Recent Articles

The current study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of supplementing ram semen extender with melatonin on chilled storage capacity of spermatozoa. Eighty ejaculates were collected from 5 Barki rams, 16 ejaculates each, using an artificial vagina throughout the period from January – February, 2017. The ejaculates of each collection session were pooled and diluted (1:10) with Tris-citric egg yolk extender, and were split into 4 aliquots. The first portion served as control (melatonin-free), whereas the other 3 portions were supplemented with 0.1, 0.2 or 0.3 mM melatonin. Thereafter, the samples were stored at 4 oC for 48 hrs, during which sperm physical and morphological properties were evaluated at 24 hr interval. Simultaneously, oxidative stress indices in terms of total antioxidant capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde concentration (MDA), resazurin reduction test, in addition to enzymatic activities of AST, ALT and ALP were determined. The results revealed that, over the 48 hr preservation period, level of melatonin in the diluent was positively correlated (P

A two year study was conducted to investigate the effects of breed, year, season, age and body condition score on litter sizes of goats reared in Mubi, guinea savannah zone of Nigeria. Data was collected on fetuses recovered, and the grafian follicles as well as the presence of corpus luteum, which are direct measures of litter size from female Sahel and Sokoto Red goats of different age groups and body condition scores across four seasons for two years. It was discovered that, there were significant (P

The objective of this paper is to review the contending issues of widowhood in Africa with particular emphasis on Nigeria. Across different cultures in Nigeria, there exists harmful traditional widowhood practices that have attracted the attention of the global struggle especially on violence against women. Sufficient evidence suggests that, widows are often mal-handled by the society and thrown into financial, psychological, sexual and social trauma. The growing excess of widows in Nigeria is due to factors such as lower mortality rate among women than men, younger wives than husbands, wives with greater likelihood of outliving their husbands and higher remarriage rates among the widows than widowers. In the twenty first century, the clash of civilization reminiscent in culture and modernity has produced discernible patterns of decline in widowhood practices in all cultures in Nigeria. For instance, the factor of restricting a widow to a point of confinement is weakened by modernity and the economic demands of modern life. For an educated career widow, the return to work in an urban setting clearly negates the demand for respect for the rules of restriction in movement and association or interaction. Where the widow is perceived to be well educated and wealthy, the widowhood rights are observed more in breach than obedience. In the rural areas where widows may be illiterate, the demands of custom are more likely to be enforced with the presence of many pre-disposed to customary practices. The practice of widowhood rites has widespread negative effects and deeply ingrained social, psychological, economic and health implications for womanhood in Nigeria. From the little available literature, it is observed that, there is a high rate of widowhood among Africans especially in the crises prone areas of Africa such as Sudan, Liberia, Somalia, Sierra-Leone, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Congo, Niger, Chad and recently Nigeria….

The objective of the study is to correlate between udder traits with breed, live weight, age and parity in respect to milk production of indigenous goats in Adamawa State, North-Eastern Nigeria. Thirteen households were randomly selected for the study from which 55 semi-intensively managed indigenous goats comprising of 13 Sahel, 20 Sokoto Red and 22 Non-descript Does within the age limits of 1, 2, 3 and 4 years and parities of 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Age, parity, live weight (Lwt) and udder parameters, like: teat floor (TF), teat angle (TA), udder length (UL), udder volume (UV) and teat length (TL) were measured. The Sahel does have higher values of Lwt, TF, TA, UL, UV, and TL respectively. The three breeds did not differ significantly in TA. The difference between Sokoto Red and Non-descriptive goat was only in TF distances. Sokoto Red goats had significantly higher (P < 0.05) value of TF than Non-descript goats. All other udder traits increased numerically with advance in age except for TA. There was a significant (P < 0.05) effect of parity on Lwt, TF, and UV. The values of all the parameters measured increased with increase in parity, except TA that was highest in does in their first parity. There was significant (P < 0.01) age x breed interaction effect on all parameters investigated except TA. The Sahel does exhibited higher superiority in all the parameters measured over other breeds at various ages except in does aged ≥ 4 years. The Sahel does across all age groups compared with the other two breeds have the highest values of TF, TL UL and UV. The results of breed x age and breed x parity interactions showed significant effect only in TF distances which is an indication of growth in relation to skeletal development among...

Hadamard’s matrices are used widely at the forward links of communication channels to mix the information on connecting to and at the backward links of these channels to sift through this information is transmitted to reach the receivers this information in correct form, specially in the pilot channels, the Sync channels, the traffic channel and so much applications in the fields; Modern communication and telecommunication systems, signal processing, optical multiplexing, error correction coding, and design and analysis of statistics. This research is useful to generate new sets of orthogonal matrices by generalization Hadamard matrices,with getting bigger lengths and bigger minimum distance by using binary representation of the matrices that assists to increase secrecy of these information, increase the possibility of correcting mistakes resulting in the channels of communication, giving idea to construct new coders and decoders by mod p with more complexity for using these matrices and derivation new orthogonal codes or sequences.