Housing Tenure Effects on Child’s Educational Performance in Non-Residential Secondary Schools in Ogun State, Nigeria

This study examined the effects of housing tenure on child’s educational performance in non- residential secondary school system in Ogun State, Nigeria, and it provides vital information to aid families’ optimal decisions on pro-child’s educational performance school accommodation arrangement. The Null hypothesis (H0): there is no significant difference between home owner and non – home owner child’s educational performance in non – residential secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria was tested using , independent sample t-test statistic, and data gathered from two sets of questionnaire consisting of 391 and 170 copies administered to day students and parents respectively in nine selected secondary schools from three local government areas in Ogun State, Nigeria using random sampling technique. Frequency tables, mean item score statistics were also used for descriptive analysis.The study discovered that significant differences exist between home owner and non – home owner child’s educational performance in non – residential secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria with the students from home owner occupied families on one hand performing better (on a 5 points equidistant Likert Scale in which 1 = Very Poor, 2 = Poor, 3 = Average, 4 = Good, and 5 = Very Good, p < 0.001 @ 95% confidence level) in arts subjects (mean score = 4.51), science subjects (mean score = 4.35), and junior secondary school (mean = 3.98) than their colleagues from tenancy occupied homes that scored mean values of 2.31, 3.48, and 3.49 in the same subject areas respectively.  While on the other hand, students from tenancy occupied families performed better (mean score = 4.12) in commercial subjects than their colleagues home owner occupied families that obtained mean score value of 3.26 in the same subject area.This study has presented contextual knowledge on the linkages between child’s educational performance and housing tenure from the outcome of the data analysis, it however, did not consider the quality of school teachers, teaching methods used and the quality of the learning environment all of which could significantly contribute to child’s academic performance. The study expands the frontiers of knowledge on the benefits of home ownership as the findings could enable parents/guardians to relate better with secondary school day students in domestic chores as well as being conscious of the impact of involving day students in family business on academic performance in school. This paper is original and fills a gap in knowledge as it draws for the first time in Nigeria, the attention of parents/guardians to the impact of housing tenure on child’s educational performance especially in specific subject areas. Keywords: Home ownership, Housing Tenure, Child’s Academic Performance, Ogun State Nigeria DOI: 10.7176/DCS/10-12-06 Publication date: December 31st 202

Survival of Escherichia Coli in Lagos Lagoon

There was a gradual decrease in the population of Escherichia coli incubated in autoclaved and unautoclaved (raw) water samples obtained from three different sampling stations of the Lagos lagoon. The survival period of the bacterium was generally shorter in the unautoclaved than in the autoclaved water sample; and also varied with the season. In November, 1976, the survival periods in unautoclaved (raw) samples were 6 and 8 days respectively; while in February, 1977 they were 12 days for all three water samples. For the autoclaved water samples the survival periods in November 1976 were 12 and 14 days; while in February, 1977 they were 22, 24 and 32 days. The survival period was also affected by seasonal variations in some physic-chemical parameters of the lagoon

Conventional Use of Honey as Antibacterial Agent

Background: Honey has since been found to possess antibacterial property and is therefore employed for wound therapy. The current problems with conventional antibacterial agents, led to the choice of honey as well as other natural products by the populace, in the treatment of bacterial infections. The present study evaluates the antibacterial spectrum and efficacy of honey and compared same with tetracycline and ciprofloxacin. Methods: Different concentrations (12.5, 25.0, 50.0 and 100.0 %) of honey were studied in - vitro using Staphylococcus aureus , Staphylococcus albus , Streptococcus faecalis , Klebsiella sp., Proteus mirabilis , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , and Escherichia coli . Results: The data obtained showed a dose dependent inhibitory action of honey, except with Streptococcus faecalis where there was no growth inhibition. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of honey presented Staphylococcus albus as the most susceptible organism and Escherichia coli, the least. While ciprofloxacin (2.0 mg/ml) exerted a greater potency than honey, tetracycline was found to be less potent than 100% concentration of honey, except with Escherichia coli. Conclusion: The antibacterial action of honey was observed with 50% as well as the neat concentration. However, ciprofloxacin exhibited a greater potency and efficacy as well as a broader spectrum than honey, which shows that where a broad spectrum antibacterial is required, the conventional drugs, especially the newer ones are preferred to honey.Introduction : Depuis bien longtemps, on disait que le miel poss\ue8de des vertus antibact\ue9riens et donc on l'utilisait pour la th\ue9rapie des blessures. Des probl\ue8mes actuels li\ue9s aux agents conventionnels antibact\ue9rien, a provoqu\ue9 le choix du miel de m\ueame que d'autres produits naturels par le peuple, dans la prise en charge des infections bact\ue9riennes. Cette \ue9tude fait une \ue9valuation du spectre antibact\ue9rien et l'efficacit\ue9 du miel par rapport au t\ue9tracycline et ciproflocine. M\ue9thode : Des concentrations diverses (12,5 ; 25,0 ; 50,0 et 100,0%) du miel ont \ue9t\ue9 \ue9tudi\ue9s in-vitro \ue0 travers l'utilisation du staphylococcus aureus, staphylococcus albus, streptococcus faecalis, klebsiella sp., proteus mirabilis, pseudomonas aeruginose, et escherichia coli. R\ue9sultats : Les donn\ue9es obtenues avaient montr\ue9 une action inhibiteur d'une dose d\ue9pendante du miel \ue0 l'exception du S. faecalis l\ue0 o\uf9 il n'y avait aucune inhibition de croissance. La concentration inhibiteur minimum (CIM) du miel a pr\ue9sent\ue9 S. albus comme un organisme le plus susceptible et E. coli le moins, Tandis que ciprofloxacine (2.0mg/ml) a donn\ue9 une plus grande efficacit\ue9 que du miel, t\ue9tracycline \ue9tait not\ue9e d'avoir le moindre efficacit\ue9 que 100% concentration du miel \ue0 l'exception du E. Coli. Conclusion : L'action antibact\ue9rienne du miel \ue9tait not\ue9e avec 50% de m\ueame que la concentration ing\ue9nieuse. Toutefois, la ciprofloxacine a donn\ue9 une plus grande efficacit\ue9 de m\ueame que un large spectre plus que du miel qui montre que l\ue0 o\uf9 un tr\ue8s grand spectre antibact\ue9rien est exig\ue9, des drogues conventionnelles, des nouvelles drogues en particulier sont pr\ue9f\ue9r\ue9s au miel

Microbial metagenomic approach uncovers the first rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus genome in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD) causes high morbidity and mortality in rabbits and hares. Here, we report the first genomic characterization of lagovirus GI.2 virus in domestic rabbits from sub-Saharan Africa. We used an unbiased microbial metagenomic Next Generation Sequencing (mNGS) approach to diagnose the pathogen causing the suspected outbreak of RHD in Ibadan, Nigeria. The liver, spleen, and lung samples of five rabbits from an outbreak in 2 farms were analyzed. The mNGS revealed one full and two partial RHDV2 genomes on both farms. Phylogenetic analysis showed close clustering with RHDV2 lineages from Europe (98.6% similarity with RHDV2 in the Netherlands, and 99.1 to 100% identity with RHDV2 in Germany), suggesting potential importation. Subsequently, all the samples were confirmed by RHDV virus-specific RT-PCR targeting the VP60 gene with the expected band size of 398 bp for the five rabbits sampled. Our findings highlight the need for increased genomic surveillance of RHDV2 to track its origin, understand its diversity and to inform public health policy in Nigeria, and Sub-Saharan Africa

First report of banana bunchy top virus in banana (Musa spp.) and its eradication in Togo

Open Access Article; Published online: 27 Apr 202

VGEA: an RNA viral assembly toolkit.

Next generation sequencing (NGS)-based studies have vastly increased our understanding of viral diversity. Viral sequence data obtained from NGS experiments are a rich source of information, these data can be used to study their epidemiology, evolution, transmission patterns, and can also inform drug and vaccine design. Viral genomes, however, represent a great challenge to bioinformatics due to their high mutation rate and forming quasispecies in the same infected host, bringing about the need to implement advanced bioinformatics tools to assemble consensus genomes well-representative of the viral population circulating in individual patients. Many tools have been developed to preprocess sequencing reads, carry-out de novo or reference-assisted assembly of viral genomes and assess the quality of the genomes obtained. Most of these tools however exist as standalone workflows and usually require huge computational resources. Here we present (Viral Genomes Easily Analyzed), a Snakemake workflow for analyzing RNA viral genomes. VGEA enables users to map sequencing reads to the human genome to remove human contaminants, split bam files into forward and reverse reads, carry out de novo assembly of forward and reverse reads to generate contigs, pre-process reads for quality and contamination, map reads to a reference tailored to the sample using corrected contigs supplemented by the user's choice of reference sequences and evaluate/compare genome assemblies. We designed a project with the aim of creating a flexible, easy-to-use and all-in-one pipeline from existing/stand-alone bioinformatics tools for viral genome analysis that can be deployed on a personal computer. VGEA was built on the Snakemake workflow management system and utilizes existing tools for each step: fastp (Chen et al., 2018) for read trimming and read-level quality control, BWA (Li & Durbin, 2009) for mapping sequencing reads to the human reference genome, SAMtools (Li et al., 2009) for extracting unmapped reads and also for splitting bam files into fastq files, IVA (Hunt et al., 2015) for de novo assembly to generate contigs, shiver (Wymant et al., 2018) to pre-process reads for quality and contamination, then map to a reference tailored to the sample using corrected contigs supplemented with the user's choice of existing reference sequences, SeqKit (Shen et al., 2016) for cleaning shiver assembly for QUAST, QUAST (Gurevich et al., 2013) to evaluate/assess the quality of genome assemblies and MultiQC (Ewels et al., 2016) for aggregation of the results from fastp, BWA and QUAST. Our pipeline was successfully tested and validated with SARS-CoV-2 (n = 20), HIV-1 (n = 20) and Lassa Virus (n = 20) datasets all of which have been made publicly available. VGEA is freely available on GitHub at: https://github.com/pauloluniyi/VGEA under the GNU General Public License

A Molecular Study on the Prevalence and Virulence Potential of Aeromonas spp. Recovered from Patients Suffering from Diarrhea in Israel

Background: Species of the genus Aeromonas are native inhabitants of aquatic environments and have recently been considered emerging human pathogens. Although the gastrointestinal tract is by far the most common anatomic site from which aeromonads are recovered, their role as etiologic agents of bacterial diarrhea is still disputed. Aeromonas-associated diarrhea is a phenomenon occurring worldwide; however, the exact prevalence of Aeromonas infections on a global scale is unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings: The prevalence and virulence potential of Aeromonas in patients suffering from diarrhea in Israel was studied using molecular methods. 1,033 diarrheal stools were sampled between April and September 2010 and Aeromonas species were identified in 17 (,2%) patients by sequencing the rpoD gene. Aeromonas species identity and abundance was: A. caviae (65%), A. veronii (29%) and Aeromonas taiwanensis (6%). This is the first clinical record of A. taiwanensis as a diarrheal causative since its recent discovery from a wound infection in a patient in Taiwan. Most of the patients (77%) from which Aeromonas species were isolated were negative for any other pathogens. The patients ranged from 1 to 92 years in age. Aeromonas isolates were found to possess different virulence-associated genes: ahpB (88%), pla/ lip/lipH3/apl-1 (71%), act/hlyA/aerA (35%), alt (18%), ast (6%), fla (65%), lafA (41%), TTSS ascV (12%), TTSS ascF-ascG (12%), TTSS-dependent ADP-ribosylating toxins aexU (41%) and aexT (6%) in various combinations. Most of the identified strain

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

Investment in SARS-CoV-2 sequencing in Africa over the past year has led to a major increase in the number of sequences generated, now exceeding 100,000 genomes, used to track the pandemic on the continent. Our results show an increase in the number of African countries able to sequence domestically, and highlight that local sequencing enables faster turnaround time and more regular routine surveillance. Despite limitations of low testing proportions, findings from this genomic surveillance study underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic and shed light on the distinct dispersal dynamics of Variants of Concern, particularly Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron, on the continent. Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve, while the continent faces many emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Emergence and spread of two SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest in Nigeria.

Identifying the dissemination patterns and impacts of a virus of economic or health importance during a pandemic is crucial, as it informs the public on policies for containment in order to reduce the spread of the virus. In this study, we integrated genomic and travel data to investigate the emergence and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.318 and B.1.525 (Eta) variants of interest in Nigeria and the wider Africa region. By integrating travel data and phylogeographic reconstructions, we find that these two variants that arose during the second wave in Nigeria emerged from within Africa, with the B.1.525 from Nigeria, and then spread to other parts of the world. Data from this study show how regional connectivity of Nigeria drove the spread of these variants of interest to surrounding countries and those connected by air-traffic. Our findings demonstrate the power of genomic analysis when combined with mobility and epidemiological data to identify the drivers of transmission, as bidirectional transmission within and between African nations are grossly underestimated as seen in our import risk index estimates

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance.

Investment in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing in Africa over the past year has led to a major increase in the number of sequences that have been generated and used to track the pandemic on the continent, a number that now exceeds 100,000 genomes. Our results show an increase in the number of African countries that are able to sequence domestically and highlight that local sequencing enables faster turnaround times and more-regular routine surveillance. Despite limitations of low testing proportions, findings from this genomic surveillance study underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic and illuminate the distinct dispersal dynamics of variants of concern-particularly Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron-on the continent. Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve while the continent faces many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century