Haemorrhagic Vaginal Discharge Following Ovariectomy in a Three Year Old Domestic Short-haired Cat

Nigerian Veterinary Journal, VOL:33 (1) 403-40

Unsupervised multi-scale change detection from SAR imagery for monitoring natural and anthropogenic disasters

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Radar remote sensing can play a critical role in operational monitoring of natural and anthropogenic disasters. Despite its all-weather capabilities, and its high performance in mapping, and monitoring of change, the application of radar remote sensing in operational monitoring activities has been limited. This has largely been due to: (1) the historically high costs associated with obtaining radar data; (2) slow data processing, and delivery procedures; and (3) the limited temporal sampling that was provided by spaceborne radar-based satellites. Recent advances in the capabilities of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors have developed an environment that now allows for SAR to make significant contributions to disaster monitoring. New SAR processing strategies that can take full advantage of these new sensor capabilities are currently being developed. Hence, with this PhD dissertation, I aim to: (i) investigate unsupervised change detection techniques that can reliably extract signatures from time series of SAR images, and provide the necessary flexibility for application to a variety of natural, and anthropogenic hazard situations; (ii) investigate effective methods to reduce the effects of speckle and other noise on change detection performance; (iii) automate change detection algorithms using probabilistic Bayesian inferencing; and (iv) ensure that the developed technology is applicable to current, and future SAR sensors to maximize temporal sampling of a hazardous event. This is achieved by developing new algorithms that rely on image amplitude information only, the sole image parameter that is available for every single SAR acquisition. The motivation and implementation of the change detection concept are described in detail in Chapter 3. In the same chapter, I demonstrated the technique's performance using synthetic data as well as a real-data application to map wildfire progression. I applied Radiometric Terrain Correction (RTC) to the data to increase the sampling frequency, while the developed multiscaledriven approach reliably identified changes embedded in largely stationary background scenes. With this technique, I was able to identify the extent of burn scars with high accuracy. I further applied the application of the change detection technology to oil spill mapping. The analysis highlights that the approach described in Chapter 3 can be applied to this drastically different change detection problem with only little modification. While the core of the change detection technique remained unchanged, I made modifications to the pre-processing step to enable change detection from scenes of continuously varying background. I introduced the Lipschitz regularity (LR) transformation as a technique to normalize the typically dynamic ocean surface, facilitating high performance oil spill detection independent of environmental conditions during image acquisition. For instance, I showed that LR processing reduces the sensitivity of change detection performance to variations in surface winds, which is a known limitation in oil spill detection from SAR. Finally, I applied the change detection technique to aufeis flood mapping along the Sagavanirktok River. Due to the complex nature of aufeis flooded areas, I substituted the resolution-preserving speckle filter used in Chapter 3 with curvelet filters. In addition to validating the performance of the change detection results, I also provide evidence of the wealth of information that can be extracted about aufeis flooding events once a time series of change detection information was extracted from SAR imagery. A summary of the developed change detection techniques is conducted and suggested future work is presented in Chapter 6

Impact Of Management Functions On Appointment Of Football Referees In Nigeria Premier League

This study investigated impact of management functions on appointment of football referees in Nigeria premier league. The objectives were to examine the relationship between remuneration, recruitment process on appointment of football referee. Descriptive research design of survey type was adopted. The population for this study comprises of all football referees both active and retired. Purposive sampling techniques were used to select 150 respondents. A researcher structured questionnaire was used to gather information for the study. The instrument was validated by experts and tested for reliability through test retest method using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). The administration of instrument was done by the researcher and two trained research assistants. The data collected were analysis using descriptive statistics of percentage to analysed the research questions while inferential statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the formulated hypotheses set for the study at 0.05 alpha level. The result revealed that there was a significant relationship between remuneration and recruitment processes and appointment of football referees in Nigeria premier league. The study therefore recommends that the recruitment and appointment of the referees should be based on merit and their remuneration should be conform with the FIFA standar

Authority as Related to the Milgram Studies

The topic I chose to research was authority as related to the Milgram studies. I chose this topic because of my curiosity about the legitimacy of the Milgram experiment after reading about it and watching several videos of the Milgram experiments. Stanley Milgram was a psychologist at Yale University who carried out the Milgram experiment to address conformity in a domain that self-evidently mattered and, with the Holocaust as his obvious point of reference; he chose the willingness of people to inflict serious physical harm on others. The experiment consisted of a “learner” and a “teacher,” the teacher read out questions to the student who was in another room. For every question the learner answered wrong, the teacher would administer shock voltage and the volts increased up to 450Volts. The ‘Milgram Studies’ measured the willingness of study participants, mostly young Yale students, to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. In his own words, Milgram was looking for a “phenomenon of great consequence” that would make the world sit up and take notice (Reicher, Haslam, and Miller 2014)

Preliminary evaluation of prevalence of hip and elbow dysplasia in Boerboel dogs

Hip dysplasia (HD) and elbow dysplasia (ED) are developmental diseases that affect large breed of dogs disproportionately. Despite the large size of Boerboel dogs, there are no breed prevalence for HD and ED in Nigeria. This study provides preliminary information about HD and ED prevalence in Boerboels. Twenty Boerboels of both sexes were evaluated. Ventrodorsal radiographs of the hip joint and flexed lateral radiographs of elbow joint were made from each dog, using digital technology. Hip grading was done using the Fédération Cynologique Internationale system (World Canine Organization), assigning grades ranging from A - E. Elbow radiographs were graded based on the International Elbow Working Group criteria, and scores ranging from 0-3 were assigned. Prevalence of HD and ED were expressed as percentages. Age and sex difference were compared using a chi square test. Differences were considered significant at P ≤ 0.05. Mean age of the dogs at the time of radiography was 2.4 ± 0.4 years. Seven (35%) Boerboels had normal hips, while thirteen (65%) had HD. Fifteen (75%) Boerboels had normal elbows, while five (25%) had ED. Five (25%) Boerboels with HD were males, while 8 (40%) HD diagnoses were in females. Two (10%) Boerboels with ED were male, while three (15%) were female. There was no significant (p ˃ 0.05) association between the sex and age of the dogs and distribution of HD and ED, or between sex and concurrent presence of HD and ED in Boerboels. In conclusion, HD prevalence in Boerboels (65%) is higher than that of ED. Further research on hip and elbow disease of African large dogs is indicated.Keywords: Boerboel, Dogs, Dysplasia, Elbow, Hip, Prevalence, Radiograph

Effect of surgical and immunological castration on haematological variables, reproductive hormones and ejaculate characteristics in mongrel dogs

Welfare concerns are growing regarding surgical castration (SC) in pets, necessitating the need for non-surgical alternatives. Administration of vaccines against gonadotropins releasing hormone (GnRH) have been reported as alternative to SC. This study determined the effect of surgical and immunological castrations (IC) on complete blood counts, plasma testosterone (T), luteinizing hormone (LH) concentrations and ejaculate characteristics in mongrel dogs. Ten intact male dogs were randomly divided into two groups (A & B). Dogs in group A were surgically castrated, while dogs in group B were immunologically castrated with single subcutaneous injection of GnRH vaccine (Improvac®). Blood and semen were collected before SC or IC and fortnightly until sixteen weeks. Blood was analyzed for packed cell volume (PCV), white blood cell count (WBC), haemoglobin concentration (Hb), absolute neutrophil (NEUT) and lymphocyte counts (LYMP), T and LH. Sperm volume (SV), concentration (C), motility (SM), live-dead ratio (LDR) and percentage of abnormal spermatozoa were determined for the semen. Data were presented as mean ± standard deviation and compared using analysis of variance. The PCV and HB of dogs surgically castrated increased progressively up to16th week after castration but only up to10 weeks in dogs immunologically castrated. Both PCV and HB decreased progressively after 10 weeks in dogs immunologically castrated. Similarly, the WBC of dogs surgically castrated steadily increased from 2 weeks up to week 16, while it increased from 6 weeks up to 16 weeks in dogs immunologically castrated. However, PCV, Hb, WBC, NEUT and LYMP did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) between SC and IC. In both groups, the SV, SC, SM, LDR and percentage of abnormal spermatozoa did not differ significantly. It was therefore concluded that there is no significant haematological or endocrinological changes between surgical and immunological castration and that immunological castration may provide safer alternative.Keywords: Surgical castration, immunosterilization, dogs, GnRH vaccine, Testosterone, Luteinising hormon

Effects of chemical reaction, thermal radiation, internal heat generation, Soret and Dufour on chemically reacting MHD boundary layer flow of heat and mass transfer past a moving vertical plate with suction/injection

In the present analysis, we study the two-dimensional, steady, incompressible electrically conducting, laminar free convection boundary layer flow of a continuously moving vertical porous plate in a chemically reactive medium in the presence of transverse magnetic field, thermal radiation, chemical reaction, internal heat generation and Dufour and Soret effect with suction/injection. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations have been reduced to the coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations by the similarity transformations. The problem is solved numerically using shooting techniques with the sixth order Runge-Kutta integration scheme. Comparison between the existing literature and the present study were carried out and found to be in excellent agreement. The influence of the various interesting parameters on the flow and heat transfer is analyzed and discussed through graphs in detail. The values of the local Nusselt number, Skin-friction and the Sherwood number for different physical parameters are also tabulated. Comparison of the present results with known numerical results is shown and a good agreement is observed

No Work No Food: An Interpretive Analysis of Paul’s Admonition in 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13 in the Context of the Discourse on Religion and Poverty

Linking religion to poverty is not uncommon in the postmodern world. Religious crises, no doubt, are one of the major causes of indescribable suffering and untold hardship in many countries. Ironically, religious people have also been noticed to be happy in the face of poverty, especially, when it is necessitated by their religiosity. For this reason, Marxist philosophy is antagonistic to religion. Marxism argues that religion impoverishes people through its promise of a better place for believers who endure hardship on earth. Religion, Marxists argue, has been used to protect the oppressors while consoling the oppressed. In this regard, religion is described as the opium of the people. This paper agrees with the view that religion can be a spur for poverty. On the other hand, religion can serve as a catalyst for economic development. The second letter of Paul to the Thessalonians 3: 6-13 is interpreted to substantiate these propositions. The paper adopts historicalgrammatical method to interpret the text. The paper points out that some Christians in Thessalonica misunderstood Paul’s teaching about the imminence of the parousia, (that is, second coming of Jesus Christ). Consequently, they abandoned their work while waiting for Jesus to come. This compelled Paul to advocate No-Work-No-Food rule. The submission of this paper is that religious role in human development is ambiguous, depending on how religious adherents understand the teachings of their religions