GEOPHYSICAL EVALUATION OF THE GROUNDWATER POTENTIAL AND AQUIFER PROTECTIVE CAPACITY IN PART OF OYE-EKITI, SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Assessment of groundwater potential and aquifer protective capacity in part of Oye-Ekiti, Southwestern Nigeria using the electrical resistivity method of geophysical prospecting was carried out. The study involved Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) technique using the Schlumberger array with current electrode spacing (AB/2) of 100 m. Thirty-one (31) VES locations were obtained with the aid of ABEM SAS 300 Resistivity Meter and plotted on the double log graph as VES curves. The VES curves were interpreted quantitatively by partialcurve matching and assisted by 1-D forward modeling using the WinResist software. The VES interpretation results (layer and thickness) were used to generate maps of the study area. A, K, H, KH, HA, QH, AA, HKH, KQH and AKH-type curves were identified in the area. The overburden thickness ranged from thick (20 to 28 m), moderate (10 to 19.9 m) to low overburden (0 to 9.9 m). The bedrock relief shows areas of moderate/high (530.1 to 558 m) and low reliefs (514 to 530m).&nbsp

Atg7-Mediated Autophagy Is Involved in the Neural Crest Cell Generation in Chick Embryo

Autophagy plays a very important role in numerous physiological and pathological events. However, it still remains unclear whether Atg7-induced autophagy is involved in the regulation of neural crest cell production. In this study, we found the co-location of Atg7 and Pax7+ neural crest cells in early chick embryo development. Upregulation of Atg7 with unilateral transfection of full-length Atg7 increased Pax7+ and HNK-1+ cephalic and trunk neural crest cell numbers compared to either Control-GFP transfection or opposite neural tubes, suggesting that Atg7 over-expression in neural tubes could enhance the production of neural crest cells. BMP4 in situ hybridization and p-Smad1/5/8 immunofluorescent staining demonstrated that upregulation of Atg7 in neural tubes suppressed the BMP4/Smad signaling, which is considered to promote the delamination of neural crest cells. Interestingly, upregulation of Atg7 in neural tubes could significantly accelerate cell progression into the S phase, implying that Atg7 modulates cell cycle progression. However, β-catenin expression was not significantly altered. Finally, we demonstrated that upregulation of the Atg7 gene could activate autophagy as did Atg8. We have also observed that similar phenotypes, such as more HNK-1+ neural crest cells in the unilateral Atg8 transfection side of neural tubes, and the transfection with full-length Atg8-GFP certainly promote the numbers of BrdU+ neural crest cells in comparison to the GFP control. Taken together, we reveal that Atg7-induced autophagy is involved in regulating the production of neural crest cells in early chick embryos through the modification of the cell cycle

NEXT-CRAB-0: A High Pressure Gaseous Xenon Time Projection Chamber with a Direct VUV Camera Based Readout

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) remains one of the most compelling experimental avenues for the discovery in the neutrino sector. Electroluminescent gas-phase time projection chambers are well suited to $0\nu\beta\beta$ searches due to their intrinsically precise energy resolution and topological event identification capabilities. Scalability to ton- and multi-ton masses requires readout of large-area electroluminescent regions with fine spatial resolution, low radiogenic backgrounds, and a scalable data acquisition system. This paper presents a detector prototype that records event topology in an electroluminescent xenon gas TPC via VUV image-intensified cameras. This enables an extendable readout of large tracking planes with commercial devices that reside almost entirely outside of the active medium.Following further development in intermediate scale demonstrators, this technique may represent a novel and enlargeable method for topological event imaging in $0\nu\beta\beta$.Comment: 32 Pages, 22 figure

Banff 2022 liver group meeting report: monitoring long term allograft health.

The Banff Working Group on Liver Allograft Pathology met in September 2022. Participantsincluded hepatologists, surgeons, pathologists, immunologists and histocompatibility specialists.Presentations and discussions focused on the evaluation of long-term allograft health, including noninvasive and tissue monitoring, immunosuppression optimisation and long-term structural changes.Potential revision of the rejection classification scheme to better accommodate and communicate lateT cell-mediated rejection patterns and related structural changes, such as nodular regenerativehyperplasia, were discussed. Improved stratification of long-term maintenance immunosuppression tomatch the heterogeneity of patient settings will be central to improving long-term patient survival.Such personalised therapeutics are in turn contingent on better understanding and monitoring ofallograft status within a rational decision-making approach, likely to be facilitated in implementationwith emerging decision support tools. Proposed revisions to rejection classification emerging fromthe meeting include incorporation of interface hepatitis and fibrosis staging. These will be opened toonline testing, modified accordingly and subject to consensus discussion leading up to the next Banffconference

Validation of wet chemistry method as alternative to gas chromatography for biogas methane content determination

Anaerobic digestion technology has the potential for simultaneous waste treatment and biogas generation. Its rate of dissemination and adoption in most developing countries has however, slowed down for many years partly due to inadequate research facilities such as advanced gas measuring equipment, and associated cost of analyses. This study, therefore, tested and validated the use of classical wet chemistry analysis method (CWCAM) as a readily accessible and cheaper alternative to gas chromatographic method (GCM), for determining the proportion of methane (CH4) in produced biogas. Biogas samples were simultaneously collected every week in 5 ml and 20 ml hypodermic syringes, from a digester in which cassava vinasse (CV) was being codigested with poultry droppings (PD), using ruminal fluids of cattle (RFC) as inoculum. While samples in 5ml syringes were analyzed using the GCM, the 20 ml samples were analyzed using the CWCAM, to determine the percentage of methane in the biogas samples collected each week. The corresponding volumes, corrected to standard temperature and pressure (STP) condition was then calculated. The results from both analytical methods were statistically analyzed and compared using the Data Analysis tool in Microsoft Office Excel. The difference in results from the two methods ranged from -3 to +2.9% with CWCAM giving slightly higher values of methane percentage. Overall, a relatively high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.9728) and low standard error (SE = 1.4) of the regression equation between the two sets of results indicate that the two methods may be used interchangeably. &nbsp

Relationship Between Obesity and Severity of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in Tanzania

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common focal mononeuropathy in the general population, and obesity is one of its established independent risk factors The prevalence of obesity in CTS patients and its association with CTS severity are yet to be fully studied among Tanzanians. In this study, we determined the frequency of obesity in patients with CTS and its relationship with the electrophysiological severity of CTS in a Tanzanian private tertiary level hospital. Methods: This is a retrospective observational and analytical study of patients referred for electrodiagnostic (EDX) evaluation of suspected CTS at the clinical neurophysiology laboratory of the Aga Khan Hospital, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. All EDX studies done for CTS indications between August 1, 2017, and December 31, 2019, were reviewed. The frequency of CTS patients with obesity (body mass index \u3e30 kg/m2) and overweight (25.0-29.9 kg/m2) was determined. Next, we explored the relationship between obesity and the electrophysiologic severity of CTS. Results: One-hundred nine hands were studied. The prevalence of obesity was 50.5% and overweight was 31.2%. Females were significantly more obese than males (P = 0.001). Many of the EDX parameters that defined CTS, including prolonged median nerve sensory and distal motor latencies as well as sensory conduction velocity, were significantly more abnormal in the obese when compared to the nonobese patients. On univariate analysis, severe CTS (stage 5) was commoner among nonobese patients (P = 0.031), while moderate CTS (stage3) was more prevalent among obese patients (P \u3c 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis, however, revealed no effect of obesity on CTS severity (P = 0.490). Conclusion: Obesity and overweight are prevalent among this cohort with CTS, but did not predict severe CTS. The use of other indices of adiposity may show a trend