Delivery of broadband services to SubSaharan Africa via Nigerian communications satellite

Africa is the least wired continent in the world in terms of robust telecommunications infrastructure and systems to cater for its more than one billion people. African nations are mostly still in the early stages of Information Communications Technology (ICT) development as verified by the relatively low ICT Development Index (IDI) values of all countries in the African region. In developing nations, mobile broadband subscriptions and penetration between 2000-2009 was increasingly more popular than fixed broadband subscriptions. To achieve the goal of universal access, with rapid implementation of ICT infrastructure to complement the sparsely distributed terrestrial networks in the hinterlands and leveraging the adequate submarine cables along the African coastline, African nations and their stakeholders are promoting and implementing Communication Satellite systems, particularly in Nigeria, to help bridge the digital hiatus. This paper examines the effectiveness of communication satellites in delivering broadband-based services

Long-term ocular and visual outcomes following symptomatic and asymptomatic congenital CMV infection: a systematic review protocol

Introduction: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the most common congenitally acquired infections worldwide. Visual impairment is a common outcome for symptomatic infants, with long-term ophthalmic surveillance often recommended. However, there are no clear guidelines for ophthalmic surveillance in infants with asymptomatic disease. We aim to conduct a systematic review to establish the overall prevalence and incidence of eye and vision related disorders following congenital CMV infection (cCMV). // Methods and analysis: A systematic review and meta-analysis (pending appropriate data for analysis) of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies will be conducted. The PubMed, Embase and CINAHL databases will be searched up to 29 March 2022 without date or language restrictions. Studies will be screened by at least two independent reviewers. Methodological quality of included studies will be assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute tool. The primary outcome measures will be incidence and/or prevalence of vision impairment or ophthalmic disorders in patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic cCMV infection. A narrative synthesis will be conducted for all included studies. The overall prevalence will be estimated by pooling data using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity between studies will be estimated using Cochran’s Q and the I2 statistics. Egger’s test will be used to assess for publication bias. // Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is not required as there is no primary data collection. Study findings will be disseminated at scientific meetings and through publication in peer-reviewed journals

Health system barriers influencing timely breast cancer diagnosis and treatment among women in low and middle-income Asian countries: evidence from a mixed-methods systematic review.

Globally, breast cancer is the most common cancer type and the leading cause of cancer mortality among women in developing countries. A high prevalence of late breast cancer diagnosis and treatment has been reported predominantly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), including those in Asia. Thus, this study utilized a mixed-methods systematic review to synthesize the health system barriers influencing timely breast cancer diagnosis and treatment among women in Asian countries. We systematically searched five electronic databases for studies published in English from 2012 to 2022 on health system barriers that influence timely breast cancer diagnosis and treatment among women in Asian countries. The review was conducted per the methodology for systematic reviews and reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, while health system barriers were extracted and classified based on the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Health Systems Framework. The mixed-methods appraisal tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Twenty-six studies were included in this review. Fifteen studies were quantitative, nine studies were qualitative, and two studies used a mixed-methods approach. These studies were conducted across ten countries in Asia. This review identified health systems barriers that influence timely breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. The factors were categorized under the following: (1) delivery of health services (2) health workforce (3) financing for health (4) health information system and (5) essential medicines and technology. Delivery of health care (low quality of health care) was the most occurring barrier followed by the health workforce (unavailability of physicians), whilst health information systems were identified as the least barrier. This study concluded that health system factors such as geographical accessibility to treatment, misdiagnosis, and long waiting times at health facilities were major barriers to early breast cancer diagnosis and treatment among Asian women in LMICs. Eliminating these barriers will require deliberate health system strengthening, such as improving training for the health workforce and establishing more healthcare facilities. [Abstract copyright: © 2022. The Author(s).

CO₂ Removal from wood gas

Gasification is considered as one of the most attractive conversion technologies, because the product gas from the process serves as a building block for several industrial applications. However, the use of biomass as a fuel in the gasification process offers a carbon neutral fuel that will alleviate the continuing use of fossil fuels sources. This study was done to evaluate the possible applications of syngas originating from biomass gasification, as a follow up to the earlier biomass gasification research of the HighBio project. The syngas from the gasification process is generally produced in a gasifier. An overview of the different type of gasifiers for biomass gasification that include updraft, downdraft, crossdraft, entrained-flow and plasma gasifiers was presented. The syngas can be utilized in the generation of power, heat, fuels and chemicals. A detailed overview of the promising applications of the syngas in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, hydrogen production, ammonia synthesis, hydroformylation of olefins, and syngas fermentation was also given. However, for these applications, a high degree of treatment and conditioning of the syngas is required. The treatment is usually carried out to remove undesirable impurities, while the conditioning of the gas is done to get the right H₂ to CO ratio for further applications of the syngas. Raw syngas from gasification processes can contains also impurities such as solid particulates, inorganic and organic impurities, which have to be removed. However, CO₂ is one of the major by-products in a gasification process. The removal of CO₂ is desirable in order to reduce the CO₂ emissions or to meet the downstream process requirement in relation to size and costs. Absorption processes are the most developed techniques in the separation of CO₂ in the industries. However, other techniques such as adsorption, membrane separation, and chemical-looping combustion have recently gained interest. Moreover, two MFI-types zeolite membranes (ZSM5-I and ZSM5-II) were tested in the separation of CO₂ from CO₂/N₂ mixtures in a laboratory scale experiments. Separation factor, gas permeability and CO₂ permeate flux were the parameters used to determine the membrane performance. The highest membrane performances of the feed gas compositions were achieved with low CO₂ gas composition, and at the low temperature separation experiments. However, in order to achieve high recovery and purity of CO₂, the separation experiment of the HighBio CO₂/N₂ feed composition using the ZSM5 zeolite membrane was evaluated at low temperature and constant feed and permeate pressures of 6 bar and 1 bar respectively. Based on the analysis, it is suggested that 6 successive membrane modules should be employed. Further investigations that incorporate other product gas compositions from biomass gasification, as well as the study of other type of inorganic membranes more suitable to CO₂/N₂ separation processes are highly recommended. The economic analysis of the multi-stage ZSM5 zeolite membrane separation could be also another interesting study

Recognition of Intracranial Hypertension in Children using Handheld Optical Coherence Tomography

Paediatric intracranial hypertension remains an area of major importance amongst the medical community. If undetected, intracranial hypertension can cause blindness, disability and death. The gold standard method for measuring intracranial pressure involves inserting a monitor into the brain under general anaesthesia and admitting the patient into hospital, which is invasive and carries risks. Intracranial hypertension causes the optic nerve head to swell, termed papilloedema. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) may represent a valuable, non-invasive surveillance tool in this role, providing three-dimensional images of the optic nerve head in amazingly minute detail within seconds. Conventional, table-mounted OCT devices are not designed for children, but handheld OCT is child-friendly and feasible in a wide variety of paediatric conditions. This thesis addresses the Past, Present and Future of ophthalmological monitoring in paediatric intracranial hypertension. The Past is addressed by a systematic review of OCT in paediatric intracranial hypertension. This review identified significant knowledge gaps, with no level 1 evidence for OCT in this role and no study using handheld OCT in craniosynostosis (premature fusion of the cranial sutures) – a major patient group at risk of intracranial hypertension. The Present is addressed by a retrospective diagnostic accuracy study of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and fundoscopy in detecting intracranial hypertension in craniosynostosis. These ophthalmological monitoring methods are currently used at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), London, and other specialist centres. Papilloedema present on fundoscopy reliably indicated intracranial hypertension in this cohort, but due to poor sensitivity, its absence did not exclude intracranial hypertension. Isolated VEPs demonstrated fair sensitivity, which was boosted by longitudinal testing at the expense of specificity. The Future is addressed by studies using handheld OCT in paediatric intracranial hypertension. These studies found that handheld OCT is feasible and repeatable in children with craniosynostosis, and even feasible in extraordinarily rare craniopagus twins conjoined at the skull. Important optic nerve head differences were identified in craniosynostosis (especially FGFR1/2-associated syndromes) versus healthy controls. Initial findings of the diagnostic accuracy study demonstrated promise for handheld OCT in the recognition of paediatric intracranial hypertension (n=30 children, sensitivity=87.5%; specificity=64.3%). Future research directions include a larger cohort for the diagnostic accuracy study with subgroup analysis by diagnosis, quantitative ICP analysis, longitudinal OCT analysis and foveal analysis. This work could inform guidelines for the management of paediatric intracranial hypertension.  Children with craniosynostosis have important morphological differences in the optic nerve head requiring special consideration when assessing for intracranial hypertension. Handheld OCT may strengthen, but not entirely replace, existing evidence-based surveillance methods for paediatric intracranial hypertension. Handheld OCT removes barriers to imaging the eyes of infants and young children at risk of intracranial hypertension.</p

Re: The pathogenicity of SLC38A8 in five families with foveal hypoplasia and congenital nystagmus.

Letter to the editor