Engineering innovation and industrial development

Nigeria remains underdeveloped fifty two years after colonial rule exporting primary raw materials and depending on imports of everything including even the debasing second hand goods. This paper examines the capacity of engineering innovation to transform the economy. Approach of successive governments was analyzed. A linkage was traced between engineering innovation industrialization and the nation’s well-being. We conclude that power and the attitude of the people affect engineering innovation and industrial development

Teratogenic test of Pandanus conoideus var. yellow fruit extract to development of rat embryo (Rattus norvegicus)

Muna L, Astirin OP, Sugiyarto. 2010. Uji teratogenik ekstrak Pandanus conoideus varietas buah kuning terhadap perkembangan embrio tikus putih (Rattus norvegicus). Nusantara Bioscience 2: 126-134. Penelitian ini betujuan untuk mengkaji pengaruh pemberian ekstrak Pandanus conoideus Lam. var. buah kuning terhadap persentase fetus hidup, kematian intrauterus, berat dan panjang fetus, keadaan morfologi fetus, serta struktur skeleton fetus tikus putih. Dalam penelitian ini digunakan 25 tikus bunting yang dibagi menjadi lima kelompok secara acak, sehingga masing-masing kelompok terdiri dari lima ekor tikus. Setiap kelompok diberi dosis yang berbeda. P1 (kontrol) diberi 1 mL minyak wijen, P2, P3, P4 dan P5 diberi ekstrak masing-masing: 0,02 mL, 0,04 mL, 0,08 mL dan 0,16 mL. Ekstrak tersebut diberikan secara oral pada kebuntingan hari ke 5 sampai hari ke 17 (fase organogenesis). Pengamatan dilakukan pada hari ke 18 dengan cara bedah sesar untuk mengambil fetus dari uterus. Morfologi fetus diamati setelah fetus dikeluarkan dari uterus, sedangkan untuk pengamatan struktur skeleton dibuat preparat wholemount dengan pewarnaan ganda Alcian blue dan Allizarin Red-S. Hasil percobaan dianalisis dengan ANAVA satu jalur. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pemberian ekstrak tidak berpengaruh terhadap persentase fetus hidup, kematian intrauterus, serta berat dan panjang fetus (P≥0,05). Pemberian ekstrak pada induk mengakibatkan kecacatan skeleton (lordosis) fetus pada dosis 0,16 mL dan menghambat osifikasi fetus. Kata kunci: Pandanus conoideus var. buah kuning, teratogenik, tikus putih

Against the impairment argument: A reply to Hendricks

In an article of this journal, Perry Hendricks makes a novel argument for the immorality of abortion. According to his impairment argument, abortion is immoral because: (a) it is wrong to impair a fetus to the nth degree, such as causing the fetus to have fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS); (b) it is wrong to impair a fetus to the n+1 degree (to cause the fetus to be more impaired than to have FAS); (c) killing the fetus impairs the fetus to the n+1 degree (causes it to be more impaired than to have FAS); (d) abortion kills the fetus; (e) therefore, abortion is immoral. The impairment argument is a promising account for the wrongness of abortion because it does not rely on the controversial metaphysical premise that a fetus is a person. This article aims to show, that despite some immediate advantages over the rival theories of the immorality of abortion there is a reason to believe that the impairment argument is untenable. That is because there are goods that can be achieved by abortion but that cannot be achieved by impairing the fetus

Quality Characteristics of Concrete Poles Manufactured in the Ibadan Metropolis, Southwest Nigeria

In Nigeria, power is transmitted by overhead transmission lines fixed on wooden or concrete poles. Often times these poles collapse under excessive loads occasioned by storm and accidents. This project work is to determine the quality characteristics of concrete electric poles used to carry overhead conductors in the Ibadan metropolis of Nigeria. Samples of broken concrete poles were collected from various sites within Ibadan metropolis. Core, permeability, cube and tensile tests were carried out on samples of stumbled poles and fresh concrete mix collected from companies producing poles. This was to check the conformance of the poles to the standard set by the regulatory authority. The test results showed that all the samples on which the core and permeability tests were carried out fell short of the required standard of 37,000KN/m. For the core test, only one sample had the average values of 46,200KN/m and 50,400KN/m2 at 7days and 28days respectively which exceeded the standard minimum value. The results showed that the manufacturers did not use the right ratio of materials, the mode of mixing of the aggregates was not adequate and casting allowed voids/air space which made the poles permeable and the period of curing (the number of days) of the poles was not adequate. Almost all the poles were found to be below standar

Brain food for babies

How does a mother supply a key building block of the brain required for neurodevelopment to her fetus in pregnancy? The critical requirement of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for fetal brain development, and the poor efficiency of its synthesis in humans, is a tricky metabolic problem to be overcome in pregnant women. Supplying this unique fatty acid to the fetus requires exquisite specificity and timing, processes that can unravel in disease conditions such as pre-eclampsia

Hepcidin and iron homeostasis during pregnancy.

Hepcidin is the master regulator of systemic iron bioavailability in humans. This review examines primary research articles that assessed hepcidin during pregnancy and postpartum and report its relationship to maternal and infant iron status and birth outcomes; areas for future research are also discussed. A systematic search of the databases Medline and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health returned 16 primary research articles including 10 human and six animal studies. Collectively, the results indicate that hepcidin is lower during pregnancy than in a non-pregnant state, presumably to ensure greater iron bioavailability to the mother and fetus. Pregnant women with undetectable serum hepcidin transferred a greater quantity of maternally ingested iron to their fetus compared to women with detectable hepcidin, indicating that maternal hepcidin in part determines the iron bioavailability to the fetus. However, inflammatory states, including preeclampsia, malaria infection, and obesity were associated with higher hepcidin during pregnancy compared to healthy controls, suggesting that maternal and fetal iron bioavailability could be compromised in such conditions. Future studies should examine the relative contribution of maternal versus fetal hepcidin to the control of placental iron transfer as well as optimizing maternal and fetal iron bioavailability in pregnancies complicated by inflammation

Campylobacter fetus Subspecies Contain Conserved Type IV Secretion Systems on Multiple Genomic Islands and Plasmids

Acknowledgments We like to thank Dr. John Devenish and Dr. Brian Brooks (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) for providing strains. We thank Nathaniel Simon and Mary Chapman for the generation of Illumina MiSeq reads and we thank James Bono for the generation of PacBio RS reads. Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.Peer reviewedPublisher PD