Evaluation of CD4+ T Cells in HIV Patients Presenting with Malaria at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Nigeria

CD4 count is an important immunological marker of disease progression in HIV seropositive patients. This study was carried out to determine the effect of malaria or fever of unknown origin on the population of CD4+ T lymphocytes of HIV seropositive patients attending the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) clinic of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria. 36 subjects were selected for this study. Ongoing history of fever was used as a case definition for malaria and malaria was confirmed from microscopic examination of thick and thin film of blood sample obtained from the patients during presentation with fever. The CD4 count was evaluated during presentation of fever and post-fever using flow cytometry. There was significant decrease in CD4 count of the patients. However, upon classifying the patients into 2 groups - those that returned to the clinic after a week and those that returned after a month - a significant increase in CD4 count was noticed in the group that returned after a week, while a significant decrease was noticed in the group that returned after a month (at p value of 95%). Further classification of the patients based on presence of malaria parasite, and body temperature resulted in varying effects on CD4 count post-fever (in the general group, 27 were positive for malaria parasites. Of these 27, there was an increase in CD4 count in 9 (33.3%). However in the group that returned after a week, all 6 (100%) that were positive for malaria parasites showed increase in CD4 count. Five (26.3%) of the 19 patients that had body temperature within the range of 35.5-37.4^o^C showed an increase in CD4 count, while 7 (41.2%) the 17 patients that had body temperature of 37.5^o^C and above showed an increase in CD4 count. The results led to the conclusion that while some components of the immune response to malaria could strengthen the immune system of HIV seropositive patients by increasing their CD4 count, other components will suppress their immunity by decreasing their CD4 count, accelerating the progression to AIDS

Immuno-Modulatory Activity of Aqueous Leaf Extract of Moringa Oleifera in Brioler Chickens

This experiment was conducted to investigate the immuno-modulatory activity of aqueous leaf extract of Moringa oleifera on immune response of broiler chickens to Newcastle disease (ND) vaccinations. The performance, blood parameters and serum biochemistry of the birds were also determined. A total of one hundred and twenty (120) day-old commercial broiler chicks were randomly allotted to 3 dietary treatments of 4 replicates each. Each replicate had 10 birds. The treatments: T1 – Control group in which the birds were not given any extract; T2 and T3 – birds in these groups were given the prepared stock solution of Moringa oleifera leaf extract at dose rate of 2500mg/kg and 5000mg/kg of body weight in drinking water. The experimental birds were vaccinated with ND vaccines using a stipulated vaccination regime. The Moringa oleifera leaf extract exhibited significant (p≤0.05) influence on final body weight of the experimental broiler chickens with birds in T3 having an average weight of 1947.43g and birds in T1had 1733.33g. The immune modulating effect of the leaf extract was insignificant (p≥0.05) though it elicited higher antibody titre of Log27 and Log29 in birds in T3 compared to Log26 and Log28 of birds in control group after the first and second ND vaccinations respectively. The leaf extract caused significant (p≤0.05) increase in white blood cells and leucocytes count. The study concluded that the plant extract had slight immune stimulatory effects on response to ND vaccinations and improved the growth performance of broiler chickens

EFFECTS OF PRETREATMENT ON BIOBUTANOL YIELDS FROM RICE-BRAN AND DEOILED RICE-BRAN PROCESSED WITH Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4

Acid and enzymatic pre-treatment of selected lignocellulosic materials [Rice Bran (RB) and Deoiled Rice Bran (DRB)] were conducted to facilitate the release of simple sugars for fermentation process leading to biofuel production. In this study, an innovative approach involving the use of acids to breakdown the complex lingo-cellulosic structure of  RB and DRB was utilised. In addition, RB and DRB samples were  subjected to physical (heat treatment) and enzymatic treatments, sequentially; in order to improve the amount of simple sugar available as substrate in a microorganism assisted fermentation process. The released sugar from the various treatment regimes were subjected to fermentation process. The highest total fermentable sugar obtained from the Trichloroacetic Acid (TCA), HCl and H2SO4 treated hydrolysate were 33.07 g L-1, 27.14 g L-1 and 31.93 g L-1 for treated hydrolysates, respectively. DRB samples showed a higher total sugar yields and fermentation products than RB samples. The highest butanol yield obtained from the TCA, HCl and H2SO4 treated hydrolysate were 8.66 g L-1, 5.32 g L -1 and 7.86 g L-1, respectively, after fermentation. The Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) yield and productivity of the TCA, HCl and H2SO4 treated DRB hydrolysates were 0.47 g/g and 0.1g L-1 h-1, 0.32g/g, and 0.07 g L-1 h-1 as well as 0.42 g/g, and 0.08 g L-1 h-1, respectively. (This is consistent with Table 1) The high ABE yield and productivity values suggest that TCA is a good novel pre-treatment agent for biomass fermentation

Performance and egg qualities of old-laying hens fed with diets containing selected phytogenic feed additives

Performance and egg qualities of old-laying hens fed with diets containing ginger, turmeric and garlic were evaluated in a twelve (12) week feeding trial. A total of 135 laying birds of Isa-Brown strain which were sixty-four (64) weeks old were used for the trial and arranged in a completely randomized design. Five diets were formulated for the trial:  Diet 1 (control), Diet 2 (3% inclusion level of turmeric), Diet 3 (3% inclusion level of ginger), Diet 4 (turmeric and garlic at 2.25% and 0.75%, respectively) and Diet 5 (ginger and garlic at 2.25% and 0.75%, respectively). Proximate compositions of the Phytogenic Feed Additives (PFAs) were determined with the moisture content ranging between 5.03-7.50%; ash (3.26-6.11%); ether extract (7.39-14.58%); fibre (10.28-13.79%); protein (3.07-7.23%) and Nitrogen Free Extract (58.88-61.54%). The performance indices, though not significantly (P˃0.05) influenced by the test diets except for Hen Day Production (HDP) had the highest weight gained (0.16kg) recorded for birds fed on a diet containing ginger. The highest (62.92 and 62.04 %) HDP were observed in birds fed diets containing ginger and ginger + garlic; respectively. However, the lowest weight gained (0.04kg) was recorded in birds fed a diet containing turmeric + garlic; this diet also recorded the lowest % HDP and FCR with values of 57.50% and 2.37 respectively. The overall values for the qualities of eggs from laying hens fed the PFAs showed that only the Haugh Unit, yolk colour and albumen height were significantly (P˂0.05) affected; with those on Turmeric + Garlic diets having the highest for these parameters. However, the fatty acid variables were not significantly (P˃0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. It could be concluded that the inclusion of PFAs in the diets of laying hens especially at an older age would help to sustain performance with improved quality

Environmental Pollution from Road Transport System in Ogbomosoland, Southwestern Nigeria

Environmental pollutions from road transport system in Nigeria poses serious health hazards to the ecosystem because of presence of heavy metals and other pollutants. There are researches on assessment of heavy metals contamination of road side soils but most of them investigated the concentration of the heavy metals at the edge of the road pavements but did not considered the concentration at various distances away from the edge of the road pavement. This research therefore focussed on the investigation of the concentration of the contaminants at the edge of the road and at various distances away from the road pavement. A total of 225 soil samples were collected at three sampling depths (0, 10 and 20cm) using three sampling distances of 0.2, 1.5 and 3.0m from Federal, State and Local roads. The soil samples were digested using perchloric acid and trioxonitrate (v) acid and the resulting filterate was analysed using Atomic absorption spectrophotometer for concentrations of Lead (Pb), Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Nickel (Ni) and Cadmium (Cd) at each road. The heavy metals concentration at depth 0cm and distance 0.2m show that the  Federal roads had the highest mean concentration of 154.67, 49.43, 124.71, 27.40 and 2.19µg/g for Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni and Cd respectively and the least being Local roads (110.60, 35.57, 104.26, 23.99 and 1.12µg/g). The mean heavy metals concentrations decreased with increasing soil depths and sampling distance for Federal, State and Local roads. Some of the heavy metals concentrations were above the permissible limit (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, 2004). The study revealed that there are heavy metals in the road-side soils and concentrations for some of the roads were found to be above the permissible limits and this possesses serious health challenges to people around the neighbourhood. The concentrations also decreased with increasing sampling depth and distance for all the roads. Keywords: Environmental Pollution, Heavy metals, Road-side Soils, Sampling depth and distanc

Experimental Optimization of Lead (II) Bioadsorption from Aqueous Solution onto Banana Stalk using Central Composite Design

This study investigated the effect of operating parameters on the bioadsorption process of Pb(II) from its aqueous solution using three Banana Stalk (BS) bioadsorbents [Raw (RBS), Acid Activated (AABS) and Base Activated (BABS) ]. A five-factor, three-level Central Composite Design (CCD) was applied to determine the effects of independent variables (initial metal concentration, contact time, temperature, adsorbent dosage and solution pH) on percentage Pb(II) removal. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the parameters in the experiment. AABS had the highest percentage removal (96.13%) from the preliminary experiment and was then used for the optimisation experiment. Data analysis showed that all the variables significantly affected the percentage Pb(II) removal at p < 0.05. The square of the adjusted coefficient of determination for regression model of percentage Pb(II) removal is 0.9355. Optimum percentage removal of 96.41% was obtained using AABS when the Pb(II) concentration, contact time, temperature, dosage and solution pH were 21.83g/mL, 152.21minutes, 50oC, 0.90g and 8.00,  respectively. There absolute error between the experimental and the predicted optimum percentage removal was less than 1%. Keywords: Banana stalk, optimization, bioadsorption, acid, base

STUDIES ON THE EFFICACY OF BRIDELIA FERRUGINEA BENTH BARK EXTRACT FOR DOMESTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT

The efficacy of Bridelia ferruginea Benth bark extract in wastewater treatment was investigated. Chemical analysis found the bark to contain potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, manganese, iron and copper. Phytochemical tests revealed the bark to contain tannins, phlobatannins, saponins, alkaloids, and steroids. Comparative studies using varying concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 % w/v) with alum and ferric chloride showed that the bark extract was effective in the clarification and sedimentation of total solids in the waste water sample. The optimum dose achieved was 2.5 % w/v with a minimum of 24 hours contact time. The total bacteria counts were reduced by 46 % after 24 hours when the extract was used whereas ferric chloride achieved 50 % reduction and alum achieved 55 % reduction under similar conditions. The feasibility of using the bark extract as an additional coagulant is therefore discussed. KEYWORDS: Bridelia ferruginea, Sedimentation, Total bacteria count, Wastewater treatment Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2007, 21(2), 205-211

RICINUS CUMMUNIS AS FEEDSTOCK FOR RAW VEGETABLE OIL EXPRESSION VIA MECHANICAL EXTRACTION PROCESS: OPTIMIZATION STUDY

Crude castor oil (CCO) extracted by Mechanical extraction process (MEP) using mechanical screw press has attracted much attention and widely recognized as one of the useful methods of expressing oil from any feedstock. Therefore, in this study, the use of Ricinus Cummunis as feedstock to produce raw vegetable oil is studied. This study was performed using design of experiment (DOE), emphasis is on response surface methodology (RSM) based on three independent variables at five levels of central composite design (CCD) with α = 2. The extraction process variables are reaction temperature (40-200 oC), force (550-750 kN) and mass (20-100 g). Interactions between the variables were found to possess’ significant effect on the yield of crude castor oil. However, a coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.99 shows the fitness of a second-order model for this study. The mathematical model developed is found to be adequate to describe the experimental parameters range and also provide a statistically accurate prediction of the optimum expression of oil yield. At 199.45 oC reaction temperature, 745.38 kN force and mass of 99.88 g, an optimum crude oil yield of 31.01% at 0.9 efficiency model prediction was obtained, which means mechanical extraction process has the ability as a cost effective process to express oil from any feedstock containing oil

Analysis of Compliance with Universal Precautions among Staff and Student Nurses in Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital

The study assessed compliance with universal precautions among staff and student nurses in a teaching hospital in Ogun state south west Nigeria. One hundred staff and student nurses were selected, using the convenient sampling procedure, to participate in the study. Required information was collected from the respondents via structured questionnaire. Data gathered included demographic variables, items on hand washing, method of waste disposal, and exposure to body fluid and injury. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result showed that most of the respondents were female (85%), Christians (88%) with more than 10 years working experience (55%). Further result showed that respondents have good compliance to precautions relating to handling or care of patients and hand washing. Most of the respondents claimed they use universal compliance whether the patients are confirmed to be non-infectious (60%), where potential for exposure to infections are not anticipated (69%) or where the patient been treated is a known person or a colleague at work (86%). However, 64 percent of the respondents had experienced glove failure, 52 percent have had needle-stick injury, and 72 percent had been a victim of accidental unprotected contact with patient’s body fluid. Furthermore, many of the respondents did not take adequate precautions in relation to use of masks, gloves, goggles and protective gowns. Major factors limiting the compliance of the respondents with universal precautions include high job demands (52%), unavailable equipments (58%) and cost of equipments or materials (69%). As a provision to enhancing compliance with universal precaution among nurses the health facility (hospital), assisted by government should make provision for availability and affordability of protective materials. Emphasis on periodic and continuous training of health workers on the use of precaution should be highlighted in institutional policy. Keywords: Compliance, Universal Precautions, nurses, Nigeria