Assessment of body composition, smoking and alcohol as risk factors to hypertension among adults in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Background: Cardiovascular disease is a group of disorders/diseases of the heart and blood vessels, including heart attack and stroke that is responsible for many deaths around the world. Objective: The general objective of this study was to assess body composition, smoking and alcohol as risk factors to hypertension among adults in Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria. Methods: Four wards were randomly selected from each of the three local government areas in the city of Abeokuta, Ogun State. Convenient sampling method was used to recruit 300 voluntary respondents into the study. A semi structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographic, socio-economic characteristics, modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors of non-communicable chronic diseases and the dietary habits of the respondents. Blood pressure and anthropometric measurement of respondents were taken using standard procedures. Results: The results indicated that majority of the respondents were within the age ranges of 41-50 years (32%). Using the American Heart Association (AHA) blood pressure classification, 40.3% had normal blood pressure, 30.7% were pre-hypertensive while 29.0% had hypertension. More than half of the respondents (55.3%) were overweight while 17.0% were obese, 6.1 % were current smokers and 21% were current alcohol drinkers. Blood pressure had a positive correlation with tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking, body mass index and waist-hip-ratio, these associations were significant at p<0.05. Tobacco smoking contributed significantly to hypertension in this study (R2=0.114, F=38.342, p= 0.000). Conclusion: Findings of the study showed a high prevalence of hypertension, overweight and obesity, alcohol intake and smoking were significantly associated with hypertension

Development of an IoT Based Data Acquisition and Automatic Irrigation System for Precision Agriculture

Agriculture has benefited greatly from improvements in Internet of Things based technology. Farm data can be sent to farmers in real-time through the advent of Internet of Things based technology which integrates data collection, transmission, storage and other essential components that provide for great user experience. This work involves the development of a system that enable the transmission of sensor field data to the Internet, via a microcontroller, a transceiver and a Wi-Fi module. In this work, an Internet of Things based data acquisition and automatic irrigation system for precision agriculture was designed and implemented using Arduino Uno, Soil Moisture and Temperature sensors, Proteus design suite, and the Arduino integrated development environment software. The significance of this work is evident as it, enables farmers perform specified functionalities at the comfort of their home, minimize wastage of water during irrigation and most importantly reduce the maintainability cost of the farm through minimal physical supervision. This work also elicits requirements for better improvements on the IoT-based data acquisition and automatic irrigation system

Food Consumption Score, Dietary Habits and Anthropometric Indices of Market Traders in Owo Township, Ondo State, Nigeria

Background: Globally, the burden of obesity and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is rapidly increasing, and the African continent is not left out.Objective: This study assessed the food consumption score, dietary habits and anthropometric indices of market traders in Owo Township, Ondo State, Nigeria.Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study, which involved 205traders who were conveniently selected from three major markets in Owo. Information from the participants was obtained using structured, self- administered questionnaire. Food consumption score was assessed using World Food Programme (WFP) food consumption analysis while central obesity was assessed using Waist–Hip Ratio (WHR), Waist Circumference (WC) and Waist-Height ratio (WHtR). Data was presented in frequency and percentage. All statistics was test at significant level of P ≤ 0.05.Results: Results revealed that (30.2%) of the market traders were within the age group of 30- 39years,57.6% of the respondents were married, while approximately27% had between 4 and 6 children. About 67.3% of the respondents were Christian. Few (6.3%) had first degree certificate. Majorities, (90.7%) always add vegetables to their diet and 39.5% % eat fruit regularly while 56.1% meet the acceptable food consumption score. Abnormal values for WC, WHR, and WHtR were 26.8%, 38.5%, and 47.8% respectively.A significant difference existed waist circumference (P=0.02), waist-hip ratio (P=0.003), waist to height ratio (P=0.001), and sex of the respondents.Conclusion: This study observed high prevalence of central obesity and a high acceptable food consumption score level among the market traders in Owo. Keywords: Food consumption score, traders, dietary habits, central obesit

The fiscal constraint to restructuring firms in transition economies

Biotechnology research and innovation depends on the ability to understand the molecular mechanisms of biological processes such as protein–protein and protein–ligand interactions. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy is now well established as a quantitative technique for monitoring biomolecular interactions. In this study, we examined the recently developed quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) method as an alternative to SPR spectroscopy to investigate protein–protein interactions, in particular, for chaperone–co-chaperone interactions. In mammalian cells, the Hsp70/Hsp90 organizing protein (Hop) is a co-chaperone required for the association of the molecular chaperones, heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) and heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90). The objective of this research was to characterize qualitatively and quantitatively the interaction of Hsp70 with Hop. A truncated version of Hop consisting of only the C-terminal region and lacking the Hsp70-binding domain (GST-C-Hop) was used as a non-Hsp70- binding control. Immobilized GST-Hop was found to bind Hsp70 successfully, displaying a QCM-D response consistent with formation of a complex that became slightly more flexible as the concentration of bound Hsp70 increased. GST-C-Hop did not bind to Hsp70, thereby validating the specificity of the GST-Hop interaction with Hsp70. The kinetics of the interaction was followed at different concentrations of Hsp70, and an apparent thermodynamic dissociation constant (KD value) in the micromolar range was determined that correlated well with the value derived previously using SPR. This study represents a proof-of-principle that QCM-D can be applied to the analysis of chaperone–co-chaperone interactions. The economic and technical accessibility of QCM-D makes it a valuable tool for analyses of chaperone interactions, and protein– protein interactions in general