Ergonomic Evaluation and Establishment of Suitable Classroom Furniture Design Specifications for Secondary School Children in South-Western Nigeria

This research work compared the anthropometric dimensions of some secondary school students to the design dimensions of their chairs and desks to assess the furniture’s appropriateness. A total of 840 students, with their chairs and desks, from fourteen secondary schools in seven states in south-western Nigeria, were measured.  Popliteal height(PH), Buttock-Popliteal length (BPL), Hip breadth (HB), Shoulder Height (ShH), Elbow height (EH) and Knee height (KH)) of the children were measured using vernier callipers and an anthropometric chair. While Seat Height (SH), Seat Depth (SD), Seat Width (SW), Backrest Height (BH), Desk Height (DH) and Underneath Desk Height (UDH) were measured using a measuring tape. The SD and BH were suitable for the students, while major mismatches were noted in SH, DH and UDH. Using existing models, three types of chairs and tables were then proposed for the students. Keywords: School furniture, Anthropometric Chair, Popliteal height, Desk Heigh

Residents’ Satisfaction with Public Facilities and Neighbourhood Environment in Slum Residential Areas of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

The high density residential areas of Jos were scaled on the basis of level of environmental decay and general planning in order to select the worst residential slum areas for study. Three areas, Gangare, Angwanrogo and Dadinkowa emerged as study sample. The areas were subjected to assessment using questionnaires with a view to determining the residents’ degree of satisfaction with seven loaded factors: public institutions, public facilities, environmental conditions, transportation facilities, recreational facilities, neighbourhood safety and commercial facilities. Results obtained showed a general trend of dissatisfaction of the residents of the areas with all the seven measured factors. The tested hypothesis indicated calculated x2 value of 13.57 which is greater than the theoretical value, 2.73 at α 0.05 and 1.65 at α 0.01 which implied that there is a significant level of correlation in the degree of satisfaction among the three residential areas. Therefore, the researchers concluded that similar policies and programmes aimed at improving the environmental setting and public facilities will be suitable for all slum residential areas of Jos. Following this, it is recommended among others that, the areas should be declared   as Action Plan Areas (APA) for emergency action with priority accorded to provision of access roads, drainages, planned refuse disposal systems, and public enlightenment programmes on the benefits of environmental sanitation. Public Private Partnership (PPP), State and local government authorities are recommended for the implementation process. For sustainability of the programmes and projects, the involvement of members of the communities is also recommended. Keywords: Residents’ satisfaction, public facilities, high density, residential areas, loaded factor

Nigerian Nursing Students’ Readiness to Use Electronic Health Records in Clinical Practice

Most hospitals in Nigeria still rely on paper-based medical records. This aspect  has created a lot of challenges to the documentation in the health care system in the country. The purpose of this descriptive cross-sectional  study conducted in 2019 was to assess Nursing Students’ readiness to use electronic health records in clinical practice. A systematic sampling technique was used to recruit a total of 189 nursing students from two schools of nursing in Ibadan, Oyo State Metropolis in Nigeria; 63 from each year of  the three year program. Data collection involved a self-constructed questionnaire comprised of four sections. Data analysis, which involved SPSS, version 21.0, included frequency counts and percentages. The findings of the study included the following:  less than half of the respondents (49%), mostly female (78%) were within the age range 16-20;  a significant number of respondents (86.2%) were ready to utilize electronic health records in clinical practice; the  perceived barriers to electronic health records use were computer illiteracy, lack of training, unstable power supply, and cost of maintenance and implementation (64.0%; 56.6%; 64.0% 56.1%) respectively. In conclusion, the study highlighted nursing students' readiness to use electronic health records and  the substantial impediments to doing so. Therefore, it is recommended that all relevant stakeholders must work together to reduce the obstacles that could prevent the deployment of electronic health records in clinical nursing practice

Role of Self–Help Groups a Needful Approach to Sustainable Community Development

The proliferation of self-help groups is an indication of effectives, because groups without value cease to exist overtime. That is why; this paper examined the role and approaches of these groups in Goni-Gora with a view to its sustenance’s. The study is empirical research involved collection of data of both primary and secondary data. The primary data were the information obtained through administration of questionnaires’, oral interview and photographs of the group’s activities. this was done by identifying the means of interaction/participation in community development process, income generation for projects/programs, campaign organizers’ for community projects and the perception of community members on the level of development, as well as impact of project executed and its cost estimates. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistic inform of tables frequency distribution and percentage. The study revealed sixteen different self-help groups, interacting and participating in community development process through community meetings and generates income from sons and daughters of the community through donations levy as well as government support for projects. The campaign organizer of projects is the association of the groups under the auspices of the local authority leadership. And the general perception of community members on executed projects indicated that they are all functional serving the purposes of the community. The impressive/encouraging contribution of these groups is an essential element in the process of community development or transformation. Therefore for the sustenance of these projects, it is recommended government must enlists and maintain the willing support of the groups in the planning, execution and management of these projects that affects them. This will bridge communication gaps

Effects of Garlic Feed Inclusion on Experimental Salmonella gallinarum Infection in Broiler Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)

Garlic is a spice and herbal medicine with antibacterial, antioxidant and immunomodulatory effects. In view of global demand for reduction in antibiotic use in poultry production, the potential of garlic at controlling fowl typhoid was investigated. Day-old (75) broiler chicks were separated into groups A, B, C, D and E of fifteen each, placed in cages for brooding and administered 0.125%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0% and 0.125% garlic-meal, respectively, in feed. At 9 week-old, each chick in groups A, B, C and D were inoculated with 8x106 cfu/ml PBS of Salmonella gallinarum, orally, while those in Group E were given PBS only. Up till 10 days post-infection (pi), clinical signs were scored from 1-3 based on degree of severity i.e. 1(mild), 2 (moderate) and 3 (severe). Mortality and gross pathology per group were recorded. Samples from liver and gall bladder were harvested for bacterial re-isolation. Groups A, B and C showed mild diarrhoea while group D showed in addition, anorexia, ruffled feathers and unthriftiness. Diarrhoea in groups A and B spanned days 2 -7 pi, group C on day 3 pi while in group D, days 1-10 pi with increasing degree of severity. Total diarrhoea scores were 6(A), 4(B), 1(C), 23(D) and 0(E) while mortalities were 2(A), 0(B), 2(C), 4(D) and 0(E). Enlarged and congested/bronze-coloured liver, engorged gall bladder and catarrhal enteritis were observed in carcasses. Colonial and cellular morphology of re-isolated bacteria were typical of S. Gallinarum. Garlic-meal ameliorated the effects of S. Gallinarum infection with the best result at 0.25%. Keywords: broiler chickens; antibacterial; fowl typhoid; Garlic; Salmonella gallinaru

Religion as a Social Determinant of Maternal Health Care Service Utilisation in Nigeria

This study examines the relationship between religious affiliation and utilisation of maternal health care services using 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data. The outcome variable is utilisation of maternal health care service measured by antenatal care and place of delivery. The explanatory variables were religion and three purposively selected social determinants of health, namely the social gradient, work condition and social exclusion. The chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression were applied. Result show that 50.7% had the recommended 4 or more antenatal care visits; 23.4% and 13.5% respectively utilise public and private sector facilities for their most recent child delivery. The relative risk of having 4 or more antenatal visits reduce by a factor of 0.7863 for Muslim women (p<0.05), and increase by a factor of 5.3806 for women in higher social ladder (p<0.01). Religion should be integrated into the social determinants of health framework.

Establishment and Validation of Continuously Operating Reference Stations Geosystems Network on Static and Real-Time Kinematic in Benin City, Nigeria

An infrastructure highly treasured by Geomatics Engineers is the continuously operating reference stations (CORS). CORS technology is a complete paradigm shift from the previously known ground control system to a virtual control system. In this paper, we present the steps taken to install CORS Geosystems in Benin City and further test its efficacy by observing fifteen existing control points located far and near using two Tersus GNSS receivers (A&B) concurrently. We perform statistical adjustment using Trimble Business Center software. Successful adjustment took two (2) iterations with Chi square test at (95%) precision confidence level and degree of freedom being nine (9) showed that the result of the adjustment was reliable.  Means of 0.007m, 0.003m 0.000m for Easting, Northings and Heights were obtained while the standard errors (σ) in E, N and H  are 0.003m, 0.007m and 0.000m respectively. The achieved RMS errors obtained from the attempted validation confirmed further that the newly installed CORS is capable of providing reliable 3D geo-spatial data for prospective authorized users to proffer solutions to engineering, scientific, environmental and research driven challenges