May Measurement Month 2018: a pragmatic global screening campaign to raise awareness of blood pressure by the International Society of Hypertension

Aims Raised blood pressure (BP) is the biggest contributor to mortality and disease burden worldwide and fewer than half of those with hypertension are aware of it. May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global campaign set up in 2017, to raise awareness of high BP and as a pragmatic solution to a lack of formal screening worldwide. The 2018 campaign was expanded, aiming to include more participants and countries. Methods and results Eighty-nine countries participated in MMM 2018. Volunteers (≥18 years) were recruited through opportunistic sampling at a variety of screening sites. Each participant had three BP measurements and completed a questionnaire on demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg, or taking antihypertensive medication. In total, 74.9% of screenees provided three BP readings. Multiple imputation using chained equations was used to impute missing readings. 1 504 963 individuals (mean age 45.3 years; 52.4% female) were screened. After multiple imputation, 502 079 (33.4%) individuals had hypertension, of whom 59.5% were aware of their diagnosis and 55.3% were taking antihypertensive medication. Of those on medication, 60.0% were controlled and of all hypertensives, 33.2% were controlled. We detected 224 285 individuals with untreated hypertension and 111 214 individuals with inadequately treated (systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg) hypertension. Conclusion May Measurement Month expanded significantly compared with 2017, including more participants in more countries. The campaign identified over 335 000 adults with untreated or inadequately treated hypertension. In the absence of systematic screening programmes, MMM was effective at raising awareness at least among these individuals at risk

AfriQA: Cross-lingual Open-Retrieval Question Answering for African Languages

African languages have far less in-language content available digitally, making it challenging for question-answering systems to satisfy the information needs of users. Cross-lingual open-retrieval question answering (XOR QA) systems-those that retrieve answer content from other languages while serving people in their native language-offer a means of filling this gap. To this end, we create AFRIQA, the first cross-lingual QA dataset with a focus on African languages. AFRIQA includes 12,000+ XOR QA examples across 10 African languages. While previous datasets have focused primarily on languages where crosslingual QA augments coverage from the target language, AFRIQA focuses on languages where cross-lingual answer content is the only high-coverage source of answer content. Because of this, we argue that African languages are one of the most important and realistic use cases for XOR QA. Our experiments demonstrate the poor performance of automatic translation and multilingual retrieval methods. Overall, AFRIQA proves challenging for state-of-the-art QA models. We hope that the dataset enables the development of more equitable QA technology

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular testing in Asia: the IAEA INCAPS-COVID study

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic significantly affected management of cardiovascular disease around the world. The effect of the pandemic on volume of cardiovascular diagnostic procedures is not known. OBJECTIVES This study sought to evaluate the effects of the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular diagnostic procedures and safety practices in Asia. METHODS The International Atomic Energy Agency conducted a worldwide survey to assess changes in cardiovascular procedure volume and safety practices caused by COVID-19. Testing volumes were reported for March 2020 and April 2020 and were compared to those from March 2019. Data from 180 centers across 33 Asian countries were grouped into 4 subregions for comparison. RESULTS Procedure volumes decreased by 47% from March 2019 to March 2020, showing recovery from March 2020 to April 2020 in Eastern Asia, particularly in China. The majority of centers cancelled outpatient activities and increased time per study. Practice changes included implementing physical distancing and restricting visitors. Although COVID testing was not commonly performed, it was conducted in one-third of facilities in Eastern Asia. The most severe reductions in procedure volumes were observed in lower-income countries, where volumes decreased 81% from March 2019 to April 2020. CONCLUSIONS The COVID-19 pandemic in Asia caused significant reductions in cardiovascular diagnostic procedures, particularly in low-income countries. Further studies on effects of COVID-19 on cardiovascular outcomes and changes in care delivery are warranted

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Fatty Acid Composition Of Cassiatora, Cassia Occidentalis And Cassia Senna (Leguminosae Subfamily Caesalpinoideae) Seed Oils.

The fatty acid composition of Cassiatora, Cassia occidentalis and Cassia senna species of cassia (Leguminosae subfamily Caesalpinodeae) was analyzed using gas chromatography after conversion to their methyl esters. The distribution of the fattyacids in individual species was calculated from their observed retention times. The major fatty acids present were palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic while myristic was in trace in Cassia tora and Cassia occidentalis such that these fatty acid composition can be used to identify the diversity in their germplasm collection. Key words: Fatty acid, leguminosae, Caesalpinoideae, Cassiatora, occidentallis, senna seed oil. Nigerian Food Journal Vol.22 2004: 29-3

The chemical composition of Sterculia setigera

Samples of Sterculia setigera seeds were analysed for proximate composition, elemental and amino acid composition. The nutritive value of the seed was extrapolated by comparing its oil, protein crude fibre, ash and nitrogen free extract (NFE) contents with other known edible seeds. Comparison of the results with the recommended nutrient requirements showed that the seed is adequate in its protein content. Quantitative chromatographic analysis of the seed hydrolysates revealed 18 amino acids. Comparing the amino acids of kukkuki with hens egg, showed a higher superiority in alanine, arginine, aspartic, cystine and histidine but a deficiency in isoleucine and leucine. Keywords: proximate composition, nutritive value, hen&rsquo;s egg, amino acid

PREVALENCE OF GATRO-INTESTINAL PARASITES IN Clarias gariepinus SOLD IN IBADAN CENTRAL MARKET, IBADAN, NIGERIA

Gastrointestinal parasitic infections in fish pose significant public health and economic challenges, especially in urban markets with suboptimal handling conditions. This study examined the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in Clarias gariepinus (African catfish) sold at Ibadan Central Market, Nigeria, to assess associated health risks. Due to increasing catfish demand and limited research on market-sold fish, forty (40) C. gariepinus samples of varying sizes were randomly purchased and transported alive to the Fish Biology Laboratory, University of Ibadan. The gastrointestinal tracts were dissected, and parasites were identified using morphological analysis under a dissecting microscope. Statistical analysis were done using Microsoft excel to calculate prevalence in frequencies and percentages. Results showed a high prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites: tapeworms (37%), Entamoeba histolytica (25%), Taenia spp. (13%), and Ascaris eggs (25%), mainly in the intestines. Larger fish had higher parasite loads and female fish showed a greater prevalence of Ascaris eggs. Findings suggest contamination from environmental sources and poor fish-handling practices. These results highlight the public health risks of consuming inadequately cooked or improperly handled C. gariepinus. Given the zoonotic potential of some parasites, urgent interventions are needed to improve fish handling, storage, and market sanitation