Biochemical evaluation of Gmelina arborea fruit meal as a swine feedstuff

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of Gmelina arborea fruits (GAF) meal on haematology and certain biochemical parameters including blood enzyme profile of wean pigs. 16-piglets, 8-males and 8-females averaging 12.41 ± 0.59 kg live weight from Hampshire commercial breed were allotted to four dietary treatment groups each consisting of four piglets per treatment group in a completely randomised design. The diets formulated on iso-nitrogenous and iso-energetic basis had Diet 1 containing 30% processed GAF meal and was taken as a reference Diet while Diets 2, 3 and 4 contained 10, 20 and 30% raw GAF meal respectively. The experimental diets and water were supplied to appetite in a feeding trial which lasted for 28 days. There were no statistically significant differences in haematological parameters (p > 0.05) except lymphocytes and neutrophils of the leucocytes differential count (p < 0.05). There were also no significant differences in the selected blood enzymes and serum biochemical parameters of the trial animal models (p >0.05). Urine analyses similarly showed no significant difference in urea and creatinine excretions except that there was a significant difference in uric acid produced (p < 0.05). An overall assessment of the study indicated that values of some parameters measured tended to decrease (in case of blood indices and serum constituents) and increase (with regards to blood urea nitrogen, creatinine in blood and urine and uric acids) though not significantly as the dietary inclusion level of raw GAF meal increased. It was therefore concluded that GAF when processed or incorporated at lower levels has no adverse effect on animals.Keywords: Gmelina arborea, diets, pi

Implementing prevention interventions for non-communicable diseases within the Primary Health Care system in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

Background: Nigeria as well as other low and middle-income countries have double burden of communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases (NCD). This study examined the implementation of the NCD component of the National Minimum Health Care Package in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory where the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension is increasing.Methods: This descriptive study was organised along two lines of inquiry: document review (guidelines, policies, programme documents and services records in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria) and a qualitative study (focus group discussions with community representatives and frontline health workers, interviews with health program managers and non-participant observations of primary care facilities).Results: Existing policies and guidelines for NCD prevention have several implementation shortfalls including insufficient recognition of the burden of disease at primary care level and associated low prioritisation of NCDs; poor resourcing of NCD-related activities and poor operationalisation of relevant guidelines. Other constraints were: inadequate human resources for PHC services in numbers and mix of cadres, deficiencies in knowledge on management of diabetes and hypertension by PHC workers, insufficient job aids in primary care facilities for prevention, management and referral of hypertension and diabetes, weak information systems and referral linkages between primary care and secondary/tertiary care facilities for NCDs.Conclusion: The capacity of the PHC system to implement NCDs interventions is weak, necessitating a need to strengthen coordination, partnership and funding for better response to NCD prevention in primary care. Capacity building specific to NCD prevention should involve tools/technology, skills, infrastructure, manpower, referral linkages and community participation. Keywords: Non-Communicable Diseases; Essential Health Package; Primary Health Care; Federal Capital Territor

Modeling and Evaluating Alternatives to Enhance Access to an Airport and Meet Future Expansion Needs

The continued growth of air travel calls for the incessant construction effort at many airports and their surroundings. Thus, there is a need to determine how airports can better manage existing infrastructure to accommodate this growth. This study, therefore, focuses on (1) investigating how changes in transportation infrastructure have affected travel time reliability (TTR) of the surrounding road network within the airport vicinity over time, and, (2) exploring selected unconventional intersection designs and proposing new inbound/outbound access routes from the nearby major roads to the airport. The efficiency of road networks that surrounds large airports is discussed using Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) as the case study. Firstly, an assessment of how transportation projects impact link-level travel time reliability (TTR) was performed using historical data. Secondly, an assessment of how future transportation projects would affect the traffic in the airport vicinity was performed. A simulation network was developed using the Vissim software, where the peak-hour turning movement counts were used with the existing signal design to replicate and calibrate the base scenario. Unconventional intersection designs such as continuous flow intersections (CFI), mini-roundabouts, and restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT) intersections were considered along with selected bridge design options to determine the impact on TTR. The results were compared with the conventional signalized intersection design. The connectivity projects led to an increase in TTR measures at most of the links within its vicinity after the project’s completion of the project. Similarly, parking areas exhibited the same characteristics, including those used by ridesharing companies. The simulation model showed that unconventional designs like RCUT and direct entry-exit ramps effectively reduced delay as well as the number of stops, increasing our understanding of how expansion projects affect TTR and potentially improving infrastructure optimization

Urbanization Processes: Environmental and Health Effects in Ibadan Metropolis

This study examined impact of environmental health in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. Data for the study were obtained through questionnaire administered on residents in selected core areas of the metropolis. Systematic random sampling was used in selecting the respondents. Findings revealed that the proportion of households occupying one room was 48.1% while only 33.4% have in-house water connection. Significant proportion of the ten top diseases reported in the city is communicable and infectious diseases. The first four of these diseases (diarrhea, malaria, pneumonia and tuberculosis) are those that have been linked directly with contaminated water, poor sewage and solid wastes disposal as well as poor housing conditions. Furthermore, the situations of ill-health in Ibadan have implicated urbanization as a dominant factor. The study therefore concluded that the environmental health problems in Ibadan are largely explained by ineffective urban planning and management functions. Keywords: Urbanization, Health, Environment, Planning

Deep Learning, Machine Learning, or Statistical Models for Weather-related Crash Severity Prediction

Nearly 5,000 people are killed and more than 418,000 are injured in weather-related traffic incidents each year. Assessments of the effectiveness of statistical models applied to crash severity prediction compared to machine learning (ML) and deep learning techniques (DL) help researchers and practitioners know what models are most effective under specific conditions. Given the class imbalance in crash data, the synthetic minority over-sampling technique for nominal (SMOTE-N) data was employed to generate synthetic samples for the minority class. The ordered logit model (OLM) and the ordered probit model (OPM) were evaluated as statistical models, while random forest (RF) and XGBoost were evaluated as ML models. For DL, multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and TabNet were evaluated. The performance of these models varied across severity levels, with property damage only (PDO) predictions performing the best and severe injury predictions performing the worst. The TabNet model performed best in predicting severe injury and PDO crashes, while RF was the most effective in predicting moderate injury crashes. However, all models struggled with severe injury classification, indicating the potential need for model refinement and exploration of other techniques. Hence, the choice of model depends on the specific application and the relative costs of false negatives and false positives. This conclusion underscores the need for further research in this area to improve the prediction accuracy of severe and moderate injury incidents, ultimately improving available data that can be used to increase road safety

SPACIO-TEMPORAL VARIATION OF RADIO REFRACTIVITY IN LAFIA, NASARAWA STATE USING CM SAF ATOVS SATELLITE DATA

Communications using radio waves propagates through the atmosphere and plays a major role in civilization. Vertical variation of radio refractivity in Lafia( 8.492°N and 8.517°E ) Nigeria, was investigated with a five-year (2010 – 2014) monthly mean atmospheric layered data from the ATOVS (Advanced TIROS (Television InfraRed Observation Satellite) Operational Vertical Sounders) instruments flying onboard the NOAA and Metop-A satellites; this data is provided by the EUMETSAT’s Climate Monitoring Satellite Application Facilities (CM SAF). Using the CM SAF data, at six pressure levels (1000hPa, 850hPa, 700hPa, 500hPa, 300hPa and 200hPa), the monthly mean of radio refractivity were estimated and the results analyzed. Also, the diurnal variation of the surface radio refractivity was also investigated using the data from the automatic weather station (model no WS104) installed at the Department of Physics, Federal University Lafia. Results obtained showed that the vertical model of the radio refractivity N, in Lafia could be given as N=No exp(-h⁄ho ),where No, the surface radio refractivity, was found to be approximately equal to 288.1 N-units, while the scale height ho, was found to be approximately equal to 8.40km; it was found that sub-refraction predominates in Lafia at all seasons. The diurnal range of surface radio refractivity as measured by the in-situ weather station was found to be between 325.0 and 365.0 N-units, with a maximum in the morning and minimum in the afternoo

Gestational trophoblastic disease in Abuth Zaria, Nigeria: A 5‑year review

Gestational trophoblastic diseases (GTD) includes a spectrum of diseases (tumor or tumor-like conditions) characterised by aberrant growth and development of the trophoblasts that may continue even beyond the end of pregnancy. It encompasses the benign trophoblastic disease (complete and partial moles), and the malignant trophoblastic diseases including the invasive mole (chorioadenoma destruens), choriocarcinoma, and Placental Site Trophoblastic Tumor (PSTT). This study was to determine the prevalence, risk factors, clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment options and outcomes of GTD in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Zaria. A five-year retrospective study of patients with GTD managed at ABUTH, North-west Nigeria, from 1st January 2008 to 31st December, 2012 was undertaken. Data of all cases of GTD in the hospital over the 5 year period were obtained. The gynaecology ward and labour ward registers also provided information on the total number of gynaecological admissions and deliveries respectively. The data processing and analysis were carried out using the SPSS software version 16. The data obtained were expressed in percentages, means, and standard deviations. During the period of study there were 8,138 deliveries and 2,453 gynaecological admissions. There were 59 cases of GTD with 41 having choriocarcinoma, 18 molar pregnancies and no case of invasive mole or PSTT. Out of the 41 case folders retrieved, 23 were choriocarcinoma and 18 of molar pregnancies. The prevalence of GTD was 7.2 per 1000 deliveries (0.72% or 1 in 138 deliveries) and constituted 2.4% of gynaecological admissions. Hydatidiform mole (HM) occurred in 1 in 452 deliveries and choriocarcinoma occurred in 1 in 198 deliveries. Ages ranged from 19-49 years with mean of 32.5+ 5.0 years. Most (66.7%) cases of HM were 19-29years while 60.9% of choriocarcinoma cases were 30-39years. Majority of cases were multiparous. The antecedent events predating choriocarcinoma were Hydatidiform mole (31.7%), abortions (29.3%) and 2.4% followed term pregnancy. History of amenorrhea was present in all cases while vaginal bleeding occurred in 97.6%, pallor (87.8%), hyperemesis gravidarum (48.8%) and 4.9% came in shock. Consequently, common complications reported were haemorrhage (90.2%), anemia (87.8%) and shock (12.2%). Pregnancy test was positive in 90.2% of cases and serum beta hCG was done in 24.4% with more than half having a level >12,000miu/ml. All patients had pelvic ultrasound scan and snowstorm appearance occurred in 41% of benign GTD cases. Histology was used to confirm 56.1% cases of choriocarcinoma and 43.9% of molar gestation. Most (94.4%) of HM had suction evacuation while 95.6% of choriocarcinoma cases had chemotherapy, one case (2.4%) had Total Abdominal Hysterectomy. Contraception was used in 78% and common methods were male condom (41.5%) and 36.6% used combined oral contraceptive pills. Less than half (43.9%) had follow up for 6 months and 9.8% were seen for more than a year. Eight patients had subsequent pregnancies and there was one death in the series giving a case fatality of 2.4%. Gestational trophoblastic disease is a significant source of maternal morbidity with increased risk of mortality from complications if not detected early and treated promptly.Keywords: Choriocarcinoma; gestational trophoblastic disease; human chorionic gonadotrophin; hydatidiform mole; placental site trophoblastic diseas