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Foliar trichome morphology, trichome basal insertion cells (TBIC) and cells surrounding trichome insertion basal cells (CSTIBC) on the leaves of fourteen species of family Asteraceae were investigated by light microscopy. TBIC and CSTIBC are the two novel characters investigated in this work, in search of unique character states that could improve the taxonomy of the family. Epidermal peels were made following standard procedure. Data obtained showed that both non-glandular and glandular trichomes were present, the glandular was observed in the genus Vernonia only. The non-glandular trichomes were unicellular, bicellular, tricellular and multicellular uniseriate. Shriveled cells within the multicellular uniseriate cells were common in Emilia sonchifolia and Emilia praertermissa and occurred sparsely in Ageratum conyzoides. Uniquely pigmented multicellular uniseriate trichomes with apical cells shriveled or transparent delimits Bidens pilosa from the other species studied. Amoeboid shaped multicellular uniseriate trichomes delimit Chromolaena odorata from the other species, while Tshaped trichomes (regular and irregular) delimit the genus Vernonia from the other genera studied. Shape and width of apical cells of the trichomes differentiate Vernonia cinerea from Vernonia amygdalina. Surface of trichomes in Aspilia africana, Synedrella nodiflora and Eclipta alba are uniquely papillate and diagnostic for the three species. TIBC have varying shapes with different combinations of 1-4 shapes per species. It is noteworthy that the two species of Emilia can be delimited from each other based on the shapes of the TIBC on the abaxial epidermis. The number of CSTIBC was observed to be the same on the adaxial epidermis of the two species of genus Emilia. Shapes of CSTIBC in the species studied are diverse. Coefficient of Variation for all the characters studied showed species with more variation within each character. Novel characters, TIBC and CSTIBC, were found to be useful as additional tools in the taxonomy of family Asteraceae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-morphological studies of three members of the Genus Plectranthus L. (Lamiaceae) in Nigeria were conducted to investigate the anatomical characteristics of taxonomic importance. The following plant samples were collected from various locations in Southwestern Nigeria, namely Plectranthus aegyptiacus (Forssk.) C. Chr., Plectranthus esculentus N.E.Br. and Plectranthus monostachyus (P. Beauv.) B. J. Pollard. The anatomical study of the lamina epidermis, venation pattern and petiole were performed. The Single Linkage Cluster Analysis (SLCA) and one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with the Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) were used to analyze the parameters, and photomicrographs were employed to document the observations. Foliar epidermal characteristics such as epidermal cell shape, anticlinal wall pattern, stomata types, trichome types and ergastic substances are essential in delimiting the species. The identification of numerous starch grains delimits P. monostachyus from the other species, a straight anticlinal wall pattern delimits P. esculentus, and the presence of abundant crystal sands delimits P. aegyptiacus. Quantitatively, stomata index (S.I.) and trichome length for both adaxial and abaxial surfaces were significantly different (P=0.05) among the species. The venation pattern of the studied plant samples also revealed specific characteristics. Irregular vein spacing, eucamptodromous secondary vein category and polygonal areole shape delimit P. esculentus from the other species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olusola Akinola Dada,1 Ebele Uche,2 Akinsegun Akinbami,2 Majeed Odesanya,3 Sarah John-Olabode,4 Adewumi Adediran,5 Olajumoke Oshinaike,1 Anthonia Okeoghene Ogbera,1 Olaitan Okunoye,6 Olanrewaju Arogundade,2 Kingsley Aile,7 Timothy Ekwere8 1Department of Medicine, Lagos State University, 2Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Lagos State University, College of Medicine, Ikeja, Nigeria; 3Oak Hospitals, Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria; 4Department of Haematology, Ben Carson School of Medicine, Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, Ogun State, 5Department of Haematology, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Idiaraba, 6Department of Medicine, University of Port Harcourt, River State, 7Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Nigeria; 8Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria Background: High red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is related to impairment of erythropoiesis, reflecting chronic inflammation and increased levels of oxidative stress, both of which are telltale signs of type 2 diabetics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the RDW and fasting blood sugar/blood pressure, and compare the results from diabetics with nondiabetic controls. Methods: This was an unmatched case-control study involving 200 participants consisting of 100 diabetics and 100 nondiabetic controls. Blood (4.5 mL) was collected from all of the diabetics and nondiabetic controls, and placed into EDTA anticoagulant tubes. A full blood count was performed using the Sysmex KX-21N, a three-part auto analyzer able to run 19 parameters per sample, including RDW. Blood pressure was measured during sample collection and in a sitting position. Results: The mean fasting blood sugar level was 95.20±30.10 mg/dL in the controls, and 147.85±72.54 mg/dL in the diabetics. The mean blood pressures for diabetics was 138/90 mmHg and for non-diabetics 120/80 mmHg. The mean RDW-SD (RDW standard deviation) was 46.44±4.64 fl in the controls, and 46.84±3.18 in the diabetics. The mean RDW-CV (RDW coefficient of variation) was 14.74%±1.94% in controls, and 14.80±0.71 for diabetics. No statistically significant correlation was found between the RDW-SD and fasting blood sugar/blood pressure in the diabetics. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the RDW-CV and blood pressure in the diabetics. Conclusion: A positive correlation between the RDW-CV and blood pressure was established in the diabetics in this study. Keywords: RDW, fasting blood sugar, type 2 DM

Postharvest rot caused by Fusarium species is considered one of the most devastating diseases limiting production and commercialization of water melon worldwide. Two economically important fungi species are generally responsible for fruit rot in watermelon. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the fruit rot causing pathogen in watermelon in Ibadan Nigeria. Symptomatic watermelon leaves and fruits expressing severe wilt and rot were collected and cultured on solidified Potato dextrose agar. Pure culture of the isolated pathogen was identified based on morphological and molecular characterization as a new species of Fusarium viz. Fusarium chlamydosporium. The pathogenicity of F. chlamydosporum confirmed on watermelon and golden melon fruits revealed its capability to cause infection on healthy fruits. Golden melon fruits artificially inoculated with F. chlamydosporum isolate had higher rot diameter (81.7 mm) than watermelon (40.0 mm), disease incidence and severity also was significantly higher in golden melon with 88.3% and 100.0% respectively. To our knowledge this is the first report of F. chlamydosporum as a causal pathogen of watermelon wilt and fruit rot disease in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Today’s business entities face an ever-growing number of laws and regulations due to recent high profile business scandals and failures. Small and medium scale enterprises (SMSE) in developing countries do not have an efficient compliance checking mechanism to make their business processes compliant with these regulatory standards. This checking mechanism is needed to give the enterprises full assurance of complete adherence to regulatory standards, bodies, or Service Level Agreements. Therefore, a structured and efficient compliance management model is needed to aid SMSE in launching their businesses safely and to ensure business processes fit into the classical regulatory standards. This paper presents a business rules compliance checking model and architecture for SMSEs in developing countries to verify and monitor their business process models at design time and at run time. It involves a systematic compliance requirements classification and analysis that employs a goal based requirement engineering approach prior to design time verification. It also introduces the idea and demonstration of network analysis for runtime business processes monitoring. The business process model will be verified at design time using a Simple PROMELA Interpreter model checker through Linear Temporal Logic rules. The approaches were tested on a financial institution in Nigeria, a developing nation in Africa at the time of this research. In order to ensure that the choice of the requirements analysis approach was efficient, a number of standard metrics for evaluating requirements engineering techniques were used and promising results were obtained. We also carried out a comparative analysis of the proposed approach in this paper with the approaches of previous research papers. This approach proved to be effective in terms of clarity, simplicity, flexibility and expressiveness while reducing incomplete adherence of business processes and enhancing the correctness of the business process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]