical movement of a bridge with respect to control network established on stable grounds. These include pre-analysis, survey design, data collection, data reduction, adjustments determination of maximum expected displacement and its accuracy requirement. The observations are carried out in geodetic monitoring network in three epochs (2017, 2018 and 2019), and by this way stable network are verified. The instrument employed is Pro-mark3 and its accessories for measuring planimetric positions and elevations of points. Once the survey have been conducted, GNSS Solutions provides accurately determine site locations within the parameters establish. Least squares adjustment was used for rigorous adjustment of GPS carrier-phase measurements. The statistical test was carried out using Fisher Table and by computing T- test values. Finally the results obtained portrayed that the bridge, even though has minor vertical movement is found to be stable.Keywords: Engineering Structure, Vertical Movement, Deformation Monitoring, GNSS, T-tes