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GREEN SYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES USING Nymphaea nouchali (Burm.) LEAF EXTRACT: ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIDIABETIC EVALUATION
Get PDFThe field of nanotechnology is gaining interest in science today; hence, there is a need to take this advantage in combating drug resistance by disease-causing microorganisms and finding alternative routes for antidiabetic treatment in humans. Moreover, the safety of the environment and humans has been an issue of concern as the method of producing nanoparticles poses a toxicity challenge. Thus, the green synthesis that engages sustainable biodiversity is considered a substitute, as the method produces less toxic nanoparticles especially for biomedical applications compared with the orthodox syntheses. This study evaluated the antimicrobial and antidiabetic potential of Nymphaea nouchali extract and its corresponding silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Successive extraction was carried out on the plant via cold extraction method on a polarity scale using n-hexane, followed by ethyl acetate, and methanol yielding NLH, NLE, and NLM, respectively. Qualitative analysis was conducted to detect secondary metabolites in the leaf extract. In green chemistry, a hot maceration method was employed to prepare an aqueous extract of Nymphaea nouchali leaf, which was then used as a reducing agent in the synthesis of AgNPs. The UV-visible double spectrophotometer was used to monitor the reaction. FTIR, SEM-EDAX, XRD, XRF, and GC-MS techniques were used to analyze the nanoparticles that were prepared. Furthermore, the following test microorganisms were used for the antimicrobial assay: gram-negative bacteria- Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella sp.; gram-positive bacterium Staphlococcus aureus; Fungi-Candida albicans, and Aspergillus niger. An in-vitro assay targeting α-amylase activity was used for the antidiabetic evaluation. Noticeable colour change informed the nanoparticle formation, which was preliminarily confirmed with an appearance of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) around 450 nm using UV-visible spectrophotometer. The following peaks and functional groups were identified with FTIR, 3398 cm-1 (O-H), 2925 cm-1 and 2855 (C-H), 1703 cm-1 (C=O), and 1043 cm-1 (C-O). From the sensitivity testing, Nymphaea nouchali displayed the highest inhibition, even more than the control, against all the test organisms except Candida albicans. AgNPs inhibited the growth of E. coli, Salmonella sp., S. aureus, and A. niger. In the antidiabetic assay, N. nouchali and AgNPs inhibited α-amylase at IC50 value 204.48 mg/mL and 408.67 mg/mL, respectively. Hence, from this study, both N. nouchali extract and AgNPs are potential antibacterial, antifungal, and antidiabetic drug candidates
ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY AND PRESERVATIVE PROPERTIES OF PROBIOTIC LACTOBACILLUS SPECIES FROM FERMENTED DRINKS
Get PDFFermented beverages such as Palm wine (Elaeis guineensis) and Burukutu (Sorghum bicolor) are integral to the Nigerian diet and are often associated with health benefits due to beneficial bacteria like Lactobacillus. This study evaluated the antibacterial activity and preservative properties of probiotic Lactobacillus sp. isolated from fermented drinks. Six locally fermented drink samples (palm wine=3 and burukutu=3) were purchased in Ota, Nigeria. The nutritional contents of the fermented drinks were determined by analysing the protein, carbohydrate, and lipid contents. Lactobacillus species were isolated and identified using morphological, biochemical, and Analytical Profile Index (API 50 CHL). The antibacterial activity of the cell-free supernatant (CFS) of the screened probiotic lactobacilli was tested against spoilage and pathogenic bacterial isolates. Also, the preservative potential and bioactive profiling of the selected Lactobacillus CFS were determined. The result showed that the ash (5-24%), carbohydrate (25-29%), and moisture content (37-93%) of Burukutu and Palm wine samples was significantly high in all the fermented drink samples (P> 0.05). A total of six Lactobacillus spp. Including L. plantarum (BB05), L. acidophilus (B006), L. plantarum (PB03), L. fermentum (BA01), L. fermentum (BB06), L. acidophilus (PA03) were isolated from the fermented drink samples. The probiotic activity of Lactobacillus sp. showed that isolates PB03, BO06, and BB06 exhibited a high survival rate (109-187%) pH 2, bile (1.0%), and phenol (1%), respectively, indicating the isolates' ability to tolerate low pH and bile salts in the gastrointestinal tract. For the antibacterial activity of Lactobacillus spp. cell cultures against isolated spoilage bacteria, BBO6, PB03, and BA01, showed significant inhibition (7-25mm%), against P. putida (p>0.05), while for Lactobacillus spp. CFS BB06 showed significant inhibition against all isolated spoilage bacteria and PA03 except for P.fluorescens (p>0.05). All Lactobacillus CFS isolates showed substantial inhibitory activity against E. coli (p>0.05). PB03, BA01, and BB06 showed significant zones against all reference strains. Meat treated with Lactobacillus CFS showed delayed spoilage and maintained quality for up to 48 hours at room temperature (BB06, BA01, PB03, and BO06), contrary to the untreated control at room temperature. The metabolites detected in the CFS of L. fermentum, L. plantarum, and L. acidophilus were 2,4-Di-tert-butylphenol, Benzoic acid, 4-nitroso-, ethyl ester, and n-Hexadecanoic acid. Hence, Lactobacillus species from fermented drinks could be an effective source of antibacterial metabolites with preservative ability for food products
Low-cost, local production of a safe and effective disinfectant for resource-constrained communities
Get PDFImproved hygiene depends on the accessibility and availability of effective disinfectant solutions. These
disinfectant solutions are unavailable to many communities worldwide due to resource limitations, among
other constraints. Safe and effective chlorine-based disinfectants can be produced via simple electrolysis of
salt water, providing a low-cost and reliable option for on-site, local production of disinfectant solutions to
improve sanitation and hygiene. This study reports on a system (herein called “Electro-Clean”) that can
produce concentrated solutions of hypochlorous acid (HOCl) using readily available, low-cost materials. With
just table salt, water, graphite welding rods, and a DC power supply, the Electro-Clean system can safely
produce HOCl solutions (~1.5 liters) of up to 0.1% free chlorine (i.e.,1000 ppm) in less than two hours at low
potential (5 V DC) and modest current (~5 A). Rigorous testing of free chlorine production and durability of
the Electro-Clean system components, described here, has been verified to work in multiple locations around
the world, including microbiological tests conducted in India and Mexico to confirm the biocidal efficacy of
the Electro-Clean solution as a surface disinfectant. Cost estimates are provided for making HOCl locally with
this method in the USA, India, and Mexico. Findings indicate that Electro-Clean is an affordable alternative to
off-the-shelf commercial chlorinator systems in terms of first costs (or capital costs), and cost-competitive
relative to the unit cost of the disinfectant produced. By minimizing dependence on supply chains and
allowing for local production, the Electro-Clean system has the potential to improve public health by
addressing the need for disinfectant solutions in resource-constrained communities
Sustainable approach of biological treatment of landfill leachate by Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation: A review
Get PDFAn upsurge in living standards, rising industrialization and urbanization, the protection of water
environment has become a priority. Anaerobic ammonium oxidation process has drawn a lot of attention since
it demonstrated substantial advantages over conventional nitrogen removal techniques, including a 100%
reduction in the amount of organic carbon required, a 60% reduction in the amount of aeration needed, and a
90% reduction in the amount of sludge produced. Effective treatment of landfill leachate is extremely important
as leachate is a threat to the environment. Municipal waste management is still a challenging situation in
developing countries. Uncontrolled waste disposal results in greenhouse gases emissions which worsens
climate change as the leachate will pollute water bodies, soil and a significant air pollution which impacts on
human health will be released. This paper reviewed several published research works in Scopus dealing with
the leachate treatment by Anammox process combined with some other systems and highlighted some common
challenges found with the application of this new technology. Treating landfill leachate resulted in an excellent
ammonium NH4
+-N removal efficiency. However, it has been highlighted that most of the research reviewed
reported some limitations of the technology on a small scale such as the low start-up time affecting the growth
of bacteria in the reactors and the instability of the system when pH and temperature decrease. Biological
treatment, Anammox method included, offers a cost-effective, eco-friendly, and an effective solution for
nitrogen removal
Application of artificial intelligence in the hazard indexes of recycled agricultural waste materials
Get PDFRadioactive substances are emitted during the recycling of agricultural waste materials, putting
both the environment and people at risk. Thus, the research forecasts the risks from these
materials, using deep neural networks (DNN) with a variety of network architectures.
Levenberg–Marquardt backpropagation was used as a training algorithm and the neural network
was built using just one target variable, the hazard index, together with three input variables
consisting of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40 K. The model was trained using 3–5-5–5-1, 3–10-10–10-1, and
3–15-15–15-1 network architectures. Additional datasets were used to validate the developed
model. The results showed that every agricultural byproduct evaluated provides no potential
indoor and outdoor risks. All network structures yielded strong precision for predicting the
hazard indexes of agricultural byproducts. However, when compared to alternative network
topologies, a 3–10-10–10-1 network architecture showed the best performance metrics for
training, validation, and testing. In addition, the confirmation of the model with untrained data
yielded a strong correlation with 98.68% and 99.76% R2 for indoor and outdoor hazards
EFFECT OF BISPHENOL-A ON HORMONE AND LIPID LEVELS AMONG FIBROID PATIENTS IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA
Get PDFLeiomyomas are benign smooth muscle tumors that develop on the myometrium of the uterus. Research has shown that over 70% of women will have fibroids by the time they reach the age of 50. In recent times, there has been a growing concern regarding pollution of the environment, with reports indicating that synthetic chemicals possess the potential to disrupt the reproductive system by their endocrine-disrupting properties. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is one of the most produced endocrine disrupting chemicals in the world and this is as a result of industrialization and the increasing demand for plastics. The growth and development of uterine fibroids is regulated, in part, by hormone levels in the body. BPA has close structural similarity with estrogen; therefore it can act as both an estrogen mimic as well as an agonist of estrogen receptors. This study aimed to determine the levels of Bisphenol-A, hormones, and lipids and their relationship among fibroid patients in Lagos, Nigeria. The study was a cross-sectional study and involved 69 fibroid patients from the Gynaecology clinic at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). Urinary BPA levels and plasma levels of vitamin D and estrogen in the patients were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. The plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides and cholesterol were measured spectrophotometrically. The mean concentration of BPA in the patients was 696.65 ng/ml and the median concentration was 39.67 ng/ml. The mean concentration of HDL-Triglycerides and HDL-Cholesterol were 14.35 mg/dl and 10.35 mg/dl respectively. The range of BPA concentrations (0.10 -15357.39 ng/ml) indicates that there is an exposure to BPA among Nigerian fibroid patients. Results of our study showed that patients in the high BPA group had a significantly higher level of HDL-Triglycerides (HDL-T) compared to those in the low BPA group (P<0.05). A statistically significant inverse relationship (β= -0.26; P<0.05) between Bisphenol-A and HDL-Cholesterol (HDL-C) was also detected. This study is the first to investigate the association between BPA, hormones, and lipids levels in Nigerian fibroid patients. Overall, this study provides suggestive evidence that exposure to BPA may alter the levels of plasma HDL-C and HDL-T in Nigerian fibroid patients
Inflammatory Studies of Dehydroandrographolide: Isolation, Spectroscopy, Biological Activity, and Theoretical Modeling Original
Get PDFDehydroandrographolide (DA) was isolated and experimentally characterized utilizing FT-IR,
UV-Vis, and NMR spectroscopy techniques along with detailed theoretical modelled at the
DFT/B3LYP-D3BJ/6-311 + + G(d,p) level of theory. Substantially, molecular electronic property
investigations in the gaseous phase alongside five different solvents (ethanol, methanol, water,
acetonitrile and DMSO) were comprehensively reported and compared with the experimental
results. The globally harmonized scale (GHS), which is used to identify and label chemicals, was
also utilized to demonstrate that the lead compound predicted an LD50 of 1190 mg/kg. This
finding implies that consumers can safely consume the lead molecule. Notable impacts on
hepatotoxicity, cytotoxicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity were likewise found to be
minimal to nonexistent for the compound. Additionally, in order to account for the biological
performance of the studied compound, in-silico molecular docking simulation analysis was
examined against different anti-inflammatory target of enzymes (3PGH, 4COX, and 6COX).
From the examination, it can be inferred that DA@3PGH, DA@4COX, and DA@6COX,
respectively, showed significant negative binding affinities of -7.2 kcal/mol, -8.0 kcal/mol, and
− 6.9 kcal/mol. Thus, the high mean binding affinity in contrast to conventional drugs further
reinforces these results as an anti-inflammatory agent
Development of an Extended Biomedical Named Entity Recognition and Relation Extraction Model for Malaria using BioBERT
Get PDFThis study aims to enhance the biomedical Named Entity Recognition and Relation Extraction model for use in the malaria subdomain by fine-tuning the existing BioBERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers for Biomedical Text Mining) model. The process of fine-tuning involves adjusting the parameters of the BioBERT model to suit the characteristics of the malaria subdomain better. The model is intended to improve the process of recognizing entities and their relationships in the context of malaria-associated publications. This solves an essential problem in connection with the inapplicability of the previously developed models in the biomedical field. The study uses complex and highly effective machine learning algorithms, such as Long Short-Term Memory, Random Forests, Support Vector Machine and Gradient Boosting Machine, to fine-tune the existing BioBERT model, leading to the FT-BioBERT model. The fine-tuned model is compared with other models, such as BioBERT and Multi-BioNER, over three datasets, namely BC5CDR-Disease, BioRED, and NCBI-Disease. The fine-tuned model achieved notable performance improvements: achieving 92.4% in accuracy, which is a 3.13% increase from BioBERT and 2.33% from Multi-BioNER and attaining 91.8% in precision, 92.7% in recall, and 92.2% F1-score which is a of 3.15% improvement over BioBERT, and 2.23% improvement over Multi-BioNER. Based on the results, we confirm that the proposed model can effectively identify and extract entities and their relationships when supplied with malaria literature and, therefore, is suitable for biomedical text mining. We hope that the study's findings will provide new avenues that will lead to the creation of domain-related NLP applications in malaria-related fields
Bank Performance Based on Return on Equity: The Relationship with Enterprise Risk Management Indicators
Get PDFIn this study, the researchers provide a fresh examination on the nexus
between return on equity and enterprise risk management indicators for a panel of
Nigerian banks using pooled OLS, WG-VC and flexible GLS methods. The study aims to
determine whether the relationship with ERM will improve the performance (return on
equity) of the Deposit Money Banks. The findings show that the chief risk officer,
members of the risk committee, and derivative instruments for hedging foreign
exchange rate risk have a positive impact on return, while risk mapping and derivative
instruments for hedging credit risk maintain a positive relationship with return on
equity. Banks have continued to fail due to high levels of non-performing loans, poor
corporate governance, negligent credit administration, and failure to meet liquidity
and capital ratio prudential ratios. The result clearly showed that enterprise risk
management is a positive driver of return on equity. The study concludes that return on
equity increase with an increase in risk committee member and derivative instrument
for hedging foreign exchange risk, while the other three ERM indicators and return on
equity move in a different direction, that is a negative relationship is evident. Financial
institutions should weigh the risk vs the potential rewards to decide whether the risk is
worthwhile. They can benefit from risks that are worthwhile taking as a result both in
the short and long term
Enhancing Information System Security: A Vulnerability Assessment of a Web Application Using OWASP Top 10 List
Get PDFWeb applications have become integral to various sectors, including
businesses, industries, financial institutions, educational institutions, and the
general public. However, the growing reliance on web applications has also
given rise to significant security concerns, leading to vulnerabilities that
compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information
systems. This study aims to address these challenges by conducting a
comprehensive vulnerability assessment of a web application. By employing a
combination of automatic and manual methods, the assessment focuses on
identifying vulnerabilities outlined in the OWASP top 10 list for. The findings of
this research contribute to the field of information system security by
enhancing our understanding of web application vulnerabilities and providing
insights to mitigate associated risks