Determinants and effect of livelihood diversification among small-scale poultry farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria

No Abstrac

OPTIMAL ROUTE DETERMINATION FOR POSTAL DELIVERY USING ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM

There are a lot of optimization challenges in the world, as we all know. The vehicle routing problem is one of the more complex and high-level problems. Vehicle Routing Problem is a real-life problem in the Postal Delivery System logistics and, if not properly attended to, can lead to wastage of resources that could have been directed towards other things. Several studies have been carried out to tackle this problem using different techniques and algorithms. This study used the Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm along with some powerful APIs to find an optimal route for the delivery of posts to customers in a Postal Delivering System. When Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm is used to solve the vehicle routing problem in transportation systems, each Ant's journey is mere “part” of a feasible solution. To put it in another way, numerous ants' pathways might make up a viable solution. Routes are determined for a delivery vehicle, with the objective of minimizing customer waiting time and operation cost. Experimental results indicate that the solution is optimal and more accurat

A HYBRIDIZED ENCRYPTION SCHEME BASED ON ELLIPTIC CURVE CRYPTOGRAPHY FOR SECURING DATA IN SMART HEALTHCARE

Recent developments in smart healthcare have brought us a great deal of convenience. Connecting common objects to the Internet is made possible by the Internet of Things (IoT). These connected gadgets have sensors and actuators for data collection and transfer. However, if users' private health information is compromised or exposed, it will seriously harm their privacy and may endanger their lives. In order to encrypt data and establish perfectly alright access control for such sensitive information, attribute-based encryption (ABE) has typically been used. Traditional ABE, however, has a high processing overhead. As a result, an effective security system algorithm based on ABE and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is developed to protect health-related data. ABE is a workable option for one-to-many communication and perfectly alright access management of encrypting data in a cloud environment. Without needing to decode the encrypted data, cloud servers can use the FHE algorithm to take valid actions on it. Because of its potential to provide excellent security with a tiny key size, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) algorithm is also used. As a result, when compared to related existing methods in the literature, the suggested hybridized algorithm (ABE-FHE-ECC) has reduced computation and storage overheads. A comprehensive safety evidence clearly shows that the suggested method is protected by the Decisional Bilinear Diffie-Hellman postulate. The experimental results demonstrate that this system is more effective for devices with limited resources than the conventional ABE when the system’s performance is assessed by utilizing standard model

Determination of Normal and Variant Hemoglobin using Capillary Electrophoresis among Voluntary Blood Donors in North Central Nigeria: Implications on Blood Transfusion Services

Background: Voluntary non-remunerated blood donation is a strategy adopted by World Health Organization aimed at ensuring safety and adequacy of blood supply. Sub-Saharan Africa has a high prevalence of hemoglobin disorders and therefore needs to adopt stringent measures in donor selection to ensure safety for the recipient of blood transfusion. This study aimed to analyze normal and variant hemoglobin among voluntary blood donors. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 100 prospective blood donors including 55 (55%) males and 45 (45%) females, aged 18–34 years were recruited. Capillary electrophoresis using the Minicap system was used for determining the hemoglobin variants in alkaline buffer (PH 9.4). Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20 and p-value < 0.05 was considered as the level of significance Results: The mean age of the participants was 22.23 ± 3.3 SD years. The proportion of participants with genotype AA was 67 (67%), those with AS were 17 (22 %), while those with AC were 11 (11 %). While Hb A ≥ 90% was noted in 67 (67%) blood donors, Hb S was seen in 22 (22%) and Hb A2 > 3.5% in 57 (57%). Hb F > 2% was observed in 3% of the studied participants Conclusion: Variant hemoglobin is common among blood donors and this should be taken into consideration whenever blood is being crossmatched for recipients of blood transfusion. Data from this study will be useful in raising awareness and genetic counseling. Keywords: prevalence, hemoglobin variants, capillary electrophoresi

Survey of Animal Trypanosomosis and Biting Flies in Parts of Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria

A survey of tsetse and animal trypanosomosis was carried out in five settlements: Lim, Birim, Yuli, Kungibar and Yankari game reserve of Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi state, Nigeria. A total of 448 blood samples were collected between February and March, 2008. Blood samples were examined for trypanosomes using Giemsa stained thick and thin smear method and the Haematocrit Centrifugation Techique (HCT). The results obtained showed that the overall prevalence of trypanosomosis and other haemoparasites in the study area was 51%. Trypanosoma vivax was the most predominant trypanosome species found (39.1%) and is statistically significant in male than in female (p< 0.05). Vector investigation in the study areas showed, that a total of 77 biting flies were caught using Biconical and Nitse traps.Glossina tachinoides was the most abundant vector with a catch of 60(78.8%);Glossina palpalis 10(13.0%); Tabanids 3(4.0%); Stomoxys 3(4.0%) and Chrysop 1(1.0%).The parasites have no significant difference (p>0.05) between different  settlements where samples were collected. The public health importance of this survey is discussed. Keywords: Tsetse, Trypanosomosis, Game reserve, Public health importance

First record of Foulassi Screeching Frog, Arthroleptis adelphus (Perret, 1966) (Anura, Arthroleptidae, Arthroleptinae), from Nigeria, with notes on its phylogenetic position

We report the first known occurrence of the Foulassi Screeching Frog, Arthroleptis adelphus (Perret, 1966), from Nigeria. A specimen of A. adelphus was collected during herpetological survey work conducted in Cross River National Park, south-eastern Nigeria. Morphometrics and mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene confirm identity of the specimen. Matrilineal genealogy reveals a sister relationship of A. adelphus from Nigeria with individuals from south-western Cameroon. Genetic analysis further shows geographic structuring and divergence among populations of A. adelphus from the Guineo–Congolian forest region. We offer updates to the IUCN geographic range of A. adelphus

Population structure and evolutionary history of the greater cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) from the Guinean Forests of West Africa

Grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus) is a large-body old world rodent found in sub-Saharan Africa. The body size and the unique taste of the meat of this major crop pest have made it a target of intense hunting and a potential consideration as a micro-livestock. However, there is insufficient knowledge on the genetic diversity of its populations across African Guinean forests. Herein, we investigated the genetic diversity, population structures and evolutionary history of seven Nigerian wild grasscutter populations together with individuals from Cameroon, Republic of Benin, and Ghana, using five mitochondrial fragments, including D-loop and cytochrome b (CYTB). D-loop haplotype diversity ranged from 0.571 (± 0.149) in Republic of Benin to 0.921 (± 0.013) in Ghana. Within Nigeria, the haplotype diversity ranged from 0.659 (± 0.059) in Cross River to 0.837 (± 0.075) in Ondo subpopulation. The fixation index (FST), haplotype frequency distribution and analysis of molecular variance revealed varying levels of population structures across populations. No significant signature of population contraction was detected in the grasscutter populations. Evolutionary analyses of CYTB suggests that South African population might have diverged from other populations about 6.1 (2.6–10.18, 95% CI) MYA. Taken together, this study reveals the population status and evolutionary history of grasscutter populations in the region

Ferric precipitation and metal sorption in biohydrometallurgical processes

2020FEREC-STD-029 The dataset uploaded was for the sorption of copper ions onto biogenic iron precipitate obtained from industrial bioleaching of pyrite concentrate and ferrous-ion bio-oxidation. It contains the sorption kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamics of the process. </p