Early Prediction of Cerebrovascular Disease using Boosting Machine Learning Algorithms to Assist Clinicians

Clinicians are required to make an early prediction of diseases to save a  life, especially cerebrovascular diseases. The objective of this research is to use mathematical models such as boosting machine learning algorithms as a tool to be applied by clinicians for cerebrovascular disease. This paper particularly, considered XGBoost, AdaBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost Classifiers to predict cerebrovascular disease using age, gender, BMI, hypertension, heart disease, residence type, ever married, smoking status, and average glucose level of the patients. Synthetic Minority Over-Sampling Technique Edited Nearest Neighbors Under-sampling (SMOTE-ENN) and Feature Engineering were applied to the dataset to enhance the performance of the algorithms. The result obtained showed that XGBoost Classifier is the best model with an accuracy of 98% and an AUC of 0.983

Power sector development reforms in Nigeria: the roots to the challenges.

Nigerian socioeconomic development has been threatening persistently with severe power shortage and they are currently experiencing growth in demand for electricity. Various factors are responsible for the challenging situations such as oil pipeline vandalizations, stealing of high-tension cables and economic sabotage. Although several reforms, policies and regulations have been applied to address the insufficient electricity supply for over 120 years in Nigeria, yet the problem of inadequate electricity supply is even getting worst. The complexity of possible inference of the data for the inadequate electricity supply is not well understood. The research examined the various electricity reforms, policies and regulations adopted since 1896 till date to determine the status of the power supply and demand, and the key factors responsible for it. The research adopted a literature-based from peered review methodology to analyse electricity reforms adopted. The result from the peered review indicated that poor maintenance culture, corruptions, inadequate funding, insecurity and lack of turnaround in energy mix are the key challenges facing the power industry, making it incapable to generate, transmit and distribute adequate and efficient electric power in the country. The finding also showed that Government lack understanding of the economic benefits of the power sector, thus leading to lack of comprehensive review of their reforms and polices. The paper also suggested that tapping from other sources of energy such as renewable energy, i.e. solar with sounds polices and best practices is essential to supplement the existing source of energy while improving other key challenges identified

Key barriers to the implementation of solar energy in Nigeria: a critical analysis.

Nigeria, potentially, has abundant sunshine throughout the year, making it full thirst for solar energy generation. Even though, the country's solar energy projects have not realised a fair result over the years, due to many barriers associated with initiatives implementation. Therefore, the entire power sector remains incapacitated to generate, transmit and distribute a clean, affordable and sustainable energy to assist economic growth. The research integrated five African counterpart's solar energy initiatives, barriers, policies and strategies adopted as a lesson learned to Nigeria. Inadequate solar initiative's research, lack of technological know-how, short-term policies, lack of awareness and political instability are the major barriers that made the implementation of solar initiatives almost impossible in Nigeria. The shock of the barriers therefore, constitutes a major negative contribution to the crippling of the power sector in the state. Future research will concentrate on initiatives for mitigating solar and other renewable energy barriers

Solar energy development and implementation in Nigeria: Drivers and barriers

The over dependency on fossil fuel in Nigeria could be one big reason for the total failure of the power sector. The country's economic development which depends on productivity output is in peril due to the imminent energy crisis from gas shortage, vandalism, diminishing fossil fuel reserve and energy insecurity. Therefore, a strategic initiative to diversify the power sector into the energy mix to withstand the socioeconomic development has not indicated a positive progress. The insufficient electricity generation at the highest point was only in capacity put at 5000 MW in April 2015 to support a teeming population of about 184 million people. Nigeria is endowed with plentiful natural resources in which solar energy received more attention due to its potential, especially the rural communities. It is estimated that the solar potential deposit raises to 4, 849, 782 kWh/m2 days for the entire country of around 923, 768 km2 areas. The theoretical framework is based on critical literature reviews being part of a PhD research. The research discusses the motivational drivers to the solar energy development and the barriers hindering the implementation. The key drivers were climate change, energy demand, power sector reform Act, energy security, supply versus demand conflicts, job opportunities, technology growth and market potentials. On the other hand, the key barriers are technical, social, economical, institutional and political. Recommendations of measures to surmount the barriers to facilitate implementation are also proffered

Physicochemical Characteristics and Fish Abundance and Diversity of Mairua Reservoir Water, Funtua, Katsina State, North-Western Nigeria

This research explores physico-chemical characteristics and fish abundance and diversity of Mairua Reservoir Water, Funtua, Katsina State, North-Western Nigeria. The duration of the study was 12 months starting from September to August, 2017, using standard methods and procedures.The result revealed that; Water temperature (25.02 ± 0.170C) pH (7.54 ± 0.03), Alkalinity (3.69±0.09), Conductivity (129.43 ± 5.15μЅ/cm), Total Dissolved Solids (50.54 ± 0.57mg/L) Nitrate-nitrogen (0.21 ± 0.04mg/L), Water Hardness (134.44 ± 3.06mg/LCaCO3), Dissolved Oxygen (3.98 ± 0.10mg/L),Biochemical Oxygen Demand (2.53 ± 0.08mg/L), Phosphate-phosphorus (0.19 ± 0.02mg/L),Chloride (5.09 ± 0.15mg/L),Sulphur-sulphate (0.21± 0.01) and Calcium (2.97±0.06mg/L) respectively were  all varied with months and seasons. Analysis of variance indicated significant difference between seasons (P < 0.05).Out of the total number of fish species (8273) identified; the result indicated Fish fauna percentage composition were Coptodon zillii: 1980 (23.9%), Clarias gariepinus: 1560 (18.9%), Oreochromis niloticus: 1020 (12.3%), Lates niloticus: 860 (10.4%), Bagrus. Bayad: 632 (7.6 %), Mormyrus senegalensis: 973 (11.8%), Labeo senegalensis: 595 (7.2%) and Synodontis clarias: 650 (7.9%). Results also indicates most of fish species were positively correlated with the water quality parameters in all the sites studied. Hence, there were fish abundance and a sustainable livelihood amongst the fishermen. However, a careful management strategy and routine monitoring from both government and non-governmental organizations are critical for the improvement and sustenance of the fisheries resources of the reservoir

Survey of Trace Elements and Some Heavy Metals in Goats in Zaria and its Environs, Kaduna State

The aim of this study was to determine the trace minerals in the serum of goats in Zaria and its environs, and to find out the levels of lead and cadmium in the serum of these goats, so as to see if they can serve as biomonitors of pollution. A total of 120 goats were sampled from eight different locations randomly and their serum assayed for trace elements, lead and cadmium using the atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The values obtained were: lead 0.259 ± 0.470mg/L, cadmium 0.006 ± 0.004 mg/L, chromium 0.072 ± 0.064 mg/L, copper 0.089 ± 0.060 mg/L, iron 0.229 ± 0.180 mg/L, zinc 0.256 ± 0.266 mg/L, nickel 0.127 ± 0.086 mg/L, cobalt 0.135 ± 0.095 mg/L, manganese 0.042 ± 0.031 mg/L. Lead was above acceptable levels, cadmium was at acceptable levels, zinc, copper, iron and nickel were deficient, chromium was marginally deficient, while cobalt and manganese were normal. The effects of breed, sex, age and locations were generally not significant. The values obtained from lead is of public health significance, since these goats are sources of food to people in the immediate environment, and also this implies that people in the immediate environment are also exposed to the same sources of lead. There should be regular seromonitoring of blood lead levels in man and animals, and farmers should be enlightened on the need to augment the feeding of their animal with mineral supplements.Key words: Heavy metal; trace element; goat; lead; seromonitoring

Lessons learnt during the national introduction of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programmes in 6 African countries: Stakeholders’ perspectives

Background. Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) significantly increases the risk of developing cervical cancer later in life. Therefore, globally, HPV vaccines targeted to pre-adolescent and adolescent girls have been on the rise since the licensure in 2006. However, the introduction of HPV vaccines has been relatively slow in Africa. At the end of 2016, only 8 of the 54 countries in Africa were reported to have introduced HPV vaccination at a national level. By 2019, the number of countries had grown marginally to 11.Objectives. To investigate stakeholders’ perspectives on the experiences, challenges and lessons learnt during national HPV vaccine introduction in Africa.Methods. A questionnaire was administered to selected participants from 8 African countries. These countries had successfully introduced HPV vaccination at a national level by the end of 2016. We used in-depth interviews and self-administered online questionnaires for data collection and analysis. Data are presented without naming the country or participants; therefore, readers will not be able to identify the results that are specific to individual countries. Narrative and thematic reporting were used to describe the results.Results. We obtained results from 6 of the 8 targeted countries. The challenges reported during HPV vaccination programmes were: identifying the target population, using a school-based vaccine-delivery strategy, obtaining political support, the need to integrate HPV vaccination with existing school health programmes and engaging multiple stakeholders. These challenges were similar in all 6 countries. The lessons learnt were that a school-based delivery strategy is a successful approach for national HPV vaccination, and that identifying girls for vaccination at schools was less challenging if implemented through a class-based instead of an age-based approach.Conclusions. Most African countries do not have established platforms to deliver vaccines to pre-adolescent and adolescent populations. The successful introduction of the HPV vaccine through school-based vaccination strategies in African countries may have created a platform to deliver other adolescent vaccines. The similarity of the study findings across the 6 participating countries further strengthens the need to document and disseminate the challenges and lessons learnt during HPV vaccine introduction in Africa. Documentation and dissemination of the challenges and lessons learnt are useful to other countries in Africa that plan to introduce an HPV vaccination programme, and possibly other adolescent vaccines.

Willingness of Beef Breeders to Pay for Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccination in Bone Regency, South Sulawesi

The purpose of this study was to determine the willingness of beef breeders to pay (WTP) for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccination. This is due to FMD vaccine limitations. This research was conducted in Bone regency, South Sulawesi in 2023. The population was all beef cattle breeders. The sample was determined purposively as many as 60 breeders. Primary data obtained through observation and interviews using a questionnaire. The secondary data was obtained from reports from the local Animal Husbandry Service and documentation. Data were analyzed descriptively using mean and percentage. The research revealed that WTP for FMD vaccine as many as 56 people (93.3%). WTP for FMD vaccination was dominated by IDR 50,000 (US$ 3.3) as many as 33 person (55.00%)

Prevalence of fasciolosis among cattle slaughtered at Hadejia Abattoir

A study was carried out to find out the prevalence of Fasciolosis in cattle  slaughtered at Hadejia Abattoir. Fasciola gigantica is a parasite of liver and bile duct in cattle, sheep and goat. The liver was examined for Fasciola by making length wise incision on the ventral side of the liver in such a way that the Bile duct was cut open. The forcep was used to pick the exposed worms in the bile duct and the Gall bladder. The Flukes recovered from each cattle were placed in label containers and taken to the Laboratory for identification and preservation. A total of 545cattle were  examined for the presence or absence of Fasciolosis in Hadejia Abattoir. Out of this number 279 (51.2%) were males and 266 (48.8%) were females. The overall  prevalence of Fasciolosis in the study area was 159(28.0%). The prevalence of Fasciolosis in males was found to be 73(26.2%), while the prevalence in females was 79(29.7%). There was no significant relationship (P > 0.05)between sex of the cattle and prevalence of the infection. The Prevalence of Fasciolosis in adult cattle was 36(40.2%), while in young cattle the prevalence was 123(15.0%). There was significant relationship (P < 0.05) between the age of cattle and prevalence of the infection.Fasciolosis is one of the helminths diseases that were found to be prevalent affecting cattle in the study area.Key words: Abattoir, Cattle, Cross-sectional., Fasciolosis, Slaughter

Performance Improvement of an Indirect Solar Dryer with Single Axis Manual Tracking System and Angular Simulation of the Flat Plate Collector Reflectors

The need of food preservation cannot be over-emphasised. Crops need to be processed and preserved in times of their abundance to ensure for life and specie sustainability in times of scarcity. Flat plate collectors (FPCs) are often made fixed and the positions of reflectors used on them are not normally specified; in this paper, a report of an experimental test of an indirect solar dryer whose FPC is operated manually in a single axis to track the sun is presented. To avoid incurring extra cost on the existing design, the FPC was rather made to be operated manually instead of the automation process. Using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) and the TRNSYS 16 softwares, the angular positions of reflectors placed east and west on the FPC were simulated for the first quarter months of the year of the experiment – this included the month of the test. This is to ascertain the best positions for the reflectors in other to achieve maximum insolation. For the month of the test, March, the angular positions of the reflectors placed east and west of the FPC were found to be 40° and 80° respectively relative to the horizontal plane. The performance of the solar dryer in terms of the percentage moisture loss, drying rate, collector efficiency and drying efficiency was evaluated when the FPC was fixed and when it was made to track the sun and the results obtained there from were compared. In comparison, it was found that the dryer tested by manually tracking the sun increased the total percentage moisture loss by 5.11%; the total drying rate by 2.10×10-5 kg/s; the average collector efficiency by 3.92% and the overall drying efficiency by 2.0% as compare to when the FPC was fixed, i.e. not tracking the sun. The indirect solar dryer with the ability to manually track the sun in a single axis using the meteorological conditions of Zaria, Nigeria was therefore found to have increased the performance of the system dryer as compare to when tracking of the sun was not done