Implementation of and Early Outcomes From Anal Cancer Screening at a Community-Engaged Health Care Facility Providing Care to Nigerian Men Who Have Sex With Men.

PurposeAnal cancer risk is substantially higher among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) as compared with other reproductive-age adults, but screening is rare across sub-Saharan Africa. We report the use of high-resolution anoscopy (HRA) as a first-line screening tool and the resulting early outcomes among MSM in Abuja, Nigeria.MethodsFrom August 2016 to August 2017, 424 MSM enrolled in an anal cancer screening substudy of TRUST/RV368, a combined HIV prevention and treatment cohort. HRA-directed biopsies were diagnosed by histology, and ablative treatment was offered for high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). HRA proficiency was assessed by evaluating the detection of squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) over time and the proportion biopsied. Prevalence estimates of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and HSIL with 95% CIs were calculated. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify those at the highest risk of SIL.ResultsMedian age was 25 years (interquartile range [IQR], 22-29), median time since sexual debut was 8 years (IQR, 4-12), and 59% (95% CI, 54.2% to 63.6%) were HIV infected. Rate of detection of any SIL stabilized after 200 screenings, and less than 20% had two or more biopsies. Preliminary prevalence estimates of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and HSIL were 50.0% (95% CI, 44.7% to 55.3%) and 6.3% (95% CI, 4.0% to 9.3%). HIV infection, at least 8 years since anal coital debut, concurrency, and external warts were independently statistically associated with SIL.ConclusionProficiency with HRA increased with experience over time. However, HSIL detection rates were low, potentially affected by obstructed views from internal warts and low biopsy rates, highlighting the need for ongoing evaluation and mentoring to validate this finding. HRA is a feasible first-line screening tool at an MSM-friendly health care facility. Years since anal coital debut and external warts could prioritize screening

Profitability of Watermelon Production Diversification Strategy: Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria

The profitability of a watermelon production diversification plan for smallholder farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria, was investigated in this study. During the 2021 farming season, data for the study was collected from 355 randomly selected farms. Descriptive statistics and a farm budgeting approach were utilized to assess the data. The mean age of respondents was 42.3 years, 85.1% of them were married with an average household of six people. The majority (77.5%) of the respondents were educated with a mean farming experience of 8.6 years. On average, the respondents cultivate 4.2 hectares of land. The budgeting technique showed that a mixture of melon and cowpea has the highest average net farm income, followed by a mixture of melon and Bambara-nut while a mixture of melon and groundnut has the least average net farm income per hectare. The estimated gross margin and net farm income for all the enterprises stood at N 143618.11 and N 135051.13 respectively. The return on the owner's labour and management for all the enterprises is N 87801.13 and the return on investment is 127.58%. This demonstrates that the watermelon crop diversification strategies in the research area are profitable. A melon and cowpea combination was discovered to be more profitable than other firms. Because of this, it is suggested that a large amount of land be set aside for growing this crop

A 19-SNP coronary heart disease gene score profile in subjects with type 2 diabetes: the coronary heart disease risk in type 2 diabetes (CoRDia study) study baseline characteristics

Background The coronary risk in diabetes (CoRDia) trial (n = 211) compares the effectiveness of usual diabetes care with a self-management intervention (SMI), with and without personalised risk information (including genetics), on clinical and behavioural outcomes. Here we present an assessment of randomisation, the cardiac risk genotyping assay, and the genetic characteristics of the recruits. Methods Ten-year coronary heart disease (CHD) risk was calculated using the UKPDS score. Genetic CHD risk was determined by genotyping 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using Randox’s Cardiac Risk Prediction Array and calculating a gene score (GS). Accuracy of the array was assessed by genotyping a subset of pre-genotyped samples (n = 185). Results Overall, 10-year CHD risk ranged from 2–72 % but did not differ between the randomisation groups (p = 0.13). The array results were 99.8 % concordant with the pre-determined genotypes. The GS did not differ between the Caucasian participants in the CoRDia SMI plus risk group (n = 66) (p = 0.80) and a sample of UK healthy men (n = 1360). The GS was also associated with LDL-cholesterol (p = 0.05) and family history (p = 0.03) in a sample of UK healthy men (n = 1360). Conclusions CHD risk is high in this group of T2D subjects. The risk array is an accurate genotyping assay, and is suitable for estimating an individual’s genetic CHD risk. Trial registration This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov; registration identifier NCT0189178

Growth enhancement and protective potential of feed-based outer membrane proteins against vibriosis in Macrobrachium rosenbergii

The use of antibiotics to curtail vibriosis, which is a major infectious disease, plaguing shrimp and prawn is rather becoming less effective and the need for a better alternative is expedient. The outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of V. alginolyticus were extracted, mixed with powdered commercial feed and fed to the prawns to evaluate its effect on growth performance and protective potential. Sixty prawns were divided into groups A, B and C of 10 prawns each, with two replicates in six (150 L) glass aquaria. Groups A, B and C were fed with OMPs mixed diet, with OMPs-Freund’s incomplete adjuvant mixed diet and OMPs or adjuvant free diet (control diet) respectively. All the prawns were weighed weekly, and haemolymph was collected to determine the total haemocyte count (THC) and phenoloxidase (PO) activity. At the end of the feeding trial, prawns were intramuscularly challenged with 50 μL of 107 CFU V. alginolyticus. The treated groups were significantly higher in growth performance and THC than the control group, but no significant difference between the groups in terms of PO activity and mortality rate. The study, however, submitted that oral administration of OMPs with or without adjuvant is a good growth promoter and has the potential for protection against vibriosis in giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii)

Molecular Validation of Cichlids from Zobe Reservoir, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria Using Cytochrome Oxidase (COI) Genes

The species of cichlids are easily misidentified due to their morphological similarities. This study, therefore, was designed to discriminate the cichlid species inhabiting Zobe reservoir using a molecular approach. Samples of different cichlid species were collected from the reservoir between August and November 2022 and identified using their morphological features following the field guide to Nigerian freshwater fish. Fin clips of two samples from each of the species were fixed in 100% ethanol and the DNA was extracted. The mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase (CO1) gene area was amplified (using the FishF1 and FishR1 primer pair), purified and sequenced to reveal the identity of the species. Morphologically, the result revealed the presence of four species, namely: Oreochromis niloticus, Oreochromis mossambicus, Sarotherodon galilaeus, and Coptodon zilli. The genetic identity of the samples agreed with the earlier attempt made at morphological discrimination except for O. mossambicus which matches the partial and complete genome of Oreochromis aureus, hence, solving misidentification. The phylogenetic tree of the CO1 genes constructed using MEGA 11 software reveals the species were grouped independently into the three different genera of the Cichlidae family (i.e., the Coptodon, Oreochromis and Sarotherodon). This study affirms the need for molecular confirmation of morphologically identified cichlids in Nigeria. Keywords: Cichlids, DNA Barcoding, Identification, Phylogeny, Polymerase Chain Reactio

Improved Security Techniques in Multi-Protocol Label Switching

Multi-Protocol Label Switching has replaced Layer 2 ATM and Frame Relay technology for a while now, which provides high speed networking and traffic engineering. MPLS technology uses Label switching technique instead of IP routing when forwarding traffic to a destination, which makes it more scalable and flexible. However IP MPLS networks are not secure from outside threats and threats from within the network. In this paper, inherent security provided by a typical MPLS network is evalu-ated, and some combinations ofsecurity techniques are provided to improve upon it. To test some of the methods for enhancing the security of IP MPLS VPN network, two major attacks were carried out, i.e. Injection of IPv4 Routing Information, and Cracking of MD5 password with Authentication set to OFF and ON respectively. In order to protect the confidentiality, availability and integrity of data, in-herent security can be enhanced using step-by-step combination of the security techniques such as IP-Sec tunnels at the Customer Edge’s routers and a complexMD5 authentication between routing proto-cols. The MPLS network design was carried out to capture two locations in the UK, i.e. Newcastle and London. GNS3 Network emulator was used to achieve the desired results, with real Cisco IOS images, and finally, some thoughtful recommendations were provided, which are aimed at providing a better implementation of MPLS VPN on computer networks.&nbsp

Evolutionary accumulation modeling in AMR: machine learning to infer and predict evolutionary dynamics of multi-drug resistance

Can we understand and predict the evolutionary pathways by which bacteria acquire multidrug resistance (MDR)? These questions have substantial potential impact in basic biology and in applied approaches to address the global health challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In this minireview, we discuss how a class of machine-learning approaches called evolutionary accumulation modeling (EvAM) may help reveal these dynamics using genetic and/or phenotypic AMR data sets, without requiring longitudinal sampling. These approaches are well-established in cancer progression and evolutionary biology but currently less used in AMR research. We discuss how EvAM can learn the evolutionary pathways by which drug resistances and other AMR features (for example, mutations driving these resistances) are acquired as pathogens evolve, predict next evolutionary steps, identify influences between AMR features, and explore differences in MDR evolution between regions, demographics, and more. We demonstrate a case study from the literature on MDR evolution in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, providing links to some approaches for implementationThis work was supported by the Trond Mohn Foundation (project HyperEvol under grant agreement No. TMS2021TMT09 to I.G.J.) through the Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance in Western Norway (CAMRIA) (TMS2020TMT11). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 805046 [EvoConBiO] to I.G.J). This research was supported by grant PID2019-111256RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to Ramon Diaz-Uriart

Cervical cancer awareness, perception, and attitude among tertiary health institution students in northeastern Nigeria

BackgroundThe devastating scourge of cervical cancer in Africa is largely due to the absence of preventive interventions, driven by low awareness and poor perception of the disease in the continent. This work is a preliminary effort toward understanding key social drivers promoting this disease in our immediate environment with a view to mitigating it.MethodFemale students of two tertiary health institutions in Azare, northeastern Nigeria, were approached to participate in this cross-sectional descriptive study. A structured self-administered questionnaire was administered to consenting participants and covered questions on their socio-demographics, awareness, perception, and attitude about/toward cervical cancer and its prevention. The responses were scrutinized for coherency and categorized into themes using summary statistics, while a chi-square test was used to determine the association between awareness of cervical cancer and participant age, marital status, religion, screening uptake, and willingness to undergo screen.ResultsAwareness of cervical cancer was recorded among 174/230 (75.7%) respondents who enrolled in this study; 117 (67.2%) knew that it was preventable, but only three (1.3%) respondents had undergone screening. Among the aware participants, 91 (52.3%) and 131 (75.3%) knew that sexual intercourse and multiple sexual partners are risk factors for the disease, respectively. In contrast, knowledge of the etiology was poor; 82 (47.1%) respondents who knew it was preventable had heard about human papillomavirus (HPV), while 72 (41.4%) knew that HPV causes cervical cancer. Most (78%) of the participants expressed willingness to take a human papillomavirus vaccine or undergo screening (84.6%) if made available to them. Awareness was significantly associated with participants’ age (p = 0.022) and willingness to undergo screening (p = 0.016).ConclusionThis study revealed discordance between awareness and knowledge about cervical cancer. Educational initiatives reflective of population perception/knowledge of cervical cancer are needed to mitigate the rising incidence of this disease, especially among female healthcare providers

Spectrum of gynecologic malignancies in Northeastern Nigeria

BackgroundThe burden of female genital tract cancers in low—and middle-income countries (LIMC) is not yet well investigated. Although available studies are few, they are mainly based on single institutions. Here, four-year multi-institutional data on gynecologic cancers in northeastern Nigeria were examined to determine their distribution by age and subtype.Patient and MethodsThis is a cross-sectional descriptive study using available data on histologically diagnosed gynecologic cancers archived in the pathology departments and/or cancer registries of six tertiary hospitals in northeastern Nigeria over four years. Alongside tumor type (according to site), patient age and presenting complaints were also documented. Descriptive statistics were used to present categorical variables as proportions, while quantitative variables of age were presented as medians.ResultsA total of 863 gynecologic cancers were included in this study. The median age was 50 years (3 – 95 years) with a peak at 40 – 49 years. The uterine cervix was the most common site of cancer (66.6%, 575/863), while uterine corpus (15.5%, 134/863) and ovarian cancers (14.8%; 128/863) were nearly equal in proportion. Squamous cell cancer was the commonest histotype overall, while ovarian cancers had a preponderance of epithelial tumors in 67.9% (87/128) over sex cord stromal (12.5%; 16/128) and germ cell (9.4%, 12/128) tumors. The most common symptom was abnormal vaginal bleeding (38%) followed by abdominal swelling (21.1%) and foul-smelling vaginal discharge (14.1%). Population-based data also showed high parity among women in the region, ranging from 4 births to 7 births per woman in a reproductive lifetime (total fertility rate, TFR).ConclusionThe spectrum of cancers of the female genital tract in this study mirrors the population demographics characterized by a high proportion of young women in their reproductive age. Efforts to reduce the burden of this disease are urgently warranted