DETERMINANTS OF POVERTY STATUS OF RURAL FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined the determinants of poverty status of rural farming households in Osun State, South western, Nigeria. A total of one hundred and twenty representative farming households comprising of the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the Farmers Empowerment Programme (FEP) in the state were used for the study. Descriptive statistics, the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke class of weighted poverty indices as well as the Tobit regression model were used to analyse the data generated from the survey. The results of the poverty indices show that 35 per cent of the beneficiaries of the Farmers Empowerment Programme were poor as against 55 per cent for the non-beneficiaries of the programme. The regression results show household size, amount of credit utilised and annual farm income as the factors influencing the poverty status of the rural farming households in the state. The lower incidence of poverty and access to credit for the beneficiaries of FEP in the state are indications of better welfare for this category of farming households. It is therefore suggested that the programme be sustained for poverty reduction among farming households in the state

Physicochemical Characteristics and Fish Abundance and Diversity of Mairua Reservoir Water, Funtua, Katsina State, North-Western Nigeria

This research explores physico-chemical characteristics and fish abundance and diversity of Mairua Reservoir Water, Funtua, Katsina State, North-Western Nigeria. The duration of the study was 12 months starting from September to August, 2017, using standard methods and procedures.The result revealed that; Water temperature (25.02 ± 0.170C) pH (7.54 ± 0.03), Alkalinity (3.69±0.09), Conductivity (129.43 ± 5.15μЅ/cm), Total Dissolved Solids (50.54 ± 0.57mg/L) Nitrate-nitrogen (0.21 ± 0.04mg/L), Water Hardness (134.44 ± 3.06mg/LCaCO3), Dissolved Oxygen (3.98 ± 0.10mg/L),Biochemical Oxygen Demand (2.53 ± 0.08mg/L), Phosphate-phosphorus (0.19 ± 0.02mg/L),Chloride (5.09 ± 0.15mg/L),Sulphur-sulphate (0.21± 0.01) and Calcium (2.97±0.06mg/L) respectively were  all varied with months and seasons. Analysis of variance indicated significant difference between seasons (P < 0.05).Out of the total number of fish species (8273) identified; the result indicated Fish fauna percentage composition were Coptodon zillii: 1980 (23.9%), Clarias gariepinus: 1560 (18.9%), Oreochromis niloticus: 1020 (12.3%), Lates niloticus: 860 (10.4%), Bagrus. Bayad: 632 (7.6 %), Mormyrus senegalensis: 973 (11.8%), Labeo senegalensis: 595 (7.2%) and Synodontis clarias: 650 (7.9%). Results also indicates most of fish species were positively correlated with the water quality parameters in all the sites studied. Hence, there were fish abundance and a sustainable livelihood amongst the fishermen. However, a careful management strategy and routine monitoring from both government and non-governmental organizations are critical for the improvement and sustenance of the fisheries resources of the reservoir

PHYLOGENETICS OF ELONGATION FACTOR-G MITOCHONDRIAL PROTEIN GENE (GFM1) IN TEN SELECTED SPECIES

The second stage of protein synthesis is elongation. One of the elongation factors in the elongation cycle of protein synthesis is the elongation factor-G (GFM1). GFM1 is an ancient translational GTPase (trGTPase); the bacterial homolog of eukaryotic eEF2 and archaeal aEF2, respectively. It may interact with the transcriptional apparatus as a positive regulator of RNA synthesis in various species. Genetic variations in GFM1 gene of ten species including cattle, human, chicken, mouse, rat, horse, zebra fish, honeybee, pig and rabbit based on availability were investigated using bioinformatic approach. Using a comparative genomic approach, 4,442 base pairs (bp) of the GFM1 sequences were obtained. Alignment of the sequences within the region of 3,626 bp and containing 816 gaps was carried out using Clustal W software. A very close relationship between rabbit and pig was observed in the phylogenetic tree of GFM1 gene which showed that the comparability of GFM1 gene sequence was highest between the two species and they evolved from a most recent common ancestor with respect to GFM1 gene. Cattle, human, rat and zebra fish were closest by their genetic distances to the ancestor, while mouse, horse, chicken, rabbit and honeybee were distant from the common ancestor. However, close phylogenetic relationship among species might be as a result of conservation of the sequence in the various species.Â

A framework for human microbiome research

A variety of microbial communities and their genes (the microbiome) exist throughout the human body, with fundamental roles in human health and disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to develop metagenomic protocols, resulting in a broad range of quality-controlled resources and data including standardized methods for creating, processing and interpreting distinct types of high-throughput metagenomic data available to the scientific community. Here we present resources from a population of 242 healthy adults sampled at 15 or 18 body sites up to three times, which have generated 5,177 microbial taxonomic profiles from 16S ribosomal RNA genes and over 3.5 terabases of metagenomic sequence so far. In parallel, approximately 800 reference strains isolated from the human body have been sequenced. Collectively, these data represent the largest resource describing the abundance and variety of the human microbiome, while providing a framework for current and future studies

Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group. The definitive version was published in Nature 486 (2012): 207-214, doi:10.1038/nature11234.Studies of the human microbiome have revealed that even healthy individuals differ remarkably in the microbes that occupy habitats such as the gut, skin and vagina. Much of this diversity remains unexplained, although diet, environment, host genetics and early microbial exposure have all been implicated. Accordingly, to characterize the ecology of human-associated microbial communities, the Human Microbiome Project has analysed the largest cohort and set of distinct, clinically relevant body habitats so far. We found the diversity and abundance of each habitat’s signature microbes to vary widely even among healthy subjects, with strong niche specialization both within and among individuals. The project encountered an estimated 81–99% of the genera, enzyme families and community configurations occupied by the healthy Western microbiome. Metagenomic carriage of metabolic pathways was stable among individuals despite variation in community structure, and ethnic/racial background proved to be one of the strongest associations of both pathways and microbes with clinical metadata. These results thus delineate the range of structural and functional configurations normal in the microbial communities of a healthy population, enabling future characterization of the epidemiology, ecology and translational applications of the human microbiome.This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants U54HG004969 to B.W.B.; U54HG003273 to R.A.G.; U54HG004973 to R.A.G., S.K.H. and J.F.P.; U54HG003067 to E.S.Lander; U54AI084844 to K.E.N.; N01AI30071 to R.L.Strausberg; U54HG004968 to G.M.W.; U01HG004866 to O.R.W.; U54HG003079 to R.K.W.; R01HG005969 to C.H.; R01HG004872 to R.K.; R01HG004885 to M.P.; R01HG005975 to P.D.S.; R01HG004908 to Y.Y.; R01HG004900 to M.K.Cho and P. Sankar; R01HG005171 to D.E.H.; R01HG004853 to A.L.M.; R01HG004856 to R.R.; R01HG004877 to R.R.S. and R.F.; R01HG005172 to P. Spicer.; R01HG004857 to M.P.; R01HG004906 to T.M.S.; R21HG005811 to E.A.V.; M.J.B. was supported by UH2AR057506; G.A.B. was supported by UH2AI083263 and UH3AI083263 (G.A.B., C. N. Cornelissen, L. K. Eaves and J. F. Strauss); S.M.H. was supported by UH3DK083993 (V. B. Young, E. B. Chang, F. Meyer, T. M. S., M. L. Sogin, J. M. Tiedje); K.P.R. was supported by UH2DK083990 (J. V.); J.A.S. and H.H.K. were supported by UH2AR057504 and UH3AR057504 (J.A.S.); DP2OD001500 to K.M.A.; N01HG62088 to the Coriell Institute for Medical Research; U01DE016937 to F.E.D.; S.K.H. was supported by RC1DE0202098 and R01DE021574 (S.K.H. and H. Li); J.I. was supported by R21CA139193 (J.I. and D. S. Michaud); K.P.L. was supported by P30DE020751 (D. J. Smith); Army Research Office grant W911NF-11-1-0473 to C.H.; National Science Foundation grants NSF DBI-1053486 to C.H. and NSF IIS-0812111 to M.P.; The Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 for P.S. C.; LANL Laboratory-Directed Research and Development grant 20100034DR and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency grants B104153I and B084531I to P.S.C.; Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) grant to K.F. and J.Raes; R.K. is an HHMI Early Career Scientist; Gordon&BettyMoore Foundation funding and institutional funding fromthe J. David Gladstone Institutes to K.S.P.; A.M.S. was supported by fellowships provided by the Rackham Graduate School and the NIH Molecular Mechanisms in Microbial Pathogenesis Training Grant T32AI007528; a Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada Grant in Aid of Research to E.A.V.; 2010 IBM Faculty Award to K.C.W.; analysis of the HMPdata was performed using National Energy Research Scientific Computing resources, the BluBioU Computational Resource at Rice University

Utilization of Wild Edible Mushrooms for Rural Livelihood in Zaria and its Environs

A survey was carried out in some rural communities of Zaria and its environs and mushrooms were collected from the wild during the rains (July-August). The edible mushrooms collected were identified with the help of mushroom guides and some mushroom eaters living in those localities. Information was obtained from consumers, traders, other collectors/hunters and cultivators on their income generation; consumption and other uses of the collected Mushrooms to determine the improvement of the rural livelihood. Mushrooms are sources of food, income and medicinal values. The age range for consumers of edible mushrooms in Zaria and its environs increase with age. This is basically due to lack of adequate knowledge about edible mushrooms. It also gave priority to individuals consuming edible mushrooms, trading and cultivating edible mushrooms. Only few traders of edible mushrooms and few of cultivators of edible mushrooms for commercial purposes were observed, except the wild mushroom hunters that utilized the raining season and generate income for their improve livelihood. The result showed that most individuals in Zaria communities and their environs do not have an interest in eating mushrooms due to the fear of collecting poisonous mushrooms that are much alike with the edible ones. The weather condition is not much favorable for mushroom growth