Search

This study examined knowledge of symbiotic relationship between man and natural environment, climate change and their implications to sustainable environmental behaviour and sustainable development among the urban/semi urban settlers in southeast Nigeria. The study was guided by Environmentally Responsible Behaviour (ERB) model, to understand the extent of environmental and ecological knowledge, and pro environmental sustainability behaviour among the citizens. 640 respondents (18+) from 16 settlements across the region were randomly selected for the study, while survey design was adopted for the study with the aid of questionnaire instrument. The data collected were analysed with aid of descriptive and inferential statistics tools for testing the relationship of substantive variables in the study. From the findings of the study, positive predictors of knowledge of social ecology included public media enlightenment on environment (p < .000), public institution quality (p < .000) and environmental citizenship (p < .000). Knowledge of solid waste management (p < 0.01) positively correlate with pro environmental behaviour. Positive predictors of global climate change awareness include knowledge of the natural environment, public media enlightenment on environment and duration in the place of residence (p < .000). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A double alkynylation of quinoline-5,8-dione to furnished bis-alkynylquinoline-5,8-dione in good yields and their in silico and antimicrobial studies is described. This was achieved by cross-coupling of 6,7-dibromoquinoline-5,8-dione with various terminal alkynes in the presence of bis(triphenylphosphine) palladium(II) chloride as a pre-catalyst and tetrabutyl ammonium fluoride trihydrate. The structures of the synthesised compounds were confirmed by UV/Visible, Fourier Transform-Infrared and 1H and 13C-NMR spectral data. The synthesised compounds exhibited good activity against Escherichia Coli 1, Escherichia Coli 12, Klebsiella Pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeroginosa and Staphylococcus aureus compare to the gentamycin and ampicillin. Molecular docking simulation study of the binding interactions of compounds with receptors disclosed significant binding affinity for P. aeruginosa LpxC than the E. coli glutaredoxin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed the impact of education for women at all levels (primary, secondary, and tertiary) on economic development and child welfare in Nigeria. The choice of these two domains was to give a thorough assessment economic impact of women’s education. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) was used to test for the stationarity of variables. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test with the aid of data obtained from World Bank indicators was employed for the analysis. The analysis revealed that the more women with secondary and tertiary education, the better the economic growth and child welfare in Nigeria. Hence, the paper concluded that the government should make and implement appropriate policies to boost women’s education enrolment at all levels.

In response to uncertainty in remotely sensed land cover products, there is continuing research on accuracy assessment and analysis. Given reference sample data, accuracy indicators are commonly estimated based on error matrices, from which areal extents of different cover types are also estimated. There are merits to explore the ways utilities of land cover products may be further enhanced beyond map face values and conventional area estimation. This paper presents an integrative method (CCAErrMat) for uncertainty characterization and utility enhancement. This works through reference-map cover type co-occurrence analyses based on error matrices localized in canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) ordination space rather than in geographic space to overcome the sparsity of reference sample data. The aforementioned co-occurrence analyses facilitate quantification of accuracy indicators, identification of correctly classified and perfectly misclassified pixels, and prediction of reference class probabilities, all at individual pixels. Moreover, these predicted reference class probabilities are used as auxiliary variables to formulate model-assisted area estimation, further enhancing map utilities. Extensions to CCAErrMat are also investigated as a way to bypass the pre-computing of map class occurrence pattern indices as candidate explanatory variables for CCAErrMat, leading to two variant methods: CCACCAErrMat and CNNCCAErrMat. A case study based in Wuhan municipality, central China was undertaken to compare the proposed method against alternative methods, including CCA-separate and CNN-separate. The advantages of CCAErrMat and CCACCAErrMat were confirmed. The proposed method is recommendable for characterizing uncertainty and enhancing utilities in land cover maps by analyzing locally constrained error matrices. The method is also cost-effective in terms of reference sample data, as requirements for them are similar to those for conventional accuracy assessments.

The article focuses on a report which examines the strong British and American legacy that still affects Nigerian geography. Like Anglo-American geography, Nigerian geography is currently characterized by a plurality of paradigms. Several geographers have chronicled the developments in Anglo-American human geography. The focus of spatial analysis is the explanation of the complex relationships between spatial patterns and processes. The association of phenomena within an area, the segregation of incompatible activities, and the locational patterns of activities and central places were explained largely in terms of economic optimization.

Objective: To describe the Factors to Effective Clinical Experience and Willingness to pursue Career in Rural Health Facilities among Nursing Students on Clinical Placement in southeast Nigeria., Methods: The study was conducted among 48 rural health centres and general hospitals with 528 respondents from different higher institutions of learning serving in these health facilities for their clinical experience. The study applied survey design and utilized questionnaire instrument for data collection., Results: Majority of the students (60%) agreed that their school lacked functional practical demonstration laboratory for students' clinical practice, 66.7% agreed that their school lab lacked large space for all the students to observe what is being taught, 79.9% that their school lab lacked enough equipment that can enable many students to practice procedures; majority of the students (79.9%) answered that the hospitals where they are on clinical placement lacked enough equipment needed for the students on each shift of practice, 59.9% agreed that student/client ratio in each ward during clinical experience periods was not enough for students' practice under supervision, while 73.3% indicated that their school lacked library with current nursing texts for references. Personal, socioeconomic and institutional factors explain the 76% of the variance of effective clinical experience and the 52% of the variance of the willingness to work in rural health facilities in the future if offered employment., Conclusion: The factors surrounding effective clinical experience in rural healthcare facilities in southeastern Nigeria are unfavorable and could discourage future nurses from working there. It is necessary to implement strategies to improve the management of these centers in order to promote the perspective of improving sustainable rural health in this region., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright� by the Universidad de Antioquia.)

Crashes occur from a combination of factors related to the driver, roadway, and vehicle factors. The impact of vehicles on road crashes is a critical consideration within road safety analysis, even though not much studies have been conducted in this area. This study assessed how various vehicle and other crash factors are significantly associated with crash outcomes. To do this, historical vehicle defect-related crashes were obtained for the state of Alabama from 2016 to 2020. After data cleaning, a crash injury severity model was developed using the random parameters multinomial logit with heterogeneity in means approach to account for possible unobserved heterogeneity in the data. A spatial analysis was further conducted to better understand vehicle defect crashes as a broader societal issue and potentially explore their connection with the socio-demographic characteristics of the drivers of these vehicles. The preliminary data analysis showed that brake and tire defects accounted for about 65% of the vehicle defects associated with the crashes. The model estimation results revealed that improper tread depth and headlight defects were associated with major injury outcomes, while brake defects were more associated with minor injuries. Also, crashes associated with speeding, drunk driving, failure to use seatbelts, and those that occurred on curved roads left with downgrades were likely to result in major injuries. Findings from the spatial analysis showed that postal codes with higher median incomes are more likely to record lower vehicle defect-related crashes, unlike those that have higher proportions of females and African Americans. The study's findings provide data-driven evidence for sustained safety campaigns, workshops, and training on basic vehicle maintenance practices in the low-income communities in the state., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a rare head and neck malignancy, arises from the epithelial lining of nasopharyngeal mucosa. The confluence of various risk factors, such as latent Epstein-Barr virus infection, genetic susceptibility, smoking, alcohol consumption, and high nitrosamine diet, is thought to contribute to NPC pathogenesis. Radiation therapy serves as the mainstay of treatment for early stage while concurrent chemotherapy and radiation are the basis of treatment for locoregional advanced disease with overall 80% five-year survival rate. Recurrent or metastatic disease pose treatment challenges as reirradiation, repeat cycles of chemotherapy, and surgery follow with high likelihood of treatment toxicity or postoperative morbidities. Typically reserved for nonresectable recurrent or metastatic disease, immunotherapy serves as novel treatment for NPC. NPC tumor microenvironment predominated by a dense infiltrate of immune cells hosts an ideal target for immunotherapy. Several clinical trials have investigated the efficacy of anti-programmed cell death protein 1 antibodies such as pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and camrelizumab with promising results. Treatment of recurrent and metastatic NPC remains a challenge; however, the advent of immunotherapy has provided additional options and potential for preventative and therapeutic measures., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest None declared., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ).)

We evaluated C-3 alkoxylated and C-3/C-9 dialkoxylated (-)-stepholidine analogues to probe the tolerance at the C-3 and C-9 positions of the tetrahydroprotoberberine (THPB) template toward affinity for dopamine receptors. A C-9 ethoxyl substituent appears optimal for D1R affinity since high D1R affinities were observed for compounds that contain an ethyl group at C-9, with larger C-9 substituents tending to decrease D1R affinity. A number of novel ligands were identified, such as compounds 12a and 12b , with nanomolar affinities for D1R and no affinity for either D2R or D3R, with compound 12a being identified as a D1R antagonist for both G-protein- and β-arrestin-based signaling. Compound 23b was identified as the most potent and selective D3R ligand containing a THPB template to date and functions as an antagonist for both G-protein- and β-arrestin-based signaling. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics studies validated the D1R and D3R affinity and selectivity of 12a , 12b, and 23b .

The Department of Veterans Affairs Laryngeal Cancer Study propelled the combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy to the forefront of strategies used for the management of locally advanced laryngeal cancer. The organ preservation rate was 84%. However, over the past 30 years that these approaches have been in place, there have been concerns regarding long-term survival and high failure rates requiring salvage. Furthermore, salvage laryngectomy, if feasible when considering increased morbidity after CRT, is fraught with a higher risk of wound complications including fistula, longer hospitalization, and reduced quality of life., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Single vehicle (SV) run-off-road crashes are a major cause of severe injury and fatality. Such crashes can result in different levels of severity depending on the direction (i.e., left or right) in which the vehicle runs off the road. This paper investigated the factors contributing to the crash severities of right run-off-road (R-ROR) and left run-off-road (L-ROR) SV crashes., Methods: The study used SV crash data from the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, covering 2014 to 2017. Two separate random parameter ordered logit (RPOL) models were developed to estimate the contributing factors to R-ROR and L-ROR SV crash severities. The impact of the explanatory variables on the crash severity outcomes was quantified using the models' direct pseudo-elasticities., Results: The model results showed that male drivers, Driving Under Influence (DUI), motorcycles, and dry road surfaces were significant contributing factors to R-ROR and L-ROR SV crash severities. Specifically for the R-ROR model, speeding, reckless driving, 1-2 lanes, and older drivers increased crash severity. For the L-ROR model, phone distraction, crossed centerline/median, 3-4 lanes, rain, and dark unlighted roadway increased crash severity., Conclusions: Based on the estimated parameters for the common significant variables in the two models, it was inferred that L-ROR SV crashes are more likely to result in severe crashes compared to R-ROR SV crashes. Hence, this study contributes to the literature on ROR SV crashes by providing additional insight into contextual factors influencing ROR crash severity for more effective countermeasures.

The trucking sector contributes significantly to the economic vitality of the United States. Large trucks are primarily used for transporting goods within and across states. Despite its economic importance, large truck crashes constitute public safety concerns. To minimize the consequences, there is a need to understand the factors that contribute to the severity outcomes of truck-involved crashes. Since many large truck drivers transport goods across several states, the driver-centered crash factors are expected to differ between in-state and out-of-state drivers. For this reason, this study developed two random parameters multinomial logit models with heterogeneity in means and variances to examine the factors contributing to the severity of crashes involving in-state and out-of-state large truck drivers in Alabama. The study was based on the 2016-2020 large truck crashes in Alabama. After data cleaning and preparation, it was observed that approximately 20% of in-state and 23% of out-of-state large truck crashes were fatigue-related. There were more speeding related crashes (12.4%) among in-state large truck drivers, but the contribution of speeding to crash severity outcomes was only significant in the out-of-state model. More crashes related to red light running violation (14.2%) were observed among out-of-state drivers, pointing to the fundamental issues of fatigue and unfamiliarity with the operations of signalized intersections in Alabama. The study contributes to the literature on large truck crashes by uncovering the nuances in crashes involving in-state and out-of-state large truck drivers. Despite the seeming similarity in factors that influence crash outcomes, this study provides the basis for truck drivers' training and communication campaigns on the differences that may exist in roadway characteristics from state to state. Also, policy formulations and strategies that prioritizes the well-being of the large truck drivers and creates a better working condition for them should be explored., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

Objective: Currently, there is a problem of ineffective chemotherapy to trypanosomiasis and the increasing emergence of malaria drug-resistant parasites. The research aimed at the development of new dipeptide-sulfonamides as antiprotozoal agents., Background: Protozoan parasites cause severe diseases, with African human trypanosomiasis (HAT) and malaria standing on top of the list. The noted deficiencies of existing antitrypanosomal drugs and the worldwide resurgence of malaria, accompanied by the springing up of widespread drug-resistant protozoan parasites, represent a huge challenge in infectious disease treatment in tropical regions., Methods: To discover new antiprotozoal agents, ten novel p-nitrobenzenesulphonamide derivatives incorporating dipeptide moiety were synthesized by the condensation reaction of 3-methyl-2-(4- nitrophenylsulphonamido)pentanoic acid (6) with substituted acetamides (4a-j) using peptide coupling reagents, characterized using 1H and 13C NMR, FTIR, HRMS and investigated for their antimalarial and antitrypanosomal activities in vivo employing standard methods., Results: At 100 mg/kg body weight, N -(2-(2,6-dimethylphenylamino)-2-oxoethyl)-3-methyl-2-(4- nitrophenylsulfonamido)pentanamide showed the highest activity by inhibiting P. berghei parasite by 79.89%, which was comparable with the standard drug (artemether-lumefantrine 79.77%). In the antitrypanosomal study, N -(2-(4-chlorophenylamino)-2-oxoethyl)-3-methyl-2-(4-nitrophenylsulfonamido) pentanamide, N -(2-(4-fluorophenylamino)-2-oxoethyl)-3-methyl-2-(4-nitrophenylsulfonamido) pentanamide and N -(2-(3-chlorophenylamino)-2-oxoethyl)-3-methyl-2-(4-nitrophenylsulfonamido) pentanamide were most potent in clearing Trypanosome brucei in mice, but they were less active than the standard drug (diminazene aceturate). Molecular docking results demonstrated good binding affinity among the reported derivatives and target proteins in the active place of the protein. The outcome of hematological analysis, liver, and kidney function tests showed that the new compounds had no adverse effect on the blood and organs., Conclusion: The results of this research showed that the new compounds demonstrated interesting antitrypanosomal and antimalarial potentials. However, further research should be carried out on the synthesized derivatives as promising drug candidates for trypanosomiasis and malaria., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is present in up to 100% of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). CF-associated CRS is particularly recalcitrant, and sinus disease can have important implications in the health of the lower airways and overall quality of life in these patients. Both medical and surgical management play important roles in treating CF-associated CRS, but guidelines are lacking. This review summarizes the current literature on both medical and surgical management of this disease to provide an up-to-date analysis and recommendations on the treatment of CF-associated CRS., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors have nothing to disclose., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The proportion of women specializing in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (Oto-HNS) and seeking fellowship training has steadily increased over the last several years. In academic Oto-HNS, gender differences exist in research productivity, scholarly impact, and funding. This study aims to evaluate gender differences in academic productivity between otolaryngologists in early, mid-, and later careers stages and within various subspecialties., Methods: Departmental websites for all Oto-HNS residency programs were accessed, and data including gender, academic rank, and fellowship training/subspecialty field was collected. Bibliometric data including h-index, publication years, number of citations, documents, and coauthors was obtained from the Scopus database. Career groups were defined as early (1-5 years), mid- (6-15 years), and later (16+ years). Continuous data was compared using the t test., Results: Data was collected on 1,754 academic otolaryngologists (412 women, 1,342 men). Overall, men exhibited significantly higher h-indices, number of documents, citations, and coauthors and actively published for more years compared to women (P < 0.0001 for all variables). Similar trends persisted across all subspecialties. When authors were broken down into career groups, women and men showed similar research productivity across all career groups in the subspecialties of otology, facial plastics, and rhinology; however, in head and neck, laryngology, and pediatrics, women continued to lag behind men., Conclusion: This study suggests that female otolaryngologists within certain subspecialties are keeping pace with their male counterparts in publication productivity in the early career time frame. This represents a change from prior studies which have shown women to be less productive in the early career period., Level of Evidence: NA Laryngoscope, 130:1144-1150, 2020., (© 2019 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.)

Objectives: There is an increased reliance on online referral systems (ORS) within neurosurgical departments across the UK. Opinions of neurosurgeons on ORS are extensively reported but those of referrers have hardly been sought. Our study aims at ascertaining our referring colleagues' views on our ORS and its impact on patient care, their opinions on neurosurgeons and how to improve our referral process., Setting: 14 district general hospitals and one teaching hospital., Participants: 641 healthcare professionals across a range of medical and surgical specialties including doctors of all grades, nurses and physiotherapists. Survey responses were obtained by medical students using a smartphone application., Results: Although 92% of respondents were aware of the ORS, 74% would routinely phone the on-call registrar either before or after making referrals online. The majority (44%) believed their call to relate to a life-threatening emergency. 62% of referrers considered the ORS helpful in informing patients' care and 48% had a positive opinion of their interaction with neurosurgical registrars. On ways to improve the ORS, 50% selected email/text confirmation of response sent to referrers and 16% to referring consultants., Conclusion: Our results confirm that referrers feel that using our ORS positively impacts patient care but that it remains in need of improvement in order to better suit our colleagues' needs when it comes to managing neurosurgical patients. We feel that the promotion of neurosurgical education and mitigation of the effects of adverse workplace human factors are likely to achieve the common goal of neurosurgeons and referrers alike: a high standard in patient care., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)

Neutrophils (PMNs) are key mediators of inflammatory processes throughout the body. In this study, we investigated the role of acrolein, a highly reactive aldehyde that is ubiquitously present in the environment and produced endogenously at sites of inflammation, in mediating PMN-mediated degradation of collagen facilitating proline-glycine-proline (PGP) production. We treated peripheral blood neutrophils with acrolein and analyzed cell supernatants and lysates for matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and prolyl endopeptidase (PE), assessed their ability to break down collagen and release PGP, and assayed for the presence of leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H) and its ability to degrade PGP. Acrolein treatment induced elevated production and functionality of collagen-degrading enzymes and generation of PGP fragments. Meanwhile, LTA4H levels and triaminopeptidase activity declined with increasing concentrations of acrolein thereby sparing PGP from enzymatic destruction. These findings suggest that acrolein exacerbates the acute inflammatory response mediated by neutrophils and sets the stage for chronic pulmonary and systemic inflammation.

The family planning aspects of the practice of traditional healers in Ibadan, a large city in south west Nigeria, was investigated by means of a questionnaire survey of 193 traditional healers. The findings revealed that between 13% and 53% agreed with certain cultural beliefs which tend to increase fertility and that their perceptions of ideal child spacing is most commonly 2-3 years. Only 13% think a couple should have a specified number of children; a large proportion think the number should be "as God wills" (42%) or as many as the couple has resources to cope with (42%). Nearly all think that traditional healers and orthodox health professional should work together in the area of family planning. While most of them recommend traditional methods of contraception (such as beads and herbs) to their clients, up to 22% recommend modern family planning methods such as condoms and oral contraceptive pills. The implications of these findings for family planning programmes and the possibility of the involvement of traditional healers in the promotion of modern family planning methods are discussed.

"This paper is concerned with ascertaining the impact of population on the spatial pattern of public service provision in Nigeria.... Using a set of population and revenue variables as explanatory variables, a step-wise multiple regression model was employed to determine the impact of these variables on the provision of selected public services. The results of the analyses show that urban population is generally more important than total population in explaining the spatial pattern of public services. Generally speaking, the revenue variables are even more important in this regard, especially the internal revenue of states.... One implication of these results is that ability to pay, rather than need, is the basis for public service provision in Nigeria. Thus, the richer and more developed states are better off than the less developed ones, irrespective of population size.", (excerpt)

The frequency of hospital trips among the inhabitants of Nigeria's rural areas is affected by several factors. One obvious factor is the distance between potential patients and hospital facilities. And given the paucity of hospital facilities in rural areas, the distance factor is obviously an important one. However, the main focus of this paper is on the effect of some socio-economic and demographic characteristics on the frequency of hospital trips by rural inhabitants. The location of hospitals in close proximity to the user-population does not necessarily guarantee the full utilization of the facilities.

Elaborate health programmes have always been an important feature of national development plans in Nigeria, especially since independence in 1960. The aspect of the programmes that is examined in this paper is the geographical distribution of medical facilities. The policy objectives in this regard have been to improve access to facilities and personnel by distributing them equally according to population, and to correct the rural urban imbalance in the system. But how far have these objectives been realized? In an attempt to answer this question, the situation in Bendel State is examined in some detail and the results show that the rural urban imbalance is still evident. Correlation analyses showed that areas that have a comparatively large urban population have more facilities and personnel than areas that are predominantly rural. Also, three step-wise multiple regression analyses revealed that Urban population is a far more important factor than total population in explaining the distribution of hospitals, hospital beds and doctors. The doctor/population ratios are exceedingly high for the predominantly rural areas, over 1:70,000 in some cases. These ratios are far in excess of 1:14,000 which was the national target for 1980. All these show that some important policy objectives of the health programmes have not been realized.