The reasons of dropout of sport in Hong Kong school athletes

domains. The aim of this study was to identify the potential dropout reasons of school athletes and to examine if their perception of dropout was affected by the previous dropout experience. There were 50 subjects who were divided into two groups based on their previous dropout experience (Dropout Group=22, No Dropout Group=28). They filled a questionnaire about potential dropout reasons of the current sport. Coach and teammates were two predominated reasons of dropout; Influence of parent and training seemed to affect the termination of the sport to a lesser extent. Moreover, the perception of social value and lost focus were significantly different between two groups. Character of coach and teammates affect the engagement of training in school athletes. However, the parental influence had less influence than expected. Training intensity played little role as the dropout reason. Previous experience of dropout had an impact of potential dropout reasons on their current sport training

Butyrylcholinesterase activity in Nigerian type 2 diabetics with and without metabolic syndrome

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a chronic progressive disease typified by a loss of glycaemic control over time as the insulin secreting pancreatic -cells lose their ability to compensate for the prevailing levels of insulin sensitivity. Several abnormalities are associated with diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Butyrylcholinesterase activity in diabetes and metabolic syndrome is generally under reported. Blood samples and demographic data were obtained from one hundred and five patients presenting atSpecialist Hospital Sokoto, Nigeria. These were screened for type 2 diabetes according to the guidelines of the American Diabetes Association. Based on anthropometric indices and clinical data, patients were stratified into to 4 groups: Control (n = 44), type 2 diabetics with metabolic syndrome (n = 14), obese type 2 diabetics without metabolic syndrome (n = 21) and non-obese type 2 diabetics without metabolic syndrome (n = 26). Butyrylcholinesterase was assayed by kinetic and colorimetric method,other biochemical and clinical parameters were according to standard methods. Type 2 diabetics with or without metabolic syndrome have significantly higher activity of butyrylcholinesterase than controlgroup. The higher activity of the enzyme may have been influenced by hyperglycemia, obesity and metabolic syndrome through enhanced transcription or catalytic mechanism of the enzyme or both.Butyrylcholinesterase activity may serve as marker to predict the development of type 2 diabetes and or metabolic syndrome

Preliminary Investigation on In Vivo Trypanocidal Activity of Hydroethanolic Extracts of Calotropis procera and Parkinsonia aculeata

Effect of extracts of Calotropis procera and Parkinsonia aculeata in the treatment of Trypanosoma brucei brucei infected rats was studied. The albino rats were treated for 7 days with 200mg of the plant extracts intraperitoneally (ip) after establishment of parasitaemia. No significant(p>0.05) changes in weights were observed in all the groups. The results showed that Calotropis procera (root) was 96.43% as effective as Diminazene aceturate (berenil) in clearing parasitaemia. Significant(p<0.05) improvements in parked cell volume (PCV) were observed in the rats treated with Calotropis procera (root) and berenil. However, Calotropis procera (leaf) and Parkinsonia aculeata (leaf and stem bark) depressed red blood cell production. Total white blood cells (WBC) and differential count did not change significantly (p>0.05) in Calotropis procera (root) and berenil (positive control drug) treated groups. These observations were reversed in leaf and stem bark and leaf extracts of Calotropis proceraand Parkinsonia aculeata, respectively. In conclusion only the root extracts of Calotropis procera has demonstrated effective treatment of  trypanosomiasis, possibly due to its phytochemical contents.Key words: <i>Parkinsonia aculeata, Calotropis procera, Trypanosoma brucei brucei</i>, Haematological parameter

Determination of Nutritive Values of Garden Cress (Lepidium sativum L.) Leaves

The focus of this study was to investigate the nutritional values of Lepidium sativum leaves, a vegetable commonly consumed by the people of North-Western Nigeria. Sample of L. sativum leaves were collected from different farm lands at More town, Kware Local Government Area of Sokoto State. The leaves were dried then subjected to proximate, amino acids, minerals and antinutritional analyses. The results of proximate analysis indicate that the leaves had high crude protein (18.25%), crude fibre (9.31%) and ash (15.38%). The minera ls assay showed that the leaves are particularly high in potassium (1850.00 mg/100g), calcium (829.13 mg/100g), magnesium (160.60 mg/100g), sodium (141.13 mg/100g) and iron (63.47 mg/100g) with low level of phosphorus (4.10 mg/100g), manganese (5.74 mg/100g), copper (0.39 mg/100g) and chromium (0.36 mg/100g). The amino acid profile revealed that the leaf protein is generally low in lysine, sulphur containing amino acids (methionine and cystein), and threonine. Lysine was the most limiting amino acid in the leaves. In terms of antinutritional factors, the leaves had low concentrations of phytate (10.95 mg/100g), nitrate (0.05 mg/100g) and HCN (31.54mg/100g) with moderate amount of oxalate (337.50 mg/100g). Based on these nutrient contents, the leafy vegetable will have potential benefits as part of feeding programmes, as well as their promotion as part of composite die.Key words: Lepidium sativum, proximate analysis, amino acid, minerals, and antinutrients

Microservice Transition and its Granularity Problem: A Systematic Mapping Study

Microservices have gained wide recognition and acceptance in software industries as an emerging architectural style for autonomic, scalable, and more reliable computing. The transition to microservices has been highly motivated by the need for better alignment of technical design decisions with improving value potentials of architectures. Despite microservices' popularity, research still lacks disciplined understanding of transition and consensus on the principles and activities underlying "micro-ing" architectures. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping study that consolidates various views, approaches and activities that commonly assist in the transition to microservices. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the transition; it also contributes a working definition of the transition and technical activities underlying it. We term the transition and technical activities leading to microservice architectures as microservitization. We then shed light on a fundamental problem of microservitization: microservice granularity and reasoning about its adaptation as first-class entities. This study reviews state-of-the-art and -practice related to reasoning about microservice granularity; it reviews modelling approaches, aspects considered, guidelines and processes used to reason about microservice granularity. This study identifies opportunities for future research and development related to reasoning about microservice granularity.Comment: 36 pages including references, 6 figures, and 3 table

Nutritional and Antinutritional Composition of Sclerocarya birrea Fruit Juice

The juice of Sclerocarya birrea fruit was evaluated for its nutritional and antinutritional compositions. The results show that the total solid, ash, crude protein, crude lipid, available carbohydrate and energy value are 12.32g/100cm3, 5.05%, 3.31%, 1.30%, 90.35% and 386.34kcal/100g dry weight respectively. The results of minerals content indicate that, the juice is a good source of both macro and micro elements with calcium as predominant. The 100 cm3 juice contained reasonable amount of pectin (2.10g), vitamin C (0.49g), glucose (0.21g) and sucrose (0.76g). Concentrations of hydrocyanic acid, nitrate, oxalate, and phytate are lower than the reference toxic standard level. The juice of the plant could have a potential nutritional uses

Acute and subchronic toxicity studies of kernel extract of Sclerocarya birrea in rats

Sclerocarya birrea fruits are widely eaten in developing countries especially in rural areas and serves as nutrients supplements. However, they also contain phyto-toxin which may affect the normal functioning of the body. Acute toxicity was performed by a single oral administration at a dose of 3000 mg/kg body weight. Sub chronic evaluation was done by oral feeding of the rats with the seed kernel extract daily at doses of 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 mg/kg body weight for 28 days. The results of acute toxicity showed no mortality and general behavior changes. The lethal dosage (LD50) was greater than 3000 mg/kg body weight. Rats fed with 1000 and 2000 mg/kg body weight of the extract showed increased body weights throughout the period of treatment but not significantly (p<0.05) different from the control group. Significant (p<0.05) reduction in the body weights were noticed in those administered with 3000 and 4000 mg/kg body weightat the 4th and all the weeks respectively. Significant (p<0.05) increasedin serum total protein, albumin, bilirubin, transaminases, creatinine,urea, uric acid and electrolytes were observed in rats fed with 3000 to4000 mg/kg body weight of the extract, suggesting liver and kidneytoxicity. Therefore, the seed kernel extract of S. birrea may be relatively toxic at doses of 3000 and 4000 mg/kg body weight

Effect of Guanidium Hydrochloride on the Stability of Horse Skeletal Muscle Myoglobin

The stability of the three dimensional structure of horse skeletal muscle myoglobin was investigated using visible spectroscopy. Guanidium hydrochloride (GuHCl) of concentrations 0.4 – 0.8M have no observable effect on the three dimensional structure as indicated by monitoring the absorbance at 420nm. However, higher concentrations (1.0-3.0M) resulted in unfolding of the protein as indicated by the dip in absorption from 0.535 to 0.350.The requirement for high denaturant concentration to perturb the structure of myoglobin indicates the high stability of the protein. We conclude that high concentrations of the denaturant GuHCl, disrupts the 3-dimensional structure of myoglobin causing its unfolding, in a two- state process, due to weak binding to the protein, which can be studied spectrophotometricall

Study on the conformation of insulin by solvent perturbation and ultraviolet spectroscopy

This study attempted to gain an insight of the conformation of insulin using solvent perturbation and ultraviolet spectroscopy. The effects of two solvents, mercaptoethanol and sucrose on the absorption spectrum of Insulin were studied; changes in ionic strength and pH were used to  identify the position of amino acid chromophores. The effect on the absorption spectrum of movement from a non-polar to a polar  environment indicates that tyrosine and phenylalanine reside on the surface of insulin protein. The results show that pH resolved spectral behavior of Insulin in the neighborhood of 290 nm is determined  predominantly by the ionization of imidazole – NH+ of histidine. The results, however, do not rule out the possible contribution of the phenol hydroxyl of tyrosine in the spectral behavior. © 2013 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Keywords: Insulin conformation, solvent perturbation, ultraviolet spectroscopy

Activity Guided Isolation and Characterization of Antiplasmodial Agents of some Local medicinal Plants

Combined Plant Mixture (CPM) in ratio of 1:1 (Vitex doniana, Diospyros mesipiliformis, Acacia polyacantha, Parinari macrophylla, Ficus sycomorus and Parkia biglobosa) was extracted with methanol and screened for antimalarial activity. The CPM Methanol extract residue was suspended in water and fractionated with Hexane (HX), Ethylacetate (EA) and n-Butanol (BUT). The Methanolic CPM extract has shows some antimalarial activity with Mean Survival Times (MST) of 10.16 to 12.16 days. All the mice in control group were found dead on 14th day of study and one mice was still alive on 14th day in both the groups with 15% and 30% parasitaemia against Plasmodium yoelli nigeriensis N67 and Plasmodium berghei K173 respectively. The EA fraction was the most active against P. yoelli nigeriensis N67 having 2 mice surviving up to 14th day with 5.5% parasitaemia and MST of 13.4 days. Fractions of water (WT), HX and BUT have 12.5, 25, and 100% (dead) parasitaemia with mean survival times of 12.6, 9.33 and 8.5 days against 100% (dead) parasitaemia and 8.20 days of MST when compared with control. HX fraction was the most active against P. berghei K173 followed by BUT fraction with one mice surviving up to 14th day without parasitaemia but with MST of 15.0 and 13.5 days respectively. EA and WT fractions have 22.66 and 100% (dead) parasitaemia with mean survival times of 11.80 and 10.80 days respectively. Chromatographic separation of EA fraction of the CPM extract resulted in the isolation of Gallic acid (Figure 2, Fractions 79-83), 3β-OH-α-amyrin (Figure 3, Fractions 45-46), 5,7,3’,4’,5’- pentahydroxy-3-O-glucophyranoside flavones (Figure 4, Fractions 128-157)-[myricetin 3-O-β-rhamnopyranoside], 5,7,3’,4’ tetrahydroxy-3-o-glucopyranoside flavones(Figure 5, Fractions 126-141)-[quercetin 3-O-β-rhamnopyranoside], and 3,5,7,3’,4’-Pentahydroxy flavones (Figure 6, Fractions 87-112)-[quercetine]. The compounds were characterized using ESI-MS, IR, 1H 13C, HMBC/HSQC and COSY-NMR data. These findings suggest that the combined extracts possess antiplasmodial properties.Keywords: Antimalarial, combined plant mixture, 1H 13C NMR, activity guided fractionatio