Food Poverty in Nigeria: Implications for Life Expectancy

Food poverty and its effect on life expectancy has over the years attracted greater research attention from many researchers given the attendant negative effects it has on the growth of an economy.This present study investigated the implications of food poverty on life expectancy in Nigeria between 1985 and 2018. It employed the multivariate ordinary least squares, stationarity and cointegration techniques which minimize the possibility of estimating spurious regressions while at the same time, retaining long run information. The independent variables used in the study were total labour force, capital formation, agricultural output (proxy for food poverty) and food items importation. Research findings show that while total labour force, capital formation and food items importation had positive effects on life expectancy in Nigeria, food poverty exerted a negative impact on life expectancy in Nigeria within the period under study. The study recommends, among other things, that the government should through the ministry of agriculture map out policies that will help to further improve the performance of the sector. This will help increase the availability of food items in Nigeria and therefore reduce the incidence of food poverty which will further improve life expectancy in Nigeria. Keywords: food poverty, life expectancy, poverty, food security. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-2-11 Publication date: January 31st 202

Effect of Corruption on Corporate Governance in Selected Area Offices of Deposit Money Banks in Enugu State, Nigeria

The study seeks to examine the effect of corruption on corporate governance in selected area offices of deposit money banks in Enugu State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to; (i) determine the extent to which bribery affects the board of directors\u27 functions, (ii) ascertain the extent to which fraud affects the managers\u27 accountability, and (iii) identify the nature of the relationship existing between money laundering and shareholders\u27 investment in selected area offices of deposit money banks in Enugu State, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of the study was 1197, which comprised the senior and junior staff members of the five selected banks (United Bank for Africa Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Access Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, and Skye Bank Plc.). The sample size of 316 was obtained from the population using Freud and William\u27s formula at 5% error tolerance and 95% level of confidence. Data collection was done via a questionnaire and an oral interview guide. Simple Linear Regression Analysis and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used for data analysis

A Context-Aware Activity Recommendation Smartphone Application to Mitigate Sedentary Lifestyles

A sedentary lifestyle involves irregular or no physical activity. In this kind of lifestyle, people’s activities do not increase their energy expenditure substantially above resting levels. Long periods of sitting, lying, watching television, playing video games, and using the computer are typical examples. Energy expenditures at 1.0-1.5 Metabolic Equivalent Units (METs) are considered sedentary behaviors. A recent study of sedentary lifestyles found that the length of sedentary times is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. In this study, we developed a smartphone application called “On11”, which continuously tracks and informs the user about how much time they have spent performing various activities such as sitting, walking and running throughout their day. In contrast with traditional pedometers which passively counts steps and estimates burnt calories, On11 runs in the background of users’ smartphones and monitors the intensity, duration and types of physical activity performed 24/7. It detects sedentary patterns and promotes walking by recommending personalized detours off the users’ usual routes, e.g. home to workplace to encourage more activity. Both Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activities (MVPA) such as jogging and Light Physical Activities (LPA) such as sitting are recorded for identifying activity patterns. Our ultimate goal is to help people change unhealthy sedentary behaviors

Physicochemical Quality and Genotoxic Potential of Wastewater Generated by Canteen Complex

Canteens generate high volumes of wastewater that should constantly be subjected to physicochemical and genotoxicity screening. In this study, the wastewater generated by a canteen complex was screened for physicochemical properties and genotoxic potential using standard procedures and Allium cepa chromosome assay. Results showed that the wastewater had total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, and total hardness concentrations of 120.70 mg/l, 554.50 mg/l, and 500.00 mg/l, respectively. The chloride concentration of the wastewater (7873.60 mg/l) was much higher than the recommended limit of 250 mg/l. The wastewater inhibited root growth in A. cepa at 0.1%, 1%, 10%, 25%, 50%, and 100% concentrations but promoted root growth at 2% and 5% concentrations. The wastewater was highly mitodepressive, with mitotic inhibition generally increasing with rising concentrations. The major chromosomal aberrations observed in A. cepa exposed to different concentrations of canteen wastewater were vagrant, sticky, and bridged chromosomes. No chromosomal aberration was observed in onion roots exposed to water (control). The differences in total chromosomal aberrations across wastewater concentrations were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). In view of these results, the practice of discharging untreated canteen wastewater into drainage canals may not be environmentally sustainable

Impact of Capital Market on Domestic Resource Mobilization for Economic Development in Nigeria (2000-2015)

The study investigated the impact of Nigerian capital market on domestic resource mobilization for economic development, using time series data from 2000 to 2015. The study employed secondary data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, the Nigerian Stock Exchange Fact Book and Securities and Exchange Commission database. To evaluate the impact of the independent variables on the dependent, the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method of estimation was employed. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test was used to identify the order of integration. Economic growth was proxied by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while the capital market variables considered include: Market Capitalization (MCAP), Total New Issues (TNI) and Value of Transactions (VLT). Applying Johansen and Juselius co-integration test, the result showed that there was at most one co-integrating equation in the model, implying that there is a long run relationship between the variables in the model. The causality test results suggest bidirectional causation between the GDP and the Value of Transactions (VLT) and to the GDP but not vice-versa. Using two-tailed test, the F-statistics is significant at 5 percent level of significance. Furthermore, there was no evidence of reverse causation from GDP to market capitalization and there was no evidence of independence causation between the GDP and Total New Issues (TNI). The study showed that the major problem with domestic resource mobilization in Nigeria have been that not enough savings are being generated to facilitate the required investment. Also, the type of savings available does not easily make financial intermediation possible. The Nigerian stock market has been constrained by policies that tend to make the exchange look like a mechanism by which government raise loan finance rather than an instrument for mobilizing industrial finance. It is recommended therefore that the regulatory authority should appraise and modify the restrictive policies that constrained resource mobilization capacity of the Nigerian capital market

Development of a Patient-Specific Multi-Scale Model to Understand Atherosclerosis and Calcification Locations: Comparison with In vivo Data in an Aortic Dissection

Vascular calcification results in stiffening of the aorta and is associated with hypertension and atherosclerosis. Atherogenesis is a complex, multifactorial, and systemic process; the result of a number of factors, each operating simultaneously at several spatial and temporal scales. The ability to predict sites of atherogenesis would be of great use to clinicians in order to improve diagnostic and treatment planning. In this paper, we present a mathematical model as a tool to understand why atherosclerotic plaque and calcifications occur in specific locations. This model is then used to analyze vascular calcification and atherosclerotic areas in an aortic dissection patient using a mechanistic, multi-scale modeling approach, coupling patient-specific, fluid-structure interaction simulations with a model of endothelial mechanotransduction. A number of hemodynamic factors based on state-of-the-art literature are used as inputs to the endothelial permeability model, in order to investigate plaque and calcification distributions, which are compared with clinical imaging data. A significantly improved correlation between elevated hydraulic conductivity or volume flux and the presence of calcification and plaques was achieved by using a shear index comprising both mean and oscillatory shear components (HOLMES) and a non-Newtonian viscosity model as inputs, as compared to widely used hemodynamic indicators. The proposed approach shows promise as a predictive tool. The improvements obtained using the combined biomechanical/biochemical modeling approach highlight the benefits of mechanistic modeling as a powerful tool to understand complex phenomena and provides insight into the relative importance of key hemodynamic parameters

Masking Kernel for Learning Energy-Efficient Representations for Speaker Recognition and Mobile Health

Modern smartphones possess hardware for audio acquisition and to perform speech processing tasks such as speaker recognition and health assessment. However, energy consumption remains a concern, especially for resource-intensive DNNs. Prior work has improved the DNN energy efficiency by utilizing a compact model or reducing the dimensions of speech features. Both approaches reduced energy consumption during DNN inference but not during speech acquisition. This paper proposes using a masking kernel integrated into gradient descent during DNN training to learn the most energy-efficient speech length and sampling rate for windowing, a common step for sample construction. To determine the most energy-optimal parameters, a masking function with non-zero derivatives was combined with a low-pass filter. The proposed approach minimizes the energy consumption of both data collection and inference by 57%, and is competitive with speaker recognition and traumatic brain injury detection baselines

Treatment Outcomes in Patients Receiving Combination Antiretroviral Therapy in Central Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria

Purpose: This study investigated mortality rate, early CD4 responses, pattern of ARVs substitutions and medication adherence of HIV-infected patients on first-line triple combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Central Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. Methods: A retrospective assessment of 196 HIV-infected patients on first-line combination ART regimens was performed following 18 months of therapy. Medication adherence assessment of a 69- patient follow-up target group was based on a study-specific questionnaire. Paired sample t-test and simple linear correlation were used to test the association of the CD4-cell counts at different time intervals. Kaplan-Meier model was used to assess survival functions while log-rank test was applied to assess statistical difference at 95 % confidence interval (CI). Mean age of participants was 33.6 years (95 % CI, 32.1 - 35.2; 67.9 % were females. Results: At ART initiation, 27.0 % were at WHO clinical stage II, 47.0 % at stage III. Mortality rate (N = 196) was 20.3 deaths per 100 patient-months; 31.6 % occurred in < 30 days while 52.6 % occurred post-120 days of treatment. The mean CD4-cell count (cells/mm3) at ART initiation was 179.2 which increased to 328.5 at 3 months, 325.6 at 6 months, 357.4 at 12 months, and 366.7 at 18 months, (p < 0.01). Patients started on stavudine-based or efavirenz-based regimens were considerably more likely to have that drug substituted, compared to patients started on zidovudine-based or nevirapine-based regimens. The level of adherence reported after 18 months on ART was 73.8 %. Conclusion: In this setting, patients receiving ART showed significant improvements in CD4-cell status but adherence level was relatively poor. Patients were more stable on zidovudine-based or nevirapinebased regimens than on stavudine-based or efavirenz-based regimens. Early mortality rate was high, indicating a need for early interventions.Keywords: Antiretroviral therapy; HIV/AIDS; Mortality; Therapy outcomes, Nigeri

EFFLUX MEDIATED MULTIDRUG RESISTANT PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA ISOLATED FROM DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL SOURCES

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important opportunistic pathogen and one of the leading causes of multi-drug resistant nosocomial infections. This study was therefore carried out to determine the resistance nature, and the role of efflux pump in multidrug resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from different environmental sources using the efflux pump inhibitor, Carbonyl Cyanide 3-Chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP). A total of 220 environmental samples were collected and processed following standard techniques. Susceptibility to antibiotics was performed using disc diffusion methods as described by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. Activity of the efflux pump system was carried out using the efflux pump inhibitor, CCCP. Results obtained identified 100 (45.5%) Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 72 (32.7%) other strains of Pseudomonas spp. The susceptibility testing revealed that all the identified strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that were subjected to susceptibility test were significantly resistant to ampicillin and cefotaxime, But the&nbsp; resistance profile of isolates to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, ceftriaxone, cefuroxime and perfloxacin were 93%, 72.1%, 79.1%, 58.1% and 51.2% respectively. However, imipenem was the most sensitive (100%), followed by cefepime (65%) and gentamicin (44%). Carbonyl Cyanide 3-Chlorophenylhydrazone decreased the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the isolates by 2 folds. Results obtained have shown the ubiquitous presence of multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa from the environmental samples examined. Furthermore, it indicated the role of efflux pump in antibiotics resistance in P. aeruginosa isolates which indicate that P. aeruginosa strains from environmental sources could resist antibiotics by the efflux mechanism.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp

Transgenerational business legacies and intergenerational succession among the Igbos (Nigeria)

The main purpose of this study is to highlight the entrepreneurial exploits of an ethnic group within the African context. The research context is the Igbos in Eastern Nigeria who have been celebrated as the pinnacle of African entrepreneurship. The study also draws on the narratives of 25 experienced business owners, and the emerging data thematically analysed to identify key variables associated with transgenerational business legacies and succession. Additional insight on salient cultural and community nuances like the role of Di-okpara (first son), Umunna (sons of the land), Ikwu (members of a Kindred) and Umuada (daughters of the land) were unravelled through interview transcripts and validated by respondents. These insights inform a contribution to the discourse of ethnic or indigenous entrepreneurship, which has both theoretical and policy implications