University of Nigeria, Nsukka

About: University of Nigeria, Nsukka is a education organization based out in Nsukka, Nigeria. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 10211 authors who have published 13685 publications receiving 138922 citations.

Effect of co-existing plant specie on soil microbial activity under heavy metal stress

Abstract: The influence of plant primary compounds on the activity of soil microbial communities under heavy metal stress was studied in a pot-culture field experiment conducted in a green house. Amaranthus spinosus was cultivated in an agricultural soil previously amended in the laboratory with solutions of different trace elements in two separate treatment modes: singly and in combination. Culture-independent metabolism based indices such as the rate of carbon and nitrogen mineralization, microbial biomass carbon and soil basal respiration were monitored fortnightly over a period of six weeks. Result shows that plant detritus have significant modifying effect on soil microbe-metal interactions. Data on microbial and biochemical processes in the respective mesocosms did not vary from control; not even in mesocosms containing very high concentrations of copper, zinc and nickel. The soil microbial biomass carbon and the rate of carbon and nitrogen cycling were not impeded by the respective metal treatment while the respiration responses increased as a result of increase in metabolic activity of the soil microbes. The plant based substrates enabled the soil microflora to resist high metal contamination because of its tendency to absorb large amounts of inorganic cations.

Formulation Development and Evaluation of Drug Release Kinetics from Colon-Targeted Ibuprofen Tablets Based on Eudragit RL 100-Chitosan Interpolyelectrolyte Complexes

Abstract: Colon-targeted drug delivery systems (CTDDSs) could be useful for local treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). In this study, various interpolyelectrolyte complexes (IPECs), formed between Eudragit RL100 (EL) and chitosan (CS), by nonstoichiometric method, and tablets based on the IPECs, prepared by wet granulation, were evaluated as potential oral CTDDSs for ibuprofen (IBF). Results obtained showed that the tablets conformed to compendial requirements for acceptance and that CS and EL formed IPECs that showed pH-dependent swelling properties and prolonged the in vitro release of IBF from the tablets in the following descending order: 3 : 2 > 2 : 3 > 1 : 1 ratios of CS and EL. An electrostatic interaction between the carbonyl (-CO-) group of EL and amino (-NH3 (+)) group of CS of the tablets formulated with the IPECs was capable of preventing drug release in the stomach and small intestine and helped in delivering the drug to the colon. Kinetic analysis of drug release profiles showed that the systems predominantly released IBF in a zero-order manner. IPECs based on CS and EL could be exploited successfully for colon-targeted delivery of IBF in the treatment of IBDs.

Estimating global injuries morbidity and mortality: methods and data used in the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study

Abstract: BACKGROUND: While there is a long history of measuring death and disability from injuries, modern research methods must account for the wide spectrum of disability that can occur in an injury, and must provide estimates with sufficient demographic, geographical and temporal detail to be useful for policy makers. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study used methods to provide highly detailed estimates of global injury burden that meet these criteria. METHODS: In this study, we report and discuss the methods used in GBD 2017 for injury morbidity and mortality burden estimation. In summary, these methods included estimating cause-specific mortality for every cause of injury, and then estimating incidence for every cause of injury. Non-fatal disability for each cause is then calculated based on the probabilities of suffering from different types of bodily injury experienced. RESULTS: GBD 2017 produced morbidity and mortality estimates for 38 causes of injury. Estimates were produced in terms of incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability, cause-specific mortality, years of life lost and disability-adjusted life-years for a 28-year period for 22 age groups, 195 countries and both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: GBD 2017 demonstrated a complex and sophisticated series of analytical steps using the largest known database of morbidity and mortality data on injuries. GBD 2017 results should be used to help inform injury prevention policy making and resource allocation. We also identify important avenues for improving injury burden estimation in the future.