Implementation of e-learning platform for education in federal college of education (technical),Omoku, Rivers State

This study inquired into the variables that influence implementing e-learning platform for education in federal college of education technical omoku. The purpose of this study was to identify the variables that influence the implementation of e-learning platform for education in Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, Rivers state ,Nigeria and to offer recommendations and suggestions towards its better implementation in the near future.The study was conducted by examining responses from 50 lecturers and 150 students drawn from a population 400 lecturers 500 students. The instrument used for this study was a structured questionnaire with 20 items divided into three first one seeks to find out Attitude of students’ and lecturers’ towards implementing of e-learning platform for education, while the second, seeks to examine the extent to which lecturers knowledge about e-learning influences the implementation of e-learning education platform. The third examined the challenges of implementing e-learning platform for education. The reliability of the instrument was determined using a test retest method and the data analysis method adopted for analysis is descriptive statistics of mean. The findings from this research revealed that implementing e-learning platform for education can boost the population of students and also will give the school competitive advantage over other Federal Colleges of Education Institutions. Based on the findings, recommendations were proffered

Prevalence and determinants of use of traditional methods of infertility treatment among women attending infertility clinic in Southeast Nigeria

Infertility, an obstacle to healthy living, makes its victims patronize traditional methods of infertility treatment (TMIT) in spite of associated complications. They turn to hospitals when this method fails. This is actually a serious issue because the presence of contaminated herbal products and the relationship between the use of TMIT and noncompliance with biomedical treatment regimens constitutes a major concern in medical practice. And the use of traditional methods of infertility treatment has been correlated with severe and fatal consequences. Therefore, the study assessed prevalence/determinants of TMIT use among patients visiting the gynaecology clinic at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA). Descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted for the research. Only 263 women took part in the study. The research instrument was questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that 95.4% of these women have used traditional methods for infertility treatment and factors influencing infertile women’s use of TMIT are demographic characteristics, infertility duration, husbands’ relatives’ pressure and cheap cost of traditional medical treatment. Again, inability of infertile women to disclose TMIT use to healthcare providers makes effective treatment difficult. Therefore, these impediments expose infertile women to use TMIT. The result is a guide to healthcare providers who are expected to know the extent of their parents’ use of TMIT

The effect of ethanolic extract of premature Musa Paradisiaca (plantain) pulp on the histology of the liver and kidneys of female Wistar rats

Background: Premature plantain is a major component in herbal remedies used for the treatment of different ailment such as reducing blood sugar, and peptic ulcer disease. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of ethanolic extract of premature Musa paradisiaca on histology of the liver and kidneys of female Wistar rats.   Methods: Twenty female Wistar rats weighing between 180-200 g were divided into four groups. Group 1 was administered distilled water only, while groups 2, 3 and 4 were administered the ethanolic extract of premature Musa paradisiaca in low, medium, and high dose respectively for 14 days. Results: Twenty-four hours after the last administration, all animals were sacrificed, tissues were harvested. The histological reports showed varying level of damage to the cytoarchitecture of the liver and kidney tissues of the treatment groups when compared to the control. Conclusions: This plant may likely induce nephrotoxic and hepatotoxic changes

Anthropometric Study of the Cephalic and Nasal Indices of Ogu and Ikwerre People of Nigeria

Abstract: The aim of this study is to provide a baseline data of cephalic and nasal index of Ogu and Ikwerre people of southern Nigeria. Cephalic index is used to measure the size of the head while nasal index is used to measure the size of the nose. A total number of one thousand subjects (1000) comprising five hundred (500) from each tribe were selected for this study. To obtain the nasal index, the nasal length was measured from the nasion to the point where the nasal septum merges with the skin of the upper lip (nasospinale), while the nasal breadth was measured from ala to ala using a vernier caliper. For the cephalic index to be obtained, the head length was measured from the glabella to the external occipital protuberance (opistocranium), while the head breadth was measured from the transverse diameter of the head (biparietal diameter) using a spreading caliper. The results obtained showed that the Ikwerre males and females have a mean nasal index of 93.8 and 95.8 and a cephalic index of 74.9 and 74.8, respectively while the Ogu males and females have a mean nasal index of 95.8 and 87.34 and a cephalic index of 74.83 and 74.8, There was a significant difference in the nasal index of both Ikwerre and Ogu males and females (p<0.05), while the cephalic index showed no significant difference (p>0.05). This study has shown that the Ikwerre and Ogu people are both platyrrhines and their cephalic index indicated that they are dolicocephalic

Efficient CO2-Reducing Activity of NAD-Dependent Formate Dehydrogenase from Thiobacillus sp KNK65MA for Formate Production from CO2 Gas

NAD-dependent formate dehydrogenase (FDH) from Candida boidinii (CbFDH) has been widely used in various CO2 reduction systems but its practical applications are often impeded due to low CO2-reducing activity. In this study, we demonstrated superior CO2-reducing properties of FDH from Thiobacillus sp. KNK65MA (TsFDH) for production of formate from CO2 gas. To discover more efficient CO2-reducing FDHs than a reference enzyme e. CbFDH, five FDHs were selected with biochemical properties and then, their CO2-reducing activities were evaluated. All FDHs including CbFDH showed better CO2-reducing activities at acidic pHs than at neutral pHs and four FDHs were more active than CbFDH in the CO2 reduction reaction. In particular, the FDH from Thiobacillus sp. KNK65IVIA (TsFDH) exhibited the highest CO2-reducing activity and had a dramatic preference for the reduction reaction, i.e., a 84.2-fold higher ratio of CO2 reduction to formate oxidation in catalytic efficiency (k(cat)/K-B) compared to CbFDH. Formate was produced from CO2 gas using TsFDH and CbFDH, and TsFDH showed a 5.8-fold higher formate production rate than CbFDH. A sequence and structural comparison showed that FDHs with relatively high CO2-reducing activities had elongated N- and C-terminal loops. The experimental results demonstrate that TsFDH can be an alternative to CbFDH as a biocatalyst in CO2 reduction systemsope

Adjuvant treatment modalities for gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death and thus represents a significant global health concern. Surgical resection remains the only effective curative treatment of gastric cancer. Less than 40% of cases will be able to be cured with complete surgical resection of tumor. In patients with advanced T3-4 tumors and/or tumor-positive lymph nodes the relapse and death rates from recurrent cancer exceed 70-80%. Because of high incidence of locoregional recurrence, adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment modalities are crucial. Following the results of Intergroup trial (INT-0116) twelve years ago and the update of ten years outcome of study with still improvement of overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS), chemoradiotherapy became standart adjuvant treatment modality in operated gastric cancer. Alternative trials have been reproduced without direct comparison to the approach established by INT-0116. The Japanese ACTS-GC (Adjuvant Chemotherapy Trial of S-1 for Gastric Cancer) study demonstrated a 33% improvement in OS for patients receiving 1 year of postoperative adjuvant S-1, an oral fluoropyrimidine. In South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, the CLASSIC (Adjuvant Capecitabine and Oxaliplatin for Gastric Cancer After D2 Gastrectomy) study reported a 44% improvement in DFS for patients randomly assigned to postoperative capecitabine and oxaliplatin (XELOX) when compared with observation. Both ACTS-GC and CLASSIC limited enrollment to patients who had undergone a D2 lymph node dissection which is a common technique for gastric cancer surgery in Asia. However, limited D0 or D1dissections are more widespread in the United States. Thus, the benefit of radiotherapy in the adjuvant setting for D0 and D1 dissections is a subject of debate. According to current guidelines, adjuvant chemotherapy is an option for only D2 lymph node dissections. Two recently completed trials have directly compared different postoperative adjuvant regimens. The ARTIST (Adjuvant Chemoradiation Therapy in Stomach Cancer) trial compared postoperative capecitabine and cisplatin (XP) to chemoradiotherapy (XP plus radiotherapy with capecitabine) in patients with curative gastrectomy with D2 dissection. Although the addition of radiotherapy to postoperative chemotherapy did not significantly improve DFS among all enrolled subjects, in subgroup analyses, patients with node-positive disease did experience a superior DFS. Ultimately, beyond the primary objectives of these proposed and ongoing trials, we must continue to identify new prognostic and predictive factors, such as human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpression or diffuse histology in adjuvant setting, that may serve as the basis for more effective, tailored therapeutic approaches in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma. © 2014 Nova Science Publishers, Inc

Ability to work with Ehealth and telemedicine systems as an indicator of information and communication competence of future family doctors

У статті розглядається сутність поняття «інформаційнокомунікативна компетентність». Подано аналіз понять «електронна медична система» і «телемедицина». На основі проведеного теоретичного аналізу наукових джерел виокремлено перелік умінь та навичок майбутніх сімейних лікарів у межах запропонованого показника поведінкового критерію інформаційно-комунікативної компетентності. Зважаючи на вищезазначене, визначимо перелік умінь та навичок майбутніх сімейних лікарів у межах запропонованого показника поведінкового критерію інформаційно-комунікативної компетентності. Отже, майбутні сімейні лікарі повинні уміти: працювати з медичними системами бібліографічного пошуку; проводити телеконсультації у режимах off-line і on-line, володіти технологіями розробки медичних баз даних; проводити телемедичні консультації; проводити медичні відеоконференції. Перспективою подальших наукових розвідок убачаємо у розробці спецкурсу з основ телемедицини для майбутніх сімейних лікарів.The article considers the essence of the concept of "information and communication competence". An analysis of the concepts of "electronic medical system" and "telemedicine" is given. Based on the theoretical analysis of scientific sources, a list of skills and abilities of future family physicians within the proposed indicator of the behavioral criterion of information and communication competence. We define the list of skills and abilities of future family doctors within the proposed indicator of the behavioral criterion of information and communication competence. Thus, future family physicians should be able to: work with medical systems of bibliographic search; to conduct teleconsultations in the off-line and on-line modes, to possess technologies of development of medical databases; conduct telemedicine consultations; to conduct medical video conferences. We see the prospect of further scientific research in the development of a special course on the basics of telemedicine for future family doctors

Erratum to Prolonged pleural catheters in the management of pleural effusions due to breast cancer [J Thorac Dis, 6, (2014) 8-74]

[No abstract available