Biolubricant production from Parinari polyandra and Azadirachta indica seed oils using trimethylolpropane polyol

Environmental pollution over time has raised challenges that elicit concerns for the nearest future. Synthetic lubricants, especially those obtained from petroleum products, contribute to environmental pollution. Thus, there is a need for the production of environmentally friendly lubricant as an alternative to petroleum-based lubricant currently being used. This work explored the potential of Parinari and Neem oils for the production of biolubricant using double transesterification method. Parinari oil was extracted from parinari seed using Sohxlet extraction method, and neem oil was purchased from Akande market in Ogbomoso, Oyo state, Nigeria. Both oils were pre-analysed for physico-chemical properties based on American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) methods. Trimethylolpropane (TMP) was used to increase the lubricating property of the transesterified parinari seed oil. The results showed that, the kinematic viscosity for Parinari based lubricant produced ranged between 12.1 – 67.4 cP at 40 ℃ and 15.5-28.6 cP at 100 ℃, while the kinematic viscosity for Neem-based lubricant produced ranged between 55.7 – 647.3 cP at 40 ℃ and 122.9 – 171.6 cP at 100 ℃. Parinari based lubricant had a viscosity index ranging from 159.7-174.4 and neem-based lubricant ranged from 326-365. Viscosities were all compared against SAE standard. SAE 30, 40 and 50 had kinematic viscosities ranging between 9.3-12.5, 12.5-16.3 and 16.3-21.9 respectively. Furthermore, all the biolubricants showed relatively high viscosity indexes with potentials for application in heavy equipment. NBL showed higher kinematic viscosity with longer transesterification reaction time. NBL gave random outputs for each run for biolubricants produced. Therefore, Parinari and Neem oil-based lubricants are potential lubricants as an alternative to petroleum-based lubricant

Determinants of Female Labour Force Participation in Nigeria: The Rural/Urban Dichotomy

Cultural and traditional beliefs that determine husband’s willingness to permit their spouse work are predominant in rural areas and this motivated the study to investigate the determinants of labour force separately in urban and rural sectors of Nigeria. The study employed the logistic regression on a house hold survey data of employment and discovered that the determinants of female labour participation were not the same in urban and rural areas. The results suggested that marital status, religion, poverty rate and per capita income were significant determinants in the rural sector, while age and literacy rate were the significant determinants in the urban sector. Since the determinants in the urban and rural regions were completely different, the study recommends that, discriminate policies be encouraged when designing measures to improve female labour participation. Key words: Female, Labour, Participation, Logistic regression, Rural, Urban, Nigeri

Predictors of unintentional childhood injuries seen at the Accident and Emergency Units of three tertiary health care centres in Jos

Background: Unintentional childhood injuries pose a major health challenge especially in developing countries.Aim: This study sought to determine the predictors of unintentional childhood injuries in the three tertiary health centres studied.Methods: The study was a cross- sectional study. Sociodemographic data, history and physical examination, type of injury and the outcomes were obtained using structured questionnaire. Results: A total of 174 children were enrolled, 108 (62.1%) were males and 66 (37.9%) were females; 63 (36.2%) were < 5years while 65 (37.4%) were>10 years. Of the injuries observed; 99 (56.9%) were by vehicular objects, 15 (8.6%) were burns, 41 (23.6%) were from falls and 19 (10.9%) poisoning. Those who were treated as outpatients were 141 (81.0%) and 25 (14.4%) were admitted for inpatient care. About ninety four percent (94.3%) of the children had no significant effect or disability, 3.4% had short-term disability while 2.3% had long term disabilities or died post-injury. There was no statistically significant relationship between the age of the subjects, gender, duration of the injury prior to presentation and the educational status of their care givers with the pattern of the injury.Conclusion: This study showed that 81% (141) of the children studied were treated as outpatients, 56.9% were by vehicular objects, 62.1% were in males and the pattern of injuries were not related to age, gender, educational status of care givers, place or time of injuries. There is need to incorporate these findings in the provision of preventive messages in school health services and in the interventions targeting the safety of children against injuries. Further studies to identify risk factors and plan necessary interventions will also be necessary.Keywords: Predictors, unintentional, childhood injuries, emergency departments, out-patient, tertiary health centre

Real-time high-resolution heterodyne-based measurements of spectral dynamics in fibre lasers

Conventional tools for measurement of laser spectra (e.g. optical spectrum analysers) capture data averaged over a considerable time period. However, the generation spectrum of many laser types may involve spectral dynamics whose relatively fast time scale is determined by their cavity round trip period, calling for instrumentation featuring both high temporal and spectral resolution. Such real-time spectral characterisation becomes particularly challenging if the laser pulses are long, or they have continuous or quasi-continuous wave radiation components. Here we combine optical heterodyning with a technique of spatiooral intensity measurements that allows the characterisation of such complex sources. Fast, round-trip-resolved spectral dynamics of cavity-based systems in real-time are obtained, with temporal resolution of one cavity round trip and frequency resolution defined by its inverse (85 ns and 24 MHz respectively are demonstrated). We also show how under certain conditions for quasi-continuous wave sources, the spectral resolution could be further increased by a factor of 100 by direct extraction of phase information from the heterodyned dynamics or by using double time scales within the spectrogram approach

The genetic structure of the Turkish population reveals high levels of variation and admixture

The construction of population-based variomes has contributed substantially to our understanding of the genetic basis of human inherited disease. Here, we investigated the genetic structure of Turkey from 3,362 unrelated subjects whose whole exomes (n = 2,589) or whole genomes (n = 773) were sequenced to generate a Turkish (TR) Variome that should serve to facilitate disease gene discovery in Turkey. Consistent with the history of present-day Turkey as a crossroads between Europe and Asia, we found extensive admixture between Balkan, Caucasus, Middle Eastern, and European populations with a closer genetic relationship of the TR population to Europeans than hitherto appreciated. We determined that 50% of TR individuals had high inbreeding coefficients (≥0.0156) with runs of homozygosity longer than 4 Mb being found exclusively in the TR population when compared to 1000 Genomes Project populations. We also found that 28% of exome and 49% of genome variants in the very rare range (allele frequency < 0.005) are unique to the modern TR population. We annotated these variants based on their functional consequences to establish a TR Variome containing alleles of potential medical relevance, a repository of homozygous loss-of-function variants and a TR reference panel for genotype imputation using high-quality haplotypes, to facilitate genome-wide association studies. In addition to providing information on the genetic structure of the modern TR population, these data provide an invaluable resource for future studies to identify variants that are associated with specific phenotypes as well as establishing the phenotypic consequences of mutations in specific genes

CD98 Increases Renal Epithelial Cell Proliferation by Activating MAPKs

CD98 heavy chain (CD98hc) is a multifunctional transmembrane spanning scaffolding protein whose extracellular domain binds with light chain amino acid transporters (Lats) to form the heterodimeric amino acid transporters (HATs). It also interacts with β1 and β3 integrins by its transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains. This interaction is proposed to be the mechanism whereby CD98 mediates cell survival and growth via currently undefined signaling pathways. In this study, we determined whether the critical function of CD98-dependent amino acid transport also plays a role in cell proliferation and defined the signaling pathways that mediate CD98-dependent proliferation of murine renal inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) cells. We demonstrate that downregulating CD98hc expression resulted in IMCD cell death. Utilizing overexpression studies of CD98hc mutants that either lacked a cytoplasmic tail or were unable to bind to Lats we showed that CD98 increases serum-dependent cell proliferation by a mechanism that requires the CD98hc cytoplasmic tail. We further demonstrated that CD98-dependent amino acid transport increased renal tubular epithelial cell proliferation by a mechanism that does not require the CD98hc cytoplasmic tail. Both these mechanisms of increased renal tubular epithelial cell proliferation are mediated by Erk and p38 MAPK signaling. Although increased amino transport markedly activated mTor signaling, this pathway did not alter cell proliferation. Thus, these studies demonstrate that in IMCD cells, the cytoplasmic and extracellular domains of CD98hc regulate cell proliferation by distinct mechanisms that are mediated by common MAPK signaling pathways

Microvascular Complications of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in an Adolescent: Case Report

Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus is a common chronic health problem with microvascular complications such as neuropathy, retinopathy and nephropathy in the pediatric population throughout the life. Screening of these complications should be done regularly, and appropriate preventive strategies should be followed. We present a 17 year old Type 1 diabetic patient who admitted to the hospital with the complaint of unhealed wound of his toe. An integrated and personal care of his clinical status revealed that he had diabetic microvascular complications including diabetic foot, neurogenic bladder, retinopathy, cataract and nephropathy

Biolubricant Production from Parinari Polyandra and Azadirachta Indica Seed Oils using Trimethylolpropane Polyol.

Environmental pollution over time has raised challenges that elicit concerns for the nearest future. Synthetic lubricants, especially those obtained from petroleum products, contribute to environmental pollution. Thus, there is a need for the production of environmentally friendly lubricant as an alternative to petroleum-based lubricant currently being used. This work explored the potential of Parinari and Neem oils for the production of biolubricant using double transesterification method. Parinari oil was extracted from parinari seed using Sohxlet extraction method, and neem oil was purchased from Akande market in Ogbomoso, Oyo state, Nigeria. Both oils were pre-analysed for physico-chemical properties based on American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) methods. Trimethylolpropane (TMP) was used to increase the lubricating property of the transesterified parinari seed oil. The results showed that, the kinematic viscosity for Parinari based lubricant produced ranged between 12.1 – 67.4 cP at 40 ℃ and 15.5-28.6 cP at 100 ℃, while the kinematic viscosity for Neem-based lubricant produced ranged between 55.7 – 647.3 cP at 40 ℃ and 122.9 – 171.6 cP at 100 ℃. Parinari based lubricant had a viscosity index ranging from 159.7-174.4 and neem-based lubricant ranged from 326-365. Viscosities were all compared against SAE standard. SAE 30, 40 and 50 had kinematic viscosities ranging between 9.3-12.5, 12.5-16.3 and 16.3-21.9 respectively. Furthermore, all the biolubricants showed relatively high viscosity indexes with potentials for application in heavy equipment. NBL showed higher kinematic viscosity with longer transesterification reaction time. NBL gave random outputs for each run for biolubricants produced. Therefore, Parinari and Neem oil-based lubricants are potential lubricants as an alternative to petroleum-based lubricant. &nbsp

Microvascular Complications of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in an Adolescent: Case Report

Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus is a common chronic health problem with microvascular complications such as neuropathy, retinopathy and nephropathy in the pediatric population throughout the life. Screening of these complications should be done regularly, and appropriate preventive strategies should be followed. We present a 17 year old Type 1 diabetic patient who admitted to the hospital with the complaint of unhealed wound of his toe. An integrated and personal care of his clinical status revealed that he had diabetic microvascular complications including diabetic foot, neurogenic bladder, retinopathy, cataract and nephropathy