Biology Education and Bio Entrepreneur Opportunities in Nigeria

Nigeria has been experiencing various socioeconomic and environmental challenges such as unemployment, poverty, insecurity and climate change within the past few decades. These challenges are traceable to a lack of synergy between capital and nature.  Knowledge and skills in various fields of biology such as Bioeconomics and Bio-entrepreneur are potent tools for building a strong synergy between capital and nature to enhance sustainable socio-economic development in the nation. This paper focuses on how biology education can be utilised to develop and promote Bio-entrepreneur opportunities among Nigerian youths for sustainable national development. The paper provided overviews of concepts such as biology education, bio-entrepreneur, bio-economics and so forth. The millennium development goals and the 21st-century skills within the context of sustainable development in Nigeria. Finally, the paper advocated for urgent realignment of biology and science education for sustainable national developmen

The Effects and Challenges of Computer Based Learning on Academic Performance of Distance Leaning Students of University of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

The study determine: the Effects and challenges of Computer based learning on academic performance of distance learning students of university of Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria. The study examine the effects of computer based learning on the poor academic performance of distance leaning students of University of Maiduguri. Challenges of computer based learning on poor academic performance of distance learning students of University of Maiduguri. Two research questions were raise to guide the study: What is the effects of computer based on  distance learning student academic performance  University of Maiduguri. What are the challenges of computer based on academic performance of distance learning student, University of Maiduguri  The study is delimited to one hundred and twenty (120) distance learning students from faculty of education, department of physical and health education, department of continuing education and extension services, department of science education and department of library and information science, which were used to drawn 30 students from each department which made up of a total one hundred and twenty sample size (120) of three hundred level students were used (300 level).  The data collected presented in tables and analysed using frequency and percentages. The finding shows that, there is a great effects of computer based learning on distance learning students of university of Maiduguri. The results also revealed that there is challenges of commuter based learning as the students does not more time for the computer based learning and limited access to computers. Among the recommendation of this study was; the University of Maiduguri should look at how each students should have his/her laptop for effective computer based learning for distance learning students. University of Maiduguri management should make sure that all resources and man power of the ICT are in good ordr before go into computer based learning. Keywords: Effects, Challenges, computer based, Learning, Distance Learning DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-15-07 Publication date:May 31st 202

Remediation of soil contaminated with toxic organic compounds using microorganisms

Microorganisms, especially genetically modified microorganisms have continued to attract attention as a safer and environmentally friendly alternative in the bioremediation of contaminated environments such as soil and water bodies. Soil pollution by organic compounds such as pesticides, industrial and agricultural solvents, dyes, pigments, additives etc. is on the increase worldwide as a result of industrialization and agricultural modernization. Toxicity from these and other related pollutants have constituted a major challenge to humans as well as the environment. Therefore, it is important to apply effective remediation measures to reduce the levels of these toxicants so as to minimize the risk of bioaccumulation in agricultural food products. Bioremediation using biological materials viz; whole cells, cell extracts, isolated enzymes etc. is one of the most effective and environmentally friendly approaches currently in use. This paper therefore, reviews the current microbial remediation strategies of soil contaminated with various organic pollutants.Keywords: Bioremediation, Microorganisms, Pollutants, Soil, Organi

Fatal case of newborn Lassa fever virus infection mimicking late onset neonatal sepsis: a case report from northern Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Lassa fever is a zoonotic viral infection endemic to the West Africa countries. It is highly fatal during pregnancy and as such reports of neonatal onset Lassa fever infections are rare in scientific literature. We report a fatal case of Lassa fever in a 26-day-old neonate mimicking the diagnosis of late-onset neonatal sepsis. CASE PRESENTATION: The patient is a 26-day-old neonate who was admitted with a day history of fever, poor feeding, pre-auricular lymphadenopathy and sudden parental death. He was initially evaluated for late onset neonatal sepsis. He later developed abnormal bleeding and multiple convulsions while on admission, prompting the need to evaluate for Lassa fever using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). He died 31 h into admission and RT-PCR result was positive for Lassa fever. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal Lassa fever infection is highly fatal and can mimic neonatal sepsis. High index of suspicion is needed particularly for atypical presentations of neonatal sepsis in Lassa fever endemic areas

ANTINUTRIENTS IN HERBAL PRODUCTS: AN ASSESSMENT OF NITRATE, PHYTATE, OXALATE, AND CYANIDE IN COMMONLY CONSUMED HERBAL SNUFFS IN SOKOTO, NIGERIA

Background: Herbs are major players in present day therapy, especially by the locals. However, there are some secondary metabolites present in them that can act as antinutrients when consumed by humans. Thus, it is important to monitor the levels of antinutreints in herbal snuff to save the public, especially in Sokoto (a state battling with challenges of nutrients deficiency and malnutrition). Objective: The objective of this work was to measure levels of cyanide, nitrate, phytate, and oxalate, in herbal snuff in Sokoto, Nigeria. Methods: Snuffs were brought from Sokoto market and subjected to antinutritional analysis according to standard methods and using reagents/materials of analytical grade. Result: The amount of nitrate present in three herbal snuff brands sold in Sokoto, Nigeria show that, nitrate ranges from 18.81 ± 0.9 mg/100g (found in Hajiya Safiya snuff brand) to 21. 82 ± 0.08 mg/100g (found in Hajiya Aisha snuff brand). The concentrations of phytate in 3 brands of herbal snuffs revealed, the highest value (91.164 ± 0.001 mg/100g) was recorded in Hajiya Aisha, and the lowest (4.05 ± 0.04 mg/100g) was observed in Dr Lambo herbal brand. The concentrations of oxalate show that, the highest level (0.0787 ± 0.059 mg/100g) was found in Dr lambo, and lowest (0.0055 ± 0.0001 mg/100g) observed in Hajiya Aisha snuff. Then, levels of cyanide in herbal snuff show, the highest value (25.68 ± 1.45 mg/ 100g) was recorded in Dr Lambo snuff brand, and the lowest level of cyanide was recorded in Hajiya Safiya (19.32 ± 1.04 mg/ 100g). Conclusion: The snuffs contain the assessed antinutrients at levels that are not likely to pose risk

Natural Products Modulating Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) as Potential COVID-19 Therapies

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a potentially fatal multisystemic infection caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Currently, viable therapeutic options that are cost effective, safe and readily available are desired, but lacking. Nevertheless, the pandemic is noticeably of lesser burden in African and Asian regions, where the use of traditional herbs predominates, with such relationship warranting a closer look at ethnomedicine. From a molecular viewpoint, the interaction of SARS-CoV-2 with angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the crucial first phase of COVID-19 pathogenesis. Here, we review plants with medicinal properties which may be implicated in mitigation of viral invasion either via direct or indirect modulation of ACE2 activity to ameliorate COVID-19. Selected ethnomedicinal plants containing bioactive compounds which may prevent and mitigate the fusion and entry of the SARS-CoV-2 by modulating ACE2-associated up and downstream events are highlighted. Through further experimentation, these plants could be supported for ethnobotanical use and the phytomedicinal ligands could be potentially developed into single or combined preventive therapeutics for COVID-19. This will benefit researchers actively looking for solutions from plant bioresources and help lessen the burden of COVID-19 across the globe.We appreciate the support and resource provided by staff and postgraduate members of the Center for Advanced Medical Research and Training (CAMRET), Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria. DU acknowledges the postgraduate scholarship awarded to him (CAMRET/ 2019/MSc/SCH003) by CAMRET. NC-M. acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the Horizon 2020 Program (PTDC/PSI-GER/ 28076/2017). The work was also supported by Taif University Researchers Supporting Program (Project number: TURSP-2020/93), Taif University, Saudi Arabia

Assessing readiness to implement routine immunization among patent and proprietary medicine vendors in Kano, Nigeria : a theory-informed cross-sectional study

Background: Patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) are widespread in communities and can potentially be used to expand access to routine immunization especially in underserved areas. In this study, we aimed to assess their readiness to implement routine immunization in Kano, Nigeria and identify factors associated with it. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of PPMVs aged 18 years and above in Kano metropolis, Nigeria, using cluster sampling technique. A 10-item Likert scale-based measure was used to estimate readiness score. The relationship between selected factors and readiness score was examined using multilevel linear modeling technique. Results: A total of 455 PPMVs with median age of 36 years participated in the study. The median raw score for readiness was 4.7 (IQR: 4.3 – 4-8) (maximum obtainable was 5). The mean readiness score (obtained through factor analysis) was 5.28 (SD: 0.58). Readiness score was associated with factors such as knowledge of immunization and task demand, engagement by other public health programs among others. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the feasibility of measuring the level of readiness for implementing routine immunization among PPMVs. Given the high level of readiness, policy makers should consider the possibility of expanding access to immunization through PPMVs

HausaNLP at SemEval-2023 Task 12: Leveraging African Low Resource TweetData for Sentiment Analysis

We present the findings of SemEval-2023 Task 12, a shared task on sentiment analysis for low-resource African languages using Twitter dataset. The task featured three subtasks; subtask A is monolingual sentiment classification with 12 tracks which are all monolingual languages, subtask B is multilingual sentiment classification using the tracks in subtask A and subtask C is a zero-shot sentiment classification. We present the results and findings of subtask A, subtask B and subtask C. We also release the code on github. Our goal is to leverage low-resource tweet data using pre-trained Afro-xlmr-large, AfriBERTa-Large, Bert-base-arabic-camelbert-da-sentiment (Arabic-camelbert), Multilingual-BERT (mBERT) and BERT models for sentiment analysis of 14 African languages. The datasets for these subtasks consists of a gold standard multi-class labeled Twitter datasets from these languages. Our results demonstrate that Afro-xlmr-large model performed better compared to the other models in most of the languages datasets. Similarly, Nigerian languages: Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba achieved better performance compared to other languages and this can be attributed to the higher volume of data present in the languages

Hypothermia in preterm infants admitted to low-resource neonatal units in northern Nigeria: an observational study of occurrence and risk factors

Background: Hypothermia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among preterm and low-birth-weight neonates. In resource-constrained settings, limited referral infrastructure and technologies for temperature control potentiate preterm hypothermia. While there is some documentation on point-of-admission hypothermia from single center studies, there are limited multicenter studies on the occurrence of hypothermia among preterm infants in resource-limited-settings. Therefore, we conducted a multicenter study to determine the prevalence and risk factors for hypothermia at the time of admission and during the first 72 h after admission in northern Nigeria. Method: We carried out a prospective cohort study on preterm infants admitted to four referral hospitals in northern Nigerian between August 2020 and July 2021. We documented temperature measurements at admission and the lowest and highest temperatures in the first 72 h after admission. We also collected individual baby-level data on sociodemographic and perinatal history data. We used the World Health Organization classification of hypothermia to classify the babies’ temperatures into mild, moderate, and severe hypothermia. Poisson regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for moderate-severe hypothermia. Results: Of the 933 preterm infants enrolled, 682 (72.9%) had hypothermia at admission although the prevalence of hypothermia varied across the four hospitals. During the first 24 h after admission, 7 out of every 10 babies developed hypothermia. By 72 h after admission, between 10 and 40% of preterm infants across the 4 hospitals had at least one episode of moderate hypothermia. Gestational age (OR = 0.86; CI = 0.82–0.91), birth weight (OR = 8.11; CI = 2.87–22.91), presence of a skilled birth attendant at delivery (OR = 0.53; CI = 0.29–0.95), place of delivery (OR = 1.94 CI = 1.13–3.33) and resuscitation at birth (OR = 1.79; CI = 1.27–2.53) were significant risk factors associated with hypothermia. Conclusion: The prevalence of admission hypothermia in preterm infants is high and hypothermia is associated with low-birth-weight, place of delivery and presence of skilled birth attendant. The prevalence of hypothermia while in care is also high and this has important implications for patient safety and quality of patient care. Referral services for preterm infants need to be developed while hospitals need to be better equipped to maintain the temperatures of admitted small and sick newborns

Deaths during tuberculosis treatment among paediatric patients in a large tertiary hospital in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Despite availability of effective cure, tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading cause of death in children. In many high-burden countries, childhood TB is underdiagnosed and underreported, and care is often accessed too late, resulting in adverse treatment outcomes. In this study, we examined the time to death and its associated factors among a cohort of children that commenced TB treatment in a large treatment centre in northern Nigeria. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of children that started TB treatment between 2010 and 2014. We determined mortality rates per 100 person-months of treatment, as well as across treatment and calendar periods. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to determine adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) for factors associated with mortality. RESULTS: Among 299 children with a median age 4 years and HIV prevalence of 33.4%; 85 (28.4%) died after 1,383 months of follow-up. Overall mortality rate was 6.1 per 100 person-months. Deaths occurred early during treatment and declined from 42.4 per 100 person-months in the 1st week of treatment to 2.2 per 100 person-months after at the 3rd month of treatment. Mortality was highest between October to December period (9.1 per 100 pm) and lowest between July and September (2.8 per 100 pm). Risk factors for mortality included previous TB treatment (aHR 2.04:95%CI;1.09-3.84); HIV infection (aHR 1.66:95%CI;1.02-2.71), having either extra-pulmonary disease (aHR 2.21:95%CI;1.26-3.89) or both pulmonary and extrapulmonary disease (aHR 3.03:95%CI;1.70-5.40). CONCLUSIONS: Mortality was high and occurred early during treatment in this cohort, likely indicative of poor access to prompt TB diagnosis and treatment. A redoubling of efforts at improving universal health coverage are required to achieve the End TB Strategy target of zero deaths from TB