Performance Assessment of Six Public Health Programs in Katsina State, Nigeria

This research aimed to evaluate the performance of six ongoing public health programs through core performance indicators in Katsina State, Nigeria. The healthcare delivery in Africa is mostly program-based. This requires that such programs need to be evaluated which may in turn help to identify any existing gaps towards the improvement of patients' access and coverage to their given service. We identified all active health facilities where our programs on malaria, Routine Immunization (RI), Family Planning (FP), Tuberculosis and Leprosy (TBL), HIV/AIDS, and Free Medicare (FMC) were being carried out. After that, a representative sample was derived to obtain data regarding five key performance indicators by using a Logistics Indicators Assessment Tool. Of 1,718 facilities, a total of 983 (57.22%) were visited, In other words, by assuming a normal distribution; each facility expectedly covers only 3,371 individuals. All programs provided different and diverse results on each indicator; however, the most obvious challenge was in the stock-out and demand vs. receipt of required medications. These are particularly for malaria, FMC, FP, and HIV. For instance, the stock-out lasted 222 days for malaria and 135 days for FP. Despite this, none of the programs had a lower than gold-standard near-term availability of required products. Program-based healthcare delivery is inadequate and ineffective unless the local system gets simultaneously developed. If required medications are not becoming available, optimal access, coverage, and benefits cannot be expected to be obtained. Clearly, Nigeria experiences a push system of meeting term supplies. Nigeria needs to strengthen its pharmaceutical system

Modelling the cAMP pathway using BioNessie, and the use of BVP techniques for solving ODEs (Poster Presentation)

Copyright @ 2007 Gu et al; licensee BioMed Central LtdBiochemists often conduct experiments in-vivo in order to explore observable behaviours and understand the dynamics of many intercellular and intracellular processes. However an intuitive understanding of their dynamics is hard to obtain because most pathways of interest involve components connected via interlocking loops. Formal methods for modelling and analysis of biochemical pathways are therefore indispensable. To this end, ODEs (ordinary differential equations) have been widely adopted as a method to model biochemical pathways because they have an unambiguous mathematical format and are amenable to rigorous quantitative analysis. BioNessie http://www.bionessie.com webcite is a workbench for the composition, simulation and analysis of biochemical networks which is being developed in by the Systems Biology team at the Bioinformatics Research Centre as a part of a large DTI funded project 'BPS: A Software Tool for the Simulation and Analysis of Biochemical Networks' http://www.brc.dcs.gla.ac.uk/projects/dti_beacon webcite. BioNessie is written in Java using NetBeans Platform libraries that makes it platform independent. The software employs specialised differential equations solvers for stiff and non-stiff systems to produce model simulation traces. BioNessie provides a user-friendly interfact that comes up with an intuitive tree-based graphical layout, an edition function to SBML-compatible models and feature of data output

Separability of drag and thrust in undulatory animals and machines

For nearly a century, researchers have tried to understand the swimming of aquatic animals in terms of a balance between the forward thrust from swimming movements and drag on the body. Prior approaches have failed to provide a separation of these two forces for undulatory swimmers such as lamprey and eels, where most parts of the body are simultaneously generating drag and thrust. We nonetheless show that this separation is possible, and delineate its fundamental basis in undulatory swimmers. Our approach unifies a vast diversity of undulatory aquatic animals (anguilliform, sub-carangiform, gymnotiform, bal- istiform, rajiform) and provides design principles for highly agile bioinspired underwater vehicles. This approach has practical utility within biology as well as engineering. It is a predictive tool for use in understanding the role of the mechanics of movement in the evolutionary emergence of morphological features relating to locomotion. For example, we demonstrate that the drag-thrust separation framework helps to predict the observed height of the ribbon fin of electric knifefish, a diverse group of neotropical fishes which are an important model system in sensory neurobiology. We also show how drag-thrust separation leads to models that can predict the swimming velocity of an organism or a robotic vehicle.Comment: 41 pages, 13 figures, 4 table

Calculation of Band Edge Eigenfunctions and Eigenvalues of Periodic Potentials through the Quantum Hamilton - Jacobi Formalism

We obtain the band edge eigenfunctions and the eigenvalues of solvable periodic potentials using the quantum Hamilton - Jacobi formalism. The potentials studied here are the Lam{\'e} and the associated Lam{\'e} which belong to the class of elliptic potentials. The formalism requires an assumption about the singularity structure of the quantum momentum function $p$, which satisfies the Riccati type quantum Hamilton - Jacobi equation, $p^{2} -i \hbar \frac{d}{dx}p = 2m(E- V(x))$ in the complex $x$ plane. Essential use is made of suitable conformal transformations, which leads to the eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions corresponding to the band edges in a simple and straightforward manner. Our study reveals interesting features about the singularity structure of $p$, responsible in yielding the band edge eigenfunctions and eigenvalues.Comment: 21 pages, 5 table

Synthesis, characterization and 11C radiolabeling of aminophenyl benzothiazoles:structural effects on the alkylation of amino group

Several aminophenyl benzothiazoles were prepared with a view to using them as amyloid binding agents for imaging β-amyloid in Alzheimer's disease. These precursors were radiolabeled with 11C-positron-emitting radioisotope using an automated synthesizer and selected radiolabeled compounds were further purified by HPLC. Our results demonstrate that changes in structure have a major influence on the radioactive yield and the ease with which the radiolabel can be introduced. Aminophenyl benzothiazoles with an attached isopropyl group resisted dialkylation perhaps due to steric hindrance caused by this group. Straight chain attachment of methyl, ethyl, butyl, and crotyl groups in the structure decreased the radiochemical yield. Notably, the o-aminophenyl benzothiazole derivatives were difficult to alkylate despite stringent experimental conditions. This reactivity difference is attributed to the hydrogen bonding characteristics of the o-amino group with the nitrogen atom of the thiazole ring

GENESIS: A System for Simulating Neural Networks

We have developed a graphically oriented, general purpose simulation system to facilitate the modeling of neural networks. The simulator is implemented under UNIX and X-windows and is designed to support simulations at many levels of detail. Specifically, it is intended for use in both applied network modeling and in the simulation of detailed, realistic, biologically-based models. Examples of current models developed under this system include mammalian olfactory bulb and cortex, invertebrate central pattern generators, as well as more abstract connectionist simulations

SpikingLab: modelling agents controlled by Spiking Neural Networks in Netlogo

The scientific interest attracted by Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) has lead to the development of tools for the simulation and study of neuronal dynamics ranging from phenomenological models to the more sophisticated and biologically accurate Hodgkin-and-Huxley-based and multi-compartmental models. However, despite the multiple features offered by neural modelling tools, their integration with environments for the simulation of robots and agents can be challenging and time consuming. The implementation of artificial neural circuits to control robots generally involves the following tasks: (1) understanding the simulation tools, (2) creating the neural circuit in the neural simulator, (3) linking the simulated neural circuit with the environment of the agent and (4) programming the appropriate interface in the robot or agent to use the neural controller. The accomplishment of the above-mentioned tasks can be challenging, especially for undergraduate students or novice researchers. This paper presents an alternative tool which facilitates the simulation of simple SNN circuits using the multi-agent simulation and the programming environment Netlogo (educational software that simplifies the study and experimentation of complex systems). The engine proposed and implemented in Netlogo for the simulation of a functional model of SNN is a simplification of integrate and fire (I&F) models. The characteristics of the engine (including neuronal dynamics, STDP learning and synaptic delay) are demonstrated through the implementation of an agent representing an artificial insect controlled by a simple neural circuit. The setup of the experiment and its outcomes are described in this work

Colossal magnetocapacitance and scale-invariant dielectric response in phase-separated manganites

Thin films of strongly-correlated electron materials (SCEM) are often grown epitaxially on planar substrates and typically have anisotropic properties that are usually not captured by edge-mounted four-terminal electrical measurements, which are primarily sensitive to in-plane conduction paths. Accordingly, the correlated interactions in the out-of-plane (perpendicular) direction cannot be measured but only inferred. We address this shortcoming and show here an experimental technique in which the SCEM under study, in our case a 600 Angstrom-thick (La1-yPry)0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LPCMO) film, serves as the base electrode in a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) trilayer capacitor structure. This unconventional arrangement allows for simultaneous determination of colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) associated with dc transport parallel to the film substrate and colossal magnetocapacitance (CMC) associated with ac transport in the perpendicular direction. We distinguish two distinct strain-related direction-dependent insulator-metal (IM) transitions and use Cole-Cole plots to establish a heretofore unobserved collapse of the dielectric response onto a universal scale-invariant power-law dependence over a large range of frequency, temperature and magnetic field.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures, Supplementary section included, Submitted to Nature Physic

Rate-equation calculations of the current flow through two-site molecular device and DNA-based junction

Here we present the calculations of incoherent current flowing through the two-site molecular device as well as the DNA-based junction within the rate-equation approach. Few interesting phenomena are discussed in detail. Structural asymmetry of two-site molecule results in rectification effect, which can be neutralized by asymmetric voltage drop at the molecule-metal contacts due to coupling asymmetry. The results received for poly(dG)-poly(dC) DNA molecule reveal the coupling- and temperature-independent saturation effect of the current at high voltages, where for short chains we establish the inverse square distance dependence. Besides, we document the shift of the conductance peak in the direction to higher voltages due to the temperature decrease.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure