Perbandingan Efektivitas Krim Urea 10% dan Krim Niasinamid 4% terhadap Hidrasi Kulit Pasien Dermatitis Atopik

Banyak penelitian telah menunjukkan penurunan hidrasi stratum korneum pada kulit pasien dermatitis atopik (DA) dengan atau tanpa lesi dibanding kontrol sehat. Pelembab yang mengandung seramid saat ini banyak tersedia dan sering digunakan untuk meningkatkan hidrasi kulit pasien DA, namun harga pelembab tersebut tidak ekonomis. Beberapa penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pelembab yang mengandung urea atau niasinamid juga dapat meningkatkan hidrasi kulit pasien DA secara signifikan dengan harga lebih ekonomis dibanding pelembab yang mengandung seramid. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk membandingkan efektivitas krim urea 10% dan krim niasinaid 4% terhadap hidrasi kulit pasien DA. Pada penelitian eksperimental buta ganda ini, subjek dibagi secara acak menjadi dua kelompok pengobatan yaitu 33 subjek mendapat krim urea 10% dan 33 subjek mendapat krim niasinamid 4% selama 4 pekan. Anamnesis, pengukuran hidrasi kulit pre-ekperimental dan post-eksperimental dilakukan pada semua subjek. Hasil penelitian didapatkan hidrasi kulit post-eksperimental pada kedua kelompok meningkat secara bermakna (p=0.000). Angka kesembuhan hidrasi kulit pada kelompok urea adalah 93.9% dan kelompok niasinamid adalah 84.8%, namun perbedaan tersebut tidak bermakna (p=0.389). Perbandingan efektivitas kedua kelompok didapatkan tidak berbeda secara bermakna (p=0.315). Kesimpulan penelitian ini tidak terdapat perbedaan efektivitas yang bermakna antara krim urea 10%dan krim niasinamid 4% terhadap hidrasi kulit pasien DA

An Overview of Challenges on Smallholder Agroforestry Farms in Jigawa State, Northern Nigeria

Under the threat from a cocktail of climate change, environmental and soil, degradation and present economic meltdown in the country and world over, the practice of agroforestry come under a myriad of challenges. This study looks at Jigawa state, which has an agrarian based economy. With an estimate of 0.8ha being the average size of farmlands in the state, this study attempts to outline the pressing challenges facing these smallholder farms. A multistage sampling was employed for the study. Using division of the state into 3 zones which include; Jigawa southwest, Jigawa northwest, Jigawa northeast and.  Out of each zone, 3LGA were selected out of which 50 respondents were purposively targeted from each community providing the study with sampling frame of 450 respondents. The analysis proceeded by using mean, percentages and use of table and figures. The results show that tenure insecurity, herder problems as challenges to the farmers. Laxity on part of the institutions adds to the list. The study recommends the revitalization of relevant bodies charged with maintenance and dissemination of information and incentives on use of modern agroforestry to ensure its sustainability. Keywords: Agroforestry, Smallholder, Tenure insecurity, Herder Proble

A programmable architecture for the provision of hybrid services

The success of new service provision platforms will largely depend on their ability to blend with existing technologies. The advent of Internet telephony, although impressive, is unlikely to make telephone customers suddenly turn in favor of computers. Rather, customers display increasing interest in services that span multiple networks (especially Internet Protocol-based networks and the telephone and cellular networks) and open new vistas. We refer to these services as hybrid services and propose an architecture for their provision. This architecture allows for programming the service platform elements (i.e., network nodes, gateways, control servers, and terminals) in order to include new service logics. We identify components that can be assembled to build these logics by considering a service as a composition of features such as address translation, security, call control, connectivity, charging and user interaction. Generic service components are derived from the modeling of these features. We assure that our proposal can be implemented even in existing systems in return for slight changes: These systems are required to generate an event when a special service is encountered. The treatment of this event is handled by an object at a Java Service Layer. Java has been chosen for its platform-neutrality feature and its embedded security mechanisms. Using our architecture, we design a hybrid closed user group service

Feasibility of diffusion and probabilistic white matter analysis in patients implanted with a deep brain stimulator.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) is an established advanced therapy that produces therapeutic effects through high frequency stimulation. Although this therapeutic option leads to improved clinical outcomes, the mechanisms of the underlying efficacy of this treatment are not well understood. Therefore, investigation of DBS and its postoperative effects on brain architecture is of great interest. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is an advanced imaging technique, which has the ability to estimate the structure of white matter fibers; however, clinical application of DWI after DBS implantation is challenging due to the strong susceptibility artifacts caused by implanted devices. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of generating meaningful white matter reconstructions after DBS implantation; and to subsequently quantify the degree to which these tracts are affected by post-operative device-related artifacts. DWI was safely performed before and after implanting electrodes for DBS in 9 PD patients. Differences within each subject between pre- and post-implantation FA, MD, and RD values for 123 regions of interest (ROIs) were calculated. While differences were noted globally, they were larger in regions directly affected by the artifact. White matter tracts were generated from each ROI with probabilistic tractography, revealing significant differences in the reconstruction of several white matter structures after DBS. Tracts pertinent to PD, such as regions of the substantia nigra and nigrostriatal tracts, were largely unaffected. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility and clinical applicability of acquiring and processing DWI post-operatively in PD patients after DBS implantation. The presence of global differences provides an impetus for acquiring DWI shortly after implantation to establish a new baseline against which longitudinal changes in brain connectivity in DBS patients can be compared. Understanding that post-operative fiber tracking in patients is feasible on a clinically-relevant scale has significant implications for increasing our current understanding of the pathophysiology of movement disorders, and may provide insights into better defining the pathophysiology and therapeutic effects of DBS

An Assessment of Suitability of Climate for Tourism in Northwestern Nigeria

Tourism is vital to national economies and income of its individual citizens. This paper investigated the suitability of climate for tourism in Northwestern Nigeria using the tourism climate index developed by Mieczkowski (1985). Parameters used for calculating the index include monthly average maximum daily temperature, rainfall, mean daily relative humidity, minimum relative humidity, total wind speed and sunshine hours. The stations used for the calculation of TC index include Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Sokoto. The result is presented in the form of charts using excel, while GIS is used for zoning of tourism climatic conditions in different months. Result shows that the study area is suitable for tourism throughout the year, as all the TCI scores ranges from 94 to 41 (‘ideal’ to ‘marginal') except for Kano in the month of June which has a TCI score of 39 (‘unfavorable’). The months of January, February, November and December are the best months for tourism as they recorded higher TCI values of 73 to 94 (‘very good’ to ‘ideal’). It is therefore concluded that the best time for tourist to visit Northwestern Nigeria is during the months of January, February, November and December. Keywords: Climate, Tourism, Tourism Climate Index, Nigeri

Molybdenum sputtering film characterization for high gradient accelerating structures

Technological advancements are strongly required to fulfill the demands of new accelerator devices with the highest accelerating gradients and operation reliability for the future colliders. To this purpose an extensive R&D regarding molybdenum coatings on copper is in progress. In this contribution we describe chemical composition, deposition quality and resistivity properties of different molybdenum coatings obtained via sputtering. The deposited films are thick metallic disorder layers with different resistivity values above and below the molibdenum dioxide reference value. Chemical and electrical properties of these sputtered coatings have been characterized by Rutherford backscattering, XANES and photoemission spectroscopy. We will also present a three cells standing wave section coated by a molybdenum layer $\sim$ 500 nm thick designed to improve the performance of X-Band accelerating systems.Comment: manuscript has been submitted and accepted by Chinese Physics C (2012