Assessment of Biofertilizer Quality and Health Implications of Anaerobic Digestion Effluent of Cow Dung and Chicken Droppings

Anaerobic digestate have been identified as a rich source of essential plant nutrients. Nevertheless, its safety measured by the concentration of pathogen present is of great concern to end users. This research explored the efficiency of the mesophilic biodigestion process in the stabilization and sanitization of cow dung and chicken droppings. Six (6) kg each of cow dung and chicken droppings were collected fresh and free from impurities, pre-fermented, mixed with water in the ratio 1:1 w/v to form slurry, fed into the respective reactors and digested for 30 days at an average ambient temperature of 30 � 2 �C. The pH of the medium fluctuated between 6.5 and 8.0. The analysis of the feedstock and effluent of the digesters showed that a total solids reduction of 75.3% and 60.1% were recorded for cow dung and chicken droppings while the reduction in total coliforms was 95% and 70% respectively for the dung and droppings. Microbial analysis of the biofertilizer produced reveals both aerobic and anaerobic organisms which include species of Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Clostridium, Bacillus, Bacteroides, Salmonella, Penicillum and Aspergillus. Escherichia coli and Shigella spp. were removed while species of Salmonella and Klebsiella were still present in the digestate. Notwithstanding these results, the digestate still requires further treatment for it to be suitable for application on unrestricted crops either as fertilizer; otherwise a health problem would be created as attempt is made to improve soil fertilit

Assessment of the Effect of Land Use /Land Cover Changes on Total Runoff From Ofu River Catchment in Nigeria

The total runoff from a catchment is dependednt on both the soil characteristics and the land use/land cover (LULC) type. This study was conducted to examine the effect of changes in land cover on the total runoff from Ofu River Catchment in Nigeria. Classified Landsat imageries of 1987, 2001 and 2016 in combination with the soil map extracted from the Digital Soil Map of the World was used to estimate the runoff curve number for 1987, 2001 and 2016. The runoff depth for 35 years daily rainfall data was estimated using Natura Resource Conservation Services Curve Number (NRCS-CN) method. The runoff depths obtained for the respective years were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance at 95% level of significance. P-value < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Runoff curve numbers obtained for 1987, 2001 and 2016 were 61.83, 63.26 and 62.79 respectively. The effects of the changes in LULC for 1987-2001, 2001-2016 and 1987-2016 were statistically significant (P<0.001) at 95% confident interval. The average change in runoff depths were 79.81%, -11.10% and 48.09% respectively for 1987-2001, 2001-2016 and 1987-2016. The study concluded that the changes in LULC of the catchment had significant effect on the runoff from the catchment

Selected reactive oxygen species and antioxidant enzymes in common bean after Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola and Botrytis cinerea infection

Phaseolus vulgaris cv. Korona plants were inoculated with the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola (Psp), necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea (Bc) or with both pathogens sequentially. The aim of the experiment was to determine how plants cope with multiple infection with pathogens having different attack strategy. Possible suppression of the non-specific infection with the necrotrophic fungus Bc by earlier Psp inoculation was examined. Concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as superoxide anion (O2 -) and H2O2 and activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) were determined 6, 12, 24 and 48 h after inoculation. The measurements were done for ROS cytosolic fraction and enzymatic cytosolic or apoplastic fraction. Infection with Psp caused significant increase in ROS levels since the beginning of experiment. Activity of the apoplastic enzymes also increased remarkably at the beginning of experiment in contrast to the cytosolic ones. Cytosolic SOD and guaiacol peroxidase (GPOD) activities achieved the maximum values 48 h after treatment. Additional forms of the examined enzymes after specific Psp infection were identified; however, they were not present after single Bc inoculation. Subsequent Bc infection resulted only in changes of H2O2 and SOD that occurred to be especially important during plant–pathogen interaction. Cultivar Korona of common bean is considered to be resistant to Psp and mobilises its system upon infection with these bacteria. We put forward a hypothesis that the extent of defence reaction was so great that subsequent infection did not trigger significant additional response

OpdA, a bacterial organophosphorus hydrolase, prevents lethality in rats after poisoning with highly toxic organophosphorus pesticides

Organophosphorus (OP) pesticides poison more than 3,000,000 people every year in the developing world, mostly through intentional self-poisoning. Advances in medical therapy for OP poisoning have lagged, and current treatment is not highly effective with mortality of up to 40% in even the most advanced Western medical facilities. Administration of a broadly active bacterial OP hydrolase to patients in order to hydrolyze OPs in circulation might allow current therapies to be more effective. The objective of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of a new recombinant bacterial OP hydrolase (OpdA), cloned from Agrobacterium radiobacter, in rat models of two chemically distinct but highly toxic and rapidly acting OP pesticides: dichlorvos and parathion. Without OpdA treatment, median time to death in rats poisoned with 3x LD(50) of dichlorvos or parathion was 6 min and 25.5 min, respectively. Administration of a single dose of OpdA immediately after dichlorvos resulted in 100% survival at 24h, with no additional antidotal therapy. After parathion poisoning, OpdA alone caused only a delay to death. However, an additional two doses of OpdA resulted in 62.5% survival at 24 h after parathion poisoning. In combination with pralidoxime therapy, a single dose of OpdA increased survival to 75% after parathion poisoning. Our results demonstrate that OpdA is able to improve survival after poisoning by two chemically distinct and highly toxic OP pesticides

Differences in the signaling pathways of α1A- and α1B-adrenoceptors are related to different endosomal targeting

Aims: To compare the constitutive and agonist-dependent endosomal trafficking of α1A- and α1B-adrenoceptors (ARs) and to establish if the internalization pattern determines the signaling pathways of each subtype. Methods: Using CypHer5 technology and VSV-G epitope tagged α1A- and α1B-ARs stably and transiently expressed in HEK 293 cells, we analyzed by confocal microscopy the constitutive and agonist-induced internalization of each subtype, and the temporal relationship between agonist induced internalization and the increase in intracellular calcium (determined by FLUO-3 flouorescence), or the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAP kinases (determined by Western blot). Results and Conclusions: Constitutive as well as agonist-induced trafficking of α1A and α1B ARs maintain two different endosomal pools of receptors: one located close to the plasma membrane and the other deeper into the cytosol. Each subtype exhibited specific characteristics of internalization and distribution between these pools that determines their signaling pathways: α1A-ARs, when located in the plasma membrane, signal through calcium and ERK1/2 pathways but, when translocated to deeper endosomes, through a mechanism sensitive to β-arrestin and concanavalin A, continue signaling through ERK1/2 and also activate the p38 pathway. α1B-ARs signal through calcium and ERK1/2 only when located in the membrane and the signals disappear after endocytosis and by disruption of the membrane lipid rafts by methyl-β-cyclodextrin

Reading, Trauma and Literary Caregiving 1914-1918: Helen Mary Gaskell and the War Library

This article is about the relationship between reading, trauma and responsive literary caregiving in Britain during the First World War. Its analysis of two little-known documents describing the history of the War Library, begun by Helen Mary Gaskell in 1914, exposes a gap in the scholarship of war-time reading; generates a new narrative of "how," "when," and "why" books went to war; and foregrounds gender in its analysis of the historiography. The Library of Congress's T. W. Koch discovered Gaskell's ground-breaking work in 1917 and reported its successes to the American Library Association. The British Times also covered Gaskell's library, yet researchers working on reading during the war have routinely neglected her distinct model and method, skewing the research base on war-time reading and its association with trauma and caregiving. In the article's second half, a literary case study of a popular war novel demonstrates the extent of the "bitter cry for books." The success of Gaskell's intervention is examined alongside H. G. Wells's representation of textual healing. Reading is shown to offer sick, traumatized and recovering combatants emotional and psychological caregiving in ways that she could not always have predicted and that are not visible in the literary/historical record

Reliability assessment of Thomas Fiering's method of stream flow prediction

This study was carried out to assess the reliability of Thomas-Fiering’s method of stream flow prediction. The 19 years gauged data of 1955-1973 was extended to 2016 using the model. Model calibration was done by multiple linear regressions of the gauged and synthetic data of 1956-1973. The linear equations developed for January to December were used for adjustment of the three sets of stream flow data generated for 1974-2016. The reliability assessment was done based on the extent to which the unbiased statistics (mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficients) of the 1955-1973 stream flow data were preserved in the synthetic stream flow for 1955-2016. The comparison was done using linear regression and One-Way ANOVA (95% Confidence level) to check for the reliability of the generated data. The coefficients of determination, P-values, F-values and critical F-values were used to estimate the reliability index. Synthetic data was found to be 95.9% reliable.Keywords: Ofu River, Reliability, Stream flow, Synthetic, Thomas Fiering’s mode

Assessment of the change in river discharge-carrying capacity using remote sensing geographic information system: a case study of Ofu river, Nigeria

This study assessed the changes in the flow carrying capacity of Ofu River in Nigeria between 2000 and 2011 using the DEMs of the respective years. The results showed that Ofu River had lost 12.88 m amounting to about 42.58 % of its flow depth at Oforachi between 2000 and 2011 at a rate of 1.171 m per year and an estimated 18.74 m amounting to about 61.95 % in 2016. The Total sediment load was 66,825,730 kg/year comprising of 56,747,260 kg/year and 10,077,470 kg/year of measured and unmeasured sediment loads respectively. The results obtained suggested that the loss in flow depth is a result of siltation of the river bed due to the high sediment load probably as a result of soil cultivation within the floodplains. The study demonstrated that remote sensing and GIS can be used to assess the changes in the discharge-carrying capacity of a river.Keywords: DEM, Discharge capacity, Flow depth, GIS, Ofu river, Sediment loa

Water quality assessment and mapping using inverse distance weighted interpolation: a case of River Kaduna, Nigeria

Several researchers have studied the water quality of the upper and lower stretches of River Kaduna with little on the middle stretch of the river. Besides, no work has ever been done on mapping the water quality of the said river. Hence, the middle stretc h of River Kaduna was monitored for 12 months starting from June, 2016 to May, 2017, covering both rainy and dry seasons in 15 sampling locations to generate data for water quality mapping. However, eight water quality parameters were analyzed namely; temp erature, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen and total phosphorus using standard methods. Rainy season results were separated from dry season results and were used in mapping the wa ter quality of the river for both seasons using ArcGIS 10.5. It was concluded that the water temperature of the river was within the permissible limit set by U.S. EPA during both seasons while the other water quality parameters apart from turbidity and pH deteriorated more during dry season. In addition, COD and total phosphorus were found to be the only parameters that never met the requirement set by U.S. EPA throughout the sampling period irrespective of the sampling location and season. This is because the least measured concentrations of COD and total phosphorus were 35.34 mg/l and 0.109 mg/l, respectively. It was recommended that farming activities at the river banks should be banned as the fertilizers used by farmers easily drain into the river and in crease the phosphorus and COD concentrations. Key words: River, Kaduna, Interpolation, GIS Map, Water Quality