West Africa Journal of Science, Technology and Social Sciences
Instructions for Authors
All manuscripts should be submitted electronically via this email below: africainstituteofresearch@gmail.com
Please do not send a print copy of your submission.
Form
The style of the manuscript should conform to currently acceptable usage in matters of grammar and syntax.
Language
The Journal accepts manuscripts in English only.
Text
Original Articles should include a structured abstract of no more than 250 words, no more than 7 tables and figures, and no more than 40 references.
Abbreviations and Units
Abbreviations that are accepted and recognized as common scientific terminology may be used without definition. All nonstandard abbreviations should be defined at that point in the text where they first appear.
Figures
Graphs, diagrams, chromatograms, photos, etc. should be prepared as clear, black and white (no color), original positives, suitable for reproduction. All figures should be embedded within the manuscript, and must be captioned and numbered sequentially.
Tables and Equations
Tables and equations should not be submitted in a format exceeding the A4 page size (in portrait form). All tables should be embedded within the manuscript, and must be captioned and numbered sequentially.
References
All references should be cited at the end of the paper and listed consecutively as they appear in the text. References should be listed in the text by number in parentheses, for example, (1) or (1–5). The following are formats and examples for citing references:
Journals: (A) first author’s initials followed by the last name; (B) additional authors are listed in the order in which they appear in the original work; (C) title of article (no subtitles) in lower case; (D) Journal abbreviation; (E) volume number, followed by a colon; (F) inclusive page numbers of article; (G) year of publication in parentheses.
Example: 1. B.K. Logan and S. Distefano. Ethanol content of various foods and soft drinks and their potential for interference with a breath-alcohol test. J. Anal. Toxicol. 22: 181–183 (1998).
Books: (A) first author’s initials followed by last name; (B) additional authors (as above); (C) if author is editor, Ed. should follow name; (D) title of book, italicized and upper case; (E) editor, if not listed with authors; (F) publisher; (G) city and state or country of publication; (H) year of publication; (I) specific page numbers or chapters referred to.
Examples:
1. R.C. Baselt. Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man, 7th ed. Biomedical Publications, Foster City, CA, 2004, pp 1024–1025.
2. E.J. Cone and A.J. Jenkins. Saliva drug analysis. In Handbook of Analytical Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Toxicology, S.H.Y. Wong and I. Sunshine, Eds. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1997, pp 303–333.
Unpublished works: If an article has been submitted, but has not been published, as much information as possible should be included, such as authors, title, journal, and year. The use of unpublished works is restricted to works “in press”. The volume and page numbers can be added shortly before publication on the laser proofs. The Journal prohibits the use of personal communications.
Patents: (A) list initials followed by last name of person who applied for the patent; (B) country where patent application was filed; (C) patent number; (D) year.
Example: 1. S.T. Preston. U.S. Patent 1234, 1998.
Internet sites: (A) author (if applicable); (B) title of the site; (C) URL; (D) date accessed.
Example: 1. International Journal of Academic Research. Current contents, www.ijar.lit.az, May 2009.
Publication Procedure and Peer review policy
Submission of a paper to this journal implies that the manuscript has not been published in, or submitted to, any other journal and that the author(s) have obtained appropriate permission to use data obtained for and contained in the manuscript. Previous presentation at professional meetings should be mentioned in a footnote. All manuscripts are subject to review by two or more independent, anonymous referees chosen by the Editor-in-Chief. If revision is necessary, the author is asked to resubmit the dated, revised manuscript incorporating the suggestions and recommendations of the referees within three months. Revisions not received within three months from the date of notice must be resubmitted as a new manuscript with reference to the previous submission. All revisions must be accompanied with a letter detailing the changes made to the original document; changes should also be indicated directly on the manuscript (e.g., underlined or colored text). Revisions will be re-reviewed at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. The author of an accepted manuscript will be notified. He/She will receive page proofs (PDF) for proofreading prior to publication. Responsibility for accuracy in the final copy lies with the author. The Editor-in-Chief reserve the right to reject a manuscript without peer review if the manuscript does not comply with the Journal’s Instructions for Authors. All submissions are subject to final approval and acceptance for publication by the Editor-in-Chief.
How the referee is selected
Referees are matched to the paper according to their expertise. Our database is constantly being updated. We welcome suggestions for referees from the author though these recommendations may or may not be used. Referees advise the editors, who are responsible for the final decision to accept or reject the article.
How long does the review process take?
Typically the manuscript will be reviewed within four weeks. If the referees’ reports contradict one another or a report is unreasonably delayed, a further expert opinion will be sought. Referees may request more than one revision of a manuscript.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors must explicitly acknowledge all sources of funding and include this information in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript. Authors must also state other potential conflicts of interest, including financial and non-financial, in the cover letter that accompanies the manuscript submission.
CURRENT ABSTRACT OF PUBLISHED ARTICLES AND AUTHORS WITH DATES:
COMPARISON OF E-WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AT TWO TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA
MEJABI Omenogo Veronica, March,2013.
Department of Information & Communication Science,
Faculty of Communication & Information Sciences,
University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
ovmejabi@unilorin.edu.ng
ABSTRACT
Electronic waste (e-waste) comprises of waste from information and communication technology (ICT) equipment, devices and materials as well as others such as refrigerators, televisions, and air conditioners. Much of these electronics are regularly dumped in developing countries from industrialised countries. Particularly, ICT waste handling has become a major issue in recent times due to the increasing number of computer and wireless telephone users. Being equipment that have exceeded their life expectancy, used or refurbished electronics quickly add on to the pool of e-waste usually improperly disposed of by burying, burning, employing unconventional or unsafe recycling methods and in the extreme, by doing nothing – simply storing the unusable e-waste away. However, improper disposal often commonly leads to environmental pollution or ozone depletion. To combat these undesirable effects, various policies and practices that promote environmentally sustainable disposal of e-waste have been proposed with governments, industries and consumers, being identified as key players. Having recognized that large institutions are major consumers of electronic products, this paper presents a study of e-waste management practices at two institutions in Nigeria that were established in the 70’s. They were selected for their age in the expectation that electronic products would have been purchased and disposed over the past 30 years or more. A questionnaire was used to obtain data from departments in the institutions and the data collected analysed using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study are presented as a comparison of both institutions and recommendations are made towards the green disposal of e-waste in the institutions.
Keywords: e-waste, ICT waste, green disposal, Nigeria.
BIODEGRADATION POTENTIALS AND ANTIBIOGRAM PROFILES OF SOIL MICROBIOTA ISOLATED FROM AUTOMOBILE WORKSHOP ON FORCADOS BLENDED CRUDE OIL
AKORTHA, E. E+., ATUANYA, I. E+. and JABORO, A. G^#.
+: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
^: Precious Life Medical Center, Kaura District, Abuja, Nigeria
#: Corresponding author; email addressJaborograndy@gmail.com, GSM: +2347033212230
ABSTRACT
The heterotrophic microbial and hydrocarbon degrading bacterial counts of soils collected from the vicinities of an auto mobile workshop and a fallow farmland was determined using serial dilution and pour plate methods. Several meters, gravimetric and spectrophotometric procedures were used to evaluate the physicochemical qualities of the soil samples. All the identified microbial isolates were screened for hydrocarbonclastic activity and the biodegradation potentials of the successful isolates was determined. The antibiogram profiles of the bacterial cultures was determined using spread plate technique and several commercially available antibiotic discs. The mean heterotrophic bacterial and fungal counts were 5.6 ×103 cfu/g , 1.4 × 104 cfu/g , 9.2 × 104 cfu/g and 5.1 × 104 cfu/g for soil samples obtained from the automobile workshop (PS) and the pristine soil (CS) respectively. Bacterial and fungal isolates identified from the soil samples were: Klebsiella oxytoca, Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus megaterium, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Arthrobacter sp., Nocardia sp. , Corynebacterium sp., Aspergillus versicolor, Aspergillus niger, Mucor mucedo, Penicillium chrysogenum and Penicillium notatum. The pH of the PS soil was slightly acidic when compared to that of the CS soil which was neutral. All the bacterial isolates with the exception of Nocardia sp. could utilize crude oil as energy source. Bacillus megaterium, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa scored the highest utilization rates. The bacterial isolates were resistant to Amoxacillin (AM) and Septrin (SXT) while all the Gram negative isolates were resistant to Chloraphenicol (CH) and Sparfloxacin (SP). The 4.5Kb plasmids occured in some of the respective isolates. Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillus subtilis Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Arthobacter sp. harbored no plasmids. The control flask maintained a steady pH all through the growth profile study while the highest COD value; 320 mg/l was recorded for all the inoculated flasks at day 0 and the control flask. The examined soils served as source of antibiotic resistant and hydrocarbonclastic microbial isolates.
KEY WORDS: Biodegradation potentials, Soil microbiota, Automobile workshop, Antibiogram, Plasmid