A Commentary to Montserrat Guibernau Nations Without States: Political Communities in the Global Age

Commentary on Professor Montserrat Guibernau\u27s Nations Without States: Political Communities in the Global Ag

A Commentary to Montserrat Guibernau Nations Without States: Political Communities in the Global Age

Commentary on Professor Montserrat Guibernau\u27s Nations Without States: Political Communities in the Global Ag

Perceived stress, sources and coping strategies among secondary school students in Maiduguri, Borno State

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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CURRICULUM CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND TRANSITION OF PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS WITH DISABILITIES TO SECONDARY SCHOOL IN KENYA

Access to quality education and transition from one level to another has been a major focus of the Kenya Government to speed up individual and national development. While the rate of learners transiting from primary to secondary school has been on an upward trend, transition of learners with disabilities has remained low over the years. The Government has established several legal initiatives and mobilized resources to address this challenge. Most recent of these initiatives is introduction of special needs education policy framework of 2009 which among other provisions emphasized review and adaptation of curriculum to suit the disability limitations of learners. Despite the legal mitigations and resource mobilization by the Government, transition to secondary school for learners with disabilities has remained below 30% compared to the typical peers whose transition has been increasing to above 92% currently. This study sought to address the gap by determining the relationship between curriculum content management and transition to secondary school for public primary school learners with disabilities in Kenya. The research employed descriptive research design and a sample of 340 respondents to represent a population of 3210 subjects. The data obtained in the study was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation with the aid of a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. Findings to the study revealed that curriculum content management had significant impact on transition to secondary school for public primary school learners with disabilities. Special needs education teachers were expected to implement the mainstream primary school curriculum in the special needs classrooms. The lessons time allowed by the Ministry of education was too short to implement the planned lesson content on learners with learning disabilities. The time allocated for exams and language used was unsuitable to the learners. As a result, the learners’ outcomes and transition to secondary school was inhibited. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the Ministry of Education through the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development should establish a curriculum that is adaptable to the disabled learners which will enhance effective planning of teaching-learning activities and addressing learning needs of every disabled learner by the teacher.  Article visualizations

Sex differences in weight perception and weight gain among Black college students in the USA

Objectives The aims of this study were to examine the prevalence of overweight/obesity and to explore sex differences in body weight perceptions and correlates of weight gain among Black students at 2 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the USA. Methods Participants completed a paper-based survey, and their height and weight were measured (67% completion rate). Results The overweight and obesity rates were 33.8% and 26.9%, respectively. More females than males accurately assessed their weight (p\u3c0.05). Body weight underestimation was associated with male sex, excellent/very good perceived overall health, and not being informed by a doctor of having overweight or obesity (p\u3c0.01). Higher odds of ≥5% weight gain were related to female sex, living on campus, and not being informed by a doctor of having overweight or obesity (p\u3c0.05). Conclusion Given the high overweight and obesity rates among Black students, HBCUs in the USA should develop intervention strategies for the prevention and management of overweight and obesity. College health educators at HBCUs need to provide regular check-ups or health screenings that help male students perceive their weight accurately and prevent weight underestimation. It is important for HBCUs to monitor and address weight gain among Black students as early as possible

Relationship between sleep and obesity among U.S. and South Korean college students

Background Little is known about the relationship between sleep and obesity in young adults, particularly college students. This study examined the relationship between sleep (i.e., sleep duration and quality) and obesity in a large and diverse binational sample of college students. Methods Analyses were based on a 40-item paper survey from 2016/2017 to 2017/2018 academic years, with a 72% response rate. The samples were 1578 college students aged 18–25 years from five universities (two in the U.S. and three in South Korea). Weight and height were measured objectively; other measures (e.g., health behaviors) were self-reported. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the association between sleep duration and independent variables (race/nationality, gender, and BMI). Poisson regression was used to examine the relationship between sleep quality and independent variables. Results Overall, blacks had a higher adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of short sleep (\u3c 7 h/night) than whites (AOR = 1.74, P \u3c .01); overweight participants had a higher AOR of short sleep than normal weight participants (AOR = 1.52, P \u3c .01); and obese participants had a higher AORs of both short and long sleep (\u3e 9 h/night) (AOR = 1.67, P \u3c .01; AOR = 1.79, P \u3c .05, respectively). Among men, being black, overweight, and obesity were associated with short sleep (P \u3c .05), whereas only obesity was related to short sleep among women (P \u3c .05). In analyses stratified by race and nationality, overweight and obesity were related to short sleep among blacks only (P \u3c .05). Overall, sleep quality (getting enough sleep to feel rested in the morning in the past 7 days) was worse in blacks and South Koreans than whites (P \u3c .05), worse in women than men (P \u3c .05), and worse in participants with obesity than normal weight participants (P \u3c .05). Conclusions Obesity was associated with both short (\u3c 7 h/night) and long sleep duration (\u3e 9 h/night) and poor sleep quality among all participants. In comparison with whites, blacks were more like to have short sleep, and blacks and South Koreans had worse sleep quality. Further investigations using a larger sample of college students in multiple countries may be helpful to identify target populations who are at a greater risk of obesity and sleep problems

Microbial characteristics of dental caries in HIV positive individuals

BACKGROUND: Dental caries is a multifactorial disease that affects many people. Even though microorganisms play a crucial role in causing dental caries, diagnosis is routinely macroscopic. In order to improve early detection especially in HIV patients who are disproportionately affected, there is need to reconcile the macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of dental caries. Therefore, the aim of this study was to characterize the oral microbiota profile along the decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) index using amplicon sequencing data. METHODS: Amplicon sequencing of the V6-V8 region of the 16S rRNA gene was done on DNA recovered from whole unstimulated saliva of 59 HIV positive and 29 HIV negative individuals. The microbial structure, composition and co-occurrence networks were characterized using QIIME-2, Phyloseq, Microbiome-1.9.2 and Metacoder in R. RESULTS: We characterized the oral microbiota into 2,093 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), 21 phyla and 239 genera from 2.6 million high quality sequence reads. While oral microbiota did not cluster participants into distinct groups that track with the DMFT index, we observed the following: (a) The proportion of accessory microbiota was highest in the high DMFT category while the core size (∼50% of richness) remained relatively stable across all categories. (b) The abundance of core genera such as Stomatobaculum, Peptostreptococcus and Campylobacter was high at onset of dental caries, (c) A general difference in oral microbial biomass. (d) The onset of dental caries (low DMFT) was associated with significantly lower oral microbial entropy. CONCLUSIONS: Although oral microbial shifts along the DMFT index were not distinct, we demonstrated the potential utility of microbiota dynamics to characterize oral disease. Therefore, we propose a microbial framework using the DMFT index to better understand dental caries among HIV positive people in resource limited settings

Clinicopathologic characteristics of early-onset breast cancer: a comparative analysis of cases from across Ghana

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the commonest cancer diagnosed globally and the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality among women younger than 40 years. This study comparatively reviewed the demographic, pathologic and molecular features of Early-Onset Breast Cancer (EOBC) reported in Ghana in relation to Late Onset Breast Cancer (LOBC). METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional design was used, with purposive sampling of retrospective histopathology data from 2019 to 2021. Reports of core or incision biopsy, Wide Local Excision or Mastectomy with or without axillary lymph node dissection specimen and matched immunohistochemistry reports were merged into a single file and analysed with SPSS v. 20.0. Descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages were used to describe categorical variables. Cross-tabulation and chi-square test was done at a 95% confidence interval with significance established at p \u3c 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 2418 cases were included in the study with 20.2% (488 cases) being EOBCs and 79.8% (1930 cases) being LOBCs. The median age at diagnosis was 34.66 (IQR: 5.55) in the EOBC group (\u3c 40 years) and 54.29 (IQR: 16.86) in the LOBC group (≥ 40 years). Invasive carcinoma-No Special Type was the commonest tumour type with grade III tumours being the commonest in both categories of patients. Perineural invasion was the only statistically significant pathologic parameter with age. EOBC was associated with higher DCIS component (24.8% vs 21.6%), lower hormone-receptor-positive status (52.30% vs 55.70%), higher proliferation index (Ki-67 \u3e 20: 82.40% vs 80.30%) and a higher number of involved lymph nodes (13.80% vs 9.00%). Triple-Negative Breast cancer (26.40% vs 24.30%) was the most predominant molecular subtype of EOBC. CONCLUSION: EOBCs in our setting are generally more aggressive with poorer prognostic histopathological and molecular features when compared with LOBCs. A larger study is recommended to identify the association between relevant pathological features and early onset breast cancer in Ghana. Again, further molecular and genetic studies to understand the molecular genetic drivers of the general poorer pathological features of EOBCs and its relation to patient outcome in our setting is needed

Relationship between sleep and obesity among U.S. and South Korean college students

Background Little is known about the relationship between sleep and obesity in young adults, particularly college students. This study examined the relationship between sleep (i.e., sleep duration and quality) and obesity in a large and diverse binational sample of college students. Methods Analyses were based on a 40-item paper survey from 2016/2017 to 2017/2018 academic years, with a 72% response rate. The samples were 1578 college students aged 18–25 years from five universities (two in the U.S. and three in South Korea). Weight and height were measured objectively; other measures (e.g., health behaviors) were self-reported. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the association between sleep duration and independent variables (race/nationality, gender, and BMI). Poisson regression was used to examine the relationship between sleep quality and independent variables. Results Overall, blacks had a higher adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of short sleep ( 9 h/night) (AOR = 1.67, P < .01; AOR = 1.79, P < .05, respectively). Among men, being black, overweight, and obesity were associated with short sleep (P < .05), whereas only obesity was related to short sleep among women (P < .05). In analyses stratified by race and nationality, overweight and obesity were related to short sleep among blacks only (P < .05). Overall, sleep quality (getting enough sleep to feel rested in the morning in the past 7 days) was worse in blacks and South Koreans than whites (P < .05), worse in women than men (P < .05), and worse in participants with obesity than normal weight participants (P < .05). Conclusions Obesity was associated with both short ( 9 h/night) and poor sleep quality among all participants. In comparison with whites, blacks were more like to have short sleep, and blacks and South Koreans had worse sleep quality. Further investigations using a larger sample of college students in multiple countries may be helpful to identify target populations who are at a greater risk of obesity and sleep problems