Workplace bullying, job satisfaction and job performance among employees in a federal hospital in Nigeria

This study examined the individual and interactive effect of workplace bullying and job satisfaction on job performance among employees in a federal hospital in Nigeria. 192 employees of a federal hospital in Nigeria voluntarily participated in the study. Questionnaires were administered on the participants to elicit their responses on the study variables. The study found that employees who perceived low level of bullying performed higher than those who experienced higher levels of bullying at work. In addition, the study found that employees who experienced high level of job satisfaction performed higher than those who experienced low levels of job satisfaction. Expectedly, the study found a significant negative relationship between workplace bullying and job satisfaction. However, there was no significant interaction effect between job satisfaction and workplace bullying on job performance. We recommend that employees who experience bullying at work should be given adequate support in order to reduce the negative consequences of bullying on employee well-being and performance. Key words: workplace bullying, job satisfaction, job performance, hospital, Nigeria.

Analysis of Precipitating Factors and Practices Relating to Trafficking in Persons in Cross River State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to determine practices relating to human trafficking and also identify factors responsible for the trend in Cross River state. The study adopted Purposive and snow ball sampling methods to select participants while Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII) methods were used to collect data. Data analysis for FGD involved review, transcription and summarization of the discussion; for KII, transcription of responses of the Key Informants Interview was made. The study reveals that common behavioural practices associated with human trafficking include begging, commercial sex, domestic services, bar and restaurant services, hawking, baby reproduction and ritual money. Human traffickers often seek consent of parents of the victims to transport them while others hide under the guise of offering employment to potential victims or settling them after their period of service in order to lure victims into human trafficking ring within and outside the country. Other practices involve baby reproduction and sale by hospitals and orphanage homes. Often voodoo is used to subject the victims under their perpetual control. The study discovered that factors responsible for human trafficking in the study area included economic motivation, poverty, search for employment and lack of knowledge on human trafficking. These precipitating factors seem to be more or less structural in nature and falls within the Marxist analysis of the causes of human trafficking. The study therefore recommends for carefully planned and well implemented poverty eradication programmes for vulnerable group, creation of employment opportunities both for educated and uneducated youth, regular monitoring of health and orphanage institutions to follow up babies giving up for adoption and creation of awareness on human trafficking on the different methods used by traffickers to lure people to the business and how to avoid being a victim. Keywords: Trafficking in Persons, Human Trafficking, Cheap Labour, Poverty, Child Adoption, Welfare

Clinical studies on experimental gambian trypanosomosis in vervet monkeys

Vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) were inoculated with two different strains of T. brucei gambiense in order to determine their clinical effects. Both strains of parasite behaved alike in the monkeys, producing a virulent disease course resulting in their death 10 to 15 weeks post-infection (PI). Clinical features exhibited in the monkeys included pyrexia, progressive mass loss, mild anaemia, oedema of hind quarters and central nervous system (CNS), disturbances which did not occur until week 8 PI, corresponding to onset of late-stage sleeping sickness in man. Clinical changes in the late stage of the infection in monkeys included somnolence, ataxia and uncontrolled shaking of the head. A significant drop in the packed cell volume (PCV) and body mass occurred in the late stage of the disease. It was concluded that a relationship exists between CNS pathology, PCV and mass loss in Gambian trypanosomosis. The course of infection observed in the monkeys also suggests that many strains of T. b. gambiense may be more virulent in both man and animals than has hitherto been known

On the operating characteristics of queuing system for an NNPC mega station in Nigeria

Paper presented at the 5th Strathmore International Mathematics Conference (SIMC 2019), 12 - 16 August 2019, Strathmore University, Nairobi, KenyaIn this work, an understanding is sought of Queuing characteristics at an NNPC Mega station in Nigeria when petrol is easily available so as to compare with the queuing characteristics when there is petrol scarcity which is a recurring decimal in the country. The Mega station with queuing discipline of First-In First-Out, a service mechanism of single-queue multiple-channels and a system capacity of an infinite source has distinct operating characteristic of traffic intensity being 0.77. Further analysis of the queuing characteristics revealed that, the average number of vehicles in queue is from 2 to 3 while the average time a vehicle spends in queue is 1.58 minutes. The probability of vehicle queuing on arrival is 0.5993 while there is a 0.4007 probability that a vehicle may not queue on arrival. It was concluded that with 1.8 minutes, a vehicle spends more time in service than on the queue and since the number of vehicles on the queue is < the number of active servers, there is no queue at NNPC Mega station Minna when there is no fuel scarcity country.Department of Mathematics, Federal University of Technology Minoa, Nigeria. Department of Mathematics, Federal Polytechnic Bida, Nigeria

Pediatric maxillofacial injuries at a Nigerian teaching hospital: A three-year review

Aim: To determine the nature of pediatric maxillofacial injuries, according to etiology and characteristics of patients.Materials and Methods: The records of patients aged 15 years and below who presented with maxillofacial trauma to the Maxillofacial Clinic of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria over a 3-year period were retrospectively examined. Patients’ demographic and etiologic factors were obtained and analyzed. A P value of &lt;0.05 was considered significant.Results: A total of 160 patients comprising males, 102 (63.8%) and females 58 (36.2%), were seen over the period of study. The age of patients range from 4 months to 15 years, mean 7.07 ± 4.52 years. There was no gender difference in terms of age (P &lt; 0.05). Road traffic accident (RTA) was the most common etiologic factor accounting for 45.0% ofcases. This was followed by fall (40.6%). Animal related injury and violence accounted equally for 3.8%. Soft tissue injuries in the form of abrasion, laceration and avulsion accounted for 70.0% of cases. Other anatomical sites included the mandible (16.3%), dento-alveolar fractures(12.5%), and midface (1.3%).Conclusion: Road traffic accident and falls still remains the leading cause of maxillofacial injuries in children in this part of the globe. There is a need to reinforce existing traffic laws that aimed at minimizing the menace of RTA-related accidents.Key words: Maxillofacial injuries, Nigeria, pediatri

The Influence of Corporate Culture on Employee Commitment to the Organization

Abstract Corporate culture is a critical factor in enhancing the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. This study examined the impact of four corporate cultural variables namely, involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission on employee commitment to the organization. Data was collected from 134 employees of 18 selected SMEs in Makurdi metropolis. Data was collected through the use of standardized questionnaires measuring corporate culture and organizational commitment. Analysis of data was done using pearson correlation coefficient, regression analysis, independent T-test and ANOVA. The study found that involvement and adaptability significantly correlated with commitment, while consistency and mission did not correlate with commitment. The implications of the findings were discussed and recommendations made

Silent Human Trypanosoma brucei gambiense

Trypanosoma brucei gambiense causes Gambian trypanosomosis, a disease ravaging affected rural parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. We screened 1200 human blood samples for T. b. gambiense using the card agglutination test for trypanosomosis, characterized trypanosome isolates with Trypanosoma gambiense serum glycoprotein-PCR (TgsGP-PCR), and analyzed our data using Chi square and odds ratio at 95% confidence interval for statistical association. Of the 1200 samples, the CATT revealed an overall infection rate of 1.8% which ranged between 0.0% and 3.5% across study sites. Age and sex based infection rates ranged between 1.2% and 2.3%. We isolated 7 (33.3%) trypanosomes from the 21 seropositive samples using immunosuppressed mice which were identified as T. b. gambiense group 1 by TgsGP-PCR. Based on study sites, PCR revealed an overall infection rate of 0.6% which ranged between 0.0% and 1.5%. Females and males revealed PCR based infection rates of 0.3% and 0.8%, respectively. Infection rates in adults (1.3%) and children (0.1%) varied significantly (p<0.05). We observed silent T. b. gambiense infections among residents of this focus. Risks of disease development into the second fatal stage in these patients who may also serve as reservoirs of infection in the focus exist

Analysis and Computation of the Performance of Micro Finance Banks in Nigeria---A Case Study of Standard Microfinance Bank, Yola

This paper deals with the analysis and computation of the performance of Microfinance Banks in Nigeria in terms of credit performance, portfolio growth, link relative portfolio growth,  and categorization of portfolio, food security and employment generation using a case study of Standard Microfinance Bank, Yola. The withdrawal of licenses from 103 out of 407 listed Microfinance Banks in Nigeria was a concern to the researcher, being that Microfinance institutions are the major financial servers to the majority of Nigerians who are low income earners that are hardly served by the commercial banks. Using a standardard computer package, the chi-square test application shows that, although the portfolio growth of Standard Microfinance Bank Yola is not averagely 50.20% as claimed by the bank, there is an appreciable growth of 28.96%. But again, with 2005 as the base period, it recorded all time high link relative total portfolio growth of  548%. And other indices such as credit performance of the bank and portfolio by category indicate that microfinance banking in the country may be heading to the right direction except for grossly inadequate portfolio allocation of 6% for Agriculture which is supposed to be in the driving sit of the food security and employment generation. In trying times for institutions such as Microfinance Banks which bear benefits to the masses, it is recommended that either or both the regulatory body or/and the institution should publish a hope-giving-information that will dispel the possibility of the public completely losing hope in such institutions. And also calculated attempt be made to reform the land use act of March 1978 coupled with insurance provision for farmers to ease access to fund

Feeding Patterns and Xenomonitoring of Trypanosomes among Tsetse Flies around the Gashaka-Gumti National Park in Nigeria

In order to understand the epidemiology of trypanosomoses in Gashaka-Gumti National Park, Nigeria, we determined the density, infection rates, and feeding patterns of tsetse flies using biconical traps, ITS, and mitochondrial cytochrome b PCRs. A total of 631 tsetse flies were captured, of which 531 (84.2%) and 100 (15.8%) were analyzed for trypanosomes and blood meals, respectively. Tsetse distribution varied significantly ( &lt; 0.05) across study sites with average trap and daily catches of 4.39 and 26.34, respectively. Overall tsetse infection rate was 5.08% and ranged between 3.03% and 6.84% across study sites. We identified 10 T. brucei, 3 T. congolense savannah, 2 T. congolense forest, and 2 mixed infections among the 13 pools made from the 27 flies positive for trypanosomes with light microscopy. The distribution of vertebrate blood meals in tsetse flies varied significantly ( &lt; 0.05) and ranged between 6.0% and 45% across hosts. We also observed dual feeding patterns involving at least 2 hosts in 24% and multiple feeding involving at least 3 hosts in 17% of the flies. We observed predominance of G. palpalis which also recorded higher infection rate. T. brucei was more prevalent among tsetse flies. Tsetse flies fed predominantly on cattle and less frequently on humans and also showed mixed feeding habits

Feeding Patterns and Xenomonitoring of Trypanosomes among Tsetse Flies around the Gashaka-Gumti National Park in Nigeria

In order to understand the epidemiology of trypanosomoses in Gashaka-Gumti National Park, Nigeria, we determined the density, infection rates, and feeding patterns of tsetse flies using biconical traps, ITS, and mitochondrial cytochrome b PCRs. A total of 631 tsetse flies were captured, of which 531 (84.2%) and 100 (15.8%) were analyzed for trypanosomes and blood meals, respectively. Tsetse distribution varied significantly (p<0.05) across study sites with average trap and daily catches of 4.39 and 26.34, respectively. Overall tsetse infection rate was 5.08% and ranged between 3.03% and 6.84% across study sites. We identified 10 T. brucei, 3 T. congolense savannah, 2 T. congolense forest, and 2 mixed infections among the 13 pools made from the 27 flies positive for trypanosomes with light microscopy. The distribution of vertebrate blood meals in tsetse flies varied significantly (p<0.05) and ranged between 6.0% and 45% across hosts. We also observed dual feeding patterns involving at least 2 hosts in 24% and multiple feeding involving at least 3 hosts in 17% of the flies. We observed predominance of G. palpalis which also recorded higher infection rate. T. brucei was more prevalent among tsetse flies. Tsetse flies fed predominantly on cattle and less frequently on humans and also showed mixed feeding habits