IMPROVING TUBERCULOSIS RESPONSE STRATEGIES BY INVOLVING THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN THE PUBLIC-PRIVATE MIX SCHEME: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Private sector involvement in national tuberculosis (TB) programs positively impacts prevention and service, but challenges remain. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides a framework to enhance public-private engagement. Our aims were to explore evidence and measure success in TB control programs. We conduct systematic literature reviews using PubMed, Embase, and ProQuest databases to find reports published in English with no time limit. PRISMA was used to filter titles and abstracts for inclusion. A search of 176 studies found that 14 fit the inclusion criteria, with 92.8% collaborating on multiple interventions for TB outcomes. Private sector support, health worker assistance, and innovative projects, such as medical associations and religious organizations, improved TB program achievement. In conclusion, the government has implemented four intervention strategies from the WHO framework to increase private sector engagement in each region. These strategies must be implemented in the local context, with a focus on medium and long-term implementation to ensure sustainable results.   

ASSESSMENT OF THE UTILIZATION OF DIFFERENT STRENGTH CLASSES OF CEMENT IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

Building collapse in Nigeria is so rampant now to the extent that it’s gradually not becoming a news when one occurs. Several factors being attributed as the cause of building collapses are based on opinions and in some cases based on investigative reports of selected buildings collapse. These factors are speculative since some intrinsic properties of debris materials tested during the investigation of selected collapse might be lost due to the impact of the collapse as a result of falling from great height and other debris falling on the tested material that these properties were intact before the collapse. Also, since the major causes of collapse in Nigeria is mostly attributed to poor construction process and the use of substandard material, this study assesses the quality of cements used in some selected sites and freshly produced cement from factory to compare with relevant standards, it also assesses the level of knowledge of the Nigerian construction professional using these cements to measure its applications. It was found out that the cements used in these selected sites were not all to standard even though all the freshly purchased cements met the required standard, this indicates that other factors might be responsible for the drop in standard properties. It was also observed that many of the professionals still need more training on the application of the different cement classes in structural concrete work

Need-Achievement And Career Preference Of In-School Adolescents In Anambra State, Nigeria: The Need To Reposition School Librarian/Library Roles

The relationship between need achievement and career preference of in-school adolescents were examined in this study. The need for the study was prompted by previous studies’ report that students make wrong career preferences due to poor information among other factors. The negative impact of these wrong preferences on the individual and the work place have become worrisome to all concerned. To achieve the main purpose of the research, a questionnaire was constructed through literature and was face validated by experts in the field of education. The instrument proved to be reliable (with a reliability index of .92.) to answer the research questions and also test the hypothesis at 0.5 level of significance. Participants were 380 (both male and female) in-schooling adolescents who supplied information to the questionnaires about need achievement and career preferences. Results revealed a heterogeneous pattern of career preference and a positive significant relationship between in-school adolescents’ need-achievement and career preference. Based on the findings, the paper made recommendations and highlights a significant need to reposition the roles of the school librarians and the services of the libraries to include career guidance services

COLLABORATING IN THE CAPTURE LAB: Computer Support for Group Writing

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67328/2/10.1177_108056999005300208.pd

The endogenous hallucinogen and trace amine N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) displays potent protective effects against hypoxia via sigma-1 receptor activation in human primary iPSC-derived cortical neurons and microglia-like immune cells

N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a potent endogenous hallucinogen present in the brain of humans and other mammals. Despite extensive research, its physiological role remains largely unknown. Recently, DMT has been found to activate the sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R), an intracellular chaperone fulfilling an interface role between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. It ensures the correct transmission of ER stress into the nucleus resulting in the enhanced production of antistress and antioxidant proteins. Due to this function, the activation of Sig-1R can mitigate the outcome of hypoxia or oxidative stress. In this paper, we aimed to test the hypothesis that DMT plays a neuroprotective role in the brain by activating the Sig-1R. We tested whether DMT can mitigate hypoxic stress in in vitro cultured human cortical neurons (derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, iPSCs), monocyte-derived macrophages (moMACs), and dendritic cells (moDCs). Results showed that DMT robustly increases the survival of these cell types in severe hypoxia (0.5% O2) through the Sig-1R. Furthermore, this phenomenon is associated with the decreased expression and function of the alpha subunit of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) suggesting that DMT-mediated Sig-1R activation may alleviate hypoxia-induced cellular stress and increase survival in a HIF-1-independent manner. Our results reveal a novel and important role of DMT in human cellular physiology. We postulate that this compound may be endogenously generated in situations of stress, ameliorating the adverse effects of hypoxic/ischemic insult to the brain.publishedVersio

Level Statistics of XXZ Spin Chains with Discrete Symmetries: Analysis through Finite-size Effects

Level statistics is discussed for XXZ spin chains with discrete symmetries for some values of the next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) coupling parameter. We show how the level statistics of the finite-size systems depends on the NNN coupling and the XXZ anisotropy, which should reflect competition among quantum chaos, integrability and finite-size effects. Here discrete symmetries play a central role in our analysis. Evaluating the level-spacing distribution, the spectral rigidity and the number variance, we confirm the correspondence between non-integrability and Wigner behavior in the spectrum. We also show that non-Wigner behavior appears due to mixed symmetries and finite-size effects in some nonintegrable cases.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

Semiclassical theory for many-body Fermionic systems

We present a treatment of many-body Fermionic systems that facilitates an expression of the well-known quantities in a series expansion of the Planck's constant. The ensuing semiclassical result contains to a leading order of the response function the classical time correlation function of the observable followed by the Weyl-Wigner series, on top of these terms are the periodic-orbit correction terms. The treatment given here starts from linear response assumption of the many-body theory and in its connection with semiclassical theory, it makes no assumption of the integrability of classical dynamics underlying the one-body quantal system. Applications of the framework are also discussed.Comment: 18 pages, Te

Joint action modulates motor system involvement during action observation in 3-year-olds

When we are engaged in a joint action, we need to integrate our partner’s actions with our own actions. Previous research has shown that in adults the involvement of one’s own motor system is enhanced during observation of an action partner as compared to during observation of an individual actor. The aim of this study was to investigate whether similar motor system involvement is present at early stages of joint action development and whether it is related to joint action performance. In an EEG experiment with 3-year-old children, we assessed the children’s brain activity and performance during a joint game with an adult experimenter. We used a simple button-pressing game in which the two players acted in turns. Power in the mu- and beta-frequency bands was compared when children were not actively moving but observing the experimenter’s actions when (1) they were engaged in the joint action game and (2) when they were not engaged. Enhanced motor involvement during action observation as indicated by attenuated sensorimotor mu- and beta-power was found when the 3-year-olds were engaged in the joint action. This enhanced motor activation during action observation was associated with better joint action performance. The findings suggest that already in early childhood the motor system is differentially activated during action observation depending on the involvement in a joint action. This motor system involvement might play an important role for children’s joint action performance

Growth Process Of Organic Vetiver Root With Potato AS Intercropping Plant

Vetiver oil (Vetiveria zizanoides) is one of Indonesia main export commodities. Vetiver root is perennial plant and generally planted with vegetables as intercropping plant. Increasing the selling price of vetiver oil can be done by transferring the production of conventional vetiver oil (non-organic) to organic vetiver oil. Demonstration of land used was one hectare, which 2,000 m2 for planting vetiver root with potato (Solanum tuberosum) as inter-cropping plant and 8,000 m2 for vetiver root without intercropping, in Sukakarya-Samarang, Garut. The planting used goat and cow dung as manure, distillate water of vetiver oil and liquid bio-pesticide as pesticide. Variables studied included plant height, number of leaf and crotch. In the first quarter of the years, the number of leaf and crotch of vetiver root with intercropping was better than vetiver root without inter-cropping. However, there was not significant difference for plant height of vetiver root, both with and without intercropping. Products of organic potato as intercropping plant of vetiver root were less than those of non-organic potato, but the latter had a better texture and durability