Reliability Evaluation of Compaction Water Content of Plantain Peel Ash Treated Lateritic Soil

A first-order reliability method (FORM)was employed to assess the compaction water content, CWC (i.e optimum moisture content) of residual lateritic soil mixed with plantain peel ash (PPA) and compacted with British Standard Light (BSL)and British Standard Heavy (BSH)energies, for flexible pavement applications. A Multi-linear regression model was generated from values obtained via laboratory tests using Mini-tab R15 software, which served as a performance function that was applied for the analysis. Using the regression models for CWC, established distributions for the relevant soil factors, safety index (SI) was computed using CWC as a dependent factor and the soil factors Plantain Peel Ash (PPA); Plasticity Index (PI); Percentage File (PF); Specific Gravity (Gs) and Compactive Effort (CE)as self-determining factors). The results revealed that the safety index is sensitive to changeability in the soil factors. Outcome from the analysis show that Gs and CE are greatly affected by alteration in the coefficient of variation (COV), and so it is essential to control Gs and CE in lateritic soil–PPA mixes in road pavements. From the safety index values it reveals that PPA content has a minimal consequence as its value virtually remained constant at all COV used. Stochastically, lateritic soil mixed with PPA produces an acceptable safety index value of 1.0, as mentioned by the Nordic Committee on Building Regulation (NCBR) at 10% COV for BSH of compaction water content only. Therefore a more effective additive such as cement, lime, or bitumen is recommended for modeling CWC of lateritic soil-PPA mixes for road pavement at 10–100% series of COV. Keywords: Coefficient of variation; compaction water content; lateritic soil; plantain peel ash; reliability inde

The length weight relationship and condition factor of the Banded Jewel fish (Hemichromis fasciatus Peters) from Kainji Lake, Nigeria

The length weight relationship and condition factor of Hemichromis fasciatus from Kainji Lake was studied. One hundred and twenty seven fish samples of total length ranging from 6.50cm 15.50cm and weigh between 4.00g and 60.00g collected between August 2006 and June 2007 were analyzed. Results showed that a, b and r - values were 0.0042, 3.442 and 0.966 respectively, while the condition factor (CF) values varied from 0.67 2.42 with mean of 1.203. The fish exhibited positive allometric growth pattern. The condition of the lake is favourable for the survival of the fish species

Effects of vitamin K dietary supplementation in pulmonary dysfunction induced by 7,12-dimethylbenzaanthracene in rat

One of the well-known toxicants of the mammary tissue is 7,12-dimethylbenzaanthracene (DMBA). This study was carried out to investigate the possible prophylactic's role of increased dietary intake of vitamin K on the induction of toxicity in the lung tissue. Twenty-eight Wistar albino rats (120-150 g) were randomly divided into different groups. Group 1 served as the control and were fed with a normal diet (containing the recommended daily allowance of vitamin K (0.0075%)). Groups 2 and 3 received a single dose of DMBA (80 mg/kg body weight) intragastically. In addition, group 3 rats were maintained on surplus vitamin K diet (0.075% diet) as against the group 2 animals that were on a normal diet. Group 4 rats were on surplus vitamin K diet (0.075% diet) throughout the experimental period of 16 weeks. Our results revealed that supplementation of diet with surplus vitamin K significantly increased the activities of catalase. Superoxide dismutase, glutathione-S-transferase, and glutathione peroxidase were significantly increased in the serum and lungs when compared with the DMBA-treated group, which was maintained on a normal diet. Significant alterations in malondialdehyde, nitric oxide, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and interleukin 17F were observed in rats challenged with DMBA-fed normal diets but were normalized in rats with surplus vitamin K. These alterations and reversal were confirmed by histopathology studies. This suggests the prophylactic benefit of increased dietary intake of vitamin K without any observed deleterious effect on DMBA-induced pulmonary toxicity. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LL

Vitamin K protects against 7,12-dimethylbenz(A)anthracene induced hepatotoxicity in Wistar rats

Humans are daily exposed to 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA), a well known polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). This study investigated the role of dietary intake of Vitamin K (VK), a polyphenolic compound, with potential antioxidative properties, against DMBA-induced hepatotoxicity. Sixty experimental animals (120-150 g) were divided into six groups (A-F): Control, DMBA (80 mg/kg bw) only, VK (0.00 g/10 kg) diet only, VK (7.5 g/10 kg) diet only, DMBA + VK (0.0 g/10 kg) diet and DMBA + VK (7.5 g/10 kg) diet. Single oral administration of DMBA (80 mg/kg body weight) to Wistar rats resulted in hepatic damage after 16 weeks. DMBA significantly (P <.05) decreased the activities of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and Vitamin C were significantly decreased with increase in malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO) levels in serum and liver. Aspartate aminotransaminase (AST), alanine aminotransaminase (ALT), γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities were significantly (P <.05) elevated in the serum but reduced in the liver of DMBA-administered group. Ingestion of 7.5 g/10 kg VK diet prevented the up regulations in inflammatory biomarkers (granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 17A (IL-17A)) which elicited liver damaged in the DMBA-treated group. DMBA induced hepatic alterations in DMBA-treated group but was restored to near normal in VK (7.5 g/10 kg) diet group. These findings suggest the protective potential of increased dietary intake of vitamin K against DMBA-induced hepatic dysfunction. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC

Epidemiology of hiv-tuberculosis co-infection among patients on anti-retroviral therapy inSokoto state, Nigeria.

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome and tuberculosis are commonly called the “deadly duo”, because human immunodeficiency virus increases susceptibilityto tuberculosis which inturn accelerates its progression to acquired immune deficiency syndrome. This study describes human immunodeficiency virus/ tuberculosis co-infection in Sokoto State, Nigeria. Methods: Data were extracted from medical records of human immunodeficiency virus infected patients on antiretroviral therapy in health facilities that offer comprehensive care for human immunodeficiency virus infected patients in Sokoto State, and analysed.Results: Majority of the 353 study subjects were females (60.6%) aged 30-39 years (37.4%) and living in Sokoto state (78.5%). Care entry points were Medical Outpatient Department (36.8%), GeneralOutpatient Department (35.4%) and voluntary counseling centre (23.5%). Enrolment for human immunodeficiency virus care was highest in May (13.4%) and lowest in March (5.1%). The functionalstatus of majority (75.8%) of the study subjects was asymptomatic normal activity. Thirty-three (9.3%) of the study subjects were human immunodeficiency virus/Tuberculosis co-infected. Human immunedeficiency virus only cases and human immunodeficiency virus/Tuberculosis co-infected cases were similar with respect to age and sex but differed significantly with respect to WHO clinical stage, CD4 count and functional status. Conclusion: Human immunodeficiency virus only and human immunodeficiency virus/tuberculosis coinfectioncases have similar demographic characteristics but differ with respect to the stage of acquired immune deficiency syndrome

The ASOS Surgical Risk Calculator: development and validation of a tool for identifying African surgical patients at risk of severe postoperative complications

Background: The African Surgical Outcomes Study (ASOS) showed that surgical patients in Africa have a mortality twice the global average. Existing risk assessment tools are not valid for use in this population because the pattern of risk for poor outcomes differs from high-income countries. The objective of this study was to derive and validate a simple, preoperative risk stratification tool to identify African surgical patients at risk for in-hospital postoperative mortality and severe complications. Methods: ASOS was a 7-day prospective cohort study of adult patients undergoing surgery in Africa. The ASOS Surgical Risk Calculator was constructed with a multivariable logistic regression model for the outcome of in-hospital mortality and severe postoperative complications. The following preoperative risk factors were entered into the model; age, sex, smoking status, ASA physical status, preoperative chronic comorbid conditions, indication for surgery, urgency, severity, and type of surgery. Results: The model was derived from 8799 patients from 168 African hospitals. The composite outcome of severe postoperative complications and death occurred in 423/8799 (4.8%) patients. The ASOS Surgical Risk Calculator includes the following risk factors: age, ASA physical status, indication for surgery, urgency, severity, and type of surgery. The model showed good discrimination with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.805 and good calibration with c-statistic corrected for optimism of 0.784. Conclusions: This simple preoperative risk calculator could be used to identify high-risk surgical patients in African hospitals and facilitate increased postoperative surveillance. © 2018 British Journal of Anaesthesia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Medical Research Council of South Africa gran

CMS Physics Technical Design Report: Addendum on High Density QCD with Heavy Ions

This report presents the capabilities of the CMS experiment to explore the rich heavy-ion physics programme offered by the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The collisions of lead nuclei at energies $\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 5.5\,{\rm TeV}$ , will probe quark and gluon matter at unprecedented values of energy density. The prime goal of this research is to study the fundamental theory of the strong interaction \u2014 Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) \u2014 in extreme conditions of temperature, density and parton momentum fraction (low- x ). This report covers in detail the potential of CMS to carry out a series of representative Pb-Pb measurements. These include "bulk" observables, (charged hadron multiplicity, low p T inclusive hadron identified spectra and elliptic flow) which provide information on the collective properties of the system, as well as perturbative probes such as quarkonia, heavy-quarks, jets and high p T hadrons which yield "tomographic" information of the hottest and densest phases of the reaction