Archives-September 2018

The Bibiani government hospital over the years has recorded high cases of hypertension, anaemia and muscoskeletal pain. Analysis of data acquired from the Bibiani government hospital showed that, cases of hypertension increased in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017. Similar trend was observed for the other diseases. Using the World Health Organisation standard age categorisation to know the age distribution of the reported cases, of the total number of cases reported for the respective diseases, the adult age group recorded higher percentages. The infant age group, recorded an abnormal percentage for anaemia cases. However, the high percentages recorded for the adult and infant age category needs to be investigated. The groundwater quality parameters were compared with the World Health Organisation WHO and Burae of Indian Standard (BIS). Essential trace elements namely Iron, Zinc, Copper and Magnesium were found to be deficient in the drinking water of the inhabitants of Bibiani. The deficiency of the above-mentioned trace elements can be assessed as a possible source to health problems in Bibiani.

Sorghum is an under-utilized crop in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa due to its antinutrient properties but high in protein, vitamins, and minerals. Drying, soaking, and malting appears to reduce tannin which is an antinutrient in sorghum. The aim of this project was to evaluate malted sorghum-wheat flour biscuit. Sorghum grains were malted, dried and milled into flour and biscuit was produced from blends of wheat flour and the flour of malted sorghum (l00:0, 95:5, 90:10, 80:20 and 70:30). The proximate composition and sensory properties of the biscuits were evaluated. The proximate composition of different flour mixes ranged from 6.75 to 7.12% moisture, 2.14 to 2.53% ash, 3.85 to 4.10 fat, 10.40 to 12.78% protein, 1.05 to 1.22% fiber and 73.18 to 74.88% carbohydrate. However, the protein (12.64-10.19%), fat ( 2.48-2.15%) and moisture (7.35-5.92% ) contents of the biscuit decreased as the level of substitution increases while increasing trends were observed for ash (2.17- 2.57%), fibre (1.06-1.55%) and carbohydrate ( 74.30-77.62%). Sensory evaluation showed that up to 30% substitution levels of malted sorghum could be used as a supplement with wheat flour for biscuit production, an indication that acceptable biscuit could be produced from low gluten flour. This has the potential to eradicate the problem of celiac disease associated with the intake of wheat gluten.

The contemporary Nigeria society has been a theatre of unending insurgency from the Fulani herdsmen. The spate of violent attacks from these insurgents against farmers in various part of the country has become a thing of great worry to all. This is moreso as the federal government appears unwilling to bring to book those behind the increasing deadly menace. This paper will therefore seek to examine the socio-ethical religious implications of the above insurgency with a view to charting the way forward. Relevant published texts across the country and the structural conflict theory provided the leverage for this study.

The study was an attempt to evaluate the effect of child labour on economic development. A sample of 200 respondents, 50 from each of the selected markets was used. Data was collected through interview of selected respondents. The formulated hypothesis was tested with the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical tool. Findings revealed that the groups did not differ in their perception of the essence of education. It was also found that majority of the children involved in child labour live with their parents and relations, who do nothing meaningful to earn their living, but depend solely on the meagre income from the cheap labour supplied by their children. It was recommended among others that Direct Action Programmes which entail the immediate withdrawal of children from hawking, prostitution etc should be embarked on.

The study examined the effect of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) resources on the performance of brewing firms in Nigeria. Following the Kassahun’s (2012) BPR perspectives, the study grouped BPR resources into financial, human and technological resources. A sample of 746 employees was randomly selected from a population of 3500 from five brewing firms quoted in the Nigerian stock exchange. The Likert-type instrument of five-point scale used for data collection has a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.85. The percentage frequency was used to examine the baseline information of BPR variables in brewing firms in Nigeria while OLS regression model analysed the effect of BPR on the performance of brewing firms in Nigeria. The study results showed that financial and technological resources were in adequate usage while human resources were moderate. Also, the performance of brewing firms in Nigeria at present is scored high in the five-point rating. The regression result indicated that BPR resources have 94% significant effect on the performance in brewing firms in Nigeria. Specifically, a positive influence was established such that financial resources (63%) has more influence, followed by human resources (20%) and then technological (19%). This implies that the use of resources is a veritable strategy to enhancing firm performance. Firms that follow the present wave of technological innovations will enhance their competiveness and survival rate. The study therefore concluded that BPR is a veritable tool to enhancing employee satisfaction, team work and cooperation, quality of service delivery as well as attainment of organizational strategic goals in brewing firms in Nigeria. The study however, recommended that firms in the brewing industry and other allied manufacturing firms should employ its resources in an adequately proportionate manner.

This work examined the effect of talent management on employee productivity in selected banks in Anambra State. The study reviewed relevant conceptual, theoretical and empirical literatures. It was anchored on management process approach and human capital theory. Talent Retention, performance management systems, training and development and talent attraction were employed as the explanatory variables while employee productivity was the dependent variable. The study adopted survey research design. The population of the study comprised 353 staff of the selected banks in Anambra State. The sample size was 353(using the entire population). Questionnaire was employed as the main instrument of data collection. The data generated were analyzed using frequency, percentage analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The study found that talent retention had a significant influence on employee productivity. Performance management systems had a significant effect on employee productivity. Training and development had a significant influence on employee productivity and talent attraction had a significant effect on employee productivity. The study concluded that talent management had a significant effect on employee productivity. The study therefore recommended that management should establish talent retention strategies and make them known to all employees. Management and employees should be involved in the entire process of performance appraisal. To enhance employee productivity, it is imperative that the organization focuses on training and development programs that are not only essential but enhance employees’ competitiveness. Programs should be designed by both managers and employees. Talent attraction such as competitive salary packages and rewards should be established as a policy in every organization.

We report the case of a 21-year-old patient, who had a stricture of the penile urethra. After failed endoscopic urethrotomy, he had resection of the stricture with end to end anastomotic urethroplasty. We describe this surgical technique and analyze epidemiological, therapeutic and prognostic characteristics of anterior urethral strictures.

In this paper we studied fractional calculus properties. Riemann-Liouville fractional integral and derivative of the Generalized p-k Wright function. Certain particular cases of the derived results are considered and indicated to further reduce to some known results.

International Baccalaureate World Schools are in constant development on how to enhance the teaching and learning. One of the strategies they employ is to get the students voice to examine if the pedagogical approaches of the teachers were appropriate in bringing the desired learning outcome from the intended students. The results of this study constituted an initial step towards the development and improvement of the teaching and learning processes in the Middle Years Programme of International Baccalaureate World Schools. Student’s comments were captured on how they were impacted by teaching and learning and in turn teachers reflection were also captured based on the comments received from students. Data collection also involved teacher interviews and testing of the procedure. Evidence revealed the importance of utilization of student voice in improving teaching and learning. Further, student voice promoted self-assessment of teachers’ practice and that student voice perceived to be a transformational experience for teachers, students and the whole school community. Thus, this study attempted to identify the effectiveness student voice in teaching and learning.

L-Valinium Picrate, Rare earth element Erbium doped L-Valinium Picrate and soft transition element Cobolt doped L-Valinium Picrate were synthesized and grown as single crystals by slow evaporation method. The cell dimensions were obtained by single-crystal X-ray diffraction study. Optical properties, such as UV–visible–NIR absorption and second harmonic generation conversion efficiency were investigated to explore the optical characteristics of the grown crystals. Microhardness, Thermal and dielectric studies of the compound were also carried out.