Assessment of Productivity Status Using Carlson’s TSI and Fish Diversity of Goronyo Dam, Sokoto State, Nigeria

Goronyo Dam is the largest lentic waterbody in Sokoto, it was constructed to serve as flood control and used for irrigation activities. The study was conducted to evaluate productivity status and fish diversity of Goronyo Dam in 2016. Water samples were collected monthly from the Dam at two sampling sites (Upstream and Downstream). Water samples were collected using sterilized sampling bottles and analyzed in the Laboratory for physicochemical variables and the diversity of fish was evaluated through the use of a structured questionnaire. Depth and transparency were the only variables that did not show any statistically significant difference between the months. Productivity status of the dam was evaluated using Carlson’s Trophic State Index. The downstream has high TSI value of 16.54 compared to upstream with 13.00. A diversity of fishes from the shows that 3 species were more abundant in the dam, these were; Mormyrops species, Alestes species and Clupeid species. Factors contributed to the survival of fish species were an abundance of water and plankton in the dam. While factors affecting the distribution of fish species were pollution and predation

Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa State, North -East Nigeria

ABSTRACT The study investigated the Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa state, North-eastern Nigeria, one of the three states bedeviled by the Boko Haram insurgency. Quantitative research methodology and Cross-sectional survey design was applied for the study. The population of the study comprised of One Thousand Four Hundred Members (1400) drawn from Nineteen (19) local governments areas in the state. Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) was used to draw (302) members as sample of the population, while Walpole’s (1982) formula for proportions was used in arriving at a sample for each stratum (i.e. each local government area). In collecting data, a total of Three Hundred and Two (302) copies of questionnaires were administered, and Two Hundred and Forty 240 copies (79.47%) were returned and found useful. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The outcome of the study revealed that the information needs of members were daily mainly work related and from informal sources, as there were no public libraries/information centers in 17 local governments’ areas of the state. The outcome of the research also revealed barriers to information access to include general lack of formal information infrastructure such as libraries/information centers, poor and unreliable informal information sources, as well as lack of training on information literacy skills for members of Vigilante. It is recommended that there is a need for those involved in vigilante information delivery to continuously examine and identify evolving information needs of members of vigilante in order to meet such needs. Government should resuscitate the dying public libraries in all the local government areas of Adamawa state to provide information services. Libraries should organize training on information literacy and other information use skills for members of vigilante, because if this is done, it will enhance and improve information access across communities in Adamawa state. Finally, information resources be repackaged in order to take care of challenges of proximity to sources of information, language barrier and other challenges faced by members of vigilante

Evaluation of Physico-Chemical and Fungal Species Associated with Oil Contaminated Soil from Selected Automobile Garage in Sokoto Metropolis

This study was conducted with a view to evaluating the physicochemical and mycological properties of different oil contaminated soils collected from three different automobile garages in Sokoto Metropolis, and uncontaminated soil from the temporary site, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) was used as the control. The pH was determined using pH meter model Hanna (H1991301), quantity of mineral elements was evaluated in accordance with Murphy and Fungi were isolated from the three oil contaminated samples (A, B. and C) and the uncontaminated (sample D) as control, this was done by standard procedure using the method of P. Ren, T. Jankun & B. Leaderer. The physical, chemical, and mineral elements from the oil-contaminated soils of the three automobile garages and control. The results of particle soil analysis revealed the high content of sandy soil (96.2 to 87.3) and silt is the lowest with (2.5–0.6). Magnesium had the highest concentration of studied minerals, ranging from 193 to 649.2 mg/kg. while PH result revealed that the soil samples were pH value ranged from (16.85–16.20) in oil Contaminated samples, while the control had 15.90, and electrical conductivity ranged from 12.8–13.8 % and 28 % in control, four fungal isolates Aspergillus sp., Penicillum sp., Mucor sp. and Sporobolomyces sp. were identified based on colonial, sexual and morphological characteristics. These fungal strains can be used in bioremediation process and oil pollution reduction in aquatic ecosystems

Phytochemical and antibacterial screening of mistletoe (Agelanthus dodoniesfolius (DC)) collected from shea butter tree (Vitelleria paradoxa)

The increase in the multi-drugs resistant strains of bacteria is a great concern to public health. For long, various plant-derived compounds have been used as drugs. Agelanthus dodoneifolius (DC) refers to ‘Kauchi’ in Hausa has been used ethno-botanically by the Hausa and Fulani ethnic group of Northern Nigeria for the treatment of many human and animal diseases. Such diseases include diarrhea, dysentery, and stomach ache. In this study, the phytochemical screening and antibacterial activity of the stem bark and leaves extracts of mistletoe plant (A. dodoneifolius) was evaluated. The plant sample was qualitatively screened for phytochemicals using a standard procedure. The antibacterial activity was examined using the standardized suspension method. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of tannins, steroid, alkaloid, anthraquinones and glycosides. The results of antibacterial activity of the A. dodoneifolius showed that S. aureus was more susceptible to methanolic extract of stem bark and leaves extracts producing the largest diameter of inhibition zone of (17 mm) and (15 mm) at the concentration of 10 mg/ml respectively. These results validated the traditional use of A. dodoneisfolius and more phytochemical screenings are necessary to fully explore this species which may lead to development of a novel antibacterial agent.Keywords: Agelanthus Dodoneisfolius, Antibacterial Activity, Synergetic Effec

Radiological and Toxicity Impact of Uranium (U-238) in Ground Water to Different Age Groups at Wurno, Sokoto State, Nigeria

One of the primary goals of the World Health Organization (WHO) is for every society to have an adequate supply of safe drinking water. This work aimed to assess the radiological and toxicity impact of ground water of Wurno Local Government Area. Uranium activity concentration from 45 water samples collected from different locations in the study area were determined using HpGe   detector, the result from the analysis was used to evaluate the annual effective dose due to ingestion of groundwater from the study area by the inhabitants.  Radiological and chemical toxicity risks were also calculated. High level activity was reported in Diggim while low activity level was reported in Nassarawa-Daje. The annual effective doses for adult, children and infants were estimated to be from 0.008 mSvy-1 to 0.32 mSvy-1. The highest risk cancer mortality value was found at Diggim with a value of 4.34 × 10-4 while the lowest value was observed at Nassarawa Daje with a value of 1.17 × 10-5. Chemical toxicity value ranged from 0.59 – 21. 79 µg.kg-1.day-1 with an average dose value of 5.12 µg.kg-1.day-1. The lifetime average daily dose (LADD) values were reported to be higher at Diggim and lower at Nassarawa-Daje with the values 21.79 µg.kg-1.day-1 and 0.59 µg.kg-1.day-1 respectively compared with 0.6 µg.kg-1.day-1 WHO limit standard. Significantly, the high activity level, and chemical toxicity risk reported from this study is an indication that the area may have developed some fractures of granitic strata in the subsurface geology that contributed to the wide distribution of radiation dose

HERDPhobia: A Dataset for Hate Speech against Fulani in Nigeria

Social media platforms allow users to freely share their opinions about issues or anything they feel like. However, they also make it easier to spread hate and abusive content. The Fulani ethnic group has been the victim of this unfortunate phenomenon. This paper introduces the HERDPhobia - the first annotated hate speech dataset on Fulani herders in Nigeria - in three languages: English, Nigerian-Pidgin, and Hausa. We present a benchmark experiment using pre-trained languages models to classify the tweets as either hateful or non-hateful. Our experiment shows that the XML-T model provides better performance with 99.83% weighted F1. We released the dataset at https://github.com/hausanlp/HERDPhobia for further research.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Widening Natural Language Processing at EMNLP202

Examination of Surface Water Along River-Rima Floodplain in Wamakko, Sokoto State, Nigeria

This study examined the hydrochemistry of surface water along the River-Rima floodplain area. Five sampling locations were purposively selected, and, in each point, three samples were taken from surface water (river).The sampling was repeated after 20 days. Thus, a total of 30 samples werecollected. Water samples obtained were subjected to laboratory tests. Results revealed that BOD, TDS, Mg2+, and Fe3+ are above the World HealthOrganization (WHO) and Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) reference guidelines for drinking water quality. Isolates detected from the coliform bacteriological analysis include Enterobacter aerogene, Escherichiacoli, and Citrobacter freundii with most of the samples showing coliform bacteria growth above the SON standard for drinking water. Hence, the water in the River-Rima floodplain of the Wamakko area is of low quality and unsafe for drinking. Results of principal component analysis (PCA)revealed external influences such as pollutant wash off and rock weatheringas controls on hydrochemistry of surface water. There is some indication of anthropogenic inputs (Cl- , NO3- , and PO4 2-) based on hierarchical cluster analysis. Elements including Cl-, NO3-, and PO42- are increasingly added into surface water from human activities, mainly agriculture, and municipal sewage

Modelling Growth Kinetics of Klebsiella sp. FIRD 2 on TBT-Resistant Containing Lead

Tributyltin (TBT) is one of the most toxic substances ever deliberately introduced into the marine environment. The high toxicity of TBT has resulted in a wide range of adverse effects on biological systems ranging from bacteria to mammals and from the molecular to the community level. One of the most deleterious effects of TBT is imposex. The growth kinetics of TBT-Resistant Bacterium containing lead was studied. In this study various lead concentrations ranging from 1 to 100 mg/dm3 were used. Seven kinetic models (Teissier, Monod, Yano, Luong, Aiba, Webb, and Haldane,) were investigated and the accuracy of the fitted models were evaluated using statistical analysis such as coefficient of determination, adjusted coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square (RMSE). Aiba model was fitted to the experimental growth kinetics data and gave a very good fit with an R2 of 0.98 and RMSE of 0.0042 respectively. The calculated value for the Aiba constants such as maximal growth rate, half saturation constant and half inhibition constant rate symbolized by μmax, ks, and ki, were 0.038 hr-1, 0.38s mg/dm3 and 34.38 mg/dm3respectively. This is the first report of growth kinetics of TBT-Resistant bacterium by Klebsiella sp. FIRD 2 Containing lead.Keywords: Growth Kinetic models, Klebsiella sp. FIRD 2, lead, TBT-resistant bacteria

COVID-19 Vaccine: Examining Nurses Attitude and Willingness to accept the inoculation in North Western Nigeria

Background: Healthcare providers are the first line of information in pandemics and the last line of support during infections spread.Objective: The study was conducted to examine Nurses Attitude and Willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccine in Northern Nigeria.Methods: Cross-sectional design and systematic sampling technique were used for the study where 300 pretested structured questionnaires were distributed to nurses attending Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria’s Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Programme in Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna and Katsina states of Northwestern Nigeria. 89.3% of the questionnaires were successfully retrieved and analysed using frequency tables and spearman’s correlation coefficient.Result: The result revealed that majority (67.3%) had a positive attitude towards vaccines in general but 89.6% of the respondents were not willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between Knowledge of COVID-19 (ρ =0.402, p0.01), having long term medical condition (ρ =0.492, p0.01), highest educational qualification (ρ =0.291, p0.01), female gender (ρ =0.160, p0.01) and willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine among the respondents. Significant positive correlation was also observed between age (ρ =0.186, p0.01) and refusing a recommended vaccine in the past. Significant negative correlations were observed between refusing a recommended vaccine in the past (ρ =-0.661, p0.05) and willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine, knowledge of COVID-19 (ρ = - 0.132, p0.01), refusing a recommended vaccine in the past (ρ = - 0.132, p0.01) and years of working experience.Conclusion: It was recommended that awareness campaigns needs to be instituted targeting the eradication of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among all healthcare providers

Isolation and Molecular Characterisation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Degrading Bacteria from Petrochemical Contaminated Soil

Because of their ubiquitous nature, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widely dispersed in the environment as a result of both natural and human processes. One of the ways to deal with the harmful effects of these chemicals is through the use of microorganisms capable of degrading the pollutants. A petrochemical contaminated site was searched for these microbes. Eleven bacterial strains were obtained in this work using the culture enrichment technique on Bushnell Hass medium supplemented with (naphthalene, anthracene, and phenanthrene) as the only source of energy. Enumeration utilizing the spread-plate technique and liquid media were used to examine the PAH breakdown capacities of bacterial strains. The isolates were identified using standard methods of morphological and biochemical identifications. Furthermore, 16sRNA was utilized in order to classify the isolates at molecular level. The presence of PAHs degrading genes was also analysed in the isolates. Four isolates (G1, G2, G5, and G6) out of a total of eleven were able to tolerate and degrade the test PAH's up to 600 mg/l in liquid media. Isolate G1 showed the highest growth during screening followed by G6 while there were no differences between the other two isolates as demonstrated by an increase in their optical densities after 120 hours of incubation. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and molecular phylogenetic analysis, the isolate was identified as Pseudomonas stutzeri, Stenetrophomonas sp, Pseudomonas lactis, and Achromobacterxylosoxidans with the accession numbers OM039162, OM52851, OM52852, and OM52853 respectively. Fragments of 350 bp, 350 bp, and 867 bp for ring hydroxylating dioxygenase (RHD), hydratase-aldolase, and catechol 2, 3-dioxygenase were obtained from partial PCR amplification of catabolic genes, demonstrating the presence of a PAH degradation pathway in the organisms. These isolates have great potential for application in the bioremediation of PAHs-contaminated sites