Crop diseases are usually caused by inoculum of pathogens which might exist on alternate hosts or weeds as endophytes. These endophytes, cum pathogens, usually confer some beneficial attributes to these weeds or alternate hosts from protection against herbivores, disease resistance, stress tolerance to secondary metabolites production. This study was therefore carried out to isolate potential crop pathogens which exist as endophytes on weed species in the University of Ilorin plantations. Green asymptomatic leaves were collected from 10 weed species across the plantations, and processed for their endophytic fungi isolation. Isolates were purified into pure cultures and used for molecular identification using the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal DNA. Phylogenetic analysis of the fungal sequences using MEGA software revealed 9 fungal genera belonging to 13 species, with species in the genera Curvularia, Epicoccum and Daldinia occurring in more than one weed species, while other genera such as Alternaria, Fusarium, Chaetomium, Macrophomina, Arthrinium and Phomopsis occurred in just one weed species each. Daldinia eschscholtzii was isolated in this study as an endophyte from Loudetia arundinacea for the first time. This plant is very abundant in Nigeria and Africa where it is used majorly for thatching and feeding livestocks. This also represents the first endophytic fungi from the genus Loudetia. Potential relationship between the occurrences of these fungi as endophytes and as pathogens are discussed. These discoveries represent the first large-scale molecular identification and several first reports of endophytes from these weed species. These results also represent the first records of some of these fungi in Nigeria.
A new colorimetric-flow injection method has been developed and validated for the detection of Cefotaxime sodium in pharmaceutical formulations. This method stands out for its rapid and sensitive nature. The formation of a brown-colored complex between Cefotaxime sodium and the Biuret reagent in a highly alkaline environment serves as the basis for the detection. The intensity of this colored complex is measured using a custom-built Continuous Flow Injection Analyzer, enabling accurate quantification of Cefotaxime sodium. Optimization studies of the chemical and physical parameters such as dilution of Biuret reagent, effect of the medium basicity, flow rate, sample loop and others have been investigated. The calibration gra
... Show MoreCredit risk assessment has become an important topic in financial risk administration. Fuzzy clustering analysis has been applied in credit scoring. Gustafson-Kessel (GK) algorithm has been utilised to cluster creditworthy customers as against non-creditworthy ones. A good clustering analysis implemented by good Initial Centres of clusters should be selected. To overcome this problem of Gustafson-Kessel (GK) algorithm, we proposed a modified version of Kohonen Network (KN) algorithm to select the initial centres. Utilising similar degree between points to get similarity density, and then by means of maximum density points selecting; the modified Kohonen Network method generate clustering initial centres to get more reasonable clustering res
... Show MoreABSTRACTBackground: In Iraq smoking is a common habit in both the urban and rural areas. There are many respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis, bronchial carcinoma and emphysema which are related to chronic tobacco smoking.Objectives: To study the effect of tobacco smoking on the respiratory system, to establish a correlation between chronic tobacco smoking and its effects on the parameters which were studied and to create awareness in tobacco smokers about the effects of tobacco on their healthMethod: In this study 100 male subjects, 50 chronic smokers and 50 non- smokers were assessed for their pulmonary function tests by using a computerized spirometer.Results: Almost all their respiratory parameters were significantly reduced.
... Show MoreObjective: The aim of this study is to find out the impact of life events upon onset of depression, to describe the
prevalence of life events among depressed patients.
Methodology: Retrospective a case-control study conducted in AL-Diwanyia Teaching Hospital, Psychiatric
Department on A non-probability (purposive sample) of (60) depressed patients and (60) of healthy person were matched
with them from general population. The data were collected through the use of semi-structured interview by
questionnaire, which consists of two parts (1) divide, section A. cover letter and B. Sociodemographic data which consists
of 9-items, (2) Life events questionnaire consists of 51-items distributed to six dimensions include, family
The purpose of this study is to investigate the research on artificial intelligence algorithms in football, specifically in relation to player performance prediction and injury prevention. To accomplish this goal, scholarly resources including Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Springer, and Scopus were used to provide a systematic examination of research done during the last ten years (2015–2025). Through a systematic procedure that included data collection, study selection based on predetermined criteria, categorisation based on AI applications in football, and assessment of major research problems, trends, and prospects, almost fifty papers were found and analysed. Summarising AI applications in football for performance and injury p
... Show MoreCitrus fruits are one of the consumer agricultural products of the Iraqi citizen. It is rich in vitamins and usedin many food industries as well as medicines. Classifying the amount of production of citrus treesaccording to the producing governorates has been done to find a map that shows the production of citrustrees according to Iraqi governorates. A cluster analysis method was used according to the hierarchicalmethod. The results showed that Najaf and Qadisiyah are the most similar in citrus production, whileSaladin and Najaf were the two governorates with the furthest distance in proximity matrix. Diyalagovernorate was clustered in the first cluster within two, three, four or five of the clusters for classifyingIraqi governorates covere
... Show MoreMany pathophysiological processes can affect the pharmacokinetic properties of drugs in people with diabetes. The present study was deigned to evaluate the influence of diabetes mellitus (DM) on the pharmacokinetic parameters of metronidazole administered as single oral dose. Twelve healthy volunteers and twelve diabetic patients were enrolled in the present study. On day 1, a single oral dose of metronidazole 500 mg was administered orally to all participants at 9:00 am after a 10-hour fasting. Over the following 48 hours, blood samples were taken at frequent intervals and serum metronidazole concentrations were measured by a high-performance liquid chromatography method for assessment of pharmacokinetics of metronid
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