Patient involvement in selection of immunosuppressive regimen following transplantation.

Transplantation has made a considerable difference to the lives of many patients. However, feedback from patients indicates that although having a transplant is a hugely positive experience, having to take medications indefinitely is one of the biggest challenges. An ideal scenario would be no medications following a transplant. A compromise would be a minimal number of medications, with minimal restrictions and as simple a regimen as possible. Although there is considerable research going into fine-tuning the management of the immune response to a transplant, to date there is no universal regimen that enables patients to remain free of immunosuppressant medications, making adherence paramount to maintain long-term allograft survival. This paper reviews the available immunosuppressant regimens and factors influencing choice from both the clinician's and the patient's perspective. Factors influencing the decision-making process, such as quality of life for patients, their satisfaction, acceptability, and adherence uptake are reviewed. We conclude with a further assessment of patient choice as a factor in regimen selection, its impact on adherence, and its implications

Malignant and noninvasive skin tumours in renal transplant recipients.

Background. Transplant recipients require immunosuppression to prevent graft rejection. This conveys an increased risk of malignancy, particularly skin tumours. There is a need for up-to-date data for the South of England. Method. Pathology records were reviewed for 709 kidney transplant recipients on immunosuppression at our hospital from 1995 to 2008. Skin tumours were recorded/analysed. Results. Mean age at transplant was 46 years. Mean length of follow-up was 7.2 years and total follow-up was 4926 person-years. 53 (7.5%) patients (39/458 (8.5%) males and 14/251 (5.6%) females) developed ≥1 skin malignancy. Cumulative incidences of 4.0%, 7.5%, and 12.2% were observed for those with <5, <10, and ≥10 years follow-up, respectively. The rate was 45 tumours per 1000 person-years at risk. Additionally, 21 patients (3.0%) only had noninvasive tumours. 221 malignant skin tumours were found: 50.2% were SCCs, 47.1% BCCs, and 2.7% malignant melanomas. Mean years to first tumour were 5.8. Mean number of tumours per patient was 4, with mean interval of 12 months. Conclusions. Despite changes in transplantation practice during the time since the last data were published in this region, these findings are similar to previous studies. This adds to the evidence allowing clinicians to inform patients in this region of their risk

Effects of Na2Cr2O7 Inhibitor on the Corrosion Potential Response of Steel Reinforced Concrete in Saline Medium

Electrochemical monitoring method of the open circuit potential was used to investigate the effect of the concentrations of Na2Cr2O7 on the corrosion potential response of steel reinforced concrete in sodium chloride medium. In the study, five different concentrations of Na2Cr2O7 admixtures were employed in a system of replicated samples of steel-reinforced concrete specimens partially immersed in 3.5% NaCl to simulate marine and saline environments. Forty days measured responses from these were subjected to the statistical analyses of the Normal and the Weibull distribution functions and tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness of fit criteria. Results obtained from the analyses identified 4 g Na2Cr2O7 with optimal averaged potential response inhibition performance by the Normal model which showed better agreements in its models of Na2Cr2O7 potential test data than that obtained from the Weibull model of the same data. These bear pertinent implications on the need for suitability studies of appropriate statistical distribution for studying performance of corrosion inhibitors even as suggestions were proffered for addressing results conflicts among replicates of steel reinforced concrete samples employed

MIMO free-space optical communication employing subcarrier intensity modulation in atmospheric turbulence channels

In this paper, we analyse the error performance of transmitter/receiver array free-space optical (FSO) communication system employing binary phase shift keying (BPSK) subcarrier intensity modulation (SIM) in clear but turbulent atmospheric channel. Subcarrier modulation is employed to eliminate the need for adaptive threshold detector. Direct detection is employed at the receiver and each subcarrier is subsequently demodulated coherently. The effect of irradiance fading is mitigated with an array of lasers and photodetectors. The received signals are linearly combined using the optimal maximum ratio combining (MRC), the equal gain combining (EGC) and the selection combining (SelC). The bit error rate (BER) equations are derived considering additive white Gaussian noise and log normal intensity fluctuations. This work is part of the EU COST actions and EU projects

Analyses of the Leaf, Fruit and Seed of Thaumatococcus tktniellii (Benth.): Exploring Potential Uses

Thaumatococcus daniellii is an economic plant with versatile uses in Southern Nigeria. The arils attached to the seeds contain thawnatin, a non-sugar sweetener and taste modifier. This study examined the chemical constituents of the leaf, fruit and seed ofT. daniellii. The fresh fruit, on weight basis, consists of 4.8% aril, 22.8% seed and 72.4% fleshy part The leaf contained (per 100 g): 10.67 g moisture, 8.95 gash, 17.21 g fat, 21.06 g protein, 24.61 g crude fiber 17.50 g carbohydrate, 0.10 g calcium, 0.08 g magnesium, 0.01 g iron and 0.37 g phosphorus. The fruit (fleshy part) contained 10.04 g moisture, 21.08 gash, 0.93 g fat 11.53 g protein, 18.43 g crude fiber, 37.27 g carbohydrate, 0.34 g calcium, 0.30 g magnesium, 0.01 g iron and 0.21 g phosphorus. The seed contained 15.15 g moisture, 11.30 g ash, 0.21 g fat, 10.36 g protein, 20.52 g crude fiber and 42.46 g carbohydrate. Terpenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids and cardiac glycosoides were significantly present in both the leaf and fruit whereas phlobatani:n, saponin, steroids, anthraquinones and ascorbic acid were absent. Tannin was present only in the leaf. The leaf and fruit ofT. daniellii have significant nutritional and medicinal benefits. The leaf is rich in protein and fat. The fruit is a good source of minerals, particularly, calciwn and magnesiwn; the leaf is also rich in phosphoru

Seed Metrics for Genetic and Shape Determinations in African Yam Bean [Fabaceae] (Sphenostylis stenocarpa Hochst. Ex. A. Rich.) Harms

The metric measures on seeds, their correlation and relationship are important for systematic breeding for seed yield and shape determination. Variations among eighty genotypes of African yam bean (AYB) for six metric seed characters (seed length, width and thickness and their ratios) were evaluated in this study. Paired comparison among the six characters revealed very high significance (P < 0.001), approving the six traits as unique parameters for evaluating AYB. They equally exhibited high and substantial genetic variance: the genotypic proportion of the total variation ranged between 90 and 97%, broad sense heritability (81 - 94%) and genetic advances (14 - 31%). Seed length and width had the highest joint inheritance of 99.04%, the least, 4.32% was between width and WT as depicted by coheritability. Positive and significant (P < 0.05) phenotypic and/or genotypic correlation existed between seed width and thickness, the three ratios and seed length with the ratios except WT. Non-significant negative correlation existed between seed thickness with LT and WT. There were very reliable and highly significant linear relationships between the seed traits except for length and width whose relationship was non-linear. Breeding concentration on any of these traits may simultaneously influence the others. The seed shape indices were the metric ratios and the flatness index; they described the common shapes of AYB seeds as: round/spherical, oval/ellipsoidal, oblong and rhomboi

Occupancy Controlled Lighting System for Smart Buildings

Efficient utilization of the limited available energy in developing countries is a practical solution to the present challenges facing the power sector in the region. Automation of lighting systems in both residential and industrial buildings is one of the strategies for energy efficiency towards a sustainable economic development. In this paper, the authors developed an intelligent lighting system using occupancy control. The prototype consists of an Arduino uno microcontroller, Infrared module, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), relay, buzzer, and a light bulb. The infrared module senses human presence in a room and transmits a corresponding electrical signal to the Arduino. The relay was connected to the Arduino to act as the control unit. The programmable microcontroller was also used to keep track of the number of people in the room while the information is displayed on the LCD. The system achieved a significant energy saving by switching ON the light bulb only when it is really needed. A large-scale implementation of this smart application in residential and office buildings will encourage energy efficiency, making electrical energy available for other areas which are yet to be connected to the power grid. Aderemi A. Atayero, Victor Ademu-Eteh, Segun I. Popoola, Temitope O. Takpor, and Joke A. Badej

Learning analytics for smart campus: Data on academic performances of engineering undergraduates in Nigerian private university

Empirical measurement, monitoring, analysis, and reporting of learning outcomes in higher institutions of developing countries may lead to sustainable education in the region. In this data article, data about the academic performances of undergraduates that studied engineering programs at Covenant University, Nigeria are presented and analyzed. A total population sample of 1841 undergraduates that studied Chemical Engineering (CHE), Civil Engineering (CVE), Computer Engineering (CEN), Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), Information and Communication Engineering (ICE), Mechanical Engineering (MEE), and Petroleum Engineering (PET) within the year range of 2002–2014 are randomly selected. For the five-year study period of engineering program, Grade Point Average (GPA) and its cumulative value of each of the sample were obtained from the Department of Student Records and Academic Affairs. In order to encourage evidence-based research in learning analytics, detailed datasets are made publicly available in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file attached to this article. Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions of the academic performance data are presented in tables and graphs for easy data interpretations. In addition, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multiple comparison post-hoc tests are performed to determine whether the variations in the academic performances are significant across the seven engineering programs. The data provided in this article will assist the global educational research community and regional policy makers to understand and optimize the learning environment towards the realization of smart campuses and sustainable education

Statistical Evaluation of Quality of Service Offered by GSM Network Operators in Nigeria

The need for reliable connectivity places a serious challenge on mobile network operators, even as the number of connected things are expected to increase exponentially by 2020. In order to ensure the readiness of Nigeria to adopting emerging wireless technologies in smart cities, it becomes necessary to assess the level of compliance of mobile network operators to best international practices. In this paper, the Quality of Service (QoS) offered by GSM network operators in Nigeria was examined. Significant difference in the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of Airtel, Etisalat, Glo, and MTN was tested using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). In addition, Tukey Post hoc test was carried out to determine the extent of the variations among the four mobile network operators. Relative to the quality targets set by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), analysis results show that all the mobile network operators maintain a good QoS across board. Nevertheless, the QoS offered to GSM subscribers in Nigeria significantly vary from one mobile network operator to another