A Conceptual Framework for Community Pediatrics Using Knowledge Management

Knowledge management, the management of corporate and individual knowledge, has been adopted by many organizations,including medicine. However, Knowledge management in community pediatrics, an arm of public health, has not been fullyresearched. Although, medical information systems have been developed over the past decade, they have not fully solved thecapture, retrieval and reuse of medical knowledge. This is because most of the information systems deal with informationtechnologies excluding intellectual resources, which in reality is the most important part of knowledge management. Thispaper proposes a conceptual framework for knowledge management in community pediatrics. First, it gives a high-leveloverview of medical knowledge and knowledge management. Next, it discusses knowledge in the media domain. It explainsthe conceptual framework proposed, giving details of the various knowledge management components. The paper isconcluded with a brief discussion on other application areas of the framework.Keywords: knowledge management; community pediatrics; public health; medical knowledge; medicine.

Trends and Future Directions in Open and Distance Learning Practice in Africa

Open and Distance Learning (ODL), formerly known as Distance Education (DE) is one of the most rapidly growing fields of education in recent time. Distance education has experienced remarkable growth in national and international scenes since the early 1980s. In spite of recent phenomenal developments in the world of electronic networks, especially the recent global attention to the Internet, which has provided the primary technological thrust, several other emerging technologies have also promised to change the landscape of education in general, and distance education in particular drastically. The field of distance education is therefore, at the centre of dynamic growth and change. This paper focuses on current trends in ODL from African perspective. It examines some of the definitions that have been put forward by experts in the field, as well as some features that characterized ODL. The paper also reflects on some practices in Africa’s ODL programmes. Furthermore, current trends in the practice of ODL in African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Bostwana and Nigeria are critically discussed. Some of the policy recommendations highlighted in the paper include the need to invest more in ODL through meaningful budgetary allocations and cost sharing at higher levels of education, creation of partnerships and networking among ODL institutional providers within the continent, private telecommunication sector, and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Correlation between faecal indicator bacteria in diarrheagenic stools and hospital wastewaters: Implication on public health

Background: Hospital wastewaters contain blends of inorganic, natural constituents and contaminants that carry significant health risk when released directly into the environment. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between faecal indicator bacteria in diarrheagenic stools and wastewaters generated in University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital complex, Akure, Nigeria.Methodology: Quantification of faecal indicator bacteria was carried out on diarrheagenic faecal samples collected from 55 hospitalized patients and 68 wastewater samples from the medical laboratory science and laundry units of the hospital over of period of 12 weeks. Standard membrane filtration technique was performed using membrane intestinal enterococcus (m-ENT), membrane faecal coliform (m-FC), membrane lauryl sulphate (MLSA), eosin methylene blue (EMB) and Salmonella-Shigella (SS) agar plates, which were incubated at 37ºC for 24 hours (MLSA, EMB and SSA), 44ºC for 24 hours (m-FC); and 37ºC for 48 hours (m-ENT). Bacterial colonies on agar plates were counted and expressed as colony forming units (CFU) per 100ml of diarrheagenic stool and wastewater. Pearson’scorrelation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the level of faecal indicator bacteria in diarrheagenic stools and wastewaters at p<0.05 level of significance (and 95% confidence interval).Results: The faecal coliform counts (log 10 CFU/100ml) ranged from 1.18 to 1.54 in diarrheagenic stools, 1.32 to1.64 in laboratory wastewater and 1.08 to 2.19 in laundry wastewater. Escherichia coli count (log 10 CFU/100ml) ranged from 1.08 to 1.40 in diarrheagenic stools, 1.20 to 1.86 in laboratory wastewater and 0.30 to 1.81 in laundry wastewater. Intestinal enterococci count (log 10 CFU/100ml) ranged from 0 to 0.30 in diarrheagenic stools, 0.78 to 0.90 in laboratory wastewaters and 0.48 to 1.11 in laundry wastewaters. Pearson’s correlation co-efficient showed that all the faecal indicator bacteria count in diarrheagenic faecal samples exhibited positive correlation with those in laboratory wastewaters, but not with those from laundry wastewaters.Conclusion: The findings suggest that diarrheagenic stools should be properly disinfected after the performance of laboratory tests to prevent transmission of potential pathogens, and wastewater generated from hospitals should be treated prior to discharge into the environment, to prevent possible infections in the community. Keywords: Correlation, faecal indicator bacteria, public health, transmission, wastewate

CPKMS: A Knowledge Management Repository For Community Pediatrics

There has been rapid advancement from data to information-to knowledge in the scope of medicine. Although knowledge management conceptual frameworks and models in medicine have been proposed, there is, however, the need for a knowledge management system to cater for the rural healthcare sector. The purpose of this paper is to capitalize medical knowledge in community pediatrics and make it available to medical users (nurses, community doctors and rural health workers) by identifying, capturing, representing and storing such medical knowledge for reuse and distribution. The study begins with brief theoretical background and then it presents a conceptual framework adapted for the implementation of a prototype. Keywords: Knowledge Management System; Community Pediatrics; Rural Healthcare;                                                        Medicine; Medical Knowledge

Groundwater Prospect in a Typical Precambrian Basement Complex using Karous-Hjelt and Fraser Filtering Techniques

Electromagnetic survey was carried out at Ibodi, village, Ilesa in Atakunmosa West Local government area with a view to determining the probable locations for groundwater exploration in the study area. Ibodi falls within latitude 70 35′ 35.21″ North and longitude 40 40′ 48.28″ East. The development and increase in immigrants at Ibodi has necessitated this study. A total of five profiles from North to South directions were occupied. It was discovered that distances (100.0-140.0) m, 40.0 m, 80.0 m and 35.0 m on profiles 1, 3, 4 and 5 respectively revealed fractured zones which are suspected to be the best locations for groundwater prospects in the study area

Electromagnetic Investigation into the Cause(s) of Road Failure along Takie-Ikoyi Road, Ogbomoso.

One of the problems Nigeria has is unreliable road networks which has cause several untimely death and damages beyond recognition to human life. Non-destructive geophysical method involving very low frequency electromagnetic profiling was used to investigate the cause(s) of failure that occurred in the road that was constructed in less than two (2) years. Very low frequency electromagnetic profiling data were taken at 10 m interstation spacing along 2 traverses (the dual lane constructed there). KHFILT software was used for the processing of the data obtained. Conducting bodies which indicate clayey materials or linear geologic features such as faults, fractures, joints, and contact between two rocks were inferred from the interpretation. It was concluded that the road was probably constructed on clayey materials which was supposed to be excavated and refilled with laterites. From another angle, it was viewed that may be the engineers intentionally filled the sub-base with clayey materials during construction in order to get their financial returns which the masses are now paying fo

EFFECT OF CONSTRUCTING HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WITHOUT A GEOPHYSICAL SURVEY

Subsidence and building collapse has become immense globally which Nigeria is not exempted. Due to increase in the number of people living in urban area and increase in the value of land, high-rise buildings have become preferred choice for people. Some of the high-rise buildings in urban areas have become death traps for the people living within because of cracks, subsidence, transport of water from subsurface to the supporting walls of the building, and finally sudden collapse. People direct the blame on the contractor whenever there are tragic situations like that. Majority believes that the contractor must have used inferior building materials before there can be such situation. The truth is that subsurface is heterogeneous in nature, if proper geophysical survey is not carried out before the building construction starts, the constructed building especially high-rise building might stand the chance of falling into this tragic event. The aim of carrying out this research is to settle the dispute between a house owner along Oda Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria and his contractor. Vivid cracks were seen from a high-rise building after the construction works have finished which made the owner to believe that the contractor has used the inferior building materials for him. Eight Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) stations were occupied around the house in order to know the subsurface information of the study area. The maximum current electrode used was 300 m with the maximum Geometric Factor of 7069.58. Six VES curves showed H-type (i.e. 3-layer earth model) while the remaining two VES curves showed KH-type (i.e. 4-layer earth model). The overburden thickness information of the study area varied between 14.9 m and 39.6 m with an average value of 28.3 m. This overburden is relatively thick for a high-rise building without an artificial basement before the foundation is laid. The weathered layer isoresistivity varied between 102.8 m and 258 m with an average value of 160.4125 m. This was done in order to know the characteristics of weathered layer in the study area, whether it will permit the transport of water from subsurface to the supporting walls of the building or not. The result showed that the apparent resistivities of the weathered layer’s value constitute little and medium weathering processes with poor potential for groundwater. Therefore, water cannot be transported from the subsurface to the supporting walls of the building. The contractor has his blame because geophysicist should have been invited for geophysical survey before the construction works started. Finally, it was recommended that mega activities like party, playing of heavy acoustic music, manual pounding of yams within the building, use of heavily vibrated machines should be avoided in the building

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES: CATALYSTS FOR REAL ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRMS’ GROWTH IN SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA

The study examined the role of Human Resource Management Practices (HRMPs) on entrepreneurial firms’ growth in South West Nigeria.  This was to entrenching a set of adequate human resource management practices that can enhance the growth objective of entrepreneurial firms. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on relevant variables of the study. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of IBM SPSS statistics version 21.  The results revealed that employees’ training (    = 31.03, s=8.6405); controlling (   = 25.95, s= 6.721)); organizing manpower (    = 23.20, s = 5.760); job analysis and design (   = 23.10, s = 5.883) were reasonably practiced among the firms under the study. Whereas motivating strategies (    = 21.5, s = 5.2905; recruitment and selection (   = 20.45, s = 4.831); and manpower planning (    = 18.72, s = 4.786) fell below the agreement criterion (    = 23.0).  However, it was established that there was a statistically significant influence of the predictor variables on the outcome variable (R2 = 0.837, adjusted R2 = 0.825).  Therefore, the study concluded that Human Resources Management Practices as an omnibus concept have significant influence on Entrepreneurial firms ‘growth. The study suggested that Human Resource Management Practices should be considered as a process by entrepreneurs as it galvanizes entrepreneurial firms' growth objectives.     &nbsp

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF GENOTYPING AND CULTURE-BASED TECHNIQUES FOR FUNGAL KERATITIS DETECTION

The study aims to compare the direct polymerase chain reaction with microbial culture for the detection and fungal pathogens in infectious keratitis.  A total of 81 corneal ulcers were culture and analyzed prospectively. PCR was performed with all corneal scrapping with fungal and bacteria specific primers. PCR products were analysed and compared with the culture results using standard methods. Of the 81 samples, 80 were positive by PCR, 51 for fungi and 29 for bacteria. Out of 51 PCR positive samples, 22 samples were culture positive and 29 were culture negative. The majority of PCR genotyped samples matched the positive culture results. The positive detection rate of 80/81 (98.8%) with high suspicion of fungal keratitis and positive detection rate of direct PCR 50/51(98.0%) were observed. The sensitivities for the diagnosis of fungal keratitis with direct PCR and culture were 98.0% (50/51) and 43.1% (22/51) (p< 0.001) whereas the specificities were 100.0% (2/2) and 100.0% (1/1) respectively. The time required to complete the direct PCR was only 3 hours. The direct PCR assay is a rapid diagnostic technique with high sensitivity and specificity for infectious keratitis and it is expected to have impact on the diagnosis and treatment of infectious keratitis. &nbsp

Vertical Electrical Sounding to Determine Fracture Distribution At Adumasun Area, Oniye, Southwestern Nigeria.

People living in Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria have started shifting their focus on construction of buildings towards villages that are close to the metropolis. It is therefore imperative to carry out this research in order to recommend the types of structures to be erected at Adumasun area, Oniye, Southwestern Nigeria when the time comes in order to avoid catastrophic failure that might have happened thereafter. The aim of this research is to carry out vertical electrical sounding geophysical survey at Adumasun area, Oniye, Southwestern Nigeria with a view to determining the fracture distribution within the study area. The study area is located between latitude 070 37′ 55.37″ to 070 38′ 00″ North and longitude 0030 11′ 10.2″ to 0030 11′ 16.8″ East. Schlumberger electrode array was employed for the study using R 50 Resistivity meter for the data acquisition. The geoelectric survey comprised of ten depth soundings, with maximum current electrode spacing (AB) of 200m. 40% of the modeled curves are A-type, 50% are H-type, and 10% are KH-type. The geoelectric sections obtained from the sounding curves revealed 3-layer and 4-layer earth models respectively. The models showed that the subsurface layers were categorized into the topsoil, the second layer, and the third layer (where it is present). One-third of the study area showed fresh bedrock while two-third showed fractured bedrock. Areas underlying with fresh bedrock and thin overburden thickness are recommended for the construction of high-rise buildings while areas with fractured basement and thick overburden thickness are recommended for the construction of low-rise buildings. It is concluded that the study area is averagely competent for the construction of high-rise buildings and low-rise buildings depending on where individual builders are located