Spectral Analysis of the Residual Magnetic Anomalies Overpategi and Egbako Area of the of the Mddle Niger Basin, Nigeria

Statistical spectral analysis of theresidual magnetic field was employedto determine the depth to magnetic basement rocks withinPategi and Egbako areas which is part of the lower Middle Niger basin. The study area lies within latitudes 8.300 and 9.300 North and longitudes 5.300 and 6.000 East. For the purpose of this analysis, the study area was divided into 15 rectangular sections. The spectral analysis reveals two prominent layers; the first layer depth varies from 0.28km to 0.89km with an average value of 0.59km while the second layer depth varies from 1.55km to 4.70km.The first layer is attributed to lateritic ironstone,Ferruginoussandstone and effect of the surrounding basement rocks while the second is attributed to magnetic rocks intruded into the basement surface, lateral discontinuities in basement susceptibility and intra basement features such as faults and fractures. The second layerrepresents the average thickness of the sedimentary formation overlying the basement complex within the Pategi and Egbako areas of the Middle Niger basin. This depth increases thepossibility of hydrocarbon potential. Keywords: spectral depth, buried magnetic rocks, magnetic dat

Tuberculosis Prevalence- A Contemporary Public Health Challenge and the Instituted Barriers in Presbyterian Joint Hospital Uburu, Ohaozara L. G. A. Ebonyi State, Nigeria

A prevalence study is crucial in assessing the extent of occurrence with regard to an outbreak of a disease. High prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) has been reported in Nigeria. The study aimed at investigating the prevalence of tuberculosis reported cases from 2009-2013 and tuberculosis instituted barriers in Presbyterian Joint Hospital Uburu (PJHU) in Ohaozara Local Government Area, Ebonyi State of Nigeria. Ex-post-facto research design was used for the study. The study population consisted of 675 tuberculosis reported cases from 2009-2013 in PJHU. The same number (675) was the sample size for the study. Data were collected using the researcher’s Template which was filled with information from the hospital’s records. The template consisted of four items viz: year case was reported, number of cases, gender and TB instituted barriers in PJHU. Analysis of the data showed that the prevalence of tuberculosis reported cases in 2009 was 196 (29.0%), 152 (22.5%), in 2010; 138 (20.4%) in 2011; 110 (16.3%) in 2012 and 79 (11.7%) in 2013. The results showed that the highest prevalence rate 29.0% was recorded in 2009 while the lowest prevalence rate of 11.7% was recorded in 2013. Tuberculosis instituted barriers in PJHU included isolation, safe disposal of sputum, personal hygiene and others as presented in Table 2. The Chi-square analysis of no significant difference in the prevalence of tuberculosis by gender was accepted (X2 Cal 2.376 < X2 Tab.3.841, df 1, P= .05). From the findings of the study males were found to be as susceptible to tuberculosis as females. It was recommended among others that teaching of tuberculosis control practices by health workers should be integrated into a wider scheme for health care education and family planning services as well as establishing Directly Observed Home Treatment Short Course (DOHTS) in order to take TB services to the door steps of TB patients. Keywords: Tuberculosis, Prevalence, Control practices, and gender

Secondary Data Analytics of Aquaporin Expression Levels in Glioblastoma Stem-Like Cells

Glioblastoma is the most common brain tumor in adults in which recurrence has been attributed to the presence of cancer stem cells in a hypoxic microenvironment. On the basis of tumor formation in vivo and growth type in vitro, two published microarray gene expression profiling studies grouped nine glioblastoma stem-like (GS) cell lines into one of two groups: full (GSf) or restricted (GSr) stem-like phenotypes. Aquaporin-1 (AQP1) and aquaporin-4 (AQP4) are water transport proteins that are highly expressed in primary glial-derived tumors. However, the expression levels of AQP1 and AQP4 have not been previously described in a panel of 92 glioma samples. Therefore, we designed secondary data analytics methods to determine the expression levels of AQP1 and AQP4 in GS cell lines and glioblastoma neurospheres. Our investigation also included a total of 2,566 expression levels from 28 Affymetrix microarray probe sets encoding 13 human aquaporins (AQP0–AQP12); CXCR4 (the receptor for stromal cell derived factor-1 [SDF-1], a potential glioma stem cell therapeutic target]); and PROM1 (gene encoding CD133, the widely used glioma stem cell marker). Interactive visual representation designs for integrating phenotypic features and expression levels revealed that inverse expression levels of AQP1 and AQP4 correlate with distinct phenotypes in a set of cell lines grouped into full and restricted stem-like phenotypes. Discriminant function analysis further revealed that AQP1 and AQP4 expression are better predictors for tumor formation and growth types in glioblastoma stem-like cells than are CXCR4 and PROM1. Future investigations are needed to characterize the molecular mechanisms for inverse expression levels of AQP1 and AQP4 in the glioblastoma stem-like neurospheres

Candidate Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Markers for Arsenic Responsiveness of Protein Targets

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid that causes skin cancer and binds to cysteine residues—a property that could be used to infer arsenic responsiveness of a target protein. Non-synonymous Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (nsSNPs) result in amino acid substitutions and may alter arsenic binding with cysteine residues. Thus, the objective of this investigation was to identify and analyze nsSNPs that lead to substitutions to or from cysteine residues as an indication of increased or decreased arsenic responsiveness. We hypothesize that integration of data on molecular impacts of nsSNPs and arsenic-gene relationships will identify nsSNPs that could serve as arsenic responsiveness markers. We have analyzed functional and structural impacts data for 5,811 nsSNPs linked to 1,224 arsenic-annotated genes. In addition to the identified candidate nsSNPs for increased or reduced arsenic responsiveness, we observed i) a nsSNP that results in the breakage of a disulfide bond, as candidate marker for reduced arsenic responsiveness of KLK7, a secreted serine protease participate in normal shedding of the skin; and ii) 6 pairs of vicinal cysteines in KLK7 protein that could be binding sites for arsenic. In summary, our analysis identified non-synonymous SNPs that could be used to evaluate responsiveness of a protein target to arsenic. In particular, an epidermal expressed serine protease with crucial function in normal skin physiology was prioritized on the basis of abundance of vicinal cysteines for further research on arsenic-induced keratinocyte carcinogenesis

Pulmonary Tuberculosis [PTB] Case Detection Rate Using Smears Made From Sputa; Directly, After Concentration and Culture Isolation for Afb

Three hundred and eighty-one patients with High Risk Bronchopulmonary Symptoms [HRBS] who presented at Yaba and Lagos University Teaching Hospital [LUTH] chest clinics were screened for Acid Fast Bacilli [AFB] comparatively, using Zhiel Nielson [ZN] staining method with Direct Smear [DS], Concentrated Smear [CS] and Concentrated deposit culture isolates on Lowenstein Jensen [LJ] medium, between April, 2000 to May, 2002. The prevalence rates of 24.4%, 36.2% and 49.6% were recorded respectively. The culture method were shown to correlate well with both DS [94.7%] and CS [98.8%] for positive samples; thus, demonstrating high specificity of the methods. Contamination rate of 6% were recorded during the culture procedure. Eighty-one percent of all positive samples were from both “on-the-spot” and “early morning” samples, while early morning samples alone made an additional 16 [19%] positive samples. The age specific incidence rate of positive subjects yielded more bacilli count [47%] of +++ [i.e. more than 10 acid fast bacilli per field in at least 20 fields], when compared with the direct smears with only 6.5% of +++. Apart from demonstrating the superiority of concentrated smears over the direct smears for AFB rapid and cheap screening, we equally confirmed the usefulness of good, adequate and properly timed sputum samples collection for improved TB case detection in a resource poor setting. Digested sputum procedure is therefore, recommended for routine use in out TB diagnostic centers as minimal training is only required. NQJHM Vol. 14 (1) 2004: pp. 8-1