2,374 research outputs found
A Study Of Distinctive Characteristics Of Soaps Made Of Saw Dust Ash (Lye ) With Palm And Olive Oils And Their Oil Blends In Benue State Nigeria.
In Benue State Nigeria saw dust is dumped in large quantities as waste while in other parts of the country it is used in producing ceiling boards and plywood . In order to further explore its use, palm oil and olive oil with saw dust ash as the source of alkali (lye) were used in the production of soap and the choice of traditional and modern laboratory methods was adapted. The characteristics of the soap products were determined and the average results compared. Blending of these oils with other oils to further study improvements or order wise in the quality of the soaps was also done . Parameters assessed were Moisture Content, Hardness of Soap , Total Fatty Matter, Total Free Alkali, Lathering Power ,Free Caustic Alkali , Carbonate Alkali, pH and Cleansing Power.Comparative results show that Total Fatty Matter was 69 and 82% for palm oil and olive oil respectively while the Total Free Alkali % , Free Caustic Alkali % and Free Carbonate Alkali % were7.8 and 6.9 , 3.71 and 2.6 ,4.09 and 4.3% respectively . The Lather Volume (ml) was 460 and 630 respectively while the Lathering Power of palm and olive oils was 8 % and 10% respectively, Cleansing Power of palm and olive oils was 42.66% and 55.7 % respectively , pH of olive oil was 8.5 while that of palm oil was 9.1 . Moisture and Hardness of soap samples from olive and palm oils showed Moisture Content 3.5 % for palm and 4.3% for olive and the Hardness showed palm olive soap soft while that from palm oil was hard. Blends of oils were also used , between olive oil and castor oil in a ratio 3:1 gave a Lathering Power of 9.7 while the Clean sing Power was 90.3% . coconut oil and olive oil blend of ratio 2:1 gave the Lathering Power of 10.5 % and its Cleansing Power 88.1%. The production of soap with olive oils and its blends stood out better than palm oil which in itself has become a matter of international interest . Palm tree exploitation began to raise serious environmental issues on land deforestation for palm tree cultivation and an international organization known as Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was created in 2004 following concerns raised by non-governmental organizations about environmental impact issues related to palm tree cultivation for oil production P. Gunasegaran, ( 2011) . This has further de emphasized palm oil use in soap production and increased efforts in research in other oils while the saw dust potentials remain untapped in Benue State Nigeria . KEY WORDS Lye, Roundtable , molecular, Lathering and deforestation
Analgesic and Hepatoprotective Activity of Methanolic Leaf Extract of Ocimum gratissimum (L.).
The methanolic extract of Ocimum gratissimum (L.) leaves was screened for analgesic and hepatoprotective activity in albino rats, respectively. The use of the hot-plate method to study central analgesic activity of the leaves extract in albino rats indicated that the extract possesses the ability to significantly reduce pain threshold and also increase the response latency period to thermal stimuli in albino rats, similar to the reference drug acetylsalicylic acid. After treatment reaction time of albino rats was significantly increased to 10.92 sec with 40 mg kg-1 of leaves extract, whereas acetylsalicylic acid also increased reaction time to 12.53 sec with 25 mL kg-1. A decline in the reaction time beyond 1.61 sec was observed by the reference drug and leaves extract. Albino rats whose livers were damaged with a hepatotoxin-Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) 0.5 mL kg-1 i.p. were used to test for hepatoprotective properties of the plant leaves extract. It reduced significantly (p<0.05) liver enzyme levels for animals treated with CCL4 (0.5 mL kg-1) and the methanolic plant leaf extract (40 mg kg-1) concurrently compared to animals treated with CCL4 only. Many histopathological changes in the liver such as marked dilation of the central vein, blood vessel congestion and inflammatory leucocytic infiltrations which were observed in the CCl4 treated animals were not observed in the CCl4 + plant extract treated animals. No apparent disruptions of the normal liver structure by histological and enzyme activities assessment were observed. The results show that the methanolic leaf extract is a potent analgesic and antihepatotoxic agent
The search for mitochondrial tRNALeu(UUR) A3243G mutation among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in the Nigerian population
The study aimed to compare the incidence of the pathogenic point mutation A3243G in the gene tRNALeu(UUR) indicating sub-type 2 diabetes mellitus conducted within the Nigerian population with that reported in other populations. 112 patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D) mellitus according to the World Health Organization criteria were selected based on family history and re-evaluated for associated disorders from the diabetic clinics in the Northern part of Nigeria. The mtDNA of these patients was extracted and the tRNALeu(UUR) gene screened for A3243G by PCR-RFLP method. Probands with maternal history were further investigated for other mutations using PCR-sequencing methods. None of the 112 patients were found to carry the A3243G mutation in the mitochondrial tRNALeu(UUR) gene in the homoplasmic or in the heteroplasmic form. However, C3254T was identified in two of our patients. This mutation was reported to be associated with gestational diabetes and linked with population from sub-Saharan Africa. The A3243G mutation in mitochondrial tRNALeu(UUR) is not a frequent cause of maternal diabetes in the Nigerian population contrary to other reported populations. However, further screening of an enlarged selected study group is necessary to fully determine the prevalence of this mutation in this population. This further search will help to fully appreciate the prevalence of maternal inheritance and diabetic deafness (MIDD) as extensively reported in other populations.Key words: Maternal diabetes, mitochondrial gene, maternal Inheritance and diabetic deafness, Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa
A SWEET solution to rice blight
Bacterial blight is an important disease of rice that is particularly destructive in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, exacerbated by the heavy rains of the monsoon seasons. Estimated crop loss due to bacterial blight may be as high as 75%, with millions of hectares of rice affected annually. In this issue, an international team of researchers describes the use of CRISPR editing to generate rice plants that are broadly resistant to the main pathogen that causes rice blight, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo)1. To enhance the durability and
management of resistance, the team has also developed a kit to trace the disease, and its virulence and resistance alleles2
Emission Line Galaxies in the STIS Parallel Survey I: Observations and Data Analysis
In the first three years of operation STIS obtained slitless spectra of
approximately 2500 fields in parallel to prime HST observations as part of the
STIS Parallel Survey (SPS). The archive contains almost 300 fields at high
galactic latitude (|b|>30) with spectroscopic exposure times greater than 3000
seconds. This sample contains 220 fields (excluding special regions and
requiring a consistent grating angle) observed between 6 June 1997 and 21
September 2000, with a total survey area of about 160 square arcminutes. At
this depth, the SPS detects an average of one emission line galaxy per three
fields. We present the analysis of these data, and the identification of 131
low to intermediate redshift galaxies detected by optical emission lines. The
sample contains 78 objects with emission lines that we infer to be redshifted
[OII]3727 emission at 0.43<z<1.7. The comoving number density of these objects
is comparable to that of H-alpha emitting galaxies in the NICMOS parallel
observations. One quasar and three probable Seyfert galaxies are detected. Many
of the emission-line objects show morphologies suggestive of mergers or
interactions. The reduced data are available upon request from the authors.Comment: 58 preprint pages, including 26 figures; accepted for publication in
ApJ
Three operational taxonomic units of Eimeria are common in Nigerian chickens and may undermine effective diagnosis of coccidiosis
A 3-D wavelet analysis of substructure in the Coma cluster: statistics and morphology
Evidence for clustering within the Coma cluster is found by means of a
multiscale analysis of the combined angular-redshift distribution. We have
compiled a catalogue of 798 galaxy redshifts from published surveys from the
region of the Coma cluster. We examine the presence of substructure and of
voids at different scales ranging from Mpc, using
subsamples of the catalogue, ranging from km/s to km/s.
Our substructure detection method is based on the wavelet transform and on the
segmentation analysis. The wavelet transform allows us to find out structures
at different scales and the segmentation method allows us a quantitative
statistical and morphological analysis of the sample. From the whole catalogue
we select a subset of 320 galaxies, with redshifts between cz=5858 km/s and
cz=8168 km/s that we identify as belonging to the central region of Coma and on
which we have performed a deeper analysis, on scales ranging from
kpc to Mpc. Our results are expressed in terms of the number of
structures or voids and their sphericity for different values of the threshold
detection and at all the scales investigated. According to our analysis, there
is strong evidence for multiple hierarchical substructure, on scales ranging
from a few hundreds of kpc to about Mpc. The morphology of these
substructures is rather spherical. On the scale of kpc we find two
main subclusters which where also found before, but our wavelet analysis shows
even more substructures, whose redshift position is approximatively marked by
these bright galaxies: NGC 4934 & 4840, 4889, 4898 & 4864, 4874 & 4839, 4927,
4875.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures. ApJ (Main Journal), accepted for publication.
Added one section on statistical tests and slightly modified text and
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Peak residential electricity demand and social practices: deriving flexibility and greenhouse gas intensities from time use and locational data
Peak residential electricity demand takes place when people conduct simultaneous activities at specific times of the day. Social practices generate patterns of demand and can help understand why, where, with whom and when energy services are used at peak time. The aim of this work is to make use of recent UK time use and locational data to better understand: (i) how a set of component indices on synchronisation, variation, sharing and mobility indicate flexibility to shift demand; and (ii) the links between people’s activities and peaks in greenhouse gases’ intensities. The analysis is based on a recent UK time use dataset, providing 1 minute interval data from GPS devices and 10 minute data from diaries and questionnaires for 175 data days comprising 153 respondents. Findings show how greenhouse gases’ intensities and flexibility to shift activities vary throughout the day. Morning peaks are characterised by high levels of synchronisation, shared activities and occupancy, with low variation of activities. Evening peaks feature low synchronisation, and high spatial mobility variation of activities. From a network operator perspective, the results indicate that periods with lower flexibility may be prone to more significant local network loads due to the synchronization of electricity-demanding activities
Technological perspectives for plant breeding
New Breeding Technologies? For some, both inside and outside
the scientific community, this phrase is synonymous
with gene editing—or used exclusively to describe the
application of CRISPR/Cas9 to plant improvement. Much
as, historically, the term ‘biotech crops’ has been hijacked to
only mean crop plants produced using genetic engineering.
However, ‘breeding technologies’ refers not only to
genetic modification using techniques of molecular biology,
but also to a vast number of other techniques developed
for breeding via the application of scientific advancements
emanating from disciplines such as computer science, plant
biology, statistics, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence.
This concept is not new: in reality, technology has
been a feature of crop improvement since early in the last
century..
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