Euthanasia: Some Critical Remarks

Euthanasia is generally regarded as killing in order to put an end to the unrelieved pain and suffering of a patient. Most terminal diseases are often associated with unrelieved pain and suffering, as a result advocates of euthanasia have argued for the legalization of euthanasia on the ground of compassion for the patients’ suffering. However advancement in medicine has made it possible for modern medicine to reduce pain and suffering to the barest minimum. The questions that arise from this are, given the advancement in medicine; is there any necessity for euthanasia? Is the relief of pain the same as the relief of suffering? Do the physiological treatment of pain and its symptoms treat the psychological and emotional effect of pain and suffering? This paper shall attempt to answer these questions and argue that though issues and fears raised by the anti-euthanasia movements are very legitimate, the problems are resolvable by a well regulated medical system. I will attempt to explain what a well regulated system entails and how it can take care of the concerns of the anti euthanasia movement

Assessment of service quality on customer satisfaction in selected hotels in Abeokuta Metropolis, Ogun State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to assess service quality on customer satisfaction in some selected hotels in Abeokuta Metropolis. A total of one hundred and fifteen (115) structured questionnaires was distributed, out which ninety seven (97) respondents representing 84.3% completed and returned the questionnaire. The results showed that the socioeconomic characteristics of respondents involved in hotel patronage were 81.4% (male) and 18.6% (female) with 58.7% of the total respondents rated unsatisfactory with mean value of ‘2.68’, 52% of respondents rated service experienced unsatisfactory with mean value of ‘2.62’, 71.1% of respondents consented to the various solutions offered . The chi-square showed there was significant relationship (x2 =789.537a> x2 =9.488, p<0.05) between socio-economic characteristics of respondents and the level of their satisfaction with service qualities in the hotels. Also, there was significant relationship (x2 = 837.990a> x2=9.488, p<0.05) between the various service qualities and customer satisfaction. It was further confirmed that service quality delivery to customers was the major challenge of all the hotels in Abeokuta metropolis which is on how to deliver the service to customers in a way that will bring satisfaction to them. This study therefore recommended that hotels owners should constantly embark on staff training in ‘service quality delivery’ that will bring about customer satisfaction at all times.Keywords: Hotel industry, service quality, customer satisfactio

Classification of ecosystem services in Omo Biosphere Reserve and the provisional services

This review examined ecosystem services in Omo Biosphere Reserve, Nigeria. The review explored the identified provisional services from the forest resources in this rich ecosystem. The identified forest resources in Omo Biosphere Reserve were listed according to their provisional benefits. This includes 72 different species as sources of food; River Omo serve as the major source of freshwater and supplying other streams within the ecosystem; 8 fiber plant sources and 287 forest plants used as bio-chemicals for medicines and chemical used in soaps making and phytochemicals products. It was concluded and recommended that further studies should be carried out on how to effectively harness the indigenous knowledge behind the utilization of these resources by rural populace and look at ways of introducing some of these products into urban ecosystem and also promote the use of these organic products to help mitigate food insecurity and pollution of the environment from inorganic products. Keywords: Ecosystem Services, Provisioning Services, Omo Biosphere Reserv

Assessment of conservation conflicts in kwari-kwasa forest reserve and its environs Kebbi state, Nigeria

Conservation conflicts in Kwari-Kasa forest reserve and its environment were investigated. Structured questionnaires were used for data collection using simple random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that the major occupation of the people is farming (55.6%), followed by fuelwood gathering (22.2%) and Civil servant (0.9%) are the least vocation of the people. Three districts were identified in the study area. Farming (16.7%) was the highest causes of conservation conflicts in Dalijan district. While illiteracy was the main causes of conflicts in Gwandu and Kambaza districts with 14.3% and 17.9% respectively. Desertification (40.0%) was the major impacts of conservation conflicts in the study area, followed by climate change (22.2%) and the least was low rainfall (4.4%). Agroforestry practices (22.1%) were recorded as main strategy suggested, followed by forest education (20.0%) and the least strategy documented was good forest management (6.7%). The stepwise multiple regression analysis of the causes with other variables showed that illiteracy had the highest coefficient of determination R2 with 0.83, followed by farming with R2 (0.78), while briquetting of charcoal had the least R2 (0.40). However, sustainable livelihood empowerment programs were recommended to boost the living standard of the people in the area and to reduce their overdependence on the forest resources. Keywords: Conservation conflict, Respondent, Farming, livelihood, Illiterac

Ground flora species richness and diversity in traditional forests of southwest, Nigeria

Diversity indices of tree species in tropical rainforest have been studied, but less effort has been devoted to the ground flora studies especially in sacred groves of tropical rainforest, Nigeria, as it plays a critical role in nutrient cycling and energy flow within the forest ecosystem. This study was carried out to determine the ground flora species diversity, richness and density in five traditional forests (Igbo-Ile, Igbo-Oba, Igbo-Olua, Igbo-Olodumare Igbo-Gbopo) of southwestern Nigeria. The ground flora enumeration of 5 x 10m was laid at the centre of 50 x 50m laid in each of the sacred grove. All plants with dbh < 10cm were identified and the frequency of occurrence recorded. In all the Sacred Groves, a total of 14064 plants/ha individual were recorded with 80 species distributed among 36 families. Igbo-Oba had highest diversity index of 3.21, followed by Igbo-Olodumare (2.80), Igbo-Ile (2.42). The least diversity index was recorded in Igbo-Gbopo (1.97). Among the 36 families, maximum species was recorded in Sterculiaceae (10), followed by Euphorbiaceae (5), Apocynaceae (4), Combretaceae (4) and Sapindaceae (4). Among the families with lowest frequencies (1) recorded are: Acanthaceae, Araceae, Rutaceae, Sapotaceae, Solanaceae. The study concludes that anthropogenic disturbances observed, e.g. farming, spiritual engagements etc. around Igbo-Olua and Igbo-Gbopo might have contributed to low diversity index compared to Igbo-Ile, Igbo-Oba and Igbo-Olodumare where high diversity index was recorded. It is recommended that to maintain high diversity index in the scared groves, buffer zones should be created around the sacred groves. Keywords: sacred grove, diversity, ground flora, herbaceou

Influence of dietary inclusion of phytobiotics on growth performance, carcass and organ weight of broiler chickens

This study investigated the dietary inclusion effect of three Phytobiotics: Syzygium aromaticum (Cloves), Piper nigrum (Black pepper) and Tetrapleura tetraptera (Prekese) on performance, carcass traits and organ weight of broile rchickens. Two hundred-day old unsexed broilers were used for the study. The birds were allotted on weight equalization basis to four dietary treatments (T1, T2, T3 and T4) in Completely Randomized Design. Each treatment was replicated five times with 10 birds per replicate. Four experimental diets were formulated for each of starter and finisher phase respectively. Control diet (T1) with no phytogenic inclusion while T2, T3 and T4 were formulated with inclusion of 1% Syzygium aromaticum (Cloves), Piper nigrum (Black pepper) and Tetrapleura tetraptera (Prekese) respectively; and the experiment lasted for 8 weeks (4weeks for each phase). Feed intake, Weight gained and Feed conversion ratio were measured at starter and finisher phases while carcass and organ weight measurements were carried out at the end of finisher phase. Dietary inclusion of phytogenics recorded similar (P>0.05) values of growth performance parameters at starter phase whereas a significant ((P<0.05) effect were observed on weight gain, FCR, Live weight and plucked weight at finisher phase. It was observed that inclusion of cloves had improvement on final weight (FW), weight gain (WG) and FCR with higher (P<0.05) plucked weight

Floristic Structure of Fire Experimental Plots of Olokemeji Forest Reserve, Ogun State, Nigeria

Total enumeration of tree species was carried out fire experimental plot of Olokemeji forest reserve for relative importance value (RIV) mean heights, mean diameter at breast height and mean basal area. Three investigative plot (Plot A, B and C) were established. Plot A which represents Early Burn is burnt annually during the dry season while Plot B was burnt annually during the rainy season when the trees are still wet and Plot C serves as the protected area. Gmelina arborea had the highest relative importance value (28.31), this is followed by Dalbergia sissoo which had RIV of 10.94. Plot C recorded the highest frequency of trees with the highest tree heights, this is closely followed by Plot A and Plot B being the plot with the lowest mean height. Plot C has the highest mean diameter at breast height (DBH) of trees and it is followed by Plot B and Plot A with very close mean DBH. The highest mean basal area was also recorded in Plot C, the highest total basal area and tree volume was also recorded at Plot C as 32.2 m2 ha-1 and 188.8 m3. The size distribution of tree species depicts that Plot C has been protected just as expected Keywords: Forest, Structure, Flora, Dynamics, Fir

Influence of roasting conditions on physicochemical and fatty acid profile ofraw and roasted cashew kernel (Anacardium occidentale) grown in Nigeria

This study aimed at evaluating the effect of roasting conditions on some physicochemical and nutritional properties of cashew nut lipid fractions at different temperature (100–160ᵒC) and time (20–60 min). Raw and roasted cashew nuts were also analyzed for their composition in fatty acid by GC-FID. Physicochemical properties of the oil showed that the oil yield of roasted cashew nut oil (56.67-31.67%) was significantly higher compared to unroasted oil (47.43%). Also, cashew nut oil with mean values revealed that acid (12-0.86 mg KOH/g of oil); saponification value (138.10-169.06 mgKOH/g of oil), iodine value (55.50-36.19 mg of I/100g of oil); TBA(0.012-0.18mg); p-anisidine value (0.55-0.66); peroxide value (7.26-3.05 meq/kg) and free fatty acid (1.07-1.50 % oleic acid) which indicated that cashew nut oil is edible, non-drying and may not be suitable for soap making. Results of GC-FID analysis of the ethyl esters of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid of raw and roasted cashew nut showed that unsaturated fatty acids represented 60.57% for unroasted samples with roasted samples (79.67–83.67%) while saturated fatty acids recorded (16.11–37.65%). The fatty acid composition of the oils shows the presence of four main fatty acids: palmitic (9.25–29.50%); stearic (4.4–9.34%); oleic (34.75–65.60%); and linoleic (1.35–20.66%) with high oleic to linoleic ratio associated with high oil stability. The order of increase is oleic > linoleic > palmitic > stearic in all the samples irrespective of roasting conditions. The result showed that minor changes occur in the fatty acids composition as the roasting temperature and time increased. It was concluded that the heat treatment used does not significantly affect the fatty acid profile content of cashew nuts preserving its antioxidant activity along with other bioactive compounds contained therein

Comparative Study of Soil Bacteria from the Rhizosphere of Two Selected Tree Species (Anogeissus leiocarpa and Pterocarpus erinaceus) in Shere Hills, Plateau State, Nigeria

The comparative study of soil bacteria from the rhizosphere was carried out using samples obtained from the soil (rhizospheres) of Anogeissus leiocarpa and Pterocarpus erinaceus using purposive sampling method. The soil samples were collected at a depth of 0-30cm and 30-60cm around the rhizosphere of the studied tree species and away from the rhizosphere used as a control. The method by Ibitoye (2008) was used to test for physico-chemical properties and method by Cheesborough (2006) was used for stocking, culturing, incubating and gram staining. Result for the mean physical properties shows, P. erinaceus had highest mean values for clay and silt which wasn’t significant (p= 0.067 and 0.381 respectively). A. leiocarpus had the second highest clay and silt. Sand and bulk density was highest for the control which was highly significant (p = 0.000 and p=0.044 respectively). For mean chemical properties among plant species, pH, EC, OC, OM, N, Na, Ca and CEC were highly significant (p<0.05), while p, K, Mg and EA were not significant. Pterocarpus erinaceus had the highest mean for all the chemical elements assessed with ten (10) bacteria species identified. Anoigessus leiocarpa had the second highest biochemical elements present with six (6) species of bacteria identified, Bascillus subtilis was most common. It is therefore necessary that these tree species are allowed in their natural habitat to preserve and conserve these microbes in the ecosystem

Effect of Plant Population Density on Growth and Weed Smothering Ability of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.)

Akidi (cowpea), a landrace of Vigna unguiculata, was grown at densities of 30,121 (D1), 40,323 (D2), 50,000 (D3), 60,976 (D4), 80,645 (D5), and 0 (D6) plants/hectare in a randomized complete block design to assess the effect of intraspecific (between cowpeas) on its performance and weed smothering ability in the instance of utilizing it in intensive fallow management. At 10 weeks after sowing (WAS), the low-density plants (D1) were shorter (127.55 ± 1.84cm), produced highest stem diameter of 11.59 ± 0.86mm, and shoot dry weight/plant (12.46 ± 0.70g). The high-density cowpea treatment (D5) had the longest vines (197.93 ± 1.54cm) and relatively low shoot dry weight/plant (9.22 ± 0.64g). The D5 treatment was significantly better than other treatments in weed control and dry matter yield per unit area. Tithonia diversifolia and Sida acuta which are heliophytes were encountered in low-density treatments of D1 and D3, where the highest light intensities reached the soil