Blood pressure to height ratios as simple, sensitive and specific diagnostic tools for adolescent (pre)hypertension in Nigeria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The age-, gender-, and height-percentile requirements of the 'gold-standard' for the diagnosis of (pre)hypertension in adolescents make it time-consuming for clinicians and difficult-to-use by non-professionals. Simplified diagnostic tools are therefore needed. The use of blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) - systolic BPHR (SBPHR) and diastolic BPHR (DBPHR) - has been reported in Han adolescents, but it requires validation in other racial groups. The diagnostic accuracy of SBPHR and DBPHR in a population of 1,173 Nigerian adolescents aged 11-17 years, was therefore studied.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Blood pressures were measured using standard procedures and (pre)hypertension were defined according to international recommendations. ROC curve analyses were used to assess the diagnostic accuracy of BPHR in defining (pre)hypertension in this population. Sex-specific threshold values for SBPHR and DBPHR were determined, and thereafter used to define (pre)hypertension. The sensitivity/specificity of this method was determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The accuracies of SBPHR and DBPHR in diagnosing (pre)hypertension, in both sexes, was >92%. The optimal thresholds for diagnosing prehypertension were 0.72/0.46 in boys and 0.73/0.48 in girls; while for hypertension, they were 0.75/0.51 in boys and 0.77/0.50 in girls. The sensitivity and specificity of this method were >96%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The use of BPHR is valid, simple and accurate in this population. Race-specific thresholds are however needed.</p

Erie County Broadband Feasibility Study: Final Report

In April of 2016 the Erie County Planning Department contracted with ECC Technologies, Inc. (ECC) to perform a Broadband Feasibility Study in Erie County. The purpose of the study was to provide analysis and guidance for the planning and development of broadband improvement strategies. The study methodology was to gather and document broadband infrastructure and services information and to provide analysis and initiatives for moving forward, which will be used to support economic development and County broadband planning

Design of luminescent sulfur-containing polynuclear gold(I) complexes for advanced nanomaterials and chemosensors

A series of high-nuclearity gold(I) sulfido complexes with bridging diphosphine ligands have been synthesized and isolated, with the general formulae of [Au10(μ-P∧P)4(μ3-S) 4]X2 and [Au12(μ-P∧P) 6(μ3-S)4]X4 (P∧P = diphosphine; X = PF6 or ClO4). Intense green and orange emissions were observed upon excitation at λ > 350 nm both in the solid state and in solutions. The green emission has been attributed to originate from excited states derived from the metal-perturbed intraligand (IL) transition while the orange emission arises from the ligand-to-metal-metal bond charge-transfer (LMMCT; S (Au⋯Au) states. The switching on and off of the LMMCT emission in a series of dinuclear gold(I) thiolate complexes with crown ether pendants induced by ion-binding has been demonstrated, and this provides a new strategy for the design of luminescence signalling and chemosensing devices in optoelectronics and sensor technology.published_or_final_versio

The Rise of Urban Slum in Nigeria: Implications on the Urban Landscape

This paper focuses on the rise of urban slum in Nigeria and its implication on the urban landscape its objectives are to find out the negative implications of the rise of urban slum on the urban landscape and find our strategies for solving the problem of urban slum growth in Nigeria. It used the survey research method, focusing on three (3) South-eastern cities of Nigeria - Owerri, Aba and Onitsha with a total of three hundred and twenty (320) structured questionnaires. The study finds out that the activities of urban slum dwellers have degraded and equally defaced the aesthetic value of the environmental landscape and that there is a significant relationship between the activities of slum communities and the defacement of the urban landscape in Nigeria. It recommends that Government and city planners should provide affordable land and low cost housing for the urban dwellers. This will enable people to own their property or rent as the case may be.Keywords: Urban Slum, Urban Landscape, Implication, Population, GrowthInternational Journal of Development and Management Review (INJODEMAR) Vol. 7 June, 201

IG-WRDRR Report 2010: Hong Kong

Reports on WRDRR activities in Asia-Pacific region (Part 1)This report gives an account of the wind conditions in Hong Kong and the corresponding wind related damages in Hong Kong throughout the years. Details are presented in the report under three different aspects. First, typhoon wind and related damages; second, thunderstorm wind and related damages; and third, flooding related to wind storms and damages. Measures taken by the Hong Kong Government to reduce the risk of damages and disaster mitigation are also presented.postprin

Direct measurement of hairpin-like vortices in the bottom boundary layer of the coastal ocean

Laboratory measurements and numerical modeling at low Reynolds numbers (Reθ<7700) indicate the energy-containing turbulence of boundary layer flows comprises coherent packets of hairpin vortices. Here direct measurements in the bottom boundary layer of the coastal ocean at higher Reynolds numbers (Reθ = 266,150) show tidal flows also contain packets of large vortices separated by periods of more quiescent conditions. The 1452 vortices recorded within a 20 min period are typically aligned along stream (∼8.0° from the mean flow direction) and inclined to the horizontal (∼27.0° from the seabed), with a mean period of occurrence of 4.3 s. These results lend three-dimensional, in situ support to an interpretation of the coastal ocean bottom boundary layer as comprising coherent packets of hairpin vortices. This demonstrates a direct linkage from low Reynolds number experiments to higher Reynolds number flows, permitting fine-scale details of particle transport and pollutant dispersion to be inferred from lower Reynolds number data

Use of Antipsychotic Medications and Cholinesterase Inhibitors and the Risk of Falls and Fractures: self-controlled case series

Objective: To evaluate the association between the use of antipsychotic medications and cholinesterase inhibitors, and the risk of falls and fractures in elderly patients with major neurocognitive disorders. / Design: Self-controlled case series / Setting: Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Database / Participants: 15,278 patients who were aged 65 or older, were newly prescribed antipsychotic medications and cholinesterase inhibitors, and suffered an incident fall or fracture between 2006 and 2017. Prescription records of cholinesterase inhibitors were used to confirm the diagnosis of major neurocognitive disorders since all use of cholinesterase inhibitors was subject to review by experts based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition and patients’ scores of Mini-Mental State Examination. We excluded those with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder before the first prescription of cholinesterase inhibitors to ensure that antipsychotic medications were used for neuropsychiatric symptoms of major neurocognitive disorders. / Main outcome measures: We used conditional Poisson regression to derive the incidence rate ratio and the 95% confidence interval for evaluating the association between the risk of falls and fractures and different exposure periods, including cholinesterase inhibitors alone, antipsychotic medications alone, and combination, as compared with the non-exposure period for the same individual. Moreover, we defined a 14-day pre-exposure period before study drug initiation over concerns about confounding by indication. / Results: Compared with the non-exposure period (incidence rate per 100 person-years; 95% confidence interval: 8.30; 8.14 to 8.46), the highest risk of falls and fractures occurred during the pre-exposure period (52.35; 48.46 to 56.47), followed by combination (10.55; 9.98 to 11.14), antipsychotic medications alone (10.34; 9.80 to 10.89), and cholinesterase inhibitors alone (9.41; 8.98 to 9.86). Conclusions: The incidence of falls and fractures was especially high in the pre-exposure period, suggesting that factors other than the study medications, such as underlying diseases, should be taken into consideration when evaluating the association between the risk of falls and fractures, and the use of cholinesterase inhibitors and antipsychotic medications. The exposure periods were also associated with a higher risk of falls and fractures, compared with the non-exposure period, although the magnitude was much lower than during the pre-exposure period. Prevention strategies and close monitoring of the risk of falls are still necessary until there is evidence that patients have regained a steady status

Unscented transform-based dual adaptive control of nonlinear MIMO systems

The paper proposes a multilayer perceptron neural network controller for dual adaptive control of a class of stochastic MIMO nonlinear systems subject to functional uncertainty. The neural network parameters are adjusted in real-time using the Unscented Kalman filter algorithm and no pre-operational training phase is required. Dual adaptive control aims to strike a compromise between the two control characteristics of caution and probing, leading to an improved overall performance. The system is evaluated through numerical simulations and Monte Carlo analysis. The resulting performance of the dual adaptive controller is not only consistently superior to non-dual adaptive control schemes, but also surpasses the performance of similar controllers that are based on Extended Kalman filter estimators. This reflects the enhanced accuracy of the Unscented Kalman filter estimator, despite being a local estimation method. In addition, unlike use of other estimators, the proposed approach neither requires the computation of complex Jacobian matrices as part of the design, nor the evaluation of such matrices in real-time. This renders the proposed controller inherently amenable and practical for real-time implementation.peer-reviewe

Effect of Traditional Processing Techniques on the Nutritional and Phytochemical Composition of African Bread-Fruit (Treculia africana) Seeds

The effects of three traditional processing methods on the phytochemical, nutrient and mineral composition of Treculia africana seeds were evaluated. Mean proximate contents of dehulled raw samples (g/100mg) were protein (18.32 ± 0.54), fat (1.31 ± 0.02), ash (1.62 ± 0.02), crude fibre (1.31 ± 0.01) and carbohydrate (77.44 ± 8.46). Their phytochemical constituents yielded (g/100g) alkaloids (0.58 ± 0.08), phenols (0.82 ± 0.00), tannins (0.14 ± 0.00), flavonoids (1.30 ± 0.10), oxalate (11.37 ± 0.10), and saponins (0.37 ± 0.03). Mean mineral contents (mg/100g) of these raw samples were calcium (5.34 ± 1.15), magnesium (2.00 ± 0.35), iron (8.00 ± 0.00), selenium (0.18 ± 2.89), copper (0.35 ± 0.00), iodine (0.30 ± 0.01) and chromium (0.04 ± 0.00); while the vitamin A level was 2.24 ± 0.22 μg/100g. Boiling and drying resulted in a significant increase in only the carbohydrate content. Dehulling and roasting resulted in a significant decrease in selenium content and all the nutrients and phytochemicals estimated except for carbohydrates and flavonoids. Roasting of undehulled samples resulted in a significant decrease only in protein, fat and carbohydrate contents, and all phytochemicals except phenolic contents; while it increased the mineral content except for selenium, significantly (p < 0.05). All forms of processing reduced the vitamin A content of the seeds significantly (p < 0.05). Comparing the processing methods, boiling and drying resulted in less percentage decrease in nutrient and vitamin A composition but higher percentage loss in most phytochemicals. Roasting of undehulled seeds preserved the mineral elements better than the other methods. @JASEMJ. Appl. Sci. Environ. Manage. December, 2010, Vol. 14 (4) 169 - 17

Djibouti opens its door to Kenyan dairy goats

View the document containing all the cases: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/96625A pilot project, which has imported 45 improved dairy goats from Kenya to Djibouti, is providing new and lucrative markets to small-scale goat breeders in Kenya. The project partners are also assessing the performance of the adaptability of the Kenyan goats to Djibouti by monitoring their health, milk production, breeding and feeding