Deployment of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria Institutional Digital Repository

The paper discussed the concept of open access initiative and its relevance to the development of digital repositories. It primarily focused on the  institutional digital repository project of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. The University library administration setup, policy, equipment and facilities including software for the project were highlighted. The digitisation process, test running, training, system installation and the workflow developed by the institution were discussed. The successes recorded and challenges faced by the project were equally presented. The paper concluded that repositories are very important to universities in helping them showcase, manage and capture their intellectual assets as a part of their information service strategy and contribution to universal access to knowledge and information

Cultural contingency on the antecedents of the complexity of management accounting systems: Evidence from a meta-analysis of individual data

The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that there is a cultural contingency on the antecedents of the complexity of management accounting systems. After briefly reviewing the theoretical debate on this hypothesis, we present our results which provide support for cultural contingency on these antecedents. However, the data studied could be criticized. Thus, further research will be needed to explore this cultural contingency.Cultural contingency ; complexity of management accounting systems ; meta-analysis of individual data ; small and medium sized enterprise

Complete Sequences of Organelle Genomes from the Medicinal Plant Rhazya Stricta (Apocynaceae) and Contrasting Patterns of Mitochondrial Genome Evolution Across Asterids

Rhazya stricta is native to arid regions in South Asia and the Middle East and is used extensively in folk medicine to treat a wide range of diseases. In addition to generating genomic resources for this medicinally important plant, analyses of the complete plastid and mitochondrial genomes and a nuclear transcriptome from Rhazya provide insights into inter-compartmental transfers between genomes and the patterns of evolution among eight asterid mitochondrial genomes. Results: The 154,841 bp plastid genome is highly conserved with gene content and order identical to the ancestral organization of angiosperms. The 548,608 bp mitochondrial genome exhibits a number of phenomena including the presence of recombinogenic repeats that generate a multipartite organization, transferred DNA from the plastid and nuclear genomes, and bidirectional DNA transfers between the mitochondrion and the nucleus. The mitochondrial genes sdh3 and rps14 have been transferred to the nucleus and have acquired targeting presequences. In the case of rps14, two copies are present in the nucleus; only one has a mitochondrial targeting presequence and may be functional. Phylogenetic analyses of both nuclear and mitochondrial copies of rps14 across angiosperms suggests Rhazya has experienced a single transfer of this gene to the nucleus, followed by a duplication event. Furthermore, the phylogenetic distribution of gene losses and the high level of sequence divergence in targeting presequences suggest multiple, independent transfers of both sdh3 and rps14 across asterids. Comparative analyses of mitochondrial genomes of eight sequenced asterids indicates a complicated evolutionary history in this large angiosperm clade with considerable diversity in genome organization and size, repeat, gene and intron content, and amount of foreign DNA from the plastid and nuclear genomes. Conclusions: Organelle genomes of Rhazya stricta provide valuable information for improving the understanding of mitochondrial genome evolution among angiosperms. The genomic data have enabled a rigorous examination of the gene transfer events. Rhazya is unique among the eight sequenced asterids in the types of events that have shaped the evolution of its mitochondrial genome. Furthermore, the organelle genomes of R. stricta provide valuable genomic resources for utilizing this important medicinal plant in biotechnology applications.King Abdulaziz UniversityIntegrative Biolog

Accessibility and Usage of Scholarly Information Sources by Faculty Members and Postgraduate Students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

This study was aimed at developing an understanding of the scholarly information sources and services that faculty members and postgraduate students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria accessed and used to support their research, teaching and learning. Three research questions and one hypothesis were formulated and tested with respect to types of Scholarly Information Sources (SIS) available, accessed and used by the Faculty Members (FM) and Postgraduate (PG) Students of Ahmadu Bello University, (A.B.U.), Zaria, Nigeria, in this study. A number of 868 samples comprising 487 FM and 381 PG students were drawn from the population and used as sample size for this study. The data collected, through questionnaire and observations, were analyzed using frequency distribution tables and percentages, while the hypothesis was tested using T-test for independent samples. The results show that academic/research libraries and the internet is the major SIS accessed by the FM and PG students in A.B.U., Zaria. In addition, printed matters as well as manuscripts were the most accessed and utilized Scholarly Information Sources in A.B.U., Zaria. Moreover, there is significant difference between the FM and PG students in their uses of Scholarly Information Sources. This study therefore concludes that internet has revolutionized the process by which information is being packaged, processed, stored and disseminated, as well as how users seek and access information, these notwithstanding, the academic and the research library is still very relevant to faculty members and PG students’ scholarly activities. Therefore, the universities, through their library systems, need to explore the advantages and opportunities offered by the application of Information and communication Technology (ICTs) in scholarly information delivery

Rapid DNA extraction from Neurospora crassa.

A rapid method for DNA extraction is described

Prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among low risk pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic in tertiary hospital: a cross sectional study

Background: The current study aims to identify the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among low-risk pregnant women attending the antenatal care clinic of tertiary University Hospital and to detect the most common causative organisms.Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary University Hospital in the period between 1st November 2017 and 31st June 2018. All eligible women attending the outpatient clinic for antenatal care were approached to participate in the study. The recruited women were assessed through detailed history and clinical examination. Urine samples were taken for culture and sensitivity within two hours, in order to avoid bacterial multiplication. Urine culture and antibiotic sensitivity test were done.Results: The study included 250 women. The mean age of included women was 25.89±5.49 (18-42 years). The urine analysis results showed that 32% of cases had pus cells >5 per high power field and 10.4% of cases have protein (+). Casts were present in 0.8% of cases. RBCs >5 per high power field were present in 4.8% of cases. ASB is defined as urine culture with more than 100,000 colony forming unit; this was present in 30 cases. This indicates that the prevalence of ASB among studied cases was 12%. Enterococcus was the most prevalent organism as it was present in 36.7% among positive cases. Antibiotic sensitivity test was performed to the growing organisms indicated that teicoplanin, imipenem, cefoxitin, cefotaxime + clavulanic acid, Entrapenem, and trimethoprim + sulfamethoxazole are the most effective antibiotics against the most common organisms causing asymptomatic bacteriuria.Conclusions: The prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among low-risk pregnant women is about 12%. Urine culture for asymptomatic bacteriuria should be the standard of care for evaluation of pregnant patient during antenatal care as regard presence or absence of UTI

Machine learning for prediction models to mitigate the voltage deviation in photovoltaic-rich distributed network

The voltage deviation is one of the most crucial power quality issues that occur in electrical power systems. Renewable energy plays a vital role in electrical distribution networks due to the high economic returns. However, the presence of photovoltaic systems changes the nature of the energy flow in the grid and causes many problems such as voltage deviation. In this work, several predictive models are examined for voltage regulation in the Jordanian Sabha distribution network equipped with photovoltaic farms. The augmented grey wolf optimizer is used to train the different predictive models. To evaluate the performance of models, a value of one for regression factor and a low value for root mean square error, mean square error, and mean absolute error are used as standards. In addition, a comparison between nineteen predictive models has been made. The results have proved the capability of linear regression and the gaussian process to restore the bus voltages in the distribution network accurately and quickly and to solve the shortening in the voltage dynamic response caused by the iterative nature of the heuristic algorithm. 

Performance improvement of fractional N-PLL synthesizers for digital communication applications

Loop filter with two order was designed to improve the performance of the fractional N-phase locked loop (PLL) circuit (reference spurs noise and switching time), decreasing these two factors give good characteristic to fractional N-PLL circuit, the second order and third order loop filters are widely used in frequency synthesizer because they give good stability tolerance and for their simple architecture. They are designed at bandwidth B=125 KHz and its multipoles, at two values of the phase margin (pm)= 35°, 57°. MATLAB program was used to find the lock time, the component values for each element in the loop filter, also the filter impedance T(s), the bode plot of frequency response for close loop (CL) and open loop gain (OL). It is found by comparing the result of the frequency response for the 2nd order loop filter and 3rd order loop filter, that increasing the order of the filter will reduce the spurs noise that destroy the received signal at receiving side

Evaluation of the behavior of tanks under seismic load

The unstable reaction of structures could be influenced by evaluating the behavior of tanks under seismic loads using research of soil-structure interaction. Because fluid limit tanks are important structures that can continue to function even in the face of severe earthquakes, their unstable behavior should be examined. Similarly, under unstable tremor ground upgrades, the unstable reaction of liquid limit tanks placed on 0.5 area soil is investigated. To improve correlation, the six considered ground enhancements are divided into bundles based on their beat like properties, dubbed turn off and shut accuse ground enhancements. The acquired ground mass-spring represent is used to signal up the liquid limit tanks, and the liquid is displayed as lumped lots termed sloshing and flying, and furthermore exploiting paired springs and dashpots is how the fluid and structure are linked. Using a connected spring and dashpot, the impact of Soil Structure Interaction is also considered. Aside from that, four soil types are commonly used to identify a wide range of soil attributes. To date, the mat lab writing computer programs has been used to invigorate the time history reactions in the aftermath of social gathering the stages of development. Due to its significant heap, the sloshing (or convective) voidance is not troubled by such effects, even though the Soil Structure Interaction influence causes a reduction in rush relocation, falling small and standardized base shear

Isolation, Characterization and Heavy Metals Tolerance Indices of Indigenous Fungal Flora from a Tannery located at Challawa Industrial Estate of Kano State, Nigeria

Seven fungal species (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus versicolor, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Rhizomucor pusillus, Trichophyton equinum and Rhizopus oryzae) were isolated from the tannery effluent collected at a tannery industry located at Challawa industrial estate of Kano State, Nigeria. Aspergillus niger had the highest percentage occurrence frequency of 36% (31) while Trichophyton equinum had the least percentage occurrence frequency of 4% (5). Consequently, Aspergillus niger recorded the highest mean tolerance indices of 1.175, 0.830, 0.580, 0.780 and 0.630 while Rhizomucor pusillus had the least of the tolerance indices of 0.675, 0.375, 0.346, 0.450 and 0.255 for chromium, cadmium, manganese and lead respectively. Accordingly, furthermore the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and biomass yield of the seven tested fungi isolates cultured in the presence of the five heavy metals used in this study showed different level of growth pattern. Hence the high resistant potentials and tolerance to the selected heavy metals exhibited by the fungal species isolated in this study is an indication that indigenous fungal floral isolated from tannery effluent if properly harnessed may offer a feasible solution to the serious environmental pollution problems associated with the presence of heavy metals in tannery effluent