Investigating geothermal energy resource potential in parts of south western Nigeria using aeromagnetic data

The investigation of geothermal energy resources potential in this study involves delineating targets areas of the earth’s crust where geologic processes have raised temperatures near the surface, such that the heat contained can be utilised. A high-resolution aeromagnetic (HRAM) data of part of south-western Nigeria on longitude 3.5° 5.5° and latitude 7.0° 9.0° consisting of 16 half degree sheet was used for this research work. Spectral analysis was applied in processing HRAM data, which transforms the spatial data into the frequency domain, and provides a relationship between the two-dimensional spectrum of the magnetic anomalies. Results indicates that the average Curie point depth (CPD) within the study area is 8.5 km followed by the average geothermal gradient of 42.5℃−1 and an average heat flow 55 −2. The equitable promising geological results useful for geothermal exploitation is within longitude 4.2° 4.6° and latitude7.8° 8.2°, where the lowest CPD (5.5km), highest geothermal gradient (75℃−1) and highest heat flow (190−2) bounded by Oshogbo and Ogbomosho as indicated on the maps. The paper suggests that such an area can be considered for geothermal energy exploitation since the demagnetized of magnetic rocks confirms a hot rock who’s temperature of about 580℃

Epilepsy: pathophysiology, clinical manifestations and treatment options

Epilepsy is a global health problem affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide. It is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases in the world with serious physical, economic and discriminatory consequences in some parts of the world. However, the healthcare burden and financial cost of treating epilepsy can be reduced with appropriate and prompt interventions. Although epilepsy and its treatment are complex, current evidence suggest insufficient knowledge of seizure classification and a gap in epilepsy diagnosis and care. This article provides an overview of the condition, incidence, aetiology, pathophysiology, current classification, clinical manifestations and symptom management. Thus, the reader will be able to improve their knowledge about care management of people with epilepsy and therefore help to reduce the risk of mortality associated with the medical condition

Hepatorenal toxicity studies of sub-chronic administration of calyx aqueous extracts of hibiscus sabdariffa in albino rats

Hibiscus sabdariffa Linn has been reported to have a broad range of therapeutic effects. Subchronic effects of calyces aqueous extracts of H. Sabdariffa were studied in albino rats. Twenty four (24) albino rats were randomly divided into six (6) groups of four rats each. Group A, was fed with growers mesh and distilled water as control. Groups B to F were administered orally with the aqueous extract at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5g /kg body weight respectively and the treatment period was 28 days. A decreased in weights of the animals were observed at all dose levels. The activities of liver maker enzymes (alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase) and direct bilirubin increased significantly (p0.05) increase in concentrations of total protein and albumin were observed in comparison to the control. The renal indices, urea, uric acid and creatinine in the treated groups were significantly increased compared to the control but a significant decrease (

Survey of urologists on clients’ demand for screening for prostate cancer in Nigeria

Objective: The aim of this article is to document the experience of urologists on clients’ demand for prostate cancer screening among Nigerians.Materials and Methods: The study is a cross-sectional evaluation of the urologists that attended the Fourteenth Annual Meeting and the Scientific Conference of the Nigerian Association of Urological Surgeons. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the estimated workload of the respondents, with reference to prostate cancer management, the stage proportion at the time of diagnosis, and the proportion of patients requesting for CaP screening. The data was analyzed using the SPSS version 15 statistical software.Results: Twenty-two respondents completed and returned the questionnaire and formed the basis of further analysis. About 76.9% of the consultant urologists were also lecturers in their respective universities. They were all actively practicing and a majority of them, 76.9%, had up to 10 years experience as practicing urologists. The majority of the respondents managed between one and fifteen new patients with CaP every month, with 36.4% of them managing more than 15 new patients on an average every month. About 95.4% of all the patients seen by the respondents were diagnosed with advanced stages of the disease, while the remaining ones were incidental findings. About one half of the respondents attended to clients seeking for advice on CaP ‘often’ or ‘very often,’ while 40.9% attended to them ‘occasionally,’ with a mean of 4.67 clients seeking advice per month. The majority of respondents, 20 (22); 90.9%, were ‘not aware’ of any national guideline on CaP screening.Conclusions: A majority of practitioners affirmed that patients with prostate cancer present late. The mean number of patients requesting for screening for prostate cancer per month, per respondent, for CaP, is still low. It is the authors’ belief that the trend may not change until there is an appropriate effort at health education, to enlighten the populace

Influence of weight at hatching on weekly weight of broiler chickens

Broiler production is concerned with raising birds that reach market weight within a short time interval, and efforts are geared at indices that can accurately predict the future growth performance of birds based on their initial measurements. This study investigated the relationship between initial weight taken at hatch and its influence on subsequent weights of birds. Newly hatched day-old chicks were obtained from a reputable hatchery in Ibadan, Oyo state. It comprised of chicks from four different commercial broiler strains (Arbor Acre, Cobb, Marshall and Ross). The chicks were tagged for proper identification and weighed and records of their weekly weights taken over ten (10) week period of the study. At the end of the study, a total of 216 broiler chicks comprising Arbor Acre (48), Cobb (52), Marshall (60) and Ross (56) were analysed. Weekly weight progressively increased with increasing age of the birds, while weight gain increased across the weeks, with a decline and a further rise in values reflecting the different stages of growth. The population was fairly homogenous at the early stages but was later moderately varied with increasing age of birds. There was a highly significant (P<0.001) positive correlation amongst all the weights studied but strongest values were recorded on measurements that are contiguously close. Despite the fact that regression of weekly weights was highly statistically significant on initial weight, it is noteworthy that initial weight as predictors of weekly weight had the best fit on the first weekly weight, but the influence of initial weight consistently decreased with increasing age of the broiler birds. This study revealed that initial weight of broiler birds at hatch is a good predictor of future weight of the birds and can be used to model the future growth performances of the birds

Modeling Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Age at Marriage among females in Kogi State, Nigeria

This paper is aimed at determining the effect of socioeconomic factors such as cultural background, level of education and religion in relation to age at marriage among women in Kogi State Nigeria. The survey area is made up of diverse ethnic groups with three major languages. The study reveals that education is an important factor which increases the age at marriage in the State. The study equally proved that religion and cultural background does not affect age at marriage among women in Kogi State, Nigeria. A Saturated one-way and two-way model was fitted to reveal the behavioral pattern of the distribution. Key words: Socioeconomic, Modeling, Marriage, Saturated, Analysis

On the use of drains in orthopedic and trauma

Introduction: The use of drains in trauma and Orthopaedic practice has been affected by the concept of evidence based medicine that has become accepted as standard of care for all surgical or medical practice, which questions all care processes that cannot be backed by evidence to be beneficial to the patient. There have been a large number of multi centre meta-analytical studies that found drains to be of little or no benefit in trauma and Orthopaedic operations. Because of these studies, there are few situations where drains are routinely used e.g. Calcaneal fractures in developed countries. Even major procedures like total knee and arthroplasties are being performed without drains. We set to findout whether such evidence can be found in our practice.Materials and Methods: Between 2004 and 2012, eighty six patients  matched for sex and type of injury and operative procedures to be done were prospectively selected and assigned to use or no use of drains in their operations. Complications like haematoma, drain migration, infection, inadvertent drain stitching were observed in the two groups.Results: Eighty six major orthopaedic operations were studied. There was no evidence of occurrence of complication arising from non use of drains in the undrained group. Those patients whose wounds were drained had no   need for drain change thus making the wound care less eventfulConclusion: Postoperative wound drains make for neat postoperative period with less tissue swelling. There was no statistically significant  differences between the drained and undrained wounds in terms of  infection rates, haematoma or seroma formation.Key words: Drains, drained surgical wounds, undrained surgical wound

Statistical Analysis of Some Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Age at Marriage among Males in Kogi State, Nigeria

This study is aimed at investigating the relationship between age at marriage and educational attainment, religion and cultural background among males in some parts of South Western Nigeria. A saturated one-way and two-way model was proposed for the study. Level of educational attainment and religion was established to have significant relationship with age at marriage while senatorial differences do not have any statistical significant relationship with age at marriage in the area surveyed. Key words: Model, Saturated, Marriage, Senatorial, One-way, Two-way, Effect