ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Vulnerability of Smallholder Farmers to Climate Variability and Adaptation Practices in Southern Part of Ethiopia: The Case of South Ari District
Kassahun Yemane Birhanu
Page no 62-72 |
10.36348/sjhss.2022.v07i02.003
Within the changing environment local community tried their best to reduce climate extremes vulnerability by implementing different adaptive practices. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate variability namely, flood and drought in South Ari district. To gather reliable data, five kebeles were selected from the district using simple random sampling technique. 363 household heads were selected using a systematic sampling method from the five selected kebeles. Besides, primary data was collected from focused group discussions, key informants, and field observations. The linear trend analysis showed an increasing trend of rainfall and temperature in the study site. Integrated vulnerability analysis approach result showed that the three Weyina dega sub-agro ecology zones of the district are vulnerable to climate variability in different ways. Farmland enclosure with trees and growing two different crops on the same plot of farmland at the same season are the new adaptive practices implemented by the local community to reduce soil erosion. The chi-square test result shows that age, level of education, income diversity, number of contacts with developmental agents and access to climate information have a significant relation with the adaptation practices implementation in the study site.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Assessment of Community Pharmacists’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance
Aisha Tanveer, Akshitha Kenchey, Zahera Mohammed, P. K. Lakshmi
Page no 92-98 |
10.36348/sjmps.2022.v08i02.009
Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health problem all over the globe. A cross sectional study in different zones of Hyderabad city was conducted with the aim of evaluating community pharmacists’ knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. A self-administered questionnaire was developed as data collection tool. Responses were recorded and scored using 5-Point Likert Scale. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, percentages and statistical tests were used to analyse the data. Data was collected from 40 community pharmacists. Results showed that the community pharmacist had poor knowledge on antibiotics and poor antibiotic dispensing practice. About 31(78%) pharmacists never heard about the term antimicrobial resistance. Our study highlighted that there were only 15 pharmacists who considered antimicrobial resistance as a serious issue. Most of the pharmacists (n=20) agreed that antibiotics can be dispensed without prescription. Around 26 pharmacists dispense antibiotics to treat minor ailments without a prescription. The most common reason given by community pharmacists for dispensing antibiotics without prescription was, request for antibiotics by the patients. The study highlights that there is a need for the community pharmacists to update their knowledge and improve their awareness on antibiotic resistance. Short term, intensive training programs are needed to improve their knowledge and practice regarding antibiotic use and resistance.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus as Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer Patients in Southern Nigerians
Dr. John E. Raphael, Ngozi Ekeke
Page no 101-106 |
10.36348/sjbr.2022.v07i02.006
Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in Nigerian men and worldwide. Some comorbidities, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular diseases, have been investigated as potential risks for developing PCa. Hypertension and Type2 diabetes mellitus (DM) are common in the middle-aged and elderly and could be a problem during treatment. Aims and Objectives: This study highlights prostate cancer-associated comorbidities and describes the relationship between Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and hypertension with prostate cancer among southern Nigerian men. Materials and Methods: This was a 10-year retrospective study on all patients with histologically confirmed prostate cancer at the University of Port Harcourt and two private Urology Hospitals. The case records of the patients were retrieved, and their age, prostate-specific antigen levels, Gleason grade, comorbidities, and treatment received were analyzed. Patients with incomplete data were excluded from the study. The data were collated using Microsoft excel 2020 and analyzed using SPSS Version 20. Results: There were a hundred and fifty-two patients with histologically confirmed PCa. Sixty-four were reported with Gleason scores. Fifty-four (35.5%) of the patients had no associated comorbidity. Hypertension was the commonest associated comorbidity observed in sixty-one (40.1%) patients, followed by Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in nineteen (12.5%). The poorly differentiated cancers were commonest among the patients with hypertension, Type 2 DM, and patients with both DM and hypertension. There was no association between Type 2 DM, hypertension, and Gleason’s score. Conclusion: Diabetes and hypertension are the most frequent comorbidities associated with Prostate cancer in our patients. There was no statistically significant association between Type 2 DM and hypertension with prostate cancer and Gleason’s score.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
The Impact of Advertisement on Financial Performance: A Case Study
Amitava Saha, Dr. Kushal De
Page no 65-69 |
10.36348/sjbms.2022.v07i02.003
The impact of advertisement on financial performance of a company is manifold and it plays as a leverage to increase net sales which have created positive effect on profit. The present study tries to examine how advertisement expenditure affects the variables like net sales of the product, retained earnings, earnings per share and profit after tax by a representative study on Maruti Suzuki India Limited from 2009-10 to 2019-20. It is seen that all the variables have a positive correlation with advertisement which implies that cost of advertisement have a causal relationship with the variables. It is found that advertisement expenses of the company have motivated the target customers’ buying behavior and is reflected through the increase in net sales and profits of the product over a period of time.
REVIEW ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Biologically Active Compounds and Use of Medicinal Plants in Treatment of Microbial Infections, Sources, Biological Action and Cellular Action
Asif Ali, Hira Tahir, Barira Shafiq, Urooj Afzal Chughtai, Zohaib Hassan Khan, Zoha Ashraf, Mawra Arif, Komal Razzaq, Bisma Arshad
Page no 61-65 |
10.36348/sjls.2022.v07i02.007
Medicinal plants have been used with practical implementation of certain herbal great source of plant based flavonoids, antioxidants compounds. Medicinal plants were traditionally used for health care and serve as the bases for the emergence of modern medicine. They have possess the high quality of the extracts to evaluate their therapeutic efficacy for their pharmacological action. Large variety of medicinal plants have been used as aromatic purposes and hence valuate for aroma and pharmacological sectors. Medicinal plants snowed stronger binding to the proteins secreted by the parasitic worms thus inhibiting them to proliferate in the cellular tissues thus acting as main source of immunity booster to the living tissues against the dyspepsia, gastritis, hyperacidity, menorrhagia, diabetes. Saraca asoca also used as source of medicinal pant due to its to antibacterial activity because of its potential against the of multiple bacterial strains. Some of the medicinal plants acting as dual nature such as targeting the microbial proteins and peptides playing important role in the development of natural therapies. Nanoparticles based therapies can be utilized for treatment of infectious diseases.
REVIEW ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Role of Physics and New Insights in Development of Energy System through Nanotechnology
Muhammad Mubashar Hanif, Muhammad Zubair Malik, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Adnan, Snabal Ashraf, Rashid Mehmood, Muhammad Okash ur Rehman, Saira Zahoor
Page no 94-98 |
10.36348/sjet.2022.v07i02.005
Power systems deliver energy to loads that perform a function in such a way that no barrier of electrical conductivity occurs. The energy productions through nanotechnology based systems are much efficient. They are manufactured through laser ablation and vapor deposition methods. The use of graphene is effective for lading the energy systems as it posses the physical characteristics such as electron mobility, high conductivity. Solar cells that transform the energy coming from the sun into the electrical form as photovoltaic influence greatly infused to this process. Capacitor with combinations of nanotubes also designed that increase the electrode surface area and thus the amount of energy. Nanotechnology technique can be used to produce cheap and high efficient solar cells. Nanocapacitors also working on the basis of the physiochemical properties of both the electrode and the electrolyte materials. Nanotechnology can be utilized in the productions of various electrical and commercial appliances.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Sources of Carbon Monoxide (CO) Pollution in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria
Green KI, Mkpe Abbey
Page no 107-113 |
10.36348/sjbr.2022.v07i02.007
The Niger Delta in the Southern part of Nigeria had been captioned ‘a region of environmental degradation’ including carbon monoxide (CO) pollution in the World Bank study of the region in 1995 and in the UNEP Environmental assessment of Ogoniland in 2011. The objective of the study was to ascertain the sources of CO production in the Niger Delta, the availability of Nigerian national guidelines on CO pollution, Nigerian national and regional register of CO poisoning and air quality check for CO in the region. A mixed method study (observational-descriptive and systemic review was carried out. Sources of CO production were visited, guidelines on environmental protection, CO and its register and data on daily air monitoring were looked for in Rivers State and the Nigerian Federal Ministries of Environment, Health and Justice. The result showed that there were no guidelines on environmental protection against CO pollution, no register of its poisoning and no monitoring of its ambient and indoor air concentrations in the Niger Delta. Sources of its pollution were tobacco fumes, generator, firewood, kerosene, bush and refuse burning, fire out-brake, barbecues, burning of fossil fuels in old vehicles, crude oil and gas industry (three refineries, oil wells, flow stations and gas flaring, crude oil and condensate spills, vapours from crude and refined oil storage, processing and transportation facilities, petrochemical plants and gas liquefaction plants). In conclusion the Niger Delta was plagued with numerous sources of CO emission and ineffective environmental protection laws. There was therefore urgent need for revival of regional and national environmental laws, maintenance of registers for CO poisoning and conduct of daily air quality check for CO and other gases in the Niger Delta and in Nigeria at large.
REVIEW ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Energy Efficient Approach in Wireless Sensor Network for Surveillance: A Review Analysis
Rishabh Kant Pathak, Dr. A. S. Kang, Er. Vishal Sharma
Page no 99-106 |
10.36348/sjet.2022.v07i02.006
Over recent years there is a huge growth in the area of wireless networks due to its efficient design. The word sensor is defined as component which handles & monitor different kinds of inputs from different sources such as physical and environmental conditions like pressure, heat, light, sound and vibrations etc. The output produced by the sensor will be electrical in nature and this electrical signal is further applied to various controllers for other functions. A Wireless Sensor Network is basically a form of ad-hoc network which consists of thousands of tiny sensor nodes. These wireless networks are deployed where the wired network implementation is difficult or impossible. These nodes are further distributed over a wide area such as hilly areas, forests, deserts, ocean etc. and these tiny sensors communicate or exchange data with each other by using radio signals. The WSN utilizes various communication protocols like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee and Ultra Wide Band techniques. Every protocol has its own speed and depending upon the distance between them, there are various problems which network can face like battery failure, effective coverage area, and effective energy utilization or node failure. In this paper, the several different methods to build energy efficient network, methods to improve the lifetime of a network, method for detection and correction of node failure and in the last the important applications are discussed.
REVIEW ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Ligating Properties and Antimicrobial Studies of Metal (II) Complexes of Amoxicillin
Nleonu E. C, Ezeibe A. U, Nwafor I. A, Nnaoma I. E
Page no 66-69 |
10.36348/sjls.2022.v07i02.008
Researchers in recent years are working on different approaches to the problem of bacteria resistant to antibiotics through drug modification. The synthesis of metal drug complexes are becoming more popular than their parent drugs because they possess modified pharmacological, toxicological and physiochemical properties. In this study, amoxicillin complexes of copper and zinc (II) ions were synthesized using standard method. The complexes were characterized for aqueous solubility, UV-visible spectral, acid stability, and thermal stability and in-vitro antimicrobial activities. The results of the physiochemical properties showed evidence of complex formation between the metals and the ligand. The acid and thermal stability of amoxicillin complexes showed high acid and thermal stability than its parent form. In-vitro antimicrobial activity of amoxicillin and its complexes form were studied against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The results revealed that Amoxicillin complexes of copper (II) ions showed effective antibacterial effect on Staphylococcus aureus than its pure form while Amoxicillin Zn2+ showed lower antibacterial activity when compared to its parent drug. This study suggests that transition metal complexes of amoxicillin modify the properties of the parent drug.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Preparation and Characterization of Activated Carbon from Jute Stick by Chemical Activation: Comparison of Different Activating Agents
M. Nurul Islam, Ayesha Khatton, Jahid Sarker, Helena Akhter Sikder, A. M. Sarwaruddin Chowdhury
Page no 112-117 |
10.36348/sjet.2022.v07i02.008
Activated carbons were prepared from jute stick by chemical activation using ZnCl2, H3PO4, and H2SO4. The influence of activating agents and carbonization temperatures ranging from 300oC ~ 350oC were studied. The properties of the carbons were characterized by iodine adsorption and the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) method. The results of iodine tests showed resemblance close to the values found in literature 500~1200 (mg/g). FTIR results revealed the existence of O-H, C=O, C=C, C-O and C-H bonds.
Pakistan’s strategic significance in the maritime sphere has been at the center of debate. Particularly with the on- going development “Port of Gwadar” and how it may crop a new profitable armature in the region and encyclopedically. Still, the broader significance lies in the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) action by China that includes Port of Gwadar under China Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC), aiming to strengthen indigenous connectivity. In turn this study shows logical and descriptive approach for assessing theoretical substantiation to measure challenges to maritime security and how it may be affected by current challenges in the swell. Further, fabrics under transnational relations; regionalism, constructivism and critical security studies approach support the core argument “Challenges to maritime security of Pakistan”. The major finding of this study is apparent through collaborative security and how effective it has been in eradicating crimes in the swell. The major recrimination of this paper is to view challenges to maritime security as a coherent approach towards security and cooperation.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Carbon Monoxide (CO) Pollution in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria and Its Impact on Foeto-Maternal Health
Mkpe Abbey, Oloyede O. Adebari, Kinikanwo I. Green, Bruno C. Chinko
Page no 57-64 |
10.36348/sijog.2022.v05i02.006
Background: Carbon monoxide is produced in abundance in the Niger Delta, a fact that was acknowledged in the World Bank study of the region in 1995 and the Environmental assessment of Ogoni land by UNEP in 2011. Objectives: To ascertain the extent of CO pollution in the Niger Delta, its impact on foeto-maternal health and to review the pathophysiology and the treatment of the poisoning. Methods: A mixed method study (observational-descriptive and systemic review). A literature review on the above objectives was carried out. The known foeto-maternal impact of CO exposure was extrapolated to the prevailing state of CO pollution in the Niger Delta. Questionnaires distributed to Doctors working in the tertiary Centres in the core Niger Delta focused on the prevalence, clinical presentations and foeto-maternal findings in patients who presented with CO poisoning. Results: There was no data on the prevalence and clinical presentations of CO pollution in the Niger Delta. The ambient and indoors air concentration of CO in the Delta range from 0 ppm to 191μg/m3 but in places within 60-200 metres from crude oil flow stations, the concentrations range from 100 to 5320 μg/m3. Maternal impact of CO pollution ranges from headaches at carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb) levels of 5-20% to maternal death at COHb levels of >66% while in the foetus, it causes birth defects, growth restriction, prematurity and sudden intrauterine and early neonatal death. Conclusion: The core Niger Delta is under perpetual siege of CO pollution and the ambient and indoors air concentration of it in the Delta range from 0 ppm to 191μg/m3.
REVIEW ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
Potentials of Adult Education for Knowledge Economy and Sustainability
Dr. Ifeoma F. Uzoagu
Page no 130-135 |
10.36348/jaep.2022.v06i02.012
Investing in human capital is the priority to make the most of the evolving economic opportunity. The world is dynamic and must be followed for the fulfillment and meeting up with technology and trend of time. It is of great importance to work with trend by incorporating a knowledge driven development. Human capital is gaining importance, the workers are becoming increasingly responsible for every aspect of their work and professional life. Successes in knowledge economy require commitment of both workers and firms, to continually learn and increase their skills and expertise which foster innovation. Adult learning and education is available for continuous change, making knowledge available for initials and continuing workforce. Adult learning and education equips people with the necessary knowledge, capabilities, skills competences and values to exercise and advance their rights and take control of their destinies.
REVIEW ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
The Writer and Society: A Literary Study of Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s Reflections on Hausa Society
Abdulbasir Ahmad Atuwo
Page no 72-76 |
10.36348/sijll.2022.v05i02.006
Styles were used by different authors to ensure a proper channeling of messages from their novels to the targeted readers. Balaraba Ramat Yakubu who is among the few reputable Hausa women authors combined the position of mother, elder, leader, and responsible married woman. At the time she strived hard to acquire what can sustain her family and relatives she wrote many Hausa fiction books in which she depicted her wisdom and opinions in exposing the need to have a decent society base on her life experience, a society that respects women dignity, display honesty, discipline and promote a violent free society and encourage respect for one another. Balaraba Ramat Yakubu has tried to symbolize some of these issues in her books as her contribution towards sustaining responsible society in Nigeria, Africa, or the world at large. Styles as used by authors is a toolbox in the manipulation of their talents to expose their mission in their works. Balaraba Ramat used her styles to display her opinions on how different dimensions of our lives should be. This paper analyzes how Balaraba Ramat Yakubu addressed some of these issues and analyzes them. The paper used her Hausa novels and the academic works done on them and other things related to her. The paper, however, makes contact with both primary and secondary sources for further justifications. It however concludes with the findings that in Hausa society, men remain behind their wives in whatever they do to earn their lively hood as long as their strives do not contradict Islam and Hausa culture. Again going by the power of the pen, the paper also encourages writers especially women to use their pen as their powerful weapon to fight all forms of insurgency which rendered hundreds of thousands of women and children victims of circumstances in many African countries.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE | Feb. 28, 2022
The Effect of Manipulating Task and Environment Constraints on Performance of Selected Fundamental Movement Skills
Farshid Tahmasebi, Sayed Kavos Salehi, Mehdi Pak
Page no 31-37 |
10.36348/jaspe.2022.v05i02.004
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of task and environment manipulation on the performance of selected basic motor skills. For this purpose, 30 children aged 4 to 6 years were selected using the available sampling method. First, the pre-test of over hand throwing was performed using the accuracy of throwing and kicking, and then the participants were randomly divided into 3 groups: manipulation of task restraints, environment constraints, and control. According to the research plan, the intervention groups performed the program for 6 weeks and two 60-minute sessions each week. The task constraint group practiced according to the task ecological analysis method, the environment constraint manipulation group practiced in the based on enrichment of the environment and the control group had no activity. After the last training session, a post-test was performed and the results were recorded. The data were analyzed with analysis of covariance test and Bonferroni was used for paired comparisons. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the remaining mean scores of kicking and over hand throwing of the subjects in terms of group membership (experimental and control groups) (P <0.05). Also, the results of Bonferroni post hoc test showed that the groups of manipulation of task constraints and performance environment had better than the control group in the studied skills, but the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P <0.05). The finding generally support and provide an insight into the idea of the effect of constraints manipulation on performance. Therefore, when teaching and working with children, manipulation of task constraints and environment can be used to improve the performance of children's fundamental movement skills.