Screening and Surveillance Colonoscopy

Colorectal cancer is a major cause of worldwide morbidity and mortality. As such, there are many guidelines and recommendations set forth by various medical societies regarding colonoscopy for screening and surveillance. The universal goal of these guidelines is to reduce colorectal cancer prevalence and mortality. Recommendations for colorectal cancer screening and surveillance using colonoscopy vary slightly between medical society guidelines and are often dictated by some combination of age, known disease severity, length of time since last study, family history, and comorbid conditions

The ten-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease among public health workers in North-Central Nigeria using Framingham and atherogenic index of plasma risk scores.

BACKGROUND: Estimation of total cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk with the use of risk prediction charts such as the Framingham risk score and Atherogenic index of plasma score is a huge improvement on the practice of identifying and treating each of the risk factors such as high blood pressure and elevated blood cholesterol. The estimation of the total risk highlights that CVD risk factors occur together and thereby predicts who should be treated. There is scarcity of data on the risk scoring of adults in Nigeria including health workers. Therefore, this study was done to estimate the cardiovascular risks of health workers in public health services in north-central Nigeria. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed using validated Framingham risk score calculator and calculation of risk based on the lipid profile of 301 randomly selected health workers in North-central Nigeria. Descriptive analysis was done using frequency counts and percentages while inferential statistics were done using chi square and correlation analyses using statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. The confidence level was 95% and the level of significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: The 10-year risk of developing CVD was generally low in the health workers. Using Framingham risk score, 98.3% of health workers have low risk, 1.0% have moderate risk and 0.7% have high risk. Among the cadres of health workers, 1.5% of the nurses have moderate risk while 2.5% of the doctors and 3.3% of the CHEWs have high risk of developing CVD in 10 years. Using Atherogenic index of plasma scoring, only 2% of the health workers have high risk, 4.7% have intermediate risk while 93.4% have low risk. Across the cadres, 6.3% of the nurses and 3.3% of the CHEWs have intermediate risk while 2.4% of the nurses and 3.3% of the CHEWs have high risk. These findings were however not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease was low in the health workers in this study using both Framingham's risk score and atherogenic index of plasma scores

Evaluation of chitosan/sisal fiber/polyethylene membranes

Composites of ternary blend of chitosan/sisal fiber/high density polyethylene, were prepared by using the Rheomixer, followed by hot press, in order to form dense microfiltration membranes. The effective operation of the membranes was tested via the utilization of distilled water. The structural arrangement of the membranes was examined with the aid of using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The chemical structure and phase identification of the membranes were examined using attenuation total reflectioninfrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The water permeability of the composite membranes is dependent on how rough the surface is, the sizes of pores and the membrane porosity. The membranes with highest amount of sisal fiber, gave highest flux of 1.4 m3/m2/h

A Review on Corrosion in Concrete Structure: Inhibiting Admixtures and Their Compatibility in Concrete

The development in marine industry and its effort in building bridges has placed a huge demand on reliability and duration of service of reinforcing steel in concrete. Literature has documented several studies on corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete induced via carbonation and chloride in marine milieus. Extension of concrete structures service life has been one of the foremost strong worries of the concrete industry, especially for marine industry. Hence, the necessity to employ a cost effect system for shielding the reinforced steel in concrete from corrosion. Studies have shown that one prospective solution in combating corrosion deterioration in reinforced steel in concrete structures is the introduction of corrosion-inhibiting admixtures into concrete. This review discussed at length corrosion in reinforced concrete and corrosion inhibitors in relation to concrete together with the classification of inhibitors based on the method of applications. This review further reports corrosion-inhibiting admixtures in concrete. As a result, the aspects of corrosion inhibitors this manuscript reviewed are corrosion inhibitors employed as admixtures in concrete for new construction in the marine industry. Furthermore, corrosion inhibitors are employed for repairs and maintenances admixed with concrete for patches on marine structures, squirted onto the surface of the concrete or put on the concrete surface via saturation treatment. As a result of the excellent properties of functional nanostructured materials, the advancement in the implementation of functional materials in inhibiting admixtures in concrete is fast growing in marine industry. Hence, the Integration of functional materials in inhibiting admixture and their compatibility were reviewed. The significance of inhibitors employed as admixtures in concrete for practical applications of corrosion are the suppression or mitigation of corrosion process of metals used in marine industry and the patches of already constructed structures. The current problems related to corrosion-inhibiting admixtures in concrete and the future research and development directions were discussed

A Short Overview on the Role of Nanotechnology in Different Sectors of Energy System

Globally, with respect to the advancement in technologies developed in the energy sector, a good comprehension of the economic situation is the real challenge to having sustainable energy. Though technologies are available, they are usually very expensive or not adequately recognized by the industrial players. Sustainability of the advancement in energy development has globally gained great attention. Nanotechnologies make available a very good prospect of improving the efficiency of energy across all sectors of industry in a sustainable way. These technologies economically influence renewable energy production by using novel technological approaches and enhanced production technologies. The advances of nanotechnology may perhaps influence every part of the value-added chain in the energy sector. Therefore, employing nanomaterials in technologies for energy system sustainability will remain a significant field of academic and researcher, even at the commercial level. In this review, the role of nanotechnology for four sustainable sources of energy together with energy distribution and also for different energy usage was discussed. Hence, this review looked at the possible prospect of utilizing nanoscale materials, such as nanoparticles and nanofluids, to stimulate sustainable developments and practices for energy systems

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Effects of a Single Pill 3-drug Combination of Lamivudine, Nevirapine and Zidovudine on Blood Parameters and Liver Histology in Female Wistar Rats

Abstract Due to the stigma associated with HIV infection, HIV infected persons in Nigeria, have been found to remove the packs of their drugs and transferring the contents into non antiretroviral drug containers especially multivitamin containers, as a result unwary individuals have stumbled on such drugs and accidentally consumed it eventually leading to a host of complains such as dizziness, vague dreams, cramps etc. We therefore decided to study the effects of a single pill 3-drug combination of Lamivudine, Nevirapine and Zidovudine on the liver histology and blood parameters in the adult female rats. The rats were divided into two groups of 5 animals per group: one group received drug at a dose of 1.85mg/100g BW dissolved in normal saline while the control group received normal saline 0.5ml/100g BW for three weeks. From our observation we discovered that there was an aberration in liver histology of the experimental group in that the central vein was dilated as compared to the control group and also discovered that the drug had some effect on the blood parameters, which include among other things a significant decrease in PCV and a significant increase in WBC. The enlargement of the central vein of the liver observed in this study may be due to the presence of Nevirapine in the drug regimen and this may be of serious implication on liver function