Prevalence of Substance Abuse, Assessment of Socio-economic and Demo-graphic Determinants of Commercial Motorcyclists in Katsina State Nigeria

Background: Substance abuse has been reported to have adversely affected socio-economic determinants of states and nations. Substance abuse is the use of tobacco, alcohol, illegal or prescription drugs and other substances in ways contrary to the overall health of the individual. It has been grossly under-reported and undermined in Katsina State, Nigeria. Identification and early intervention of associated risk factors had greater impact than later intervention by changing individual’s life pathway from problems and towards positive behaviors. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of substance abuse amongst motorcyclists and associated socio-economic characteristics in Katsina State, Nigeria, a cross sectional study approach was commissioned. Methodology:  Convenient sampling using a mobile Open Data collection tool (ODK) application was used to collect and collate field data. Data was analyzed using SPSS®. Strength of significance within categorical variables were reported and accepted at P≤0.05. Results:Kola nut (53%) and Marijuana (1%) were identified to have the highest and lowest prevalence respectively (P>0.05) across Jibia and Katsina Local Government Areas the (2 LGAs) in Nigeria where the study was carried out. Almost all types of psychoactive substances were available in Nigeria due to their spill over into the streets from drug traffickers who use Nigeria as a conduit to transport drugs from South East-Asia (the  Golden,South America to Europe and North America [12]. Conclusion: With an overall substance abuse prevalence of 19%, it was concluded that substance abuse was endemic in the state and hence public health education must be used to check this societal ill Keywords: Abuse, Katsina, Prevalence, Socio-economic, Substanc

Genetic programming for the RoboCup Rescue Simulation System

The Robocup Rescue Simulation System (RCRSS) is a dynamic system of multi-agent interaction, simulating a large-scale urban disaster scenario. Teams of rescue agents are charged with the tasks of minimizing civilian casualties and infrastructure damage while competing against limitations on time, communication, and awareness. This thesis provides the first known attempt of applying Genetic Programming (GP) to the development of behaviours necessary to perform well in the RCRSS. Specifically, this thesis studies the suitability of GP to evolve the operational behaviours required of each type of rescue agent in the RCRSS. The system developed is evaluated in terms of the consistency with which expected solutions are the target of convergence as well as by comparison to previous competition results. The results indicate that GP is capable of converging to some forms of expected behaviour, but that additional evolution in strategizing behaviours must be performed in order to become competitive. An enhancement to the standard GP algorithm is proposed which is shown to simplify the initial search space allowing evolution to occur much quicker. In addition, two forms of population are employed and compared in terms of their apparent effects on the evolution of control structures for intelligent rescue agents. The first is a single population in which each individual is comprised of three distinct trees for the respective control of three types of agents, the second is a set of three co-evolving subpopulations one for each type of agent. Multiple populations of cooperating individuals appear to achieve higher proficiencies in training, but testing on unseen instances raises the issue of overfitting

Phytotoxic Potentials of some Plants Extracts Against Southern House Mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus SAY)

Six (6) plant species were screened for larvicidal potentials against the larvae of Southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus. The plants included Hyptis lanceolata, Hyptis suaveolens, Hyptis spicigera, Lantana camara, Cymbopogon citratus and Zingiber officinale. Crude extracts were obtained in different solvents using Soxhlet extractor. Their larviciding activity was investigated by immersion and batches of 20 instar larvae were treated with 62.5, 125, 250, 500, and 1000mg/l of the plant extracts after 96 hours exposure, for 5 days and in three replicates. Extracts that did not cause mortality at 62.5mg/l necessitate the use of higher concentrations (1500 and 2000 mg/l). Control treatment consists of 1ml acetone in distilled water. Results revealed that all the 6 plants exhibited varying larvicidal activity. L. camara showed highest percentage mortality (63.20%) at the least concentration of 62.5mg/l. This was followed by H

Improvement of the quality of multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging with reduced field of view of the prostate

Bakalaura darba tēma “Daudzparametrisku priekšdziedzera magnētiskās rezonanses izmeklējumu ar samazinātu skata lauku attēlu kvalitātes uzlabošana”. Tēmas aktualitāte balstās uz to, ka, atbilstoši PI-RADS vadlīnijām, magnētiskās rezonanses izmeklējums iekļauj sevī samazināta skata lauka attēlus, kas ir diagnostiski nozīmīgi, lai izmeklētu priekšdziedzeri pacientiem ar aizdomām par priekšdziedzera patoloģijām vai to kontroli dinamikā. Lielai daļai pacientiem ar priekšdziedzera patoloģijām slimības gaita var būt asimptomātiska vai ar minimāliem simptomiem, tāpēc ļoti svarīgi ir veikt kvalitatīvu izmeklēju ar izvērtējamiem attēliem precīzai patoloģijas pirmreizējai diagnosticēšanai un dinamiskajā novērošanā. Darba mērķis ir izanalizēt literatūras avotus un noskaidrot magnētiskās rezonanses attēlveidošanas pamatdarbības, priekšdziedzera izmeklējumā izmantotās samazinātā skatu lauka sekvences tehniskos parametrus, apkopot informāciju par priekšdziedzera normālo un patoloģisko anatomiju, analizēt un apkopot informāciju par magnētiskās rezonanses izmeklējumu attēla ar samazinātu skata lauku kvalitātes kritērijiem, kā arī, balstoties uz teorētisko daļu, veikt pētījumu, apkopot pētījuma datus, izdarīt secinājumus un sniegt ieteikumus. Pētniecības instruments – radiologa apraksts un analīze. Darbā izmantota teorētiskā literatūras analīze un kvalitatīvā pētījuma metode. Pētījums veikts vienas veselības aprūpes iestādes divu filiāļu magnētiskās rezonanses izmeklējumu kabinetos. Bakalaura darba beigās tika secināts, ka ne vienmēr attēla graudainība traucē sīku detaļu izšķirtspējai, līdz ar to nav nepieciešams tērēt laiku ideāla attēla iegūšanai, izņemot gadījumos, ja augsta detaļu izšķirtspēja nepieciešama ļoti sīka izmēra izmaiņu vizualizācijai. Atslēgvārdi: magnētiskā rezonanse, priekšdziedzeris, vēzis, T2 uzsvērtās sekvences, mazs skata lauks, izmeklējuma attēlu kvalitāte.The topic of the Bachelor thesis is "Improvement of the quality of multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging with reduced field of view of the prostate''. The importance of the subject is based on the fact that, according to PI-RADS guidelines, magnetic resonance includes images of reduced field of view, which are diagnostically important for the examination of the prostate in patients with suspected prostate pathologies or their control dynamics. In large number of patients with prostate pathologies, the course of the disease may be asymptomatic or with minimal symptoms. It is very important to perform a qualitative examination with evaluable images for accurate initial diagnosis of the pathology, monitoring in dynamics and post-control. The aim of the Bachelor thesis is to analyse the literature and find out the basic magnetic resonance imaging activities, technical parameters of the reduced field of view sequence used in prostate examination, to gather information about normal and pathological anatomy of the prostate, analyse and summarise information on magnetic resonance imaging image with reduced field of view quality criteria as well as, based on the theoretical part, conduct research, summarise research data, draw conclusions and make recommendations. The research tool is a radiologist report and analysis. The theoretical analysis of the literature and the method of qualitative research are used in the Bachelor thesis. The research was performed in magnetic resonance rooms of two branches of one health care institution. At the end of the Bachelor thesis, it was concluded that the image noise does not always interfere with the resolution of small details, thus, it is not necessary to spend time obtaining an ideal image, except in cases where high detail resolution is required to visualize very small size changes. Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging, prostate, cancer, T2 weighted sequences, small field of view, examination image quality

6th Framework Programme at Metal Forming Institute

W artykule przedstawiono projekty realizowane w ramach 6. Programu Ramowego Unii Europejskiej oraz szanse Instytutu Obróbki Plastycznej w 7. Programie Ramowym.The paper presents projects of 6th Framework being realised by Metal Forming Institute and chances of Metal Forming Institute at 7th Framework Programme