Effect of hibiscus sabdariffa l. Piper nigrum l. And zingiber officinale r. Extract on serum electrolytes profile and changes in the pancreas of alloxan induced diabetic rat.

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is the most common endocrine disease which is characterized by hyperglycaemia, altered metabolism of lipids, carbohydrates and protein with an increased risk of many complications such as liver and pancreas damage and altered serum electrolytes level. During the past few years many plants and spices have been used to manage DM. This work aimed to investigate the possible anti-diabetic effect of Hibiscus sabdariffa L., Zingiber officinale roscoe and Piper nigrum L. extract treatments in alloxan induced diabetic rats via studying pancreas, liver structure abnormalities and serum electrolytes level alteration. 30 male Wistar rats (130-180 g) were injected intraperitoneally and divided into five main groups each of 6 rats. The control group was injected with a single dose of saline solution (0.9% NaCl), diabetic group was injected with a dose of alloxan solution (170 mg/kg), high and low dose of 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg extract after induction of diabetes respectively and metformin treated group was injected at a daily dose 500 mg/kg metformin after induction of diabetes. Microscopic histopathology examination of pancreatic tissues showed decrease in islets of Langerhans size in the diabetic group, sinusoidal enlargement and increased fatty vacuoles in the liver tissues of the diabetic group. There were alterations in the serum electrolytes levels of the diabetic group. These abnormalities were healed after treatment of diabetic rats with extract which could have the ability to regenerate beta cells of islets of Langerhans. The present study could verify that the extract normalized the various serum electrolytes levels and histological abnormalities resulted due to diabetes metabolic disorders

Human Hair as a Testing Substrate in the Era of Precision Medicine: Potential Role of ‘Omics-Based Approaches

Minimally and noninvasive investigation of pathology and treatment monitoring is highly attractive in medicine. The use of human hair samples as a non-invasive testing substrate is potentially poised to improve diagnostic and forensic medicine. Hair has the unique ability to capture long-term information about health and disease in an individual as compared to urine and blood. Testing long hair offers a potential means of long-term monitoring of drug compliance, drug abuse, chronic alcohol abuse, and diagnostic biomarker discovery. Even though human hair is mostly composed of keratin and keratin-associated proteins, very little literature has been published on human hair proteomics. Emerging high throughput omics based techniques such as proteomics are increasingly improving our depth of knowledge about the diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of diseases globally. Although many aspects of the use of these novel molecular aids to improve disease diagnosis and patient management remains elusive; it is evident that these techniques have improved precision medicine tremendously. This chapter aims to discuss current plausible application of human hair omics-based approaches to the field of pathology, diagnostics and precision/individualized medicine

ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY IN NIGERIA: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

The paper provided a detailed review of the literature and theoretical framework on egovernance and Public Service Delivery. The paper relied solely on secondary sources for its data from google scholar search engine. The study adopted thematic analysis from various relevant literatures. The findings from the data collected show the indispensable role of egovernance adoption in ensuring appreciable public service delivery. Based on the findings, recommendations were made. The paper concluded that e-governance creates an enabling environment for the effective delivery of public services

The Challenge of Climate Change to Rural Dwellers in Esanland

The study appraises the effects of climate change on rural dwellers in Esanland, Edo State, Nigeria. It investigates how the rural dwellers in Esanland perceive climate change. This is to deepen the understanding of the rural dwellers' awareness and vulnerability to climate change. The study uses primary and secondary data. Primary data is obtained through the administration of the structured questionnaire, conduct of in-depth interviews and field observation. The secondary data is sourced from textbooks, journals, conference proceedings, and publications of relevant government agencies. Descriptive method of data analysis is utilized to analyze the data. The results show that climate change has resulted in reduced soil fertility and food production; distorted the eco-system as well as induced health challenges among rural dwellers in Esanland. The study concludes that though there is a general awareness of climate change among rural dwellers in Esanland the area are still very much venerable to the adverse effects of climate change because of inadequate information, lack of finance among others

Service learning in pharmacy: Evaluation of tuberculosis screening by pharmacy students in primary health care facilities.

Magister Pharmaceuticae - MPharmBackground: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the arms of the so-called quadruple burden of disease in South Africa. One of the major impediments to TB control is failure to detect the disease, and undiagnosed cases in the community can remain a source of onward transmission promulgating the epidemic. TB screening is thus the starting point for any intervention in tuberculosis control. At UWC, the pharmacy educational curriculum includes a service-learning in pharmacy (SLiP) programme which entails pharmacy students of all years visiting designated community health care facilities, and then perform various priority health tasks. During 2014 the second year SLiP programme was launched at primary health care facilities. The first semester programme focussed on tuberculosis screening and cardiovascular risk assessment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the TB screening aspect of the second year service-learning programme, based on the perceptions of the participating students and nurses, and students’ TB screening reports; and also to find out the perceived impact of the TB screening aspect of the second year SLiP programme on the patients’ health education, the nurses’ workload, and on the students’ learning and skill development at the various public primary health care facilities in the Cape Town Metro-pole area. Objectives: To determine the perceptions of students and nursing staff on TB screenings done by pharmacy students at primary health care facilities, compare these perceptions with actual TB reports compiled by pharmacy students, and assess the perceived impact of students’ TB screenings at the facilities

State of the art and recent progresses in water and wastewater treatment

Wastewater collected from municipalities and communities must ultimately be returned to receiving waters or to the land or be reused. Water is a limited resource in the earth’s closed ecosystem. With the world population growing rapidly at very alarming rate, the demand for water is expected to increase in multiple progression and therefore, investigation of alternative methods for preparation of high quality water is necessary. The increasing pressures on water supply and the problems of municipal wastewater disposal can be solved by water reuse. Currently, the concept of deriving beneficial uses from treated municipal wastewater through water reclamation is receiving an increasing attention. Increased water shortages and waterway pollution are major problems posing risks to freshwater resources, with the highest risk from the industries. Wastewater effluent contaminated with heavy metals originating from numerous human and industrial activities is one of the major threats to the environment. In this keynote talk state of the art in water and wastewater treatments will be discussed. Recent progresses in our centre, bioenvironmental research centre here in Malaysia will also be highlighted. These include a new natural, environmentally friendly, safe, and sustainable phytodisinfectant from Moringa oleifera seed for water and wastewater treatment, Electrocoagulation (EC) which is a simple, environmentally friendly and cost effective process, when integrated with membrane filtration, very attractive for developing a sustainable water reclamation system. The other approach is the reclamation of biotreated palm oil mill effluent (BPOME), applying a developed hybrid adsorption-membrane process to produce boiler-feed water for low-pressure operating industrial boilers. Also the removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater effluent by adsorptive membrane with the dual function of adsorption and filtration process using nanomaterial of graphene oxide (GO). Modeling of electroosmotic dewatering (EOD) of various materials including sludge. Finally the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in water and wastewater treatments for performance analysis and prediction will be indicated as tools necessary to the future chemical engineers

Understanding the Higher Education Market in Africa

This book offers theoretical and practical insights into the marketing of higher education in Africa. It explores the key players, challenges and policies affecting higher education across the continent, their marketing strategies and the students’ selection process. While acknowledging the vast size of the continent, this book aims to provide an understanding of the dynamics of higher education in Africa. This book recognises the private and Government Involvement in higher education provision, students and staff as stakeholders in the marketisation process. Strategic efforts by Universities to positions themselves to attract prospective students. This book further addresses issues such the responses of higher education sectors to the notion of markets and marketing, consumerism and competition in higher education in Africa, conceptions of the commodification of higher education in Africa and the dominance of western epistemologies and influence in transforming higher education sectors. Students as consumers in increasingly marketized higher education sectors in Africa is discussed. Though primarily for marketing students and academic researchers, the book's feature of blended theoretical and practical knowledge means that it will also be of interest to marketing practitioners and university managers