Patterns and trends of child and maternal nutrition inequalities in Nigeria

Despite the fact that nonincome dimensions of well-being such as nutrition and health are now placed on the global development agenda, substantial gaps remain in our knowledge about patterns and trends in nutrition inequalities in many developing countries. The main objective of this paper is to document a useful starting point for understanding the determinants of inequalities in nutritional status and provide some understanding of the proximate causes of inequalities in nutritional status as well as the factors responsible for inequalities in health and nutritional status of children and women in the policy debate. Using Nigeria as a case study and using data from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey, this paper measures and decomposes the patterns and trends of inequalities in child and maternal nutritional status in Nigeria. In particular, the paper decomposes observed nutritional inequalities into inequalities between and within demographic and socioeconomic groups to ascertain the relative contributions of the between-groups and within-group components of inequalities. To identify the most vulnerable groups in Nigeria, the paper also explores the prevalence of child and maternal malnutrition in Nigeria. The paper finds that within-group inequalities are the sources of most inequalities in the nutritional status of children and women in Nigeria. Inequalities between demographic and socioeconomic groups are less important. Child and maternal malnutrition are concentrated among the least educated households, the rural population, the north (in particular its Hausa ethnic group), and those who drink water from public wells. Malnutrition in Nigeria is a vicious cycle in that child malnutrition can be partly traced back to low birth weight (and therefore to maternal malnutrition). To interrupt this vicious cycle, the Nigerian government should take targeted and concerted actions that focus attention on addressing within-group inequalities. Intervention in the areas of primary healthcare, home-based caring practices, access to basic services (such as safe drinking water and good sanitation), education of women, and direct nutritional interventions for malnourished children seem the most appropriate.Developing countries, health, Inequality, malnutrition, Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey, Nutrition, Nutritional status, rural population

Estimating the impact of agricultural technology on poverty reduction in rural Nigeria:

"It has often been argued that new agricultural technologies lead to poverty reduction. This paper argues that any changes in poverty situation attributed to those who adopt new agricultural technology (treatment group) without a counterfactual comparison of carefully selected nonadopters (control group) are likely to be questionable. The paper estimates the effects of new agricultural technology on poverty reduction by employing the “double difference” method on data collected in rural Nigeria. Seeing the agricultural technology–poverty linkage through the lenses of adopters and nonadopters of such new technology provides understanding of the relationship between agricultural technology and poverty. The paper finds that differences in poverty status between adopters and nonadopters of new agricultural technologies (a combination of tube wells and pumps) introduced in rural Nigeria in the late 1980s and early 1990s are alarmingly modest. The paper concludes that new agricultural technology would not expressly lead to poverty reduction in poor countries. The exact channels through which new agricultural technology impact poverty outcomes need to be further explored." from authors' abstractPoverty, evaluation, Inequality, Impact assessment, Agricultural technology, Difference-in-difference methodology, Development strategies,

Rural non-farm income and inequality in Nigeria:

"This paper investigates the contribution of rural non-farm income to income inequality by examining the contribution of specific income sources (farm income from irrigated agriculture, farm income from rainfed agriculture and non-farm income) to income inequality in Nigeria. The results reveal the relative importance of specific income sources to income inequality and the various determinants of income inequality in rural Nigeria. Although non-farm income is distributed more unequally than incomes from the other two sources, it contributes least to overall income inequality. Farm income from irrigated agriculture represents the most important inequality-increasing source of income." from authors' abstractNon-farm income, Inequality, Development strategies,

The Length and Success of NBA Careers: Does College Production Predict Professional Outcomes?

This paper uses data on players drafted in 1987 through 1989 covering both their collegiate and their professional careers. This time period is chosen because we wanted recent players whose playing days have ended. Our analysis evaluates the role of college productivity on draft position and the relationship between college career productivity, measured in three different ways, with professional career productivity measured similarly and with the length of the career. At issue is the effectiveness of NBA executives in identifying college players who will be successful in the pros. Our results suggest an interesting puzzle regarding scoring. The NBA literature suggests scoring is paramount for evaluating professional players, while our results suggest college scoring has little to do with draft position and is relatively weakly associated with professional scoring.NBA, sports, basketball

Study of Cloud Impact on Fixed Satellite Communication Link at Ku, Ka and V Bands in Nigeria

The study investigates the effect of clouds on fixed satellite communication link on earthspace path in Nigeria for 0.01 to 10% unavailability of an average year. The input data (from August 2002 to July 2009) used for the study are base on recent meteorological data measured from space by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder satellites (AIRS). The International Telecommunication Union Radio Propagation Recommendation (ITU-RP, 2009) procedure was used for the computation of cloud attenuation statistics for each of the 37-stations for link to Nigeria Communication Satellite (NigComsat-1), for both uplink and downlink frequencies. At Ku band (12/14 GHz), cloud fade is between 0.2 to 0.55 dB, for Ka band (20/30 GHz), 0.6 to 2.4 dB and for V band (40/50 GHz) 2.0 to 6.0 dB. A Contour map of cloud attenuation at Ku, Ka and V-band for 0.01% unavailability, at 0.1 by 0.1 degree latitude and longitude for downlink and uplink to NigComsat-1 was developed. The maps show consistently that impact of cloud is generally severe in the southern part of Nigeria

Weathering the storm

At the national level, dozens of African countries have pledged to implement the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the African Union (AU). This African-led plan aims to stimulate agriculture on the continent to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG1) of halving poverty and hunger by 2015. To do so, countries are expected to pursue 6 percent average annual agriculture growth at the national level, allocate 10 percent of national budgets to the agricultural sector, and improve overall policy efficiency through peer-review and accountability. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate trends in agricultural development, performance, and spending in Africa and to track corresponding progress in key poverty and hunger indicators following the recent food price crisis. The reason for tracking this information is that the recent food price crisis has the potential to derail the progress made toward reducing poverty and hunger in many African countries. This paper draws on policy research results in the literature to highlight some of the strategic policy options available to African governments for accelerating agricultural growth in line with the principles of CAADP. In this regard, the paper provides information on CAADP�s agenda by reviewing the progress of implementation and performance against a number of key benchmarks.African agriculture, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), expenditures, Food prices, Millennium Development Goals (MDG), trends,

Cyber security investigation for Raspberry Pi devices

Big Data on Cloud application is growing rapidly. When the cloud is attacked, the investigation relies on digital forensics evidence. This paper proposed the data collection via Raspberry Pi devices, in a healthcare situation. The significance of this work is that could be expanded into a digital device array that takes big data security issues into account. There are many potential impacts in health area. The field of Digital Forensics Science has been tagged as a reactive science by some who believe research and study in the field often arise as a result of the need to respond to event which brought about the needs for investigation; this work was carried as a proactive research that will add knowledge to the field of Digital Forensic Science. The Raspberry Pi is a cost-effective, pocket sized computer that has gained global recognition since its development in 2008; with the wide spread usage of the device for different computing purposes. Raspberry Pi can potentially be a cyber security device, which can relate with forensics investigation in the near future. This work has used a systematic approach to study the structure and operation of the device and has established security issues that the widespread usage of the device can pose, such as health or smart city. Furthermore, its evidential information applied in security will be useful in the event that the device becomes a subject of digital forensic investigation in the foreseeable future. In healthcare system, PII (personal identifiable information) is a very important issue. When Raspberry Pi plays a processor role, its security is vital; consequently, digital forensics investigation on the Raspberry Pies becomes necessary