Search

The rising trends of insect resistance, coupled with escalating environmental pollution from synthetic pesticides, heighten the need for a more effective and, non-hazardous agents to control insect/pests. Different aqueous extracts of Mentha spicata were screened for their phytochemical constituents and their antifeedant activities against Spodoptera frugiperda. Screening of the different aqueous extracts of Mentha spicata obtained by cold maceration revealed the presence of phenolics and tannins. The concentration of phenols and tannins in the water, glycerine, and glycerine plus water (glycerine-water) extracts were significantly different (p < 0.05). Mentha spicata water extract had a greater antifeedant activity against Spodoptera frugiperda as compared to glycerine and glycerine-water (60:40, v/v) extracts at a concentration of 5g/100 mL. The estimated % antifeedant activity recorded were 97 as against 8.21 and 49.81, respectively. Aqueous neem seed water extracts gave an estimated % antifeedant activity of 93.07 and it served as a control. Saponins were absent in all extracts and only water extracts had alkaloids present. The simple, non-hazardous, and cost-saving extraction method demonstrated could be applied in both commercial and subsistent farming to counteract the damnable effects of Spodoptera frugiperda infestation.

Background COVID-19 and its associated restrictions called for innovations in higher education teaching and learning space with many universities resorting to online teaching and alternative assessments. However, little has been done to understand the academic integrity implications in alternative online and non-invigilated assessments. Aim This study explored the perceptions of higher education students regarding academic integrity in alternative assessments. Methods Cross-sectional mixed method design following the parallel convergent approach was utilised in this study. A convenience sample of 380 undergraduate and postgraduate nursing and social science students completed an online survey on academic integrity behaviours associated with alternative assessments. Results High risk (31.7%) of academic misconduct was perceived among young people (18-24 years old). Collusion was common among nursing students (24.5%) and cheating likely to occur in assessments with longer duration—between 2 and 4 hours (18.8%) and between 1 and 2 weeks (46%). Qualitative data resulted in 274 findings and three themes— (i) impossible to cheat; (ii) easy to cheat and (iii) understanding the consequence of cheating. Suggestions for preserving academic integrity in alternative assessments were also made from the qualitative data. Conclusion Like other forms of traditional assessments, alternative assessments have increased risk of breach of academic integrity; however, with the right strategies, they could serve as effective means of assessing learning outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly led to changes in the mode of teaching, learning and assessments in most tertiary institutions worldwide. Notably, non-invigilated summative assessments became predominant. These changes heightened anxiety and depression, especially among individuals with less resilient coping mechanism. We explored the perceptions and experiences of mental health difficulties of students in tertiary education regarding non-invigilated alternative assessments in comparison to invigilated assessments. A pragmatic, mixed method cross sectional design was conducted online via Qualtrics. Thematic analysis of text was carried out using NVivo 12. In the quantitative analysis, univariable and multivariable ordinal logistic models were used to examine the potential factors for preference among students in higher education. A total of 380 Nursing and Social Science students responded to the survey. Approximately 77% of students perceived non-invigilated assessments to be less stressful compared to invigilated exams. Age, course of study, stage of studies, and number of units enrolled per semester were identified as significant drivers for students’ perceived preference for non-invigilated assessments. There was an inverse relationship between the perception of stress associated with invigilated exams and the age of students. For instance, students aged between 18-24 were 5 times more likely to prefer non-invigilated exams compared to those aged 55 or more. Comparatively, students in early stages of studies had higher preference for non-invigilated assessments. However, there was a preference reversal for students enrolled in 2 or less units per semester. Social sciences students were two times more likely to prefer non-invigilated examinations to invigilated examinations compared to nursing students. The findings reinforce the use of alternative assessments in higher education as a mitigating agency to lessen the mental health burden of tertiary students in post COVID-19 era.

Background. Dermatosis papulosa nigra (DPN) affects sun-exposed areas such as the face, neck, and trunk. The prevalence of pterygium and myopia in DPN patients in Ghana has not been studied. In this study, we examined the risk and protective factors for pterygium and myopia in DPN patients. Materials and Methods. The study involved 100 participants with facial DPN. A standard ophthalmic exam was performed using a portable slit lamp and a 3.5X magnified loop. Participants completed a closed- ended questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to summarize the level of association between DPN, myopia, and pterygium, as well as demographic factors (gender, age, occupation, family history of lesion and skin complexion). Results. 70% and 84% of participants had pterygium and myopia. Age, gender, complexion, and sun exposure were associated with pterygium and myopia (p < 0.05). Higher grade of pterygium and myopia were prevalent in the aged population. Both univariate and multivariable models highlighted that increasing age and sun exposure (outdoor) were risk factors for developing higher grade of pterygium and myopia in the DPN participants, while light skin color and male gender were respectively identified as protective factors. Conclusions. Our study is the first to examine pterygium and myopia in facial DPN patients. Most Ghanaians with facial DPN are at risk for developing pterygium and myopia.

Hypertension (HTN) is the leading cause of cardiovascular diseases. Nevertheless, most individuals in developing countries are unaware of their blood pressure status. We determined the prevalence of unrecognized hypertension and its association with lifestyle factors and new obesity indices among the adult population. This community-based study was conducted among 1288 apparently healthy adults aged 18–80 years in the Ablekuma North Municipality, Ghana. Sociodemographic, lifestyle characteristics, blood pressure and anthropometric indices were obtained. The prevalence of unrecognized HTN was 18.4% (237 / 1288). The age groups 45–54 years [aOR = 2.29, 95% CI (1.33–3.95), p = 0.003] and 55–79 years [aOR = 3.25, 95% CI (1.61–6.54), p = 0.001], being divorced [aOR = 3.02 95% CI (1.33–6.90), p = 0.008], weekly [aOR = 4.10, 95% CI (1.77–9.51), p = 0.001] and daily alcohol intake [aOR = 5.62, 95% CI (1.26–12.236), p = 0.028] and no exercise or at most once a week [aOR = 2.25, 95% CI (1.56–3.66), p = 0.001] were independently associated with HTN. Among males, the fourth quartile (Q4) of both body roundness index (BRI) and waist to height ratio (WHtR) [aOR = 5.19, 95% CI (1.05–25.50), p = 0.043] were independent determinants of unrecognized HTN. Among females, the third quartile (Q3) [aOR = 7.96, 95% CI (1.51–42.52), p = 0.015] and Q4 [aOR = 9.87 95% CI (1.92–53.31), p = 0.007] of abdominal volume index (AVI), the Q3 of both BRI and WHtR [aOR = 6.07, 95% CI (1.05–34.94), p = 0.044] and Q4 of both BRI and WHtR [aOR = 9.76, 95% CI (1.74–54.96), p = 0.010] were independent risk factors of HTN. Overall, BRI (AUC = 0.724) and WHtR (AUC = 0.724) for males and AVI (AUC = 0.728), WHtR (AUC = 0.703) and BRI (AUC = 0.703) for females yielded a better discriminatory power for predicting unrecognized HTN. Unrecognized hypertension is common among the apparently healthy adults. Increased awareness of its risk factors, screening, and promoting lifestyle modification is needed to prevent the onset of hypertension.

Aim: The study sought to determine the patterns of N-glycan profiles among Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients over a 6-month period. Materials & methods: Biochemical and clinical data were obtained from 253 T2DM patients at baseline and follow-up. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography and statistical methods were applied for N-glycan profiling. Results: The coefficients of variation were 28% and 29% at baseline and follow-up, respectively, whereas the range of N-glycan variability was from 11% to 56%. Apart from GP1 (FA2) and GP29 (FA3G3S [3,3,3]3), the intra-individual variations of N-glycan peaks were not statistically significant. Conclusion: N-glycan profiles were stable over 6-month period in T2DM patients and could be used to monitor biochemical changes in relation with T2DM comorbidities.

Plasma N-glycan profiles have been shown to be defective in type II diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and holds a promise to discovering biomarkers. The study comprised 232 T2DM patients and 219 healthy individuals. N-glycans were analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The multivariate integrative framework, DIABLO was employed for the statistical analysis. N-glycan groups (GPs 34, 32, 26, 31, 36 and 30) were significantly expressed in T2DM in component 1 and GPs 38 and 20 were related to T2DM in component 2. Four clusters were observed based on the correlation of the expressive signatures of the 39 N-glycans across T2DM and controls. Cluster A, B, C and D had 16, 16, 4 and 3 N-glycans respectively, of which 11, 8, 1 and 1 were found to express differently between controls and T2DM in a univariate analysis $$(p < 0.05)$$ ( p < 0.05 ) . Multi-block analysis revealed that trigalactosylated (G3), triantennary (TRIA), high branching (HB) and trisialylated (S3) expressed significantly highly in T2DM than healthy controls. A bipartite relevance network revealed that HB, monogalactosylated (G1) and G3 were central in the network and observed more connections, highlighting their importance in discriminating between T2DM and healthy controls. Investigation of these N-glycans can enhance the understanding of T2DM.

Living with a long-term medical condition is associated with heightened risk for mental health and psychosocial difficulties, but further research is required on this risk for children and adolesce...

While remote camera surveys have the potential to improve the accuracy of recreational fishing estimates, missing data are common and require robust analytical techniques to impute. Time-lapse cameras are being used in Western Australia to monitor recreational boating activities, but outages have occurred. Generalized linear mixed effect models formulated in a fully conditional specification multiple imputation framework were used to reconstruct missing data, with climatic and some temporal classifications as covariates. Using a complete 12-month camera record of hourly counts of recreational powerboat retrievals, data were simulated based on ten observed camera outage patterns, with a missing proportion of between 0.06 and 0.61. Nine models were evaluated, including Poisson and negative binomial models, and their associated zero-inflated variants. The imputed values were cross-validated against actual observations using percent bias, mean absolute error, root mean square error, and skill score as performance measures. In 90% of the cases, 95% confidence intervals for the total imputed estimates from at least one of the models contained the total actual counts. With no systematic trends in performance among the models, zero-inflated Poisson and its bootstrapping variant models consistently ranked among the top 3 models and possessed the narrowest confidence intervals. The robustness and generality of the imputation framework were demonstrated using other camera datasets with distinct characteristics. The results provide reliable estimates of the number of boat retrievals for subsequent estimates of fishing effort and provide time series data on boat-based activity.

Objective The study used both subjective, Suboptimal Health Status (SHS) concept along with objective, biomarkers of oxidative stress (OS): 8-OHdG, 8-epi-PGF2α and total antioxidant capacity (TAC); and angiogenic growth mediators (AGMs): VEGF-A, sFlt-1, PlGF and soluble endoglin (sEng) for predicting early-onset (EO) and late-onset (LO) preeclampsia (PE) Design A hospital-based longitudinal nested case-control study Setting Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana Population/Sample Singleton normotensive pregnancies (NTN-P) at baseline W1 (10-20th week gestation) (n= 593) of which 498 (197 developed PE) completed the study. Methods: The overall health status of the NTN-P participants was assessed at W1 and categorised as SHS and optimal health status (OHS) using a validated SHS questionnaire-25. Participants were followed at W2 (21-31st week, mid-pregnancy) and 32-42nd week. Samples were collected and analysed for biomarkers of OS and AGMs at the three-time points. Main Outcome Measures Receiver operative characteristics curve analysis was performed for the single and combined W1 and W2 biomarkers of OS and AGMs for predicting PE and its subtypes (EO-PE and LO-PE) Results Compared to single biomarkers of OS and AGMs, their combined ratios particularly, the W2 8-OHdG/PIGF ratio was a potent biomarker for PE [AUC=0.93]. Additionally, 8-OHdG/PIGF ratio best identified SHS-pregnant women who later developed EO-PE [AUC=0.97] and LO-PE [AUC=0.93]. Moreover, 8-OHdG/PIGF ratio best identified OHS-pregnant women who later developed EO-PE [AUC=0.94] and LO-PE (AUC=0.94). Conclusion Combination of biomarkers of OS and AGMs, particularly, mid-pregnancy 8-OHdG/PlGF ratio is a potent biomarker for PE and its subtypes.

The connection between personality traits, entrepreneurship curriculum and entrepreneurial intention has received inadequate research consideration among students in Africa to inform policies and curriculum development. An explanatory cross-sectional survey of 324 Ghanaian university students was assessed in a path analysis to model entrepreneurial intention as a function of personality characteristics, mediated by entrepreneurship curriculum and moderated by teaching methods, while controlling for age, gender and program of study. There were direct significant effects of entrepreneurial attitude, need for achievement and locus of control on entrepreneurial intention. The conditional effect of teaching method on entrepreneurial attitude was also significant. We found evidence of mediated-moderation for entrepreneurial attitude and intention, with no evidence found for locus of control and need for achievement. We have provided empirical evidence to support the ongoing discussion on the effect of personality traits on entrepreneurial intention to guide the development of policy and curriculum on entrepreneurship education. Implications of our study for extant literature on personality traits-entrepreneurship intention nexus, aspiring student entrepreneurs, university managers, entrepreneurship educators and policy decision makers are accentuated.

Diana Arabiat,1,2 Lisa Whitehead,1,3 Buthina Abu Sheikh,4 Ebenezer Afrifa-Yamoah5 1Edith Cowan University, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Joondalup, Perth, WA 6027, Australia; 2Maternal and Child Nursing Department, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan; 3University of Otago, Postgraduate Centre for Nursing Studies, Christchurch, New Zealand; 4Diabetes Department, Jordan University Hospital, Amman, Jordan; 5Edith Cowan University, School of Science, Joondalup, Perth, WA, AustraliaCorrespondence: Diana ArabiatEdith Cowan University, School of Nursing and Midwifery, 270 Joondalup Drive, Building 21, Joondalup, Perth, WA 6027, AustraliaTel +61 415875977Email d.arabiat@ecu.edu.auBackground: Treatment satisfaction is an important indicator for treatment compliance and glycemic control. Although psychometric properties of the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire have been confirmed in several languages, it remains unclear the extent to which the factorial structure of this tool is valid for Arabic speaking populations.Purpose: This study set out to confirm the construct validity of the Arabic version of the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQ) by investigating the fit of published factor structures and the reliability of responses in patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.Methods: Data were from a large cross-sectional study of 1002 patients with diabetes in Jordan. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare three different models of the 8-item questionnaire (one factor, two factors, three factors) across patients treated with insulin and patients treated with oral hypoglycaemic medications.Results: Statistics covered the factorial validity and omega reliability coefficient (Ωw) of the DTSQ. We were able to replicate the three different models of the 8-item Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire reported in previous studies, yet a two-factor model provided the best fit to the data in our sample with omega reliability coefficient (Ωw) of the subscales above 0.70.Conclusion: The finding suggests a cross-cultural invariance of the factor structure of the Arabic version of the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire, as we were able to replicate the same factor structure using the Arabic translated version of the tool and using non-English speaking participants. Within known limitations and gaps in the literature, healthcare professionals working with Arabic speaking patients may find this tool useful for identification of high-risk patients and those in need for interventions to promote glycemic control.Keywords: treatment satisfaction, factor analysis, diabetes, Arabic, reliability, validity

Digital camera monitoring has revolutionised survey designs in many fields, as an important source of information. The extended sampling coverage offered by this monitoring scheme makes it preferable compared to other traditional methods of survey. However, data obtained from digital camera monitoring are often highly variable, and characterized by sparse periods of zero counts, interspersed with missing observations due to outages. In practice, missing data of relatively shorter duration are mostly observed and are often imputed using interpolation techniques, ignoring long-term trends leading to inherent estimation biases. In this study, we investigated time series forecasting methods that adequately handle intermittency and produced plausible estimates for imputation and forecasting purposes. The study utilised a yearlong digital camera monitoring data set of hourly counts of powerboat launches at three boat ramps in Western Australia. Several time series forecasting methods were evaluated and the accuracies of their point estimates of forecasts for various lead times in hours of up to one week were assessed using cross-validation techniques. Intermittent demand forecasting techniques, including Croston's method and Syntetos-Boylan Approximation (SBA) models, and count data forecasting methods including autoregressive conditional Poisson (ACP) models, integer-valued moving average (INMA) models, and integer-valued autoregressive (INAR) models were evaluated. ACP and INAR models performed better than intermittent demand forecasting techniques for short forecast horizons and provided some evidence of their sufficiency in predicting the dynamics in recreational boating activities. This result established that, in as much as intermittency may be a key feature for a given dataset, it should not override the systemic characteristics of data in the application of forecasting techniques. Our results provide plausible estimates for short-term missing data and forecasts for monitoring events, with applications in supporting proper tracking of usage of facilities, guiding resource allocations and providing insightful perspectives for management decisions., Digital camera monitoring, Time series modelling, Intermittent data, Integer-valued models, Imputation, Forecasting.

Severity of falls in hospital patients are threat to patient safety which can result in a financial burden on the patient’s family and health care services. Both patient specific and environmental and organisational factors are associated with severity of falls in hospital. It is important to continuously analyse the factors associated with severity of fall which can inform the implementation of any fall preventive strategies. This study aims to identify factors associated with the severity of falls in hospitalised adult patients in Western Australia. This study involved a retrospective cohort analysis of inpatient falls records extracted from the hospital’s Clinical Incident Database from May 2014 to April 2019. Severity of falls were classified as three Severity Assessment Code (SAC): SAC 1 was “high” causing serious harm or death; SAC 2 was “medium” causing moderate or minor harm; and SAC 3 was “low” indicating no harm. Univariable and multivariable generalised ordinal logistic regression models were used to quantify the magnitude of effects of the potential risk factors on severity of falls at 5% level of significance and reported the crude odds and adjusted odds ratio of falling at a higher severity level. There were 3705 complete reported cases of falls with the average age of the patients was 68.5 ± 17.0 years, with 40.2% identified as female. The risk of falling at a higher level of severity increased by patient age over 50 years. Females were 15.1% more likely to fall at higher severity level compared to females. Fall incidents occurred during toileting and showering activities and incidents in a communal area were 14.5% and 26% more likely to occur at a higher severity respectively. Similarly, depression (167%), influence of alcohol or illicit drugs (more than 300%), use of medications (86%) and fragile skin (75%) significantly increased the odds of falling at higher level of severity. Identification of underlying risk factors associated with fall severity provides information which can guide nurses and clinicians to design and implement effective interventional strategies that mitigate the risk of serious fall injuries. The results suggest that fall prevention strategies should target patients with these risk factors to avoid severity of falls.

Interventions focused on promoting resilience or protective factors of youth have been proposed as a strategy for reducing risky behaviours associated with HIV infection among youth; however few studies have explored their effectiveness. This study assessed the impact of a resilience-based HIV prevention intervention (You Only Live Once) on risky sexual behaviours, resilience and protective factors of youth.A one-group pretest-posttest design was used. One hundred and ninety-seven youth aged 15-24 years were conveniently recruited from a non-profit organisation in Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality, South Africa and participated in a 12-session, resilience-based HIV intervention delivered over a 1-week period by trained adult facilitators. Outcomes of interest were assessed at baseline and 3-month follow-up using validated risky sexual behaviour measures, and Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Mixed effect logistic and linear regression models were formulated to assess the impact of the intervention on risky sexual behaviours; resilience and protective factors respectively.Compared to baseline, participants at 3-month follow-up were 68 % less likely to have unprotected sex, 22 % less likely to regret their decision to engage in sexual activity and 0.4 % less likely to be pregnant or made someone pregnant. Conversely, participants at the 3-month follow-up had a higher propensity to engage in multiple sexual partnerships, transactional sex and intergenerational sex than baseline. Participants at 3-month follow-up had significant improvements in their scores of resilience, individual capacities and contextual factors that facilitate a sense of belonging (p 0.05).You Only Live Once intervention appeared to have mitigated some risky sexual behaviours, and improved resilience and protective factors over a 3-month period. These findings suggest that the intervention has ability to reduce risky sexual behaviours associated with HIV, and improve resilience and protective factors among youth in South Africa. Further evaluation of the intervention with a rigorous study design, larger sample size and longer period for follow-up is warranted.

Background The Suboptimal Health Status Questionnaire-25 (SHS-Q-25) developed to measure Suboptimal Health Status has been used worldwide, but its construct validity has only been tested in the Chinese population. Applying Structural Equation Modelling, we investigate aspects of the construct validity of the SHS-Q-25 to determine the interactions between SHS subscales in a Ghanaian population. Methods The study involved healthy Ghanaian participants (n = 263; aged 20–80 years; 63% female), who responded to the SHSQ-25. In an exploratory factor and parallel analysis, the study extracted a new domain structure and compared to the established five-domain structure of SHSQ-25. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted and the fit of the model further discussed. Invariance analysis was carried out to establish the consistency of the instrument across multi-groups. Results The extracted domains were reliable with Cronbach’s $$\alpha$$ α of 0.846, 0.820 and 0.864 respectively, for fatigue, immune-cardiovascular and cognitive. The CFA revealed that the model fit indices were excellent $$\left( {{\text{RMSEA}} = 0.049~ < ~0.08,\,{\text{CFI}} = 0.903 > 0.9,\,{\text{GFI}} = 0.880 < 0.9,\,{\text{TLI}} = 0.907 > 0.9} \right)$$ RMSEA = 0.049 < 0.08 , CFI = 0.903 > 0.9 , GFI = 0.880 < 0.9 , TLI = 0.907 > 0.9 . The fit indices for the three-domain model were statistically superior to the five-domain model. There were, however, issues of insufficient discriminant validity as some average variance extracts were smaller than the corresponding maximum shared variance. The three-domain model was invariant for all constrained aspects of the structural model across age, which is an important risk factor for most chronic diseases. Conclusion The validity tests suggest that the SHS-Q25 can measure SHS in a Ghanaian population. It can be recommended as a screening tool to early detect chronic diseases especially in developing countries where access to facilities is diminished.

IntroductionHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention interventions focused at reducing risky sexual behaviours are an important strategy for preventing HIV infection among youth (15–24 years) who continue to be vulnerable to the disease. This systematic review aims to synthesise current global evidence on the effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions for reducing risky sexual behaviour among youth in the last decade.Methods and analysisMEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, PsychINFO, ProQuest Central, CINAHL and Web of Science databases, ClinicalTrials.gov and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and reference lists of included studies and systematic reviews on effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions for reducing risky sexual behaviour among youth will be searched for articles published from August 2011 to August 2021. Eligible studies will be longitudinal studies including randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies that examined the effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions among youth populations (15–24 years) with risky sexual behaviour as a primary or secondary outcome. Study selection and quality assessment will be undertaken independently by three reviewers and disagreements will be resolved through consensus. Data analysis will be undertaken using RevMan software V.5.3.3. A random effects meta-analysis will be conducted to report heterogeneous data where statistical pooling is achievable. We will use I2 statistics to test for heterogeneity. Where appropriate, a funnel plot will be generated to assess publication bias. Where statistical pooling is unachievable, the findings will be reported in a narrative form, together with tables and figures to assist in data presentation if required. Reporting of the systematic review will be informed by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval is not required. Findings of the systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The findings will be of interest to researchers, healthcare practitioners and policymakers.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021271774.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been strongly associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TCF7L2 gene. This study investigated the association between rs12255372, rs7903146 in the TCF7L2 gene and T2DM in a Ghanaian population. A case-control study design was used for this study. A total of 106 T2DM patients and 110 control participants were selected. Basic data collected included body mass index, blood pressure and socio-demographics. Fasting blood samples were collected and processed for: serum lipid analysis, plasma glucose estimation and plasma HbA1c estimation. Parts of the whole blood samples were used for DNA extraction using a modified salting-out method. Common and allele-specific primers were designed for genotyping using the Modified Tetra-Primer Amplification assay. Associations were evaluated using logistic regression models. The rs7903146 risk variant was significantly associated with 2.16 vs. 4.06 increased odds for T2DM in patients

Background Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have been strongly associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TCF7L2 gene. This study investigated the interplay between rs12255372 and rs7903146 with T2DM in a Ghanaian population. Methods A case-control design was used for this study. A total of 106 T2DM patients and 110 apparently healthy control participants were selected. Basic data collected included body mass index, blood pressure and socio-demographics. Fasting blood samples were collected and used for serum lipid analysis, HbA1c, glucose estimation and DNA extraction. Common and allele-specific primers were designed for genotyping using the Modified Tetra-Primer Amplification assay. Associations were evaluated using logistic regression models. Results The rs7903146 risk variant was significantly associated with 2.16 vs 4.06 increased odds for T2DM in patients 2 = 0.0001). Conclusion The association between rs7903146 and rs12255372 with T2DM looks to be more highly associated in a subgroup- women and those without T2DM family history, yet have cardiometabolic risk.

Background Accurate prediction and early recognition of type II diabetes (T2DM) will lead to timely and meaningful interventions, while preventing T2DM associated complications. In this context, machine learning (ML) is promising, as it can transform vast amount of T2DM data into clinically relevant information. This study compares multiple ML techniques for predictive modelling based on different T2DM associated variables in an African population, Ghana. Methods The study involved 219 T2DM patients and 219 healthy individuals who were recruited from the hospital and the local community, respectively. Anthropometric and biochemical information including glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, fasting blood sugar (FBS), serum lipids [(total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c and LDL-c)] were collected. From this data, four ML classification algorithms including Naïve-Bayes (NB), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Decision Tree (DT) were used to predict T2DM. Precision, Recall, F1-Scores, Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) scores and the confusion matrix were computed to determine the performance of the various algorithms while the importance of the feature attributes was determined by recursive feature elimination technique. Results All the classifiers performed beyond the acceptable threshold of 70% for Precision, Recall, F-score and Accuracy. After building the predictive model, 82% of diabetic test data was detected by the NB classifier, of which 93% were accurately predicted. The SVM classifier was the second-best performing classifier which yielded an overall accuracy of 84%. The non-T2DM test data yielded an accurate prediction score of 75% from the 98% of the proportion of the non-T2DM test data. KNN and DT yielded accuracies of 83% and 81%, respectively. NB had the best performance (AUC = 0.87) followed by SVM (AUC = 0.84), KNN (AUC = 0.85) and DT (AUC = 0.81). The best three feature attributes, in order of importance, were HbA1c, TC and BMI whereas the least three importance of the features were Age, HDL-c and LDL-c. Conclusion Based on the predictive performance and high accuracy, the study has shown the potential of ML as a robust forecasting tool for T2DM. Our results can be a benchmark for guiding policy decisions in T2DM surveillance in resource and medical expertise limited countries such as Ghana.

Digital camera monitoring data on recreational boating traffic are often manually interpreted and the reading cost can be expensive. Typically, these data are used along with other periodic survey information and camera data between these surveys may not be read, creating gaps in the time series. We predicted recreational boating traffic during these ‘gap’ periods using historical camera data and covariates to complete the time series data. Predictive models were built in a Bayesian regression modelling framework to determine the daily distribution of recreational boating traffic at two ramps in Western Australia based on climatic variables (temperature, humidity, wind speed, direction and gust, and sea level pressure) and some temporal classifications (month and day type). Two observed year-long datasets of boating traffic were used, with a year-long gap between them. One set was used to build models, and the other set was used for validation purposes. Models were developed using leave-one-out cross-validation, and ensemble prediction. Fitted models explained 50% [95% credible interval (CI) of R2: 0.40–0.58] and 62% [95% CI of R2: 0.58–0.66] of the variabilities in the daily number of boat launches at the two ramps. Subsequently, using data for the preceding period where camera data were read, we imputed plausible estimates for the period between readings. Imputed values generally aligned well with the observed data, with some temporal biases at the bulk and upper tail of the distributions. The 95% credible intervals adequately reflected the observed data at both ramps. Data for the constructed periods depicted the general trends for the observed periods. Our results provide useful insights into using climatic factors to predict boating traffic to ‘fill in the gaps’ between survey years which could assist in the ongoing monitoring to promote sustainable management of recreational fisheries.

The lack of empirical evidence on the effect of heat exposure on the health and safety, productivity, psychological behaviour and social well-being outcomes of small- and large-scale mining workers in Africa has derailed concrete policy directions and interventions. An explanatory cross-sectional survey involving 320 small- and large-scale mining workers was used to assess this research gap. A path analysis was used to model health and safety, productivity, psychological behaviour and social well-being as a function of heat exposure, mediated and moderated by adaptation strategies and barriers, while controlling for age, gender, level of education, years of working experience and workplace environment. Significant direct adverse effects of heat exposure on mining workers' health and safety, productivity and psychological behaviour outcomes were found. Using a pick-a-point approach, significant difference was found in simple slopes (SS) for heat exposure on adaptation strategies at medium level of barriers and a trend toward significance at the high level of barriers. Except for health and safety outcomes, there were significant conditional indirect effects of heat exposure on the performance outcomes at the medium and high levels of barriers to adaptation strategies. However, there was no evidence of mediated-moderation for heat exposure and health and safety, productivity, psychological behaviour and social well-being outcomes. We have provided empirical evidence to establish heat exposure effect on key performance outcomes of mining workers to initiate and guide the formulation of heat exposure management policies.

Heat exposure studies over the last decade have shown little attention in assessing and reporting the psychometric properties of the various scales used to measure impacts of occupational heat stress on workers. A descriptive cross-sectional survey including 320 small- and large-scale mining workers was employed to assess the construct validity of the social impacts of occupational heat stress scale (SIOHSS) in the Western Region of Ghana in 2017. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and invariance analysis were carried out using AMOS version 25 and statistical product and service solutions (SPSS) version 26 to examine the model fit and establish consistency correspondingly across multiple groups (gender, age, working hours, type of mining and workplace setting). Empirically, our results depicted that effects on health and safety, behavioural, productivity and social well-being were each found to be reliable, with Cronbach's α of 0.722, 0.807, 0.852 and 0.900 respectively. Though there were issues of insufficient discriminant validity as some average variance extract (AVE) were smaller than the corresponding maximum shared variance (MSV), the CFA showed good model fit indices (CFI = 0.856, GFI = 0.890, TLI = 0.863, SRMR = 0.08, RMSEA = 0.08). Also, the model was variant for all constrained aspects of the structural model indicating a requirement for an adaptation of the instrument across groups. The good to moderate internal consistency and construct validity of the SIOHSS is adequate evidence for the confidence required for its reliability and accuracy in measuring the social impacts of occupational heat stress on workers.

Digital camera monitoring is increasingly being used to monitor recreational fisheries. The manual interpretation of video imagery can be costly and time consuming. In an a posteriori analysis, we investigated trade-offs between the reading cost and accuracy measures of estimates of boat retrievals obtained at various sampling proportions for low, moderate and high traffic boat ramps in Western Australia. Simple random sampling, systematic sampling and stratified sampling designs with proportional and weighted allocation were evaluated to assess trade-offs in terms of bias, accuracy, precision, coverage rate and cost in estimating the annual total number of powerboat retrievals in 10,000 jackknife resampling draws. The relative standard error (RSE ± standard deviations) obtained by the sampling designs for sampling proportions from 0.4 onwards were below a 20 % threshold for three of the sampling designs across the three boat ramps. Coverage rates of over 90 % were observed for the confidence intervals for the estimated annual number of powerboat retrievals, with low relative standard errors (RSE

BACKGROUND: Visual health information is particularly important in planning appropriate interventions to combat preventable causes of blindness and visual impairment. Nonetheless, there is limited information on ocular health conditions in Ghana. The study set out to determine the pattern of ocular morbidity at the Red Cross Eye Unit in the Bono Region of Ghana. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The study was carried out at the Red Cross Eye Unit in the Bono Region of Ghana and used a hospital-based retrospective cross-sectional study design. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A review of patient's ocular health records throughout the year 2018 was performed. Patients were conveniently sampled, and socio-economic details and diagnosis were analyzed. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM Corp. Released 2011. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0. Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: A total of 2400 patients records were reviewed, comprising of 1012 males (42.2%) and 1388 females (57.8%) with a male to female ratio of 1:1.4. Each patient sampled was diagnosed with an ocular condition and the modal age group was found to be 41–60 years. The most common cause of ocular morbidity among the patients was refractive error (32.4%). This was followed by acute conjunctivitis (29.7%) and cataract (12.3%). Refractive error and acute conjunctivitis were found to be significantly higher among females (P CONCLUSIONS: Refractive error, acute conjunctivitis, and cataract were common ocular morbidities found in this study. Interventions should target these ocular conditions to minimize the risk of preventable visual impairment and blindness in the Region.