Use of Maternal Health Services and Pregnancy Outcomes in Nigeria

Maternal health services (MHS) provide primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention to achieve better pregnancy outcomes. However, use of prenatal and natal services among Nigerian women has been ranked among the lowest in the world and, consequently, the country is among the 10 countries with the highest maternal mortality ratio. Moreover, nationwide community-based studies on the use of maternal health services in Nigeria are limited. To address this gap, this quantitative, cross-sectional study analyzed the 2008 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) data to identify whether Nigerian women\u27s biological, cultural, and socioeconomic characteristics are associated with their use of MHS and pregnancy outcome as measured by number of antenatal visits, place of delivery, and fetal outcome. The Anderson\u27s health behavior model was used as the theoretical framework for this study. Respondents were women aged 15 - 49 years (N= 31,985), who had given birth between January 2003 and December 2008. Bivariate and multiple logistic regressions were conducted. The results indicated that religion, education, income, and availability of skilled health workers showed consistent significant statistical association with both the number of ante natal care (ANC) visits and place of delivery even after controlling for covariates. Overall, these findings have potential for social change on the choice of public health interventions with collaboration with social services such as education, community, and labor sectors. Further, a systematic involvement of local communities is needed to drive specific culturally-sensitive interventions

Does female education explain the disparity in the use of antenatal and natal services in Nigeria? Evidence from demographic and health survey data

Background: Nigeria is among the countries with a high number of annual maternal deaths partly due to low utilization of maternal health services (MHS).Objective: This study aimed to explore whether there is an association between women’s level of education and the appropriate use of antenatal and delivery services.Method: A quantitative cross-sectional study was used to analyze the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) data. Information from 33,385 women aged 15 – 49 years was analyzed using Bivariate Pearson Chi square test and multiple logistic regressions.Results: Education is statistically associated with the number of antenatal clinic visits made (AOR = 3.208; CI 2.875 – 3.578; p < .0001) and the place of delivery (AOR = 2.009; CI 1.449 – 2.785; p < .0001) even after controlling for availability of skilled health workers, parity, income, religion, age and distance.Conclusion: A long term investment in girls’ education will improve income, interaction with health care providers, level of autonomy to seek and pay for appropriate MHS and ultimately use of MHS and positive pregnancy outcomes.Keywords: Education, antenatal, delivery, Nigeri

Free Cash Flow and Investment Efficiency of Listed Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

Purpose- This study aims to determine the relationship between free cash flow and investment efficiency of quoted manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Design- An accounting-based model developed by Richardson (2006) was employed to measure investment efficiency and free cash flow. The population of the study consist of all the listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Similarly, the purposive sampling technique was employed to arrive at forty-eight companies for 2008-2018. Findings- The results of the study confirm the agency theory of free cash flow. Hence, it established that there is a positive and robust relationship between free cash flow and overinvestment. Practical Implications- the findings of this study has practical implications to various group of users of financial information such as investors, policymakers and other stakeholders in the listed manufacturing sector in Nigeria. The study recommends that policymakers reduce the cost of debt, and likewise, managers should emphasize the facilitation of equity capital. Originality- To the best of the researcher's knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between free cash flow and investment efficiency in Nigeria

Physical Properties of Porous Pure and Zr/Sn-Doped Nanocrystalline BaTiO3 Ceramics

Polycrystalline BaTiO3 and Ba(Ti0.96SnxZr0.04-x)O3 ceramics (x = 0.02-0.04) were prepared by a combination of solid-state and mechanochemical process and characterized at room temperature by X-ray diffraction for phase composition. Their crystal structures were found to be of the cubic and tetragonal symmetries, respectively. The grain size and porosity which were determined using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and densitometer, respectively showed decrease and increase of relative density respectively, with increase in doping concentration. The variations of dielectric constant and loss with frequency and temperature show a maximum dielectric constant of 1660 at room temperature for Ba(Ti0.96Sn0.03Zr0.01)O3. The remnant polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) of BT were found to be 581.73 V/cm and 0.27 μC/cm2. Increase in Sn content led to an increase in Pr of 0.58, 3.07, 3.73 C/cm2, and Ec of 1766.8, 2855.7, 2661.1 V/cm, respectively and are expected to lead to a significant reduction in the thickness of the multilayer ceramic capacitors. Impedance spectroscopy of polycrystalline Ba (Ti0.96Sn0.02Zr0.02) O3 in a wide frequency and temperature range showed Nyquist plots with presence of grain and grain boundary at 400°C and a negative temperature coefficient of resistance (NTCR) for Ba(Ti0.96Sn0.02Zr0.02)O3. The dielectric relaxation showed a non-Debye character

Enhancing Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks: A Review

Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) is a network of wireless sensors made up of tiny sensor nodes that are capable of sensing, processing, and transmitting information and feedback. These sensor nodes are distributed at random in a sensing environment or sensor field to sense real-world phenomena like heat, moisture, humidity, sound, vibration, etc., and then aggregate and send to the base station (BS). The significance of energy energy-effective routing algorithm has risen, since the energy constrain is the major factor affecting sensor nodes. To control and manage the energy consumption of sensor nodes, a significant number of techniques have been proposed by various scholars. This review paper presents published works that have been proposed for increasing the lifespan of wireless networks at the very beginning of this paper, a brief overview of Wireless networks, its architecture working and the problems associated with it are discussed. After the detailed overview of the approaches that have been presented for overcoming various limitations of current wireless systems. Lastly, in the conclusion of this paper the reviewed results were compared with earlier techniques, the results thus far show a notable improvement in the node mortality rate and network lifetime

Does female education explain the disparity in the use of antenatal and natal services in Nigeria? Evidence from demographic and health survey data.

Background: Nigeria is among the countries with a high number of annual maternal deaths partly due to low utilization of maternal health services (MHS). Objective: This study aimed to explore whether there is an association between women\u2019s level of education and the appropriate use of antenatal and delivery services. Method: A quantitative cross-sectional study was used to analyze the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) data. Information from 33,385 women aged 15 \u2013 49 years was analyzed using Bivariate Pearson Chi square test and multiple logistic regressions. Results: Education is statistically associated with the number of antenatal clinic visits made (AOR = 3.208; CI 2.875 \u2013 3.578; p < .0001) and the place of delivery (AOR = 2.009; CI 1.449 \u2013 2.785; p < .0001) even after controlling for availability of skilled health workers, parity, income, religion, age and distance. Conclusion: A long term investment in girls\u2019 education will improve income, interaction with health care providers, level of autonomy to seek and pay for appropriate MHS and ultimately use of MHS and positive pregnancy outcomes

Comparison of change-points in multivariate statistical process control using the performance of Lapage-type (nonparametric)

The inability of the Shewhart‟s, the EWMA, and the CUSUM, Hotelling‟s T2 and many other control charts to indicate the time of shift poses great problems in production, Medicine, etc. To overcome the problems the need to identify the period of change (shift) in the process becomes inevitable. The study used Lapage-type Change-point (LCP) to detect the simultaneous shift in both mean and variance. In the study we compare the performance of generalized likelihood ratio change-point (GLRCP) a parametric-base with our proposed method (LCP) at different varying start-ups using real life data. We run the data on Normal, Laplace and Lognormal distributions and also Average Run Length (ARL0) to assess the performance of the methods. Evaluating in-control ARLs (IC-ARLs) for each of the methods at change-point 250 and ARL0 500 indicates the same performance irrespective of the start-up value; LCP and GLR methods have rather a similar performance IC-ARLs at change-point 50 and change-point 100 under the normality assumptions, but under non-normal distributions, LCP has substantially higher IC-ARLs compared to GLRCP at 20. The LCP outperformed the GLRCP when applied to children bronchial pneumonia status. We therefore recommend that new method be used in short-run situations and also when underlying distributions are usually unknown

Screening of sweet potato feathery mottle virus resistant sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L., Lam.) cultivars in Kebbi State, Nigeria

Sweet potato is a food security crop because of its ability to withstand adverse climatic conditions. This security, however, is being threaten by viral diseases and use of resistant cultivars remain the best management. This research was conducted to screen cultivars of sweet potato against sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV) infection. The treatments consisted of five cultivars coded as CV1, CV2, CV3, CV4 and CV5, respectively. The asymptomatic experimental plants were established, maintained under screen house conditions and graft-inoculated using infected vines which were tested SPFMV positive using both Double Antibody Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (DAS-ELISA) and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and replicated three times. Results obtained from disease incidence and symptom severity indicated that there was significant difference (P <0.05) among cultivars in their reaction to SPFMV infection. CV2 had the highest mean disease incidence (60.67%) while, CV3 had the lowest mean disease incidence (36.67%). CV1, CV3, and CV5 have the same lowest mean symptom severity score of 2.00 while, CV2 had the highest mean severity score of 4.00. Based on the reaction of the cultivars after inoculation, it could be concluded that, all the cultivars screened were susceptible to SPFMV but CV1, CV3 and CV4 cultivars have some degree of resistance to SPFMV infection and were therefore recommended for use by the farmers in the study area. This is the first research that screened sweet potato cultivars for resistance to SPFMV in Kebbi State, Nigeria

A REVIEW ON SELF-HEALING CONCRETE USING BACTERIA

Recent interests in the field of Bio-technology and Civil Engineering have raised the topics on the precipitation of Calcium Carbonate by certain bacteria strains. The relationship between cracks and possible self-healing techniques; artificial and natural are considered. Importance has been laid on the bio-mineralization process and the mechanism of bacterial concrete. The methods of application of these artificial substances that aid the self-healing process in concrete and the effects of engineered self-healing in concrete are discussed in this review

Aetiology of maternal mortality using verbal autopsy at Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria

Background: Maternal mortality in developing countries is higher than that in developed countries. There are few published articles on the factors associated with maternal deaths in northern Nigeria. Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify the medical causes and factors associated with maternal mortality in Sokoto, northern Nigeria. Method: A verbal autopsy questionnaire was used to interview close relatives of women within the reproductive age group who had died of pregnancy-related complications in theSokoto metropolis during the preceding two years. A multistage sampling method using simple random sampling at each step was used to select areas of study within the Sokoto metropolis. Data analysis was carried out using a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS),version 19, and the Spearman correlation was used to test association. Significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The major causes of death were haemorrhage (48.3%), eclampsia (19%) and prolonged labour (13.8%). The association between maternal mortality and the absence of antenatal booking was significant (p < 0.001); the association between maternal mortality andthe ‘three delays’ was also significant (p = 0.013). The association between maternal mortality and educational status and occupation was, however, not significant (p = 0.687 and p = 0.427respectively). Conclusion: The medical causes of maternal mortality identified in this study were similar to those of the hospital-based studies in the area. In addition, an association between maternal deaths and the ‘three delays’ and the absence of antenatal booking was found. There is a need for public education efforts to address these factors in order to reduce maternal mortality in the study area