Child Abuse and Its Implications for Sustainable Development in Nigeria

The menace of child abuse has remained a challenge to the development of the child and the country. This has consequential implications on the sustainable development of the country in entirety. Nigeria as a nation has an estimated fifteen million children engaged in one manual labour or another and this negatively impacts the development of the populace and society in general. This paper has identified child labour, physical abuse, child neglect, child marriage,female genital mutilation, molestation and emotional and psychological abuse as types of abuse and established that poverty, cultural and religious belief, poor implementation of child protective regulations as factors encouraging the propagation of these condemnable acts particularly in developing countries like Nigeria. The paper stress that children are the future generation and hold the key to development as leaders of tomorrow as such, how they are tackled by every society reflects the level of development of any country as such, importance must be placed on tackling this menace quickly. The study amongst a number of measures recommends that qualified persons be employed to handle the affairs of children to prevent exploitation, molestation and neglect, government should establish more orphanage homes as well as financeaid non-governmental organisationsfinancially in their quest to enlighten, rehabilitate and empower victims and children, in addition, NGOs should provide accurate data on victims and perpetrators of these acts

Ecology of Malaria Vectors in a Rainforest Suburban Community of Nigeria

The ecology of malaria vectors in a suburban community of Umudioka,Dunukofia Local Government Area (LGA), Anambra State was studiedbetween May and July 2009. Umudioka is an agrarian community in therainforest zone of Nigeria and it is situated between longitude 6085´E andLatitude 6010´N of Equator. Mosquito larvae were collected from groundwater pools, discarded old tyres and domestic water containers using ladles, bowls, sieves and specimen bottles. Indoor biting and resting adultmosquitoes were collected from 30 houses using pyrethroid-based insecticide knockdown method (PKC). Discarded tyres yielded the highest number of mosquito larvae 204 (54.84%) but ground pool yielded the highest number of Anopheles mosquito larvae 117 (31.45%). Of 263 adults mosquitoes collected from inside houses, 243 (92.40%) were from houses with ceilings and 20 (7.60%) from houses without ceilings. Of the 3 mosquito species collected indoors, A. gambiae 156 (59.3%), had the highest number with a room density of 5.2 mosquitoes/room/night. Ground water pools sustained by streams, tap overflows and flooding due to heavy rainfall patterns of the area, were the most favourable breeding ground for malaria vectors in the area.Key words: Malaria, Mosquito, Vectors, Ecology, Suburban, Community

Arthropod-Associated Skin Diseases among Occupants of Five Designated Junior Staffs\' Quarters in Owerri and Enugu, Nigeria

A total of 650 residents from 5 designated junior staffs' quarters in Owerri and Enugu, south-eastern Nigeria were visually examined for arthropod-associated skin diseases between May 2005 and June 2006. Overall, 428 (65.8%) were affected, but prevalence differed according to residence (58.74%), gender (65.30%), age-group (64.88%) and crowding index (62.80%). Scabies was observed on about 46% of the affected individuals, followed by Pediculosis (33%), Tungiasis (11%) and Bedbug-related infection (10%). Tungiasis was dependent on residence but independent of gender, age-group and crowding index. Scabies was dependent on residence and age-group but not on gender and crowding index. Pediculosis was dependent on age-group but independent of residence, gender and crowding index (P>0.05). Bedbug-related infection was however dependent on residence but not on gender, age and crowding index. Keywords: Arthropod, Skin diseases, Socio-economic status, ResidentsBio-Research Vol. 6 (2) 2008: pp.359-36

Malaria Prevalence and Indoor-Biting Mosquito Vector Abundance in Ogbunike, Oyi Local Government Area, Anambra State, Nigeria

This paper studies malaria prevalence and the abundance of indoor-bitingmosquito vectors in Ogbunike community, Oyi Local Government Area ofAnambra State, Nigeria between May and September 2010. Blood sampleswere collected from 208 healthy participants (94 males and 114 females)selected from the six villages of the town. Thick and thin blood films weremade, stained with Field’s stains A and B and examined microscopically.Indoor-biting mosquito vectors were collected using Pyrethrum KnockdownCollection method (PKC). Of the 208 participants, 121 (58.2%) weremalaria positives. Considering the intensity of malaria among theparticipants, 86 (71.1%) had mild infection (+), 32 (26.4%) had moderateinfection (++) and 3 (2.5%) had heavy infection (+++). Only Plasmodiumfalciparum was seen. Osile village had the highest prevalence (64.5%) while Umueri had the least prevalence (51.7%). Malaria prevalence amongdifferent villages of the community was statistically significant (8.88, df = 5; p0.05).The age group 61 has the highest malaria prevalence (64.7%), followed by age group of 0-10 (63.2%) while 41-50 had the least (42.9%). The malaria prevalence in relation to age was significant (5.56, df=5; p0.05). Females 73(35.1%) were affected more than the males 48(23.1%) though there was no significant difference (p>0.05). 110 Anopheles gambiae was collected from the six villages of the community with Osile having the highest indoor-biting Anopheles mosquito 24 (21.8%) while Ifite had the least collection 13 (11.8%). There was a positive strong relationship between malaria prevalence and Anopheles abundance in the villages in Ogbunike (r=0.1221684;

Developing SMEs towards environmental businesses: a study of sustainable building energy service companies

As business organisations, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) constantly strive to achieve success in the form of good financial performance, expansion and growth, and positive corporate reputation. However, growing concerns about climate change and other environmental and social issues require companies to have a socio-environmental response as well. The term ‘Environmental Business’ describes the concept of a commercial organisation that provides environmental goods and/or services in such a way that it addresses intended environmental and social problems whilst avoiding the creation of new ones. The built environment is a major location of energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction efforts, and companies are expanding to take advantage of this market. To expand as environmental businesses, these companies need to develop their business capacity whilst minimising environmental and social problems caused by their operations. This requires a significant adjustment of the traditional capacity development process in order for companies to become more environmentally and socially inclined. In order to study this adjustment, research was conducted on SME business organisations that provide sustainable energy services for the built environment. This involved an investigation of these companies’ approach to capacity development in relation to their realisation of being an environmental business. The research first investigated via participant observation and interviews the values, consequences and barriers associated with the development of capacity in this manner. Using these results, scenario planning cases for major capacity development situations were created, and the extent to which companies were willing and able to function as environmental businesses in these scenarios explored. The research findings show that companies that provide sustainable energy services implement environmental business values and practices mainly due to potential economic benefits, rather than out of particular regard for environmental protection and social accountability. Companies were found to view capacity development as a singular, economic-led process. Nevertheless, these companies were found to have latent socio-environmental potential in a number of capacity development activities. To exploit this potential, the research utilises systems modelling to describe how companies can adjust traditional capacity development to become more inclusive of environmental business values and practices. Activities that aid adjustment include the localisation of supply chains, sharing of capacity development to similar organisations through collaboration, and using partnerships in their supply chain that pay similar attention to socio-environmental responsibility. The research proposes that an adjusted capacity development process can be achieved by companies understanding these actions better (e.g. through the use of the systems model produced in the research), thus presenting social and environmental business practices as a strategy, rather than simply as a symbolic, goodwill or publicity gesture

Mechanisms and roles of FLYWCH1 in colorectal cancer

Human colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death in the UK and worldwide. Defects in conserved signalling pathways play key roles in the development of almost all cancers and, in CRCs, over 80% of tumours show hyper-activation of the canonical Wnt signalling pathway. This pathway, through the transcriptional activity of β-catenin (and its binding partner, TCF4), maintains the stem cell compartment of colon and intestinal-crypts as well as cancer-initiating cells. Whilst the role of β-catenin/TCF4 in the development of both normal and neoplastic colon/intestinal tissues is well documented, the molecular basis of these functionally distinct nuclear-transcriptional programs is still under investigation, hence the functional elucidation of nuclear cofactors that interact with nuclear β-catenin contribute to further unravel the mechanisms involved in the β-catenin-mediated nuclear transcription. In addition to LEF/TCFs, interaction of β-catenin with a plethora of other transcriptional co-activators and/or co-repressors remains vital for gene regulation. To this end, our lab have been dedicated to identifying -catenin/TCF4 interacting partner proteins (CIPs) capable of fine-tuning the Wnt-level in CRC cells. Among other CIPs, my proposed project was focused on FLYWCH1, a totally novel protein with a FLYWCH/Zn-finger DNA-binding domain, called “FLYWCH”. Previous data in our lab demonstrated that FLYWCH1 preferentially binds the nuclear/ un-phosphorylated--catenin whilst -catenin is still bound to TCF4 (Muhammed et al., submitted). Muhammed et al., found that FLYWCH1 is able to modulate transcription of many -catenin target genes including the stem cell marker (Lgr5) and genes that are associated with migration and invasion of CRC cells. They also showed that FLYWCH1 mRNA expression is restricted to a subpopulation of tumour cells in both human CRCs and ApcMin model mouse for intestinal cancer via in-situ hybridization (ISH). However, prior to these almost nothing was known about the FLYWCH1. In my research project it was proposed, to build on these advances in FLYWCH1，Wnt and CRC, and to undertake a cell & molecular research program on the role of the FLYWCH1-transcription regulator in potential suppression of colon cancer via direct regulation of microRNAs. However, commercially available FLYWCH1-antibodies worked endogenously only for immunocytochemistry/immunofluorescent (IF), but not for immunohisto-chemistry (IHC) and Western blotting analysis. Here we provide evidences via FLYWCH1 overexpression and shRNA knockdown in cultured fibroblast (TIG119) and CRC cell lines that FLYWCH1 possess tumour suppressor functions mainly by; i) Inhibition of cell migration via modulating actin cytoskeleton re-modelling and stress fibre formation and by targeting E-cadherin suppressor ZEB1. ii) Inhibiting cancer stemness in-vitro (colonosphere assays), by modulating the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway and possibly in a GSK-3β dependent manner. iii) The localization of FLYWCH1 speckled nuclear with splicing factor SC-35 foci, a potential mechanism involved in regulation of miRNA expression.\ud iv) Positively regulating the expression of let-7 miRNA expression via modulating the LIN28A and LIN28B subcellular distribution. We also showed that FLYWCH1 expression is correlated positively with let-7 miRNA expression in primary colorectal cancer samples and matched metastases from patients. While we are currently striving for obtaining substantial knowledge about FLYWCH1 function in-vivo and mechanistic insight into the regulatory circuitry of FLYWCH1/miRNAs, collectively, our data suggest that FLYWCH1 possesses tumour suppressor activity and may exert its influence on cancer cells homeostasis through miRNA regulation

Dental Disorders Among Residents Of Ugbo-Odogwu Escarpment, Udi Hills, Eastern Nigeria

Oral epdemiological assessment of dental dsorders was carried out between Apri and July 2006 among the residents of Ugbo-Odogwu escarpment on Udi Hill near Enugu, Eastern Nigeria. Dental abrasions with prevalence rate o 373 %, attriton (31.3 %), calculus (87.5 %), caries (78.8 %), gngivits (62.6 %), gum recession (53.8 %), halitosis (82.7 %), periodontts (52.6 %), stains (78.6 %) and teeth erosions (24.8 %) were the specific dental disorders observed in the area. Every subject had one form or the other of these oral conditions occurring concomitantly. Gender and age specific prevalence of dental disorders as well as nutritional habits, suspected to play major roles in the initiaton and development of dental disorders in the study populaton were discussed. The result of this study could be used to develop a Management Information System (MIS) for Dental Health Care in Nigeria. It may aso stimulate further research interests in the relationships between dental disorders and the nutritional habits of other communities in the developing world. Keywords: Oral Epidemiology, Dental caries, Oral disorders, Eastern NigeriaAnimal Research International Vol. 3 (3) 2006 pp. 534-53

Damage Caused By the Bean Bruchid, Callosobruchus Maculatus (Fabricius) on Different Legume Seeds on Sale in Awka and Onitsha Markets, Anambra State, South Eastern Nigeria

The damage caused by the bean bruchid, Callosobruchus maculatus(Fabricius) on eight different legume seeds on sale in Awka and Onitshamarkets in Anambra State, Southeastern Nigeria, were studied betweenJanuary and April, 2008. Clean legume seeds purchased from local marketswere screened to remove previous infestations. Laboratory reared strain ofbruchids from local markets were used to infest the legumes. Samples of 200g weights of different legume seeds were artificially infested with the weevils at different male: female ratios. Six different legume seeds out of the eight used were attacked by the weevils. Emergence holes and weight loss were the observed effects to the seeds. The highest number and percentage of exit holes and weight loss were observed in legumes challenged with bruchids at higher male: female ratios