2023

The study examined the knowledge of and attitude towards human trafficking among public secondary school students in Benin City. To guide the study, six (6) research questions were raised, two (2) was answered directly and four (4) were turned into hypotheses and tested at 0.05 alpha level. The study was a survey research design. The population of the study consists of all the thirty three thousand, four hundred and twelve (33, 412) students in the forty five (45) public secondary schools in Benin City of Edo State. A sample of three hundred and sixty (360) secondary school students from nine (9) public junior and senior secondary schools in Benin City using the Multistage Sampling procedure was employed. The instrument used was a questionnaire designed by the researcher. The instrument was validated by the researcher’s supervisor and two (2) test experts, one each in Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Evaluation and Counseling Psychology of the Faculty of Education, University of Benin. The internal consistency reliability of the instrument was determined through the Cronbach’s Alpha statistical procedure. Thus, Cronbach’s Alpha value of .85 and .72 were obtained for students’ knowledge scale and students’ attitude scale respectively. The analysis was done using percentage, mean, standard
deviation and the t – test of independent sample statistics. The findings of the study based on the research questions raised and hypotheses tested revealed that the students in Benin City have a moderate knowledge of human trafficking as well as negative attitude towards human trafficking. Sex and age of students have no significant influence on students’ knowledge and attitude towards human trafficking. It was therefore recommended among others that the moderate level of knowledge by students towards human trafficking should be improved and that the positive attitude of students towards human trafficking in Benin City should be condemned and that relevant authorities or agencies such as National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Counseling Association of Nigeria (CASSON) should consciously make effort to set programmes of awareness on the dangers of human trafficking in secondary schools

Background: The hamstring muscles are primarily the flexors of the knee and can also take part in the extension of the hip and require a good degree of flexibility to do so. The sit-and-reach test is a field test used to measure hamstring and low back flexibility.
Aim: This study was aimed at evaluating hamstring flexibility among undergraduates of the University of Benin. Method: This ex-post-facto study recruited 400 volunteers (200 males and 200 females) healthy undergraduates, aged between 17-30 years old. A tape measure and digital weighing scale were used to collect data for the selected anthropometric variables -Height, Weight, BMI, Upper limb length, Lower limb length, and Trunk length. Sit-and- Reach test was performed on a mat; agoniometer was used to assess for Active Hip range of motion. Data collected were summarized using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, An Independent T-test was used to ascertain the difference between males and females for the Sit-and-Reach test and Active Hip range of motion, and A Pearson’s product-moment correlation was used to examine the relationship between some anthropometric variables on Sit-and-Reach test and Active Hip active range of motion. Level of significance was set at 0.05. Result: The findings revealed that there were no significant gender differences in Sit-and-Reach test scores (p=0.063) and Active Hip Range of Motion (p=0.096). There was positive significant
correlations between sit-and -reach test scores and Upper limb length (p=0.0001), lower limb length (p=0.0001) and trunk length (p=0.005), and between Active Hip Range of Motion and height (p=0.0001), lower limb length (p=0.0001) and trunk length (p=0.005), There was positive significant correlation between BMI (P=0.004) and active hip range of motion but no significant
correlation with Sit-and-Reach test (p=0.258), trunk length (p=0.143) showed no significant correlation with active hip range of motion. Height showed no significant correlation with both tests.
Conclusion: This study provided the average value of hamstring flexibility among male and female were within the normal range. Anthropometric factors such as upper limb length, lower limb length, BMI and trunk length correlated with hamstring flexibility among Nigeria adults. However, the pattern of correlation varies between sit and reach test and active hip range of motion. There was no significant correlation between height and both tests.

In this study, prevalence of enteric bacteria in ready to eat suya and antibacterial activity of Tetrapleura tetraptera pod extract was carried out. The aim of this research was to isolate enteric bacteria from suya meats and determine the antibacterial potential of T. tetraptera against enteric bacteria. Standard microbiological methods were used to determine the total heterotrophic bacteria and coliform count of the suya samples using pour plate methods. Ethanolic extraction of pod of Tetrapleura tetraptera was done. The result of this study showed the total heterotrophic bacteria count (Log10 Cfu/g) ranged between 3.00±3.00 to 5.455606±2.50 (Log10 Cfu/g) while Total Coliform Count ranged from 3.00±0.50 to 4.921686±1.00 (Log10 Cfu/g). The bacterial
isolates isolated were Morgenella sp, Enterobacter sp, Pseudomonas sp, E. coli, Klebsiella sp and Bacillus sp. Phytochemicals screening showed the presence of saponin, te penoids, phenol, glycoside and alkanoids. Antibacterial screening showed that Tetrapleura tetraptera pod extracts possessed antibacterial activities against the test isolates with Klebsiella sp. Having 33.67mm for 100mg/ml while the minimum zone was recorded in Escherichia coli with 6.33mm for 75mg/ml concentration of extract. This finding also suggests good antibacterial potential of the pod extracts of Gum tree

The purpose of this study was to find out influence of Psychological Ergogenic aids on the Sports Performance of University of Benin Athletes. The survey research design was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprised of the 504 registered athletes of the University of Benin. The simple size of this was 130 athletes of the University of Benin. The simple random sampling techniques was used for the selection of the sample. The instrument that was used for this study was a self-constructed questionnaire. The questionnaire is made up of three parts, namely section A, B and C. The face and content validity of the instrument was validated by three experts, these included; the researcher’s supervisor, one expert from the Department of Human Kinetics and Sports Science and one from the Department of Educational Evaluation and Counselling Psychology all from the University of Benin. Their criticisms, corrections, suggestions, modifications and recommendations served as the final draft of the instrument. The split-half method of reliability was used. The instrument was administered to 20 athletes of Igbinedion University Okada twice, who were not part of the study. This involves administering the instrument to the athletes, after an interval of two weeks, the instrument was re- administered to same sets of respondents. Data collected were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient statistics and a coefficient values of 0.82 was obtained an indication that the instrument was reliable for the study

This study examined the impact of motivation on employees’ productivity: first bank of Nigeria Plc, Benin Ikpoba Hill branch as a case study. The was a surbey research designed to source data from staffs of Benin Ikpoba Hill branch, using percentage and ordinary regression to analyse the hypotheses of the study. The result of the findings revealed that there is positive significant relationship between work environment motivation of the employees and organization productivity. There is negative significant relationship between the recognition of the employees and empowerment motivation and organization productivity. There is negative no significant relationship between the outcome of employees’ wages and benefits and organization productivity. The study recommends that more research need to done to find out ways to involve the part time employees. Organizations must understand the importance of employee involvement in decision making order to provide great customer services to get competitive age in the market. There is need of employee involvement programme to involve the employees in the decision making process of the organization. Organization must conduct regular survey to find out the employees views regarding different matters of the unit. There must be increase in the financial benefit to motivate the employee to take in the involvement process. The management needs to take necessary steps to motivate the employees to take part in the process. There is a certain ignorance regarding the real benefit of involvement among employees, the management must convince the employee and aware them about the benefits.

The study investigated the prospects and opportunities available to adult facilitators in-training in Benin Metropolis. Three research questions were raised and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The targeted population of the study included undergraduate students, post graduate students and lecturers of the Department of Adult and Non-Formal Education, Faculty of Education, University of Benin. A total of 120 respondents were used as sample of the study. They were selected using the stratified, proportionate and census techniques respectively. A structured questionnaire titled "Assessment of the Prospects and Opportunities for Adult Facilitators-in-Training" (APOAFTQ) was used as the research instrument. The instrument was validated by the project supervisor and two other lecturers in the Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City. The reliability of the instrument was determined using the Cronbach alpha procedure of which an average weight of 0.70 was obtained. The data collected were analysed using the descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics involved frequency count, percentages and mean score with a criterion mean of 2.50 while the inferential statistics involved the use of the Pearson's r to test the hypotheses formulated. After the analyses, it was found in the study that there are job prospects and opportunities available to adult facilitators-in-training upon completion of their training programmes. It was also revealed that there are professional development opportunities available to adult facilitators-in-training in order to enhance their job productivity and career advancement. The study therefore concluded that job prospects are available to adult facilitators-in-training in Benin Metropolis. On the
basis of the findings and conclusion reached in the study, it was recommended among others that adult facilitators-in-training should give themselves to professional development in order to advance in knowledge and skill; and that adult education as a course of study should be recognized as a profession among other professions without any form of discrimination

Student academic advising is very important for development of students in different institutions of learning but it always involves a time-consuming effort when the traditional system is employed. A web based academic advising system has been implemented in this study in order to solve the issues between students and the academic advisers, by making advising more convenient, taking complaint from students, evaluating and generating reports, suggesting possible answers to the students’ questions. The researcher surveyed the existing procedures as utilized by many institutions and then implemented a computerized solution in order to enhance their overall advising experience. The researcher presented an outline of the design and implementation of a computerized e-Academic Advising System as a web-based application. The researcher built a model that the academic staff can access to follow-up the students’ complaints and suggestions. Also, the students can register academic complaints, seek advice and more from the system. The e-Academic advising web-based system is developed and implemented with HTML, CSS and "PHP" as a Web framework which runs via the structured query language (SQL) as a Database engine

Pericardial adipose tissues are combined fats from pericardial sac and surrounding external surfaces of the pericardium. Excess deposits often lead to cardiovascular disorders and other heart related diseases. There are claims that an herbal decoction called Aju Mbaise (a combination of medicinal plants wrapped as a combo pack) can be used to treat heart related diseases including obesity which affects many people world-wide. Despite the existing information on Aju Mbaise and its healing claims, there is ucity of scientific data on the effects on pericardial adipose tissues. Therefore, this study was to examine histopathology anges in pericardial adipose tissues of lard-palm kernel cake (L-PKC) diet-fed rats treated with Aju Mbaise herbal decoction. The specific objectives were to investigate the effects of the present herbal decoction on body weight, adiposity indices and lipid profile of experimental rats. Samples of fresh L-PKC were obtained from Uselu market, Benin City while Aju Mbaise was purchased online. Each component was identified and authenticated by an expert taxonomist in the University while voucher numbers were issued for each constituent. Sixteen (16) Sprague-Dawley rats of both sexes, weighing (149-175g) were obtained from a research animal farm in Benin City. Animals acclimatized for 2weeks in Anatomy department University of Benin with ambient temperature 26±3°C), humidity (50% - 60%) and photoperiodicity (12:12hr). They were kept in clean steel gauzed cages and coconut husks used as beddings in a light and humid environment. Rats were fed on standard pellets and water provided adequately. Ethical approval (V.1034/40) was obtained from Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources while rats were used in compliance with laydown policies outlined in the Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. L-PKC diet was prepared consisting of 90% super feed, 8% pig fat, and 2% PKC mixed appropriately to make up 100%. Herbal decoction was prepared by placing 296g wrap of it in a clean pot while one (1L) litre of water was added and heated for 30minutes with a gas cooker according to producer’s recommendation. After cooking, it was cooled and filtered with a white sterile muslin cloth. The dark-brown decoction (filtrate) was refrigerated to avoid decay at 25°C. LD50 was conducted to ascertain the lethal dose that will serve as a guide in administering the required dosage. Experimental rats were divided into four (4) groups irrespective of sex, age and weight (n=4). Group A were untreated but received standard rats diet (SRD) and water. Group B was fed with 10% of L-PKC fat diet mixed with 90% SRD and water. Group C was fed 10% L-PKC mixed with 90% SRD and water, and administered 2.5mL/kg body weight of herbal decoction hile Group D was fed same way like Group C but treated with 5mL/kg of herbal decoction. Each rat was picked with a hand owel and treated orally for twenty eight (28) days at 2day intervals with a sterile syringe. Average weekly body eights of each rat were recorded with a digital electronic balance. In the end, all animals fasted overnight and were anaesthetized with chloroform. Rats were dissected using scalpel blade while pericardial adipose tissues from the epicardial and paracardial were excised including he myocardium and blotted individually with filter paper prior to grossing while relative tissue weights were recorded. Blood sample was collected from the cardiac region from each animal without anticoagulant with tab gel and centrifuged (BROADBENT, UK) at 3000 rpm for 5 min to obtain the serum content. Sera were stored at -20°C until it was eeded for fasting lipid profile using the chemical analyzer. Grossed samples were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formol saline and processed histologically (dehydrated with alcohol, cleared in xylene and impregnated with molten paraffin wax and embedded with the automatic embedding machine. Tissues were de-blocked and sectioned with a microtome at 3-5µ. Sections were stained using H&E method and viewed with the microscope at x10 and x40 magnifications. Data were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc test for multiple comparisons while p<0.05 was considered significant. The effect of the graded treatment (2.5mL/kg and 5mL/kg AJMD) on rats revealed a progressive increase in Group (C and D). All rats experienced increases in weights compared with Day 0 and there was no significant difference in weights within the study period. Total pericardial fat weight was increased in all groups but higher in group B (Lard-PKC). The same condition was seen in total pericardial index with no significant differences (p<0.05) in all pericardial weights. Organ weights in L- PKC (Group B) were higher when ompared with those in Group A. Those in Group C (L-PKC + 2.5mL/kg AJMD) decreased compared with Group B while Group D (L-PKC +5mL/kg AJMD) increased with no significant difference in the groups. Lipid profile analysis showed that there is a significant decrease in mean TC (mg/dL) p<0.001 between Group B and A, and between Group C and B. There was no significant difference in HDL and LDL while VLDL showed a significant difference (p<0.000) between Group A and D and between roup B 11 and C. Pericardial adiposity from Group A showed that ipocytes remained intact without distortions in histological architecture. Adipocytes sizes in Group B though appeared normal but bigger in sizes compared with control animals. Pericardial adiposity in Group C and D were normal but slightly reduced in roup D compared with other groups. Myocardium (Group A) owed normal histological architecture evident with an intact ranching muscle fibre. Group B showed evidence of ballooning of branching muscle fibres and nucleus. Group C and D were normal ith an intact fibre striation and nucleus. Therefore, Aju Mbaise decoction maintained histological integrity of the myocardium, lipid profile, including reduction in adipose tissue weights and adipocyte sizes of rats in this study. Further investigation from molecular perspectives should be considered to support the current claims.

The issue of hearing impairment has emerged as a significant disability concern on a global scale, posing a potential obstacle to the provision of high-quality education in emerging nations such as Nigeria. This initiative specifically addresses the difficulties encountered by students with hearing impairments in a specialised educational setting in Nigeria. A research investigation was carried out within the special schools located in the Oredo Local Government Area of EDO State. The primary methodology employed was qualitative research, with questionnaires serving as the means to gather fundamental demographic data from the participants. The focus of this study encompassed educators and head teachers of kids with hearing impairments within the Oredo Local Government Area. A total of 40 participants, all of whom were instructors, were involved in the research study. The study revealed that students in special needs education encounter various obstacles, including a scarcity of hearing aids, a communication barrier with the surrounding community, unfavourable attitudes from the community, insufficient funding, abandonment by parents and relatives, a shortage of teachers, and a lack of sign language interpreters. The challenges were found to have both immediate and lasting effects on the academic performance of students affiliated with the centre. In this study, it is determined that pupils with disabilities, particularly those with hearing impairments, in the Oredo Local Government Area are encountering difficulties in achieving fundamental education. The Nigerian government should enhance financial allocation and guarantee the provision of essential hearing devices and technology to all pupils with hearing impairments. This study provides a foundational framework for future research on the issues encountered by individuals with special needs in Nigeria.

Pericardial adipose tissues are combined fats from pericardial sac and surrounding external surfaces of the pericardium. Excess deposits often lead to cardiovascular disorders and other heart related diseases. There are claims that an herbal decoction called Aju Mbaise (a combination of medicinal plants wrapped as a combo pack) can be used to treat heart related diseases including obesity which affects many people world-wide. Despite the existing information on Aju Mbaise and its healing claims, there is paucity of scientific data on the effects on pericardial adipose tissues. Therefore, this study was to examine histopathology changes in pericardial adipose tissues of lard-palm kernel cake (L-PKC) diet-fed rats treated with Aju Mbaise herbal decoction. The specific objectives were to investigate the effects of the present herbal decoction on body weight, adiposity indices and lipid profile of experimental rats. Samples of fresh L-PKC were obtained from Uselu market, Benin City while Aju Mbaise was purchased online. Each component was identified and authenticated by an expert taxonomist in the University while voucher numbers were issued for each constituent. Sixteen (16) Sprague-Dawley rats of both sexes, weighing (149-175g) were obtained from a research animal farm in Benin City. Animals acclimatized for 2weeks in Anatomy department University of Benin with ambient temperature (26±3°C), humidity (50% - 60%) and photoperiodicity (12:12hr). They were kept in clean steel gauzed cages and c conut husks used as beddings in a light and humid environment. Rats were fed on standard pellets and water provided adequately.