Mosquito Control Strategies In Ishiagu Rural Communities: Implications To Public Health

Mosquito control strategies adopted by the residents of two Ishiagu Communities (Okue and Ihie)were investgated. 53 households in Okue and 54 in Ihie were sampled. Simple structured questionnaires were prepared and administered. Percentages and chi square (X2) test of significance was employed in analysing the data. The result revealed that 429 % of the residents of the two communities used insecticides, 25.2% used mosquito coils, 6.5% used smoke of local herbs and 5.6% were insensitive to mosquito nuisance and careless about mosquito control. Choice of control measures by residents of the two communities were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Occupational related preferences revealed that farmers ranked highest in the use of insecticides and coils (21.5%) each. 131% of teachers use insecticides and 37% use nettings. Statistical analysis of the occupational related choice patterns was significant (P < 005). Keywords: Mosquito, Rural Communities, Control, Implications, Public Health.Animal Research International Vol. 3 (1) 2006 pp. 431-43

Macroeconomic Models and the Challenge of Growth in African Economies: The Context

This study addresses the challenges of theorizing the economy of Africa in the context of using macroeconomic models to reshape the future of its non-inclusive growth. It argues that the catastrophic policy summersault of economies that rely on theoretical macro models is traceable to the fact that such models rather than represent the uniqueness of every economy sees all economies as having the same characteristics.  Thus it avers for eclectic African models that can redefine economic theory rather than use economic theory to define the economies of Africa. This calls for portfolio of complementary models through constant refinements rather than portfolio of outcompeting models. Keywords: Africa, challenge of growth, eclectic model, macroeconomic mode

Determinants of Antenatal Care Services Utilisation in Nigeria

This study reports on recent evidence on determinants of antenatal visits in Nigeria using data from Demographic and Health Surveys for 2003 and 2008. Using count data models, the results show that women education beyond primary education level increases significantly the likelihood that a pregnant woman would complete at least four antenatal visits before delivery. The results also show that household wealth status has significant positive effect on the number of visits before delivery. There are significant differences in the number of antenatal visits determined by geopolitical zones and the place of antenatal also determines significantly the number of visits. These findings suggest that there is room for policy to control the attitude of women to care utilisation during pregnancy by influencing their education level and income. Keywords: Antenatal care, women, Negative binomial, Nigeri

Monetary Policy and Output-inflation Volatility Interaction in Nigeria: Evidence from Bivariate GARCH-M Model

Abstract:This article reports on a recent study that applies bivariate GARCH methodology to investigate the existence of a tradeoff between output growth and inflation variability in Nigeria and to ascertain the impact of monetary policy regime changes (from direct control regime to indirect or market based regime) on the nature of the volatility tradeoffs. Investigations reveal the existence of a short run tradeoff relationship between output growth and inflation within and across both regimes. However, no strong evidence of long run volatility relationship could be established. Our results further reveal that regime changes affected the magnitude of policy effects on output and inflation. Monetary policy had a stronger effect on output growth than on price stability during the period of direct control while it has a much larger impact on inflation during the current period of market-based regime. Also volatility of output and inflation became more persistent during the period of indirect control. Keywords: Monetary Policy, Output-Inflation Volatility, Bivariate GARCH-M Mode

Lost Revenue Due to Trade Liberalization: Can Nigeria recover her own?

The aim of the study is to find out the possibility of recovering the tariff revenue that will be lost in the process of liberalization through restructuring of the domestic tax system in Nigeria by examining the buoyancy and elasticity of the tax system. Using the dummy method, commonly known as the Singer approach, the Nigerian tax system as a whole was found to be relatively buoyant but not elastic. The buoyancy however showed a decline close to 16% after the 1991 trade reform. Import duty despite the decline in its share in total tax from 47.3% before the reform to 28% over the reform period showed a positive increase in buoyancy. CIT collection measured by tax-to-base elasticity declined by 46% over the reform period, suggesting that there is an urgent need to improve on tax administration. Also, the result confirm the ineffectiveness of the various reforms and (DTMs) in enhancing the productivity of the tax system, showing that much need to be done in our domestic tax system, both in structure and administration before thinking of engaging in any bi- or multilateral trade agreement.   Key words: Nigeria, Trade liberalisation, Lost revenue and Domestic tax syste

International Remittance Inflows and Household Welfare: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

The contribution of remittances income in mitigating poverty and income inequality in Nigeria has attracted very little attention in general. Very few studies have looked at the quantitative relationship between remittance inflows, poverty and income inequality in Nigeria even though it is now believed that total remittance inflows into Nigeria; exceed Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and Overseas Development Assistant (ODA). Using poverty and Gini decomposable techniques, the study finds that household poverty declines across all the geopolitical zones, by sex and locality as a result of remittance inflows. For example, with remittances, household poverty falls from 0.35 to 0.30 in the South-South region, 0.27 to 0.22 in the South-East region and 0.43 to 0.36 in the South-West region. Poverty also declines from 0.67 to 0.60 in the North-Central region, 0.72 to 0.66 in the North-East and from 0.71 to 0.66 in the North-West regions. Similarly, in the Gini decomposition; the study finds that increase in remittances reduce income inequality more in urban areas (0.1) than in rural areas (0.02). For example, a 10% increase in remittances other things being equal, is associated with declines in the Gini coefficients of total income inequality of 0.02% in rural area and 0.1% in the urban area

Kinetics and thermodynamics of bleaching process in aqueous solution using sodium hypochlorite

The kinetics of bleaching process of oxidation of typical dye with a bleaching agent - sodium hypochlorite in aqueous medium was studied. The kinetic runs were executed using spectrophotometer to changes in concentration under pseudo first order whereby concentration of NaOCl was in large excess compared with the concentration of dye. The factors affecting the reaction rate that were studied include the concentration of dye and oxidant, temperature, ionic strength and pH of the bleaching reaction medium and the presence of a variable valence metal ion The result shows that the rate of oxidation increases with increasing in temperature, ionic strength and pH. Increasing in substrate and oxidant concentrations also increase the rate of oxidation. Higher observed rate constant k1 was obtained in the presence of Fe(III)ion. The Arrhenius activation energy for the oxidation in the absence and presence of Fe(III)ion are 56.21 kJmol-1 and 51.21 kJmol-1 respectively. The result of thermodynamic parameters such as the lowering of activation energy (Ea) and the higher value of second rate constants k2 in the presence of Fe (III) ion provide further support for Fe (III) ion enhancement of rate of oxidation

Effects of pH, Dosage, Temperature and Mixing Speed on The Efficiency of Water Melon Seed in Removing the Turbidity and Colour of Atabong River, Awka-Ibom State, Nigeria

Studies were carried out to determine the effects of operating parameters such as temperature, pH, dosage and mixing speed on the efficiency of watermelon seed in removing the turbidity and colour of Atabong River, which serves the people of Eket and their environs in Akwa-Ibom State. Results obtained showed that at an ideal pH of 7.5, temperature of 25oC, dosage of 0.6g/l and mixing speed of 120rpm the water melon coagulum removed turbidity and colour of the raw river water by 87.9% and 84.3% respectively. At this optimum conditions, water melon coagulum decreased the raw water turbidity from 67.7 to 8.18 NTU and colour, 318 to 50 TCU. The findings have demonstrated the effectiveness of water melon seeds as a possible replacement for chemicals like alum and ferric salts normally used in coagulation-flocculation water treatment

Optimisation of electroless co-deposited solid oxide fuel cell electrodes

Research already carried out on the use of the recently patented electroless nickel ceramic codeposition technique as a method of manufacturing solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrodes has thus far indicated that, while functional electrodes can be manufactured by the technique, for optimum performance of the cell, amplification of the ceramic content of the coatings is still required.By mainly employing external agents such as surface active agents (surfactants) and magnetic fields (in a bid to aid ceramic particle stability), this research focused on the prospect of increasing the ceramic content of cermets co-deposited for use as SOFC electrodes. A total of 137 co-deposited samples were produced from different bath compositions.As a prelude to the study, the interactions between the ceramic powders used (yttria stabilised zirconia (YSZ) / lanthanum strontium manganate (LSM)) and the medium for the deposition process – the electroless nickel solution, were investigated by zeta potentiometry and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy techniques. The results obtained from the studies led to a variation of a series of fundamental plating factors such as the ceramic bath loading and particle size of the powders. While the former was found to yield the highest ceramic content in the coating at a bath loading of 50 g/l, variation of latter notably produced mixed results.With the introduction of surfactants, it was noted that above the surfactant’s (sodium dodecyl sulphate) critical micelle concentration, the incorporation of ceramic particles (YSZ) into the nickel matrix steadily increased to as much as 60 volume %. An inverse relationship was though found to exist between the coating thickness and the surfactant’s bath concentration.Uniform coatings were found to be associated with low magnetic field strengths while although increased magnetic field strengths positively resulted in the amplification of particle incorporation into the coating, a lack of cohesion between the coating and the substrate – as indicated by coating flake-off, was observed at such strengths. It is suggested that because the magnetic flux was more dominant than the normally ionic plating mechanism, the particles co-deposited under the influence of a high magnetic field were relatively unstable after the coating process.Since LSM is alkaline in nature this work confirms that future research on the application of electroless nickel ceramic co-deposition as a method of manufacturing SOFC cathodes, be focused on the use of alkaline electroless nickel baths rather than the acidic solutions, which better suite YSZ particles