Detection of integron genes in the plasmid DNA of multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from surgical wounds of some patients in Benin City, Nigeria

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen with the capability to cause serious surgical wound infections and remains a major healthcare problem. Plasmid is an extra chromosomal material in bacterial cells and confers resistance to the cell against many antibiotics. Genetic elements such as integron are implicated in conferring multidrug resistance (MDR) to P. aeruginosa . This study aims at investigating the occurrence of integron genes (int1, int2, int3) in the plasmid DNA and their ability to cause MDR in P. aeruginosa . In total, 284 different wound swabs were collected, P. aeruginosa isolated and screened using standard laboratory methods. Antibiotics susceptibility tests were carried out using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was also carried out using P. aeruginosa plasmid DNA as a template to detect the presence/absence of the integron genes using different pairs of specific primers. The results reveal that 34 (54.8%) of the microbes isolated were P. aeruginosa . Most of the isolates showed notable resistance to antibiotics, most notably against Ceftazidime, Augmentin, Cefixime and Gentamicin . Eleven isolates harbors the plasmid DNA . PCR amplification showed that 6 (54.5%) of the P. aeruginosa isolates harbor integron class 1 genes, non harbors the integron class 2 genes while 3 (27.3%) possess the integron class 3 genes. The isolates with these genes were highly resistant to most of the antibiotics used. int1 gene was prevalent then int3. Keywords: Antimicrobial, Wound infection, Integron, Polymerase chain reaction, Plasmid DN

Effect of Petroleum Price Increase on Cost of Selected Building Finishing Materials in the Nigerian Construction Industry (2006 - 2012)

It has been noted that a panacea to the problem of housing in Nigeria is the persistent increase in the prices of building materials. This in turn increases cost of construction due to increase in prices of petroleum products which results in variation and fluctuation of market prices of materials for construction projects. Finishings materials are exceptionally affected because they carry significant cost proportion of building projects. In view of this, the paper was aimed at examining the influence of petroleum price increase on the prices of some selected building finishing materials in Niger State from 2006 - 2012 in the light of high construction cost in the Nigerian Construction Industry. The data collected were based on three basic finishing materials, which are floor tiles, gloss/emulsion paints and ceiling boards, with different alternatives for each finishing material. Correlation and Regression Analyses used to analyze the collected data showed some level of high significance between the independent variable (regulated petroleum prices) and the dependent variables (finishing materials) i.e. Coefficient of Determination of values ranging from 61% to 90%. It was concluded that increase in the regulated price of petroleum products accounts for high cost of finishing materials in building projects. One of the recommendations from the study included the need for a better regulating price system to adequately monitor price with regard to building materials. Keywords: building, civilian era, finishing materials, petroleum price

ENTERPRISE ASSESSMENT ACROSS CASSAVA WASTE (PEELS) VALUE CHAIN IN OGUN STATE

In this article, the Enterprise assessment across cassava peels value chain in Ogun State Nigeria is examined. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 180 cassava processors and marketers. Socio-economic data were obtained from respondents with the use of pre-tested questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, budgetary technique, Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Student t-test. The study found that majority (84.3% and 52.8%) of processors of cassava peels and marketers were female. In addition, 60.2% of the processors and 51.4% of the marketers had secondary education. The value chain activities carried out by processors were transportation, drying and packaging while marketers transported, packaged and put the peels in storage for future sales. The SFA revealed that cost of labour (p<0.01) and quantity of fresh cassava peels (p<0.01) were the main determinants of output of dried cassava peels by the processors. The inefficiency model revealed that the efficiency of producing dried cassava peels increased with increase in age (p<0.01), credit access (p<0.01), household size (p<0.01) and membership of cooperative society (p<0.01). Furthermore, the cost function revealed that cost of sieving (p<0.05) and depreciation on capital item (p<0.01) increased the production cost of dried cassava peels. The mean technical, allocative and economic efficiency of producing dried cassava peels were estimated as 94%, 83% and 78% respectively. This study concluded that production of cassava peels is efficient and its trade is profitable. The study recommends that cassava processors and marketers should form cooperative groups to increase access to credit for higher output and trade of peels

In vitro Action of Vernonia perrottetii Plant Extracts on Staphylococcus species Associated with Vulvovaginitis of Selected Pregnant Women in Lokoja, Nigeria

The study was carried out to test for the in vitro action of Vernonia perrottetii extracts against Staphylococcus species isolated from women with Vulvovaginitis using medically certified standard procedures. A total of 50 samples of intravaginal swab (ICS) samples were collected from consented pregnant women in a State Specialist Hospital in Nigeria and investigated for the presence of Staphylococcus species and effect of V. perrottetii extracts on the isolates. The phytochemical screening of the methanolic and aqueous extract shows that the plant contain secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins with absence of phenol and anthraquinone. Isolate S. aureus (c) and Staphylococcus species(c) were resistant to amoxillin which served as control while other isolates were susceptible to the plant extracts. At a concentration of 1000mg/ml, aqueous extract of the plant exhibited appreciable sensitivity with a zone of inhibition of 26.7mm and 20.7mm at 500mg/ml and 1000mg/ml for S. xylosus. The results of the study imply that extracts of Vernonia perrottetii is a potential biocontrol agents of Staphyloccoci infection

Evaluation of Heavy Metal Concentration in Drinking Water Collected from Local Wells and Boreholes of Dutse Town, North West, Nigeria

Water samples collected from Dutse Town, Jigawa State, were studied and analyzed for heavy metals. A total of 48 samples were collected from 24 different sampling sites in Dutse town namely: FUD, Gidan Dubu Yadi, Bakwato 1, Bakwato 2, Tashar Danwake, Fatara, Kargo, Garu/Emir palace, Fagoji 1, Fagoji 2, Zai, Jigawa Sarki, Kachi, Limawa, Galamawa, Dasina, Takur Adua, Jigawar Tsada, Takur Site, Dan Masara, Mopol Base, G-9 Site and Aminu Kano Way/Cikin Gari. The samples were studied and analyzed for eight (8) heavy metals namely; Cadmium (Cd), Cobalt (Co), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg) and Nickel (Ni). The results obtained were compared with the international standards. The samples were analyzed at the Central Laboratory, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) was used in this study and the average concentration of these heavy metals  are 0.0034, 0.0409, 0.0151, 1.8241, 0.01471, 0.2731, 2.2829 and 0.0433 mg/l for Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Hg and Ni respectively. Among the analyzed heavy metals, Cd, Co, Cu and Ni were below the recommended level set by United State Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) while Fe, Pb, Mn and Hg were higher than the recommended level set by USEPA and WHO for safe drinking water. This imply that the water collected from these sampling areas were contaminated with heavy metals which may have serious health hazard to the people using such water for drinking and other domestic activities. Keywords: Heavy metals, Wells, Boreholes, Drinking Water, Dutse Tow

A New Metric for Prioritising Intrusion Alerts Using Correlation and Outlier Analysis

In a medium sized network, an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) could produce thousands of alerts a day many of which may be false positives. In the vast number of triggered intrusion alerts, identifying those to prioritise is highly challenging. Alert Correlation and prioritisation are both viable analytical methods which are commonly used to understand and prioritise alerts. However, to the author’s knowledge, very few dynamic prioritisation metrics exist. In this paper, a new prioritisation metric - OutMet, which is based on measuring the degree to which an alert belongs to anomalous behaviour is proposed. OutMet combines alert correlation and prioritisation analysis and in given attack scenarios, is capable of reducing false positives by upto 100%. The metric is tested and evaluated using the recently developed cyber-range dataset provided by Northrop Grumman

Intrusion alert prioritisation and attack detection using post-correlation analysis

Event Correlation used to be a widely used technique for interpreting alert logs and discovering network attacks. However, due to the scale and complexity of today's networks and attacks, alert logs produced by these modern networks are much larger in volume and difficult to analyse. In this research we show that adding post-correlation methods can be used alongside correlation to significantly improve the analysis of alert logs. We proposed a new framework titled A Comprehensive System for Analysing Intrusion Alerts (ACSAnIA). The post-correlation methods include a new prioritisation metric based on anomaly detection and a novel approach to clustering events using correlation knowledge. One of the key benefits of the framework is that it significantly reduces false-positive alerts and it adds contextual information to true-positive alerts. We evaluated the post-correlation methods of ACSAnIA using data from a 2012 cyber range experiment carried out by industrial partners of the British Telecom Security Practice Team. In one scenario, our results show that false-positives were successfully reduced by 97% and in another scenario, 16%. It also showed that clustering correlated alerts aided in attack detection. The proposed framework is also being developed and integrated into a pre-existing Visual Analytic tool developed by the British Telecom SATURN Research Team for the analysis of cyber security data

Prediction of received signal power and propagation path loss in open/rural environments using modified free-space loss and Hata models

This paper describes a modification of the Free-Space and Hata formulae for the prediction of received signal power, P R and propagation path loss, L P , in two cellular mobile radio systems (CMRS), in the Northern Nigeria. Measurements of P R s were taken with a Cellular Mobile Radio test Receiver (Sagem OT 160), in some selected open/rural environments, when the receiver was being moved away from the base stations along the propagation paths. L P s were then obtained from values of measured P R s using an appropriate expression. A close comparison of measurement values and computed values from the free-space and Hata formulae revealed that direct application of these formulae is inappropriate for the prediction of these parameters in the region of investigation, as computed values fell short significantly from the corresponding measured values. Consequently, some correction factors have been introduced to both models and these have produced results which closely matched the measured values

PREDICTION OF FRESH AND HARDENED PROPERTIES OF NORMAL CONCRETE VIA CHOICE OF AGGREGATE SIZES, CONCRETE MIX-RATIOS AND CEMENT

Concrete is the most commonly used building material for building most of the world’s buildings and infrastructure. After centuries of usage, it still remains the most widely adopted construction material worldwide. But in many developing nations, the frequent occurrence of building collapse has been mostly ascribed to poor quality concrete. As Nigeria is noted for frequent building collapse, this research reproduces standard concrete practices commonly adopted in Nigerian construction industry with the intent to predict design strength via choice of coarse aggregate sizes ( 12.5 mm, 19 mm, 30 mm and mixed), concrete mix-ratios (1:2:4, 1:3:6, 1:2:3) and ordinary Portland cement types (42.5R and 32.5N). Cement compound’s composition tests, fresh property tests and hardened property tests were conducted on samples. Test results from building cites of different Local Government Areas of Lagos State, Nigeria obtained in 2010 are compared with the compressive test results of this research via statistical tools. Results indicate that the fresh properties and hardened properties are influenced in a proportional manner by the sizes of aggregates and that the choices of aggregate sizes, concrete mix-ratios and cement types can be used to predict the fresh and hardened properties of normal concrete. This study also show that poor concrete production is one of the principal cause of frequent building collapse in Nigeria

Optimization of Phytosynthesis of Magnesium Oxide and Magnesium Chloride Nanoparticles

In the present study, magnesium oxide (MgO) and magnesium chloride (MgCl) nanoparticles were phytosynthesized. Selected parameters like leaf extracts from Moringa oleifera, Vernonia amygadalina and Occimum gratissimum, time of reaction, precursor salts of magnesium oxide and magnesium chloride at varying concentrations, plant extracts to precursor salts volume ratio, pH of the medium and light sources were optimized for a better production of the nanoparticles. The phytosynthesized MgO and MgCl nanoparticles were characterized using UV- Vis spectroscopy technique. The study revealed that the leaf extracts of Moringa oleifera and Vernonia amyg dalina yielded more nanoparticles; the period of 24 hours incubation was enough time for nanoparticles formation and the 0.1 and 0.01 molar concentrations of the precursor salts gave optimal yields of the nanoparticles. The plant extracts at ratio two (2) to precursor salt solution at ratio three (3) resulted in better yield of the nanoparticles; the alkaline pH of 9 and 11 gave better nanoparticles synthesis and the visible light source and dark room environments were better exposure conditions for the nanoparticles formation. Keywords: Leaf extracts, Magnesium chloride nanoparticles, Magnesium oxide nanoparticles, Phytosynthesis, UV- Vis spectroscopy