Effects of Petroleum Products on the Chlorophyll Accumulation in Barbula lambarenensis

The effects of petroleum products: Petroleum Motor Spirit (petrol, PMS), Automobile Gas Oil (diesel. AGO), Dual Purpose Kero (kerosene, DPK), were investigated on the chlorophyll accumulation in Barbula lambarenensis. This plant with its substrates were collected from its natural populations, taken to the screen house and divided into ten regimes widely separated. Each of these regimes was irrigated with borehole water for two weeks, thrice a week to bring about hydration. The three petroleum products were separately diluted with borehole water in 1:1 ratio to give 50% concentrations. Moreover, 100% of these products were also used .The 50% concentrations were separately used to irrigate the first three regimes, A, B and C for 20 weeks .The D, E and F regimes were irrigated with 100% kerosene, petrol and diesel respectively for the 2 weeks and later with borehole water for twenty weeks while the G regime was irrigated with borehole water (Control). Irrigations were done thrice a week. Samples of B. lambarenensis were collected fortnightly for chlorophyll extraction and the chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll content determined with the aid of spectrophotometer .It was observed that the 50% treated moss plants had greater chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll than the control but their concentrations were statistically the same. The 100% treatment gave greater chlorophyll a content than the control, PMS treatment had greater chlorophyll b than the control but the reverse were for DPK and AGO treated moss plant. However, all these values were the same statistically. The same results were found for the total chlorophyll except that the DPK, AGO and Control treatments had the same value statistically while DPK, Control and PMS treatments were the same statistically. The 50% treatments had worse effects than the 100% followed by borehole water treatments. Furthermore, the two concentrations had the same effects on the chlorophyll contents but DPK and AGO had significantly greater chlorophyll b concentrations in 50% treated regimes than 100% treatments at 5% level of significance. Petroleum products damaged the chlorophyll apparatus of the plant making the treated to produce greater chlorophyll contents than the Control

Effect of Blanching Period and Drying Temperature on Selected Physicochemical Properties of Cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) Flour

This study investigated the influence of Blanching Time (BT) and Drying Temperature (DT) on some selected physico-chemical properties of cocoyam flour including water absorption capacity, bulk density, swelling index, wettability and gelatinization point. The quality parameters of the flour were analysed using AOAC standard methods and procedures. Twofactors, 3-levels Historical Data Design of Response Surface Methodology was adopted for the analysis to determine the effects of BT and DT on the investigated parameters. Second order polynomial model was obtained at 5% level of significance. The flour samples had 1.60 to 4.00% water absorption capacity, 0.71 to 0.81 g/cm3 bulk density, 5.2 to 6.8 g/g swelling index, 7 to 16s wettability and 68 to 90oC gelatinization point. Samples dried at 60oC and blanched for 9.05 mins had better quality with optimum response values of 3.37% water absorption capacity, 0.76 g/cm3 bulk density, 6.22 g/g swelling index, 12.71 s wettability, and 85.73oC gelatinization temperature. BT and DT had significant effects on water absorption and wettability while no significant influence was observed on the bulk density, swelling index and gelatinization temperature of the flour at p ≤ 0.05. These findings will serve as a guide in ensuring proper choice of blanching time and drying temperature based on end-use and desired physico-chemical properties of cocoyam flour

Mitigating Turbulence-Induced Fading in Coherent FSO Links: An Adaptive Space-Time Code Approach

Free space optical communication systems have witnessed a significant rise in attention over the last half a decade owing largely to their enormous bandwidth and relative ease of deployment. Generally, free space optical communication systems differ in their detection mechanism as various detection mechanisms are being reported, including intensity modulation/direct detection FSO, differential FSO and coherent FSO. In this chapter, we explore the prospect of obtaining an optimally performing FSO system by harnessing the cutting-edge features of coherent FSO systems and the coding gain and diversity advantage offered by a four-state space-time trellis code (STTC) in order to combat turbulence-induced fading which has thus far beleaguered the performance of FSO systems. The initial outcomes of this technique are promising as a model for various visible light communication applications

Accelerated High-Resolution Photoacoustic Tomography via Compressed Sensing

Current 3D photoacoustic tomography (PAT) systems offer either high image quality or high frame rates but are not able to deliver high spatial and temporal resolution simultaneously, which limits their ability to image dynamic processes in living tissue. A particular example is the planar Fabry-Perot (FP) scanner, which yields high-resolution images but takes several minutes to sequentially map the photoacoustic field on the sensor plane, point-by-point. However, as the spatio-temporal complexity of many absorbing tissue structures is rather low, the data recorded in such a conventional, regularly sampled fashion is often highly redundant. We demonstrate that combining variational image reconstruction methods using spatial sparsity constraints with the development of novel PAT acquisition systems capable of sub-sampling the acoustic wave field can dramatically increase the acquisition speed while maintaining a good spatial resolution: First, we describe and model two general spatial sub-sampling schemes. Then, we discuss how to implement them using the FP scanner and demonstrate the potential of these novel compressed sensing PAT devices through simulated data from a realistic numerical phantom and through measured data from a dynamic experimental phantom as well as from in-vivo experiments. Our results show that images with good spatial resolution and contrast can be obtained from highly sub-sampled PAT data if variational image reconstruction methods that describe the tissues structures with suitable sparsity-constraints are used. In particular, we examine the use of total variation regularization enhanced by Bregman iterations. These novel reconstruction strategies offer new opportunities to dramatically increase the acquisition speed of PAT scanners that employ point-by-point sequential scanning as well as reducing the channel count of parallelized schemes that use detector arrays

Context and Indigenous Structures for Managing Family Violence in a Yoruba Community

Most investigations on domestic violence in family relationships have centered around men as the perpetrators of violence without exploring the context of violence occurrence from a gender lens and other social factors. This study explored the meanings associated with family violence, the contexts for its occurrence, and the indigenous approaches to managing such conflicts among the Yoruba ethnic subgroup in southwest Nigeria. This was an exploratory cross-sectional study guided by an interpretative constructivist approach in which 20 community stakeholders were recruited through purposive sampling. The data were collected via in-depth interview (IDI) and focus group discussion (FGD). Findings from the study showed that both men and women in family relationship contribute to the occurrence of family violence, although the forms perpetrated differ by gender. Religious leaders were identified as key indigenous structure for effective management of family violence among other indigenous structures (extended family mediation and community/royal father interventions). The study showed that these groups of people are also affected by societal male dominance belief which has contributed to occurrence of family violence. The study concluded that an indigenous intervention that will help control family violence among this group must focus on strengthening community structures; most importantly, the religious institutions on how to instill mutual respect among couples and train them on conflict resolution skills as family violence in the group is seen as issue that should not be taken out of the community structures

Stem cell delivery to kidney via minimally invasive ultrasound-guided renal artery injection in mice

Cell-based therapies are promising treatments for various kidney diseases. However, the major hurdle in initiating therapeutic responses is the inefficiency of injection routes to deliver cells to the kidney parenchyma. Systemic injection, such as intravenous injection only delivers a small proportion of cells to the kidney. Whereas direct delivery, such as renal artery injection requires surgical procedures. A minimally invasive renal artery injection was therefore developed to enhance cell delivery to kidney. In this study, luciferase expressing human adipocyte derived stem cells (ADSC) were labelled with gold nanorods (GNR) and injected into the renal artery using ultrasound guidance. The ADSCs were tracked using bioluminescence and photoacoustic imaging serially over 7 days. Imaging confirmed that the majority of signal was within the kidney, indicative of successful injection and that the cells remained viable for 3 days. Histology showed co-localization of GNRs with ADSC staining throughout the kidney with no indication of injury caused by injection. These findings demonstrate that ultrasound-guided renal artery injection is feasible in mice and can successfully deliver a large proportion of cells which are retained within the kidney for 3 days. Therefore, the techniques developed here will be useful for optimising cell therapy in kidney diseases

INTRODUCTION OF SOIL TEST KIT TO SMALL-HOLDER COCOA FARMERS IN SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT Soil nutrients depletion of cocoa plantations is one of the causes of low cocoa production in Nigeria. Soil testing to determine the appropriate type and rate of fertilizer to boost cocoa bean yield suggests itself. Conventional soil testing is not within the reach of smallholder cocoa farmers because of its cost and other logistics but soil testing is necessary to avert negative consequences of blanket fertilizer recommendation. Therefore the objective of this study is to introduce an affordable soil test kit for soil testing to smallholders cocoa farmers. The study was carried out in Ondo and Osun States of Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select eighty two cocoa farmers from the study area. Information was collected from the selected cocoa farmers with the aid of structured questionnaire and the data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The result shows that only 20.73% of the respondent farmers carry out soil test on their farms while 85.36% of the farmers know the relevance of soil test. The result also revealed that 98.78% of the farmers are ready to acquire the soil test kit. The study therefore recommends that (i) The soil test kit should be included among the subsidized inputs that government gives to farmers from time to time and (ii) private entrepreneurs could also procure and make the kits available to the farmers

Monitoring neovascularization and integration of decellularized human scaffolds using photoacoustic imaging

Tissue engineering is a branch of regenerative medicine that aims to manipulate cells and scaffolds to create bioartificial tissues and organs for patients. A major challenge lies in monitoring the blood supply to the new tissue following transplantation: the integration and neovascularization of scaffolds in vivo is critical to their functionality. Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a laser-generated ultrasound-based technique that is particularly well suited to visualising microvasculature due to the high optical absorption of haemoglobin. Here, we describe an early proof-of-concept study in which PAI in widefield tomography mode is used to image biological, decellularized human tracheal scaffolds. We found that PAI allowed the longitudinal tracking of scaffold integration into subcutaneous murine tissue with high spatial resolution at depth over an extended period of time. The results of the study were consistent with post-imaging histological analyses, demonstrating that PAI can be used to non-invasively monitor the extent of vascularization in biological tissue-engineered scaffolds. We propose that this technique may be a valuable tool for studies designed to test interventions aimed at improving the speed and extent of scaffold neovascularization in tissue engineering. With technological refinement, it could also permit in vivo monitoring of revascularization in patients, for example to determine timing of heterotopic graft transfer

Imagining an Imperial Modernity: Universities and the West African Roots of Colonial Development

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis article takes the formation and work of the ‘Elliot’ Commission on Higher Education in West Africa (1943–45) to reconsider the roots of British colonial development. Late colonial universities were major development projects, although they have rarely been considered as such. Focusing particularly on the Nigerian experience and the controversy over Yaba Higher College (founded 1934), the article contends that late colonial plans for universities were not produced in Britain and then exported to West African colonies. Rather, they were formed through interactions between agendas and ideas with roots in West Africa, Britain and elsewhere. These debates exhibited asymmetries of power but produced some consensus about university development. African and British actors conceptualised modern education by combining their local concerns with a variety of supra-local geographical frames for development, which included the British Empire and the individual colony. The British Empire did not in this case forestall development, but shaped the ways in which development was conceived