SOIL PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND MICROFLORA AS INFLUENCED BY PARAQUAT APPLICATIONS

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of paraquat (1, 1’-di methyl-4,4’-biyridinium dichloride) at the recommended and twice the recommended field application rates on soil physicochemical properties and microorganisms. The effects of the herbicide on soil pH, organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus content and cation exchange capacity were analyzed along with microbial populations and the growth and distribution of representative soil microorganisms were obtained using standard procedures. There was no significant effect of paraquat on soil physicochemical properties at P>0.05. Paraquat applications at both concentrations caused reduction in the bacterial and fungal populations with twice the recommended rate having more adverse effect when compared with the control while the fungal populations were more adversely affected than the bacteria populations by herbicide treatment. Reduced number of predominant bacteria and fungi genera as well as the elimination of some secondary genera as observed in paraquat treated soils could be detrimental to the sustainability of soil fertility. These results are discussed in line with the soil management practices for sustainable crop productio

PHYTOTHERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL OF HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS FOR COVID-19

The current Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has reportedly posed a significant threat to the global public health institution systems. The treatment has been supportive and not effective. Coupled with the lack of vaccine interventions, the search for effective therapeutic alternatives is still on. Herbal supplements have been used in the treatment of viral diseases for years and could serve as an alternative for COVID-19 therapy if the combinations are known and tested. Recent studies have proved that certain herbal supplements have exhibited antiviral activity against similar coronaviruses. Besides, molecular docking studies further proved the efficacy of the antiviral activity of the herbal supplements against SARS-CoV-2. However, there is still a need for in-vitro and in-vivo studies of the antiviral activity of these herbal supplements against SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, these herbal supplements have a high therapeutic potential for COVID-19 therapy. This study reveals the chemical composition of herbal supplements to come up with findings that can redefine research and development, risk analysis, and containment of the novel coronavirus disease

Influence of Land Use Types on Physical and Chemical Properties in Oba Hill Forest Reserve, Iwo, South-western Nigeria

Ecosystems have been affected by series of activities that occurred on lands. The effects of land use change on the physical and chemical properties of the soil in Oba Hill Forest Reserve have been studied using standard instrumentation techniques. Results obtained showed that the texture of the soils ranged from loam to sandy loam while the pH of the soils from the four land use types ranged from 4.92 (acidic) to 7.80 (alkaline).The bulk densities in soils from the four land use types are natural forest (1.01 g/m3), teak plantation (1.21 g/m3), farmland (1.55 g/cm3) and residential (1.66 g/m3). Concentration of Mn in soils are higher than Zn, Cu and Fe from the all the studied land use types. Higher mean concentration values of Mn is recorded in soils from natural land (98.12±0.99 mg/kg) followed by plantation land with mean value of 74.32±0.52 while soils from residential land had lowest mean value of 19.59±0.13mg/kg. Soils from the natural land also have the highest mean concentrations value of Fe (69.04±0.26 mg/kg), Zn (21.48±0.11mg/kg) and Cu (15.43±0.04 mg/kg) while least mean concentration values of Fe (25.46±0.03 mg/kg), Zn (8.59±0.01mg/kg) and Cu (3.55±0.01mg/kg) are recorded in residential land. The results revealed that changing in land use types from natural forest to residential land decrease the organic matter, available nitrogen, soil moisture, porosity exchangeable cations, micronutrients and increased the bulk density in the soils. This study has shown that land use types can affect soil properties and existence of essential nutrients in the soils. &nbsp

Comparative Evaluation of Fodder Yield and Leaf Quality of Some Selected Tree Species

Abstract Tropical trees had served a wide range of purpose from supply of timber, fuel wood, pulp and fibre through to fodder, gum, drugs, and dyes. This study considered the fodder yield and leaf quality of three fodder tree species namely: Moringa oleifera, Albizia lebbeck and Gmelina arborea at seedling stage. The experiment was carried out in polythene pot laid out in a completely randomized design with ten replications. Study spanned over a period of twelve weeks. Seedlings were assessed for plant height, number of leaves and stem diameter. Leaf quality parameters assessed were elemental nutrient and proximate composition. Results obtained from the study showed that Moringa oleifera gave the highest mean plant height and mean stem diameter of 30.93cm and 3.52mm respectively while Gmelina arborea recorded the highest mean number of leaves (8.10) over the study period. Leaf quality analysis revealed that Albizia lebbeck leaves were richest in potassium and copper with values of 5.53% and 24.23mg/g respectively. Moringa oleifera was least in potassium content (4.55%). Proximate analysis result indicated that Moringa oleifera had the highest crude protein content of 17.88% while Albizia lebbeck was best in crude fibre content (2.00%). All three tree species recorded no significant difference in dry matter content of 45.08%, 45.00% and 45.63% respectively. These tree species should be encouraged within the farming system of farmer to aid animal production

Utilisation of the National Antiretroviral Therapy Guidelines among health care professionals working in Abuja treatment centres, Nigeria

Background: Access to and utilisations of the National Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines (NATG) are valuable factors for effective programme implementation. The objective of this study was to investigate the accessibility of the NATG and their utilisation by health care professionals from five treatment centres in Abuja, Nigeria. Method: A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted in 2007 using purposively sampled health care professionals. Questionnaires were self-administered to participants who consented in writing to participate in the survey. Results: 97 health care professionals participated in this study with about equal numbers of men and women: 48 (49.5%) women and 49 (50.5%) men. Of these, 21.6% were unaware of the existence of the NATG in their treatment centres. More than half (51.5%) reported that they did not have access to the NATG as opposed to those (48.5%) who had access to the guidelines. Furthermore, 16.5% of the participants confirmed that they had access to an institutional copy of the NATG while 14.4% indicated that they had individual copies and only 3.1% stated that they had individual copies and access to the hospital copy as well. Regarding utilisation of the NATG, 41.2% rarely used them, 32.9% never used them and only 25.7% often used them. The most frequent use of the NATG was among pharmacists (38.1%) compared to the least frequent use among nurses (20.0%). Conclusion: Poor accessibility of the NATG may have a negative impact on guidelines utilisation among health care professionals in Nigeria

Eyes wide open: perceived exploitation and its consequences

Drawing on the array of literature on exploitation from several social science disciplines, we propose a new way of seeing employer-employee relationships by introducing the concept of perceived exploitative employee-organization relationships, distinguish it from related concepts, and conduct five studies to develop a scale and test our theoretical model of the effects of such employee perceptions. Contributing to the Employee-Organization Relationships and workplace emotions literatures, perceived exploitation is defined as employees’ perceptions that they have been purposefully taken advantage of in their relationship with the organization, to the benefit of the organization itself. We propose and find that such perceptions are associated with both outward-focused emotions of anger and hostility toward the organization and inward-focused ones of shame and guilt at remaining in an exploitative job. In two studies including construction workers and a time-lagged study of medical residents, we find that the emotions of anger and hostility partially mediate the effects of perceived exploitation on employee engagement, revenge against the organization, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions, whereas the emotions of shame and guilt partially mediate the effects of perceived exploitation on employee burnout, silence, and psychological withdrawal