Occupational practices and problems of rural artisanal fisherfolks in Oyan Dam area of Ogun State

Artisanal Fish Societies constitutes one of the poorest societies in the developing world. Attempts to harness the potentials of the societies have often failed due to the enormity of the problem of poverty. This study was conducted in four major fishing villages namely; Abule titun, Apojola, Imama Odo and Ibaro in order to investigate the occupational practices and the problems of rural artisanal fisherfolks in Oyam's Dam, area of Ogun State. Eighty respondents were randomly selected among the artisanal fisher folks for interview using interview guide. The findings revealed that 43.8% of the fisherfolks are within active range of 31-40 years while 30% are within 21-30 years range. Also 31% had no formal education indicating a relatively high level of illiteracy among the fisherfolks while majority of the respondents practice fishing activities using paddle and canoe. It was similarly discovered from the study that the most pressing problems of the fisherfolks is the lack of basic social amenities like electricity, potable water, access roads, hospitals and markets. It is therefore recommended that basic social infrastructures be provided for the artisanal fishing communities in order to improve their social welfare, standard of living and the capacity to have a sustainable fishing occupation in the interest of food security and poverty alleviatio

Occupational practice and problems of artisanal fisherfolk in Oyan dam area of Ogun State

Artisanal Fish Societies constitutes one of the poorest societies in the developing world. Attempts to harness the potentials of such societies have often failed due to the enormity of the problem of poverty. This study was conducted in four major fishing villages namely: Abule Titun, Apojola, Imala Odo and Ibaro in order to investigate the occupational practices and the problems of rural artisanal fisherfolks in Oyam's Dam, area of Ogun State. Eighty respondents were randomly selected among the artisanal fisher folks for interview using interview guide. The findings revealed that 43.8% of the fisherfolks are within active age range of 31-40 years while 30% are within 21-30 years range. Also 31% had no formal education indicating a relatively high level of illiteracy among the fisherfolks while majority of the respondents practice fishing activities using paddle and canoe. It was similarly discovered from the study that the most pressing problems of the fishfolks is the lack of basic social amenities like electricity, potable water, access roads, hospital and markets. It is therefore recommended that basic social infrastructures be provided for the artisanal fishing communities in order to improve their social welfare, standard of living and the capacity to have a sustainable fishing occupation in the interest of food security and poverty alleviatio

Enhancing University Administration through ICTs in Nigeria

The importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in enhancing university administration cannot be over-emphasised. However, there are many challenges facing the use of ICTs in the effective and efficient delivery of services in universities in Nigeria. The main objective of the paper is, therefore, to examine the challenges and proffer sustainable solutions. The General System Theory was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. The research is descriptive and quantitative. Sources of data were primary and secondary while a well-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from one hundred and seventy four (174) respondents, randomly selected out of an estimated population of three thousand, five hundred (3,500) ICT users, comprising academic, non-teaching staff and students from three universities (federal -1, state -1 and private -1) in Ogun State, reputed to be the only state with the highest number of universities in Nigeria. Relevant hypotheses were tested and the data were presented using tables and percentages. Chi-Square and ANOVA statistical tools were used to analyse the data. Findings show that the challenges facing the use of ICTs in the universities include high cost of ICTs, low computer-literacy among university staff and students, epileptic power supply, absence of ICT policies and poor political-will to implement such policies, where they exist. The paper concludes that the prospects are bright and that more universities would embrace the use of ICTs in their operations when the identified challenges are tackled

Determinants of utilisation of traditional birth attendant services by pregnant women in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Background: This study was designed to assess the determinants of utilization of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) services by pregnant women in different communities in Ogbomoso, Nigeria.Methods: This was a community- based cross-sectional study. Fisher's formula was used to calculate the sample size and a total of 270 eligible pregnant women were enrolled for the study using multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using pretested structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20 and results were presented in frequencies and percentages.Results: Factors found to have a significant influence on the utilization of TBA services in this study include: low educational status (p <0.001), lower socioeconomic status (p <0.001), and compassionate care given by the TBAs (p=0.004). Other factors include service proximity and lower cost of TBA services.Conclusions: The impact of TBAs and their services cannot be overemphasized in the present state of maternal and child health in Nigeria.  Lower educational status among others has been found to be a strong predictor of utilization of TBA services. There is, therefore, the need to improve the educational and socioeconomic status of women in order to allow them to access quality health care services that will safeguard their well-being. Inculcating compassionate care into orthodox healthcare delivery will go a long way to improve patronage and discourage TBA utilization

The prevalence of adult obesity in Ogbomoso, southwest Nigeria

Background: In many developing countries obesity and obesity-related morbidities are now becoming a major health challenges. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of obesity among adults using the measure of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional descriptive study of 400 adults was carried out. A standardized questionnaire was administered to the participants and had measurements of weight, height and waist circumference taken. Results: Four hundred subjects were randomly selected (221 females and 179 males) and the mean age was 48.7 ± 16. 6 years. The overall prevalence of obesity using BMI was 14.8%, and based on WC was 33.8%. The prevalence of obesity using the BMI and WC among the males was the same (8.9%) while among the females the prevalence based on BMI was 19.5% and that of WC was 53.8%. The female subjects were more sedentary than the males (50.8% for males, 62.4% for females,

IDENTIFYING INFLUENTIAL BLOGGERS ON THE WEB

Blog has take an important aspect of internet since the introduction of Web 2.0 technology because blog as been away to influence others who read the blogs. People now have interest in finding materials and friends on the internet.Many users visit blog sites to read the posts and comment on them. Most people do read blog to gather informationon things that are important before take major decision about them. Because blogger always share their experienceon a topic for others to comments and through this others share their own experience. With the impact thatinfluential blogger have in a community. The benefits of achieving competitive advantages in a blog community byidentify influential blogger have created several research gaps and the popularity of these services has make theproblem of identifying the most influential bloggers significant, since its solution can lead to major benefits for theusers of this services i.e. education, politic, participatory journalism, advertising, searching, commerce etc. Thecurrent works in this regard ignore some important aspects of the blogsphere. This paper focuses on using acrossbreed method as an improvement to the existing methodologies. With the introduction of new parametersFBCount and Mining Comments the new approach show that the score of each blog post reflect quality andgoodness of blog post. A program prototype was designed to calculate the influential bloggers. The results obtainedconfirm that current approach could significantly identify influential of bloggers on the web and the proposed modelhas better performance than other approaches. There are still a few of avenues for the future research. Future workcan include full implementation of the program prototype and try to improve on it to directly get the parameters usedfrom the blog post on the web in a blog community, more parameters like twitter shares, G+1s Pin shares etc can beincluded into the literature and check for the behavior of the influence and future research can investigate more timein deciding weight parameter that is crucial for tuning between different influential factors.Keyword: Blog, Blogger, Social networks, Blogosphere, Influential bloggers, Influential, Models

Design and Fabrication of a Maize Sheller Machine

For the attainment of processed maize of high-quality forms with insignificant labour-intensive tasks, this paper considered the design and development of the maize shelling machine with locally sourced materials. The developed machine was tested and its performance was evaluated against a hand maize shelling machine. The developed machine is found to be faster in shelling operation by more than 3 times than the hand maize shelling machine, the designed machine was documented with 100Kg/hr and 99.73% shelling effective capacity and shelling efficiency, respectively. An overall production cost of N95.970 was incurred. Keywords: Maize, Sheller, Fabrication, Machine, Design DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/13-2-05 Publication date:August 31st 202

Fisherfolks’ Perception of the Agricultural Radio Programme Filin Mainoma in Kainji Area of Niger State

The study examined fisherfolks’ perception of the agricultural radio programme FILIN MAINOMA in Kainji Area of Niger State. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 252 respondents from the study area. Primary data were collected using structured interview guide. Data collected wereanalysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) and Chi-Square analysis (c2).  Results showed that the mean age of the respondents was 25.50 years while majority (96.60%) was male. Also 63.10% had no formal education while 22.70% had primary school education. Also, Majority (99.20%) of the respondents was aware of and listened to the radio programme FILIN MAINOMA. All (100.00%) of the respondents had access to radio. Majority (98.80%) of the respondents opined that the message was interesting, 67.10% spent one hour listening to the radio programme in the morning every day. In addition, 38.90% of the respondents viewed fishing information on the radio programme as relevant, while 26.90% indicated that the format of presentation of the programme aroused their interest. Chi-Square analysis revealed that sex (c2 = 78.70, (p&lt;0.05), df = 1), educational status (c2 = 2.41, df = 4), had significant association with the respondents perception of the programme. Also, correlation analysis results revealed a significant and positive relationship between the household size (r = 0.21, p&lt;0.05), and year of membership association (r = 0.24, p&lt;0.05), and respondents’ perception of the radio programme. The study concluded that FILIN MAINOMA had impact on fisherfolks cash per unit effort. The study recommended that the programme should be strengthened and sustained while other similar programmes can be initiated in other radio stations in the area

Structural integrity and dispersion characteristics of carbon nanotubes in titanium-based alloy

Abstract: Over the years, carbon nanotubes have attracted much attention in engineering materials research due to their outstanding and superlative properties. Owing to the demands for lightweight materials with excellent mechanical and thermal properties for diverse industrial applications encouraged the incorporation of carbon nanotubes into titanium alloys. However, there are various challenges associated with the incorporation of carbon nanotubes into titanium alloys which includes; uniform dispersion and retaining the structural integrity of carbon nanotubes after dispersion. Past works have emphasized the importance of homogeneous dispersion with less structural damage to the carbon nanotubes in the various metal matrix. Therefore, this research focused on dispersion of 0.5 wt. % multiwalled carbon nanotubes in Ti6Al4V using low energy ball milling and evaluating the dispersion characteristics and structural integrity of MWCNTs in Ti6Al4V after dispersion. Various characterization techniques such as high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-Ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were adopted to ascertain the microstructural evolution, morphology, interfacial reaction and structural integrity of the carbon nanotubes in the Ti6Al4V powders before and after dispersion. The results indicated homogeneous dispersion of carbon nanotubes with less structural damages which are confirmed from the (ID/IG) ratio of the Raman spectra and the TEM images

CONTRIBUTION OF FORMAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS TO CASSAVA PROCESSING IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

The study was carried out to assess the contribution of Formal Financial Institutions (FFIs) to income of cassava processors in Benue state, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 234 cassava processors from 18 communities in the state. Data on credit sources and uses, processing activities and income were collected using structured questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics while the impact of the credit was assessed using the before and after comparison. The result shows that about a third of the processors had access to formal credits. The Nigerian Agricultural Bank ranked highest (83%) in terms of patronage. Commercial and microfi-nance banks«¤?? lending to cassava processing represented about 12% and 5% respectively of the total credit received. Majority (70%) of the processors received less than N100, 000 per year; an average of N63,152, which is about 12% of total amount, required. Credit financing from formal financial institu-tions was found to have significant effects on both the output of garri and flour processed and the profit from garri, flour and chips«¤?? processing. The credit use structure shows that over 65% of the credit was use to increase processing scale, through increase in the purchase of raw tubers and payment for processing labour