Roles of Community Pharmacists in Improving Oral Health Awareness in Plateau State, Northern Nigeria

There is poor oral health awareness in Nigeria. This is mainly attributed to limited access to correct information on oral health as well as a lack of oral health care providers. The impact of the poor oral health awareness is worse in Northern Nigeria due to the uneven distribution of oral health care workers and training facilities. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to describe the roles of community pharmacists (CPs) in Plateau State, Nigeria as sources of oral health information. Theoretical framework for this study was the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Background knowledge and practices of oral health care by CPs were assessed as related to their demographic characteristics. A 1 sample t-test was used to assess CPs\u27 knowledge of oral health. A binary logistic regression model was conducted to evaluate if some demographic variables could predict Plateau State CPs\u27 interest in becoming more involved in provision of services on oral health problems. According to the study findings, the CPs had a good disposition towards engaging in oral health prevention services by providing some oral health services to patients with oral health problems. In addition, 94.7% of the CPs were willing to advance the cause of oral health care. The disposition of CPs towards oral health could serve as a platform to help propagate oral health care and awareness in their communities. Engaging the CPs might help reduce oral health disparities by increasing oral health awareness, improving oral health-seeking behavior and oral hygiene practices, and improving quality of life via cost effective delivery of pharmacy-based oral health care services

Non-destructive evaluation of white striping and microbial spoilage of Broiler Breast Meat using structured-illumination reflectance imaging

Manual inspection is a prevailing practice for quality assessment of poultry meat, but it is labor-intensive, tedious, and subjective. This thesis aims to assess the efficacy of an emerging structured illumination reflectance imaging (SIRI) technique with machine learning approaches for assessing WS and microbial spoilage in broiler breast meat. Broiler breast meat samples were imaged by an in house-assembled SIRI platform under sinusoidal illumination. In first experiment, handcrafted texture features were extracted from direct component (DC, corresponding to conventional uniform illumination) and amplitude component (AC, unique to the use of sinusoidal illumination) images retrieved from raw SIRI pattern images build linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models for classifying normal and defective samples. A further validation experiment was performed using deep learning as a feature extractor followed by LDA. The third experiment was on microbial spoilage assessment of broiler meat, deep learning models were used to extract features from DC and AC images builds on classifiers. Overall, this research has demonstrated consistent improvements of AC over DC images in assessing WS and spoilage of broiler meat and that SIRI is a promising tool for poultry meat quality detection

Global Sex Trade and Women Trafficking in Nigeria

Academic discourses and policy debates on the phenomenon of women trafficking have focused on the threat of illegal migration, migration management, and the stereotypical linkages between criminality and migration. Such themes neglected the perspectives of trafficking victims and the social context, most especially closed borders and poverty. Obviously, women trafficking constitute one of the anxieties and disruptive effects of globalization. For many women, migration across the polarized economy under the regime of globalization is associated with exploitation, criminalization, and insecurity. This paper argues that trafficking in women reflects inequality on a global scale: transfer of resources from depressed economy to prosperous economy, from the periphery to the core, and from rural to urban areas. There is a thriving market for trafficking in women to Europe for sexual purposes, as economic motivations, organized global syndicates, poverty, and patriarchal pressures have ensured steady supply of women in the global sex industry. Despite the political will, the weakening influence of the Nigerian government in the global economy and international diplomacy, as well as porous borders, undermines its efforts in rolling back women trafficking

Comparative Studies on The Hatchability, Performance and Survival Rate of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Larval Produced: Using Ovaprim and Catfish Pituitary Extract Hormones

The study was conducted to compare the hatchability and survival rate of fries produced, using ova prim  and African cat fish pituitary extract  during  hypophysation.  The costs of hormones were also evaluated. The pituitary glands were extracted from four males. The females were injected intramuscularly with ova prim and pituitary suspension respectively. The fish were randomly selected into the tanks at the ratio of 4 males: 4 females.  All other conditions throughout the period of the experiment were the same across the treatments. Hatching and latency periods were 48hours and 9.05 hours respectively for each of the female across the treatments The female fish injected with ova prim had  higher percentage hatchability (46.3%) compared with those injected with African catfish pituitary extract –ACPE  (25.99%).  The survival rate however showed a contrasting pattern to percentage hatchability. The survival rate was higher in female treated with ACPE (82.98%) and lower in female fish treated with ova prim (50.14%). Higher production cost was significantly (p<0.05)) incurred in ACPE compared with ova prim. In the same vein, ACPE had higher gross profit (N 68,060) and ova prim treated females had lower value (N 42,485.24). The results showed that both ACPE and ova prim aided spawning in African cat fish  although, female fish treated with ova prim  enhanced higher hatchability however, fingerlings produced from female fish treated with ACPE preformed excellently well in terms of survival and enhanced higher profitability. Therefore, it can be concluded that ACPE hormone yield the best results in hypophysation . Key words: hatchability, hormones, hypophysation, larva , surviva

Analysis of the Effect of Private Healthcare Financing on Poverty in Nigeria: Evidence from Edo State

Poverty is one of the problems that challenge economies in Africa. Though it is a complex phenomenon which requires efforts by different experts to reduce or eliminate, conventional wisdom posits that “health is wealth”. Health status is a component of human capital development which plays a fundamental role in the poverty and well-being of individuals and national economies. Paradoxically the cost of accessing quality healthcare is an important contributor to income poverty among low income households. Thus adequate healthcare financing mechanisms (public and private) are required to attain quality health outcomes. This study therefore investigates the adequacy or otherwise of the current means of private health care financing in Edo state of Nigeria and it employed the survey method and multinomial logistic regression technique. Results revealed that the dominant means of private health care financing in Edo state is “out of pocket” payments which has negative effect on the income of households. It therefore recommends the introduction of a more effective collective healthcare financing mechanism to mitigate the financial burden associated with out-of-pocket spending. Also funding should be provided for research and development of locally manufactured drugs with high local content to enhance the availability and affordability of effective drugs

Dexamethasone versus a combination of dexamethasone and ondansetron as prophylactic antiemetic in patients receiving intrathecal morphine for caesarean section

Background: Intrathecal morphine for caesarean delivery provides excellent postoperative analgesia but it is commonly associated with nausea and vomiting. This prospective, randomized, double blind study was carried out to compare the effectiveness of a combination of dexamethasone and ondansetron with dexamethasone alone for prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) following intrathecal morphine injection for caesarean section.Methods: A total of 108 parturients aged 18-40 years for elective caesarean section were randomized into 2 groups (n=54) to receive either intravenous dexamethasone 8mg (Group A) or a combination of intravenous dexamethasone 8mg and ondansetron 4mg (group B). The study drug for each group consisted of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine and 0.2mg morphine. The primary outcome variables were postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) which were assessed for a period of 24 hours. The patient’s vital signs were monitored and documented.Results: The incidence of nausea and vomiting was significantly reduced in patients who received a combination of dexamethasone and ondansetron compared with dexamethasone alone (9.3% Vs 37%, respectively, P = 0.003).Conclusion: This study showed that a combination of dexamethasone and ondansetron administered prophylactically significantly reduced the incidence of PONV in pregnant women on intrathecal morphine for caesarean section.Keywords: Dexamethasone; Ondansetron; Nausea and Vomiting;Morphine; Caesarean Section

Assessment of radioactivity concentrations and effective of radionuclides in selected fruits from major markets at Ijebu – Ode in Ogun State, southwest of Nigeria

Natural Radionuclides are elements that are found in the air, water and soil. They find their ways in to the plants through the leaves and absorption of nutrients and water from the soil through the roots. Intake of fruits is very essential for human beings as part of balance diet. The concentrations of natural radionuclides in some fruits from three major markets at Ijebu- Ode town in Nigeria were determined and annual committed effective dose to the consumers was also determined. The gamma spectrometry method was used for the analysis. The highest concentrations of 40K, 238U and 232Th were from pineapple of value 102.36 ± 10.81Bqkg-1, orange of value 12.18 ± 4.36Bqkg-1 and mango of value 8.01 ± 3.25 Bqkg-1 respectively. The average annual committed effective dose of the natural radionuclides to the consumers was calculated to be 0.11mSvyr-1, which is below the limit of 0.3mSvyr-1 recommended globally. This indicates that the ingestion of these radionuclides through the consumption of these fruits has no radiological health hazard to the consumers.Keywords: Fruit, radionuclides, concentration, dose, gamma spectrometr

The Anthropometric Status of Farming households in Kogi State, Nigeria

A country needs a well nourished population of children for a productive future. Malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child morbidity and mortality; therefore, combating malnutrition in our communities should be an issue to policy makers. With the use of anthropometric indices derived from survey data collected from 150 randomly selected children from 150 farming households in Kabba Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State, this study assessed malnutrition of children in the Central part of Nigeria. Logit model was used to examine the relationship between some anthropometric indices and the general characteristics of the household and the children. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the sampled households. The result showed that about one-quarter of the children are underweight while a very insignificant number of the sampled children were wasted. The probit result showed that daily calorie intake and access to safe water had significant effect on underweight of children in the study area. Daily calorie intake per child was also significant on stunting and wasting. Over 66% of the farming households had access to well water and only 21% had access to bore-hole. Majority of the children could be said to be more susceptible to water borne diseases. Provision of better domestic water source, mass food production strategies can be policy options for a virile labour force in the study area.Health Economics and Policy,

An Evaluation of Bank Workers Welfare in Post Consolidation Era in Nigeria

The bank consolidation exercise that came in form of merger and acquisition or complete buy-over in some cases in Nigeria put the banks in vantage position in terms of increased capital base, competitive strength and arguably improved performance. Furthermore, many scholars had written so much about how the exercise led to employee downsizing through retrenchment, rationalization and cost reduction with other attendant consequences on job security, employee motivation and on the long run decreased productivity. However, there is dearth of research in terms of bank workers welfare after the consolidation exercise. Hence this study examined employee’s welfare after the banking reforms in Nigeria. A sample size of four hundred and seven (407) employees from ten (10) selected banks in Ilorin metropolis was purposively chosen in order to achieve the objectives of the study. Primary data were obtained with the aid of questionnaire administered to bank workers. Secondary data were obtained from the official book of the various banks. Data were analyzed with appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Results revealed that employee welfare were compromised in spite of the increase in capital base that accrued to the banks from the consolidation exercise. Consequently, the study recommended that regulatory agencies and managements of banks should incorporate factors of job security and motivational incentives in subsequent reforms. Keywords: Bank Consolidation, Reforms, Workers Welfare, Nigeria. Corresponding author: OLANIYI Taiwo Azeez