Access to Land and Food Security: Analysis of ‘Priority Crops’ Production in Ogun State, Nigeria

Using Ogun State located in south-western Nigeria, this chapter draws attention to the increase in output productivity of priority crops in the State from 2003 to 2015 due to the acquisitions of over 47,334 hectares of agricultural land across 28 communities in different Local Government Areas (LGAs). From Ogun State Agriculture Data, eight priority crops are analyzed: cassava, maize, rice, melon, yam, cocoyam, potato and cowpea. Statistics reveal that the cultivation of cassava gives the highest average output of 4,515,620 metric tonnes and yield per hectare of 16.41 relative to other produce which affirms that Ogun State has the most comparative advantage in the cultivation of cassava followed by maize. The chapter further explores other pro-poor programmes directed at ensuring food security in the State

Molecular diet analysis of two african free-tailed bats (molossidae) using high throughput sequencing.

Given the diversity of prey consumed by insectivorous bats, it is difficult to discern the composition of their diet using morphological or conventional PCR-based analyses of their faeces. We demonstrate the use of a powerful alternate tool, the use of the Roche FLX sequencing platform to deep-sequence uniquely 5' tagged insect-generic barcode cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) fragments, that were PCR amplified from faecal pellets of two free-tailed bat species Chaerephon pumilus and Mops condylurus (family: Molossidae). Although the analyses were challenged by the paucity of southern African insect COI sequences in the GenBank and BOLD databases, similarity to existing collections allowed the preliminary identification of 25 prey families from six orders of insects within the diet of C. pumilus, and 24 families from seven orders within the diet of M. condylurus. Insects identified to families within the orders Lepidoptera and Diptera were widely present among the faecal samples analysed. The two families that were observed most frequently were Noctuidae and Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera). Species-level analysis of the data was accomplished using novel bioinformatics techniques for the identification of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU). Based on these analyses, our data provide little evidence of resource partitioning between sympatric M. condylurus and C. pumilus in the Simunye region of Swaziland at the time of year when the samples were collected, although as more complete databases against which to compare the sequences are generated this may have to be re-evaluated.This study was supported by Bat Conservation International, Etatsraad Georg Bestle og Hustrus Mindelegat and the Oticon Fonden (KB and CN), the Danish Council for Independent Research Natural Sciences ‘Skou’ award (MTPG), and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada post-doctoral fellowship (ELC). These funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This study was also supported by the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation, who provided field assistance and therefore had a role in data collection

Mitogenomic phylogenetic analyses of the Delphinidae with an emphasis on the Globicephalinae

BACKGROUND: Previous DNA-based phylogenetic studies of the Delphinidae family suggest it has undergone rapid diversification, as characterised by unresolved and poorly supported taxonomic relationships (polytomies) for some of the species within this group. Using an increased amount of sequence data we test between alternative hypotheses of soft polytomies caused by rapid speciation, slow evolutionary rate and/or insufficient sequence data, and hard polytomies caused by simultaneous speciation within this family. Combining the mitogenome sequences of five new and 12 previously published species within the Delphinidae, we used Bayesian and maximum-likelihood methods to estimate the phylogeny from partitioned and unpartitioned mitogenome sequences. Further ad hoc tests were then conducted to estimate the support for alternative topologies. RESULTS: We found high support for all the relationships within our reconstructed phylogenies, and topologies were consistent between the Bayesian and maximum-likelihood trees inferred from partitioned and unpartitioned data. Resolved relationships included the placement of the killer whale (Orcinus orca) as sister taxon to the rest of the Globicephalinae subfamily, placement of the Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) within the Globicephalinae subfamily, removal of the white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) from the Delphininae subfamily and the placement of the rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis) as sister taxon to the rest of the Delphininae subfamily rather than within the Globicephalinae subfamily. The additional testing of alternative topologies allowed us to reject all other putative relationships, with the exception that we were unable to reject the hypothesis that the relationship between L. albirostris and the Globicephalinae and Delphininae subfamilies was polytomic. CONCLUSION: Despite their rapid diversification, the increased sequence data yielded by mitogenomes enables the resolution of a strongly supported, bifurcating phylogeny, and a chronology of the divergences within the Delphinidae family. This highlights the benefits and potential application of large mitogenome datasets to resolve long-standing phylogenetic uncertainties

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drugome and Its Polypharmacological Implications

We report a computational approach that integrates structural bioinformatics, molecular modelling and systems biology to construct a drug-target network on a structural proteome-wide scale. The approach has been applied to the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the causative agent of one of today's most widely spread infectious diseases. The resulting drug-target interaction network for all structurally characterized approved drugs bound to putative M.tb receptors, we refer to as the ‘TB-drugome’. The TB-drugome reveals that approximately one-third of the drugs examined have the potential to be repositioned to treat tuberculosis and that many currently unexploited M.tb receptors may be chemically druggable and could serve as novel anti-tubercular targets. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of the TB-drugome has shed new light on the controversial issues surrounding drug-target networks [1]–[3]. Indeed, our results support the idea that drug-target networks are inherently modular, and further that any observed randomness is mainly caused by biased target coverage. The TB-drugome (http://funsite.sdsc.edu/drugome/TB) has the potential to be a valuable resource in the development of safe and efficient anti-tubercular drugs. More generally the methodology may be applied to other pathogens of interest with results improving as more of their structural proteomes are determined through the continued efforts of structural biology/genomics

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

The impact of biologics and tofacitinib on cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes in patients with rheumatic disease: a systematic literature review

Introduction Rheumatic diseases are autoimmune, inflammatory diseases often associated with cardiovascular (CV) disease, a major cause of mortality in these patients. In recent years, treatment with biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), either as monotherapy or in combination with other drugs, have become the standard of treatment. In this systematic literature review, we evaluated the effect of treatment with biologic or tofacitinib on the CV risk and outcomes in these patients. Methods A systematic search was performed in MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for articles reporting on CV risk and events in patients with rheumatic disease treated with a biologic agent or tofacitinib. Articles identified were subjected to two levels of screening. Articles that passed the first level based on title and abstract were assessed on full-text evaluation. The quality of randomized clinical trials was assessed by Jadad scoring system and the quality of the other studies and abstracts was assessed using the Downs and Black instrument. The data extracted included study design, baseline patient characteristics, and measurements of CV risk and events. Results Of the 5722 articles identified in the initial search, screening yielded 105 unique publications from 90 unique studies (33 clinical trials, 39 prospective cohort studies, and an additional 18 retrospective studies) that reported CV risk outcomes. A risk of bias analysis for each type of report indicated that they were of good or excellent quality. Importantly, despite some limitations in data reported, there were no indications of significant increase in adverse CV events or risk in response to treatment with the agents evaluated. Conclusions Treatment with biologic or tofacitinib appears to be well-tolerated with respect to CV outcomes in these patients