The Role of Private Extension Agencies in Agricultural Development of Kaduna State, Nigeria: A Case Study of Leventis Foundation Agricultural Training School

The study was conducted to study the contributions of Leventis Foundation Agricultural Training School (LFATS) Dogon Dawa to the advancement of agricultural development in Kaduna State of Nigeria.  Participants and non-participants of the school were selected using multistage sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were used to analyze data. Farming in the study area was found to be gender specific. However, the participants were more educated, with less farming experience than the non participants. Livestock production and bee keeping; crop production and agro-forestry; and farm product processing and utilization were ranked as areas in which the participants have been adequately trained.   T-test results revealed that there was a significant difference between the yields of the participants and that of the non-participants. These results helped to establish that being trained by LFATS could help farmers in ensuring that higher yields are obtained from their agricultural enterprises. Thus, this study concludes that LFATS is playing an important role in agricultural advancement and youth empowerment in Kaduna state through the skills acquired in its training programmes and recommends that other governmental and non governmental agencies could embark on such. Keywords: Private Extension, Agricultural Development, Leventis Foundatio

Prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of AmpC and ESBLs producing clinical isolates at a tertiary health care center in Kano, north-west Nigeria

The increase in production of Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase (ESBL) and Amp C beta lactamase among clinical isolates in our hospitals is of utmost importance. Failure to detect these enzymes in many of our hospitals has greatly led to treatment failure and uncontrolled spread of multi drug resistant pathogens. It was for this purpose that the present study was conducted to determine the prevalence, distribution and susceptibility pattern of Gram negative bacteria producing ESBLs and Amp C beta lactamases in the largest tertiary health care provider in Kano, North-West Nigeria. A total of 75 ESBL and 10 AmpC producing bacteria were involved in the study which were obtained from a study involving 500 Gram negative clinical bacterial isolates from various hospital wards over a period of 9 months from Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, Nigeria. Isolates were screened for ESBLs and AmpC using Double Disc Diffusion Method and Amp C Disc test respectively. All confirmed ESBL and Amp C producing isolates were tested for susceptibility to sixteen (16) different antibiotics by the Disc Diffusion Method (DDM). The prevalence of ESBLs was high in Shigella spp. (1/2 or 50%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (10/50 or /20%), and E. coli (47/247 or 19.3%) while Amp C producers were detected more in Klebsiella pneumoniae (4%) and E. coli (2.8%). Of the specimens screened, distribution varies between ESBL and AmpC producers, but more prevalent in urinary tract pathogens in both. Highest prevalence of ESBLs and AmpC producers was recorded in intensive care units and surgical wards. ESBL and AmpC production in the hospital is not sex dependent statistically, thought higher in males (52 and 60%) than in females (48 and 40%) for ESBL and AmpC respectively. ESBL and AmpC producers were both sensitive to Imipenem, Nitrofurantoin and Levofloxacin and resistance to Amoxycillin, Ceftazidime and Tetracycline. The study indicates the occurrence of ESBL and AmpC producers in our tertiary health provider, widely distributed in various clinical samples, wardsand sexes and are multi drug resistant posing serious threat in managing life threatening infections.Key words: prevalence, distribution, ESBL producers, Amp C producers, antibiotic susceptibilit

Corrosion study of pipeline material for seabed sediment in tropical climate

Corrosive environments such as marine sediments can cause corrosion to steel pipelines at any time when certain conditions are met. Seabed sediment could cause severe corrosion damage due to its corrosiveness to the pipelines buried under it. Many consequences could take place in case if there is incident in oil/gas pipelines. Successfully identifying elements of corrosion in marine sediment would enhance the future of steel structure protection and monitoring systems. This article focuses on the behaviour of corrosion rate of steel located near shore environment and the aim is to determine the effect of sediment on corrosion of steel. To investigate that, simulated near shore sediment conditions have been used where the steel coupons buried in sediments which have different characteristics. Weight loss technique has been implemented to determine the weight loss rate of the steel specimens. Based on the results of this study, metal weight loss increases as the duration of exposure to seabed sediment environment become longer. The sea sediment simulated condition has given significant levels of corrosion. Conclusively, the corrosion rate of steel in seabed sediment located in tropical region is complicated and further studies are suggested

Decision making in management of proximal fifth metatarsal fracture: a short review

Fifth metatarsal bone fracture is one of the most commonest fractures of the foot. The decision for surgical or conservative approach is still inconclusive. Scoring system, decision analysis model and classification system are established to weigh between surgical and conservation approaches. Its unique anatomy and surgical complication influence decision on optimal surgical approach. Therefore, the present review attempts to look at factors that might influence decision making in management of fifth metatarsal fracture

Evaluation of layer type chickens under reciprocal recurrent selection

Matings within pure male and female lines, and between pure male and female lines were carried out to produce purebred male line (AA x AA), female line (BB x BB), cross (AA x BB) and reciprocal cross (BB x AA). A total number of 364 pullets arising from 207 hens and 23 cocks in generation 1 and 440 pullets from 70 hens and 10 cocks in generation 2 under selection were monitored in individual cage units for part period of egg production up to 280 days of age. Parameters considered were age at sexual maturity (ASM), body weight at 20 and 40 weeks of age (BW 20 and BW40), egg weight average (EWTAV) and egg production up to 280 days (Egg 280). A nonsignificant difference among purebreds but a significant difference (

Bacterial meningitis in pregnancy, neonate and adolescence: A report of five cases

Background: Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the thin covering of the brain and spinal cord.Objective: This case study identifies the aetiology and the antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial agents in suspected samples of acute meningitis.Methods: The bacterial agents were detected by culture, Bactec 9050, Directgen and Gram Techniques from five patients of Makoda and Tudun Wada Primary Health care (PHC) facilities as well as Hasiya Bayero Paediatric Hospital (HBPH) that were presented to Microbiology Laboratory unit of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) – a tertiary hospital located within the meningitis belt of Nigeria. Among the five cases, three werepregnant women all in their second trimesters marked patients 1, 2 and 3 according to the increasing pattern of their ages, an adolescent marked patient 4 and a neonate marked patient 5.Results: The CSF sample of the respective patients was assayed for pus cell, protein, and RBC. The Directgen detected Haemophillus influenzae from patients 1 and same organism was isolated from patient 2. Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from patient 3 and Neisseria meningitidis from patients 4 and 5 respectively. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing reveals sensitivity to penicillin and gentamicin by H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae and N. meningitidis. N. Meningitidis and S. pneumoniae were sensitive to ceftriazone, ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin. All the three organisms displayed intermediate sensitivity to chloramphenicol, erythromycin and tetracycline according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) breakpoints.Conclusion: This study demonstrates the relevance of these agents as potential pathogens in the predisposed patients. The antimicrobial sensitivity depicted high sensitivity to the various classes of antibiotics

Burden of intestinal helminths among patients attending General Hospital Wudil in Kano State north western Nigeria

Background: Infection with parasitic helminths is often recognized as one of the most important public health problems in tropical Africa. Aim: This study is aimed at determining the prevalence of intestinal helminths among rural and semi urban communities (with no treated pipe borne water) attending Wudil General Hospital, Kano, Nigeria. Methods: Stool samples were collected from patients and processed using formol ether concentration technique. Results: Out of the 200 stool samples examined, the overall intestinal helminthes prevalence was 138(69.0%). Of these Ancylostoma duodenale had the prevalence rate of 38(19.0%), Strongyloides stercoralis 22(11.0%), Ascaris lumbricoides 28(14.0%), Schistosoma mansoni 26(13.0%), and Trichuris trichiura 24(12.0%). On the basis of gender, males had the highest infestation of 84(60.9%) compared to females 54(39.1%). Infection across age groups revealed that age group of 10-19 had the highest prevalence of helminths 45(32.6%) followed by 20-29 with 33(23.9%) while the least was in the age group of 50-59 with 11(8.0%). Patients that had no toilet facilities (that use open space) were the most infected 123(89.1%), while patients that use closed water system in the semi urban communities had the minimum infection rate of 3(2.2%). Conclusion: The study indicated very high occurrence of intestinal helminthiasis among the study population which stress the need for government efforts to promote and/ or sustain proper sanitation and good water supply

Evaluation on knowledge extraction and machine learning in resolving Malay word ambiguity

The involvement of linguistic professionals in resolving the ambiguity of a word within a particular context will produce a concise meaning of the words that are found in the lexical knowledge based collection. Motivated from that issue, we employed lexical knowledge and machine learning approach which includes the integration of data or/and information from the lexical knowledge based, that is Malay collections which linked to the ambiguous words. We used the most open class word and removed the stop words from the targeted sentences. Experiments have been conducted with and without lexical knowledge on 50 ambiguous words. The Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) method is determined by machine learning, corpus based approaches namely Malay-Malay corpus and English-Malay corpus. The results show that the proposed method has improved the precision in resolving ambiguity.Keywords: ambiguity; lexical knowledge; machine learning; Malay wor

Software Process Model for Dynamic Website Development towards Quality Product

Most sectors today, such as industries, banking, travel, education, and government, are moving towards the web as an improvement and enhancement to their businesses and services. Dynamic websites, which are considered as one type of web applications, should follow systematic and sound software development methodology to achieve quality and standard of the product. However, previous studies have revealed that many websites which are available on the Internet do not fulfil the quality requirements to be considered as a successful quality website. This study investigates the current issues in dynamic website development including the methodology, quality attribute, and the process for dynamic website development in order to achieve quality website. This work also determines factors that motivate developers to follow sound methodology in developing the dynamic websites and the barriers of not following one. Lastly, this paper presents the development of the software process model for dynamic website development that aim is to ensure the quality of the website as a good software product. The proposed model is developed based on findings from the empirical study conducted that involves software developers and practitioners as the respondents

Challenges facing Administrators of Public Secondary Schools in Nigeria and the Way Forward

Secondary school education is the education that offered post-primary school education. It is the education that prepares the student for career choice in life. The public secondary school are handled by administrators in Nigeria who oversees the administration and ensure the aims and objectives of the schools are realized. It has been observed that these public secondary school administrators are facing many challenges. This article discusses the challenges facing administrators of public secondary schools in Nigeria. We adopted secondary data to provide empirical fact to support every point raised in the paper. The secondary data were sorted online and through print materials. The paper identified: inadequate funding, inadequate infrastructural facilities, poor capacity building programme, shortage of professional teachers, inadequate ICT facilities, shortage of instructional resources, insecurity and poor supervision as challenges facing the public secondary school administrators in Nigeria. Increasing in the funding of public secondary schools were among the recommendations given in this paper for the effective administration of the public secondary schools by the administrators