Reducing maternal deaths in a low resource setting in Nigeria

Objective: To assess the impact of the adoption of evidence based guidelines on maternal mortality reduction at Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of all maternal deaths between 1st January, 2005 and 31st December, 2010 was carried out. Evidence based management guidelines for eclampsia and post‑partum hemorrhage were adopted. These interventions strategy were carried out from 1st January, 2008‑31st December, 2010 and the result compared with that before the interventions (2005‑2007). Main outcome measure: Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and case fatality rates.Results: There were 9150 live births and 59 maternal deaths during the study period, giving an MMR of 645/100 000 live births. Pregnant women who had no antenatal care had almost 10 times higher MMR. There was 43.5% reduction in the MMR with the interventions (488 vs. 864/100 000 live births P = 0.039, odds ratio = 1.77). There was also significant reduction in case fatality rate for both eclampsia (15.8% vs. 2.7%; P = 0.024, odds ratio = 5.84 and Post partum hemorrhage (PPH) (13.6% vs. 2.5% P value = 0.023, odds ratio = 5.5. Obstetric hemorrhage was the most common cause of death (23.73%), followed by the eclampsia.Conclusion: Administration of evidence based intervention is possible in low resource settings and could contribute to a significant reduction in the maternal deaths.Key words: Eclampsia, guidelines, hemorrhage, low resource settings, maternal death, Nigeri

Ethnocentric bias in African philosophy vis-à-vis Asouzu’s Ibuanyidanda ontology

This paper is of the view that it is not bad for the Africans to defend their philosophy and their origin, as against the claims and positions of the few African thinkers, who do not believe that African philosophy exists, and a great number of the Westerners, who see nothing meaningful in their thoughts and ideas, but in doing so, they became biased and elevated their philosophy and relegated other philosophies to the background. This charge of ethnocentrism against those who deny African philosophy can also be extended to those African philosophers who in a bid to affirm African philosophy commit the discipline to strong ethnic reduction. This paper using Innocent Asouzu’s Ibuanyidanda ontology, observes that most of the African scholars are too biased and self aggrandized in doing African philosophy, and as such have marred the beauty of African philosophy, just in the name of attaching cultural value to it. Innocent Asouzu’s Ibuanyidanda ontology is used in this paper to educate the Africans that in as much as the Westerners cannot do without them, they too cannot do without Westerners. This paper therefore, is an attempt to eradicate ethnocentrism in and beyond Africa in doing philosophy through complementarity and mutual understanding of realities, not in a polarized mindset but in relationship to other realities that exist.KEYWORDS: Ethnocentrism, Bias, Ibuanyidanda, Ontology, Complementarity, Ethnophilosophy

Toward a better understanding of tool wear effect through a comparison between experiments and SPH numerical modelling of machining hard materials

The aim of this study is to improve the general understanding of tungsten carbide (WC–Co) tool wear under dry machining of the hard-to-cut titanium alloy Ti6Al4V. The chosen approach includes experimental and numerical tests. The experimental part is designed to identify wear mechanisms using cutting force measurements, scanning electron microscope observations and optical profilometer analysis. Machining tests were conducted in the orthogonal cutting framework and showed a strong evolution of the cutting forces and the chip profiles with tool wear. Then, a numerical method has been used in order to model the machining process with both new and worn tools. The use of smoothed particle hydrodynamics model (SPH model) as a numerical tool for a better understanding of the chip formation with worn tools is a key aspect of this work. The redicted chip morphology and the cutting force evolution with respect to the tool wear are qualitatively compared with experimental trends. The chip formation mechanisms during dry cutting process are shown to be quite dependent from the worn tool geometry. These mechanisms explain the high variation of the experimental and numerical feed force between new and worn tools

Investigative utility ofmicrosatlite genotyping for molar pregnancy testing

Hydatidiform mole also known as hydatid mole, molar pregnancy, gestational trophoblastic disease is a type of fertilization abnormality, when only the conceptus trophoblast layers proliferates and not the embryoblast, no embryo develops, this is called a “Hydatidiform mole". Due to the continuing presence of the trophoblastic layer, this abnormal conceptus can also implant in the uterus or ectopically. The trophoblast cells will secrete human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), as in a normal pregnancy, and may appear maternally and by pregnancy test to be "normal". Prenatal diagnosis by ultrasound analysis demonstrates the absence of an embryo

Maternal mortality in a Transitional Hospital in Enugu, South East Nigeria

Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world. The study was to determine the trend of maternal mortality ratio in the hospital as it transits from a General through a Specialist to a Teaching hospital. It was a retrospective review of maternal deaths at Enugu State University Teaching Hospital Parklane, over its 5 year transition period (January 2004 to December 2008). There were 7146 live births and 60 maternal deaths giving an overall maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 840/100,000 livebirths. The MMR rose from 411 to 1137/100 000 live births as a specialist hospital, with a decline to 625/100 000 as a Teaching hospital. Pre-eclampsia/eclampsia was the leading cause (29.63%) of maternal death. MMR was highest as a Specialist hospital due to limited manpower and inadequate facilities to properly manage the rising number of referred obstetric emergencies. Adequate preparations should be made before upgrading a hospital, to enable it cope with the challenges of managing referred obstetric emergencies (Afr J Reprod Health 2009; 13[4]:67-72)

Defect-Related Magnetic Properties of Nanostructured Nickel Oxide Thin Films for Solar Cell Applications

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are extensively investigated because of their applications as transparent electrodes in solar cells and light-emitting devices. TCOs of interest include indium-tin oxide, aluminum-doped zinc oxide, nickel oxide (NiO), and their combinations. There is strong interest in NiO because no heteroatoms are required to “dope” it at high transparency levels. It has been speculated that paramagnetic defects due to Ni3+ centers and O interstitials are responsible for the electrical conductivity of otherwise insulating and antiferromagnetic NiO, but direct investigation of such defects has been limited. Here, the electrical conductivity in nanostructured NiO thin films is investigated and correlated to the paramagnetic defect density extracted from electron spin resonance (ESR). Two types of ESR-active centers are identified and assigned, respectively, to localized paramagnetic defects and surface electronic states. Our work points at defect engineering as a necessary step to optimize NiO thin films for their applications as TCOs

Sediment Deposition in Nigeria Reservoirs: Impacts and Control Measures

This work examines the issue of sediment deposition in reservoirs. As death is an inevitable end for humans, so is siltation an inevitable end for reservoirs. Sediment content of river inflows into reservoirs depletes the available storage capacity thereby reducing the benefits such as domestic and industrial water supplies, hydro power generation, irrigation, navigation, fish and wild life, sanitation and recreation, flood control, ground water recharge, etc. Sediment distribution pattern of the reservoir was examined. Factors affecting siltation in reservoirs were also captured. Impacts of reservoirs on the environment and our health were discussed.  Different methods of controlling silting in reservoirs were examined. It was recommended that there should be periodic monitoring of sedimentation in our reservoirs to prolong the life of the reservoirs and sustain their benefits. Keywords: sediment deposition, storage capacity, reservoir life

Synthesis and characterization of copper nanoparticles and copper-polymer nanocomposites for plasmonic photovoltaic applications

Deposition techniques for the fabrication of metal nanostructures influence their morphological properties, which in turn control their optical behavior. Here, copper nanoparticles (np-Cu’s) were grown using a deposition system that was specifically set up during this work, and is based on a radio frequency (RF) sputtering source that can operate at high temperature and under bias voltage. The effect of deposition conditions (RF power, chamber pressure and substrate bias voltage) on RF sputtered np-Cu’s using RF sputtering has been studied. The study included a comparison between the morphological and optical properties of as-grown np-Cu’s and thermally treated samples. The characterization of np-Cu’s is carried out by atomic force microscopy, UV-visible transmission spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy and scanning near field optical microscopy (SNOM) techniques. The results of the experiment showed that the combined effects of low RF power (25 W – 75 W), high chamber pressure (17 Pa – 23 Pa) and substrate DC bias voltage (300 V – 400 V) are required for obtaining dispersed np-Cu’s. Under these conditions, copper nanoparticles grow by aggregation of initial island nuclei due to a reduction in sputtering rate. Significantly, higher dispersed np-Cu’s are obtained when a set of samples grown at 25 W and 33 W RF power is subjected to thermal treatment in an oxygen-free glove box. Optical properties of np-Cu’s show improvement in the visible region (535nm – 580 nm) related to transmission enhancement in as-deposited samples and plasmonic enhancement in thermally treated ones. Furthermore, an approach to determine the position of the np-Cu induced scattered wave was explored using SNOM (x, z) measurements. In bare np-Cu’s the path length of the scattered wave is further from the np surface, measured orthogonally. We demonstrated experimentally a method that uses an SiO2 thin film as a spacer to broaden the scattered wave up to 500 nm from the np-Cu/SiO2 composite surface. The study provides an improved insight that helps to understand the physical mechanisms that may hinder the expected performance in plasmonic solar cells. With these results, the potential of incorporating np-Cu’s in plasmonic thin film solar cell structures looks very promising

Nanoscale Thermal and Electronic Properties of Thin Films of Graphene and Organic Polyradicals

Ultrathin film materials have attracted significant attention in light of their potential applications in very large scale integrated electronics and data storage. For instance, the amount of data that can be addressed and stored in a memory device scales inversely with the thinness of the active layer of these components. In our thesis, we have developed a suite of scanning-probe and nano-optical techniques focused on understanding the electronic surface properties and the thermal conductivity of ultrathin materials. We discuss a few specific examples in which we applied these techniques towards improved performance of thin films of graphene and organic polyradicals towards specific applications. A new nano-optical technique, near field scanning thermoreflectance imaging (NeSTRI) has been invented and implemented by us for contactless imaging the thermal properties of graphene thin films and poly-[1,5-diisopropyl-3-(cis-5-norbornene-exo-2,3-dicarboxiimide)-6-oxoverdazyl] (P6OV). We utilized Kelvin-probe force microscopy for understanding the surface properties of copper nanoparticle decorated graphene thin films with superior electrical conductivity, and to design energy level matched flash memory devices from P6OV. Our work has led to deeper understanding of the nanoscale thermal and electronic properties of thin films of graphene and organic polyradicals and the interplay between their performance and fabrication parameters

Portfolio allocation under the vendor managed inventory: A Markov decision process

Markov decision processes have been applied in solving a wide range of optimization problems over the years. This study provides a review of Markov decision processes and investigates its suitability for solutions to portfolio allocation problems under vendor managed inventory in an uncertain market environment. The problem was formulated in the frame work of Markov decision process and a value iteration  algorithm was implemented to obtain the expected reward and the optimal policy that maps an action to a given state. Two challenges were examined –the uncertainty about the value of the item which follows a stochastic model and the small state/action spaces that can be solved via value iteration. It was observed that the optimal policy is expected to always short the stock when in state 0 because of its large return. However, while the return is not as large as in state 0, the probability of staying in state 2 is high enough that the vendor should long the stock because he expects high reward for several periods. We also obtained the expected reward for each state every ten iterations using a discount factor of l = 0.95. In spite of the small state/action spaces, the vendor is able to optimize its reward by the use of Markov decision process.Keywords: Portfolio Allocation, Vendor Managed Inventory, Markov Decision Process, Value Iteration, Expected Reward, Optimal Policy