Financing Agro-Based Small and Medium Scale Enterprises by Selected Commercial Banks in Enugu State, Nigeria

This study analyzed the financing agro-based small and medium scale enterprises by selected commercial banks in   Enugu state, Nigeria. It specifically sought to ascertain the quantum of loans disbursed to the small and medium scale agro-based enterprises by the selected banks in the study area as well as the factors that determined such disbursements. A multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted in this study. Three Banks, namely First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc and United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc were purposively selected because they are among the top lenders to agro-based enterprises and some other economic activities in the state. Data for the study were obtained from both primary and secondary sources and analyzed through the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The bulk of the sampled small scale agro-based enterprises (76.67%) accessed between N200,000 and N600,000 ($1,256.25 and$3,750) while 56.67% of the medium scale agro-based enterprises obtained a loan of N1,000,000 ($6,250). This amount accessed is too small when viewed against the high cost of doing business in Nigeria. Determinant variables such as age of entrepreneurs, interest rate, enterprise experience, category of enterprises, rate of loan repayment, and business turnover were all found to be critical factors that influence the amount of loan that are given to SMEs. It is therefore the recommendation of this study that there is need for the banks to increase the amount of loan disbursed to agro-based SMEs in other to improve and increase their production

Adult Online Hate, Harassment and Abuse: A rapid evidence assessment

The development of email and social media platforms has changed the way in which people interact with each other. The open sharing of personal data in public forums has resulted in online harassment in its many forms becoming increasingly problematic. The number of people having negative online experiences is increasing, with close to half of adult internet users reporting having seen hateful content online in the past year. This report presents findings from a collaborative study undertaken by the University of East London (UEL) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). It describes the findings from a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) of the evidence base in relation to adult online safety undertaken on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). The research was undertaken on behalf of the UK Council for Internet Safety Evidence Group. This REA focuses on exploring internet safety issues amongst adults, given the expansion of the remit of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to include adults in the context of the new Internet Safety Strategy (2018) and Online Harms White Paper (2019)

Mineralogical and Geochemical Assessment of Clay Properties of Edda, Afikpo Sub Basin Nigeria for Possible Use in the Ceramics Industry

Clay samples from selected part of Edda were analyzed to identify the clay mineral types present, their chemical and physical properties with a view to appraising their industrial suitability as ceramic materials. The mineralogical and geochemical analyses were done using the principles of X-Ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence respectively. A total of seven clay samples were used for the study, other tests such as plasticity, bulk density, shrinkage, loss on ignition (LOI) and water absorption capacity was carried out to determine the amount of water absorbed under specified conditions. The basic industrial properties assessment showed that more than 70% of the clays are fine-grained. The clays exhibited low to moderate plasticity, moderate shrinkage and bulk density, low to moderate values of both loss on ignition and water absorption capacity. The clays are buff to yellowish in colour. The results of x-ray fluorescence revealed that the mean concentration of major oxide in the clays is shown as follows: SiO2 (62.78%), Al2O3 (20.25%), total Fe (6.09%), CaO (0.56%), MgO (3.21%),Na2O (0.47%), K2O, (1.44%) and TiO2 (0.52%).The samples have high silica content, low alumina and low oxide content. The results of x-ray diffraction revealed that kaolinite is the dominant clay mineral with illite and montmorillonite occurring in subordinate amounts, while quartz and feldspar are the non-clay components present. The characteristics of the clays for each parameter were compared with industrial standards.These properties are appropriate for the Afikpo clays to be useful in the manufacturing of ceramics. However, since the silica content of the clays is high further beneficiation is recommended

Effect of Fertilizer Level and Intercropping with Bambara Nut (\u3cem\u3eVigna subterranea\u3c/em\u3e) on the Growth and Herbage Yield of Maize

The low fertility status of most tropical soils has hindered maize production as maize has a strong exhausting effect on the soil. It has been generally observed that maize fails to produce good grain in plots without adequate nutrients (Adediran and Banjoko 2003). Legumes generally are able to fix nitrogen to the soil which the companion crop could benefit from, but usually the nitrogen fixed occurs in insufficient quantities for marginally nitrogen sensitive crops such as maize and hence the required use of fertilizers. Inorganic fertilizers exert strong influences on plant growth, development and yield (Stefano et al. 2004). The use of legumes in mixed cropping systems is one of the traditional soil-fertility maintenance strategies. Legume-cereal intercropping often increases the quantity and quality of residues, which could improve livestock production considerably in addition to benefits in soil fertility but may decrease the yield of the companion cereal crop (Nandi and Haque 1986). Although the beneficial effects of intercropping legumes have been demonstrated by intercropping cereals with a few legumes such as cowpea, lablab, soybean etc, the same cannot be said for all legumes. This study aims at investigating the effect of fertilizer levels and intercropping with bambara nut (Vigna subterranean L.Verdc) on the growth and yield of maize for use as forage

COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS STUDY OF COMBINED ANTIHYPERTENSIVES FOR NIGERIAN PATIENTS

Objective: The objective of the study was to compare the clinical and economic effectiveness of four combination antihypertensives recommended for Nigerians. Methods: An open, randomized, controlled, and longitudinal double-blind trial of four groups of antihypertensives combinations: Telmisartan/ chlorthalidone/amlodipine (TCA), TC, CA, and TA was conducted among hypertensive patients. The participants were recruited from three hospitals in Enugu, and randomly assigned to the study groups. The primary outcome for this study was blood pressure (BP) control, based on Joint National Committee-8 and cost per BP control. The secondary outcomes were cost per quality adjusted life years (QALY) and patients’ self-reported health status. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 110 patients enrolled in the study, more than half were women (55.5%). The mean age of patients was 54.93±12.38. The enrollees had hypertension for over 9 years (9.17±8.40). About 77% of the patients completed the study in all the groups except for TA (66.7%). There was no difference in BP in all the groups at baseline and at end-of-study (p>0.050). However, the probability of BP control was highest in TCA group (0.37±0.01), followed by TC group (0.23±0.02). The TA group showed the most favorable cost per QALY, then CA, TC, and TCA in that order. The group with the most favorable cost per BP control was TCA (70.92±0.04), then TA (94.16±0.05). Conclusion: The triple combination therapy of TCA had the best cost per BP control in the management of hypertensive patients. It demonstrated the highest probability of BP control

Natural language processing for aviation safety: Extracting knowledge from publicly-available loss of separation reports

Background: The air traffic management (ATM) system has historically coped with a global increase in traffic demand ultimately leading to increased operational complexity. When dealing with the impact of this increasing complexity on system safety it is crucial to automatically analyse the losses of separation (LoSs) using tools able to extract meaningful and actionable information from safety reports. Current research in this field mainly exploits natural language processing (NLP) to categorise the reports,with the limitations that the considered categories need to be manually annotated by experts and that general taxonomies are seldom exploited. Methods: To address the current gaps,authors propose to perform exploratory data analysis on safety reports combining state-of-the-art techniques like topic modelling and clustering and then to develop an algorithm able to extract the Toolkit for ATM Occurrence Investigation (TOKAI) taxonomy factors from the free-text safety reports based on syntactic analysis. TOKAI is a tool for investigation developed by EUROCONTROL and its taxonomy is intended to become a standard and harmonised approach to future investigations. Results: Leveraging on the LoS events reported in the public databases of the Comisión de Estudio y Análisis de Notificaciones de Incidentes de Tránsito Aéreo and the United Kingdom Airprox Board,authors show how their proposal is able to automatically extract meaningful and actionable information from safety reports,other than to classify their content according to the TOKAI taxonomy. The quality of the approach is also indirectly validated by checking the connection between the identified factors and the main contributor of the incidents. Conclusions: Authors' results are a promising first step toward the full automation of a general analysis of LoS reports supported by results on real-world data coming from two different sources. In the future,authors' proposal could be extended to other taxonomies or tailored to identify factors to be included in the safety taxonomies

Photostress Recovery Time Among Welders in Owerri Municipal Council, Southeast, Nigeria

Purpose: The photostress recovery time (PSRT) scores of welders were measured based on age, workexperience and welding-method.Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted among 50 purposively sampled welders, who had clear ocular media, healthy fundi and visual acuities of 6/6 or better in the tested eyes. The pre-bleach distant visual acuity of the right eye was determined with the Snellen’s visual acuity chart, while direct ophthalmoscopy was done to rule out media opacities, retinopathies and maculopathies. The  right eye was dazzled for 10 seconds with the light of a direct ophthalmoscope held at 2cm from the eye. The time required in seconds to read at least, three optotypes on the line directly above the baseline acuity was recorded as the PSRT.Results: The 22-31 years age group recorded the least mean PSRT (16±8.8seconds), followed by the 32-41 age group (19.9±6.8 seconds), while the 42-51 years category had the highest mean PSRT (31.4±10.5seconds). Age associated significantly (p˂0.05) with mean PSRT. Welders within the 1-12 years’ work experience had the least mean PSRT (15.9±8.1seconds) while those within the 25-36 years recorded the highest mean PSRT (33.4±9.3seconds). The observed difference in mean PSRT with years of work experience was statistically significant (p˂0.05). Gas welders had significantly (p˂0.05) higher mean PSRT (26.6±9.9secs) than electric arc welders (16.6±9.2secs).Conclusion: Gas welding, increasing age and work-experience were found to be predictive markers of elevated photostress recovery time (PSRT) among welders. This underscores the need for eye-care practitioners to routinize PSRT tests in the ocular assessment of welders. Keywords: Photostress recovery time (PSRT); electric-arc; gas welding; welders; age

Effect of Plant Spacing on the Growth and Yield of Forage Plant, Maize, Intercropped with Cowpea (\u3cem\u3eVigna unguiculata\u3c/em\u3e sub spp. \u3cem\u3esesquipedalis\u3c/em\u3e)

Feed constraint is the most important impediment to improved livestock production in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries (Agyemang 2003), as a result of seasonal shortages in the quantity and quality of forage from natural pastures that supply most of the feed for animals due to the prolonged annual dry season. Appropriate technologies to improve the performance of the local animal breeds and feed resources under the traditional system are generally lacking. Maize forms a major part of the cereal crops consumed by man and the residues serve as a source of fodder for livestock (Asawalam and Adesiyan 2001). Demand for maize has led farmers to reduce planting spacing. When crops are grown sole, spacing and planting pattern differ from when intercropped. Maize is known to be a very heavy soil nutrient utiliser and usually produces low yield in situations of low soil fertility and poor agronomic practices. Intercropping maize with legumes has shown prospects for improving maize crop yield and this would result in a reduction in the use of high cost synthetic fertilizers. The cowpea is an example of such legume and little work has been done on plant spacing for this crop in an intercropping system with maize. Plant spacing is an important agronomic attribute as it has effects on light interception which is the energy manufacturing medium of green parts of the plant (Ibeawuchi, et al. 2008)

Isolation and characterisation of nitrilase producing Aspergillus species recovered from solid waste leachates at two dump sites in Lagos, Nigeria

Aims: Nitrile compounds are cyanogenic intermediates, products, byproducts and waste products of agriculture, chemical and pharmaceutical industries and fossil fuels degradation. The enzymatic hydrolysis of nitriles to non-toxic carboxylic acids or amides plays an increasingly important role in environment remediation. This study aimed at exploring the potential of Aspergilli in the detoxification nitrile compounds at two selected dump sites in Lagos, Nigeria. Methodology and results: Decomposing solid waste leachate samples (SWL) were randomly collected at two selected dump sites namely Olusosun (Ojota) and Isolo (Oke-Afa). Samples per site were pooled, processed by selective enrichment and screened for the presence of Aspergilli by culture technique and intergenic spacer sequencing (ITS). Biomass generation and pH changes in the culture fluids were monitored at 4-days interval by dry weight measurements. Nitrilase production was determined spectrophotometrically. Two nitrilase producing Aspergillus strains: Aspergillus fumigatus strain WO2 with accession number MF78882 and Aspergillus niger strain WO7 with accession number MH542673 were identified. Growth investigation revealed biomass generations of 17.8 g and 23.8 g dry weight per one liter media for A. fumigatus strain WO2 and A. niger strain WO7 respectively. Progressive pH monitoring showed decline from 7.2 to 4.5 and 7.2 to 6.2 was obtained for strains WO2 and WO7 respectively, during nitrilase production at different yields of 0.0150 and 0.0161 mg/mL/min respectively. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: This study supports the studied dump sites as important sources of nitrilase-producing A. fumigatus and A niger strains with potentials as cost-effective environmental bioremediation agents in Nigeria