Hippocampus: Its Role in Relational Memory

Hippocampus is the region of the brain that is primarily associated with memory. The hippocampus, which is located in the inner (medial) region of the temporal lobe, forms part of the limbic system, which is important in regulating emotional responses. The hippocampus is thought to be principally involved in storing long-term memories and in making those memories resistant to forgetting, though this is a matter of debate. It is also thought to play an important role in spatial processing and navigation. Cholinergic system has implicated in the functionality of hippocampus interconnections with other neurons for efficient memory modulation. Pyramidal and globular cells are the main cells of the cornus ammonis and the dentate gyrus which is essential in relational memory consolidation. Acetylcholine is the main neurotransmitter implicated in encoding of memory in the hippocampus. There are diseases that are associated with hippocampus relational memory such as Alzheimer’s disease which is currently a global challenge. The hippocampus communicates with widespread regions of cortex through a group of highly interconnected brain regions in the medial temporal lobe. There is paucity of data on its role on relational memory. Therefore, the role of hippocampus in relational memory will be elucidated in this chapter

High dietary consumption of iodine induced thyroid cytotoxicity in diabetic intoxicated rats and oxidonitrergic stress in non-diabetic rats

This study aimed to investigate the role of iodine intake in thyroid function ofdiabetic rats. Twenty-four (24) male Wistar rats were placed into four groups (n=6): Group (non-diabetic without iodine), Group 2 (non-diabetic + iodine), Group 3 (diabetic without iodine) and Group 4 (diabetic + iodine). 10mg/kg bw of iodine were mixed with the feeds. Serum triodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), thyroglobulin and thyroperoxidase antibodies were assessed using ELISA. Serum MDA, SOD, and NO levels were assessed with spectrophotometry. In the diabetic rats, lower mean serum T4 and TSH concentrations were observed (T4: 13.16±0.55 Vs 11.75±0.21 mg/dL, TSH: 2.62±0.11 Vs 2.28±0.08 IU/mL). Iodine treatment further reduced T4 and increased TSH concentrations (T4: 11.75±0.21 vs 6.75±0.22 mg/dL, TSH: 2.28±0.08 Vs 3.08±0.15 IU/mL). Thyroglobulin and thyroperoxidase antibodies were absent in all the rats. It was also observed that iodine intake caused an increase in oxidative stress in both diabetic and non-diabetic treated rats (MDA; 18.4±1.3 Vs 22.2±2.7 μmol/l X 10-5, NO; 14.08±0.38 Vs 13.24±0.07μm/l) and increased SOD levels in diabetic rats (44.44±2.94 Vs 68.94±0.91 mg/ml); this increase could be due to the increased TSH. Consumption of excess iodine suppressed thyroid function in diabetic rats and induced oxidative stress in both diabetic and non-diabetic treated rats

INFLUENCE OF CONTINUING EDUCATION ON JOB PERFORMANCE AND STAFF MORALE OF NON-ACADEMIC STAFF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS

Education is a veritable tool that can be used for the development of all societies. Continuing Education is an instrument that can be an avenue to have a learning city and ultimately gain the benefits of having such which are directly related to performance and boosting of staff morale. The University of Lagos Non-academic staff are divided into three, and the study examined the level of Continuing Education of the staff and its influence on their job performance and staff morale. Three research questions and two hypotheses were answered and tested, respectively. The study adopted an analytical survey. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 121 respondents from the University of Lagos. A validated self-developed questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were analysed using percentages and mean. The hypotheses were statistically tested at a 5% level of significance with the Chi-Square test of independence. The study's result showed a significant relationship between the Continuing Education training of non-academic staff of the University of Lagos and their job performance. Also, the Continuing Education training of non-academic staff of the University significantly influenced their morale, and that staff morale affected their job performance

Methanol extract of Cola nitida ameliorates inflammation and nociception in experimental animals

Methanol extract of Cola nitida (MECN) was evaluated for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities using rats and mice. Inflammatory activity of MECN was assessed by carrageenan-induced paw oedema while analgesic activity was evaluated by acetic acid –induced writhing and formalin paw lick test. Histological analyses of the paws were also carried out. There was evaluation of the mechanism(s) of action of MECN using naloxone, a blocker of opioid receptors; atropine, blocker of muscarinic receptors; and propranolol, blocker of beta adrenergic receptors. Findings from the study revealed that MECN has both anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. These properties were found to be dose dependent with 200 mg/kg of MECN discovered to be the most potent dose. 200 mg/kg was able to cause statistically significant reduction in paw size (p < 0.001) when compared with the carrageenan group. Histological analysis revealed that rats treated with 200 mg/kg of MECN showed no inflammatory cells in the left paw compared to other groups treated with carrageenan. In the formalin test, the number of paw licking was significantly reduced by MECN at 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg in both neurogenic and inflammatory pain responses (p < 0.001) even as 200 mg/kg showed the highest percentage inhibition of 98.17% while 100 mg/kg of aspirin showed percentage inhibition of 93.66%. In acetic acid-induced writhing test, 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg of MECN produced significant inhibition of writhes when compared with control as highest inhibition is observed in mice that received 200 mg/kg which is similar to aspirin. Administration of propranolol and naloxone was unable to reverse the analgesic function of MECN. However, atropine administration blocked the analgesic function of MECN. This shows that MECN exhibits its analgesic property through cholinergic pathway and not opioid and adrenergic pathways. Phytochemical screening revealed that MECN contains flavonoids, steroids, saponins, tannins, anthraquinines, terpenoids, and alkanoids. These phytochemical contents may thus be responsible for its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Keywords: Analgesic, Anti-inflammation, Cola nitida, Carrageena

The Direct Sampling method to perform multiple-point geostatistical simulations

Multiple-point geostatistics is a general statistical framework to model spatial fields displaying a wide range of complex structures. In particular, it allows controlling connectivity patterns that have a critical importance for groundwater flow and transport problems. This approach involves considering data events (spatial arrangements of values) derived from a training image (TI). All data events found in the TI are usually stored in a database, which is used to retrieve conditional probabilities for the simulation. Instead, we propose to sample directly the training image for a given data event, making the database unnecessary. Our method is statistically equivalent to previous implementations, but in addition it allows extending the application of multiple-point geostatistics to continuous variables and to multivariate problems. The method can be used for the simulation of geological heterogeneity, accounting or not for indirect observations such as geophysics. We show its applicability in the presence of complex features, nonlinear relationships between variables, and with various cases of nonstationarity. Computationally, it is fast, easy to parallelize, parsimonious in memory needs, and straightforward to implement