Medical ethics in sub-Sahara Africa: closing the gaps.

Background: Health care providers are expected to have the skills and knowledge relevant to their field and should also be familiar with the ethical and legal expectations that arise out of the standard practices.Objectives: To elucidate the practice of the health care providers in relation to healthcare ethics in Nigeria.Methods: A self-administered structured questionnaire was devised and distributed to staff of two tertiary health care facilities in Northern Nigeria. The questionnaire comprised of detailed questions regarding day-to-day aspects of Medical ethical issues.Results: A total of 307(76.2% ) out of 403 health care providers responded to the questionnaire. The median age of the respondents was 34 years. More than half 168(54.7%) of the respondents disagreed as to whether “Ethical conduct is important only to avoid legal action. Many respondents 135 (44.0%) agreed to adhering to “patient’s wishes”, on the other hand over two-third of the respondents 211 (68.7%) agreed that “doctor should do what is best” irrespective of the patient’s opinion. There were significant differences (p<0.05) between the perception of physicians and non-physicians on many ethical issues.Conclusion: This study has shown gap in knowledge and practice of healthcare ethics among health care providers. There is a need for periodic education on clinical ethics in our hospitals.Keywords: Medical ethics, sub-Sahara Africa

Investigating Asphaltenes Composition in Crude Oil Samples using Iatroscan TLC-FID Method.

This research was carried out to investigate the percentage composition of asphaltenes by Iatroscan analysis using Thin Layer Chromatography-Flame Ion Detection method (Iatroscan TLC-FID) The percentage composition of asphaltenes by Iatroscan TLC-FID method was compared with the weight% of asphaltenes precipitated. The results from the two methods nearly agreed with each other which revealed that the amount of asphaltene recovered by precipitation is analogous to Iatroscan analysis carried out prior to precipitation. The insignificant difference observed between the two results could be associated to some slight unavoidable experimental and analytical errors which were slightly encountered and instantly addressed. Based on the results obtained from Iatroscan analysis and % composition by weights of asphaltenes recovered, the non-degraded oil tagged 8676 was observed to comparatively have higher asphaltene composition (1125 mg, 11.22 %) than its counterpart which is very slightly degraded oil and tagged 6661 (608.5 mg, 6.085 %). This is not commonly reported in literature. Probably, this indicates that biodegradation may possibly not increase asphaltene composition of oil as widely reported.Keywords: Asphaltenes, Biodegradation, Iatroscan TLC-FID, Oi

Importance of oil shocks and the GCC macroeconomy: A structural VAR analysis

This study is an endeavour to analyse the influence of oil price shocks on the macroeconomy of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, KSA, Oman, Qatar and UAE). By employing a structural Vector auto-regression (SVAR) model for period 1980–2016, our key findings suggest that there are significant positive effects of oil price shocks on the GDP, inflation and trade balance of those countries. The findings, however, show substantial heterogeneities in the responses of the GCC members to oil shocks, which suggests the presence of idiosyncrasies in the underlying structure of their economies and differences in the degree to which these economies are dependent on oil revenues. In terms of inflation, there are also major differences in the intensity of the impact of oil shocks on the overall price, which implies that the GCC monetary policies might face a different genre of challenges to attain price stability in the face of those shocks. Our findings have profound policy implications in terms of diversifying the economies of the GCC countries and efforts to decrease the sole dependence on oil revenues

Portal Vein Thrombosis after Restorative Proctocolectomy for Familial Adenomatous Polyposis and Sigmoid Cancer

Postoperative portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is rare, but has been described after various open as well as minimal access abdominal operations, especially splenectomy and colorectal surgical procedures. We report the case of a 39-year-old female who underwent restorative proctocolectomy and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis for familial adenomatous polyposis with sigmoid cancer. She presented 14 days later with vague upper abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and high output stoma. Doppler ultrasonography confirmed PVT and therefore anticoagulant therapy was started. Her condition improved dramatically and she underwent closure of ileostomy after finishing adjuvant chemotherapy. She remained well at 3-year follow-up with good pouch function and no local or distant recurrence. A high index of suspicion is essential for early diagnosis and prompt treatment of postoperative PVT after restorative proctocolectomy. Early anticoagulation is essential to avoid subsequent complications

Cooperative In-Vivo Nano-Network Communication at Terahertz Frequencies

Nano devices have great potential to play a vital role in future medical diagnostics and treatment technologies because of its non-invasive nature and ability to reach delicate body sites easily as compared to conventional devices. In this paper, a novel concept of cooperative communication for in-vivo nano network is presented to enhance the communication among these devices. The effect on the system outage probability performance is conducted for various parameters including relay placement, number of relays, transmit power, bandwidth and carrier frequency. Results show approximately a 10-fold increase in the system outage performance whenever an additional relay is included in the cooperative network, hence shows a great potential of using cooperative communication to enhance the performance of nano-network at terahertz frequencies

Imaging in population science: cardiovascular magnetic resonance in 100,000 participants of UK Biobank - rationale, challenges and approaches

PMCID: PMC3668194SEP was directly funded by the National Institute for Health Research Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit at Barts. SN acknowledges support from the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and from the Oxford British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence. SP and PL are funded by a BHF Senior Clinical Research fellowship. RC is supported by a BHF Research Chair and acknowledges the support of the Oxford BHF Centre for Research Excellence and the MRC and Wellcome Trust. PMM gratefully acknowledges training fellowships supporting his laboratory from the Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline and the Medical Research Council