Antiviral Effects of a Synthetic Aluminium-Magnesium Silicate on Avian Influenza Virus

Effects of a synthetic Aluminium-Magnesium Silicate (AMS) on Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) were tested. Equal amounts of H5N1 AIV samples and of AMS were mixed, left one hour, at room temperature before centrifuging. The supernatants were remeasured and tested for viral titre, for Mean Death Time (MDT) and Embryo Mortality Rate (EMR) of chicken eggs. Volumes of the viral samples reduced at rate of 23.4 ± 5.48 %. Viral titres reduced significantly (P from HA, 73 ± 32.72 to 1.4 ±0.43). Also, mortality of infected embryos reduced from 100 % to 65% while MDT of those that died, increased significantly (P = 0.001) from 76 ± 4.38 to 130 ±17.27 hours. When incubation with AMS was repeated on portions of the same sample, MDT increased from 64 to 104 hours with the portion incubated once. Two AIV portions on which incubation with AMS was repeated could not kill chick embryos

Real World Expectations of Older Adults on Pharmaceutical Care in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital

Older adults’ level of expectations about pharmaceutical care was assessed. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 196 patients attending the outpatient pharmacy of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Ogun State, Nigeria. An 18-item pretested questionnaire was self-administered for four weeks. Analysis was done with GraphPad Instat. P <0.05 was considered significant. Expectation score ranged from 12 to 60. The response rate was 65.8% (129/196). Nearly a half of the respondents (63, 48.8%) were 60-69 years old; seventy-three (56.6%) were females; 50 (38.8%) were businessmen/women; 104 (80.6%) were married; 61 (47.3%) had tertiary education; and 51 (39.5%) had an income of ˃N49, 999. Overall mean (SD) of expectations was 3.91 (0.96) with a score of 46.92 (78.2%). ‘Expectation to dispense prescriptions accurately’ had the highest (53.7), score. Respondents between 50-59 years of age, females, the unemployed, single, secondary educated and those with incomes of ₦40, 000- ₦49, 999 had higher expectations with no significant association. Keywords: Older adults, expectations, operational research

Social and Environmental Accounting: The Challenges of Implementation in Oil Prospecting Companies in the Niger Delta States of Nigeria

Social and environmental accounting is the ability to provide accurate information in the financial statements regarding the estimated social cost occasioned by the production externalities on the environment and how much deliberate intervention cost had been incurred to bridge the gap between the marginal social cost and the marginal private cost by a firm. This study examines the factors affecting the practice of social accounting disclosure in Nigerian oil prospecting companies. Three (3) companies operating in the Niger Delta States of Nigeria where randomly sampled with thirty (30) host communities drawn from Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states. Secondary data were collected from each company’s annual reports from 2002 to 2011 and one hundred and seventy two questionnaires were administered to staff and host community members for direct inter personal information. The researchers used least square regression analysis with the help of Econometric view (E-view) model to analyse the effect of the identified variables on the practice of social and environmental accounting. The study revealed that the sampled companies did not in detail, report a close to reality estimate of the externalities generated by their production activities but reports the little intervention cost incurred under the directors or the chairman’s report. Again, that factors such as cost of implementation, the effect on profitability, the existence of a legal frame work, the peaceful environment and top management support affects 79% of the level of implementation of social and environmental accounting practice among the companies studied. The paper recommended that a strong legal frame-work should be provided to ensure that more than 80% value of actual economic value of externalities generated in a year is to be reported in the director’s report and the actual intervention cost is to be reported in the profit and loss account under social cost. Key words: Social, Environmental, Accounting, Implementation, Challenges, Niger Delta States, and Nigeria.

Skill Improvement Needs of Electrical Installation Trade Teachers in Technical Colleges for Productive Employment

The research sought to identify the skill improvement needs of electrical installation trade teachers in technical colleges for productive employment. A structured questionnaire was the instrument adopted to elicit data from the respondents. The population of the study consisted of sixty three (63) teachers currently teaching in technical colleges in Ebonyi State school system. No sampling was done because of the relative small size of the teachers’ population. The data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed that teachers need to update their pedagogical skills in planning curriculum, instructional objectives and evaluation in electrical installation trade teaching. The teachers also need to improve their teaching prowess by partaking in in-service trainings to update their competencies aimed at up skilling technical college students to enable them adjust to the world of paid employment or self reliance on graduation. Keywords: Skill, improvement, needs, electrical, installation, teachers

Immunologic and haematologic effects of methanolic stem bark extract of Azadihiracta indica on chickens experimentally infected with velogenic newcastle disease virus (Kudu 113) strain

The study was aimed at evaluating the weight, haematologic and immunologic effects of crude methanolic stem bark extract of Azadihiracta indica stem bark on vaccinated chickens experimentally challenged with the velogenic Newcastle disease virus. One hundred day old cockerels were randomly divided into four equal groups (I, II, III and IV). Birds in all groups were vaccinated with La Sota strain of Newcastle disease vaccine. The birds were challenged with the velogenic strain of Newcastle disease virus (VNDV) at 42 days of age. Following challenge, groups I, II and III were given oral treatment of methanolic stem bark extract of Azadihiracta indica at 200mg/kg, 400mg/kg and 600mg/kg, respectively until day 56 of age, while group IV was not given the treatment. Thereafter, birds in all the groups were assessed for onset of clinical signs, changes in live body weight, humoral immune responses and haematologic changes. The birds in groups I, II and III showed no sign of Newcastle disease while birds in group IV exhibited mild depression and huddling. The mean body weight of the vaccinated-treated groups were significantly (p<0.05) higher than that of the vaccinated-untreated group on day 56 of age. On days 63 and 70 of age, the mean body weight of group III was significantly higher than groups I and II. The mean haemagglutination inhibition titres of group III was significantly higher (p<0.05) than groups I, II and IV. The mean PCV, Hb and RBC values of the vaccinated-treated group was significantly (p>0.05) higher than the vaccinated-untreated group on day 49 of age. The WBC count of groups I and II were significantly higher (p>0.05) than groups III and IV on days 49 and 56 of age. The mean absolute heterophil counts of vaccinated-treated groups was significantly (p>0.05) higher than the vaccinated-untreated group on days 56 and 63 of age. The mean absolute lymphocyte counts of the vaccinated-treated increased significantly (p>0.05) than that of vaccinated-untreated birds days 49 of age till the end of the experiment.Keywords: Azadihiracta indica, Stem bark extract, Chickens, Newcastle disease, Immune response, Haematological change

A Review of Traditional Methods of Conflict Resolution from a Nigerian-African-Perspective

Westernisation and globalization have almost eroded this culture and left in their trail an alien culture of conflict resolution which, in most cases, is at variance with our African ethics and cultural values. The replacement of our grand African methods of conflict resolution with the European methods of conflict resolution has particularly done harm rather than good to our group cohesion as one Nigeria, and generally to our group cohesion as Africans. There is doubtless the fact that an alien culture of conflict resolution on an African soil necessarily undermines our history as one black people, our philosophy as a communal entity and our belief that peace and unity of the collective supersedes the selfish interests of a select few who seek to benefit from conflict. Our history of ethnic clashes, insurgencies and the rise of crime in our African societies attest to the fact that in matters of conflict resolution, Nigerians and indeed Africans have employed the wrong methods, bereft of our African spirit of unity and peace in preference to unrests, upheavals and wars. It is against this backdrop that this paper explored our traditional methods of conflict resolution and made recommendations. In doing this, the paper looked at what conflict is, causes of conflict in Africa, principles of conflict resolution, methods of conflict resolution by the major ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, the use of proverbs rhetoric and folklores in conflict resolution and common methods of conflict resolution in Africa. The paper concluded the discourse with a summary and made some recommendations on the way forward

Linking National Immigration Data to Provincial Repositories: The case of Canada

Background Canadian health data repositories link datasets at the provincial level, based on their residents’ registrations to provincial health insurance plans. Linking national datasets with provincial health care registries poses several challenges that may result in misclassification and impact the estimation of linkage rates. A recent linkage of a federal immigration database in the province of Manitoba illustrates these challenges. Objectives a) To describe the linkage of the federal Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Permanent Resident (IRCC-PR) database with the Manitoba healthcare registry and b) compare data linkage methods and rates between four Canadian provinces accounting for interprovincial mobility of immigrants. Methods We compared linkage rates by immigrant’s province of intended destination (province vs. rest of Canada). We used external nationwide immigrant tax filing records to approximate actual settlement and obtain linkage rates corrected for interprovincial mobility. Results The immigrant linkage rates in Manitoba before and after accounting for interprovincial mobility were 84.8% and 96.1, respectively. Linkage rates did not substantially differ according to immigrants’ characteristics, with a few exceptions. Observed linkage rates across the four provinces ranged from 74.0% to 86.7%. After correction for interprovincial mobility, the estimated linkage rates increased >10 percentage points for the provinces that stratified by intended destination (British Columbia and Manitoba) and decreased up to 18 percentage points for provinces that could not use immigration records of those who did not intend to settle in the province (New Brunswick and Ontario). Conclusions Despite variations in methodology, provincial linkage rates were relatively high. The use of a national immigration dataset for linkage to provincial repositories allows a more comprehensive linkage than that of province-specific subsets. Observed linkage rates can be biased downwards by interprovincial migration, and methods that use external data sources can contribute to assessing potential selection bias and misclassification

Heterogeneous catalysis for sustainable biodiesel production via esterification and transesterification

Concern over the economics of accessing fossil fuel reserves, and widespread acceptance of the anthropogenic origin of rising CO2 emissions and associated climate change from combusting such carbon sources, is driving academic and commercial research into new routes to sustainable fuels to meet the demands of a rapidly rising global population. Here we discuss catalytic esterification and transesterification solutions to the clean synthesis of biodiesel, the most readily implemented and low cost, alternative source of transportation fuels to meet future societal demands