Revisiting the Civil Society and Democratic Governance in Africa: Present or Absent in Nigeria?

The civil society midwife democratic government in 1999. They fought for it. Although, some died in the process of agitating for democracy, and the fundamental human rights and rule of law are firmly entrenched including the freedom of association, free movement, speech among others. The paper argues that today’s democratic government was worked for but those who work for it did not participate in the transition program since the military in their characteristics are maradonic particularly that of General Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida keep transition program in perplexity and continuous. The failure of the leaders and members of civil organizations to participate is responsible for the crisis of governance. Those elected into governments across the states including the federal government largely masquerading behind politics as governance output. The paper is of the view that the civil society organization in the country cannot claim irresponsible to Nigerians, since they ushered in democratic rule, therefore, efforts must be geared towards validating the purpose of democracy and dividends of democratic governance in Nigeria.

Carboxymethylation of Icacina trichantha Oliv.Tuber Starch and Its Use as a Viscosifier and Fluid Loss Control Agent in Water Based Mud

Starch from a non-food wild plant- Icacina trichantha oliv.tuber was extracted, characterized and chemically modified by carboxymethylation to produce two new derivatives of two different degrees of substitution. The derivatives were used in the preparation of water based muds. The rheological and filtration properties of these new muds were compared to those of muds prepared with the underivatized native starch and a commercial drilling starch using viscometric and fluid loss methods. Experimental results showed that the new muds have better filtration control behavior and viscosity than those of the native and commercial drilling starches. The values of flow index of the new muds were found to be less than 1.0, showing non-Newtonian and Pseudoplastic flow behavior of drilling muds. Yield stress of the muds increased with the modification. Viscosity decreased with increasing shear rate, showing shear thinning behavior of drilling muds. The new muds were found to obey the API models for static filtration as well as Power law and Herschel–Bulkley models for fluid rheology. Keywords: Icacina trichantha oliv.;Carboxymethyl starch; drilling mud; filtration; rheology

Liver function of Streptozotocin- Induced Diabetic Rats Orally Administered Aqueous Root-Bark Extracts of Tetrapleura tetraptera (Taub).

The aqueous root-bark extract of Tetrapleura tetraptera Taub. has been shown to  ameliorate streptozotocin (STZ)-induced hyperglycaemia and dyslipidaemia. This study evaluated the liver status of STZ- induced diabetic rats treated with aqueous root-bark extract of T. tetraptera for 35 days. Twenty-four (24) rats in four groups (normal control, diabetic control, T. tetraptera treated STZ induced diabetic rats at 150 mg/kg b. w. and T. tetraptera treated STZ-diabetic rats at 300 mg/kg b. w.) were used. Serum and liver alanine and aspartate transaminases (ALT and AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma glutamyl transferase (γGT) activities and protein concentration were assessed. Also, serum albumins, globulins, total and direct bilirubin concentrations were measured. STZ induced diabetes significantly (P<0.05) increased serum ALT, AST and ALP activities, while treatment of diabetic rats with T. tetraptera reduced the activities of these enzymes. T. tetraptera caused significant (P<0.05) increases in serum γGT, total and direct bilirubin levels, especially at the higher dose (300mg/kg body weight). While the treatment of STZ induced diabetic rats with the extract of T. tetraptera ameliorated hepatocellular damage, at the higher dose of 300mg/kg body weight, T. tetraptera treatment may cause bile duct obstruction. The use of this plant in the treatment of diabetes or other diseases should therefore be monitored with respect to hepato-biliary toxicity.Keywords: Tetrapleura tetraptera, STZ diabetes, Liver function, Toxicity, Medicinal plant

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Modeling and Control of an Articulated Multibody Aircraft

Insects use dynamic articulation and actuation of their abdomen and other appendages to augment aerodynamic flight control. These dynamic phenomena in flight serve many purposes, including maintaining balance, enhancing stability, and extending maneuverability. The behaviors have been observed and measured by biologists but have not been well modeled in a flight dynamics framework. Biological appendages are generally comparatively large, actuated in rotation, and serve multiple biological functions. Technological moving masses for flight control have tended to be compact, translational, internally mounted and dedicated to the task. Many flight characteristics of biological flyers far exceed any technological flyers on the same scale. Mathematical tools that support modern control techniques to explore and manage these actuator functions may unlock new opportunities to achieve agility. The compact tensor model of multibody aircraft flight dynamics developed here allows unified dynamic and aerodynamic simulation and control of bioinspired aircraft with wings and any number of idealized appendage masses. The demonstrated aircraft model was a dragonfly-like fixed-wing aircraft. The control effect of the moving abdomen was comparable to the control surfaces, with lateral abdominal motion substituting for an aerodynamic rudder to achieve coordinated turns. Vertical fuselage motion achieved the same effect as an elevator, and included potentially useful transient torque reactions both up and down. The best performance was achieved when both moving masses and control surfaces were employed in the control solution. An aircraft with fuselage actuation combined with conventional control surfaces could be managed with a modern optimal controller designed using the multibody flight dynamics model presented here

有糸分裂キネシンEg5の新規阻害剤に関する研究：有効な化学療法の探索

長崎大学学位論文 [学位記番号]博（水・環）甲第53号 [学位授与年月日]令和元年9月20

Modeling and control of an articulated multibody aircraft

Insects use dynamic articulation and actuation of their abdomen and other appendages to augment aerodynamic flight control. These dynamic phenomena in flight serve many purposes, including maintaining balance, enhancing stability, and extending maneuverability. The behaviors have been observed and measured by biologists but have not been well modeled in a flight dynamics framework. Biological appendages are generally comparatively large, actuated in rotation, and serve multiple biological functions. Technological moving masses for flight control have tended to be compact, translational, internally mounted and dedicated to the task. Many flight characteristics of biological flyers far exceed any technological flyers on the same scale. Mathematical tools that support modern control techniques to explore and manage these actuator functions may unlock new opportunities to achieve agility. The compact tensor model of multibody aircraft flight dynamics developed here allows unified dynamic and aerodynamic simulation and control of bioinspired aircraft with wings and any number of idealized appendage masses. The demonstrated aircraft model was a dragonfly-like fixed-wing aircraft. The control effect of the moving abdomen was comparable to the control surfaces, with lateral abdominal motion substituting for an aerodynamic rudder to achieve coordinated turns. Vertical fuselage motion achieved the same effect as an elevator, and included potentially useful transient torque reactions both up and down. The best performance was achieved when both moving masses and control surfaces were employed in the control solution. An aircraft with fuselage actuation combined with conventional control surfaces could be managed with a modern optimal controller designed using the multibody flight dynamics model presented here