Aminophylline Improves Urine Flow Rates but Not Survival in Childhood Oliguric/Anuric Acute Kidney Injury

Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) morbidity and mortality rates remain high. Variable AKI outcomes have been reported in association with aminophylline treatment. This study evaluated AKI outcome in a group of Nigerian children treated with aminophylline.Methods: This is a retrospective study of AKI in children treated with (N=9) and without (N=8) aminophylline. Studied outcome indices comprised urine flow rate (UFR), duration of oliguria/anuria, progression through AKI stages, number of patients requiring dialysis and mortality.Results: Mean ages for the control and aminophylline arms were 4.6±2.7 and 4.9±2.1 years (P=0.7), respectively. All patients progressed to stage-3 AKI. Baseline median UFRs in the aminophylline and control arms were similar (0.13 Vs 0.04 ml/kg/hour respectively, P=0.5). The median UFR was significantly higher on day-5 (0.8 Vs 0.1; P=0.03), day-6 (1.0 Vs 0.2; P=0.02), and day-7 (1.2 Vs 0.2; P=0.03) in the aminophylline than the control arm, respectively. Short duration of oliguria/anuria (≤ 6 days) was more frequently observed in aminophylline- treated patients compared to controls (77.8% Vs 25.0%; odds ratio 0.09; 95% CI: 0.01-0.89; P=0.04). Only the aminophylline group maintained steady serum creatinine levels. Four out of five patients in the control group were dialyzed compared to only one out of eight patients in the aminophylline group (odds ratio 0.16; 95% CI: 0.04-0.71; P=0.03). Mortality rates were similar in aminophylline- treated and control patients (33%Vs 25%; hazard ratio 0.8; 95% CI: 0.1-5.5; P=0.8).Conclusion: Aminophylline therapy was beneficial for patients with AKI in terms of improved UFR and reduced need for dialysis, but failed to impact positively on survival

Corneal diameters in infants born in two hospitals in Ibadan, Nigeria

Objectives: To measure the horizontal corneal diameters in infants at birth and compare with values reported in other studies. Design: A cross-sectional hospital based study. Subjects: All the healthy infants born within the period of one month in these hospitals were eligible for enrolment into the study. Horizontal corneal diameter measurements were performed with indirect caliper in both eyes of each of the 342 healthy full term infants and 25 preterm healthy infants born in these two hospitals. These results were evaluated according to the age of the infants Results: The corneal diameter in term infants was found to range from 9.00 mm to 12.50 mm during the first week of life with a mean of 10.26 mm (SD ± 0.59 mm, n = 64). This is higher than what was reported for Caucasian infants (P < 0.01). Mean horizontal corneal diameter in all male infants aged 1-238 days was 11.06 mm (SD 0.75 mm, n = 187), slightly higher than 10.93 mm (SD 0.22 mm, n = 154) in all females, though this difference was not statistically significant. Horizontal corneal diameter increased progressively with age, from a mean value (SD) of 10.26 mm (0.72) to a mean value (SD) of 12.0 mm at 34 weeks of age. There was no significant difference in the mean corneal diameter of the right and left cornea. A few infants had corneal diameters of 12.50 mm and had no congenital glaucoma. Mean corneal diameter in preterm infants less than 37 weeks of gestation was 8.90 mm at birth (SD 1.25 mm, n = 25). Conclusion: The horizontal diameter increased with age from birth to the 34 weeks of age. Changes after this period were not studied. The values obtained in these African infants were slightly higher than those reported from other populations. The East African Medical Journal Vol. 83 (11) 2006: pp. 631-63

Epidemiology and Clinicopathologic Outcome of Pediatric Chronic Kidney Disease in Nigeria, a Single Cenetr Study

Introduction: Due to dearth of data, chronic kidney disease (CKD) outcome in African children has been dismal owing to poor understanding of its etiology, manifestations and management.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 154 CKD children and adolescents who were managed at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex between 2000 and 2009 to evaluate the epidemiology and clinicopathologic outcome of pediatric CKD in Nigeria.Results: Overall mean incidence was 11 (6-20) per million children population (pmcp)/year while prevalence averaged 48 (8-101) pmcp. There were 86 males (55.8%). Median age was 10.0 (0.2-15.5) years with 83.8% . 5 years old. Etiologies were glomerular disease (GMD, 90.26%), congenital and acquired urinary tract (7.79%) and hereditary disorders (1.95%). CKD stages at diagnosis were 45.5% CKD-1, 22.7% CKD-2, 10.4% CKD-3, 2.6% CKD-4 and 18.8% CKD-5. Median progression time through the CKD stages was 24.0 (3-108) months. Mean dialysis incidence and prevalence were 1 (0-4) pmcp/year and 4 (1-12) pmcp, respectively. Hypertension, heart failure (HF), malnutrition, anemia, acute-on-CKD, need for dialysis, azotemia, hypercreatininemia, and high calcium-phosphorous product (. 55 mg2/dL2) were mortality risk factors. CKD-1 survived significantly better than CKD stages 3-5 (p &lt; 0.05) but not CKD-2 (p=0.1). Hypertensive CKDs without HF survived better (73.0%) than hypertensive CKDs with HF (16.0%) [Hazard ratio (HR): 0.34, 95% CI: 0.14-0.83]. GMD survived better (68.5%) than non-GMD patients (33.0%) [HR: 2.87, 95% CI: 1.16-7.06].Conclusion: CKD was commoner among school than pre-school age children. GMD was the predominant etiology with better outcome than non-GMD. Comorbidity prevalence increased significantly with increasing severity of CKD stage.Keywords: Chronic Kidney Disease; Glomerular Disease; Mortality Risk Factors; Nigeri

Satirising the Nigeria Police Force: a Multimodal Discourse Analytical Study of Selected Cartoons of TELL Newsmagazines

This paper analysed some selected cartoons from TELL newsmagazines. The purpose was to describe the visual components and communicative devices employed by the cartoonist to send his message to the viewer/readers. The cartoons essentially were used to satire represented phenomenon.  Data for the study were drawn from both primary and secondary sources. The main data for the study comprised 4 cartoons purposively selected from 2012 editions of TELL newsmagazines. The selection of the cartoons was predicated upon the subject under consideration. Analysis of the data is based on multimodal discourse analysis as explicated by Gunter Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen (2001). The result showed that semiotic resources such as colour, image, symbols and icons, gaze and posture enhance the semantic quality of the cartoons. This study revealed very strongly and established the potentials of visual images to convey meaning beyond the verbal language in any human society. Keywords; satire, multimodal discourse analysis, semantic quality, semiotic resources

A low-complexity FS-MPDPC with extended voltage set for grid-connected converters

The conventional finite control set model predictive control (FS-MPC) for converter control is a well-studied area, but performance degradation due to the finite candidate vector set is still limiting its practical applications. Extending the voltage vector set using discrete space vector modulation has been proposed as a solution to overcome the limitations, but the brute-force search inherent to FS-MPC increases the computational complexity for a larger voltage set. This paper proposes a technique to alleviate the above issue by avoiding the brute-force search that is being executed in FS-MPC. The technique utilises the basics of direct-power-control theory to cut down the number of candidate voltage vectors applied in each cycle in the optimization problem. In this work, a design example having a voltage vector set of 37 elements is considered, and the proposed technique narrows down the search to eight optimal vectors. The proposed controller is specifically designed for active–reactive power control of a grid-connected converter that interlinks an energy storage system to the grid. The system is modelled in MATLAB Simulink environment and simulations are carried out to analyse the performance in all four active–reactive bidirectional power flow modes. Results validate the performance of the controller, both in steady-state and transient conditions. Further, the reduction in computational complexity due to the proposed algorithm is evaluated. It is observed that the number of computations was reduced approximately by 75% after applying the proposed algorithm for a system with a 37 voltage vector set

Heavy metal status in muscles of dry Trachinocphalus myops fish from Orita-merin market in Ibadan metropolis South-West, Nigeria

This paper determined the levels of chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in muscles of dry Trachinocephalus myops from Orita-merin market in Ibadan metropolis south-west of Nigeria. Samples were randomly purchased and were digested in concentrated nitric acid and analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Zinc had the highest concentration of 124.9±86.7 mg/kg dry weight of the samples, while cadmium had the lowest concentration of 2.5±1.6 mg/kg dry weight of the samples. The concentration of chromium and copper were 5.6±3.5 mg/kg and 5.2±3.1 mg/kg respectively while lead was observed in only one of the samples with a concentration of 3.7 mg/kg. The obtained result revealed that Cr, Cd, Zn and Pb were above the permissible level set by  the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) maximum limit in food which is Pb (2 ppm), Cd (0.5 ppm), Zn(1 ppm), and Cr (0.05 ppm which may be an indication of possible health risk when exposed consistently over a long time to this type of fish. Keywords: Heavy metals, Bioaccumulation, Ecosystem, Pollutant, Exposur

Future Challenges and Mitigation Methods for High Photovoltaic Penetration: A Survey

: Integration of high volume (high penetration) of photovoltaic (PV) generation with power grids consequently leads to some technical challenges that are mainly due to the intermittent nature of solar energy, the volume of data involved in the smart grid architecture, and the impact power electronic-based smart inverters. These challenges include reverse power flow, voltage fluctuations, power quality issues, dynamic stability, big data challenges and others. This paper investigates the existing challenges with the current level of PV penetration and looks into the challenges with high PV penetration in future scenarios such as smart cities, transactive energy, proliferation of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), possible eclipse events, big data issues and environmental impacts. Within the context of these future scenarios, this paper reviewed the existing solutions and provides insights to new and future solutions that could be explored to ultimately address these issues and improve the smart grid’s security, reliability and resilienc