Determination of gross alpha and beta radioactivity concentration along Jakara waste water canal, Kano Metropolis, Kano State, Nigeria

This research undertook an assessment of the radioactivity level along the Jakara waste water canal. Six soil samples and five water samples were taken for gross alpha and beta activity concentration using the gas–flow–proportional counter (IN20). Results for gross alpha activity concentration for the soil samples range from 4.597E-03 Bq/g to 1.425E-02 Bq/g, while that of gross beta activity for soil has the range from 3.341E+01 Bq/g to 8.092E+01 Bq/g. In the same vein, results for gross alpha activity concentration for the water samples have the range from 6.035E-03 Bq/L to 1.433E+00 Bq/L while the value for the gross beta activity concentration ranges from 5.038E+00 Bq/L to 2.853E+01 Bq/L for the same water samples. These results show that the alpha and beta activity concentration in the analysed samples are higher than the minimum permissible concentration by World Health Organisation (WHO, 2003). This may pose health risk because the waste water is used by people to irrigate vegetables along the waste water canal. Keywords: Background Radiation, Activity Concentration, Gross Alpha, Gross Bet

Gross Alpha and Beta Radio Activity Concentrations and Estimated Committed Effective dose to the General Public Due to Intake of Groundwater in Mining Areas of Plateau State, North Central Nigeria

Tin mining activities carried out in parts of plateau state from the beginning of this century to the early 1980’s have left behind a post mining environment scarred by numerous mine pond and uncontrolled heaps of mine tailings containing radioactive minerals that have found their way into the natural water resources. In this study the gross activities of the alpha and beta emitting radionuclides present in the naturally occurring water bodies in the mining areas of plateau state covered by Naraguta sheet 168 were determined. Fifty-eight (58) groundwater, comprising of twenty-three (23) borehole and thirty-five (35) locally dug well samples were drawn randomly. The samples were analyzed and counted for gross alpha and beta activities using MPC-2000-DP. The results showed that the range of alpha activity varied from (0.110-1.580)Bq/l with a geometric mean of 0.328 Bq/l for borehole samples and (0.010-12.590)Bq/l with a geometric mean of 0.498 Bq/l for well water samples. The range of beta activity varied from (0.012-2.760) Bq/l with a geometric mean of 0.198 Bq/l for borehole water samples and (0.020-14.640) with the geometric mean of 0.366Bq/l for well water samples. Most of the samples show higher concentration above the WHO guideline value of 0.5Bq/l for alpha activity and 1.0Bq/l for beta activity. The annual committed effective (CED) to infants, children and adults were estimated. The results shared elevated values in most of the location above the ICRP acceptable standard of 0.1mSv/yr. The mean values of CED due to intake of borehole water for alpha activity are 0.240mSv/yr, 0.481mSv/yr and 0.885mSv/yr for infants, children and adult respectively. For beta activity the values are 0.201mSv/yr, 0.410 mSv/yr. and 0.820 mSv/yr. In the well water samples the mean CED value for alpha activity are 0.485 mSv/yr, 0.963 mSv/yr. and 1.938mSv/yr for infants, children and adults respectively and for beta activity the mean values are 0.594 mSv/yr., 1.187mSv/yr. and 2.375 mSv/yr. respectively. These values show that the general public in these locations are committed to higher dose above the standard values and long term exposure could pose health threat. Keywords: Gross alpha, gross beta, Mine tailings, water, Radionuclide

Using antenatal care as a platform for malaria surveillance data collection: study protocol

BACKGROUND: While many malaria-endemic countries have health management information systems that can measure and report malaria trends in a timely manner, these routine systems have limitations. Periodic community cross-sectional household surveys are used to estimate malaria prevalence and intervention coverage but lack geographic granularity and are resource intensive. Incorporating malaria testing for all women at their first antenatal care (ANC) visit (i.e., ANC1) could provide a more timely and granular source of data for monitoring trends in malaria burden and intervention coverage. This article describes a protocol designed to assess if ANC-based surveillance could be a pragmatic tool to monitor malaria. METHODS: This is an observational, cross-sectional study conducted in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zambia. Pregnant women attending ANC1 in selected health facilities will be tested for malaria infection by rapid diagnostic test and administered a brief questionnaire to capture key indicators of malaria control intervention coverage and care-seeking behaviour. In each location, contemporaneous cross-sectional household surveys will be leveraged to assess correlations between estimates obtained using each method, and the use of ANC data as a tool to track trends in malaria burden and intervention coverage will be validated. RESULTS: This study will assess malaria prevalence at ANC1 aggregated at health facility and district levels, and by gravidity relative to current pregnancy (i.e., gravida 1, gravida 2, and gravida 3 +). ANC1 malaria prevalence will be presented as monthly trends. Additionally, correlation between ANC1 and household survey-derived estimates of malaria prevalence, bed net ownership and use, and care-seeking will be assessed. CONCLUSION: ANC1-based surveillance has the potential to provide a cost-effective, localized measure of malaria prevalence that is representative of the general population and useful for tracking monthly changes in parasite prevalence, as well as providing population-representative estimates of intervention coverage and care-seeking behavior. This study will evaluate the representativeness of these measures and collect information on operational feasibility, usefulness for programmatic decision-making, and potential for scale-up of malaria ANC1 surveillance

An explainable model of host genetic interactions linked to COVID-19 severity

We employed a multifaceted computational strategy to identify the genetic factors contributing to increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection from a Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) dataset of a cohort of 2000 Italian patients. We coupled a stratified k-fold screening, to rank variants more associated with severity, with the training of multiple supervised classifiers, to predict severity based on screened features. Feature importance analysis from tree-based models allowed us to identify 16 variants with the highest support which, together with age and gender covariates, were found to be most predictive of COVID-19 severity. When tested on a follow-up cohort, our ensemble of models predicted severity with high accuracy (ACC = 81.88%; AUCROC = 96%; MCC = 61.55%). Our model recapitulated a vast literature of emerging molecular mechanisms and genetic factors linked to COVID-19 response and extends previous landmark Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). It revealed a network of interplaying genetic signatures converging on established immune system and inflammatory processes linked to viral infection response. It also identified additional processes cross-talking with immune pathways, such as GPCR signaling, which might offer additional opportunities for therapeutic intervention and patient stratification. Publicly available PheWAS datasets revealed that several variants were significantly associated with phenotypic traits such as “Respiratory or thoracic disease”, supporting their link with COVID-19 severity outcome

Brucellosis as an Emerging Threat in Developing Economies:Lessons from Nigeria

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, has a large proportion of the world's poor livestock keepers, and is a hotspot for neglected zoonoses. A review of the 127 accessible publications on brucellosis in Nigeria reveals only scant and fragmented evidence on its spatial and temporal distribution in different epidemiological contexts. The few bacteriological studies conducted demonstrate the existence of Brucella abortus in cattle and sheep, but evidence for B. melitensis in small ruminants is dated and unclear. The bulk of the evidence consists of seroprevalence studies, but test standardization and validation are not always adequately described, and misinterpretations exist with regard to sensitivity and/or specificity and ability to identify the infecting Brucella species. Despite this, early studies suggest that although brucellosis was endemic in extensive nomadic systems, seroprevalence was low, and brucellosis was not perceived as a real burden; recent studies, however, may reflect a changing trend. Concerning human brucellosis, no studies have identified the Brucella species and most reports provide only serological evidence of contact with Brucella in the classical risk groups; some suggest brucellosis misdiagnoses as malaria or other febrile conditions. The investigation of a severe outbreak that occurred in the late 1970s describes the emergence of animal and human disease caused by the settling of previously nomadic populations during the Sahelian drought. There appears to be an increasing risk of re-emergence of brucellosis in sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of the co-existence of pastoralist movements and the increase of intensive management resulting from growing urbanization and food demand. Highly contagious zoonoses like brucellosis pose a threat with far-reaching social and political consequences

Stroke genetics informs drug discovery and risk prediction across ancestries

Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of stroke — the second leading cause of death worldwide — were conducted predominantly in populations of European ancestry1,2. Here, in cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of 110,182 patients who have had a stroke (five ancestries, 33% non-European) and 1,503,898 control individuals, we identify association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci: 60 in primary inverse-variance-weighted analyses and 29 in secondary meta-regression and multitrait analyses. On the basis of internal cross-ancestry validation and an independent follow-up in 89,084 additional cases of stroke (30% non-European) and 1,013,843 control individuals, 87% of the primary stroke risk loci and 60% of the secondary stroke risk loci were replicated (P < 0.05). Effect sizes were highly correlated across ancestries. Cross-ancestry fine-mapping, in silico mutagenesis analysis3, and transcriptome-wide and proteome-wide association analyses revealed putative causal genes (such as SH3PXD2A and FURIN) and variants (such as at GRK5 and NOS3). Using a three-pronged approach4, we provide genetic evidence for putative drug effects, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as possible targets, with drugs already under investigation for stroke for F11 and PROC. A polygenic score integrating cross-ancestry and ancestry-specific stroke GWASs with vascular-risk factor GWASs (integrative polygenic scores) strongly predicted ischaemic stroke in populations of European, East Asian and African ancestry5. Stroke genetic risk scores were predictive of ischaemic stroke independent of clinical risk factors in 52,600 clinical-trial participants with cardiometabolic disease. Our results provide insights to inform biology, reveal potential drug targets and derive genetic risk prediction tools across ancestries

Climate Change Implications on Oil Palm Production Trends in Nigeria

Climate change had become a focal global environmental concern. Studies on various crops had proved that adverse effects accrue to crop plants from climatic factors variability. This could be in form of increase in temperature, draught, flood or disease epidemics. This study therefore estimated the climate change implications on oil palm production trends in Nigeria from 1981 to 2020 using Johansen cointegration and VECM model. The analysis revealed that ADF shows that at the level all the series data were non-stationary (p-value > 0.05), while at first difference, all variables were all significant at 1% level. AIC and HQC were significant at 5% at an optimal lag three in the model. Johansen cointegration test reveals that Trace test and Lmax test indicates there is only one cointegrating model at the 5% significance level with eigenvalue (0.73); which implies that there is a long-run relationship between Nigeria oil palm production and its climatic factor determinants. The VECM was used to estimates the error correction (EC) which was significant at 1% and 5% respectively in different equations; shows long-run relationships in oil palm production with area of farm, temperature and rainfall. Residuals diagnostics of the estimated VECM using ARCH and autocorrelation indicates that the residuals are homoskedasticity and residuals in the function are not correlated with one another. The study therefore recommended increase in oil palm tree planting; and the trends of climate change and production should be related to stakeholder in oil palm industr

Determination of Some Trace Elements in Leather

Abstract . The spectrum for each sample was evaluated and the following elements were determined in varying concentrations in some of the samples: As, Br, Co, Fe, Rb, Sb and Zn. Out of the determined elements, As and Sb are of toxicological concern. In two of the leather samples, As was determined as 4.6 ± 0.6 mg/kg for a sample from dump site and 3.5 ± 0.6 mg/kg for a sample from the local tanning market. However, both the As and Sb concentrations were below the set limit of 25mg/kg and 60mg/kg respectively by the EU

A triple hurdle model of organic vegetable awareness, adoption, and production among smallholder farmers in Ekiti and Oyo states of Nigeria

Organic agriculture is still in its early development stage in Nigeria. As a result, its awareness and participation are still in development. Hence, the study identified factors influencing awareness, adoption, and quantity produced of organic green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, and peppers in Ekiti and Oyo states of Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was employed to sample 384 vegetable farmers. Primary data was collected using a structured survey questionnaire instrument. The data was analysed using the triple hurdle model, which consists of three stages of decision-making. Probit was used to model the first and second stages of the triple hurdle for awareness and adoption, respectively. The third stage for adoption intensity was modelled using log–log multiple regression. According to the findings, farmers who were members of cooperatives and received extension services were more likely to be aware of and adopt organic vegetables. However, the use of radio was lowly used to promote organic agricultural awareness. On the other hand, the amount of labour used, and total revenue increased the quantity of organic vegetables produced. As a result, we conclude that the use of extension agents was pivotal in engineering the development of organic farming in Nigeria. Therefore, establishing an organic information hub would be an appropriate strategy for increasing awareness, adoption, and intensity in organic green leafy vegetable, tomato, and pepper production. This would help foster extension activities, and information transfer, as well as connect producers with buyers

Survey Of Gross Alpha And Beta Radioactivity In Well Water From Zaria And Its Environs

Thirty –two samples of well water were drawn at random from wells in and aound Zaria Township, Kaduna State. Two drops of concentrated nitric acid were added in two liters of the sampled water for preservation. The samples were later evaporated and counted for gross alpha and beta in an eight-channel-gas-filled proportional counter. Results show that the range of alpha activity in water in the area is 0.58-43.19 Bq/m3, with geometric mean, 6.35&+-61617;0.45 Bq/m3. The range of beta activity is 3.58-622 Bq/m3 with geometric mean, 75.34&+-61617;1.53 Bq/m3. Further statistical analyses of the data show that both alpha and beta activities are skewed towards low values and the contour analyses show three area of elevated activity for both alpha and beta. The overall results show that the alpha and beta activities do not necessarily come from the same source and their values are below the WHO practical screening level of radioactivity in drinking water. Keywords: Radioactivity, alpha, beta, drinking water Nigerian Journal of Physics Vol. 19 (1) 2007: pp. 39-4