Collective correlations in the giant dipole continuum of 12C

A continuum shell-model calculation based on the collective correlation model has been made for the giant resonance of 12C using the eigenchannel reaction theory. The low-lying negative-parity states of 11C and 11B have been taken into account by corehole coupling. Partial, total, and integrated photoabsorption cross sections are calculated for the region of the giant dipole resonance

Assessing the Socio-Economic Benefits and Challenges of Municipal Solid Wastes Resource Recovery Practices in Mubi Metropolis, Nigeria

The study examines the socio-economic benefits and challenges of solid waste resource recovery practices, bearing in mind the accruable income and challenges. A total of one hundred and seventy six (176) sets of questionnaire were retrieved out of two hundred sets administered to scavengers, and duly analysed. The purposive and Snowball Sampling Techniques were employed to identify the respondents. Tables, plates, were used to summarise data collected which was analysed using descriptive statistics. Among the benefits derived by the scavengers from resource recovery are; 85.5% of respondents had an increase in their income measurably, a total of 13.9% of the respondent argued that it had increased employment, among the community leading to an increase in income. Majority of the scavengers (98.9%) have been injured in the course of scavenging. This implies that scavenging is not isolated from different form of risk, injury and sickness that are likely to consume part of the scavengers’ savings. The common hazard faced by scavengers is open cut (59.9%) sun burns (22.4%) infliction by obnoxious and poisonous gases (8%) while 1.7% and 1.1% suffered typhoid and skin diseases respectively. A major challenges acknowledged by 42% of scavengers is theft of scavenged materials, 23.9% confirm other forms of challenges but could not mention them, while 23.3% noted lack of capital as a challenges, 10.8% of respondents noted their source of challenge as that of leadership. In conclusion respondents (61.4%) affirm the need of fund (grant or loan) to boost their trade Keywords: Solid Waste; Resources- Recovery; Socio-Economic; Benefits; Challenges.

Role of Free Radicals in Pathogenesis of Diabetes Nephropathy

Diabetes mellitus has assumed epidemic proportions in most parts of the world including the developing countries, and one of its ominous complications, diabetes nephropathy represent today the leading cause of end-stage renal disease in the developed countries. However, the pathogenesis of diabetes nephropathy remains illusive, notwithstanding, free radicals seem to be the most favorable linkage between all the associated factors suggested. Consequently, free radicals, oxidative stress and antioxidants have become commonly used terms in modern discussions of renal disease mechanisms, making the kidney unique among other organs as the site in which a spectrum of seemingly unrelated diseases involves reactive oxygen species. Importantly, hyperglycaemia and its attendant metabolic syndromes, smoking and the use of xenobiotics have been shown to accelerate free radical generations and attenuate the antioxidant system creating oxidative stress. The management of diabetes nephropathy is extremely expensive and frustrating. Therefore, prevention is better. Sources of antioxidants, especially antioxidant vitamins are available and affordable in most environments. These may be adjunct to other ways of preventing the development of diabetic nephropathy. Reviews like this are necessary to stimulate stakeholders in management of diabetes mellitus and modern nephrologists

Comparative effects of dexamethasone on placental and foetal organ weights and some linear body measurements in Yankasa sheep and Sahel goats

Dexamethasone is a potent synthetic glucocorticoid use in veterinary and human medicine. However, it causes intra uterine growth restriction (IUGR) and decreases birth weights in some animal species and humans, although each species respond differently. This study investigated the effects of dexamethasone on placental weights and some foetal parameters in Yankasa sheep and Sahel goats with known average gestational length of 148.35 ± 1.50 days and 148.33 ± 1.58 days respectively. Ten adult Sahel goats comprising 8 does and 2 bucks and 10 Yankasa Sheep comprising of 8 ewes and 2 rams were used for this study. Pregnancies were achieved by natural mating after synchronization. Repeated dexamethasone injections were intramuscularly given at 0.25mg/kg body weight on days 1, 3 and 5 during first trimester and days 51, 53 and 55 during second trimester. Foetuses were harvested at day 78 of gestation all through Caesarean section. Foetal weights, crown-rump lengths (CRL), height at withers, heart girth, abdominal circumference, weights of adrenal glands and placental weight were evaluated. Specimens from placentas and adrenal glands were collected for histological analysis. Results showed that the mean placental weights, placental efficiency and foetal body weights were significantly (P<0.05) decreased in dexamethasone treated sheep and goats compared to controls. There was no significant change in foetal adrenal glands and linear body measurements between dexamethasone treatment and control groups in both species except crown-rump lengths (CRL) which was significantly (P<0.05) reduced in Sheep foetuses. It was concluded that dexamethasone caused significant decrease in placental weights and placenta efficiency and hence placental- maternal- foetal transport of nutrient materials in both species and also caused decrease in foetal crown-rump-lengths in sheep but not in goats. This suggests that dexamethasone has some teratogenic effects and that Sheep are more susceptible to dexamethasone treatment compared to goats.Keywords: Dexamethasone, Foetuses, Placenta, Pregnancies, Sahel goats, Yankasa shee

HAEMOGRAM OF NIGERIAN MONGREL BITCH AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE REPRODUCTIVE CYCLE

The haematologic parameters of the Nigerian Mongrel bitch were investigated at different stages of the reproductive cycle to determine their clinical values. Results showed that red blood cell (RBC) counts were highest during anoestrus, with a mean of 5.09  0.62 x 106/µL, while lowest values were recorded during pregnancy, the difference was significant (P<0.05). White blood cell (WBC) counts, packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin concentration (Hb) showed an increasing pattern from anoestrus to proestrus and then decreased with transition from proestrus to oestrus. Total WBC counts were highest during dioestrus and almost twice the value recorded in pregnancy. It appears that WBC count may be used for pregnancy diagnosis in the Nigerian Mongrel bitch

The use of dexamethasone in animals: implication for fertility, pregnancy and extrapolation of the animal data to humans

Exposure to dexamethasone causes numerous changes in various biological systems including the reproductive system and this has huge implication on fertility and pregnancy. Maternal dexamethasone administration promotes foetal lung maturation and thermoregulation in premature foetuses. This indication makes dexamethasone a drug of choice in maternal and neonatal human and veterinary health care. In addition, dexamethasone is widely used in human and veterinary medicine as potent anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive and analgesic drug in all age categories. Although the safety profile of short term dexamethasone treatment has been established, there has been growing concern about the long term effects of dexamethasone therapy and its implication on fertility and pregnancy in animals and humans. Most of the indications or uses in humans are extrapolated from animal data. This necessitates the need to provide review updates of current literature on dexamethasone use in humans and animals as there are many intrinsic differences between humans and animals. The review provides an overview of dexamethasone uses, its merits and demerits on animal pregnancy and fertility and implication on extrapolation of the animal data to humans. The review is based on a comprehensive literature search of relevant materials between 1969 and 2016 as well as authors’ personal manuscript/abstract files and citations of known references and discussed according to the multidisciplinary clinical experience of the authors. Although low-dose dexamethasone treatment has been used in veterinary and human clinics for many years and produced no severe effect on vital functions, repetitive high dose or long-term therapy may be associated with more serious sequelae on fertility and pregnancy. While no animal truly recapitulates human pregnancy and fertility, it is recommended that results from animal data be subjected to rigorous preclinical pharmacokinetic scaling processes to justify possible extrapolation to humans.Keywords: Animals, Dexamethasone, Fertility, Humans, Pregnanc

Teaching Instructional Contents for Woodwork Technology Courses in NCE Awarding Institution’s of Northwest, Nigeria

Woodwork Technology at Nigeria certificate in education Technical programme comprises three trade courses, Furniture making, Joinery and Carpentry. The Curriculum content doesn’t outline any portion of carpentry work, and it is a prerequisite in training Woodwork Technical teacher at the junior level. This paper examined the content of the curriculum, identified the missing gap of the carpentry aspects that are missing and developed an instructional manual. Relevant related literature to the content of woodwork technology curriculum were reviewed. An objective with corresponding Research Questions and a null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. Research and Development was used as the design for the study. The study was carried out in NCE Technical Awarding Institution in Northeastern Nigeria. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. The findings reveals that the existing instructional content in the NCE awarding institutions curriculum torches only furniture and very little part of joinery and devoid of carpentry. These findings led to the development of the instructional contents areas that is accompanied by instructional manual for teaching the missing content in the existing curriculum. Hence, there is necessity to bring into the curriculum the basic part of carpentry work, so as to produce skilled manpower who are ready for any woodworking industrial challenge

An Election Energy Threshold Based Multi-Hop Routing Protocol in a Grid-Clustered Wireless Sensor Network

Owing to the limited energy of sensor nodes (SNs) in a wireless sensor network (WSN), it is important to reduce and balance the energy consumption of the SNs in order to extend the WSN lifetime. Clustering mechanism is a highly efficient and effective mechanism for minimizing the amount of energy that SNs consume during the transmission of data packets. In this paper, an election energy threshold based multi-hop routing protocol (mEEMRP) is presented. In order to minimize energy consumption, this routing protocol uses grid clustering, where the network field is divided into grid clusters. SNs in each grid cluster select a cluster head (CH) based on a weight factor that takes the node location, node’s residual energy (RE) as well as the node’s distance from the base station into consideration. An energy efficient multi-hop routing algorithm is adopted during the transmission of data packets from the cluster heads (CHs) to the base station (BS). This multi-hop routing algorithm uses an election energy threshold value, T­nhCH that takes into consideration the RE of CHs as well as the distance between CHs. Simulation results show a 1.77% and 10.65% improvement in terms of network lifetime for two network field scenarios over Energy Efficient Multi-hop Routing Protocol (EEMRP)