Altered immunoglobulins (A and G) in Ghanaian patients with type 2 diabetes.

Elevated immunoglobulin levels have been strongly linked to the development and progression of inflammatory disorders such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. This study aimed to evaluate circulating immunoglobulin levels and to identify other metabolic factors that influence humoral immune response among Ghanaian subjects with type 2 diabetes. A comparative cross-sectional study conducted at the National Diabetes Management and Research Center, Accra. Eighty persons with type 2 diabetes were age-matched with 78 controls. Immunoglobulin A, immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin M; interleukin 6; fasting blood glucose; glycated hemoglobin; and lipid parameter concentrations were measured. Blood pressure, anthropometry and body composition indices were also assessed. Median immunoglobulin A and immunoglobulin G (g/L) levels were higher in the case group compared with controls (0.89 vs 0.74, p = 0.043; 7.58 vs 7.29, p < 0.001). Immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin A and interleukin 6 levels in the case cohort, respectively, associated weakly with fasting blood glucose (r = 0.252, p = 0.001; r = 0.170, p = 0.031; r = 0.296, p = 0.001). There were positive correlations within the control group for immunoglobulin A versus interleukin 6 (r = 0.366, p = 0.001) and within the case group for glycated hemoglobin versus interleukin 6 (r = 0.190, p = 0.020). Our data suggest that humoral immune response is altered in subjects with type 2 diabetes and that serum immunoglobulin levels could serve as useful biomarkers in the investigation and management of diabetes mellitus

Aqueous Neem Extract Versus Neem Powder on Culex quinquefasciatus: Implications for Control in Anthropogenic Habitats

Control programs using conventional insecticides to target anthropogenic mosquito habitats are very expensive because these habitats are widespread, particularly in cities of most African countries. Additionally, there are serious environmental concerns regarding large-scale application of most conventional insecticides. Clearly there is a need for alternative methods that are more effective, less expensive, and environmentally friendly. One such method would be the application of preparations made from parts of the neem tree, Azadirachta indica A. Jussieu (Sapindales: Meliaceae). In this study, aqueous crude extracts and crude powder were prepared from different parts of neem, and the efficacies of the preparations on juvenile stages of Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) were evaluated in the laboratory. When larvae were exposed to a concentration of 0.1 g/mL extract for 24 hours, percent mean mortality (± SE) was 72.7 plusmn; 1.8 for the bark, 68.7 ± 1.6 for fruits and 60 ± 1.6 for leaves. These means were not significantly different (χ2 = 4.12; df = 2; p = 0.127). At a concentration of 0.01 g/mL, > 95% of the larvae died within 24 hours of exposure to powdered neem leaf, but it took 120 hours to reach the same level of larval mortality in aqueous leaf extract. The crude extract slowly inhibited the growth and development of mosquitoes while the crude powder acted more as a barrier; the mosquitoes probably died from suffocation. However, both types of preparations can be made and used by local people to control mosquito breeding in anthropogenic habitats, especially in urbanized areas

Adolescent and Young Adult Injuries in Developing Economies: A Comparative Analysis from Oman and Kenya

Background: Adolescence is a distinct period of rapid and dramatic biological, cognitive, psychological, and social development. The burden of injuries among young people (aged 10-24) is both substantial and maldistributed across regions and levels of economic development. Objectives: Our objective was to compare sociodemographic correlates of injury cause, intentionality, and mortality between Kenya and Oman, 2 countries with different levels of economic development and position in the demographic and epidemiologic transitions. Methods: Data on 566 patients in Oman and 5859 in Kenya between 10 and 24 years old were extracted from 2 separate multicenter trauma registries. Multivariable log binomial and Poisson regressions were used to evaluate social and demographic factors associated with injury cause, intentionality, and mortality. Literature on adolescent development was used to parameterize variables, and Akaike information criteria were used in the final model selections. Findings: The trauma registry data indicated a substantial burden of adolescent and young adult injury in both Oman and Kenya, particularly among males. The data indicated significant differences between countries ('P' interpersonal violence also resulting in severe injury across contexts. Both road traffic injuries and interpersonal violence were more common among older adolescents and young adults. Education and being in school were protective against injury, after controlling for gender, age category, occupation, and country. ConclusionsA rising burden of injuries among young people has been documented in every region of the world, irrespective on income status or level of development. Cost-effective injury control measures targeting this age group exist, including involvement in educational, vocational, and other prosocial activities; environmental alterations; and road safety measures

A Model-agnostic XAI Approach for Developing Low-cost IoT Intrusion Detection Dataset

This study tackles the significant challenge of generating low-cost intrusion detection datasets for Internet of Things (IoT) camera devices, particularly for financially limited organizations. Traditional datasets often depend on costly cameras, posing accessibility issues. Addressing this, a new dataset was developed, tailored for low-cost IoT devices, focusing on essential features. The research employed an Entry/Exit IoT Network at CKT-UTAS, Navrongo, a Ghanaian University, showcasing a feasible model for similar organizations. The study gathered location and other vital features from low-cost cameras and a standard dataset. Using the XGBoost machine learning algorithm, the effectiveness of this approach for cybersecurity enhancement was demonstrated. The implementation included a model-agnostic eXplainable AI (XAI) technique, employing Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) values to interpret the XGBoost model's predictions. This highlighted the significance of cost-effective features like Flow Duration, Total Forward Packets, and Total Length Forward Packet, in addition to location data. These features were crucial for intrusion detection using the new IoT dataset. Training a deep-learning model with only these features maintained comparable accuracy to using the full dataset, validating the practicality and efficiency of the approach in real-world scenarios

Be open to the Holy Spirit

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatschapelservices/5005/thumbnail.jp

Mobile Money Fraud Prediction—A Cross-Case Analysis on the Efficiency of Support Vector Machines, Gradient Boosted Decision Trees, and Naïve Bayes Algorithms

The onset of COVID-19 has re-emphasized the importance of FinTech especially in developing countries as the major powers of the world are already enjoying the advantages that come with the adoption of FinTech. Handling of physical cash has been established as a means of transmitting the novel corona virus. Again, research has established that, been unbanked raises the potential of sinking one into abject poverty. Over the years, developing countries have been piloting the various forms of FinTech, but the very one that has come to stay is the Mobile Money Transactions (MMT). As mobile money transactions attempt to gain a foothold, it faces several problems, the most important of them is mobile money fraud. This paper seeks to provide a solution to this problem by looking at machine learning algorithms based on support vector machines (kernel-based), gradient boosted decision tree (tree-based) and Naïve Bayes (probabilistic based) algorithms, taking into consideration the imbalanced nature of the dataset. Our experiments showed that the use of gradient boosted decision tree holds a great potential in combating the problem of mobile money fraud as it was able to produce near perfect results

Acaricide resistance in the cattle tick, Amblyomma variegatum, in the coastal savanna zone of Ghana

Field strains of the cattle tick, Amblyomma variegatum, collected from 10 herds scattered in the western part of the coastal savanna zone of Ghana, were tested for resistance to acaricides, according to the FAO Acaricide Test kit. Discriminating doses were obtained from tests with a reference susceptible strain of Boophilus microplus. The LC50 values, where possible, were derived from fitted lines for graphs of mortality rates versus acaricide concentration for the various herds. Tick larvae from all the herds were completely susceptible to cypermethrin (0.025, 0.05, 0.10, 0.20, 0.40, and 0.80 %) and flumethrin (0.003, 0.006, 0.012, 0.015, 0.03, 0.06, 0.12, 0.25, and 0.50 %). However, eight herds had significant proportions of tick larvae showing resistance to diazinon at 0.2 per cent concentration, while three herds showed resistance to 0.2 per cent dieldrin. At the discriminating dose of 0. 2 per cent coumaphos, none of the ticks from the herds tested showed resistance. The results indicate possible resistance of field strains of A. variegatum to organophosphates, toxaphene, and/or lindane. The implications of this finding are important, if tick control measures should be effective in the coastal savanna zone of Ghana. Ghana Jnl agric Sci. Vol.32(2) 1999: 199-20

The morphology of a muscular component of myometrium of primipara women with physiological contractile activity

Conducted quantitative light-optical study of structures of biopsy samples of myometrium taken from 5 primiparas aged 21-38 years with physiological contractile activity. It was shown that the smooth muscle cells had different affinity to toluidine blue and were conditionally divided into light, dark and intermediate cells. Estimated the following parameters: the number of smooth muscle cells on 1 mm2 of myometrium, the percentage ratio of each types of muscle cells and cellular diameters. All estimated components have had intergroup variations. Results of this research can be used for comparative analysis of the same parameters in women with pathological contractile activity

Effects of Ingesting Bacillus Thuringiensis (Berliner) Spores on Developmental Stages and Fecundity of Surviving Sesamia Calamistis (Hampson) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner was isolated from dead Sesamia calamistis Hampson (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) larvae collected from maize farms in Cape Coast, Ghana. Spores produced from the vegetative cells were incorporated into an artificial diet and fed to 2nd instar S. calamistis larvae. The duration of larval and pupal periods was calculated for both the treated and untreated larvae. Sex ratio was determined. The total numbers of eggs laid by treated and untreated females were recorded. Total generation periods for both the treated and untreated larvae were calculated. 40.9% of treated larvae survived infection and pupated, whilst 75.8% of the untreated larvae pupated. Sex ratio of pupae developing from both the treated and untreated larvae did not differ significantly (P>0.05). Female pupae developing from the untreated larvae were significantly heavier than those from treated larvae (

Phylogenetic Analysis of the Bee Tribe Anthidiini

The phylogenetic relationships among members of long tongue bee tribe Anthidiini (Megachilidae: Megachilinae) were investigated at the Department of Entomology and Wildlife, University of Cape Coast (Ghana) and the Agricultural Research Council, Pretoria (South Af-rica) from July, 2006 to May, 2007. Ten museums located in three continents loaned the 990 specimens used for the studies. Thirty-three ingroup taxa out of the 37 known genera of the world’s Anthidiini and two outgroup genera, were included in a cladistic analysis of the tribe based on 51 adult external morphological characters. The cladograms yielded three major clades which have been erected as subtribes for the world’s Anthidiini, namely Afranthidina, Anthidina and Euaspina. Monophyly of the Anthidiini was confirmed. Based on the result of the cladistic analysis and biogeographic data, it is suggested that the origin and center of radiation for the Anthidiini probably occurred in the southern pantropic region (Southern Africa to South East Asia) of Gondwana. A second and independent migration to the Neotropical region by the prob-able ancestors of the current Neotropic genera is also conceivable