Leaf anatomy and pollen morphology: sources of additional taxonomic characters in delimiting species of Duboscia Bocq. (Malvaceae S.L.) occurring in parts of southern Nigeria

Duboscia is a genus of two species native to tropical Africa. It belongs to the Malvaceae family. The composition of the genus has been a subject of controversy since its establishment. Leaf anatomy and pollen characters of the Duboscia species were investigated using light microscopy with a view to provide additional taxonomic characters in delimiting species boundary in the genus. Dried leaves rehydrated in boiled water were used for the anatomical studies while flow-er buds were used for pollen morphological studies. Epidermal cells were isodiametric, polygonal to irregular with straight to wavy anticlinal cell walls. Leaves were bifacial and hypostomatic with anisocytic and staurocytic stomata types. Pollen grains were small (21.3 – 23.5 μm) and tricolporate. A combination of characters such as type of trichomes, number of glandular trichome head cells in leaves and petioles, shape of the midrib and petiole vascular bun-dle, petiole vascular bundle isolates, petiole outline, number of chlorenchyma cell layers and secretory ducts in midrib and petiole, exine surface, Amb and colpi length can be used as additional taxonomic characters to distinguish the two species and to determine their phylogenetic relationship between related genera in the tribe Grewieae. A key is provided for the identification and delimitation of the species

Breast cancer receptor status assessment and clinicopathological association in Nigerian women: A retrospective analysis

Background: Breast cancer markers are becoming increasingly important in breast cancer research due to their impact on prognosis, treatment and survival. The present retrospective study was carried out to quantify the proportion of estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR), and human epithelial receptor 2 (HER2) expressions and their association with tumour grade, age, and tumour size in breast cancer patients in Nigeria. Materials and methods: The paraffin embedded tissue sections were analysed for breast cancer markers using monoclonal antibody SP1 for ER and SP2 for PR and polyclonal antibody ErbB2 for HER2. Results: A total of 286 breast cancer paraffin wax tissue sections were analysed for ER, PR and HER2 expression. Of all the tissue samples examined, 20 (7%) were ER-positive, 6 (2.1%) were PR-positive, 11 (3.8%) were HER2-positive whereas 248 (87%) were triple-negative breast carcinoma. ER- and PR-positivity was associated with early grade I and II tumours (P 50mm (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: A small proportion of Nigerian women with breast cancer are ER/PR-positive which are associated with less aggressive, better prognosis and benefit from endocrine therapy. An even smaller proportion of patients with aggressive tumors were HER2-posivite but responsive to Herceptin treatment. Unfortunately, a very high proportion of cases were triple-negative which is associated with very aggressive tumours and no targeted treatment, which may explain the high mortality rates from breast cancer in Nigeri

HABITAT USE STRATEGY OF VERTEBRATES IN AN EMERGING NATURE RESERVE

The habitat use strategy of vertebrates in Alabata Strict Nature Reserve was studied. Twenty (20) sample plots of 25m x 25m (0.062ha) were laid at random over the total area of the study site for data collection. King Census and Line Transect methods were modified for this study using direct and indirect modes of wildlife stock assessment for an accurate collection of data due to the dense nature of the vegetation in some areas. One hundred and twenty-one vertebrate species, belonging to fifty-six families were recorded. Twenty-seven families were represented by just a single species each, while thirteen families had two species each. The family Colubridae was represented by ten species, while Rattudae and &nbsp;Sciuridae had a single species respectively. Birds were the most encountered (more than 60%) followed by mammals (more than 20%) while the Order Reptalia constitutes the remaining (less than 20%). Food and cover requirements abound in the study area, which explains the availability of a variety of fauna species. There is a strong association between the environmental variables and animal species thus; distribution, performance and survival of the species are directly influenced by these variables. The Principal component analysis and Ordination shows that the ecosystem of the study site is not stable yet. This can be observed from the clustering of the animal species together in an attempt to make the best use of the environment. The maintenance of a healthy ecosystem is largely dependent on its management and control of activities of man and animals. &nbsp

Empirical Characterization of the Temporal Dynamics of EEG Spectral Components

The properties of time-domain electroencephalographic data have been studied extensively. There has however been no attempt to characterize the temporal evolution of resulting spectral components when successive segments of electroencephalographic data are decomposed. We analyzed resting-state scalp electroencephalographic data from 23 subjects, acquired at 256 Hz, and transformed using 64-point Fast Fourier Transform with a Hamming window. KPSS and Nason tests were administered to study the trend- and wide sense stationarity respectively of the spectral components. Thereafter, the Rosenstein algorithm for dynamic evolution was applied to determine the largest Lyapunov exponents of each component’s temporal evolution. We found that the evolutions were wide sense stationary for time scales up to 8 s, and had significant interactions, especially between spectral series in the frequency ranges 0–4 Hz, 12–24 Hz, and 32-128 Hz. The spectral series were generally non-chaotic, with average largest Lyapunov exponent of 0. The results show that significant information is contained in all frequency bands, and that the interactions between bands are complicated and time-varying

SHORT COMMUNICATION: HYDROCARBON ACCUMULATION AND DISCHARGE BY THE CRAYFISH IN SOME RIVERS OF LAGOS, NIGERIA

Crayfishes exposed to 14C-naphthalene-5% of an aqueous fraction of crude oil in open non-aerated glass jars for 4 h at 25 0C showed no significant differences (P > 0.25) in the amount of naphthalene uptake. Different parts of the crayfishes were quantified for naphthalene uptake and cephalothorax containing hepatopancreas (a food absorption organ) was found to have greater uptake than the tail flesh or tail skeleton. Release of the oil from the crayfishes that were exposed for 1, 2, 3 or 4 h and later placed in open non-aerated jars containing oil-free water showed greater loss of most of the 14C activity during the first 24 h, there was little losses at 48, 72 and 96 h. There was significant volatilization (P < 0.04) of 14C-naphthalene in a 5% of crude oil placed in open, non-aerated, oil-free glass jars for 24 h at 25 0C. (Received May 2, 2001; revised October 19, 2001) Bull.Chem.Soc.Ethiop. 2001, 15(2), 167-17

Board Gender Diversity and Financial Performance of Listed Deposit Money Banks

In developing countries such as Nigeria, the role of women is minimized at the economic and social strata; thus limiting their contribution in the society. The main aim of this study is therefore to examine the effect of board gender diversity on financial performance of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study sampled 12 listed deposit money banks and obtained data spanning from 2012 to 2022. The result of the regression analysis document that the proportion of female directors to total directors on the board has no significant negative effect on financial performance of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria while the presence of critical mass of female directors (at least three female directors) has a positive and significant effect on financial performance of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study recommends for the inclusion and participation of more women on the corporate board of banks in order to ensure that their impact are more felt on their financial performance

Hypertensive heart disease in Africa

Hypertension has become an important public health problem in Africa. Currently an epidemiologic transition from infectious diseases is going on in the continent and the prevalence of chronic diseases like hypertension is increasing. The response of the heart to the stress/afterload imposed on the left ventricle by the progressively increasing arterial blood pressure is described as hypertensive heart disease. Hypertensive heart disease and failure are the commonest cardiovascular diseases of Africans. Since hypertension is a treatable cardiovascular risk factor, there is need to create more awareness about the disease and educate our patients concerning drug compliance. There is also a need for longitudinal multicentre study in Africa, in order to assess the severity and burden of the disease

Assessment of frog meat utilisation in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria

Frogs are among the most threatened species of wildlife in IUCN red list. Its utilisation in Ibadan, a major depot in western Nigeria was therefore conducted with the aim of assessing the forms and trend of use; and amongst others, reasons for frog meat consumption. Data for the study were collected through questionnaire, in-depth interviews and field observations. The questionnaire was administered randomly to 50 frog consumers from each of the two selected local government areas, while all traders (27) who sell frogs for medicinal purposes were also interviewed. Data collected were summarised using descriptive statistics. Results showed that only 35.0% of the respondents utilize frog for other purpose apart from consumption. Among these few respondents, 94.3% use it for medicinal purposes. Frog species used for medicinal purpose includes Amietophrynus regularis; Tomopterna cryptotis; and Ptychadena mascareniensis. All the respondents (100%) buy the frogs utilised, have knowledge of the sellers and were unaware of frog farms in Nigeria. All the respondents (100%) considered frog meat desirable and preferred it when dried. Almost all the respondents (98.0%) have consumed frog meat more than 10 times. Majority of the respondents (65.0%) consume frogs because of its nutritional value while few (35.0%) eat it due to economic reasons. Most respondents (77.0%) prefer the meat for its flavour, and consumed it whole (78.0%). Frog meat sold for N100 is most preferred by respondents (44.0%).Majority of the respondents (65.0%) buy frog meat once a week but utilize it twice a week (39.0%) or once a week (38.0%). However, 70.0% of the respondents would buy more frogs if they had more money. Majority of these respondents (84.0%) are unwilling to engage in frog farming.Keywords: Frogs, Utilization, Wildlife, Biodiversity Conservatio

Prevalence and pattern of prescription errors in a Nigerian kidney hospital

Objectives: To determine (i) the prevalence and pattern of prescription errors in our Centre and, (ii) appraise pharmacists’ intervention and correction of identified prescription errors.Design: A descriptive, single blinded cross-sectional study.Setting: Kidney Care Centre is a public Specialist hospital. The monthly patient load averages 60 General Outpatient cases and 17.4 in-patients.Participants: A total of 31 medical doctors (comprising of 2 Consultant Nephrologists, 15 Medical Officers, 14 House Officers), 40 nurses and 24 ward assistants participated in the study. One pharmacist runs the daily call schedule. Prescribers were blinded to the study. Prescriptions containing only galenicals were excluded.Interventions: An error detection mechanism was set up to identify and correct prescription errors. Life-threatening prescriptions were discussed with the Quality Assurance Team of the Centre who conveyed such errors to the prescriber without revealing the on-going study.Main outcome measures: Prevalence of prescription errors, pattern of prescription errors, pharmacist’s intervention.Results: A total of 2,660 (75.0%) combined prescription errors were found to have one form of error or the other; illegitimacy 1,388 (52.18%), omission 1,221(45.90%), wrong dose 51(1.92%) and no error of style was detected. Life-threatening errors were low (1.1-2.2%). Errors were found more commonly among junior doctors and nonmedical doctors. Only 56 (1.6%) of the errors were detected and corrected during the process of dispensing.Conclusion: Prescription errors related to illegitimacy and omissions were highly prevalent. There is a need to improve on patient-to-healthcare giver ratio. A medication quality assurance unit is needed in our hospitals.Funding: No financial support was received by any of the authors for this study.Keywords: Doctors, drugs, hospitals, Nigeria, prescription errors

Research trends on CAPTCHA: A systematic literature

The advent of technology has crept into virtually all sectors and this has culminated in automated processes making use of the Internet in executing various tasks and actions. Web services have now become the trend when it comes to providing solutions to mundane tasks. However, this development comes with the bottleneck of authenticity and intent of users. Providers of these Web services, whether as a platform, as a software or as an Infrastructure use various human interaction proof’s (HIPs) to validate authenticity and intent of its users. Completely automated public turing test to tell computer and human apart (CAPTCHA), a form of IDS in web services is advantageous. Research into CAPTCHA can be grouped into two -CAPTCHA development and CAPTCH recognition. Selective learning and convolutionary neural networks (CNN) as well as deep convolutionary neural network (DCNN) have become emerging trends in both the development and recognition of CAPTCHAs. This paper reviews critically over fifty article publications that shows the current trends in the area of the CAPTCHA scheme, its development and recognition mechanisms and the way forward in helping to ensure a robust and yet secure CAPTCHA development in guiding future research endeavor in the subject domain