Corporate Governance Parctices and Chanllenges in Africa

This paper examined the practice of corporate governance in developing countries, and specifically in Africa. To carry out the exercise, the efficacy of corporate governance mechanisms and legal (legislation) framework were examined. The paper observed a weak or non-existing compliance and/or enforcement of corporate governance legislation. It concludes that corporate governance in most African countries is ineffective, inefficient and has ultimately failed. The paper therefore, recommends that for African countries to reap the benefits of effective corporate governance there is the need to review existing legislations and to strengthen the enforcement mechanism of the regulatory institutions. Key Words: Governance, Stewardship, Stakeholders, Ethics, Accountability

Evaluating the Solid Waste Dump Site within Lokoja Metropolis using Geospatial Techniques

Solid waste management has become a complex global environmental problem in both developed and less developing Countries. The problem is widely noticeable in Lokoja area of Kogi State, Nigeria. This is mostly caused by poor planning and lack of adequate information need to tackle urban solid waste management. Therefore, adequate information on solid waste dump site (SWDS)is required to mitigate future hazards that may emanate from these wastes within Lokoja Metropolis. This study applied Geospatial Techniques to assess the trend of the Solid Waste Dump site within the period of three years. Due to different parameters involved, the study adopted the principle of Separation Distances as recommended by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Landfill Manual 2006. The separation distances parameters considered in the monitoring of the Dump Site include; the distance of the dump site to water body (>960m), the slope of the Dump Site (0 o -5 o ), distance of the dump site to the road (100m-1000m), and distance to the residential areas (>8000m). LandSat ETM imagery of 2014, 2016, and 2018 of the study area wasused for the supervised classification as well as the distance analysis over the years. ASTER imagery, and Quickbird satellite imagery were used to generate the slope, extraction of the roads/buildings and delineation of rivers within the study area. The study revealed that the distance of the dumpsite to the road accounted for 160m in 2014, 57m in 2016, and 14m in 2018.The distance of the dumpsite to the built-up areas accounted for 1547m in 2014, 1287m in 2016, and 876m in 2018. It can be seen from the analysis that the slopes were 3 0 in 2014 and 2016, and 5 0 in 2018. It is recommended that the existing dumpsite be relocated to another area. Suitability analysis should be carried out before siting new dumpsites

Connective tissue, glial and neuronal expressions in testis of the African giant rat (Cricetomys gambianus)

Introduction: This study was carried out to investigate the expression of connective tissue (Collagens I and III), glia and neuronal markers in the testis of the African giant rat using histology and immunohistochemistry techniques. Materials and Methods: Eight (8) apparently healthy wild male African giant rats were used for this experiment, divided into 2 groups (juvenile and adult) of 4 animals each. The testes were harvested following intracardial perfusion of the rats and histology was performed using Haematoxylin-Eosin stain and Mallory-Heideinhain rapid one- step staining for connective tissue. Immunohistochemical identification was achieved using the following antibodies: anti-collagen type I, anti-collagen type III, anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein and anti-p75 nerve growth factor for the expression of collagen type I, collagen type III, astrocyte-like cell and neuronal cells respectively. Photomicrography was achieved using Axioskop® microscope and quantitative data were analyzed using student t-test. Results: The cyto-architecture of the testis was typical in the African giant rat. The connective tissue expressed in the juvenile and adult group, signaling of glial-like cells were seen in the perivascular region across the experimental groups. Immuno-localization of neuronal cells were seen in the interstitial spaces across all the groups, but with more expressions in the juvenile. Conclusion: This work has provided a clear description of the expression of connective tissue, neuronal and glial cells in the testis of the African giant rat and their possible relationships across juvenile and adult groups

Effect of varying dietary supplemental inclusion levels of onion and garlic on semen quality characteristics of Hubbard white breeder broiler cocks aged 35-41 weeks old

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of varying dietary supplemental inclusion levels of onion and garlic on semen quality characteristics of Hubbard white breeder broiler cocks aged 35-41 weeks old. A complete randomized design was used for the experiment. The three dietary supplemental levels based on garlic and onion supplemental inclusion levels are L0 (0g onion and 0g garlic per 600g DM feed), L1, (2.5g onion and 2.5g garlic per 600g DM feed) and L3 (5g Onion and 5g garlic per 600g DM feed) with each treatment having 3 replicates. A quadratic type equation was used to determine the Onion and Garlic levels for optimum semen quality characteristics. Daily supplementation with 2.5g onion and 2.5g garlic per 600g DM feed increased (P<0.05) actual life sperm count (×10v /nl) by 370.58 % whereas daily supplementation with 5g onion and 5g garlic per 600g DM feed increased (P<0.05) actual life sperm count (×10v /nl) by 405.75%. Similarly, daily supplementation with 2.5g onion and 2.5g garlic per 600g DM feed increased (P<0.05) live sperm count (%) by 399.88 % whereas daily supplementation with 5g onion and 5g garlic per 600g DM feed increased (P<0.05) live sperm count (%) by 379.90%. Dietary onion and garlic supplemental inclusion levels of 3.335g, 3.446g, 3.787g, 3.438g, 3.068g, 4.247g per 600g DM feed supported optimum actual dead sperm count, dead sperm count, actual live sperm count, live sperm count (%), acrosome morphology defects (%), acrosome detachment (%) with probability values ranging from 0.018 to 0.906, whereas minimum Acrosome abnormality (%) reduction was achieved at an optimum supplementation level of 3.58g per 600g DM feed with Y=3.33-1.332x+0.186x2, r2 = 0.680, P-value = 0.018. These findings show that onion and garlic supplementation enhances semen quality characteristics in Hubbard white breeder broiler cocks.Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecolog

Heterotropic pregnancy: a common masquerade than ever thought?

Heterotopic pregnancy, coexistence of living or dead intrauterine pregnancy, single or multiple, with extra-uterine pregnancy located in the oviduct, ovary, uterine cornua, cervix or rarely peritoneal cavity. Heterotropic pregnancy is relatively uncommon in spontaneous conception with 1 in 30,000 cases reported, the incidence of heterotopic pregnancy increases to 1 in 3900 when conception is enhanced with various assisted reproduction techniques (ART). It is an ectopic pregnancy coexisting with intrauterine pregnancy. But is the incidence of heterotropic pregnancy rising? A case was reported from our centre in 2018 by Ejikeme et al, and we have recorded another two cases in the period of one year. Ectopic pregnancy has been described as a great masquerader, which makes diagnosis and management of heterotropic pregnancy a dilemma to attending physician. We present a case of an unbooked 26 years old G4P3+0 who has no family history of multiple gestation and presented at gestational age of 8 weeks and 5 days with 2 days history of abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding and 2 hours history of loss of consciousness. She later had exploratory laparotomy with left salpingectomy and manual vacuum aspiration of Retained Products of Conception with good outcome. In conclusion, spontaneous heterotropic pregnancy is a rare occurrence, however with advent of artificial reproductive technology and increase incidence of pelvic inflammatory disease, the incidence could be higher than earlier suspected

Female genital mutilation and obstetric outcome: a cross-sectional comparative study in a tertiary hospital in Abakaliki South East Nigeria

Background: Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an assault on womanhood. Objective: To compare the obstetric outcome between parturient with genital mutilation with a cohort that has no genital mutilation. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional prospective study was done in the labour ward of Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki between 1st January 2013 and 31st December 2013. The obstetrics outcome of 260 consenting healthy parturients with FGM in the 1st stage of labour was compared with 260 cohorts with no FGM and also in labour. Data were obtained with a structured questionnaire and analysed using IBM SPSS Statistic version 20. Simple percentage odd ratio and Chi-square were used for data analysis at a p-value of < 0.05. Results: The mean age and gestational age of the women were 27.9 ± 4.8 years and 38.9 ± 1.5 weeks respectively. Majority of the women, 308 or 77.0%, belonged to social class 4 and 82.0% had Type 2 FGM. More than 90.0% of the women had a vaginal delivery and the 2nd stage of labour lasted more than 2 h in 13.4% of the women (OR = 0.78 95% CI 0.64-0.97). Parturient with FGM had increased odd of perineal tear (OR = 0.76 95% CI 0.63 - 0.91) and episiotomy (OR = 1.69 95% CI 1.17–2.45). The mode of delivery and neonatal Apgar scores were not significantly influenced by the presence of FGM (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The study has shown that FGM in labour increases the odds of developing perineal trauma which may be associated with a host of short- and long-term complications. We recommend continued awareness creation to stop FGM

Electrochromic and electrochemical capacitive properties of tungsten oxide and its polyaniline nanocomposite films obtained by chemical bath deposition method

Polyanine and its nanocomposite WO3/PANI films were deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glassslides by simple chemical bath deposition method. The morphology structure of the composite film wasstudied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while the elec-trochemical capacitive properties were determined using cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronopotentiometry(CP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The WO3/PANI nano-composite exhibited mul-tiple colors (electrochromism) during the CV scans, from brownish green to transparent to light greenthen back to brownish green. Surprisingly, the integration of the PANI with the WO3led to synergisticperformance of nanohybrid wherein a true electrochemical double layer capacitor was obtained. Also,interestingly and unlike literature reports, the CBD method led to excellent capacitance retention (>98%)of the PANI even at 1000 continuous cycles. This work demonstrates that simple CBD can be used toget WO3/PANI films that give good electrochromism and pseudo-capacitance comparable to the onesobtained by other methods. Hence the obtained nanocomposite film of WO3/PANI can be a promisingmaterial for electrochromic and energy storage applications.US Army Research Laboratory–Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) (under Contract number W911NF-12-1-0588).http://www.elsevier.com/locate/electactahb201

Open Access, Institutional Repositories, and Scholarly Publishing: The Role of Librarians in South Eastern Nigeria

The study explored the extent of open access, institutional repositories, and scholarly publishing of academic librarians. Population of the study was 67. It comprised academic librarians in University of Nigeria (50), Enugu State University of Technology (6), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture (6), and Anambra State University (5). 52 (77. 61%) copies of the questionnaire were returned and 45 (86.54%) were found usable. Data were collected by a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire contained 38 questions which were divided into six sections. Responses from respondents were analyzed using percentages and mean scores. Findings of the study showed that librarians were aware of institutional repository, scholarly publication and open access journals. However, only 13.33% have published in open access journals. Five (11 .11%) of respondents did not agree that librarians are familiar with vendor licensing and copyright laws