The prevalence of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and its relationship with diet and obesity among public school teachers in Abeokuta, south-west Nigeria

Background: Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is a common chronic disorder in the high-income countries; and thought to be rare in low- and middle-income-countries. Lifestyle and diets have been suggested among others, as risk factors contributing to the development and severity of GORD. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of GORD and its association with dietary items and obesity among public school teachers in Abeokuta, south-western Nigeria.Methods: School teachers from 24 randomly selected public schools in Abeokuta were involved in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on respondents’ bio data, food frequency and Carlson-Dent scores were calculated for each respondent. A score of 4 and above on the Carlsson-Dent questionnaire was considered diagnostic of GORD. Each respondent had his or her weight, height, waist circumference and hip circumference measured. Body mass index and waist-hip ratio were calculated for each respondent.Results: A total of 550 teachers participated in the study. The prevalence of GORD was found to be 13.8% among the teachers. There was a significant association between chocolate consumption and frequency of GORD (p=0.01). There was no association between consumption of soft drinks (p=0.673), kola nut (P=0.451), beer (p=0.674), bitter kola (0.425), groundnut (0.442), cowpeas (p=0.442), walnut (p=0.905), gari (p=0.931), fufu (p= 0.249) and lafun (p=0.480) and the frequency of GORD. Similarly, no association was found between obesity (BMI, p=0.738), waist-hip ratio (p=0.56) and the frequency of GORD.Conclusion: GORD is common among public school teachers in Abeokuta with a prevalence of 13.8%. Except for consumption of chocolate, no association was found between frequency of GORD and consumption of majority of the dietary items considered in this study

Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Profitability of Quoted Food and Beverages Companies in Nigeria

The study examines the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Profitability of Quoted food and beverages companies in Nigeria from 2006 to 2015. . The population of the study consists of seventeen (17) quoted foood and beverages companies listed on the Nigerian stock exchange out of which twelve (12) were sampled based on the data availability.  The study was carried out using secondary data collected from annual reports and accounts of the sampled companies. The data collected were analysed using multiple regression techniques.  The denpendent variable is profitability which is measured with profit after tax, while the independent variable is corporate social responsibility was measured using the amount spent on corporate social responsibility activities.The result of the study reveal that corporate social responsibility has a significant positive impact on profitability with value 0.007 and the R2 of 0.3704.The study recommend that companies should embark on corporate social responsibility since it has positive correlation with companies profitability. Government should come up with clearly defined responsibility issues and should ensure its full implementation. This is because CSR activities help in raising the standard of living of communities and that the activities of the companies affect the life of the host communities. Keyword: Corporate Social Responsibility, Profitability, Food and Beverages

Audit quality and earnings management by listed firms in Nigeria

PURPOSE: We herein investigate the effect of quality of audit on management of earnings in Nigerian listed firms by (i) ascertaining the effect of audit quality on discretionary accruals, (ii) determining the effect of audit quality on earnings smoothing, as well as (iii) establishing the effect of audit quality on earnings per share.METHODOLOGY: The study follows an ex-post facto research design. It draws data from the annual reports of 10 firms. These consisted of five financial and five non-financial firms, purposively selected for a period of 10 years (2010-2019). Descriptive and inferential analyses were employed in data analyses.FINDINGS: The findings indicate that audit quality significantly affected earnings smoothing. Moreover, audit quality did not significantly affect discretionary accruals and earnings per share. Furthermore, it is recommended that management of firms should put in place policies for predicting earnings (in profit) to help forecast future earnings, which can be achieved by audit quality.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This study is meant to raise awareness on the need to improve the financial statement/reporting practices of publicly listed companies with respect to earnings management; discretionary accrual, earnings smoothing and earnings per share. It is hoped that the forwarded recommendations support the competent authorities in addressing the identified existing issues, thus enabling them to enhance the financial reporting practices and render them improved vehicles for development in publicly listed companies.peer-reviewe

Antenatal corticosteroids for management of preterm birth: a multi-country analysis of health system bottlenecks and potential solutions.

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of deaths for children under five years. Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are effective at reducing mortality and serious morbidity amongst infants born at 75%) reported very major or significant bottlenecks. Health information systems should include improved gestational age assessment and track ACS coverage, use and outcomes. Better health service delivery requires clarified policy assigning roles by level of care and cadre of provider, dependent on capability to assess gestational age and risk of preterm birth, and the implementation of guidelines with adequate supervision, mentoring and quality improvement systems, including audit and feedback. National essential medicines lists should include dexamethasone for antenatal use, and dexamethasone should be integrated into supply logistics

Genotype tunes pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tissue tension to induce matricellular fibrosis and tumor progression

Fibrosis compromises pancreatic ductal carcinoma (PDAC) treatment and contributes to patient mortality yet anti-stromal therapies are controversial. We found that human PDACs with impaired epithelial transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) signaling have elevated epithelial Stat3 activity and develop a stiffer, matricellular-enriched fibrosis associated with high epithelial tension and shorter patient survival. In several Kras-driven mouse models, both the loss of TGF-β signaling and elevated β1-integrin mechanosignaling engaged a positive feedback loop whereby Stat3 signaling promotes tumor progression by increasing matricellular fibrosis and tissue tension. In contrast, epithelial Stat3 ablation attenuated tumor progression by reducing the stromal stiffening and epithelial contractility induced by loss of TGF-β signaling. In PDAC patient biopsies, higher matricellular protein and activated Stat3 associated with SMAD4 mutation and shorter survival. The findings implicate epithelial tension and matricellular fibrosis in the aggressiveness of SMAD4 mutant pancreatic tumors, and highlight Stat3 and mechanics as key drivers of this phenotype

Treatment outcomes of new tuberculosis patients hospitalized in Kampala, Uganda: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: In most resource limited settings, new tuberculosis (TB) patients are usually treated as outpatients. We sought to investigate the reasons for hospitalisation and the predictors of poor treatment outcomes and mortality in a cohort of hospitalized new TB patients in Kampala, Uganda. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Ninety-six new TB patients hospitalised between 2003 and 2006 were enrolled and followed for two years. Thirty two were HIV-uninfected and 64 were HIV-infected. Among the HIV-uninfected, the commonest reasons for hospitalization were low Karnofsky score (47%) and need for diagnostic evaluation (25%). HIV-infected patients were commonly hospitalized due to low Karnofsky score (72%), concurrent illness (16%) and diagnostic evaluation (14%). Eleven HIV uninfected patients died (mortality rate 19.7 per 100 person-years) while 41 deaths occurred among the HIV-infected patients (mortality rate 46.9 per 100 person years). In all patients an unsuccessful treatment outcome (treatment failure, death during the treatment period or an unknown outcome) was associated with duration of TB symptoms, with the odds of an unsuccessful outcome decreasing with increasing duration. Among HIV-infected patients, an unsuccessful treatment outcome was also associated with male sex (P = 0.004) and age (P = 0.034). Low Karnofsky score (aHR = 8.93, 95% CI 1.88 - 42.40, P = 0.001) was the only factor significantly associated with mortality among the HIV-uninfected. Mortality among the HIV-infected was associated with the composite variable of CD4 and ART use, with patients with baseline CD4 below 200 cells/µL who were not on ART at a greater risk of death than those who were on ART, and low Karnofsky score (aHR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.02 - 4.01, P = 0.045). CONCLUSION: Poor health status is a common cause of hospitalisation for new TB patients. Mortality in this study was very high and associated with advanced HIV Disease and no use of ART

Plant Power:Opportunities and challenges for meeting sustainable energy needs from the plant and fungal kingdoms

Societal Impact Statement Bioenergy is a major component of the global transition to renewable energy technologies. The plant and fungal kingdoms offer great potential but remain mostly untapped. Their increased use could contribute to the renewable energy transition and addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” Current research focuses on species cultivated at scale in temperate regions, overlooking the wealth of potential new sources of small‐scale energy where they are most urgently needed. A shift towards diversified, accessible bioenergy technologies will help to mitigate and adapt to the threats of climate change, decrease energy poverty, improve human health by reducing indoor pollution, increase energy resilience of communities, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Summary Bioenergy derived from plants and fungi is a major component of the global transition to renewable energy technologies. There is rich untapped diversity in the plant and fungal kingdoms that offers potential to contribute to the shift away from fossil fuels and to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” Energy poverty—the lack of access to modern energy services—is most acute in the Global South where biodiversity is greatest and least investigated. Our systematic review of the literature over the last 5 years (2015–2020) indicates that research efforts have targeted a very small number of plant species cultivated at scale, mostly in temperate regions. The wealth of potential new sources of bioenergy in biodiverse regions, where the implementation of SDG7 is most urgently needed, has been largely overlooked. We recommend next steps for bioenergy stakeholders—research, industry, and government—to seize opportunities for innovation to alleviate energy poverty while protecting biodiversity. Small‐scale energy production using native plant species in bioenergy landscapes overcomes many pitfalls associated with bioenergy crop monocultures, such as biodiversity loss and conflict with food production. Targeted trait‐based screening of plant species and biological screening of fungi are required to characterize the potential of this resource. The benefits of diversified, accessible bioenergy go beyond the immediate urgency of energy poverty as more diverse agricultural landscapes are more resilient, store more carbon, and could also reduce the drivers of the climate and environmental emergencies

Environmental-mechanistic modelling of the impact of global change on human zoonotic disease emergence: A case study of Lassa fever

1. Human infectious diseases are a significant threat to global human health and economies (e.g., Ebola, SARs), with the majority of infectious diseases having an animal source (zoonotic). Despite their importance, the lack of a quantitative predictive framework hampers our understanding of how spill-overs of zoonotic infectious diseases into the human population will be impacted by global environmental stressors. 2. Here, we create an environmental-mechanistic model for understanding the impact of global change on the probability of zoonotic disease reservoir host-human spill-over events. As a case study, we focus on Lassa fever virus (LAS). We firstly quantify the spatial determinants of LAS outbreaks, including the phylogeographic distribution of its reservoir host Natal multimammate rat (Mastomys natalensis) (LAS host). Secondly, we use these determinants to inform our environmental-mechanistic model to estimate present day LAS spill-over events and the predicted impact of climate change, human population growth, and land use by 2070. 3. We find phylogeographic evidence to suggest that LAS is confined to only one clade of LAS host (Western clade Mastomys natalensis), and that the probability of its occurrence was a major determinant of the spatial variation in LAS historical outbreaks (69.8%), along with human population density (20.4%). Our estimates for present day LAS spill-over events from our environmental-mechanistic model were consistent with observed patterns, and we predict an increase in events per year by 2070 from 195,125 to 406,725 within the LAS endemic western African region. Of the component drivers, climate change and human population growth are predicted to have the largest effects by increasing landscape suitability for the host and human-host contact rates, while land use change has only a weak impact on the number of future events. 4. LAS spill-over events did not respond uniformly to global environmental stressors, and we suggest that understanding the impact of global change on zoonotic infectious disease emergence requires an understanding of how reservoir host species respond to environmental change. Our environmental-mechanistic modelling methodology provides a novel generalizable framework to understand the impact of global change on the spill-over of zoonotic diseases

Antenatal corticosteroids for management of preterm birth: a multi-country analysis of health system bottlenecks and potential solutions

BackgroundPreterm birth complications are the leading cause of deaths for children under five years. Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are effective at reducing mortality and serious morbidity amongst infants born at 75%) reported very major or significant bottlenecks. Health information systems should include improved gestational age assessment and track ACS coverage, use and outcomes. Better health service delivery requires clarified policy assigning roles by level of care and cadre of provider, dependent on capability to assess gestational age and risk of preterm birth, and the implementation of guidelines with adequate supervision, mentoring and quality improvement systems, including audit and feedback. National essential medicines lists should include dexamethasone for antenatal use, and dexamethasone should be integrated into supply logistics