Potential of Mentoring in Theological Seminaries

The goal of theological education is to prepare students for their careers. It does not stop there, however; a further goal of theological education is to enable students to live lives of purpose—thus not only to transfer knowledge to students, but also to channel knowledge into meaningful Christian service. Making connections between faith, living and learning is thus a primary purpose of theological education. These necessary connections are made between faculty, staff and students by establishing and maintaining mentoring relationships. Hence, this article considers the prospects of mentoring in theological seminaries with the aim of challenging seminaries to revisit the use of mentoring in the preparation of students

Impact of Uncorrected Presbyopia on the Quality of Life in Rural Gwagwalada, Nigeria

Background: Few population based surveys have been done to assess the magnitude of presbyopia in developing countries and even fewer studies have found an impact on vision related quality of life in the developing world. The aim of this study is to determine the Impact of Presbyopia amongadults aged 40 years and above in Rural Gwagwalada, Abuja, Nigeria.Methodology: The study was an analytical cross sectional study design.Participants underwent distance and near visual acuity testing including refractionto determine if they had presbyopia. A pretested interviewer administered near vision questionnaire was used to determine the self reported difficulty with near vision related tasks in rural Abuja, Nigeria.Results: Presbyopes were more likely than non-Presbyopes to require help from others due to poor vision, to report having problems with family due to poor vision and to report not being satisfied with general health. (P<0.001). Presbyopes were more likely than nonpresbyopes to report moderate to severe difficulty with near vision tasks. (P < 0.001). Presbyopes reported three times the rates of dependency due to vision compared with non-presbyopes.Female presbyopes compared to males presbyopes were more likely to report having problems with family (30.7% vs. 8.3%, P <0.001).Females were also more likely to report having felt looked down upon (40.0% vs. 17.4%, P <0.001),Conclusion: This study shows that uncorrected presbyopia substantially impacts on vision related quality of life in Rural Gwagwaladaand efforts should be made towards provision of good quality, affordable and readily accessible spectacles to rural settings in Nigeria

The Effects of Land Configuration and Wood-Shavings Mulch on the Properties of a Sandy Loam Soil in Northeast Nigeria. 2. Changes in Physical Properties

Mulching and ridge tillage are proven technologies for improving soil productivity in semi-arid regions. Yet data quantifying the combined influences of these practices are limited. Our objectives were to determine the changes in selected physical properties of a sandy loam after 4-years of annual tillage and wood-shavings mulching. The tillage and wood-shavings treatments consisted of: Flat bed (FB), Open ridge (OR), Tiedridge (TR), FBM, ORM and TRM were same as FB, OR and TR, respectively except that wood-shavings at a rate of 10 t/ha were surface applied ≈ 2 weeks after sowing each year to serve as both a mulch and an organic amendment. At the end of the trial in 2002, bulk density, penetration resistance, total porosity and soil water content from each of 0-0.075, 0.075-0.15 and 0.15-0.30 m depths were determined. Composite samples from the surface (0.075 and 0.075-0.15 m) layers from 3 replicates of each treatment were also collected for the determination of wet aggregate stability and from 0-0.15 m and 0.15-0.30 m layers for determination of saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat). After 4 years of annual tillage and addition of woodshavings, soil bulk density and penetration resistance were consistently lower and total porosity higher in the FBM, ORM and TRM treatments than in the FB, OR and TR treatments. Penetration resistance in all treatments was strongly related to soil water content. A 'hoe pan' was established below 0.15 m depth beneath the furrows of the ridged treatments. This could be attributed to human traffic during field operations and ponding of water, which occurred in the furrows following heavy rains. Wet aggregate stability estimated as the proportion of aggregates of size > 0.25 mm (macro-aggregates) in the 0-0.15 m layer were significantly (P< 0.05) higher under FBM, ORM and TRM than under FB, OR or TR treatments. Ksat was not influenced by either tillage or wood-shavings treatments but were higher for the mulched plots than for the bare treatments in both soil layers

Water management issues in the Hadejia-Jama’are-Komadugu-Yobe Basin: DFID- JWL and stakeholders experience in information sharing, reaching consensus and physical interventions

River basinsWater resource managementSocial participation

Efficacy of Aqueous Crude Fruit Extract of Desert Date (Balanites aegyptiaca) in Anaesthetization of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Fingerlings

Chemicals have been used to anaesthetize fish but due to their hazardous effects on the environment, fish and humans environmentally friendly plant anaesthetics are being sought. Fruit of Desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca) is nontoxic to humans but has been reported to have anaesthetic potentials on fish. This study investigates anaesthetic effect of aqueous crude fruit extract of B. aegyptiaca on African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings. Phytochemical and proximate compositions of the fruit were screened. Exactly 120 C. gariepinus fingerlings (mean weight 32.13±2.43g and mean total length 23.88±2.11cm) were used for the experiment. A total of 10 fingerlings were exposed to each of 2.00, 2.50, 3.00, 3.50 and 4.00g/L concentrations of aqueous crude fruit extract of B. aegyptiaca and a control in 6 plastic tanks (45x28x25cm) filled with 10L of tap water. Setup was arranged in randomized block design and replicated. Temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, free carbon dioxide and total alkalinity were monitored. Results revealed long mean induction (25.05±3.35 min) and recovery (108.35±2.45 min) times with resultant mortalities (40%) of C. gariepinus fingerlings. significant correlation (P<0.01) exists between concentration of the fruit extract and induction time as well as between fruit extract concentrations and survival of fingerlings. Aqueous crude fruit extract of B. aegyptiaca is, therefore, not effective for anaesthetization of C. gariepinus fingerlings hence should be avoided. Keywords: Anaesthetic, Balanites aegyptiaca, Clarias gariepinu

Water management issues in the Hadejia-Jama’are-Komadugu-Yobe Basin: DFID- JWL and stakeholders experience in information sharing, reaching consensus and physical interventions

River basinsWater resource managementWater governanceSocial participation

Simulation of vertical water flow through vadose zone

Simulation of vertical water flow representing the release of water from the vadose zone to the aquifer of surroundings within Nigerian Defence Academy (34km2) for a sustainable ground water resources management was carried out using Advanced Simulation and Modelling of Urban Ground Water Management (UGROW model).Rainfall data, soil moisture and runoff coefficient are specified as input data into the model. Basic component of the vertical water balance (precipitation, leakages, evaporation and runoff)was observed. From the results, 4.0cm/day of average leakage observed for the period 1991-2001 was the maximum leakage for the simulation.Keywords: Vadose zone, Simulation, Groundwater, Unsaturation, Mode

Evaluation of Rule-Based Learning and Feature Selection Approaches For Classification

Feature selection is typically employed before or in conjunction with classification algorithms to reduce the feature dimensionality and improve the classification performance, as well as reduce processing time. While particular approaches have been developed for feature selection, such as filter and wrapper approaches, some algorithms perform feature selection through their learning strategy. In this paper, we are investigating the effect of the implicit feature selection of the PRISM algorithm, which is rule-based, when compared with the wrapper feature selection approach employing four popular algorithms: decision trees, na'ive bayes, k-nearest neighbors and support vector machine. Moreover, we investigate the performance of the algorithms on target classes, i.e. where the aim is to identify one or more phenomena and distinguish them from their absence (i.e. non-target classes), such as when identifying benign and malign cancer (two target classes) vs. non-cancer (the non-target class)