Ergonomic Consideration of the Effect of Flour Dust on Peak Expiratory Flow Rate of Bakers in Abeokuta, Ogun State

Flour dusts are one of the most harmful chemicals in the bakery industries which could lead to serious heart and lung diseases. This study investigated the effect of flour dust on Peak Expiratory Flow Rate of male bakers in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria with the relationship to the anthropometrical parameters. A total of One hundred Eighty (180) male participants were investigated, where ninety (90) participants were bakers and ninety (90) individuals as control group. The Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and anthropometrical parameters of the participant were measured using mini-Wright peak flow meter (PFM 20, OMRON) and Detecto PD300MDHR (Cardinal Scale manufacturing company, USA) column scale with digital height rod was used to measure body mass [kg] and height (cm) respectively. The PEFR and anthropometrical parameters of the bakers and control groups were analysed using descriptive statistics and T-test with SPSS. The results showed that lower PEFR, 182.67 ± 16.34 L/min existed in bakers compared to 287.67 ± 17.02 L/min in the control study. The result also showed that a significant correlation exist between body mass, height and age (P < 0.01), PEFR, height (P < 0.05) and years of exposure (P < 0.01) of the bakers respectively. Furthermore, the results also showed that workers in the dusting and mixing of flour are at a risk of developing related pulmonary function impairment such as asthma. The study concluded that there is need to develop an effective intervention strategy, treatment seeking behaviour through awareness programs to prevent lung impairment diseases among the bakery workers

Novel Natural Compounds Derived From TCM In The Treatment of Food Induced Anaphylaxis

Food allergy is a highly prevalent disease affecting about 30 million people in the U.S. It is managed primarily by food avoidance due to lack of promising treatment options. ASHMI (anti-asthma herbal intervention) which consists of three components, Sophorae flavescentis, Ganoderma lucidum, Glycyrrhiza uralensis has been shown to inhibit allergic lung inflammation in antigen sensitized and challenged mice. In this study we isolate and identify the active compound in Sophorae flavescentis, characterized the mechanism of IgE inhibitory effect, biomarkers and potential to prevent food anaphylaxis. To separate and identify the compounds we used column chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance. Using computational technology, we identified biological targets regulated by formononetin and finally we determined its effect in a peanut allergic mice model. The IgE inhibitory compound isolated from Sophorae flavescentis was identified as formononetin. Formononetin decreased IgE production in a dose dependent fashion without cytotoxicity. Its inhibitory mechanism is specific to IgE production, as it did not inhibit IgG. Formononetin potentially regulates 25 targets in food allergy, 51 in IgE diseases and 19 in mast cell disease. Peanut allergic mice treated with formononetin but not vehicle was significantly protected from anaphylaxis to oral peanut challenges as indicated by lower symptom scores, better retention of body temperature and reduced plasma histamine. Taken together, this study has shown that formononetin might be a potential treatment and preventive option for food anaphylaxis reaction seen in food allergy and a clinical trial is needed as next steps

IDENTIFICATION OF CONTRACTORS’ NEEDS IN THE SELECTION OF CONSTRUCTION SUBCONTRACTORS IN NIGERIA

The delivery capability of construction firms is determined to a large extent by the quality of their subcontractors. A survey was therefore undertaken among main contractors to identify and prioritize their needs in the selection of construction subcontractors in Nigeria. Findings were presented from 78 main contractor organizations out of 120 construction firms surveyed in the six geo-political regions of the country. Utilizing the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) approach, pair-wise comparison matrix and other descriptive statistical techniques, the results indicated that the three most important needs are: subcontractors’ past experience in terms of type and size of projects completed; nature of contract to be executed; and prior relationships with the contractor organizations. The study concluded that for an enhanced performance of construction subcontractors on sites, priority attention should be accorded to some of the identified influencing needs by main contractors in this perspective

The role compulsory licensing in combatting counterfeit drugs in Nigeria

The negative implication of the existence of counterfeit to the public, government and pharmaceutical companies is one of the issue examined in this study. This leads to a question of how the concept of compulsory licensing as provided for under the relevant laws can be used to address the proliferation of counterfeit drugs in Nigeria The objective of this study is to identify how the relevant laws on compulsory licensing can be used to address the proliferation of counterfeit drugs in Nigeria. Thus, this study employed doctrinal legal method. The content analysis is used in analyzing the data collected in this research. The study found out concept of compulsory licensing has the effect of enhancing access to affordable drugs through the authorization given to other producers to manufacture the said patented drugs and this will in turn spur competition. The study also recommends the government to issue compulsory licensing over patented drugs in order to assist the public to get of affordable and quality drugs in Nigeri

Malaria Disease Distribution in Sudan Using Time Series ARIMA Model

Malaria is widely spread and distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Sudan is a sub-Saharan African country that is highly affected by malaria with 7.5 million cases and 35,000 deaths every year. The auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was used to predict the spread of malaria in the Sudan. The ARIMA model used malaria cases from 2006 to 2011 as a training set, and data from 2012 as a testing set, and created the best model fitted to forecast the malaria cases in Sudan for years 2013 and 2014. The ARIMAX model was carried out to examine the relationship between malaria cases and climate factors with diagnostics of previous malaria cases using the least Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) values. The results indicated that there were four different models, the ARIMA model of the average for the overall states is (1,0,1)(0,1,1)12. The ARIMAX model showed that there is a significant variation between the states in Sudan

Dialogic vs. Formalist Teaching in Developing Argumentative Writing Discourse and Reducing Speaking Apprehension among EFL Majors

The current study, sought to investigate the influence of both formalist and dialogic teaching on EFL majors' argumentative writing and speaking apprehension. By using a positivistic experiment research design, and on analysing students' argumentative writing essays, it has been proved that both teaching approaches developed students' argumentative writing. However, statistical analysis showed that the dialogic teaching group students surpassed those of the formalist teaching. In addition, results revealed that speaking apprehension levels of the dialogic teaching students have significantly been reduced rather than those of the formalist teaching. The study ended with some conclusion and recommendations for further research

IS SILENCE GOLDEN? CONVERSATIONS OF NATIVE SPEAKERS OF RIMI IN SINGIDA- TANZANIA

This paper provides an empirical examination of the perception of silence as a communicative act in a Rimi cultural context. Four casual conversations with Rimi native speakers were examined.  Silence in conversation was determined using a turn-taking framework in Conversation Analysis previously described by Sacks et al. (1974) as a turn-taking organization.  Native speakers of Rimi like people in other cultures have beliefs and myths regarding silence. However, these cultural artifacts are often hardly reflected in their real conversation practice. Rimi's belief regarding the value of silence dictates avoidance of silence because they consider it a danger and veiled bad intentions. Despite this cultural orientation regarding silence, in some contexts, Rimi native speakers give it a positive value. The findings show that silence can be used for terminating a topic, showing agreement, and indicating emotions such as sadness. Silence therefore can lead to either harmonious or troubled conversation at the same time. Many prolific studies have shown that Eastern cultures appreciate silence while the Western cultures silence is attributed to incompetence and lack of willingness to participate in communication. This cultural dichotomy regarding the perception of silence between Western and Eastern cultures gives an impression that cultures can either perceive silence positively or negatively. Data from this study show that this understanding is faulty. The data indicate that silence cannot be described categorically as solely positively or negatively perceived in a particular culture; instead, it should be viewed as a variable entity within a single cultural group