Milk Yield (Offtake), Composition and Microbiological Quality in West African Dwarf Goats Fed Concentrate Diets with Varying Levels of Moringa oleifera Leafmeal and Seedmeal

The study was carried out to investigate the effect of feeding varying inclusion levels of Moringa oleifera leafmeal (MOL) and defatted Moringa oleifera seedmeal (DMOS), on milk yield (offtake), milk proximate composition and milk microbilolgical quality of sixteen lactating West African Dwarf (WAD) goats. The completely randomized design with four dietary treatments and three does per treatment was used. Average milk yield ranged from 116.00 g/day to 186.00 g/day (early lactation), 78.00 to 170 g/day (mid lactation) and 32.00 to 184.00 g/day (late lactation). Highest mean milk yield was 174.00 g/day for diet T3 (0.30% (MOL) and 0% (DMOS)). Ranges of the milk proximate composition were: 13.50 to 17.22% (total solids), 3.60 to 6.05% (fat), 3.17 to 5.45% (protein), 9.88 to 11.17% (solids-not-fat), 0.73 to 0.82% (ash) and 4.93 to 6.36% (lactose). There exist significant (P<0.01), but negative correlations between milk yield versus fat and protein (r = - 0.691, - 0.643 respectively). Total viable bacterial counts ranged from 1.9 x 106 to 8.6 x 108 cfu/ml. Total coliform counts ranged between 3.7 x 106 and 3.3 x 109 cfu/ml. Total fungal counts ranged from 3.1 x 103 to 3.4 x 105 cfu/ml. This experiment revealed that the inclusion of Moringa oleifera leafmeal and seedmeal in the concentrate diets of lactating WAD goats resulted in highest mean milk yield (offtake) at the 0.30% (MOL) and 0% (DMOS) dietary level. The raw milk was of poor microbiological quality (>5.0 x 106). Keywords: Milk yield (offtake), quality, goat

RISK SURVEILLANCE OF MULTIDRUG RESISTANT PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA IN WATER AND PLASMID RELATEDNESS WITH CLINICAL STRAINS IN ABEOKUTA, SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Pseudomonas aeruginosa as an opportunistic pathogen has been a subject of investigation due its intrinsic drug resistance.ª¤?ª¤? Its frequent presence in drinking, domestic and recreational water highlights its significance to public health.ª¤?ª¤? This study was aimed at risk surveillance of multidrug resistant environmental P. aeruginosa in water and their plasmid relatedness with clinical strains in Abeokuta, southwestern Nigeria.ª¤?ª¤? A total of forty-one (41) strains with prevalence: well water (29.3%); swimming pool (22.0%) hospital storage tank (19.5%); tap water (14.6%); sachet water (12.2%); and bottled water (2.4%) respectively were isolated from two hundred and eighty eight (288) water samples and were compared with 43 clinical strains from wound (37.3%), blood (11.6%), ear swab (20.9%)ª¤? and urine (20.9%)ª¤? and eye swab (9.3%).ª¤?ª¤?ª¤?ª¤? Both environmental and clinical strains were all multidrug resistant, though with different plasmid profile.ª¤? Plasmid with molecular weight size of 2010bp was detected in only 1 (2.5%) out of the 41 environmental strains as against 9 (20.93%) of the 43 clinical strains having between 22520-23130bp molecular weight.ª¤? All strains harboring plasmid were resistant to varied types of more than seven drugs out of the eleven tested (gentamycin 10ª¤?g, erythromycin 15ª¤?g, ampicillin 10ª¤?g, augmentin 10ª¤?g, cotrimoxazole 25ª¤?g, tetracycline 30ª¤?g, streptomycin 10ª¤?g, ciprofloxacin 5ª¤?g, cloxacillin 5ª¤?g, amoxicillin 25ª¤?g, and cefuroxime 30ª¤?g). ª¤?Strains without plasmid were also multidrug resistant.ª¤? This finding would be important in the control of multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in Nigeria

RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORHIC DNA TYPING OF MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT CLINICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL Pseudomonas aeruginosa STRAINS FROM ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a multidrug-resistant organism is responsible for most opportunistic infections. Genetic relatedness between clinical and environmental strains has always been limited to hospital settings.ª¤? This study utilized RAPD-PCR typing method to evaluate genetic relatedness between multidrug-resistantª¤? P. aeruginosa strains from diverse water samples (bottled water, tap water, sachet water, well water, hospital storage tank, and swimming pool water) and clinical strains (wound, blood, urine, eye and ear swab) collected from different locations in Abeokuta, Nigeria.ª¤?ª¤?ª¤? Polymorphic DNA bands with sizes ranging between 250 and 3000bp were generated from both clinical and environmental strains.ª¤? Within each population, both clinical and environmental strains were divided phylogenetically into two groups of Pc1 and Pc2 at 55% and Ps1 and Ps2 at 70% respectively.ª¤?ª¤?ª¤? Genetic similarities between clinical and environmental strains yielded a total of 7 unique fingerprints.ª¤?ª¤? Cluster 2 (51.2%) had the largest number of strains in which strains from wound, blood and ear, clustered with strains from hospital storage tank, tap water, swimming pool water, sachet water and well water.ª¤? ª¤?ª¤?These fingerprints proof genetic relatedness between clinical and environmental strains in Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria which is of public health significance, particularly, for immunocompromisedª¤?individuals.ª¤?ª¤

Comparison of Power Output from Solar PV Panels with Reflectors and Solar Tracker

In this paper, performance enhancement of solar Photo Voltaic (PV) panels has been experimented utilizing diffused reflectors and solar-tracker in other to determine the one with higher power output. An intelligent solar tracker and diffused reflector augmented systems were designed, developed and installed to compare the power output that can be generated from each of them when standing alone; and which system will achieve higher power output so as to reduce the number of PV panels required at any given time especially when cost is a major factor. For this comparative study, experimental readings were simultaneously taken from the panel, with sun tracker and the panel with diffuse reflectors aligned at 23.50 with the horizontal. Experimental results indicate appreciable increase in the overall power output of the solar panels. It is discovered that the power output of the panel with reflectors was higher from about 11 am till 2 pm, while the panel with tracking was higher at other times. The average power output of the system for a day is about the same. Looking at the cost of fabrication and the complexity of the tracking system, the reflector system is the better option. Keywords: Diffuse Reflectors, Performance enhancement, Power output, Solar PV panels, Tracking system

Development of Fingerprint Biometric Attendance System for Non-Academic Staff in a Tertiary Institution

Institutions, companies and organisations where security and net productivity is vital, access to certain areas must be controlled and monitored through an automated system of attendance. Managing people is a difficult task for most of the organizations and maintaining the attendance record is an important factor in people management. When considering the academic institute, taking the attendance of non-academic staff on daily basis and maintaining the records is a major task. Manually taking attendance and maintaining it for a long time adds to the difficulty of this task as well as wastes a lot of time. For this reason, an efficient system is proposed in this paper to solve the problem of manual attendance. This system takes attendance electronically with the help of a fingerprint recognition system, and all the records are saved for subsequent operations. Staff biometric attendance system employs an automated system to calculate attendance of staff in an organization and do further calculations of monthly attendance summary in order to reduce human errors during calculations. In essence, the proposed system can be employed in curbing the problems of lateness, buddy punching and truancy in any institution, organization or establishment. The proposed system will also improve the productivity of any organization if properly implemented. Keywords: Institution, Attendance, Biometric, Fingerprin

ANALYTICAL SOLUTION OF THE RELATIVISTIC KLEIN-GORDON WAVE EQUATION

In this study, the solution to Klein-Gordon equations with focus on analytical methods is discussed. The analytical methods used in this research are the Variational Iteration Method (VIM) developed by Ji-Huan He, Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM) by Adomian and New Iterative Method (NIM) developed by Daftardar Gejji and Jafari. The modified Adomian Decomposition method by Wazwaz was used to solve the linear inhomogeneous and nonlinear Klein-Gordon equations to accelerate the convergence of the solution and minimizes the size of calculation while still maintaining high accuracy of the analytical solution. All the problems considered yield the exact solutions with few iterations. The solutions obtained were compared with the exact solution and the solutions obtained by other existing methods. The solutions obtained by the three methods yield the same results and all the problems considered show that the Variational Iteration Method, Adomian Decomposition Method and New Iterative Method are very powerful and potent in solving Klein-Gordon equations and can be used to obtain closed form solutions of linear and nonlinear differential equations (ordinary and partial)

Rifampicin-monoresistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis among the patients visiting chest clinic, state specialist hospital, Akure, Nigeria

Background:Tuberculosis (TB), one of the most important contagious diseases, is a leading cause of death due to a single pathogen worldwide. Co-infection of people living with HIV with M. tuberculosis has been shown to increase the mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa.Methods:This present study was carried out to establish the rifampicin resistant profiles among the patients attending chest clinic, state specialist hospital, Akure. We enrolled clinical samples submitted between January 2013 and December 2013 for this study. The sputum samples were analyzed using GeneXpert.Results:Of the 135 sputum processed by GeneXpert, 48 (35.6%) contained Mycobacteria tuberculosis (MTB) and 9 (18.8%) were rifampicin resistant Mycobacteria tuberculosis. Patients within the age group of 24-32 years showed the highest resistant to RIF 6 (12.5%).Conclusion:This study has helped to establish that there is presence of rifampicin resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria and most of them were observed among patients who default treatment. This is considered as a threat to TB control programme in Akure, Nigeria and it is recommended that strategies should be put in place in order to ensure patients’ compliance and monitoring of patients’ response to TB treatment.

Clinical versus Sonographic Estimation of Foetal Weight in Southwest Nigeria

A prospective study was conducted at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, between 3 January and 31May 2004, to compare the accuracy of clinical and ultrasonographic estimation of foetal weight at term. One hundred pregnant women who fulfilled the inclusion criteria had their foetal weight estimated independently using clinical and ultrasonographic methods. Accuracy was determined by percentage error, absolute percentage error, and proportion of estimates within 10% of actual birthweight (birthweight of +10%). Statistical analysis was done using the paired t-test, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the chi-square test. The study sample had an actual average birthweight of 3,255+622 (range 2,150–4,950) g. Overall, the clinical method overestimated birthweight, while ultrasound underestimated it. The mean absolute percentage error of the clinical method was smaller than that of the sonographic method, and the number of estimates within 10% of actual birthweight for the clinical method (70%) was greater than for the sonographic method (68%); the difference was not statistically significant. In the low birthweight (<2,500 g) group, the mean errors of sonographic estimates were significantly smaller, and significantly more sonographic estimates (66.7%) were within 10% of actual birthweight than those of the clinical method (41.7%). No statistically significant difference was observed in all the measures of accuracy for the normal birthweight range of 2,500-<4,000 g and in the macrosonic group (≥4,000 g), except that, while the ultrasonographic method underestimated birthweight, the clinical method overestimated it. Clinical estimation of birthweight is as accurate as routine ultrasonographic estimation, except in low-birthweight babies. Therefore, when the clinical method suggests weight smaller than 2,500 g, subsequent sonographic estimation is recommended to yield a better prediction and to further evaluate foetal well-being

Availability and Utilization of Emergency Obstetric Care Services in Three Communities in Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria

Maternal mortality ratios often reflect on the quality and availability of emergency obstetric care (EmOC) services. Ten health facilities in Kaduna State were assessed to determine their capacity to provide EmOC. Each community had the recommended number of both primary and secondary health facilities per population. All secondary health facilities had 24-hour services staffed by at least one doctor and one nurse/midwife per shift, and were able to perform most signal functions of EmOC in the three months preceding the survey. However, no primary health centres (PHC) were open 24 hours, and their performance of EmOC in the three months preceding the survey was near zero. Thus the presence of functional secondary hospitals is not enough to reduce maternal mortality in communities where women have to overcome numerous barriers to reach a hospital. If shortages of personnel, equipment and supplies in PHCs were resolved, 24-hour services could lead to a sharp reduction in maternal and infant mortality among rural women in northern Nigeria (Afr. J. Reprod. Health 2010; 14[3]: 83-88).Key words: Emergency obstetric care, primary health care, maternal mortality, rural communities, northern Nigeria

Attitude of Nigerian Women to Abnormal Menstrual Bleeding From Injectable Progestogen-only Contraceptive

Background: Depot Medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) and Norethisterone Enanthate (Net-En) are frequently used progestogen-only injectable contraceptives in many developing countries including Nigeria. Their use is often complicated by abnormal and unpredictable menstrual bleeding patterns. This has often been a source of worry to clients and their spouses leading to method switch or discontinuation. Method: A structured questionnaire was administered on 354 clients who were on intramuscular DMPA 150mg 3-monthly or intramuscular norethisterone enanthate 200mg 2-monthly and a matched control group of 323 clients at the ReproductiveHealthCenter of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria, Nigeria. Data was analyzed using Minitab statistical software. Results: Abnormal menstrual bleeding, commonly amenorrhea and irregular bleeding, were significantly associated with use of either DMPA or Net-En. Clients tolerated amenorrhea better than irregular bleeding and their preference for either DMPA or Net-En was not altered by amenorrhea. Irregular bleeding was a significant reason for method switch or discontinuation. Conclusion: Treatments that can inflict amenorrhea could be acceptable options in the management of abnormal bleeding patterns induced by progestogen-only injectable contraceptive which are in present use.Contexte: Depot Medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) et norethisterone enanthate (Net-En) sont fr\ue9quemment utilis\ue9s comme contraceptifs par progestatifs seuls dans beaucoup de pays en d\ue9veloppement comme le Nigeria. Leur utilisation se complique souvent de perturbations des r\ue8gles qui sont impr\ue9visibles. Ceci est souvent source d'inqui\ue9tude des clientes et de leurs \ue9poux, ce qui entra\ueene un changement de m\ue9thode contraceptive ou une discontinuit\ue9 du traitement. M\ue9thode : Un questionnaire structur\ue9 a \ue9t\ue9 administr\ue9 \ue0 354 clientes qui \ue9taient sous injection intra musculaire de 150 mg de DMPA tous les 3 mois ou de 200 mg de norethisterone enanthate tous les 2 mois. Le m\ueame questionnaire a \ue9t\ue9 administr\ue9 \ue0 un groupe t\ue9moin de 323 clientes au Centre de la Sant\ue9 Reproductive, Ahmadou Bello de l'H\uf4pital Universitaire Zaria, Nigeria. L'analyse des donn\ue9es a \ue9t\ue9 r\ue9alis\ue9e en utilisant le logiciel statistique Minitab. R\ue9sultats: Les perturbations des r\ue8gles, principalement l'am\ue9norrh\ue9e et les saignements irr\ue9guliers sont significativement associ\ue9es \ue0 l'utilisation de contraceptifs \ue0 type de DMPA ou Net-En. Les clientes tol\ue9raient mieux l'am\ue9norrh\ue9e que les saignements irr\ue9guliers. Leur pr\ue9f\ue9rence au DMPA ou au Net-En n'\ue9tait pas alt\ue9r\ue9e par l'am\ue9norrh\ue9e. L'irr\ue9gularit\ue9 des r\ue8gles \ue9tait une raison significative pour changer de m\ue9thode ou discontinuer le traitement. Conclusion: Les traitements pouvant entra\ueener une am\ue9norrh\ue9e constitueraient des options acceptables dans la prise en charge des tendances au saignement anormal induites par la contraception par des Progestatifs seuls en injections intra musculaires actuellement utilis\ue9es