bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Authorship Pattern and Degree of Collaboration in Marine Pollution Research
Authors: Thanuskodi S.
Published: July 2020

Marine pollution has been an ever-present problem since the advent of large-scale agricultural activity and industrialization. However, significant laws and regulations at an international level to tackle the problem came only in the mid-20th century. During United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea in the early 1950s, the various stakeholders came together to deliberate and formulate laws pertaining to marine pollution. Until the mid-20th century, the majority of the scientists maintained that oceans were vast enough to be able to dilute the amount of pollution being drained into them, thus considering pollution harmless to the marine life. The study examines the global output of marine pollution literature during 1994–2018 reflected in Web of Science database. The study reveals that, out of total 1412 papers, the largest number of publications was 112 (7.93%) are in the year 2018. The growth rate increased from 16 publications in 1994 to 112 (2018). The average collaborative index 4.48 was counted between 1994 and 2018. The average value of collaboration coefficient for marine pollution is 0.61. The degree of collaboration in the marine pollution literature is 0.86, which clearly indicates the dominance of multiple authors. Among the Prolific authors, Bellas, J. is the top ranker who has contributed 22 articles. In geographical distribution of publications, the largest number of contributions was from England with 560 (39.66%). India placed sixth with 23 (1.63%).
Tour Guides' Perspectives on Their Work and Life
Authors: Aloudat Areej Shabib , Black Rosemary , Everett Sally
Published: July 2020

Despite advances in the study of tour guiding, there has been limited exploration of the work and life of tour guides, and even fewer studies seeking the views and perspectives of tour guides themselves. This study employed interpretive qualitative phenomenology. Twenty-nine Jordanian tour guides were interviewed to seek their perspectives on their work, motivations for becoming a guide, and the impact of their work on their private lives. The data analysis and interpretation revealed themes focusing on the mechanics of a working day, insurance expenses, unpredictable income, job anxiety, perceptions of guides themselves and by others, and the impact of tour guiding on their private lives. The outcomes of this study provide new understandings of the work-life experiences of tour guides from their perspective, and implications for the tourism industry. The study may be used as a steppingstone for further empirical investigation that could be replicated in different countries and cultural contexts.
Student Guides as Mediators of Institutional Heritage and Personal Experience
Authors: Woodward Simon C. , Carnegie Elizabeth
Published: July 2020

This chapter examines the role of student guides as mediators between the institutional mission and heritage of their university and visitors to the historic campus. Drawing on a longitudinal study undertaken at two historic universities in the west, the authors establish that a small cadre of elite, competitively-chosen guides at these institutions perform a role of openness and democracy on behalf of the increasingly complex and hybrid modern university. The chapter considers how student guides are able to navigate their own pride at such privileged engagement and how this privilege impacts on tours offered to visitors, where campus tours become a negotiation based on internal and external influences and are constructed and reconstructed according to the imagined or actual demands of different tour groups. By managing risk at the point of employment, and by encouraging free reign in tours, there is limited risk involved to host universities as student guides offer an informed, personalised heritage experience to both domestic and international tourists.
Tea Tourism and the Importance of Tea Tourists' Guidance in India
Authors: Bulut Solak Birsen , Amin Sakib Bin
Published: July 2020

The importance of tea tourism in India is immense as it has a dual impact by creating a regional tea market and securing jobs for tea labor. Therefore, proper guidance for the tea tourists is essential regarding the tea tourism destinations by addressing the issues, challenges, and opportunities in promoting local culture. Through the public-private partnership, tea tourism should be included in the mainstream tour packages, and local tea customs can be conveyed through a variety of activities promoting sightseeing and other forms of entertainment and tourism experiences. A proper planning is required for making tea tourism more attractive and developed in India. Development of tea tourism sustaining the environment and preserving the heritage and culture will benefit the Indian regions by creating employment opportunities and boosting the rural economy and thereby alleviate the insurgency and other socio-economic problems. It is expected to contribute to the literature on tourist guiding and the promotion of tea tourism and the tourist guides within tea garden boundaries in India.
The Future of Tourism Guidance in the Scope of Industry 4.0 and Next-Generation Technologies
Authors: Topsakal Yunus , Bahar Mehmet , Yüzbaşıoğlu Nedim
Published: July 2020

Next-generation technologies such as robotics, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, sensors, cognitive technologies, nanotechnology, quantum computing, wearable technologies, augmented reality, intelligent signaling, and intelligent robots have led the fourth industrial revolution, often referred to as Industry 4.0. With the rapid advance of technology, most people today rely heavily on the internet to get information while traveling anywhere, because the use of technology has deeply penetrated daily life. The internet also makes travel easier and more convenient. For instance, it is possible to plan travel using smartphones and applications and at the same time meet instant travel needs as they arise. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine tourism guidance within the scope of the super-smart tourists of the future, to determine the usage areas of next-generation technologies in the field of tourism guidance, and to give recommendations for tourism guidance in this regard.
What Is Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM)?
Authors: Joo Seung Hwan , Lee Sung Mo , Yoo Jin Ho , Son Hyeon Jin , Lee Seung Ho
Published: July 2020

In order to use 3D printing technology as a sanction, it is necessary to optimize topology, component unification, and reduce weight need for advanced manufacturing design. In the case of metal 3D printing, it is necessary to manage deformation and defects in the process cause of using laser, and support generation and design optimization must be accompanied for efficiency. Currently, design progresses through simulation before actual production in AM field. This chapter explores design in additive manufacturing.
Multiscale Modeling of the Laser Additive Manufacturing Process
Authors: Sahoo Seshadev , Nandy Jyotirmoy
Published: July 2020

Additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as the most versatile process in the manufacturing sector. The advantages of AM such as applicability in a wide range of industries, ease of manufacturing, and reduction in waste production have increased its demand over the past decades. Out of the many techniques under AM, direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is one of the most efficient manufacturing techniques that uses a high-powered laser beam to sinter metal powders in a layer-by-layer fashion. With the current usage of computational modeling, the prediction of microstructure evolution and other thermo-mechanical properties of different materials have been of great advantage to researchers. Along with a detailed classification of AM techniques, this chapter focuses on the use of continuum, phase field, and atomistic modeling under the DMLS process. The results show that multiscale modeling can be advantageous in gaining deeper insight into various phenomena like diffusion and sintering.
Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing of Ni-Based Superalloys
Authors: Yasa Evren , Poyraz Ozgur
Published: July 2020

Emerging additive manufacturing technologies have been gaining interest from different industries and widened their fields of application among aerospace and defense. The introduction of powder bed fusion processes was one of the significant developments in terms of direct metal part manufacturing of different materials and complex geometries, presenting good properties, and decreasing the need for tooling to allow fast product development as well as small-volume production. In this respect, nickel-based superalloys are one of the most employed material groups for aerospace and defense applications due to their mechanical strength, creep, wear, and oxidation resistance at both ambient and elevated temperatures. Nevertheless, the use of some materials has not become widespread due to several reasons such as processing difficulties, absence of design criteria or material properties. This chapter presents a comprehensive benchmark for powder bed fusion additive manufacturing of nickel-based superalloys considering applications, characteristics, and limitations.
Factors Affecting Sustainable Higher Educational Partnerships
Authors: Bamber Christopher John , Elezi Enis
Published: July 2020

The globally competitive environment of higher education is exemplified by many UK universities, private education institutions, and public colleges entering into collaborative agreements with partner organisations. No more is this movement seen than with private higher education institutions (HEIs) entering into collaborative arrangements with many stakeholders, including new partners once seen as competitors. Those entrepreneurial-minded executives leading and governing HEIs have thus seen partnerships as strategies for business sustainability in a collaborative economy, giving them competitive advantage and enhancing their strategic intent. This chapter provides a critical and useful review of HEI knowledge management (KM) factors that enable successful stages of collaboration. Within this chapter, sustainability practices in higher education partnerships are reviewed through examination of KM factors and discussions of a private HEI using case study examples from their sustainability journey.
When Giants Meet
Authors: Ertz Myriam , Boily Émilie
Published: July 2020

The collaborative economy (CE) involves an intensification of direct or intermediated peer-to-peer trade, underpinned by robust digital infrastructures and processes, hence an increased use of new technologies and a redefinition of business activities. As an inherently connected economy, the CE is, therefore, prone to integrating the most recent technological advances including artificial intelligence, big data analysis, augmented reality, the smart grid, and blockchain technology. As an innovative payment and finance technology, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies could have potential implications for the CE. This chapter consists of a conceptual review analyzing how the CE connects with the blockchain technology. The chapter presents subsequently the organizational and managerial implications related to the use of blockchain technology in terms of governance, transaction costs, and user confidence. An illustrative case further examines the role of a prominent social media in the CE-blockchain nexus.
Predicting Employee Performance
Authors: Leon Ramona Diana , Tănăsescu Ramona Ioana , Tănăsescu Carmen Elena
Published: July 2020

The research aims to perform an intergenerational analysis regarding the impact of counterproductive behavior and contextual performance on employees' task performance. The analysis is performed on a convenience sample of 165 employees from three different generations who work in the banking system. The results show that (1) 33.50% of task performance variance is determined by the variance of contextual individual performance and counterproductive behavior, (2) 13% of the variance of contextual individual performance can be explained by the variance in counterproductive behavior, (3) 33.70% of the variance of contextual organizational performance can be explained by the variance of task performance and counterproductive behavior. In addition, significant differences appear regarding the influence of (1) the counterproductive behavior on the contextual performance (Generation X vs. Y), (2) the contextual individual performance on task performance (Generation X vs. Z), and (3) the counterproductive behavior on the contextual individual performance (Generation Y vs. Z).
A Robust Multivariate Outlier Detection Method for Detection of Securities Fraud
Authors: Esen M. Fevzi
Published: July 2020

Insider trading is one the most common deceptive trading practice in securities markets. Data mining appears as an effective approach to tackle the problems in fraud detection with high accuracy. In this study, the authors aim to detect outlying insider transactions depending on the variables affecting insider trading profitability. 1,241,603 sales and purchases of insiders, which range from 2010 to 2017, are analyzed by using classical and robust outlier detection methods. They computed robust distance scores based on minimum volume ellipsoid, Stahel-Donoho, and fast minimum covariance determinant estimators. To investigate the outlying observations that are likely to be fraudulent, they employ event study analysis to measure abnormal returns of outlying transactions. The results are compared to the abnormal returns of non-outlying transactions. They find that outlying transactions gain higher abnormal returns than transactions that are not flagged as outliers. Business intelligence and analytics may be a useful strategy for detecting and preventing of financial fraud for companies.
Cyberstalking
Authors: Paullet Karen , Chawdhry Adnan
Published: July 2020

The internet has become a medium for people to communicate locally or globally in business, education, and their social lives. The increased use of the internet has created an impact on the number of online harassing/cyberstalking cases. This exploratory study of 121 undergraduate students seeks to examine the extent to which cyberstalking is prevalent. This study argues that cyberstalking and harassment will only decrease when the extent of the problem is fully understood and potential victims and law enforcement understand the protections necessary under the law.
Multilingual Scene Text Detection Using Gradient Morphology
Authors: Dhar Dibyajyoti , Chakraborty Neelotpal , Choudhury Sayan , Paul Ashis , Mollah Ayatullah Faruk , Basu Subhadip , Sarkar Ram
Published: July 2020

Text detection in natural scene images is an interesting problem in the field of information retrieval. Several methods have been proposed over the past few decades for scene text detection. However, the robustness and efficiency of these methods are downgraded due to high sensitivity towards various complexities of an image. Also, in multi-lingual environment where texts may occur in multiple languages, a method may not be suitable for detecting scene texts in certain languages. To counter these challenges, a gradient morphology-based method is proposed in this paper that proves to be robust against image complexities and efficiently detects scene texts irrespective of their languages. The method is validated using low quality images from standard multi-lingual datasets like MSRA-TD500 and MLe2e. The performance of the method is compared with that of some state-of-the-art methods, and comparably better results are observed.
A Jawbreaker-Shaped Fragmentary Ground Textile Flexible Antenna
Authors: Saxena Anurag , Singh Vinod Kumar , Lohia Akanksha , Faisal Mohd
Published: July 2020

Under this article, a jawbreaker-shaped textile antenna is designed for assortment applications like satellite communication, security system, medical, etc. For the antenna to be wearable, jeans substrate is used in place of FR-4 material so that it can easily bend. After simulating in CST software, the resonant frequency is 7.5 GHz under which it covers the range of 5.37 GHz to 8.36 GHz frequency. The simulating result of proposed antenna shows high efficiency, better directivity, and radiation pattern. The overall bandwidth of proposed antenna is 27.07%.
The Impact of Appropriate Planning and Robust Evaluation Strategies on Continuous Improvement of Student Learning
Authors: Khan Imtiaz Hussain
Published: July 2020

This paper discusses a unified framework for systematic assessment and evaluation of student outcomes for a modern computer science (undergraduate) program seeking ABET accreditation. The framework uses a carefully designed sampling plan, informed by robust analysis and experiences over more than five years, to evaluate and assess student outcomes. The proposed framework is expected to enhance student learning and faculty satisfaction. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is validated using direct and indirect assessment data gathered from different stakeholders. Moreover, two consecutive, full six-years each, ABET accreditations (2013-2019 and 2019-2025) ascertain the robustness of the proposed framework.
Science Mapping as a Learning-by-Doing Educational Technology Tool for Doctoral Education
Authors: Nejma Maryam , Cherkaoui Abdelghani
Published: July 2020

The dynamic and fast-growing research literature is currently decreasing research student ability to pinpoint the relevant information and easily develop critical reflectivity. This article describes the experience of a beginner doctoral researcher using science mapping to perform efficiently a comprehensive literature review. The reported review includes the methodological steps, lessons learned, and difficulties faced under challenging review conditions: lack of any third-party support, lack of bibliometric training, and lack of reviewer research experience. The reported experience showed positive results in term of efficiency, rigor, time/effort, and learning value and highlighted how the process induced in the doctoral researcher self-learning, innovative thinking, reflectivity, and a push for novelty comparing to classical literature reviews. This experience successfully assesses science mapping as an educational technology tool for reviewing literature for lay researchers. The paper is a call to disseminate science mapping in doctoral courses as a learning-by-doing educational approach for literature reviews.
Poor Public Management and Public Governance Failure
Authors: Ugoani John
Published: July 2020

Nigeria is regarded as the giant of Africa because of its huge oil resource wealth. For years the country has been restoring peace in troubled countries. It also has the support of world leaders because of its strong advocacy against corruption and terrorism. This achievement in the global governance agenda is a blessing. However, the problem of corruption and mismanagement is a curse. In the context of the curse or blessing debate in oil-rich countries, it is clear from evidence that the experience of Nigeria is a mixed blend of blessing and curse. Exploratory research design was used for the study, and data analyses showed positive association between poor public management and public governance failure, as a result of the gross negative effect. To mitigate such a negative trend, it was recommended that government should institute management teams in government, departments, agencies, and parastatals to monitor the use of public resources for public good.
Effect of Economic Performance on Subjective Well-Being
Authors: Dávalos Jéssica , Vargas-Hérnandez José G.
Published: July 2020

The effect of Economics on the subjective well-being of people has been usually studied by treating country information in the same way as data from individuals. The objective of this paper is to analyze 17 Latin American countries with data from 2016, by including both effects handled into two different levels accordingly. This work contributes to extend the current debate regarding the impact of Economics on subjective well-being of people by applying the multilevel method. Some of the findings revealed that both the individual economic situation as well as the welfare state and the rule of law of a country generate effects on subjective well-being. Similarly, the effect of interaction between some variables was analyzed, and it was concluded that people with great economic difficulties have a stronger relationship with subjective well-being in areas of higher government spending and higher tax burden.
Fault Prediction in SOA-Based Systems Using Deep Learning Techniques
Authors: Bhandari Guru Prasad , Gupta Ratneshwer
Published: July 2020

Fault prediction in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based systems is one of the important tasks to minimize the computation cost and time of the software system development. Predicting the faults and discovering their locations in the early stage of the system development lifecycle makes maintenance processes easy and improves the resource utilization. In this paper, the authors proposed the fault prediction model for SOA-based systems by utilizing the deep learning techniques. Twenty-one source code metrics are applied to different web services projects. The web services datasets are constructed by injecting the faults into it, and metrics are extracted for both faulty and nonfaulty data for training and testing purpose. Moreover, different deep learning techniques are inspected for fault prediction of web services and performance of different methods are compared by using standard performance measures. From the experimental results, it is observed that deep learning techniques provide effective results and applicable to the real-world SOA-based systems.
A Novel Approach to Location-Aware Scheduling of Workflows Over Edge Computing Resources
Authors: Li Yin , Ma Yuyin , Zeng Ziyang
Published: July 2020

Edge computing is pushing the frontier of computing applications, data, and services away from centralized nodes to the logical extremes of a network. A major technological challenge for workflow scheduling in the edge computing environment is cost reduction with service-level-agreement (SLA) constraints in terms of performance and quality-of-service requirements because real-world workflow applications are constantly subject to negative impacts (e.g., network congestions, unexpected long message delays, shrinking coverage, range of edge servers due to battery depletion. To address the above concern, we propose a novel approach to location-aware and proximity-constrained multi-workflow scheduling with edge computing resources). The proposed approach is capable of minimizing monetary costs with user-required workflow completion deadlines. It employs an evolutionary algorithm (i.e., the discrete firefly algorithm) for the generation of near-optimal scheduling decisions. For the validation purpose, the authors show that our proposed approach outperforms traditional peers in terms multiple metrics based on a real-world dataset of edge resource locations and multiple well-known scientific workflow templates.
Water erosion modeling by the Erosion Potential Method and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation: a comparative analysis
Authors: Lense Guilherme Henrique Expedito , Moreira Rodrigo Santos , Parreiras Taya Cristo , Santana Derielsen Brandão , Bolelli Talyson De Melo , Mincato Ronaldo Luiz
Published: July 2020

Water erosion is the principal degradation process of tropical soils, and its effects can be measured by modeling techniques. Erosion models provide a diagnosis of the soil loss intensity and can support the planning of soil conservation practices. Models with low data requirements, such as the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and, more recently, the Erosion Potential Method (EPM), are mainly applied in Brazil. Thus, the objective of this work was to estimate water erosion soil-loss rates using the EPM and RUSLE models on a tropical subbasin, followed by a comparison of their outcomes. The models’ application considered soil physical parameters, edaphoclimatic conditions of the area, land use, and subbasin management practices. The accuracy of the methods was verified using total transported sediment and water discharge data. We compared the models using Pearson's correlation analyses, considering a 5% of significance. We found a predominance of moderate-intensity erosion with average soil loss of 1.17 and 1.46 Mg ha-1 year-1, measured by EPM and RUSLE, respectively. The EPM model underestimated soil losses by 15.27%, and RUSLE overestimated by 19.08%, indicating a higher percentage of areas with high erosion rates (4.60%). The models presented results with a different order of magnitude, but with significant correlations, indicating that both methods pointed out similar zones of intense and light-erosion rates.
Age, Growth, Reproduction and Fecundity of Roach Rutilus rutilus from Volvi Lake, Northern Greece
Authors: Kyritsi Stavroula , Kokkinakis Antonis K.
Published: July 2020

The roach, Rutilus rutilus, is a Cyprinid which is widely distributed throughout freshwater systems in Europe. It is one of the most abundant and important commercial fish species in Greece. Age, growth, reproduction and fecundity of roach were studied in Lake Volvi from 1997-1998 females had higher growth in length (L∞=277.18 mm, k=0.097) than adult males (L∞=185.60 mm, k=0.148). All males older than one year and larger than 70 mm, and all females older than two years and larger than 80 mm were sexually mature. The breeding period spanned from the end of March till mid April. Fecundity ranged from 2,036 to 31,653 eggs (mean 8,102 eggs) and relative fecundity from 76.06 to 333.94 eggs/g (mean 186.78 eggs/g). Diameter of eggs were 1.3 ± 0.07 mm and weighted 0.0011 ± 0.0002 g . The weight of eggs were independent of length and age of individuals (P>0.05), however, there was a significant relationship between weight and egg diameter (P<0.05). Absolute fecundity depended on length, weight and age of the females. The relationship between absolute fecundity and length were less obvious in the case of relative fecundity and egg size. Estimated growth was at the lower end when compared with other studies conducted elsewhere.
Antidepressant-like effects of methanol leaves extract of Leptadenia hastata (Asclepidiaceae) in mice
Authors: Sani Ibrahim H. , Abubakar Abdullahi Rabiu , Yaro Abdullahi H. , Malami Sani
Published: July 2020

Depression is a serious disorder that affects people in all communities across the world, a major cause of disability and morbidity worldwide. The drugs used in its management are associated with adverse effects and delayed response, hence it’s important to look for antidepressant plants with proven advantages and favourable benefits.  Leptadenia hastata (Pers.) Decne belongs to the family Asclepidiaceae and is widely used in Tropical Africa as a vegetable due to its low toxicity and therapeutic benefits, it is used in the treatment of evil spirit, psychiatric disorders and hallucination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antidepressant-like effect of the methanol leaves extract of Leptadenia hastata (LHME) and its fractions. Phytochemical screening and acute toxicity (LD50) study were done using standard procedures. Antidepressant-like effects of the LHME and its fractions was evaluated using the tail suspension test (TST) and forced swim test (FST). The intraperitoneal (i.p) median lethal dose was estimated to be > 5000 mg/kg. The LHME and Residual aqueous fraction (RAF) at dose 250-1000 mg/kg are significantly (P<0.05) and dose-dependently, while n-butanol fraction (NBF) at 400 mg/kg decreased the duration of immobility in the TST and FST respectively. There was no significant change in the number of squares crossed in the OFT. In conclusion, the L. hastata plant possesses antidepressant-like effects.

Keywords: Depression, Forced swim test, Leptadenia hastata, Medicinal plant and Tail suspension test
Community pharmacists’ perceptions and knowledge of Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) in Kaduna, Nigeria
Authors: Ma’aji H.U. , Auwal F.I. , Laban S. , Abdu-Aguye S.N. , Amorha K.C.
Published: July 2020

Herbal supplements or “botanicals,” are a type of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) made from one or more plants, and are thought to be useful in treating diseases or maintaining health. These supplements are usually found in pharmacies, and continue to gain popularity among consumers today. The aim of this study was to assess the perceptions and knowledge of community pharmacists practicing in Zaria & Kaduna metropolis on herbal supplements. A cross-sectional survey was carried out from July to October 2016 on pharmacists working in 82 randomly selected community pharmacies. A structured questionnaire containing four sections and 45 questions was used to collect data from respondents on their demographic characteristics, personal experiences with herbal supplements, knowledge of selected herbal supplements and general perceptions of herbal supplements. Data collected was coded and analyzed using SPSS version 20, and descriptive statistics used to report results. While 120 questionnaires were distributed, only 99 were eventually retrieved. Majority of the respondents were male (80%), and had BPharm as their highest educational qualification (97%). Most of the respondents reported having used herbal supplements before (92%) and up to 71% had used these supplements within the last 12 months. Many of the respondents (70%) had poor knowledge regarding the indications, safety and interactions associated with the use of selected herbal supplements. Over 90% of them agreed that herbal supplements are beneficial, and should be integrated into conventional clinical care, however less than half of them believed that these supplements were safe and had fewer side effects than conventional medicines. Community pharmacists in Kaduna have poor knowledge but largely positive perceptions of herbal supplements.

Keywords: CAM, Knowledge, Perceptions, Community Pharmacists, Herbal Supplements, Nigeria
Compatibility and formulation of diesel degrading consortia using bacteria isolated from contaminated soil
Authors: Darma Umar Zubairu , Mansir Aisha Zango , Riko Yunusa Yahaya
Published: July 2020

Soil contamination with diesel spillage is an increasing environmental challenge that damages living ecosystems. Efficiency of single bacterium in degrading diesel oil pollutants is faced with slow performance limitation. Therefore, the use of consortia is shown to be better, due to synergism, multi-enzymatic activity and potential for diversified catabolic functionalities. This study is aimed at formulating effective bacterial consortia that can degrade diesel in polluted environments. Four diesel degrading bacteria as Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus roseus and Rhodococcus specie were isolated and used for consortia formulation. Purity testing was performed on the isolates prior to consortia formulation, before their compatibility was tested by cross-spreading them on nutrient agar. Consortia formulation was made using Bacteria resting cells in Phosphate Buffer Saline based on compatibility testing and mathematical permutations. For on their ability to survive diesel on Bushnell-Haas Agar (BHA), consortia 2, 9 and 11 showed the best results among which consortium 11 was chosen as the best, considering growths on the medium within a 72 hrs period. The growth of the organisms before consortia formulation and after was also evaluated, which suggest that the consortium perform better than individual strains. Analysis of Variance showed significant statistical differences (p<0.05) between constituents of consortia, and diesel degradation on 2% (v/v) BHA. The degradation performances of the various consortia on BHA were furthermore separated by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test. The colony counts obtained indicate that degradation was performed better by the consortia than individual strains. The findings of the study contribute towards illuminating inter-microbial relationships and microbial ecology especially within groups of diesel degrading bacteria. Further studies are imperative, to maximally harness the potentials of these bacteria for applications in large scale diesel biodegradation.    

Key Words: Consortia, Diesel, Bacterial Biodegradation, Haemocytometry.
A survey of co-infection of some pathogenic bacteria with TB in patients attending Federal Medical Center Katsina, Nigeria
Authors: Abdulkadir B. , Abubakar U. , Abdullahi B. , Owuna J.E. , Murtala R. , Kabir K. , Ibrahim M.A.
Published: July 2020

Tuberculosis (TB) is known to be one of the oldest forms of human diseases which still remain the leading cause of death worldwide. It is characterized as a pulmonary disease which occurs due to accumulation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) onto the lungs alveolar surfaces. M. tuberculosis is an implicated pathogenic bacteria associated with T.B. It is the chronic infectious disease caused by the tubercle bacillus (M. tuberculosis). This study was aimed to determine co-infection of other pathogenic bacteria within MTB patients attending Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Katsina. The study design was cross-sectional, conducted to isolate some pathogenic bacteria that co-infected TB patients who are Acid fast bacilli (AFB) positive and AFB negative. The samples obtained were cultured on Blood, Chocolate and MacConkey agar and incubated at 37oC for 24 hours. Pure isolates were confirmed using Grams Staining and biochemical reaction. Data obtained were presented as simple percentage and using statistical analysis which revealed that the incidence was common among the age categories 51-60 with 28%, followed by those ≥60 years with 20%. The lowest prevalence was recorded the at age category 11-20 with 10%. Based on gender, males presented with the higher incidence (35/50) i.e. 70% than female (15/50) i.e. 30%. Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphyllococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the most prevalent organisms isolated with 21.9%, 19.66% and 19.10% respectively. E. coli with 05.62% being had the least isolates. The research demonstrated the existence of both Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial pathogens that co-infect with TB patients, especially among the elderly males. Further research should be tailored towards investigating other pathogens that co-infect with MTB patients, such as fungi and viruses, in diversified hospitals in Katsina state and beyond.  

Keywords: AFB, Pathogenic bacteria, Tuberculosis and Mycobacterium and Federal Medical Centre, Katsina.
Microorganisms as bioinsecticides; short review
Authors: Isah U. , Ahmad M.A.
Published: July 2020

Hundred thousand tons of chemical insecticides are used annually in Nigeria to combat insect disease vectors especially agricultural pests, but this sort of vector control method is gradually being substituted due to their  environmental effects on non-target beneficial insects especially vertebrates through contamination of food and water. To counteract this contamination, attention, efforts and researches were directed to the use of biological control agents including insect pathogens. As a result, the use of bio insecticide, as a component of integrated pest management (IPM), has been gaining acceptance over the world. Microbial pathogens comprise of organisms which cause disease, these organisms are disseminated in the pest population in large quantity in a manner similar to application of chemical pesticides.  Insects like other organisms are susceptible to a variety of diseases caused by different groups of microorganisms including virus, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. Microbial pathogens of insects are intensively investigated to develop environment friendly pest management strategies in agriculture. Microbial insecticides represent today the best alternative to chemical insecticides in controlling insect pests, they are safe for non-target species and human health are believed to show low persistence in the environment. This short review indicates that microbial insecticides are the safe alternative way possessing all the requirements to replace chemical insecticides hence, they can be utilized in pest management and control.

Keywords: Bio-insecticides, Microorganisms, biological control, pest, chemical insecticides
Comparative study on the corrosion behavior of mild steel in effluents, sea and fresh water
Authors: Usman Naja’atu Auwal , Tukur Usman Muhammad , Usman Bishir
Published: July 2020

The corrosion rate of mild steel behavior exposed to effluents (EF), sea water (SW) and fresh water (FW) were study using weight loss, scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM) and x-rays diffraction (XRD). The results show that the weight loss of mild steel in different water samples increases with increasing in immersion time and temperature respectively. The corrosion rate of water was found to be higher in sea water (0.003g cm2 week-2), effluents (0.021g cm-2 week-2) and fresh water (0.020g cm-2 week-2) respectively. The corrosion rate and behaviour of mild steel in the water sample were affected by some physical and chemical parameters such as pH, turbidity, conductivity and biological oxygen demand (BOD). Effluents (EF) were found to have pH (5.20), turbidity (13.3nut), conductivity (4203µs/cm) and BOD (0.119mg/dm3). Sea water (SW) were found to have pH (7.60), turbidity (173nut), conductivity (30800µs/cm) and BOD (0.028mg/dm3). Fresh water (FW) were found to have pH (7.60), turbidity (127nut), conductivity (419µs/cm) and BOD (0.651mg/dm3). Similarly, the presences of elements such as chloride ion (Cl-), Fe, Ba, Br, S, La, Nb and Mo from XRF confirm that the corrosion rate is higher in sea water. SEM microgram revealed that corrosion rates of EF, SW and FW were of different nature, both the samples have rough surface with various cracks after immersion. This clearly shows that the sea water has the highest corrosion products follow by effluent than fresh water sample. Both the weight loss and corrosion rate increases as the immersion time and temperature increases.

Keywords: Corrosion rate, Mild steel, Weight loss, AAS, SEM, XRF, Immersion Time, Temperature
Strain comparison on reproductive performance, growth and survival in two wild Clarias Gariepinus (Burchell 1822) and their reciprocal hybrids
Authors: Umar B.D.
Published: July 2020

A strain comparison experiments was carried out in wild Clarias gariepinus with the aim of evaluating the reproductive performance, (in terms of percentage fertility and hatchability) growth and survival for choice of strain in selective breeding. Live samples of wild C. gariepinus collected from River Argungu, Kebbi state (KB) and Eleyele dam, Oyo state (OY), Nigeria were crossbred and mated in pure parental and reciprocal crosses generating four mating combinations (generic crosses) replicated three times in completely randomized design (CRD) manner. The F1 generations were reared indoor for 56 days. The hybrids revealed higher characters compared to the progeny of pure parental groups in fertilization rate (84.000±0.270%; 78.265±0.135% compared to 88.400±0.130%; 71.465±0.265%), hatching (77.305±0.405%;72.235±0.465% compared to 80.995±0.025%; 64.555±0.615%) and survival of larvae (100.000±0.000%; 98.582±1.418% compared to 98.840±0.581%; 73.371±0.157%). On the other hand, fertilization and hatching rate among the hybrids and the pure crosses were statistically significant (P<0.05). Similarly, significant difference (P<0.05) was observed between the two reciprocal hybrids. However, the hybrid crosses showed intermediate characters between the pure crosses in mean weight gain (MWG), specific growth rate (SGR) and survival of fingerlings. Though the crosses of pure Oyo species displayed significantly higher value in MWG (5.583±0.058g) and SGR (10.319±0.051g) than other groups, fingerling survival (73.371±0.157%) was found to be lowest. The growth parameters like MWG (4.884±0.001g) and SGR (10.231±0.130g) of the hybrids of Oyo fingerlings were found to be higher than pure Kebbi crosses, while survival (100.000±0.000%) of hybrid of Kebbi fingerlings were higher than pure Kebbi (98.840±0.581%). Therefore, this is considered as heterosis (hybrid vigour) for the hybrids they have achieved better traits either one of the pure groups. Intra-specific cross of female wild C. gariepinus from Kebbi and male wild C. gariepinus from Oyo (KB♀ × OY♂) be practiced for optimum performance used in commercial production. This will ensure high fertility, hatchability, growth and survival rate.

Key words: Clarias gariepinus, growth, reproductive performance, Strain comparison, survival.
Antiplasmodial activities of crude Moringa oleifera leaves extracts on chloroquine sensitive Plasmodium falciparum (3D7)
Authors: Daskum Abdullahi M. , Godly Chessed , Qadeer Muhammad A.
Published: July 2020

The antimalarial efficacy of crude hexane, methanol and lyophilized aqueous Moringa oleifera leaf extract was evaluated on chloroquine sensitive (CQS) strain of Plasmodium falciparum (3D7) in vitro, with a view to validate traditional use of M. oleifera as antimalarial. A dose dependent suppression of parasite growth was observed for all extracts, at microgram per mills (µg/mL) concentrations. At the lowest concentration of extract (6.25 µg/mL), the hexane, methanol and lyophilized aqueous extracts showed 63.52%, 71.42% and 60.65% suppression of plasmodium growth respectively. The extracts showed potent biological activity at the highest concentration of extract, with a strong inhibition of plasmodium growth (71.31%, 83.06% and 80.36%) observed for the hexane, methanol and lyophilized aqueous extracts. Although some extracts are observed to be more potent than others, all extracts are observed to be biologically active against the 3D7 strain of P. falciparum (Hexane extract IC50 = 3.36 µg/mL; methanol IC50 = 3.44 µg/mL and aqueous IC50 = 4.09 µg/mL respectively). The antiplasmodial activities observed may well be attributed to the presence of phenols, tannins, alkaloids and flavonoids in all solvent extracts.

Key words: Antiplasmodial, Moringa oleifera, Phytochemical screening, Plasmodium falciparum
Photodegradation of Rhodamine B using Cd-Al/C double layered hydroxide catalyst
Authors: Muhammad A.S. , Garzali F.A.
Published: July 2020

This paper presents the degradation of Rhodamine B using cadmium aluminium carbon (Cd-Al/C) catalyst under visible light. The layered double hydroxide was successfully prepared from cadmium fluoride (CdF2), aluminium chloride (AlCl3), and rice husks activated carbon, and then characterized by X-ray Diffaraction (XRD) Scaning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) methods. The peaks at 2Ө 23.4 and 35.5 in the XRD result confirmed the presences of LDH. The effect of contact time, catalyst dosage, pH and initial concentration, on the photo degradiation of Rhodamine B were investigated. The experimental results showed that after 100min visible light irradiation, the percentage degradation using 200mg Cd-Al/C, pH 7 and 3ppm Rhodamine B concentration reached to 76.22%.  For kinetics studies the data obtained were analysed using pseudo first order and pseudo second order kinetic models. From the linear regression coefficient values the data were found to be best fitted to pseudo second order kinetics. The results revealed that the Cd-Al/C show good catalytic activity.

Key words: Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) Cadnium fluoride, Aluminium Chloride and Rhodamine B.
The effects of Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid (EDTA) on uptake of zinc (Zn2+) and copper (Cu2+) by hydroponically grown mint leaf (Mentha piperita L.)
Authors: Dagari M.S. , Musa M.S. , Nuhu N.A.
Published: July 2020

This study was carried out to assess the effects of EDTA on zinc and copper uptake in the hydroponically grown mint leaf (Mentha piperita L) as well as their translocation factors in both chelated and unchelated treatments. In the present work, effects of EDTA on Zn2+ and Cu2+ uptake by mint leaf (Mentha piperita L.) seedlings replanted in hydroponic solutions in a greenhouse were investigated. Two months old seedlings, were exposed to various doses of Zn2+ and Cu2+ (0, 0.0025, 0.005, 0.0075, and 0.025 mg/L) and constant concentration of EDTA (0.0025M).  For unchelated treatments, the effects of increasing concentrations of Zn2+ and Cu2+ in the solution increases the uptake by the plants relative to control.  Zn2+ contents in the shoots showed more accumulation than in the roots (p<0.05) and also Cu2+ content in the shoots was higher than in roots. Hence, for the chelated treatments i.e. addition of 0.0025M EDTA to the solutions of Zn2+ and Cu2+ inhibits their uptake in both shoot and root of the plant at (0.0025, 0.005, 0.0075 mg/L) when compared to the unchelated treatment of same concentration. But at 0.025 mg/L, chelation does not have much effect on the Zn2+ and Cu2+ uptakes in both shoot and root of the plant (p>0.05) as the uptake in both chelated and unchelated treatments was almost constant. Hence, chelation inhibits translocation of Zn2+ and Cu2+ to the shoots of the plant at highest concentration of zinc and copper in the solution.

Keywords: Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid, chelation, mint leaf, hydroponic, greenhouse.
Spatial and temporal patterns of phytoplankton composition in Zobe Reservoir, Dutsinma, Katsina State, Nigeria
Authors: Suleiman U.F. , Ibrahim S.
Published: July 2020

The abundance and distribution of phytoplankton algae in Zobe Reservoir was studied from using (3) sampling stations for a period of eight (8) months.The water was also analysed for Physicochemical attributes which includes Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Biological Oxygen Demand, Nitrate-Nitrogen, Phosphate-Phosphorus, Total Dissolved Solids, Transparency and Electrical Conductivity using standard methods. Results showed that the values of physicochemical parameters recorded were of a typical tropical region. Station ‘B’ (middle) has highest number of organisms (284 org/l), followed by station ‘C’ (221 org/l), the least was recorded in station ‘A’ (162 org/l). Physicochemical attributes did not vary significantly among the stations. Four (4) classes of algae were identified which were dominated by Chlorophyta 386(57.87%), followed by Cyanophyta 126 (18.89%), and the least was Bacillariophyta 47(7.05%) represented byTabellaria flocculosa. There were generally high number of algal organisms (Chlorophyta, Cyanophyta, Euglenophyta and Bacillariophyta) observed during the dry season than in the wet season. However, Spirogyra sp.had the highest number of occurrence in all stations (204 org/l) followed by Euglena sp. (109 org/l)and the least was Oscillatoria agardhii (22 org/l). There was positive significant correlation (P<0.05) between algae and physicochemical attributes of the reservoir. The study showed that the reservoir was not polluted and the water is safe for domestic use since the number of harmful algal cells recorded were relatively low which were within the standardof World Health Organization for safe water (WHO, 2003).

Keywords: Phytoplankton, Zobe, Reservoir, Pollution, Cyanophyta.