Development of a Guna Seed Extractor

Guna seed extraction presents an onerous task and has been the labour and time consuming operation that militates against the large scale production and processing of this important oil crop. To overcome this problem, a guna seed extractor that works on the principle of impact from breaker arms and macerators was developed. The seed extractor consists of a hopper equipped with flow rate control device, a seed extraction unit, winnowing unit and power system. Performance tests were conducted on the seed extractor using the fruits of two varieties of guna crop namely citrullus colocynthis and citrullus lanatus in the moisture ranges of 87.21-92.45% (wb) and 85.07-89.74% (wb) respectively, obtained by varying the fruit storage duration. Result of tests and analyses showed that the performance indicators (percentage effective seed extraction, cleaning efficiency, cleaning loss, percentage seed loss at concave, material retention and percentage seed retention) were significantly affected by fruit moisture content (storage duration), material feed rate and machine speed at 1 and 5% levels. Percentage effective seed extraction and percentage seed loss at concave increased with increase in fruit moisture content, material feed rate and machine speed Maximum percentage effective seed extraction of 95.1% at the moisture content of 92.45% for the colocynthis fruit, and 96.0% at 89.74% moisture content for the lanatus, was obtained at the material feed rate of 375 kg/h and machine speed of 939 min – 1. Maximum percentage seed loss at concave was less than 5%. Cleaning efficiency, cleaning loss and material retention in the seed extraction chamber, decreased with the increase in the fruit moisture content for both varieties of guna fruits, but increased with increase in material feed rate and machine speed, while percentage seed retention decreased with increase in moisture content, material feed rate and machine speed. Maximum cleaning efficiency of 94.15% and 91.28% for the colocynthis and lanatus varieties respectively, was obtained at the material feed rate of 375 kg/h, machine speed of 939 min -1, and fruit moisture contents of 87.21% and 85.07%. Maximum cleaning loss was less than 30% and percentage seed retention was high at low fruit moisture content, material feed rate and machine speed. Practically no seed damage was recorded. Regression models that could be used to express the relationship existing between the seed extractor performance indices and fruit moisture content, material feed rate and machine speed were established for each variety of guna crop

Development of Fingerprint Biometric Attendance System for Non-Academic Staff in a Tertiary Institution

Institutions, companies and organisations where security and net productivity is vital, access to certain areas must be controlled and monitored through an automated system of attendance. Managing people is a difficult task for most of the organizations and maintaining the attendance record is an important factor in people management. When considering the academic institute, taking the attendance of non-academic staff on daily basis and maintaining the records is a major task. Manually taking attendance and maintaining it for a long time adds to the difficulty of this task as well as wastes a lot of time. For this reason, an efficient system is proposed in this paper to solve the problem of manual attendance. This system takes attendance electronically with the help of a fingerprint recognition system, and all the records are saved for subsequent operations. Staff biometric attendance system employs an automated system to calculate attendance of staff in an organization and do further calculations of monthly attendance summary in order to reduce human errors during calculations. In essence, the proposed system can be employed in curbing the problems of lateness, buddy punching and truancy in any institution, organization or establishment. The proposed system will also improve the productivity of any organization if properly implemented. Keywords: Institution, Attendance, Biometric, Fingerprin

Climate change and lake water resources in Sub-Saharan Africa: case study of lake Chad and lake Victoria

This review assesses the impact of climate change on lake water resources in Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA). Two significant global water features with immense contribution to agriculture and socio-economic development of the region were analysed. Lake Victoria is the world second largest freshwater lake and Lake Chad the largest endoreic basin. These two great water bodies have been affected drastically by climate change and human influence. A significant shrinkage on Lake Chad was experienced with a decrease in water stored from in 1960s to less than in 2005. This effect abruptly receded Lake Chad from 25,000Km2 in the 1960s to 1350Km2 in 2005; while Lake Victoria experienced continual fluctuations from over a century; with evaporation rates varying between 1370mm to 1600mm, 90% of water loss which leads to peak fluctuation occurring in 1961.Keywords: Water Resource, Climate Change, Sub-Saharan Africa, Lake Chad, Lake Victori

Availability and Utilization of Emergency Obstetric Care Services in Three Communities in Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria

Maternal mortality ratios often reflect on the quality and availability of emergency obstetric care (EmOC) services. Ten health facilities in Kaduna State were assessed to determine their capacity to provide EmOC. Each community had the recommended number of both primary and secondary health facilities per population. All secondary health facilities had 24-hour services staffed by at least one doctor and one nurse/midwife per shift, and were able to perform most signal functions of EmOC in the three months preceding the survey. However, no primary health centres (PHC) were open 24 hours, and their performance of EmOC in the three months preceding the survey was near zero. Thus the presence of functional secondary hospitals is not enough to reduce maternal mortality in communities where women have to overcome numerous barriers to reach a hospital. If shortages of personnel, equipment and supplies in PHCs were resolved, 24-hour services could lead to a sharp reduction in maternal and infant mortality among rural women in northern Nigeria (Afr. J. Reprod. Health 2010; 14[3]: 83-88).Key words: Emergency obstetric care, primary health care, maternal mortality, rural communities, northern Nigeria

Genome sequence of the biocontrol agent coniothyrium minitans conio (IMI 134523)

Coniothyrium minitans (synonym, Paraphaeosphaeria minitans) is a highly specific mycoparasite of the wide host range crop pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. The capability of C. minitans to destroy the sclerotia of S. sclerotiorum has been well recognized and it is available as a widely used biocontrol product Contans WG. We present the draft genome sequence of C. minitans Conio (IMI 134523), which has previously been used in extensive studies that formed part of a registration package of the commercial product. This work provides a distinctive resource for further research into the molecular basis of mycoparasitism to harness the biocontrol potential of C. minitans

Autologous blood donations and transfusions among patients undergoing elective orthopaedic, gynaecologic and elective caesarean section at a Tertiary Hospital in North Central Nigeria

Introduction: Allogeneic donor blood is becoming increasingly costly, scarce and associated with multiple risks; there is need for more conservative transfusion strategies, one of which may be adoption of Autologous Blood Donation and Transfusions (ABDT). Despite increased acceptance of ABDT by clinicians and patients in most developed world, awareness in this part of the world is still low.Materials and methods: this is a cross sectional survey of knowledge and acceptance of ABDT by patients scheduled for elective orthopaedic, gynaecologic and elective caesarean section surgeries using structured interviewer administered questionnaire on socio-demographics, clinical presentations, knowledge of blood donations and transfusions, and acceptance of ABDT. The study population comprised of 171 subjects.Results: Gynaecologic/obstetric patients were 120 (70.2%) while 51 (29.8%) of the subjects were Orthopaedic patients. Majority (43.95%) were within the age range 31-45 years, 38.6% were less than 31 years while 17.5% were older than 45 years. Females constituted the larger proportion (77.2%). Twenty one (12.3%) subjects had donated blood in the past, 45 (26.3%) had previous blood transfusions and 30 (17.5%) had knowledge of ABDT. Eight one (47.4%) of all subjects accepted ABDT for the scheduled surgeries while 123 (71.9%) subjects accepted to be voluntary blood donors after surgery. Pre-deposit is the commonest form of ABDT preferred by the subjects (66%), followed by Haemodilution (28%) and Cell salvage (6%). A significant number of the subjects who accepted ABDT were ready to become voluntary blood donors after surgery (90.1%).Conclusion: Acceptance rate as high as 47.4% was recorded in this study despite low awareness. This is higher than what was reported by most authors’ locally but similar to the findings from Europe and Asia. Pre-deposit form was the commonest ABDT acceptable to these patients.  Improving awareness on ABDT will boost voluntary blood donations and improve blood transfusion safety

Secondary bacterial infections of buruli ulcer lesions before and after chemotherapy with streptomycin and rifampicin

Buruli ulcer (BU), caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans is a chronic necrotizing skin disease. It usually starts with a subcutaneous nodule or plaque containing large clusters of extracellular acid-fast bacilli. Surrounding tissue is destroyed by the cytotoxic macrolide toxin mycolactone produced by microcolonies of M. ulcerans. Skin covering the destroyed subcutaneous fat and soft tissue may eventually break down leading to the formation of large ulcers that progress, if untreated, over months and years. Here we have analyzed the bacterial flora of BU lesions of three different groups of patients before, during and after daily treatment with streptomycin and rifampicin for eight weeks (SR8) and determined drug resistance of the bacteria isolated from the lesions. Before SR8 treatment, more than 60% of the examined BU lesions were infected with other bacteria, with Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa being the most prominent ones. During treatment, 65% of all lesions were still infected, mainly with P. aeruginosa. After completion of SR8 treatment, still more than 75% of lesions clinically suspected to be infected were microbiologically confirmed as infected, mainly with P. aeruginosa or Proteus miriabilis. Drug susceptibility tests revealed especially for S. aureus a high frequency of resistance to the first line drugs used in Ghana. Our results show that secondary infection of BU lesions is common. This could lead to delayed healing and should therefore be further investigated

Staphylococcus sciuri Exfoliative Toxin C (ExhC) is a Necrosis-Inducer for Mammalian Cells

Staphylococcus sciuri (S. sciuri) is a rare pathogen in humans, but it can cause a wide array of human infections. Recently a S. sciuri isolate (HBXX06) was reported to cause fatal exudative epidermitis (EE) in piglets and thus considered as a potential zoonotic agent. To investigate the pathogenicity of this bacterium, we cloned exfoliative toxin C (ExhC), a major toxin of the S. sciuri isolate and performed functional analysis of the recombinant ExhC-his (rExhC) protein using in vitro cell cultures and newborn mice as models. We found that rExhC could induce necrosis in multiple cell lines and peritoneal macrophages as well as skin lesions in newborn mice, and that the rExhC-induced necrosis in cells or skin lesions in newborn mice could be completely abolished if amino acids 79-128 of rExhC were deleted or blocked with a monoclonal antibody (3E4), indicating aa 79-128 portion as an essential necrosis-inducing domain. This information contributes to further understandings of the mechanisms underlying S. sciuri infection

Updated unified phylogenetic classification system and revised nomenclature for Newcastle disease virus

Several Avian paramyxoviruses 1 (synonymous with Newcastle disease virus or NDV, used hereafter) classification systems have been proposed for strain identification and differentiation. These systems pioneered classification efforts; however, they were based on different approaches and lacked objective criteria for the differentiation of isolates. These differences have created discrepancies among systems, rendering discussions and comparisons across studies difficult. Although a system that used objective classification criteria was proposed by Diel and co-workers in 2012, the ample worldwide circulation and constant evolution of NDV, and utilization of only some of the criteria, led to identical naming and/or incorrect assigning of new sub/genotypes. To address these issues, an international consortium of experts was convened to undertake in-depth analyses of NDV genetic diversity. This consortium generated curated, up-to-date, complete fusion gene class I and class II datasets of all known NDV for public use, performed comprehensive phylogenetic neighbor-Joining, maximum-likelihood, Bayesian and nucleotide distance analyses, and compared these inference methods. An updated NDV classification and nomenclature system that incorporates phylogenetic topology, genetic distances, branch support, and epidemiological independence was developed. This new consensus system maintains two NDV classes and existing genotypes, identifies three new class II genotypes, and reduces the number of sub-genotypes. In order to track the ancestry of viruses, a dichotomous naming system for designating sub-genotypes was introduced. In addition, a pilot dataset and sub-trees rooting guidelines for rapid preliminary genotype identification of new isolates are provided. Guidelines for sequence dataset curation and phylogenetic inference, and a detailed comparison between the updated and previous systems are included. To increase the speed of phylogenetic inference and ensure consistency between laboratories, detailed guidelines for the use of a supercomputer are also provided. The proposed unified classification system will facilitate future studies of NDV evolution and epidemiology, and comparison of results obtained across the world

Mupirocin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Mupirocin is widely used for nasal decolonization of Staphylococcus aureus to prevent subsequent staphylococcal infection in patients and healthcare personnel. However, the prolonged and unrestricted use has led to the emergence of mupirocin-resistant (mupR) S. aureus. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the prevalence, phenotypic and molecular characteristics, and geographic spread of mupR S. aureus in Africa. Methods We examined five electronic databases (EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, ISI Web of Science, MEDLINE, and Scopus) for relevant English articles on screening for mupR S. aureus from various samples in Africa. In addition, we performed random effects meta-analysis of proportions to determine the pooled prevalence of mupR S. aureus in Africa. The search was conducted until 3 August 2016. Results We identified 43 eligible studies of which 11 (26%) were obtained only through Google Scholar. Most of the eligible studies (28/43; 65%) were conducted in Nigeria (10/43; 23%), Egypt (7/43; 16%), South Africa (6/43; 14%) and Tunisia (5/43; 12%). Overall, screening for mupR S. aureus was described in only 12 of 54 (22%) African countries. The disk diffusion method was the widely used technique (67%; 29/43) for the detection of mupR S. aureus in Africa. The mupA-positive S. aureus isolates were identified in five studies conducted in Egypt (n = 2), South Africa (n = 2), and Nigeria (n = 1). Low-level resistance (LmupR) and high-level resistance (HmupR) were both reported in six human studies from South Africa (n = 3), Egypt (n = 2) and Libya (n = 1). Data on mupR-MRSA was available in 11 studies from five countries, including Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa. The pooled prevalence (based on 11 human studies) of mupR S. aureus in Africa was 14% (95% CI =6.8 to 23.2%). The proportion of mupA-positive S. aureus in Africa ranged between 0.5 and 8%. Furthermore, the frequency of S. aureus isolates that exhibited LmupR, HmupR and mupR-MRSA in Africa were 4 and 47%, 0.5 and 38%, 5 and 50%, respectively. Conclusions The prevalence of mupR S. aureus in Africa (14%) is worrisome and there is a need for data on administration and use of mupirocin. The disk diffusion method which is widely utilized in Africa could be an important method for the screening and identification of mupR S. aureus. Moreover, we advocate for surveillance studies with appropriate guidelines for screening mupR S. aureus in Africa