Auditing scholarly journals published in Malaysia and assessing their visibility

The problem with the identification of Malaysian scholarly journals lies in the lack of a current and complete listing of journals published in Malaysia. As a result, librarians are deprived of a tool that can be used for journal selection and identification of gaps in their serials collection. This study describes the audit carried out on scholarly journals, with the objectives (a) to trace and characterized scholarly journal titles published in Malaysia, and (b) to determine their visibility in international and national indexing databases. A total of 464 titles were traced and their yearly trends, publisher and publishing characteristics, bibliometrics and indexation in national, international and subject-based indexes were described

Theoretical Study of Aerosols Loading and Retention Over Bolgatanga, Ghana

The aerosols loading and retention over West Africa have grave effect on life-forms through the impact on health, farming, rainfall pattern, cloud formation, and regional climate. Bolgatanga can be found on the latitude and longitude of 10.78°N and 0.85°W, respectively. This research is focused on an investigative consideration of the negative effect of atmospheric aerosols over Bolgatanga in Ghana through a conceptual model using analytical and descriptive statistical methods with MATLAB curve-fitting tool. The model was verified using aerosol optical depth data set from satellite imagery—multi-angle imaging specto-reflectometer (MISR)—obtained over a period of 13 years. The highest percentage increase of aerosol retention was 64.27% over the research site. The model was used to estimate the atmospheric constants as 0.67, tuning constants as 0.24, and phase difference as ± π 4 . The physical interpretation of the results was analyzed systematicall

Cellular responses to Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein-1: use of relatively conserved synthetic peptide pools to determine CD4 T cell responses in malaria-exposed individuals in Benin, West Africa

BACKGROUND: Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein-1, a variant antigen of the malaria parasite, is potentially a target for the immune response. It would be important to determine whether there are CD4 T cells that recognise conserved regions. However, within the relatively conserved region, there is variation. It is not possible to test T cell responses from small field samples with all possible peptides. METHODS: We have aligned sequences that are relatively conserved between several PfEMP1 molecules, and chosen a representative sequence similar to most of the PfEMP1 variants. Using these peptides as pools representing CIDRα, CIDRβ and DBLβ-δ domains, DBLα domain, and EXON 2 domain of PfEMP1, we measured the CD4 T cell responses of malaria-exposed donors from Benin, West Africa by a FACS based assay. RESULTS: All the three peptide pools elicited a CD4 T cell response in a proportion of malaria-exposed and non-exposed donors. CD4 T cell proliferation occurs at a relatively higher magnitude to peptide pools from the DBLα and EXON 2 in the malaria-exposed donors living in Benin than in the UK malaria-unexposed donors. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that an immunological recall response to conserved peptides of a variant antigen can be measured. Further testing of individual peptides in a positive pool will allow us to determine those conserved sequences recognised by many individuals. These types of assays may provide information on conserved peptides of PfEMP1 which could be useful for stimulating T cells to provide help to P. falciparum specific B cells

Perception of Lagos State Secondary School Students on Influence and Effectiveness of Sex Education on Sexuality Behaviour

This study examined the perception of Lagos state secondary school students on influence and effectiveness of sex education on sexuality behaviour. Theoretically, the study is grounded in the Perception theory with focus on selective process theory and Uses and Gratification Theory. Descriptive survey method was adopted and data was collected using self-administered, structured close-ended questionnaire. 480 respondents were randomly selected from eight secondary schools from four local governments in Lagos State, Nigeria. Data collected were analysed using Pearson Product-moment correlation. Results indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between sex education and sexuality behaviour of secondary school students (r=0.34), there is a significant positive relationship between sex education and the effectiveness of sex education to sexual behaviour (r=0.24), and also there is a significant positive relationship between effectiveness of sex education and sexuality behavior of secondary school students. (r=0.39).nbsp The results also showed that majority of the students are aware of sex education which has different meaning to them. 63.8% of the students have received sex education with 53.6% of the students indicating from their teachers. 83.9% of the respondents agreed that sex education is relevant in stimulating their interest in sexual behaviour and 75.0% agreed that sex education is relevant in holding their interest in sexual development. The study recommended that parents/guardians should show more interest in the sexual development of their children/wards. Schools should organise effective communication programmes and seminars about sex education for the secondary school students

Identification of the major tRNAPhe binding domain in the tetrameric structure of cytoplasmic phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase from baker's yeast

AbstractNative cytoplasmic phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase from baker's yeast is a tetramer of the α2β2 type. On mild tryptic cleavage it gives rise to a modified ∡2β′2 form that has lost the tRNAPhe binding capacity but is still able to activate phenylalanine. In this paper are presented data concerning peptides released by this limited proteolytic conversion as well as those arising from exhaustive tryptic digestion of the truncated β′ subunit. Each purified peptide was unambiguously assigned to a unique stretch of the β subunit amino acid sequence that was recently determined via gene cloning and DNA sequencing. Together with earlier results from affinity labelling studies the present data show that the Lys 172—Ile 173 bond is the unique target of trypsin under mild conditions and that the N-terminal domain of each β subunit (residues 1–172) contains the major tRNAPhe binding sites

Enhanced corrosion resistance of stainless steel type 316 in sulphuricacid solution using eco-friendly waste product

Literature has shown that different organic compounds are effective corrosion inhibitors for metal inacidic environments. Such compounds usually contain oxygen, nitrogen or sulphur and function throughadsorption on the metal surface, thereby creating a barrier for corrosion attack. Unfortunately, theseorganic compounds are toxic, scarce and expensive. Therefore, plants, natural product and natural oilshave been posed as cheap, environmentally acceptable, abundant, readily available and effective mole-cules having low environmental impact. The corrosion resistance of austenitic stainless steel Type 316in the presence of eco-friendly waste product was studied using weight loss and potentiodynamic polar-ization techniques in 0.5 M H2SO4. The corrosion rate and corrosion potential of the steel was signifi-cantly altered by the studied inhibitor. Results show that increase in concentration of the inhibitorhinders the formation of the passive film. Experimental observation shows that its pitting potentialdepends on the concentration of the inhibitor in the acid solution due to adsorption of anions at the metalfilm interface. The presence of egg shell powder had a strong influence on the corrosion resistance ofstainless steel Type 316 with highest inhibition efficiency of 94.74% from weight loss analysis, this isas a result of electrochemical action and inhibition of the steel by the ionized molecules of the inhibitingcompound which influenced the mechanism of the redox reactions responsible for corrosion and surfacedeterioration. Inhibitor adsorption fits the Langmuir isotherm model. The two methods employed for thecorrosion assessment were in good agreemen

Morphological spectrum and epidemiological profile of ovarian tumours in black West African women at Lagos state university teaching hospital, Ikeja, Nigeria

Background: This study was done to evaluate the histological types, frequency and age distribution of ovarian tumours in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Lagos State. This study also aims to classify ovarian tumours in this centre according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).Methods: A retrospective, descriptive hospital study of all ovarian specimens that were sent to the department of pathology and forensic medicine, LASUTH between 1st January, 2011 and 31st December, 2019 was done. Relevant data composed of the age distributions and histopathological types were extracted from the departmental information system and filed documents. The data was analysed using the IBM-SPSS version 25.0.Results: There were 198 cases of ovarian tumours. The mean age at diagnosis of ovarian tumours was 34.6±15.3 years. Unilateral ovarian tumour was observed in 91.9%% of cases while bilateral disease was seen in 8.1%. Primary ovarian tumours constitute 97.0% of all diagnosed tumours of the ovary. Germ cell tumour was the most frequently diagnosed ovarian tumour; and teratoma was the most common, representing 91.2% of germ cell tumours and 47.0% of all ovarian tumours. Primary ovarian cancer peaked at the 6th decade of life and metastatic ovarian cancer was infrequently seen. Serous carcinoma is the most commonly diagnosed ovarian cancer.Conclusions: Ovarian tumour presents most frequently at the 4th decade of life, and germ cell tumour is the most common