Double burden of malnutrition amongst patients with first-episode schizophrenia in a psychiatric hospital: A 1-year follow-up study.

Background: Despite the burgeoning data on the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) in sub-Saharan Africa, longitudinal studies to examine malnutrition amongst first-episode schizophrenia are uncommon in the modern literature.

Aim: To determine the extent of nutritional variations amongst persons with schizophrenia at intervals of 1-year treatment follow-up.

Setting: This study was conducted at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria.

Feeding behaviors among incident cases of schizophrenia in a psychiatric hospital: Association with dimensions of psychopathology and social support.

Background: Despite early description by Eugen Bleuler of abnormal feeding behaviors among patients with schizophrenia, it has remained poorly studied and understood by clinicians. The present study sought to describe the various eating behaviors among incident cases of schizophrenia and its relationship with the dimensions of psychopathology and perceived social support.

Methods: This study elicited information on the feeding behavior of 206 incident cases of schizophrenia being followed up for various nutritional outcomes.

Relational autonomy in informed consent (RAIC) as an ethics of care approach to the concept of informed consent.

The perspectives of the dominant Western ethical theories, have dominated the concepts of autonomy and informed consent for many years. Recently this dominant understanding has been challenged by ethics of care which, although, also emanates from the West presents a more nuanced concept: relational autonomy, which is more faithful to our human experience. By paying particular attention to relational autonomy, particularity and Process approach to ethical deliberations in ethics of care, this paper seeks to construct a concept of informed consent from the perspective of ethics of care which is here called relational autonomy-in-informed consent (RAIC).

TORTOISE AND ALIYA: BEYOND NOSTALGIA FOR THE TRADITIONAL MORAL EDUCATION METHOD OF THE IGBO PEOPLE OF NIGERIA.

The traditional Igbo moral education is a system of education that occurs in the context of the family and community, and taught to the child, at a very early age, through taboos, myths, riddles, jokes, proverbs, and through stories that often feature animals and birds. The traditional Igbo moral education emphasizes character formation, communal values -solidarity, relationships, and relational autonomy. Since the advent of the Western system of education, there has been a rush to adopt the Western method of moral education, thus, abandoning the traditional Igbo method.

Tannin-tolerant ruminal bacteria from East African ruminants.

Three strains of tannin-tolerant rumen bacteria were isolated from enrichment cultures of rumen microflora of sheep, goat, and antelope and established in medium containing high concentrations of crude tannin extract or tannic acid. These three strains (EAT2, ES3, and EG19), characterized as Selenomonas species, were curved rods, obligately anaerobic, Gram negative, highly motile, and grew in media containing 50 g of tannin extract/L and 50-70 g of tannic acid/L. Strain EAT2 was able to hydrolyze gallic acid, while strains ES3 and EG19 hydrolyzed tannic acid but not gallic acid.