Awareness and utilization of “Sobo” (Hibiscus sabdariffa-roselle) by farm families in Aniocha north local government area of Delta state, Nigeria

Hibiscus sabdariffa (Roselle) is known for its numerous health and medicinal benefits. “Sobo” is an indigenous non-alcoholic drink made from hot extract of Roselle calyces and consumed in Savannah and semi-arid region of Africa. This study assessed awareness and utilization of sobo among farm families in Aniocha Local Government Area of Delta State. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to select a sample of 140 farm families who responded to a 22-item interview schedule that was used for data collection. Relevant data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis such as mean, percentage, pooled mean and ranking. Among others, it was found that about 91.4% of the respondents were aware of sobo drink. Friends and neighbours were the sources of information on sobo to about 73.6% of the respondents while only 9.3% got the information from Extension Agents. While about 31.4% of respondents do not utilize sobo at all, majority of those who do (43.6%) are doing so at a low rate of one (1) time per week. The major constraints that farmers are facing relates to preparation of sobo. It was recommended that extension activities should be invigorated, with a view to closing the gap in farmers’ knowledge about several health and medicinal benefits of sobo and how to prepare it. Campaign should be mounted to encourage farmers to utilize sobo on a higher than the observed 1-2 times per week and at the expense of carbonated soft drinks with it usual high sugar content. Further investigations to increase the shelve life of sobo and to ascertain quantities that are optimal for various age ranges in the farm families should be carried out.Key words: Health, Nutrition, Utilization, “Sobo” drink, Roselle, Hibiscus sabdariff

Optimisation du procédé traditionnel de maltage du sorgho pour la production de boissons fermentées

La présente étude a évalué les conditions d’optimisation des procédés traditionnels de maltage du sorgho au Bénin. L’objectif est d’améliorer, à l’échelle semi-industrielle, la production et la qualité du malt de sorgho. L’étude s’est déroulée en deux phases. La première phase a consisté en une enquête technologique au cours de laquelle la technologie traditionnelle de production de malt a été suivie et des échantillons de malt collectés. Dans la deuxième phase, la technologie traditionnelle a été reproduite en conditions contrôlées au laboratoire en faisant varier les différents paramètres de maltage que sont la durée de trempage et la durée de germination. Les résultats ont montré qu’il existe une grande variabilité au niveau des caractéristiques physicochimiques des malts collectés auprès des productrices de boissons maltées. L’analyse de variance a révélé que la durée de trempage et la durée de germination ont un effet significatif sur l’extrait sec, le pH, le pouvoir diastasique et le rapport α/β-amylasique des malts dérivés. Une analyse en composantes principales a été effectuée sur les caractéristiques des malts produits en conditions contrôlées et les conditions optimales de production de malt de qualité adéquate ont été établies.Keywords: Sorgho, malt, pouvoir diastasique, germination, fermentation, optimisatio

Neonatal Morbidity And Mortality In Calabar, Nigeria: A Hospital- Based Study

Background: The morbidity and mortality pattern amongst neonates admitted into the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital were reviewed from 1st June 2003 to 30th November 2004. Results: The major indications for admission for inborn babies were infections (27.4%), jaundice (21%) and low birth weight (LBW) (18.4%). The out born babies were admitted largely for sepsis (26.8%), jaundice (17.7%), tetanus (13.9%) and low birth weight (11.2%). Staphylococcus aureus (61.2%) and unclassified coliforms (21.9%) were the dominant isolates of septicaemia. The overall mortality rate of 19.3% was largely contributed by outborn infants (73.2% of the deaths). In descending order of magnitude, the total of 153 deaths during the period was due to infections (neonatal tetanus 20.9%, septicaemia 19.6%), birth asphyxia 23.3% and LBW 19%. Most of the deaths (70.6%) occurred within the first 7 days of life. Fifty-three (34.6%) of the deaths (most outborn infants) occurred within 24 hours of admission. Conclusion: Nigerian government needs to improve funding of the health sector in order to reduce neonatal wastage. Training and retraining of traditional birth attendants is inevitable. More effort should be made towards improving coverage rate of tetanus toxoid among women of childbearing age. Keywords: Neonatal Morbidity, Mortality. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 11 (3) 2008: pp. 285-28

Automated quantification of mitral valve anatomy using anatomical intelligence in three-dimensional echocardiography

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Temporal-spatial profiling of pedunculopontine galanin-cholinergic neurons in the lactacystin rat model of Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is conventionally seen as resulting from single-system neurodegeneration affecting nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. However, accumulating evidence indicates a multi-system degeneration and neurotransmitter deficiencies, including cholinergic neurons which degenerate in a brainstem nucleus, the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), resulting in motor- and cognitive impairments. The neuropeptide galanin can inhibit cholinergic transmission, whilst being upregulated in degenerating brain regions associated with cognitive decline. Here we determined the temporal-spatial profile of progressive expression of endogenous galanin within degenerating cholinergic neurons, across the rostro-caudal axis of the PPN, by utilising the lactacystin-induced rat model of PD. First, we show progressive neuronal death affecting nigral dopaminergic and PPN cholinergic neurons, reflecting that seen in PD patients, to facilitate use of this model for assessing the therapeutic potential of bioactive peptides. Next, stereological analyses of the lesioned brain hemisphere found that the number of PPN cholinergic neurons expressing galanin increased by 11%, compared to sham-lesioned controls, increasing by a further 5% as the neurodegenerative process evolved. Galanin upregulation within cholinergic PPN neurons was most prevalent closest to the intra-nigral lesion site, suggesting that galanin upregulation in such neurons adapt intrinsically to neurodegeneration, to possibly neuroprotect. This is the first report on the extent and pattern of galanin expression in cholinergic neurons across distinct PPN subregions in both the intact rat CNS and lactacystin lesioned rats. The findings pave the way for future work to target galanin signaling in the PPN, to determine the extent to which upregulated galanin expression could offer a viable treatment strategy for ameliorating PD symptoms associated with cholinergic degeneration

The evolution of socioeconomic status-related inequalities in maternal health care utilization: evidence from Zimbabwe, 1994-2011

Background: Inequalities in maternal health care are pervasive in the developing world, a fact that has led to questions about the extent of these disparities across socioeconomic groups. Despite a growing literature on maternal health across Sub-Saharan African countries, relatively little is known about the evolution of these inequalities over time for specific countries. This study sought to quantify and explain the observed differences in prenatal care use and professional delivery assistance in Zimbabwe. Methods: The empirical analysis uses four rounds of the nationwide Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey administered in 1994, 1999, 2005/06 and 2010/11. Two binary indicators were used as measures of maternal health care utilization; (1) the receipt of four or more antenatal care visits and (2) receiving professional delivery assistance for the most recent pregnancy. We measure inequalities in maternal health care use using the Erreygers corrected concentration index. A decomposition analysis was conducted to determine the underlying drivers of the measured disparities. Results: The computed concentration indices for professional delivery assistance and prenatal care reveal a mostly pro-rich distribution of inequalities between 1994 and 2011. Particularly, the concentration index [95% confidence interval] for the receipt of prenatal care was 0.111 [0.056, 0.171] in 2005/06 and 0.094 [0.057, 0.138] in 2010/11. For professional delivery assistance, the concentration index stood at 0.286 [0.244, 0.329] in 2005/06 and 0.324 [0.283, 0.366] in 2010/11. The pro-rich inequality was also increasing in both rural and urban areas over time. The decomposition exercise revealed that wealth, education, religion and information access were the underlying drivers of the observed inequalities in maternal health care. Conclusions: In Zimbabwe, socioeconomic disparities in maternal health care use are mostly pro-rich and have widened over time regardless of the location of residence. Overall, we established that inequalities in wealth and education are amongst the top drivers of the observed disparities in maternal health care. These findings suggest that addressing inequalities in maternal health care utilization requires coordinated public policies targeting the more poor and vulnerable segments of the population in Zimbabwe

On non-gaussianities in single-field inflation

We study the impact of higher dimension operators in the inflaton Lagrangian on the non-gaussianity of the scalar spectrum. These terms can strongly enhance the effect without spoiling slow-roll, though it is difficult to exceed f_NL ~ 1, because the scale which suppresses the operators cannot be too low, if we want the effective field theory description to make sense. In particular we explicitly calculate the 3-point function given by an higher derivative interaction of the form (\nabla\phi)^4, which is expected to give the most important contribution. The angular dependence of the result turns out to be quite different from the minimal case without higher dimension operators.Comment: 10 page

Intra aortic balloon pump: literature review of risk factors related to complications of the intraaortic balloon pump

The increasing use of the intra aortic balloon pump is attributed to the relatively easy percutaneous insertion and the low threshold of use over the past few years, especially in elderly patients with multi-vessel diseases and an affected ejection fraction

Search for the neutral Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for neutral Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is reported. The analysis is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The data were recorded in 2011 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb-1 to 4.8 fb-1. Higgs boson decays into oppositely-charged muon or τ lepton pairs are considered for final states requiring either the presence or absence of b-jets. No statistically significant excess over the expected background is observed and exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived. The exclusion limits are for the production cross-section of a generic neutral Higgs boson, φ, as a function of the Higgs boson mass and for h/A/H production in the MSSM as a function of the parameters mA and tan β in the mhmax scenario for mA in the range of 90GeV to 500 GeV. Copyright CERN

Search for R-parity-violating supersymmetry in events with four or more leptons in sqrt(s) =7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for new phenomena in final states with four or more leptons (electrons or muons) is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of $\sqrt{s}=7\;\mathrm{TeV}$ proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in two signal regions: one that requires moderate values of missing transverse momentum and another that requires large effective mass. The results are interpreted in a simplified model of R-parity-violating supersymmetry in which a 95% CL exclusion region is set for charged wino masses up to 540 GeV. In an R-parity-violating MSUGRA/CMSSM model, values of m 1/2 up to 820 GeV are excluded for 10 < tan β < 40