Lawmakers’ Information Literacy Skills in Locating and Accessing Information for their Constituency Performance in South West Nigeria

Legislators are representatives of their constituencies, they initiate and monitor development projects, link their constituencies with both state and national government and generally help in improving the quality of life for members. This study set out to find out how legislators’ are able to locate and access information that may influence their performance.The survey research design was used. The population consisted of all the 177 legislators from all the six state houses of assembly in South-West Nigeria. The Cronbach’s alpha was used to validate the questionnaire which gave a reliability coefficient of 0.188. The return rate was 85.3%. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Person moment correlation and ANOVA. Findings showed that legislators (64%) had a clear understanding of the information they needed for their constituency work, as the lawmakers (65%) were able to locate and access information from current awareness sources such as newspapers and radio. Legislators (35%) also found it easy to retrieve information from community based sources such as traditional and religious leaders as well as NGOs (31%). For the hypothesis, the correlation coefficient of the information skills, abilities measured revealed that for locating and accessing information (0.18p-value<0.029) had low significant positive relationship between them and their constituency performance. The null hypothesis were therefore rejected, that is the coefficient of determination (R2) 0.188 which signified all the skills accounted for about 19% validity in the lawmakers constituency performances

Marketing Strategy: A Tool for Library and Information Services Delivery by Academic Libraries in Southwest Nigeria.

Adoption of marketing concept into information oriented organizations such as academic libraries has become imperative especially with the proliferation of information technology where libraries are no longer seen as the sole custodian of knowledge. This study therefore aimed at investigating the need for marketing strategy as tool for library and information services delivery by academic libraries using the various technology driven facilities. The survey research design was adopted for the study. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 6 libraries from federal, state and private owned universities in South Western Nigeria. Total enumeration technique was used in selecting the sample size consisting of 148 librarians and library officers in the institutions. Data were gathered using questionnaire and the findings revealed that face to face approach and use of the notice boards are the most common methods used in these libraries. Though some marketing strategies are already in use, services like indexing and abstracting which is even an ancient strategy is giving way for new technologies. Likewise, database searching, network and rich site summary, and email alerts which are the commonest of all are yet to be fully embraced. It was revealed that adopting marketing strategies in service delivery has enhanced the image of these libraries and has boosted library professionals’ self actualization. However, challenges such as inadequate skills and lack of funds among others constitute threats to effective use of marketing strategies in library service delivery

The Effects of a Six-Week Aerobic Dance Programme on Selected Fitness Components and Waist-Hip-Ratio in Adult Males

This study examined the effects of a six-week low-impact aerobic dance on selected fitness components (trunk flexibility, leg power and abdominal muscle endurance) and waist-hip-ratio (WHR) in adult males. A total of fifteen (15) Lagos State University male undergraduates (age range: 19-28 years) from the Faculty of Education volunteered to take part in the study. The one-group pre-test - post-text quasi-experimental research design was employed. Both pre-test and post-test measurements were taken from each participant under the same conditions. Participants were all exposed to a low-impact aerobic dance for a duration of six weeks. While the descriptive statistics of mean, range and standard deviation were used to describe the data; inferences were drawn using the Students‟ paired T-test. Results revealed that a six-week low - impact aerobic dance programme can significantly reduce the waist-hip-ratios, improve trunk flexibility, leg power and abdominal endurance/strength in male undergraduate students. Keywords: Hypokinetic diseases, Low-impact aerobic dance, Sedentariness, Waist-hip-rati

Backbone Can Not be Trained at Once: Rolling Back to Pre-trained Network for Person Re-Identification

In person re-identification (ReID) task, because of its shortage of trainable dataset, it is common to utilize fine-tuning method using a classification network pre-trained on a large dataset. However, it is relatively difficult to sufficiently fine-tune the low-level layers of the network due to the gradient vanishing problem. In this work, we propose a novel fine-tuning strategy that allows low-level layers to be sufficiently trained by rolling back the weights of high-level layers to their initial pre-trained weights. Our strategy alleviates the problem of gradient vanishing in low-level layers and robustly trains the low-level layers to fit the ReID dataset, thereby increasing the performance of ReID tasks. The improved performance of the proposed strategy is validated via several experiments. Furthermore, without any add-ons such as pose estimation or segmentation, our strategy exhibits state-of-the-art performance using only vanilla deep convolutional neural network architecture.Comment: Accepted to AAAI 201

Evaluation of the antioxidant and hepatoprotective properties of the methanolic extract of Acalypha racemosa leaf in carbon tetrachloride-treated rats

The effects of simultaneous treatment of CCl4 with 60 and 120 mg/kg body weight of methanolic extract of Acalypha racemosa on rat liver were evaluated. Analysis of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT)and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities with those of the concentrations of albumin, total protein, unconjugated and total bilirubin was carried out. The malondialdehyde (MDA) content of liverwas determined to investigate a probable mechanism of action of the extract. Histopathological studies were carried out to confirm the observed changes. Administration of CCl4 alone to rats significantlyincreased total bilirubin concentration and the activities of ALT and AST (

Catalytic cofactors (Mg2+ and Zn2+ ions) influence the pattern of vanadate Inhibition of the monoesterase activity of calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase

The mechanism of modulation of vanadate inhibition of alkaline phosphatase activity by catalytic cofactors has not been fully characterized. We investigated the effect of the interaction of catalytic cofactors (Mg2+ and Zn2+) and vanadate (an active site inhibitor) on the rate of hydrolysis of para-nitrophenyl phosphate (pNPP) (monoesterase reaction) by calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase (CIAP). The results showed that vanadate significantly inhibited ʻcofactor-freeʼ CIAP, and the inhibition was relieved by the presence of the catalytic cofactors in the reaction. Our results show that the absence of the cofactors did not significantly alter the Km of the reaction, but caused a decrease in the Vmax. Kinetic analyses showed that vanadate inhibited CIAP-catalyzed hydrolysis of pNPP by decreasing the Vmax and increasing the Km of the reaction. The presence of cofactors in the reaction alleviated the effect of vanadate by increasing the Vmax and decreasing the Km. The activity of the dialyzed CIAP was increased by the addition of catalytic cofactors to vanadate-inhibited enzyme. This study provides preliminary data that reversible inhibition of CIAP is subject to the influence of catalytic cofactors. Further studies will reveal detailed mechanistic aspects of this observation and its significance in the biological system.Keywords: alkaline phosphatase, monoesterase reaction, vanadate inhibition, catalytic cofactor

Cofactor interactions in the activation of tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase: Synergistic effects of Zn2+ and Mg2+ ions

The interactions of Mg2+ and Zn2+ ions in the activation of non-specific tissue alkaline phosphatase were investigated using crude extracts of rat kidney. Activation of alkaline phosphatase by the metal ions was accompanied by changes in the kinetic parameters of  nitrophenylphosphate hydrolysis. The results suggest some synergistic interactions between Mg2+ and Zn2+ ions in promoting the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenylphosphate by alkaline phosphatase. The results show that assays of alkaline phosphatase activity in homogenised tissuesamples will give better responses if both Mg2+ and Zn2+ ions are included in the reaction

IMMUNOCAT—A Data Management System for Epitope Mapping Studies

To enable rationale vaccine design, studies of molecular and cellular mechanisms of immune recognition need to be linked with clinical studies in humans. A major challenge in conducting such translational research studies lies in the management and integration of large amounts and various types of data collected from multiple sources. For this purpose, we have established “IMMUNOCAT”, an interactive data management system for the epitope discovery research projects conducted by our group. The system provides functions to store, query, and analyze clinical and experimental data, enabling efficient, systematic, and integrative data management. We demonstrate how IMMUNOCAT is utilized in a large-scale research contract that aims to identify epitopes in common allergens recognized by T cells from human donors, in order to facilitate the rational design of allergy vaccines. At clinical sites, demographic information and disease history of each enrolled donor are captured, followed by results of an allergen skin test and blood draw. At the laboratory site, T cells derived from blood samples are tested for reactivity against a panel of peptides derived from common human allergens. IMMUNOCAT stores results from these T cell assays along with MHC:peptide binding data, results from RAST tests for antibody titers in donor serum, and the respective donor HLA typing results. Through this system, we are able to perform queries and integrated analyses of the various types of data. This provides a case study for the use of bioinformatics and information management techniques to track and analyze data produced in a translational research study aimed at epitope identification

Colostomy for the Relief of a Rectovaginal Fistula and Atresia Recti in a Sow: A Case Report

No Abstrac

Profile of clinically-diagnosed dementias in a neuropsychiatric practice in Abeokuta, South-Western Nigeria

Objective: Many subjects with dementia present primarily to neuropsychiatric practices because of behavioural and psychological symptoms (BPSD). This study reviewed the profile of clinically-diagnosed dementias and BPSD seen in a pioneer neuropsychiatric practice in Abeokuta, southwestern Nigeria over a ten year period (January1998 – December 2007). Methods: A review of hospital records of all patients with diagnoses of dementia or dementing illness using the ICD-10 criteria as well as specific diagnostic criteria for different dementia phenotypes. Associated BPSD, co-morbidities and treatments were also reviewed. Results: Out of a total of 240,294 patients seen over the study period, 108 subjects met clinical diagnostic criteria for probable dementia giving a hospital frequency of 45 per 100,000. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Vascular dementia (VaD) were the predominant phenotypes seen in 62 (57.4%) and 18 (16.7%) subjects respectively. Others include mixed dementia (4 cases), frontotemporal dementia (4 cases), Lewy body dementia (3 cases), alcohol-related dementia (3 cases), PD dementia (1 case) and unclassifiable (13 cases). Apathy, night time behaviour, aberrant motor behaviour, agitation and irritability were the most common BPSD features, while hypertension was the most common co-morbidity. Neuroleptics, anticholinergics and anti-hypertensives were most commonly prescribed. Anticholinesterase inhibitors were sparingly used. Conclusion: Probable AD was the most prevalent dementia phenotype seen in this practice. Increased awareness of dementia and better utilization of specific treatments are needed among psychiatrists and primary care practitioners in Nigeria.Keywords: Dementia phenotypes; BPSD; Neuropsychiatric practice; Nigeria; Afric