Epidemiology and mortality of burns at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Blantyre, Malawi

A CAJM journal article.Objectives: To determine the most common causes, population most at risk and the pattern of mortality of burn injuries at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre,Malawi’ Design: Retrospective cross sectional study. Setting: Burns Unit, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), Blantyre, Malawi

Comparative study and prevalence of plasmodium falciparum among children and pregnant women attending General Hospital, Lapai, Nigeria

Malaria is a life threatening disease caused by Plasmodium sp that is transmitted to people through the bite of infected mosquitoes. The Plasmodium falciparum specie have been confirmed to affects the lives of almost 40% of the world’s population with pregnant women and children under-five years of age being the most affected. Malaria infection during pregnancy is an important public health problem with substantial risks to both the mother and foetus. This study was undertaken to determine malarial infection among children and pregnant women attending General Hospital Lapai, Niger state, Nigeria with the intent to compare two methods of Rapid diagnostic test (RDTs) and microscopy in the diagnosis of malaria. A cross-sectional and Hospital-based surveillance study was conducted on 150 patients by collecting blood samples from children and pregnant women attending General Hospital Lapai, Niger state. Blood samples were collected and examined for the presence of Plasmodium sp by rapid diagnostic test (RDT), and mp microscopy. A total of 75 pregnant women and 75 children were sampled for malaria parasites infection. Out of the 75 samples collected from children under the age of 5 years, a total of 58 (77.3%) participants were found positive using Microscopy and 26 (34.7%) positive using RDTs technique. The findings demonstrated that Mp microscopy for detection of malaria P. falciparum was highly sensitive (80.7%) as compared to RDT (44.7%). And out of the 75 samples collected from pregnant women, a total of 63 (84.0%) participants were found positive using Microscopy and 41 (54.7%) positive using RDTs technique. The results obtained suggested that microscopy remains the gold standard method for diagnosis of malarial infection, although the HRP-2 pf RDTs can be used where microscopy is not available and in cases where urgent malaria diagnosis is needed. The sensitivity and specificity of the RDT kit used (Care startTM malaria Pf (HRP2) Ag RDT) were 98% and 97.5% respectively. This study recorded high prevalence of malaria parasitaemia among pregnant women and children (63 (84.0%) Microscopy and 41 (54.7%) RDTs technique and 58 (77.3%) Microscopy and 26 (34.7%) RDTs technique respectively), attending General Hospital Lapai, Niger State. Regular environmental sanitation to dislodge mosquitoes from their breeding places will go a long way to reduce prevalence of malaria, and early antenatal booking for effective monitoring and prompt treatment of malaria in pregnancy will contribute significantly in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality, and its perinatal mortality. Routine intermittent preventive treatment of malaria is recommended for pregnant women in this area

Prevalence of Dermatophytes and other Associated Fungi among School Children

The study investigated the prevalence of dermatophytosis and associated non-dermatophytes among Islamiyya school children of ages 5 – 13 years old in Kano metropolis. A total of 100 samples were collected and 91 (91%) yielded positive to fungal growth from which 66 (72.5%) were identified from males and 25 (27.5%) from females school children respectively. Dermatophytes amounting to 53 (58.2%) in frequency were recorded out of which 39 (73.6%) were isolated from males and 14 (26.4%) on females. Non-dermatophytes were also more in males (27 isolates) than females which had 11. The etiological agents of dermatophycoses recorded in this study in descending order of prevalence are M. ferrugineum (15.4%), M. canis (15.4%), M. audounii (9.9%), T. concentricum (5.5%), T. verrucosum (3.3%), T. rubrum (3.3%), T. mentagrophyte (2.2%), T. tonsorans (1.1%) and T. schoenleini (1.1%). A. flavus (9.9%), A. niger (8.8%), Penicillium sp. (7.7%), Candida albicans (5.5%), Mucor sp. (4.4%), Trichoderma sp. (3.3%) and A. fumigatus (2.2%) constituted the non-dermatophytes associated with these cutaneous infections. Higher frequency of dermatophytosis occurred more in children with greater propensity for play, interaction with domestic animals and who lacked the luxury of school seats during classroom learnin

Performance Evaluation of Spatial Modulation and QOSTBC for MIMO Systems

YesMultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems require simplified architectures that can maximize design parameters without sacrificing system performance. Such architectures may be used in a transmitter or a receiver. The most recent example with possible low cost architecture in the transmitter is spatial modulation (SM). In this study, we evaluate the SM and quasi-orthogonal space time block codes (QOSTBC) schemes for MIMO systems over a Rayleigh fading channel. QOSTBC enables STBC to be used in a four antenna design, for example. Standard QO-STBC techniques are limited in performance due to self-interference terms; here a QOSTBC scheme that eliminates these terms in its decoding matrix is explored. In addition, while most QOSTBC studies mainly explore performance improvements with different code structures, here we have implemented receiver diversity using maximal ratio combining (MRC). Results show that QOSTBC delivers better performance, at spectral efficiency comparable with SM

Multi-Antenna OFDM System Using Coded Wavelet with Weighted Beamforming

yesA major drawback in deploying beamforming scheme in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is to obtain the optimal weights that are associated with information beams. Two beam weighting methods, namely co-phasing and singular vector decomposition (SVD), are considered to maximize the signal beams for such beamforming scheme. Initially the system performance with and without interleaving is investigated using coded fast Fourier transform (FFT)-OFDM and wavelet-based OFDM. The two beamforming schemes are applied to the wavelet-based OFDM as confirmed to perform better than the FFT-OFDM. It is found that the beam-weight by SVD improves the performance of the system by about 2dB at the expense of the co-phasing method. The capacity performances of the weighting methods are also compared and discussed

Some aspects of the craniofacial indices and macro neurometrics of the Nigerian local pig (Sus scrofa)

This study is about the craniofacial indices and neuromorphometrics of the Nigerian local pig and has been performed on twelve males and fourteen females of ages one and a half to two years. The average values obtained for the tongue length, tongue weight, rasp length, left pinna length, right pinna length, left pinna width, right pinna width, height of left external nares, height of right external nares and the rima oris length were 17±1.3 cm, 90±16 g, 4.6±0.58 cm, 13±1.3 cm, 13±1.3 cm, 8.7±1.5 cm, 8.7±1.4 cm, 0.98±0.12 cm, 0.96±0.13 cm and 19.51±2.89 cm respectively, while the mean brain weight, mean brain length, cerebrum and cerebellum lengths, brain and cerebellar heights were 84±12 g, 6.9±1.5 cm, 4.9±1.7 cm, 2.2±1.0 cm, 5.2±0.88 cm and 3.0±1.1 cm respectively. There was a negative correlation between the weight of the animal and the height of the cerebellum, the length of cerebrum and length of the cerebellum and between the weight of the head and height of the cerebellum. A positive correlation was however observed between the length of brain and the weight of brain, and between the length of the cerebrum and weight of brain. The cerebral length was statistically longer (P < 0.01) in the males than the females. The data obtained from this study will provide added information in the field of comparative anatomy and porcine neuroanatomy research

Effect of various temperatures on the nutritional compositions of fermented African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) seed

The effect of temperature on the nutritional values of fermented African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) seed were studied. Temperatures ranging between 40 to 70⁰C were used for the fermentation. Biochemical and physiological analysis were evaluated. Highest nutritional values were obtained with samples fermented at lower temperatures (40 and 50⁰C) and they all had acceptable end products while all the samples fermented with higher temperature (60 and 70⁰C) gave poor nutritional values with unacceptable end products. Bacillus subtilis was used as starter culture and fermentation was carried out for 5 days (120 hours). An increase in moisture, protein, crude fat contents and decrease in total carbohydrate and crude fibre were noticed for all the fermentation temperature variation. The Organic functional groups were identified and characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The effect of temperature on the morphological structure of fermented sample

Effect of various temperatures on the nutritional compositions of fermented African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) seed

The effect of temperature on the nutritional values of fermented African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) seed were studied. Temperatures ranging between 40 to 70⁰C were used for the fermentation. Biochemical and physiological analysis were evaluated. Highest nutritional values were obtained with samples fermented at lower temperatures (40 and 50⁰C) and they all had acceptable end products while all the samples fermented with higher temperature (60 and 70⁰C) gave poor nutritional values with unacceptable end products. Bacillus subtilis was used as starter culture and fermentation was carried out for 5 days (120 hours). An increase in moisture, protein, crude fat contents and decrease in total carbohydrate and crude fibre were noticed for all the fermentation temperature variation. The Organic functional groups were identified and characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The effect of temperature on the morphological structure of fermented sample

Persistence of Ebola virus RNA in some body fluids of Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors – the Nigerian experience

Introduction: Ebola virus (EBOV) has been shown to persist in some body fluids of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) survivors with implication for future transmission particularly in Nigeria where EVD was experienced for the first time in 2014. Thus, this paper was aimed at providing information on the duration of persistence of EBOV in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Ten consenting EVD survivors were enrolled. Baseline specimens; urine and semen (males), urine and high vaginal swab (HVS) (females) were obtained within one month after discharge from the Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) and subsequently every fortnight. Samples were analyzed using quantitative Real-Star Filovirus Screen RT-PCR kit 1.0 at the National Reference Laboratory in Lagos.Results: Ten EVD survivors comprising 4 (40%) males and 6 (60%) females with age ranges of 28 to >33 years (mean age: 33.0 ± 6.9 years) were evaluated. EBOV RNA was not detected in the urine of all the participants and HVS from the females. However, EBOV RNA was detected in the semen of all 4 (100%) male participants at baseline, and at 2 months after discharge from the ETC. Two men were still positive for EBOV RNA 4 months after discharge from the ETC despite persistent negative vireamia. Conclusions: Our data confirm that a negative viremia in the convalescent period is not predictive of the absence of the virus in semen. Despite an early clearance of the virus from the urine and HVS, there was persistence of EBOV RNA in semen of male survivors 4 months after recovery

A New Approach for Designing Orthogonal Wavelets for Multicarrier Applications

yesThe Daubechies, coiflet and symlet wavelets, with properties of orthogonal wavelets are suitable for multicarrier transmission over band-limited channels. It has been shown that similar wavelets can be constructed by Lagrange approximation interpolation. In this work and using established wavelet design algorithms, it is shown that ideal filters can be approximated to construct new orthogonal wavelets. These new wavelets, in terms of BER behave slightly better than the wavelets mentioned above, and much better than biorthogonal wavelets, in multipath channels with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). It is shown that the construction, which uses a simple simultaneous solution to obtain the wavelet filters from the ideal filters based on established wavelet design algorithms, is simple and can easily be reproduced