Job satisfaction and psychological health of medical doctors in Calabar, Southern Nigeria

Background: Employees should be happy at their work, considering the amount of time they devote to it throughout their working life. There is paucity of data on the job satisfaction and psychological health of medical doctors in Nigeria.Objective: To assess the level of job satisfaction and its relationship to psychological health among medical doctors in a southern city of Nigeria.Design: A cross-sectional descriptive survey.Setting: Three major public hospitals in Calabar, Nigeria.Subjects: Medical doctors who had worked for at least six months in the hospitals.Results: Response rate was 73.0%. More than half (56.7%) of the respondents expressed overall satisfaction with their job. Inadequate pay and work overload were the most commonly mentioned reasons for job dissatisfaction. About a fifth of the respondents were at increased likelihood of psychological disorder. There was a statisticallysignificant negative correlation between job satisfaction scores and GHQ scores. Satisfied respondents were least likely to have psychological disorder.Conclusion: Causes of job dissatisfaction among medical doctors should be addressed to improve their psychological health

Melanosomes at a glance

Melanosomes, the pigment granules that provide tissues with colour and photoprotection, are the cellular site of synthesis, storage and transport of melanin pigments. They are synthesised in mammalian skin melanocytes, in choroidal melanocytes and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in the eye, and in melanophores (a class of pigment-containing cells) in lower vertebrates. The precise fate and functions of melanosomes vary according to cell type – epidermal melanocytes supply neighbouring keratinocytes with melanosomes, which results in the pigmentation of skin and hair, whereas pigment granules are retained intracellularly in RPE cells and choroidal melanocytes. In lower vertebrates, the reversible aggregation and dispersion of melanosomes throughout the melanophore enables rapid colour change and adaptation to the environment

The prevalence and bacteriology of a symptomatic bacteriuria among antenatal patients in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi; South Eastern Nigeria

Urinary tract infection in pregnancy leads to poor pregnancy outcome. Diagnosis and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria markedly improves pregnancy outcome as well as reduce the incidence of acutepyelonephritis. To determine the prevalence and bacteriology of asymptomatic bacteriuria among Antenatal patients in our centre, and to know if routine screening will be justifiable. This was a prospective study carried out between April and August 2008. Sample size was statistically determined.Women who consented were interviewed and mid stream urine samples were collected and processed in the microbiology laboratory, using standard microbiological methods. Out of 357 women studied, 65(18.21%) had significant bacteriuria. was the commonest isolate (25.6%), while was the least frequent isolate (3.66%). Women in third trimester had the highest prevalence (25.68%) while those in the first trimester had the least (15.79%).Women that had only primary education had the highest prevalence (27.50%) while those that had tertiary educationhad the least prevalence (21.10%). The prevalence of significant asymptomatic bacteriuria among the women studied was high.Screening of all the pregnant women and treatment will reduce the incidence and complications of overt urinary tract infection in pregnancy among these women

A real-time web-based networked control system education platform

Networked control systems have recently experienced a surge in fundamental theoretical results ignited by numerous advantages of introducing shared multipurpose communication networks in control systems. Regarding developments on the practical side, however, a networked control system is still wanting when it comes to experimental platforms suitable for research and educational purposes, which contributes to most of networked control system theory being validated by means of numerical examples and simulations. This paper addresses this issue by presenting a low-cost real-time networked control system platform, based on custom hardware and software solutions that can be readily explored with the sole use of a web browser connected to the Internet. The technical decisions made during development represent a fundamentally novel take on networked control system experimental platforms that can potentially be reproduced by several universities. The platform provides the user with multiple controller and input reference options, network configurations, delay statistics, and even a downloadable file containing advanced experiment data. A survey conducted with students located over 1200 km away from the platform who used it during laboratory assignments highlight the system’s usability and interactivity, and supports the platform is suitable for educational purposes

Comunidade zooplanctônica de seis reservatórios no nordeste do Brasil

The aim of the present study was to investigate the zooplankton community at six reservoirs in the state of Pernambuco (Brazil). Zooplankton assemblages were identified using current literature and quantitatively analysed under a microscope and stereomicroscope. Concurrently to the sampling of zooplanktonic and phytoplanktonic communities, in situ measurements of abiotic variables, such as water temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH, were determined using field probes and transparency was determined with a Secchi disk. Total phosphorus concentrations were used for the determination of the Trophic State Index. The reservoirs were classified between eutrophic and hypertrophic, oxygenated, with pH varying from slightly acid to alkaline, high temperatures and low water transparency. A total of 27 zooplankton taxa were identified. Phytoplankton was represented by Cyanophyta, Chlorophyta, Baccilariophyta and phytoflagellates. The highest richness of species was observed for Rotifera (17), followed by Crustacea (8), Protozoa (1) and Insecta (1). Rotifers shared quantitative importance with Crustacea, which were mainly represented by juvenile forms. Jazigo Reservoir presented the highest diversity and equitability. Lowest diversity and equitability were recorded at the Poço da Cruz and Mundaú reservoirs, respectively. Dissimilarity was detected between the environments studied regarding zooplankton composition and structure.O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar a estrutura e dinâmica do zooplâncton em seis reservatórios do Estado de Pernambuco. A comunidade zooplanctônica foi identificada com literatura atualizada e a densidade analisada sob microscópio e estereomicroscópio. Concomitantemente às coletas das comunidades zooplanctônicas e fitoplanctônicas, foram medidas in situ algumas variáveis abióticas como temperaturas da água e do ar, oxigênio dissolvido, condutividade elétrica, pH, turbidez, usando sondas de campo, transparência com disco de Secchi. As concentrações de fósforo total foram usadas para a determinação do Índice de Estado Trófico. Os reservatórios foram classificados entre eutróficos e hipertróficos, oxigenados, pH levemente ácido a alcalino, temperaturas altas e baixos valores de transparência da água. O zooplâncton esteve composto por 27 táxons. O fitoplâncton foi representado pelas Cyanophyta, Chlorophyta, Baccilariophyta e Fitoflagelados. A maior riqueza de espécies foi observada para Rotifera, (17), seguida por Crustacea (8), Protozoa (1) e Insecta (1). Rotifera compartilhou a importância quantitativa com os Crustacea, estes representados principalmente pelas formas jovens. No reservatório de Jazigo, foram obtidos os maiores valores para diversidade e equitabilidade. Os valores mais baixos foram registrados em Poço da Cruz e Mundaú, respectivamente. Foi detectada dissimilaridade entre os ambientes estudados quanto à composição e estrutura do zooplâncton

Incidence of blood-related work accidents among health workers in a government hospital in Benin City, Nigeria

Accidents are hazards to which health workers are exposed. Hazards may be physical, chemical, biological, mechanical or psychosocial. Mechanical hazards are very common in the health industry because of the frequent use of pointed and sharp instruments such as needles, scalpel and knives. This six-month (June 1999 and June 2000) longitudinal incidence study was carried out at the Central Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria, as a follow-up on a previous cross-sectional study on frequency of blood-related work accidents in the same hospital. All the doctors, laboratory workers and 50% of nurses were included in the study. The nurses were selected using stratified random sampling method. Two hundred and fourteen health care workers started the follow-up study, out of which 146 were left at the end of the six-month period, giving an attrition rate of 31.8%. Results shows that contact with patients' blood with ungloved hands, blood splashes on the face and other parts of the body, needle pricks, cuts from drug ampoules and glove perforation during surgery were the major work-related accidents/injuries during the six-month follow-up. This is similar to findings from the retrospective study. The frequencies of various accidents were higher during the six-month follow-up (incidence study) than the six months prior to the study (retrospective study). Combining all the health workers, the incidence densities of these five major work-related accidents were between 3.6 per person years (ppy) to 9.5ppy. These incidence densities were all significantly higher for doctors than nurses or laboratory workers. There is an urgent need to reduce the incidence of these work-related accidents/injuries in order to reduce the chances of health workers developing occupationally acquired diseases

Recovery of Barotrauma Injuries in Chinook Salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha from Exposure to Pile Driving Sound

Juvenile Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, were exposed to simulated high intensity pile driving signals to evaluate their ability to recover from barotrauma injuries. Fish were exposed to one of two cumulative sound exposure levels for 960 pile strikes (217 or 210 dB re 1 µPa2·s SELcum; single strike sound exposure levels of 187 or 180 dB re 1 µPa2⋅s SELss respectively). This was followed by an immediate assessment of injuries, or assessment 2, 5, or 10 days post-exposure. There were no observed mortalities from the pile driving sound exposure. Fish exposed to 217 dB re 1 µPa2·s SELcum displayed evidence of healing from injuries as post-exposure time increased. Fish exposed to 210 dB re 1 µPa2·s SELcum sustained minimal injuries that were not significantly different from control fish at days 0, 2, and 10. The exposure to 210 dB re 1 µPa2·s SELcum replicated the findings in a previous study that defined this level as the threshold for onset of injury. Furthermore, these data support the hypothesis that one or two Mild injuries resulting from pile driving exposure are unlikely to affect the survival of the exposed animals, at least in a laboratory environment

Constrained analytical interrelations in neutrino mixing

Hermitian squared mass matrices of charged leptons and light neutrinos in the flavor basis are studied under general additive lowest order perturbations away from the tribimaximal (TBM) limit in which a weak basis with mass diagonal charged leptons is chosen. Simple analytical expressions are found for the three measurable TBM-deviants in terms of perturbation parameters appearing in the neutrino and charged lepton eigenstates in the flavor basis. Taking unnatural cancellations to be absent and charged lepton perturbation parameters to be small, interrelations are derived among masses, mixing angles and the amount of CP-violation.Comment: To be published in the Springer Proceedings in the Physics Series under the heading of the XXI DAE-BRNS Symposium (Guwahati, India