Telemedicine as a tool to prevent multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in poor resource settings: Lessons from Nigeria

Background This mini review aims to provide an overview of the role of telemedicine in preventing multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Nigeria. The specific objectives include examining the potential benefits of telemedicine, identifying the challenges associated with its implementation, and highlighting the importance of addressing infrastructure limitations and data privacy concerns. Methods This minireview is based on a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, including scholarly articles, and reports,. A systematic search was conducted using electronic databases, such as PubMed and Google Scholar, to identify relevant publications related to telemedicine and MDR-TB prevention in Nigeria. The selected articles were assessed for their relevance, and key findings were synthesized to provide an overview of the role of telemedicine in addressing the challenges of MDR-TB in Nigeria. Results The review demonstrates that telemedicine has the potential to significantly contribute to MDR-TB prevention efforts in Nigeria. The benefits of telemedicine include improved access to specialized care, enhanced patient adherence to treatment, and potential cost savings. However, challenges such as infrastructure limitations and data privacy concerns need to be addressed for successful implementation. Integrating telemedicine into the healthcare system has the potential to strengthen MDR-TB prevention, particularly in underserved areas, including within Nigeria. Specifically, the integration of telemedicine into the healthcare system can enhance access to specialized care, improve patient adherence, and potentially reduce costs associated with MDR-TB management. Conclusions Addressing infrastructure challenges, ensuring data privacy and security, and fostering trust among healthcare providers and patients are critical for successful implementation of telemedicine. Further research and policy frameworks are needed to guide the effective implementation and scale-up of telemedicine in MDR-TB prevention efforts in Nigeria

Impact of agribusiness empowerment interventions on youth livelihoods: insight from Africa

Open Access JournalThis study generates evidence to understand the impact of agribusiness empowerment programmes on youth livelihoods in developing countries based on the ENABLE-TAAT programme implemented in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. A multistage sampling technique was used in obtaining primary agribusiness-level data from a sample of 1435 young agripreneurs from the study countries. An Endogenous Treatment Effect Regression (ETER) model was used to assess the impact of programme participation on youth livelihoods (income and food security). Results show that participation significantly increased youth's agripreneurship income by 7% and improved food security by 75% for the pooled analysis. The country disaggregation results show that participation led to a 54% and 37% increase in the income of participants in Nigeria and Uganda, respectively. Also, positive and significant impacts were obtained for food security in the two East African countries. These findings suggest policy interventions or programmes focusing on youth agribusiness empowerment, particularly those that target young actors along different agricultural value chains. The study also suggests interventions geared towards mitigating constraints to credit access and productive resources by young agripreneurs to ease barriers to working capital and business innovation

A Longitudinal Examination of African American Adolescents' Attributions About Achievement Outcomes

Developmental, gender, and academic domain differences in causal attributions and the influence of attributions on classroom engagement were explored longitudinally in 115 African American adolescents. In Grades 8 and 11, adolescents reported attributions for success and failure in math, English and writing, and science. In Grade 11, English and mathematics teachers rated students' classroom engagement. Boys were more likely than girls to attribute math successes to high ability and to attribute English failures to low ability. Both genders' ability attributions for math became more negative from eighth to eleventh grades. Grade 8 attributions of math failure to lack of ability were negatively related to Grade 11 math classroom engagement. Results illustrate the gendered nature of motivational beliefs among Black youth

Deformation Monitoring Using A Terrestrial Laser Scanner: A Case Study Of Alausa Shopping Mall, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria

Deformation refers to the continuous transformation of a structure from a reference configuration to a current configuration. The passage of time causes significant damage to buildings, so it is necessary to carry out monitoring procedures. Hence, the objective of this paper is to monitor the deformation of Alausa Shopping Mall, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria using a Polaris Terrestrial Laser Scanner to ascertain the structure's stability. The Polaris Terrestrial Scanner was used to acquire the point cloud of the structure; which represents the as-is geometries of the structure, and when imported into a BIM software environment, a 3D point cloud model, which represents the current state of the structure is created. The dimension of the building was acquired from the Lagos state vector, and when combined with height data, a 3D model representing the As-built building was developed. Then a comparison between the 3D point cloud and the As-built model was performed by comparing building segments in the 3D point cloud model with their corresponding segments in the As-built model which resulted in the determination of the horizontal and vertical displacements. The horizontal displacement rate was calculated to be 0.593mm per year, and the vertical displacement rate recorded was 3.845mm per year. Predictions of the displacement rates over 50 years at 10 years intervals were made, with the maximum (after 50 years) as 29.65mm and 192.25mm at the horizontal and vertical, respectively. Therefore, monitoring of structure should be a continuous process in the build environment

Can young agripreneurs improve their skills through agripreneurship empowerment programmes? Evidence from Africa

Open Access JournalThis article examined the driving forces behind young agripreneurs’ participation in agripreneurship empowerment programmes and estimates the causal impact of programme participation on agripreneurship skills using data from a random cross-section sample of 1435 young agripreneurs in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. Specifically, the study took evidence from the youth component of the African Development Bank Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme, Empowering Novel Agribusiness-Led Employment (ENABLE). An endogenous switching model was used to identify factors that significantly informed participation decisions and assess the programme’s impact on youth agripreneurship skills. Age, education, agripreneurship experience, business level, current residence, and training perception significantly influenced participation. Even though both programme participants and non-participants had high agripreneurship skills scores, participants had higher scores across the three countries than non-participants. The causal impact estimation from the switching regression model also indicates that participation has a positive and significant impact on agripreneurship skills, which implies that the higher score achieved by participants could be attributed to their involvement in the ENABLE-TAAT programme. These results suggest raising awareness of youth agribusiness empowerment programmes and encouraging youth to participate more actively. Additionally, the result suggests the need to implement strategies that could change young people’s negative perception of agricultural interventions for increased participation

ENTREPRENEURIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PROSPECTIVE LI-ID PRENEURS

Over the years, there have been several definitions of an entrepreneur but the 21st century definition by Schumpeter is that of innovation which he saw as an engine of economic development. Architectural training in institutions of higher learning entails training of individuals to reason creatively through series of line drawings and ideas generation. This equips prospective students towards blending into the world of construction and contracts administration and without the basic knowledge or skills of engagement, it’s next to impossible surviving the competition. Further equipping the student with entrepreneurial skills makes him more versatile and thus become a Li-Id preneur (Lines-Ideas preneur) due to his training through lines drawings and ideas generation. This paper investigated the characteristics of the Li-Id preneurs of students in Covenant University, Nigeria. This was done by administering a well-structured questionnaire and interviews for proper conclusion on the subject matter from a cross section of students from final year in Architecture and Business Studies in 2016- 2017 academic sessions. The data collected was statistically analysed with SPSS software and it showed that it was imperative that entrepreneurial skills acquisition was key and fundamental towards business intelligence and making the student better equipped in all round skills acquisition. It also showed that while the Li-Id preneur had acquired skills in line drawings and ideas generation, having an alternative means of livelihood was a giant leap towards economic empowerment and national development. Also, the teaching of entrepreneurial skills should be part of the education curriculum during these formative years of the Li-Id preneur’s lif

Assessing food security among young farmers in Africa: evidence from Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda

Open Access JournalFood insecurity remains a serious challenge for many households in Africa and the situation is even more prevalent among young people. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on youth food security status in Africa. We assessed the level and determinants of food security among young farmers in Africa. We adopted a multi-stage sampling technique to select 400, 429, and 606 young farmers in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda, respectively. Individual food consumption was assessed following a 7 days recall method. The Food Consumption Score, which combines dietary diversity and consumption frequency was used to assess food security status while the determinants of food security were identified using a logistic regression model. Results suggest low dietary diversity across the three countries. Also, the majority of the respondents had an unacceptable food consumption score, suggesting that despite being food producers, young farmers are still food insecure. The odds of being food secure was positively determined by access to extension services, participation in the ENABLE TAAT business incubation programme, and access to market information but, negatively by access to credit, number of employees, Covid-19 pandemic, and location. Additionally, the food security status of young female farmers was positively influenced by age, suggesting that younger youths are less food secure compared to older ones. These results suggest that more efforts should be directed towards improving the food security of young African farmers and that policy- and programme-level interventions should support access to extension services, market information, and land. Additionally, more investments should be directed towards developing need-based agribusiness incubation programmes with an effort to scale existing programmes beyond the regular one-time period

Gallotannin and Annonamuricata extract inhibit polyphenol oxidase activity and mitigate browning in Malusdomestica

Background: The prevention of browning in fruits remains a great concern in the food industry.Objective: In the present study, we evaluated the anti-browning potentials of gallotannin and Annona muricata extract in red apple (Malus domestica).Materials and Methods: Apple slices were made and dipped in the different solutions; distilled water (control), 1 % gallotannin, 1 % Annona muricataextract or 1 % ascorbic acid. The treated apple slices were stored at 4 oC for 0, 7 and 14 days and used for the determination of the browning index, polyphenolic content, total protein, polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase activities. Results: The treatment with gallotannin, A. muricata and ascorbic acid reduced browning of apple for storage days 7 and 14. However, only gallotannin treatment preserved the polyphenolic content of the apple slices when compared to the control as well as the other treatment groups. Furthermore, all treatments reduced the activity of the polyphenol oxidase for days 0 and 7 storage, relative to the control. In contrast, the treatments had no effect on the peroxidase activity when compared to the control.Conclusion: Data support the anti-browning potential of gallotannin, A. muricata and ascorbic acid. Further, anti-browning potential of these naturally derived materials may be linked with their inhibitory actions against polyphenol oxidase

Higher dose corticosteroids in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 who are hypoxic but not requiring ventilatory support (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

BACKGROUND: Low-dose corticosteroids have been shown to reduce mortality for patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilatory support (non-invasive mechanical ventilation, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). We evaluated the use of a higher dose of corticosteroids in this patient group. METHODS: This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) is assessing multiple possible treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19. Eligible and consenting adult patients with clinical evidence of hypoxia (ie, receiving oxygen or with oxygen saturation <92% on room air) were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual care with higher dose corticosteroids (dexamethasone 20 mg once daily for 5 days followed by 10 mg dexamethasone once daily for 5 days or until discharge if sooner) or usual standard of care alone (which included dexamethasone 6 mg once daily for 10 days or until discharge if sooner). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality among all randomised participants. On May 11, 2022, the independent data monitoring committee recommended stopping recruitment of patients receiving no oxygen or simple oxygen only due to safety concerns. We report the results for these participants only. Recruitment of patients receiving ventilatory support is ongoing. The RECOVERY trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936). FINDINGS: Between May 25, 2021, and May 13, 2022, 1272 patients with COVID-19 and hypoxia receiving no oxygen (eight [1%]) or simple oxygen only (1264 [99%]) were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus higher dose corticosteroids (659 patients) versus usual care alone (613 patients, of whom 87% received low-dose corticosteroids during the follow-up period). Of those randomly assigned, 745 (59%) were in Asia, 512 (40%) in the UK, and 15 (1%) in Africa. 248 (19%) had diabetes and 769 (60%) were male. Overall, 123 (19%) of 659 patients allocated to higher dose corticosteroids versus 75 (12%) of 613 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·59 [95% CI 1·20–2·10]; p=0·0012). There was also an excess of pneumonia reported to be due to non-COVID infection (64 cases [10%] vs 37 cases [6%]; absolute difference 3·7% [95% CI 0·7–6·6]) and an increase in hyperglycaemia requiring increased insulin dose (142 [22%] vs 87 [14%]; absolute difference 7·4% [95% CI 3·2–11·5]). INTERPRETATION: In patients hospitalised for COVID-19 with clinical hypoxia who required either no oxygen or simple oxygen only, higher dose corticosteroids significantly increased the risk of death compared with usual care, which included low-dose corticosteroids. The RECOVERY trial continues to assess the effects of higher dose corticosteroids in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 who require non-invasive ventilation, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. FUNDING: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council), National Institute of Health and Care Research, and Wellcome Trust