Assessing Communication Apprehension Among In-Service Teachers in A University of Education

This study examined Communication Apprehension among in-service teachers in a university of education in Nigeria with particular focus on the influence of gender and age on CA among the sample.  A cross-sectional ex post facto survey design was adopted for the study. Participants were 100 purposively & randomly sampled, in-service teachers drawn from a university of education in Nigeria. There were 35 (35%) males and 65 (65%) females, their ages ranged between 16 – 30 years with a mean age of 22.10 and a standard deviation of 2.48. of these samples, 71 were Christian, 27 Muslims and 2 belong to other religions. 90 of the total sample were singles, while 10 were married. Validated scale was used for data collection and three hypotheses tested using descriptive statistics and t-test for independent samples. Results showed that in-service teachers were not significantly high on CA and gender as well as age was not found to be significant predictors of CA among this sample. This result may be owing to the fact that they were purposive samples who have been exposed to pedagogical training that must have helped them to handle CA. it was recommended that further studies should examine other factors such as psychological and social and increase the sample size as well, cutting across other institutions apart from specialized university. Keywords: - In-service teachers, Nigeria, University of Education, Education Majors, Communication Apprehension, Pedagogy

Horizontal and Vertical Distribution of Heavy Metals in Farm Produce and Livestock around Lead-Contaminated Goldmine in Dareta and Abare, Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria

Background. Hitherto studies in response to the June 2010 lead poisoning, Zamfara State, Nigeria, have focused on clinical interventions without information on livestock and other metals. Objective. This study has investigated the distribution of heavy metals in farm produce and livestock around lead-contaminated goldmine in Dareta and Abare, Zamfara State, Nigeria. Methods. Vegetables, soil, water, blood, and different meat samples were harvested from goat, sheep, cattle, and chicken from Dareta, Abare, and Gusau communities. The samples were digested with 10 mL of a mix of nitric and perchloric acids; the mixture was then heated to dryness. Lead, cadmium, zinc, chromium, copper, magnesium, and nickel were analysed using flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The daily intake, bioaccumulation factor, and target hazard quotient (THQ) were calculated. Results. Chicken bone-muscles from Dareta had the highest concentrations of lead, zinc, and nickel (28.2750, 16.1650, and 4.2700 mg/kg, resp.), while chicken brain had the highest levels of cadmium, magnesium (0.3800 and 67.5400 mg/kg), and chromium (6.1650 mg/kg, kidney tissue inclusive). Conclusion. In addition to lead, cadmium may also be of concern in the contaminated mining communities of Zamfara State, Nigeria, given the high levels of cadmium in meat and vegetables samples from these areas

Trends in Aridity of the Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of Northern Nigeria

Aridity index (AI) is a numerical indicator of the degree of dryness of the climate at a given location. These indicators serve to identify and delimit regions that suffer from a deficit of available water, a condition that can severely affect the effective use of agricultural land and water resources development. The focus of this paper is to determine the trend and map out the aridity of the drought prone areas of northern Nigeria. Three decade’s (1981–2010) annual rainfall and, minimum and maximum temperature records for 11 synoptic meteorological stations were collected from NIMET Office, Lagos and used. De Martonne’s aridity index formula was applied to the data and aridity indices were derived for the region. The derived aridity indices were subjected to time series analysis and classification of the region into aridity zones was carried out based on the derived aridity indices from which an aridity map of the region was produced. Results of the time series analysis show that only Kaduna indicated a decreasing aridity while the other stations exhibit a significantly positive tendency towards increasing dryness. The region is classified into four aridity zones based on the aridity indices as: slightly humid zone (Kaduna and Zaria areas), moderately arid areas (Yelwa, Gusau, Kano and Bauchi), semi arid regions (Sokoto, Potiskum, Maiduguri) and the arid zone (areas around Nguru, Hadejia and Kano). It is concluded that the drought prone areas of northern Nigeria are witnessing increasing aridity which accounts for the shrinking of most dams and other surface reservouirs in the region. This has necessitated accessing of underground water from even the third aquifer at some locations. It is recommended therefore, that the dredging of all the existing dams in northern Nigeria be undertaken in order to improve the storage of more water, just as proper water policy for its sustainable use be formulated by Nigeria. Keywords: aquifer, aridity, drought, dryness, Indices, time serie

An in-silico analysis of OGT gene association with diabetes mellitus

O-GlcNAcylation is a nutrient-sensing post-translational modification process. This cycling process involves two primary proteins: the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT) catalysing the addition, and the glycoside hydrolase OGA (O-GlcNAcase) catalysing the removal of the O-GlCNAc moiety on nucleocytoplasmic proteins. This process is necessary for various critical cellular functions. The O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT) gene produces the OGT protein. Several studies have shown the overexpression of this protein to have biological implications in metabolic diseases like cancer and diabetes mellitus (DM). This study retrieved 159 SNPs with clinical significance from the SNPs database. We probed the functional effects, stability profile, and evolutionary conservation of these to determine their fit for this research. We then identified 7 SNPs (G103R, N196K, Y228H, R250C, G341V, L367F, and C845S) with predicted deleterious effects across the four tools used (PhD-SNPs, SNPs&Go, PROVEAN, and PolyPhen2). Proceeding with this, we used ROBETTA, a homology modelling tool, to model the proteins with these point mutations and carried out a structural bioinformatics method– molecular docking– using the Glide model of the Schrodinger Maestro suite. We used a previously reported inhibitor of OGT, OSMI-1, as the ligand for these mutated protein models. As a result, very good binding affinities and interactions were observed between this ligand and the active site residues within 4Å of OGT. We conclude that these mutation points may be used for further downstream analysis as drug targets for treating diabetes mellitus

Fatty acids Analyses of n-Hexane Fractions of Ageratum conyzoides Leaf

Lipidomics is an emerging field, where the structures, functions and dynamic changes of lipids in cells, tissues or body fluids are investigated. This study revealed the GC–MS metabolic profiling of the polar and non-polar fractions from n-hexane extracts of Agerantum conyzoides. After extraction, the n-hexane leaf extract has a yield of 1.20% and the GC-MS result reveal that A. conyzoides have w-6: w-3 PUFA ratio of 2.1 and other fatty acids of biochemical relevance. Keywords: Lipidomics; Cardiovascular disease; Agerantum conyzoides leaf; Fatty acids, GC-MS

Evidence of Heavy Metals Distribution in Placenta in Association with Residual Levels in Some Dams’ Organs from Bodija abattoir, Oyo State, Nigeria

Heavy metals have been known to be causing serious detrimental effect on the health of livestock and human populace in general. However, little study had been carried out on the ability of heavy metal to cross placental barrier, which has already been bio-accumulated in the dam. Therefore, this study aimed at showing the evidence of placental barrier crossing by selected heavy metals. The study was carried out in Bodija abattoir, Ibadan, Oyo-state, Nigeria, located on latitude 70020N, longitude 3005E. A cross-sectional study design was adopted and lasted for 6 weeks. Samples were collected from kidney cortices, apical lobe of dam’s liver and a portion of fetal placenta. 12 sample each from liver, kidney and the placenta which were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). Results were subjected to descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation using SPSS17.0 package.From this study cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) residues were not found in the samples, while chromium (Cr) was found in all the samples (100% prevalence) and the total prevalence for the heavy metals in the study was 33.4%. The mean chromium (Cr) residual values in placenta, kidney and liver were 0.89±0.66mg/kg, 1.32±0.94mg/kg and 1.00±0.87 mg/kg respectively. The correlation between chromium (Cr) in the dam’s kidney and placenta was 0.3, while for the dam’s liver and placenta was 0.6.  In comparison with permissible limit, the residual level in kidney 1.32±0.94, liver 1.00±0.87 and placenta 0.89±0.66, were within the permissible limit. The study revealed that chromium (Cr) residue was a major challenge in the organs sampled. Liver of the dam had the highest level of bioaccumulation and stronger correlation in the distribution to the placenta. It is therefore recommended that attention should be paid on the disposal of chromium (Cr) residues on the grazing floor where the bulk of the residues were from. Keywords: Heavy metals, Liver, Kidney, Placenta and cattle

Computational construction of a glycoprotein multi-epitope subunit vaccine candidate for old and new South-African SARS-CoV-2 virus strains

The discovery of a new SARS-CoV-2 virus strain in South Africa presents a major public health threat, therefore contributing to increased infections and transmission rates during the second wave of the global pandemic. This study lays the groundwork for the development of a novel subunit vaccine candidate from the circulating strains of South African SARS-CoV-2 and provides an understanding of the molecular epidemiological trend of the circulating strains. A total of 475 whole-genome nucleotide sequences from South Africa submitted between December 1, 2020 and February 15, 2021 available at the GISAID database were retrieved based on its size, coverage level and hosts. To obtain the distribution of the clades and lineages of South African SARS-CoV-2 circulating strains, the metadata of the sequence retrieved were subjected to an epidemiological analysis. There was a prediction of the cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), Helper T cells (HTL) and B-cell epitopes. Furthermore, there was allergenicity, antigenicity and toxicity predictions on the epitopes. The analysis of the physicochemical properties of the vaccine construct was performed; the secondary structure, tertiary structure and B-cell 3D conformational structure of the vaccine construct were predicted. Also, molecular binding simulations and dynamics simulations were adopted in the prediction of the vaccine construct’s stability and binding affinity with TLRs. Result obtained from the metadata analysis indicated lineage B.1.351 to be in higher circulation among various circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa and GH has the highest number of circulating clades. The construct of the novel vaccine was antigenic, non-allergenic and non-toxic. The Instability index (II) score and aliphatic index were estimated as 41.74 and 78.72 respectively. The computed half-life in mammalian reticulocytes was 4.4 h in vitro, for yeast and in E. coli was >20 h and >10 h in vivo respectively. The grand average of hydropathicity (GRAVY) score is estimated to be − 0.129, signifying the hydrophilic nature of the protein. The molecular docking indicates that the vaccine construct has a high binding affinity towards the TLRs with TLR 3 having the highest binding energy (− 1203.2kcal/mol) and TLR 9 with the lowest (− 1559.5kcal/mol). These results show that the vaccine construct is promising and should be evaluated using animal model

Morphology of GPS and DPS TEC over an equatorial station: validation of IRI and NeQuick 2 models

We investigated total electron content (TEC) at Ilorin (8.50°&thinsp;N 4.65°&thinsp;E, dip lat. 2.95) for the year 2010, a year of low solar activity in 2010 with Rz = 15.8. The investigation involved the use of TEC derived from GPS, estimated TEC from digisonde portable sounder data (DPS), and the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) and NeQuick 2 (NeQ) models. During the sunrise period, we found that the rate of increase in DPS TEC, IRI TEC, and NeQ TEC was higher compared with GPS TEC. One reason for this can be attributed to an overestimation of plasmaspheric electron content (PEC) contribution in modeled TEC and DPS TEC. A correction factor around the sunrise, where our finding showed a significant percentage deviation between the modeled TEC and GPS TEC, will correct the differences. Our finding revealed that during the daytime when PEC contribution is known to be absent or insignificant, GPS TEC and DPS TEC in April, September, and December predict TEC very well. The lowest discrepancies were observed in May, June, and July (June solstice) between the observed values and all the model values at all hours. There is an overestimation in DPS TEC that could be due to extrapolation error while integrating from the peak electron density of F2 (NmF2) to around  ∼ 1000&thinsp;km in the Ne profile. The underestimation observed in NeQ TEC must have come from the inadequate representation of contribution from PEC on the topside of the NeQ model profile, whereas the exaggeration of PEC contribution in IRI TEC amounts to overestimation in GPS TEC. The excess bite-out observed in DPS TEC and modeled TEC indicates over-prediction of the fountain effect in these models. Therefore, the daytime bite-out observed in these models requires a modifier that could moderate the perceived fountain effect morphology in the models accordingly. The daytime DPS TEC performs better than the daytime IRI TEC and NeQ TEC in all the months. However, the dusk period requires attention due to the highest percentage deviation recorded, especially for the models, in March, November, and December. Seasonally, we found that all the TECs maximize and minimize during the March equinox and June solstice, respectively. Therefore, GPS TEC and modeled TEC reveal the semiannual variations in TEC.</p

ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC LOA DINGS ON THE DESIGN PARAMETERS OF AN INDUCTION MOTOR AND ITS PER FORMANCE USING MATLAB/SIMULINK

This paper looks at the effect of magnetic loading and electric loading on the design parameters of an induction motor and its performance. The study involves the u se of MATLAB to simulate 50kW, 3-phase, 415V, 50Hz, 6 poles induction machine. Based on the variation of the ma gnetic and electric loading of the machine, the var ious design values of the rotor and stator of the machine are s pecified. The performance index which includes stat or loss, rotor loss, cost, power factor, efficiency, and torque ar e also specified for squirrel cage induction motor (SCIM) Keyword: MATLAB, stator, rotor, magnetic loading, e lectric loading, SCIM

Knowledge of and Attitude Towards Epilepsy Among Women in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Background: Epilepsy is a non-contagious chronic disease with sufferers experiencing embarrassments amidst other challenges. Family caregivers are mainly women with some of them suffering from the disease. This study assessed the knowledge and attitude of women residents in an urban community towards epilepsy. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study recruited 400 randomly selected women in Ile-Ife. The data was collected with the use of a pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire on knowledge of and attitude to epilepsy. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Most respondents (99.3%) were aware of the disease with their main sources of information from their parents, friends, and neighbours. Only 15.3% of respondents had good knowledge of epilepsy, while 35% had positive attitude to epilepsy. Factors associated with good knowledge of epilepsy among respondents include having higher education (OR = 3.154, 95%CI = 1.574–6.323, p = 0.001) and higher income (OR = 3.055, 95%CI = 1.404–6.651, p = 0.005), while factors associated with positive attitude towards epilepsy include older age group (OR = 1.943, 95%CI = 1.281–2.945,p = 0.002) and higher income (OR = 2.932, 95%CI = 1.345–6.386, p = 0.007). Conclusions: Although the level of awareness is high, respondents’ knowledgeand attitude were inadequate. There is a need for a community education about epilepsy, targeting women who are major stakeholders with the aim of improving their knowledge and attitude towards the disease