Cultural “Faces” of Interpersonal Communication in China and Nigeria

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Perceived Discrimination and Social Identity as Adolescents' Pathways to Early Substance Use

This study investigated the influence of discrimination and social identity on adolescent’s substance use in selected secondary schools in Ibadan – an investigation predicated on the argument that angry, maladaptive and externalizing behaviours such as substance use could emerge from sustained social hostility and one’s identity confusion. Three hundred and forty-six (346) adolescents were randomly selected from four schools to take part in the study. Results of univariate analysis show that social stress associated with perceived and actual discrimination led highly discriminated adolescents to report high levels of substance use compared to adolescents who  experienced low levels of discrimination (F=8.84, df=1, 338, p<.001). Also, adolescents’  social  identity did not show significant influence on substance use but a tendency to use drugs among adolescents with low social identity compared to those with high social identity reported. This situation suggests the experience of identity confusion by adolescents who experience group hostility and discrimination. Also, a comparison of gender on drug use reveals males using more drugs than females (F=14.10, df=1, 338, p<.001). Based on these outcomes it was  recommended that several social and governmental organizations starting from families should work together in the enlightenment of adolescents and the general populace on the need to respect the rights of every individual and live harmoniously. With this, adolescents will share more social acceptance and reduce the frequency of involvement in emotion-regulated substance use and other maladaptive and externalizing behaviours.Key Words: Discrimination, Social Identity, Adolescents, Substance Us

In vitro antimicrobial characteristics of bacteriocinproducing Lactobacillus strains from Nigerian indigenous fermented foods

A total of 50 bacteriocin-producing Lactobacillus strains isolated from some Nigerian indigenous fermented foods and beverages (ogi, fufu, garri and nono) and characterized as L. acidophilus, L. casei,L. fermentum, L. lactis and L. plantarum were screened for their inhibitory potentials against food-borne pathogenic indicator bacterial isolates; Acinetobater sp., Alkaligenes sp., Enterobacter aerogenes,Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Shigella flexneri, from the same or similar fermented food sources, and against clinical indicator bacterialisolates and type cultures- Bacillus subtilis NCTC8236, K12 Escherichia coli V157, NCTC11560, Vibrio INABA B. cereus CIS25, CIS32, B. licheniformis CIS26, Pseudomonas aeruginosa CIS23, Klebsiella aerogenes CIS24, Kleb. pneumoniae CIS29V and Kleb. aerogenes CIS55. It was observed that each fermented food had its own microbial interaction with minimal in vitro inhibitory activity (1.5 – 10.0%) by the bacteriocin-producing Lactobacillus strains against the indicator bacterial isolates from the fermented foods and beverages, indicating narrow to moderate antimicrobial spectrum; while theinhibitory profiles against the clinical bacterial isolates and the type cultures by the putative strains were between 75.0 – 100.0%. The effect of different pH on the antimirobial potentials of theLactobacillus strains indicates highest inhibitory activities between 5.5 and 7.5. The survival rates of the pathogenic indicator bacteria in the fermented food sources were between 8 and 14 days while theclinical isolates survived in simulated fermented food samples between 5 and 9 days

An empirical study of Arabic formulaic sequence extraction methods

This paper aims to implement what is referred to as the collocation of the Arabic keywords approach for extracting formulaic sequences (FSs) in the form of high frequency but semantically regular formulas that are not restricted to any syntactic construction or semantic domain. The study applies several distributional semantic models in order to automatically extract relevant FSs related to Arabic keywords. The data sets used in this experiment are rendered from a new developed corpus-based Arabic wordlist consisting of 5,189 lexical items which represent a variety of modern standard Arabic (MSA) genres and regions, the new wordlist being based on an overlapping frequency based on a comprehensive comparison of four large Arabic corpora with a total size of over 8 billion running words. Empirical n-best precision evaluation methods are used to determine the best association measures (AMs) for extracting high frequency and meaningful FSs. The gold standard reference FSs list was developed in previous studies and manually evaluated against well-established quantitative and qualitative criteria. The results demonstrate that the MI.log_f AM achieved the highest results in extracting significant FSs from the large MSA corpus, while the T-score association measure achieved the worst results

Evaluation of Post-Operative Antibiotic Administration on Phenotypic Antibiotic Susceptibility and Resistance Profiles of Gram-negative Bacterial Flora of Healthy Local Experimental Dogs Undergoing Partial Gastrectomy

Reliable data that can serve as platform for policy formulation on the use of antimicrobial drugs are compulsory for every country. But baseline data to judge effects of long-term post-operative antibiotic administration in clinical and surgical canine health conditions are currently lacking in Nigeria. This study aimed at providing vital baseline antibiotic profiles of canine bacteria of veterinary and public health importance. Phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility and resistance profiles of some easily recoverable Gram-negative bacterial species of canine origin were determined towards the most commonly prescribed and administered antibiotics in  veterinary practices, using agar disk- and modified agar well-diffusion methods. Overall resistance of the bacteria against antibiotics (discs) were- tetracycline(25.0-57.1%), cotrimoxazole (80.0-100%), nitrofurantoin (20.0-100%), nalidixic acid (0.91-60.0%), gentamicin (18.2-70.0%), ofloxacillin (20.0-42.9%) and augmentin / amoxicillin (100%), except among Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis (60.0-100), with percentage multiple antibiotic resistance (%MAR) of 25.0 - 100%. Overall percentage resistance rates towards antibiotic drugs were- amoxicillin (9.1-100%); oritaxim / oxytetracycline (20.0-100%) and nitaxim (30.0-100%), with %MAR mostly between 50.0 and 100%. Twenty eight antibiotic resistance profiles  mere exhibited against antibiotic (discs), commonest profiles being – augmentinamoxicillin- cotrimoxazole; augmentin-tetracycline-amoxicillin-cotrimoxazole-nitrofurantoin- nalidixic acid-gentamicin-ofloxacillin; augmentin-tetracycline-amoxicillin-cotrimoxazole and augmentin-amoxicillin-cotrimoxazole-nitrofurantoin. Twelve antibiotic resistance profiles were exhibited against the antibiotic drugs, with most-resisted / commonest profile being – oritaxim-nitaxim. These were also the most-resisted nitaxim (47.3%) and oritaxim (52.7%) antibiotic drugs. Only 29.1% of the Gram-negative bacteria were totally susceptible to the four antibiotic drugs, while a total of 70.9%, including  mono-resistance (21.8%) and multiresistance (49.1%), were recorded. This preliminary baseline report indicated significant phenotypic antibiotic resistance among easily-recoverable, indigenous Gram-negative bacterial species of canine origin, which is of veterinary and human public health significance, and indicative of therapeutic treatment failure.Keywords: antibiotic resistance, dogs, veterinary public health, veterinary surger

In vitro Phenotypic Antibiotic Susceptibility Profiles Of Food Indicator Bacteria Isolated From Home-Made Oral Rehydration Solutions In Nigeria

One thousand and ten bacterial isolates from ORS constituents characterised as Bacillus cereus var. mycoides, Bacillus subtilis, Citrobacter sp., Clostridium perfringes, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Morganella morganii, Proteus mirabilis, P. vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Shigella dysentariae, Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio cholerae were screened for their in vitro antibiotic susceptibility profiles using the agar discs and agar well-diffusion methods. The Gram-negative bacteria from granulated sugar samples had 7.69% phenotypic resistance profiles while the Gram-negative bacteria from table salt samples had between 13.3% and 20.0% resistance profiles. The resistance profiles of Gram-positive bacteria from granulated sugar samples was between 8.0% and 19.0% while the Gram-positive bacteria from table salt samples had between 11.0% and 27.9 % resistance profiles towards the test antibiotic (discs). The bacterial isolates from granulated sugar exhibited resistance of between 36.4% in ampicillin + cloxacillin and 64.9% in metronidazole. while the bacterial isolates from table salt gave an overall resistance of 41.0% - 64.7% towards the twenty-eight test oral paediatric antibiotic suspensions All the bacterial isolates from the table salt and granulated sugar samples displayed multiple resistance to the test paediatric antibiotics, except Ps. aeruginosa SA12, Shigella dysenteriae SA16C, SA16D, E. aerogenes SA18A, SA18AE and E. coli SA22A which recorded no (0.0%) resistance to all the test paediatric antibiotics. Keywords: antibiotics, In vitro, ORS, paediatric, resistance, susceptibility African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology Vol. 9 (2) 2008 pp. 69-7

Microbial Contamination of Locally Produced Cheese and Determination of their Antimicrobial Potential in Nigeria

The high consumptionrate of soft cheese and manner of cheese production in Nigeria prompted the need to determine the microbial quality and  antimicrobial properties of locally produced cheese in Nigeria. A total of 20 cheese samples were obtained from different points in 4 cities in southern Nigeria, 5 cheeses per city. They were investigated for some physico-chemical properties, isolation and microbial counts and determination of antimicrobial potential. There was no significant variation in the  composition of physic-chemical properties of cheese samples from various cities except for the acidity of cheese sample obtained from Ilorin. All the 20 samples (100%) yielded low level of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with counts ~ 103. Escherichia coli or Klebsiella species were constantly isolated in all the cheese samples. Similarly, yeast and Aspergillus species were isolated either alone or in a mixed culture. The result showed increase in total bacteria count from the point of production to the hawkers.  Antimicrobial potential was not found in cheese against the  microorganisms used in the study. The study identified local cheese (‘wara’) as a high risk food in Nigeria due to the high rate of contamination since they are ready-to-eat food item and no antimicrobial property detected in the soft cheese.Key Words: Cheese; Bacteria; Fungi; Nigeria, Susceptibility Le taux de fromage à pâte molle et les modalités de production de  fromage au Nigeria à forte consommation a incité la nécessité de déterminer la qualité microbienne et propriétés antimicrobiennes de  fromage produit localement au Nigeria. Un total de 20 échantillons de fromage ont été obtenues à partir de différents points dans 4 villes au sud du Nigeria, 5 fromages par ville. Ils ont été étudiés pour certaines  propriétés physico-chimiques, l'isolement et les numérations microbiennes et détermination du potentiel antimicrobien. Il n'y avait aucune variation significative dans la composition des propriétés physico- chimiques des échantillons de fromage à partir de différentes villes à l'exception de l'acidité de l'échantillon obtenu à partir de fromage de la ville d’Ilorin. Tous les 20 échantillons (100%) ont donné un faible niveau de bactéries lactiques (LAB) avec environs 103 espèces. Escherichia coli ou Klebsiellaont été constamment isolés dans tous les échantillons de fromage. De même, des espèces de levures et d'Aspergillus ont été isolés soit seuls, soit dans une culture mixte. Le résultat a montré l’augmentation des bactéries totales compté du point de production aux colporteurs. Potentiel antimicrobien n'a pas été trouvé dans le fromage contre les micro-organismes utilisés dans l'étude. L'étude a identifié fromage local (' wara ‘) comme un aliment à haut risque au Nigeria en raison du taux élevé de contamination, car ils sont prêts à consommer l'aliment et aucune  propriété antimicrobienne détecté dans le fromage à pâte molle.Mots clés: Fromage; bactéries; champignons; Nigeria, sensibilit

Do radiological research articles apply the term "pilot study" correctly? Systematic review

AIM: To determine what proportion of radiological studies used the term "pilot" correctly. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Indexed studies describing themselves as a "pilot" in their title were identified from four indexed radiological journals. The aim was to identify 20 consecutive, eligible studies from each journal, as this sample size was deemed sufficient to be representative as to how this methodological description was employed by authors of radiological articles. Data were extracted relating to study design and data presented. The review was reported according to PRISMA guidelines. RESULTS: The search string used identified 658 records across the four targeted journals. Ultimately, 78 reviews describing 5,572 patients were selected for systematic review. Median sample size was just 20 patients. No individual study qualified as a genuine pilot study when assessed against the a priori criteria. In reality, the large majority (66 studies, 84.6%) were framed as studies of diagnostic test accuracy. A significant proportion (21 studies, 26.9%) was retrospective, and the overwhelming majority were conducted in single centres (76 centres, 94.7%). Most (55 studies, 70.5%) stated no rationale for their sample size, and no study presented a formal power calculation. CONCLUSION: Radiological "pilot" studies are mostly underpowered studies of diagnostic test accuracy. In order to have scientific credibility, authors, reviewers, and editors of radiological journals are encouraged to familiarise themselves with different methodological study designs and their precise implications