Reducing HIV-related stigma among traders in model markets in Lagos, Nigeria through HIV education.

Background: HIV/AIDS is a major Public health problem in Nigeria where the National seroprevalence rate is 4.1%. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of health education on knowledge of HIV and the stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS among traders in model markets in Lagos State.Methodology: This study was a quasi-experimental study. The intervention and control markets were selected by simple random sampling method while systematic sampling method was used to select the participants in each market. A total of 400 participants were recruited into this study. The study phases were a baseline survey in both markets, a health education programme in the intervention market and a post-intervention survey in both markets. Epi Info 2002 (Windows version 3.5.1) statistical software was used for data analysis.Results: After the intervention, the proportion of respondents who had correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS increased significantly by 27.9% in the intervention group (p<0.001). A slight increase (3.6%) was also observed  in the control group but this was not significant. The proportion of traders in the intervention group who had a positive attitude towards PLWHA also increased significantly by 12.6% (p=0.006). However in the control group, there was no increase in the proportion of traders who had a positive attitude towards PLWHA.Conclusion: Health education significantly increased knowledge of HIV/AIDS and reduced HIV-related stigma among the traders. Periodic HIV/AIDS education should be provided for the traders. Further research is recommended to assess sustained changes in stigma related attitude over time.Keywords: HIV, AIDS, PLWHA, traders, Preintervention and postintervention

Fluid Transport in Geological Reservoirs with Background Flow

This paper presents fundamental analysis of the injection and release of fluid into porous media or geological reservoirs saturated by a different fluid undergoing a background flow, and tests the predictions using analogue laboratory experiments. The study reveals new results important for an understanding of the transport of hazardous contaminants through aquifers and the long-term fate of carbon dioxide ( ) in geological sequestration. Using numerical and asymptotic analysis, we describe a variety of flow regimes that arise, and demonstrate an almost instantaneous control of injected fluid by the far field conditions in geological reservoirs. For a continuous input, the flow develops a horizontal interface between the injected and ambient fluids. The background flow thereby effectively caps the height of the injected fluid into a shallower region of vertical confinement. For a released parcel of fluid, gravitational spreading is found to become negligible after a short time. A dominant control of the interface by the background pressure gradient arises, and stems from the different velocities at which it drives the injected and ambient fluids individually. Similarity solutions describing these dynamics show that the parcel approaches a slender triangular profile that grows horizontally as , where is time, a rate faster than relaxation under gravity. Shock layers develop at the front or back of the parcel, depending on whether it is more or less viscous than the ambient fluid. New analytical results describing the long-term effects of residual trapping due to capillary retention are developed, which yield explicit predictions for the time and length scales on which a parcel of becomes retained. We end by applying our results to geological contexts, concluding that even slight background motion can have considerable implications for long-term transport through the subsurface

Application of probiotics and prebiotics for promoting growth of Tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon): an approach to eco-friendly shrimp aquaculture

The current study has been conducted to evaluate the growth performance of shrimp (Penaeus monodon) by applying eco-friendly culture mechanism like prebiotics and probiotics. The experiment was carried out for 95 days in different shrimp farms at coastal district of Bagerhat, Bangladesh. Three different treatments viz., probiotic treated as T1, prebiotics treated as T2 and both probiotics and prebiotics as T3 with a control group were designed to conduct the experiment. The size of the experimental ponds was five acre and the stocking density was 4/m2 in each treatment. CP NASA shrimp feed (32% protein) was given thrice in a day during the study period. After 95 days of culture period, the maximum weight gain was observed at T3 (33.78±0.18 g) whereas the minimum weight gain was observed at control group (25.69±0.10 g). The survival rate was the highest in T3 (89.01%) followed by T2 (75.51%) and T1 (53.44%) and the lowest rate was observed in control group (50.88%). Overall production was higher in T3 (833.78 kg ha-1) compared to T2 (553.40 kg ha-1), T1 (447.84 kg ha-1) and Control group (310.57 kg ha-1). pH value was found to maximum in T3 (7.71±0.08) and it was minimum in T1 (7.41±0.10). In addition, the maximum TAN value was found to be 2.22±0.19 mg L-1 in C pond and it was minimum in T3 (0.32±0.06 mg L-1). Therefore, it could be concluded that combine application of probiotics and prebiotics might be the reliable media to enhance production of shrimp by maintaining eco-friendly environment in aquaculture. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 10(2): 15-20, December 202

Association of serum fetuin-A and fetuin-A gene polymorphism in relation to mineral and bone disorders in patients with chronic kidney disease

Disorders of bone and mineral metabolism contribute to an increased prevalence of vascular calcification (VC) with its adverse clinical outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The pathogenesis of VC is not fully understood. Fetuin-A is one of the inhibitors of calcification whose level is lowered in patients with CKD. In addition fetuin-A 256Ser/Ser (allele G) might affect serum fetuin-A levels. The aim of this work was to study the association betweenKeywords: Chronic kidney disease; Fetuin-A; Fetuin-A gene; Vascular calcification; Bone mineral diseas

Cardiovascular disease risk prediction in older people: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Despite cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction equations becoming more widely available for people aged ≥75 years, views of older people on CVD risk assessment are unknown. AIM: To explore older people's views on CVD risk prediction and its assessment. DESIGN AND SETTING: Qualitative study of community-dwelling older people in New Zealand. METHOD: A diverse group of older people was purposively recruited. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed. RESULTS: Thirty-nine participants (mean age 74 years) of Māori, Pacific, South Asian, and European ethnicities participated in one of 26 interviews or one of three focus groups. Three key themes emerged: poor knowledge and understanding of CVD and its risk assessment; acceptability and perceived benefit of knowing and receiving advice on managing personal CVD risk; and distinguishing between CVD outcomes - stroke and heart attack are not the same. Most participants did not understand CVD terms, but were familiar with the terms 'heart attack' and 'stroke', and understood lifestyle risk factors for these events. Participants valued CVD outcomes differently, fearing stroke and disability - which might adversely affect independence and quality of life - but were less concerned about a heart attack, which was perceived as causing less disability or swifter death. These findings and preferences were similar across ethnic groups. All but two participants wanted to know their CVD risk, how to manage it, and distinguish between CVD outcomes. Those who did not wish to know perceived this as something only their God could decide. CONCLUSION: To inform clinical decision making for older people, consideration of an individual's wish to know their risk is important, and risk prediction tools should provide separate event types rather than just composite outcomes

Finite-Temperature Fractional D2-Branes and the Deconfinement Transition in 2+1 Dimensions

The supergravity dual to N regular and M fractional D2-branes on the cone over \mathbb{CP}^3 has a naked singularity in the infrared. One can resolve this singularity and obtain a regular fractional D2-brane solution dual to a confining 2+1 dimensional N = 1 supersymmetric field theory. The confining vacuum of this theory is described by the solution of Cvetic, Gibbons, Lu and Pope. In this paper, we explore the alternative possibility for resolving the singularity - the creation of a regular horizon. The black-hole solution we find corresponds to the deconfined phase of this dual gauge theory in three dimensions. This solution is derived in perturbation theory in the number of fractional branes. We argue that there is a first-order deconfinement transition. Connections to Chern--Simons matter theories, the ABJM proposal and fractional M2-branes are presented.Comment: v3: analytic solutions are expose

M-Branes and Metastable States

We study a supersymmetry breaking deformation of the M-theory background found in arXiv:hep-th/0012011. The supersymmetric solution is a warped product of R^{2,1} and the 8-dimensional Stenzel space, which is a higher dimensional generalization of the deformed conifold. At the bottom of the warped throat there is a 4-sphere threaded by \tilde{M} units of 4-form flux. The dual (2+1)-dimensional theory has a discrete spectrum of bound states. We add p anti-M2 branes at a point on the 4-sphere, and show that they blow up into an M5-brane wrapping a 3-sphere at a fixed azimuthal angle on the 4-sphere. This supersymmetry breaking state turns out to be metastable for p / \tilde{M} < 0.054. We find a smooth O(3)-symmetric Euclidean bounce solution in the M5-brane world volume theory that describes the decay of the false vacuum. Calculation of the Euclidean action shows that the metastable state is extremely long-lived. We also describe the corresponding metastable states and their decay in the type IIA background obtained by reduction along one of the spatial directions of R^{2,1}.Comment: 33 pages, 5 figures; v2 note adde