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Research and academia have been recently affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and physical classrooms and laboratory experiments have been affected significantly due to the recent laboratory closures. This has led to innovative approaches to curb this problem. To address these difficulties in teaching bioengineering related courses that is of significant interest to students of the Faculty of Engineering in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, and of course, useful for engineering-based higher education institutions (HEI), a transitional pedagogy: Communicate, Active, Collaborate, Problem-based Solving, Learning and Assessment (CACPLA), which encompasses blended learning, was developed as a new teaching and learning strategy. In this study, we show that this new strategy can initiate a steady transition from physical classrooms to full online instruction for some subjects in engineering. This method has been trialled as an exercise for a module as part of an envisioned biomedical engineering degree programme which can be integrated with local industries and research institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. The teaching materials and environment were carefully designed and 253 students of third and final year classes participated as the experimental group. Also, the effect of critical thinking, pre-lecture, and post lecture on the overall performance of the students was assessed. Two questionnaires were designed for data collection, (a) for technical questions, (b) for receptiveness. The result of a student survey suggests favourable reception of the teaching methodology, which aided their understanding of the general bioengineering concept as applied to the materials chemistry and mechanical measurements context. It was noticed that 80% of the students indicated that the blended learning method was sufficient in achieving the learning outcomes of the study. The method is envisioned as a useful and sustainable complement to traditional teaching pedagogies and workshops due to the convenience and relatively high accessibility to Zoom and Google Meet Apps which can be readily employed without incurring significant costs.

Background One of the main challenges of wound healing is infection with multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus. The spectrum of antibiotics used to treat them is declining; thus, there is a need for alternatives. Our study was designed to evaluate the antimicrobial properties of honey, its pharmacokinetics (ADMET) properties and in-silico analysis of its bioactive compounds against dihydropteroate synthase of S. aureus using trimethoprim as control. Methods Standard protocols were employed in collection and preparation of samples, generation of canonical strings, and conduction of microbiological analyses. Bioactive compounds’ ADMET properties were evaluated using the SWISSADME and the MCULE toxicity checker tools. The MCULE one-click docking tool was used in carrying out the dockings. Results The gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry revealed twenty (20) bioactive compounds and was dominated by sugars (> 60%). We isolated a total of 47 S. aureus isolates from the wound samples. At lower concentrations, resistance to trimethoprim (95.74 to 100.00%) was higher than honey (70.21 to 96.36%). Only seven (7) isolates meet Lipinski’s rule of five and ADMET properties. The docking scores of the bioactive compounds ranged from -3.3 to -4.6 while that of trimethoprim was -6.1, indicating better binding or interaction with the dihydropteroate synthase. The bioactive compounds were not substrates to P450 cytochrome enzymes (CYP1A2, CYP2CI9 and CYP2D6) and p-glycoprotein, indicating better gastrointestinal tract (GIT) absorption. Conclusion The favourable docking properties shown by the bioactive compounds suggest they could be lead compounds for newer antimetabolites for management of MDR S. aureus.

Nigeria's most consumed potable water plastic wastes are indiscriminately dumped into agricultural soil despite their ability to become microplastics. The study evaluates the potential impacts of these microplastics on soil physico-chemical parameters, soil bacterial diversity and functions as well as antibiotic resistance. Soil sample was collected using a sterile hand-held auger and its physico-chemical parameters evaluated. Baseline microplastic concentration was determined via the flotation method while microbial isolates were obtained from the test (enriched with microplastics) and control samples using cultural technique and metagenomics. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) was done using the Illumina Miseq platform. The cluster of orthologous genes (COG) tool was used in the prediction of bacterial functional roles. Replicate readings were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and means compared using the student’s t test. Observed baseline microplastic concentration was 0.08 particles/g of soil. The addition of the microplastics to the soil sample decreased the concentrations of some metals (iron, zinc, lead and nickel) while cobalt concentration, pH level and microbial counts increased. Microbial count and pH clustered together while iron, magnesium, nitrate, nitrite, chromium, cobalt, total organic carbon, zinc, lead, and nickel showed positive loading values suggesting that the addition of microplastics could alter them. Dominant taxa were proteobacteria, unknown, firmicutes at the phyla level. At the level of species, Pseudomonas species dominated microplastics incubated soil while potential pathogenic species such as Klebsiella dominated the control sample. A higher level of multi-drug resistance and altered metabolisms was observed in the test sample. Sachet water microplastics could have serious implications for public health and food security.

This single variable research was carried out to survey virtual instructional competence among tourism teachers in secondary schools in Calabar South Local Government Area, Nigeria. Five research questions and one hypothesis were posed to assess virtual instructional competence variables. Descriptive Survey design was adopted for the study. Stratified Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select sixty (60) tourism teachers in both public and private secondary schools. The instrument for data collection was a well-structured questionnaire. Mean, simple percentage and independent t-test analysis were considered most appropriate for data analysis. The result of the analysis showed that professional competence has the highest status, followed by knowledge of subject matter and interpersonal skills. Male teachers were more competent with virtual instructional competence than their female tourism counterparts. The teachers with 1-5 years teaching experience and those with above 15 years of teaching experience readily embraced virtual competence. One challenge of virtual instruction is that tourism teachers found it difficult to cope with virtual instructional delivery but prefer the traditional face to face interaction. It was recommended that tourism teachers in secondary schools in Calabar South Local Government Area should be encouraged to adapt to the trending issue of virtual instruction delivery.

Purpose Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype that disproportionately affects women of African ancestry (WAA) and is often associated with poor survival. Although there is a high prevalence of TNBC across West Africa and in women of the African diaspora, there has been no comprehensive genomics study to investigate the mutational profile of ancestrally related women across the Caribbean and West Africa. Methods This multisite cross-sectional study used 31 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples from Barbadian and Nigerian TNBC participants. High-resolution whole exome sequencing (WES) was performed on the Barbadian and Nigerian TNBC samples to identify their mutational profiles and comparisons were made to African American, European American and Asian American sequencing data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Whole exome sequencing was conducted on tumors with an average of 382 × coverage and 4335 × coverage for pooled germline non-tumor samples. Results Variants detected at high frequency in our WAA cohorts were found in the following genes NBPF12, PLIN4, TP53 and BRCA1. In the TCGA TNBC cases, these genes had a lower mutation rate, except for TP53 (32% in our cohort; 63% in TCGA-African American; 67% in TCGA-European American; 63% in TCGA-Asian). For all altered genes, there were no differences in frequency of mutations between WAA TNBC groups including the TCGA-African American cohort. For copy number variants, high frequency alterations were observed in PIK3CA, TP53, FGFR2 and HIF1AN genes. Conclusion This study provides novel insights into the underlying genomic alterations in WAA TNBC samples and shines light on the importance of inclusion of under-represented populations in cancer genomics and biomarker studies.

Background Pharmacovigilance (PV) and adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting is at the core of the services and functions of a pharmacist. Pharmacist interns undergoing their one-year mandatory internship program are expected to be armed with this tool kit in order to provide adequate pharmaceutical services in all areas of pharmacy practice. Objectives This study sought to assess the knowledge and perception of pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction reporting among pharmacist interns in Nigeria. Methods This study was a cross-sectional study among pharmacist interns in their one-year mandatory internship program across Nigeria. The 32-item semi-structured questionnaires were administered online using simple random sampling with the snowballing technique to recruit the participants in the study. The results were analyzed with IBM SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. The Chi-square test and contingency coefficient were used to determine the association between knowledge of PV and the demographics of the participants. Results A total of 450 pharmacist interns participated in this study. The participants' knowledge of pharmacovigilance and ADR is 92.5%. About 96.2% of respondents feel that responses to newly released pharmaceuticals must be recorded, compared to 79.1% for older drugs already on the market. There is a high correlation between the duration of the internship program and understanding of PV and ADR reporting among participants. More than fifty percent of respondents concur that ADR reporting is critical, while more than eighty percent concur that ADR reporting is required for pharmacists, the most significant health professionals in ADR reporting. The participants' length of participation in an internship program and their internship location significantly impact their opinion of ADR reporting. Seventy-four percent (74%) of respondents from tertiary hospitals say their internship center encourages ADR reporting. Conclusion Most participants have a solid understanding of PV and ADR reporting, but perceptions of PV and ADR reporting are substantially correlated with internship location and program length. Active measures should be implemented to ensure that all pharmacy interns comprehend and embrace PV and ADR reporting as their exclusive duty.

Due to their low density, natural fibers have increasingly found application in the development of systems such as wind turbine blades, airplane wing spar where flexural strength is a strong criterion for material selection. Although different researchers have studied the mechanical properties of such natural fiber composites, none has focused on the optimization of the flexural strength of pineapple leaf fiber (PALF)/glass fiber (GF) reinforced epoxy hybrid composite. This study applied the Taguchi and general regression analysis method in the optimization and modeling of the flexural strength of the PxGyEz composite. Flexural strength of 144.5 MPa at an optimum development parameter of PALF at 20% volume content, GF at 20% volume content, and fiber length of 25 mm. Analysis of variance and regression analysis was also employed to describe and model the flexural behavior of the developed composite. The PALF fiber showed to have a higher contribution to the flexural strength of the material. The equation developed to model the flexural behavior of the material showed a good correlation between the simulated value and the experimental values of the flexural strength at different combinations of manufacturing parameters.

Background Malaria parasitemia is associated with premature, excessive hemolysis, induction of oxidative stress, and derangement in metabolism of iron, proteins, and some electrolytes. This study aims to evaluate the effects of malaria infection on ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid (UA), iron, transferrin, albumin, total iron-binding capacity (TIBC), calcium, and magnesium levels in malaria infection. Results Among the 50 malaria-infected children, 12 had severe parasitemia (PD ≥ 10,000 parasites/μl), 16 had moderate parasitemia (PD: 2000 to < 10,000 parasites/μl), and 22 children had mild parasitemia (PD < 2000 parasites/μl). The AA, iron, transferrin, and TIBC levels were significantly lower and UA and Mg higher in malaria-infected children compared with the controls. Ascorbic acid correlated negatively with UA and PD in malaria-infected children. Iron correlated positively with albumin, transferrin, and TIBC in malaria-infected children, while Ca correlated negatively with Mg levels. Conclusion Malaria infection in children is associated with reduced AA and iron parameters and increased UA and Mg levels; hence, vitamin C and iron supplementation could be useful in malaria therapy.