The Anthropometric Status of Farming households in Kogi State, Nigeria

A country needs a well nourished population of children for a productive future. Malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child morbidity and mortality; therefore, combating malnutrition in our communities should be an issue to policy makers. With the use of anthropometric indices derived from survey data collected from 150 randomly selected children from 150 farming households in Kabba Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State, this study assessed malnutrition of children in the Central part of Nigeria. Logit model was used to examine the relationship between some anthropometric indices and the general characteristics of the household and the children. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the sampled households. The result showed that about one-quarter of the children are underweight while a very insignificant number of the sampled children were wasted. The probit result showed that daily calorie intake and access to safe water had significant effect on underweight of children in the study area. Daily calorie intake per child was also significant on stunting and wasting. Over 66% of the farming households had access to well water and only 21% had access to bore-hole. Majority of the children could be said to be more susceptible to water borne diseases. Provision of better domestic water source, mass food production strategies can be policy options for a virile labour force in the study area.Health Economics and Policy,

TopicFlow: Disentangling quark and gluon jets with normalizing flows

The isolation of pure samples of quark and gluon jets is of key interest at hadron colliders. Recent work has employed topic modeling to disentangle the underlying distributions in mixed samples obtained from experiments. However, current implementations do not scale to high-dimensional observables as they rely on binning the data. In this work we introduce TopicFlow, a method based on normalizing flows to learn quark and gluon jet topic distributions from mixed datasets. These networks are as performant as the histogram-based approach, but since they are unbinned, they are efficient even in high dimension. The models can also be oversampled to alleviate the statistical limitations of histograms. As an example use case, we demonstrate how our models can improve the calibration accuracy of a classifier. Finally, we discuss how the flow likelihoods can be used to perform outlier-robust quark/gluon classification.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. v2: Added footnote in Section III B. Added baseline and related discussion to Section III C. v3: Match published versio

Effects of Pre-Treatments and Drying Temperatures on Drying Rate and Quality of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

Effects of pre-treatments and drying temperatures on the drying rate and the quality of African Catfish Clarias gariepinus was examined by drying samples of catfish under four different temperatures (40 0C, 45 0C, 50 0C and 55 0C) and four different pre-treatment methods (Salting, Sugaring, Blanching, and Control) using an experimental dryer. Drying of the fish samples for all the pre-treatments at 40 0C to 55 0C occurred in the falling rate period only showing that the predominant mechanism of mass transfer in drying process of catfish is that of internal mass transfer. The drying rate increases with increase in temperature for all the pre-treatment methods and decreases with time. The statistical analysis using a factorial design shows that drying rate was significant at (F; 0.05) but there is no significant difference in the pre-treatment methods as well as the interaction between drying temperature and the pre-treatment. The quality parameters (Protein, crude fat and Ash) measured decreases with increase in the drying temperature for all the samples with the blanched samples having the highest value of % protein of 55.94 at 45 0C. The sugared samples have the least value of 43.82% at 55 0C. The control has the highest amount of Ash 5.36% at 40 0C and 4.04% for blanched samples at 55 0C. Generally the values are higher for blanched samples and low for the sugar treated samples. Keywords: Temperature, pre-treatment, falling rate, drying rate, quality

Influence of Physical Characteristics on the Performance of Office Properties in Lagos, Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of property physical characteristics on the performance of office properties in Lagos, Nigeria. By recognizing which physical features made significant contribution, market participants will know how physical features influence the performance of office property market. The trend in returns of office property investments is examined by using multiple regressions to establish a relationship between total return and underlying physical characteristics. The impact of age, building size, average floor space, building services, state of repairs, fixtures and fittings and design quality were explicitly considered. The results indicate that age of the property and building services made significant contribution to office property performance. The influence of other physical characteristics such as average floor space, building size, state of repairs, design quality and fixtures and fittings is not statistically significant. Overall, the age of the property could be regarded as giving the highest contribution to the performance of office property market. The study offers evidence of assessment of office properties performance and provides useful information for developers, investors and practitioners in the real estate market. Keywords: Office property, Physical characteristics, Performance, Property investment, Nigeri

Mitigating Environmental Sustainability Challenges and Enhancing Health in Urban Communities: The Multi-functionality of Green Infrastructure

Green Infrastructure (GI) facilities have the capacity to enhance health and mitigate Environmental Sustainability Challenges (ESC). However, the extent of the mitigation and health benefits is unclear in developing countries. This study examined the impact of GI on ESC and Perceived Health (PH) of urban residents in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 1858 residents of Lagos Metropolis who completed semi-structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to explore data distributions and assess the association of the availability of GI with resident’s PH and ESC. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (OR;95%CI) were estimated for good health and ESC mitigation. Participants were mostly men (58.9%) and younger than 50 years old (86.3%). Good health (20.5%) and high mitigation of ESC (collection and disposal of waste-52.7% and official development assistance-63.9%) were reported where GI is mostly available. Participants were more likely to report good health (OR:1.40; 95%CI:1.02-1.92) and high mitigation of ESC [water quality (OR:1.42; 95%CI:1.12-1.81) passenger transport mode (OR:1.41; 95%CI:1.06-1.89)] where GI are mostly available. Availability of Green infrastructure is supporting health and mitigating environmental sustainability challenges in the study area. Green infrastructure should be provided in urban areas where environmental sustainability is under threat

A REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS OF LAND-USE CHANGE ON SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY IN AN EMERGING ECONOMY

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to review the quest for physical development and economic viability which has overshadowed the social aspect of sustainable development that produces a liveable urban settlement in many emerging economies. Many of the urban areas of developing countries are characterized by sporadic/unguided land-use changes as a result of urbanization coupled with poor planning and management of land-use. Unfortunately, these changes are impacting negatively on the social fabric of sustainable and this calls for urgent attention. Methodology: The study is based on an extensive review of literature on land-use changes and social sustainability in both the developed and emerging economies in order to identify gaps in practice and management of urban land development. Main Findings: The results showed that although a considerable investment has been made and enormous efforts geared towards achieving sustainable development in Nigeria urban areas, little or no attention devoted to social sustainability in the planning and execution of these projects has rather led to unsustainable development. Many developmental projects and planning were politicized and thereby jettisoned social sustainability in the process. Implication: It is important that urban land-use change should be appropriately monitored, purposively driven, and stakeholders must be responsive to promoting social sustainability to achieve a wholesome urban development. Novelty: This study to the best of our knowledge is the first attempt that links urban land-use change and social sustainability especially in Nigeria. It has also provided information to guide the land-use planners, the policymakers and other stakeholders towards achieving a wholesome urban land-use development

Influence of pH, temperature and nutrient addition on the degradation of atrazine by Nocardioides spp. isolated from agricultural soil in Nigeria.

Aims: To effectively exploit the atrazine degrading capabilities of Nocardioides spp. isolated from agricultural soil samples in Nigeria and ascertain the effect of pH, temperature and nutrient addition on the degradation process. Methodology and results: Isolates were cultivated on atrazine mineral salts medium at a temperature range of 4 °C - 45 °C and a pH range of 3-10. An optimum atrazine degrading activity was observed in the isolates between temperatures of 25 °C and 37 °C and between pH 5 and 8. Different carbon sources (glycerine, glucose, chitin, cellulose and sodium citrate) and nitrogen sources (urea, biuret, cyanuric acid, potassium nitrate and ammonium chloride) were also added to the medium. The addition of carbon and nitrogen sources did not increase degradation rates although urea and glycerine repressed the degradation ability of the isolates. Statistical analyses of variance at P < 0.05 showed no significant differences in the growth and degradation rates by both bacterial isolates under these conditions. Conclusion, significance and impact study: Atrazine degradation by Nocardioides spp. is pH and temperature dependent, and requires no additional sources of carbon and nitrogen. Hence, its use in bioremediation of atrazine contaminated agricultural soil should be explored

Comparative effects of Varying Rates of Moringa Leaf, Poultry Manure and NPK Fertilizer on the Growth, Yield and Quality of Okra (Abelmoschusesculentus L. Moench)

The fertilizer management practices have not ensure the desired improvement in yield for okra (Abelmoschusesculentus L. Moench) due to differences in fertilizer types. The search continues for nutrient sources that would provide adequate nutrition for the crop on the season. A pot experiment was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria to evaluate the growth and fruit yield responses of okra (Abelmoschusesculentus L. Moench) to the application of air-dried milled moringa leaf (MML), poultry manure (PM) and NPK fertilizer. The MML was applied at 400, 800, and 1200 kg/ha; NPK 15-15-15 at 250 kg/ha and PM at 10 t/ha separately and in all possible combinations in completely randomized design in three replicates. The parameters measured were plant height, stem girth, number of leaves, leaf area, number of fruits and fruit weight. The single treatments differed significantly (P = 0.05) with the combinations of the treatments giving better performance. The 800 kg/ha MML + PM treatment gave the tallest plants (103.33 cm) and followed by single application of PM (102.33 cm). The application of 400 kg/ha MML + PM + NPK produced the highest number of fruits but 800 kg/ha MML + PM + NPK gave the highest fresh fruit (42.70 g) and dry fruit (20.50 g) weight. 800 kg/ha gave best growth performance among MML but 1200 kg/ha gave best yield. This suggests that MML can be used as source of nutrients to grow okra

Microbial assessment of the armpits of some selected university students in Lagos, Nigeria

A study of the carriage of microorganisms in armpits and prevailing factors was carried out on 80 students of the University of Lagos. The armpits were swabbed and the microbiological analyses were carried out on the swab samples. The organisms isolated include Staphylococcus epidermidis (35%), Staphylococcus aureus (3%), Staphylococcus cohnii (3%), Staphylococus haemolyticus (15%), Staphylococcus hominis (25%)