Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of three plant extracts in the control of fungal pathogens isolatedfrom Garri (fried mashed fermented cassava) in Makurdi, Nigeria

An evaluation of three plant extracts, Parkia biglobosa, Moringa oleifera and Daniellia oliveri in the control of fungal pathogens isolated from garri (fried mashed fermented cassava) in Makurdi was conducted. The fungal pathogens isolated from the garri samples were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Botryodiplodia theobromae and Aspergillus fumigatus. Water and ethanol extracts of the plant species at concentrations of 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% were tested against the fungal isolates in vitro. The inhibitory effects of water extracts of Moringa oleifera, Parkia biglobosa and Daniellia oliveri at 100% on all test organisms ranged from 1.15 to 4.95cm and at 20% it ranged from 3.50 to 8.00cm. The inhibitory effect of ethanol extract of Moringa oleifera, Parkia biglobosa and Daniellia oliveri at 100% on all test organisms ranged from 0.70 to 4.00cm and at 20% it ranged from 2.50 to 9.50cm. The antifungal activity of the extracts (water and ethanol) increased with increase in concentration. Analysis of Variance revealed higher significant inhibitory effects of both water and ethanol extracts at 100% (2.02cm) and (2.50cm) respectively and least inhibitory effect at 20% (6.06cm) and (7.08cm) respectively for most fungal isolates. There was no significant difference in the grand mean inhibitory effect of both water and ethanol extract on the test fungi at P = 0.05. The extracts of Parkia biglobosa, Moringa oleifera and Daniellia oliveri are potentially useful antifungal agents, inhibiting fungal growth at all concentrations.
EXPLORING MULTI SCALE MATHEMATICAL MORPHOLOGY FOR DARK IMAGE ENHANCEMENT

Dark image enhancement is an essential requirement in image processing domain. As images are captured in different illumination conditions, it is important to enhance dark images or color images suffering from lack of contrast. The present algorithmsfor contrast enhancement sometimes result in artifacts andunnecessary changes. Recently Rivera et al. proposed a content aware algorithm for dark image enhancement. The technique used by them is known as channel division. This paper proposes and implements a new technique which is then compared with the work of Rivera et al. The technique used to enhance gray scale images in this paper is “multiscale mathematical morphology”. This technique enhances the magnitude image constructed from RGB using hue-preserving multi-scale morphological filters. By combining original direction cosine values and the enhanced magnitude image the enhanced image is obtained. A prototype application is built to test the efficiency of this technique. The results are compared with Channel Division technique. The experiments revealed that the proposed method outperforms the channel division approach.
Survey on Customer Satisfaction, Adoption, Perception, Behaviour, and Security on Mobile Banking

This literature survey is done to throw more light on current trends, purpose and future work done in the field of mobile banking. The areas considered here include customer satisfaction, adoption, perception, behaviour, security and privacy. Most of the research papers were on mobile banking adoptions while the last two were on post-adoption and security. Research papers on mobile banking within the last ten years on adoption, with post-adoption and security related papers, were examined. After diligent and thorough search, 68 articles satisfied the criteria for this review. The review has shown that security remains one of the principal constructs that hinder users in adopting and post-adoption of mobile banking. The research also showed that the most used model in mobile banking was TAM. Again, trust, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, compatible, and performance and effort expectation constructs remain the most studied variable in the mobile banking literature. This review captures and summarizes the huge knowledge of research work done on mobile banking, where security is one of the least discussed areas. However, most of the research reviewed did suggest that future work should consider security, especially on the protection of users on this emerging technology in banking. This survey has also given researchers and academia to look for other areas besides security.
Antibiofilm effect of Lactobacillus pentosus and Lactobacillus plantarum cell-free supernatants against some bacterial pathogens

National Organization for Drug Control and Research (NODCAR), 6-7, AboHazem St, Pyramids, PO Box 29, Giza, Egypt. Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Damanhour University, Egypt. Department of Virus and Phytoplasma Research, Institute of Plant Pathology Rsearch, Agriculture Research Centre, Egypt. Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Taif University, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Department of Food Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11241, Egypt.
Genetic Variation among the Penicillia Isolated From Citrus under Storage Condition

Pakistan is the sixth largest producer of Kinow (mandarin) and oranges in the world, with 2.1 million tons. In this research, fruit and vegetable markets in Lahore were visited and forty infected citrus samples were collected, surface sterilised and inoculated on potato dextrose agar medium for isolation. According to microscopy and colony characteristics five species of the genus Penicillium (P. digitatum, P. expansum, P. biourgeianum) were identified. Genomic DNA was isolated and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) was amplified by using primers ITS 1 and ITS4 and the 5.8S rRNA genes of fungi. Purified and amplified PCR products were later on sequenced and the sequenced homology was studied by BLAST and searching against databases of Genebank or NCBI software. The DNA sequence homology showed that isolates contain more than 98% homology with P. expansum, P. digitatum and P. biourgeianum known DNA sequences in the gene Data bank. Among these fungal isolates P. biourgieanum was another newly reported species isolated from infected citrus, and was assigned NCBI Gene bank accession number KT336317.
An Advocacy for the Use of 3D Stem Cell Culture Systems for the Development of Regenerative Medicine: An Emphasis on Photoreceptor Generation

The availability of stem cells is of great promise to study early developmental stages and to generate adequate cells for cell transfer therapies. Although many researchers using stem cells were successful in dissecting intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms and in generating specific cell phenotypes, few of the stem cells or the differentiated cells show the capacity to repair a tissue. Advances in cell and stem cell cultivation during the last years made tremendous progress in the generation of bona fide differentiated cells able to integrate into a tissue after transplantation, opening new perspectives for developmental biology studies and for regenerative medicine. In this review, we focus on the main works attempting to create in vitro conditions mimicking the natural environment of CNS structures such as the neural tube and its development in different brain region areas including the optic cup. The use of protocols growing cells in 3D organoids is a key strategy to produce cells resembling endogenous ones. An emphasis on the generation of retina tissue and photoreceptor cells is provided to highlight the promising developments in this field. Other examples are presented and discussed, such as the formation of cortical tissue, the epithelial gut or the kidney organoids. The generation of differentiated tissues and well-defined cell phenotypes from embryonic stem (ES) cells or induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) opens several new strategies in the field of biology and regenerative medicine. A 3D organ/tissue development in vitro derived from human cells brings a unique tool to study human cell biology and pathophysiology of an organ or a specific cell population. The perspective of tissue repair is discussed as well as the necessity of cell banking to accelerate the progress of this promising field.
Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Factors Affecting

The prevalence overweight and obese among children and adolescents increases gradually in the world and became an epidemic in both developing and developed countries. Overweight and obesity in the adolescent period are the main risk factors contributing to the development of cardiovascular diseases in the adulthood period. This study was planned to reveal the prevalence of obesity and association of healthy lifestyle behaviors with obesity in adolescents. Methods: This research was carried out 859 students studying at Istanbul Hezarfen High School between the dates 1 February to 31 March 2017. The general dietary habits and night eating statuses were determined using the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED) and Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ) and anthropometric parameters such as height and body weight were measured. Results: The mean age of the students was 15.9 ± 1.3 years. Of the students, 19.2% had overweight, 13.7% had obese BMI values. In this study, 32.4% of all students had low and 13% of them had optimal nutritional quality. The difference between two genders was statistically significant (p<0.05). The Night Eating Syndrome was not present in 78.9% of all students whereas it was detected in 21.1% of them. Conclusions: In our study, there was no statistically significant relationship between obesity, adherence to Mediterranean Diet and Night Eating Syndrome.
Determinants of voluntary disclosure

Disclosure and bank transparency are currently of crucial importance with regard to the adaptation of regulatory tools (Basle II) to enhance the stability of the banking sector. Voluntary disclosure in banking transparency of market transaction and forcing bankers to reduce the risk taking. The paper aims to examine the determinants of voluntary disclosures of listed banks in Tunisia. Using Prais regression model to test the determ observations during the period 2000 ownership is associated with decreased disclosure. However, proportion auditors’ reputation are not related to banks’ voluntary disclosure. Moreover, an increase in foreign ownership and bank performance increases corporate disclosure. The paper also finds that larger banks had great This paper provides evidence for Tunisian regulators to improve corporate governance and optimize ownership structure. Distinct from prior empirical research based on disclosure behavior in developed markets, this study examines the determinants of voluntary disclosures of listed banks in Tunisia.
Road Traffic Accidents in Nigeria: Causes and Preventive Measures.

Road accidents have become a normal and re-occurring phenomenon in Nigeria which constitutes a menace in modern times. Although both the developed and developing nations of the world have suffered from varying degrees of road accidents, the developing countries clearly dominates with Nigeria having the second highest rate of road accidents among 193 ranked countries of the world. Deaths from reckless driving are the third leading cause of death in Nigeria. In 2012, at least 473 persons died from a total of 1,115 vehicular accidents nationwide. Already in 2013, April may go down as the worst month in terms of road accidents as according to reported cases, April 3, 2013: A luxury bus and a smaller bus crashed on the Abuja-Lokoja Road, 18 died. April 5, 2013: A petrol tanker set luxury bus and articulated vehicle ablaze at Ugbogui village on Ore-Benin Expressway, 80 people were burnt beyond recognition. April 6, 2013: At Dazigan, 11 kilometers from Potiskum, Yobe State, 20 died in an accident. April 11, 2013: 10 died on the Damaturu-Gashua Road also in Yobe State. April 14, 2013: Seven died on the Abuja-Lokoja Road, a car ran into an articulated vehicle. April 15, 2013: Five died on the Asaba-Onitsha Expressway. By the middle of April, 142 people had died from reported motor accidents, 30 per cent of the 473 deaths recorded in 2012 had been covered in only 15 days! There could be more unreported cases, and as often happens, some of the injured die without making the statistics. This paper examines road traffic accident problems in Nigeria. The causes of accidents and their general preventive measures are discussed. A review of literature on road traffic accidents and it impact was done. The articles were accessed from public libraries, as well as online through internet search engines and relevant information extracted. There is need to view road traffic accident as a very serious issue requiring urgent attention aimed at preventing untimely deaths, reducing the health, social and economic impacts it portends to the average Nigerian. Keywords: Road traffic accident, Nigeria, Vehicle, Causes, Preventive measures.
Educational Game “Saringman” to Familiarize Hygiene to Children Since Early Stage

Learning materials on the environment for children aged growth is quite difficult taught, with the lack of education, teaching materials and appropriate materials where children will easily absorb the material that accompanied the game. Delivery of content has not been used as a medium of learning tools. With the learning media in the form of educational games are expected to help the children understand the importance of keeping the environment clean, especially in terms of waste disposal. The strength of a research conducted, it produced an educational game app that contains materials about the importance of protecting the environment, especially in terms of taking out the trash for children between the ages of growth, which has been tested using black box test and alpha test. Based on the test results and Alpha Black Box test produces gaming applications that can helping the children to understand the importance of protecting the environment, with a view of the game that is user friendly, attractive, lightweight, has a weight of education and can be easily deployed to support learning about the importance of maintaining cleanliness environment.
Performance of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in response to supplemental irrigation and rate of nitrogen application in Enderta, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Copyright: © 2017| Author (s), This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial No Derivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is noncommercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Moisture stress and nitrogen deficiency are the most important factors which limit wheat production in the semi-arid Tigray region of Ethiopia. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted in Enderta district in the region during the 2013 and 2014 cropping seasons to elucidate the response of bread wheat to supplemental irrigation (SI) and rates of nitrogen application. The experiment was laid out as a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in a split-plot arrangement with three replications. Four levels of supplementary irrigation (SI), viz: 0, 50, 75, and 100% (full) of the crop water requirement were assigned to the main plots whilst, nitrogen levels of 0, 23, 46, 69 and 92 kg N ha-1 were assigned to the sub-plots. Application of 92 kg N ha−1 with 75% SI increased tiller production by 94% as compared to the rain-fed treatment. Similarly, plants that received 100% SI with the application of 69 kg N ha-1 had their heights significantly increased by about 39%, spike length by 56%, kernel per spike by 51%, TKW by 47% and aboveground biomass yield by 340% as compared to no irrigation and no nitrogen application. Maximum grain yield of 4504kg ha-1 and water productivity of 7.99 kg mm-1 ha-1 was recorded in response to the application of 100% SI combined with 92 kg N ha-1, However, the lowest grain yield of 885 kg ha-1 and water productivity of 2.15 kg mm-1 ha-1 were recorded in response to the rain-fed production with no application of nitrogen fertilizer. Based on economic analysis, the acceptable marginal rate of return of 255% and the highest net benefit (47004 ETB ha-1) was obtained from the application of 92 kg N ha-1 with 100% supplemental irrigation. It can be concluded that the integration of 92 kg N ha−1 with 100% supplementary irrigation resulted in optimum grain yield and economic return of the crop.
Combined Activities of Some Selected Nigerian Medicinal Plants against ESBL Producing Strains of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia

Citation: Ikegbunam Moses N. , et al. “Combined Activities of Some Selected Nigerian Medicinal Plants against ESBL Producing Strains of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia”. EC Microbiology 14.7 (2018):361-373. Abstract Background: Bacteria resistance to orthodox medicine is currently on the increase and is a threat globally. Objectives: To evaluate the combined activities of leaf extracts of; Ocimum gratissimum and Ocimum canum; Piper guineense and Xylopia aethiopica; Nauclea latifolia Stem Bark extracts against ESBL producing strains of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia. Methods: Agar diffusion method was used in individual-plant evaluation for antimicrobial effects. while the checkerboard continuous variation method was adopted in the combination studies. The ESBL producing ability of the organisms was confirmed using double disk synergy test. Results: O. canum and O. gratissimum methanol extracts had no activity against resistant strains of E. coli but recorded activity against K. pneumonia at 250 mg/ml. X. aethiopica inhibited the growth of E. coli and K. pneumonia across all concentrations while P. guineense recorded no activity. Methanol and chloroform extracts of N. latifolia showed activity against E. coli at 100 mg/ml and 50 mg/ml respectively but had no activity against K. pneumonia. All combinations of O. canum and O. gratissimum showed synergistic effect against resistant strains of K. pneumonia. Combinations of P. guineense and X. aethiopica showed no activity against E. coli but recorded antagonistic and synergistic effects against K. pneumonia. Combination of methanol and chloroform extracts of N. latifolia recorded synergistic and antagonistic effects against E. coli at different combination ratios. All combination ratios showed synergistic effect against K. pneumonia. Conclusion: This work has established that combination of above named extracts could possibly improve ease and effectiveness of control of resistant bacteria especially E. coli and K. pneumonia responsible for infectious diseases.
SIMPLE ROBUST POWER FLOW METHOD FOR RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

A simple power flow method which is computationally efficient is reported that is robust and insensitive to Network topology and Types of Load model. IEEE 33-bus system is used as a test system to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed work. The power flow results for constant power load obtained for 33-bus system have been verified with the results published with other existing method and found to be in exact agreement. The convergence characteristics are analyzed for various system parameters and loading conditions. The proposed distributed power flow method is superior in computational Efficiency when compared with six other existing methods for 33-node network.
Development of a Gamification Based English Vocabulary Mobile Learning System

-English language is the official language in Nigeria and also a language for international communication, the learning of English has become of great value. The importance of English language in student’s performance cannot be over emphasized. Reports show that the performance of students in written, reading and spoken English in undergraduate and graduates studies of Nigeria is not impressive. Research has shown that vocabulary is the most important element of any language learning including English language. Motivation is an important factor for learners to learn English Vocabulary continuously and effectively. This paper adopts the use of Gamification based English Vocabulary learning technique to motivate and encourage learners to continue learning English vocabularies effectively.
Is Continuous PENG Block the New 3-in-1?

Fascia iliaca or femoral nerve blocks are used frequently for hip fracture patients due to the opioid-sparing effects. However, these techniques prove to be insufficient in many cases. A recent anatomical study on hip innervation, led to the identification of relevant landmarks to target the hip articular branches, namely the Pericapsular Nerve Group (PENG), which allowed a novel ultrasound-guided approach. The aim of this case report is to show an anesthetic technique not described previously, that included an ultra-sound guided PENG block with perineural catheter.
Comparison of Effects of Using Different Levels of Animal and Vegetable Fats and Their Blends on Performance of Laying Hens

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of dietary fat type with different inclusion levels on performance of laying hens. In each of these experiments, 288 Hy-Line (W36) laying hens from 50-62 weeks old were used in a completely randomized design in eight treatments and three replicates (12 birds per replicate). The experimental diets in the first study were control (no oil), 4% soybean oil, 4% sunflower oil, 4% canola oil, 2% soybean oil+2% sunflower oil, 2% soybean oil+2% canola oil, 2% sunflower oil+2% canola oil and 1.33% soybean oil+1.33% sunflower oil+1.33% canola oil. The supplemental fats that were used in the experiment 2 were beef tallow, sheep tallow and poultries fat, in the experiment 3, were canola oil, beef tallow and sheep tallow and in the experiment 4, were beef tallow, soybean oil and sunflower oil. There were significant differences between treatments on performance among all experiments (P<0.05). In the first experiment, the highest amount of egg weight was observed in treatment contain 2% sunflower oil+2% canola oil, in the second experiment the highest amounts of egg weight, egg mass and better feed conversion were observed in the control group, whereas the highest percent of egg production was obtained in treatment containing 4% of sheep tallow, in the third experiment the highest amount of daily feed intake was observed in treatment containing 4% of sheep tallow and finally in the fourth experiment the highest amounts of egg weight and daily feed intake were observed in treatments containing 2% of soybean oil+2% of sunflower oil and 4% of sunflower oil.
Role of Gingival Crevicular Fluid as a Biomarker in Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Periodontal disease (PD) is a complication of diabetes mellitus (or diabetes mellitus). Various proinflammatory cytokines are expressed in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of diabetic patients with PD. The aim of this study was to review the proinflammatory cytokinees that are expressed in the saliva, GCF and serum of diabetic patients with PD. The highlighted question which is addressed was “Which proinflammatory cytokines are expressed in the GCF of diabetic patients with PD? ”. Levels of interleukin (IL)-6 are higher in the GCF of diabetic patients with PD compared to healthy controls. IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) are higher in the GCF of diabetic patients in PD compared to healthy controls. Weak evidence also suggested that resistin and visfatin are also dysregulated in diabetic patients with PD compared to controls. Raised levels of proinflammatory cytokines (including IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α) in the GCF of diabetic patients with PD may be a valuable tool in the early detection of PD. Elevated concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines in the GCF may also be indicative of “latent” diabetes mellitus in undiagnosed individuals.