SCIENCE
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1 - 5 of 2049
- ItemA STUDY ON NON LINEAR CONVECTION IN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FLOWS WITH EITHER SORET OR DUFOUR EFFECT(2023-03)In this study, fully developed steady nonlinear free convection heat and mass transfer flow near a vertical moving porous plate with chemical reaction, in the presence of Dufour and Soret effectshave been analytically investigated, by taking into consideration the nonlinear convection parameter. The dimensionless momentum, temperature and concentration equations for the present physical situation arepresented under relevant boundary conditions and solved exactly in terms of exponential functions. The effect of various flow parameters entering into the problem such as nonlinear density variation with temperature parameter, nonlinear density variation with concentration parameter, Soret effect, Dufoureffect, Prandtl number, Schmidt number, chemical reaction parameter and sustentation parameter are discussed with the aid of line graphs, contours and tables. The analysis of the result shows that the velocity and skin-friction have higher values in case of nonlinear variation of density with temperature and concentration in comparison to linear variation of density with temperature and concentration. It has beenobserved that the velocity and skin-friction increase withincrease in Soret and Dufour parameters.
- ItemASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS IN SUSTAINABLE MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ZARIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KADUNA STATE NIGERIA(2025-04)The effort of stakeholders which have not been previously investigated is a gap in knowledge which forms the bases for the study. The study therefore assessed the role of multiple stakeholders in municipal solid waste management in Zaria Local Government Area .Specific objectives of the include; examine stakeholder‘s roles in sustainable municipal solid waste management, examine the sustainable municipal solid waste management strategies, analyze the benefits of sustainable MSW management and assess the capacity of waste management agencies and institutions approach in sustainable MSW management in the study area. Data collection was through purposive sampling technique for both the community and the other stakeholders. Chi- square and correlation analysis were employed for the analysis. Majority (60.8%) of the community do participate in solid waste management at household level. Also, separation of recyclable waste and organic waste (50.5%), and enlightening others around to dispose waste timely and properly are means of participation. The other stakeholders mentioned waste collection & disposal (33.4%), scavenging operation, awarding of waste management contract (8.3%) and joint supervision of waste management activities (25%) as their role in the area. The study identified reuse (78.4%), selling of waste for recycling (51.5%) and burning of waste for manure as the major waste management strategies in the area. The community mentioned reduction of environmental pollution (59.7%) and environmental clean less as the major benefit of sustainable MSW management. Less awareness (41.3%) and poor cooperation (51.5%) are the major causes of poor MSW management. Environmental pollution (47.4%), disease outbreak (36.1%) and ground water contamination are the major implication of poor MSW management. The result of the chi- square and Pearson correlation analysis revealed that there is significant relationship between the stakeholders‘ capacity (staff and equipment or facilities) used and management of waste in the area with value 0.005 but the degree of association or relationship is weak(0.042) and moderate(0.067) of Pearson R value of staff and facilities. The study concluded that multiple stakeholder‘s role is significant on MSW management in the area. However, stakeholders need to improve their capacity (staff and facilities) to insure effective waste management. The study recommended that community should be enlightened on solid waste management practice such as reusing and selling of usable recyclables items to reduce waste generation at household level.Kaduna Environmental Protection Agency should provide more designated collection points in the study area to reduce improper dumping of waste.
- ItemDETERMINATION OF TOLL LIKE RECEPTOR-2 LEVEL AND OTHER NONSPECIFIC IMMUNE PARAMETERS ASSOCIATED WITH PLASMODIUM INFECTION IN PATIENTS ATTENDING SELECTED HOSPITALS IN ZARIA, NIGERIA(2023-06)Invading malaria parasites are recognized by TLR2 and engulfed by the innate immune cells. Malaria is a blood disease caused by the bite of female mosquito and accounts for more than one million deaths every year. The aim of this study was to determine TLR2 level and other nonspecific innate immune parameters in patients with Plasmodium infection inselected hospitals in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. A hundred and eighty (180) bloodsamples were collected and analyzed.Malaria parasite antigen was detected using Rapid Diagnostic Test (Biosensor and Encode) while malaria parasite density,differential blood count and total white blood count (TWBC) were determined microscopically.The level of TLR2 concentration was determined using ELISA (Fine test).The overall prevalence of Plasmodium infection recorded was 17.7%. The mean and standard deviation of parasite density obtained from this study were 1878.94±289 parasite/μl. The mean concentrations of TLR2 recorded in malaria parasite positive and negative patients were 0.662ng/ml and 0.566ng/ml respectively. There was an inverse correlation of-0.149 between parasitemia and TLR2 which implies that an increase in parasitemia leads to a decrease in TLR2 level and vice versa. In this study, only the difference between PCV and TWBC in malaria parasite positive and negative patients were statistically significant (p<0.05). Age group of ≤10, herbal treatment for malaria and non-use of treated bed nets were factors associated with Plasmodium infection(p<0.05). This research has shown that TLR2 and other non-specific innate immune cells could help in suppressing the level of Plasmodium infection in the body.
- ItemSEROLOGICAL AND PCR DETECTION OF CYTOMEGALO VIRUS INFECTION AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING SOME HOSPITALS IN LOKOJA KOGI STATE, NIGERIA(2022-11)Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the most common virusesthat causes congenital defects in babies from infected mothers. Most cases of congenital defects are asymptomatic at birth but can lead to sensoneural hearing loss (SNHL) and neurodevelopmental delay which can appear later in childhood. This study was conducted to determine the cytomegalovirus infection among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at Kogi State Specialist Hospital (KSSH) and Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Lokoja, Kogi state, Nigeria. A total of 184 serum samples were collected and analyzed using CMV IgM ELISA kit Diagnostic Automation, INC (USA).The study revealed that 40 out of the 184 samples turned out positive for CMV IgM antibodies giving a prevalence of 21.7% while the negative sample result had a prevalence of 78.3%.From the forty (40) positive samples, seven (7) samples were subjected to Polymerase Chain Reaction but it turned out negative. Although PCR is a very sensitive and reliable method for detecting the organism (CMV) it was discovered that peripheral blood leukocytes is a better medium of choice to use as against plasma which was used for the research. Based on the research, there was no significant association between socio-demographic factors such as marital status, type of marriage, occupation and scarification and the infection. This could be due to the limited number in sample size. Other socio economic factors such as education had a significant p value of 0.035 with the infection. In addition, the pregnant women who had deformed babies, do not practice hand wash and were not transfused had a significant difference with the infection (p= 0.046, 0.027 and 0.003 respectively).It is advised that screening and sensitization of CMV for pregnant women when they come for ante-natal classes be done in order to reduce the risk of congenital birth defects among infants.
- ItemGENETIC VARIABILITY AND ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUG RESISTANCE AMONG DRUG-NAÏVE HIV TYPE-1 INFECTED PATIENTS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA(2023-06)An important feature of HIV pandemic is the global genetic diversity of the virus. Emerging HIV genetic variants results to adverse consequences related to pathogenesis, transmission, diagnosis, clinical management and vaccine production. Expansion of antiretroviral (ARV) types and regimens over the last few decades to reduce viral transmission, morbidity and mortality related to HIV disease has resulted in emergence of transmitted drug resistance which poses serious threat to the public health. The prevalence of transmitted drug resistance in resource-limited countries is about 5%, it is however projected to increase with ART expansion. This study was aimed at determining the viral genetic variability and antiretroviral drug resistance among drug-naïve HIV type-1 infected patients in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study was a cross-sectional hospital based one that adopted the probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling method. Basic demographic data of each volunteer was captured using structured questionnaire and transcribed to electronic questionnaire using Epi Info® version 7.2.2.2.6 software. A total of fifty HIV infected drug-naïve adult participants were enrolled in this study from three voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centers in Kaduna State, Nigeria. These participants were tested positive to HIV from April to October, 2018. The prevalence of HIV-1 was determined using Multispot™ HIV-1/HIV-2 rapid test kit. The CD4 cell counts and viral load were determined using FACS Flow cytometry and COBAS® TaqMan® HIV-1 Test respectively. Protease and reverse transcriptase regions of pol gene were sequenced using Sanger DNA sequencing reaction. Web-based resistance database was used to analyse the sequence reads. GraphPad Prism version 6.0 was used to analyse the collated data. Quantitative variables were presented as mean (±SD) and median (IQR), while Spearman correlation was used to compare the CD4 cell count and viral load. Level of significance of 95% was adopted to accept or reject null hypothesis at p ≤ 0.05. Socio-demographic data of the study participants were determined. All (100%) the HIV infected participants studied were found to be infected with HIV type 1. The study population was found to have relatively high median viral load 158,391 Copies/m with median CD4 cell count of 176 ceel/μL. However, few participants, despite being ART-naïve, had undetectable plasma viral load. Female had higher CD4 cells count values and lower plasma HIV-1 viral load value than male. The CD4 cells had strong reciprocal relationship with the plasma HIV-1 viral load. There was strong negative significant value of correlation coefficient between HIV-1 plasma viral load and CD4 cells count in the study population. The prevalence of transmitted drug resistance was found to be 19.5 % which is very high in the study area. The HIV-1 isolates were characterized into CRF02_AG, subtype G, CRF06_cpx and subtype C with frequency of 25(61%), 13(32%), 2(5%) and 1(2%) respectively. A protease inhibitor surveillance drug resistance mutation (SDRM) as M46MI, few other NRTI and NNRTI SDRM and other polymorphic mutations were detected among the drug-naïve HIV infected patients. The K103NSG mutation was highest with a frequency of 12.8 % (5/39). Genetic relatedness of the sequences from the isolates and reference sequences were presented in maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree. This study indicates that the baseline plasma viral load and CD4 cell count could affect prognosis, disease progression and transmission. The drug-naïve participants reported with undetectable plasma RNA could be ‘‘elite’’ controllers. This implies that, the patients may respond to the currently available highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) first line treatment.