Boric acid inhibits cell growth and induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells

Boric acid (BA), an essential plant micronutrient, has recently been discovered as a chemo-preventive agent in prostate cancer; however, its mechanism of action remains unknown. Our interest is to determine if BA has a preventative role in breast cancer and elucidate its possible mechanism. Integrins are transmembrane proteins responsible for cell growth, survival and adhesion. We hypothesize that BA interacts with integrins to mediate its response. To test this hypothesis we used BA and phenylboronic acid (PBA), a bulkier analog of BA, on breast ductal carcinoma, ZR-75-1, and breast andenocarcinoma, MCF-7; BA and PBA treatments were tested through proliferation, cytotoxicity and cell cycle analysis experiments. These preliminary results show that BA and PBA effectively inhibit growth in both breast cancer cell lines through dose-dependent cell cycle block and apoptosis. Adhesion and integrin activity assays did not definitively identify which integrins are affected by BA and PBA treatments

Hierarchical multilevel optimization for reliability target allocation in probabilistic design of decomposed systems

Analytical target cascading (ATC) is a methodology for translating system-level design targets to subsystem and component design specifications in hierarchically decomposed optimal system design problems. In previous work we extended the ATC formulation to account for uncertainties, where the bounds of the probabilistic design constraints were chosen arbitrarily and held fixed during the ATC process. In this work, we extend the probabilistic ATC formulation to include reliability targets in the vector of cascaded quantities. In this manner, we quantify the optimality-reliability tradeoffs for each element of the decomposed system and compute the probabilistic constraint bounds required to satisfy the overall system reliability target. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61433/1/2060079_ftp.pd

Predictive factors for psychiatric morbidity among women with infertility attending a gynaecology clinic in Nigeria

Objective: To determine the psychosocial and clinical factors that are associated with psychiatric morbidity among women with infertility attending a Nigerian gynaecology clinic. Method: Over a four month period, 320 respondents (160 in the study group and 160 in the control group) were interviewed using a proforma (designed by the authors) and a screening instrument, General Health Questionnaire version 30 (GHQ-30). All probable cases with a score of 5 or more on GHQ-30 were interviewed using the Present State Examination (PSE). Psychiatric diagnosis was made in accordance with the diagnostic criteria of the 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Results: The infertility rate among the study group was found to be 25.8% with primary and secondary infertility rates constituting 21.9% and 78.1% respectively. The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among women with infertility (48.8%) was significantly more than that in the control group (11.2%) (Χ 2 = 51.80, p < 0.0001). Lack of support from husband (Χ2 = 15.31, p < 0.001), lack of support from husband’s relatives (c 2 = 39.60, p < 0.0001), discrimination (Χ2 = 69.91, p < 0.0001) and history of induced abortion (Χ2 = 30.40, p < 0.0001) were found to be significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity among patients with infertility when compared with the fertile control population. There was no significant difference in the rate of psychiatric morbidity between women with primary infertility and those with secondary infertility (Χ2 = 0.03; p = 0.87). Conclusion: Psychiatric morbidity is significantly more common among patients with infertility as compared with those without. There was a significant association between psychiatric morbidity and absence of support from husband and his relations, presence of discrimination, and a history of induced abortion. We suggest more public enlightenment on the need for moral/ psychosocial support to women with infertility. In addition, more efforts should be made towards early screening and identification of cases of psychiatric morbidity among patients with infertility.Key words: Predictive factors; Psychiatric morbidity; Infertility; Nigeri

Monoterpenes reduced adducts formation in rats exposed to aflatoxin B1

Perillyl alcohol and d-limonene are naturally occurring plant compounds that exhibited anti-carcinogenic activities in mammary tumor models. The effects of these monoterpenes at the initiation stage of aflatoxin B1-induced hepatocarcinogenesis were investigated. Male F344 rats were fed Control or treatment diets throughout the study and exposed to aflatoxin for 5 days. Three days after the last aflatoxin dose, blood and liver samples were obtained. Analysis of liver samples showed that both limonene and perillyl alcohol significantly inhibited (

Patient Education and Medication Adherence among Hypertensives in a Tertiary Hospital, South Western Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a global health issue among the adult population with high morbidity and mortality rates. Poor adherence to medication is associated with bad outcome of the disease and wastage of health resources. Therefore, this study aims to determine the role of patient education in medication adherence among hypertensives attending tertiary hospitals in Ekiti State, South Western, Nigeria.METHODS: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study involving 420 participants attending Family Medicine Department Clinic of Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Ido-Ekiti. Relevant data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire.RESULTS: The mean age of respondents was 60.97 ± 11.28 years, and a slight female preponderance (male: female = 1:1.7 over male). Three hundred and forty nine (83.1%) were married, 273(65.0%) were from a monogamous family and 375(89.2%) had family sizes of more than 4. Ninety four (22.4%) had good knowledge about hypertension, and 257(61.2%) were adherent to their medication. Increased medication adherence proportion was observed as knowledge about hypertension improves. The odds of adherence to treatment among subjects with good knowledge is 2 times (OR = 2.320, 95%CI = 1.164, 4.626) higher than among subjects with poor knowledge.CONCLUSION: The proportion of respondents with good knowledge about hypertension is low. However, the adherence among them to medication is higher and statistically significant. Patient education about the disease and its treatment by primary care physicians can help to improve adherence to medication

VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS OF CASSAVA PRODUCTS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study investigated the value chain analysis of cassava products in Ogun State Nigeria. Multistage was used to select 180 cassava processors and marketers. Socio-economic data were obtained from respondents with the use of pre-tested questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The study revealed that majority (84.3% and 52.8%) of Cassava peel processors and marketers were female. In addition, 60.2% of the processors have secondary education while 51.4% of the marketers also have secondary education. The value chain activities carried out by the processors were, Gari; harvesting, transportation, peeling, fetching, grating mill, sieving, toasting/drying and packaging. Fufu; harvesting, transportation, peeling, fetching, soaking, sieving and packaging. Lafun; harvesting, transportation, peeling, washing, fetching, soaking, slicing, grating mill, sieving, drying and packaging. The marketing activities includes; transportation, bagging and storage (Elegbede, et al., 2018) while marketers transported, packaged and put products in storage for future sales. The mean gross margin for gari, fufu and lafun processors and marketers along the chain were N35876.13, N120463.61 and N48098.72 respectively per annum while net farm income was estimated as N35477.85, N115259.44 and N48098.72. Also, the marketing margin for gari, fufu and lafun was estimated as N25273.07, N2982.65 and N21453.49 respectively per annum while the net marketing margin per annum was estimated as N18766.84, N22489.30 and N16203.81 respectively. Conversely, the marketing efficiency for the cassava products and by-products was estimated as 74.26%, 75.44% and 75.53% respectively for gari, fufu and lafu with lafu having the highest marketing efficiency when compared with the other cassava products (gari and fufu). From the results of the net farm income and marketing margin, it was discovered that fufu is more profitable along the cassava product value chain when compared to the other products (gari and lafu). This study therefore recommends that processing and marketing of lafun and fufu is efficient and their trade is profitable. Also, cassava processors and marketers should form cooperative groups to increase access to credit for higher output and trade of products. &nbsp; &nbsp

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&lt;0.01) and quantity of fresh cassava peels (p&lt;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&lt;0.01), credit access (p&lt;0.01), household size (p&lt;0.01) and membership of cooperative society (p&lt;0.01). Furthermore, the cost function revealed that cost of sieving (p&lt;0.05) and depreciation on capital item (p&lt;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

An evaluation of the economic cost impacts of classical forecast errors

Evidence from literature suggests that there is no shortage of studies concerned with the supply chain risk management and the associated performance by the individual echelons and functional business areas or through coordinated efforts. Literature has also demonstrated strong association between the performance of supply chain inventory management and control policies and profitability. Thus, integration of operational policies with financial decisions has been seen as an avenue to improve and to better corporate strategic financial objectives in supply chain sector organisations through optimal inventory investment. This is quite important since measures to improve financial performance implicitly influence and restrict operational performance including the management of inventory. However, on the modelling of inventory and finance and in measuring the impact of one on the other, traditional approaches tend to think of one as the input into the other without due consideration for the interconnections between the two over time. In particular, the traditional inventory cost model appears to present a disconnect between operational choices and financial decisions. This thesis models both and their interconnections explicitly and simultaneously. Supposing a periodic review inventory policy with finite horizon and single perishable product, this study proposes a simple easy to understand solution. Specifically, in evaluating the economic consequences of classical forecast error metrics on inventory control system, study improves the current approach by creating a versatile consolidative costs evaluation function that aligns both operational and financial decisions as well as captures the business contextual considerations. The research study results revealed that we can easily utilise the proposed robust costs structure at the right scale (of demand uncertainty) and in the right scope (of financial capacity) to reveal the real and correct cost effects that facilitates users to produce practically feasible plans for their businesses

Efficacité comparée des insecticides de natures différentes dans la gestion des insectes ravageurs du niébé au Centre du Bénin

Objectif: Le niébé est une importante plante alimentaire dont la production et la valorisation sont d’une grande priorité pour l’amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire de la population. L’objectif de cette étude est de comparer en milieu paysan, l'efficacité du champignon entomopathogène Beauveria bassiana (isolat Bb 115), du mélange Neem (Topbio) - virus MaviMNPV et de l’insecticide chimique Decis (deltaméthrine) dans la gestion des insectes ravageurs du niébé.Méthodologie et résultats: L'essai a été conduit dans trois villages de la zone cotonnière du centre du Bénin (commune de Glazoué). C’est en effet, une zone de grande production du niébé. L’essai a été conduit suivant un dispositif de bloc aléatoire complet avec quatre traitements et trois répétitions par village de la zone. Les traitements comprennent 1) témoin (niébé non traité), 2) mélange Topbio - MaviMNPV, 3) B. bassiana et 4) Decis. L’application du champignon B. bassiana a été faite à la dose de 75 g m.a. (matière active)/ha. Le Décis et le TopBio à 1L /ha. Quant à la suspension virale, la dose de 2.109 OB/ha a été utilisée. Les effets des différents pesticides utilisés sur les densités de populations de M. vitrata, Megalurothrips sjostedti, Clavigralla tomentosicollis, que sur leur dégâts sur les organes reproductifs (boutons floraux, fleurs, gousses) ont été évalués. Des organes fructifères ont été prélevés hebdomadairement pour évaluer le nombre de larves mortes ou vivantes et aussi leurs dégâts sur les boutons floraux, fleurs et gousses. Les rendements en grains ont été également évalués. Bien qu’il y ait une grande variation dans les effets occasionnés par les biopesticides testés, ils ont considérablement réduit la densité de population de Maruca vitrata et des autres espèces d'insectes, Megalurothrips sjostedti et Clavigralla tomentosicollis ainsi que le niveau de dommages sur les organes fructifères. Comparativement au témoin, le rendement global en grains a été amélioré dans le niébé traité. Ainsi, à Glazoué, dans la zone centrale, des rendements meilleurs de 933,03±8,7Kg/ha ont été obtenus avec le champignon B. bassiana.Conclusion et applications des résultats: Ces résultats révèlent clairement que les biopesticides utilisés dans notre étude peuvent réduire significativement les densités des ravageurs ciblés. Cette étude suggère la possibilité de l'utilisation de biopesticides comme des alternatives aux insecticides chimiques dans la lutte contre les ravageurs du niébé.Mots clés : Niébé, insectes ravageurs, insecticide chimique, insecticide biologique, lutte intégré