The Role of Physiologists in Health Care Delivery Through Exercise

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Factors influencing adherence to paediatric antiretroviral therapy in Portharcourt, South- South Nigeria

Introduction: The efficiency of antiretroviral therapy (ART) depends on a near-perfect level of patientfs adherence. Adherence in children poses peculiar challenges. The aim of the study was to determine the adherence level and factors influencing adherence among HIV-infected children and adolescents in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.  Methods: A cross-sectional survey of HIV-infected children and adolescents on ART using self-report by the caregiver/child in the past one month. Results: A total of 213 caregivers and their children were interviewed. A hundred and sixty-two (76.1%) had adherence rates .95%. Only 126 (59.2%) were completely (100%) adherent. The commonest caregiver-related factors for missing doses were forgetfulness 48(55.2%), travelled 22(25.3%) and drugs finished 16(18.4%), while the childrelated factors were refused drugs 10(11.5%), slept 8(9.2%), and vomited 8(9.2%). Sixty-eight (31.9%) caregivers reported missing clinic visit and reasons given were travelled 18(26.5%), caregiver ill 12(17.6%) and family  problems 9(13.2%). Predictors of poor adherence include mother as the primary caregiver (OR 3.32; 95%CI, 1.33-8.67), younger than 5years (OR 2.62; 95%CI, 1.30-5.31) and presence of a co-morbidity (OR 3.97; 95%CI, 1.92-8.33). Having a medication reminder strategy (OR 6.34; 95%CI, 3.04-13.31), regular clinic visits (OR 8.55; 95%CI 4.01-18.45)and status disclosure (p=0.008) predicted a better adherence. The  caregiverfs age (p= 0.11), education (p=0.86), socioeconomic status (p=0.89), gender of the child (p=0.84), type of ART (p=0.2) and duration of ART (1.0) did not significantly affect adherence. Conclusion: Adherence is still suboptimal. Since barriers to Paediatric ART adherence are largely caregiver-dependent, identifying and addressing these barriers in eachcaregiver-child pair will improve adherence and patient outcome

Quality Learning At Tourist Destinations: The Nexus of Tourism and Adult Education

Amongst the major threats to the preservation and sustenance of tourist destinations is attitude of tourists to these destinations. This has functioned from ignorance and poor orientation programmes; resulting to intolerance and conflicts amongst tourists and their hosts. No thanks to the varying behavioural backgrounds and desire to explore. This paper worked on the integration of adult education in tourism; using adult education to ameliorate rate of ignorance and intolerance at tourist destinations towards bridging the gap between tourists and tourist destinations through quality learning and orientation programmes. Various tools and techniques in adult education were employed. Also the paper functioned as a catalyst for interdisciplinary trend in the field of academics towards ensuring quality, progressive and diversified knowledge. The paper revealed the essence of adult education to tourism development. Keywords: tourism, adult education, tourist destination, tourist

Constraints to Capital Market Growth in African Economies: The Case of Nigeria

Capital market as an intermediating sector for economy should organically grow as the economy grows overtime. Using Nigeria as case study, the paper investigates the constraints to the growth of the market. It adopts a primary sourcing of data from regulators, operators and investors and identifies ten variables for investigation. Using regression technique it discovers that four variables were immediately significant at various levels. To achieve a better fit for the variables a remodelling resulted in six of the variable becoming highly significant. Variables of concern were basically poor organisation of the market, high transaction cost, lack of various securities, and instability in governmental policies. A surprising outcome shows that the rates of interest, inflation and exchange have had a positive effect on the market. Major recommendations of the study are on strengthening of the internal structures of stock exchange, introduction of over counter (OTC)) deals and improving of corporate governance environment. In addition, external constraints to the system can be solved by the government

Development of fish products from small and underutilized tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in Kainji Lake area

Fish Protein concentrate (FPC) from small and stunted tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) which would otherwise have been discarded was used in certain proportion (0%, 10%, 20% and 30%, where the zero percent serves as control) in addition with wheat flour, for the production of chin-chin in order to address the problem of inadequate intake of protein and to determine the acceptable proportion of FPC to wheat flour by consumers. From the organoleptic result, 10% FPC + 90% wheat flour was well accepted by the panel of judges and therefore recommended as this will help to increase the protein intake of consumers

ARTEMETHER LUMEFANTRINE LOADED LIPOSPHERES EVALUATION OF PROPERTIES OF SOLUTOL HS 15 AND SOLUPLUS ON THE IN VITRO PROPERTIES

To formulate artemether lumefantrine loaded lipospheres and to evaluate the effect of excipients on the in vitro properties  Materials and methods: Lipospheres were formulated using goat fat (70 percentage) and Phospholipon 90H (70 percentage) as the lipid matrix, Solutol HS 15 and Soluplus were used respectively as surfactants.  The lipospheres were formulated by melt homogenization and analysed for drug content, encapsulation efficiency (EEpercentage), particle size and pH stability. In vitro release was studied in simulated gastric fluid (SGF, 1.2) and simulated intestinal fluid (SIF, 7.2).       Results: Lipospheres formulated with Solutol had particle size range of 24.16 to 30.89 μm, while those formulated with Soluplushad particle size range of 24.72 to 74.16 μm. The formulations showed a decline in pH at 30 days. The EE of artemether range from 71.80 to 75.30 percentage for lipospheres formulated with Soluplus, while those formulated with Solutolhad EEpercentage of 65.30 to 75.02 percentage. Also, the EEpercentage of lumefantrine ranged from 76.36 to 88.99 percentage for lipospheres formulated with Soluplus, while those containing Solutolhad EE range of 73.22 to 85.06 percentage. Formulations exhibited sustained release properties with maximum release of at 6 h, however, lumefantrine exhibited higher release than artemether in SIF (p less than 0.05) and significantly lower release in SGF (p less than 0.05).                                                                                                                                           Conclusion: Lipospheres exhibited good properties as a delivery system for artemether-lumefantrine. Keywords: Goat fat, phospholipid, antimalaria, melt homogenization, loading capacit

Strategies for Enhancing Healthy Sexual Behaviour among Secondary School Adolescents in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State Nigeria

The study investigated strategies for enhancing health sexual behaviour among secondary school adolescents in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. Two research questions and a hypothesis guided the study. The subjects of the study was 160 secondary school adolescent students. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire. Mean score and t-test statistics were used for data analysis. Results show that adolescents healthy sexual behaviours would be enhanced through emulating healthy sexual behaviours of parents, not watching pornographic films among others. The result of the study also implicated factors such as increase in the rate of abortions among adolescent girls, increase in the spread of sexual transmitted diseases among others as consequences of adolescents’ unhealthy sexual behaviours. The implications of the findings were highlighted and recommendations equally made. Keywords: Strategies, healthy, sexual behavior, adolescent

Medicolegal autopsies in North Central Nigeria

Objective: To determine the pattern and the causes of deaths reported to the coroner for medicolegal autopsies in North Central Nigeria. Design: A descriptive retrospective study. Setting: Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria between January1996 to December 2003. Subjects: Autopsies reports of 279 subjects whose causes of death were subjects of litigation. Main outcome measures: The causes of death in medicolegal autopsies. Results: A total of 279 cases of medicolegal autopsies with identified causes of death were recorded representing 89% of all the autopsy examinations performed within the period. In 7.6% of cases, there was no identifiable cause of death. There were 127 males against 52 females with a male: female ratio of 4.5:1 and their ages ranged between two and 74 years with a mean of 34.7 ± 8.2 years. Children aged < 15 years made up 29% of the cases and were distributed as follows: 4% of the children were aged 0-5 years, 9% between six to ten years while 17% were between 11 - 15 years. Accidental deaths made up 51% of the cases, homicides 36% and sudden deaths 13%. Road traffic accidents were responsible for 76% of all accidental deaths. Children were affected in 34% of the accidental deaths and half of them were pedestrians at the time of accident. The male: female ratio of deaths from road traffic accidents was 3:1 with mean age of 24 years. In all the accidental deaths, abdominal injuries were responsible for 47% while 30% died from chest injuries. Of the homicide cases male subjects outnumbered female in a ratio of 16:1 and children were affected in 28% of homicides. Injuries sustained during ethnic and religious crisis were responsible for 48% of the deaths from homicide and 15% of them were children. Armed robbery was responsible for 28% cases while physical assaults were responsible for 20% of homicides. Chest injuries were the causes of death in 54% and abdominal injuries in 36% of homicides. Cardiovascular deaths were responsible for 63% cases of all sudden natural deaths referred for Coroner's inquest during the period. Children made up 11% of all sudden natural deaths. Males outnumbered females in cardiovascular deaths in a ratio of 6:1 and 46% cases of them died of hypertensive heart failure, 32% had cerebrovascular accidents, pulmonary embolism in 13.6% and myocardial infarction in 9%. One case of myocardial infarction died during intercourse. Conclusion: Road traffic accidents, violent communal unrest and armed robbery were responsible for 66% of the medicolegal autopsies in our environment. Public enlightenment, good road maintenance and safe driving culture as well as sustainable security for life and property would reduce the incidence of preventable deaths. The East African Medical Journal Vol. 83 (11) 2006: pp. 626-63

Evaluation of binder and disintegrant properties of starch derived from Xanthosoma sagittifolium in metronidazole tablets

The aim of the study was to formulate metronidazole tablets using starch from Xanthosoma sagittifolium as binder and disintegrant in metronidazole tablets. Metronidazole tablets were produced by wet granulation method using X. sagittifolium starch as binder at concentrations of 5, 10, 15 and 20% w/w, and as disintegrant (5% w/w). The micromeritic properties of the granules were determined using the direct and indirect methods. The necessary official and non official tests were performed on the tablets to include uniformity of tablets weight, content of active ingredient, disintegration test, hardness, friability tests and in vitro drug release. Also, the phytochemical constituents of the starch were determined. The results show that the granules had a good flow and values obtained were within the specified limits for the production of good quality tablets. Deviations obtained from the tablet weight uniformity test were significantly (p&lt; 0.05) below 5%. Tablets disintegration time ranged from 3.00 ± 0.08 min to 14.00 ± 0.10 min for M1 and M4 tablets formulated with 5 and 20% of X. sagittifolium starch respectively. The tablets hardness ranged from 7.20 ± 1.25 to 8.55 ± 1.17 kgf. In vitro release showed that M1 tablets had T25, T50 and T90 % at 5, 13 and 23 min respectively, while M4 tablets had T25, T50 and T90 % at 8, 18 min and were unable to release 90% of metronidazole at 30 min. Phytochemical analysis showed that the starch contained alkaloids, glycosides, carbohydrate and steroids. Therefore, starch from X. sagittifolium could be used to formulate metronidazole tablets for improved oral bioavailability of metronidazole.Keywords: Xanthosoma sagittifolium starch, tablets binder and disintegrant, metronidazoleAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(20), pp. 3064-307

Magnetic Exploration of the Upper and Lower Benue Trough for Metallic Deposits and Hydrocarbons using 2D/3D

Digital Aeromagnetic data for Lower Benue Trough (Afikpo and Nkalagu) have been analyzed to locate specific basement targets for investigation using seismic methods in deep hydrocarbon exploration. This is motivated by the call of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to re-investigate all the basins in the country for hydrocarbon accumulation. In the Lower Benue Trough depths of the intrusive range from 3.2km to 3.9km while depths of deep structures range from 8.7km to 19.2km. The susceptibilities of the intrusive suggest that they are composed of granite, basalt, dolerite and rhyolite. Depths of deep structures in the Lower Benue Trough show thick sedimentary deposits that have potential for hydrocarbon exploration. Keywords: Cretaceous age, megastructure, forward and inverse modeling, geometrical shape