Antimicrobial Activity and Micro-Flora Quality Evaluation of Commonly Used Toothpastes

To determine the microbiological quality and antimicrobial activity and effectiveness of commonly used toothpaste, thirty products consisting of eight brands of toothpaste were evaluated using standard methods and Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans as test organisms. All the toothpastes were sterile, and had some levels of antimicrobial activity at neat and 10-1 dilutions. Colgate and Signal had the highest zones of inhibition 20mm and 12mm against Staphylococcus aureus. Colgate and Macleans herbal neat concentration had the highest inhibition of 11mm and 10mm on Candida albicans. Colgate and Macleans had a minimum inhibitory concentration greater than 10-3 for Staphylococcus aureus. The other toothpastes showed minimum inhibitory concentration of 10-1 and 10-2. Close Up herbal and Colgate had minimum inhibitory concentrations of greater than 10-3 for Candida albicans. At 10-2 dilution, total bacteria count of colonies increased as the time of exposure increased for most of the toothpastes. There was however, a general decline in the number of Candida colonies as the time of exposure increased. The toothpastes reduced and inhibited the test organisms mainly as neat and at 5 and 10 minutes. It is advocated that brushing the teeth for 5 to 10 minutes will allow for enough contact time for toothpaste to act on oral microbes and importantly pathogens for maximum result of good oral hygiene. Further studies on the relationship of brushing mannerism and toothpaste use culture are necessary. Regular survey of personal care products at the consumer level is advised to help keep the consumers informed of quality of products and checkmate producers of fake product and thus help stamp out unwholesome product from our market

The Role Of Interventional Radiology In Modern Medical Practice

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THE FUTURE OF CRYPTO-CURRENCY IN THE ABSENCE OF REGULATION, SOCIAL AND LEGAL IMPACT

The Internet revolution is fast outpacing the law and creating a newer world with the momentum of gripping the unwary crowd into a boundless world of anarchism. Money is defined as a medium of exchange, store of value, and a unit of account (www.cliffnotes.com Date of use: 28/10/2017). Crypto-currency is a new wake in the digital reality that is performing the above functions of money. There are about 1,541 crypto-currencies traded in 8,894 markets by exchangers (www.coinmarketcap.com Date of use: 28/01/2018). Prominent among these crypto currencies, is the Bitcoin which as a single coin had a monetary value of $0.05 USD in July 2010 and in November 2017, was valued at$18,000 (www.useyourselfmedia.today Date of use: 28/10/2017). The drivers of crypto-currencies are basically the block-chain which is a technology, others are the exchanges, financial services provider, wallet services provider and miners. Under most jurisdictions, the exchanges and service providers are either not regulated or partially regulated. Regulations in the financial sector, are tools used in monitoring the movement of funds, fraud, financial crimes and money laundering, criminal activities, as well as the protection of consumers. In the absence of regulation, this paper seeks to examine the trend and legality of the crypto currency as a virtual currency and its current and future impact on the society. To achieve this, some monetary regulations will be evaluated and an attempt will be made to adapt these regulations to the crypto-currency framework. At the end of the paper, challenges will be identified with a view to recommending a regulated regime in the use of crypto-currencies for a safer society and consumer protection.&nbsp

Evaluation of fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J. E. Smith) infestation and efficacy of neem extracts in maize (Zea mays L.)

Maize is an important cereal crop in Nigeria. Fall Armyworm (FAW) is one of the most important field insect pests of maize. This study was carried out to evaluate the impact of FAW infestation on maize plants and efficacy of neem extracts in the management of FAW in maize in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja in 2018. Field experiment was carried out from July to December 2018 at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria, where two maize varieties were assessed for incidence and percentage leaf area damaged. Data collected was analyzed using Generalized Linear Model with multivariate assumptions using SPSS Version 21. Treatment means were separated with Student Newman Keuls Test (SNK) at p≤0.05. Highest number of FAW larvae (1.35±0.09) and incidence (20.30±1.02) were obtained from the control; the lowest was recorded from plants treated with Lambdacyhalothrin (0.05±0.06), followed by Neem oil (0.10± 0.05). Neem extracts reduced foliar damage to maize compared to the untreated control. Non-treated control plants showed extensive leaf injury compared to the synthetic insecticide and neem extract treated plants. There was no significant difference (p≥0.05) between the two maize varieties and interaction effect of variety and treatments in terms of the parameters scored. Findings from this study shows the efficacy of neem extracts in the treatment of Fall Armyworm infesting maize on the field and recommends the use of the neem extracts as an eco-friendly insecticide option for control of Fall Armyworm infestation in Nigeria

Clash of Interests? Conflicting Perspectives of the State and Border Communities on Smuggling in Nigeria

Smuggling has been a signature of African borders. The study takes a critical look at the issue of smuggling in the Imeko border community of Nigeria that is situated at the Benin border. It examines the perspectives of the state and the border communities and uses the Onion method of Conflict Analysis to determine the actual needs of both parties and how they could be met. While the government sees it as a crime that robs the state of its much-needed resources, the border communities consider smuggling to be legitimate trade relations with their kinsmen across the border as a result of its artificial nature. The study recommends that the government and the border communities should come together to clarify the ambiguity around smuggling so as to have a defined approach that is favourable to all parties in the conflict. In addition, the government has to invest massively in development of border communities to prevent smuggling from being lucrative to border community indigenes

Cryptographic-Paging Mechanism with Secure Coprocessor to Enhance Digital Signature Integrity for Cyber Hygiene Standard

Digital Signature is a mathematical algorithm to validate the authenticity and integrity of an electronic message. Modern browsers enable a wide range  of sensitive operations over SSL/TLS connections. Cryptographic protocols (SSL/TLS) are used to imbue web communications with intgrity, security, and  resilience against unauthorized tampering. It is interesting to note that PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) uses the TLS protocol to establish secure  connections between clients and servers over the internet. Thereby ensuring that the information relayed is encrypted and can not be read by an  external third party. Great scholars over the last decades have proved that a great number of internet users either tend to ignore or do not understand  browser security indicators. Hence there are flaws and vulnerabilities in the certificates and websites. This study proposes a technique hereby referred as  cryptographic paging mechanism with secure coprocessor to enhance the integrity of digital Signature. As a result of the encryption and integrity check,  data security on the outgoing page is maintained.&nbsp

Situating requirements engineering methods within design science research

Design Science Research Methodologies (DSRM) are increasingly used to guide research in fields beyond Information Systems, in particular those of Requirements Engineering and Software Engineering (RE/SE). While a number of DSR methodologies have been developed by scholars in the RE/SE fields, there remains a certain level of confusion about the way in which the aim and scope of DSRM and those of methods typically used in RE/SE differ. This issue can be observed in graduate students' work as well as in published literature. In particular, the difference be-tween the research orientation of DSRM and the solution orientation of RE/SE methods can be difficult to navigate. We propose to address this challenge by situating three RE/SE methodologies proposed in published literature within one common DSRM; doing so clarifies the scope of these methodologies and highlights ways in which the knowledge contributions of their results could be further enhanced. This effort is a first step towards providing better guidance to researchers who are new to design science research in order to ensure that recognized DSR principles are promoted and respected

Concept of Cryptographic Operations Based on Code Division Multiple Access

It is a given that numerous users connect to a single satellite transponder on a daily basis in order to communicate while discussing any satellite-based technology. As a result, they must all share the resources that are available without compromising the privacy of one another. Thus, the multiple access strategy is employed to achieve this. This paper focuses on code division multiple access, which does not require time slots or frequency slots to be shared across numerous users. The primary source of communication problems is multipath fading; and if the signal undergoes any multipath fading, then the total signal may be distorted. This work presents improved correlation features of the current Walsh code through one simple yet powerful algorithm. Here, a simulation-based method is used to evaluate performance. Utilizing power delay profiles in several mobile radio propagation channels, measurement-based channel models for indoor, outdoor, suburban, and urban environments are derived. The number of taps and tap gains are then estimated using statistics on the path loss characteristics. Since the source, output is known it is compared with a delayed version of the decision device output to obtain an empirical basis for the error rate. The suggested code’s performance is then compared to a few existing orthogonal and semi- orthogonal codes using a variety of performance criteria, and the conclusion is that this proposal is superior