Antibacterial and antifungal effect of high pH and paraffin wax application on tomatoes, oranges and peppers

The antibacterial and antifungal effects of high pH (9, 10) and paraffin wax were determined. Determination of antibacterial and antifungal activity of the combined treatments was achieved by aerobic mesophilic count of bacteria and fungi on the surface of the tomatoes, peppers and oranges using serial dilution and pour plate techniques and compared prior to and after 4 days of treatment with buffer (pH 9, 10) and wax for 3 min using dipping method. Reduction in bacterial and fungal countindicates antifungal and antibacterial activity. A bacterial count reduction of 84.3 (control), 63.4 (pH 9) and 78.2% (pH 10) and fungal count reduction of 53.6 (control), 43.4 (pH 9) and 73.5 (pH 10) wereachieved after 4 days of treatment respectively. The study shows that the control (unwaxed) had similar antibacterial and antifungal effect as waxed fruits at pH 9 and 10, except for pH 10 that had higher reduction of fungal counts than the control, showing prospect of higher activity with wax at higher pH than 10

Antimicrobial profile of moringa oleifera lam. Extracts against some food – borne microorganisms

The chloroform and ethanol extracts of seeds and leaf of Moringa oleifera were investigated for antimicrobial activity against some selected food – borne microorganisms as a first step in the screening of the extracts for preliminary sanitizing/preservative properties on foods. The preliminary phytochemical screening and antimicrobial assay were carried out using standard procedures. The results of the phytochemical analysis revealed differences in the presence of the phytochemicals among the extracts. Saponins were detected in all the extracts while tannins were only detected in Moringa oleifera leaf chloroform extract. The antibacterial assay results show that M. oleifera leaf ethanol extract exhibited broad spectrum activity against the test organisms with Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter aerogenes susceptible. The MIC values ranged between 2.0 and >4.0mg/ml for all the organisms. M. oleifera seed chloroform extract was only active against E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium. The MIC values ranged between 1.0 and >4.0mg/ml for the tested organisms respectively. Antifungal activity result revealed 100% inhibition in growth of Mucor and Rhizopus species by M. oleifera seed chloroform extract at concentration of 1mg/ml. Standard Ketoconazole (control) inhibited the test organisms by 100% at 0.5mg/ml concertration. The result of this study have shown the potentials of M. oleifera extracts as sanitizers/preservatives by inhibiting the growth of the test organisms, which range from food – borne pathogens to spoilage causing organisms in foods

Phytochemical screening and antibacterial activity of leaf extracts of Senna siamea (LAM) on Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The anti-pseudomonal activities of aqueous, chloroform and ethanolic extracts of leaf of Senna siamea (LAM) were evaluated by agar disc diffusion method. This was with the aim of substantiating the ethnomedicinal use of the plant as anti-bacterial. All the extracts were not active to Ps. aeruginosa at the concentration levels of 100μg/disc and 200μg/disc, however the extracts were active at high concentration levels of 500μg/disc and 1000μ/disc revealing a dose – dependent antibacterial activity. Aqueous extract was the most active with zone diameter of inhibitions of 16mm and 30mm followed by ethanolic extract which had zones of inhibition of 10mm and 16mm and the least was chloroform extract which has zone diameter of inhibitions of 08mm and 14mm, all at 500μg/disc and 1000μg/disc concentrations respectively. Ciprofloxacin (oxoid) as positive control had zone diameter of inhibition of 35mm in all the test plates. The antipsedomonal potential of the leaves of Senna siamea Lam leaf may be due to the phytochemical compounds present in the leaf extracts, which were found to be tannins, saponnins and steroids. However aqueous extract proved to be a more suitable candidate for use in the treatment of diseases cause by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Hence, antimicrobial evaluation and biotechnological study of the whole plant are thus recommended. Keywords: Antipseudomonal, Senna siamea, Phytochemicals. Screening, Pseudomonas aeruginos

Jaw fractures in Nigerian children: an analysis of 102 cases

A CAJM journal article.Objectives: To present the prevalence and pattern of jaw fractures in children aged 15 years and below attending two hospitals serving as referral centres for facial injuries in North Eastern Nigeria. Design: Retrospective Cross Sectional Study. Settings: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Borno State, Nigeria. Subjects: One hundred and two patients with jaw fractures aged 15 years and below. Main Outcome Measures: Aetiological factors and pattern of jaw fractures in children aged 15 years and below. Results: We retrospectively reviewed 102 patients with jaw fractures aged 15 years and below seen over a five year period at two referral centres in Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria. This constituted 9.5% of the total 1074 cases of maxillofacial injuries managed during the period. The male to female ratio was 7.5:1 and there was a male reponderance in all age groups. The main causes of fractures were road traffic accident (n=55, 53.7%) followed by falls (n=26,25%). Other etiological factors such as fights, sports and gunshots accounted for the remaining cases. The mandible was the commonest site with the body commonly fractured (n=74, 72.5%). No Le Fort III fractures were identified in this study. Conclusion: Despite some limitations to our data, such as exclusion of patients who attended private clinics and lack of modern diagnostic methods, this report shows that there is obvious need for concern about the high. prevalence of maxillofacial injuries in children caused by road traffic accidents, in North Eastern Nigeria

Global impacts of scientific publications by academic staff: a case study of College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

The impacts of scientific research by an individual or institution are measured using various bibliometric indices such as the h-index and citations index among others. Objective: The present study assessed the global impacts of scientific publications by academic staff of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri (CMS-UNIMAID) using selected bibliometric indices. Methodology: The data (demographic data, research experience, and the number of publications) of the 202 academic staff of College of Medical Sciences CMS-UNIMAID were obtained from the records submitted for the 2019/2020 annual appraisal. The h-index, citations index (CI), number of documents (ND), RG score, research interest (RI), citation/item, and citation/year of the staff were extracted from Google Scholar, Publons, ResearchGate, and Scopus using th authors search until 25 December 2020. Staff and publication online visibilities were determined. Descriptive statistics were prepared for all records obtained and subjected to appropriate inferential statistics. Results: The mean age and research experience of the staff were 45.4±9.2 and 13.9±9.6 years, respectively. The majority (p<0.05) of the staff were male (85.1%), had a PhD/Professional Fellowship (61.4%), and were senior academic staff (53.5%). Atotal of 4940 publication entries were submitted for the appraisal. Only 2.5% of the staff were visible on all platforms with staff online visibility of 63.9, 55.5, 15.8, and 5.0% (p<0.05) on Scopus, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, and Publons, respectively. Male staff (68.0%) were more visible (p<0.05) than their female counterparts (40.0%) on Scopus while senior academic staff were more visible (p<0.05) than junior academic staff on all platforms except Publons. Publication online visibility was highest (p<0.05) in Google Scholar (78.4%) and ResearchGate (65.9%) than Publons (28.0%) and Scopus (25.1%). The mean h-index, CI, and ND were 8.3±1.1, 401.8±97.8, and 36.2±4.9, respectively on Google Scholar and 5.0±0.4, 166.4±25.6 and 9.0±0.9, on ResearchGate. Publons showed means h-index, CI, and ND of 5.0±0.3, 77.2±13.7, and 25.6±2.1, respectively while Scopus showed 4.0±1.6, 144.4±95.3, and 14.5±6.2, respectively. In addition, the means RG score and RI were 10.0±0.7 and 113.1±15.4, respectively while the means citation/item and citation/year were 3.9±1.7 and 10.7±6.8, respectively. Conclusions: Low bibliometric indices indicate poor global impact of scientific publications from CMS-UNIMAID. Concerted efforts are required to improve the quality of research and publication through adequate funding, infrastructure, and mentorship among others

Review on biogas production processess

No Abstract

Current trend in antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Clostridium tetani isolated from soil samples in Kano

The need for a regular assessment of the antimicrobial sensitivity patterns among tetanus causing as well as infectious members of Clostridia found in soil-human settlement provides a justification for the present study. Accordingly, soil from various locations of Bayero University Campus, Kano was screened for the isolation of C. tetani by anaerobic culturing procedures. The organism was detected in 60% of the soil samples. The isolates were tested against commonly prescribed drugs including sparfloxacin, ciprofloxin, chloramphenicol, cloxacillin and metronidazole by disc diffusion technique. Flouroquinolones; sparfloxacin (30μg), ciprofloxacin (30μg), metronidazole (5μg), gentamycin (10μg) and tetracycline (10μg) showed greater in vitro inhibitory effect. The activity of erythromycin (5μg) and chloramphenicol (30μg) was moderate. However, all penicillin derivatives (augmentin (30μg), amoxicillin (25μg), cloxacillin (5μg) and penicillin V (30μg) as well as cotrimoxazole (25μg) were all inactive against the organism. The flouroquinolones, genta,mycin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline remain the drugs of choice against infections due to the organism, while co-trimoxazole and members of the penicillin group of antimicrobials appeared to loose their in vitro potency and effectiveness. Keywords: Clostridium tetani, Soil isolate, Chemotherapy, Antimicrobial Susceptibilit

Impact of Polytechnic Education on Enterprenuership Development in Nigeria

The consequential failures of breakeven in respect to business expectations in Northern Nigeria drive around the competent knowledge acquired by entrepreneurs. This knowledge can be translated into identifiable opportunities with lucrative business openings. As such impacting knowledge on Entrepreneurship Education to yield employment opportunities through the entrepreneurship development was the bases of this Research work. Survey Method was designed and used with Multistage sampling procedure. The responses were categorized into four Stages. (9) local governments were randomly selected from three (3) senatorial zones in Stage One. In the second stage, fifty (50) Ramat Polytechnics graduates engaged in Entrepreneurship businesses in the areas of Technical, Vocational, Businesses etc. courses were purposively selected from 27 local governments of the state. Descriptive statistic and five point likert scale were used to analyze the data. The result shows that; there were several types of entrepreneurs that are products of Polytechnic Education fastened in economic growth with employment opportunities created through the entrepreneurship development through expanding of businesses and poverty reduction. It was recommended that Entrepreneurship development should become part and parcel of tertiary Institutions’ curriculum so that youngsters will acquire the necessary skills from the onset

Isolation and Identification of Postharvest Spoilage Fungi Associated with Sweet Oranges (Citrus sinensis) Traded in Kano Metropolis

Mycological studies on fungi in apparently diseased sweet oranges (Citrus sinensis) sampled from retailers at Na'ibawa Yan Lemu market in Kano Metropolis was carried out between August and September 2006. The samples were surface sterilized using 85% ethanol and homogenates were cultured on potato Dextrose Agar and incubated aerobically at room temperature for 7 days at 30°C. Pure cultures of the resulting fungal colonies were obtained from the subcultures of the primary plates. These were identified morphologically and microscopically. The investigation revealed that up to 90% of the samples were infected with one or more fungal species. The most predominant pathogenic fungus isolated from the samples was, Aspergillus sp (32.5%); others include Mucor sp. (25%), Penicillium sp (15%), Rhizopus sp (15%), Fusarium sp, (7.5%), and Alternaria sp. (5%). Proper handling from the farm as well as during storage and the avoidance of mixing of diseased ones with the healthy ones were identified as important factors in preventing loss. The use of suitable chemical treatment of the orange is also recommended as means of reducing economic loss due to fungal pathogens.Key words: Mycological studies, Fungal colonies, Sweet orange, Kan

Hematological Indices of Sickle Cell Anaemia Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Northern Nigeria.

Nigeria has the fourth highest prevalence of TB and the highest prevalence of Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) in the world. SCA patients have impaired immunity and are vulnerable to TB. Hence, we studied the haematological indices of SCA patients with TB in Nigeria. A total of 23 SCA patients with TB were studied in parallel with equal number of age and sex matched SCA patients without TB. SCA patients with TB had significantly lower haematocrit, higher level of circulating sickle cells (CSCs) and similar level of reticulocyte count in comparison to patients without TB. SCA patients with TB had significantly higher mean WBC count associated with higher frequency of neutrophilia in comparison to those without TB. Monocytosis and eosinopenia were exclusively found in SCA patients with TB at frequencies of 52% and 65% respectively. Lymphocyte and basophil counts were normal in all patients with and without TB. Mean platelet counts were high in both patient groups but the frequency of thrombocytosis was significantly higher in patients with TB. SCA patients with TB had significantly higher mean ESR than their counterparts without the infection. The findings of this study revealed that TB in SCA patients was associated with rising level of CSCs, falling level of haematocrit, sub-optimal reticulocytosis, neutrophilia, monocytosis, thrombocytosis, eosinopenia and rising level of ESR. Hence, SCA patients presenting with these haematological indices should be investigated for TB