datakiss

Why Nigeria Cannot Achieve Zero HIV/AIDS

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Nigeria’s target of zero #HIV/AIDS, Zero discrimination by 2015 is still way off the mark considering the <img src="https://scontent-b-cdg.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/s180x540/10659175_653045224809368_2152898767690292886_n.jpg?oh=6f0742c7c8db21a6a3597a4481961771&oe=54B0438B" />hitches in its national response, which is mainly fund.</div>
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Less than two months to the  celebration of World AIDS Day, marked globally every December 1st, Nigeria may not have a positive score card to show.<br />
The reason being the miserable  conditions of people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as the high number of people dying daily from AIDS-related complications due to lack of access to anti-retroviral drugs.<br />
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It is no longer news that Nigeria  has the second highest HIV burden in the world with 3.4 million Nigerians living with HIV.<br />
The Director General, National  Agency for the Control of AIDS(NACA), Prof John Idoko, said that only 642,000 HIV positive persons out of the 1.6 million people requiring treatment, are currently accessing anti retroviral drugs, which represents only 30 per cent of the national need.<br />
The Network of People Living with  HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWAN) has raised the alarm over their plight.<br />
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The national coordinator of the  association, Mr Edward Ogenyi, said the death rate of people living with HIV/AIDS is on the increase because government has not owned the process.<br />
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The assistant national secretary,  Kano State chapter of the association, Hadiza Jibrin added that some of the members are complaining that they are asked to pay N1500 to get tested for HIV at private clinics.<br />
She said, “The reason is because  those test kits are been supplied through donors. Now that the donors are withdrawing and pulling their funds out of the country, it means that private hospitals will have to source for funds and buy these test kits by themselves. Because they are profit making organisations, they are charging people to pay for HIV tests.”<br />
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According to her, “ If test for HIV  continues at N1000 and N1500, then we are far from ending the HIV epidemic in this country. It is major barrier that will not allow people to have access to treatment.”<br />
She added that that no state is  exempted from this problem as all the 36 states, including the FCT, are having one problem or the other.<br />
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“Remember we are talking about  sustainability; the international partners have come with their open mind to help us. From the point of enrolment, they will tell you that the treatment is for life. We are taking it on a daily basis. So it would be out of place to wake up one day and see that these donors are nowhere to be found again. From the various states we all represent here, the donors are telling us that they are leaving; and by the time they leave us, what will our government do?”<br />
danglingReport, however, noted that they  shouldn’t be blamed for having the HIV virus.<br />
President Goodluck Jonathan had  launched with fanfare last year, July 2013, the President’s Comprehensive Response Plan(PCRP) for HIV/AIDS,   which was to be implemented with N140 billion.<br />
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The PCRP aims to avail 80 million  Nigerians the knowledge of their HIV status; enrol an additional 600,000 eligible adults and children on ART; provide ART for 244,000 HIV pregnant for prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT), provide access to combination prevention services for 500,000 most at risk populations (MARPs).<br />
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Speaking to journalists recently in  Abuja, the national coordinator of the association, Mr Edward Ogenyi, wondered how many people will die of HIV/AIDS before the Finance ministry released fund for the implementation of the PCRP for HIV/AIDS which was designed to urgently bridge the existing service access gaps for HIV/AIDS.<br />
“Madam Minister, this is an SOS.  Save our women, our new born babies and our generation from HIV/AIDS. We are tired of mourning and burying our members. Development starts with human beings,” he said<br />
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Also, the national public relations  officer of the association, Samaila Garba, urged the federal government to stand up to its responsibility.<br />
He said from 2004 up till date, HIV  programme in the country has been donor driven which had contributed to a lot of success, but now that the finances have dwindled, they can no longer access HIV services”<br />
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“The question is, who are the  people that will do these services? Are they saying people living with HIV/AIDS should come and pay when 80 per cent of our members cannot afford these investigations because of the cost?. Mind you, the drugs we are given are very toxic.”</div>

Why Nigeria Cannot Achieve Zero HIV/AIDS

Nigeria’s target of zero #HIV/AIDS, Zero discrimination by 2015 is still way off the mark considering the hitches in its national response, which is mainly fund. Less than two months to the celebrat…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

28 Oct 2014

A cell transplant has enabled a paralysed man to walk again.

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A man who was told he would never walk again has recovered sensation and movement in his legs after receiving a revolutionary #cell transplant.<br />
Darek Fidyka had been paralysed for almost two years following a knife attack, and despite intensive physiotherapy, he showed no sign of recovery. Following the transplant, he began to regain feeling in his legs. He steadily continued on the road to recovery, and two years after the operation, he can now walk again with the aid of a frame.<br />
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The transplant was a world-first collaboration effort by surgeons at the Wroclaw University Hospital in Poland and scientists at University College London’s Institute of Neurology in the UK, and the findings are published in the journal Cell  Transplantation .<br />
The cells that were used to achieve this miracle were taken from Fidyka's olfactory bulb, the structure that gives us our sense of smell. These nerve cells are continually damaged due to the different odours we smell and must be replaced regularly, which means the olfactory bulb is a very rich source of olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) - specialist cells that form part of the sense of smell.<br />
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OECs provide the pathway for the damaged fibres in our nose to grow back, enabling nerve cells to regenerate themselves throughout our lifetime. The team used this unique regeneration quality to repair Fidyka's damaged spinal column cells.<br />
Using these cells for the transplant meant there was no danger of rejection, and eliminated the need for immunosuppressive drugs that are typically used in transplants.<br />
Professor Geoffrey Raisman, a spinal cord injury specialist at University College London’s Institute of Neurology, who led the research, told Cahal Milmo from  The  Independent,"I believe this is the first time that a patient has been able to regenerate severed long spinal nerve fibres across an injury and resume movement and feeling".<br />
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The technique involved first removing one of Fidyka's olfactory bulbs, and culturing it in the laboratory to generate about 500,000 OECs. The OECs were then transplanted into the damaged area in his spinal cord. His incredible recovery suggests that the OECs provided a pathway for the fibres around the injury to rejoin, by creating a “nerve bridge” between the damaged ends of the spinal cord.<br />
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This regeneration reopened communication pathways between his brain controlling muscles and his lower body.<br />
"What the procedure does is provide a bridge that enables cut nerve fibres to grow across a gap. The cells open up a door on either side of the broken tissue and create a pathway for the nerves to follow,” Raisman told Richard Hartley- Parkinson from Metro.<br />
The team plans to assess the technique in more patients over the next few years, and hopes that it could be a future treatment for patients with spinal cord injuries.<br />
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Raisman told Milmo from  The  Independent, “We believe that this procedure is the breakthrough which, as it is further developed, will result in a historic change in the currently hopeless outlook for people disabled by spinal cord injury."<br />
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A cell transplant has enabled a paralysed man to walk again.

A man who was told he would never walk again has recovered sensation and movement in his legs after receiving a revolutionary #cell transplant. Darek Fidyka had been paralysed for almost two years fo…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

28 Oct 2014

Scientists have built the world’s thinnest electric generator - and it’s only one atom wide

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#Researchers have created a graphene-like material that generates electricity every time its stretched, and could power the wearable technology of the future.<br />
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Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Columbia Engineering in the US have shown they can generate  electricityfrom a layer of material that’s just one atom thick. The generator is made from molybdenum disulphide (MoS2), which is a clear, flexible and extremely light material that opens up huge possibilities for the future of electricity generation.<br />
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The new electrical generator is an example of piezoelectricity, or electricity that’s generated from pressure. Piezoelectric materials have huge potential to be used to create materials that can charge devices, such as footwear that powers an iPod. But until now, scientists have struggled to make these materials thin and flexible enough to be practical.<br />
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However, it’s been predicted that a substance capable of forming single-atom-thick molecules, or two-dimensional layers, would be highly piezoelectric.<br />
Now the scientists have proved that this is the case for the first time ever. Their results have been published in Nature.<br />
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To test whether MoS2 would be piezoelectric on the atomic scale, the team flaked off extremely thin layers of MoS2 onto a flexible substrate with electrical contact.<br />
Because of the way these flakes were created, each had a slightly different number of layers - for example, while some were just one-atom-thick, others were eight-atoms-thick.<br />
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The scientists tested the piezoelectric response of these flakes by stretching the material, and measuring the flow of electrons into an external circuit.<br />
Interestingly, they discovered that when the material had an odd number of layers, it generated electricity when stretched. But when it had an even number of layers, there was no current generated.<br />
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A single one-atom-thick layer of the material was able to generate 15 millivolts of electricity when stretched.<br />
They also found that as the number of layers increased, the amount of current generated decreased, until eventually the material got too thick and stopped producing any electricity at all.<br />
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Computational studies suggest that this is because the atomic layers all have random orientations, and they eventually cancel each other out.<br />
The research team also arranged these one-atom-thick layers of MoS2 into arrays, and found that together they were capable of generating a large amount of electricity.<br />
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This suggests that they’re a promising candidate for powering nano electronics, and could be used to create wearable technologies.<br />
“This material – just a single layer of atoms – could be made as a wearable device, perhaps integrated into clothing, to convert energy from your body movement to electricity and power wearable sensors or medical devices, or perhaps supply enough energy to charge your cell phone in your pocket,” said James Hone, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia engineering and co-leader of the research, in a press release.<img src="https://scontent-a-cdg.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/14987_653501971430360_6880627214293626599_n.jpg?oh=fdcbec19a54af028cc6d24195ad49dd2&oe=54E4B7B5" /></div>

Scientists have built the world’s thinnest electric generator - and it’s only one atom wide

#Researchers have created a graphene-like material that generates electricity every time its stretched, and could power the wearable technology of the future. Scientists from the Georgia Institute of…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

28 Oct 2014

Recent study shows that there's no evidence heavy Marijuana use may causes a drop in IQ

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A 2012 study linking persistent cannabis use to neuropsychological decline has been discredited.<br />
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In a study published in the #journal PNAS in 2012, scientists from Duke University in the US reported that cannabis had a neurotoxic effect on the adolescent brain, causing a loss of up to 8 IQ pointsin the heaviest users.<br />
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They found that IQ, learning, memory, and executive functions all declined in heavy users who started smoking before the age of 18.<br />
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The research was part of a longitudinal study of 1,037 New Zealand children born between 1972 and 1973. Health, intelligence and behaviour measures were taken periodically on all participants, most recently at the age of 38.<br />
The scientists warned that there may be other explanations for their findings and that they could not "definitively attest to whether this association [between persistent cannabis use and IQ decline] was causal". The study did rule out factors such as years of education, schizophrenia, hard-drug and alcohol dependence, but did not account for other relevant factors such as childhood trauma.<br />
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A study published in PNASsix months after the original research questioned the methodology, saying: "Although it would be too strong to say that the results have been discredited, the methodology is flawed and the causal inference drawn from the results premature."<br />
The researchers argued that if you take into account the effects of socioeconomic status on IQ, the decline in IQ due to cannabis use is overestimated by the previous study - and could in fact be zero.<br />
A new study by the University College  London has now shed further light on the Duke University findings. This study drew on a larger sample of adolescents; 2,612 UK children born between 1991 and 1992. They found that heavy cannabis use was in no way linked to IQ decline, although alcohol use was strongly correlated with IQ loss in eight to 15 year olds.<br />
There was some evidence that cannabis use impacted school test scores: the heaviest users scored 3 per cent lower on exams at age 16.<br />
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This mirrors other research, which has linked heavy marijuana use to poor academic performance and low  school completion  ratesin teenagers.<br />
However, a new study in California where cannabis was recently legalised show that legalising the drug leads to  no increase in problematic adolescent behavioursuch as crime, drug overdose, driving under the influence, or school dropout rates. This indicates that even if negative health effects are a consequence of smoking cannabis, prohibition might not be the best option.<br />
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Recent study shows that there's no evidence heavy Marijuana use may causes a drop in IQ

A 2012 study linking persistent cannabis use to neuropsychological decline has been discredited. In a study published in the #journal PNAS in 2012, scientists from Duke University in the US reported …

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

28 Oct 2014

Minimum Wage: Labour Begins Strike November 1. (Is it a good idea?)

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The Trade #Union Congress of Nigeria(TUC) has planned to commence indefinite strike on November 1, 2014 if the leadership of the National Assembly refuses to clarify its position on the deregulation of the national minimum wage in the country.<br />
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This was revealed at its emergency meeting in Lagos over the weekend.<br />
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The Central Working Committee (CWC) of the union regretted that there were conflicting reports on the removal of minimum wages from the exclusive list.<br />
A communiqué signed by the TUC president, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, and its secretary-general, Musa Lawal,at the end of the meeting,rejected the minimum wage deregulation and vowed to resist attempt to lord it over the workers in the country.<br />
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The CWC -in-session mandated the leadership of the Congress to relate with the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) and allies in civil society organisations to mobilise without further delay for a follow-up action.<br />
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It added that a national minimum wage in favour of multiple minimum wages in the country means there was no more minimum wage therein as well as exclusion of the private sector from the rationale and logic of a national minimum wage.<br />
It also said politics would be introduced into wage determination should the proposed amendments sail through, which on the long run is capable of destabilising industrial relations environment in Nigeria.<br />
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“Minimum wage which is a product of collective bargaining should not be made a state law because both the private and public sectors are involved.<br />
The amendments pass by the Senate will effectively negate the spirit and practice of International Labour Organisation Convention 131,which our nation first domesticated in the 1979 constitution.<br />
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“A preponderant majority of nation states in the world,including federal states,operate national minimum wage and Nigeria needs to remain among such nations,’’ the communiqué stated.</div>

Minimum Wage: Labour Begins Strike November 1. (Is it a good idea?)

The Trade #Union Congress of Nigeria(TUC) has planned to commence indefinite strike on November 1, 2014 if the leadership of the National Assembly refuses to clarify its position on the deregulation …

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

28 Oct 2014

Whisky waste could be the fuel of the future.

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An innovative start-up company is exploring the possibility of using the by-products of whisky as a next <br />
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generation biofuel.<br />
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#Whisky making requires three ingredients: water, yeast, and a grain. However, only 10 percent of those products end up as whisky, the remaining 90 percent is wasted during distilling. These waste products are either released into the sea or turned into animal feed.<br />
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Celtic Renewables Ltdis a start-up company in Scotland that is working to reuse the waste products from the Scottish Malt Whisky industry to develop biobutanol - an advanced biofuel that can be used instead of fossil-derived fuel. This will in turn reduce oil consumption and CO2 emissions, and provide an energy guarantee for rural areas that have a booming whisky industry.<br />
The team have refined an old industrial fermentation technique, and managed to change draff (husk residue left by fermented grains) and pot ale (liquid produced during the mashing process), into 1-butanol and ethanol - which can both be used as fuel.<br />
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Biobutanol has many benefits over bioethanol, which is commonly used as a biofuel. It has 25 percent more energy per unit volume and a lower vapour pressure, making it safer to store and handle. Another bonus is that it can be easily blended with petrol or diesel in storage tanks or retail station pumps, eliminating the need for modification in blending facilities.<br />
The whisky industry annually produces 1,600 million litres of pot ale and 500,000 tonnes of draff from the distilling process, but Celtic Renewables' current biobutanol facilities are small-scale and unable to process this much waste.<br />
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The team hopes to get sufficient funding to allow them to establish a commercial plant, where they can revive this age-old fermentation technique to develop the fuel for our future.<img src="https://scontent-b-cdg.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10346598_656344147812809_103854656657707947_n.jpg?oh=b2a2b17aaafaa2ba6db65b87ca9cf126&oe=54F26BB1" /></div>

Whisky waste could be the fuel of the future.

An innovative start-up company is exploring the possibility of using the by-products of whisky as a next generation biofuel. #Whisky making requires three ingredients: water, yeast, and a grain. How…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

28 Oct 2014

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