Quality of life of people living with HIV and AIDS attending Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Nigeria

Background: With the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), life expectancy of HIV-infected persons had increased and the disease is now managed as a chronic one, but the quality of life (QOL) of the patients is now a concern. Social support enhances QOL of patients with chronic illnesses. However, no study has been done to determine the QOL of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) in our environment. This study therefore assessed the QOL of PLWHA attending antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinic of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Edo State of Nigeria Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. Two hundred and thirty PLWHA attending the ART clinic of ISTH, Irrua, Edo State, Nigeria, were systematically selected for the study. A structured questionnaire was interviewer-administered to collect data on sociodemographic and clinical profiles of selected participants, and the WHOQOL-HIV BREF questionnaire was used to collect data the QOL of each participant. Data were analyzed with IBM SPSS version 20.0. Results: The overall mean QOL score for the participants was 89.13±1.18 (95% CI=87.95-90.31). The scores in three of the six life domains in the WHOQOL-HIV BREF instrument were similar and high; spirituality/ religion/personal beliefs (16.33±0.36), physical health (15.83±0.28) and psychological health (15.07±0.24). Lower mean QOL scores were observed in the social relationships (13.49±0.28) and environment (13.45±0.20) domains. Clinical HIV stage, marital status, educational status and gender were significantly associated with mean QOL scores in bivariate analysis while only HIV stage 1 and 2 were significantly associated with good QOL in multivariate logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: It is pertinent that PLWHA are kept in early stages of HIV disease through combination of efforts such as prompt enrolment, commencement and monitoring compliance of HAART, and treatment of opportunistic infections, as well as public health measures including education, de-stigmatization, early diagnosis by extensive accessible screening/testing of at-risk population, social supports and economic empowerment, psychotherapy and social integration of affected individuals especially in a functional home

Prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production in clinical Escherichia coli isolates in Ibadan metropolis, south-west Nigeria

Background: Escherichia coli is a major extended spectrum beta-lactamase-producing organism. Extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) inactivate newer cephalosporins through hydrolysis increasing therapeutic failure and antibiotic resistance worldwide. This prospective experimental study aimed to determine the antibiotic susceptibility profile and ESBL production by clinical E. coli isolates.Methods: Fifty-one clinical E. coli isolates were obtained from the microbiology laboratories of University College Hospital, Adeoyo Maternity Hospital, Our Lady of Apostle Hospital, and a private diagnostic laboratory all in Ibadan metropolis. They were identified and confirmed using standard biochemical tests. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was used to determine the antibiogram and interpreted using clinical laboratory standard institute (CLSI) guideline. ESBL production was determined by the double disk synergy test (DDST).Results: The prevalence of ESBL production was observed to be 78.4%(40). Resistance was common to sulphamethozaxole/trimethoprim 96.0%(49), ceftazidime 94.1%(48), amoxicillin and tetracycline 92.1%(47), fosfomycin 84.3%(43), cefotaxime 76.4%(39), ciprofloxacin 60.7%(31), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid 58.8%(30), and chloramphenicol 50.9%(26). Meropenem was observed to be the most sensitive (100.0%), followed by nitrofurantoin 78.4%(40), and gentamicin 70.5%(36). Multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index greater than 0.2 was observed in 98.0%(50) of the isolates.Conclusion: Majority of the clinical isolates of E. coli were ESBL producers which are resistant to frequently used antibiotics.Keywords: Escherichia coli, Extended spectrum beta-lactamase, Antibiotic resistanc

The Use of Coconut-Shell Based Activated Carbon as an Adsorbent in the Treatment of Hard Water

One of the undesirable characteristics of some groundwater sources is hardness, which has adverse effects on water pipes, boilers and soap consumption. Therefore, several treatment processes have been introduced to remove or reduce the hardness from water. One of the innovations in this regard is coconut-shell which is readily available and could be used to produce resource materials such as activated carbon that is of public health importance. The initial values of Calcium, Magnesium and Total Hardness in the raw water sample were 120.24mg/L, 98.29mg/L and 588.00mg/L, respectively which are above the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. The highest quantities of Calcium, Magnesium and Total Hardness were removed at a contact time of 60 minutes with removal efficiencies of 80%, 60.44% and 66.71%, respectively. Also, the optimum dosage occurred at 1.2g for Calcium hardness, 1.5g for Magnesium hardness and Total hardness. In conclusion, the adsorbent obtained from the coconut-shell has the potential of removing Calcium, Magnesium and Total Hardness in water

Examination of the relationship between vegetation cover indices and land degradation in the peri- urban area of Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria

This study examined the relationship between some vegetation cover indices and land degradation in the periurban area of Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria with the aim of reducing, if not stopping, the activities that produce vegetation indices that contribute to land degradation. Methods adopted for data collection are field observation and measurement of variables along twelve transects, using the following indices; size of surface cover, tree crown fullness, area covered by litters, tree density and leaf cover index. The physical measurements were carried out on each transect of 50m by 500m.The data collected was collated and presented in a tabular format which was later subjected to correlation analysis using SPSS software. The results revealed an inverse relationships between the size of land degraded and tree density (-0.521), leaf cover index (-0.387), area covered by litters (-0.332), surface cover index (-0.244) and tree crown fullness (-0.163), but a very strong positive correlation between tree density and leaf cover index (0.886), tree crown fullness (0.718) and area covered by litters (0.557) respectively. From this analysis the major vegetal index contributing to land degradation is the tree density which, when it is improved upon, will lead to the improvement of other indices because of the positive correlation between them and tree density. Therefore it is recommended that agroforestry and land scaping should be embraced in the area with emphasis on short economic trees with moderate crown cover that will allow crops or grasses to grow under it as well as avoid the negative impact of rain water drops from very tall tree that can cause soil erosion.KEYWORDS: Agroforestry, leaf, land degradation, litters, tree density and vegetation

Food Expenditure Patterns Among Urban Households In Ibadan Southwest Local Government Area, Oyo State

This study examines food expenditure patterns among urban households in Ibadan South West Local Government Area of Oyo State. The primary data used for the study were obtained through structured questionnaire using random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and least square regression model were used to analyse the data collected from respondents. Descriptive analysis showed that 82.5% of the household heads were males, 65% of them were married, and 55% fell within the age bracket of 30 and 39 years, while 65% were salary-earners. Most of the respondents (79.2%) had tertiary education and the average household size was found to be 5. Furthermore, 49.2% bought foodstuffs from the market for home consumption on a monthly basis and 52.5% spent less than N10, 000 monthly on food.  The result of the least square regression model showed that the age of respondents, level of education and occupation (salary-earner or self-employed) of the household head, as well as the household income were significantly influenced by household’s monthly food expenditure in the study area. The study recommends among other things enlightenment programmes that will    educate the urban dwellers on the  need to eat good quality and hygienic food.   &nbsp

POWER SYSTEMS OPERATION IMPROVEMENT CONSIDERING LOSS MINIMIZATION AND VOLTAGE STABILITY ENHANCEMENT

The challenge of energy and power losses during electrical energy transmission from generation plants to users is a major problem that cannot be over-emphasized. These Losses are inevitable because they are inherent in the conduction of electrical energy through physical means but can be minimized. This paper presents a VSC-PSO method for optimizing the power system operation by simultaneously minimizing the loss and enhancing the voltage stability which are the objective functions. The optimal power flow (OPF) was performed on IEEE 30-bus system with Newton Raphson algorithm implemented in MATLAB simulation software. The simulation results showed that the VSC-PSO approach performed more excellently with concurrent consideration of line loss reduction and voltage stability improvement when compared with other methods in literatur

Solvent free hydroxylation of the methyl esters of Blighia unijugata seed oil in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium permanganate

Extraction of oil from the seed of Blighia unijugata gave a yield of 50.82 ± 1.20% using hexane in a soxhlet extractor. The iodine and saponification values were 67.60 ± 0.80 g iodine/100 g and 239.20 ± 1.00 mg KOH/g respectively with C18:1 being the dominant fatty acid. Unsaturated methyl esters of Blighia unijugata which had been previously subjected to urea adduct complexation was used to synthesize methyl 9, 10-dihydroxyoctadecanoate via hydroxylation in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium permanganate (CTAP). The reaction was monitored and confirmed using FTIR and GC-MS. This study has revealed that oxidation reaction of mono unsaturated bonds using CTAP could be achieved under solvent free condition