Unkept promises : a critical analysis of hope disclosed in narratives of African American male youth living in group homes

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Rate of reduction of silver ions and silver complexes in solution with developers

The change in rate of reduction of silver from solutions of varying silver ion and silver sulfite complex by hydroquinone and metol was studied. The silver ion concentration was varied and the silver complex concentration was held constant. The rate was found proportional to the square root of the silver ion concentration for development by hydroquinone. The silver complex concentration was varied and the silver ion concentration was held constant. The rate of reduction increased as the complex concentration increased for both hydroquinone and metol developing agents, showing that the complex was being reduced. The rate appeared to be proportional to the silver complex concentration. The reaction rate was proportional to the surface area of the silver particle and was not found to be controlled by diffusion

Range of Urologic Surgical Procedures in Two District Tertiary Care Hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria

Objectives: To assist the surgical workload and the spectrum of urological procedures performed by a single urologist in two tertiary referral hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria, between February 2007 and December 2008. Patients and methods: Data on patient demographics and urologic procedures performed were extracted from the clinical not and operating room registers of Asokoro District General Hospital and Wuse General Hospital, two tertiary referral health facilities in Abuja. Results: In total, 858 urologic surgical procedures were performed, of which 123 (14.3%) were emergency and 735 (85.7%) elective. Of the 858 patients, 852 (99.3%) were males and 6 (0.7%) were females, 657 (77.2%) were adults and 195 (23%) were children. The procedures were therapeutic in 736 (85.8%) and diagnostic in 122 patients (14.2%). Minimally invasive procedures were performed in only 30 (3.5%) of cases. The five most common procedures performed, accounting for 53.7% of the total, were difficult male urethral catheterization (186), herniorrhaphy (83), varicocoelectomy (68), exploration for acute scrotum (64) and transrectal prostate biopsy (60). Conclusion: A modest number of 858 urological procedures were performed in the period under review in two health facilities where specialist urologic surgery care had just been introduced. An unexplained observation was that female patients constituted a minute proportion (<1%) of the patients treated. The small proportion of minimally invasive procedures (3.5%) was due to the lack of instruments and consumables available for uroendoscopic surgery.Key Words: Urologic surgical procedures, Tertiary care hospital, Abuja Nigeri

Perceptions of female sexual health and sexual dysfunction in a cohort of urban professional women in Abuja, Nigeria

Context: Data on sexual health behaviors, and the prevalence and risk factors for female sexual dysfunction (FSD) are rare, particularly from sub‑Saharan Africa. Aims: This study was to briefly investigate the perceptions of a cohort of adult urban female professionals about female sexual health and sexual dysfunction awareness. Patients and Methods: Fifty female hospital staff attending an introductory seminar on FSD participated in this study by completing a 15‑item questionnaire on some aspects of female sexual health. Questions asked ranged from sexual activity in the preceding 6 months, menopausal status, if they thought they had sexual dysfunction to their willingness to discuss an FSD with a sexual health physician if they had access to one. Results: Over 50% (n=28) of the respondents had an idea about what FSD was before the survey. These respondents further defined FSD as either the inability of a female to respond to sex, a lack of urge to engage in sexual activities, or inability to attain orgasm. About half of the respondents (n=21) did not know that FSD could be managed; however, 70% of them felt comfortable with discussing FSD symptoms with a sexual health practitioner.76.9% of the respondents who thought they had symptoms of FSD in this series (n=10) were willing to see a sexual health expert if they had access to one. Conclusions: This study provides a brief insight into FSD awareness amongst apparently healthy female workers of a health care facility and the need for further community‑based studies on female sexual health issues in our society. Furthermore, it highlights the appropriateness of a comprehensive sexual medicine service in tertiary health care facilities in Nigeria for adequate screening and diagnosis of patients before appropriate treatment of FSD.Keywords: Female sexual dysfunction, female sexual health, perceptions, urban professional womenNigerian Journal of Clinical Practice •Jan-Mar 2012 • Vol 15 • Issue

Metal sorption by carbonate rocks as influenced by their chemistry.

Dept. of Geology and Geological Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1978 .M222. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, page: . Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1978

Investigation of a framework for impact assessment of ICT-led pro-poor information initiatives

Investigation of a framework for impact assessment of ICT-led pro-poor information initiative

Natural language processing (NLP) for clinical information extraction and healthcare research

Introduction: Epilepsy is a common disease with multiple comorbidities. Routinely collected health care data have been successfully used in epilepsy research, but they lack the level of detail needed for in-depth study of complex interactions between the aetiology, comorbidities, and treatment that affect patient outcomes. The aim of this work is to use natural language processing (NLP) technology to create detailed disease-specific datasets derived from the free text of clinic letters in order to enrich the information that is already available. Method: An NLP pipeline for the extraction of epilepsy clinical text (ExECT) was redeveloped to extract a wider range of variables. A gold standard annotation set for epilepsy clinic letters was created for the validation of the ExECT v2 output. A set of clinic letters from the Epi25 study was processed and the datasets produced were validated against Swansea Neurology Biobank records. A data linkage study investigating genetic influences on epilepsy outcomes using GP and hospital records was supplemented with the seizure frequency dataset produced by ExECT v2. Results: The validation of ExECT v2 produced overall precision, recall, and F1 score of 0.90, 0.86, and 0.88, respectively. A method of uploading, annotating, and linking genetic variant datasets within the SAIL databank was established. No significant differences in the genetic burden of rare and potentially damaging variants were observed between the individuals with vs without unscheduled admissions, and between individuals on monotherapy vs polytherapy. No significant difference was observed in the genetic burden between people who were seizure free for over a year and those who experienced at least one seizure a year. Conclusion: This work presents successful extraction of epilepsy clinical information and explores how this information can be used in epilepsy research. The approach taken in the development of ExECT v2, and the research linking the NLP outputs, routinely collected health care data, and genetics set the way for wider research