Newspaper Coverage of Nigeria Police Activities: A Content Analysis

This study is a content analysis of newspaper coverage of police activities in Nigeria from January to March, 2012. Three national dailies (the Nation, the Punch and Daily Sun) were studied. Among the specific objectives were to determine the volume of coverage of the activities of Nigeria Police by selected newspapers, the story types in which police activities are presented in the newspapers and direction of stories by the selected newspapers on the activities of Nigeria Police. The research is structured on agenda –setting theory. Population of study is 273, while the sample is 162 within a period of36 days. It was found out that the police activities during the period of study were presented mostly as straight news and the direction of stories were mostly negative. The study recommended, among others, that newspapers should give in-depth coverage of police activities in Nigeria and that positive aspect of police activities should also be given attention in the media

National Domestic savings, Inflation, exchange rate and Manufacturing Sector in Nigeria: ARDL Approach.

ABSTRACT This research work centered on national savings, exchange rate, inflation, and manufacturing sector in Nigeria from 1985 to 2018, a period of 34years. Data was sourced from CBN statistical bulletin various issues up until 2017 and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 2018 Statistical Bulletin, on manufacturing sector output, national savings, Exchange Rate and inflation. Data were analyzed using Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) to examine the effect of national savings, exchange rate and inflation on manufacturing sector. The ARDL result revealed that national savings has no short run effect on the manufacturing sector output but has effect on the longrun on the manufacturing sector. The exchange rate has a positive effect on the long run, but a negative effect on the shortrun on the manufacturing output, while the inflation rate has a negative relationship with the manufacturing sector output. The empirical findings showed that that national savings is not enough to alleviate investment in the manufacturing sector. Hence, it was recommended that the government comes up with policies that will encourage foreign direct investment in the manufacturing sector and raw materials for this sector should be sort for domestically

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOURS PREVALENCE IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MAINLAND ZONE TWO, LAGOS.

Deviant behaviours in schools are behaviours that do not conform to the school norms, culture, rules and regulations. This study is about the teachers’ perceptions of the prevalence of deviant behaviours among the senior secondary two students in mainland zone two. The target population was all the senior secondary teachers in Mainland zone two, with 128 males and 152 female teachers. Data was collected using a self-structured questionnaire divided into two sections. Section A comprises the demographic data, while section B has 16 items. The items had subheadings, namely deviancies due to attack on school authority, deviancies relating to attacks on persons or properties, deviancies due to student’s gang attacks and deviancies relating to the poor reading study. The study was guided by one research question and two hypotheses. Mean and standard deviations were used to analyse the data while t-testing the null hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. Results showed no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of male and female teachers on the prevalence of deviant behaviours in schools. Still, there was a statistically significant difference in perception based on teachers’ age group. Recommendations were made, including provisions for counsellors, and regular seminars/workshops on deviant behaviours to students, school authorities, teachers and parents

Land Conversions and Forest Dynamics in a Riparian Forest Zone in South East Nigeria

The rate at which forest ecosystems are lost and modified across tropicallandscapes are alarming, yet proper documentation and proactive measures to curtail this still remains a huge challenge in most areas. Thisresearch focused on elucidating the ongoing land use change patternsof a riparian forest landscape, its current impacts on the ecosystem andland surface temperature, as well as its likely future scenarios for thezone. LANDSAT images were downloaded for 1988, 2003 and 2018and used to show the dynamics for the zone, its drivers and their varyingtemperatures. Maximum Likelihood Classification algorithm was usedfor the classification and the land-use classes were categorized as: Waterbody, Farms and Sparse Vegetation, Built-up Areas, Bare Surface, andThick Vegetation. Furthermore, Markov Chain Analysis was employedfor understanding the future patterns of land use change in the zone. Landuse categories experienced changes over the three epochs, but among all,farmlands/ sparse vegetation and thick vegetation had the most significantchanges from 7.70 to 58.67 percent and 73.56 to 20.58 percent, respectively; implying that much of the forestland use/cover (which constitutedthe bulk of the land initially; 73.56 percent) were converted to agricultural land use. This same trend at which agriculture grew in the zone wasseen to affect the land surface temperature for zone (Pearson correlationcoefficient of 0.99 with p = 0.0058 at 0.05 level of significance). Futureprojection for the zone equally showed that agricultural land use willlikely dominate the entire landscape in the coming years and a consequent impact on the climate and ecosystem expected as well. On thatnote, intensive agricultural practices that seek to maximize allocated farmunits were advocated. Such initiatives will help to ensure that agriculturalgrowth is contained within delimited zones so that haphazard cultivations,reductions in ecological value of the forest landscape and consequent climatic impacts could be managed across the region

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOURS PREVALENCE IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MAINLAND ZONE TWO, LAGOS.

Deviant behaviours in schools are behaviours that do not conform to the school norms, culture, rules and regulations. This study is about the teachers’ perceptions of the prevalence of deviant behaviours among the senior secondary two students in mainland zone two. The target population was all the senior secondary teachers in Mainland zone two, with 128 males and 152 female teachers. Data was collected using a self-structured questionnaire divided into two sections. Section A comprises the demographic data, while section B has 16 items. The items had subheadings, namely deviancies due to attack on school authority, deviancies relating to attacks on persons or properties, deviancies due to student’s gang attacks and deviancies relating to the poor reading study. The study was guided by one research question and two hypotheses. Mean and standard deviations were used to analyse the data while t-testing the null hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. Results showed no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of male and female teachers on the prevalence of deviant behaviours in schools. Still, there was a statistically significant difference in perception based on teachers’ age group. Recommendations were made, including provisions for counsellors, and regular seminars/workshops on deviant behaviours to students, school authorities, teachers and parents

TRANSFORMATION CAPABILITY AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

Inability of organizations to modify or reconfigure their operational capabilities in line with changing business environment constitute major problem of survival for the affected organizations. In the light of this observation, the research sought as its broad objective to explore the relationship between transformation capability and employee performance of selected manufacturing firms in Delta State. The theory adopted for this study is Dynamic Capability Theory by David Teece (1997.) Survey Research design was employed in the study. Population of the study was 322 employees of the focused companies, while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used in testing the hypotheses. The study found that there was a significant relationship between learning capabilities and  employee performance in the focused manufacturing organizations  in Delta State. The study concluded that transformation capability contributes immensely to employee performance and recommended that manufacturing firms should train their employees to be capable of making informed decisions for the growth of the firms

Leaching of Trace Elements in Enugu Coal: Effect of Acid Concentration

The effect of acid concentration on the trace elements composition of Enugu sub-bituminous coal from Onyeama Mine was investigated by leaching the coal using nitric acid (HNO3) of 0.5M, 1.0M, 1.5M and 2.0M concentrations. The amount of trace elements (in ppm) present in the filtrate from the leaching process were determined using Varian AA240 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer with cathode lamps of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb). Optimum leaching condition of the trace metals were obtained using 2.0M HNO3 solution for 1 hour and 75µm particle size which resulted in the detection of As(1.363ppm), Cu (1.413ppm), Cr (0.764ppm), Cd (0.146), and Pb (1.942ppm). 2.0M concentration of nitric acid has proven to be very effective in the leaching of trace metals in Enugu coal. Result of the SEM analysis shows that the porosity of the coal residue was increased and this provides strong evidence that significant amounts of inorganic elements were removed. Onyeama coal, therefore, contains large proportions of silica, calcium carbonate, and dolomite, as well as some elements such as aluminum, iron, and potassium, and other trace metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, copper

Molecular Characterization of Anopheles gambiae s.l. from the Three Vegetation Zones in Rivers State, Nigeria

Understanding the genetic structure of mosquito populations is important for addressing important biological and public health issues such as evolution, spread of insecticide resistance alleles and epidemiology of vector-borne diseases. Anopheles gambiae s.l. is comprised of genetically distinct species that are morphologically indistinguishable. This study therefore aims to establish the sibling species and molecular characterization of Anopheles gambiae s.l. responsible for transmitting malaria parasites in the three ecological zones. Sample collection was carried out during the rainy season from May to December which coincides with the peak period of vector abundance. Adults of laboratory-reared, field-collected larvae of this test-mosquitoes were used for this study. To characterize the vectors, DNA was extracted from tissues of An. gambiae s.l. samples, amplified and sibling species identified by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Restricted fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) aided to identify the M (An. coluzzi) and S (An. gambiae s.s.) forms. Neighbor-Joining method was used to infer the evolutionary history. An. gambiae s.s. (sibling species) is present in the entire Rivers state while An. gambiae s.s. (S-form) predominates the lowland forest vegetation and An. coluzzi predominates the mangrove and fresh water swamp vegetations. The sequenced samples from the three vegetations were closely related to An. gambiae with accession number KP165373.1. The study makes available baseline information on characterization and monitoring of species of malaria vectors in Rivers State, Nigeria. Keywords: Molecular characterization, Anopheles gambiae, vegetation, Rivers State. DOI: 10.7176/ALST/98-03 Publication date:June 30th 202

Liver function tests values in albino wistar rats administered with isolated Nigeria Achatina achatina snail lectin

Achatina achatina snail specie are considered by many people in Nigeria, Ghana and other parts of West Africa to be the most prized snail for eating. In general, lectins bind to sugar moieties in cell walls or membrane, thereby change the physiology of the membrane to cause agglutination, mitosis or other biochemical changes in the cell. It has been deduced that lectins could be toxic and can as well be used as potent administrations that could be used or serve as substitutes for routine treatment or management of many disorders. Based on these, the toxicity of the Achatina achatina snail lectin in animals was investigated with a view to determining the nutritional value of the snail as food stuffs by carrying out tests to determine the blood values of Liver Function Tests (LFT) parameters in Albino Wistar Rats administered with the lectin. A total of 120 samples of the Nigeria Achatina achatina snail specie were collected, authenticated at the Zoology Department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and 80mls of pooled crude Lectin extract was obtained. Purifications were performed on 20mls of the crude extract in three steps viz, Ammonium sulphate precipitation and Dialysis (Partial purifications), Con A Sepharose 4B affinity Chromatography column (Complete purification). The affinity purified lectin was used for all the tests conducted in this research. The crude, partially and complete/affinity purified Lectin extracts were subjected to Haemagglutination tests. The Lectin was further assessed to determine its effects on Liver Function Tests (LFT) parameters viz, Total bilirubin (TB), Conjugate bilirubin (CB), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Aspartate transaminase (AST) and Alanine transaminase (ALT) as follows: A total of Thirty-five (35) male Albino Wistar Rats weighing 101-180g and aged 2-3 months obtained from the Animal house of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, were used in this research. The animals were Grouped into 5 (A-E) and allowed for 2 weeks acclimatization. Graded doses of 0.04ml, 0.05ml and 0.06ml of the Affinity purified Lectin were administered intra-peritoneally to each of the rats in Groups A-D (test groups) according to their body weights at intervals of 2 days for 1 week. Group E served as the control. Two (2) mls of blood was collected from each of the rats before and 24 hours after the last day of lectin administration for the following tests: TB, CB, ALP, AST and ALT (performed by means of Roche Cobas C111 automated chemistry analyser). The results of the research showed as follows: On complete/affinity purification, 15mls of pure sample containing only the high molecular weight lectin was obtained. The respective haemagglutination tests on the crude, partially and affinity purified Lectin showed on standardization preferential agglutinations with Blood group A type. Bar charts statistics show that there was Post lectin administration mean increase in TB, CB and AST when the Post administrations values were compared with the Pre values. The Bar charts statistics show that there was Post lectin administration mean decrease in ALP and ALT. However, the differences in the Pre and Post administration mean values of these parameters were further subjected to one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test statistics aimed at determining whether the mean increases or decreases in these assessed parameters were statistically significant. The ANOVA statistics show that the effects of the lectin on all the assessed LFT parameters viz, TB, CB, ALP, AST and ALT were statistically insignificant (P > 0.05). The results obtained in this research has succeeded in demonstrating that the A. achatina snail lectin is non-toxic, non-carcinogenic and therefore point to its nutritive value as food stuff, hence supports the snail eating education

Effect of variety and processing method on functional properties of traditional sweet potato flour (“elubo”) and sensory acceptability of cooked paste (“amala”)

“Amala” is a generic term in Nigeria, used to describe a thick paste prepared by stirring flour (“elubo”) from yam, cassava or unripe plantain, in hot water, to form a smooth consistency. In order to overcome its high perishability and increase the utilization of sweet potato roots, three varieties of sweet potato roots were processed into flour using two methods. The interactive effect of variety and the processing method had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on all the functional properties of the flour except yellowness, setback viscosity, and peak time. Acceptable sweet potato “amala” with average sensory acceptability score of 7.5 were obtained from yellow-fleshed varieties irrespective of the processing method. Flour that produced acceptable “amala” were characterized by lower values of protein (2.20–3.94%), fiber (1.30–1.65%), total sugar (12.41–38.83 lg/mg), water absorption capacity (168–215 g/100 g), water solubility (8.29–14.65%), swelling power (0.52–0.82 g/g), and higher peak time (6.9–8.7 min)