scholarly journals The Metaphysics of Justice: Ayelala’s Rise in Benin and Other Parts of Edo State

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benson Ohihon Igboin

This article discusses the origin, spread and efficacy of the deity Ayelala, who is responsible for the execution of justice. After an account of the deification of Ayelala, it discusses the recent spread of the deity, originally from the areas inhabited by the Ijaw, Ilaje, and Ikale, to Benin, where her presence has been highly effective in combating public crimes such as theft, robbery and kidnapping. Beyond the punishment and control of public crimes, a report of Ayelala’s revelations about the causes of a personal death also illustrates the deity’s ability to provide justice in personal matters. The article argues that doubts about Ayelala’s existence, as put forward by some critics, are illogical and indeed irrelevant as long as the deity is seen to produce results. Building on the arguments of the British anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard, who suggests that witchcraft explains unfortunate events, this article argues that the experience of certain fortunate events, such as the punishment of evildoers or the revelation of metaphysical causes of death, confirm the existence of Ayelala as a counter-force to witchcraft and other forms of metaphysical evil.

Author(s):  
О. Кravchuk ◽  
V. Symonenkov ◽  
I. Symonenkova ◽  
O. Hryhorev

Today, more than forty countries of the world are engaged in the development of military-purpose robots. A number of unique mobile robots with a wide range of capabilities are already being used by combat and intelligence units of the Armed forces of the developed world countries to conduct battlefield intelligence and support tactical groups. At present, the issue of using the latest information technology in the field of military robotics is thoroughly investigated, and the creation of highly effective information management systems in the land-mobile robotic complexes has acquired a new phase associated with the use of distributed information and sensory systems and consists in the transition from application of separate sensors and devices to the construction of modular information subsystems, which provide the availability of various data sources and complex methods of information processing. The purpose of the article is to investigate the ways to increase the autonomy of the land-mobile robotic complexes using in a non-deterministic conditions of modern combat. Relevance of researches is connected with the necessity of creation of highly effective information and control systems in the perspective robotic means for the needs of Land Forces of Ukraine. The development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine management system based on the criteria adopted by the EU and NATO member states is one of the main directions of increasing the effectiveness of the use of forces (forces), which involves achieving the principles and standards necessary for Ukraine to become a member of the EU and NATO. The inherent features of achieving these criteria will be the transition to a reduction of tasks of the combined-arms units and the large-scale use of high-precision weapons and land remote-controlled robotic devices. According to the views of the leading specialists in the field of robotics, the automation of information subsystems and components of the land-mobile robotic complexes can increase safety, reliability, error-tolerance and the effectiveness of the use of robotic means by standardizing the necessary actions with minimal human intervention, that is, a significant increase in the autonomy of the land-mobile robotic complexes for the needs of Land Forces of Ukraine.


2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 447-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Brown ◽  
Stacy L. Young ◽  
Michael M. Engelgau ◽  
George A. Mensah

AbstractIntroduction:Chronic diseases are major causes of death and disability and often require multiple prescribed medications for treatment and control. Public health emergencies (e.g., disasters due to natural hazards) that disrupt the availability or supply of these medications may exacerbate chronic disease or even cause death.Problem:A repository of chronic disease pharmaceuticals and medical supplies organized for rapid response in the event of a public health emergency is desirable. However, there is no science base for determining the contents of such a repository. This study provides the first step in an evidence-based approach to inform the planning, periodic review, and revision of repositories of chronic disease medications.Methods:Data from the 2004 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) were used to examine the prescription medication needs of persons presenting to US hospital emergency departments for chronic disease exacerbations. It was assumed that the typical distribution of cases for an emergency department will reflect the patient population treated in the days after a public health emergency. The estimated numbers of prescribed drugs for chronic conditions that represent the five leading causes of death, the five leading primary diagnoses for physician office visits, and the five leading causes of disease burden assessed by disability-adjusted life years are presented.Results:The 2004 NHAMCS collected data on 36,589 patient visits that were provided by 376 emergency departments. Overall, the five drug classes mentioned most frequently for emergency department visits during 2004 were narcotic analgesics (30.7 million), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (25.2 million), non-narcotic analgesics (15.2 million), sedatives and hypnotics (10.4 million), and cephalosporins (8.2 million). The drug classes mentioned most frequently for chronic conditions were: (1) for heart disease, antianginal agents/vasodilators (715,000); (2) for cancer, narcotic analgesics (53,000); (3) for stroke, non-narcotic analgesics (138,000); (4) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, anti-asthmatics/bronchodilators (3.2 million); and (5) for diabetes, hypoglycemic agents (261,000). Ten medication categories were common across four or more chronic conditions.Conclusions:Persons with chronic diseases have an urgent need for ongoing care and medical support after public health emergencies. These findings provide one evidence-based approach for informing public health preparedness in terms of planning for and review of the prescription medication needs of clinically vulnerable populations with prevalent chronic disease.


Author(s):  
Kalaivani L.

Statement of the problem: ‘A study to evaluate the effectiveness of sitz bath on episiotomy wound healing among postnatal mothers in Aravindan hospital at Coimbatore. Objectives of the study: 1. To assess the episiotomy wound healing among postnatal mothers both in experimental and control group. 2. To administer Sitz Bath Application to mothers in Experimental Group. 3. To evaluate the effectiveness of sitz bath on episiotomy wound healing among postnatal mothers in experimental group. 4. To compare the effectiveness of sitz bath on episiotomy wound healing among postnatal mothers between experimental and control group. 5. To find out the association between the post observational episiotomy wound healing scores of postnatal with selected demographic variable. Methodology: The quantitative approach - quasi-experimental, non- equivalent control group pre-test. Post-test design was selected to evaluate the effectiveness of sitzbath on Episiotomy wound healing among postnatal mothers The researcher adopted non probability convenient sampling technique and 60 postnatal mothers were selected for the study from Aravindan hospital Coimbatore. They are divided into two groups, 30 in experimental group and 30 in control group. The investigator used Reeda Scale and visual Analog pain scale to assess the episiotomy wound healing. Results: The findings reveal that application of sitz bath is highly effective on severe redness (63.3%), severe oedema (876%), severe ecchymosis (83.3%), severe discharge (93.3%) and poor approximation of wound (90%). Posttest on 5th day revealed that they had moderate redness (30%), moderate oedema (34.3%), mild ecchymosis (27.6%), moderate discharge (38.6%) and improved approximation of wound (27.6%). For all parameters of REEDA calculated t-value >p-value, which infers that application of sitz bath is statistically highly effective for healing of episiotomy at 0.05 level of significance. The calculated t-value is 22 > 2.05, which infers that application of sitz bath is statistically highly effective for healing of episiotomy wound at 0.05 level of significance. The application of sitz bath is highly effective in experimental group based on REEDA parameters as per redness (45%) in experimental group when compared to control group redness (90%), discharge (38.6) in experimental group when compared to control group discharge (53.3%), edema (34%) in experimental group when compared to control group odema. 6%), ecchymoseis 7.6%) in experimental group when compared to control group ecchymosis (53.3%) and on approximation of wound (27.6%) when compared to control group approximation of wound(47.6%). Hence H2 is accepted. Conclusion: This information shows that Application of Sitz Bath is effective in episiotomy wound healing process


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-443
Author(s):  
EF Osagiede ◽  
SO Utomi ◽  
OC Egbuta ◽  
ET Osagiede ◽  
IA Airefetalor ◽  
...  

Standard precautions (SP) refer to the minimum infection prevention practice applied whenever providing patient care, irrespective of the diagnosis. SP is applied to all patients all the time to prevent unprotected contact with body fluids so that bloodborne infections and the risks of infection transmission are unlikely. It involves various components that when consistently practised, prevents the spread of infection to health care workers, patients, and visitors. This study assessed the knowledge and practice of standard precaution among health care workers in public primary and secondary facilities in Edo State. A Cross-Sectional study design was used to study 217 HCWs in both public primary and secondary health facilities. Respondents were selected using the cluster sampling technique. The study was carried out between April and October 2019. Most of the HCWs (94.5%) were aware of SP with their source of awareness, mainly from their colleagues. Their knowledge of SP was generally poor. Only 23 (10.6%) of the respondents had good knowledge, others either had fair 153(70.50%) or poor 41(18.90%) knowledge of SP with a statistically significant relationship between knowledge of SP and the HCWs level of completed education (p-value 0.019) as well as with the professional group they belong to (p-value 0.002). The practice of SP was generally abysmal, with only 3(1%) having good practice. The knowledge and practice of standard precaution among health workers at both the primary and secondary levels of care in Edo State were abysmally poor. There is an urgent need to organise sustained infection prevention and control (IPC) training as well as implement strategies to improve IPC competence among the HCWs in the primary and secondary facilities in Edo State.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Marco Benedí ◽  
Ana M Bea ◽  
Ana Cenarro ◽  
Estíbaliz Jarauta ◽  
Martín Laclaustra ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a codominant autosomal disease characterized by high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) and high risk of premature cardiovascular disease (CVD). The molecular bases have been well defined and effective lipid-lowering is possible. This analysis aimed to study the current major causes of death of genetically defined heFH. Methods: Case-control study designed to analyze life-long mortality in a group of heFH and control families. Data of first-degree family members of cases and controls (non-consanguineous cohabitants), including deceased relatives, were collected from a questionnaire and review of medical records. Mortality was compared among heFH, non-heFH, and non-consanguineous family members.Results: We analyzed 813 family members, 26.4% of them, deceased. Among deceased, mean age of death was 69.3 years in heFH, 73.5 years in non-heFH, and 73.2 years in non-consanguineous, differences that were not statistically significant. Among them, CVD cause of death was 59.7% in heFH, 37.7.% in non-heFH, and 37.4% in non-consanguineous (P=0.012). These differences were greater restricting the analyses to parents’ mortality. The hazard ratio of dying from CVD was 3.02 times higher (95% CI, 1.90-4.79) in heFH members in comparison with the other two groups (non-FH and non-consanguineous), who did not differ in their risk.Conclusions: Current CVD mortality in heFH is lower and occurs later than that described in the last century but still higher than in non-FH. This better prognosis in CVD risk is not associated with changes in non-CVD mortality.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alia Zander ◽  
Tatjana Paunesku ◽  
Gayle Woloschak

ABSTRACTWith increasing medical radiation exposures, it is important to understand how different modes of delivery of ionizing radiation as well as total doses of exposure impact health outcomes. Our lab studied the risks associated with ionizing radiation by analyzing the Northwestern University Radiation Archive for animals (NURA). NURA contains detailed data from a series of 10 individual neutron and gamma irradiation experiments conducted on over 50,000 mice. Rigorous statistical testing on control mice from all Janus experiments enabled us to select studies that could be compared to one another and uncover unexpected differences among the controls as well as experimental animals. For controls, mice sham irradiated with 300 fractions died significantly earlier than those with fewer sham fractions. Using the integrated dataset of gamma irradiated and control mice, we found that fractionation significantly decreased the death hazard for animals dying of lymphomas, tumors, non-tumors, and unknown causes. Gender differences in frequencies of causes of death were identified irrespective of irradiation and dose fractionation, with female mice being at a greater risk for all causes of death, except for lung tumors. Irradiated and control male mice were at a significantly greater risk for lung tumors, the opposite from observations noted in humans. Additionally, we discovered that lymphoma deaths can occur quickly after exposures to high doses of gamma rays. This study systematically cross-compared outcomes of different modes of fractionation across a wide span of total doses to demonstrate that protraction modulated survival and disease status differently based on the total dose, cause of death, and sex of an animal. This novel method for analyzing the Janus datasets will lead to insightful new mechanistic hypotheses and research in the fields of radiation biology and protection.


2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Ataíde E Pinto ◽  
JoãO Guilherme Alves

Angola currently has the second mortality rate for children in the world. A cross-sectional study was performed containing 1322 random selected children of the 10288 hospitalized from December 2004 to May 2005 at the Hospital Pediátrico David Bernardino, the largest hospital in Angola and health reference centre located in the capital city of Luanda. Hospital mortality was 18% and the main causes of death were:malaria (22.4%), undernutrition (21.5%), pneumonia (11.8%), neonatal affections (9.3%) and meningitis (8.0%). Programmes must be rapidly implemented to eradicate undernutrition, improve perinatal care and control infections, especially malaria, pneumonia and meningitis.


Blood ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 138 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 4850-4850
Author(s):  
Andrés A. León-Peña ◽  
José M. Priego-Aguilar ◽  
Erick Linares-Padilla ◽  
Michelle Rosas-Tellez ◽  
José Manuel Priesca-Marin ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction One important aspect of quality assurance in transplantation relates to the maintenance of central venous access (CVA), especially in outpatient conditions in which patients have a higher degree of activity and manipulation of CVA tends to be more frequent. A comprehensive program oriented to prevent and control complications related to CVA insertion, maintenance and removal is thought to be a highly effective strategy to improve safety outcomes. Methods A retrospective study evaluating complications related to central venous access (CVA) in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) was conducted using electronic medical records (EMR) at our center. Laboratory and radiology reports were collected in order to identify complications related to CVA. Patients from May 2015 to July 2021 were included in the study. As per local protocol, insertion of Mahurkar catheter for cell collection is conducted by an experienced surgeon under general anesthesia on day -3 and after a short-stay (6 hours) in hospital patients are discharged. On day -2, cell collection is accomplished following all cautionary measures and removal of catheter is done on day -1. Maintenance and care of CVA is guided by standardized protocols related to cleaning, manipulation, blood sample collection and removal. All patients signed a consent to participate in the study and the study protocol was approved by Clínica Ruiz IRB. To be considered as statistically significant, results had to display a two-sided p value <0.05. Results A total of 1088 patients recruited since May 2015 were included in the study. Main indication for auto-HSCT was multiple sclerosis with 1066 (98%), followed by chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy with 16 (1.5%) and 5 (0.5%) patients with other autoimmune disorders. Median age of donors was 46 (40 - 54) years. Median dose of CD34 + cells x10 6/kg infused per patient was 7.0 (3.7 - 11.3) and the median of collection events per patient was 1 (1 - 2). Cell collection was accomplished via apheresis in (99.5%) of patients, of those CVA was used as collection site in 998 (92%) patients, while a change for peripheral venous access occurred in 85 (8%) patients, due to different reasons, most frequent being any type of CVA obstruction in 62 (83%) of donors. Pneumothorax occurred in 11 (1.1%) patients in whom CVA was used for collection. All cases were successful managed with pleural drainage and hospital admission longer than 24 hours was required for 3 (27%). Furthermore, catheter-related bloodstream infections were identified in 3 (0.3%) patients whom were admitted and treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics and discharged with no further events. There were no misplacement, thrombotic- nor hemorrhagic-related events in patients with CVA. A multifactorial analysis revealed that relevant factors such as, age, sex and type of disease were not correlated with any type of CVA-related complications. Conclusions We have shown that prevention and control of complications related to CVA at our campuses are highly effective. The proportion of patients experiencing a CVA-related complication was minimal in comparison with other experiences. Disclosures Gomez-Almaguer: Roche: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Bristol-Myers-Squibb: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siew Pyng Christine Chong ◽  
Chwee Ming Tee ◽  
Seow Voon Cheng

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the significant association between political institutions and the control of corruption. Design/methodology/approach This study uses ordinary least squares model to examine the following: quality of political institutions; the association between the strength of democratic institutions and control of corruption; the association between government effectiveness and control of corruption; and the association between legal institutions and control of corruption. Findings The result shows that there is positive association between democratic institutions, government bureaucracy and rule of law with the control of corruption. From the political perspective, stronger democratic institutions are found to be associated with higher ability to control corruption in a country. When viewed from country’s economic and social well-being perspective, highly effective government bureaucracy is positively associated with ability to control corruption. Finally, rule of law is also associated with the control of corruption. Originality/value This study points toward clear priorities for reform as stronger democratic institutions, efficient government bureaucracy and adherence to the rule of law improve the control of corruption. The results show that stronger democratic institutions, highly effective government bureaucracy and rule of law are associated with higher control of corruption. This supports the theory that quality political institutions reduce corruption in the long-run. In addition, this study shows that press freedom, regulatory quality and political stability further enhance the capacity of such institutions to combat corruption. Conversely, crony capitalism systems undermine this positive association.


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