Objectives: To determine the frequency, the clinical and radiological features of lumbar spondylolisthesis in a rheumatological practice in Lomé. Patients and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted i...Objectives: To determine the frequency, the clinical and radiological features of lumbar spondylolisthesis in a rheumatological practice in Lomé. Patients and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the rheumatology department of the Sylvanus Olympio Teaching Hospital in Lomé between January 1997 and December 2019. Medical records of patients with symptomatic spondylolisthesis with radiographic confirmation were reviewed. The Meyerding classification system was used for grading. Results: Of the 350 patients contacted, 118 consented to participate in the study, making a response rate of 33.71%. Of the 118, 104 (88.1%) were females. 109 (92.4%) presented with radicular pain and 9 (7.6%) presented low back pain. The mean age of the patients was 54.24 ± 11.19 years. The average duration of the pain was 4.56 ± 1.32 years. The spondylolisthesis level most involved was the L4 - L5 (92/118), followed by L5 - S1 (23/118). 106 (89.8%) patients had anterolisthesis only, seven (5.9%) combination anterolisthesis and retrolisthesis. The spondylolisthesis was associated with spondylosis in 110 (93.2%) patients. Spondylosis was found at level L4 - L5 in 38.98% patients, followed by L5 - S1 (24.58%), L3 - L4 (18.64%). Grade I slip was found in 108 (91.53%) patients and Grade II slips 10 (8.47%). Isthmic lysis was found in 40 (33.9%) patients and it was located at L4 in 30 (75.0%). Conclusion: Lumbar spondylolisthesis appears to be expected in Lomé patients with nonspecific back pain and mainly affects females.展开更多
Introduction: Men without sperm (azoospermic) make up about 15% of all infertile men in reproductive age of fatherhood. Male infertility is a health and social problem in many communities. Subjects and Methods: This r...Introduction: Men without sperm (azoospermic) make up about 15% of all infertile men in reproductive age of fatherhood. Male infertility is a health and social problem in many communities. Subjects and Methods: This retrospective study was carried from 2010 to 2015. Initially, 907 men were included in the study among whom 109 (12.02%), 346 (38.15%) and 452 (49.83%) were azoospermic, oligospermic and normospermic, respectively. This study only investigated the association between age, BMI, semen volume, liquefaction time and pus cells among normospermic and azoospermic men. Standard semen analysis was performed and subjects were categorized by age into Results: The 562 subjects of the study had means (±sd) age of 42.6 (±7.10) years and BMI of 27.0 (4.1) kg/m2 respectively. In all, 109 (19.4%) were azoospermic. Overweight and obese men were, respectively, more than 1? and about 2? times more likely to be azoospermic compared to normal weight men. Azoospermic men were significantly heavier than men with normal sperm count (t = -0.34;P-value = 0.003). Among those with normal weight, liquefaction time was significantly shorter (t = 5.49, P-value = 0.000001) in azoospermic (28.70 min.) than in men with normal sperm count (31.82 min.). Obese azoospermic men were about 4 times as likely to have high pus cells in semen than normal weight azoospermic men (OR = 3.82;95% CI: 0.39, 37.01). Multivariate regression analysis shows a strong but negative coefficient correlation between sperm concentration and BMI (coef. = -0.48, Std Err. = 0.25, P-value = 0.05, 95% CI: -0.96, 0.10). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that high BMI is associated with azoospermia. Azoospermia also did not seem to negatively impact liquefaction time.展开更多
Dust accumulation on photovoltaic (PV) panels degrades PV panels’ performance;leading to decreased power output and consequently high cost per generated kilowatt. Research addressing the severity of dust accumulation...Dust accumulation on photovoltaic (PV) panels degrades PV panels’ performance;leading to decreased power output and consequently high cost per generated kilowatt. Research addressing the severity of dust accumulation on PV panels has been ongoing since the 1940s, but proposed solutions have tended to increase the cost of PV systems either from oversizing or from cleaning the system. The objective of this work, therefore, is to design and implement a low-cost affordable automated PV panel dust cleaning system for use in rural communities of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA);where financial resources are limited and significantly strained in meeting livelihood activities. Complete design and implementation details of a prototype system are provided for easy replication and capitalization on PV systems for sustainable energy needs. The system detects dust based on the innovative use of light-dependent resistors. Testing and observation of the system in operational mode reveal satisfactory performance;measured parameters quantify a power output increase of 33.76% as a result of cleaning dust off the PV panel used in the study.展开更多
In Africa, sustainable livestock production must address food security, as well as animal disease concerns simultaneously in addition to social aspects. Livestock disease challenges seem to be increasing with one of t...In Africa, sustainable livestock production must address food security, as well as animal disease concerns simultaneously in addition to social aspects. Livestock disease challenges seem to be increasing with one of them being lack of good animal diagnostics services with notable emerging zoonotic diseases which if not correctly diagnosed in animals pose risks to humans. The major livestock hubs in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) include Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nigeria and utilization of diagnostic services by veterinarians in these countries could inform further action by different stakeholders in the SSA region. A cross sectional survey with veterinarians was conducted between January 2022 and February 2022 to determine the number of veterinarians who have submitted samples for veterinary diagnosis, laboratory utilization rates and challenges faced by veterinarians using veterinary labs in sub-Sahara Africa between the period of 2018 and 2022. Methods: This was a cross sectional study, where an online questionnaire was shared with veterinarians through their online social group networks in different countries and data was captured and analyzed. Results: 74% (64/87) of veterinarians reported having submitted a sample to a lab, Government labs were the most utilized at 54%, followed by private labs at 37% and the human health labs recorded 9% utilization rate. The most faced challenge by veterinarians was failing to get samples to the lab because the labs where far (52%) with the least challenge reported being failure to understand the lab results at 3%. Conclusion: Government labs were the most utilized in this period, however notable challenges like failing to get samples to the lab still exist. Veterinary diagnosis is still an underutilized service in sub-Sahara Africa and more measures need to be worked on in terms of sample logistics, capacity building and trainings of both lab personnel and veterinarians in interpretation of results to ensure improved utilization of veterinary diagnostics services.展开更多
S<span>everal challenges are associated </span></span><span style="font-family:"">with</span><span style="font-family:""> the development, adoption and...S<span>everal challenges are associated </span></span><span style="font-family:"">with</span><span style="font-family:""> the development, adoption and de</span><span style="font-family:"">ployment of biogas digesters in developing countries. Amongst these challenges is a comprehensive and systematic procedure for the design of digesters suitable for rural communities. This paper proposes the Flexible Biogas Digester System (FBDS) as a viable option for rural communities in developing countries and provide</span><span style="font-family:"">s</span><span style="font-family:""> a detailed step-by-step procedure for it</span><span style="font-family:"">s</span><span style="font-family:""> design. The biogas production process is a function of the digester operating factors which may be grouped into physical, process and performance parameters. The physical design parameters include</span><span style="font-family:""> </span><span style="font-family:"">the digester volume, the volume of the biogas storage tank, and the volume of the installation pit. The process parameters include total solid content of the slurry (TS), organic loading rate (OLR), digester operating temperatures, pH of the slurry inside the digester. The performance parameters include</span><span style="font-family:""> </span><span style="font-family:"">biogas production rate, biogas productivity and biogas quality. The Net Present Value and the Levelised Cost of Energy are presented for simple economic evaluation of the FBDS.展开更多
Health and climate have been linked since antiquity.The impact of climate change on human health has received increasing recognition since it was first mentioned in the IRCC(Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change)...Health and climate have been linked since antiquity.The impact of climate change on human health has received increasing recognition since it was first mentioned in the IRCC(Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change).Climate change is widely considered to be a major driver of inter-annual variability of malaria incidence in Africa.Several researches have suggested that climate can affect infectious disease patterns because disease agents展开更多
文摘Objectives: To determine the frequency, the clinical and radiological features of lumbar spondylolisthesis in a rheumatological practice in Lomé. Patients and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the rheumatology department of the Sylvanus Olympio Teaching Hospital in Lomé between January 1997 and December 2019. Medical records of patients with symptomatic spondylolisthesis with radiographic confirmation were reviewed. The Meyerding classification system was used for grading. Results: Of the 350 patients contacted, 118 consented to participate in the study, making a response rate of 33.71%. Of the 118, 104 (88.1%) were females. 109 (92.4%) presented with radicular pain and 9 (7.6%) presented low back pain. The mean age of the patients was 54.24 ± 11.19 years. The average duration of the pain was 4.56 ± 1.32 years. The spondylolisthesis level most involved was the L4 - L5 (92/118), followed by L5 - S1 (23/118). 106 (89.8%) patients had anterolisthesis only, seven (5.9%) combination anterolisthesis and retrolisthesis. The spondylolisthesis was associated with spondylosis in 110 (93.2%) patients. Spondylosis was found at level L4 - L5 in 38.98% patients, followed by L5 - S1 (24.58%), L3 - L4 (18.64%). Grade I slip was found in 108 (91.53%) patients and Grade II slips 10 (8.47%). Isthmic lysis was found in 40 (33.9%) patients and it was located at L4 in 30 (75.0%). Conclusion: Lumbar spondylolisthesis appears to be expected in Lomé patients with nonspecific back pain and mainly affects females.
文摘Introduction: Men without sperm (azoospermic) make up about 15% of all infertile men in reproductive age of fatherhood. Male infertility is a health and social problem in many communities. Subjects and Methods: This retrospective study was carried from 2010 to 2015. Initially, 907 men were included in the study among whom 109 (12.02%), 346 (38.15%) and 452 (49.83%) were azoospermic, oligospermic and normospermic, respectively. This study only investigated the association between age, BMI, semen volume, liquefaction time and pus cells among normospermic and azoospermic men. Standard semen analysis was performed and subjects were categorized by age into Results: The 562 subjects of the study had means (±sd) age of 42.6 (±7.10) years and BMI of 27.0 (4.1) kg/m2 respectively. In all, 109 (19.4%) were azoospermic. Overweight and obese men were, respectively, more than 1? and about 2? times more likely to be azoospermic compared to normal weight men. Azoospermic men were significantly heavier than men with normal sperm count (t = -0.34;P-value = 0.003). Among those with normal weight, liquefaction time was significantly shorter (t = 5.49, P-value = 0.000001) in azoospermic (28.70 min.) than in men with normal sperm count (31.82 min.). Obese azoospermic men were about 4 times as likely to have high pus cells in semen than normal weight azoospermic men (OR = 3.82;95% CI: 0.39, 37.01). Multivariate regression analysis shows a strong but negative coefficient correlation between sperm concentration and BMI (coef. = -0.48, Std Err. = 0.25, P-value = 0.05, 95% CI: -0.96, 0.10). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that high BMI is associated with azoospermia. Azoospermia also did not seem to negatively impact liquefaction time.
文摘Dust accumulation on photovoltaic (PV) panels degrades PV panels’ performance;leading to decreased power output and consequently high cost per generated kilowatt. Research addressing the severity of dust accumulation on PV panels has been ongoing since the 1940s, but proposed solutions have tended to increase the cost of PV systems either from oversizing or from cleaning the system. The objective of this work, therefore, is to design and implement a low-cost affordable automated PV panel dust cleaning system for use in rural communities of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA);where financial resources are limited and significantly strained in meeting livelihood activities. Complete design and implementation details of a prototype system are provided for easy replication and capitalization on PV systems for sustainable energy needs. The system detects dust based on the innovative use of light-dependent resistors. Testing and observation of the system in operational mode reveal satisfactory performance;measured parameters quantify a power output increase of 33.76% as a result of cleaning dust off the PV panel used in the study.
文摘In Africa, sustainable livestock production must address food security, as well as animal disease concerns simultaneously in addition to social aspects. Livestock disease challenges seem to be increasing with one of them being lack of good animal diagnostics services with notable emerging zoonotic diseases which if not correctly diagnosed in animals pose risks to humans. The major livestock hubs in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) include Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nigeria and utilization of diagnostic services by veterinarians in these countries could inform further action by different stakeholders in the SSA region. A cross sectional survey with veterinarians was conducted between January 2022 and February 2022 to determine the number of veterinarians who have submitted samples for veterinary diagnosis, laboratory utilization rates and challenges faced by veterinarians using veterinary labs in sub-Sahara Africa between the period of 2018 and 2022. Methods: This was a cross sectional study, where an online questionnaire was shared with veterinarians through their online social group networks in different countries and data was captured and analyzed. Results: 74% (64/87) of veterinarians reported having submitted a sample to a lab, Government labs were the most utilized at 54%, followed by private labs at 37% and the human health labs recorded 9% utilization rate. The most faced challenge by veterinarians was failing to get samples to the lab because the labs where far (52%) with the least challenge reported being failure to understand the lab results at 3%. Conclusion: Government labs were the most utilized in this period, however notable challenges like failing to get samples to the lab still exist. Veterinary diagnosis is still an underutilized service in sub-Sahara Africa and more measures need to be worked on in terms of sample logistics, capacity building and trainings of both lab personnel and veterinarians in interpretation of results to ensure improved utilization of veterinary diagnostics services.
文摘S<span>everal challenges are associated </span></span><span style="font-family:"">with</span><span style="font-family:""> the development, adoption and de</span><span style="font-family:"">ployment of biogas digesters in developing countries. Amongst these challenges is a comprehensive and systematic procedure for the design of digesters suitable for rural communities. This paper proposes the Flexible Biogas Digester System (FBDS) as a viable option for rural communities in developing countries and provide</span><span style="font-family:"">s</span><span style="font-family:""> a detailed step-by-step procedure for it</span><span style="font-family:"">s</span><span style="font-family:""> design. The biogas production process is a function of the digester operating factors which may be grouped into physical, process and performance parameters. The physical design parameters include</span><span style="font-family:""> </span><span style="font-family:"">the digester volume, the volume of the biogas storage tank, and the volume of the installation pit. The process parameters include total solid content of the slurry (TS), organic loading rate (OLR), digester operating temperatures, pH of the slurry inside the digester. The performance parameters include</span><span style="font-family:""> </span><span style="font-family:"">biogas production rate, biogas productivity and biogas quality. The Net Present Value and the Levelised Cost of Energy are presented for simple economic evaluation of the FBDS.
文摘Health and climate have been linked since antiquity.The impact of climate change on human health has received increasing recognition since it was first mentioned in the IRCC(Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change).Climate change is widely considered to be a major driver of inter-annual variability of malaria incidence in Africa.Several researches have suggested that climate can affect infectious disease patterns because disease agents
