Chemical analysis and base-promoted hydrolysis of locally extracted shea nut fat

The study was on the chemical analysis and base- promoted hydrolysis of extracted shea nut fat. The local method of extraction of the shea nut oil was employed in comparison with literature report. A simple cold-process alkali hydrolysis of the shea nut oil was used in producing the soap. The chemical analysis of the oil revealed that it had saponification, iodine and acid values of 136.32 ±1.943 mgKOH/g, 50.50 ± 8.023g I2/100g and 14.77 ± 0.065 mgKOH/g respectively. The analytical values obtained were significantly in favour of the utilization of the indigenous shea nut fat for soap production on commercial scale. The pH of the soap was 10.33, which is in agreement with the pH range of 9-11 set by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control(NAFDAC), due to incomplete alkali hydrolysis resulting from the saponification process. The foam height of the soap was 4.2cm lower than that of Jatropha, sesame and cotton seed soaps analyzed higher than that of Neem, castor and castor superfatted with glycerine soaps. The soap was white and slightly soluble in distilled water.Key words: Shea nut fat, chemical analysis, Saponification, Foam ability and Solubility

Evidence for Non-Transmission of Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RYMV) through Rice Seed

An indexing of the organs (radicle and plumule) and components (husk, endosperm and embryo) of rice seeds using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was carried out to detect Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) and establish the exact location of the virus in the rice seed. RYMV was detected only in the husk (seed coat) but not in the endosperm, plumule, radicle, nor embryo. None of the seedlings raised from the seeds expressed RYMV symptoms. No virus particle was detected by the ELISA test in the leaves of the screenhouse-reared plants obtained from seeds of infected plants. The results indicate that RYMV is apparently not transmitted through rice seed probably because the virus is seed-borne in the husk (seed coat) of mature rice seeds

Cold- Process Synthesis and Properties of Soaps Prepared from Different Triacylglycerol Sources

This study was conducted to find out how different fats and oils produce soaps of different characteristics. It describes cold-process saponification using different fats and oils. Shea nut oil (SAP value:183.9mgKOH/g), groundnut oil (SAP value:187.7mgKOH/g) and Tallow (SAP value:140.3mgKOH/g) were used. Colour, texture, lathering and cleansing power of the prepared soaps were analyzed. shea butter soap had the best lathering capacity. The groundnut oil soap had the most effective cleaning power .The soaps were also recommended for household use .This activity was also provided to share a delight in chemistry with senior school students and to actively engage them in hands-on-active learning

Development and Evaluation of a Novel Four-Electrode Device System for Monitoring Skin Impedance

Qi, meridians, and acupoints are important issues in Chinese medicine. One of the theories claims that acupuncture points and meridians have unique electrical properties. The associations between acupuncture points or meridians and special electrical properties are still under debate. In the current study, we introduced and explained a device for this kind of research and evaluated the reliability of this device as well as effects of pressure, cleaning the skin by alcohol and exfoliation on electrical skin measurements. Fifteen subjects (10 female, 5 male) were recruited to participate in the study. An impedance meter based on the four-electrode technique was designed and fabricated specifically for this study. The effects of pressure, cleaning of the skin by alcohol, and exfoliation on electrical skin impedance were evaluated separately. The device repeatability was also evaluated 30 times in a 30 minutes period. Scale weight up to 200 grams, cleaning the skin with alcohol, and exfoliation didn't affect the performance of this device. The device performance didn’t change significantly during the 30 minutes measurement either. The new system we evaluated can be a reliable tool for researches on electrical skin impedance in acupuncture, as its performance is fairly stable even in the presence of various confounding factors such as various pressures on the probe, cleaning the skin with alcohol and exfoliation

Turning to Peers: Integrating Understanding of the Self, the Condition, and Others’ Experiences in Making Sense of Complex Chronic Conditions

People are increasingly involved in the self-management of their own health, including chronic conditions. With technology advances, the choice of self-management practices, tools, and technologies has never been greater. The studies reported here investigated the information seeking practices of two different chronic health populations in their quest to manage their health conditions. Migraine and diabetes patients and clinicians in the UK and the US were interviewed about their information needs and practices, and representative online communities were explored to inform a qualitative study. We found that people with either chronic condition require personally relevant information and use a broad and varied set of practices and tools to make sense of their specific symptoms, triggers, and treatments. Participants sought out different types of information from varied sources about themselves, their medical condition, and their peers’ experiences of the same chronic condition. People with diabetes and migraine expended great effort to validate their personal experiences of their condition and determine whether these experiences were ‘normal’. Based on these findings, we discuss the need for future personal health technologies that support people in engaging in meaningful and personalised data collection, information seeking, and information sharing with peers in flexible ways that enable them to better understand their own condition

Astrocytes organize associative memory

We investigate one aspect of the functional role played by astrocytes in neuron-astrocyte networks present in the mammal brain. To highlight the effect of neuron-astrocyte interaction, we consider simplified networks with bidirectional neuron-astrocyte communication and without any connections between neurons. We show that the fact, that astrocyte covers several neurons and a different time scale of calcium events in astrocyte, alone can lead to the appearance of neural associative memory. Without any doubt, this mechanism makes the neuron networks more flexible to learning, and, hence, may contribute to the explanation, why astrocytes have been evolutionary needed for the development of the mammal brain

Modeling Working Memory in a Spiking Neuron Network Accompanied by Astrocytes

We propose a novel biologically plausible computational model of working memory (WM) implemented by a spiking neuron network (SNN) interacting with a network of astrocytes. The SNN is modeled by synaptically coupled Izhikevich neurons with a non-specific architecture connection topology. Astrocytes generating calcium signals are connected by local gap junction diffusive couplings and interact with neurons via chemicals diffused in the extracellular space. Calcium elevations occur in response to the increased concentration of the neurotransmitter released by spiking neurons when a group of them fire coherently. In turn, gliotransmitters are released by activated astrocytes modulating the strength of the synaptic connections in the corresponding neuronal group. Input information is encoded as two-dimensional patterns of short applied current pulses stimulating neurons. The output is taken from frequencies of transient discharges of corresponding neurons. We show how a set of information patterns with quite significant overlapping areas can be uploaded into the neuron-astrocyte network and stored for several seconds. Information retrieval is organized by the application of a cue pattern representing one from the memory set distorted by noise. We found that successful retrieval with the level of the correlation between the recalled pattern and ideal pattern exceeding 90% is possible for the multi-item WM task. Having analyzed the dynamical mechanism of WM formation, we discovered that astrocytes operating at a time scale of a dozen of seconds can successfully store traces of neuronal activations corresponding to information patterns. In the retrieval stage, the astrocytic network selectively modulates synaptic connections in the SNN leading to successful recall. Information and dynamical characteristics of the proposed WM model agrees with classical concepts and other WM models

On-chip adiabatic couplers for broadband quantum-polarization state preparation

© 2018 OSA. We present a unique wavelength-dependent polarization splitter based on asymmetric adiabatic couplers designed for integration with type-II spontaneous parametric-down-conversion sources. The system can be used for preparing different quantum polarization-path states over a broad band

Asymmetric adiabatic couplers for fully-integrated broadband quantum-polarization state preparation

© 2017 The Author(s). Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is a widely used method to generate entangled photons, enabling a range of applications from secure communication to tests of quantum physics. Integrating SPDC on a chip provides interferometric stability, allows to reduce a physical footprint, and opens a pathway to true scalability. However, dealing with different photon polarizations and wavelengths on a chip presents a number of challenging problems. In this work, we demonstrate an on-chip polarization beam-splitter based on z-cut titanium-diffused lithium niobate asymmetric adiabatic couplers (AAC) designed for integration with a type-II SPDC source. Our experimental measurements reveal unique polarization beam-splitting regime with the ability to tune the splitting ratios based on wavelength. In particular, we measured a splitting ratio of 17 dB over broadband regions (>60 nm) for both H-and V-polarized lights and a specific 50%/50% splitting ratio for a cross-polarized photon pair from the AAC. The results show that such a system can be used for preparing different quantum polarization-path states that are controllable by changing the phase-matching conditions in the SPDC over a broad band. Furthermore, we propose a fully integrated electro-optically tunable type-II SPDC polarization-path-entangled state preparation circuit on a single lithium niobate photonic chip