Tourism and Climate Change: Combating Climate Change Effects on Tourism Participation in Nigeria

Tourism is married to good climate conditions, any attempt to divorce them could lead to danger. The issue of combating climate change should be more paramount than ever before. It is obvious that tourism cannot be at its best amidst adverse climatic change resulting in hash climatic conditions, flood, irregular rainfall pattern, drought leading to poverty etc. Efforts of all stakeholders in the tourism sectors should be geared towards a safer cleaner environment in Nigeria. The study spelt out certain challenges relating to climate issues in Nigeria and give recommendations to all tourism related industry. It is also recommended that environmental friendly products should be produced and promoted. The tourism industry must adapt to climate change, improved technology and facilities that will help tackle the challenge of climate change should be highly canvassed or by all stakeholders. Keywords: Tourism, Climate Change, Industry, Tourism Sector

Efficiency Analysis on Small Sized Generators in Nigeria

In this paper, efficiency analysis of small sized generators in Nigeria was considered. Experimental analyses were carried out on two (2) different samples of generators tagged “S” and “T” at different loading conditions (20%, 40%, 60% etc. of ratings) to ascertain the generators’ efficiencies as well as the maximum true power that could be drawn out from the generators. The experimental results are compared with the manufacturers ratings specified on the name plate of the generators. The results indicated an average efficiency of 44.9% and 55.7% for “T” and “S” respectively an indication that generator “S” is more efficient that “T”. The results also showed that the values of the power factor indicated on the generators are inaccurate as none of the generators could give the maximum power as indicated on their name plates based on the experimental analysis carried out. The generators selected were able to provide adequate power to the selected loads with efficiencies not up to 100% of the expected rated value of the generators. For generator “S” it was observed that the efficiency decreases from the highest rating to the lowest rating. Conclusively, this result suggests that portable generators dealers are taking advantage of the energy crises to importing generators not up to specifications to the Nigerian market at the expense of naïve customers. This paper recommends that proper standards and measures be put in place and enforced by the relevant authority for conformity of standards to all imported generators to save guard and protect the interest of potential customers and Nigerians

Food Service Providers’ Attitudes Towards Nutrition and Food Handling Practices in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria

The study assessed food service providers’ attitudes towards nutrition and food handling practices in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria with foodservice providers randomly selected hotels and fast food restaurants in the town consisting of a total of 120 respondents. The study used of descriptive design and data was collected with the aid of structured questionnaire that sought information on the socio-economic characteristics of respondents, sources of nutritional knowledge, preparation and handling of food, nutrition attitude towards of food service providers. Frequencies and percentages were used to summarize the data collected and the hypotheses tested using chi-square. The result showed that there is a significant relationship between attitude of foodservice providers and food handling practices, age, sex and education while there is no significant relationship existed for income and marital status. The study concluded that majority of the hospitality outlets and food service providers in Osogbo have adequate favorable attitude towards nutrition and they use this during the process of food handling and preparation. Food handlers in hospitality outlets are to receive constant training and re-training on food and nutrition, food hygiene, food preparation and beverages and drinks. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p110

Fretting–corrosion at the modular tapers interface: Inspection of standard ASTM F1875-98

Interest in the degradation mechanisms at the modular tapers interfaces has been renewed due to increased reported cases of adverse reactions to metal debris and the appearance of wear and corrosion at the modular tapers interfaces at revision. Over the past two decades, a lot of research has been expended to understand the degradation mechanisms, with two primary implant loading procedures and orientations used consistently across the literature. ASTM F1875-98 is often used as a guide to understand and benchmark the tribocorrosion processes occurring within the modular tapers interface. This article presents a comparison of the two methods outlined in ASTM F1875-98 as well as a critique of the standard considering the current paradigm in pre-clinical assessment of modular tapers

Dry-hopping: the effects of temperature and hop variety on the bittering profiles and properties of resultant beers

This paper reports the effects of dry-hopping at 4 and 19 °C for a low alpha versus high alpha hop variety on the resulting profiles of non-volatile hop acids (humulinones, iso-a-acids, a-acids). In a dry-hopping study conducted over 2 weeks, we found a significant increase in humulinone concentration driven principally by hop alpha acid content and the duration of dry-hopping. Conclusive evidence of iso-a-acid losses during dry-hopping (by adsorption onto spent hops) is presented, in addition to a significant increase in a-acid concentrations, which was observed only for beers dry-hopped at 19 °C with the high alpha hop variety. Measured beer parameters (especially at 19 °C) revealed an increase in pH, ABV (%), and a decrease in beer density during dry-hopping - from which we conclude that further attenuation of beer occurred during dry-hopping. The polyphenol content of beers was found to increase substantially with dry-hopping time, whilst both temperature and hop variety were found to be significant factors determining the amounts of polyphenols extracted. Finally, analysis of the spent hop slurry (recovered after 14 days of dry-hopping) confirmed that the residual content of hop acids (a-acids, their oxidised derivatives and polyphenol content), makes these materials - currently treated as waste - of potential value for re-use in the brewing process

Changes in preterm birth and stillbirth during COVID-19 lockdowns in 26 countries

Preterm birth (PTB) is the leading cause of infant mortality worldwide. Changes in PTB rates, ranging from −90% to +30%, were reported in many countries following early COVID-19 pandemic response measures (‘lockdowns’). It is unclear whether this variation reflects real differences in lockdown impacts, or perhaps differences in stillbirth rates and/or study designs. Here we present interrupted time series and meta-analyses using harmonized data from 52 million births in 26 countries, 18 of which had representative population-based data, with overall PTB rates ranging from 6% to 12% and stillbirth ranging from 2.5 to 10.5 per 1,000 births. We show small reductions in PTB in the first (odds ratio 0.96, 95% confidence interval 0.95–0.98, P value <0.0001), second (0.96, 0.92–0.99, 0.03) and third (0.97, 0.94–1.00, 0.09) months of lockdown, but not in the fourth month of lockdown (0.99, 0.96–1.01, 0.34), although there were some between-country differences after the first month. For high-income countries in this study, we did not observe an association between lockdown and stillbirths in the second (1.00, 0.88–1.14, 0.98), third (0.99, 0.88–1.12, 0.89) and fourth (1.01, 0.87–1.18, 0.86) months of lockdown, although we have imprecise estimates due to stillbirths being a relatively rare event. We did, however, find evidence of increased risk of stillbirth in the first month of lockdown in high-income countries (1.14, 1.02–1.29, 0.02) and, in Brazil, we found evidence for an association between lockdown and stillbirth in the second (1.09, 1.03–1.15, 0.002), third (1.10, 1.03–1.17, 0.003) and fourth (1.12, 1.05–1.19, <0.001) months of lockdown. With an estimated 14.8 million PTB annually worldwide, the modest reductions observed during early pandemic lockdowns translate into large numbers of PTB averted globally and warrant further research into causal pathways