Urinary Tract Infections amongst Pregnant Women Attending A Medical Centre IN Kaduna, Nigeria

Urinary tract infection (UTI) constitutes a major health problem in pregnant women due to their relatively short urethra, which promotes the ascending of the pathogens to the bladder, urethra and the kidneys. It is also more common in pregnant women due to the anatomical and physiological changes that occur during pregnancy.Aim: To determine the incidence of Urinary Tract Infections and the antimicrobial susceptibility of the microbial isolates from the urine samples of pregnant women prior to treatment.Methods: Fifty (50) mid stream urine (MSU) samples were collected and analyzed using standard Microbiological Techniques, and the antimicrobial sensitivity tests determined using Kirby Bauer disc diffusion techniques.Results: Of the 50 urine samples obtained from pregnant women, 3 different microbes were isolated indicating 28%. Staphylococcus aureus 18%, Escherichia coli 8%, Candida albicans 4%; and a 2% co-infection of Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were highly sensitive to Ciprofloxacin, Ofloxacin (Cilox), Paflacin andCephalosporine.Conclusion: Undetected and untreated urinary tract infection in pregnancy leads to discomfort associated with abdominal pains, itching, vaginal discharge and dysuria which may lead to more serious medical  complications.Keywords: Microbial isolates; pregnant women; anti-microbial  susceptibility; microbiological techniques; Disc diffusion

Modeling the impact of paste additives and pellet geometry on paste utilization within lead acid batteries during low rate discharges

AbstractWhen designing a lead acid battery, there are many factors to consider in order to obtain the best compromise of cost, performance, and ease of manufacturability. We use a modeling approach to study some of the key factors which affect the amount of active material which can be utilized during a low rate discharge. We investigate the effects of pellet size, pellet geometry, disconnected grid mesh borders, and inert paste additives. Furthermore, we look at how the internal path length resistance within a pellet is dependent on those features. Our findings correlate well with earlier works, and help to explain some of the previously observed phenomenon. It is observed that utilization is indeed affected by pellet size, but small grid mesh sizes on the order of ∼4 mm edge lengths are necessary in order to realize a significant benefit. Utilization is presented as a function of pellet size, aspect ratio of the pellets, and the loading level of the inert additives in the pellets up to ten percent by volume

Social and Human Capital: The Determinants of Economic Integration of South Asian Immigrants in Canada

ABSTARCT The labor market outcomes of immigrants have been a primary focus of the research to comprehend the integration of immigrants inCanada. The focus of the research is largely on human capital approaches for the investigation of the earnings of immigrants. This thesis takes a distinct approach in three ways: first, unlike traditional research that compares the earnings of immigrants with native born of the same ethnic/racial groups or with white native born population, the dissertation compares the earnings of visible minority immigrants with non-visible minority immigrants. Comparing across foreign born populations is important to neutralize the impact of exposure to the social institutions of the host society. Second, instead of treating South Asians as a homogenous group, the focus the present research is on the economic performance of various South Asian sub-groups. This approach is useful to understand the inter group difference. Third, this research considers both human and social capital perspectives to understand the labour market performance of visible minority immigrants inCanada. The overall purpose of the research is to determine the impact of both human and social capital on the labour market performance of the visible minority immigrants. The analysis seeks to determine the extent to which different visible minority groups and South Asian sub-groups differ in terms of their earnings, after the adjustment of various human and social capital factors. The thesis begins with a comparison between visible minority immigrants and non-visible minority immigrants, and then moves on to investigate particularly the earnings of specific South Asian sub-groups in comparison to European immigrants. The three analytic chapters demonstrate not only an earnings gap between visible minority immigrants in comparison to non-visible minority immigrants, but also earnings differences among South Asians in comparison to Europeans. In terms of period of residency, a longer period of stay inCanadahas a positive impact on the earnings, but this impact is not equal across different visible minority groups. Although social capital have an impact on the earnings differences, the human capital factors have the largest impact. The study applies Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression models to analyze data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) and the 2006 Census. Based on the 2002 EDS, the second chapter determines the impact of human and social capital on the labour market outcomes of visible minority immigrants. In particular, this chapter asks to what extent bonding and bridging social capital are useful to improve the economic conditions of non-white immigrants. The findings show that controlling for human and social capital variables reduces the earnings disadvantage associated with visible minority status, but the gap remains significant for all but Chinese. In terms of social capital, individualization (weak ties) in comparison to integration (strong ties) was associated with higher income, for men and for the category of other/multiple visible minorities, and for white immigrants. Chapter three analyzes the earnings of different cohorts of visible minority immigrants arrived inCanadaat different points of time. The findings show that bridging associational participation remains significant except, except for the 1982-91 arrivals. The earnings of South Asian immigrant men with a longer period of residency exceed the earnings of non-visible immigrant of the same period, while the Chinese are no longer statistically different from the reference group. Bridging associational participation is not significant for the earnings of women immigrants. The non-significance of bonding and bridging social capital for those who arrived in the period 1982-91 suggests that social capital is not useful in periods of economic downturn, while human capital remains significant during such periods. Key words: Visible minorities, South Asians, Human capital, Social capital, Bonding and bridging social capita

Reintegration of Return Migrants in Kerala: Policy Initiatives and Challenges

This paper is concerned with incident of return migration from overseas countries and their reintegration processes, and uses Kerala as a study area where  the state with largest concentration of return migrants in the country. Kerala has been a major source of human resource for the overseas countries for the world for a long which started in the 1830s and lead thousands of Keralites to gulf destinations still continues. The paper attempts to find out the policy initiatives and its challenges for the reintegration of the return migrants in Kerala state. In the special context of return migration of workers from overseas countries due to the economic recession, new labor policies and other reasons the reintegration of the return migrants is one of the discussing issue today in Kerala as others affected countries. The state Kerala has been affected much more in the return migration and the need of the attention to this area is very important today.  There are various detailed studies which deals with magnitude and causes of return migration to Kerala in the special context of economic recession in gulf countries. But only a few of studies have in the area of policy issues in return migration. Though some studies tried to analyze the functional status of different departments working for the migrants those did not gave special attention to the issues of return migrants.  The study will bring an insight in the selected topic for the review of literature.This paper attempts to put together issues related to international migration in a global perspective and covers wide range of issues related to the reintegration of returnees to the home society , current policies, programs and argues a multilevel planning not only just for individual migrants but also the family and total community at all. The paper argues that the migration policy should have to be expanded and current policies are not sufficient according to the strength of return migrants in the State. The paper discuss there should be a need of systematic policy initiatives and planning from the governments and other departments at  the local level with support of every stakeholder, i.e., the local communities in the home society, local self governments and the migrants themselves

The Changes on Creatine Kinase in Response to Aerobic Exercise among Novice and Trained Soccer Players of Different Ages

The study was intended to evaluate the creatine kinase responses to exercise among novice and trained soccer players of different ages. Sixty male adolescent soccer players aged 14 and 16 years were selected as participants, of whom thirty of them were trained soccer players and the rest were novice to the sport. The participants were segregated into four groups of fifteen each, namely: junior novice soccer players, senior novice soccer players, junior trained soccer players, and senior trained soccer players. The independent variable confined to this study is aerobic exercise stress testing using Bruce treadmill protocol to evaluate its influence on creatine kinase. The data on creatine kinase was measured at rest and after exercise condition. The data thus collected from novice and trained soccer players of different ages at rest and after exercise condition have been analyzed by three way factorial ANOVA. The finding of the study concludes that there is a statistically significant difference between novice and trained soccer players of different ages at rest and after exercise on creatine kinase

Application of Islamic Economic Principles to Indian Financial Sectors: Prospects and Challenges

Economic system is the integral part of every social system. Globalized economy introduces three types of economic systems which are private, public, and mixed ownership. Despite people take part of these three systems in major countries, the frequent fi nancial crunches and questioning of reliability on conventional fi nancial system, many countries try to bring an alternative fi nancial system that can consistently work on transparency and accountability in all economic spheres. Islamic economic system is solution of such thinking due to its success and safety operations in all practicing countries. In Gulf Cooperation Council countries, all Islamic banks are performing triumphantly which include 25 banks. Its products and services are based on profi t loss sharing mechanisms which adhere to the principles Islamic shariah. Mudaraba, Musharaka, and Murabaha are the main instruments which are usedmostly in all fi nancial sectors. The present system of commercial banking is based on minimization of risk and maximization of profit. On the contrary, Islamic fi nancing is performed as social fi nancial system so as it is highly attracted by non -Muslim customers also for them that stands as safe and connected to real economy. Even Islamic fi nance is at adolescence stage in its growth in India, its applicability is well subjected overall the Indian fi nancial services such as mutual fund, microfi nance, non-banking financial company (NBFC) based fi nancial system, and venture capital. The recent launching of Cheraman Financial Services Limited and some movements like SBI Shariah mutual funds elevate this study to introduce an alternative system to those people who suffocate in the knot of Interest. India has approximately 175 million Muslims, they are highly to be excluded from access to banking productsand services due to absence interest free fi nancial services. The gap is prevailing by the lack of mediatory functions such as Islamic financial sectors and other investment institutions. The present RBI regulations such as Repo rate, statutory liquidity ratio, and cash reserve ratio, constrain to practicing Islamic banking in India. However, excessive demand and working forms such as NBFC, Non-Government Organization, and Nidhi, show the ways to applying Islamic economic system in the Indian scenario too. So, the presentstudy focuses to fi nd out feasible models for implementing Islamic economic principles and its practical products and services in India. It is an attempt to analyze the prospects, challenges, and drawing solutions to regulatory problems. It also illustrates basic Islamic shariah principles, the Indian financial system with reference shariah based fi nancial services. To do research, exploratory method will be used and data will be collected on secondary basis

Analytical Study of the Impact of Islamic Values and the Role of Sufis Orders In West Africa

This article surveyed “Analytical Study Of The Impact Of Islamic Values And The Role Of Sufi Orders In West Africa”; The methodology explored for this article was basically philosophical; this means the materials used came largely from published and unpublished sources. The primary focus is on how Islamic values increased West African economics, socio-political life, religious, intellectual activities, and cultural and syncretism among the various West African countries, the article also analyzed how Islam helped expand trading routes from just the Trans-Saharan to outside of Africa, like Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Also Timbuktu and both the Mali and Songhai Empires becomes a major trading point. The 19th century Jihads such as that of Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio brought about more far–reaching attempts to reform the whole socio-political, legal and economic system in line with the Qur’an and the practices of the Prophet (saw) and the righteous guided Caliphs. Sheikh Usman, a reformer, who was born in maratta Gobir in 1754 A.C. His father was a scholar and he personally taught sheikh Usman the Qur’an. Later sheikh Usman moved from place to place to be taught by other scholarly relatives. He was much impressed by one of his teachers in Agadesz, Jibril ibn Umar, through whom he was admitted in to a Sufi order. The impact of the Sufi orders in West Africa was spiritual, moral and occasionally political. As indicated, the orders offered a method of achieving spiritual advancement through training in mystical practices. At the same time the sense of belonging to a brotherhood and striving for moral purification under the guidance of a Sheikh would exert influence over the behavior of any Muslim who was seeking to please Allah. In this way the Sufi orders were themselves responsible for attracting people to Islam as well as providing an avenue of spiritual and moral advancement for born Muslim

An Analysis Of Deconvolution: Modeling Reflectivity By Fractionally Integrated Noise

Reflection coefficients are observed in nature to have stochastic behavior that departs significantly from the white noise model. Conventional deconvolution methods, however, assume reflectivity to be a white noise process. In this paper we analyze the deconvolution process, study the implications of the assumption of white noise, and show that the conventional operator can recover only the white component of reflectivity. A new stochastic model, fractionally integrated noise, is proposed for modeling reflectivity. This model more closely approximates its spectral character and that encompasses white noise as a special case. We discuss different techniques to generalize the conventional deconvolution method based on the new model in order to handle reflectivity that is not white, and compare the results of the conventional and generalized filters using data derived from well logs.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Borehole Acoustics and Logging ConsortiumMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Earth Resources Laboratory. Reservoir Delineation ConsortiumSaudi Aramc

Heroin Adulterated with the Novel Synthetic Cannabinoid, 5F-MDMB-PINACA: A Case Series

Introduction: Heroin can be adulterated with various substances that may or may not have pharmacological effects. Here we report a case series of 8 patients who presented to the emergency department after overdose with intravenous heroin preparation adulterated with the synthetic cannabinoid methyl 2-(1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indazole-3-carboxamido)-3,3-dimethylbutanoate (5F-MDMB-PINACA).Case Series: Except for one patient, all of them presented with a typical initial opioid toxidrome consisting of central nervous system and respiratory depression along with pinpoint pupils. Naloxone was given to them, triggering severe agitation and combative behavior along with overlapping features of anticholinergic and sympathomimetic toxidrome. All patients required multiple doses of benzodiazepines. Three were successfully treated with physostigmine.Discussion: 5F-MDMB-PINACA is a synthetic cannabinoid that was added to heroin in samples obtained from patients reported in this case series. Patients demonstrated significant agitation after receiving naloxone for opioid toxidrome, presumably because of the removal of the depressant effect of opioids, which unmasked the excitatory effects of the synthetic cannabinoids. Three patients required physostigmine along with the benzodiazepines for control of their agitation, urine retention and abnormal vitals, suggesting the possibility of an anticholinergic toxidrome to have developed in these patients.Conclusion: Heroin contaminated with 5F-MDMB-PINACA exhibits variable severities of anticholinergic effects, some on presentation and others only after opiate antagonism

Coordination of Cu(II) and Ni(II) in polymers imprinted so as to optimize amine chelate formation

Molecular imprinting has become an established technique. However, little was done on direct investigation of the sorbents produced. In the present work, en ESR method was used for the investigation of the complex formation processes within the sorbents imprinted with copper(II) and nickel(II). The sorbents were synthesized from a mixture of linear low molecular weight polyethyleneimine oligomers. The composition, structure and distribution of complexes in the resin phase were investigated. The effects of the synthesis conditions, loading degree and water content were examined. The presence of certain copper complexes was found to be a convenient characteristic of the imprinting efficiency. The optimum synthesis conditions for obtaining sorbents imprinted with copper(II) or nickel(II) were identified. The imprinting results in the improvement of the stability of the complexes and the selectivity and working capacity of the sorbents. The imprinted samples are also characterized by a more even distribution of chelating sites. The synthesis conditions and loading by ions allow for the regulation of the ratio between individual complexes and magnetic associates in the resin phase. This is a critical point on the future use of the metal containing imprinted sorbents as catalysts. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd