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Breast cancer biology is heterogeneous and patients with the same diagnostic profile have markedly different clinical outcomes. Gene expression profiling and its surrogate IHC markers classified breast cancer into four molecular subtypes with different prognosis, targeted therapies, and/or clinical outcomes. The present study was conducted to investigate breast cancer subtypes among women in NDUTH Bayelsa state and compared them with similar studies in other populations of international and national origin. Archived formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks were retrieved from January 2010-December 2014 provided 20 cases of microscopically confirmed invasive ductal breast carcinoma that were evaluable for histology and IHC (ER, PR, HER2, and Cytokeratin 5/6) immunostain. All the patients were females and most of them were under 50 years at presentation. The molecular subtypes were luminal A (54.1%), luminal B (25.0%), HER2 (12.5%), basal-like (4.2%), and unclassified (4.2%). Triple negative carcinoma (basal-like and unclassified combined) was 4.2%, ER+ (65%) and (PR + 70%).Breast carcinoma in Bayelsa state women presents at a younger age. We note that the prevalence of the molecular subtypes of breast carcinoma appears to have variation in geographical distribution. The reasons for these differences could be technical, quality of fixation and processing, varying staining techniques, and different criteria in scoring and reporting. This study indicates that the majority of breast cancer in NDUTH lies at the two ends of the molecular spectrum, that is, luminal A (54.1%), sensitive to hormonal therapy and with a good prognosis, and “triple negative” (4.2%) not hormonally sensitive and with a poor prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age and growth of freshwater clam, Galatea paradoxa from Apoi Creek, Niger Delta, Nigeria was studied within three months (June - August 2105). Fifty clams were aged monthly by counting the surface ring curves, while 552 clam samples were collected and measured for shell length, shell height and shell width to determine the growth rate and pattern. The smallest clam (51.01 ± 1.65 mm) collected was 5 years while the largest (82.96 mm) was aged 15 years. The Ford - Walford plot gave a slope of 10.981 and intercept of 0.904, with an asymptotic length (L∞) of 114.39 mm and a growth coefficient of 0.10 year-1. The mean sizes of clam collected from the Apoi Creek were given as shell length (68.24 ± 0.48 mm), shell width (39.61 ± 0.51 mm), shell height (46.97 ± 0.54 mm) and a yield of 28.86 ± 0.85 g. The slope (b) in the shell length - weight (2.43 ± 0.05) and shell length - yield (2.64 ± 0.06) relationship showed that the clam had a negative allometric growth pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria frequently occurs among all ages with the possibility of developing into urinary tract infections, and the antimicrobial resistance patterns of the etiologic organisms are essential for appropriate therapy. Thus, we investigated the virulence and antimicrobial resistance patterns of common urinary bacteria in asymptomatic students of Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Bayelsa State, Nigeria in a cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods: Clean catch mid-stream early morning urine samples collected from 200 asymptomatic University students of aged ranges 15-30 years were cultured, screened and common bacteria were identified using standard microbiological procedures. The isolates were screened for hemolysin production and their susceptibility to antibiotics was determined using standard disc assay method. Results: A total prevalence rate of 52.0% significant bacteriuria was detected and it was significantly higher among the female with a weak association (χ2 = 6.01, phi = 0.173, P = 0.014). The Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus isolates were most frequently encountered among the isolated bacteria and 18 (12.7%) of all the bacterial isolates produced hemolysins. All the bacterial isolates exhibited 50-100% resistance to the tested beta-lactam antibiotics, tetracycline and co-trimoxazole. The isolated bacteria were 85-100% multi-drug resistant. However, most of the isolates were generally susceptible to gentamicin and ofloxacin. The phenotypic detection of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases was 9 (9.6%) among the tested Gram-negative bacterial isolates. Conclusions: The observed high proportions of multidrug resistant urinary bacteria among asymptomatic University students call for the need of greater control of antibiotic use in this study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of appraisal system in Niger Delta University on employee productivity. The ineffective practice of performance appraisal could affect employee productivity. The methodology employed was a survey study design. During the research process, the population of study comprises about 3478 Academic and non-academic staff. The researcher sampled 3% of the total population using stratified random sampling. In course of investigation, instrument used were self developed questionnaire distributed to 104 respondents of which 102 were retrieved. Correlation coefficient was used to test the hypothesis. There was a significant relationship between performance appraisal and employee productivity and that effective appraisal system could boost the morale of workers especially when they are rated adequately. The findings also revealed that performance criteria also affect the relationship between performance appraisal and employee productivity. Performance appraisal should provide accurate and relevant rating of an employee performance as compared to preestablished criteria. Employees should not be appraised based on their personal trait but on performance variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]