Relationship between sonographic umbilical cord size and gestational age among pregnant women in Enugu, Nigeria

Background: Common fetal parameters for gestational age (GA) estimation have pitfalls especially in advanced pregnancy and pregnancy complicated by fetal structural anomaly.Objective: To assess the relationship between umbilical cord size and gestational age of the fetus.Subjects and Methods: A sonographic cross sectional study involving 300 pregnant women with GA between 14 weeks to 40 weeks was done in Enugu, Nigeria. Gestational ages were first estimated by use of Naegele’s formula for GA estimation based on the date of onset of each subject’s last menstrual period. Fetal parameters such as biparietal diameter, femur length, head circumference and abdominal circumference were measured and also used to estimate GA. Umbilical cord diameters were measured and used to compute the umbilical cord cross-sectional area.Results: The mean umbilical cord diameter and cross-sectional area were 14.5mm + 7.2mm and 201.6mm + 139.5mm2 respectively. Umbilical cord growth rate of 1.0mm/week was noted between the 14th and 35th week of pregnancy. There were significant correlations (p < 0.001) between umbilical cord size and other fetal parameters for GA estimation.Conclusion: Umbilical cord size had strong linear relationship with common fetal GA estimation parameters and could be used to compliment these parameters for GA estimation.Key words: Sonography, umbilical cord size, gestational age, Nigeria

Longitudinal and Cross Sectional Mix Data Approach to Impact Assessment: A Case Study of Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme, Nigeria

The study employed longitudinal and cross-sectional mix data approach, “before and after”, “with and without” technique in assessing the impact of IFAD Assisted Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme on the socio-economic livelihood, including agricultural productivity, nutrition and job creation potentials of the beneficiaries. Multi-stage sampling was employed to elicit responses from 1,928 households in 64 communities covering 9 participating states in the Niger-Delta Region of Nigeria. The Component Index Analysis, Productivity Index and Double Differencing techniques were employed for data analysis.The Component Index Analysis revealed that even though beneficiaries were of better wealth standing compared to non-beneficiaries, inequalities were observed within the ranks of targeted beneficiaries. Also, direct enterprise productivity impact of programme on beneficiaries was 61.1%, 203.3% and 30.1% for crops, livestock and fisheries respectively. Programme impact on food consumed was 21.4% while 84.95% of the beneficiaries observed improved nutrition compared to 67.7% under control group. About 47,454 jobs were created with crop sub-sector accounting for about 75% of the total. The study concluded that the programme impacted on the socio-economic livelihood of beneficiaries, although, impact varied within the rank and file of beneficiaries.Key Words: Impact, Livelihood, Productivity, Nutrition, Job-creation, Socio-economi

Adherence to infant-feeding choices by HIV-infected mothers at a Nigerian tertiary hospital: the pre-“rapid advice” experience

Objectives: The study examined adherence to infant-feeding choices made by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected mothers at a Nigerian tertiary hospital prior to implementation of the “rapid advice” guideline, i.e. the revised World Health Organisation principles and recommendations on infant feeding in the context of HIV.Design: This was a longitudinal descriptive study.Subjects and settings: The study was conducted on mother-infant pairs recruited from the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV programme of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Nigeria. Final analyses included 142 mother-infant pairs.Outcome measures: Adherence to a prenatal infant-feeding choice and the infant’s HIV status at six months of age were determined.Results: On enrolment, 73% (n = 103) of the mothers chose exclusive formula feeding (EFF), and 28% (n = 39) exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first six months of life. Of the mothers who chose EBF, the actual practice of EBF declined from 88% at two weeks to 21% at six months, while EFF with correctly reconstituted infant formula decreased from 55% to 8% over the same period. The proportion of mothers who switched over to early complementary feeding increased from 8% at six weeks to 80% at six months in the EBF group, and 2% at two weeks to 92% at six months in the EFF group. Major reasons for nonadherence to their initial choice were fear of the mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV (65%) and non-affordability of the formula (97%) in the EBF and EFF groups, respectively. Factors significantly associated with adherence to their initial choice included having individual prenatal infant-feeding counselling sessions, being married, having a small number of children, being of higher socio-economic status and the mother’s educational status. However, only socio-economic status remained significant after logistic regression analysis was applied. The total MTCT of HIV rate was 1% at six months.Conclusion: Adherence to either EFF or EBF in this study was low, owing to early breastfeeding cessation and the inability to sustain EFF.Keywords: HIV-infected mothers, infant-feeding choice, infant-feeding practices, PMTCT, adherenc

Motivation to Learn, Quality of Life and Estimated Academic Achievement: Medical Students Studying in New Zealand

The quality of life of medical students and their motivation to learn are critical factors that have an impact on their ability to learn. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between medical students' perceptions of their quality of life, motivation to learn, and estimated grade at the end of the academic year. Two hundred and seventy-four medical students at years four and five of medical school participated in the study. Students filled in a demographic survey form, and shortened versions of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Significant correlations between quality of life and motivation to learn measures were obtained. Second, students who scored high on aspects of quality of life and motivation to learn also scored significantly higher on estimates of written grade. In conclusion, the results suggest that medical students’ perceptions about quality of life and motivation to learn are linked to estimation of academic achievement. The findings of this study further resonate with a key conceptual model in the motivation literature, which promotes the importance of creating opportunities for mastery learning, engaging task value, producing optimal learning contexts, and creating mechanisms for coping with and managing the inevitable anxiety-provoking learning experiences that medical students face.The quality of life of medical students and their motivation to learn are critical factors that have an impact on their ability to learn. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between medical students‟ perceptions of their quality of life, motivation to learn, and estimated grade at the end of the academic year. Two hundred and seventy-four medical students at years four and five of medical school participated in the study. Students filled in a demographic survey form, and shortened versions of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Significant correlations between quality of life and motivation to learn measures were obtained. Second, students who scored high on aspects of quality of life and motivation to learn also scored significantly higher on estimates of written grade. In conclusion, the results suggest that medical students‟ perceptions about quality of life and motivation to learn are linked to estimation of academic achievement. The findings of this study further resonate with a key conceptual model in the motivation literature, which promotes the importance of creating opportunities for mastery learning, engaging task value, producing optimal learning contexts, and creating mechanisms for coping with and managing the inevitable anxiety-provoking learning experiences that medical students face

Occurrence of haemolysin antibodies among sickle cell anaemia patients within Calabar metropolis of Nigeria

The role of alpha () and beta () haemolysins in blood transfusion has been well documented. However, the occurrence of haemolysins and its attending problems in sickle cell anaemia (SCA) patients has limited appearance in the literatures especially in black Africa. This study was therefore designed to investigate the occurrence of and haemolysins in SCA patients within Calabar metropolis. A total of 50 normal controls and 54 SCA patients attending the sickle cell clinic of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Cross River State of Nigeria, were screened for haemolysins and quantitated using standard techniques. The distribution of haemolysins in the SCA patients was (16.7), (11.1) and + (16.7%). Their ABO blood groups were normally distributed in this order O>>A>B>AB (61.1, 20.4, 11.1 and 7.5%, respectively). The occurrence of haemolysin among the Ogroup was 15.2%, while haemolysin was 12.1% and + haemolysin was 30.3%. Control samples gave non-significantly lower haemolysin values than in SCA patients (P>0.05), but in the same order (, 9.0, , 7.0, and +, 9.0%). The higher prevalence of haemolysins in SCA could be a major limiting factor in donation of blood, blood selection and transfusion into SCA patients. Consequently, greater care should be taken during cross match of blood for SCA patients especially in multiple transfusion procedures

Evaluation of Linked Determinants Between Diabetes and Caries

Dental caries and diabetes mellitus, represent two chronic diseases of public health that present statistics of high prevalence worldwide. One of the main problems that affect these conditions is demography, since the least developed countries are those that have less access to public health services and are limited by the economic costs that represent the treatments. In this work is presented the univariate analysis, of a set of demographic determinants obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), in order to identify those that present the most significant information related to estimation of these diseases. According to the results, the age of the subjects is the main determinant describing the simultaneous presence of these diseases, obtaining an area under the curve (AUC) value ≥ 0.846, concluding that age can be used as tool for their preventive diagnosis

Relationship Between Gestation Length and Birth Weight in Nigerian Sheep and Their Crosses

Effect of genotype and birth weight on gestation length was evaluated using Nigerian breeds of sheep and their crosses. The study was carried out at the Sheep Project Unit of Small Ruminant Research Programme (SRRP) of National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), Ahmadu Bello University, Shika-Zaria. The sheep breeds used were Balami, Uda and Yankasa. Heat (estrus) detection was carried out twice daily; in the morning (07:00-08:00 hours); and in the evening (16:00-17:00 hours) using apron fitted rams to pick does on heat. A total of 56 lambs were used for this study. The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance using General Linear Model and Correlation Procedure of SAS. All the genotypes had similar gestation length with values between 150.3±0.61 days and 153.3±0.60 days, except for Balami pure breed (BAL X BAL) lambs that recorded a shorter gestation length (137.1±0.81 days). There was a wide variation in the birth weight of lambs with the crosses between Balami rams and Yankasa ewes recording a distinct birth weight of 3.5±0.08 kg while the crosses obtained using Yankasa rams on Uda and Balami ewes gave the lowest birth weights (1.7±0.19 and 1.4±0.18, respectively). Sex and litter type have no significant effect (P>0.05) on gestation length. Birth weight was however affected by sex of lambs and their litter type. Litter type was negatively correlated with birth weight (-0.372). Gestation length had a low and non-significant relationship with birth weight; litter type and lamb genotype. Lamb genotype does not have a significant relationship with litter type. Genetic improvement of Nigeria sheep breed is possible if the resources of within and between breed is exploited. Selection for a reduction in gestation length may indirectly increase prolificacy. (Animal Production 12(3): 135-138 (2010

A WSN approach to unmanned aerial surveillance of traffic anomalies: Some challenges and potential solutions

Stationary CCTV cameras are often used to help monitor car movements and detect any anomalies - e.g., accidents, cars going faster than the allowed speed, driving under the influence of alcohol, etc. The height of the cameras can limit their effectiveness and the types of image processing algorithm which can be used. With advancements in the development of inexpensive aerial flying objects and wireless devices, these two technologies can be coupled to support enhanced surveillance. The flying objects can carry multiple cameras and be sent well above the ground to capture and feed video/image information back to a ground station. In addition, because of the height the objects can achieve, they can capture videos and images which could lend themselves more suitably for the application of a variety of video and image processing algorithms to assist analysts in detecting any anomalies. In this paper, we examine some main challenges of using flying objects for surveillance purposes and propose some potential solutions to these challenges. By doing so, we attempt to provide the basis for developing a framework to build a viable system for improved surveillance based on low-cost equipment. © 2013 IEEE.t.published_or_final_versio

Loitering with intent: dealing with human-intensive systems

This paper discusses the professional roles of information systems analysts and users, focusing on a perspective of human intensive, rather than software intensive information systems. The concept of ‘meaningful use’ is discussed in re-lation to measures of success/failure in IS development. The authors consider how a number of different aspects of reductionism may distort analyses, so that processes of inquiry cannot support organizational actors to explore and shape their requirements in relation to meaningful use. Approaches which attempt to simplify complex problem spaces, to render them more susceptible to ‘solution’ are problematized. Alternative perspectives which attempt a systematic, holistic complexification, by supporting contextual dependencies to emerge, are advocated as a way forward

The large-scale environment of thermonuclear and core-collapse supernovae

The new generation of wide-field time-domain surveys has made it feasible to study the clustering of supernova (SN) host galaxies in the large-scale structure (LSS) for the first time. We investigate the LSS environment of SN populations, using 106 dark matter density realisations with a resolution of ∼3.8 Mpc, constrained by the 2M+ + galaxy survey. We limit our analysis to redshift z < 0.036, using samples of 498 thermonuclear and 782 core-collapse SNe from the Zwicky Transient Facility’s Bright Transient Survey and Census of the Local Universe catalogues. We detect clustering of SNe with high significance; the observed clustering of the two SNe populations is consistent with each other. Further, the clustering of SN hosts is consistent with that of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR12 spectroscopic galaxy sample in the same redshift range. Using a tidal shear classifier, we classify the LSS into voids, sheets, filaments, and knots. We find that both SNe and SDSS galaxies are predominantly found in sheets and filaments. SNe are significantly under-represented in voids and over-represented in knots compared to the volume fraction in these structures. This work opens the potential for using forthcoming wide-field deep SN surveys as a complementary LSS probe