Effects of biochar amendments on rice growth and metabolic response to salinity stress in salt-affected soils

Exploring cheaper and sustainable strategies for managing salt-affected soils remains crucial in irrigated areas. Many researchers recommended using gypsum as material for reclamation salt-affected soils, which are costly and unavailable for most farmers. In this study, we used biochar derived from the common materials found in the irrigated areas that are locally available and less utilized as a substitute for gypsum for sustainable reclamation of salt-affected soils. Salt-affected soils (saline, saline-sodic and sodic) and unaffected were collected from the Watari Irrigation project, Kano State Nigeria using farmers' perceptions about the salinity situations of the irrigation scheme and existing legacy map data. The biochar used for this study were made using the Typha grass, rice straw, and rice bran samples collected from the same area. Thirty-six (36) containers (plastic pots) with a diameter of 27.5cm and height of 45cm each were filled with eight-kilogram dried soils, including non-saline, saline, and saline-sodic. We measured plant height, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at interval of 14 days. Number of tillers per plant were also measured during tillering stage at interval of 14 days. Stover dry weight, grain dry weight, electrolytic leakage and proline contents were measured after the end of the experiment. The results revealed a high significant effect (p<0.01) of biochar amendments in remediating different forms of salt affected soils. Saline sodic soil was effectively managed when using Typha biochar with a mean value very close to non-saline soil. Rice straw and rice bran reduces the salinity levels particularly in sodic soil. Therefore, biochar from different source could be used in addressing salt-specific problems rather than using a uniform treatment

Chemical composition and phyto-chemical factors of sorrel seeds (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) boiled at varying durations

This study was carried out to determine the chemical composition of sorrel seeds boiled at varying durations. Cleaned sorrel seeds were poured into three (3) litres of boiled water (at 100 C) per batch of 1kg (i.e. in ratio of 3:1) at different boiling durations of 0, 15, 30 and 45 minutes, respectively. The boiled sorrel seeds were sun dried by spreading on trays until well dried. Samples of the boiled sorrel seeds were analysed for chemical composition and phyto-chemical factors. The results showed that the duration of boiling significantly (p< 0.05) affected the crude protein, crude fibre and ether extract contents. Crude protein and ether extract values increased as the duration of boiling increased from 0 to 45 minutes. The lowest crude protein (28.00%) and crude fibre (12.80%) was obtained at 30 minutes duration of boiling while their respective values 29.22% and 14.50% were obtained from 45 minutes duration. Ether extract decreased with increased boiling duration. The values of anti – nutritional factor declined with increase in the duration boiling. There was also significant differences (p<0.05) in phytic acid and tannin levels. The 45 minutes duration of boiling had the lowest value for phytic acid (0.19%), tannin (1.1%) and saponin (7.65%). It is concluded that processing of sorrel seed by boiling enhanced nutrient availability of crude protein, crude fibre and ether extract, and reduced anti-nutrients (phytic acid, tannin and saponin) to a tolerable level. Keywords: Phyto-chemical factors; Boiling durations; Chemical composition; Sorrel seed

Crohn's disease with Pyoderma gangrenosum in a patient in northern Nigeria: A case report

Background: Crohn's disease is a major form of inflammatory bowel disease that can present with extra-intestinal manifestations. We report a case of Crohn's disease with pyodermagangrenosum in a Nigerian patient. The report is to alert physicians in our setting on the occurrence of this rare presentation.Case presentation: The patient presented with chronic bloody and mucoiddiarrhoea with associated weight loss and fever of one-year duration. There was also history of mouth rashes, anal pain and itching. One month prior to presentation, he developed leg ulcer. Colonoscopy showed multiple ulcerations with normal intervening mucosa. Colonic mucosal histology showed focal area of ulceration with extensive inflammatory infiltrate in the lamina propia and submucosa. The patient's symptoms improved after the commencement of sulfasalazine.Conclusion: Crohn's disease should be suspected in a patient with chronic leg ulcer

Prenatal development of yankasa sheep (Ovis aries) kidney: A histomorphometric study

 A Histomorphometric study was conducted on the kidney of seventeen (17) fetuses of the Yankasa sheep (Ovis aries) collected from the Sokoto metropolitan abattoir, over a period of one month at different gestational ages. The approximate age of the fetuses was estimated from the crown vertebral rump length (CVRL) and samples were categorised into first, second and third trimester.  Out of the seventeen (17) fetuses at different gestational age used for the study, 7 (48%) were females while 10 (52%) were males. 6(35%) fetuses belong to first trimester, 5(30%) belong to second trimester and 6(35%) belong to third trimesters of pregnancy respectively. The mean crown vertebrate-rump length (CVRL) ranged from 12.47 ± 1.80 cm at first trimester to 33.79 ±1.52 cm at third trimester. Histological observation shows that the kidney appeared to have two zones via cortex and medulla right from first to third trimester. The development of renal tissues were found to be in succession, from the stage of mesenchyme cells, developing glomerulus and finally to fully developed glomerulus with advancement of gestational age among the three groups. The duct system also followed the same trend of development from immature to matured duct system. The cortex of the first trimester kidney was found to have numerous mesenchymal cells and connective tissues with few developing glomerulus. At second trimester few fully developed glomerulus were found, moderate number of mesenchyme cells and immature developing duct system. Numerous developed glomerulus and matured duct system with moderate developing glomerulus and connective tissue were seen at third trimester.Â

Histological differenciation of the prenatal development of bovine kidney

A Histomorphological study was conducted on the kidney of 25 fetuses of the African zebu cattle collected from the Sokoto metropolitan abattoir, over a period of one month at different gestational ages. The approximate age of the fetuses was estimated from the crown vertebral rump length (CVRL) and samples were categorised into first, second and third trimester.  Out of the twenty five (25) fetuses at different gestational age used for the study, twelve (48%) were females while thirteen (527%) were males. 10(40%) fetuses belong to first trimester, 10(40%) belong to second trimester and 5(20%) belong to third trimesters of pregnancy respectively. The mean crown vertebrate-rump length (CVRL) ranged from 14.60 ± 2.0 cm at first trimester to 100.50 ± 3.0 cm at third trimester. Histological observation shows that the kidney appeared to have two zones via cortex and medulla right from first to third trimester. The development of renal tissues were found to be in succession, from the stage of mesenchyme cells, developing glomerulus and finally to fully developed glomerulus with advancement of gestational age among the three groups. The duct system also followed the same trend of development from immature to matured duct system. The cortex of the first trimester kidney was found to have numerous mesenchymal cells and connective tissues with few developing glomerulus. At second trimester few fully developed glomerulus were found, moderate number of mesenchyme cells and immature developing duct system. Numerous developed glomerulus and matured duct system with moderate developing glomerulus and connective tissue were seen at third trimester

Cryptanalytic attacks on Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman (RSA) cryptosystem: issues and challenges

RSA cryptosystem is an information security algorithm used for encrypting and decrypting of digital data in order to protect the content of the data and to ensure its privacy. Prior research studies have shown that RSA algorithm is very successful in protecting enterprises commercial services and systems as well as web servers and browsers to secure web traffic. In an email application, it's utilized to ensure the privacy and authenticity of email message. Some studies have also shown the efficiency of RSA algorithm in securing remote login sessions, and electronic credit-card payment systems. Generally RSA algorithm gain a security support because of it’s frequently use in most applications where security of digital data is mostly a concern. Its strength lies with its ability of withstanding many forms of attacks. While many studies focus on proving that RSA algorithm is breakable under certain cryptanalytic attacks, yet there are some confrontations on the circumstances of applying those attacks. This paper presents the issues and challenges on some key aspects of cryptanalytic attacks on RSA algorithm. The paper also explores the perceived vulnerabilities of implementing RSA algorithm which can render a cryptanalyst easier means of attack

AfriSenti: A Twitter Sentiment Analysis Benchmark for African Languages

Africa is home to over 2000 languages from over six language families and has the highest linguistic diversity among all continents. This includes 75 languages with at least one million speakers each. Yet, there is little NLP research conducted on African languages. Crucial in enabling such research is the availability of high-quality annotated datasets. In this paper, we introduce AfriSenti, which consists of 14 sentiment datasets of 110,000+ tweets in 14 African languages (Amharic, Algerian Arabic, Hausa, Igbo, Kinyarwanda, Moroccan Arabic, Mozambican Portuguese, Nigerian Pidgin, Oromo, Swahili, Tigrinya, Twi, Xitsonga, and Yor\`ub\'a) from four language families annotated by native speakers. The data is used in SemEval 2023 Task 12, the first Afro-centric SemEval shared task. We describe the data collection methodology, annotation process, and related challenges when curating each of the datasets. We conduct experiments with different sentiment classification baselines and discuss their usefulness. We hope AfriSenti enables new work on under-represented languages. The dataset is available at https://github.com/afrisenti-semeval/afrisent-semeval-2023 and can also be loaded as a huggingface datasets (https://huggingface.co/datasets/shmuhammad/AfriSenti).Comment: 15 pages, 6 Figures, 9 Table

Search for additional heavy neutral Higgs and gauge bosons in the ditau final state produced in 36 fb−1 of pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons and Z′ bosons is performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 from proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2015 and 2016. The heavy resonance is assumed to decay to τ+τ− with at least one tau lepton decaying to final states with hadrons and a neutrino. The search is performed in the mass range of 0.2-2.25 TeV for Higgs bosons and 0.2-4.0 TeV for Z′ bosons. The data are in good agreement with the background predicted by the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in benchmark scenarios. In the context of the hMSSM scenario, the data exclude tan β > 1.0 for mA= 0.25 TeV and tan β > 42 for mA=1.5 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the Sequential Standard Model, ZSSM′ with mZ′< 2.42 TeV is excluded at 95% confidence level, while Z NU′ with mZ ′ < 2.25 TeV is excluded for the non-universal G(221) model that exhibits enhanced couplings to third-generation fermions

Measurement of inclusive jet and dijet cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at s √ =13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Inclusive jet and dijet cross-sections are measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The measurement uses a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1 recorded in 2015 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Jets are identified using the anti-kt algorithm with a radius parameter value of R = 0.4. The inclusive jet cross-sections are measured double-differentially as a function of the jet transverse momentum, covering the range from 100 GeV to 3.5 TeV, and the absolute jet rapidity up to |y| = 3. The double-differential dijet production cross-sections are presented as a function of the dijet mass, covering the range from 300 GeV to 9 TeV, and the half absolute rapidity separation between the two leading jets within |y| < 3, y∗, up to y∗ = 3. Next-to-leading-order, and next-to-next-to-leading-order for the inclusive jet measurement, perturbative QCD calculations corrected for non-perturbative and electroweak effects are compared to the measured cross-sections

Search for doubly charged Higgs boson production in multi-lepton final states with the ATLAS detector using proton-proton collisions at √s = 13TeV

A search for doubly charged Higgs bosons with pairs of prompt, isolated, highly energetic leptons with the same electric charge is presented. The search uses a proton–proton collision data sample at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to 36.1 fb −1 of integrated luminosity recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This analysis focuses on the decays H±±→e±e±, H±±→e±μ± and H±±→μ±μ±, fitting the dilepton mass spectra in several exclusive signal regions. No significant evidence of a signal is observed and corresponding limits on the production cross-section and consequently a lower limit on m(H±±) are derived at 95% confidence level. With ℓ±ℓ±=e±e±/μ±μ±/e±μ±, the observed lower limit on the mass of a doubly charged Higgs boson only coupling to left-handed leptons varies from 770 to 870 GeV (850 GeV expected) for B(H±±→ℓ±ℓ±)=100% and both the expected and observed mass limits are above 450 GeV for B(H±±→ℓ±ℓ±)=10% and any combination of partial branching ratios