Publications by authors named "Okoro D"

Purpose: There is a pressing need to address all forms of anti-oppression in medicine, given systemic harm and inequities in care and outcomes for patients and health care professionals from equity-deserving groups. Revising definitions of professionalism used in competency-based education can incorporate new professional competencies for physicians to identify and eliminate the root causes of these inequities. This study redefined the CanMEDS definition to centre perspectives of equity-deserving groups.

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Article Synopsis
  • High-sugar diets in adult Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) increase their susceptibility to infections by specific Gram-negative bacteria, leading to a higher likelihood of death.
  • The study shows that these bacteria grow more quickly in flies consuming high sugar, particularly linked to hyperglycemia, which may provide additional carbon for bacterial growth.
  • Although flies on both diets activate immune response genes, those on high-sugar diets produce less of the necessary antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), suggesting that sugar overnutrition negatively affects the flies' immune function and alters infection dynamics.
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Background: Comprehensive sexual reproductive health (SRH) programs for female sex workers (FSW) offering clinical, behavioural, and structural interventions have contributed to declining rates of HIV in this population. However, data on costs and cost drivers is needed to support programs and their donors to better allocate resources, make an investment case for continued funding, and to identify areas of improvement in program design and implementation. We aimed to estimate the annual per-FSW costs of comprehensive services for a standalone FSW program in Kenya.

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Insufficient progress has been made to reduce morbidity and mortality for women, children and adolescents particularly in Humanitarian and Fragile settings (HFS). Midwives play a critical and unique role in ensuring communities receive quality and safe essential sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health services. A lack of knowledge exists on the availability and experiences of midwifery services in HFS.

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Background: International Confederation of Midwives and World Health Organization recommend core competencies for midwifery educators for effective theory and practical teaching and practice. Deficient curricula and lack of skilled midwifery educators are important factors affecting the quality of graduates from midwifery programmes. The objective of the study was to assess the capacity of university midwifery educators to deliver the updated competency-based curriculum after the capacity strengthening workshop in Kenya.

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While there has been overall progress in addressing the lack of access to surgical care worldwide, untreated surgical conditions in developing countries remain an underprioritized issue. Significant backlogs of advanced surgical disease called neglected surgical diseases (NSDs) result from massive disparities in access to quality surgical care. We aim to discuss a framework for a public health rights-based initiative designed to prevent and eliminate the backlog of NSDs in developing countries.

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Background: Despite the high burden of adverse adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes, it has remained a low political priority in Kenya. We examined factors that have shaped the lack of current political prioritization of adolescent SRH service provision.

Methods: We used the Shiffman and Smith policy framework consisting of four categories-actor power, ideas, political contexts, and issue characteristics-to analyse factors that have shaped political prioritization of adolescent SRH.

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Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the association between expression of mutant p53 (mtp53), full-length MDM2 (MDM2), and MDM2 isoform C (MDM2-C) and survival in multiethnic breast cancer patients.

Methods: A total of 787 invasive breast tumors included in a clinically annotated multiethnic population-based tissue microarray (TMA) were screened utilizing commercially available antibodies to p53 and MDM2, and a newly developed monoclonal antibody recognizing MDM2-C.

Results: Mutant p53 (mtp53) was more common in younger (< 50 years) breast cancer patients.

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is a saprophytic nematode parasite that causes a rare form of fatal meningoencephalomyelitis in equids, humans, and ruminants. This nematode has neurotropic activity, but has also been found in the kidney, liver, lungs, optic nerves and even heart of its host. Despite the zoonotic potential and severity of the disease, the epidemiology, pathogenesis, life cycle, and risk factors are poorly understood.

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Many types of human cancers overexpress MDM2 protein. A common characteristic among these cancers is an associated increase in mdm2 splice variants. Provided here is a comprehensive list, based on a literature review, of over 70 mdm2 variants.

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A number of studies showed that men from tropical countries have higher burden of prostate cancer similar to data from USA. We developed a translational model to examine whether exposure to microbial inflammation-inducing molecule lipopolysacchride LPS was associated with prostatic cell transformation to more proliferative phenotype as indicated by PSA secretion. Immunocompetent adult mice were divided into two groups; the first group received a local prostate inoculation with E.

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Human cancers over-expressing mdm2, through a T to G variation at a single nucleotide polymorphism at position 309 (mdm2 SNP309), have functionally inactivated p53 that is not effectively degraded. They also have high expression of the alternatively spliced transcript, mdm2-C. Alternatively spliced mdm2 transcripts are expressed in many forms of human cancer and when they are exogenously expressed they transform human cells.

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Background: Fever and diarrhea are among the common morbidities that do occur during infancy and are sometimes wrongly associated with teething by the community. Some societies practice gum lancing, ordinarily referred to as gum cutting, as a remedy for the "teething diarrhoea". These myths have a potential of giving false security with the belief that these symptoms are part of the teething process, and so medical attention may not be sought when necessary.

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Cancer cells often have high expression of Mdm2. However, in many cancers mdm2 is alternatively spliced, with more than 40 mRNA variants identified. Many of the alternative spliced mdm2 mRNAs have the potential to encode truncated Mdm2 isoforms.

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A convenient, one-pot method for the construction of a variety of azaindoles using simple ketones and haloaminopyridines is described.

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Kaolinite clay obtained from Ubulu-Ukwu, Delta State in Nigeria was modified with polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) reagent to obtained PVA-modified Kaolinite clay. Kinetic and equilibrium data were obtained for the batch adsorption of Pb(2+) onto PVA-modified Kaolinite clay. Time-dependent Langmuir and pseudo-second order kinetic models (TDLM and PSOM) were developed to predict the optimized minimum operating time for the adsorption of Pb(2+) onto PVA-modified Kaolinite clay in a two-stage batch adsorber system.

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Introduction: Mdm2 inhibits p53 transactivation by forming a p53-Mdm2 complex on chromatin. Upon DNA damage-induced complex disruption, such latent p53 can be activated, but in cells overexpressing Mdm2 because of a homozygous single nucleotide polymorphism at position 309 (T --> G) of mdm2, the complex is highly stable and cannot be disrupted by DNA damage, rendering p53 inactive.

Methods: To determine whether the p53 response phenotype is influenced differentially in cells with variable mdm2 genotypes, we compared responses to DNA damage and targeted p53-Mdm2 complex disruption by Nutlin-3 in the following wild-type p53 human cancer cell lines: A875 and CCF-STTG-1 (G/G for mdm2 SNP309), SJSA-1 (mdm2 genomic amplification and T/T for mdm2 SNP309), MCF-7 (estrogen-induced Mdm2 overexpression and T/G for mdm2 SNP309), ML-1 and H460 (T/T for mdm2 SNP309), and K562 (p53-null and T/G for mdm2 SNP309).

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