AB STRACT This research work describes a study that used measles disease data collected through Knoema health surveillance system to evaluate univariate time series method namely; autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA). The data obtained from 1980 to 2016 were used as modeling data and forecasting samples, respectively. The performances were evaluated based on three metrics: mean absolute error (MAE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and mean square error (MSE). A low normaliz...
ABSTRACT This research is about time series analysis and number of babies at birth in Abuja, between 2000-2017 using a monthly data. The box-Jenkin autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was estimated and the best fitted model is ARIMA 1,1,1 with Bayesian information criteria (BIC) of 7.580, R2 of 0.402 and with P-values of the perimeters of the model less than 0. 05. The model was further validated with L-Jung Box text with residual been white noise. The mode was use to obtai...
ABSTRACT In Ghana, onchocerciasis control with mass ivermectin treatment began in 1987. Despite over two decades of interventions, the disease remains persistent with reports of sub-optimal/poor parasite responses to the drug. Some treated patients are observed with higher microfilarial repopulation rates in skin than expected, an indication of sub-optimal response. Although ivermectin is still effective in reducing microfilaridermias, it is uncertain if its embryostatic effect has been comp...
ABSTRACT Ivermectin (IVM) still remains the only safe drug for the mass control of onchocerciasis, and the continued success of the control programmes depends on its efficacy. However, recent reports show that there are populations of adult Onchocerca volvulus responding suboptimally to IVM. This requires assessment of parasitological response profile of O. volvulus to IVM and genetic analysis of Beta-tubulin gene known to be associated with IVM selection, to determine the a...
ABSTRACT Differences in habitat types affect host-parasite interactions and can increase the risk of epizootic outbreaks in wild populations. It is thought that parasitism is a necessary factor in conservation biology and is important in understanding ecological parasitology and vertebrate conservation management. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of avian malaria in forest and savanna birds. A total of 132 birds of 39 species belonging to 20 families were trapped in two w...
Abstract The citrus industry is subject to a number of serious insect pests. Of these, the most important is a sedentary group known as the ..Armoured Scale Insects (Diaspididae). Ebeling (1950) states bnao they are of greater economic importance to the industry than a ll the other pests put together. A great deal has been published on various aspects o f the biology, ecology and control o f the Diaspididae, much o f the work appearing in the books of Quayle (193S), Ebeling (1950) and Bodenhe...
ABSTRACT Thonningia sanguinea is one of the herbal preparations vised prophylactieally against asthma at the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine. Preparations of this plant are used with Desmodium adseendens which has been shown to be anti-anaphylactic. The anaphylactic reaction is a basic underlying phenomenon in asthma. In this work, the effects of T. eanguinea preparations were evaluated on some aspects of the disease. The method adopted was experimental anaphylaxis in the ...
ABSTRACT Soft drinks are consumed daily in Ghana on social occasions and for recreation. Generally, it is affordable and consumed widely across all age groups particularly due to their thirst quenching potential. These drinks are also important sources of nutrition as well as trace metal contamination. Thus, the study monitored for 4 months the nutritional content and trace metal contamination of forty-two different brands of new day soft drinks (totaling 672 samples), sampled from some mar...
ABSTRACT Salinity stress affects crop production in various stages of plant growth with germination and seed development being the most sensitive to this stress. The need to raise uniform seedlings with better crop establishment is of utmost importance. Various seed priming methods have been employed in many crops to alleviate the effect of saline, drought and temperature stress. The objective of this study was to evaluate NaCl and PEG priming for enhanced germination and improved seedling ...
ABSTRACT The HIV/AIDS pandemic is still a global health issue despite the many concerted efforts put in by various stakeholders to curtail it. It has become clear however that understanding the epidemiology of the highly variant virus is key in eliminating it. It has been shown that the subtype of infecting HIV-1 plays a crucial role in disease progression among other thing. It is therefore important to continually monitor the circulating HIV-1 subtypes in the population. Equally important, ...
ABSTRACT The strategy of using insecticides against Simulium damnosum s.I. vectors, adopted by Control Programmes for human onchocerciasis in West Africa has led to increased vector biology studies and has at the same time also revealed the paucity of our knowledge in this area. To effectively control the vectors means that laboratory colonies need to be established to enable experiments to be carried out. It also means there is a need to intensify research on aspects of the biology that dete...
ABSTRACT The involvement of Listeria monocytogenes in bacterial meningitis and spontaneous abortion in some towns in northern Nigeria was investigated. Three hundred cerebrospinalfluid (CSF) samples, 300 blood and 300 placenta swab samples were collected from meningitis and spontaneous abortion patients in the study area of Bauchi, Jos and Kano. Three hundred nono (a fermented milk product) samples were also collected from milk hawkers at various locations in the study areas. The samples were...
ABSTRACT The focus of the research is to model some risk factors called covariates that influence the blood sugar level of diabetes patients using Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) and Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE). Both primary and secondary data was obtained from the Diabetes Centre of Maamobi Polyclinic in Accra. Data was obtained on 155 patients for four consecutive times they visit the hospital for review. Analysis of the data was done using SPSS version 20 and R. The find...
ABSTRACT The diversity and distribution of aquatic macrophytes particularly the invasives were studied in southern Ghana. The study area covered six regions in Ghana and these were: Greater Accra, Central, Ashanti, Eastern, Volta and Western. Forty-four sampling sites were visited and voucher specimens were collected and deposited in the Ghana Herbarium. Sixty-two aquatic macrophytes were encountered during the study which belonged to 48 genera and 30 families. Also, the invasive and non-in...
ABSTRACT Housing has increasingly become a threatened product in many urban areas in highly populated regions. As a result, several urban dwellers live under housing conditions that affect an individual’s pride and experiences, causing distressing social, economic, spatial and, health implications. Particularly, the deficit in housing supply and the high prices of the available housing stock poses challenges to the residents of urban centers. This research therefore, sought to discover the ...