Effects of Livelihood Assets on Poverty Status of Farming Households’ in Southwestern, Nigeria

Poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon is determined by a wide range of factors one of which is the non-equity in distribution and scarcity of assets in development opportunities. The eradication of poverty in rural Nigeria remains a hard challenge for the country to overcome despite the various poverty eradication programmes implementation at different levels of government. This study examined the effects of farmers’ household livelihood assets on poverty. Primary data were collected using well structured questionnaire from 135 farming households in Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Foster Greer Theobecke (FGT) weighted poverty index and Logit regression model. The result shows that poverty line (PL) which is the two-third of the respondents’ mean per capita expenditure (PCE) is N1770.40 ($11) with 31.9 percent of the respondents falling below the PL while average PCE equals N2636.12 (about$18). The poverty incidence index was 0.296, poverty depth index is 0.054 and the poverty severity index is 0.015. Socio-economic characteristic like Gender (p<0.1), Human assets such as education (p<0.01), farming experience and health status (p<0.1); Physical assets like land and agricultural machinery ownership (p<0.05); Financial asset like cooperative funding (p<0.05) and Aggregate Social capital (p<0.1) will reduce the poverty status of farming households in Southwestern, Nigeria. Based on the findings of this study, the study recommends that access and use of human capital, financial, physical and social capital assets are important to reduce the poverty status of farming households in Southwestern, Nigeria.poverty, farming household, livelihood assets, Logit, Nigeria, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Security and Poverty,

Effect of Particle Concentration, Sealing Condition and Breathing Rate on Total Inward Leakage for N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators

Several researchers have considered the relationship between total inward leakage (TIL) and other parameters such as sealing condition, particle concentration, type of particulate material breathing parameters, etc., however, there is dearth of information on the effects of varying particle concentration on the penetration efficiency of filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), hence, this study aims to study the effect of varying NaCl particle concentration, sealing condition and breathing rate on the TIL as a result of the filtering efficiency of the filters. To achieve this, we followed the sampling procedure used by He et al., 2014. Four different sealing conditions (SCs) namely; fully sealed, fully opened, chin sealed, and cheek & chin sealed was used. NaCl aerosol particle was used at varying concentration levels of 100,000 (100K), 200,000 (200K) and 400,000 (400K). Also, we used mean inspiratory flow rates of 15LPM, 30LPM, 55LPM and 85LPM which we refer to as breathing rate throughout this study. Visual presentation of result was done with Python 3.8 and data analysis was carried out using R version 3.6.0 (2019-04-26). The statistical model statement follows the equation TILSC = βo + β1B + β2C + β3BC + £. where B is the breathing rate at the 4 MIF, 15, 30, 55, and 85; C is concentration and BC is the interaction between Breathing flow rate and the concentration. TILsc is the total inward leakage at the different sealing conditions The result shows that the variables have effect on the TIL for both fully opened and cheek and chin sealed condition with or without interaction between the variables at 0.05 confidence level. For fully sealed and chin sealed condition, the variables have no significant effect on the mean TIL response when interaction between variables was considered and when interaction between variables was not considered. In conclusion, there is statistically significance difference for mean TIL response with the change in sealing conditions, varying concentrations of NaCl particle and breathing rates. This study showed that in studying the effect of varying NaCl particle concentration, sealing conditions and breathing rate on the TIL, it is only under both fully opened and cheek and chin sealed conditions that the mean TIL response is significantly affected by the factors in consideration. Hence, workers should not expose their nose region at any time to prevent exposure

Determinants of Credit Constraint Conditions and Production Efficiency Among Farming Households in Southwestern Nigeria

Sustaining and improving production efficiency of resource poor smallholder farmers under the existing credit constraint conditions require the improvement of access to credit facilities and other factors involved. The study examined the factors influencing credit constraint (CC) and production efficiency of farming households in Oyo State, Nigeria. Primary data was randomly collected using structured questionnaire from 120 mixed farmers in the study area. Data was analyzed using descriptive analysis, probit regression and stochastic frontier analysis. The results shows that 79.2 percent of the respondents were credit constrained and this has negative influence on their production efficiency as credit constrained farming households (CCFH) were found to be less efficient with mean efficiency of 0.721 than unconstrained farming households with 0.913. Age, gender, education, and dependency ratio of farmers are significant variables that influenced credit constraint conditions of the farmers while the maximum likelihood estimate of the production frontier revealed that farm size, labour and quantity of agro-chemical used are positively and significantly related to the production efficiency of farmers. Given the largest proportion of CCFHs among farming population in South-Western Nigerian, this gap implies considerable potential loss in output due to inefficient production. Improving credit access of farming households in general but more particularly the CCFHs is desirable for higher production efficiency.Credit constraint, Production efficiency, Farming households, stochastic frontier, Nigeria, Agricultural Finance,

Evaluation of selected parameters of rat liver and kidney function following repeated administration of yohimbine.

The effects of administration of yohimbine, an aphrodisiac on some functional parameters of rat liver and kidney were investigated. White male albino rats weighing between 200-250g were grouped into two such that one group was orally administered with 14mg/kg body weight on daily basis for 15days while the control received an appropriate volume of sterile distilled water on daily basis for the same period. Bilirubin concentration in the test showed a significant decrease (P&lt;0.01) when compared with the control, with an interruption of a significant increase only on day 5 of administration (P&lt;0.01). Sodium ion concentration showed significant increase only on the first and the last days when compared with the control (P&lt;0.01). The serum albumin content and K+ displayed significant increase throughout the experimental period (P&lt;0.01) while serum content of urea and creatinine decreased significantly throughout the period of administration (P&lt;0.01). The results suggest that yohimbine administration has adverse affect on the functional capacities of the liver and the kidney.Key words: Functional parameters, Kidney, Liver, Yohimbin

The Influence Of Perceived Occupational Stress On The Organizational Citizenship Behaviour Of Bankers In Ikeja, Lagos State

This study explored the influence of perceived occupational stress on organizational citizenship behaviour among bankers. A simple random sampling technique was used to select three hundred (300) participants (M=135; F=165) from twelve (12) banks in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. Data for the study were collected using Job Stress Scale (JSS) and Organizational Citizenship behaviour Checklist (OCBC). The data was analysed using Pearson correlation, and t-test. The results revealed that there is no significant difference between the organizational citizenship behaviour of bankers with higher stress levels and that of bankers with lower stress levels. This implies that bankers’ reactions to Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) are not a function of stress levels. The study however confirms an inverse relationship between stress and Organizational citizenship Behaviour. The findings of the study reveal that there is no significant difference between the Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) of male and female bankers. Finally, the findings reveal that older bankers between age 41 and 50 years expressed higher levels of organizational citizenship behaviour than younger bankers between 31 and 40 years. The implications of these findings substantiate the importance of having organizational psychologists in banks to assess and enhance variables that can promote helping behaviours which is the key to better work outcomes and accomplishment of organizational objectives

Delivery of broadband services to SubSaharan Africa via Nigerian communications satellite

Africa is the least wired continent in the world in terms of robust telecommunications infrastructure and systems to cater for its more than one billion people. African nations are mostly still in the early stages of Information Communications Technology (ICT) development as verified by the relatively low ICT Development Index (IDI) values of all countries in the African region. In developing nations, mobile broadband subscriptions and penetration between 2000-2009 was increasingly more popular than fixed broadband subscriptions. To achieve the goal of universal access, with rapid implementation of ICT infrastructure to complement the sparsely distributed terrestrial networks in the hinterlands and leveraging the adequate submarine cables along the African coastline, African nations and their stakeholders are promoting and implementing Communication Satellite systems, particularly in Nigeria, to help bridge the digital hiatus. This paper examines the effectiveness of communication satellites in delivering broadband-based services

The Exchange Rate Risk and Financial Sector Performance: Evidence from Nigeria

This article looked at the connection between exchange rate risk and financial sector performance in Nigeria using time series data from 2008Q1 to 20017Q4. The study employed Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH), and Granger Causality tests as estimation techniques. Financial intermediation index was used as the dependent variable while risk from exchange rate, risk from consumer price index and risk from interest rate were used as the independent variables. The findings from the study showed that exchange rate risk (EXR) coefficient value was -0.276230 with p-value of 0.0000, implying that EXR was negative and significant to influence FII. The risk from financial intermediation index reveals a coefficient value of -5.213590 and the p-value of 0.000 implying that when financial intermediation index increases, volatility or risk reduces which means that financial intermediation index was not a risky variable which was significant during the study period. However, the study concluded that the shock from exchange rate moves at a negative and significant direction to financial intermediation index of the economy. It is also concluded that exchange rate and financial intermediation index does not have uni or bi-directional relationships between each other. It is recommended that the Government and the Apex Bank of Nigeria are encouraged to increase the stabilization measurement for exchange rate to cushion its risk and by so doing; this could improve financial sector performance

Assessment of Nutritional and Microbiological Properties of Biscuit Supplemented With Moringa Oleifera Seed Protein Concentrate

The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of Moringa oleifera seed protein concentrate supplementation on the nutritional composition of biscuit. Biscuit was supplemented with M. oleifera seed protein concentrate at 2, 4 and 6% and evaluated for the proximate composition, amino acid profile, mineral element composition, microbiological properties and sensory qualities. The proximate composition result showed that the biscuits contained: 8%, 58.92%, 6.45%, 0.32%, 0.97% and 26.32% moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, ash and carbohydrate, respectively. The essential amino acids were lysine (6.57%), leucine (6.02%), tryptophan (5.23%), valine (5.20%), phenylalanine (4.25%), threonine (4.10%), histidine (4.03%), isoleucine (3.34%) and methionine (2.94%). The proximate composition results showed a slight but progressive increase in crude protein content due to the supplementation while the overall quality acceptability did not show any statistically significant difference among the biscuit samples. The microbiological result also revealed that the biscuits were safe and the level of detection were within the safe range for baked products. It was concluded that supplementation of biscuit with M. oleifera seed protein concentrate is safe and the consumption of the biscuits may support growth and development of children who are the major consumers

Discrete adjoint for coupled conjugate heat transfer

The typical method to solve multi-physics problems such as Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) is the partitioned approach which couples separate solvers through boundary conditions. Effective gradient-based optimisation of partitioned CHT problems requires the adjoint of the coupling to maintain the efficiency of the original multi-physics coupling, which is a significant challenge. The use of automatic differentiation (AD) has the potential to ease this burden and leads to generic gradient computation methods. In this paper, we present how to automate the generation of adjoint fluid and solid solvers for a CHT adjoint using Automatic Differentiation (AD). The derivation of the adjoint of the loose coupling algorithms is shown for three fixed-point coupling algorithms. Application of the coupled adjoint algorithm is shown to two CHT optimisation benchmark cases for inverse design and shape optimisation. The results demonstrate that Robin-based coupling algorithms have faster runtimes and are an attractive option for CHT optimisation problems