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Abstract The use of geographic information system (GIS) technologies to improve access to health is gaining momentum in Africa. This has become more pertinent with the increasing penetration of mobile-phone technology and internet use, and calls for innovative strategies to support implementation of the World Health Organization Sustainable Development Goals for universal health coverage on the continent. The huge potential benefits of GIS to advance health service delivery in Africa is, however, yet to be fully harnessed due to critical challenges such as proliferation of pilot projects, poor coordination, inadequate preparedness of the health workforce for GIS, lack of interoperability, and inadequate sustainable financing. To discuss these challenges and propose the way forward for rapid, cost-effective, and sustainable deployment of GIS, the African Regional GIS Summit was held in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, on 7–10 October 2019 under the umbrella of the AFRO GIS Centre.

The mobile phone global positioning system (GPS) is used to reconnaissance a mobile phone user's location, e.g., at work, home, shops, etc. Such information can be used to feed data gathering expeditions, the actual position of the interviewer/surveyor using the mobile phone inert settings of location mode via GPS, WIFI, and Mobile networks. Mobile devices are becoming progressively erudite and now integrate diverse and robust sensors. The new generation of smartphones is multi-laden with sensors, including GPS sensors. The study describes and evaluates a data-gathering process used by the World Health Organization (WHO–Nigeria, EPI Program) that uses phone-based in-built GPS sensors to identify the position of users while they undergo supportive supervision. This form of spatial data is collected intrinsically using the Open Data Kit (ODK) GPS interface, which interlaces with the mobile phone GPS sensor to fetch the geo-coordinates during the process. It represents a step in building a methodology of matching places on the map with the geo-coordinates received from the mobile phones to investigate deviation patterns by devices and location mode. The empirical results can help us to understand the variation in geospatial data collation across devices and highlight critical criteria for choosing mobile phones for mobile surveys and data campaigns. This study reviewed the existing data gathered inadvertently from 10 brands of smartphones over 1 year of using the mobile data collection with over 80,000 field visits to predict the deviation pattern for spatial data acquisition via mobile phones by different brands.

The reservoir rock ismade up of differentminerals which contribute to the overall formation wettability. These minerals in their natural state differ in chemistry and structure, and thus behave differently in an environment of varying composition and salinity. These have direct implications for enhanced oil recovery due to water flooding, or wettability alteration due to long-term exposure to brine. With the reservoir rock being a complex system of multiple minerals, the control of wettability alterations becomes difficult to manage. One of the dominant mechanisms responsible for wettability alteration is the mineral surface charge, which is dependent on pH, and fluid composition (salt type and salinity). For the first time, the surface charge development of barite, dolomite, and feldspar minerals in their native reservoir environments (accounting for the formation brine complexity) is presented. Also, the effect of oilfield operations (induced pH change) on minerals’ surface charge development is studied. This was achieved by using the zeta potential measurements. The zeta potential results show that barite and dolomite minerals possess positively charge surfaces in formation water and seawater, with feldspar having a near-zero surface charge. Furthermore, the surface charge development is controlled by the H+/OH− (pH), electrical double-layer effect, as well as ion adsorption on the mineral’s surfaces. These findings provide key insights into the role of fluid environment (pH, composition) and oilfield operations on mineral surface charge development. In addition, the results show that careful tuning of pH with seawater injection could serve as an operational strategy to control the mineral surface charge. This is important as negatively charged surfaces negate wettability alteration due to polar crude oil components. Also, the design of an ion-engineered fluid to control the surface charge of minerals was implemented, and the results show that reduction in the Ca2+ concentration holds the key to the surface charge modifications. Surface charge modifications as evidenced in this study play a critical role in the control of wettability alteration to enhance production.

BackgroundThe ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Africa is an urgent public health crisis. Estimated models projected over 150,000 deaths and 4,600,000 hospitalizations in the first year of the disease in the absence of adequate interventions. Therefore, electronic contact tracing and surveillance have critical roles in decreasing COVID-19 transmission; yet, if not conducted properly, these methods can rapidly become a bottleneck for synchronized data collection, case detection, and case management. While the continent is currently reporting relatively low COVID-19 cases, digitized contact tracing mechanisms and surveillance reporting are necessary for standardizing real-time reporting of new chains of infection in order to quickly reverse growing trends and halt the pandemic. ObjectiveThis paper aims to describe a COVID-19 contact tracing smartphone app that includes health facility surveillance with a real-time visualization platform. The app was developed by the AFRO (African Regional Office) GIS (geographic information system) Center, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency preparedness and response team. The app was developed through the expertise and experience gained from numerous digital apps that had been developed for polio surveillance and immunization via the WHO’s polio program in the African region. MethodsWe repurposed the GIS infrastructures of the polio program and the database structure that relies on mobile data collection that is built on the Open Data Kit. We harnessed the technology for visualization of real-time COVID-19 data using dynamic dashboards built on Power BI, ArcGIS Online, and Tableau. The contact tracing app was developed with the pragmatic considerations of COVID-19 peculiarities. The app underwent testing by field surveillance colleagues to meet the requirements of linking contacts to cases and monitoring chains of transmission. The health facility surveillance app was developed from the knowledge and assessment of models of surveillance at the health facility level for other diseases of public health importance. The Integrated Supportive Supervision app was added as an appendage to the pre-existing paper-based surveillance form. These two mobile apps collected information on cases and contact tracing, alongside alert information on COVID-19 reports at the health facility level; the information was linked to visualization platforms in order to enable actionable insights. ResultsThe contact tracing app and platform were piloted between April and June 2020; they were then put to use in Zimbabwe, Benin, Cameroon, Uganda, Nigeria, and South Sudan, and their use has generated some palpable successes with respect to COVID-19 surveillance. However, the COVID-19 health facility–based surveillance app has been used more extensively, as it has been used in 27 countries in the region. ConclusionsIn light of the above information, this paper was written to give an overview of the app and visualization platform development, app and platform deployment, ease of replicability, and preliminary outcome evaluation of their use in the field. From a regional perspective, integration of contact tracing and surveillance data into one platform provides the AFRO with a more accurate method of monitoring countries’ efforts in their response to COVID-19, while guiding public health decisions and the assessment of risk of COVID-19.

Abstract Sour gas reservoirs have faced critics for environmental concerns and hazards, necessitating a novel outlook to how the produced sour gases could be either utilized or carefully disposed. Over the years of research and practice, several methods of sour gas processing and utilization have been developed, from the solid storage of sulfur to reinjecting the sour gas into producing or depleted light oil reservoir for miscible flooding enhanced oil recovery. This paper seeks to investigate the impact of injection parameters on the performance of sour gas injection for enhance oil recovery. In designing a miscible gas flooding project, empirical correlations are used and the key parameter which impacts the phase behavior is identified to be the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP). A compositional simulator was utilized in this research work to study the effect of injection parameters such as minimum miscibility pressure, acid gas concentration, injection pressure and injection rate on the performance of miscible sour gas injection for enhanced oil recovery. The findings showed that methane concentration had a significant impact on the MMP of the process. Additionally, an increase in acid gas concentration decreases the MMP of the process as a result of an increase in gas viscosity, consequently extending the plateau period resulting in late gas breakthrough and increased overall recovery of the process.

INTRODUCTION: The new coronavirus (COVID-19) that emerged from Wuhan, Hubei Province of China in December 2019, causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARI) has fast spread across the entire globe, with most countries struggling to slow and reduce the spread of the virus through rapid screening, testing, isolation, case management, contact tracing, implementing social distancing and lockdowns. This has been shown to be a major factor in countries that have been successful in containing COVID-19 transmission. Early detection of cases is important, and the use of geospatial technology can support to detect and easily identify potential hotspots that will require timely response. The use of spatial analysis with geographic information systems (GIS) had proved to be effective in providing timely and effective solutions in supporting epidemic response and pandemics over the years. It has developed and evolved rapidly with a complete technological tool for representing data, model construction, visualization and platform construction among others.

INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic has caused serious disruption to almost all aspect of human endeavor forcing countries to implement unprecedented public health measures aimed at mitigating its effects, such as total lockdown (inter and intra), travel bans, quarantine, social distancing in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. Supportive supervision is a functional component of the immunization systems that allows identification of existing gaps, provides an opportunity for onsite training, and document real-time findings for improvement of the program. The control measures of COVID -19 pandemic has also resulted in limitation of operations of the immunization system including Supportive supervision. This has limited many aspects of supportive supervision for surveillance and routine immunization monitoring system in the East and Southern African countries. The aim of this study is to identify the effects of COVID-19 on Integrated Supportive Supervision visits for expanded programme on immunization (EPI) programme and how it influences the immunization and VPD surveillance indicators, and its short-term effect towards notification of increase or decrease morbidity and mortality. METHODS: we reviewed the integrated supportive supervision (ISS) data and the routine administrative coverage from 19 countries in the East and Southern Africa (ESA) for the period January to August 2019 to analyze the trends in the number of visits, vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD), and routine Immunization (RI) indicators using t-test, and compare with the period January to August 2020 during the months of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: thirteen countries out of the 19 considered, had shown a decline in the number of integrated supportive supervision (ISS) visits, with 10 (77%) having more than 59% decrease during the January-August 2020 as compared to the same period 2019. 11 (57%) of the countries have shown a decrease (p-value 0.05). Ethiopia and Kenya had the highest drop (p-value 0.000). 6(32%) have an increase in the number of visits, with Madagascar, Zambia, and Zimbabwe having >100% increase in the number of visits. 67% of the countries that have decreased in the number of ISS visits have equally witnessed a drop in DPT3 administrative coverage. Countries with a low proportion of outreach sessions conducted in the period of January - August 2020, have all had sessions interruption, with more than 40% of the reasons associated with the lockdown. CONCLUSION: countries have experienced a decrease in the number of supportive supervision visits conducted, during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic and, this has influenced the routine immunization and vaccine-preventable diseases surveillance (VPD) process indicators monitored through the conduct of the visits. Continuous decrease in these performance indicators pose a great threat to the performance sustained and the functionality of the surveillance and immunization system, and consequently on increased surveillance sensitivity to promptly detect outbreaks and aiming to reducing morbidity and mortality in the sub-region.

An understanding of clay mineral surface chemistry is becoming critical as deeper levels of control of reservoir rock wettability via fluid–solid interactions are sought. Reservoir rock is composed of many minerals that contact the crude oil and control the wetting state of the rock. Clay minerals are one of the minerals present in reservoir rock, with a high surface area and cation exchange capacity. This is a first-of-its-kind study that presents zeta potential measurements and insights into the surface charge development process of clay minerals (chlorite, illite, kaolinite, and montmorillonite) in a native reservoir environment. Presented in this study as well is the effect of fluid salinity, composition, and oilfield operations on clay mineral surface charge development. Experimental results show that the surface charge of clay minerals is controlled by electrostatic and electrophilic interactions as well as the electrical double layer. Results from this study showed that clay minerals are negatively charged in formation brines as well as in deionized water, except in the case of chlorite, which is positively charged in formation water. In addition, a negative surface charge results from oilfield operations, except for operations at a high alkaline pH range of 10–13. Furthermore, a reduction in the concentrations of Na, Mg, Ca, and bicarbonate ions does not reverse the surface charge of the clay minerals; however, an increase in sulfate ion concentration does. Established in this study as well, is a good correlation between the zeta potential value of the clay minerals and contact angle, as an increase in fluid salinity results in a reduction of the negative charge magnitude and an increase in contact angle from 63 to 102 degree in the case of chlorite. Lastly, findings from this study provide vital information that would enhance the understanding of the role of clay minerals in the improvement of oil recovery.

Mozambique introduced monovalent rotavirus vaccine (Rotarix®) in September 2015. We evaluated the effectiveness of Rotarix® under conditions of routine use in Mozambican children hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis (AGE). A test negative case-control analysis was performed on data collected during 2017–2019 from children

Abstract Background Nigeria is the only country in Africa that is yet to be certified as polio free. Surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is the foundation of the polio eradication initiative since it provides information to alert both health managers and clinician that timely actions should be initiated to interrupt transmission of the polio virus. The strategy also provides evidence for the absence of wild poliovirus. This evaluation was performed to assess key quality indicators defined by the polio eradication program and thus to identify gaps to allow planning for corrective measures to achieve a polio-free situation in Bauchi state and in Nigeria at large. We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study which involved a desk review of documents to authenticate the correctness and completeness of data, and a review of documented evidence for the quality of AFP surveillance. We interviewed Local Government Authority (LGA) surveillance officers and clinicians from focal and non-focal sites, along with caregivers of children with AFP and community leaders. The data were entered and analyzed in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of the AFP surveillance and documentation in eighteen of the twenty Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Bauchi State. We assessed the knowledge of the clinician at focal and non-focal sites on case definition of AFP, the number and method of stool specimen collection to investigate a case and types of training received for AFP surveillance. We verified AFP case investigations for the last three years: The caregivers (mothers) were interviewed to authenticate the reported information of AFP cases, the method used for stool specimen collection and feedbacks. Community leaders’ knowledge on AFP surveillance was also assessed. Data was entered and analyzed in excel spread sheet. Results Of the 18 LGA Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers (DSNOs), only 2 (11%) and 5 (28%) had reports of polio outbreak investigations and supervisory visits at the lower levels, respectively. Furthermore, only 6 (33%) and 7 (39%) of the DSNOs had minutes of meetings and surveillance work plans, respectively. Of the 31 AFP cases investigated, only 39, 26, 23, and 23% had correct and complete information for the birth day, birth month, date of onset of paralysis, and date of investigation, respectively. Seventy-one percent of the clinicians at the AFP focal sites knew the correct definition for AFP compared with only 30% at the non-focal sites. Of the 38 caregivers (mothers), 16 (42%) did not remember the day or month the AFP investigation was conducted. However, 95% gave a correct number of stool samples collected and 40% mentioned that the samples were collected 24 h apart. Feedback was not given to 26 (68%) of the caregivers. The majority (79%) of the community leaders knew how to recognize a case of AFP and knew that the stool was the specimen required for the investigation, but 21% did not know to whom they should report a case of AFP in their community. Conclusion This study revealed a gap in the quality indicators for polio eradication in the state, especially regarding knowledge and documentation for AFP surveillance at the operational level. Regular training of the DSNOs and focal persons, regular sensitization of clinicians, community education, supplies of reporting tools, and ensuring their judicious use will improve AFP surveillance in the state.

Fundamental rights have importance, concern and challenges to societies and states at local and international levels. Those are, however, more in developing states and democracies. Many Nigerian citizens especially civilians and the poor have gone into despair for most of the citizens’ rights exist only on paper and are not realistic. This paper investigated the fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens: provisions, enforcement, and myth in these rights; reality and manoeuvre by various stake holders in human rights provisions; enforcement and safeguard. The study used secondary sources of data. It is found that fundamental rights provisions and enforcement in Nigeria are constrained by military rule, poor or no political will and commitment, poor constitutional provisions, poor legal aid and services, ignorance of the existing laws and provisions, deliberate acts to thwart the arm of justice, corruption, judicial incompetence, inefficient justice system, socio-cultural provisions, poverty, state aligned threats and intimidations. The study recommends extensive and intensive education and enlightenment to citizens, full monitoring and strict compliance with provisions on rights, broader and functional legal aid services especially to the poor and the ignorant, revamping Nigeria’s justice system to reflect current realities and strict compliance with the rules of engagement by the armed forces, and reviewing laws such as the Penal and Criminal code laws to co-opt new trends and realities.

Parabolic trough collectors (PTCs) play a vital role in solar-thermal energy conversion, with the absorber tube being central to heat collection efficiency. This study investigates the potential for improving heat transfer within the PTC absorber tube using Fiberfrax 140 coated with Al2O3 as a novel reflector material. The research is driven by the ongoing pursuit of enhanced PTC performance. A standard modeling approach was employed, utilizing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis with SolidWorks Flow Simulation software, coupled with solar simulations to assess collector performance under varying conditions. Environmental parameters of Bauchi such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed were sourced from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet). Optimization techniques were implemented to establish the optimal design configuration. The optimal design parameters were determined as a focal length of 700mm and a rim angle of 90°. Simulations were conducted daily from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, encompassing the period of January to June. A mass flow rate of 0.2 kg/s, informed by existing literature, was employed in the simulations. The results indicate improved collector performance throughout the simulated period, with peak thermal efficiency ranging from 70% to 82%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]