Awareness of Trachoma Prevention among People of Bolori Community Maiduguri Metropolitan Council Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria

Background: Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness in the world. It is commonly found among cultural groups with poor hygiene. Its  controls include; Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness and Environmental Sanitation (SAFE). Potentially blinding and active trachoma are  monitored using trachomatous trichiasis (TT) in adults and trachoma inflammation-follicular (TF) in children aged 1–9 years respectively. A  community-based crosssectional study was conducted to assess the awareness of trachoma preventive measures among the people of Bolori, in the  metropolitan council of Maiduguri Borno State, Nigeria. Methods: The study utilizes a descriptive research design and a multi-stage sampling technique, which involve both stratified random and  convenient sampling methods respectively. The instruments comprise a closed-ended questions and sections A and B. Section A: focus mainly on  sociodemographic data while section B; focuses on the research question. The researcher initially divided Bolori wards into 7 strata of which a  convenient sample technique was used to administer 53 questionnaires to 3 strata and 54 questionnaires to 4 strata, each daily which lasted 7 days.  Results: The majority of the respondents are aware of trachoma preventive measures. The majority (34.8%) of the respondents are between the  ages of 26 – 35 years, 37 (32.2%) of the respondents are between the ages of 36 – 45 years, 20 (17.4%) of the respondents are within the age range  of 15 – 25 years, and 46 years and above are 18 (15.6%) of the respondents. The Grand Total Mean for Knowledge of respondents was 57.4%, causes  and prevention 76.7%, the attitude of the people towards personal and environmental sanitation 76.8%, and SAFE strategy prevention is 51.5%.   Conclusion: Based on the data obtained from the research study, findings revealed that the majority of the respondents have a good awareness of  Trachoma prevention, especially on a good attitude toward environmental sanitation. Findings also revealed that there was low access to clean and  adequate water supply among the populace of the community

Pre-Impoundment Fish Stock Assessment of the Black Volta: A Contribution to Fisheries Management of Bui Reservoir in Ghana

A length-based fish stock assessment of the Black Volta River in Ghana was undertaken prior to its damming at Bui in 2011. The approach involved estimation of the population parameters and exploitation rates of dominant fish stocks using TropFish R. The targeted species were: Alestes baremoze, Hydrocynus forskalii, Hemisynodontis membranaceus and Labeo coubie. The estimated asymptotic length (L∞) ranged from 30.8 – 48.2 cm standard length (SL) with derived longevity of 11 – 27 years for the assessed species. The estimated growth coefficient (K) value ranged from 0.10 – 0.25 yr-1 which suggested slow growth rates. The estimated length at first capture (Lc50) was lower than the length at first maturity (Lm50) for all the assessed fish species which suggests the presence of recruitment overfishing within the fish stocks. The total mortality rate (Z) was relatively high ranging between 0.51 and 1.34 yr-1 suggesting that the stocks were over-exploited during the pre-impoundment period. The exploitation rate (E) for the assessed fish species were lower than the maximum exploitation rate (Emax) which indicates that the species are far from collapse. These estimates are baseline scientific information for designing a Fisheries Management Plan for the Bui reservoir. Meanwhile, alternative livelihood and employment opportunities such as cage fish culture are to be explored to reduce the fishing pressure on the reservoir

Propagation of nuclear data uncertainties for ELECTRA burn-up calculations

The European Lead-Cooled Training Reactor (ELECTRA) has been proposed as a training reactor for fast systems within the Swedish nuclear program. It is a low-power fast reactor cooled by pure liquid lead. In this work, we propagate the uncertainties in Pu-239 transport data to uncertainties in the fuel inventory of ELECTRA during the reactor life using the Total Monte Carlo approach (TMC). Within the TENDL project the nuclear models input parameters were randomized within their uncertainties and 740 Pu-239 nuclear data libraries were generated. These libraries are used as inputs to reactor codes, in our case SERPENT, to perform uncertainty analysis of nuclear reactor inventory during burn-up. The uncertainty in the inventory determines uncertainties in: the long-term radio-toxicity, the decay heat, the evolution of reactivity parameters, gas pressure and volatile fission product content. In this work, a methodology called fast TMC is utilized, which reduces the overall calculation time. The uncertainty in the long-term radiotoxicity, decay heat, gas pressure and volatile fission products were found to be insignificant. However, the uncertainty of some minor actinides were observed to be rather large and therefore their impact on multiple recycling should be investigated further. It was also found that, criticality benchmarks can be used to reduce inventory uncertainties due to nuclear data. Further studies are needed to include fission yield uncertainties, more isotopes, and a larger set of benchmarks.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Proc. 2013 International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science & Technology (ND2013), March 4-8, 2013, New York, USA, to be published in Nuclear Data Sheet

Removal of Ni (Ii) and Cd (Ii) Ions From Aqueous Solutions by Adsorption on to Synthetic Zeolite

In this study, the removal of Ni (II) and Cd (II) ions from aqueous solutions using the adsorption process onto synthetic Zeolite has been investigated as a function of initial metal concentration, contact time, pH and temperature. In order to find out the effect of temperature on adsorption, the experiments were conducted at 20, 30, 40, 50 °C and 15, 30, 50 °C for Ni (II) and Cd (II) respectively. Kinetics data show that at higher temperatures, the rate of adsorption on the synthetic Zeolite is much higher compared to that on the lower temperatures. The optimum pH for Ni (II) and Cd (II) removal is found out to be 5.5 and 6 respectively. The batch method has been employed using initial metal concentrations in solution ranging from 25 to 100 mg/l for Ni (II) and from 10 to 25 for Cd (II) at optimum pH. An Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer was used for measuring the heavy metal concentrations before and after adsorption. Langmuir, Freundlich, models were applied to adsorption equilibrium data to find the best amongst these models. This study has demonstrated that Zeolite was capable to remove 90% of nickel and cadmium from solution of different concentrations. This implies that Zeolite is an important in the removal process. These capabilities of Zeolite could lead to development of a viable and cost effective technology for removal of these pollutants from wastewater for countries like Iraq

Tropical legume project impact on groundnut improvement research outputs in Nigeria

Groundnut is an important component of the farming systems in the dry savannas of Nigeria. It is planted on 34% of cultivated area and contributes to 54% of household cash in the country. Groundnut production in Nigeria has suffered from major setbacks; fungal and bacteria diseases, aflatoxin contamination and weak seed system. However, considerable progress had been made by IAR, ICRISAT and several partners to overcome these setbacks through the development and deployment of improved groundnut varieties and associated crop management systems. Earlier released Rosette resistant varieties, RMP12 (SAMNUT10) and RMP91 (SAMNUT11), were late maturing varieties. With climate change resulting in shortened growing season, the need for early-maturing, disease- and drought-tolerant varieties became urgent. Collaborative efforts of several partners resulted in the official registration and release of medium duration: SAMNUT21 (UGA2), SAMNUT22 (M 572, 80I), and early-maturing varieties SAMNUT23 (ICGV-IS 96894) in 2001. With the arrival on the scene of the Tropical Legume Project (TL), along with the excellent research and development support, Samnut-24 and Samnut-25 and Samnut-26, were released. These varieties are part of the achievements from TL activities during 2012-13 and are our pride. These varieties are making a difference in the lives of farmers, improved the sustainability of the systems and also increased the cultivation of groundnut even in the dry season. TL project in Nigeria took the unique opportunity to partner with USAID-Groundnut up-scalling project to build capacity of farmers and awareness of improved production technologies and make seeds of improved varieties available

The effect of strain and spatial Bi distribution on the band alignment of GaAsBi single quantum well structure

The band line-up and band offset calculations of GaAs0.978Bi0.022/GaAs single quantum well with spatial changes of Bi composition were reported. The spatial Bi profile and a certain amount of the Bi composition in the barrier layer were determined by HR-XRD measurements. Virtual Crystal Approximation and Valence Band Anti-Crossing models were used including strain effects to obtain conduction and valence band edge shifts with Bi incorporation. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements were performed at a low temperature of 8 K as a function of excitation intensity. The PL spectra have shown asymmetric line shapes, which were fitted with different Gaussian functions. Comparing experimental PL results with calculated band edge energies, it was found that optical transition is a type I under low intensity excitation while the optical transition is switched from type I to type II due to the spatial changes in Bi concentrations. The band offsets?Ec/?Ev were also determined

Measuring routine childhood vaccination coverage in 204 countries and territories, 1980–2019 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2020, Release 1

Background: Measuring routine childhood vaccination is crucial to inform global vaccine policies and programme implementation, and to track progress towards targets set by the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) and Immunization Agenda 2030. Robust estimates of routine vaccine coverage are needed to identify past successes and persistent vulnerabilities. Drawing from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2020, Release 1, we did a systematic analysis of global, regional, and national vaccine coverage trends using a statistical framework, by vaccine and over time. Methods: For this analysis we collated 55 326 country-specific, cohort-specific, year-specific, vaccine-specific, and dose-specific observations of routine childhood vaccination coverage between 1980 and 2019. Using spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, we produced location-specific and year-specific estimates of 11 routine childhood vaccine coverage indicators for 204 countries and territories from 1980 to 2019, adjusting for biases in country-reported data and reflecting reported stockouts and supply disruptions. We analysed global and regional trends in coverage and numbers of zero-dose children (defined as those who never received a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis [DTP] vaccine dose), progress towards GVAP targets, and the relationship between vaccine coverage and sociodemographic development. Findings: By 2019, global coverage of third-dose DTP (DTP3; 81·6% [95% uncertainty interval 80·4–82·7]) more than doubled from levels estimated in 1980 (39·9% [37·5–42·1]), as did global coverage of the first-dose measles-containing vaccine (MCV1; from 38·5% [35·4–41·3] in 1980 to 83·6% [82·3–84·8] in 2019). Third-dose polio vaccine (Pol3) coverage also increased, from 42·6% (41·4–44·1) in 1980 to 79·8% (78·4–81·1) in 2019, and global coverage of newer vaccines increased rapidly between 2000 and 2019. The global number of zero-dose children fell by nearly 75% between 1980 and 2019, from 56·8 million (52·6–60·9) to 14·5 million (13·4–15·9). However, over the past decade, global vaccine coverage broadly plateaued; 94 countries and territories recorded decreasing DTP3 coverage since 2010. Only 11 countries and territories were estimated to have reached the national GVAP target of at least 90% coverage for all assessed vaccines in 2019. Interpretation: After achieving large gains in childhood vaccine coverage worldwide, in much of the world this progress was stalled or reversed from 2010 to 2019. These findings underscore the importance of revisiting routine immunisation strategies and programmatic approaches, recentring service delivery around equity and underserved populations. Strengthening vaccine data and monitoring systems is crucial to these pursuits, now and through to 2030, to ensure that all children have access to, and can benefit from, lifesaving vaccines

Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19 : a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990–2050

Background: The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods: We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings: In 2019, health spending globally reached$8·8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8·7–8·8) or $1132 (1119–1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total,$40·4 billion (0·5%, 95% UI 0·5–0·5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24·6% (UI 24·0–25·1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54·8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this,$13·7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12·3 billion was newly committed and$1·4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3·1 billion (22·4$2·4 billion (17·9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714·4 million (7·7$1519 (1448–1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation: Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation