Characterization of Schiff base derived from 2-hydroxo-1-naphthaldehyde and Ethylenediammine and its Copper (II) Complex by Potentiometric and Spectrophotometric Methods

Synthesis of Copper (II) complex with a Schiff base derived from the reaction of 2 – hydroxyl-1- naphthaldehyde and ethylenediammine was carried out. Solubility, melting/decomposition temperature, molar conductance, potentiometric, elemental analysis as well as uv-visible spectrophotometric studies were carried out. The pKa of the Schiff base was determined potentiometrically and checked using ORIGIN 50 method. Potentiometric studies revealed 1:1 metal to ligand ratio. Job’s method of continuous variation also revealed 1:1 metal to ligand ratio. Molar conductance measurements showed that the complex is non electrolyte with very high stability constant value. Gibb’s free energy determination showed that the complex is very stable as shown in the high decomposition temperature measurements.Keywords: Potentiometry, Schiff base, Spectrophotometry, Stability constan

Evaluation of the sleep modulating effects of methanolic extracts of Strychnos spinosa and Strychnos innocua fruits in mice

This study aimed to evaluate the sleep modulating properties of Strychnos spinosa and Strychnos innocua fruits in Swiss albino mice. The depressant effect of the extracts on the central nervous system was studied using a diazepam-induced sleep model in mice. The mice were divided into four groups of six mice each. The test groups received Strychnos spinosa and Strychnos innocua fruits extracts at the doses of 250, 500, and 1000 mg/kg body weight intraperitoneally. In contrast, the control group received distilled water at 10 ml/kg. Diazepam (Ranbaxy®, India) was used as a standard drug and administered 30 minutes after the initial treatment. The lethal doses (LD50) of the two extracts were estimated to be >5000 mg/kg. The results obtained from the onset of sleep of rats administered methanol extracts of Strychnos spinosa, and Strychnos innocua fruits showed that the extracts at 250, 500, and 1000 mg/kg, respectively, did not significantly (p >0.05) alter the onset of sleep when compared with the control. The onset of sleep in the groups treated with Strychnos spinosa fruit extracts indicated a dose-dependent decrease pattern. The study also revealed a prolonged duration of sleep in all the experimental groups treated with the two extracts compared to the control group. The treated groups of 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg significantly (p <0.05) prolonged the duration of diazepam-induced sleep in a dose-dependent manner when compared to the control group. The group treated with 1000 mg/kg of Strychnos innocua fruit extract was significant (p <0.05) compared to the control group. In conclusion, the high LD50 observed in this study suggests that the two extracts are relatively safe and contain promising bioactive ingredients that cause sleep modulation in mice

Continuing Education: Atrial fibrillation: Current trends in management

Quite a number of dramatic interventional advances in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias such as catheter ablation and implantable cardiac defibrillators for serious ventricular arrhythmias have held the limelight over the last few years. The treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), which remains the commonest arrhythmia affecting 0.5% of people aged 50-59 years increasing to 12% at age above 74years, has received relatively little attention. There is however, a recent resurgence of interest following some important experimental and therapeutic advances. This article reviews the current understanding of the nature of atrial fibrillation (AF) and some recent developments in the pharmacological and alternative therapeutic approaches. Key Words: Atrial fibrillation, treatment Annals of African Medicine Vol.3(2) 2004: 98-10

PENGARUH PENGGUNAAN BEBERAPA JENIS AIR BERDASARKAN KESADAHANNYA TERHADAP WAKTU PENGERASAN AKHIR DENTAL STONE TIPE IV

2014Sani Ma???rifat. Kalsium sulfat ??-hemihidrat sering disebut sebagai dental stone. \ud Dental stone terdiri atas tiga tipe yaitu Tipe III, Tipe IV (Kekuatan Tinggi), Tipe V \ud (Kekuatan Tinggi, Ekspansi Tinggi). Dental Stone Tipe IV ( kadang disebut sebagai \ud stone kelas II, densite atau improved stone) merupakan gipsum yang ideal digunakan \ud untuk pembuatan dai, karena dai biasanya digunakan untuk preparasi kavitas dengan \ud malam yang diukir sehingga dibutuhkan model yang tahan abrasi.\ud Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh penggunaan beberapa \ud jenis air berdasarkan kesadahannya terhadap waktu pengerasan akhir dental stone\ud tipe IV. Terdapat lima buah varians yaitu, manipulasi dengan air PDAM, air slurry, \ud air sumur, air destilasi dan air mineral. Masing ??? masing varians memiliki lima buah \ud replika dan diukur dengan menggunakan Vicat apparatus. Waktu pengerasan akhir\ud adalah suatu keadaan dari campuran dental stone ketika jarum berdiameter 1 mm, \ud berpenetrasi ke dalam campuran dental stone tidak melebih 2 mm. Setiap jenis air \ud diuji nilai kesadahannya.\ud Dari hasil analisis two way anova didapatkan pengaruh jenis terhadap \ud pengerasan akhir dental stone tipe IV dengan nilai signifikan 0,000, pengaruh \ud kesadahan air terhadap waktu pengerasan akhir dental stone tipe IV dengan nilai \ud signifikan 0,045, yang berarti signifikan karena P < 0,05, sehingga memberikan \ud kesimpulan bahwa Ho ditolak dan Ha diterima.\ud Kata kunci : Dental stone tipe IV, waktu pengerasan akhir, kesadahan air, Vicat \ud Apparatus

Reasons for cancellations of urologic day care surgery

Objective: The numerous economic and social benefits associated with the practice of day care surgery could be eroded by frequent cancellations. We therefore determined the reasons for such cancellations in a tertiary care centre in Nigeria.Patients and Methods: This was a prospective study of all consecutive urologic day cases seen at Jos University Teaching hospital, Nigeria from January 2003 to December 2004.Results: A total of 270 patients were seen during the study period with ages from 2 weeks to 100 years (median 55 years) and male to female ratio of 14:1. The procedures carried out were mainly urethroscopy/urethrocystoscopy in 103 (38.2%) patients, visual internal urethrotomy in 48 (17.8%) and trucut prostatic biopsy in 33 (12.2%) patients. Sixteen (5.9%), 16(5.9%), 9(3.3%) and 8(3.0%) patients had examination under anaesthesia / bladder biopsy for suspected bladder carcinoma, urethral dilatation, testicular biopsy and total orchidectomy for carcinoma of the prostate respectively.There was a cancellation rate of 15.6% (n=42) mainly due to the inability of the patients to come (24 patients, 57.1%), inadequate materials in the theatre (9 patients, 21.4%), power failure (4 patients, 9.5%), strike action (3 patients, 7.1%) and financial difficulties (2 patients, 4.8%).Conclusion: We are still faced with a high cancellation rate of urologic day cases and these are mainly due to avoidable reasons. Patient as well as physician education and provision of adequate materials andinfrastructural development are recommended to reduce these; so as to gain maximally from urologic day surgery practice

Factors Affecting Investment Decisions by Muslim Investors in the Indonesia Islamic Capital Market: An Application of Theory of Planned Behavior

The Islamic capital market is a capital market whose entire mechanism of activity has been adapted to Sharia principles. Indonesia, as a country with a majority Muslim population, the Islamic capital market should have great potential to develop. However, the number of investors in the Sharia capital market is still low. This study examines the effect of financial literacy, subjective norms and technological advances on investment decisions using the Theory Of Planned Behavior (TPB). The study was conducted on 150 Sharia stock investors who are members of the "Sharia Stock" community. The results of this study indicate that financial literacy has a positive effect on investment interest, subjective norms have a positive effect on investment interest, technological convenience has a positive effect on investment intention, and investment intention has a positive effect on investment decisions. &nbsp;Meanwhile, investment intention can mediate the effect of financial literacy, subjective norms, and technological advances on investment decisions.financial literacy; subjective norms; technological advance; investment intention; investment decisions; theory of planned behavio

Malaria parasitaemia among blood donors in Ilorin, Nigeria

Background: The prevalence of malaria parasitaemia among blood donors in Ilorin has not been documented. In this study, we determined the prevalence of malaria parasitaemia among blood donors in Ilorin, as well as, the sociodemographic and other factors associated with it.Method: This was a hospital- based cross sectional study involving 308 consenting blood donors. The sociodemographic characteristics of participants as well as blood donation history were obtained using structured questionnaires specifically designed for this purpose. Giemsastained thick and thin blood films to identify malaria parasites were performed using standard method. ABO blood grouping and haemoglobin electrophoresis tests were also done using standard methods.Results: The prevalence of malaria parasitaemia among blood donors in Ilorin was 27.3%. The parasite species found were more of Plasmodium falciparum(85.7%) than Plasmodium malariae(14.3%) . There was no age or sex difference in malaria parasitaemia. (p-value of 0.8 and 0.32 respectively). A greater proportion of blood group O individuals had malaria parasitaemia than groups A and B but this difference was not significant (p-value = 0.13). There was also no significant difference among haemoglobin genotypes.Conclusion: The prevalence of malaria parasites among blood donors in Ilorin is considerably high and lack of routine screening of blood puts recipients at risk. We recommend that routine screening for malaria parasites be commenced in our blood banks. Treatment of donor blood with riboflavin and UV light to inactivate malaria parasites and other infectious pathogens before they are transfused to patients may also be considered in our blood banks.Key words: malaria, parasitaemia, blood donors, Nigeri

Salford postgraduate annual research conference (SPARC) 2012 proceedings

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2012 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC). They reflect the breadth and diversity of research interests showcased at the conference, at which over 130 researchers from Salford, the North West and other UK universities presented their work. 21 papers are collated here from the humanities, arts, social sciences, health, engineering, environment and life sciences, built environment and business

Improving kNN for human activity recognition with privileged learning using translation models.

Multiple sensor modalities provide more accurate Human Activity Recognition (HAR) compared to using a single modality, yet the latter is preferred by consumers as it is more convenient and less intrusive. This presents a challenge to researchers, as a single modality is likely to pick up movement that is both relevant as well as extraneous to the human activity being tracked and lead to poorer performance. The goal of an optimal HAR solution is therefore to utilise the fewest sensors at deployment, while maintaining performance levels achievable using all available sensors. To this end, we introduce two translation approaches, capable of generating missing modalities from available modalities. These can be used to generate missing or 'privileged' modalities at deployment to augment case representations and improve HAR.We evaluate the presented translators with k-NN classifiers on two HAR datasets and achieve up-to 5% performance improvements using representations augmented with privileged modalities. This suggests that non-intrusive modalities suited for deployment benefit from translation models that generates privileged modalities

Interet D’une Supplementation En Spiruline Chez Les Enfants Drepanocytaires Homozygotes A L’hopital National De Niamey. (Essai Clinique Randomise En Double Aveugle A Propos De 53 Cas)

Spirulina is a micro algae used for thousands of years due to its healing properties. We supplemented children suffering from sickle cell anemia in order to appreciate its impact on the anthropometrical and clinical parameters. It consisted of a randomized clinical double blind test which was carried during a period of 9 months. The study concerned 53 homozygotes children suffering from sickle cell anemia aged 6 months to 15 years. Also, they were visiting the National Hospital of Niamey for follow up. One group (28 children) received 5 g of spirulina daily, and the other group (25 children) received placebo. The aspects studied were: the number of hospitalizations and transfusions, the vaso-occlusive crisis, the body mass index, and the splenomegalia. We found that 84.90% of patients were hospitalized at least once and 45.3% of them have already been transfused. The average number of crisis has greatly decreased in the spirulina group from 2.75 before the study to 1.18 at the end of the study. This, thus, was observed when compared to 2.44 to 1.6 in the placebo group. We also noticed a decrease of the number of hospitalizations and the number of transfusions which is less important in the group supplemented with spirulina. In conclusion, this study showed that supplementation in spirulina had a significant impact on children suffering from sickle cell anemia. This is even despite the fact that the difference between the two groups is not significant in some cases