The Socio–economic Characteristics of Communities at the Downstream Sector of Jebba Dam, Nigeria

Downstream communities have been neglected in dam construction planning process in Nigeria.. A survey was carried out on some randomly selected downstream communities of Jebba dam namely Gungu, Gana, Fanga, Bele, Bere, Gaba and Baru communities, using structured interviews administered to people in the selected communities. The research result showed that the Jebba dam has negative effect on settlements downstream. About 5% of the houses in each of the villages have been displaced and the value of land has also depreciated by 20%. Farming and fishing in various communities have been affected due to land appropriation, flooding and soil erosion. Only Gungu and Gana are connected to electricity supply while road accessibility is very poor in all the villages except Gungu and Gana. The impacts of these changes are magnified by changes in the flow pattern of The River Niger downstream that is caused by the operations of the dam. These changes, whether in total streamflow in seasonal timing or in short-term, even hourly fluctuations in flows, generate a range of impacts on The River. This is because the aquatic lives in and around the river is tightly linked to the existing flow patterns of river. It is recommended that all villages that are affected by the activities of the dam should be connected to the national grid; this will enhance the socioeconomic activities in the area. It is also suggested as a principle that ‘a programme to monitor the impacts of dam development (particularly in downstream communities) should be an integral element of the planning process, and should be matched by resources to mitigate impacts not addressed fully by the planning processes.Key words: Downstream Communities, Socio-economic, sector, Dam, Characteristics, Flow patter

Challenges in Fabricating Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stacks for Portable Applications: A Short Review

Despite being the most efficient and quiet operation type of fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) deal with several constraints in terms of fabrication cost, material selection and durability issues due to their high operating temperature. The high operating temperature of SOFCs limits their stationary and large-scale applications. Moreover, these constraints restrict the commercialization of portable SOFCs. Therefore, the operation temperature of SOFCs must be reduced to overcome the aforementioned problems. However, this task is challenging because the operation temperature mainly affects the material preparation and the stack design to produce the electrical power needed for small-scale applications. This paper provides an overview of the challenges faced by each component such as the materials, the design of stack, fabrication cost and related research in fabricating high power SOFC stacks

SORGHUM BICOLOR EXTRACT: A SUITABLE COUNTER STAIN IN HIBISCUS EXTRACT NUCLEAR STAINING OF LIVER AND KIDNEY

ABSTRACT Aim: To investigate the suitability of alcoholic extract of Sorghum bicolor stalk as a counter stain for Hibiscus extract stained nuclei. Method: Formalin fixed kidney and liver biopsies were processed by the paraffin wax technique, sectioned, stained with Hibiscus extract solution and counterstained with 10% alcoholic extract of Sorghum bicolor stalk. Parallel sections were stained with H&E as control. Results: Results show distinct dark -violet nuclear staining with light-brown staining of collagen and other components. Conclusion: Sorghum bicolor stalk alcoholic extract could be a useful substitute to eosin in histology for the demonstration of collagen and other cytoplasmic components especially when H. sabdariffa is used as the nuclear stain

اختلاف دلالة المفردات والتعبيرات السياقية في ترجمة أحاديث الأربعين النووية في اللغة الإنجليزية = THE DIFFERENCE IN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VOCABULARY AND CONTEXTUAL EXPRESSIONS IN TRANSLATING THE FORTY HADITHS OF AL-NAWAWI IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE[

يهدف هذا البحث إلى بيان مفهوم الدلالة والسياق، وذكر المراد بالترجمة، وتوضيح آثار ترجمة المفردات أو التعبيرات في فهم الأحاديث النبوية واختلافها، وتتجلى أهمية هذا البحث تقديم وجوه التعبير والسياق، ومعرفة اختلاف المفردات المستخدمة أو تعبير السياق بين الكتب المترجمة، وإدراك أمثلة طرائق الترجمة، ويركز هذا البحث على تأثير اختلاف المفردات المستخدمة أو التعبيرات السياقية في الدلالة بين ثلاثة كتب في ترجمة أحاديث الأربعين النووية، واتبعت الدراسة المنهج الوصفي التحليلي، وتوصلت الدراسة إلى نتائج مهمة، ومنها: تعد دراسة المفردات سياقياً مهمة في الترجمة لفهم مفردات الحديث النبوي الشريف، وأن هناك ترجمات مختلفة لمفردة معينة تختلف من كتاب إلى آخر، مع اختلاف وجيز في المعنى، وأن مفهوم المفردة في المصدر واللغة المترجمة؛ من حيث المصطلحات أو التركيب وغير ذلك أهمية في فهم الحديث النبوي ومقصوده. This research aims to clarify the concept of significance and context, mention what is meant by translation, and clarify the effects of translating vocabulary or expressions in understanding the Prophetic hadiths and their differences. This research focuses on the impact of the difference in used vocabulary or contextual expressions on the significance between three books in translating the forty hadiths of al-Nawawi. And that there are different translations of a specific vocabulary that differ from one book to another, with a brief difference in meaning, and that the concept of the word in the source and the translated language in terms of terms or structure and other things is important in understanding the prophetic hadith and its purpose

Leveraging human capital to reduce maternal mortality in India: enhanced public health system or public-private partnership?

Developing countries are currently struggling to achieve the Millennium Development Goal Five of reducing maternal mortality by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. Many health systems are facing acute shortages of health workers needed to provide improved prenatal care, skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric services – interventions crucial to reducing maternal death. The World Health Organization estimates a current deficit of almost 2.4 million doctors, nurses and midwives. Complicating matters further, health workforces are typically concentrated in large cities, while maternal mortality is generally higher in rural areas. Additionally, health care systems are faced with shortages of specialists such as anaesthesiologists, surgeons and obstetricians; a maldistribution of health care infrastructure; and imbalances between the public and private health care sectors. Increasingly, policy-makers have been turning to human resource strategies to cope with staff shortages. These include enhancement of existing work roles; substitution of one type of worker for another; delegation of functions up or down the traditional role ladder; innovation in designing new jobs;transfer or relocation of particular roles or services from one health care sector to another. Innovations have been funded through state investment, public-private partnerships and collaborations with nongovernmental organizations and quasi-governmental organizations such as the World Bank. This paper focuses on how two large health systems in India – Gujarat and Tamil Nadu – have successfully applied human resources strategies in uniquely different contexts to the challenges of achieving Millennium Development Goal Five

Chloride transport and the resulting corrosion of steel bars in alkali activated slag concretes

As the relative performance of alkali activated slag (AAS) concretes in comparison to portland cement (PC) counterparts for chloride transport and resulting corrosion of steel bars is not clear, an investigation was carried out and the results are reported in this paper. The effect of alkali concentration and modulus of sodium silicate solution used in AAS was studied. Chloride transport and corrosion properties were assessed with the help of electrical resistivity, non-steady state chloride diffusivity, onset of corrosion, rate of corrosion and pore solution chemistry. It was found that: (i) although chloride content at surface was higher for the AAS concretes, they had lower chloride diffusivity than PC concrete; (ii) pore structure, ionic exchange and interaction effect of hydrates strongly influenced the chloride transport in the AAS concretes; (iii) steel corrosion resistance of the AAS concretes was comparable to that of PC concrete under intermittent chloride ponding regime, with the exception of 6 % Na2O and Ms of 1.5; (iv) the corrosion behaviour of the AAS concretes was significantly influenced by ionic exchange, carbonation and sulphide concentration; (v) the increase of alkali concentration of the activator generally increased the resistance of AAS concretes to chloride transport and reduced its resulting corrosion, and a value of 1.5 was found to be an optimum modulus for the activator for improving the chloride transport and the corrosion resistance

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens