International Annals of Science
Not a member yet
110 research outputs found
Sort by
A Consolidated Method for Selective Isolation of Actinomycetes Based on Choice of Substrate
Get PDFActinomycetes are known as filamentous, Gram positive bacteria. They form the majority of the microbial load in various niches; soils, composts, etc. The study aimed to evaluate the method of isolating slow growing actinomycetes from four different sources: garden soil, cow dung manure compost, floral waste compost, and floral waste vermicompost. In this study, an integrated method consisting of physical and chemical pretreatment of the sample and the use of selective media was used to isolate actinomycetes. Physical treatment includes air drying, sun drying, dry heating in an oven, and moist heat treatment, whereas chemical treatment includes enrichment of the sample with CaCO3 followed by plating on actinomycetes-specific media with the incorporation of antibacterial and antifungal antibiotics. The actinomycetes count on the plate was reported in CFU/gm of dry wt. Morphological and microscopic characteristics of purified isolates were noted. The results were compared, and it was found that the pretreatment method of a particular sample depends on the choice of substrate. Overall, physical treatment followed by chemical enrichment showed relatively higher counts on the plate and better results. Here we also found the dominance of fluorescent Pseudomonas sp. in case samples from vermicompost. The study can be of great importance in isolating novel and rare genera of actinomycetes. These methods can help speed up the isolation and screening of novel actinomycetes which will ultimately be important for the discovery of antibiotics and other industrially vital bioactive compounds
The Potential of Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Peels as an Organic Fertilizer
Get PDFCassava peels are in large quantity and practically of no economic value in many developing nations such as Cameroon, where cassava is widely consumed and processed far beyond other crops. Cassava peels might be used in those countries to face declining soil fertility and soil erosion. This study aimed to evaluate the composting of cassava peels and the effect of the increasing quantity of cassava peels in the bin during the process of composting and to assess some physico-chemical qualities, biological properties and the phytotoxicity of the produced composts. After three months of composting the produced composts (C1; C2; C3 and C4) had a dark brown color, relatively dry, uniform structure and its texture were similar to the soil's texture. The electrical conductivity of the various composts was in between 1499 and 1924 µS.cm-1. The pH (6.50-6.73), was slightly acid, favorable for the cultivation of sweet pepper. The composts were rich in minerals (Mg2+; Ca2+; K+; and Na+) and poor in heavy metals such as (Cu, Zn and Mn). The composts C/N ratios were between 13.15 to 13.42. The produced composts showed a germination index and the rate of germination higher than 80% at all amounts, indicating the absence of phytotoxicity. The increased amounts of cassava peels did not alter the process of composting and increased the fungal and bacterial populations. In conclusion, cassava peels are good substrates that can be used to produce stable and inclusive organic fertilizers, with high nutrient content, and less hazardous material which could be used in farms to remediate declining soil fertility and to promote sustainable agriculture
COVID-19 Pathophysiology and Clinical Effects on Multiple Organ Systems - A Narrative Review
Get PDFPatients with comorbidities including Hypertension (HTN), Diabetes Mellitus (DM), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Asthma, Obesity, Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and those who are immunocompromised are prone to more severe complications of COVID-19 and a higher rate of hospitalizations. In the United States, around 94% of COVID-19 deaths had an average of 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. In a summary report published by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of 72,314 cases, case-fatality rate was elevated among those with preexisting comorbid conditions—10.5% for cardiovascular disease, 7.3% for diabetes, 6.3% for chronic respiratory disease, 6.0% for HTN, and 5.6% for cancer. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten people and healthcare systems globally and therefore the global economy. Currently, there is no cure or vaccine for COVID-19 and there is an urgent need to develop target therapies as we continue to learn more about this novel virus. Without therapeutic interventions, much of how we contain the viral spread is prevention through mitigation strategies (social distancing, face masks, supportive care). Early suspicion of COVID-19 symptoms with radiological and laboratory assessments may play a major role in preventing severity of the COVID-19. With this literature review we aim to provide review of pathophysiology of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its clinical effects on multiple organ systems
Allelopathic Potentiality of Euphorbia hypericifolia L. on Germination and Seedling Development of Sympatric Crops and Weeds
Get PDFEuphorbia hypericifolia, a non-native herbaceous weedy plant was found to often form disproportionately dense, virtually monospecific stands in the Mount Bambouto Caldera, Cameroon. This observation is within the purview of allelopathy and is attributed to the release of botanicals by non native plants that harm naïve native flora, creating significant problems for agriculture and the environment. We investigated if the invasiveness of E. hypericifolia could be explained by its allelopathic potential at varying concentrations on five indicator plants. The results showed that the leaf, root and stem aqueous extracts of the plant exhibited significant inhibitory effects on the germination, radicle and plumule lengths of Biden pilosa, Amaranthus spinosus, Lactuca sativa, Zea mays and Lycopersicon esculentum at 100 % by 75.0, 69.4, 95.6, 28.0 and 97.2 %, respectively. The leaf extract was the most potent, while the stem extract was the least. The extract of E. hypericifolia was stimulatory (Lower concentrations) and inhibitory to the germination and growth of the test plants and its effect was concentration-dependent with the roots of target plants being more sensitive to the extracts than the plumule. L. esculentum was the most susceptible species to E. hypericifolia extracts while Z. mays was more tolerant than any of the tested plants. Results of total chlorophyll pigment accretion showed declining levels of chlorophyll detected in the leaves of tomato transplants cultivated in the augmented soils with rising dosage of the leaf residue of E. hypericifolia. B. pilosa planted on E. hypericifolia infested soil (EIS) showed very poor emergence recording only 7.5 % after 6 weeks as compared to 83.0 % in non E. hypericifolia infested soil (NIS). Qualitative phytochemical screening indicates E. hypericifolia is rich in secondary metabolites including alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, phenolics, tanins, Steriods and saponins. Acetone was the best extractant amongst the solvents used. This study has proven the allelopathic potential of E. hypericifolia and revealed some allelochemicals that may be exploited for the development of bioherbicides and plant growth promotion from natural products
Virtual Reality Support for Dental Treatment Premedication
Get PDFThe objective is to short review the current state of the art of virtual reality medical application in term of minimal invasive dentistry. An outline of the most important aspects of virtual reality has been created, and a subsequent literature search for articles related was conducted. The current state of the art of virtual reality includes a variety of applications, among others premedication, analgesics, anaesthetics plays an important role in informatics medicine. There is a growing consensus regarding the need to develop knowledge and possible introduce virtual reality as a non-pharmacological support for dental treatment
Accuracy Analysis on Solution of Initial Value Problems of Ordinary Differential Equations for Some Numerical Methods with Different Step Sizes
Get PDFIn this article, three numerical methods namely Euler’s, Modified Euler, and Runge-Kutta method have been discussed, to solve the initial value problem of ordinary differential equations. The main goal of this research paper is to find out the accurate results of the initial value problem (IVP) of ordinary differential equations (ODE) by applying the proposed methods. To achieve this goal, solutions of some IVPs of ODEs have been done with the different step sizes by using the proposed three methods, and solutions for each step size are analyzed very sharply. To ensure the accuracy of the proposed methods and to determine the accurate results, numerical solutions are compared with the exact solutions. It is observed that numerical solutions are best fitted with exact solutions when the taken step size is very much small. Consequently, all the proposed three methods are quite efficient and accurate for solving the IVPs of ODEs. Error estimation plays a significant role in the establishment of a comparison among the proposed three methods. On the subject of accuracy and efficiency, comparison is successfully implemented among the proposed three methods
Butadiene Rubber in the Petrochemical Industry
Get PDFThe Butadiene is a raw material used in the petrochemical industry. The use of Butadiene has risen with petrochemical market growth. The Global market is forecasting a demand growth for butadiene applications, especially for rubber materials. The estimated synthetic rubber market is 23.2 billion in five years. The dynamic growth in butadiene applications will introduce new products used in many things from the food industry to sports and goods. Also, the rubber materials have different applications in the automotive industry, oil and gas, medical products, and plastics. Companies’ strategic planning to increase the production of synthetic rubber for the global market. The demand increased as new applications were introduced to the market. The stability of oil prices will have the rubber market steady which always leads to optimal pricing. The diver for Butadiene rubber applications is to maximize production by having different kind of materials that applied for several products. The global business development indicated the ability to increases the synthetic rubber market rubber and capacities, which will enhance the chemical process techniques, new technology design, and efficiency that will maximize production and minimize product cost. Looking into the price difference between synthetic and natural rubber, many fluctuation variables were introduced in the price of each type. For example, synthetic rubber price is high, depending on crude oil, natural gasoline and naphtha prices, since those feedstocks are fed to the cracking units, as C4 is one of the cracking products. Therefore, any change in the oil prices will influence the butadiene price, which is the feed for most rubber plants. In addition, the utilities required for those plants to operate have a major impact on overall price. On the other hand, Natural rubber is an agricultural product and dependent on soil type and weather
Critical COVID-19 Pneumonia with Acute Respiratory Failure in a Healthy 12-year-old Girl
Get PDFThe authors present a case report of an otherwise healthy, fully immunized 12-year-old girl who had a critical course of COVID-19 infection with acute respiratory failure. The epidemiologic history was positive for COVID-19, and she tested PCR positive resulting from a nasopharyngeal swab. She was presented with fever and cough to a regional pediatric department, and she was immediately intubated and transferred to a pediatric ICU in a University Hospital. CT of the thorax revealed bilateral consolidation with the tree-in-bud signs. Her condition required artificial ventilation support for 13 days. Remdesivir, pronation, high dose Ascorbic acid with Thiamine, and combined antimicrobial therapy were successfully used. The patient made a full clinical recovery. This case report is unique because of a very scarce critical course of COVID-19 infection in children. It demonstrates the successful use of a combined therapeutic approach with artificial ventilation, pronation, Remdesivir, and combined antimicrobial therapy. Clinical symptoms, laboratory results, imaging methods, and therapeutic attitude are mentioned to share our experience with the medical community
Differential Expression Analysis on Schizophrenia Dataset Suggests Pseudogene RNU6-505P as under Selective Pressure
Get PDFSchizophrenia is one of the 15 leading causes of disability worldwide. About 1% of the global population has schizophrenia, with 10% of premature mortality chance. Schizophrenia is therefore associated with significant health, social and economic concerns. In this context, thalamus and striatum areas play important roles as much in schizophrenia as processing information before reaching the conscious thought: step happening soon in the creativity action. Creativity is defined by psychological scientists as the generation of ideas or products that are both original and valuable. Creativity relies on imagination and this fundamental human ability remains understudied in comparison to other important psychological phenomena. It is natural to ask whether the gene expression profiling of samples from schizophrenic patients could highlight the activity of some genes specific to humans. Microarray analysis of the dataset GSE25673 revealed that the pseudogene RNU6-505P is expressed differentially in schizophrenic samples and correlates to CYP26A1, ARHGAP18, TSPAN12, HEY2 and TMEM132A genes. Ontological analysis showed that the RNU6-505P pseudogene is involved in brain development and certain neurological pathologies. Evolutionary analysis showed that the AGA 3-nucleotide sequence of RNU6-505P has been under positive selective pressure. Finally, the 1-nucleotide mutation prediction test revealed that variations on the AGA nucleotides could be fatal to the RNA structure of the sequence. We conclude that differential expression of the RNU6-505P pseudogene can be valid to diagnose schizophrenia and the RNU6-505P pseudogene may have a relevant function in the cerebral development and in the divergent evolution of humans from apes
Ovicidal and Larvicidal Activities of Ethanolic Leaf Extracts of Three Botanicals Against the Malaria Vector - Anopheles Gambiae
Get PDFMalaria, transmitted by Anopheles gambiae, has been a major public health concern in Africa. Chemicals used in the control of A. gambiae have caused a lot of havoc in the environment and to non-target organisms. More so, a high rate of resistance by these mosquitoes has been recorded. This study evaluated the ovicidal and larvicidal activities of ethanolic leaf extracts of Duranta erecta, Tridax procumbens and Pennisetum purpureum against A. gambiae. Phytochemical analysis of these plants revealed the presence of tannins, saponins, alkanoids, flavonoids, glycosides and anthroquinone. Ground dry leaves of each plant material were concentrated in 7 litres of 95% ethanol for 72 hours followed by filtration and evaporation. D. erecta, T. procumbens and P. purpureum yielded 617.2g, 598.3g and 552g of extracts respectively. The WHO standard for mosquito bioassay was adopted and concentrations 40, 100, 140 and 200 parts per million (PPM) were tested against 20 eggs and 25 larvae using emersion method. The hatching rate and % larval mortality of the extracts were recorded in which a concentration dependent increase was observed. High ovicidal activity (low egg hatchability) was recorded in D. erecta (LC50 -10.037 PPM) followed by P. purpureum and T. procumbens with LC50 values of 17.380 and 39.198 respectively. The highest larvicidal activity was observed in D. erecta (LC50 -76.943 PPM) compared to P. purpureum and T. procumbens (LC50 - 213.410 PPM and 214.217 PPM). Evidently, D. erecta ethanolic leaf extracts showed the best efficacy in the control of A. gambiae in this study. D. erecta is an environmentally friendly alternative in reducing the use of chemicals for mosquito control