African Indigenous Religions as a Catalyst for Social and Economic Development

African indigenous religion is the religion that sums up the total life of Africa in politics economy social life and medical system Africa as a whole and Nigeria in particular is endowed with religious tourist centres and rich cultural heritage that could no doubt be centres of attraction for foreigners like Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem where people around the globe travel to for religious worship Though Nigeria claims to be a secular state religion permeates and plays significant roles in the citizens social conduct and in choosing political leaders Although much had been written on African indigenous religion there have been scanty works on how religion can be used as a tool for the overall development and to engender good governance Therefore this study shall explore how indigenous religion can be used to curtail some of our social and political vices for the development of Nigeria Given the vast size of Africa as a continent specific attention is given to Nigeria and the scope limited to the Yoru ba nation The study adopts qualitative method of research with oral interview as tool for data collection Twenty priests of indigenous religion and 20 worshipers purposively selected were interviewed given their vast knowledge as custodians of the religion Findings of this study provided insights on how African indigenous religion can be used to stimulate social and economic development not only in Nigeria but also across Afric

Responsible conduct of Research: Concept and Issues in Authorship

In scholarly publication, authorship defines the roles played by an individual or a member of a team in creating and circulating an original work. It is therefore important to clearly understand who deserves to be an author in a publication. Also, the order or position of authors in a scholarly publication often leads to conflict among members of research teams. This is not helped by the advent of more technical reward systems for promotion, tenure and grants in many institutions, some of which give advantage to the position of some authors. In this paper, some common issues on authorship and peer review processes are discusse

Influence of the use of Social-Media and Exposure to Pornography on the Sexual Behaviour of youths in selected tertiary institutions in Southwest Nigeria

Exposure to pornography is fraught with health and social implications. In Nigeria, there is a dearth of information on how youths have been exposed to pornography on social media (SM) and the effects of this on their sexual behaviors (SB). This study described the pattern of SM use, exposure to pornography, and the effects of this exposure on SB of young persons in southwest Nigeria. Two hundred students were randomly selected from two tertiary institutions. Data were collected using a pre-tested questionnaire that explored the respondents’ SM usage pattern, exposure to pornography, and SB. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and logistic regression. The mean age of respondents was 21.4±2.7. The SM in which most of the respondents had accounts were WhatsApp (96.7%) and Facebook (95.3%). Major sexual-related activities undertaken on SM included watching/downloading naked pictures (7.0%) and sex videos (13.5%). A majority (92.5%) of the respondents have been inadvertently exposed to pornography, and the major sources of this exposure were SM (59.3%) and web-based Internet pages (61.5%). While only 68.0% have been intentionally exposed, the major sources of exposure were SM (42.3%) and web-based Internet pages (53.3%). About half (48.5%) have experienced sexual intercourse, out of which 17.5% reported having multiple sexual partners. Recent inadvertent (OR: 4.5, 95%CI: 1.25-16.4) and intentional (OR: 2.3, 95% CI: 1.2-4.8) exposure to pornography were significantly associated with the experience of sexual intercourse. Likewise, recent intentional pornography exposure was significantly associated with having multiple sexual partners (OR: 3.0, 95%CI: 1.1-8.6). SM use with exposure to pornography had notable effects on SB of young persons. Effective interventions should be conducted to reduce this exposure and its associated effects among the target population

Mechanical and Microstructural Characteristics of Rice Husk Reinforced Polylactide Nano Composite

The application of polylactides in tissue engineering is attracting significant interest. Using renewable; low cost; health and environmental friendly agro waste as reinforcement in electrospun polylactide nano composite fibres reduces the need for petroleum based fillers and enhances the strength of polylactides. In this paper, the morphological, mechanical and water permeability properties of electrospun treated and untreated rice- husk reinforced polylactide- nano- composite fibres are presented. The treated rice- husk particulates were ground, subjected to steam explosion and chemical treatment to remove its lignin and hemi-cellulose contents so as to increase the crystallinity of the filler. The addition of 4wt. and 6 wt. % untreated rice- husk filler increased the tensile strength by 95% and 43% respectively. Young’s modulus, fracture stress, water permeability and other properties are also enhanced. This work shows that; the mechanical properties and biodegradability of scaffolds for tissue engineering can be improved by reinforcing polylactide with rice-husk instead of petroleum- based polymeric- nano- fiber composites

INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS EFFECT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE

This paper has attempted infrastructural development and its effect on economic growth: The Nigerian perspective. In Nigeria under investment in infrastructural development could be a bane to her vision of becoming a top 20 economy by the year 2020. Despite her economic growth over the years, this has not translated to economic development due to lack of infrastructure, high poverty rate, unemployment etc. The methodology adopted for this paper is a simple model of an economy with foreign investment and public infrastructure with a diversified equilibrium where the model is used to examine the impact of increased labor on production of private goods, public infrastructure, foreign investment, welfare and complete specialization. The paper went on further to advice the nation on measures to take to accelerate economic development, as economic growth alone is not enough

Wetland Health in Two Agro-Ecological Zones of Lesotho: Soil Physico-Chemical Properties, Nutrient Dynamics and Vegetation Isotopic N¹⁵

Monitoring is essential to evaluate the effects of wetland restoration projects. Assessments were carried-out after 6 years of restoration efforts on a wetland located in two agro-ecological zones (AEZ): the Mountains agro-ecological zone–Khalongla-lithunya (KHL) and the Foot Hills–Ha-Matela (HM). The former was under conservation and the latter non-conserved. Mini-pits were dug along transects for soil sampling. Runoff water was collected from installed piezometers into pre-rinsed plastic bottles with de-ionized water once a month for between 3 and 6 months. Soil and water samples were analyzed in the laboratory for Ca, Mg, K, Na, total nitrogen, and phosphorus, and soil samples were further analyzed for Cu, Fe, Zn, and Mn and vegetation isotopic N15. Water quality, soil organic matter (SOM), carbon pools, base cations, ratios (silt:clay & SOM:silt clay), texture, and N-15 isotopes were chosen as indicators. Results showed that base cations were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the groundwater and soils of KHL wetlands compared with those from the HM. The soils of the KHL wetlands have higher (p < 0.05) clay, silt contents, SOM, and silt clay ratios compared with the HM. Furthermore, results of the N15 isotopes were between 2.52 and 2.93% (KHL) compared with 2.00 and 6.18% (HM). Similarly, the results of the δ13C showed significant negative values at KHL (28.13–28%) compared with HM (11.77–12.72%). The study concludes that after five years of rehabilitating the KHL wetlands, the soil indicators showed that restoration efforts are positive compared with the HM wetlands that are non-conserved

Technology in Massachusetts Schools, 2004-2005

BACKGROUND:ATCC HIV-1 drug resistance test kit was designed to detect HIV-1 drug resistance (HIVDR) mutations in the protease and reverse transcriptase genes for all HIV-1 group M subtypes and circulating recombinant forms. The test has been validated for both plasma and dried blood spot specimen types with viral load (VL) of ≥1000 copies/ml. We performed an in-country assessment on the kit to determine the genotyping sensitivity and its accuracy in detecting HIVDR mutations using plasma samples stored under suboptimal conditions. METHODS:Among 572 samples with VL ≥1000 copies/ml that had been genotyped by ViroSeq assay, 183 were randomly selected, including 85 successful genotyped and 98 unsuccessful genotyped samples. They were tested with ATCC kits following the manufacturer's instructions. Sequence identity and HIVDR patterns were analysed with Stanford University HIV Drug Resistance HIVdb program. RESULTS:Of the 183 samples, 127 (69.4%) were successfully genotyped by either method. While ViroSeq system genotyped 85/183 (46.5%) with median VL of 32,971 (IQR: 11,150-96,506) copies/ml, ATCC genotyped 115/183 (62.8%) samples with median VL of 23,068 (IQR: 7,397-86,086) copies/ml. Of the 98 unsuccessful genotyped samples with ViroSeq assay, 42 (42.9%) samples with lower median VL of 13,906 (IQR: 6,122-72,329) copies/ml were successfully genotyped using ATCC. Sequence identity analysis revealed that the sequences generated by both methods were >98% identical and yielded similar HIVDR profiles at individual patient level. CONCLUSION:This study confirms that ATCC kit showed greater sensitivity in genotyping plasma samples stored in suboptimal conditions experiencing frequent and prolonged power outage. Thus, it is more sensitive particularly for subtypes A and A/G HIV-1 in resource-limited settings

Mechanical characteristics of groundnut shell particle reinforced polylactide nano fibre

ABSTRACT The PLA-groundnut shell solution is electrospun to produce nanocomposite fibre. The spinneret containing the composite solution was placed 24.7 cm away from the aluminium collector, tilted at an angle of 30 °, and the solution flow rate kept at 1 mL/min. Groundnut Shell particle (GSP) weight fraction used was varied from 3 - 8 wt. %. Particle reinforced nanofibres were formed on the collector from the composite solution at 26 kV. These nanofibres were subjected to tensile test and the result indicates that at 6 wt. % untreated GSP reinforced fibre possessed the best tensile stiffness of 24.62 MPa. This corresponds to 2.201 % increase in Modulus of Elasticity over the unreinforced PLA (1.07 MPa). The 7 wt. % treated GSP fibre showed the least stiffness (0.33 MPa), which is 69 % reduction over that of unreinforced fibre. PLA fibre reinforced with 5 wt. % untreated GSP displayed best blend of properties over the unreinforced with increase of 286 % (4.43 x 10-4 HB), 1,502 % (1.07 MPa), 286 % (0.22 MPa), 6.8 % (0.05 J) and 1,081 % (~ 0.15 MPa) in hardness, stiffness, UTS, energy at break and stress at break respectively. However, ductility decreased by ~33.3 % when compared to the unreinforced (18.27). The 5 wt. % untreated GSP PLA reinforced fibre showed the highest UTS (0.855 MPa). The micrographs showed beads on reinforced fibres, while the virgin PLA showed no beads

Inhibition of neuroinflammation in BV2 microglia by the biflavonoid kolaviron is dependent on the Nrf2/ARE antioxidant protective mechanism

Kolaviron is a mixture of bioflavonoids found in the nut of the West African edible seed Garcinia kola, and it has been reported to exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activities. In this study, we investigated the effects of kolaviron in neuroinflammation. The effects of kolaviron on the expression of nitric oxide/inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)/cyclooxygenase-2, cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the pro-inflammatory cytokines were examined in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated BV2 microglial cells. Molecular mechanisms of the effects of kolaviron on NF-B and Nrf2/ARE signalling pathways were analysed by immunoblotting, binding assay, and reporter assay. RNA interference was used to investigate the role of Nrf2 in the anti-inflammatory effect of kolaviron. Neuroprotective effect of kolaviron was assessed in a BV2 microglia/HT22 hippocampal neuron co-culture. Kolaviron inhibited the protein levels of NO/iNOS, PGE2/COX-2, cellular ROS and the proinflammatory cytokines (TNFα and IL-6) in LPS-stimulated microglia. Further mechanistic studies showed that kolaviron inhibited neuroinflammation by inhibiting IB/NF-B signalling pathway in LPS-activated BV2 microglia. Kolaviron produced antioxidant effect in BV2 microglia by increasing HO-1 via the Nrf2/ antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway. RNAi experiments revealed that Nrf2 is need for the anti-inflammatory effect of kolaviron. Kolaviron protected HT22 neurons from neuroinflammation-induced toxicity. Kolaviron inhibits neuroinflammation through Nrf2-dependent mechanisms. This compound may therefore be beneficial in neuroinflammation-related neurodegenerative disorders

Predictive Value of Fever and Palmar Pallor for P. falciparum Parasitaemia in Children from an Endemic Area

INTRODUCTION: Although the incidence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa is reported to decline and other conditions, causing similar symptoms as clinical malaria are gaining in relevance, presumptive anti-malarial treatment is still common. This study traced for age-dependent signs and symptoms predictive for P. falciparum parasitaemia. METHODS: In total, 5447 visits of 3641 patients between 2-60 months of age who attended an outpatient department (OPD) of a rural hospital in the Ashanti Region, Ghana, were analysed. All Children were examined by a paediatrician and a full blood count and thick smear were done. A Classification and Regression Tree (CART) model was used to generate a clinical decision tree to predict malarial parasitaemia a7nd predictive values of all symptoms were calculated. RESULTS: Malarial parasitaemia was detected in children between 2-12 months and between 12-60 months of age with a prevalence of 13.8% and 30.6%, respectively. The CART-model revealed age-dependent differences in the ability of the variables to predict parasitaemia. While palmar pallor was the most important symptom in children between 2-12 months, a report of fever and an elevated body temperature of ≥37.5°C gained in relevance in children between 12-60 months. The variable palmar pallor was significantly (p<0.001) associated with lower haemoglobin levels in children of all ages. Compared to the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) algorithm the CART-model had much lower sensitivities, but higher specificities and positive predictive values for a malarial parasitaemia. CONCLUSIONS: Use of age-derived algorithms increases the specificity of the prediction for P. falciparum parasitaemia. The predictive value of palmar pallor should be underlined in health worker training. Due to a lack of sensitivity neither the best algorithm nor palmar pallor as a single sign are eligible for decision-making and cannot replace presumptive treatment or laboratory diagnosis