Data in support of high rate of pregnancy related deaths in Maiduguri,Borno State,Northeast Nigeria

Pregnancy relateddeaths(PRD)arepublichealthconcerninmost developing countriesandNigeriainparticular.Despitetheefforts put inbytheconcernedauthorities,PRDremainsanintegralpart of maternalmortalityormaternaldeathsinNigeriaingeneraland Borno stateinparticular,asevidencedfromtherecordsobtained from UmaruShehuHospital,Maiduguri(astatehospitalinthe state capital.ThedatacontainsfrequencyofPRDinmonthsand grouped intogynaecology,ante-natalandpost-natal,andlabour obtained frommid-2009tomid-2017.Thestatisticalanalysisof the datamayrevealtheextentofincidenceorepidemiologyof PRD isinthestat

Production and characterization of activated carbon from leather waste, sawdust, and lignite

Powdered activated carbon (PAC) was prepared from leather buffing waste, sawdust and lignite by carbonization at temperatures between 500 – 800oC followed by steam activation. Experimental results reveal a general decrease in yield of carbon residue with increase in temperature of carbonization. Samples of lignite recorded the highest yield (49.80 – 67.70%) followed by leather buffing dust (30.70 – 39.70%) and sawdust (25.10 – 37.20%). Activated carbon from these precursors, were also evaluated for percentage ash, fixed carbon, pH and bulk density. Adsorption studies carried out with methylene blue indicate that low temperature carbonization of precursors such as leather buffing waste favour production of carbon with better adsorption efficiency while high temperature carbonization produced carbon with better efficiency from sawdust and lignite. Activated carbon from sawdust and leather buffing waste show result which compare favourably with the reference carbon used. These carbons are recommended for use in the adsorption of dyes or decolourization of organic compounds and other substances in aqueous solutions.Key words: Activated carbon, carbonization, Steam activation, Adsorption efficiency, Leather buffing wast

Machine Learning Heuristic for Solving Multi-Mode Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problems

The non-preemptive resource-constrained project scheduling problem is considered in this work. It is assumed that each activity has many ways of execution and the objective is to find a schedule that minimizes the project’s completion time (multi-mode RCPSP). Methods that are based on priority rules do not always give the needed very good results when used to solve multi-mode RCPSP. In solving large real-life problems quickly though, these methods are absolutely necessary. Hence good methods based on priority rules to get the primary results for metaheuristic algorithms are needed. This work presents a novel method based on priority rules to calculate the primary solutions for metaheuristic algorithms. It is a machine learning approach. This algorithm first of all uses Preprocessing to reduce the project data in order to speed up the process. It then employs a mode assignment procedure to obtain the mode of each job. After which the algorithm uses machine learning priority rule to get the precedence feasible activity list of the project’s tasks. Finally, it then uses the Serial Schedule Generation Scheme to get the total completion time of the project. In our experiments, we use our algorithm to solve some problems in the literature that was solved with metaheuristic procedures. We compared our results with the initial solutions the authors started with, and our results competes favorably with the initial solutions, making our algorithm a good entry point for metaheuristic procedures

Minimization of Failed Roads - A Hybrid Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem

Causes of failed roads and the reasons why most roads stay consistently failed in some nations of the world, like Nigeria, may be attributed to many factors, salient among them may be corruption and recession ultimately. Corruption in the award of road construction contracts make roads not to be properly done, to meet set standards thereby failing almost immediately they are completed. So, if corruption is minimized in awarding road construction contracts, the number of failed roads maybe minimized. This paper introduces some solution methods to minimize corruption in road construction projects so that good and sustainable roads are constructed even if there is also recession. In our experiment, we formulated the construction of real life 5km asphalt road as a hybrid resource constrained project scheduling problem (HRCPSP). Using priority based project scheduling technique, our results show the number of skilled workers needed in each period which gives the idea of the amount of fund needed in each of the periods. We constructed two Gantt diagrams: when resources are unconstrained and when resources are constrained to the minimal demand of jobs in the eligible set in each period. The unconstrained Gantt diagram helps to know the maximum amount of fund that should be released to the engineers in each period. This helps to curb corruption. The constrained Gantt diagram helps to know the minimum amount that should be released to the engineers for work to go on and the project to get to completion stage even there is recession. This helps project to be completed even if there is recession

On the Epidemiology and Statistical Analysis of HIV/AIDS Patients in the Insurgency Affected States of Nigeria

BACKGROUND: The effect of insurgencies on a nation regarding the economy, education, health and infrastructure cannot be overemphasised. AIM: This research is therefore focused on analysing the incidence of HIV/AIDS disease in states affected by the activities of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data collected refer to the period from 2004 to 2017, reporting information on 16,102 patients and including the age, gender, year of diagnosing and status of the patients. Descriptive, Chi-square test of independence and Correlation analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. RESULTS: It was discovered that the majority of those living with HIV/AIDS in these Boko Haram ravaged areas are females between the age group of 30 years to 39 years. Reported cases of HIV/AIDS started increasing significantly from age 20, and the highest number of reported cases of HIV/AIDS was recorded in the year 2017. CONCLUSION: The status of the patient was found to be dependent on both the gender and age of the patients’ treatment, though the strength of the linear relationship between status and age is not significantly different from zero

Systemic lupus erythematosus in a 7-year-old girl: A first case report from northern Nigeria

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune multisystemic inflammatory disease that is rare in children. Though a disease of the black race it is rarely diagnosed in black African children. Only few cases have been report in Nigeria and these were in the south. We report a case of a 7-year-old girl who presented with recurrent body swellings, an unusual rash, pericardial effusion and gastro-intestinal disturbances. The diagnosis was made after serology was found to be positive for Anti-nuclear antibody (ANA). She later developed stroke which was characterized by a convulsive episode, loss of consciousness and subsequent rightsided hemiplegia. She gradually regained consciousness after three days with residual weakness of the right side of her body. She has commenced prednisolone and is currently on follow-up at our clinic. SLE though rareshould be considered in any child with multiorgan disease, nephritis or stroke, especially after common conditions in our environment have been excluded.Key words; Systemic lupus erythematosus, serositis, stroke, nephritis, rashes

Classes of Ordinary Differential Equations Obtained for the Probability Functions of Linear Failure Rate and Generalized Linear Failure Rate Distributions

The linear failure rate (hazard) and generalized linear failure rate (hazard) distributions are uniquely identified by their linear hazard functions. In this paper, homogenous ordinary differential equations (ODES) of different orders were obtained for the probability functions of linear failure rate and generalized linear failure rate distributions. This is possible since the aforementioned probability functions of the distributions are differentiable and the former distribution is a particular case of the later. Differentiation and modified product rule were used to derive the required ODEs, whose solutions are the respective probability functions. The different conditions necessary for the existence of the ODEs were obtained and it is in consistent with the support that defined the various probability functions considered. The parameters that defined each distribution greatly affect the nature of the ODEs obtained. This method provides new ways of classifying and approximating other probability distributions apart from one considered in this research. Algorithms for implementation can be helpful in improving the results

Solutions of Chi-square Quantile Differential Equation

The quantile function of probability distributions is often sought after because of their usefulness. The quantile function of some distributions cannot be easily obtained by inversion method and approximation is the only alternative way. Several ways of quantile approximation are available, of which quantile mechanics is one of such approach. This paper is focused on the use of quantile mechanics approach to obtain the quantile ordinary differential equation of the Chi-square distribution since the quantile function of the distribution does not have close form representations except at degrees of freedom equals to two. Power series, Adomian decomposition method (ADM) and differential transform method (DTM) was used to find the solution of the nonlinear Chi-square quantile differential equation at degrees of freedom equals to two. The approximate solutions converge to the closed (exact) solution. Furthermore, power series method was used to obtain the solutions for other degrees of freedom and series expansion was obtained for large degrees of freedom

Shortest Path Planning Algorithm – A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Approach

Path planning for a mobile robot is a difficult task and has been widely studied in robotics. The objective of recent researches is not just to find feasible paths but to find paths that are optimal with respect to distance covered and safety of the robot. Techniques based on optimization have been proposed to solve this problem but some of them used techniques that may converge to local minimum. In this paper, we present a global path planning algorithm for a mobile robot in a known environment with static obstacles. This algorithm finds the optimal path with respect to distance covered. It uses particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique for convergence to global minimum and a customized algorithm which generates the coordinates of the search space. Our customized algorithm generates the coordinates of the search space and passes the result to the PSO algorithm which then uses the coordinate values to determine the optimal path from start to finish. We perform our experiments using four different environments with population size 100 each in a 10 x 10 grid terrain and our results are favorable

Ordinary Differential Equations of the Probability Functions of the Weibull Distribution and their Application in Ecology

Weibull distribution has been applied to many areas in ecological studies and engineering. Application of the Weibull and other probability distributions in ecology are mainly in fitting ecological data which is very vital in revealing latent characteristics of the object of study. The use of the ordinary differential equations (ODE) in fitting has not been studied in ecological studies. Ordinary differential calculus was used to obtain the homogenous ODE of the probability density function (PDF), quantile function (QF), survival function (SF), inverse survival function (ISF), hazard function (HF) and reversed hazard function (RHF) whose solutions are their respective functions of the Weibull distribution. Different classes of ODEs were obtained. The novelty of this proposed method is applied to radiation data