110 research outputs found
Early deaths and other challenges to childhood cancer survival in Ibadan, Nigeria
Study to determine the frequency of early deaths and the associated risk factors in children suffering from cancer at the University College Hospital, Ibadan
INFLUENCE OF pH, SOME CHLORIDE AND PHOSPHATES ON EMULSIFYING AND SOLUBILITY PROPERTIES OF CASHEW KERNEL (Anacardium occidentale) PROTEIN ISOLATE
Effect of pH, NaCl, KCI, KH PO or NaH PO on solubility and emulsifying properties of cashew 2 4 2 4 (Anacardium occidentale L.) protein isolate (CPI) were determined. The emulsifying properties of CPI were assessed turbidimetrically. Maximum soluble protein observed at pH 2 and pH 12 media were 62 and 95%, respectively. CPI solubility in NaCl, KCI, KH PO or NaH PO solutions were better than in 2 4 2 4 H O. This solubility is salt concentration dependent. pH 5 gave a better emulsion activity {EA} than 2 other pH values. Its emulsion appeared stable at pH 2, 11 or 12. CPI stabilized oil-in-water emulsion 3 has longer shelf life at low chloride and phosphate concentrations (0.1 - 0.4mol/dm ). EA of CPI in NaCl, KCl, NaH PO or KH PO showed positive correlation with solubility. 2 4 2 4 
Audience Perception of Sexual Contents in Nigerian Movies
Studies of sexual messages in movies and on television have found that there has been an increase in the number of portrayals and amount of sex featured in these media and an increase in the explicitness of these portrayals. The objective of this study was to know the extent to which the audience want sexual contents in Nigerian movies. Survey was adopted as the research design and copies of questionnaire were used to gather information from 337 respondents in four local governments in Ogun state. Results showed that audiences consider sexual contents as bad, unhealthy, excessive and irrelevant in most cases. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that producers should pass across sexual acts swiftly and with caution. Keywords: Audience, Film, Media, Movies, Sexual content
Biomarker Discovery by Sparse Canonical Correlation Analysis of Complex Clinical Phenotypes of Tuberculosis and Malaria
Biomarker discovery aims to find small subsets of relevant variables in ‘omics data that correlate with the clinical syndromes of interest. Despite the fact that clinical phenotypes are usually characterized by a complex set of clinical parameters, current computational approaches assume univariate targets, e.g. diagnostic classes, against which associations are sought for. We propose an approach based on asymmetrical sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA) that finds multivariate correlations between the ‘omics measurements and the complex clinical phenotypes. We correlated plasma proteomics data to multivariate overlapping complex clinical phenotypes from tuberculosis and malaria datasets. We discovered relevant ‘omic biomarkers that have a high correlation to profiles of clinical measurements and are remarkably sparse, containing 1.5–3% of all ‘omic variables. We show that using clinical view projections we obtain remarkable improvements in diagnostic class prediction, up to 11% in tuberculosis and up to 5% in malaria. Our approach finds proteomic-biomarkers that correlate with complex combinations of clinical-biomarkers. Using the clinical-biomarkers improves the accuracy of diagnostic class prediction while not requiring the measurement plasma proteomic profiles of each subject. Our approach makes it feasible to use omics' data to build accurate diagnostic algorithms that can be deployed to community health centres lacking the expensive ‘omics measurement capabilities
A COMPARISON OF RAPID DIAGNOSTIC TESTING (BY PLASMODIUM LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE), AND QUANTITATIVE BUFFY COAT TECHNIQUE IN MALARIA DIAGNOSIS IN CHILDREN
Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) considers early and rapid diagnosis as one of the strategies to
control malaria. This study compared the performance of Quantitative Buffy Coat (QBC) test and the Plasmodium lactate
dehydrogenase (pLDH) rapid diagnostic test (RDT) with microscopy as the gold standard.
Materials and Methods: The study involved children ages 0-5 years who presented with a history of fever at the
University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. Blood was collected from each patient and used for RDT, QBC and Giemsastained
blood films for malaria parasites (MP). Results of QBC and RDT were compared with microscopy results for the
diagnosis of malaria.
Results: A total of 370 cases (194 boys and 176 girls) were studied giving a male: female ratio of 1.1:1. Of the 370 cases
tested using Giemsa-stained thick blood films for MP, 78 (21 %) were positive. For the QBC test, 78 (21%) of the cases
were positive with sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of 70.5 %, 92.1%, 70.5 % and 92.1 %
respectively. Seventy-six (20%) of the cases were positive by RDT with sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative
predictive values of 84.2 %, 95.2 %, 82.1 %, and 95.9 % respectively. There was no significant difference in the sensitivity
of QBC compared with the RDT.
Conclusion: Both the QBC and the pfLDH (RDT) performed reasonably well in this study Malaria rapid diagnostic tests
are recommended in malaria endemic clinical settings to avoid unnecessary antimalarial treatment
Depleted circulatory complement-lysis inhibitor (CLI) in childhood cerebral malaria returns to normal with convalescence
BACKGROUND: Cerebral malaria (CM), is a life-threatening childhood malaria syndrome with high mortality. CM is associated with impaired consciousness and neurological damage. It is not fully understood, as yet, why some children develop CM. Presented here is an observation from longitudinal studies on CM in a paediatric cohort of children from a large, densely-populated and malaria holoendemic, sub-Saharan, West African metropolis. METHODS: Plasma samples were collected from a cohort of children with CM, severe malarial anaemia (SMA), uncomplicated malaria (UM), non-malaria positive healthy community controls (CC), and coma and anemic patients without malaria, as disease controls (DC). Proteomic two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and mass spectrometry were used in a discovery cohort to identify plasma proteins that might be discriminatory among these clinical groups. The circulatory levels of identified proteins of interest were quantified by ELISA in a prospective validation cohort. RESULTS: The proteome analysis revealed differential abundance of circulatory complement-lysis inhibitor (CLI), also known as Clusterin (CLU). CLI circulatory level was low at hospital admission in all children presenting with CM and recovered to normal level during convalescence (p < 0.0001). At acute onset, circulatory level of CLI in the CM group significantly discriminates CM from the UM, SMA, DC and CC groups. CONCLUSIONS: The CLI circulatory level is low in all patients in the CM group at admission, but recovers through convalescence. The level of CLI at acute onset may be a specific discriminatory marker of CM. This work suggests that CLI may play a role in the pathophysiology of CM and may be useful in the diagnosis and follow-up of children presenting with CM
Internal Control Systems and Operating Performance: Evidence from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ondo State
Affinity proteomics reveals elevated muscle proteins in plasma of children with cerebral malaria
Systemic inflammation and sequestration of parasitized erythrocytes are central processes in the pathophysiology of severe Plasmodium falciparum childhood malaria. However, it is still not understood why some children are more at risks to develop malaria complications than others. To identify human proteins in plasma related to childhood malaria syndromes, multiplex antibody suspension bead arrays were employed. Out of the 1,015 proteins analyzed in plasma from more than 700 children, 41 differed between malaria infected children and community controls, whereas 13 discriminated uncomplicated malaria from severe malaria syndromes. Markers of oxidative stress were found related to severe malaria anemia while markers of endothelial activation, platelet adhesion and muscular damage were identified in relation to children with cerebral malaria. These findings suggest the presence of generalized vascular inflammation, vascular wall modulations, activation of endothelium and unbalanced glucose metabolism in severe malaria. The increased levels of specific muscle proteins in plasma implicate potential muscle damage and microvasculature lesions during the course of cerebral malaria
Data-driven malaria prevalence prediction in large densely populated urban holoendemic sub-Saharan West Africa
Over 200 million malaria cases globally lead to half-million deaths annually. The development of malaria prevalence prediction systems to support malaria care pathways has been hindered by lack of data, a tendency towards universal "monolithic" models (one-size-fits-all-regions) and a focus on long lead time predictions. Current systems do not provide short-term local predictions at an accuracy suitable for deployment in clinical practice. Here we show a data-driven approach that reliably produces one-month-ahead prevalence prediction within a densely populated all-year-round malaria metropolis of over 3.5 million inhabitants situated in Nigeria which has one of the largest global burdens of P. falciparum malaria. We estimate one-month-ahead prevalence in a unique 22-years prospective regional dataset of > 9 × 10^{4} participants attending our healthcare services. Our system agrees with both magnitude and direction of the prediction on validation data achieving MAE ≤ 6 × 10^{-2}, MSE ≤ 7 × 10^{-3}, PCC (median 0.63, IQR 0.3) and with more than 80% of estimates within a (+ 0.1 to - 0.05) error-tolerance range which is clinically relevant for decision-support in our holoendemic setting. Our data-driven approach could facilitate healthcare systems to harness their own data to support local malaria care pathways
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