Occurrence, Diversity and Abundance of Nematode Pests of Pineapple (Ananas comosus) in Two Local Government Areas of Rivers State, Nigeria

Plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) contribute to yield losses in pineapple production. Limited studies have been conducted on plant-parasitic nematodes on pineapple despite reports of PPNs infecting it. A survey was conducted in Obio-Akpor and Ikwerre Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Rivers State to determine the occurrence, abundance and diversity of PPNs associated with pineapple. A total of 60 composite samples were collected from the two LGAs. Nematodes were extracted from soil and root samples using the modified Baermann technique and identified using standard procedures. Data were processed using relative frequency of occurrence (RFOC), relative importance values (RIVs), diversity indices, nematode population was calculated and analysis of variance. The most occurring plant-parasitic nematodes were Pratylenchus, Helicotylenchus, Meloidogyne, Scutellonema and Tylenchulus. In Obio Akpor LGA, Helicotylenchus with RFOC 33.3% was the most occurring nematode pests, while Pratylenchus was the most important plant-parasitic nematode (RIV 33.8%). In Ikwerre LGA, both Helicotylenchus and Pratylenchus have the same occurrence (RFOC 33.3%) with Pratylenchus being the most important nematode pest. Pratylenchus species with RIV of 52.4% were the most important PPNs associated with pineapple in both Obio-Akpor and Ikwerre LGAs. Dominance and Shannon- Weiner indices among the PPNs are 0.58 and 0.86, respectively. In Ikwerre and Obio-Akpor LGAs, Aluu (1530) and Rumuekini (630) pineapple farms have the highest population of PPNs, respectively. Ikwerre LGA (2,150) pineapple farms had more PPNs than Obio-Akpor LGA (660). Nematode pests are associated with pineapple in the two LGAs and could be contributing to yield losses

Effect of Compost Made from Decomposing Cocoa Pod and Animal Dung on the Yield of Maize Crop

Ondo State has the largest production of cocoa in Nigeria, cocoa pod on most cocoa plantation in the state are usually left as an environmental nuisance on the cocoa plantation. Effect of compost made from decomposing cocoa pod and animal dung on the yield of maize crop were investigated for nine weeks. Cocoa pods were decomposed using animal dung (poultry droppings, pig and cow dung) in ratio 3:1 of cocoa pod to each of the animal dung. Cocoa pod and poultry droppings mixture has the highest bacterial, fungal and yeast population of 2.6 x106 – 2.9 x 106 (cfu/ml), 8.4 x105 – 9.2 x 105 (sfu/ml) and 4.0 x104 – 12.0 x 104 (cfu/ml). It also had the highest moisture content (88.81%) and temperature (350C) among the composting materials. Fifteen bacteria and thirteen fungi were isolated during the decomposition; common microorganisms that occur throughout decomposition were Bacillus sp, Pseudomonas sp, Escherichia coli, Staphylococus aureus, Serratia Sp, Fusarium sp, Mucor sp, Tricoderma sp, Aspergillus sp, Cladosporum sp and Neurospora sp. The pH of decomposing samples ranged from 6.10 to 7.81 at the initial stage of decomposition and pH of 7.79-9.07 at maturity of the compost. Poultry cocoa compost has the highest NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) content of 1.345, 7.955 and 23.016 (mg/kg) respectively. Experimental setup was carried out in the field and in the screen house which the cocoa pod compost and NPK fertilizer was use to plant yellow and white maize. The compost fertilizer had a better better output than the NPK fertilizer. Height-350cm, grithy-8cm, cob-15 (big and strong) colour of maize plant (deep green leaves) while height-320cm, grith -4cm, cob-10 (small and colour of maize plant (greenish yellow leaves) for the cocoa compost and NPK fertilizer respectively were at the field Cocoa pod and poultry droppings mixture has the highest of the yellow and white maize (136cm and 126cm) respectively while the NPK sample has the lowest height of 55cm and 50 cm respectively of yellow and white maize

Psychoactive substance use and level of risk among a geriatric population accessing three primary care facilities in Nigeria

We aimed to assess the prevalence, correlates of psychoactive substance use including misuse of prescription medications and its associated harm among a group of elderly patients attending three primary care facilities in Benin-city, Edo state, Nigeria. The WHO ASSIST was administered to assess for psychoactive substance use and level of risk of some elderly participants. Lifetime prevalence and current prevalence of substance use was obtained. Among participants, 12.7% demonstrated moderate risk to alcohol use while 2.9% demonstrated high risk to its use. Fifteen percent (15%) demonstrated moderate risk to stimulant use while 1.2% demonstrated high risk to its use. Twentyeight percent (28.3%) demonstrated  moderate risk to opioid analgesic use while 0.6% demonstrated high risk to its use. Male gender was associated with a higher risk of tobacco use, alcohol use and stimulant use. Female gender was associated with a higher risk of sedative use. Only 3(1.7%) of these participants had received   previous treatment for a substance use disorder. Keywords: Elderly, primary care, substance use, prescription medication, level of ris

Self-reported psychological distress and its relationship with religiousness of Nigerian physicians: A multicenter study

Physicians are prone to psychological distress, and this has been poorly studied in association with religiousness. As a result, the prevalence of psychological distress among physicians and its relationship with religiousness was investigated. The study was conducted at two neuropsychiatric centers, and two teaching hospitals in the South-South and South-West regions of Nigeria. Demographics and practice-related characteristics of 231 physicians were collected in addition to report on psychological distress using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, and a religiousness measuring scale, Ironson–Woods Spirituality/Religiosity Index. Chi-square and t-test analyses were done using SPSS version 19. The prevalence rate of significant psychological distress among physicians was 19.05%. The physicians’ specialty of practice fell short of statistically significant association with religiousness (X2=9.02, p=0.06). There was no significant association between physicians’ state of health and religiousness. Psychological distress is fairly common among physicians and shows no relationship with religiousness

Enrichment of Pachytene Spermatocytes and Spermatids from Mouse Testes Using Standard Laboratory Equipment

To characterize each step of spermatogenesis, researchers must separate different subpopulations of germ cells from testes. However, isolating discrete populations is challenging, because the adult testis contains a complex mix of germ cells from all steps of spermatogenesis along with certain populations of somatic cells. Over the past few decades, different techniques such as centrifugal elutriation, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), and STA-PUT have been successfully applied to the isolation of germ cells. A drawback is that they all require dedicated devices and specialized training. Following principles underlying the STA-PUT method, a simple protocol has been developed for the isolation of pachytene spermatocytes, round spermatids, and elongating spermatids from mouse testes. After preparing a single cell suspension of testicular cells, specific cell populations are enriched by gravity sedimentation through a discontinuous bovine serum albumin (BSA) density gradient. The cell fractions are then manually collected and microscopically analysed. This modified density gradient for round spermatids (MDR) sedimentation protocol can be widely applied, because it requires only standard laboratory equipment. Furthermore, the protocol requires minimal starting materials, reducing its cost and use of laboratory animals

Prevalence of malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency in Nigerian preschool children subsisting on high intakes of carotenes

The prevalence of malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency was determined in 204 preschool children of both sexes aged 3–57 months. The children were recruited from 2 rural communities of Atakumosa Local Government Area of Osun State in South West Nigeria. Dietary vitamin A intake was estimated from frequency of consumption of locally available vitamin A containing food items. Vitamin A status of the children was assessed from concentration of retinol in plasma. Nutritional status was assessed from height and weight compared with international reference standards. The results indicate widespread malnutrition among the children. The prevalence of stunting (low height for age) was 60.8% while prevalence of wasting (low weight for height) was 7.4% and of underweight (low weight for age) 27.5%. Dietary vitamin A intake appeared to be adequate in the children. Intake of vitamin A is predominantly from plant sources. At least 43% of the children consumed the carotene rich red palm oil 6 or more times per week in contrast to less than 1% who consumed eggs or milk for 6 or more times per week. Vitamin A deficiency was low in the children. Only 11.3% of the children had plasma retinol concentration <0.70µmol/L. The results indicate that childhood malnutrition of public health magnitude can coexist with adequate dietary vitamin A intakes or vitamin A status

A Tool for Biotechnological Advancement 1

Bioinformatics has been a useful tool for the advancement and enhancement of biotechnology in recent times with its application in various fields. Bioinformatics has thereby helped invent useful products and create solutions to problems in aspects including utilization of the genome attributes of various living organisms to acquire a better understanding of their biology. It has been used to understand the biology of pathogenic microorganism’s product developments such as reverse vaccinology, drug discovery, personalized medicine, waste clean-up, climate change, and crop improvement. We highlight, in the section, some of the bioinformatics components of biotechnology that are used for translational research in the life sciences

Detection of malaria parasites in dried human blood spots using mid-infrared spectroscopy and logistic regression analysis

Background: Epidemiological surveys of malaria currently rely on microscopy, polymerase chain reaction assays (PCR) or rapid diagnostic test kits for Plasmodium infections (RDTs). This study investigated whether mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy coupled with supervised machine learning could constitute an alternative method for rapid malaria screening, directly from dried human blood spots. Methods: Filter papers containing dried blood spots (DBS) were obtained from a cross-sectional malaria survey in 12 wards in southeastern Tanzania in 2018/19. The DBS were scanned using attenuated total reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectrometer to obtain high-resolution MIR spectra in the range 4000 cm−1 to 500 cm−1. The spectra were cleaned to compensate for atmospheric water vapour and CO2 interference bands and used to train different classification algorithms to distinguish between malaria-positive and malaria-negative DBS papers based on PCR test results as reference. The analysis considered 296 individuals, including 123 PCR-confirmed malaria positives and 173 negatives. Model training was done using 80% of the dataset, after which the best-fitting model was optimized by bootstrapping of 80/20 train/test-stratified splits. The trained models were evaluated by predicting Plasmodium falciparum positivity in the 20% validation set of DBS. Results: Logistic regression was the best-performing model. Considering PCR as reference, the models attained overall accuracies of 92% for predicting P. falciparum infections (specificity = 91.7%; sensitivity = 92.8%) and 85% for predicting mixed infections of P. falciparum and Plasmodium ovale (specificity = 85%, sensitivity = 85%) in the field-collected specimen. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that mid-infrared spectroscopy coupled with supervised machine learning (MIR-ML) could be used to screen for malaria parasites in human DBS. The approach could have potential for rapid and high-throughput screening of Plasmodium in both non-clinical settings (e.g., field surveys) and clinical settings (diagnosis to aid case management). However, before the approach can be used, we need additional field validation in other study sites with different parasite populations, and in-depth evaluation of the biological basis of the MIR signals. Improving the classification algorithms, and model training on larger datasets could also improve specificity and sensitivity. The MIR-ML spectroscopy system is physically robust, low-cost, and requires minimum maintenance