Exercise-induced bronchospasm and its associated factors among secondary school students in an urban community

Introduction: Exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) is a transient narrowing of the airway that usually occurs shortly after exercise. It occurs commonly in people with asthma; however EIB has also been reported in individuals without clinical asthma. The study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with EIB among secondary school students. Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional school- based study involving secondary school students aged between 10 and 17 years without previous history of asthma. Subjects undertook a six-minute running test, spirometry was done and the best of three FEV1 readings were obtained pre-exercise, at 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes post exercise. The diagnosis of EIB was made when there was a decrease in FEV1 of ≥10% from baseline after exercise. Results: Of the 265participants studied, 34 (12.8%) had EIB at 5 minutes post exercise. EIB was significantly more in the 10–13 years age group (χ2 = 18.416, p = <0.001), there was no significant gender difference. The presence of allergic (vernal) conjunctivitis and rhinitis were both significantly associated with the development of EIB (χ2 = 13.574, p < 0.001 and 0.011 respectively). There was no significant association with previous history of wheeze and exposure to indoor air pollution such as cooking with biomass fuel and parental cigarette smoking. Conclusion: EIB exist among non-asthmatic school children, and it is more frequent in the early adolescent age-group. Students with allergic conjunctivitis and rhinitis are more likely to manifest exercise induced bronchospasm

Economic evaluation of the impact of the privatisation policy on animal health delivery services in africa: a case study of Zimbabwe

In many countries in Africa, the delivery of animal health services, especially in rural areas, is far from adequate. These services therefore need restructuring. An analysis of these systems indicates that the development of an appropriate analytical framework for evaluating them would prove to be extremely valuable. Such a framework should be able to identify, qualify and quantify, the various segments of the population, their spatial distribution, and specific health care needs, as well as permit the prediction and evaluation of the socio-economic impact of policies and interventions on the delivery system. In order to develop such a framework, a project was undertaken using the concept of Precision Service Delivery (PSD), with the objective of developing a robust analytical framework which is universally applicable to all health care delivery systems. PSD is aimed at adjusting and "fine-tuning" the delivery of services, so as to meet the specific health care needs of the different segments of the population, in the context of their geographical location. The animal health care delivery system in Zimbabwe was used as a case study. The PSD framework was used in this study, to analyse the economic and social impact of different scenarios of the current privatisation oriented policy reforms. This involved the use of statistical techniques, a geo-spatial modelling technique and Linear Programming mathematical models. A questionnaire survey of 145 livestock producers was conducted with representation from all four livestock production systems in Zimbabwe. The objective was to evaluate the socio-economic and health care variables that characterise the production systems. From fourteen putative variables identified, eight were extracted using Principal Component Analysis, as a bases for characterising the existing livestock production systems. Using Multiple Discriminant Analysis, the validity of the different production systems as distinct classes was confirmed

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Mothers to Childhood Immunization in Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers in Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria, on childhood immunization. Descriptive cross sectional study method was employed. A multistage sampling was used to select two hundred mothers who participated in the study. Data was collected using interviewer-administered questionnaires. Mothers who were still in their reproductive age and whose children are under the age of 5 years were interviewed after they had been duly briefed about the study and informed consent was obtained. Results showed that awareness on various childhood immunizations was quite high in majority of the respondents. Out of the mothers interviewed, 89.5%, 85.5%, 78.5%, 71.0%, 73.5%, 42.0% and 6.5% of them knew about Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG), oral polio, dipthteria, pertusis and tetanus (DPT), yellow fever, measles, hepatitis B virus (HBV), and meningococcal vaccinations respectively. However, not more than 54.5% of these respondents actually knew the diseases that these vaccinations prevent in their children even though almost all (95.5%) of them perceived immunization to be beneficial and showed good attitude. Although majority of the mothers demonstrated appreciable knowledge, attitude and practice on childhood immunization, more awareness programmes in developing countries are required.Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Childhood immunization

PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES, PROXIMATE COMPOSITION AND SENSORY EVALUATION OF PINEAPPLE FRUIT (Ananas comosus) STORED IN DIFFERENT MEDIA

Provision of adequate storage facility enhances the postharvest quality and shelf-life of fruits. An experiment was carried out in the laboratory of the Department of Horticulture, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) to determine the postharvest quality and sensory acceptability of pineapple fruits stored in different media. Pineapple fruits from the Directorate of Farms at FUNAAB were harvested at colour break stage and stored in the evaporative cooling structure (ECS) - pots in pot design and ventilated wooden boxes (VWB) while fruits stored in the open shelf served as the control. The experiment was laid out in completely randomised block design, replicated four times. Shell and pulp colour, physiological weight loss (PWL), total soluble solids (TSS), total titratable acidity, pH, proximate contents and sensory acceptability of the fruits were evaluated at pre-storage and after storage at 11 days (DAS). Quality and sensory attributes of pineapple fruits were affected by storage media. Fruits TSS contents increased with storage time while PWL and vitamin C contents reduced with storage time, across the media. Fruits stored in the ECS had comparable vitamin C content with pre stored fruits. Crude protein, crude fibre and carbohydrate contents were comparable in fruits stored in all media. Shell colour change from green to full yellow was reduced in fruits stored in the ECS and had better sensory acceptability when compared with fruits stored in VWB and open shelf. Pineapple fruit stored in the ECS retained fruit quality with better sensory acceptability     &nbsp

On the performance of energy harvesting AF partial relay selection with TAS and outdated channel state information over identical channels

Energy scarcity has been known to be one of the most noticeable challenges in wireless communication system. In this paper, the performance of an energy harvesting based partial relay selection (PRS) cooperative system with transmit antenna selection (TAS) and outdated channel state information (CSI) is investigated. The system dual-hops links are assumed to follow Rayleigh distribution and the relay selection is based on outdated CSI of the first link. To realize the benefit of multiple antenna, the amplified-and-forward (AF) relay nodes then employs the TAS technique for signal transmission and signal reception is achieved at the destination through maximum ratio combining (MRC) scheme. Thus, the closed-form expression for the system equivalent end-to-end cumulative distribution function (CDF) is derived. Based on this, the analytical closed-form expressions for the outage probability, average bit error rate, and throughput for the delay-limited transmission mode are then obtained. The results illustrated that the energy harvesting time, relay distance, channel correlation coefficient, the number of relay transmit antennas and destination received antenna have significant effect on the system performance. Monte-carol simulation is employed to validate the accuracy of the derived expressions

Resistance of strains of rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) to pirimiphos methyl

Insecticidal resistance of five strains of Sitophilus oryzae (L.) to pirimiphos methyl (Actellic®) was investigated in the laboratory at 28 ± 2oC and 89 ± 5% relative humidity. Rice infested by S. oryzaewas sampled from Nigerian stores in Akure (Ondo state), Ibadan (Oyo state), Ikotun (Lagos state) and Ilesha (Osun state) and a laboratory culture (in Akure). Twenty adult weevils from each location were exposed to filter papers impregnated with liquid pirimiphos methyl at one of seven concentrations ranging from 0.0 to 5.0%. Mortality rates of the rice weevils were observed at 3, 6 and 24 h after treatment. The mortality of weevils increased with increasing concentration and period of exposure. Irrespective of the strain, 100% mortality was observed in all the treatments at 24 h after exposure to pirimiphos methyl. Weevils sampled from Ibadan were the most resistant, while laboratory strains were the least resistant at 2 and 5% concentrations.Keywords: Strains, insecticide, Pirimiphos methyl, Resistance, Sitophilus oryzae

Bacteriological and Physicochemical Studies on Three Major Dams in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The bacteriological and physicochemical properties of public water supply system in Ekiti State, Nigeria were analyzed, using treated and untreated water samples from selected dams. The antibiotic sensitivity of 140 E.coli (as water indicator) isolated was evaluated using microbiological standard methods. The plasmid profile of 20 selected resistant isolates was done using agarose gel electrophoresis method. The coliform and E. coli count were apparently high with average range of 28.6x102 to 39.8x103CFU/ml and 13.0x102 to 8.4x103CFU/ml respectively. Though less than 3% of the isolated E. coli was sensitive to ofloxacin, nalixidic acid and nitrofurantoin, only 24(17.1%) was resistant to amoxicillin. Among the multidrug resistant isolates about 92.9% were resistant to at least four antibiotics while 7.0% were resistant to all the eight antibiotics used. Out of 20 MDR isolates selected, only one (1) showed absence of plasmid as other harbored plasmids ranging from 1 to 4. The size of the plasmids in kilobase pair ranged between 2.03 and 3.13. The physicochemical properties and mineral content of the water samples were all within WHO permissible limits with pH range of (7.40-7.80) and temperature range of (27.5-28.0)0C. The occurrence of plasmid-mediated multidrug resistant E. coli in a public water supply system in rural community heightens public health concern as discussed in this work. Keywords:Ureje, Ero, Egbe, multidrug resistance, plasmid mediated, physicochemica

Incidence of Lipolytic Mycoflora in Domestic Wastewater

The decomposition of domestic effluent by mycoflora was investigated. The microbial load enumerated for the period of 13 days, using standard microbiological techniques revealed the average total bacterial count between the range of 1.97 x 106 CFU/ml and 1.25 x 107 CFU/ml, the total coliform count have a mean range between 1.29 x 106 CFU/ml and 0.56 x 107 CFU/ml while the total fungal count showed a mean range of 3.17 x 106 CFU/ml to 2.14 x 107 CFU/ml. One hundred and twenty fungal isolates were obtained from the wastewater with the highest occurred organism as Fusarium moniliforme (19.2% occurrence), followed by Fusarium oxysporium (14.2%) and the least occurred organism Aspergillus versiculor (0.8%). The acidic pH and turbidity values obtained ranged from 3.41 - 5.98 and 1.63 - 1.79 respectively. Only 39 (32.5%) of the fungi isolates showed ability to degrade lipids with varying potentials; of which four (10.3%) were grouped among high and slight lipolysis. Among the lipolytic fungal isolates, Aspergillus spp. showed the highest occurrence of 79.5%, followed by 5.1% occurrence of Penicillium spp., Fusarium spp. and Rhizopus spp. while Absidia spp. and Thermophillus spp. showed the laeast occurrence (2.6%). It is significant that fungi associated with oil-rich wastewater also attribute the potentials of degrading the lipid component of sewages, an advantage in the treatment process. Keywords: Mycoflora, oil-rich wastewater, lipolytic, fung

Evaluation of the potency of Newcastle disease vaccine from veterinary outlets in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Vaccination against Newcastle disease (ND) is the most reliable tool in its prevention and control, it is therefore important that vaccines used are of good quality. This study was conducted to assess the quality of live ND vaccines sold in Abeokuta over a six months’ period. Live Newcastle disease vaccines were purchased from ten different veterinary sales outlets and their antigenic titres were determined using Hemagglutination assay (HA). The results revealed a difference in antigenic titres amongst the various ND vaccines sold in Abeokuta with only 20.33 % having high titre, 55.9 % having an average titre, and 23.7 % having low titre. The vaccine titres varied between different brands with storage and handling as contributing factors to the variations. Antigenic titre contained in vaccines properly stored showed significantly (p<0.05) higher antigenic titre and vaccines that were close to their expiration dates had lower titres. Newcastle disease vaccines in Abeokuta are of average titres, it is therefore necessary that adequate evaluation of ND vaccines be recommended before use in flocks and owners of vaccine sales outlets be educated on the need for proper handling and storage of these biologicals