The Internet and web technologies created a new and unprecedented environment to governments, businesses, educational institutions, and individuals enabling them to webcast any information using multimedia tools. University libraries are nowadays using web environment to provide high quality information for their users mostly in digital format. The purpose of this study is to investigate the university library websites in Nigeria, to analyse their content so as to ascertain their strength and weaknesses and to give recommendations. Three objectives guided the study. Ten university libraries with functional websites were randomly selected for the study. Fourty three (43) item checklists were developed based on previous studies and critical extermination of standard library websites. The checklists were scanned and analyse in various intervals during the month of December 2013, the results are presented in tabular form. The study found among others that the general information about the selected libraries, about library services, about their physical holdings are all inadequate. Recommendations made include improvement of librarian skills in website development and enhancement of library curriculum in library schools to include website development among others.

Daucus carota Linn (carrot) seeds are medicinally useful in the management of diseases including diabetes mellitus. The present study investigates the in vitro antioxidant activities and phytochemical constituents of several fractions from aqueous seed extract of Daucus carota. D. carota seeds (78.8g) were pulverized and dissolved in 400 mL of distilled water for 24 hours. The crude extract obtained (16.4g, 20.8% yield) was partitioned in water/ethyl acetate (3:1) to yield ethyl acetate fraction (6.2g, 37.8% yield) and aqueous ethyl acetate fraction (7.6g, 46.3% yield) which was subjected to column chromatography. Thirteen (13) fractions obtained were evaluated for their in vitro antioxidant activities and screened for phytochemical constituents. The fractions exhibited in vitro antioxidant activities at 2 – 20 μg/mL with 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activities (IC50 = 1.38 - 22.96 μg/mL), total antioxidant capacity (IC50 = 1.17 - 3.13 μg/mL) and nitric oxide scavenging activities (IC50 = 3.20 - 20.72 μg/mL). Fractions 4 – 8 expressed promising in vitro hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) antioxidant activities with IC50 comparable with that of ascorbic acid and butylated hydroxytoluene. The phytochemical screening of fractions 4 – 8 revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, and phenolics, which could be responsible for the antioxidant activities. The results suggest that fractions obtained from Daucus carota L. seed extracts possess significant antioxidant potential.

No abstract

The media over the years have been globally acknowledged as the watchdog of the society and their information/monitoring roles considered a sine qua non for democracy and good governance. The media, popularly referred to as the Fourth Estate of the Realm, have been identified as a key institution that plays a critical role in defining the political, economic and socio-cultural reality of given nations. The importance of the media today is immense and indispensable. Never before in mankind's history, the media had such a noteworthy impact on our lives (behaviors) and environments-this perhaps is due to modern technology. In developing state like Nigeria, the media have been instrumental to the struggle for democracy in 1999 after a long period of military rule. Based on this backdrop, this paper examined the contribution or the role of Nigerian media to Nigeria's transition to civil rule (democracy) in May 1999. The paper adopted descriptive research method through the use of secondary sources of data and anchored on the precepts of the Agenda Setting Theory. However, the study concluded that access to media is enormous for the success of democracy because for any democratic regime to survive, adequate quality information is essential.