ACUTE OTITIS EXTERNA AS SEEN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA TEACHING HOSPITAL, ENUGU.

Aim: is to evaluate clinical features of AOE diagnosed in and to update the previous study from our facility.Methods: A prospective, clinical and laboratory study in a tertiary health facilityResults: A total of 3793 consecutive patients that attended the otorhinolaryngology clinics of the university of Nigeria teaching hospital Enugu during the period under study were assessed for clinical diagnosis of otitis externa. A total of 155 ears from127 patients were diagnosed clinically and confirmed by microbial studies as having acute otitis externa. There were 66 males and 61 females out of the 127 patients seen.71 ears had only bacteria isolated from the culture of their ear swab specimens, 28 fungus only and, 32 ears had both bacterial and fungal isolates while 24 ears had no isolates of microbes of the 3793 patients assessed.Conclusions: Acute otitis externa is a common disease in Enugu  with no gender biasand there were three times more cases of bacterial otitis externa than fungal otitis externa.

Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs).

The potential environmental impact of nanomaterials is a critical concern and the ability to assess these potential impacts is top priority for the progress of sustainable nanotechnology. Risk assessment tools are needed to enable decision makers to rapidly assess the potential risks that may be imposed by engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), particularly when confronted by the reality of limited hazard or exposure data. In this review, we examine a range of available risk assessment frameworks considering the contexts in which different stakeholders may need to assess the potential environmental impacts of ENMs. Assessment frameworks and tools that are suitable for the different decision analysis scenarios are then identified. In addition, we identify the gaps that currently exist between the needs of decision makers, for a range of decision scenarios, and the abilities of present frameworks and tools to meet those needs

Modelling, Analysis and Design of a Bottle-Shaped Building

The emergence of unique structures around the world have turned the points of it location to centers of attraction thereby yielding benefits to the economy of the cities where they are cited. Worldwide, iconic structures stand out, placing its location on the map. Hence, the idea of bottle-shaped building was birthed trying to put bottle to tension. This research models, analyses and designs a bottle-shaped structure according the British Standard. The works carried out in this research consisted of step by step generation of a three dimensional computer models of the bottle shaped super- structure, analysis and design of critical members for various combination of dead load, live load and the wind load and the critical analysis of the results obtained. The results of the nonlinear finite element analysis carried out for different ranges of loading scenarios were so exiting. It confirmed the validity of the approach adopted for the model and showed that the realization of the structure is very feasible

Population mapping in informal settlements with high-resolution satellite imagery and equitable ground-truth

We propose a generalizable framework for the population estimation of dense, informal settlements in low-income urban areas–so called ’slums’–using high-resolution satellite imagery. Precise population estimates are a crucial factor for efficient resource allocations by government authorities and NGO’s, for instance in medical emergencies. We utilize equitable ground-truth data, which is gathered in collaboration with local communities: Through training and community mapping, the local population contributes their unique domain knowledge, while also maintaining agency over their data. This practice allows us to avoid carrying forward potential biases into the modeling pipeline, which might arise from a less rigorous ground-truthing approach. We contextualize our approach in respect to the ongoing discussion within the machine learning community, aiming to make real-world machine learning applications more inclusive, fair and accountable. Because of the resource intensive ground-truth generation process, our training data is limited. We propose a gridded population estimation model, enabling flexible and customizable spatial resolutions. We test our pipeline on three experimental site in Nigeria, utilizing pre-trained and fine-tune vision networks to overcome data sparsity. Our findings highlight the difficulties of transferring common benchmark models to real-world tasks. We discuss this and propose steps forward

M-1 injector development - Philosophy and implementation

Subscale and full scale test firings of M-1 injector to improve combustion efficienc

An Economic analysis of the potential for precision farming in UK cereal production

The results from alternative spatial nitrogen application studies are analysed in economic terms and compared to the costs of precision farming hardware, software and other services for cereal crops in the UK. At current prices, the benefits of variable rate application of nitrogen exceed the returns from a uniform application by an average of £22 ha−1 The cost of the precision farming systems range from £5 to £18 ha−1 depending upon the system chosen for an area of 250 ha. The benefits outweigh the associated costs for cereal farms in excess of 80 ha for the lowest price system to 200–300 ha for the more sophisticated systems. The scale of benefits obtained depends upon the magnitude of the response to the treatment and the proportion of the field that will respond. To be cost effective, a farmed area of 250 ha of cereals, where 30% of the area will respond to variable treatment, requires an increase in crop yield in the responsive areas of between 0·25 and 1.00 t ha−1 (at £65 t−1) for the basic and most expensive precision farming systems, respectively

Maximizing Hospitality Learning Outcomes: An Integrated Experiential In-Class Approach

This study explored the influence of an experiential, in-class approach to the hospitality curriculum as a means of increasing its efficiency and effectiveness. Specifically, the study provides an example of how hospitality faculty might utilize an experiential, in-class approach to integrate additional hospitality-specific content along with process and content issues for working in teams and team decision-making. The results of this study support the efficient and effective use of an experiential inclass teaching method. The value of this study is twofold: (1) it provides an initial test of this approach’s usefulness and (2) it provides a forum for continued conversations of how experiential approaches can be utilized to enhance and reinforce other hospitality content and managerial skills and to bridge the gap between vocational and liberal education outcomes