Oxytetracycline in the possible management of African trypanosomosis

We tested the antimicrobial drug Oxytetracycline-HCl against the infections of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei which causes the disease African Trypanosomosis. Oxytetracycline-HCl was used to treat rats infected with the disease at early and late stages of infections. Prophylactic administration was also carried out. The results showed that prophylactic treatment only did not inhibit the proliferation of the parasite but with continued administration kept parasitaemia low. Both prophylactic and early stage treatment of the infection extended the lifespan of the animals. Oxytetracycline-HCl was ineffective for the treatment of the late stage of infection. Oxytetracycline with its iron chelating property could be a useful inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase, a cell cycle regulated enzyme that in turn regulates cell proliferation. Our experiment suggests that oxytetracycline-HCl could be a good management therapy for the African trypanosomosis if administered at the early stage of infection.Key words: oxytetracycline, sleeping sickness, managemen

Performance Evaluation of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) in Nigerian Banking Institution: A Case Study of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. Ibadan

This paper evaluates the performance of ATM machine in Nigeria banking sector using queue theory model. A few simple queues-models were analysed in terms of steady-state derivation. Theoretical formulations and results (with real-life dataset) were established for queue models with Poisson arrivals and exponential service durations. Derivation and calculation of some performance measure including the average queue length, average waiting time in the queue and in the system, and the probability of encountering the system in certain states such as empty, full having an available server or having to wait a certain time to be served were explored under single and multi-server. FIFO (first in, first out) queue discipline was adopted. Keywords: Steady state, waiting-time, queue-discipline, multi-severs, FIFO (first in, first out)

A Comparative Study of Antimalarial and Toxicological Effects of Aqueous and Methanol Extracts of Glphaea brevis Leaves in Mice

Malaria is the most important parasitic disease of subtropical and tropical countries and its control remains serious challenge, especially through the development of parasite resistance to standard antimalarial drugs. Aqueous and methanol leaves extract of Glyphaea brevis were investigated for their activities against malaria infections using albino mice infected with Plasmodium berghei at dose levels of 100mg/kg, 200mg/kg and 300mg/kg per day. Artemisinin at 5mg/kg /day was used as standard control. Dose dependent chemo-suppression of the parasites was obtained at different dosages of the tested extract. The methanol extract was found to be more active in parasite inhibition growth than its aqueous counterpart. In the established infected control group, aqueous and methanol extracts both showed significant dose dependent (P< 0.05) inhibitory and suppressive activities on the extracts treated animals when compared with the infected (positive) control groups. The percentage suppression revealed that 400 mg/kg methanol extract treated group had the highest efficacy (81.89%) amongst the various dosages administered. There was reduction in PCV levels in all the Plasmodium berghei infected mice when compared to the normal control group. Also, there were significant (P< 0.05) increase in the serum concentration of alanine aminotransferase (80.75 ± 7.04) and aspartate aminotransferase (68.50 ± 4.66) of the infected control group compared to normal, standard and the extract treated groups. There was significant difference in the serum concentration of alkaline phosphatase in the positive control group and aqueous extract treated groups. Conclusively, aqueous and methanol leaves extracts of G. brevis possess antiplasmodial activity

Analysis of Groundwater Pollution from an Unlined Constructed Wetland Sludge Drying Bed

Sludge drying beds (SBDs) are part of wastewater treatment processes where dewatering and reduction of water content from the substrate sludge take place to enhance caking and thus facilitate handling and disposal. In this study, the effect of the operation of an unlined drying bed of a constructed wetland for domestic wastewater treatment on the adjourning groundwater was investigated. Experimental boreholes for water quality monitoring were constructed downstream of the SBD prior to its operation. Preliminary investigations of the quality of water in the boreholes were carried out before the operation of the SBD. The concentration levels of pH, Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Colour, Mn, Fe, SO4, NO3, Total Coliform and e-coli were used to empirically and statistically determine the level of pollution of the ground water during the operation of the SDB. The 2-way ANOVA at (=0.05) showed that the operation of the SBD had statistically significant impact on the quality of the groundwater on all the observed parameters. For the parameters observed, p<0.05 (p=0.00 for the averages of pH, EC, TDS, Turbidity, Colour, Mn+2, Fe+2, SO4 and NO3), while p=0.0028 and 0.0018 for the averages of Total coliform and E.coli respectively in all the boreholes. The distances from the discharge point of the SDB were at 15m, 20m, 25m, 30m, 35m, 40m and 50m for boreholes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively. Also, comparison of the means of the quality parameters with the allowable limits set by the Nigerian National Environmental Surface and Groundwater Quality Control Regulations (NSGQCR) indicated that the operation of the SBD rendered the quality of the groundwater unacceptable

STRONG CONVERGENCE THEOREM FOR UNIFORMLY L-LIPSCHITZIAN MAPPING OF GREGUS TYPE IN BANACH SPACES

In this paper, we introduced a new mapping called Uniformly L-Lipschitzian mapping of Gregus type, and used the Mann iterative scheme to approximate the fixed point. A Strong convergence result for the sequence generated by the scheme is shown in real Banach space. Our result generalized and unifybmany recent results in this area  of research. In addition, using Java(jdk1.8.0_101), we give a numericalbexample to support our claim

Retrospective study of diseases and associated pneumonia type diagnosed in dogs at post-mortem at Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria

The causes and types of pneumonia in dogs have not been accorded due attention in Nigeria. It is imperative to investigate the incidence and type of pneumonia commonly observed during post-mortem at the Department of Veterinary Pathology arm of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. This investigation was carried out on 397 archival canine samples for dogs presented for necropsy at the Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Ibadan, during the periods of 2000 - 2012. The gross diagnosis was obtained from the postmortem records while the specific type of pneumonia was by histopathology of selected lungs tissues, using standard techniques. Descriptive statistics was employed to evaluate the effect of age, sex, breed and the type of pneumonia. Alsatian(29%) and Rottweiler(14.4%) breeds of dogs were the common breeds of dogs encountered at post-mortem, and the dogs above 3 year old (51.9%) were the most affected, with leptospirosis (38.5%) being the most prevalent disease diagnosed, followed by neoplasia (13.49%) while infectious canine hepatitis was the least prevalent (0.5%). The histopathological diagnosis revealed that the pneumonic patterns were that of suppurative bronchopneumonia (75%), fibrinous bronchopneumonia (10%) and interstitial pneumonia, (15%). The diseases associated with the different pneumonia seen during the histopathological examination were leptospirosis, canine distemper, and left sided heart failure. Findings has shown that pneumonia in dogs were commonly associated with leptospirosis. In the course of this study, the histopathological lesions and changes associated with the pneumonia seen in the leptospirosis cases include alveolar haemorrhages, edema, neutrophils and macrophages in the alveolar spaces and neutrophils in small pulmonary vessels. In lieu of this, pneumonia could be a major contributory factor to death associated with leptospirosis in the cases reviewed.Keywords: Archival necropcy samples, Dogs, Incidence, Leptospirosis, Pneumoni

Job Satisfaction of Academic Staff Members on Full-Time Appointment in South-Western Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

Man works to earn a living in an organization, and such work can be viewed as an instrument employed to achieve a lot of set personal goals and expectations. This study, therefore, examines job satisfaction of staff members on full-time appointment in South-western Nigerian tertiary institutions. It is a quantitative research in which a well-structured questionnaire was used to collect responses across eighteen tertiary institutions in South-western Nigeria. A purposive random sampling method was adopted to select a representative sample, and 880 questionnaires were properly selected and analyzed. The validity and reliability tests indicated that the measurement scales met the acceptable standards. Charts were used to present the biographic information of the respondents. The data obtained from the investigation were analyzed using Charts, Correlation Analysis, Regression Analysis and some relevant statistical tools. The findings have revealed a high factor of the academic staff’s dissatisfaction with opportunity available for self-development because of poor research environments. Moderate proportion has also revealed staffers’ satisfaction with their job. Factors leading to job satisfaction were also revealed. The study, therefore, suggests that Chief Executives of Nigerian tertiary institutions should focus on the identified factors leading to job satisfaction such as good remuneration and welfare package, appreciation and commendation, adequate facilities and teamwork etc. Implementing the aforementioned factors will definitely increase job satisfaction among the academic staff on full-time appointment, thus, reducing the friction rate and creating a stable and reliable teaching/learning environment for academic staff and the students. Keywords Job Satisfaction, Tertiary Institution, Remuneration, Welfare Package, Full-time Appointment, Academic Staff. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-36-10 Publication date: December 31st 202

Sustainable hydrogen generation substrates, catalysts and methods : an overview

Abstract: Because of the increasing demand for energy, various alternative sources of energy generation are being examined. Interest in hydrogen generation is on the rise due to its potential as a scalable green energy source, its transportability, and other positive factors. While various studies have been conducted on hydrogen generation, this review explores three major factors in hydrogen generation in relation to sustainability: substrates or hydrogen storage media, catalysts for speeding up the rate of hydrogen reaction, and methods employed. The media used to store the hydrogen, such as metal hydrides and complex hydrides, is examined in relationship to hydrogen yield, ease of hydrogen generation or treatment, cost and environmental friendliness. A list of popular catalysts - particularly precious/rare earth metals, strong acids and weak acids - is examined and compared in terms of hydrogen yield, environmental friendliness, and cost. The recent trend in hydrogen generation techniques and material treatment innovations such as hydrolysis, and ball milling of nanocomposites is examined. Innovations in hydrogen storage material selection and techniques will go a long way in lowering hydrogen generation cost, increasing hydrogen yield and ameliorating negative environmental impacts

MODELLING OF GROUND LEVEL CONCENTRATION OF PARTICULATE MATTER IN MAJOR NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY AIRSHED

Modelling of air pollutants for air quality assessment has been an important landmark achievement by environmentalists especially in areas where on-the-field monitoring is not economical. Models have proven to be cost-efficient and predicts better with different sample sizes. The objective of this study was to model the particulate matter pollutants of a major Nigerian university airshed and to compare of the predicted results with regulatory standards. Dispersion modelling analysis using for line and point sources study of the university airshed was carried out. Prior to the use of the modelling tool, vehicular counts, emission estimation and loads for the two pollution sources was done. The predictions revealed that concentration levels of PMs to emission source and receptor environments for the line source study were extremely high due to factors such as emission height and meteorological conditions of the university. The predicted concentrations from the point source were moderate and the reason is due to the emission height (stack height), wind speed and direction. Other contributing sources could be as a result of biomass burning, bush burning and pollutant transport. This study will be a bedrock for institutional-based air quality assessment that checkmate the anthropogenic contribution to deteriorating ambien