Microbial biotechnology for bioenergy: general overviews

Bioenergy technologies are environment-friendly, renewable, and a clean way of powering the global community. Bioenergy technology is an innovation that improves the quality of life by simply reducing water and air contamination; this also mitigates energy dependence through creation of renewable resources locally. Bioenergy sources include wind, water, geothermal, nuclear power, solar, and natural gases. The most interesting and important part of bioenergy is the environmental benefits as part of a global energy future, which are aided by microorganisms. The future of bioenergy, however, seems bright because recent global information in this field proved that more renewable energy capacity has been fixed globally than new fossil fuel and nuclear capacity combined. As the global population progressively increases, there is an everincreasing demand for clean energy. The only safe answer to this is sustainable energy, which will protect the earth from climate change and make it a good habitat for all living organisms. This chapter provides a general overview to microbial biotechnology for bioenergy, sources, and challenges of bioenergy, role of microorganisms in bioenergy generation, innovations in bioenergy, and the environmental conservation of bioenergy

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Living well with HIV in Nigeria? Stigma and survival challenges preventing optimum benefit from an ART clinic

Thirty years into the HIV pandemic, the interactions of stigma, social and economic survival, and clinical interventions continue to be key to understanding and managing HIV at both personal and societal levels. With antiretroviral therapy, HIV is increasingly a chronic condition requiring lifelong treatment, near-perfect adherence, and support from both social networks and formal services. This study asked: is stigma still a significant problem for people living with HIV (PLHIV) who have secured access to antiretrovirals (ARVs)? How do PLHIV accessing ARVs in Nigeria experience the social, economic and health service supports intended to address their needs? What are the concerns and challenges of PLHIV and health workers regarding these supports? What are the implications for approaches to stigma and discrimination? This qualitative study at the Antiretroviral (ART) Clinic of the Osogbo State Hospital, Osun State, Nigeria involved in-depth interviews with 15 PLHIV who have been attending the clinic for at least one year, and three health workers. The results reveal both the diversity among even a small number of patients, and persistent cross-cutting themes of stigma, discrimination, poverty, and the psychological impacts of insecure livelihoods and well-intentioned but ultimately stigmatizing supports such as selective food parcels. Both population-based interventions against stigma and poverty, as well as micro-level, contextualized attention to patients’, families’ and health workers’ fear of social exclusion and infection at a clinic and community level are needed if patients – and society – are to live well with HIV in Nigeria. </jats:p

The Relationship Between Stock Market and Market Efficiency: the Nigerian Experience

The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) has been subject to debate for decades. The field of behavioural finance was developed in response to the body of anomalous evidence with regard to the EMH. However important the establishment of the EMH by Fama in 1970, the first ideas on a theory of efficient markets can be traced back to the origins of modern economics. Reviewing seminal work underlying the efficient markets theory, and focusing on the development of appropriate methodology to test for weak form market efficiency. The study empirically investigated the effect of stock market on efficient market hypothesis with emphasis on weak form hypothesis for the period of 1986 to 2021. Using descriptive analysis and Ordinary Lease Square regression econometric approach to analyze the relationship between stock market and market efficiency in Nigerian. The outcome from the result found that market capitalization has significant effect on share price while value of transaction had insignificant effect on share price in Nigeria, the study therefore concluded there is existence of weak form of efficient market hypothesis in Nigeria stock market. Keywords: Stock Market, Market Efficiency, Nigeria DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/15-4-06 Publication date: February 28th 202

Climate Smart Agricultural Practises and their Adoption by Smallholder Livestock and Crop Farmers in Sub -Saharan Africa

The study evaluated the different climate-smart agricultural practices and the adoption by small-holder livestock and crop farmers in sub-Saharan Africa using a scoping review protoco