JOB SATISFACTION AND WORK-INDUCED STRESS AMONG WORKFORCE OF TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined the relationship between job satisfaction and work-induced stress among the workforce of tertiary institutions in Delta State, Nigeria. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. The study was carried out in Delta State. The population comprised 7,744 workforces in tertiary institutions in Delta State. A sample size of 670 workforce of tertiary institutions was drawn from the various tertiary institutions in the state through stratified and proportionate sampling techniques. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between job satisfaction and work-induced stress among the workforce of tertiary institutions in Delta State. The study, however, found that there is no significant influence of level of experience and staff category on the relationship between job satisfaction and work-induced stress among the workforce of tertiary institutions in Delta State. Based on these findings, it was recommended amongst others, that the management of tertiary institutions in the state should be more responsive to the needs of the workforce in the area of motivation so that they will be satisfied with their jobs.  Article visualizations

Towards the Development of a Security Framework to Protect Against Social Networks Services Threats

Internal security attacks are malicious and sometimes inadvertent in nature. Although security policies, standards, awareness,strategies and tools currently are usually put in place, employees usually engage in risky behaviours that can jeopardizebusiness interest. The problem has become acute with the proliferation of Social Networks Services (SNS) that has nowconstitute a threat through which business enterprise data networks can be attacked, leading to information leakage andexternal intrusions. The direction of this research is to propose, develop and test a framework that can be used to guide andmitigate against security threats and vulnerabilities on Social Network Services. This paper presents our thoughts andattempt at such accomplishment.Keywords - Social networks, threats, security, intrusion and attacks

Survey of disinfection efficiency of small drinking water treatment plants: Challenges facing small water treatment plants in South Africa

A survey involving 181 water treatment plants across 7 provinces of South Africa: Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape was undertaken to identify the challenges facing small water treatment plants (SWTPs) in South Africa . Information gathered included ownership and design capacity of the plants, water sources, and various methods of disinfection, equipment currently employed and performance of the treatment plants. In general, the majority (over 80%) of the SWTPs surveyed in the designated provinces were owned by the district municipalities. The designed capacities of these plants varied between 1 and 60 M./d; the smallest capacity was 100 m3/d and the largest 120 M./d. The small water treatment plants abstracted their raw water from either surface or groundwater or a combination of both water sources with greater preponderance for surface water sources (over 86%). Water treatment practices were noted to be the conventional types mainly coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. Two types of coagulants namely polyelectrolyte (66%) and alum (18%) were commonly used by the water treatment plants across the provinces studied. Rapid gravity filtration, pressure filter and slow sand filtration systems accounted for 60%, 23% and 9% of the filtration systems across the provinces, respectively. The predominant types of disinfectants employed were chlorine gas (69%) followed by sodium (15%) and calcium (14%) hypochlorite. Over 50% of the various SWTPs did not complywith the SANS 241 Class I (< 1 NTU) and Class II (1 to 5 NTU)  recommended turbidity values. The recommended target range of 0.3 to 0.6 mg/. free chlorine residual concentrations at the point of use was not always met by 40% of the plants. Seventy percent of the SWTPs complied with the SANS 241 criteria of microbiological safety of drinking water vis-a-vis total and faecal coliforms. Operational problems affecting the efficiency of small water treatment plants included: inability to appropriately determine the flow rate, chemical dosage and turbidity, lack of chlorine residual at the point of use and lack of water quality monitoring. To produce safe drinking water, appropriate operational practices must be implemented in all small water treatment plants

Towards the Development of a Time-Out Multiple C-R CAPTCHA Framework Using Integrated Mathematical Modeling

The internet has suffered from large forms of insecurity ranging from scamming, hacking and theft of information. Lately the use of CAPTCHAs has become a common security tool for authentication and authorization. However CAPTCHAS has suffered from certain vulnerabilities in the context of the simplicity offered by the challenge-response scenario and its timing which leaves room for improvement. This paper proposes a Time-Out Multiple Challenge-Response (C-R) CAPTCHA Framework that Utilizes Mathematical Modelling as a basis for overcoming some of the challenges faced by current CAPTCHA Systems. Our approach ensures security during the authorization and authentication process

Comparison of stress induced in rats by four different anaesthetic regimens as recorded by urinary concentrations of corticosterone and testosterone

Glucocorticoid levels in body fluids are frequently used as indicators of stress. Corticosterone is the major glucocortieosteroid secreted in laboratory rodents. Urinary concentrations of eorticosterone were measured as indicators of stress induced in rats by four different anaesthetic regimens. Testostemne levels were also measured, as a potential stress parameter.Three of the four anaesthetic regimens used resulted in increased urine levels of eorticosterone. Elevated levels of testosterone were only observed in one of the treatments.In conclusion, eorticosterone may be a useful indicator of stress associated with anaesthetic regimens in rats. However testosterone does not seem to be as sensitive a parameter as eorticosterone but it may prove to be a useful supplement

Quality evaluation of Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) products marketed in Abuja, Nigeria

Medicine security remains one of the public health challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa as the report by World Health Organization (WHO) shows that 10.5% of medicines in low and middle-income countries worldwide are falsified or substandard. The study aimed to evaluate the quality of Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) products sold in pharmacy outlets in Abuja, Nigeria. Seventeen different commercial brands of WHO recommended low-osmolarity ORS finished pharmaceutical products (FPP) were randomly selected from pharmacy outlets in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Gwagwalada Area Council in Abuja. They were assessed for quality based on physicochemical properties and the content of active pharmaceutical ingredients in accordance with the International Pharmacopeia (IP) guidelines. The shelf lives of all the samples were valid, and they all met the visual inspection test, labelling, pH (7.4‒8.0 between23.3‒23.9°C) and moisture content (1‒9 mg/g) requirements. The content assay revealed 88.2%, 88.2%, 64.7%, 47.1%, and 35.3% compliance of the samples for glucose, chloride, citrate, sodium and potassium, respectively. Twelve (76.5%) of the brands failed at least one content assay and 8 (47%) had zero potassium content. The study underscores the need for regular, periodic post-market surveillance on essential medicines sold in the Nigerian market

Seasonal Variations of Some Physico-Chemical Properties of River Ethiope Water in Abraka, Nigeria

The influence of seasonal changes on the properties of water from Ethiope River at Abraka was investigated. Composite samples from six different sampling points were collected and assessed for both dry and wet seasons. The sampling points represent the villages within Abraka clan along the river. The seasonal variations are as follows. Wet season has mean pH as 6.82, temperature 27.73\ub0C conductivity 81.7\u3bcs/cm, TDS 0.26mg/l TSS 16.21, DO 16.80mg/l, BOD 4.50mg/l. The results for the dry season is as follows; mean pH 6.82, temperature 29.150C, conductivity 87.2\u3bcs/cm, TDS 0.34mg/l, TSS 15.21mg/l, DO 17.45mg/l, BOD 4.38mg/l. The result of heavy metal content showed that they were within the permissible levels. This water can therefore be said to be portable in all seasons. @ JASE

Phytochemical, High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Antimicrobial Evaluations of the Ethanolic Root Extract of Phoenix dactylifera L.

Bioactive compounds from plants have received a great deal of interest from scientists all over the globe for development of drugs. This study was aimed at evaluating phytochemicals, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and antibacterial activities of ethanolic root extract of Phoenix dactylifera L. (date plant) against some clinical isolates. Roots of date plant were dried and extracted with ethanol using the cold maceration method before concentrating it with water bath at 45 oC. The phytochemicals were identified using HPLC based on their individual retention time. Antibacterial activities of the methanolic root extract were assessed against some clinical isolates including Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa utilizing agar disc diffusion method. The percentage yield of ethanol extract was 0.3892%. The result of the phytochemical screening revealed the presence of carbohydrate, phenols, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, steroids, alkaloids and terpenes at various retention time of 2.853, 3.235, 4.129, 4.713, 6.722, 8.954, 11.228 and 22.912 min. Compounds identified include phenolic acid (caffeic acid) and two flavonoids (rutin and quercetin). The zone of inhibition diameter ranged from 15 to 19 mm. The maximum zone of inhibition was detected against Streptococcus pyogenes, (19 mm). Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae were inhibited with 17 mm and 16 mm zone of inhibition respectively, followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa which had the least zone of inhibition (15 mm). The result of the present study suggests that the root of Phoenix dactylifera L. possesses important phytochemical components with antibacterial activity that could be possibly exploited for pharmaceutical development