Research papers

Effects of Developed Electronic Instructional Medium on Students’ Achievement in Biology

Nsofor Caroline Chinna, Momoh Gabriel Dada

The study investigated the effects of developed electronic instructional medium (video DVD instructional package) on students’ achievement in Biology. It was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses, using a quasi-experimental, pretest-postest control group design. The sample comprised of 180 senior secondary, year two students from six schools located in the three education zones of Niger State. The subjects were divided into an experimental group (electronic medium instruction) and a control group (traditional lecture instruction). Structured Biology Achievement Test (SBAT) with internal consistency reliability co-efficient of 0.83 was used to measure the student’s achievement before and after the treatment. The data obtained from the study were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Results from Means, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Scheffe test indicated that the achievement of students in biology greatly improved with the use of electronic instructional medium. Students’ gender had no significant effect on their achievement in biology when electronic medium was used. These results have implications for innovative use of instructional media and creating sound strategies for disseminating science in the classroom.

Research Methods in Education

Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion, Keith Morrison

Translating cardioprotection for patient benefit: position paper from the Working Group of Cellular Biology of the Heart of the European Society of Cardiology

Derek J. Hausenloy, Hans Erik Bøtker, Gianluigi Condorelli, Péter Ferdinandy, David García‐Dorado, Gerd Heusch, Sandrine Lec…

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Despite current therapy, the morbidity and mortality for patients with CHD remains significant. The most important manifestations of CHD arise from acute myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in terms of cardiomyocyte death and its long-term consequences. As such, new therapeutic interventions are required to protect the heart against the detrimental effects of acute IRI and improve clinical outcomes. Although a large number of cardioprotective therapies discovered in pre-clinical studies have been investigated in CHD patients, few have been translated into the clinical setting, and a significant number of these have failed to show any benefit in terms of reduced myocardial infarction and improved clinical outcomes. Because of this, there is currently no effective therapy for protecting the heart against the detrimental effects of acute IRI in patients with CHD. One major factor for this lack of success in translating cardioprotective therapies into the clinical setting can be attributed to problems with the clinical study design. Many of these clinical studies have not taken into consideration the important data provided from previously published pre-clinical and clinical studies. The overall aim of this ESC Working Group Cellular Biology of the Heart Position Paper is to provide recommendations for optimizing the design of clinical cardioprotection studies, which should hopefully result in new and effective therapeutic interventions for the future benefit of CHD patients.

RNA-Guided Human Genome Engineering via Cas9

Prashant Mali, Luhan Yang, Kevin M. Esvelt, John Aach, Marc Güell, James E. DiCarlo, Julie E. Norville, George M. Church

Bacteria and archaea have evolved adaptive immune defenses, termed clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) systems, that use short RNA to direct degradation of foreign nucleic acids. Here, we engineer the type II bacterial CRISPR system to function with custom guide RNA (gRNA) in human cells. For the endogenous AAVS1 locus, we obtained targeting rates of 10 to 25% in 293T cells, 13 to 8% in K562 cells, and 2 to 4% in induced pluripotent stem cells. We show that this process relies on CRISPR components; is sequence-specific; and, upon simultaneous introduction of multiple gRNAs, can effect multiplex editing of target loci. We also compute a genome-wide resource of ~190 K unique gRNAs targeting ~40.5% of human exons. Our results establish an RNA-guided editing tool for facile, robust, and multiplexable human genome engineering.

Multiplex Genome Engineering Using CRISPR/Cas Systems

Le Cong, F. Ann Ran, David Cox, Shuailiang Lin, Robert P. J. Barretto, Naomi Habib, Patrick D. Hsu, Xuebing Wu, Wenyan Jiang…

Functional elucidation of causal genetic variants and elements requires precise genome editing technologies. The type II prokaryotic CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas adaptive immune system has been shown to facilitate RNA-guided site-specific DNA cleavage. We engineered two different type II CRISPR/Cas systems and demonstrate that Cas9 nucleases can be directed by short RNAs to induce precise cleavage at endogenous genomic loci in human and mouse cells. Cas9 can also be converted into a nicking enzyme to facilitate homology-directed repair with minimal mutagenic activity. Lastly, multiple guide sequences can be encoded into a single CRISPR array to enable simultaneous editing of several sites within the mammalian genome, demonstrating easy programmability and wide applicability of the RNA-guided nuclease technology.

Impact of health education intervention on malaria prevention practices among nursing mothers in rural communities in Nigeria

OlorunfemiEmmanuel Amoran

INTRODUCTION: Malaria is the most prevalent parasitic endemic disease in Africa, which is preventable, treatable and curable. This study aims to assess the effect of health education intervention on the knowledge, attitude, and prevention practices amongst mothers of under-five children in a rural area of Ogun State, Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study design was a quasi-experimental study carried out in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State. A multistage random sampling technique was used in choosing the required samples and a semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant information. A total of 400 respondents were recruited into the study with 200 each in both the experimental and control groups and were followed up for a period of 3 months. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant differences observed between the experimental and control groups. Knowledge of indoor spraying increased from 14.7% to 58.2% (P < 0.001) and window and door nets increased from 48.3% to 74.8% (P < 0.001). The proportion of those with ITN use increased from 50.8% to 87.4% (P < 0.001) while those with practice of maintaining clean environment also increased from 40.4% to 54.5% (P < 0.001). There were no significant changes in all the practice of malaria prevention methods in the control group. CONCLUSION: This suggests that malaria control can be significantly improved in rural areas, if the caregivers are adequately empowered through appropriate health education intervention though change in attitude and belief may require a longer and persistent effort.

Self-medication practices among dental, midwifery and nursing students

Osarobo Ehigiator, CC Azodo, AO Ehizele, Ejike B Ezeja, Laura Ehigiator, Ikechukwu U. Madukwe

Abstract Objective: To determine the pattern of self-medication among dental, midwifery and nursing students and to evaluate the factors associated with self-medication. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional of dental, nursing and midwifery students undergoing clinical training in University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria was conducted in 2010. The elicited data include demography, use of drug without doctor′s prescription, type of drug used (pain relievers, antibiotics, anti-malarial, cough medication and nutritional supplement), reasons for self-medication, factors that influenced the choice of drug and source of drug. Results: A total of 76.8% of the respondents indulged in self-medication practices. Of which, 33.0% used the medication inappropriately. The type of self-medication use was, pain relievers (60.5%), antibiotics (43.2%), anti-malarial (40.5%), cough medication (16.7%) and nutritional supplement (16.0%). Previous experience with the illness and perceived minor nature of the illness were the predominant reasons for the self-medication practices among the respondents. The major factors that influenced their choice of medication were previous experience with similar symptoms (39.7%), advice of non-doctor health professional (33.5%). Pharmacy shop was the main source of the self-medicated drugs. Conclusion: Self-medication was a common practice among this studied group of health workers. The level of inappropriate drug use denotes self-medication as an unhealthy option, and it therefore, should be discouraged.

MicroRNA-Regulated Networks: The Perfect Storm for Classical Molecular Biology, the Ideal Scenario for Systems Biology

Julio Vera, Xin Lai, Ulf Schmitz, Olaf Wolkenhauer

Years lived with disability (YLDs) for 1160 sequelae of 289 diseases and injuries 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Theo Vos, Abraham D Flaxman, Mohsen Naghavi, Rafael Lozano, Catherine Michaud, Majid Ezzati, Kenji Shibuya, Joshua A. Salomo…

Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Christopher J L Murray, Theo Vos, Rafael Lozano, Mohsen Naghavi, Abraham D Flaxman, Catherine Michaud, Majid Ezzati, Kenji S…

A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Stephen S Lim, Theo Vos, Abraham D Flaxman, Goodarz Danaei, Kenji Shibuya, Heather Adair‐Rohani, Mohammad A. AlMazroa, Marku…

Forerunners of Mammals: Radiation, Histology, Biology

Michael A. Raath

Forerunners of Mammals: Radiation, Histology, Biology, edited by Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan. 2012. Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University Press. Price: US$60. Pp. 330. ISBN 978 0 253 35697 0. The Gre...

Nursing documentation: Experience of the use of the nursing process model in selected hospitals in<scp>I</scp>badan,<scp>O</scp>yo<scp>S</scp>tate,<scp>N</scp>igeria

Bola Abosede Ofi, Olanrewaju Sowunmi

The descriptive study was conducted to determine the extent of utilization of the nursing process for documentation of nursing care in three selected hospitals, Ibadan, Nigeria. One hundred fifty nurses and 115 discharged clients' records were selected from the hospitals. Questionnaires and checklists were used to collect data. Utilization of nursing process for care was 100%, 73.6% and 34.8% in the three hospitals. Nurses encountered difficulties in history taking, formulation of nursing diagnoses, objectives, nursing orders and evaluation. Most nurses disagreed or were undecided with the use of authorized abbreviations and symbols (34.3%, 40.3% and 69.5%), recording errors that occurred during care (37.1%, 56.1% and 52.2%) and inclusion of change in clients' condition (54.3%, 56.1% and 73.8%). Most nurses appreciated the significance of documentation. Lack of time, knowledge and need for extensive writing are the major barriers against documentation. Seventy-seven point four per cent of the 115 clients' records from one hospital showed evidence of documentation, no evidence from the other two. Study findings have implications for continuing professional education, practice and supervision.

Creating a Caring Science Curriculum: An Emancipatory Pedagogy for Nursing

Afam Ndu

The effect of concept mapping instructional strategy on the biology achievement of senior secondary school slow learners

Uchenna Udeani, Philomena N. Okafor

The study investigated the comparative effectiveness of the expository and concept mapping instructional strategy of presenting secondary school biology concepts to slow learners. One hundred and twenty four biology slow learners were identified and randomly assigned to the expository group (n=62) and concept mapping group (n=62) and respectively taught the concept of photosynthesis. The groups were post-tested after two weeks of teaching for any significant differences in their biology achievement. Analysis of post-test scores indicated that the group taught by the concept mapping instructional strategy performed significantly (p&amp;lt;0.05) better than their expository group counterparts. Specifically, female slow learners taught with the concept mapping instructional strategy performed significantly (p&amp;lt;0.05) better than their male counterparts taught by the same method. These results have implications for biology teacher preparation, especially in the areas of teaching females and identifying slow learners and adopting effective methods of tackling their problems

Biology of Malaria Parasites

Chandy C. John

The organism itself was first seen by Lavern on November 6, 1880 at a military hospital in Constantine, Algeria, when he discovered a microgametocyte exflagellating. In 1885, similar organisms were discovered within the blood of birds in Russia. There was brief speculation that birds might be involved in the transmission of malaria; in 1894 Patrick Manson hypothesized that mosquito could transmit malaria. This hypothesis was independently confirmed by the Italian physician Giovanni Battista Grassi working in Italy and the British physician Ronald Ross working in India, both in 1898. [3] Ross demonstrated the existence of Plasmodium in the wall of the midgut and salivary glands of a Culex mosquito using bird species as the vertebrate host. For this discovery he won the Noble Prize in 1902. Grassi showed that human malaria could only be transmitted by Anopheles mosquito. It is worth noting, however, that for some species the vector may not be mosquito.[4]

Entry to nursing practice preceptor education and support: could we do it better?

Carmel Haggerty, Kathy Holloway, Debra Rose Wilson

High quality preceptorship during their first year of practice is seen as critical for new graduate nurses' development of competence and confidence. Quality preceptorship is dependent upon skilled and knowledgeable preceptors who are committed to this role. A recent longitudinal evaluation of 21 Nursing Entry to Practice (NETP) programmes in New Zealand identified that preceptorship selection, education and support do not always receive the attention they warrant. Failure to plan preceptor selection leads to ad hoc selection and consequent allocations of many preceptors who may not have attended appropriate education, or have a desire to undertake this role. Such a situation is detrimental to the job satisfaction of both preceptors and new graduate nurses. High workloads, rostering difficulties and increased acuity in many clinical areas often prevent preceptors from attending appropriate education and that, in turn, impacts negatively on the preceptor's expectations and clarity with respect to the role. To offset this effect the authors recommend development of a clearly defined preceptor selection process, along with flexible preceptor education programmes that provide a good foundation for support of new graduates in their first year of practice; but do not increase preceptor workloads.

Pre-Vaccination Nasopharyngeal Pneumococcal Carriage in a Nigerian Population: Epidemiology and Population Biology

Ifedayo Adetifa, Martín Antonio, Christy A. N. Okoromah, Chinelo Ebruke, Victor Inem, David Nsekpong, Abdoulie Bojang, Richa…

BACKGROUND: Introduction of pneumococcal vaccines in Nigeria is a priority as part of the Accelerated Vaccine Introduction Initiative (AVI) of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). However, country data on the burden of pneumococcal disease (IPD) is limited and coverage by available conjugate vaccines is unknown. This study was carried out to describe the pre vaccination epidemiology and population biology of pneumococcal carriage in Nigeria. METHODS: This was a cross sectional survey. Nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) were obtained from a population sample in 14 contiguous peri-urban Nigerian communities. Data on demographic characteristics and risk factor for carriage were obtained from all study participants. Pneumococci isolated from NPS were characterised by serotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility and Multi Locus Sequencing Typing (MLST). RESULTS: The prevalence of pneumococcal carriage was 52.5%. Carriage was higher in children compared to adults (67.4% vs. 26%), highest (≈90%) in infants aged <9 months and reduced significantly with increasing age (P<0.001). Serotypes 19F (18.6%) and 6A (14.4%) were most predominant. Potential vaccine coverage was 43.8%, 45.0% and 62% for PCV-7, PCV-10 and PCV-13 respectively. There were 16 novel alleles, 72 different sequence types (STs) from the isolates and 3 Sequence Types (280, 310 and 5543) were associated with isolates of more than one serotype indicative of serotype switching. Antimicrobial resistance was high for cotrimoxazole (93%) and tetracycline (84%), a third of isolates had intermediate resistance to penicillin. Young age was the only risk factor significantly associated with carriage. CONCLUSIONS: Pneumococcal carriage and serotype diversity is highly prevalent in Nigeria especially in infants. Based on the coverage of serotypes in this study, PCV-13 is the obvious choice to reduce disease burden and prevalence of drug resistant pneumococci. However, its use will require careful monitoring. Our findings provide sound baseline data for impact assessment following vaccine introduction in Nigeria.

Biology of breast cancer in Nigerian women: A pilot study

CA Adisa, N Eleweke, AuA Alfred, Michael J. Campbell, Rajni Sharma, Onouwem Nseyo, V Tandon, Rita A. Mukhtar, Alexander L. G…

BACKGROUND: Compared to the developed world, there are relatively few studies that describe the tumor biology of breast cancer in African women. While little is known about the tumor biology, clinical and epidemiologic studies suggest that breast cancer in African women are characterized by presentation at late stage and poor clinical outcomes. Analysis of the biological features of breast cancers in Nigerian women was designed to bring additional insight to better understand the spectrum of disease, the phenotypes that present, and the types of interventions that might improve outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed histological analyses for hormone receptors (estrogen and progesterone receptors), HER2, and tumor infiltrating macrophages (TAM) on 17 breast cancers, obtained from Abia State University Teaching Hospital (Aba, Nigeria), between November 2008 and October 2009. On a subset of these cases, we investigated the potential role of a virus in the etiology of these aggressive cancers. RESULTS: The majority of cases in this cohort were characterized as high grade (100% were grade III), triple-negative (65%), and occur in young women (mean age 47 years). We observed high infiltration of TAMs in these tumors, but no evidence of a viral etiology. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that breast cancers in Nigerian women have a highly aggressive phenotype (high grade, hormone receptor negative), which is similar to other studies from Africa and other developing nations, as well as from African American women, but is significantly different from Caucasian women in the developed world. The presence of high numbers of TAMs in these tumors raises the possibility of targeting the immune microenvironment for therapeutic interventions.

Reproducible computational biology experiments with SED-ML - The Simulation Experiment Description Markup Language

Dagmar Waltemath, Richard R. Adams, Frank Bergmann, Michael Hucka, Fedor Kolpakov, Andrew K. Miller, Ion I. Moraru, David Ni…

BACKGROUND: The increasing use of computational simulation experiments to inform modern biological research creates new challenges to annotate, archive, share and reproduce such experiments. The recently published Minimum Information About a Simulation Experiment (MIASE) proposes a minimal set of information that should be provided to allow the reproduction of simulation experiments among users and software tools. RESULTS: In this article, we present the Simulation Experiment Description Markup Language (SED-ML). SED-ML encodes in a computer-readable exchange format the information required by MIASE to enable reproduction of simulation experiments. It has been developed as a community project and it is defined in a detailed technical specification and additionally provides an XML schema. The version of SED-ML described in this publication is Level 1 Version 1. It covers the description of the most frequent type of simulation experiments in the area, namely time course simulations. SED-ML documents specify which models to use in an experiment, modifications to apply on the models before using them, which simulation procedures to run on each model, what analysis results to output, and how the results should be presented. These descriptions are independent of the underlying model implementation. SED-ML is a software-independent format for encoding the description of simulation experiments; it is not specific to particular simulation tools. Here, we demonstrate that with the growing software support for SED-ML we can effectively exchange executable simulation descriptions. CONCLUSIONS: With SED-ML, software can exchange simulation experiment descriptions, enabling the validation and reuse of simulation experiments in different tools. Authors of papers reporting simulation experiments can make their simulation protocols available for other scientists to reproduce the results. Because SED-ML is agnostic about exact modeling language(s) used, experiments covering models from different fields of research can be accurately described and combined.

The Medicago genome provides insight into the evolution of rhizobial symbioses

Nevin D. Young, Frédéric Debellé, Giles Oldroyd, René Geurts, Steven B. Cannon, Michael K. Udvardi, Vagner A. Benedito, Klau…

Sequencing of Medicago truncatula, a model organism of legume biology, shows that genome duplications had a role in the evolution of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation. Legumes are unusual among plants in that they can carry out endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation with rhizobial bacteria. The genome of Medicago truncatula (also known as barrel medic or barrel clover), a well-established model for the study of legume biology, has now been sequenced. Genome analysis shows that M. truncatula has undergone several rounds of whole-genome duplication, and that the duplication that took place approximately 58 million years ago played an important part in the evolution of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation. Legumes (Fabaceae or Leguminosae) are unique among cultivated plants for their ability to carry out endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation with rhizobial bacteria, a process that takes place in a specialized structure known as the nodule. Legumes belong to one of the two main groups of eurosids, the Fabidae, which includes most species capable of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation1. Legumes comprise several evolutionary lineages derived from a common ancestor 60 million years ago (Myr ago). Papilionoids are the largest clade, dating nearly to the origin of legumes and containing most cultivated species2. Medicago truncatula is a long-established model for the study of legume biology. Here we describe the draft sequence of the M. truncatula euchromatin based on a recently completed BAC assembly supplemented with Illumina shotgun sequence, together capturing ∼94% of all M. truncatula genes. A whole-genome duplication (WGD) approximately 58 Myr ago had a major role in shaping the M. truncatula genome and thereby contributed to the evolution of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation. Subsequent to the WGD, the M. truncatula genome experienced higher levels of rearrangement than two other sequenced legumes, Glycine max and Lotus japonicus. M. truncatula is a close relative of alfalfa (Medicago sativa), a widely cultivated crop with limited genomics tools and complex autotetraploid genetics. As such, the M. truncatula genome sequence provides significant opportunities to expand alfalfa’s genomic toolbox.

Diversity, biology and evolution of IncQ-family plasmids

Wesley Loftie‐Eaton, Douglas E. Rawlings

Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk

Georg Ehret, Vasyl Pihur, Khanh-Dung Hoang Nguyen, Dan E. Arking, Gina Hilton, A Chakravarti, Murielle Bochud, P Munroe, Sue…

Reproductive biology of Australian acacias: important mediator of invasiveness?

Michelle R. Gibson, David M. Richardson, Elizabete Marchante, Hélia Marchante, James G. Rodger, Graham N. Stone, Margaret By…

Abstract Aim Reproductive traits are important mediators of establishment and spread of introduced species, both directly and through interactions with other life‐history traits and extrinsic factors. We identify features of the reproductive biology of Australian acacias associated with invasiveness. Location Global. Methods We reviewed the pollination biology, seed biology and alternative modes of reproduction of Australian acacias using primary literature, online searches and unpublished data. We used comparative analyses incorporating an Acacia phylogeny to test for associations between invasiveness and eight reproductive traits in a group of introduced and invasive (23) and non‐invasive (129) species. We also explore the distribution of groups of trait ‘syndromes’ between invasive and non‐invasive species. Results Reproductive trait data were only available for 126 of 152 introduced species in our data set, representing 23/23 invasive and 103/129 non‐invasive species. These data suggest that invasives reach reproductive maturity earlier (10/13 within 2 years vs. 7/26 for non‐invasives) and are more commonly able to resprout (11/21 vs. 13/54), although only time to reproductive maturity was significant when phylogenetic relationships were controlled for. Our qualitative survey of the literature suggests that invasive species in general tend to have generalist pollination systems, prolific seed production, efficient seed dispersal and the accumulation of large and persistent seed banks that often have fire‐, heat‐ or disturbance‐triggered germination cues. Conclusions Invasive species respond quicker to disturbance than non‐invasive taxa. Traits found to be significant in our study require more in‐depth analysis involving data for a broader array of species given how little is known of the reproductive biology of so many taxa in this species‐rich genus. Sets of reproductive traits characteristic of invasive species and a general ability to reproduce effectively in new locations are widespread in Australian acacias. Unless there is substantial evidence to the contrary, care should be taken with all introductions.