Budgeting Systems in Universities in South-West Nigeria

This study examined the types of budgeting systems adopted by universities in South-West Nigeria. Stratified random sampling was used to select seven universities from five states within the hinterland of Nigeria’s South-West geopolitical zone. A questionnaire entitled Budgeting System Questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings were that the mostly adopted budgeting system by the sampled universities was incremental type with 46.7%, in comparison with line-item, planning programming and zero-based budgeting systems with 33.33%, 16.67 % and 8.33%, respectively. Also, out of the total sum of N80,115,006,285 as expenditure on six selected priority areas in the three academic years by the sampled universities, salaries and allowances had the highest amount of expenditure (i.e. N60.412,111,285) (75.41%) while research and publications had the lowest amount of N211,528,456.64 (0.26%). Based on the findings, it is recommended that the incremental budgeting system which is majorly adopted by universities in Nigeria should be carefully guided to discourage corruption and financial recklessness as it encourages spending up to the budget towards the end of the year so that the budget is maintained the next year. It is also recommended that the NUC gives an award to any university that allocates at least five percent of its revenue expenditure to research and publications.Keywords: Budgeting Systems, Government Universities, South-West Nigeria

Prevalence and Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Panton-Valentine Leucocidin( PVL) positive Staphylococcus aureus Strains from clinical specimens in Northeastern Nigeria

Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL), a synergohymentropic toxins encoded on S.aureus genes are associated with soft tissue infection and  community-acquired staphylococcal infection. The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of PVL-postive S.aureus isolates from clinical specimens.A total of 96 consecutive S.aureus isolates were examined. 12(12.5%) methicillin-resistant S.aureusstrains(MRSA) and 84(87.5%)methicillin-sentive S.aureus(MSSA) identified by disc-diffusion and PCR assay methods. Screening of S.aureus isolates for PVL locus by PCR assay, 50(52.1%) amplified the PVL genes, 35(70.0%) were recovered from outpatient, 15(30.0) from inpatient. PVL positive S.aureus were isolated from wound specimens, 20 (40.0%); 9(18.0%) urine, 6(12.0%) and least 1(2.0%) each from blood culture andendocervical swab. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec typing by two standard multiplex PCR assay, revealed an uncharacterized resistance element. Overall antibiotic susceptibility pattern showed relatively highdegree of susceptibility,however 1 isolate demostrated multidrug resistant pattern, 37(74.0%)resistant to only penicillin, 5 to one additional drug with penicillin, and 3 to two-additional drugs. The high prevalence of S.aureus PVL-positive strains posed dire clinical conquences, because co-existence of MRSA strains with MSSA PVL –positive strains could result in the emergence of MRSA PVL-positive strains, with propensity of rapid dissemination within the hospital environment in the study area.Keywords: Panton-Valentine leucocidin, S.aureus , epidemiology, Northeastern Nigeri

ASSESSMENT OF THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND BACTERIOLOGICAL QUALITIES OF NONO – A FERMENTED COW MILK

Nono is a spontaneously fermented yoghurt-like milk product consumed is a staple food commodity in parts of the Sub- Saharan West Africa. Nono is usually consumed along with ‘ Fura ’ as ‘ Fura da Nono ’ in Nigeria. Studies on physicochemical and bacteriological qualities were carried out on samples of Nono obtained from 5 different sources in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The Nono samples were found to be nutritious, containi ng moderate levels of ash, crude fat, crude protein and carbohydrate. The pH of the Nono samples was relatively low (4.04 ±0.04), while the density and specific density were close to that of distilled water at room temperature. Total aerobic p late count of Nono samples was 1.8 ±0.02 × 106 CFU. mL -1 . A total of 15 bacteria species namely Eubacterium nodatum , Bacillus subtilis , Chromobacterium violaceum , Propionibacterium acnes , Amycolatopsis benzotilytica , Tropheryma whipplei, Moraxella catarrhalis, Campylobacter gracilis, Neisseria sicca, Vibrio natiensis, Photob acterium damselae, Corynebacterium kutsceri, Corynebacterium xerosis, Lactobacillus fermentum and Lactobacillus casei were isolated from the Nono samples. The gram-positive bacterial isolates were resistant to all antibiotics tested with the exceptio n of Erythromycin where 40% susceptibility was obtained, while the gram-negative bacteria showed high resista nce to the tested antibiotics, but with 80% susceptibility to Ofloxacin. The nono samples were observed to exhibit antibac terial activity against cultures of Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 14028, Escherichia coli ATCC 29929 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29293. Most of the bacteria isolated were of less public health importance, but the high prevalence of m ulti-drug resistance is of great concer

Intermittent preventive treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine is effective in preventing maternal and placental malaria in Ibadan, south-western Nigeria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intermittent preventive treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPT-SP) is currently the recommended regimen for prevention of malaria in pregnancy in endemic areas. This study sets out to evaluate the effectiveness of IPT-SP in the prevention of maternal and placental malaria in parturient mothers in Ibadan, Nigeria, where the risk of malaria is present all year round.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>During a larger study evaluating the epidemiology of congenital malaria, the effect of malaria prophylaxis was examined in 983 parturient mothers. Five hundred and ninety eight mothers (60.8%) received IPT-SP, 214 (21.8%) received pyrimethamine (PYR) and 171 (17.4%) did not take any chemoprophylactic agent (NC).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The prevalence of maternal parasitaemia in the IPT-SP, PYR and NC groups was 10.4%, 15.9% and 17% respectively (p = 0.021). The prevalence of placental parasitaemia was 10.5% in the IPT-SP, 16.8% PYR and 17% NC groups, respectively (p = 0.015). The prevalence of maternal anaemia (haematocrit <30%) was 5.7% vs. 8.9% vs. 13.4% among the IPT-SP, PYR and NC groups respectively (p < 0.0001) while that of pre-term delivery (GA <37 weeks) was 10.5%, 19.2% and 25.3% among IPT-SP, PYR and NC groups respectively (p < 0.0001). Babies born to mothers in the IPT-SP, PYR and NC groups had mean birth weights of 3204 ± 487.16, 3075 ± 513.24 and 3074 ± 505.92 respectively (ρ < 0.0001). There was a trend towards a lower proportion of low birth weight babies in the IPT-SP group (p = 0.095).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>IPT-SP is effective in preventing maternal and placental malaria as well as improving pregnancy outcomes among parturient women in Ibadan, Nigeria. The implementation of the recently adopted IPT-SP strategy should be pursued with vigour as it holds great promise for reducing the burden of malaria in pregnancy in Nigeria.</p

Drosophila Evolution over Space and Time (DEST): A New Population Genomics Resource

Drosophila melanogaster is a leading model in population genetics and genomics, and a growing number of whole-genome data sets from natural populations of this species have been published over the last years. A major challenge is the integration of disparate data sets, often generated using different sequencing technologies and bioinformatic pipelines, which hampers our ability to address questions about the evolution of this species. Here we address these issues by developing a bioinformatics pipeline that maps pooled sequencing (Pool-Seq) reads from D. melanogaster to a hologenome consisting of fly and symbiont genomes and estimates allele frequencies using either a heuristic (PoolSNP) or a probabilistic variant caller (SNAPE-pooled). We use this pipeline to generate the largest data repository of genomic data available for D. melanogaster to date, encompassing 271 previously published and unpublished population samples from over 100 locations in >20 countries on four continents. Several of these locations have been sampled at different seasons across multiple years. This data set, which we call Drosophila Evolution over Space and Time (DEST), is coupled with sampling and environmental metadata. A web-based genome browser and web portal provide easy access to the SNP data set. We further provide guidelines on how to use Pool-Seq data for model-based demographic inference. Our aim is to provide this scalable platform as a community resource which can be easily extended via future efforts for an even more extensive cosmopolitan data set. Our resource will enable population geneticists to analyze spatiotemporal genetic patterns and evolutionary dynamics of D. melanogaster populations in unprecedented detail.We thank four reviewers and the handling editor for helpful comments on previous versions of our manuscript. We are grateful to the members of the DrosEU and DrosRTEC consortia for their long-standing support, collaboration, and for discussion. DrosEU was funded by a Special Topic Networks (STN) grant from the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). M.K. was supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (grant no. FWF P32275); J.G. by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (H2020-ERC-2014-CoG-647900) and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BFU-2011-24397); T.F. by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF grants PP00P3_133641, PP00P3_165836, and 31003A_182262) and a Mercator Fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG), held as a EvoPAD Visiting Professor at the Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster; AOB by the National Institutes of Health (R35 GM119686); M.K. by Academy of Finland grant 322980; V.L. by Danish Natural Science Research Council (FNU) (grant no. 4002-00113B); FS Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (grant no. STA1154/4-1), Project 408908608; J.P. by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Projects 274388701 and 347368302; A.U. by FPI fellowship (BES-2012-052999); ET Israel Science Foundation (ISF) (grant no. 1737/17); M.S.V., M.S.R. and M.J. by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (451-03-68/2020-14/200178); A.P., K.E. and M.T. by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (451-03-68/2020-14/200007); and TM NSERC grant RGPIN-2018-05551. The authors acknowledge Research Computing at The University of Virginia for providing computational resources and technical support that have contributed to the results reported within this publication (https://rc.virginia.edu, last accessed September 6, 2021)

Enhancement of a modified Mediterranean-style, low glycemic load diet with specific phytochemicals improves cardiometabolic risk factors in subjects with metabolic syndrome and hypercholesterolemia in a randomized trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As the worldwide dietary pattern becomes more westernized, the metabolic syndrome is reaching epidemic proportions. Lifestyle modifications including diet and exercise are recommended as first-line intervention for treating metabolic syndrome. Previously, we reported that a modified Mediterranean-style, low glycemic load diet with soy protein and phytosterols had a more favorable impact than the American Heart Association Step 1 diet on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Subsequently, we screened for phytochemicals with a history of safe use that were capable of increasing insulin sensitivity through modulation of protein kinases, and identified hops <it>rho </it>iso-alpha acid and acacia proanthocyanidins. The objective of this study was to investigate whether enhancement of a modified Mediterranean-style, low glycemic load diet (MED) with specific phytochemicals (soy protein, phytosterols, <it>rho </it>iso-alpha acids and proanthocyanidins; PED) could improve cardiometabolic risk factors in subjects with metabolic syndrome and hypercholesterolemia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty-nine subjects with metabolic syndrome and hypercholesterolemia, aged 25–80, entered a randomized, 2-arm, 12-week intervention trial; 23 randomized to the MED arm; 26 to the PED arm. Forty-four subjects completed at least 8 weeks [MED (<it>n </it>= 19); PED (<it>n </it>= 25)]. All subjects were instructed to follow the same aerobic exercise program. Three-day diet diaries and 7-day exercise diaries were assessed at each visit. Fasting blood samples were collected at baseline, 8 and 12 weeks for analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both arms experienced equal weight loss (MED: -5.7 kg; PED: -5.9 kg). However, at 12 weeks, the PED arm experienced greater reductions (<it>P </it>< 0.05) in cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), cholesterol/HDL and TG/HDL compared with the MED arm. Only the PED arm experienced increased HDL (<it>P </it>< 0.05) and decreased TG/HDL (<it>P </it>< 0.01), and continued reduction in apo B/apo A-I from 8 to 12 weeks. Furthermore, 43% of PED subjects vs. only 22% of MED subjects had net resolution of metabolic syndrome. The Framingham 10-year CVD risk score decreased by 5.6% in the PED arm (<it>P </it>< 0.01) and 2.9% in the MED arm (<it>P </it>< 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results demonstrate that specific phytochemical supplementation increased the effectiveness of the modified Mediterranean-style low glycemic load dietary program on variables associated with metabolic syndrome and CVD.</p

Erratum to: Scaling up strategies of the chronic respiratory disease programme of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (Action Plan B3: Area 5).

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13601-016-0116-9.]

Erratum to: Scaling up strategies of the chronic respiratory disease programme of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (Action Plan B3: Area 5).

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13601-016-0116-9.]