Journal Utilization By Postgraduate Students At The Libraries Of The Universities Of Agriculture In Nigeria

This study examined the extent to which postgraduate students of the Universities of Agriculture libraries in Nigeria utilize journals in their libraries for research purposes. Survey research design was adopted. A total of 1,275 copies of a questionnaire were distributed among the postgraduate students of the three Universities of Agriculture in Nigeria of which there were 914 (71.69%) responses. The questionnaire sought for information on how often they use journals, constraints to the use of journals, the kinds of journals they preferred most (printed or electronic) and the currency and relevance of journals to their field of research. The result indicated that the greatest frequency usage of journals was three times a week with MOU recording highest usage (58.6%), while UNAAB and UAM had 40.8% and 40.9%, respectively. Universities of Agriculture libraries should make adequate provision for relevant and current electronic databases to make research activities easy for researchers. The Libraries should form Inter Library Loan (ILL) network for the exchange and sharing of their resources.     &nbsp

Hepatic Sonographic findings at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Background: Ultrasound examination is considered to be a very useful imaging modality for the diagnosis of hepatic diseases. Its major advantage is the avoidance of ionizing radiation exposure. However, it is operator dependent and less accurate when compared with Computed Tomography. The present study describes hepatic sonographic findings in patients referred to the radiology department for ultrasound examination based on clinical suspicion of liver disease. Methods: This observational descriptive study was conducted between June 2019 and April 2020 at Department of Radiology, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria. Two hundred and twenty seven patients with clinical features suggestive of hepatic disease and referred to the department for ultrasound examination were enrolled. Ultrasonography was done using a LOGIQ V duplex Doppler ultrasound machine with 3.5-5 MHz curvilinear transducer Results: The age of the patients ranged from 0 to above 60 years. Out of 227 patients studied, 48% were males and 52% were females. Decompensated chronic liver disease and chronic liver disease (CLD) dominated the indications for hepatic ultrasound scan with 23.3% and 19.4% respectively. The predominant pathological ultrasonic liver finding reported was chronic liver disease, accounting for up to 48% in frequency. This was followed by Hepatitis (16.3%) and Liver cirrhosis (13%). Conclusions: The various indications and findings of liver ultrasonographic evaluation have been established by this study with chronic liver disease being the commonest indication for sonographic evaluation of the liver as well as the commonest finding. Keywords: Hepatic, Jos, North-Central, Nigeria, ultrasoun

A review on mobile SMS spam filtering techniques

Under short messaging service (SMS) spam is understood the unsolicited or undesired messages received on mobile phones. These SMS spams constitute a veritable nuisance to the mobile subscribers. This marketing practice also worries service providers in view of the fact that it upsets their clients or even causes them lose subscribers. By way of mitigating this practice, researchers have proposed several solutions for the detection and filtering of SMS spams. In this paper, we present a review of the currently available methods, challenges, and future research directions on spam detection techniques, filtering, and mitigation of mobile SMS spams. The existing research literature is critically reviewed and analyzed. The most popular techniques for SMS spam detection, filtering, and mitigation are compared, including the used data sets, their findings, and limitations, and the future research directions are discussed. This review is designed to assist expert researchers to identify open areas that need further improvement

pH-Dependent Hydration Change in a Gd-Based MRI Contrast Agent with a Phosphonated Ligand

The heptadentate ligand L was shown to form an extremely stable Gd complex at neutral pH with a pGd value of 18.4 at pH 7.4. The X-ray crystal structures of the complexes formed with Gd and Tb displayed two very different coordination behaviors being, respectively, octa- and nonacoordinated. The relaxometric properties of the Gd complex were studied by field-dependent relaxivity measurements at various temperatures and by 17O NMR spectroscopy. The pH-dependence of the longitudinal relaxivity profile indicated large changes around neutral pH leading to a very large value of 10.1 mm−1⋅s−1 (60 MHz, 298 K) at pH 4.7. The changes were attributed to an increase of the hydration number from one water molecule in basic conditions to two at acidic pH. A similar trend was observed for the luminescence of the Eu complex, confirming the change in hydration state. DOSY experiments were performed on the Lu analogue, pointing to the absence of dimers in solution in the considered pH range. A breathing mode of the complex was postulated, which was further supported by 1H and 31P NMR spectroscopy of the Yb complex at varying pH and was finally modeled by DFT calculations