Biosciences

Present study aims to find out the prevalence of hypotension and hypertension among Bengalee adult males and females of Midnapore, West Bengal, India. A multistage sampling technique was used by a house-to-house survey among 498 (Male=344, Female=154) adult individuals. It was evident from the present result that hypertensive cases were found to be more frequent among males with respect to Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Diastolic Blood Pressure DBP. However, hypotensive cases were found to be more frequent among females, only in DBP. Furthermore, age seems to be a potential risk factor for the development of hypertension in the studied population.

An investigation was conducted to assess the concentration of heavy metals in sediments in four selected locations along Lagos lagoon comprising Iddo, Makoko, Okobaba and Epe zones and correlate the effect of metal concentrations on benthic microbial population vis a vis the open water bacterial population. Physico-chemical analysis revealed that the pH was generally alkaline for all zones with the sediments and areas along the shoreline being higher. The concentration of lead, Iron and Nickel was more in Makoko. Zinc was more concentrated in Iddo, while the value for copper was more in Okobaba sediments. ANOVA analysis shows that mean measurements for all metals across the four locations for sample A, (0.184) and sample B (0.548) had no significant difference at 95% level of significance. For organic nutrients, ANOVA also showed no significant difference for sample A, (0.190) but significant difference for sample B (0.026) across the four areas at 95% significance. The benthic microbial population (bacteria, coliform and fungi) was less than that of surface water. Okobaba had the highest bacterial mean cfu/ml for water and sediment and highest fungal mean cfu/ml for water and sediment while the mean cfu value for coliform is highest in Iddo for water and sediment. The microorganisms isolated and identified were among others Pseudomonas putida, Citrobacter koseri, Escerichia coli, Enterobacter agglomerans, Neurospora sitophila, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium sp. The presence of high heavy metals concentrations in sediments and the high nutrient levels increased the BOD and pH thereby reducing the population of benthic microorganisms in the sediments showing that there is high pollution. Heavy metals are of public health significance and pose a threat to the survival of both humans and aquatic life.

ABSTRACT Background The Acquired Immune-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is principally a sexually transmitted disease. Medical scientists agree that Human Immune-deficiency virus (HIV) cause the syndrome. Currently, 80% of HIV positive people in Africa acquired it through sexual intercourse. Ten percent are infected through blood transfusion donated by HIV positive people, and 10% through contact of blood in circulation system with HIV contaminated objects like shaving blades, injection needles and other objects used in piercing the body for medical, cosmetic and other purpose 1.The new face of Human Immune Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has earned it a recognition as a social problem due to the associated devastating social and cultural consequences on the individual and the society at large. As such, the pandemic needs to be given adequate social and cultural exploration for the purpose of designing effective prevention programmes. This becomes important, as there may be cultural variations that need to be understood before an effective programme could be designed. Objectives: The main objective of the review was to determine the socio-cultural factors associated with HIV/AIDS transmission. Methods: The review was conducted using PEN-3 Cultural model as a guide, electronic search of published literature using Pub Med database, Medline and data collected from national HIV sero-prevalence sentinel survey 2010. The bulk of the secondary data used in this review was also sourced from the reports of the Federal Ministry of Health, National Agency for the Control AIDS and the National Population Commission of Nigeria. Results: The findings of this review highlighted that gender inequalities, polygamous marriage, early marriage, widow inheritance, multiple sexual practices, alcohol/drug, harmful cultural/traditional practices, stigma and taboo influence HIV/AIDS prevalence in Nigeria. Data from the national sentinel survey was used to produce various graphs to show the trend of HIV/AIDS at national level, state level, urban and rural areas and various age groups. Conclusion: In conclusion HIV/AIDS is a social problem associated with human development process, thus solutions to the problem should focus on the entire development of the society. Necessary to understand are various socio cultural factors of HIV/AIDS highlighted with the view of educating the people.

A study on rotifers was conducted to count percentage prevalence from Upper Dudhana dam of Jalna district, Maharashtra, India. Rotifera is major group from zooplankton having divers planktonic forms and they shows variation in occurrence amongst them. Samples were collected fortnightly interval for a period of one year from February 2014 to January 2015 and percentage prevalence was counted. Result indicated that the highest percentage prevalence was showed by Brachionus caudatus (87.5%) whereas lowest by Keratella vulga (20.83%) during the period of sampling. The authors concluded that Brachionus caudatus was persistently present in all the seasons of sampling period. The above study gives information of the status of rotifers and providing new insights into its ecology.

Easier access to botanicals and the return to traditional means of pest control have cast a new spell on botanicals. Botanicals are cheap, efficient and not prone to induce resistance in the pest. Among the studied botanicals used as pesticides worldwide, the neem tree and the tobacco plant have proved to be the richest in active compounds and are some of the potent sources of natural biocides. Bioassays were carried out on the gall wasp Leptocybe invasa on Eucalyptus grandis using neem, tobacco and neem/tobacco mixture each at concentrations of 5, 10 and 15g/l and observations on oviposition, gall development and adult emergence were made at two week intervals for a period of 12 weeks. Results showed that tobacco had the highest insecticidal effects in reducing oviposition rate, whilst the mixture of neem/tobacco reduced gall formation. Neem was potent at reducing adult emergence and for all extracts, an increase in concentration led to a decrease in oviposition, gall formation and adult emergence. Results from this study point to the feasibility of using these extracts in the control of L. invasa on Eucalyptus from the devastation of this pest.

Brain is a highly vascular organ and receives about 15% of cardiac output. The Circle of Willis (CoW) or Circulus arteriosus is a ring-like arterial structure located at the base of the brain. The circle of Willis has its greatest significance in collateral circulations of the brain specially in old people who may have reduced brain blood supply due to senile arteriosclerosis. Materials and methods: The study was therefore conducted on 20 brains obtained during routine anatomical dissection in the department of Anatomy. The formative pattern of the circle of Willi’s external diameters of internal carotid arteries were measured, length of the anterior communicating was also recorded. Results: Out of twenty specimens studied, 8 specimens showed variations in the formative pattern of circle of Willis. Like The basilar artery continued as Left posterior cerebral artery, Right posterior cerebral artery arising was from right internal carotid artery with Bilateral absence of Posterior communicating artery , right posterior cerebral artery was arising from Right internal carotid artery. Bilateral fetal type of Posterior cerebral arteries. A long anterior communicating artery of about one cm (10mm) was also observed in one of the cases. Though variations of the arteries at the base of the brain are common, it is necessary to be aware of all the variations as they may breed problems in the blood flow to the brain and may cause confusions in radiological procedures.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of Aspergillus niger (A. niger) degraded citrus pulp on the performance, nutrient utilization, haematological and serum biochemistry on layers. A total of two hundred and fifty two (252) laying birds that were thirty (30) weeks old were randomly allocated to the diets. Degraded and undegraded citrus pulps were used to formulate rations for laying birds for six weeks. There were seven treatments and treatment 1 was the control with 0% citrus pulp (CTP) inclusion level. The degraded and the undegraded CTP were used at 3, 5 and 7% inclusion levels. Thirty six birds were allocated to each of the diets with three (3) replicates at 12 birds each. A. niger mycelium was inoculated on milled citrus pulp by solid state fermentation method (SSF) for seven (7) days and the product was used as the degraded sample. The crude protein, gross energy, NFE and ash of the degraded citrus pulp rose from 14.10 to 16.14%, 2.88 to 3.79 Kcal/kg, 58.21to 61.31% and 4.61 to 5.11% respectively while the crude fibre content reduced from 8.15 to 6.41%. Result on performance of birds revealed that there were significant (P<0.05) differences in egg production and feed intake. The highest egg production (89%) was recorded by the birds placed on 7% inclusion level of degraded citrus pulp (DCTP) while the least value (84%) was found in birds placed on birds fed 7% undegraded CTP (UCTP). The highest feed consumption (4.8 kg/bird/week) was found in treatment with highest level of UCTP (7%). In egg quality parameter, it was observed that there were significant (P>0.05) differences in weight of egg, weight of yolk, albumen and shell thickness. In the haematological and serum biochemistry, it was observed that there were significant (P<0.05) differences in parked cell volume, mean corpuscular volume and total protein.

This study was carried out to evaluate the changes in nutritional quality of corn offal (CO) fermented with Penicillium notatum and Penicillium citrinum using in vitro gas production technique. After the fungal biodegradation of CO in a solid state fermentation, the chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of the undegraded and the degraded CO were determined. It was observed that there were significant (P<0.05) differences in the crude fibre values. The crude fibre (CF) significantly (P>0.05) decreased. It decreased from 8.02g/100gDM for the control (UC) to 5.41g/100gDM for Penicillium notatum degraded corn offal (PNC) and 6.22g/100gDM for Penicillium citrinum degraded corn offal (PCC). The results also showed significant (P<0.05) differences in the values for detergent fibres. There was a significant (P<0.05) increase in the crude protein (CP) contents from 10.69g/100gDM for the control (UCO) to 16.69g/100gDM for PCC and 14.41g/100gDM for PNC. The value of organic matter digestibility (OMD) was from 28.46 to 62.28%, metabolizable energy (ME) improved from 4.59 to 10.18MJ/kg DM and short chain fatty acid (SCFA) values ranged from 0.03 to 0.85µM. There were significant (P<0.05) differences in the values obtained for potentially degradable fractions (b) ML. Rate of degradation of b, that is, C, was faster in the degraded CO compared with the undegraded CO. The obtained results revealed the possibility of using fungal treatment for the improvement of nutritional quality of corn offal for ruminant nutrition.

The role of parasites in aquatic ecology and in fish culture can not be overemphasized. Increase number of parasites could affect health, growth and maturation of fish. Intestinal parasites in Synodontis clarias from River Dukku was investigated, a total of 200 fresh samples were randomly selected from the fish landing sites. They were immediately transported to the laboratory in an ice chest. Fishes were divided into three groups according to their sizes, their sexes were noted before they were subjected to parasitological examination. S. clarias was observed to have an overall infection of 68 %. Female fish species were observed to be more significantly (p<0.05) infected when compared with the male fish species. Fishes with the highest total weight value of 8.60-10.90 g were observed to have the highest prevalence rate of 75 % with a significant difference (p<0.05) when compared to the other groups. With respect to the number of parasite observed class Trematoda had the highest number of parasites, while class Cestoda was observed to be the least. This study infers that there is high prevalence of intestinal parasites in S. clarias captured from Dukku River.

Lead is an environmental pollutant which does not only affects human but animals as well. Lead poisoning is the common cause of toxicity in cattle and advancing due to industrialisation. Lead toxicity in cows is an economic loss and also food safety issue in terms of milk, dairy products and meat. Thus, there should be a constant checking on the concentration of lead in cattle. There has, however been little research concerning lead exposure in cattle in India. The objective of this study was to detect the level of lead in cows in Bangalore, India. 15 blood samples from cows were collected in 4 different areas namely Kalenagrahara, Gottigere, Basavanapura and Kalkere in Bannerghatta and analysed using Lead Analyser(Lead Care II). Fodder and water sample were also analysed by X Ray Fluorescence and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy respectively in order to find out the possible source of lead. Blood lead levels in cows from all the 4 areas ( below 4.7 µg/dL) were within the accepted limits. Fodder and water levels of lead ranged below 45 ppm and 0.0053 ppm respectively; and all were within the accepted levels. It is thereby concluded that level of lead in cows in has not reached an alarming level and thus does not pose a threat to animals and man