Adah

Introduction: although onchocerciasis is rarely a life-threatening disease, it causes chronic morbidity which ultimately leads to disability due to late detection and treatment of the infected people. Disability in Onchocerciasis results in activity limitation and social exclusion of the affected individuals through stigma. This study aimed at assessing the level of disability and its determinants among persons with onchocerciasis. Methods: multi-stage sampling technique was used to recruit 340 respondents from the randomly selected wards...

Scholars have extolled e-commerce as a pathway for sustaining firm operations in the unique circumstances of COVID-19. To add crisis time evidence to the body of work, and based on World Bank Enterprise Survey data, this inquiry interrogates 249 small manufacturing firms in Italy by examining the effect of e-commerce on (1) resilience, (2) direct exports and (3) indirect exports. The results show that while e-commerce has a positive impact on direct exports, a negative influence is recorded on indirect exports...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Data available support that ninety percent of male infertility cases are due to low sperm counts. There is a scarcity of data on the medicinal effects of cannabis on fertility. This study evaluated testicular function and sperm quality modulation with cannabis in rats. METHODOLOGY: Twenty-five male Wistar rats were randomly grouped into five: A, B, C, and D, each group have 5 rats. A (control): 0.2 ml 2% DMSO, B (vitamin C): 90 mg/kg body weight, C, D, and E were administered: 5 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg body weight of ethanolic leaf extract of cannabis (ELEC) respectively...

The key workers, required to continue to travel for essential works during the COVID-19 pandemic, are subjected to extreme health and psychological implications along with prevailing financial hardship. This paper applies the Bayesian regression analysis to determine the factors affecting the decision of key workers and other commuters on riding public buses for essential trips during the COVID-19 restrictions on movement at Abuja and Lagos cities in Nigeria. The psychological, policy and operational effects of COVID-19 are the major factors of riding public buses for essential trips during the COVID-19 restrictions on movement...

Background: Due to the continuous increase in the spread of epidemic-prone diseases and the associated morbidity and mortality, integrated disease surveillance and response (IDSR) was introduced as the main strategy in resource-poor settings for the detection and notification of these diseases. Integrated disease surveillance is a combination of active and passive systems using a single infrastructure that gathers information about multiple diseases or behaviors of interest. Methods: : A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted between March and July 2018 among selected public and private health facilities in Jos North Local Government Area (LGA), Plateau State...

BACKGROUND: Coinfection with HIV and Plasmodium parasites is fairly common, but the sequence of infection with these two pathogens and their impact on disease progression are poorly understood. METHODS: A Chinese rhesus macaque HIV and Plasmodium coinfection model was established to compare the impact of pre-existing and subsequent malaria on the progression of SIV infection. RESULTS: We found that a pre-existing malaria caused animals to produce a greater number of CD4+ CCR5+ T cells for SIV replication, resulting in higher viral loads...

Background and Aim: Heat stress is a major challenge for animals, impairing their welfare and performance. This study aimed to determine the effect of heat stress on the vital and hematobiochemical parameters of healthy dogs. Materials and Methods: The experimental subjects comprised 10 dogs, encompassing seven males and three non-pregnant females between 2 and 3 years of age. Ambient temperature (AT) and relative humidity (RH) were recorded 2 hourly during the day and the temperature humidity index was calculated...

Evaluating the dermal absorption of sunscreen UV filters requires the development of a bio-predictable in vitro permeation test (IVPT). This work describes the comparison of two IVPT methods and rank order correlations of in vitro absorption (skin permeation and retention) with the in vivo absorption (AUC and skin retention) of sunscreens. The IVPT was compared regarding the following elements: (1) application of a single finite dose vs. an infinite dose and (2) the use of heat-separated human epidermis vs...

BACKGROUND: A variant (p.Arg225Trp) of peroxisomal acyl-CoA oxidase 2 (ACOX2), involved in bile acid (BA) side-chain shortening, has been associated with unexplained persistent hypertransaminasemia and accumulation of C27-BAs, mainly trihydroxycholestanoic acid (THCA). AIMS: To investigate the prevalence of ACOX2 deficiency-associated hypertransaminasemia (ADAH), its response to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), elucidate its pathophysiological mechanism and identify other inborn errors that could cause this alteration...

INTRODUCTION: Onchocerciasis, a neglected tropical disease of public health importance, causes chronic morbidity and severe disability that may impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of the infected people. This study assessed the HRQoL and associated factors among onchocerciasis patients in southeast Nigeria. METHODS: This was a community-based cross-sectional comparative study. Using a multistage sampling technique, 340 onchocerciasis patients were selected and matched for age and gender with the healthy population in the same neighbourhood...

Poultry production is a major component of the livestock sector in Nigeria and continues to expand rapidly; however, it is still constrained by low productivity. A farm survey was conducted to provide a baseline assessment of poultry production (products generated, farm costs, and revenue), pharmaceutical use, and related challenges faced by farmers on 44 commercial poultry farms in Oyo and Kano states of Nigeria. Live spent layers, eggs, and used beddings were the most frequently sold products for revenue...

Resistance to last resort drugs such as carbapenem and colistin is a serious global health threat. This study investigated carbapenem and colistin resistance in 583 non-duplicate Enterobacteriaceae isolates utilizing phenotypic methods and whole genome sequencing (WGS). Of the 583 isolates recovered from humans, animals and the environment in Nigeria, 18.9% (110/583) were resistant to at least one carbapenem (meropenem, ertapenem, and imipenem) and 9.1% (53/583) exhibited concurrent carbapenem-colistin resistance...

The growth of the poultry industry in Nigeria is constrained by major poultry diseases, despite the implementation of vaccination programs. This study aimed to assess the level of protection against Newcastle disease (ND), infectious bursal disease (IBD), and avian infectious bronchitis (IB) afforded by current vaccination schedules and characterize the circulating virus strains in commercial poultry flocks in Nigeria. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 44 commercial poultry farms in Oyo and Kano states of Nigeria...

Synaptic membrane-remodeling events such as endocytosis require force-generating actin assembly. The endocytic machinery that regulates these actin and membrane dynamics localizes at high concentrations to large areas of the presynaptic membrane, but actin assembly and productive endocytosis are far more restricted in space and time. Here we describe a mechanism whereby autoinhibition clamps the presynaptic endocytic machinery to limit actin assembly to discrete functional events. We found that collective interactions between the Drosophila endocytic proteins Nwk/FCHSD2, Dap160/intersectin, and WASp relieve Nwk autoinhibition and promote robust membrane-coupled actin assembly in vitro...

Our murine cancer model studies have demonstrated that Plasmodium infection activates the immune system that has been inhibited by cancer cells, counteracts tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment, inhibits tumor angiogenesis, inhibits tumor growth and metastasis, and prolongs the survival time of tumor-bearing mice. Based on these studies, three clinical trials of Plasmodium immunotherapy for advanced cancers have been approved and are ongoing in China. After comparing the mechanisms of action of Plasmodium immunotherapy with those of immune checkpoint blockade therapy, we propose the notion that cancer is an ecological disease and that Plasmodium immunotherapy is a systemic ecological counterattack therapy for this ecological disease, with limited side effects and without danger to public health based on the use of artesunate and other measures...

The aim of this study was to describe the antibiotic use practices of veterinarians and para-veterinarians in Nigeria. An online survey was distributed during November through December 2018 via email and phone to veterinarians and para-veterinarians to collect information on antibiotic use practices. Data were downloaded into Excel and descriptive statistics were presented and analysed. The survey was completed by 390 respondents. Almost all respondents (98.5%, 384/390) recommended the use of antibiotics to treat animal patients, and of these, 93...

Honeycomb materials have low density, high specific strength and stiffness, impact resistance, and good sound insulation effect, and therefore are widely used in aerospace, automobile, and ship field applications. In this paper, we study the in-plane impact response of a second-order hierarchical honeycomb (SHH) material. Its main structure is a hexagonal honeycomb, and the substructure is composed of an augmented double arrow honeycomb (ADAH) negative Poisson's ratio unit. Through a finite element simulation, the failure stress of an hierarchical honeycomb in two directions of quasi-static crushing and dynamic crushing was analyzed; the failure stress of the hierarchical honeycomb under different densities, different speeds, and different substructures was discussed; and the theoretical failure stress was verified...

Postoperative recurrence causes a high mortality rate among patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The current study aimed to determine the effects of Plasmodium infection on HCC metastasis and recurrence. The antitumor effects of Plasmodium infection were determined using two murine orthotopic HCC models: The non‑resection model and the resection model. Tumour tissues derived from tumour‑bearing mice treated with or without Plasmodium infection were harvested 15 days post‑tumour inoculation. The expression levels of biomarkers related to epithelial‑mesenchymal transition (EMT) and molecules associated with CC‑chemokine receptor 10 (CCR10)‑mediated PI3K/Akt/GSK‑3β/Snail signalling were identified using reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR and western blotting...