Cash waqf as an alternative panacea to poverty alleviation: An overview of human development in Nigeria

This study investigated how cash waqf was used to alleviate education poverty in Nigeria among the orphans and under-privileged in Zamfara State in particular. The failure of government has deprived people of good health, shelter, education among other things. Similarly, efforts of both private and voluntary sectors yielded no useful results especially in sponsoring students’ education. It is undeniable that poverty has become household problem in Africa and specifically Nigeria. The menace has deprived people of basic necessity of life hence, throw them into serious predicament. The present study used qualitative technique hence, conducted in-depth interviews of three types of respondents. Data gathered from the interview was analyzed using a phenomenological approach. It is hoped that the findings will be useful to policy makers in waqf institutions and the Nigerian government to strategize poverty alleviation inclusive of orphans and under-privileged education in order to boost the level of literacy in the country

DNA Binding and Photocleavage Studies of Cobalt(III) Ethylenediamine Pyridine Complexes: [Co(en)2(py)2]3+ and [Co(en)2(mepy)2]3+

Two novel cobalt(III) pyridine complexes (1) [Co(en)2(py)2]3+ and (2) [Co(en)2(mepy)2]3+ (en=ethylenediamine, py=pyridine, and mepy=methylpyridine) have been synthesized and characterized. The interaction of these complexes with calf thymus DNA was investigated by absorption, emission spectroscopy, viscosity measurements, DNA melting, and DNA photocleavage. Results suggest that the two complexes bind to DNA via groove mode and complex 2 binds more strongly to CT DNA than complex 1. Moreover, these Co(III) complexes have been found to promote the photocleavage of plasmid DNA pBR322 under irradiation at 365 nm, cytotoxicity results of complexes are also showing anticancer activity

Developing shelf-stable Microbiota Directed Complementary Food (MDCF) prototypes for malnourished children: Study protocol for a randomized, single-blinded, clinical study

BACKGROUND: Childhood undernutrition is a major public health concern that needs special attention to achieve 2025 global nutrition targets. Moderate acute malnutrition (MAM), manifest as wasting (low weight-for-height), affects 33 million children under 5, yet there are currently no global guidelines for its treatment. We recently performed a randomized-controlled clinical study of a microbiota-directed complementary food formulation (MDCF-2) in 12-18-month-old Bangladeshi children with MAM. The results revealed that MDCF-2, freshly prepared each day, produced a significantly greater improvement in ponderal growth than a standard ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF), an effect that is associated with repair of the disrupted gut microbial community development that occurs in children with MAM. To test the generalizability of these results in acutely malnourished children at other sites, there is a pressing need for a packaged, shelf-stable, organoleptically-acceptable formulation that is bioequivalent to MDCF-2. This report describes the protocol for a clinical study to evaluate candidate formulations designed to meet these criteria. METHODS: A randomized single-blind study will be conducted in 8-12-month-old Bangladeshi children with MAM to compare the efficacy of alternative shelf-stable MDCF prototypes versus the current MDCF-2 formulation that is produced fresh each day. V4-16S rDNA amplicon and shotgun sequencing datasets will be generated from faecal DNA samples collected from each child enrolled in each group prior to, during, and after treatment to determine the abundances of MDCF-2-responsive bacterial taxa. Efficacy will be assessed by quantifying the change in representation of MDCF-2-responsive gut bacterial taxa after 4-weeks of treatment with freshly prepared MDCF-2 compared to their changes in abundance after treatment with the prototype MDCFs. Equivalence will be defined as the absence of a statistically significant difference, after 4-weeks of treatment, in the representation of faecal bacterial taxa associated with the response to MDCF-2 in participants receiving a test MDCF. DISCUSSION: This trial aims to establish acceptability and equivalence with respect to microbiota repair, of scalable, shelf-stable formulations of MDCF-2 in 8-12-month-old Bangladeshi children with moderate acute malnutrition. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05094024). The trial has been registered before starting enrolment on 23 October 2021

Coordination of Mobile Mules via Facility Location Strategies

In this paper, we study the problem of wireless sensor network (WSN) maintenance using mobile entities called mules. The mules are deployed in the area of the WSN in such a way that would minimize the time it takes them to reach a failed sensor and fix it. The mules must constantly optimize their collective deployment to account for occupied mules. The objective is to define the optimal deployment and task allocation strategy for the mules, so that the sensors' downtime and the mules' traveling distance are minimized. Our solutions are inspired by research in the field of computational geometry and the design of our algorithms is based on state of the art approximation algorithms for the classical problem of facility location. Our empirical results demonstrate how cooperation enhances the team's performance, and indicate that a combination of k-Median based deployment with closest-available task allocation provides the best results in terms of minimizing the sensors' downtime but is inefficient in terms of the mules' travel distance. A k-Centroid based deployment produces good results in both criteria.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, conferenc