Charcoal Enterprise in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Charcoal enterprise has been adopted to meet some socio-economic benefits and energy needs of the people. The study was conducted to determine peoples\u2019 involvement, uses and reasons for using charcoal, distribution channel as well as weekly sales and profit of the enterprise. The results revealed that people involved in sales of charcoal were 28.26%, 9% and 2% of the respondents for Igun Street, Oba market/New Benin and Ikpoba Hill market respectively. The identified uses of charcoal were for roasting of maize (32. 75%), Suya preparation and cooking of food accounted for 13.70% and 16.13% respectively, while Black Smiting and Bronze casting accounted for 13.70% of the respondents. ANOVA indicated that there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) among the identified reasons for using charcoal as well as the weekly sales of the product. However, distribution channel of charcoal showed significant difference (P< 0.05) with dominant retail channel revealed using fishers least significant difference (LSD). The weekly profits of over N2,000 were confirmed by 48. 48% and 24.24% of the respondents for the rainy and dry seasons respectively. Research effort in charcoal enterprise needs to be focused in order to ensure sustainable development and realization of the desired potential of the enterprise

Further Studies on the Hypercalcemic Effect of Acute Calcitonin Deficiency in Rats

Studies were carried out to determine the origin of the immediate increase in plasma calcium following acute calcitonin deficiency in mature rats. Animals were pre-labelled with 45calcium 24 hours and 4 weeks before thyroparathyroidectomy (TPTX) and 1 hour, 24 hours, 2 and 4 weeks before nephrectomy and TPTX and bled serially over the following 3 hours. In each study the final average weight of the rats was over 300 g. Plasma calcium increased after TPTX. In rats labelled with 45calcium 1 and 24 hours previously, the rise was too small to alter the specific activity of calcium although radiocalcium was unchanged. In contrast, in animals pre-labelled with 45calcium 2 and 4 weeks before TPTX, the increase in stable calcium was associated with a parallel increase in radiocalcium. Consequently, the specific activity of plasma calcium did not differ appreciably from that of controls. These findings confirm the theory that in mature unfed rats acute calcitonin deficiency results in an immediate rise in plasma calcium. Since this increase is due mainly to enhanced transport of calcium from deep bone, our observations are in accord with the view that calcitonin decreases plasma calcium primarily by inhibiting calcium transport from “stable” bone. © 1976 by The Endocrine Society