Nutritional Profile of Three Different Mushroom Varieties Consumed in Amaifeke, Orlu Local Government Area, Imo State, Nigeria

The proximate and mineral composition of three varieties of mushroom consumed in Amaifeke, Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State were evaluated. The mushroom species include white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus), Crimini mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). The mushroom varieties were harvested and dried, then taken to the laboratory for proximate, mineral and vitamin analysis. Standard assay methods were used to analyze for proximate and mineral composition. Proximate composition of the mushroom was found to be in the range of 3.29 – 5.24% for moisture content, 8.60 – 22.60% for protein, 6.85 – 7.54% for fat, 7.94 – 18.63% for fibre, 2.99 – 4.74% for ash and 59.67 – 60.60% for carbohydrate. Six mineral elements were analysed: selenium, iron, zinc, iodine, potassium and copper, having values of 3.04 -6.56mg/100g, 1.532 – 2.378mg/100g, 2.70 – 3.90mg/100g, 0.348 – 0.425mg/100g, 0.8079 – 2.4615% and 0.586 – 0.784mg/100g respectively. Based on the result the mushroom have high nutrient potentials hence it will serve as a good means of reducing the incidence and high prevalence of malnutrition in Nigeria since it is a cheap food source that is within the reach of the poor

Experimenting with Cigarettes and Physical Activity Among Mexican Origin Youth: A Cross Sectional Analysis of the Interdependent Associations Among Sensation Seeking, Acculturation, and Gender

Sensation seeking tendencies tend to manifest during adolescence and are associated with both health-compromising behaviors and health-enhancing behaviors. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between sensation seeking and physical activity, a health-enhancing behavior, and between sensation seeking and experimenting with cigarettes, a health compromising-behavior, among a cohort of Mexican origin adolescents residing in the United States with different levels of acculturation. Methods: In 2009, 1,154 Mexican origin youth (50.5% girls, mean age 14.3 years (SD = 1.04)) provided data on smoking behavior, physical activity, linguistic acculturation, and sensation seeking. We conducted Pearson's chi(2) tests to examine the associations between categorical demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, country of birth and parental educational attainment) and both cigarette experimentation and physical activity and Student's t-tests to examine mean differences on the continuous variables (i.e. sensation seeking subscale) by the behaviors. We examined mean differences in the demographic characteristics, acculturation, and both behaviors for each of the sensation seeking subscales using analysis of variance (ANOVA). To examine relationships between the sensation seeking subscales, gender, and both behaviors, at different levels of acculturation we completed unconditional logistic regression analyses stratified by level of acculturation. Results: Overall, 23.3% had experimented with cigarettes and 29.0% reported being physically active for at least 60 minutes/day on at least 5 days/week. Experimenting with cigarettes and being physically active were more prevalent among boys than girls. Among girls, higher levels of sensation seeking tendencies were associated with higher levels of acculturation and experimentation with cigarettes, but not with physical activity. Among boys, higher levels of sensation seeking tendencies were associated with higher levels of acculturation, experimenting with cigarettes and being physically active. Conclusions: Our results suggest that interventions designed to prevent smoking among Mexican origin youth may need to address social aspects associated with acculturation, paying close attention to gendered manifestations of sensation seeking.National Cancer Institute CA105203, CA126988Caroline W. Law Fund for Cancer PreventionDan Duncan Family Institute for Cancer Prevention and Risk AssessmentCenter for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Population

Lifestyle and anthropometric indices of hypertensive patients in Bichi Local Government Area Kano State

Background: Nutrition is a very crucial component in the management of hypertension. The diet of hypertensive patients needs to be critically assessed as well as the lifestyle changes that would encourage maintenance of good blood pressure control. Objective: The study evaluated the lifestyle and anthropometric indices of hypertensive patients in Bichi Local Government Area, Kano State. Method: A cross sectional study design was used. A total of 300 subjects were selected by simple random sampling by ballot without replacement. Validated questionnaire was used to collect information from the respondents while weighing scale, height meter and tape were used for anthropometric measurement. The mean, frequency, percentage and standard deviation of the data was obtained. The data was presented in tables and figures. Result: The result of the study revealed that the average body mass index of the respondents was in the overweight range (28.37±4.35) about 43% were overweight while 37% were obese. It was also discovered that 18% of the subjects’ smoke, 20% consume alcohol daily and 65% of the subjects do not engage in any form of exercise. Conclusion: The high prevalence of overweight and hypertension among patients (80%) was due to their poor dietary pattern and lifestyle. Therefore, there is need for a lifestyle and dietary modification to help them lose weight, obtain adequate diet and as well maintain a good blood pressure to prevent complications associations associated

Rapid evolution of fluoroquinolone-resistant Escherichia coli in Nigeria is temporally associated with fluoroquinolone use

The genetic basis for antimicrobial resistance was studied in fecal Escherichia coli isolates in a Nigerian community in parallel with antimicrobial use. The results showed that fluoroquinolones, and not chloroquine as has been hypothesized elsewhere, appear to be the selective force for fluoroquinolone-resistant fecal E. coli in this setting. Jennie Crowe and Rebeccah Lijek are student co-authors. --author-supplied descriptio

Design, Construction and Characterization of a Sliding- Plate- Evaporator Freezer (Spef)

This work embodied the design, construction and characterization of a sliding plate evaporator freezer, a modified version of the conventional freezer. The presence of a sliding plate evaporator reduces the freezing area, to increase the freezing rate and with a reduced freezing time. The freezer is intended to freeze agro and allied products in a record time. This is achieved by incorporating sliding plate evaporators to a conventional freezer to have two or more freezing sources, thereby, also giving the freezer with the option of a deferring freezing area to increase freezing rate. The results obtained are not exactly matched with the designed objectives because of construction flaws; and modifications can be made to improve the Coefficient of performance. The Coefficient of performance of the SPFE is obtained   to be 7.26. The SPEF is recommended for use in household and agro based industries for faster and effective freezing. Keyword: Freezer, Sliding Plate, Evaporator, and Refrigerator, Freezer chamber, Compressor power, Condenser power and Co-efficient of performance

Development of A Fingerprint Biometric Authentication System For Secure Electronic Voting Machines

            Democratic government in the world today rely on electronic voting as the foremost means of providing credible, transparent and fair elections for the electorate. There is a need for developed electronic voting systems to be security enhanced to ensure the authenticity of the developed system. Traditional paper balloting systems suffer from vote tampering, multiple voting and illegal voting by unregistered voters. They are also, susceptible to under aged voting due to the difficulty in authenticating the identity of prospective voters. Manual collation and publication of vote results also leads to slow response times and inaccuracies in published results. This research paper proposes a system to combat the current challenges through the development of a fingerprint biometric authentication system for secure electronic voting machines. It uses a fingerprint biometric sensor, integrated via Python to verify users of the system. The inclusion of biometrics improves the security features of the system. The secure voting system is built using PHP and easy to use Graphical User Interface was designed using HTML and CSS. Users are required to interact with the machine via a 7” touchscreen interface. From the results, it shows that the developed machine has a minimum response time of 0.6 seconds for specific operation, an FAR of 2%, FRR of 10% and overall system accuracy of 94%. The developed machine is able to combat the challenges of authentication of users, thereby guaranteeing the transparency, credibility, integrity and vote authenticity of the elections

STI testing among young people attending music festivals in New South Wales, Australia: Exploring the client segmentation concept in the 'Down to Test' program

Background: The 'Down to Test (DTT)' campaign is a sexually transmissible infection (STI) social marketing intervention delivered through outdoor music festival activations and supported by digital media communications in New South Wales, Australia. This paper investigates whether and how the tailored messages reached the intended audience. Methods: Data was collected through three annual rounds of online surveys post campaign exposure, targeting young people (aged 15-29 years) attending 14 music festivals in NSW from October 2017 to March 2020. Descriptive statistics, principal component analysis and multivariable logic regression were applied to identify the key client segment and factors associated with a strong intention for future STI screening. Results: Of the 10 044 participants with a valid urine specimen submitted, 261 (2.8%) tested positive for chlamydia. Altogether, 1776 participants (median age = 22) self-completed the evaluation surveys online with more being female (73.4%) than male (26.2%). Participants were mostly Australian-born (89.5%), heterosexual (82.6%) and the majority being sexually active (96.7%). Rates of self-reported lifetime STI testing (70.4%) and intention for future STI screening ('definitely yes' in the next 12 months, 39.0%) were also high. The most significant factor associated with future intention for STI testing is the Sexual Experience and Perception Factor (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.02; 95%CI 1.76-2.32; P < 0.001), followed by the Sexual Beliefs and Attitudes Factor (AOR = 1.14; 95% CI 1.01-1.30; P < 0.05). Conclusions: The NSW state-wide DTT campaign has largely reached sexually active youth who are attentive to sexual health promotion messages and contributed to enhanced STI screening in a fun and peer-supportive environment

Cholera Outbreaks in Nigeria are Associated with Multidrug Resistant Atypical El Tor and non-O1/non-O139 Vibrio cholerae.

Background The current millennium has seen a steep rise in the number, size and case-fatalities of cholera outbreaks in many African countries. Over 40,000 cases of cholera were reported from Nigeria in 2010. Variants of Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor biotype have emerged but very little is known about strains causing cholera outbreaks in West Africa, which is crucial for the implementation of interventions to control epidemic cholera. Methodology/Principal Findings V. cholerae isolates from outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea in Nigeria from December, 2009 to October, 2010 were identified by standard culture methods. Fifteen O1 and five non-O1/non-O139 strains were analyzed; PCR and sequencing targeted regions associated with virulence, resistance and biotype were performed. We also studied genetic interrelatedness among the strains by multilocus sequence analysis and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The antibiotic susceptibility was tested by the disk diffusion method and E-test. We found that multidrug resistant atypical El Tor strains, with reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol, characterized by the presence of the SXT element, andgyrASer85Leu alleles as well CTX phage and TCP cluster characterized byrstRElTor, ctxB-7 and tcpACIRS alleles, respectively, were largely responsible for cholera outbreaks in 2009 and 2010. We also identified and characterized a V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 lineage from cholera-like diarrhea cases in Nigeria. Conclusions/Significance The recent Nigeria outbreaks have been determined by multidrug resistant atypical El Tor and non-O1/non-O139 V. cholerae strains, and it seems that the typical El Tor, from the beginning of seventh cholera pandemic, is no longer epidemic/endemic in this country. This scenario is similar to the East Africa, Asia and Caribbean countries. The detection of a highly virulent, antimicrobial resistant lineage in Nigeria is worrisome and points to a need for vaccine-based control of the disease. This study has also revealed the putative importance of non-O1/non-O139 V. cholerae in diarrheal disease in Nigeria

Editorial review: Male circumcision, gender and HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa: a (social science) research agenda

No Abstract.SAHARA J Vol. 4 (3) 2007: pp. 658-66

“For me, it is for longevity and making sure I am fit and around for my children”: exploring motivations and barriers for weight management among minoritised communities in Medway, England

Background Migration-related changes in dietary patterns and other structural and individual factors affect weight-related health practices of individuals migrating from low-and-middle-income to high-income countries. Thus, individuals of ethnically diverse backgrounds may be disproportionately affected by poorer health outcomes, including weight-related health issues. Understanding how this community could be supported to adopt weight-related healthy practices such as optimum dietary and exercise behaviour is an important issue for public health research. Against this backdrop, we explored structural and individual factors that facilitate and constrain the uptake of weight management services among members of minority ethnic communities in Medway, England. Methods Data were collected from audio-recorded interviews with 12 adult community members from minoritised ethnic communities using a semi-structured interview guide. Participants were recruited through a purposive and convenient sampling technique. Generated data were transcribed, coded into NVivo and analysed using the reflexive thematic analytical technique. Results Results showed that social support and health benefits of weight management were the main motivating factors for weight management among the study participants. Conversely, systemic barriers, family commitment and caring responsibilities, changes in dietary patterns post-migration and cultural norms were major factors constraining participants from adopting weight management behaviours. Conclusion The results of this study indicate that structural and person-level factors serve as both facilitators and barriers to weight management among ethnically diverse communities in Medway, England. While our study is exploratory and opens doors for more studies among the population, we conclude that these minoritised communities could benefit from more equitable, tailored weight management programmes to support them in adopting weight-related practices