The effects of brood stock size on the economy of catfish (Clarias anguillaris) fry production using the hormone induced natural breeding technique

89 ripe female brooders of the catfish, Clarias anguillaris (Body wt. Range 150g-1, 200g) were induced to spawn by hormone (Ovaprim) induced natural spawning technique over a period of 10 weeks. Matching ripe males were used for pairing the females at the ratio of two males to a female. Six ranges of brood stock body weights were considered as follows; 1000g and the number of fry produced by each female brooder was scored/recorded against the corresponding body weight range. The number of fry per unit quantity of hormone and the cost of production a fry based on the current price of Ovaprim (hormon) were determined so as to ascertain most economic size range. The best and most economic size range was between 400g-599g body weight with about 20,000 fry per ml of hormone and N0.028 per fry, while the females above 1000g gave the poorest results of 9,519 fry per ml of hormone and N0.059 per fry. For optimum production of Clarias anguillaris fry and maximum return on investment female brooders of body weights ranging between 400g-599g are recommended for hormone induced natural breeding exercise

Potentials of palm bunch ash on yield of zea mays

Field study were conducted on the effectiveness of using different rates of palm bunch ash to increase fruit field of maize during the 2009 cropping season at the teaching and search form of the Rivers State University of Education Ndele campus, Port- Harcourt Rivers State, Nigeria. The experiments were laid out in a randomized complete Block design (RCBD) with four treatments replicated three times. The treatment comprised of 0kglha, 80kglha, 160kglha and 240kglha palm bunch ash respectively. Date analyzed showed that application of palm bunch ash to the rate of 80kglha significantly increased whole grain weight

The Contractual Foundation of Justice and Democracy as an Imperative for Social Development in Africa

In this paper, an attempt is made not only to establish the inextricable link between the social contract and the notion of justice, but also to emphasize their importance to democracy and as a means of achieving the  goals of development in Africa. In examining the relationship between social contract and justice, the paper asserts that our every day dealing with others at various layers of existence is underpinned by the notion of a contract, whether explicit or implicit and that such dealings are meant primarily to facilitate some measure of justice and to foster development in human society. While accepting democracy as the best means for achieving the goals of development, the paper concludes that the reason most African states have not made giant developmental strides, despite their practice of democracy, is because their leaders are yet to accept democracy as a form of contract that carries with it, serious implications bordering on the question of justice

The Seal Hunt: Cultures, Economies and Legal Regimes by Nikolas Sellheim

The seal hunt has captured an inordinate amount of public attention over the last few decades compared with other prevalent means of animal exploitation. Thus, it is a wonder that a book like this new essential legal anthropological work by Sellheim has not come before. Sellheim sets out to present the ‘human dimension of the seal hunt’ (at ix). He succeeds in doing so. The first part of the book sets out the sociocultural value of seals and the legal regimes that govern them. It is here, at the book’s heart, that Sellheim’s anthropocentric narrative works best. The latter part of the book explores the European Union’s (EU) seal regime, critiquing it from multiple angles. This is fascinating, particularly where Sellheim provides insight into the EU’s travaux préparatoires. However, Sellheim’s persuasiveness here is harmed by his neglect of popular counterarguments and his light-handed approach to the rich animal welfare literature available on this topic

EFFECT OF ACCESS TO MICROCREDIT ON FOOD SECURITY STATUS OF FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN NIGER-DELTA, NIGERIA

The study examined the effect of access to micro credit on the food security status of farm households in NigerDelta region of Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 384 respondents stratified intobeneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of micro credit schemes. Primary data was used for the study and analyzedusing frequencies, percentages and multiple discriminant function. The most patronized sources of micro creditwere the informal sources (65.82%), while the patronage of the formal sources was 34.17% in the region. Thedependent variable-food security status, comprise of three groups namely, marginal food security, low foodsecurity, and very low food security. Based on factor loadings, the strongest predictor was borrowing money forfarming (0.749), and the weakest predictor was remittance status (0.308). The canonical correlation of 0.597implied that 35.64% of the variation in the grouping variable was explained by the discriminators included in themodel. The chi-square statistic (60.4) of Wilk's lambda was significant (p<0.01), implying that discriminantfunction was appropriate and significant. Therefore, micro credit access was a major determinant of which foodsecurity typology the small-scale farmers in the study area belonged to and had effect on the food security statusof farm households. Therefore, government, development organizations, agricultural cooperatives andindividuals among others should set up micro credit schemes to support farmers in agricultural production

Exploring Broadband Enabled Smart eEnvironment: Wireless Sensor (Mesh) Network

This paper explored the emergent importance of the use sensors as complementary or as alternative to environmental sensing and monitoring, industrial monitoring, and surface explorations. Advances in wireless broadband technology have enabled the use Wireless Sensor (Mesh) Network (WSN), a type mobile ad hoc network (MANET), in all facet of human endeavor. As a next-generation wireless communication, which centered on energy savings, communication reliability, and security, WSN has increased our processing, sensing, and communications capabilities. Hence, this paper is an exploration of recent reliance on sensors as result of broadband enabled smart environment for activities, such as environmental and habitat monitory, military surveillance, target tracking, search and rescue, and logistical tracking and supply-chain management

The Quest For Development In Africa And The Dilemma Of Competing Cultural Paradigms

This essay reopens the debate among African politicians and intellectuals concerning which paradigm is the most suitable for achieving the goals of development in Africa at this present moment of her history. Since the early 70s, African intellectuals and politicians have reflected on this problem and the highpoint of the debate was that only a synthesis of our traditional cultural elements with other relevant areas of foreign culture holds the prospects for achieving this goal. This essay however indicts this latest position as encouraging the hegemonisation of western cultural values as well as the marginalisation of those African states for which this paradigm is meant to serve as blueprint for development. The essay then identifies the need for the debate to transcend the basic assumptions underlying the major paradigms by preferring an approach that will not only guide against the continued marginalisation of African states, but that will at the same time ensure their effective participation in the development process currently going on across the globe. Journal of Philosophy and Culture Vol. 3 (1) 2006: pp. 153-17

Examining Consumers’ Selective Information Privacy Disclosure Behaviors in an Organization’s Secure e-Commerce Systems

The study is an examination of the antecedents to the paradoxical changes in the consumers’ intended and actual personal information disclosure behaviors in online transactions or in e-commerce environments. The argument is that a consumer’s information privacy paradox is based on the consumer’s cognitive predisposition. The study adopted the conceptual underpinning inherent in the Privacy Regulation Theory (PRT) and translated them into information privacy context, as the consumer’s desired state of information privacy, information privacy self-interest, information privacy permeability, and information privacy equipoise constructs, to examine the causal relationship among the constructs and between a consumer’s selective personal information disclosure behavior variable. The theoretical model was advanced based on the conceptual framework in PRT and was validated using Structural Equation Modeling. In addition, the study conducted hypothesis testing and factor analysis using Confirmatory Factor Analysis in order to determine the existence of statistical significance and causality. The result indicates that the consumers’ willingness to transact online and disclose their personal information depend largely on the degree of their need signal (self-interest), and to some extent, their awareness and concern of the online merchant’s capacity to collect their personal information, irrespective of their previously declared or undeclared intent to transact and disclose personal information, or despite their desired natural state of information privacy. In other words, the existence of the information privacy paradox stems from the fact that a consumer’s intention to disclose personal information online depends on the person’s natural or desired state of information privacy, whereas the customer’s actual personal information disclosure behavior depends on his or her information privacy equipoise

HEPATO-RENAL EFFECT OF Solanum anomalum Thonn. Ex. Schumach FRUIT EXTRACTS ON LEAD-EXPOSED ALBINO RATS

ABSTRACTLead is a non-biodegradable multi-organ toxicant implicated in various disorders including renal and hepatic diseases. In the quest for a cheaper and readily available antidote, this study has investigated the role of Solanum anomalum fruit extract in lead-induced kidney and liver toxicities in male albino rats. Twenty-four mature male albino rats were used, divided into four groups of six rats per group. Group 1 (control rats) received distilled water (10 ml/kg), group 2 was given lead acetate solution 60 mg/kg, group 3 rats were given lead acetate (60 mg/kg) followed by Solanum anomalum, SA (452 mg/kg) and group 4 rats were given lead acetate (60 mg/kg) followed by Solanum anomalum, SA (678 mg/kg)   by oral gavage daily for 28 days. Animals in the lead acetate-treated group showed significant increases in ALT, AST, ALP, urea, bilirubin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, Low Density Lipoprotein, Very Low Density Lipoproteins, total white blood cell counts, Interleukin-6, and decreases in body weight, packed cell volume, hemoglobin concentration, red blood cell count, total proteins and albumins. Co-administration of Solanum anomalum fruit extract significantly reversed most of these biomarkers.  Histopathology of kidney and liver also points to the protective effect of Solanum anomalum fruit against lead induced hepato-renal damage.Keywords: lead, liver, kidney, Solanum anomalum, biomarkers, toxicant

Book review - Animal Welfare and International Environmental Law: From Conservation to Compassion

Since J Baird Callicot wrote that environmental ethics and animal ethics grow out of ‘profoundly different cosmic visions’, animal ethics have been troublingly and needlessly divorced from environmental ethics. This situation is mirrored in law. Legal actors overplay regulatory circumstances that feed this fiction: pest control (supposedly compassionless by nature) is required for ecosystem flourishing; ballooning population levels necessitate more intensive animal farming (as if it weren’t true that the livestock industry is a protein factory in reverse (Peter Singer, Animal Liberation)); and mass adoption of vegan diets is unsustainable (evidently we ought to breed and feed billions of mutated, mutilated, and overgrown farm animals instead). Such false claims run rampant within the academy. Consequently, the title of this collection alone is bound to draw scorn. Scholtz and the contributors to this collection deserve the greatest praise for their bravery and intellectual integrity in supporting a compassionate approach to conservation. May the scorners read on and pay heed to this book’s groundswell of movement-building ideas