Awareness and Perspective on Use and Integration of Traditional and Modern Medicine in a Rural Area of Sokoto State, Nigeria

Henry Chukwuemeka OKAFOR,Osita John IKPEAMA,Jane Nkechinyere OKAFOR,Rita Ifeyinwa OKAFOR4 한국식품보건융합학회 2021 식품보건융합연구 (KJFHC) Vol.7 No.6

There are two forms of medicine that have existed over time and are important in the delivery of expert health care. The forms of medicine are traditional and modern medicine. This study was aimed at assessing the awareness and perspective on the use and integration of traditional and modern medicine in a rural area of Sokoto State, Nigeria. Two hundred and seventy-one (271) respondents were recruited and a self-administered questionnaire on the awareness and perspective on use and integration of traditional and modern medicine was used to assess the participant’s view. Among the participants, 200(73.8%) were females. The mean±SD age of respondents was 30.55±9.73 years. 80.8% of the respondents were aware of traditional medicine while 100% were aware of modern medicine. All respondents prefer modern medicine but about 28.8% support integration of both healthcare services. The results were considered significant when p-value was less than 0.005. There is a statistically significant relationship between the integration of traditional and modern forms of medicine and age, gender, religion, education, ethnicity and occupation but not for marital status. Though all the respondents preferred modern medicine to traditional medicine, some people still feel it will be good to combine both for a better healthcare system.

Paralytic Ileus Secondary to Electrolyte Imbalance: A Case Study in a 16 Year Old Female

Henry Chukwuemeka OKAFOR,Osita John IKPEAMA,Jane Nkechinyere OKAFOR,Rita Ifeyinwa OKAFOR 한국식품보건융합학회 2022 식품보건융합연구 (KJFHC) Vol.8 No.1

Paralytic ileus is a metabolic state in which the intestines fail to transmit peristalsis due to failure of the neuromuscular mechanism in the small intestines and colon. It is a major cause of morbidity in hospitalized patients especially during late presentations and points of mismanagement. The causes include infections, electrolyte imbalance (hypokalemia, hyponatremia), surgeries and medications. When the exact cause of the disease condition is identified and corrected, paralytic ileus is usually resolved. This case report is that of a 16 year old female who was admitted and managed as a case of paralytic ileus. The patient presented with symptoms of fever, abdominal pain, abdominal distension, vomiting and inability to pass stool or flatus. There was associated body weakness, reduced urine output and weight loss. She was properly examined clinically and sent for various investigations. Investigations such plain abdominal X-Ray, serum electrolyte estimation, chest X-Ray and full blood count were carried out. The results of the investigations done were in keeping with the diagnosis of paralytic ileus, electrolyte imbalance and ongoing sepsis. She was subsequently managed through nil per oral, adequate fluid rehydration, antibiotics and correction of electrolyte imbalance. Following stable clinical state and investigation results, she was discharged and advised on follow-up.

Soil Properties, Their Impact On Citrus Tree Loss and Their Management

Okafor B.N,Akinbola G.E,Olaniyan A.A 한국토양비료학회 2014 한국토양비료학회 학술발표회 초록집 Vol.2014 No.6

Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons in Contemporary Military Interventions

Okafor-Yarwood, Ifesinachi 서울대학교 통일평화연구원 2014 Asian Journal of Peacebuilding Vol.2 No.1

This research note examines the use of depleted uranium weapons in contemporary military interventions and the hazardous effects of their use. It also demonstrates attempts made by the United States and the United Kingdom to block any international efforts to ban the use of these weapons. Although there is no laboratory evidence, experiential evidence from Iraq indicates that depleted uranium weapons are dangerous to human health and the environment. This research note argues that the United Nations should play a leading role in seeking a ban on the use of these weapons in military interventions.

Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons in Contemporary Military Interventions

( Ifesinachi Okafor-yarwood ) 서울대학교 통일평화연구원 2014 Asian Journal of Peacebuilding Vol.2 No.1

This research note examines the use of depleted uranium weapons in contemporary military interventions and the hazardous effects of their use. It also demonstrates attempts made by the United States and the United Kingdom to block any international efforts to ban the use of these weapons. Although there is no laboratory evidence, experiential evidence from Iraq indicates that depleted uranium weapons are dangerous to human health and the environment. This research note argues that the United Nations should play a leading role in seeking a ban on the use of these weapons in military interventions.

Characterisation, Classification and Evaluation of Some Basement Complex Soils of Nigeria for Multipurpose Use

Bernard Okafor 한국토양비료학회 2014 한국토양비료학회 학술발표회 초록집 Vol.2014 No.6

The Determinants of Firm Performance and Bribery: Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

Godwin Okafor 한국국제경제학회 2017 International Economic Journal Vol.31 No.4

This paper uses ordinary least squares with firm effects and Probit regression models to investigate the determinants of firm performance and the likelihood of firms to pay bribes. Results for the manufacturing firms in Nigeria show that skilled workforce, exports, foreign ownership and capital investment influence firm performance. Conversely, poor electricity delivery and difficulty obtaining finance impede firm performance. Total sales and time spent dealing with government regulations increase the likelihood of firms to pay bribes. Surprisingly, foreign firms are as much likely to pay bribes as domestic firms. Policy implications from the findings are important considering that the manufacturing sector assumes an important role in the Lewis theory of economic development.

Integrating Resilient Tier N+1 Networks with Distributed Non-Recursive Cloud Model for Cyber-Physical Applications

Kennedy Chinedu Okafor,Omowunmi Mary Longe 한국인터넷정보학회 2022 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.16 No.7

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) have been growing exponentially due to improved cloud-datacenter infrastructure-as-a-service (CDIaaS). Incremental expandability (scalability), Quality of Service (QoS) performance, and reliability are currently the automation focus on healthy Tier 4 CDIaaS. However, stable QoS is yet to be fully addressed in Cyber-physical data centers (CP-DCS). Also, balanced agility and flexibility for the application workloads need urgent attention. There is a need for a resilient and fault-tolerance scheme in terms of CPS routing service including Pod cluster reliability analytics that meets QoS requirements. Motivated by these concerns, our contributions are fourfold. First, a Distributed Non-Recursive Cloud Model (DNRCM) is proposed to support cyber-physical workloads for remote lab activities. Second, an efficient QoS stability model with Routh-Hurwitz criteria is established. Third, an evaluation of the CDIaaS DCN topology is validated for handling large-scale, traffic workloads. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) with Floodlight SDN controllers was adopted for the implementation of DNRCM with embedded rule-base in Open vSwitch engines. Fourth, QoS evaluation is carried out experimentally. Considering the non-recursive queuing delays with SDN isolation (logical), a lower queuing delay (19.65%) is observed. Without logical isolation, the average queuing delay is 80.34%. Without logical resource isolation, the fault tolerance yields 33.55%, while with logical isolation, it yields 66.44%. In terms of throughput, DNRCM, recursive BCube, and DCell offered 38.30%, 36.37%, and 25.53% respectively. Similarly, the DNRCM had an improved incremental scalability profile of 40.00%, while BCube and Recursive DCell had 33.33%, and 26.67% respectively. In terms of service availability, the DNRCM offered 52.10% compared with recursive BCube and DCell which yielded 34.72% and 13.18% respectively. The average delays obtained for DNRCM, recursive BCube, and DCell are 32.81%, 33.44%, and 33.75% respectively. Finally, workload utilization for DNRCM, recursive BCube, and DCell yielded 50.28%, 27.93%, and 21.79% respectively.

Liver Function Analyses and Spleen Histology Assessment Following the Co-administration of Cisplatin and Methanolic Extract of Portulaca Oleracea in Wistar Rats: An Experimental Study

Izuchukwu Azuka Okafor,Uchenna Somtochukwu Nnamah,Jude Nnaka 한국생약학회 2020 Natural Product Sciences Vol.26 No.3

This study investigated the biochemical and histological changes associated with the co-administration of cisplatin and methanolic extract of Portulaca oleracea (MEPO) in adult Wistar rats. Twenty-four (24) adult female Wistar rats were randomly divided into six (6) groups (A-F) (n = 4). Group A served as the control group for the experiment and received no treatment. Group B was given a single dose of cisplatin and served as the cisplatin control group. Group C and D received 400 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg of MEPO 6 hours after a single dose cisplatin injection respectively. Group E and F received 400 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg of MEPO 6 hours before cisplatin injection. The cisplatin injection was 2 mL/kg given intraperitoneally for all groups. There was a significant increase in the serum levels of ALT, ALP, AST, total bilirubin, and conjugated bilirubin following cisplatin treatment (p = 0.000, 0.000, 0.039, 0.000, 0.004 respectively) with a consequent reversal due to MEPO administration across all treated groups (p = 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, and 0.000) in a dose-dependent fashion. Cisplatin caused the expansion of the red and white pulp in the spleen which was attenuated by MEPO. MEPO demonstrated a protective effect against cisplatin-induced liver and spleen toxicity.

Improving Data Quality of Low-cost IoT Sensors in Environmental Monitoring Networks Using Data Fusion and Machine Learning Approach

Nwamaka U. Okafor,Yahia Alghorani,Declan T. Delaney 한국통신학회 2020 ICT Express Vol.6 No.3

Environmental monitoring has become an active research area due to the current rise in the global climate change crises. Current environmental monitoring solutions, however, are characterized by high cost of acquisition and complexity of installation; often requiring extensive resources, infrastructure and expertise. It is infeasible to achieve with these solutions, high density in-situ networks such as are required to build refined scale models to facilitate robust monitoring, thus, leaving large gaps within the collected dataset. Low-Cost Sensors (LCS) can offer high-resolution spatiotemporal measurements which could be used to supplement existing dataset from current environmental monitoring solutions. LCS however, require frequent calibration in order to provide accurate and reliable data as they are often affected by environmental conditions when deployed on the field. Calibrating LCS can help to improve their data quality and ensure they are collecting accurate data. Achieving effective calibration, however, requires identifying factors that affect sensor’s data quality for a given measurement. This study evaluates the performance of three Feature Selection (FS) algorithms including Forward Feature Selection (FFS), Backward Elimination (BE) and Exhaustive Feature Selection (EFS) in identifying factors that affect data quality of low-cost IoT sensors in environmental monitoring networks. Applying the concept of data fusion, sensors data were merged with environmental factors and integrated into a single calibration equation to calibrate cairclipO3/NO2 and cairclipNO2 sensors using Linear Regression (LR) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The study showed the effectiveness of calibration in improving low-cost IoT sensor data quality and also demonstrated the convenience of feature selection and the ability of data fusion to provide more consistent, accurate and reliable information for calibration models. The analysis showed that the cairclipO3/NO2 sensor provided measurements that have good correlation with reference measurements whereas the cairclipNO2 sensor showed no reasonable correlation with the reference data. Calibrating the cairclipO3/NO2 yielded good improvement in its measurement outputs when compared to reference measurements (R2=0.83). However, calibrating the cairclipNO2 sensor data yielded no significant improvement in its data quality.