Cervical Cancer Screening by Female Workers in South East Nigeria

Cervical cancer is one of the commonest female cancers especially in developing countries. Efforts towards its prevention worldwide have focused on screening women at risk of disease using Pap smears and treating pre-cancerous lesions. A good knowledge and understanding of the level of practice of cervical cancer screening among female workers in south east Nigeria will help in creating population-specific healthcare programs and interventions aimed at improving women’s health. OBJECTIVES: To determine the perception and practice of cervical cancer screening among female workers in south east Nigeria as well as ascertain the influence of age, educational status and marital status on the practice of cervical cancer screening among this group. METHOD: A cross-sectional descriptive study carried out among female workers in Nnewi who were selected using multi-stage approach between December 2007 and January 2008. Tests of statistical significance were done using chi square test at 95% confidence interval. RESULTS A total of 172 females responded. The mean age was 29.7 ± 8.8 years and the ages ranged from 15 to 65 years. One hundred and twenty-three respondents (71.5%) knew about cervical cancer screening. Only 12 (9.8%) of the respondents who were aware of Pap smear had done the test, of which 9 (75.0%) had disease detected. There was no statistically significant association between educational level, age andmarital status respectively and the practice of cervical cancer screening. CONCLUSION: There is avery lowlevel of practice of cervical cancer screening in this group. Educational level, age and marital status were found not to affect the practice of cervical cancer screening. Key Words: Cervical cancer, workers, practice, Nigeri

Congenital Hemidiaphragmatic Agenesis Presenting as Reversible Mesenteroaxial Gastric Volvulus and Diaphragmatic Hernia: A Case Report

A 70-yr-old woman complained of left sided chest pain and non-bilious vomiting for four days after taking a gastric bloating agent for an upper gastrointestinal study. The chest radiography revealed gastric air-fluid levels and bowel loops in the left thoracic cavity. An emergency thoracotomy was performed. The abdominal organs (stomach, spleen, splenic flexure of the colon) were in the left thorax and the entire left hemidiaphragm was absent. There were no diaphragmatic remnants visible for reconstruction of the left diaphragm. We provided warm saline irrigation and performed a left lower lobe adhesiotomy. Thirteen days after surgery, the chest radiography showed improvement in the herniation but mild haziness remained at the left lower lung field. Here we present the oldest case of congenital diaphragmatic agenesis presenting with transient gastric volvulus and diaphragmatic hernia

Effect of maternal administration of betamethasone on peripheral arterial development in fetal rabbit lungs

Objectives: Glucocorticoids promote lung maturation and reduce the incidence of respiratory distress syndrome in premature newborns. We hypothesized that betamethasone (BM), which is known to induce thinning of the alveolar walls, would also thin the arterial media and adventitia of intra-parenchymatic vessels in developing rabbit lungs. Study Design: 112 fetuses from 21 time-mated, pregnant, giant white rabbits received maternal injections of BM at either 0.05 or 0.1 mg/kg/day on days 25-26 of gestational age. Controls received either saline (10 does, 56 fetuses) or no injection (10 does, 59 fetuses). Fetuses were harvested from day 27 onwards until term (day 31). 44 additional fetuses (8 does) were harvested between days 23 and 26. Endpoints were wet lung-to-body weight ratio, vascular morphometric indices and immunohistochemistry staining for α-smooth muscle actin, Flk-1, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). ANOVA (Tukey's test) and independent t test (p < 0.05) were used for comparison between BM and saline groups. Results: Maternal BM injected on days 25-26 to pregnant rabbits induced a significant decrease in fetal body and lung weight and the lung-to-body weight ratio in the preterm pups shortly after injection. BM led to a dose-dependent thinning of the arterial media and adventitia (pulmonary arteries with an external diameter (ED) of <100 μm), to an increase in the percentage of non-muscularized peripheral vessels (ED <60 μm), in eNOS and VEGF immunoreactivity of the endothelial and smooth muscle cells in the pulmonary vessels and to an increase in Flk-1-positive pulmonary epithelial cell density. Conclusions: Maternal administration of BM caused thinning of the arterial wall of pulmonary vessels (ED <100 μm) and a decrease in muscularization in peripheral vessels (ED <60 μm). This coincided with increased expression of Flk-1 in the endothelium and smooth muscle cells of the pulmonary arteries. All the effects studied were dose-dependent. Copyrigh

The dominant Anopheles vectors of human malaria in Africa, Europe and the Middle East: occurrence data, distribution maps and bionomic précis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This is the second in a series of three articles documenting the geographical distribution of 41 dominant vector species (DVS) of human malaria. The first paper addressed the DVS of the Americas and the third will consider those of the Asian Pacific Region. Here, the DVS of Africa, Europe and the Middle East are discussed. The continent of Africa experiences the bulk of the global malaria burden due in part to the presence of the <it>An. gambiae </it>complex. <it>Anopheles gambiae </it>is one of four DVS within the <it>An. gambiae </it>complex, the others being <it>An. arabiensis </it>and the coastal <it>An. merus </it>and <it>An. melas</it>. There are a further three, highly anthropophilic DVS in Africa, <it>An. funestus</it>, <it>An. moucheti </it>and <it>An. nili</it>. Conversely, across Europe and the Middle East, malaria transmission is low and frequently absent, despite the presence of six DVS. To help control malaria in Africa and the Middle East, or to identify the risk of its re-emergence in Europe, the contemporary distribution and bionomics of the relevant DVS are needed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A contemporary database of occurrence data, compiled from the formal literature and other relevant resources, resulted in the collation of information for seven DVS from 44 countries in Africa containing 4234 geo-referenced, independent sites. In Europe and the Middle East, six DVS were identified from 2784 geo-referenced sites across 49 countries. These occurrence data were combined with expert opinion ranges and a suite of environmental and climatic variables of relevance to anopheline ecology to produce predictive distribution maps using the Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) method.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The predicted geographic extent for the following DVS (or species/suspected species complex*) is provided for Africa: <it>Anopheles </it>(<it>Cellia</it>) <it>arabiensis</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Cel.</it>) <it>funestus*</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Cel.</it>) <it>gambiae</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Cel.</it>) <it>melas</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Cel.</it>) <it>merus</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Cel.</it>) <it>moucheti </it>and <it>An. </it>(<it>Cel.</it>) <it>nili*</it>, and in the European and Middle Eastern Region: <it>An. </it>(<it>Anopheles</it>) <it>atroparvus</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Ano.</it>) <it>labranchiae</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Ano.</it>) <it>messeae</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Ano.</it>) <it>sacharovi</it>, <it>An. </it>(<it>Cel.</it>) <it>sergentii </it>and <it>An. </it>(<it>Cel.</it>) <it>superpictus*</it>. These maps are presented alongside a bionomics summary for each species relevant to its control.</p

Adoption of recommended agricultural technologies of Anambra state agricultural development project by small scale farmers in Anambra state, Nigeria

The study was on the adoption of selected agricultural technologies of Anambra State Agricultural Development programme by small scale farmers in Anambra State. Data were collected from purposively sampled 120 farmers in the state using structured interview schedule. The data were analyzed using percentages and chi-square analysis. The result indicated that the farmers rate of adoption is low. Only two technologies, cassava/maize/vegetable and sole improved cassava variety had the highest adoption rate of 70.8% and 70% respectively. The result of chi-square analysis indicated that there was a significant relationship between adoption and income at 1% level of significance. It was recommended that agricultural centers should be established in various towns in the study area to make agricultural inputs and packages accessible to farmers.Keywords: Adoption, Technology and Communicatio

Microbial quality of some commercial yoghurt samples in Awka Metropolis, Anambra State, Nigeria

Microbiological quality of ten commercial samples representing ten different brands of yoghurt marketed in Awka metropolis, Anambra State was assessed using standard microbiological procedures. The analysis carried out was aimed at determining the presence and level of bothbacterial and fungal contaminants in the various brands of yoghurt analyzed. Isolation was done using pour plate and streaking methods. The total bacterial and fungal counts were determined. The mean bacterial counts ranged from 2.0 x 10-4 to 11.0 x 104 CFU/ml, while the mean fungal counts ranged from 1.0 x 104 to 10.0 x 104 CFU/ml. Brand B had the highest bacterial count while brands C and F had the least. Brand B equally had the highest fungal count while brands A, C, F, G and H had very low counts. Included Aspergillus sp., Fusarium sp., Penicillium sp.,Candida sp., Staphylococcus sp., Bacillus sp., Lactobacillus sp., Klebsiella sp. and Streptococcus sp. However, Staphylococcus and Fusarium species were the most frequently isolated. These organisms may have  contaminated the samples through the environment and the handlers.Key words: Yoghurt, Bacteria, Fungi, Probiotic, Contamination, Examinatio

Optimal Dispatch of High-Penetration Renewable Energy Integrated Power System Based on Flexible Resources

The volatility and uncertainty of high-penetration renewable energy (RE) challenge the stability of the power system. To tackle this challenge, an optimal dispatch of high-penetration RE based on flexible resources (FRs) is proposed to enhance the ability of the power system to cope with uncertain disturbances. Firstly, the flexibility of a high-penetration RE integrated power system is analyzed. The flexibility margin of power supply and flexible adaptability of RE are then introduced as the evaluation indices for optimal operation. Finally, a multi-objective optimal dispatch model for power system flexibility enhancement based on FRs under the constraint of flexibility indices is proposed. The simulation results show that the proposed optimal dispatch can effectively enhance the flexibility of the power system and the penetration of RE and reduce pollutant emissions. Compared with the conventional method, the daily average emissions of CO2, SO2, and NOx with the proposed method are reduced by about 83,600 kg, 870 kg, and 370 kg, respectively, the maximum allowable volatility of net load is increased by 7.63%, and the average volatility of net load is reduced by 2.67%