Nasopharyngeal cancer in north-eastern Nigeria: clinical trends

Nasopharyngeal cancer is the malignancy of the posterior aspect of the nose called Nasopharynx. It is one of themost difficult diseases to diagnose at an early stage. To determine prevalence, clinical trends and histopathological types of Nasopharyngeal cancer in Maiduguri, North Eastern Nigeria. Fifteen year retrospective evaluation of patient’s case notes and cancer registry records of 40 patientswith histologically confirmed nasopharyngeal cancer between 1991-2005. Nasopharyngeal cancers constituted 35.1% of all malignancies of ear, nose, throat during the study period.TheM:Fwas 2.1-1, themean agewas 39( 16.5) years and a peak age group and its occurrence of 40-49 years. The commonest symptom at presentation were cervical lymphadenopathy (72.5%), rhinorrhoea (55%), epistaxis(45%). The commonest histological type was squamous cell carcinoma(92.5%). Patients who received chemotherapy in addition to radiotherapy and higher symptom free period. Cancer is a difficult disease to diagnose at an stage.Ameticulous ear, nose and throat examination and thorough evaluation of nasal symptoms with associated cervical lymphadenopathy may lead to an early diagnosis of nasopharyngeal cancer’s.Keywords: Nasopharyngeal cancer, clinical trend, Maiduguri, Nigeria

Otological emergencies among the northern Nigerian children

Background: Swift recognition and prompt institution of management is very crucial to successful outcome of otologic emergencies. The aim and objective of the study was to determine the spectrum of pediatric otologic emergencies in northern Nigeria.Methods: A retrospective study to review of 1497 paediatric otologic emergencies aged one month to 14 years seen at National ear care centre, Kaduna between 2002 and 2006 inclusive was done. The records of all these patients were retrieved, studied and information collected analyzed. The data extracted for analysis included – biodata, clinical presentation diagnosis and treatment outcome.Results: There were 943 male and 554 female with M: F ratio of 1.7:1. Their ages ranged from 1month to 14 years with a mean age of 4.95years (SD=4.15). A total of 928 (62%) were infants and preschool age groups (under fives). Acute suppurative otitis media was found in 573 (38.3%), was the commonest otological condition diagnosed followed by acute otitis media in 22.6% and foreign body in the ear in 222(14.8%).The least frequent were CSF otorrhea, and ramsay hunt disease which constituted 0.07%.Conclusion: Acute suppurative otitis media, acute otitis media and foreign body insertion into the ear still constitute the common otological emergencies in Northern Nigeria. These are all preventable emergencies through community health education, training of community health worker to recognize the symptom and signs of ear disease with early referral

Extra Dimensions, Isosinglet Charged Leptons and Neutrino Factories

Isosinglet fermions naturally arise in a variety of extensions of the Standard Model, in particular in models with extra dimensions. In this paper, we study the effect of the addition of a new isosinglet charged lepton to the standard spectrum, with special emphasis on implications for neutrino asymmetries to be measured at future neutrino factories. Lepton flavour violation in neutral current and lepton universality constraints are extensively discussed. We show that new physics effects in $\nu_e-\nu_{\mu}$ CP asymmetries are significantly enhanced due to leptonic maximal mixings but still too small to give a signature at future neutrino factories. A signal for CP asymmetries in $\nu_{\mu}-\nu_{\tau}$ channel due to new physics could be observed at $1-3 \sigma$ if lepton flavour violating $\tau$ decays are seen in a very close future in B-factories like BELLE experiment.Comment: 30 page

Total quality management practices, competitive strategies and financial performance: the case of the Palestinian industrial SMEs

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Total Quality Management and Business Excellence on 19 Aug 2013, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14783363.2013.824714."The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) practices, competitive strategies - cost leadership and differentiation- and firm performance in the Palestinian economy. Within this study total quality management has been conceptualized as soft and hard practices, in congruence with the literature. An empirical analysis based upon an extensive validation process was applied to refine TQM, competitive strategies and financial performance scales. Data were collected through surveying 202 in Palestinian industrial small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Structural Equation Modeling was carried out to test the anticipated relationships. Results derived from this study show that TQM practices have indirect, positive and significant relationship with financial performance through competitive strategies. In addition, a direct, positive and significant relationship between competitive strategies and financial performance was observed. Results derived from this study might help managers to implement TQM practices in order to effectively allocate resources and improve financial performance

Circulating metabolites are associated with brain atrophy and white matter hyperintensities

Introduction: Our aim was to study whether systemic metabolites are associated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of brain and hippocampal atrophy and white matter hyperintensities (WMH). Methods: We studied associations of 143 plasma-based metabolites with MRI measures of brain and hippocampal atrophy and WMH in three independent cohorts (n = 3962). We meta-analyzed the results of linear regression analyses to determine the association of metabolites with MRI measures. Results: Higher glucose levels and lower levels of three small high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles were associated with brain atrophy. Higher glucose levels were associated with WMH. Discussion: Glucose levels were associated with brain atrophy and WMH, and small HDL particle levels were associated with brain atrophy. Circulating metabolites may aid in developing future intervention trials

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters