Physical and Socio Economic Affordability Elements that Regulate formal low cost housing tenure in Bauchi Metropolis

Purpose: The current practice housing policies of Nigeria did not highlight on the affordability of formal low cost houses. Low income earners don’t have sufficient income to buy a calorie of foods and meet basic necessities like clothing, rent, fuel, utilities, transport, communications, medical expenses, education, and on a broader sense, housing. Objectives of this study were (i) to investigate the current practices of housing policies in Bauchi Nigeria; (ii) to evaluate the affordability elements in Bauchi Nigeria, (iii) to study the relationship among the FLCH affordability elements in Bauchi Nigeria. Methodology employed includes descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation. Findings: The study found that there are no laws, sections or guidelines regulating the affairs of formal low cost housing. The design does not reflect user need; it did not conform to their culture, family background and size. No provision for public participation in the policy documents. Formal low cost houses are located at the peripheries of the town outside trekking distances which repel beneficiaries because of the awkward location. Residents have higher number of defendants, lower income and lower qualification. This study found that design, location, participation, highlight on affordability and family issues have prominent impact on affordability and hence be incorporated in policy document. It can therefore be clinch that formal low cost houses in Bauchi, are not affordable. Conclusively, these affordability elements should be upheld to ensure sustainable formal low cost housing affordability policy for the low income groups. The physical and socio-economic elements are the catalyst in the housing provision aspect. These elements can bridge the wide fissure being the basic features, essentials and the fundamentals of a good policy. Keywords: Affordability elements, formal low cost housing, housing policy issues, house ownershi

Insight of Poverty Income Line as a Determinant of Prudent Home Ownership in the 10th Malaysian Plan

Purpose – This paper will evaluate income line and relate same to housing affordability by the low income earners and the Malaysian vision 2020 mission of attaining a fully developed nation status vide sustainable development indices in the 10th Malaysian housing policy plan. The number of slum dwellers in the world has increased from 715 million in 1991 to 913 million in 2001, and to 998 million in 2005. Projections to 2020 suggest that the world will have up to 1.4 billion slum dwellers. Certainly, if the number of slum dwellers is increasing annually, it seems rather that best practiced housing policy is still deficient (United Nations Human development program 2006, p.16). Government officials are limited in the policy supported actions they are able to take in supporting the housing needs and aspirations of their citizenry. Design/Approach – This paper analyses and sieve ideas from housing programs and sustainable developments. It equally draws criteria which shall be used as an interim assessment of the policy proposals that will pave way for the low income earners to own their homes. Findings - The plan reserve policy programs for home ownership, strategies and programs that shall enable the country to emerge as a high-income nation. The development programs were tuned to the six National Key Results Areas, outlined in the Government Transformation Program, the National Key Economic program Areas of the Economic Transformation Program and the strategic economic reforms in the New Economic Model. The Plan details strategies towards a more focused role for the Government as a regulator and a catalyst for home ownership while upholding the principles of 1 Malaysia: People First, Performance Now to ensure effective delivery of service. But the poverty level has shoot from 3.8 to about 31% as suggested by Jayanath Appundurai. Equally, the RM800 set as the transition line from poverty is not sufficient; RM1886 is proposed to be more reasonable to meet the eight basic necessities. Keywords: Malaysia, Home ownership, Poverty income line and the new economic mode

Investigating Housing Affordability Pursuant to Sustainable Development Mechanisms and the New Malaysian Housing Policy

Purpose – This paper will assess housing affordability and the Malaysian vision 2020 mission of attaining a fully developed nation status vide sustainable development mechanisms in the new Malaysian housing policy plan.Methodology/Design/Approach – This is a policy analysis paper which sieve ideas from housing policy and sustainable developments. It equally draws criteria which shall be used as an interim assessment of the policy proposals and programmes.Findings - The plan contains new policy directions, strategies and programmes that shall enable the country to emerge as a high-income nation. The development programmes were tuned to the six National Key Results Areas, outlined in the Government Transformation Programme, the National Key Economic programme Areas of the Economic Transformation Programme and the strategic economic reforms in the New Economic Model. The Plan details strategies towards a more focused role for the Government as a regulator and a catalyst while upholding the principles of 1 Malaysia: People First, Performance Now to ensure effective delivery of service.Originality/Value – This paper suggest a substantial and assessment of Malaysian new housing policy strategies and programmes. The subject matter relates to the national housing policies, systems and strategies set to ameliorate the impact of house deficit and forge the need for more affordable housing stock. Keywords Malaysia, Housing policy, Housing affordability, Sustainability indicators and mechanism

The sensitivity and specificity of the conventional symptoms and signs in making a diagnosis of acute appendicitis

Introduction: Simple appendicitis can progress to perforation, which is associated with a much higher morbidity and mortality. So, surgeons have therefore been inclined to operate when the diagnosis is probable rather than wait until it is certain. Objective: This study is designed to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of clinical examination in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.Methods: The study included 866 patients of acute appendicitis who had undergone appendicectomy with preoperative diagnosis of acute appendicitis. They were analyzed retrospectively. The parameters evaluated were age/gender, clinical presentation (signs and symptoms) and total white blood cell counts. The operative findings were recorded and the inflammation of the appendix was graded into normal, acutely inflamed and gangrenous.Results: Clinical diagnosis was made correctly in 807 (93.2%) of the patients. White blood cells count ranged from 3.70 to 45.30 /mm3 (mean 17.5353 /mm3). It wa

Impacts of land use change on peatland degradation: a review

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Adaptation strategy to mitigate the impact of climate change on water resources in arid and semi-arid regions : a case study

Climate change and drought phenomena impacts have become a growing concern for water resources engineers and policy makers, mainly in arid and semi-arid areas. This study aims to contribute to the development of a decision support tool to prepare water resources managers and planners for climate change adaptation. The Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (The Water Balance Department of the Hydrological Bureau) hydrologic model was used to define the boundary conditions for the reservoir capacity yield model comprising daily reservoir inflow from a representative example watershed with the size of 14,924 km2 into a reservoir with the capacity of 6.80 Gm3. The reservoir capacity yield model was used to simulate variability in climate change-induced differences in reservoir capacity needs and performance (operational probability of failure, resilience, and vulnerability). Owing to the future precipitation reduction and potential evapotranspiration increase during the worst case scenario (−40% precipitation and +30% potential evapotranspiration), substantial reductions in streamflow of between −56% and −58% are anticipated for the dry and wet seasons, respectively. Furthermore, model simulations recommend that as a result of future climatic conditions, the reservoir operational probability of failure would generally increase due to declined reservoir inflow. The study developed preparedness plans to combat the consequences of climate change and drought

Post-translational insertion of boron in proteins to probe and modulate function

Boron is absent in proteins, yet is a micronutrient. It possesses unique bonding that could expand biological function including modes of Lewis acidity not available to typical elements of life. Here we show that post-translational Cβ–Bγ bond formation provides mild, direct, site-selective access to the minimally sized residue boronoalanine (Bal) in proteins. Precise anchoring of boron within complex biomolecular systems allows dative bond-mediated, site-dependent protein Lewis acid–base-pairing (LABP) by Bal. Dynamic protein-LABP creates tunable inter- and intramolecular ligand–host interactions, while reactive protein-LABP reveals reactively accessible sites through migratory boron-to-oxygen Cβ–Oγ covalent bond formation. These modes of dative bonding can also generate de novo function, such as control of thermo- and proteolytic stability in a target protein, or observation of transient structural features via chemical exchange. These results indicate that controlled insertion of boron facilitates stability modulation, structure determination, de novo binding activities and redox-responsive ‘mutation’

Post-translational insertion of boron in proteins to probe and modulate function

Boron is absent in proteins, yet is a micronutrient. It possesses unique bonding that could expand biological function including modes of Lewis acidity not available to typical elements of life. Here we show that post-translational Cβ–Bγ bond formation provides mild, direct, site-selective access to the minimally sized residue boronoalanine (Bal) in proteins. Precise anchoring of boron within complex biomolecular systems allows dative bond-mediated, site-dependent protein Lewis acid–base-pairing (LABP) by Bal. Dynamic protein-LABP creates tunable inter- and intramolecular ligand–host interactions, while reactive protein-LABP reveals reactively accessible sites through migratory boron-to-oxygen Cβ–Oγ covalent bond formation. These modes of dative bonding can also generate de novo function, such as control of thermo- and proteolytic stability in a target protein, or observation of transient structural features via chemical exchange. These results indicate that controlled insertion of boron facilitates stability modulation, structure determination, de novo binding activities and redox-responsive ‘mutation’

Getting into hot water:sick guppies frequent warmer thermal conditions

Ectotherms depend on the environmental temperature for thermoregulation and exploit thermal regimes that optimise physiological functioning. They may also frequent warmer conditions to up-regulate their immune response against parasite infection and/or impede parasite development. This adaptive response, known as ‘behavioural fever’, has been documented in various taxa including insects, reptiles and fish, but only in response to endoparasite infections. Here, a choice chamber experiment was used to investigate the thermal preferences of a tropical freshwater fish, the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata), when infected with a common helminth ectoparasite Gyrodactylus turnbulli, in female-only and mixed-sex shoals. The temperature tolerance of G. turnbulli was also investigated by monitoring parasite population trajectories on guppies maintained at a continuous 18, 24 or 32 °C. Regardless of shoal composition, infected fish frequented the 32 °C choice chamber more often than when uninfected, significantly increasing their mean temperature preference. Parasites maintained continuously at 32 °C decreased to extinction within 3 days, whereas mean parasite abundance increased on hosts incubated at 18 and 24 °C. We show for the first time that gyrodactylid-infected fish have a preference for warmer waters and speculate that sick fish exploit the upper thermal tolerances of their parasites to self medicate