Assessment of serum total protein, albumin and calcium in pregnant women attending ante-natal clinic, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital

Background: Pregnancy is a normal physiological phenomenon with many biochemical changes including calcium metabolism. Calcium requirement increases during pregnancy, thereby increasing the chances of developing hypocalcaemia and hypoalbuminaemia. Aim: The aim of the present study was to assess serum levels of total protein, albumin, and calcium among pregnant women in University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital Maiduguri, Borno State. Methodology: A total of two hundred (200) subjects were recruited for this study. One hundred and twenty (120) are confirmed pregnant women and 80 non pregnant women age matched were used as controls, out of the 120 pregnant women that participated in the study, 30 were in first trimester, 50 were in second trimester and 40 were in third trimester. Blood chemistry analysis was conducted spectrophotometrically using Biurets method (For Total protein), Bromocresol green method (for Albumin) and O-Cresolphthalein complex one (for calcium). Results: The results show a significant lower value of calcium and albumin (p<0.05) among first trimester pregnant women when compared to the control subjects. The results show a significant decrease in calcium and albumin (p<0.05) among second trimester pregnant women when compared to control subjects. The results show a significant lower value in calcium and albumin (p<0.05) among third trimester pregnant women when compared to control subjects. The results between 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester pregnant women subjects show a significant difference in calcium and albumin (p<0.05), but there were no significant differences in total protein (p>0.05). The result shows no significant difference in total protein level (p> 0.005)among the first trimester pregnant women when compared to the control subjects. It also shows no any significant difference in total protein level (p> 0.005) among the third trimester pregnant women when compared to the control subjects. Conclusion: There is reduction or decrease in calcium and albumin levels in pregnant women especially in the third trimester. Key words: Pregnancy; Total Protein; Albumin; Calciu

ANALGESIC EFFECT AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF BOSWELLIA DALZIELII (BURSERACEAE) STEM BARK

Objective: To evaluate the analgesic effect and anti-inflammatory properties of Boswellia dalzielii (Burseraceae), a medicinal plant commonly used in northern Nigeria as an anti-diarrhoeal, antipyretic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent.Methods: Three doses (25 mg/kg, 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg) of the crude aqueous extract of Boswellia dalzielii were evaluated for analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities using the acetic acid-induced writhing test, formalin-induced nociception and formalin-induced hind paw oedema in rats. The acute oral toxicity was carried out using the up and down procedure as described by the OECD guidelines.Results: All doses (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg) of the extract tested were effective against acetic acid induced abdominal constrictions producing a percentage inhibition of (55.43, 69.56 and 71.73%) respectively. A percentage inhibition of the formalin-induced nociception of (7.31, 31.70 and 48.78%-early phase) and (12.82, 21.79 and 48.71%-late phase) respectively was also produced. For the acetic acid writhing test, the percentage inhibition obtained at the dose of 50 and 100 mg/kg (69.56 and 71.73%) were higher than that of the standard drug (Piroxicam, 10 mg/kg) (59.78%). For formalin-induced nociception, the test extract at 100 mg/kg showed a higher percentage inhibition compared to Piroxicam, in early (48.78 and 43.90%) and late phase (48.71 and 39.74 %) respectively. The extract, however, did not show a significant activity against formalin-induced paw oedema at all the doses used.Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that Boswellia dalzielii has significant analgesic properties comparable to that of the standard drug (10% Piroxicam), thus validating the traditional claim of its antinociceptive property

Determination of gross alpha and beta radioactivity concentration along Jakara waste water canal, Kano Metropolis, Kano State, Nigeria

This research undertook an assessment of the radioactivity level along the Jakara waste water canal. Six soil samples and five water samples were taken for gross alpha and beta activity concentration using the gas–flow–proportional counter (IN20). Results for gross alpha activity concentration for the soil samples range from 4.597E-03 Bq/g to 1.425E-02 Bq/g, while that of gross beta activity for soil has the range from 3.341E+01 Bq/g to 8.092E+01 Bq/g. In the same vein, results for gross alpha activity concentration for the water samples have the range from 6.035E-03 Bq/L to 1.433E+00 Bq/L while the value for the gross beta activity concentration ranges from 5.038E+00 Bq/L to 2.853E+01 Bq/L for the same water samples. These results show that the alpha and beta activity concentration in the analysed samples are higher than the minimum permissible concentration by World Health Organisation (WHO, 2003). This may pose health risk because the waste water is used by people to irrigate vegetables along the waste water canal. Keywords: Background Radiation, Activity Concentration, Gross Alpha, Gross Bet

Model prediction and climatology of aerosol optical depth (τ550) and angstrom exponent (α470-660) over three aerosol robotic network stations in Sub-Saharan Africa using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer data

The spatial and temporal variations of aerosol optical depth at 550 nm (τ550) and Angstrom exponent derived from 470 and 660 nm (α470-660) over Nairobi (NAI), Skukuza (SKU) and Ilorin (ILO) Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) stations in sub-Saharan Africa, as recorded by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellites for fifteen years (2000-2015), were examined in relation to their climatologies and prediction. The MODIS measurements of τ550 and α470-660 from aqua (MYD04) and terra (MOD04) satellites were used in this study. Retrievals of τ550 for both satellites were validated with AERONET τ550 for the same period. The validation results showed that they compare favourably over the three stations, but MOD04 performed better than MYD04 data in NAI and ILO for τ550. This shows that the τ550 of NAI and ILO are best captured using the MOD04 data while that of SKU is best with MYD04. It was also discovered that MODIS underestimated AERONET τ550 data over NAI and SKU. The most polluted station is ILO while the least polluted one is NAI. Similarly, the station with the highest concentration of absorbing aerosols is NAI and the least was observed in ILO. The aerosol climatology shows that the most polluted months in NAI, SKU and ILO are October, June and March respectively. On the other hand, February, November and March has the highest amount of scattering aerosols in the atmosphere for NAI, SKU and ILO respectively. The highest amount of absorbing aerosols was found, respectively, in the months of June, June and August. The generated time series (TS) models are all good, though a general underestimation of the parameters by the models was also observed. Keywords: Aerosol optical depth, Angstrom exponent, MODIS, Time series, sub-Saharan Afric

Analysis of the Impact of Relative Humidity and Mineral Nuclei Mode Aerosols Particle Concentration on the Visibility of Desert Aerosols

This paper presents the results of the Analysis of the Impact of relative humidity and water-soluble aerosol particle concentrations on the visibility and particle size distribution of desert aerosols based on microphysical properties of desert aerosols. The microphysical properties (the extinction coefficients, volume mix ratios, dry mode radii and wet mode radii) were extracted from Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC 4.0) at eight relative humidities (00 to 99%RH) and at the spectral range of 0.4-0.8 mm. the concentrations of mineral nuclie component (MINN) were varied to obtain five different models. The angstrom exponent (a), the turbidity (b), the curvature (a2), humidification factor (g), the mean exponent of aerosol growth curve (µ) and the mean exponent of aerosol size distributions (n) were determined from the regression analysis of some standard equations. It was observed that the values of (a) are less than 1 throughout the 5 models which signifies the dominance of coarse mode particles over fine mode particles. It was observed that the curvature (a2) has both monomodal and bimodal types of distributions all through the 5 models and this signifies the dominance of coarse mode particles with some traces of fine mode particles. The visibility was observed to decrease with the increase in RH and increased with wavelength. The analysis further found that there is an inverse power law relationship between humidification factor, the mean exponent of the aerosol size distribution with the mean exponent of the aerosol growth curve (as the magnitude of (µ) decreases across the five models, the magnitudes of (g) and (n) increase, but the magnitude of both (g) and (n) increases for a given (µ) across the individual models). The mean exponent of aerosol size distribution (µ) being less than 3 indicate hazy condition of the desert atmosphere

Using natural language processing to classify social work interventions

Objectives: Health care organizations are increasingly employing social workers to address patients' social needs. However, social work (SW) activities in health care settings are largely captured as text data within electronic health records (EHRs), making measurement and analysis difficult. This study aims to extract and classify, from EHR notes, interventions intended to address patients' social needs using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) algorithms. Study design: Secondary data analysis of a longitudinal cohort. Methods: We extracted 815 SW encounter notes from the EHR system of a federally qualified health center. We reviewed the literature to derive a 10-category classification scheme for SW interventions. We applied NLP and ML algorithms to categorize the documented SW interventions in EHR notes according to the 10-category classification scheme. Results: Most of the SW notes (n = 598; 73.4%) contained at least 1 SW intervention. The most frequent interventions offered by social workers included care coordination (21.5%), education (21.0%), financial planning (18.5%), referral to community services and organizations (17.1%), and supportive counseling (15.3%). High-performing classification algorithms included the kernelized support vector machine (SVM) (accuracy, 0.97), logistic regression (accuracy, 0.96), linear SVM (accuracy, 0.95), and multinomial naive Bayes classifier (accuracy, 0.92). Conclusions: NLP and ML can be utilized for automated identification and classification of SW interventions documented in EHRs. Health care administrators can leverage this automated approach to gain better insight into the most needed social interventions in the patient population served by their organizations. Such information can be applied in managerial decisions related to SW staffing, resource allocation, and patients' social needs

Investigation of livestock for presence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

The study investigated the presence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in livestock to ascertain their reservoir role and also screened for other pathogenic trypanosomes of animals in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger state, Nigeria. A total of 460 livestock comprising (cattle, sheep, goats, and dogs) selected at random were bled, examined using the buffy coat and Giemsa stained thin film and packed cell volume estimated. Questionnaire was filled for each animal on demography, awareness and management practices. An overall prevalence of 2.17% with Trypanosoma brucei, T. congolense, T. vivax and a mixed infection of T. brucei and T. congolense observed microscopically awaiting characterization. Interviews revealed high awareness (82.8%) of tsetse and trypanosomiasis described as bush disease and abortion in four cows. The PCV values were within the normal range, however, a significant decrease (P<0.05) was observed in sheep aged 7months to 4years in two communities. Therefore, the study indicated the presence of T. brucei and other trypanosomes suggesting that animal trypanosomiasis is still a problem to animal health and wellbeing in the study area. The study recommends effective integrated chemotherapy and vector control including livestock rearing under intensive management system to boost livestock production and productivity

Clinical management of dietary induced urolithiasis associated with balanoposthitis in a Boer goat

A Boer-Kajang cross male goat was presented to the Veterinary Hospital, University Malaysia Kelantan with a history of dysuria, hematuria and restlessness. The goat was intensively managed (confined to the pen) and fed with only palm kernel cake for the last three months. Physical examination revealed that the goat was dull, depressed, having an inflamed penis and prepuce with blood stained urine dripping from the penis. The differential diagnoses were obstructive urolithiasis, urinary tract infection and balanoposthitis. Based on the history, clinical signs, physical examination, urinalysis, ultrasonagraphy and feed analysis, the goat was diagnosed with obstructive urolithiasis and balanoposthitis. Treatment was instituted by amputation of the urethral process and retrograde urohydropulsion to relieve the blockade. Sulfadiazine-trimethoprim (Norodine®24) 15mg/kg, I.M; flunixin meglumine 2.2mg/kg, I.M; vitamin B complex 1ml/10kg, I.M and ammonium chloride 300mg/kg orally were administered. The goat responded well to treatment and was recovering well during a follow up visit