Effect of Nanosilica on Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of Cement Mortar

Recently, nanomaterials (such as nanosilica) are receiving special attention because of their ability to improve the performance of concrete compared with traditional mineral admixtures. In this work, a number of specimens were prepared to study the behavior of cement mortar containing nanosilica. The cement replacement by nanosilica of 3% and 5% by weight of cement was used. The mechanical and microstructural properties of the specimens were investigated. An experimental result from literature was utilized to predict the transport of chloride into reinforced concrete structures modified with nanosilica using COMSOL multiphysics commercial package. The experimental results show that cement mortars containing nanosilica have higher strength than ordinary portland cement mortars. Also, the SEM images confirmed the improvement in the microstructure of mortar with nanosilica

Ergonomic evaluation of subjects involved in orange (Citrus sinensis) handling operations in Yanlemo Market Kano State

Ergonomic evaluation of subjects involved in orange handling operation in Kano State was conducted. Anthropometric parameters were evaluated, where they were found to vary with age amongst the subjects selected. 20th and 80th percentiles of the dimensions were computed and recommended for usage in design of the relevant orange handling equipment. To evaluate the Physiological parameters, sorting/grading operations and washing operations were selected for this study. Results obtained revealed that, heart beat rate, oxygen consumption and energy expenditure varied amongst the subjects with age. Muscular stress and postural disorder were also studied. Comparing the parameters obtained during sorting/grading operation and that obtained during washing operations revealed that orange operations resulted to superior drudgery and musculoskeletal disorders.Keywords: Anthropometrics, Energy expenditure, Drudgery, Operations and Musculoskeletal disorde

Kaposi sarcoma coexisting with new onset diabetes mellitus in a 42-year old KIDNEY TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT: A CASE REPORT

Renal allograft recipients develop several complications such as infections and neoplasms. New onset diabetes mellitus is a common transplant complication but rarely coexist with Kaposi sarcoma. Case report: We report the case of a 42-year-old banker who presented with polyuria, polydipsia, polyphagia, weight loss and dark spots in the lower limbs 8 months after he had received a live-related kidney transplant in India. He is not a known diabetic and had no family history of diabetes mellitus. His post-transplant immunosuppressive drugs included Myfortic® (mycophenolate), tacrolimus and prednisolone. At presentation he was wasted, dehydrated and afebrile, with multiple hyperpigmented nodules and plaques in both his lower limbs. Random blood glucose was 38mmol/l, had 2+ glucosuria and no ketones. Biopsy of skin lesions showed features of Kaposi sarcoma. A diagnosis of post-transplant diabetes mellitus and Kaposi sarcoma was made. His treatment included soluble insulin and antibiotics. Tacrolimus was changed to sirolimus and mycophenolate was reduced to 360mg twice daily. Conclusion: Coexistence of diabetes mellitus and karposi sarcoma occurs rarely among kidney transplant recipients. Evaluation of transplant recipient who developed diabetes for malignancies such as karposi sarcoma will improve patient and graft survival

Phenotypic characterization of mycobacteria isolates from tuberculosis patients in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the leading public health challenges in Nigeria and the burden is still high. There is hence a need for continuous characterization of mycobacteria to obtain current data that will aid the ongoing TB prevention and control programme. The aim of this study was to phenotypically characterize mycobacteria isolates recovered from clinical specimens of patients with tuberculosis in Kaduna State, Nigeria.Methods: Two thousand, two hundred and twelve (2212) sputum samples were collected from patients clinically suspected to have TB in three different zones of Kaduna State, Nigeria, between May 2017 and October, 2018. Samples were processed by decontaminating with NaOH-Citrate N-acetyl-L-Cystein method for Ziehl Neelsen (ZN) AFB microscopy and culture on Lowenstein Jensen (LJ) slants which were incubated at 37ᵒC for 8 weeks. Positive LJ cultures were further analyzed with a rapid TB antigen assay (SD-Bioline) to differentiate Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) from Non Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM).Results: Out of the 2212 patients with suspected TB, 300 (13.6%) were positive for AFB by microscopy with Zone A (Kaduna North) having the highest AFB positive cases of 169 (15.2%). Of the 300 AFB positive samples, 272 (91.0%) were culture positive on LJ medium, 18 (6.0%) were culture negative and 10 (3.0%) were culture contaminated. Result of the distribution of mycobacteria among infected patients within the study area revealed that 219 (80.5%) were infected with MTBC, 42 (15.4%) with NTM and 11 (4.0%) with both MTBC and NTM.Conclusion: A relatively high number of TB in the study area was caused by NTM. There is need for advanced diagnostic tools that can differentiate MTBC and NTM strains among TB patients in all TB Reference Laboratories in Nigeria.Keywords: Phenotypic, Characterization, Tuberculosis, Mycobacteri

Effect of ascorbic acid on behaviour of Wistar rats exposed to environmental heat stress

Introduction: The hot-dry season in the Northern Guinea Savannah zone of Nigeria is characterized by high ambient temperature and high relative humidity which imposes heat stress on the body resulting in enormous generation of free radicals and behavioural changes. Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the effect of ascorbic acid (AA) on behavior of Wistar rats exposed to environmental in heat stress. Methods: Thirty Wistar rats weighing 140-160g were divided into 3 groups of 10 each. Group 1 served as control and was administered normal saline 1ml/kg orally, groups 2 exposed to environmental temperature of 38 ± 1 0C and group 3 were exposed to environmental temperature of 38 ± 1 0C and administered AA at 100mg/kg orally for 21 days. Behavioral activity in the open-field was assessed on days 1, 7, 14 and 21. Results: The results showed a significant increase in pellets count, urination and immobilization in the control and heat exposed group compared to AA treated on days 1 and 7. Rearing, grooming and ambulation were significantly decreased in AA treated group on day 1, 7 and 14. There was no significant behavioral change on the 21st day indicating habituation. Conclusion: It was concluded that ascorbic acid ameliorated some of the behavioral changes induced by environmental heat stress and therefore, individuals working in high temperature zones should be advised to be taking vitamin C supplements

Clean energy generation using groundnut oil mill effluent with microbial fuel-cell

Microbial system that converts organic matter to energy is proposed in this paper. An attempt is made, to examine the potential of using groundnut oil mill effluent (GOME) as substrates to Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). A methodology was developed to obtain a power density in batches by varying the feed rate of continuous flow in the MFC. The results obtained show that GOME produces higher energy per unit area compared to other mixed culture reported in scientific literatures. The minimum and maximum power densities obtained are 160 mW/m2 and 217 mW/m2 at low feed rate of (400 litre/hr) with cell potential of 625 mV and high feed rate of (420 litre /hr) with cell potential 727 mV respectively. Furthermore, the findings of this research work showed that MFC could produce higher power density at continuous flow process mode (160 mW/m2) compared to batch process (54 mW/m2). Thus, this study demonstrates the potential of generating clean energy via GOME, with by-products of carbon dioxide and water.Keywords: Clean energy, Fossil-fuel, Renewable energy, Fuel-cell, Groundnut Oil Mill Effluent (GOME

Combined effect of sodium valproate and ascorbic acid on pentylenetetrazole-induced seizures in mice

Epilepsy is one of the most frequent neurological afflictions characterized by excessive temporary neuronal discharges resulting in convulsion. The pathophysiology is still not fully understood. Even though oxidative stress has been implicated as one of the mechanisms, yet the management of convulsions do not take into cognizance the important role played by antioxidants. The aim of the study was to assess the combined effect of sodium valproate (conventional antiepileptic drug) and ascorbic acid (potent antioxidant) in pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) induced seizures. Thirty mice were divided into six groups of five each (n=5). Group 1 served as control and administered normal saline 1ml/kg, group 2 received sodium valproate 200mg/kg, groups 3 and 4 were administered ascorbic acid (vitamin C) 100mg/kg and 300mg/kg, groups 5 and 6 were administered ascorbic acid (vitamin C) 100mg/kg and 300mg/kg respectively, in combination with sodium valproate 200mg/kg, 15 and 30 minutes prior to intra-peritoneal injection of PTZ (65 mg/kg). Seizure latency and duration were determined. The results showed that ascorbic acid alone has no effect on the seizure parameters. Sodium valproate 200mg had protective effect on PTZ-induced seizures. Combination of 300 mg/kg ascorbic acid with 200 mg/kg sodium valproate had a significant (p<0.05) synergistic and marked protective effect, as indicated by increase in the latency of seizure and reduction in seizure duration as compared to the control. Anti-oxidant vitamin C is recommended as co-treatment with sodium valproate in the management of seizures.Keywords: Pentylenetetrazole, sodium valproate, ascorbic acid, seizure

The beneficial role of resveratrol on chlorpyrifos-induced cognitive impairment and lipid peroxidation biomarker in Swiss albino mice

Chlorpyrifos (CPF) has been associated with cognitive and psychomotor impairments in both humans and animals. This cognitive impairment has been linked to its enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generating capacity. Therefore, antioxidant treatment may provide a novel therapeutic window for the management of these related impairments. The aim of this work was to evaluate the beneficial role of resveratrol on chlorpyrifos-induced cognitive impairment and lipid peroxidation biomarker in Swiss albino mice. Swiss albino mice were divided into (6) six groups of five each (n=5). Group I served as the control and were administered olive oil (2 ml/kg), group II received carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) 10 mg/kg, group III received resveratrol 30 mg/kg, group IV received chlorpyrifos (CPF) 3 mg/kg, group V received CPF (3 mg/kg) after the oral administration of resveratrol (30 mg/kg) and group VI received Vitamin E (Vit E) 100 mg/kg All administrations were done by oral gavage for a duration of 21 days. Cognitive function was assessed using Y-maze,and Novel object recognition tests and oxidative stress was evaluated using oxidative biomarkers techniques.The results obtained showed that resveratrol at dose 30 mg/kg significantly(p<0.05) improved cognitive impairment and significantly decreased (p<0.05) malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration when compared with the control. In conclusion, 30mg/kg resveratrol suppressed memory impairment, decreased malondialdehyde levels, increased catalase activity, superoxide dismutase activity and glutathione levels in our chlorpyrifos-induced cognitive impairment mice model.Keywords: cognition, chlorpyrifos, resveratrol, memor

Assessment of Orange (Citrus Sinensis) Supply Chain Activities in Kano State

The study focused on the handling system of orange in Yanlemo Market of Kano State. A field study was conducted with structural questionnaires that targeted the orange supplies, traders and agricultural equipment suppliers/fabricators. Result obtained reveals that the orange handling activity is dominated by male traders. Average of 2 to 5 bags of oranges are usually handled by about 53.3% of the respondents, while 8.3% handle more than 10 bags of the oranges daily. Dan Tivi was found to be the commonest orange variety in the study area. Some other varieties established in the study area are; Dan Nassarawa, Dan Ondo and Dan Delta representing about 8.3, 1.7 and 1.7% of the varieties handled in the study area respectively. The mode of transportation, sorting, and washing was found to be manual with a lot of challenges. The predominant manual handling of the orange established in the study area could be amongst the major reasons for the high losses usually recorded by the traders on a daily basis. Thus, useful suggestions that could be employed by researchers and policymakers to provide improvements in the supply chain activities to prevent such losses are presented.  Keywords— Orange, Assessment, Supply Chain, Handlin