Preliminary study of the aquatic macrophytes of selected fish ponds and reservoirs in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria

A five months survey was conducted to identify the aquatic macrophytes in fishponds and reservoirs in Makurdi (Benue State, Nigeria) between August and December 1999. A total of 3-prominent aquatic macrophytes were identified: Ipomoea aquatica, Nymphae lotus and Echinochloa pyramidalis at two-study sites (site 1, receives organic manure effluent from a cattle ranch, site 2, receives inorganic fertilizer through application). Ipomoea aquatica were found restricted to site l, while Nymphae lotus and Echinochloa pyramidalis were found associated with site 2. Analysis of the results indicates high level of ammonia-nitrogen at site 1 compared to site 2. Mineral analysis of the plant tissues indicate high level of iron in Ipomoea aquatica and Nymphae lotus. Mineral concentration were found to be significantly higher (P,L, 0.05) in Ipomoea aquatica and Nymphae lotus when compared with concentration in Echinochloa pyramidali

Search for resonances in the mass distribution of jet pairs with one or two jets identified as b-jets in proton–proton collisions at √s=13TeV with the ATLAS detector

Searches for high-mass resonances in the dijet invariant mass spectrum with one or two jets identi-fied as b-jets are performed using an integrated luminosity of 3.2fb−1of proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of √s=13TeVrecorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Noevidence of anomalous phenomena is observed in the data, which are used to exclude, at 95%credibility level, excited b∗quarks with masses from 1.1TeVto 2.1TeVand leptophobic Z bosons with masses from 1.1TeVto 1.5TeV. Contributions of a Gaussian signal shape with effective cross sections ranging from approximately 0.4 to 0.001pb are also excluded in the mass range 1.5–5.0TeV

Scheduled exposures to a novel environment with a running-wheel differentially accelerate re-entrainment of mice peripheral clocks to new light–dark cycles

Effects of scheduled exposures to novel environment with a running-wheel were examined on re-entrainment to 8 h shifted light-dark (LD) cycles of mouse circadian rhythms in locomotor activity and clock gene, Per1, expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and peripheral tissues. Per1 expression was monitored by a bioluminescence reporter introduced into mice. The animals were exposed to the novel environment for 3 h from the shifted dark onset for four cycles and released into constant darkness. In the phase-advance shift, the circadian rhythm in locomotor activity fully re-entrained in the exposed group, whereas it was in transients in the control. On the other hand, the circadian rhythm of Per1 expression in the SCN almost completely re-entrained in both the control and exposed groups. In the skeletal muscle and lung, the circadian rhythm fully re-entrained in the exposed group, whereas the rhythms in the control did not. In the phase-delay shift, the circadian rhythms in locomotor activity and Per1 expression almost completely re-entrained in both groups. These findings indicate that the scheduled exposures to novel environment with a running-wheel differentially accelerate the re-entrainment of the mouse peripheral clocks to 8 h phase-advanced LD cycles