Intellectual Capital Formation and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Education develops in individuals both physical and intellectual capacities which are critical for economic growth of a country. This study examines the contributions of education to growth in Nigeria using secondary data covering periods of 1980-2011. The unit root and Co-integration tests were conducted and Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) was employed. The results show that public investment in education maintains a positive long run relationship with economic growth while the school enrolments and real capital investment exhibit long run negative relationship with economic growth. The study therefore, among others recommends that the policy makers should pay more attention to education sector in terms of its yearly allocations and disbursement, also put in place the policy to increase the school enrolment ratio of the population and then invest more in the acquisition of physical capital to stimulate rapid economic growth in Nigeria. Keywords: public expenditure, intellectual capital, education, real investment, economic growth

Hippocampus: Its Role in Relational Memory

Hippocampus is the region of the brain that is primarily associated with memory. The hippocampus, which is located in the inner (medial) region of the temporal lobe, forms part of the limbic system, which is important in regulating emotional responses. The hippocampus is thought to be principally involved in storing long-term memories and in making those memories resistant to forgetting, though this is a matter of debate. It is also thought to play an important role in spatial processing and navigation. Cholinergic system has implicated in the functionality of hippocampus interconnections with other neurons for efficient memory modulation. Pyramidal and globular cells are the main cells of the cornus ammonis and the dentate gyrus which is essential in relational memory consolidation. Acetylcholine is the main neurotransmitter implicated in encoding of memory in the hippocampus. There are diseases that are associated with hippocampus relational memory such as Alzheimer’s disease which is currently a global challenge. The hippocampus communicates with widespread regions of cortex through a group of highly interconnected brain regions in the medial temporal lobe. There is paucity of data on its role on relational memory. Therefore, the role of hippocampus in relational memory will be elucidated in this chapter

DESIGN OF MULTIPLE DEPENDENT STATE SAMPLING PLAN USING ZECH DISTRIBUTION WITH APPLICATION TO REAL LIFE DATA

In this work, a multiple dependent state sampling plan, which is an inspection procedure that determines whether an attribute is conforming or non-conforming to a specific requirement, in which the decision criterion for each lot dictates whether to accept the lot; reject the lot; or conditionally accept or reject the lot based on the disposition of future related lots, is introduced. This plan has some advantages over other acceptance sampling plans, like increased efficiency, improved ability to discriminate between acceptable and non – acceptable lots or batches, flexibility in designing the sampling process, and improved cost-effectiveness. To reject a lot, the plan made use of the properties of the sampled current and preceding lots. The study aims to reduce the average sampling number by using a non-linear optimization problem that is subjected to some constraints. With regards to a life test that is truncated in time, the product’s median life was used for the proposed sampling plan assuming that the lifetime of the product follows Zech distribution. The usage of median life was necessitated because Zech distribution is an asymmetric distribution with longer tail to the right. Two points on the operating characteristic curve were used for the proposed sampling plan and the following parameters were found; number of preceding lots which is required for deciding if the current lot should be accepted or rejected, the size of the sample, rejection number, and acceptance number. For different shape parameters, we constructed tables for various combinations of consumers’ and producers’ risks. A real example was provided which showed that a multiple dependent state sampling plan is a good sampling plan for fitting the datasets. Comparing the proposed plan with a single sampling plan, the results reveal that the proposed plan is more effective at securing the consumer and the producer with less inspection. The approach introduced in this study provides an ample opportunity for the manufacturers to reduce the cost and time of inspection by having the sample size reduced without compromising the decision-making accuracy. By implementing the findings of this study, the consumers are confident that their hard-earned money is not used to purchase sub-standard goods

High dietary consumption of iodine induced thyroid cytotoxicity in diabetic intoxicated rats and oxidonitrergic stress in non-diabetic rats

This study aimed to investigate the role of iodine intake in thyroid function ofdiabetic rats. Twenty-four (24) male Wistar rats were placed into four groups (n=6): Group (non-diabetic without iodine), Group 2 (non-diabetic + iodine), Group 3 (diabetic without iodine) and Group 4 (diabetic + iodine). 10mg/kg bw of iodine were mixed with the feeds. Serum triodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), thyroglobulin and thyroperoxidase antibodies were assessed using ELISA. Serum MDA, SOD, and NO levels were assessed with spectrophotometry. In the diabetic rats, lower mean serum T4 and TSH concentrations were observed (T4: 13.16±0.55 Vs 11.75±0.21 mg/dL, TSH: 2.62±0.11 Vs 2.28±0.08 IU/mL). Iodine treatment further reduced T4 and increased TSH concentrations (T4: 11.75±0.21 vs 6.75±0.22 mg/dL, TSH: 2.28±0.08 Vs 3.08±0.15 IU/mL). Thyroglobulin and thyroperoxidase antibodies were absent in all the rats. It was also observed that iodine intake caused an increase in oxidative stress in both diabetic and non-diabetic treated rats (MDA; 18.4±1.3 Vs 22.2±2.7 μmol/l X 10-5, NO; 14.08±0.38 Vs 13.24±0.07μm/l) and increased SOD levels in diabetic rats (44.44±2.94 Vs 68.94±0.91 mg/ml); this increase could be due to the increased TSH. Consumption of excess iodine suppressed thyroid function in diabetic rats and induced oxidative stress in both diabetic and non-diabetic treated rats

Adjunctive rifampicin for Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (ARREST): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia is a common cause of severe community-acquired and hospital-acquired infection worldwide. We tested the hypothesis that adjunctive rifampicin would reduce bacteriologically confirmed treatment failure or disease recurrence, or death, by enhancing early S aureus killing, sterilising infected foci and blood faster, and reducing risks of dissemination and metastatic infection. METHODS: In this multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, adults (≥18 years) with S aureus bacteraemia who had received ≤96 h of active antibiotic therapy were recruited from 29 UK hospitals. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) via a computer-generated sequential randomisation list to receive 2 weeks of adjunctive rifampicin (600 mg or 900 mg per day according to weight, oral or intravenous) versus identical placebo, together with standard antibiotic therapy. Randomisation was stratified by centre. Patients, investigators, and those caring for the patients were masked to group allocation. The primary outcome was time to bacteriologically confirmed treatment failure or disease recurrence, or death (all-cause), from randomisation to 12 weeks, adjudicated by an independent review committee masked to the treatment. Analysis was intention to treat. This trial was registered, number ISRCTN37666216, and is closed to new participants. FINDINGS: Between Dec 10, 2012, and Oct 25, 2016, 758 eligible participants were randomly assigned: 370 to rifampicin and 388 to placebo. 485 (64%) participants had community-acquired S aureus infections, and 132 (17%) had nosocomial S aureus infections. 47 (6%) had meticillin-resistant infections. 301 (40%) participants had an initial deep infection focus. Standard antibiotics were given for 29 (IQR 18-45) days; 619 (82%) participants received flucloxacillin. By week 12, 62 (17%) of participants who received rifampicin versus 71 (18%) who received placebo experienced treatment failure or disease recurrence, or died (absolute risk difference -1·4%, 95% CI -7·0 to 4·3; hazard ratio 0·96, 0·68-1·35, p=0·81). From randomisation to 12 weeks, no evidence of differences in serious (p=0·17) or grade 3-4 (p=0·36) adverse events were observed; however, 63 (17%) participants in the rifampicin group versus 39 (10%) in the placebo group had antibiotic or trial drug-modifying adverse events (p=0·004), and 24 (6%) versus six (2%) had drug interactions (p=0·0005). INTERPRETATION: Adjunctive rifampicin provided no overall benefit over standard antibiotic therapy in adults with S aureus bacteraemia. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Four Point Implicit Methods for the Second Derivatives of the Solution of First Type Boundary Value Problem for One Dimensional Heat Equation

We construct four-point implicit difference boundary value problem for the first derivative of the solution u(x,t) of the first type boundary value problem for one dimensional heat equation with respect to the time variable t. Also, for the second derivatives of u(x,t) special four-point implicit difference boundary value problems are proposed. It is assumed that the initial function belongs to the Hölder space C8+α,0 < α < 1, the heat source function given in the heat equation is from the Hölder space Cx,t6+α, 3+α2 , the boundary functions are from C4+α2 , and between the initial and the boundary functions the conjugation conditions of orders q = 0,1,2,3,4 are satisfied. We prove that the solution of the proposed difference schemes converge uniformly on the grids of the order O(h2+τ) (second order accurate in the spatial variable x and first order accurate in time t) where, h is the step size in x and τ is the step size in time. Theoretical results are justified by numerical examples

Four Point Implicit Methods for the Second Derivatives of the Solution of First Type Boundary Value Problem for One Dimensional Heat Equation

We construct four-point implicit difference boundary value problem for the first derivative of the solution u(x,t) of the first type boundary value problem for one dimensional heat equation with respect to the time variable t. Also, for the second derivatives of u(x,t) special four-point implicit difference boundary value problems are proposed. It is assumed that the initial function belongs to the Hölder space C8+α,0 < α < 1, the heat source function given in the heat equation is from the Hölder space Cx,t6+α, 3+α2 , the boundary functions are from C4+α2 , and between the initial and the boundary functions the conjugation conditions of orders q = 0,1,2,3,4 are satisfied. We prove that the solution of the proposed difference schemes converge uniformly on the grids of the order O(h2+τ) (second order accurate in the spatial variable x and first order accurate in time t) where, h is the step size in x and τ is the step size in time. Theoretical results are justified by numerical examples