Geological and Geotechnical Evaluation of Gully Erosion at Nguzu Edda, Afikpo Sub-Basin, Southeastern Nigeria

A detailed geological field mapping of Nguzu Edda has revealed that gully erosion and landslides have remained active over the years, posing serious threats to human life, agricultural land, infrastructure and socio-economic activities within the area. Consequently, twelve true representative soil samples from different locations within gully sites have been analyzed based on ASTM and British Standards, to evaluate geologic conditions and geotechnical parameters that influence the gullies problems. The results of the laboratory tests revealed that the soil at the gully sites are predominantly sands (57~99.5 % with mean of 69.7%) with low amount of fines (silt; 0.3~ 22% with average value of 14.6% and clay: 0.2 ~ 21% with average value of 13.9%). The liquid limit (LL) ranged from 15 ~ 31.50 % with mean of 23.32% and the plasticity index (PI) ranged from 2.92~14.42% with mean of 8.95%. The moisture content, permeability, bulk density, porosity, organic matter and pH have average values of 25.31%, 6.04×10-4 cm/sec, 1.55 kg/m3, 40.40, 1.26% and 5.12, respectively. The cation exchange capacity (CEC) is low, which could be attributed to low organic matter, pH and non active clay minerals. With regard to the aforementioned characteristics, the soils at gully sites are loose sands with low amount of fines fraction, hence cohesionless, and are easily exposed to agents/factors of gully erosion. Thus, provides insights about the vulnerable causes of gully erosion and landslides problems that are prevalent in the area. This research addresses, to a great extent the effects of local geology, geotechnical properties of the underlying soil and associated human activities on the formation of gully erosion, in-turn results to landslides within in the study area. Engineering-geologic aspects of soil erosion control were also recommended. Keywords: Afikpo Sub-basin, Geologic conditions, Geotechnical analysis, Gully erosion and Erosion control measures

Effects of Aqueous Extract of Moringa oleifera on Phenylhydrazine-induced Liver Toxicity in Wistar Rats

Moringa oleifera has been shown to have a variety of medicinal benefits, including hepatoprotective effects. Phenylhydrazine has been used to cause hepatotoxicity in experimental models. In this study, an aqueous extract of Moringa oleifera was used to evaluate the ameliorating properties of phenylhydrazine-induced liver damage by assessing liver enzymes and histoarchitecture employing twenty-five (25) mature Wistar rats were divided into five (5) groups. Group A received 1 ml distilled water, Group B received 50 mg/kg phenylhydrazine twice in 48 hours, Group C received 500 mg/kg body weight of Moringa oleifera aqueous extract for four (4) weeks, Group D received 50 mg/kg phenylhydrazine twice in 48 hours and 500 mg/kg body weight of Moringa oleifera aqueous extract for four (4) weeks, and Group E received 50 mg/kg of phenylhydrazine twice in forty-eight (48) hours and 70 mg/kg body weight of Silymarin for four (4) weeks.  After the administration of phenylhydrazine, significant increases (P<0.05) in the mean concentrations of liver enzymes (ALP, AST, ALT) and total protein were observed, whereas treatment with Moringa oleifera resulted in a reversal of those parameters to values comparable to the control and the standard drug - Silymarin. Overall, the results showed that Moringa oleifera aqueous extract had considerable hepatoprotective capability against phenylhydrazine-induced hepatotoxicity

Possible association between ABCC8 C49620T polymorphism and type 2 diabetes in a Nigerian population

The association between ABCC8 gene C49620T polymorphism and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in populations of diverse ethnic backgrounds has been reported. However, such occurrence in an African population is yet to be established. This case-control study involving 73 T2D and 75 non-diabetic (ND) patients investigated the occurrence of this polymorphism among T2D patients in Nigeria and assessed its relationship with body lipids of patients. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were collected and lipid profile indices including total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) were assayed. Restriction fragment length polymorphism-PCR (RFLP-PCR) was employed to genotype the ABCC8-C49620T polymorphism using PstI restriction enzyme. This study revealed significantly (p 0.05) of T2D for the unadjusted codominant, dominant and recessive models. Following age adjustment, the mutant genotypes (CT and TT) showed significant (p<0.05) risk of T2D for all the models with the recessive model presenting the greatest risk of T2D (OR: 2.39, 95% CI: 1.16-4.91, p<0.018). The TT genotype significantly (p<0.05) associated with high level of HDL and reduced levels of TC, TG and LDL in non-diabetic patients but was not associated with any of the demographic and clinical characteristics among T2D patients. ABCC8 C49620T polymorphism showed possible association with T2D marked by predominance of the mutant TT genotype in T2D patients. However, the relationship between TT genotype and lipid abnormalities for possible beneficial effect on people suffering from T2D is unclear

High-throughput phenotyping and improvements in breeding cassava for increased carotenoids in the roots

Past research developed reliable equations to base selections for high β-carotene on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) predictions (100 genotypes d−1) rather than with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (<10 samples d−1). During recent harvest, CIAT made selections based on NIR predictions for the first time. This innovation produced valuable information that will help other cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) breeding programs. A total of 284 samples were analyzed with NIR and HPLC for total β-carotene (TBC) and by the oven method for dry matter content (DMC). Results indicated that NIR reliably predicted TBC and DMC. In addition, 232 genotypes grown in preliminary yield trials (PYTs) were harvested at 8.5 and 10.5 mo after planting (one plant per genotype and age) and root quality traits analyzed (by NIR only). Repeatability of results at the two ages was excellent, suggesting reliable results from NIR. In contrast to previous reports, age of the plant did not influence carotenoids content in the roots. The availability of a high-throughput NIR protocol allowed comparing results (for the first time) from seedling and cloned plants from the same genotype. Results showed very little relationship for DMC between seedling and cloned plants (R2 = 0.09). There was a much better association for TBC (R2 = 0.48) between seedling and cloned plants. It is postulated that variation in the environmental conditions when seedling and cloned plants (from the same genotype) may be responsible for these weak associations. Important changes in selection strategies have been implemented to overcome problems related to a lengthy harvesting season. (Résumé d'auteur

Detecting human Activities Based on a multimodal sensor data set using a bidirectional long short-term memory model: a case study

Human falls are one of the leading causes of fatal unintentional injuries worldwide. Falls result in a direct financial cost to health systems, and indirectly, to society’s productivity. Unsurprisingly, human fall detection and prevention is a major focus of health research. In this chapter, we present and evaluate several bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) models using a data set provided by the Challenge UP competition. The main goal of this study is to detect 12 human daily activities (six daily human activities, five falls, and one post-fall activity) derived from multi-modal data sources - wearable sensors, ambient sensors, and vision devices. Our proposed Bi-LSTM model leverages data from accelerometer and gyroscope sensors located at the ankle, right pocket, belt, and neck of the subject. We utilize a grid search technique to evaluate variations of the Bi-LSTM model and identify a configuration that presents the best results. The best Bi-LSTM model achieved good results for precision and f1-score, 43.30% and 38.50%, respectivel

Monitoring of microbial hydrocarbon remediation in the soil

Bioremediation of hydrocarbon pollutants is advantageous owing to the cost-effectiveness of the technology and the ubiquity of hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms in the soil. Soil microbial diversity is affected by hydrocarbon perturbation, thus selective enrichment of hydrocarbon utilizers occurs. Hydrocarbons interact with the soil matrix and soil microorganisms determining the fate of the contaminants relative to their chemical nature and microbial degradative capabilities, respectively. Provided the polluted soil has requisite values for environmental factors that influence microbial activities and there are no inhibitors of microbial metabolism, there is a good chance that there will be a viable and active population of hydrocarbon-utilizing microorganisms in the soil. Microbial methods for monitoring bioremediation of hydrocarbons include chemical, biochemical and microbiological molecular indices that measure rates of microbial activities to show that in the end the target goal of pollutant reduction to a safe and permissible level has been achieved. Enumeration and characterization of hydrocarbon degraders, use of micro titer plate-based most probable number technique, community level physiological profiling, phospholipid fatty acid analysis, 16S rRNA- and other nucleic acid-based molecular fingerprinting techniques, metagenomics, microarray analysis, respirometry and gas chromatography are some of the methods employed in bio-monitoring of hydrocarbon remediation as presented in this review

Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower and higher and use more stable pitches than speech: A Registered Report

Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: (i) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conversational speech, and instrumental melodies from our 75 coauthors speaking 55 languages; and (ii) 418 previously published adult-directed song and speech recordings from 209 individuals speaking 16 languages. Of our six preregistered predictions, five were strongly supported: Relative to speech, songs use (i) higher pitch, (ii) slower temporal rate, and (iii) more stable pitches, while both songs and speech used similar (iv) pitch interval size and (v) timbral brightness. Exploratory analyses suggest that features vary along a “musi-linguistic” continuum when including instrumental melodies and recited lyrics. Our study provides strong empirical evidence of cross-cultural regularities in music and speech