Calcium-atom-modified boron phosphide (BP) biphenylene as an efficient hydrogen storage material.

Porous nanosheets have attracted significant attention as viable options for energy storage materials because of their exceptionally large specific surface areas. A recent study (, 2024, , 33-39) has demonstrated that Li/Na-metalized inorganic BP-biphenylene (b-BP) and graphenylene (g-BP) analogues possess suitable functionalities for hydrogen (H) storage. Herein, we evaluate the H storage performance of alkaline earth metal (AEM = Be, Mg, Ca)-decorated b-BP and g-BP structures based on first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Investigation of the electronic and magnetic properties of bare and oxygen-terminated ordered double transition-metal MXenes for spintronic applications.

MXenes are a large and new family of intrinsically magnetic two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal carbides and nitrides. This family has been adding new members since their first discovery in 2011, and has expanded with the exploring of ordered double transition-metal (DTM) MXenes. In this study, we have investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of thirteen bare and fourteen oxygen-terminated DTM MXene structures (MC, MCO, MM'C and MM'CO, M = Ti, Zr, Cr, and Mo; M' = Ti, V, Nb, and Ta).

Incidence of childhood cancers in the North East geopolitical zone of Nigeria.

Introduction: Cancers are a major cause of childhood mortality worldwide especially in LMICs where underdiagnoses and lack of quality cancer data hampers effective cancer control efforts. This study aimed to document and describe the patterns and characteristics of childhood cancers in the North East geopolitical zone of Nigeria.

Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study that collected cancer data from 4 out of the 6 states in the North East of Nigeria.

Deep retrofitting toward net zero energy building in the Mediterranean region: A case study of Albania.

Like many other Mediterranean countries, Albania faces unique challenges and opportunities to achieve an efficient and fully decarbonized household sector by applying real energy efficiency measures and numbers toward nearly zero-energy buildings. The study findings showed that nZEB in 2030 can be achieved by combining active and passive energy efficiency measures. Behind the study's state-of-the-art stands a multivariable regression analysis of both electricity consumption and electricity generation executed for three validated consecutive years, 2021, 2022, and 2023, including demand side (electricity bills) and supply side generation provided from a nearby existing onsite PV with an installed capacity of 5.

Emerging cancer disease burden in a rural sub-Saharan African population: northeast Nigeria in focus.

Introduction: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is plagued by myriads of diseases, mostly infectious; but cancer disease burden is rising among non-communicable diseases. Nigeria has a high burden of cancer, however its remote underserved culturally-conserved populations have been understudied, a gap this study sought to fill.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional multi-institutional descriptive study of histologically diagnosed cancers over a four-year period (January 2019-December 2022) archived in the Departments of Pathology and Cancer Registries of six tertiary hospitals in the northeast of Nigeria.

Hypothermia in preterm infants admitted to low-resource neonatal units in northern Nigeria: an observational study of occurrence and risk factors.

Background: Hypothermia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among preterm and low-birth-weight neonates. In resource-constrained settings, limited referral infrastructure and technologies for temperature control potentiate preterm hypothermia. While there is some documentation on point-of-admission hypothermia from single center studies, there are limited multicenter studies on the occurrence of hypothermia among preterm infants in resource-limited-settings.

Clinicopathological discrepancies in the diagnoses of childhood causes of death in the CHAMPS network: An analysis of antemortem diagnostic inaccuracies.

Introduction: Determining aetiology of severe illness can be difficult, especially in settings with limited diagnostic resources, yet critical for providing life-saving care. Our objective was to describe the accuracy of antemortem clinical diagnoses in young children in high-mortality settings, compared with results of specific postmortem diagnoses obtained from Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS).

Methods: We analysed data collected during 2016-2022 from seven sites in Africa and South Asia.

Determinants of WHO recommended COVID-19 prevention measures among pregnant women attending antenatal care during the third wave of COVID-19 in eastern Ethiopia, 2021.

Background: The novel coronavirus disease has emerged as the most pressing global health issue. In women with COVID-19 disease, pregnancy confers a substantial additional risk of morbidity and mortality.

Objective: This study aimed to assess WHO-recommended COVID-19 prevention practices and determinant factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care during the third wave of COVID-19 in eastern Ethiopia.

COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Campaign: An International Comparison of Qatar With GCC Nations and Other Global Groups.

Mass vaccination has been a key component in the effort to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Different countries have formulated their mass vaccination campaigns in different ways and with different priorities, with varying results. This study focuses on the case of Qatar in comparison with regional neighbors in the Gulf Cooperation Community (GCC) and with global benchmarks (G7 and OECD nations) in terms of the deployment of its mass vaccination program.

Theoretical design of porous dodecagonal germanium carbide (d-GeC) monolayer.

Porous nanosheet materials have recently emerged as attractive candidates to serve as nanofiltration membranes. Through first-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we propose a new porous dodecagonal GeC (d-GeC) monolayer. We show that the d-GeC monolayer exhibits excellent energetic, mechanical, dynamic, and thermal stabilities.

The Continued Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Education and Mental Health Among Sub-Saharan African Adolescents.

Purpose: This multicountry survey assessed the levels and the determinants of the impacts of the pandemic on education and mental health among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa and the potential factors that may exacerbate these adverse impacts.

Methods: A phone survey was conducted among adolescents in nine diverse areas in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania between July and December 2021. Approximately 300 adolescents per area and 2,803 adolescents in total were included.

COVID-19 Preventive Practices, Psychological Distress, and Reported Barriers to Healthcare Access during the Pandemic among Adult Community Members in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Phone Survey.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had serious negative health and economic impacts in sub-Saharan Africa. Continuous monitoring of these impacts is crucial to formulate interventions to minimize the consequences of COVID-19. This study surveyed 2,829 adults in urban and rural sites among five sub-Saharan African countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ghana.

Magnitude of husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendant service utilization in Deder town, Oromiya, Ethiopia.

Background: Husbands' involvement strategies are employed to support their wives to access care, address the influence of gender inequality on maternal and newborn health, and promote husbands' positive involvement as fathers. Yet, evidence of the husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendant service utilization in Ethiopia is scarce, which limits the facility to improve institutional delivery services. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of husbands' involvement in skilled birth attendant service utilization among fathers of children of less than one year in Deder town, Oromiya, Ethiopia.

Continued disruptions in health care services and mental health among health care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic in five sub-Saharan African countries.

Background: Continuous monitoring of the pandemic's impact on health service provision and mental health, COVID-19 perceptions, and compliance with prevention measures among health care providers (HCPs) can help with mitigating the pandemic's negative effects.

Methods: A computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) survey was conducted among 1499 HCPs in Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Nigeria (Lagos and Ibadan), Tanzania (Dar es Salaam), and Ghana (Kintampo). Self-reported mental health, perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and prevention measures available in the workplace were assessed.

Exploring room-temperature ferromagnetism in WXBC (X = W, Mn, Fe) monolayers.

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal boron-carbide is a novel material that has unique properties suitable for advanced spintronics and storage applications. Through first-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we report a new class of stable 2D ceramic WXBC (X = W, Mn, Fe) monolayers. We find that all WXBC monolayers prefer a ferromagnetic ground state with metallic electronic property.

Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) Associated with Well-Differentiated Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Vulva: A Case Report.

INTRODUCTION: A case description of a rare incidence of female genital schistosomiasis related to vulva squamous cell carcinoma in a 76-year-old woman from the schistosomiasis-endemic region of Gombe State, Nigeria. Physicians should be aware of the high incidence rate of female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) in women and girls in schistosomiasis-endemic areas, which is often related to gynecological morbidity and the risk of HIV infection to avoid unnecessary interventions.

COVID-19 vaccine side effect: age and gender disparity in adverse effects following the first dose of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine among the vaccinated population in Eastern Ethiopia: a community-based study.

Objective: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major threat to community health, and vaccinations are a safe and effective way to reduce disease loads around the world. This study aimed to assess the age and gender disparity in adverse effects following the first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine among the vaccinated population in Eastern Ethiopia.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 832 randomly selected individuals from December 1st to 20th, 2021, in eastern Ethiopia.

Measuring entrepreneurial orientation and institutional theory for informal enterprises: scale validation.

Unlabelled: The importance of institutional factors and entrepreneurial orientation is widely recognized in the study of entrepreneurship development, leading to the development of different measurement scales. Using the sample of 45 informal enterprises, we examined the factor structure, reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the selected constructs adapted to measure these constructs in the context of informal enterprises in Nigeria. We examined 45 items that measure institutional factors (political, cognitive, cultural, and corruption) and entrepreneurship orientation (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking).

Are zooplankton useful indicators of ecological quality in Afrotropical ephemeral stream impacted by human activities?

Ephemeral river systems in Nigeria are under severe threat by increasing anthropogenic pollution. However, little is known about the ecological health of ephemeral rivers in Afrotropical regions, especially Nigeria. It is also unclear how zooplankton communities respond to anthropogenic stressors in ephemeral rivers in the African continent.

Effects of the Hubbard U correction on the electronic and magnetic properties of the tetragonal VP sheet.

A recent theoretical work predicted the orthorhombic phase of the VP sheet with the half-metallic electronic property using a linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) basis set based on density functional theory (DFT). However, in the plane-wave DFT method, the tetragonal (t) VP phase is the ground state structure. The total energy of the optimized tetragonal VP is 0.

Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake and barriers to being vaccinated among first-round eligibles for COVID-19 vaccination in Eastern Ethiopia: A community based cross-sectional study.

Objective: Coronavirus disease is a deadly virus that continues to afflict many countries worldwide. Ethiopia has planned to give vaccines to 20% of the population by March 2022. This study aimed to assess determinants of vaccine uptake and barriers to being vaccinated among first-round eligibles for coronavirus disease vaccination in Harar, eastern Ethiopia.

Thumb talc granuloma mimicking squamous cell carcinoma: A case report.

Application of topical powdery substances to the wound is an age old practice. Talc containing powdery substances are however commonplace and predominant in our environment. This insoluble mineral has been linked to chronic granulomatous reaction particularly in the lungs.