Treatment Effects and Integrated Morbidity Control of Schistosomiasis

Schistosomiasis is caused by the blood fl uke and leads to signifi cant ill-health and economic burden. The disease is common in the tropics and subtropics and acquired through contact with freshwater bodies infested with the infective cercariae shed from the intermediate host snail. From a public health perspective, the three most important species are Schistosoma mansoni and S. japonicum (causing intestinal schistosomiasis) and S. haematobium (causing urinary schistosomiasis). Schistosomiasis is endemic in 76 countries and territories worldwide (Engels et al. 2002; Steinmann et al. 2006) with around 85% of the infections confi ned to sub- Saharan Africa (Savioli et al. 1997; Chitsulo et al. 2000). Schistosomiasis is largely confi ned to rural dwellings and exacerbates poverty (Hotez et al. 2008; Wang et al. 2008). In some areas of sub-Saharan Africa there is an overlap in distribution of S. mansoni and S. haematobium resulting in mixed infections (WHO 2002). This thesis focuses on urinary schistosomiasis due to S. haematobium and intestinal schistosomiasis due to S. mansoni. Schistosomiasis is largely related to poverty, and efforts to alleviate poverty through development of water-related projects tend to increase transmission of the infection (Poda et al. 2004; Steinmann et al. 2006). Mostly children, women and farmers in poor rural areas who depend on water contact for recreational, domestic or occupational activities are affected. Peri-urban schistosomiasis is on the increase (Kloetzel et al. 1994; Chimbari & Chirundu 2003; Njiokou et al. 2004), and movement of displaced people from confl ict zones has contributed to the spread of the disease to previously non-endemic areas (Chitsulo et al. 2000)

Adoption of financial innovation in the Ghanaian banking industry

This century has been full of innovations: new technologies, new products, new services and a plethora of new industries have emerged. Yet the call for innovation in business, especially in financial services, has never been more intense. Although research on this topic exists, there is no empirical evidence regarding the critical factors influencing customer adoption of electronic banking innovation in Ghana’s banking industry. The aim of this article is therefore to investigate the factors influencing the adoption of financial innovation in Ghana’s banking industry. Surveys were conducted involving 405 clients of the six major banks in the country. Using logistical regression, the results amongst other things show that innovation attributes such as lack of complexity, compatibility and perceived usefulness provided by financial innovation, increase the likelihood of e-banking adoption. In light of these findings, the study recommends that banks should focus on designing both useful and easy-to-use e-banking products that will attract potential and existing customers.Keywords: e-banking, financial innovation, Ghana, technology, West Afric

A multi-level refinement approach towards the classification of quotidian activities using accelerometer data

Wearable inertial measurement units incorporating accelerometers and gyroscopes are increasingly used for activity analysis and recognition. In this paper an activity classification algorithm is presented which includes a novel multi-step refinement with the aim of improving the classification accuracy of traditional approaches. To do so, after the classification takes place, information is extracted from the confusion matrix to focus the computational efforts on those activities with worse classification performance. It is argued that activities differ diversely from each other, therefore a specific set of features may be informative to classify a specific set of activities, but such informativeness should not necessarily be extended to a different activity set. This approach has shown promising results, achieving important classification accuracy improvements of up to 4% with the use of low-dimensional feature vectors

Allometric Modelling of Tectona grandis for Diameter at Breast Height and Crown Collar Diameter Estimations in the Dry Semi-Deciduous Forest Zone of Ghana

The increased rate of deforestation and forest degradation in developing tropical countries like Ghana, necessitated massive afforestation and reforestation as the approach for mitigating this menace with mostly short rotational tree crops like Tectona grandis (teak). Teak poles have been noted worldwide for their durability especially for electrification projects. However, its usage for electrification projects in Ghana has attracted immense attention and concern in Ghana primarily because of massive demand but frequent rejection of the poles due to unsuitable crown collar diameter and length of the tree required for electric poles. Currently, the relationship between the diameters at breast height, collar diameter and height - parameters that can be adopted for easy determination of crown collar diameter on field has not been well established in Ghana. This study was carried out to determine the relationships between and among diameter at breast height, height and crown collar diameter and diameter at breast height, height and crown collar diameter of teak in the dry semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana to ease the determination of crown collar diameter to avoid its waste due to rejection. The study was carried out in compartment 5 of Chirimfa Forest Reserve. Diameter at breast height, total height and crown collar diameter variables were measured on hundred (100) felled trees. Regression analysis performed at a confidence level of 95% revealed no significant relationship (R2 = 0.00, p > 0.05) between diameter at breast height and total height. However, significant relationship (R2 = 73.40, p < 0.05) was found between crown collar diameter and diameter at breast height. The significant relationship (R2 = 76.60, p < 0.05) among crown collar diameter, diameter at breast height and height as indicated by the model CD (cm) = 0.6625DBH (cm) – 0.563H (m) + 3.83, indicates that the appropriate determination of crown collar diameter of teak is a function of height and DBH growth. However, relationship between DBH and collar diameter was the strongest and suggest the DBH as the most important determining parameter for correlating Collar diameter of teak trees in the dry semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana The study has thus provided a baseline equation that could be used to predict and determine teak trees crown collar diameters with diameter at breast heights in Ghana and also for further exploration for better predictions. Keywords: Deforestation, degradation, reforestation, electrification, diameter, colla

Herb-drug interaction: Effect of aqueous extract of Bridelia ferruginea leaves on the pharmacokinetics of metformin

The concurrent use of herbal medicines and orthodox drugs, especially in the treatment and management of chronic ailments, may result in clinically significant herb-drug interactions. Bridelia ferruginea Benth (Euphorbiaceae) is a common medicinal plant with known anti-diabetic properties and has been reported to be taken alongside the orthodox medicine, metformin. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aqueous extract of B. ferruginea leaves on the pharmacokinetics of metformin in female Sprague-Dawley rats. Reconstituted freeze dried extract of B. ferruginea leaves (30 mg/kg), and metformin (7 mg/kg) were administered concurrently as a single dose to female Sprague-Dawley rats. Whole blood samples (1 ml) were aseptically withdrawn by tail bleeding at 1, 2, 4, 8, and 24 h after administration of the single dose for pharmacokinetics analyses. Concurrent administration of metformin and B. ferruginea significantly affected (P < 0.05) all the pharmacokinetics parameters of metformin except for the time to attain the maximum concentration (Tmax), which increased but insignificantly. Whereas the area under the curve, maximum whole blood concentration (Cmax) and half-life (T½) of metformin decreased significantly in the presence of B. ferruginea, the elimination rate constant (Kel), clearance (Cl), absorption rate constant (Ka), and volume of distribution (Vd) of metformin increased significantly in the presence of B. ferruginea. Therefore, in clinical practice, patients should be advised on the implication of concurrent administration of metformin and B. ferrruginea

Prospects of endosperm DNA in maize seed characterization

DNA based characterisation of maize germplasm has become the easiest and fastest approach to identify genetic diversity as compared to phenotyping. The conventional DNA source for genotyping is the leaf which required at least 2 weeks waiting period from seed planting to leaves sampling. This work exploits the use of endosperm DNA (EDNA) for the genotyping of maize germplasm. Maize endosperm was excised from maize seeds using pli¬ers, ground and used for Genomic DNA extraction (gDNA). Leaves DNA (LDNA) was also extracted concurrently. The extracted LDNA and EDNA were quantified and subjected to SSR-PCR. The mean concentrations of DNA extracted were 1575 ng/ul for the leaves and 526 ng/ul for endosperm. Though the difference in quantity of EDNA and LDNA were highly significant, the quality (A260/A280) for both EDNA and LDNA fall within 1.6-1.8 range of pure DNA index. SSR-PCR products using phi032 were similar for both EDNA and LDNA, indicating the usability of EDNA in genotyping. This seed based method of gDNA extraction takes less than 24 hours from sampling to quantification and genotyping. It also allows germination of sampled seeds, selection before planting, avoids the delay of planting and waiting in leaf sampling and saves field space

Renal health after long-term exposure to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) in HIV/HBV positive adults in Ghana

Objectives: The study assessed markers of renal health in HIV/HBV co-infected patients receiving TDF- containing antiretroviral therapy in Ghana. Methods: Urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio (uPCR) and albumin-to-protein ratio (uAPR) were measured cross-sectionally after a median of four years of TDF. At this time, alongside extensive laboratory testing, patients underwent evaluation of liver stiffness and blood pressure. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was measured longitudinally before and during TDF therapy. Results: Among 101 participants (66% women, median age 44 years, median CD4 count 572 cells/mm 3 ) 21% and 17% had detectable HIV-1 RNA and HBV DNA, respectively. Overall 35% showed hypertension, 6% diabetes, 7% liver stiffness indicative of cirrhosis, and 18% urinary excretion of Schistosoma antigen. Tubular proteinuria occurred in 16% of patients and was independently predicted by female gender and hypertension. The eGFR declined by median 1.8 ml/min/year during TDF exposure (IQR −4.4, −0.0); more pronounced declines ( ≥5 ml/min/year) occurred in 22% of patients and were associated with receiv-ing ritonavir-boosted lopinavir rather than efavirenz. HBV DNA, HBeAg, transaminases, and liver stiffness were not predictive of renal function abnormalities. Conclusions: The findings mandate improved diagnosis and management of hypertension and suggest targeted laboratory monitoring of patients receiving TDF alongside a booster in sub-Saharan Africa

A Method for Detecting Abnormal Program Behavior on Embedded Devices

A potential threat to embedded systems is the execution of unknown or malicious software capable of triggering harmful system behavior, aimed at theft of sensitive data or causing damage to the system. Commercial off-the-shelf embedded devices, such as embedded medical equipment, are more vulnerable as these type of products cannot be amended conventionally or have limited resources to implement protection mechanisms. In this paper, we present a self-organizing map (SOM)-based approach to enhance embedded system security by detecting abnormal program behavior. The proposed method extracts features derived from processor's program counter and cycles per instruction, and then utilises the features to identify abnormal behavior using the SOM. Results achieved in our experiment show that the proposed method can identify unknown program behaviors not included in the training set with over 98.4% accuracy