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This paper considers the strategies for the mitigation of the interference of Stray Current (SC) on Impressed Current Cathodic Protection of the American Petroleum Institute specification API 5L grade B pipeline carrying liquefied gas. SC shifts cathodic protection from its designated negative value, and hence expose the pipeline to corrosion. A model for SC was developed and then applied in MATLAB. From the given conditions of operation, an SC of 0.74 mA was obtained, with parametric simulation indicating a rise in SC as anode current output rises. On the other hand, the consequence of the distance of different pipeline from the ground level shows an inverse relationship, which is attributed to the resistance offered by the ground. In order to mitigate the influence of SC interference, two methods have been proposed in this study, the first being anode current reduction or source removal and the second option is increasing distance from the ground bed. To effectively mitigate against the stray current, the pipeline should be sufficiently buried over a distance of 5 m away from the ground bed, while the anode current should be operated as low as 3.5 mA, or better still the interfering source should be removed on the ground that the interfering source was installed after the installation of the protected pipeline.

Background:Bladder stones contribute about 5% to urinary tract stones. Bladder calculi is not a common cause of urinary incontinence and huge bladder stones are not common in routine clinical practice. Our aim, in this case, was to report a patient with huge bladder stone and share our experience in the management. Case presentation:She is a 41-year-old grand multipara who presented to the National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Abakaliki with a history of urinary incontinence. Presence of bladder stone was felt with a metal urethral catheter during clinical examination and this was confirmed with imaging. She was managed with transvaginal cystolithotomy. Conclusion:Huge bladder stone is uncommon but can be a cause of urinary incontinence. Transvaginal cystolithotomy is a safe approach to its management. Keywords:Bladder stone; Urinary incontinence; Cystolithotomy

Objective: The stipulated minimum visual requirement for issuance of commercial driving license in Nigeria is based only on distance visual acuity (VA) minimum of 6/9 in the better eye and 6/12 in the poorer eye. The objective of this study was to describe the ocular health status of commercial vehicle drivers who are registered with the major motor parks in Abakaliki Metropolis and their visual fitness for commercial driving. Methodology: This was a cross sectional descriptive study of the ocular health of all drivers in 4 major commercial motor parks in Abakaliki, Southeastern Nigeria; who presented for eye screening during the Federal Road Safety Corps of Nigeria - organized drivers’ sensitisation on visual testing. Relevant data were collected and analysed using SPSS software package version 22 and presented in simple tables showing frequencies, percentages and proportions. Relationship between presenting visual acuity (PVA) and self-reported history of road traffic accident (RTA) was tested using the chi square Statistic. Significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: The 103 drivers who participated in this study were all males. Their ages ranged from 24 to 75 years with a mean age of 43.2 ± 12.3 years. Nearly half of the participants (46 or 44.2%) had ocular complaints, out of which 43 (93.5%) reported difficulty with near vision (reading small prints), and 36 (78.3%) reported diminution of distant vision. Ocular examination revealed that 44 participants (42.7%) had no eye disorder, while 59 (57.3%) had various ocular disorders including glaucoma 25 (42.4%), refractive errors 11 (18.6%); cataract 11 (18.6%); pterygium 5 (8.5%); hypertensive retinopathy 4 (6.8%), age-related macular degeneration 2 (3.4%); and optic atrophy 1 (1.7%). Visual acuity testing revealed that only 86 (83.5%) of the drivers met the federal road safety commission’s guideline for visual acuity level for commercial vehicle drivers of ≥ 6/12 in the poorer eye. Conclusion: A significant number (17 or 16.5%) of commercial drivers in Abakaliki metropolis were unfit for commercial driving by the federal road safety commission’s guideline. The most common ocular disorders were glaucoma, cataract and uncorrected refractive errors.

Vaginal pessary is a safe device for the conservative management of pelvic organ prolapse. Incarceration, a rare long-term complication of this device due to lack of follow-up is here presented. A 63 year-old postmenopausal woman had insertion of a silicone ring-shaped vaginal pessary for the management of pelvic organ prolapse. She stopped follow-up only to discover she could not remove the pessary which had become very adherent to the vaginal wall. She had excision of vaginal tissue and removal of the pessary under sedation. Women on vaginal pessary need regular follow-up to avoid complications such as infection, ulceration and incarceration. Keywords: Vaginal Pessary, Prolapse, Incarcerated

Studies have shown that adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables is vital to sound health. Eating vegetables and fruits appears to keep the brain young and prevent mental decline due to ageing. In Nigeria, many studies on fruit and vegetable consumption concentrated on adult population but empirical study on fruit and vegetable consumption pattern of students has rarely been considered. The study was therefore carried out to assess fruit and vegetable consumption among students of tertiary institutions in Oyo state, Nigeria. Two hundred well-structured questionnaires were administered to students through a multi-stage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regressions. The result revealed that the most preferred fruit by students was banana (34%) while the least preferred was cashew (1%). The most preferred vegetable was pumpkin leaves (32%) while the least preferred was celosia (20%). Only 37% of the students consumed the recommended fruit and vegetable intake. Regression analysis showed that student income, sex, parent’s income and Availability of fruit were statistically significant and determined fruit consumption among student (p

Pineapple is one of the most important fruits in Nigeria and it had been identified that the country has comparative advantage in its production. However, there is need for empirical studies on the technical efficiency of its production. This paper presents the analysis of technical efficiency of pineapple production in Osun state, Nigeria using stochastic frontier production function and resource use efficiency. Primary data was collected from 120 pineapple farmers using multi stage sampling technique. Results revealed that quantity of suckers and labour used in pineapple production was positive and significant at 5% while farm size was significant at 1%. The returns to scale indicated that a unit increase in all the specified production inputs will lead to a more than proportionate increase in pineapple yield by 2.1%. The mean technical efficiency of the pineapple farmers indicated that an average farmer could obtain about 93% of output from a given mix of inputs. The estimated gamma parameter revealed that 81.4% of the variation in output among the pineapple farmers was due to disparities in technical efficiency. Resource use efficiency indicated underutilization of suckers and overutilization of other specified production inputs. The study therefore recommends that farmers should cut down the use of resources that were over utilized and increase the quantity of suckers used in the production of the commodity for optimal productivity.

Theories of internationalization generally focus on individual market entries, and thus do not explain how entrepreneurs allocate scarce resources between competing opportunities and develop a port...

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The recommended WHO antenatal focused visits with reduced number of visits and tests is yet to be implemented in many communities in rural Nigeria.This paper evaluated the attitude of antenatal clients in a rural mission hospital to the new antenatal model.Focus group discussions were carried out bi-weekly for 12 weeks with consenting booked antenatal clients. The topic guide was developed following interactions with prenatal clients at a referral tertiary center.One hundred and forty-four clients were interviewed. Prior to discussion, none had heard of the new antenatal care model. More than half of them will prefer the traditional policy with multiple visits to the new model. The traditional visit was said to be more reassuring and provides the clients time away from their routine chores/occupations and afford them the opportunity to interact with other expectant mothers and get acquainted with the health care providers.To realize the goals of the new WHO recommended antenatal model in rural Nigeria, mass enlightenment and education must precede its gradual and cautious introduction.

Objectives: To provide information on twin deliveries among Igbos in a rural/semi-urban community of South-Eastern Nigeria, and compare the twinning rate with data from the other two major tribes. Methods: An analysis of the records of deliveries conducted over a 20-year period in a rural/semi-urban community of South-Eastern Nigeria. Results: The twinning rate of the community was 1:24, and increased with increasing maternal age, and generally with birth rank. Twin births were associated with a MMR of 895/100,000, and PMR of 213/1000 maternities, figures 3.4 and 1.7 times those of the total maternal and perinatal mortalities respectively. Ninty percent of the twin mothers delivered vaginally, 2% with the aid of symphysiotomy. Caesarean section rate was 10.6%. Conclusion: The twinning rate within Nigeria may probably be dictated by location rather than ethnicity. The maternal and perinatal mortalities associated with twin pregnancies in this study appear higher than for singleton births. Keywords: Twin Births, Rural Community, Eastern Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 11 (3) 2008: pp. 231-234

Context: The recommended WHO antenatal focused visits with reduced number of visits and tests is yet to be implemented in many communities in rural Nigeria. Aim: This paper evaluated the attitude of antenatal clients in a rural mission hospital to the new antenatal model. Study Design: Focus group discussions were carried out bi-weekly for 12weeeks with consenting booked antenatal clients. The topic guide was developed following interactions with prenatal clients at a referral tertiary center. Results: One hundred and forty-four clients were interviewed. Prior to discussion, none had heard of the new antenatal care model. More than half of them will prefer the traditional policy with multiple visits to the new model. The traditional visit was said to be more reassuring and provides the clients time away from their routine chores/occupations and afford them the opportunity to interact with other expectant mothers and get acquainted with the health care providers. Conclusion: To realize the goals of the new WHO recommended antenatal model in rural Nigeria, mass enlightenment and education must precede its gradual and cautious introduction. Keywords: Antenatal Care, Clients, Rural, WHO. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 11 (3) 2008: pp. 260-264

The task of extracting knowledge from text is an important research problem for information processing and document understanding. Approaches to capture the semantics of picture objects in documents constitute subjects of great interest in the domain of document mining recently. In this paper, we present an approach to extracting information about picture objects in a document using cues from the text written about them. The goal of this work is to mine a document and understand the content of picture objects in the document based on meaning inferred from the texts written about such objects. We apply some Natural Language Processing techniques to extract semantic information about picture objects in a document and process texts written about them. The mining algorithms were developed and implemented as a working system and gone through testing and experimentations. Results and future extensions of the work are discussed in this paper.