Investigation of average daily water consumption and its impact on weight gain in captive common buzzards (Buteo buteo) in Greece

This investigation was to find out whether captive common buzzards need additional drinking water to complement the water they obtain from their pre-slaughtered meat meals and to investigate their average daily water requirements. Twenty five (25) common buzzards were studied at the wildlife hospital and rehabilitation centre, Aegina, Greece with weight ranging between 498.4g and 911g. Large quantity of potable water was measured equally into same size ceramic bowls and served each bird under study in separate individual paper boxes. At the end of 24 hours, the left over water was carefully brought out and re-measured to determine the quantity the birds have consumed. A control was set with a ceramic bowl with same quantity of water put in a paper box without a bird to determine the quantity of water lost to the atmosphere through evaporation on each day of the experiment. The water lost from the control on a daily basis was corrected in order to determine the quantity the common buzzards consumed daily. The weight of the studied buzzards were carefully taken and recorded 6 times each during the study period with W1 and W6 as entry and exit weights respectively. The mean of W1-W6 was used for the computation of the average percentage live body weight of the buzzards. The investigation revealed that captive common buzzards took water every day and the average daily water consumption of 724.9g buzzard was 31.4cc or 4.3% of its live body weight. The investigation further shows that the average water lost by evaporation daily (10.7cc) and that consumed by each buzzard daily (31.4cc) add up to 5.8%, equivalent of the average live body weight of the studied captive common buzzards which was 724.9g. The regression coefficient indicated that weight gain/ loss = 0.942 + 1.795 H2O. This implies that a unit increase in the average quantity of water consumed resulted in a corresponding increase of 1.795 body weight gain by the captive common buzzards.Keywords: Daily water consumption, Weight Gain, Captive common buzzards

An Assessment of Business Competencies Needed by Business Education Students for Entrepreneurial Development in Nigeria

The paper examined the business competencies required by business education students for entrepreneurial development in Nigeria.  To achieve the objective, two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the  study. Survey design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 6002 business education students. Six hundred  (600) students were selected through satisfied sampling techniques and were used for the study. A structured questionnaire was developed by the researchers. The questionnaire was face-validated by three experts in the Departments of Business and science Education of Ebonyi State University. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined using  Cronbach   Alpha correlation coefficient and it yielded an index of 0.95. Mean , standard deviation and t-test were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that business education students required management and marketing  competencies to function well in the business environment. It was concluded that there was need to put in place the learning facilities that will help the business education students to acquire the competencies stated  in the study. It was recommended that each institution training Business Education students for entrepreneurial development should have well qualified training personnel who are well groomed in instilling management and marketing competencies in students. Keywords: Assessment, Business competencies, Entrepreneurial development, Nigeria.

Physiological Response Of Laying Birds To Neem (Azadirachta Indica) Leaf Meal-Based Diets: Body Weight Organ Characteristics And Haematology

A 12-weeks feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of Neem (Azadirachta indica) leafmeal (NLM) on body weight gain, carcass and organ characteristics and haematological values of laying hens. The leaves were harvested, chopped to facilitate drying in the sun until they became crispy but still greenish in coloration. The Sun-dried leaves were milled using a hammer mill to produce the leaf meal. Four layers diets were formulated to contain the NLM at 0%,5%, 10% and 15% dietary levels respectively and were used to feed 120 Shikka brown layers already 10 months in lay. The birds were divided into 4 groups of 30 each and randomly assigned to the 4 treatment diets in a completely randomized design (CRD). NLM did not show any appreciable difference in weight gain between the birds at 0% and those at 5%, 10% dietary levels. Carcass weight, dressed weight, liver, heart and gizzard weights were significantly (P<0.05) increased at 5% dietary level of NLM. There were no significant difference in Hb and PCV between birds on O% and 5% treatment diets. However, these differed significantly (P<0.05%) from those of birds on 10% and 15% treatment diets. There were variations in the differential WB count , marked lymphocytopenia adversely affected the total leucocyte counts in the birds on 5%, 10% and 15% treatment diets. The results of this study suggest that laying birds could tolerate 5%- 15% dietary levels of NLM without deleterious effects

Chromosome number and cytomorphological characterization of a polyploid Abrus

Chromosome counts from natural populations of Abrus pulchellus in Nigeria were carried out. Tetraploid (2n = 44) chromosome number was constant in all the samples investigated. The 44 chromosomes fall into three cytomorphological categories: eight metacentric and eight submetacentric pairs, and six acrocentric pairs. The chromosomes are relatively small in length ranging from 0.5 to 1.4m. The polyploid (tetraploid) cytotype is reported for the first time for this taxon.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (7), pp. 607-610, 200

Anti-inflammatory activity and accelerated stability studies of crude extract syrup of Cannabis sativa

Purpose: To formulate Cannabis sativa-based syrup and investigate its anti-inflammatory potential and the stability of the formulation under stress conditions.Methods: The syrup was prepared using different combinations of crude C. sativa resin, propylene glycol, aspartame, sucrose, sodium metabisulphite (SMBs) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). The stability of the formulations was determined under accelerated temperature conditions. The anti-inflammatory activity of the resin and different formulations were evaluated by the egg albumin induced paw edema model in rats. Biochemical assay was determined by Reitman and Frankel colorimetric assay method while hematological assay was evaluated by standard protocols.Results: EDTA-containing syrup (CE) was the most stable with estimated shelf-life of 2204 days (K25ºC, 4.78 x 10-5/day). Higher propylene glycol levels significantly improved anti-inflammatory activity compared to those containing a lower amount. All the formulations showed anti-inflammatory activity higher than the crude resin with a dose-dependent inhibition of paw edema compared with the control. There was no significant difference (p &lt; 0.05) between the serum glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT, 13.821 ± 0.190 - 16.008 ± 1.012), serum glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (SGPT, 19.241 ± 1.027 - 22.901 ± 1.093) and urea (9.812 ± 0.252 - 10.054 ± 0.252) levels of the treated and 16.856 ± 1.053, 24.960 ± 0.101 and 10.654 ± 0.925 units/L of the control animals respectively. With the exception of eosinophil that disappeared from the blood in the third week, all the hematological parameters showed a gradual increase in lymphocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, packed cell volume (PCV), white and red blood cell counts in the third week compared to control.Conclusion: Formulation of C. sativa as syrup using efficient carriers improves the pharmacological activity of the crude extract. SMBs and EDTA significantly enhance the stability of the syrup with no observable biochemical and hematological changes in treated animalsKeywords: Cannabis sativa, Syrup, Anti-inflammatory, Stability, Hematologica

Audit of Oral Histopathology Service at a Nigerian Tertiary Institution over a 24-Year Period

No AbstractKEYWORDS: Oral, Biopsy, Histopathology Service, Nigeria

Factors Affecting Biogas Production during Anaerobic Decomposition of Brewery effluent- wastewater in a Fluidized Bed Digester.

This  work determined the dependency of biogas and carbon (iv) oxide production on microbial concentration X (Cfu/l), hydraulic retention time (HRT), ratio of total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) and total alkalinity K, during anaerobic decomposition of brewery effluent wastewater in a fluidized-bed reactor system. The volume of biogas and carbon (iv) oxide produced were monitored as the treatment time progressed. For  brewery waste water volume of 2 litres treated in the bioreactor, the volume of biogas rich in methane, produced in this work was described as s-curve with initial volume of biogas produced as 0.003l  at 4h HRT and maximum volume of 0.0045l at 8 h HRT.Similarly,0.0033l of carbon(iv)oxide was recorded at 2 h HRT and it achieved its maximum of 0.0042l at 8 h HRT. Total microbial count was conducted on the reactor sample water. The maximum concentration of the gases recorded at 8 h HRT corresponded to the favourable operating environment and good system stability ratio  (VFA/Alkalinity)&lt;0.5 achieved. Key words: Anaerobic decomposition, brewery wastewater, fluidized-bed reactor, Biogas, carbon (iv) oxide

A Study of the Effect of Electrode Gap on the Production of Hydrogen from Aluminium/Copper Fuel Cell

In this work, we investigated the effects of electrode gap spacing on the amount of hydrogen produced in Aluminium/Copper Fuel Cell and its efficiency. Aluminium/Copper materials were used as the electrodes because of their high performance in the electrolyser systems while Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) was used as electrolyte. 10% concentration of potassium hydroxide was used throughout the experiment. The electrode spacing of 5mm and 10mm were used. It was observed from the graph that 5mm electrode spacing produced maximum efficiency of 29.7% and 10mm electrode spacing produced 17.7% efficiency. This implied that hydrogen production was highly dependent on electrode gap distance. The smaller the gap between the pair of electrodes, the more hydrogen was produced and the more efficient is the system

Comparative efficacy of three plant extracts for the control of leaf spot disease in fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis Hook F.)

The production and leaf quality of Fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis hook f) in Nigeria are threatened by leaf spot and blight. The comparative efficacy of Siam weed (Chromolaena odorata (L.), Utazi leaf (Gongronema latifolium and Bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) and a synthetic fungicide (Forcelet) against the mycelia growth of the leaf spot pathogen (Phoma sorghina), leaf spot disease, growth and yield of fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis hook f) was studied in vitro and in vivo. In 2013 and 2014. The experiments design for the in vitro experiment was Completely Randomize Design (CRD) with six replicates and Randomize Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications in the in vitro study. All plant extracts consistently inhibited the growth of P. sorghina in vitro, and suppressed leaf spot development by between 26.2 and 53.54% in 2013 and by between 26.3 and 51.79% in 2014 under field conditions. Leaf and pod yield were also enhanced, C. odorata leaf extract was significantly (p≤0.05) superior to all other treatments followed by V. amygdalina whose effect did not differ significantly (P≥ 0.05) from Forcelet in all the parameters measured. These results show that leaf extracts of C.odorata and V. amygdalina could be used for the control of leaf spot disease and enhanced yield in fluted pumpkin. Keyword: Efficacy, Plant extract, Control, Leaf spot disease, Yield

Is symptom-based diagnosis of lung cancer possible? A systematic review and meta-analysis of symptomatic lung cancer prior to diagnosis for comparison with real-time data from routine general practice.

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is a good example of the potential benefit of symptom-based diagnosis, as it is the commonest cancer worldwide, with the highest mortality from late diagnosis and poor symptom recognition. The diagnosis and risk assessment tools currently available have been shown to require further validation. In this study, we determine the symptoms associated with lung cancer prior to diagnosis and demonstrate that by separating prior risk based on factors such as smoking history and age, from presenting symptoms and combining them at the individual patient level, we can make greater use of this knowledge to create a practical framework for the symptomatic diagnosis of individual patients presenting in primary care. AIM: To provide an evidence-based analysis of symptoms observed in lung cancer patients prior to diagnosis. DESIGN AND SETTING: Systematic review and meta-analysis of primary and secondary care data. METHOD: Seven databases were searched (MEDLINE, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Health Management Information Consortium, Web of Science, British Nursing Index and Cochrane Library). Thirteen studies were selected based on predetermined eligibility and quality criteria for diagnostic assessment to establish the value of symptom-based diagnosis using diagnosistic odds ratio (DOR) and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve. In addition, routinely collated real-time data from primary care electronic health records (EHR), TransHis, was analysed to compare with our findings. RESULTS: Haemoptysis was found to have the greatest diagnostic value for lung cancer, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) 6.39 (3.32-12.28), followed by dyspnoea 2.73 (1.54-4.85) then cough 2.64 (1.24-5.64) and lastly chest pain 2.02 (0.88-4.60). The use of symptom-based diagnosis to accurately diagnose lung cancer cases from non-cases was determined using the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve, the area under the curve (AUC) was consistently above 0.6 for each of the symptoms described, indicating reasonable discriminatory power. The positive predictive value (PPV) of diagnostic symptoms depends on an individual's prior risk of lung cancer, as well as their presenting symptom pattern. For at risk individuals we calculated prior risk using validated epidemiological models for risk factors such as age and smoking history, then combined with the calculated likelihood ratios for each symptom to establish posterior risk or positive predictive value (PPV). CONCLUSION: Our findings show that there is diagnostic value in the clinical symptoms associated with lung cancer and the potential benefit of characterising these symptoms using routine data studies to identify high-risk patients.This study was partly funded by the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative, grant number C33754/A1787