scholarly journals Bacterial Contamination Associated with Mobile Cell Phones among Undergraduate Students of Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-42
Author(s):  
Y. Ya’aba ◽  
A. Chuku ◽  
U.S. Okposhi ◽  
N.S. Hadi ◽  
S.A. Ramalan

Mobile cell phones are extensively used globally. This study was aimed at determining bacterial contamination associated with mobile cell phones among undergraduate students of Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. One hundred swab samples from mobile cell phones were randomly collected from the students’ cell phones between August 2019 and December 2019. Demographic factors like age, gender, mobile phone type, storing of mobile cell phones, cleaning habits and use in toilets were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The samples were analysed using standard microbiological techniques. The data collected were analysed using percentile and SPSS version 20.0. The value (p<0.01) was statistically considered to have significant associations.  Microbial analysis showed that 70 nondisinfected samples were contaminated by eight diverse types of bacteria, which included  Escherichia sp., Salmonella sp., Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Staphylococcus sp., Klebsiella sp., Micrococcus sp and Enterobacter sp. The swabbed cell phones of females (56.3%) were more contaminated than those of males (43.7%) with bacterial load count of 41.9 x 103 and 28.8 x 103 CFU/mL among females and males, respectively. The mobile cell phones used in toilets (75.0%) were highly  contaminated by bacteria. Users who did not cut their nails had higher contamination (69.4%) than those users who cut their nails (34.3; p = 0.01). The age of mobile cell phones within 6 – 12 months had 55.5% for females and 23.5% for males. This study showed that  mobile cell phones harbor bacteria liable for causing health threats to handlers. Therefore, awareness programs concerning hand hygiene and discouraging their use in toilets to avoid causing severe health consequences. The use of disinfectants to wipe mobile cell phones whenever contamination is encountered is advocated to safeguard public health. Keywords: Mobile Cell Phone, Swabs, Microbes, Contamination

2021 ◽  
pp. 004723952098544
Author(s):  
Brook Batch ◽  
Jacqueline Roberts ◽  
Alex Nakonechnyi ◽  
Rebecca Allen

While technology offers educators many affordances to provide students with rich educational experiences, literature and empirical experience indicates that students’ unstructured cell phone usage may have adverse impacts on student achievement and create a contagious climate of distraction. This research project seeks to understand students’ unstructured cell phone usage, faculty response, and foster improved student–faculty communication to determine concrete interventions to off-task smartphone usage. For the purposes of this study, we surveyed and interviewed faculty and undergraduate students at two small private universities in the United States. Findings suggest that students and faculty recognize the limitations of punitive cell phone policies and desire intervention. Giving students’ movement alternatives and offering faculty more training in using smartphones as educational tools may be acceptable solutions.


Author(s):  
Adeyinka Tella

The study examined dependency, satisfaction, and psychosocial characteristics as correlates of cell phone use by library and information science (LIS) undergraduate students. Using survey, 253 undergraduates represent the sample for the study. Five research questions were developed and answered. The results of the psychosocial characteristics' correlation with the cell phone use reveal that self-efficacy had the highest correlation with the cell phones use (r = 0.74), followed by self-esteem (r = 0.69), entertainment (r = 0.37), and social interaction (r = 0.33). Anxiety had the lowest correlation (r = 0.23), but still correlates positively with LIS students' cell phones use. Self-efficacy contributed most to the prediction of LIS students' cell phone use (Beta value =.299), followed in declining order of strength by dependency (Beta = .292), self-esteem (Beta =.182), satisfaction (Beta =.177), social interaction (Beta = .111), and entertainment (Beta = .106).


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinxi Cao ◽  
Yangyang Cheng ◽  
Chenjie Xu ◽  
Yabing Hou ◽  
Hongxi Yang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Cell phone use brought convenience to people, but using phones for a long period of time or in the wrong way and with a wrong posture might cause damage to the human body. OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of improper cell phone use on transport and chronic injuries. METHODS Studies were systematically searched in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, and Web of Science up to April 4, 2019 and relevant reviews were searched to identify additional studies. A random-effects model was used to estimate the overall pooled estimates. RESULTS Cell phone users were at a higher risk for transport injuries (RR: 1.37, 95%CI: 1.221.55), long-term use of cell phones increased the transport injury risk to non-use or short-term use (RR: 2.10, 95% CI: 1.632.70). Neoplasm risk caused by cell phone use was 1.07 times that of non-use (95% CI: 1.011.14); Compared with non-use, cell phone use had a higher risk of eye disease, with a risk of 2.03 (95% CI: 1.273.23), the risk of mental disease was 1.26 (95% CI: 1.171.35), the risk of neurological disorder was 1.16 (95% CI: 1.021.32), and a pooled risk of other chronic injuries was 1.20 (95% CI: 0.981.59). CONCLUSIONS Cell phone use at inappropriate situations has a negative impact on the human body. Therefore, it is necessary to use cell phones correctly and reasonably.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Redhwan Ahmed Al-Naggar ◽  
Yuri V Bobryshev

The worldwide use of cell phones has rapidly increased over the past decades. With the increasing use of mobile phones, concern has been raised about the possible carcinogenic effects as a result of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. The objective of this study was to explore the perceptions and opinions towards brain cancer related to cell phone use among university students in Malaysia. The study revealed that the majority of the study participants believe that there is no relationship between brain cancer and hand phone use.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v4i1.7808 Asian Journal of Medical Sciences 4(2013) 1-4


Author(s):  
Junli Liu ◽  
Panli Cai ◽  
Jin Dong ◽  
Junshun Wang ◽  
Runkui Li ◽  
...  

The spatiotemporal locations of large populations are difficult to clearly characterize using traditional exposure assessment, mainly due to their complicated daily intraurban activities. This study aimed to extract hourly locations for the total population of Beijing based on cell phone data and assess their dynamic exposure to ambient PM2.5. The locations of residents were located by the cellular base stations that were keeping in contact with their cell phones. The diurnal activity pattern of the total population was investigated through the dynamic spatial distribution of all of the cell phones. The outdoor PM2.5 concentration was predicted in detail using a land use regression (LUR) model. The hourly PM2.5 map was overlapped with the hourly distribution of people for dynamic PM2.5 exposure estimation. For the mobile-derived total population, the mean level of PM2.5 exposure was 89.5 μg/m3 during the period from 2013 to 2015, which was higher than that reported for the census population (87.9 μg/m3). The hourly activity pattern showed that more than 10% of the total population commuted into the center of Beijing (e.g., the 5th ring road) during the daytime. On average, the PM2.5 concentration at workplaces was generally higher than in residential areas. The dynamic PM2.5 exposure pattern also varied with seasons. This study exhibited the strengths of mobile location in deriving the daily spatiotemporal activity patterns of the population in a megacity. This technology would refine future exposure assessment, including either small group cohort studies or city-level large population assessments.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Rodrigues ◽  
Jonathan S. Yu ◽  
Hriday Bhambhvani ◽  
Tyler Uppstrom ◽  
William Ricci ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) heralded an unprecedented increase in telemedicine utilization. OBJECTIVE Assess patient satisfaction with telemedicine during COVID-19 METHODS Telemedicine visit data were gathered from two separate institutions (Stanford Health Care (Stanford) and the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS)). Patient satisfaction data from HSS were captured from a Press-Ganey questionnaire between April 19, 2020 and December 12, 2020, while the Stanford data was taken from a novel survey instrument that was distributed to all patients between June 22, 2020 and November 1, 2020. There were 60,550 telemedicine visits across 93 services at Stanford, each linked with a post-visit survey. At HSS, there were 66,349 total telemedicine visits with 7,348 randomly linked with a post-visit survey. The percentage of respondents who reported the highest possible likelihood to recommend score (“LTR top box percentage”) and mean overall visit scores were recorded. RESULTS Over 19 weeks, the LTR top box percentage at Stanford increased from 69.6% to 74.0% (p=.0002), and HSS showed no significant change across 35 weeks (p=.7100). LTR trend stability at Stanford was observed across 11 medical, four surgical, and five oncological services (p >.05). In the multivariable model, the use of a cell phone (aOR: 1.18; 95% CI: 1.12–1.23) and tablet (aOR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.07–1.23) were associated with higher overall scores, while visits with interrupted connections (aOR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.42–0.57) or help required to connect (aOR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.42–0.56) predicted lower patient satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS We present the largest published description of patient satisfaction with telemedicine. We found high satisfaction with telemedicine encounters across multiple measures, and we identified a number of important telemedicine-specific factors that predict increased overall visit score. These include the use of cell phones or tablets, phone reminders, and connecting before the visit was scheduled to begin. Visits with poor connectivity, extended wait times, or difficulty being seen, examined, or understood by the provider were linked with reduced odds of high scores. Our results suggest that attention to connectivity and audio/visual definition will help optimize patient satisfaction with telemedicine encounters in the future. CLINICALTRIAL n/a


2007 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 514-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy L. Hendrick ◽  
Jamie R. Switzer

As some states allow motorists to use hands-free cell phones only while driving, this study was done to examine some braking responses to see if conversing on these two types of cell phones affects quick responding. College-age drivers ( n = 25) completed reaction time trials in go/no-go situations under three conditions: control (no cell phone or conversation), and conversing on hands-free and hand-held cell phones. Their task involved moving the right foot from one pedal to another as quickly as possible in response to a visual signal in a lab setting. Significantly slower reaction times, movement times, and total response times were found for both cell phone conditions than for the control but no differences between hands-free and hand-held phone conditions. These findings provide additional support that talking on cell phones, regardless if it is hands-free or hand-held, reduces speed of information processing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 630-648
Author(s):  
Eric Grommon ◽  
Jeremy Carter ◽  
Charles Scheer

Cell phones are one of the most challenging forms of contraband for correctional facilities. The size of this problem is difficult to quantify. Confiscation data are only able to tell a partial story. Through the use of a unique data collection effort, this research details the number of contraband cell phones within a facility and offers the first attempt to estimate the gap that exists between the number of contraband cell phones available and the number that are confiscated. In light of the findings, implications for policy and an agenda for research on contraband cell phone market dynamics are provided.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-65
Author(s):  
Obhioze Augustine Akpoka

It is well established that storing hatching eggs over a longer period of time affects its quality. The current study evaluated the impact of egg storage duration in-relation to two different temperature conditions (room and refrigerator) to determine the bacterial load and shelf life of viable eggs. One hundred and twenty eggs were used for this study, 60 were boiled and 60 were raw. Thirty of the boiled eggs were stored at room temperature and the other 30 eggs were kept in the refrigerator. Similarly, 30 raw eggs were each stored at room and optimal refrigeration temperatures for eggs (< 7 oC) respectively, while the egg weight, viability and sensory tests were performed daily on the eggs. However, the eggs kept in the refrigerator were viable for longer and relatively maintained higher physical appearance and sensory quality compared to eggs kept at room temperature. In the investigation of bacterial load, the total viable count ranged from 6.0× 103 to 11.9 × 103 coliform forming unit per millilitre (cfu/ml) and 1.0 × 103 to 6.5 × 103 cfu/ml for the boiled eggs kept at room and refrigeration temperatures (BRT and BFT) respectively. More so, the bacterial counts in raw eggs obtained at room and refrigerator storage ranged from 4.8 × 103 to 6.5 × 103 cfu/ml. Subsequently, the characterization and identification of bacterial isolates indicated the presence of Salmonella pullorum, Proteus mirabilis and Pseudomonas sp. The Salmonella pullorum was isolated from all the egg samples (BRT, BFT, RRT and RFT). The Proteus mirabilis was isolated from boiled eggs kept in both room and refrigerator temperatures (BRT and BFT) while Pseudomonas sp. was obtained only from raw eggs stored in the refrigerator (RFT). In addition, the boiled eggs at room temperature started deterioration on Day 9, while its counterpart in the refrigerator began spoilage or decrease in quality from Day 16. The weight of the viable eggs in relation to the non-viable ones was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The refrigeration of eggs increases its longevity while proper hygiene and adequate boiling of eggs reduces the risk of acquiring infections through bacterial contamination.


Author(s):  
Anjali Devi Sharma ◽  
Kavita Verma ◽  
Manisha Sehgal ◽  
Yachana Verma ◽  
Anupama K.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious disease caused by novel coronavirus and hence this pandemic has a great impact on the education system. Nursing students as part of the health team should know the coronavirus like other communicable diseases. Methods: A quantitative approach and cross-sectional survey research design used to assess the knowledge of Coronavirus among 145 nursing students of district Sirmaur selected through the convenient sampling technique. An online self-structured questionnaire used as a tool for data collection. Descriptive data analysis was done with SPSS (version 23).Results: The result of the study revealed that only 31.7% of students had good knowledge about COVID-19, and 68.3% had average knowledge. Conclusions: There is a need for intervention such as educational programs or pieces of training to educate about the pandemic and its prevention practices to undergraduate students to make our society more secure.


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