The Inclusion of Palm Oil Ash Biomass Waste in Concrete: A Literature Review

Oil palm ash (OPA) is a waste material produced by countries having a blooming palm oil industry. Recycling of oil palm ash is receiving increasing attention because of its huge potential in improving economic benefits and environmental awareness. Recently, it has been used as a partial replacement to cement in concrete, mortar and other cementitious materials. OPA is considered a new member of the supplementary cementing materials. Therefore, it is imperative to have a complete understanding of this material and its effects. In this chapter, a thorough literature review involving OPA will be presented. The physical and chemical properties of OPA will be listed as well as its effect when used as a partial cement replacement on the fresh state, mechanical and durability properties of a number of cementitious products. Capitalising such waste products in the production of concrete will not only benefit the recycling chain process but also produce a green product which enables the reduction of cement quantities used and also produce an energy-efficient building material

Fracture of the penis: A report of two cases

We present two cases of fracture of the penis in two young men at the extremes of the social strata the first an unemployed tailor while the other a practicing engineer. The first one was a bachelor while the other wasmarried with children. In the first case, the fracture occurred during masturbation while in the second case it occurred during consensual intercoursewith hiswife on top. In the first case the fracture occurred at the base of the peniswith associated rupture of the deep dorsal veinwhile in the second case it affected themid-shaftwith urethral rupture and blood at the tip of the penis at presentation. Both of them presented within two hours of their injuries with deformed, swollen and tender penis. Laubscher's subcoronal sleeve operation with evacuation of clots and repair of the tear with absorbable sutures to ensure a leak-proof repair was promptly performedwith no complications.Both patients experienced spontaneous erectionwhilst in hospital evenwith indwelling catheter in place. The wife of the second case became pregnant six months after the repair. Counselingwas successfulwith the engineer butwas unsuccessfulwith the tailor-bachelorwho continuedwith masturbation despite professional help.Thoughwe published the first case of fracture of the penis in this centre almost a decade ago, we still found it necessary to report these newcasesmanaged after we created awareness of this uncommon condition in our environment in order to highlight the presentations and the factors that influenced outcome

Youth and Transformation to Political violence in North Eastern Nigeria

Political violence being a global phenomenon had attracted several scholarly researches and non-governmental organizations reports particularly in relation to the sponsors, causes and consequences of such violence on the society. However, not much attention has been given to the actors if any, particularly in the case of Kalare youth group in Gombe state, Nigeria. Since the emergence of a group of youth known as Kalare as a tools for political violence in Gombe state, political congresses and elections are always accompanied with these violence groups, who are mobilised to scare the opponent or to counter attacks the perceived enemies. This paper investigated the factors responsible for the transformation of Kalare youth to political violent groups. This paper uses qualitative method of social research contrary to the study done in 2007 by Bashir using quantitative method which concluded that the youth were involved into political violence as a result of unemployment rate among the youth. Contrary to the earlier result this paper found out that the youth were influenced by other factors with material motivation offered by politicians as the major factor that pulled the youth into act of political violence. Others are poverty, moral decadence, drugs and peer groups influence.   Keywords: Youth, Transformation, Political violence, North Eastern Nigeria

Cattle Rustling and Insecurity in Rural Communities of Kaduna State, Nigeria: An Empirical Study

Existing data on the level and magnitudes of insecurity in rural communities, Nigeria discloses an increase over time, which creates serious threat to lives and properties, hampers business activities. This rising upsurge of insecurity led by cattle rustling has remained unabated nonetheless has assumed a dangerous dimension which is threatening the corporate being of the country as one geographical entity. This study is on the nature of cattle rustling and its consequences on security in the rural communities of Kaduna State. The study was empirical in nature, qualitative data were collected using in-depth interviews. Findings shows that cattle rustling has caused serious havoc in the rural communities in terms of loss of lives, psychological fear migration, and organised crime which culminated to insecurity. The study recommends that government responsiveness and co-opting community members in the security of the area will go a long way in solving the lingering insecurity in the study area

Muslim Feminists` Reading of the Quran: A Juristic Analysis on Family Law Issues

Muslim feminist movement represents an indigenous voice among the contemporary literature on women and family. Its main contention is that women in Muslim society are accorded less favourable treatment especially in terms of legal rights. To remedy the situation, feminist scholarship`s main argument is that there is a need for feminist-reading of the sacred texts so as to purge the juristic legacy of male-biased views and achieve justice and equality for Muslim women in contemporary families. One principal methodological framework for this idea to materialise is to embark on the re-reading of the Qur`an from the women`s perspective. In this context, this paper presents issue-based analysis of Amina Wadud`s reading of the relevant Qur`anic passages on family law matters and finds that in spite of its merits, its main handicap lies on its methodological flaws, both in terms of approach and outcome. Methodologically, it is regarded as selective and ultra-vires of Islamic methodology of legal reform. It terms of impact, it is suspected as being tainted with Western inspired assumptions of rights in terms of justice and equality between the genders. To overcome this impasse, the paper argues for a mediated holistic approach to harmonise relations between men and women in the family.  Keywords: Family law, gender equality, justice, Muslim feminist

Digital Autopsy: Popular Tools for an Unpopular Procedure

Digital autopsy is the future of postmortem examination of the human body through digital visualization. Imaging modalities such as CT scanners and MRI scanners use X rays and magnetic fields to visualize the structures within the human body. The outputs from these modalities are obtained in a DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications of Medicine) format. They are in gray-scale consisting of information in every slice taken during the scan. This is rendered and visualized as the full body in a digital format during the digital autopsy procedure. The visualization rendering produces a three-dimensional body, further presented in colour format based on each structure of the human organ system. Digital autopsy is a technology which allows pathologists to navigate and explore deeper into the human body. It allows analysis to be done in both two-dimensional and three dimensional perspectives. Digital autopsy involves analysis of human pathology and anatomical findings for diagnostic purposes. It can also be used for education and research purposes. Another advantage of digital autopsy is the availability of information and data that can be easily and securely transferred to a different digital autopsy facility at a different location. Thus, digital autopsy provides an efficient, fast, cheaper and accurate post-mortem data enabling a forensic pathologists to play a more effective role in the criminal justice system

Assessment of Academic Resilience and its associated factors among Pharmacy Students in Twelve Countries

Objective Academic resilience, a critical determinant of academic achievement, is affected by various factors. There is a paucity of large-scale international assessments of academic resilience among pharmacy students. Therefore, this study aimed to assess academic resilience among pharmacy students in 12 countries and to evaluate factors associated with their academic resilience levels. Methods A cross-sectional online survey-based study was conducted among randomly selected pharmacy students in 12 countries: Egypt, Türkiye, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Jordan, Nigeria, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. After pilot testing, the validated 30-item academic resilience scale (ARS) was used for the assessment. The data were collected between November 1, 2022 and April 15, 2023. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed, as appropriate. Results A total of 3950 were received from the 12 participating countries. The mean age was 21.68 ± 2.62 years. About two-thirds of the responses were from female participants and those studying for Bachelor of Pharmacy degrees. Overall, the findings show moderate academic resilience, which varied across countries. The median (IQR) of the total ARS-30 was 114 (103−124). Females exhibited lower negative affective and emotional response subscale levels than males. There were significant cross-country variations in the ARS-30 and all subscales. The highest overall levels were reported for Sudan, Pakistan, and Nigeria and the lowest were reported for Indonesia and Türkiye. Students in private universities tended to have higher overall ARS levels than public university students. Higher academic performance was significantly associated with ARS levels, whereas those with excellent performance exhibited the highest ARS levels. Students with exercise routines had higher ARS levels than those without exercise routines. Finally, students who were engaged in extracurricular activities had higher ARS levels than those who did not participate in these activities. Conclusion The study offers insights into the factors affecting academic resilience in pharmacy students across several countries. The findings could guide interventions and support activities to improve resilience and academic outcomes

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

SummaryBackground The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors—the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57·8% (95% CI 56·6–58·8) of global deaths and 41·2% (39·8–42·8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211·8 million [192·7 million to 231·1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148·6 million [134·2 million to 163·1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143·1 million [125·1 million to 163·5 million]), high BMI (120·1 million [83·8 million to 158·4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113·3 million [103·9 million to 123·4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103·1 million [90·8 million to 115·1 million]), high total cholesterol (88·7 million [74·6 million to 105·7 million]), household air pollution (85·6 million [66·7 million to 106·1 million]), alcohol use (85·0 million [77·2 million to 93·0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83·0 million [49·3 million to 127·5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Machine learning-based prediction of breast cancer growth rate in-vivo

BackgroundDetermining the rate of breast cancer (BC) growth in vivo, which can predict prognosis, has remained elusive despite its relevance for treatment, screening recommendations and medicolegal practice. We developed a model that predicts the rate of in vivo tumour growth using a unique study cohort of BC patients who had two serial mammograms wherein the tumour, visible in the diagnostic mammogram, was missed in the first screen.MethodsA serial mammography-derived in vivo growth rate (SM-INVIGOR) index was developed using tumour volumes from two serial mammograms and time interval between measurements. We then developed a machine learning-based surrogate model called Surr-INVIGOR using routinely assessed biomarkers to predict in vivo rate of tumour growth and extend the utility of this approach to a larger patient population. Surr-INVIGOR was validated using an independent cohort.ResultsSM-INVIGOR stratified discovery cohort patients into fast-growing versus slow-growing tumour subgroups, wherein patients with fast-growing tumours experienced poorer BC-specific survival. Our clinically relevant Surr-INVIGOR stratified tumours in the discovery cohort and was concordant with SM-INVIGOR. In the validation cohort, Surr-INVIGOR uncovered significant survival differences between patients with fast-growing and slow-growing tumours.ConclusionOur Surr-INVIGOR model predicts in vivo BC growth rate during the pre-diagnostic stage and offers several useful applications