Evaluation of anticonvulsant properties of ethanol stem bark extract of Lophira lanceolata (Ochnaceae) in mice and chicks

Decoction of Lophira lanceolata known in Hausa as Namijin Kadanya has been used by many communities in northern Nigeria for the treatment of various ailments, commonest of which is epilepsy. The current study is aimed at evaluating the claim of this medicinal plant part by herbalist for the treatment of epilepsy. A preliminary phytochemical screening was performed on the stem bark extract after which intraperitoneal LD50 was determined in mice. Anticonvulsant screening was carried out using Maximal electroshock Test (MEST) and pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) in one day old chicks and mice respectively. Flavonoids, saponins, tannins and glycosides were found to be present. The intraperitoneal LD50 in mice was found to be 1131.31 mg/kg. There was no significant prolongation in the latency of seizures or protection in both the MEST and PTZ model. Conversely, a significant (p.0.05) delay in the mean onset of seizures was recorded with standard drugs, sodium valproate (200 mg/kg) and phenytoin (40 mg/kg) in PTZ and MEST respectively. The findings of this study revealed that the stem bark extract of Lophira lanceolata at the doses tested do not contain any bioactive constituents that is useful in the management of epilepsy.Key words: Epilepsy, maximal electroshock, pentylenetetrazole, Lophira lanceolat

Computation of torsional vibration modes of Ranger and Surveyor space vehicles

Mathematical model for calculating free torsion modes of Atlas Agena Ranger and Atlas Centaur Surveyor spacecraft

Effects of some heavy metal pollutants on fertility characteristics of an irrigated savannah Alfisol

This research was conducted on the irrigated soils along the banks of the Jakara River within the metropolitan Kano and its suburb. Soil samples were collected between latitude 11o59’ and 12o 08’N and longitude 8o34’ and 8o 42’E at an altitude of 486.5m. The study investigated the effects of some heavy metals (Cd, Pb and Cu) on the fertility indices of the soil. Grid sampling was employed in which 100m2 of land was randomly selected in each of two sampling areas and was divided into ten equally sized grid cells of 10m2. Samples were analyzed for lead, cadmium and copper concentrations as well as fertility related parameters such as CEC and basic cations. Data obtained was subjected to correlation analysis using the Pearson moment correlation coefficient technique. The mean values of the heavy metals and the fertility indices are considered for the two sampling areas in bulk. Significantly positive correlation was found to exist between CEC, organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus at P = 0.01. Significantly positive correlation was also found to exist between lead and potassium; lead and phosphorus; nitrogen and magnesium and copper and phosphorus. The quality of the soil for production is not immediately under threat especially with the very low mean values of the pollutants and the lack of significant effects they exert on many of the fertility indices determined

Development and correlation: Viking Orbiter analytical dynamic model with modal test

The Viking Orbiter (VO) experience in the achievement of a mathematical model is described along with the following project activities: (1) the generation of the overall plan for load analysis, an analytical dynamic model, and development tests; (2) the performance of VO subsystem static and modal tests; and (3) the correlation of the VO system model analysis and test. Success is attributed to the coordination of analysis and test using substructure modal coupling techniques

Rethinking Health Partnerships: Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine’s Medical-Legal Partnership

Medical-legal partnership is a healthcare innovation aimed at addressing social determinants of health by adding lawyers to the healthcare team. Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM) is leading innovation in teaching social determinants of health, interprofessional education, and medical-legal collaboration by way of its flagship service-learning program, Green Family Foundation Neighborhood Health Education Learning Program. This poster will demonstrate how the medical-legal partnership approach to addressing social determinants of health is applied at HWCOM, and present data on how exposure to medical-legal partnership is impacting the thinking of HWCOM students. The poster will feature data from ongoing research, and presenters will engage with the interdisciplinary audience to discuss the research, answer questions, and gain insight from audience reflections

Physico- Chemical Characteristics of Water Quality in Kano River Drainage Basin, North - Western Nigeria

The study involves physico chemical investigation of the water quality of Kano Rivers and its adjoining groundwater from its headstream up to its downstream in order to ascertain it suitability for human consumption, domestic and agricultural usage. Results show that the water is slightly alkaline, EC ranges from 7-159 Us/cm and average of 29.5 US/cm, pH ranges from6.6-8.7 and average of 7.18, and TDS ranges from 7-128 and mean average of 24.79, Ca ranges from 3.22-128.81ppm and an average of 25.56ppm, Mg ranges from 0.06-175.17 ppm and average of 10.62, (exceeds limits), Na ranges from 3.65-970..48 and an average of 54.17, K ranges from 2.72-52.52 ppm and average of 9.98ppm for the anions contents results shows that HCO3 ranges from 2746-4863.3 and average of 277.9 ppm, SO4 ranges from 2.15-147.1ppm and an average of 11.27ppm,Cl ranges from 0.08-116.19ppm with average of 15.25ppm, NO3 ranges from 0.94-47.49ppm with average of8.09ppm then PO4 ranges from1.26-1.26ppm with average of 1.26ppm. All the analysed parameters shows that the water is heavily polluted in comparison with NIS (2007), EPA (2004) and WHO (2011) guidelines and ones determined by Schoeneich (2010) for the Crystalline Shield of northern Nigeria. pH is slightly higher of average 7.18 and can be related to TDS contents. Three chemical water types were determined based on their locations, upstream Kano is CaHCO3 type, for the midstream is NaHCO3 as well as downstream is also NaHCO3 types with only one showing MgHCO3 in Surface water of Hadiyau village. Keywords: Major ions, pollution, Water types, Crystalline Shiel

Multiclass Sequential Feature Selection and Classification Method for Genomic Data

This paper presents an efficient multiclass sequential feature selection and classification (mk-SS) method using gene expression signatures. The development of this method employs 10-fold cross-validation to ensure stability. The efficiency of this method is assessed through the misclassification error rate and some other performance measures. The performances of the mk-SS were compared with the classification results of the Support Vector Machines (SVM) over five published multiclass microarray datasets. The results showed that the mk-SS method efficiently selects the informative gene biomarkers for proper classification of the biological groups of the tissue samples. This method competes favourably with SVM in terms of prediction accuracy while it outperforms the SVM in 80% of cases considered. The quality of the features selected by mk-SS algorithm was validated by hybridizing the feature selection scheme of the mk-SS into the standard SVM algorithm which significantly improves the predictive power of the standard SVM method. This work has shown that classification of various cancer type using gene expression profiles is feasible especially when the endpoints are of multi-category. Keywords: k-SS, mk-SS, Support Vector Machines, Microarray, Misclassification error rat

Foundations of the Wald Space for Phylogenetic Trees

Evolutionary relationships between species are represented by phylogenetic trees, but these relationships are subject to uncertainty due to the random nature of evolution. A geometry for the space of phylogenetic trees is necessary in order to properly quantify this uncertainty during the statistical analysis of collections of possible evolutionary trees inferred from biological data. Recently, the wald space has been introduced: a length space for trees which is a certain subset of the manifold of symmetric positive definite matrices. In this work, the wald space is introduced formally and its topology and structure is studied in detail. In particular, we show that wald space has the topology of a disjoint union of open cubes, it is contractible, and by careful characterization of cube boundaries, we demonstrate that wald space is a Whitney stratified space of type (A). Imposing the metric induced by the affine invariant metric on symmetric positive definite matrices, we prove that wald space is a geodesic Riemann stratified space. A new numerical method is proposed and investigated for construction of geodesics, computation of Fr\'echet means and calculation of curvature in wald space. This work is intended to serve as a mathematical foundation for further geometric and statistical research on this space.Comment: 42 pages, 15 figure

Improving cereal productivity and farmers’ income using a strategic application of fertilizers in West Africa

In the past two years, ICRISAT, in collaboration with other International Agricultural Research Centres, National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems, has been evaluating and promoting point or hill application of fertilizer along with “Warrantage” in three West African countries, namely, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The hill application of fertilizers consists of applying small doses of fertilizer in the planting hills of millet and sorghum. The combination of strategic hill application of fertilizer with complementary institutional and market linkages, through an inventory credit system (known as “Warrantage”) offers a good opportunity to improve crop productivity and farmers’ incomes. Results from the two year on-farm trials showed that, on average, in all the three countries, grain yields of millet and sorghum were greater by 44 to 120% while incomes of farmers increased by 52 to 134% when using hill application of fertilizer than with the earlier recommended fertilizer broadcasting methods and farmers’ practice. Substantial net profits were obtained by farmers using “Warrantage”. Farmers’ access to credit and inputs was improved substantially through the “Warrantage” system. The technology has reached up to 12650 farm households in the three countries and efforts are in progress to further scale-up and out the technology to wider geographical area

Mathematical analysis of a model for the transmission dynamics of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) and HIV coinfection

A deterministic model for the transmission dynamics of HIV and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) in a human population is designed and rigorously analysed. The model is shown to exhibit the phenomenon of backward bifurcation, where a stable disease‐free equilibrium coexists with a stable endemic equilibrium whenever the associated reproduction number is less than unity. This phenomenon can be removed by assuming that the coinfection of individuals with HIV and TV is negligible. Furthermore, in the absence of coinfection, the disease‐free equilibrium of the model is shown to be globally asymptotically stable whenever the associated reproduction number is less than unity. Numerical simulation of the model, using initial and demographic data, shows that increased incidence of TV in a population increases HIV incidence in the population. It is further shown that control strategies, such as the treatment, condom use, and counselling of individuals with TV symptoms, can lead to the effective control or elimination of the HIV in the population if their effectiveness level is high enough. The time to disease elimination is reduced if more than one strategy (hybrid strategy) is considered.South African DST/NRF SARChI chair on Mathematical Models and Methods in Bioengineering and Biosciences (M3B2) and DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (CoE-MaSS).http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mma2019-12-01hj2019Mathematics and Applied Mathematic