Presentation and materno-foetal outcome in defaulters of obstetric procedures in state specialist hospital, Asubiaro, Osogbo, Osun state Nigeria.

Background: Obstetric procedures are carried out to reduce or completely eliminate maternal and perinatal morbidities and mortalities.Objectives: is to determine the mode of presentation and materno-foctal outcome in defaulters of obstetric procedures, the reasons for defaulting the obstetric procedurcs and to institute measures to reduce or completely eliminate them.Materials and Methods: It is a prospective observational study. All the patients that defaulted obstetric procedures, mainly induction of labour and elective caesarean sections, but later represented in the hospital for management between February 2013 and January 2015 were recruited into the study. These patients and their babies were followed up till the first 7days postpatumResults: During this study period, 66 patients represented after defaulting and managed accordingly. Majority of the patients aged 25-34 years (45 patients; 68.18%) presented after 40 weeks gestational age and were mainly of social class III (44 patients; 66.66%).Most of the defaulters, 43 patients (65.15%) had their last deliveries per vaginam and labour were spontaneously achieved, The commonest reasons for defaulting the earlier seheduled obstetric procedures were fear of the complications of the procedures and advice from friends and relations (45patients; 68: 18%). The 2 main obstetric proccdures evaluated were inductions of labour, 40 patients (60.61%) and elective caesarean sections, 26 patients (39.39%). The materno-foetal outcome considered were; birth asphyxia 26(39.39%), intrauterine foetal death, 12(18.18%). primary postpartum heamorrhage 12(18. 18%), ruptured uterus 2(3.03%), neonatal jaundice 1(1.52%), neonatal sepsis 1(1.52%), and early neonatal deaths 2(3.03%).Conclusion: Social class of the patients, fear of complications from the procedures, advice from friends and relations and the mode of last delivery determines the acccptance of the planned obstetric procedures by the patients. Thus proper education during the antenatal clinic visits will make managing these patients easier.Keywords: Social Class, Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA). Induction of labour (IOL), Elective Caesarean Section (ELCS), Emergency Caesarean Section (EMCS), Apgar Score (AS), Prolonged Pregnancy and Spontaneous Active Phase Labour (SAPL), Augmentation of Labour (AOL )

On homomorphism of fuzzy multigroups

In this paper, the homomorphism of fuzzy multigroups is briefly delineated following [2] and their corresponding isomorphism theorems are considered

Development of an Enhanced Knowledge Retrieval System Using Web 2.0 Technology and Vector Space Model

There is an increasing pool of information on the web and a major contributor is web 2.0 technology on which social media is based. Searching for specific information in this pool is always tasking, therefore, the need to harness this information as a means of enhancing retrieval and reuse of relevant ones. Some researches and development have been carried out in the field of Knowledge Retrieval using Vector Space Model (VSM) and Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), but the approach used is based on large pool of information available online, which makes getting most relevant information relatively difficult at the point of retrieval, this is a major setback. Collaborations on Facebook and Twitter (web 2.0 technology) were harvested using APIs and stored in the Knowledge Repository, The collaboration on social media served as the source of information in the Knowledge Repository. An Enhanced Knowledge Retrieval System (EKRS) applying VSM was developed and implemented. The use of VSM was to calculate the Cosine Similarity and Term Frequency to aid effective retrieval of relevant documents from the repository based on user’s needs. In this project, we were able to achieve the aim of retrieving relevant documents. EKRS was able to employ both web 2.0 and VSM to meet specific user’s information needs. Keywords: web 2.0, Knowledge retrieval, Vector Space Model, Latent Semantic Indexing, Knowledge Repository, Cosine Similarity and Term Frequency

Determination of coagulopathy complicating severe preeclampsia and eclampsia with platelet count in a University Hospital, South‑South, Nigeria

Background: Pre‑eclampsia is a multisystemic disorder complicating pregnancy. It is associated with a significant burden on maternal and perinatal health, especially when complicated by coagulation abnormalities.Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the level of thrombocytopenia that predicts a risk of abnormalities of coagulation indices in severe preeclampsia and eclampsia.Materials and Methods: Haemostatic factors including platelet count, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and plasma fibrinogen were done for a cohort of 90 patients with severe preeclampsia and eclampsia at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City. Their demographic and laboratory data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 and GraphPad InStat 3 software.Results: Twenty‑one (23.3%) of the 90 patients had eclampsia. Mean age was 29.78 ± 4.7 years, parity was 2.54 ± 1.6 and gestational age was 36.14 ± 2.9 weeks. Thrombocytopenia was found in 13 (14.4%) patients, whereas biochemical coagulopathy was found in 6 (6.7%) patients. Thrombocytopenia was 43% more likely with eclampsia than severe preeclampsia (47.6% vs 4.3, P = 0.001). Abnormal PT, APTT and plasma fibrinogen were more likely with platelet count below 80000 cell/μl (P = 0.046, P = 0.014 and P = 0.001, respectively). Eclampsia complicated with thrombocytopenia was associated with the most severe biochemical coagulopathy.Conclusion: Thrombocytopenia frequently complicates eclampsia more than severe preeclampsia at platelet count levels below 80000 cell/μl. This level is discriminatory for biochemical coagulopathy, and it should prompt coagulation studies and warrant clinical vigilance.Keywords: Coagulopathy; eclampsia; platelet counts; severe preeclampsia; thrombocytopenia; University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH

Determination of design-related properties of selected Irish potatoes varieties

The aim of this study was to determine some design-related properties of Irish potatoes commonly grown in Nigeria that may be useful in designing, handling and processing equipment of the product. Two varieties were selected: Nicola and Diamant. The measured properties were length, width, thickness, bulk density, solid density and angle of repose. Other parameters were arithmetic mean, geometric mean, surface area, volume, porosity and kernel weight. The mean length, width and thickness obtained for Nicola variety were 66.5, 37.3 and 32.4 mm respectively; while 57.4, 35.2, and 31.7 mm were obtained for Diamant, respectively. The mean angle of repose of Nicola and Diamant varieties were 27.20 and 26.40°, respectively. Mean roundness of Nicola and Diamant varieties were also obtained as 0.6 and 0.7 respectively. The mean surface area and volume of Nicola variety was determined to be 58.55 cm2 and 42.61 cm³ while that of Diamant variety was 50.31 cm² and 34.08 cm³, respectively. Moisture contents of Nicola and Diamant varieties used were obtained as 76.3 and 85.9%, respectively. Mean hardness of Nicola and Diamant varieties was 1.52 and 1.7 HV, respectively; indicating that Diamant is a harder variety than Nicola. These properties may be useful and serve as a guide on major engineering design of handling and processing equipment

The Cooling Systems and Weather Statistics of Maiduguri and Yola - Nigeria

Bin data for dry bulb temperature, relative humidity and two-dimensional bin for dry bulb temperature - relative humidity were compiled using a fifteen-year hourly dry bulb temperature and relative humidity data for Maiduguri and Yola. The data were collected from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Oshodi, Lagos. The bins sizes of 1°Cand 5% were used for dry bulb temperature and relative humidity respectively. The number of hours in each month in which dry bulb temperature ≥ 32.2°C and relative humidity ≤ 50% during which appreciable evaporative cooling can occur and when dry bulb temperature/relative humidity pair was in the comfort zone were determined. The modal bin for dry bulb temperature (TDB) and relative humidity (RH) are 25 - 26°Cand 15-20% for Maiduguri and 25-26°Cand 90-95% for Yola. April and March are the months that appreciable evaporative cooling usually occurs in the chosen locations and evaporative coolers could be applied during the months of March up to May. But from July to September the evaporative coolers perform poorly in both locations. During the months of October to February, low monthly costs of running the refrigerators and air conditioners significantly different from other months of the year, were indicated by the results

Uterine didelphys coexisting with term pregnancy, an incidental finding during an emergency caesarean section in a private health care facility in Lagos, Nigeria.

It is very difficult to determine the exact prevalence and reproductive implications of congenital uterine anomalies, because majority of the cases are missed, since they are often asymptomatic and the poor accuracy of the diagnostic tools commonly used. Although, many of these women with congenital uterine anomalies carry their pregnancies to term with live deliveries without any complication, some experience pregnancy losses. A 29 year old, G3P0+2 lady with 2 previous first trimester spontaneous abortions had an emergency  caesarean section for cervical stasis at 38 Weeks gestation. Findings at Surgery were consistent with uterine Didelphys. Her Post-operative period was uneventful. Thus, bad obstetric history such as recurrent spontaneous abortions as seen in this patient should be a pointer for proper evaluation to exclude congenital uterine anomalies.Keywords: Uterine didelphys, Term pregnancy, Emergency caesarean section, private health care facility in Lagos

Prevalence and pattern of cardiovascular-related causes of out-of-hospital deaths in Lagos, Nigeria

Background: In developed countries 50% - 75% of deaths from cardiovascular-diseases occurs out-of-hospital. In Nigeria where patronage of orthodox health facilities is low, the impact of cardiovascular-related diseases on out-of-hospital mortality has been sparsely studied.Objectives: To determine the prevalence and pattern of cardiovascular-related causes of out-of-hospital deaths in Lagos, Nigeria.Methods: A 5-year retrospective review of all autopsied medical decedents brought-in-dead (BID) to a Nigerian tertiary health facility to identify cardiovascular-related causes of death.Results: A total of 90 cardiovascular-related deaths out of 176 medical BID cases were identified, giving a prevalence of 51.1%. Mean age was 65.2 ± 15.6 years. Male: Female ratio was 1.4: 1, the females were older (68.29 ± 14.89) vs (61.63 ± 15.55) years. Age group > 60 years accounted for 63.3% of deaths. Commonest primary diseases were hypertensive heart disease (48.9%) and cerebrovascular accident (24.4%). Myocardial infarction occurred in 8.9%. Heart failure, cerebral dysfunction and unspecified circulatory collapse were the causes of death in 54.4%, 23.3% and 14.4% respectively.Conclusion: Cardiovascular-related diseases are major contributors to out-of-hospital medical deaths occurring chiefly in those >60 years. Hypertensive heart disease and heart failure are the greatest contributors to this cardiovascular–related disease mortality.Keywords: Pattern of out-of-hospital deaths, brought-in-dead (BID), cardiovascular-related disease, mortality in Nigeria