Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus co-infection in pregnant women from Osun State, Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus (HBV/HIV) co-infection is a global health concern due to its significant impact on morbidity and mortality. Reports of HBV/HIV co-infections are increasing in Nigeria, but information on the disease burden in pregnant women and its implications on the fetus is scarce. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of HBV/HIV co-infection in pregnant women. In addition, the study identified the risk factors for the disease in pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Osun State, Nigeria. METHODOLOGY: We collected plasma samples from 303 consenting pregnant women and used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to test for HBV (HBsAg) and HIV I/II antigens. We obtained demographic and risk factor data on HBV and HIV transmission using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: Our analysis revealed a prevalence of 3.96% for HBV/HIV co-infection in pregnant women. Bivariate analysis indicated a history of blood transfusion, oral or anal sex, and multiple sexual partners may be associated with an increased likelihood of HBV/HIV co-infection in pregnant women. After adjusting for other variables in multivariate analysis, none of these risk factors were significant at the 5% level. In contrast, formal education was a potential preventive factor in this population. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides valuable information on the disease burden of HBV/HIV co-infection in pregnant women in Osun State, Nigeria, highlighting the importance of routine screening for HBV and HIV during antenatal care and emphasizing the importance of implementing preventive measures to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with HBV/HIV co-infection.

Single-label machine learning classification revealed some hidden but inter-related causes of five psychotic disorder diseases.

Psychotic disorder diseases (PDD) or mental illnesses are group of illnesses that affect the minds and impair the cognitive ability, retard emotional ability and obstruct the process of communication and relationship with others and are characterized by delusions, hallucinations and disoriented or disordered pattern of thinking. Prognosis of PDD is not sufficient because of the nature of the diseases and as such adequate form of diagnosis is required to detect, manage and treat the illness. This paper applied the single-label classification (SLC) machine learning approach in mining of electronic health records of people with PDD in Nigeria using eleven independent (demographic) variables and five PDD as target variables. The five PDDs are Insomnia, Schizophrenia, Minimal Brain dysfunction (MBD), which is also known as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Vascular Dementia (VD) and Bipolar Disorder (BD). The aim of using SLC is that it would be easier to detect some PDDs that are related to each other without the loss of information, which is a plus over multi-label classification (MLC). ReliefF algorithm was used at each experiment to precipitate the order of importance of the independent variables and redundant variables were excluded from the analysis. The order of the variables in feature selection was matched with feature importance after the classifications and quantified using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The data was divided into: 70% for training and 30% for testing. Four new performance metrics adapted from the root mean square (RMSE) were proposed and used to measure the differences between the performance results of the 10 Machine learning models in terms of the training and testing and secondly, feature and without feature selection. The new metrics are close to zero which is an indication that the use of feature selection and cross validation may not greatly affects the accuracy of the SLC. When the PDDs are included as predictors for classifying others, there was a tremendous improvement as revealed by the four new metrics for classification accuracy (CA), precision and recall. Analysis of variance showed the four different metrics differs significantly for classification accuracy (CA) and precision. However, there were no significant difference between the CA and precision when the duo are compared together across the four evaluation metrics at p value less than 0.05.

A bibliometric review of grid parity, energy transition and electricity cost research for sustainable development.

As the topic of sustainable development continues to prominence in global affairs, the case for renewable energy has never been stronger. To be regarded as a perfect alternative to conventional (non-renewable) energy sources in many climes, renewable energy, such as solar and wind, shows promise when considering concepts like grid parity. A significant number of studies have been devoted to understanding the concept. However, only a few studies have committed themselves to analysing the research activity carried out on it. This paper will present a bibliometric and empirical review of worldwide grid parity, energy transition, and electricity cost research. To situate the progress in this research area, a detailed search of Scopus was used to identify and situate research development in the field from 1965 until 2021. Using the data extracted from Scopus and VOSviewer for analysis, we explore different aspects of the publications, such as the volume, growth rate, and coverage of published documents, the most influential research papers and journals in this research area, and the most studied research themes in recent years. We also discuss Governmental policies in developed and developing economies that have accelerated the attainment of Grid parity in certain countries. Also, an empirical review of top-down, bottom-up, and artificial neural network approaches to evaluating grid parity was conducted. The study revealed a steady increase in the research articles focused on grid parity, energy transition, and electricity cost research from 2006. The geographic distribution of the publications shows that most of the publications on the subject originated from the USA, Germany, China, United Kingdom, and Spain, raking in 42.2% of the publications. Also, the top 7 authors with the highest document count from Scopus are from Finland, which coincidentally is one of the countries making significant progress in Grid parity attainment. Of the total document count from Scopus, only 0.02% are papers published from African Countries. Could this reluctance to publish research findings on energy transition be one of the reasons for the slow progression of sustainable energy for all in Africa? Therefore, it is imperative now more than ever for more research focusing on the attainment of grid parity, energy transition, and electricity costs for developing countries to be brought to the fore. This article provides a review of state-of-the-art research on the attainment of grid parity and energy transition with a focus on the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) models of renewable energy sources.

Performance evaluation of the prospects and challenges of effective power generation and distribution in Nigeria.

Effective Electric Power Generation and Distribution result in the overall increase in efficiency in an economy. Nigeria generates 4500 MW for a population of 200 million people; hence, more than 50% of the population has no electricity access, and those with access experience power outages. Inasmuch as Nigeria is blessed with a vast amount of renewable energy sources, the country heavily relies on Natural Gas for power Generation. With regards to Power Generation, it is seen that the Power Generated is not evacuated efficiently. The purpose of this study is to access the growth of the Nigerian Power Sector from 1898 till date. This is achieved by evaluating the Power Sector Reforms enacted by different government to analyze their effectiveness. Furthermore, the study reviews strategically research that have discussed the strengths and weakness of the Nigerian Power Sector to be able to suggest hidden opportunities and reveal threats to the attainment of sustainable energy for all in 2030. Some of the Challenges discovered were energy user challenges, financial challenges, and energy losses. Some solutions and opportunities are the use of distributed generation, smart meters and the implemented of a smart grid system. In the long run, the authors propose that viable renewable energy sources in each State of the federation be tapped for Power Generation this would enable each State to the self-reliant and contributors to the Nigerian Power Generation Pool. It is believed that this actions would promote economic, social and technological benefits for the every stakeholder.