Epidemiology of Cryptococcosis and Cryptococcal Meningitis in a large retrospective cohort of patients after solid organ transplantation

Abstract Background Cryptococcosis is the third most common invasive fungal infection in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. There are no nationally representative data describing the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of cryptococcosis after SOT. Methods We assembled a large cohort of adult SOT recipients using Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification billing data from Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases of Florida (2006–2012), New York (2006–2011), and California (2004–2010). Demographics, comorbidities, death, and cryptococcal infections coded during hospitalization were identified. Results A total of 42634 adults with SOT were identified during the study period. Cryptococcal disease was identified in 0.37% (n = 158), 44% of which had meningitis (n = 69). Median time to diagnosis of cryptococcosis was 464 days (range, 4–2393). The median time to onset of cryptococcosis was earlier for lung (191 days; range, 7.5–1816), heart (195 days; range, 4–1061), and liver (200 days; range, 4–1581) compared with kidney transplant recipients (616 days; range, 12–2393; P &amp;lt; .001, log rank test). Very early-onset disease (&amp;lt;30 days after transplantation) more frequently occurred in liver and lung transplant recipients. Lung transplant recipients had the highest risk of cryptococcosis (hazard ratio [HR], 2.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.21–3.60). Cryptococcosis was associated with death (HR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.68–3.11), after adjusting for age, type of SOT, and other comorbidities. Conclusions Cryptococcosis is rare after SOT, but it is associated with significantly increased risk of death. Lung transplant recipients are at highest risk for cryptococcosis among SOTs. Nonkidney transplants have earlier onset of cryptococcosis and higher risk of death compared with kidney transplant recipients. </jats:sec

Effect of aqueous Allium cepa extract from red onion on aluminum chloride- induced anemia in female rats

This study examined the protective effect of Allium cepa extract from red onion on aluminum – induced anemia in female wistar rats. Twenty-four animals (six rats per group) were used for this study. They were divided into four groups: group one served as control, group two animals were treated with 100mg/kg BW of aluminum chloride and served as Aluminum chloride (AlCl3) group, group three, Allium cepa alone group were treated with 1mL/100g BW of Allium cepa while group four was simultaneously treated with 1mL/100g BW of Allium cepa and 100mg/kg BW AlCl3. Treatments lasted for 4 weeks. Red blood cells (RBC), packed cell volume (PCV), Hemoglobin concentration (Hb) were measured from blood sample collected from each rat. Serum urea, serum and kidney malondialdehyde (index of lipid peroxidation) and kidney catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were measured spectrophotometrically. Significant decrease in RBC, PCV, Hb, catalase, SOD and significant increase in serum urea and malondialdehyde were observed in aluminum treated animals when compared with control. Animals treated with Allium cepa alone had significant increase in PCV, Hb, SOD and significant decrease in malondialdehyde and serum urea while there was no significant different in RBC and catalase when compared with control. Simultaneous treatment of the animals with Allium cepa and aluminum chloride resulted in significant increase in PCV while there was no significant different in RBC, Hb, catalase, malondialdehyde when compared with control.This study reveals that Allium cepa extract treatment ameliorate aluminum-induced anemia through antioxidant system.Keywords: Anemia, Allium cepa, Aluminum chloride, lipid peroxidatio

Pulverised Sewage Sludge Ash Partial Replacement of Cement In Concrete

The potential of the ash produced from the incineration of sewage sludge, as partial replacement of cement in concrete has generated research interest in recent times as a result of the increase in its production due to rapid urbanization and the problem of getting functionally adequate landfill sites for its disposal. Physical properties if sewage sludge from one of the two waste treatment plants located at the University of Ibadan were investigated. The properties evaluated were specific gravity, colour, particle size distribution and pH. The colour of the sewage sludge changed from greenish-brown when fresh to brownish-orange after incineration when the organic materials had been burnt off. The specific gravity was 1.9 while the pH was 7.32. The particle size grading of the pulverized sewage sludge was similar to that of cement, which it was meant to partially replace. The properties if fresh and hardened concrete, in which cement was partially replaced with 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% of pulverised sewage sludge ash by weight, were determined. There was an improvement in workability with increasing sludge ash content. The best performance of sludge ash concrete was attained with 10% sludge ash content. Concrete with up to 20% replacement of cement with pulverized sewage sludge ash produced concrete with properties above grade 20 concrete

Optimal Polypropylene Fiber Content for Improved Compressive and Flexural Strength of Concrete

Worldwide, concrete is a very important construction material, impacting heavily on Gross Domestic Products of many nations: a $30 billion business for ready- mix concrete production industry per year in the United States and a cement consumption rate of about 106kg per person in Nigeria. It is therefore imperative that this important material in the world construction industry must also be endued with the best possible properties. The principles on which reinforced concrete structural designs were based hangs on quality concrete material used in conjunction with quality steel or reinforcing material. However, in Nigeria, the reinforcement steel commonly used is of poor qualities as recent researches have shown that over 40% of 12 mm and 16 mm used within Lagos in 2010 failed the 460N/mm2 yield strength bench mark of BS8110 of 1997. The employment of micro fibers in the concrete will improve the strength and compensate for the apparently declining strength of Nigerian reinforced concrete building constructions and will also improve the strength of the non-reinforced concrete-sand crate block buildings. This research studies the effects of micro synthetic polypropylene fiber in improving concrete strength with the main focus of identifying the optimal quantity for improved compressive and flexural strengths of concrete. Destructive and non-destructive compressive strength tests and destructive flexural strength tests were carried out on the samples built with 0.25%, 0.5% 0.75% and 1% contents of polypropylene fibers alongside a control samples after 7, 14, 21 28 days of curing. The optimal percentage of polypropylene fiber that produced improved compressive and flexural strengths were found to lie within 0.25% and 0.5%

On Some Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Household Sanitation in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Different sanitation programmes introduced by government at various levels are ill-conceived and are abandoned prematurely due to numerous attitudinal, institutional and economic factors. This study examines the relationship of some socio-economic factors and house sanitation in Ado-Ekiti. Using simple bar chat and Chi-Square test of independence, the research reveals that though there seems to be variations among various socio-economic classes in relation to waste household sanitation technique, the relationship is found not to be statistically significant. It is therefore concluded that the general attitude of resident of Ado-Ekiti towards household sanitation and waste disposal is indifferent. Hence, the government and various non-governmental organizations involved in environmental sanitation and its impact should not relent in their effort in sensitizing the general public irrespective of their social and economic status.   Key words: household sanitation, social status, chi-squar

Negotiating the notion of Affect in Chinua Achebe’s There was a Country

Civil war writings in Nigeria are fictional and non-fictional works that project complex socio-political conflicts. Observation has shown that as much as works abound in this direction in linguistic scholarship, very little attention has been paid to the effectual aspects of the Nigerian civil war memoirs. To fill this vacuum therefore, this study sets out to examine the notion of effects in Chinua Achebe’s There was a Country to examine how Achebe employs language to weep up emotions for the Biafrans through Teun Van Dijk’sSocial Cognitive Model of Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA), given that CDA sees language as social practice to address power relations, discourse as constituting society and culture, thereby addressing the challenge, power relations or social problems. We found that the distinctive features of affective discourse as the thematization of sympathy and suffering as a superordinate lexeme characterize the memoir. The values are manifested through such linguistic markers as nominalization, generalizations, and foregrounding of such lexical words as death, despair, suffering, and bitterness to effectively account for the discourse of exclusion thereby projecting effectual values of sadness, despair, and sympathy reflecting the different ideological preferences in Nigerian civil war memoirs. The identified aspects of effects are employed to perform three functions in the text: they drive the attention of the audience to see social actors as victims, hide the excluded social actors, and thematize sympathy. This study significantly fills the dearth of work on aspects of effect in Nigerian civil war memoirs, and sets a template for such analysis in linguistic scholarship

Organisational Culture and Employees Commitment in Public Tertiary Institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria

DU study investigated the relationship between organizational culture and employees' C0111111ltment in public tertiary institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria. Four hypotheses were tated In this study. The descriptive research design type was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprises all the non-teaching and teaching employees in public tertiary institutions in Lagos State. The simple random sampling technique was first adopted to select four out of the seven public tertiary institutions in Lagos State for the study. The simple random sampling was fUrther used to select 50 employees from each of the four public tertiary institutions comprising a total of 200 samples for the study. An instrument tagged "Organizational Culture and Employees Commitment Questionnaire" was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated and a reliability coefficient of 0. 78 was obtained for the instrument. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results from the data analysis indicated that significant relationship exist between organizational culture and employees' commitment in public tertiary institutions in Lagos State. It was fUrther found that significant difference exist in the commitment of employees of different sex, ages and length of service to their institutions in Lagos State should Management improve on the cu"ent rewards system in their institutions to enhance employees' commitment levels as well as output among other

Conservation and Biodiversity Erosion in Ondo State, Nigeria: (4). Assessing Botanicals Used in the Cure of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Owo Region

A combination of social survey and direct field observation was used to assess the botanicals used in the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases in Owo region of Ondo State, Nigeria. A total of 33 belonging to 28 families were identified, 14 of which were found to be rare on the abundance scale used in the study. The need for the conservation of these species was stressed

An Analysis of Factors Influencing Hiring/ Placement of University Graduates in Nigeria

1bia study notes the alarming rate of graduate unemployment and analyses the factors iaftuencing labour market demand for University graduates in Nigeria. A total of II 0 Labour Orpnizations was randomly sampled within Lagos metropolis. The study adopts a descriptive survey design. With the aid of a structured questionnaire and unstructured interview questions, relevant information was collected. Four hypotheses were postulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance using the chi-square. Finding shows that there are significant relationships between the experience, Government's economic policies, Quality of degree, Area of specialization and hiring I placement of Labour by Employer. The study concludes by suggesting the way out for the endemic state of unemployment in general and graduates from Nigeria Universities in particular