Baseline Assessment of Vulnerable Children and HIV Burden Alleviation in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Nigeria is having about 17.5 million orphans and Ekiti State the study area contributes about 70,000. This may increase with the prevalence of HIV from one percent to 1.4 percent in the state. This study uses the Orphans Vulnerable Index and Child Status Index to identify and enrol Vulnerable Children (VC) in the two LGAs of focus in order to identify the needs of VC and care givers. A total number of 402 VC were enrolled out of 433 identified from six political wards in the LGAs. There were 51% male and 49% female, 44% and 56% from Ido Osi and Moba LGAs respectively while the age distribution shows that more than 40% of the VC is within 10-14 years of age. Using the CSI scores, more than 65% of the VC has poor access to adequate nutrition, shelter and health care services while about 63% of the VC has poor access to education, social protection and psychosocial wellness. The findings represent the poor socioeconomic status of Nigerians, though the Ekiti State faired a bit better than states outside of the southern Nigeria Zones.Keywords: Vulnerability score; HIV; community; enrollment

Entanglement fidelity for electron-electron interaction in strongly coupled semiclassical plasma and under external fields

This paper presents the effects of AB-flux field and electric field on electron-electron interaction, encircled by a strongly coupled semiclassical plasma. We found that weak external fields are required to perpetuate a low-energy elastic electron-electron interaction in a strongly coupled semiclassical plasma. The entanglement fidelity in the interaction process has been examined. We have used partial wave analysis to derive the entanglement fidelity. We found that for a weak electric field, the fidelity ratio for electron-electron interaction increase as projectile energy increase but remains constant or almost zero for a strong electric field. Our results provide an invaluable information on how the efficiency of entanglement fidelity for a low-energy elastic electron-electron interaction in a strongly coupled semiclassical plasma can be influenced by the presence of external fields

Assessment of Food Safety Practices in a Rural Community in Southwest Nigeria

Food safety has been a major health challenge in both developed and developing countries. Ensuring food safety is key to preventing food borne illnesses which are contracted through consumption of unsafe foods. The aim of this study was to identify the food safety practices of residents of a rural community in Southwest, Nigeria. The study design was cross-sectional. Five clusters were selected by simple random sampling from the sampling frame. All households in the clusters were sampled to achieve a sample size of 216 households. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The results show that majority of the respondents were female (62.2%), Christians (78.1%), married (53.1%), and belong to the Yoruba ethnic group (88.3%). Residents of the community showed good food safety practices with 80.6% reported to always washing their hands before cooking, 90.3% always clean their cooking utensils before and after use, 83.7% always clean their cooking environment, and nearly all (96.9%) reported washing their hands after using the toilet. A statistical association was found between educational level and washing of hands after the use of toilet (p = 0.037). Though the results show a satisfactory level of food safety practice, however, more improvements can still be made. The method of waste disposal and source of drinking water pose a future threat to the health of the community residents. Hence, a call for government’s intervention in providing potable water and modernised waste disposal facilities

All hands on deck: levels of dependence between the EU and other international organizations in peacebuilding

The EU seeks extensive partnership with other international organizations when it comes to security challenges. This is puzzling as the EU relies for its resources mostly on its member states. The relations between the EU and other international organizations have thoroughly been studied, yet scholars rarely question the actual rationale for partnership. We start from resource dependency theory which explains that almost all organizations are dependent on the resources of their partners. Yet we extend this theory by distinguishing between macro, meso and micro-level dependencies. To illustrate resource dependencies between the EU and other international organizations, we analyse EU’s peacebuilding policies in Kosovo, Mali and Armenia. By accounting for macro- and micro-level dependencies we provide a more holistic perspective than conventional meso-level explanations. Our contribution is therefore to expand the scope of the resource dependency theory and provide a framework to analyse dependencies between the EU and other international organizations

Environmental Impact on Biodegradation Speed and Biodegradability of Polyethylene and Zea Mays Starch Blends

Several studies projected that by year 2025, 4.3 billion urban residents will be generating about 2.2 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste per year, over 10% of which will be plastics. The landfills in Nigeria are uncontrolled and do not conform to the international standards of similar operations elsewhere in the world; this makes the disposal of synthetic polymers in the soil even more hazardous. Due to the availability and relative inexpensiveness of Zea mays in Nigeria, this study explores the use of this natural polymer, blended with low density polyethylene (LDPE) as an alternative to synthetic plastics. Biodegradability of the biopolymer blend was observed while buried in loamy sand soil with properties similar to the soil found in the general area of the study. The results showed that a polymer blend with 50% LDPE (50 CoS) by weight had the most uniform weight loss over the period of the study. Under the soil conditions given in the study, 50 CoS also had the steadiest rate of degradation. Hence 50% LDPE (wt.%) blended with Zea mays starch is the optimal ratio with regard to the degradability of biopolymer in loamy sand soil Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria