DETERMINANTS OF FOOD SECURITY AMONG FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN AKURE NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

The determinants of food securityamong farming households in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria is the main focus of this study.It specifically described the socioeconomiccharacteristics of the farming households, analyzed the food security situation of the respondents and estimated the determinants of food security among the households in the study area. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 109farming householdswho were selected by a three stage random sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Food security index, FGT and Binary Logit regression model. Findings of the study showed a young vibrant farming population, relatively literate and engaged in small scale farming. The outcome of the study also indicated that majority (80percent) of the respondents were food insecure consuming less than the recommended daily calories intake of 2260kcal. Food secure households in the study area exceeded the calorie requirement by 69% while the food insecure households fell short of the recommended calorie intake by 37%.The result of the Logit regression revealed that education, household size, farm size and total household income were the statistically significant variables affecting the food security of the farming households in the study area. These coefficients have values of1.490, - 0.021, 0.264 and 0.000 respectively. It was recommended that Government should provide an integrated approach that promotes formal education among farming households to enhance their farm production activities.There is also a need to promote large scale farming in the area. It was further recommended that enlightenment programmes on nutrition and birth control measure should be directed at the farming households in the study area. This will help to check the consumption of unbalanced diets and uncontrolled child births respectively

Exploitable options for curbing the danger of SARS-CoV-2 in Africa

Background: It is understood that coronavirus is highly mutated, in December, 2019 a new strain of coronavirus emerged which originated in Wuhan, from seafood. The pathogen was named novel coronavirus, while the disease it causes is known as Covid-19, the 2019 coronavirus disease. Bat is the major reservoir host of the virus. By putting bats in touch with other mammals will promote viral spillovers, which is a dominant condition for SARS-CoV-2, while also the effect of climate anomalies on food scarcity, behavioral flexibility, and bat immune modulation is likely to increase the risk of disease emergence. Over 34 million Covid-19 cases were registered between 31st of December 2019 and October 1st 2020 with Africa reporting about 1.4 million cases in this period. Aim: This review was design to highlight possible options that can be exploited in curbing the Covid-19 menace in Africa. Method: We reviewed articles from online databases for relevant documents written in English language. These includes NCBI, PubMed and Google scholar. We included both original and review papers that provided information on current SARS-CoV-2 trends and meta-analysis in Africa and globally. Results: Of the 15 articles selected from the 128 available citations, approximately 40 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2, while only 1.4 million people in Africa have been confirmed to be positive for the virus as of October 1, 2020, although the prevalence in Africa is low in relative to other continents. However, most African nations do not have the economy to buy the vaccines that are accessible. The availability of phytoterapeutic agents, on the other hand, would provide a cost-effective way to tackle the Covid-19 threat in Africa. Conclusion: Cell lines adaptation in vaccine production, proteomic analysis of the viralhost interactomes, treatment approaches using natural occurring compounds, which will provide cost effective options to low-income countries can be adopted to curb the menace of Covid-19 in Africa

Synthesis, Characterization, Biological Properties, ADMET and Drug-likeness Analysis of Mn (II) complexes with Schiff Bases Derived from Sulphathiazole and 4-diethylaminosalicyaldehyde/Salicyaldehyde

Mn (II) complexes were synthesized with the Schiff base ligand obtained by the condensation of sulfathiazole with 4-diethylaminosalicyaldehyde/Salicyaldehyde. Their characterization was performed by elemental analysis, molar conductance, melting points, magnetic susceptibility, infrared, and UV–Vis spectral analysis. The results suggest that the Schiff bases and their complex are synthesized in excellent yield, molar conductance studies on the complexes indicated they were non-electrolytic. The IR data indicated that the Schiff base ligand is tridentate coordinated to the metallic ion with two N atoms from the azomethine group and thiazole ring and one O atom from the phenolic group. The electronic spectral study showed octahedral geometry for all the complexes which are further supported by magnetic moment values. The ligand and its complexes were screened against four bacterial and two fungal strains using the disk diffusion method. The antimicrobial evaluation results revealed that the metal (II) complexes exhibited higher antimicrobial activity than the free Schiff base ligand. The ADMET and drug-likeness studies of the synthesized ligands indicated that the Schiff base ligands fulfill Lipinski’s, Ghoose, Veber, Egan, and Mugge rules but the complexes showed some deviations. They also displayed low toxicity levels

Study of Algal Species Isolated From River Ginzo in Katsina State, as a Potential Source for Biodiesel Production

An ecological study of algae at River Ginzo in Katsina town was carried out for six weeks at three different sites. In this study, various strains of native microalgae were identified and isolated. The water's  physicochemical properties were analyzed at Kofar Marusa, Kofar Sauri, and Kofar Durbi of River Ginzo in Katsina  State. The physicochemical parameters studied showed temperature and pH range of 28oC to 31oC and 6.42 to 7.36. A total of eighteen (18) algal species were identified, out of which Ten (10) species belong to the Class Chlorophyceae with Spirogyra species having the highest cell counts, five (5) species belong to the Class Cyanophyceae with  Oscillatoria species having the highest cell count and three (3) species belong to the Class Bacillariophyceae with Nitzchia spp having the highest cell counts. Among the isolates, Chlorella species showed an increased growth rate with higher biomass productivity of (88.67±2.57) X 104 (cell/ml) after six days of incubation. The results showed that Chlorella, Spirogyra, and Oocystis species could be a possible candidate species for producing oils for sustainable biodiesel production, based on their high growth rate and presence in all the locations

Mitigating Coordinated Call Attacks On VoIP Networks Using Hidden Markov Model

Abstract This paper presents a 2-tier scheme for mitigating coordinated call attacks on VoIP networks. Call interaction pattern was considered using talk and salient periods in a VoIP call conversation. At the first-tier, Short Term Energy algorithm was used for call interaction feature extraction and at the second-tier Hidden Markov Model was used for caller legitimacy recognition. Data of VoIP call conversations were collated and analyzed to extract distinctive features in VoIP call interaction pattern to ascertain the legitimacy of a caller against coordinated call attacker. The performance metrics that was used are; False Error Rate (FER), Specificity, Detection Accuracy and Throughput. Several experiments were conducted to see how effective the mitigating scheme is, as the scheme acts as a proxy server to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server. The experiments show that; when the VoIP server is under coordinated call attack without a mitigating scheme only 15.2% of legitimate VoIP users had access to the VoIP network and out of which about half of the legitimate users had their calls dropped before completion, while with the 2-tier mitigating scheme, when the VoIP server is under coordinated call attacks over 90.3% legitimate VoIP callers had their calls through to completio

Mineralogical and Geochemical Assessment of Clay Properties of Edda, Afikpo Sub Basin Nigeria for Possible Use in the Ceramics Industry

Clay samples from selected part of Edda were analyzed to identify the clay mineral types present, their chemical and physical properties with a view to appraising their industrial suitability as ceramic materials. The mineralogical and geochemical analyses were done using the principles of X-Ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence respectively. A total of seven clay samples were used for the study, other tests such as plasticity, bulk density, shrinkage, loss on ignition (LOI) and water absorption capacity was carried out to determine the amount of water absorbed under specified conditions. The basic industrial properties assessment showed that more than 70% of the clays are fine-grained. The clays exhibited low to moderate plasticity, moderate shrinkage and bulk density, low to moderate values of both loss on ignition and water absorption capacity. The clays are buff to yellowish in colour. The results of x-ray fluorescence revealed that the mean concentration of major oxide in the clays is shown as follows: SiO2 (62.78%), Al2O3 (20.25%), total Fe (6.09%), CaO (0.56%), MgO (3.21%),Na2O (0.47%), K2O, (1.44%) and TiO2 (0.52%).The samples have high silica content, low alumina and low oxide content. The results of x-ray diffraction revealed that kaolinite is the dominant clay mineral with illite and montmorillonite occurring in subordinate amounts, while quartz and feldspar are the non-clay components present. The characteristics of the clays for each parameter were compared with industrial standards.These properties are appropriate for the Afikpo clays to be useful in the manufacturing of ceramics. However, since the silica content of the clays is high further beneficiation is recommended

Prevalence of Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases (ESBL) Producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in Tuberculosis Patients in Kano, Nigeria

Resistance to broad spectrum β lactams, mediated by extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESβL) is an increasing problem worldwide. Production of these enzymes in clinical infections can result in treatment failure if one of the second or third generation cephalosporins is used. This study investigates the incidence of ESBL among E. coli and K. pneumoniae which were isolated from tuberculosis patients with secondary opportunistic bacterial infection attending Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano and Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Kano. A total of 37 E. coli and 33 K. pneumoniae obtained from their sputum were screened for ESBL production by Double disk synergy test method (DDST). Prevalence of 37.3% (14/37) and 36.4% (12/33) was recorded for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae respectively. Furthermore, a slight high prevalence of 39.4% (13/33) was recorded with the female tuberculosis patients when compared with their male counterpart 35.1% (13/37). Escherichia coli harboring ESBL were more encountered among the elderly patients aged 31-50 (13/51 or 25.5%) when compared with K. pneumoniae with (9/51 or 17.6%). The study shows alarming rise in ESBL production among Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli among immunocompromised patients raising fear of possible emergence of multiple drug resistant bacteria that will be hard to treat. Thereby early detection of ESBL in these patients is recommended to curb the spread. Keywords: Extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBLs), Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Tuberculosis

Statistical Modeling and Optimization of Biodiesel Production from Azadirachta Indica (Neem) Using Co-Solvent Technique

In this work, statistical modeling and optimization of biodiesel production from Azadirachta Indica(neem) using co-solvent technique via a two-step transesterification process was carried out. Neem oil was extracted from neem seeds and properties such as moisture content, specific gravity, acid value, saponification value and iodine value were determined. The experimental design used was Central Composite Design. The range of factor levels used for the Central Composite Design were reaction temperature (30°C to 46°C), catalyst amount (0.8% to 1.2%, w/w), reaction time (20 to 40min) and methanol-to-oil molar ratio (5:1 to 9:1). The co-solvents used were methanol and diethyl ether. The co-solvent-to-methanol volume ratio for all the experimental runs was kept constant at 1:1. Also the biodiesel produced was characterized for some important properties including acid value, specific gravity, saponification value, iodine value, cetane number, ester value, kinematic viscosity, flash point, pour point and cloud point. Optimized biodiesel yield of 84.77% was obtained for reaction time of 35 min, catalyst amount of 1.10g, reaction temperature of 34°C, and oil-to-methanol molar ratio of 6:1. The cetane number (51.733), specific gravity (0.8881g/cm3), flash point (134oC) and kinematic viscosity (5.86mm2/s) of the produced biodiesel met the ASTM specifications. The results of characterization of the biodiesel revealed that biodiesel can be produced at lower reaction conditions and with comparable fuel property with biodiesel produced using conventional methods

Efek Ekstrak Metanol dan Partisi dari Kulit Batang Kayu Jawa (Lannea Coromandelica Houtt. Merr.) terhadap Pertumbuhan Sel HeLa dan MCF-7

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah menentukan efek ekstrak metanol dan partisi kulit batang kayu jawa dalam menghambat pertumbuhan sel kanker HeLa dan sel kanker MCF-7. Simplisia kulit kayu dimaserasi menggunakan pelarut metanol. Ekstrak kemudian dipartisi secara partisi cair padat menggunakan pelarut heksan. Pemisahan menghasilkan partisi larut heksan dan partisi tidak larut heksan. Pengukuran aktivitas inhibisi pertumbuhan sel dilakukan menggunakan metode MTT Assay terhadap sel HeLa, sel MCF-7 dan sel Vero. Senyawa yang dikandung diidentifikasi dengan beberapa pereaksi golongan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ekstrak metanol, partisi tidak larut heksan dan partisi larut heksan dapat menghambat pertumbuhan sel kanker Hela dengan nilai indeks selektivitas, berturut-turut, 2,04; 1,85 dam 4,19. Sedangkan untuk sel MCF-7, indeks selektivitas, berturut-turut, 1,91; 1,44 dan 2,13. Partisi larut heksan dapat memiliki potensi sebagai antikanker dengan selektivitas yang baik

Evaluation of the corrosion inhibition efficacy of Cola acuminata extract for low carbon steel in simulated acid pickling environment

In this study, Kola nut extract (KE) was evaluated for inhibiting ability towards low carbon steel corrosion in 1 M HCl solution using weight loss and electrochemical techniques. The surface of the corroded carbon steel was examined by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Elemental composition of the corrosion products and/or adsorbed inhibitor film on the carbon steel surface was determined with the aid of an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) experiments were also performed to get information about the interaction of KE with the carbon steel surface. It was found that KE exhibited good corrosion protection property. From weight loss technique, corrosion rate was reduced from 0.387 to 0.054 mm/year by 700 ppm of KE at room temperature after 24 h immersion and this corresponded to inhibition efficiency (IE) of 86%. The IE however depreciated with rise in temperature. FTIR results reveal that KE interacted with the carbon steel surface through the O and N heteroatoms of its phytoconstituents. FTIR spectroscopy, UV-vis, SEM, AFM, and EDX data provided proof of KE adsorption on the steel surface as reason for the corrosion inhibition