The Prevalence of Antibiotic and Toothpaste Sensitivity Found in Oral Streptococcal Isolates in Healthy Individuals in the Okada Community of Nigeria

Background: This study aimed to determine the prevalence, antibiotic, and toothpaste sensitivity of oral streptococcal isolates in healthy individuals in the Okada community of Nigeria. Methods: Oral samples were collected from 230 volunteers and were subjected to standard microbiological tests. Antibacterial sensitivity tests were carried out on the streptococcal isolates that were obtained using a disk diffusion technique, and eight kinds of toothpaste (A-H) were screened for their antibacterial effects on Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans). Results: The prevalence of oral streptococci found in this study was 26.1% and the predominant species was S. salivarius (13.9%). S. salivarius was highly resistant to cloxacillin (100%) and Augmentin (96.9%), whilst resistance to gentamicin and erythromycin was low at 21.9% and 3.1% respectively. S. mutans were completely sensitive to gentamicin whilst resistance to erythromycin was 33.3%. The entire Streptococcus species showed the lowest resistance to erythromycin (20.0%), followed by gentamicin (31.7%). At 100 mg/mL all toothpaste samples had antibacterial effects on S. mutans. At 50 mg/mL all samples except toothpastes G and H inhibited the bacterium. Toothpastes A and E had the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration of 25 mg/mL. Conclusions: Toothpastes A and E were the most effective toothpastes of the eight assessed in this study

Ergonomic Analysis Of A Developed Wheelchair Using Creative Algorithm

Mobility aids are important for disabled and aged patients for transportation or replacement for walking especially in indoor and outdoor environments. To guaranty the effective and efficient use of these mobility aids devoid of any form of epidemiological conditions, the level of comfort and ease of use must be ascertained. In this research, a simple and affordable wheel chair designed in previous work was analyzed to support patients in terms of ease and comfort of use. The method adopted for this study was the use of creative algorithm. Anthropometric measures were considered in the dimensioning of the wheel chair seat. It was necessary to test how ergonomically comfortable the wheelchair was in use by deploying an effective decision metrics tool known for dealing with complex decision-making process and may aid the decision maker to set priorities and make the best decision. By reducing complex decisions to a series of pair wise comparisons, and then synthesizing the results. Our findings showed an average ergonomic rating of 0.62 which indicate a relatively high degree of comfort ability in the use of the wheelchair.  The use of these wheelchairs would greatly improve the community of people who have lost some means of independent mobility thereby leading to an improvement in their self-esteem. This will enable them pursues their daily vocation and life goals. The wheel chair will also serve as a novel for medical facilities in hospitals and help facilitate movement of disabled patients in homes, schools, entrepreneurial centres and hospitals

Prevalence of Syphilis Infection in a Tertiary Rural Hospital: A Five Year Evaluation

Syphilis is a blood borne and sexually transmitted disease of global distribution. This study was aimed at determining the trend and prevalence of syphilis across the years among patients attending the Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital, Okada, Nigeria. A retrospective analysis of data of patients attending the Out patients department as well as those attending the anti natal clinic of Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital, Okada,Nigeria from January 2015 to December 2019.Sera samples were screened for Treponema palladium antibody using commercially available immunochromatic rapid Syphilis based test kits. Out of the 741 screened sera in the 2015 – 2019 study period, 8 (1.1%) were positive for Treponema pallidium antibodies. The prevalence are 0.4%, 1.3%, 0%, 3.8% and 2.8% respectively for the year 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. The gender related distribution for the study periods are not statistically significant with p- values all greater than 0.05. The prevalence of syphilis is low within this community which is an indication of adherence to preventive measures never the less public awareness remains a medium for  eradication of syphilis. Keywords: Rapid Syphilis test kit, Immunochramatogenic, Treponema pallidiu

Design and development of plantain fibre extraction machine

The traditional retting technique of extracting plantain fibres is faced with various constraints such as longer extraction time and poor fibre production rate. This study is targeted at overcoming the limitations associated with traditional methods of extracting plantain fibres through the development of electrically powered machine capable of extracting plantain fibres. The method employed involves the selection of appropriate materials, design, fabrication and assembly of the various components of the machine parts. From the analysis a 2 horsepower electric motor is required to drive the machine. The length of flat-belt required to drive the pulley was 1.47 m at an angle of lap on the smaller pulley of 2.87 rad. A resultant load of 174.87 N act on 11.6 mm diameter shaft with maximum bending moment of 10.33 Nm. The total weight of shaft, pulping drum and bearing on frame was 67.51 N. Also, a force of 150 N, 200 N and 250 N could pulp a thickness of plantain ribs of approximately, 6 mm, 6.5 mm and 7 mm, respectively. The test result showed that the machine could extract a sliced pseudo stem thickness between 4.0 mm and 10 mm at 27 and 42 seconds, respectively. It is expected that the plantain fibre extraction machine fabricated would save plantain fibre production time.Keywords: Plantain fibres, Pseudo stem, extraction machine, retting techniqu

Initial assessment of reuse of sustainable wastes for fibreboard production : the case of waste paper and water hyacinth

In this early study, new cement-bonded bi-composite fibreboard (FB) was made from water hyacinth (WaHy) and waste paper (WP). Ordinary Portland cement (PdCe) used as a binder was mixed with other two additives: gypsum plasters (GyPl) and wood ash (WdAh), in defined proportions to form bonding matrices. The WP and WaHy were pre-treated and a linked process was developed for the mixing and consolidation steps. The FBs produced were based on different proportions of composites, binder, and additives mixed. The FBs produced were made from different proportions of composites, binders, and additives. Improved tensile strength was observed for bi-composite FB from WaHy mixed with WP. In general, FBs having densities in the range of 0.50–0.57 g cm−3 were compared favourably with the ASTM and ANSI standards (95%), thus making the FBs a potential alternative for building and construction purposes. More elaborate research with advanced analytical techniques is hereby suggested

Evaluation of the Stirling heat engine performance prediction using ANN-PSO and ANFIS models

Abstract: The work presents the prediction performance results of three algorithms, namely Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Artificial Neural Network trained with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) models. ANFIS and ANN trained by PSO are applied to predict the power and torque values of a Stirling heat engine with a level controlled displacer driving mechanism. Data from experimental work done by Karabulut et al. is used to train and assess the algorithms. MATLAB is used to develop, implement and train the algorithms. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE, Coefficient of determination (R2) and computational time are used to assess the performance of the algorithms