A survey on drug related problems in cervical cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria

A drug-related problem (DRP) is an event or circumstance involving drug therapy that actually or potentially interferes with desired outcome. The complexities in drug regimens used in cervical cancer chemotherapy has led to more serious problems. The aim of this study is to investigate DRPs in cervical cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The study was a retrospective cross sectional study on patients receiving cervical cancer chemotherapy at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria (ABUTH). Patients’ medication charts were reviewed from July, 2015 to June, 2016. Data were collected using the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE) Classification of DRP V 6.20. A total of 224 DRPs cases were identified from 65 cervical cancer patients. The DRPs were mostly on treatment effectiveness (28.1%), adverse reaction (29.0%), and cost (26.8%), while the causes were majorly drug selection (28.1%) and dose selection (29.0%). The risk factors for the DRPs were found to be comorbidities and polypharmacy. In conclusion, DRPs were common among cervical cancer patients receiving chemotherapy at ABUTH. Pharmacist interventions to achieve a better therapeutic outcome are necessary.Keywords: Cervical cancer, chemotherapy, drug related problem, pharmacist, polypharmac

Spot deformation and replication in the two-dimensional Belousov-Zhabotinski reaction in water-in-oil microemulsion

In the limit of large diffusivity ratio, spot-like solutions in the two-dimensional Belousov-Zhabotinski reaction in water-in-oil microemulsion are studied. It is shown analytically that such spots undergo an instability as the diffusivity ratio is decreased. An instability threshold is derived. For spots of small radius, it is shown that this instability leads to a spot splitting into precisely two spots. For larger spots, it leads to deformation, fingering patterns and space-filling curves. Numerical simulations are shown to be in close agreement with the analytical predictions.Comment: To appear, PR

Meiotic Chromosome Count for Chlorophytum sabiense Omok

Chlorophytum sabiense Omok (the newly identified taxon in the family Asparagaceae from the Western Tropical Africa) exhibits some exceptional characteristics having; three ovaries, each with a distinct style and stigmas with few lobes. These features separate Chlorophytum sabiense from most species reported in West Africa. Significance of floral characters in taxonomy cannot be overemphasis; as the most reliable morphological feature. In view of this, evidences are required to ascertain true taxonomic statue of the species. In the present contribution, meiotic study was employed as a veritable tool; to investigate pairing pattern of the haploid chromosomes of the species and also to determine the haploid chromosome number for the species. Flower buds at the right age were collected, treated using the conventional method and studied from pachytene to full metaphase. At diakinesis seven bivalents (7 II) were obtained, thus indicate that the species belong to n=7 series of the genus. Seven bivalents (7 II) were however less prevalent (31.9%) compared with multivalents, which indicates high incidence of chromosome stickiness at metaphase I of the species

GPU-based multiple back propagation for big data problems

The big data era has become known for its abundance in rapidly generated data of varying formats and sizes. With this awareness, interest in data analytics and more specifically predictive analytics has received increased attention lately. However, the massive sample sizes and high dimensionality peculiar with these datasets has challenged the overall performance of one of the most important components of predictive analytics of our present time, Machine Learning. Given that dimensionality reduction has been heavily applied to the problems of high dimensionality, this work presents an improved scheme of GPU based Multiple Back Propagation (MBP) with feature selection for big high dimensional data problems. Elastic Net was used for automatic feature selection of high dimensional biomedical datasets before classification with GPU based MBP and experimental results show an improved performance over the previous scheme with MBP

Evidence for the onset of color transparency in rho(0) electroproduction off nuclei

We have measured the nuclear transparency of the incoherent diffractive A(e,e\u27 rho(0)) process in C-12 and Fe-56 targets relative to H-2 using a 5 GeV electron beam. The nuclear transparency, the ratio of the produced rho(0,)s on a nucleus relative to deuterium, which is sensitive to rho A interaction, was studied as function of the coherence length (l(c)), a lifetime of the hadronic fluctuation of the virtual photon, and the four-momentum transfer squared (Q(2)). While the transparency for both C-12 and Fe-56 showed no lc dependence, a significant Q(2) dependence was measured, which is consistent with calculations that included the color transparency effects. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Analysis of Agricultural Extension Methods Used by Extension Workers for Conflict Resolution among Agro – Pastoralists in Adamawa State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to analyze the agricultural extension methods used in conflict resolution among agro – pastoralists in Adamawa State, Nigeria. A multi – stage random sampling technique was used to select 160 respondents who were administered interview schedules. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) statistics and inferential (multiple regression) statistics. The study indicated that livestock destruction of farmlands was the major (50.63%) source of conflict among the respondents. The results revealed that the major (55.0%) source of conflict resolution among the respondents was community leaders in conflict resolutions. The study showed that truce was the most important type of conflict resolution used by respondents (59.38%). Majority (82.5%) of the respondents preferred face to face extension contact methods used for learning conflict resolution. All the positive significant relationship at 5% levels indicated that, an increase in each of these extension methods is likely to increase in conflict resolutions among agro – pastoralists. The study recommended that extension working environment should be strengthened with motivational mechanism to achieve the desired impact on conflict resolution among agro – pastoralists in the study area. Key words: Sources of conflict, Conflict Resolution and Agro – Pastoralists, Adamawa State, Nigeri

Shrinking II -- The Distortion of the Area Distance-Redshift Relation in Inhomogeneous Isotropic Universes

This paper and the others in the series challenge the standard model of the effects of gravitational lensing on observations at large distances. We show that due to the cumulative effect of lensing, areas corresponding to an observed solid angle can be quite different than would be estimated from the corresponding Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre model, even when averaged over large angular scales. This paper concentrates on the specific example of spherically symmetric but spatially inhomogeneous dust universes, the Lema\^{\i}tre-Tolman-Bondi models, and shows that radial lensing significantly distorts the area distance-redshift and density-redshift relations in these exact solutions compared with the standard ones for Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre models. Thus inhomogeneity may introduce significant errors into distance estimates based on the standard FL relations, even after all-sky averaging. In addition a useful new gauge choice is presented for these models, solving the problem of locating the past null cone exactly.Comment: Minor technical refinement, 16 pages, RevTex, 8 eps figure

Environmental Factors and Students\u27 Learning Approaches: a Survey on Malaysian Polytechnics Students

Several studies have shown the impact of environmental factors on student learning approaches. Despite the importance of such studies, studies on technical learners are few. Thus, this study aimed to determine the influence of learning environment on Polytechnics students\u27 learning approaches in Malaysia. Learning environment plays an important role in the cognitive, effective and social domains of students because it could improve students\u27 learning outcomes. Learning approaches refer to the ways students deal with academic tasks that are related to learning outcomes. This study used Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (RSPQ-2F) to collect the research data. Data were analyzed using AMOS Version 18. Multiple regressions were conducted to predict learning environment factors that influenced the level of students\u27 learning approaches. The result shows that effective teaching is a major factor that influences students\u27 deep approach followed by the assessment, learning resources and clear objectives

Isotopic and velocity distributions of Bi produced in charge-pickup reactions of 208Pb at 1 A GeV

Isotopically resolved cross sections and velocity distributions have been measured in charge-pickup reactions of 1 A GeV 208Pb with proton, deuterium and titanium target. The total and partial charge-pickup cross sections in the reactions 208Pb + 1H and 208Pb + 2H are measured to be the same in the limits of the error bars. A weak increase in the total charge-pickup cross section is seen in the reaction of 208Pb with the titanium target. The measured velocity distributions show different contributions - quasi-elastic scattering and Delta-resonance excitation - to the charge-pickup production. Data on total and partial charge-pickup cross sections from these three reactions are compared with other existing data and also with model calculations based on the coupling of different intra-nuclear cascade codes and an evaporation code.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, background information on http://www-w2k.gsi.de/kschmidt

Developed Adomian method for quadratic Kaluza-Klein relativity

We develop and modify the Adomian decomposition method (ADecM) to work for a new type of nonlinear matrix differential equations (MDE's) which arise in general relativity (GR) and possibly in other applications. The approach consists in modifying both the ADecM linear operator with highest order derivative and ADecM polynomials. We specialize in the case of a 4$\times$4 nonlinear MDE along with a scalar one describing stationary cylindrically symmetric metrics in quadratic 5-dimensional GR, derive some of their properties using ADecM and construct the \textit{most general unique power series solutions}. However, because of the constraint imposed on the MDE by the scalar one, the series solutions terminate in closed forms exhausting all possible solutions.Comment: 17 pages (minor changes in reference [30]