Winston Oluwole Soboyejo: Erudite Scientist Doing Nigeria Proud

Winston Oluwole Soboyejo commonly known as "Wole" is an American Scientist of Yoruba Nigerian parentage.  He is a materials scientist whose research focuses on biomaterials and the use of nanoparticles for the detection and treatment of disease, the mechanical properties of materials, and the use of materials science to promote global development.  

 Wole was born in Palo Alto, California, USA in 1964. He moved to Nigeria with his family in 1965. Wole is the son of Professor Alfred Sobojeyo of The Ohio State University  and Anthonia Soboyejo. He was educated at King's College London (BS Mechanical Engineering, 1985) and Churchill College, Cambridge (PhD Materials Science and Metallurgy, 1988).

 

Wole returned to the United States in 1988 to become a research scientist at The McDonnell Douglas Research Labs in St. Louis, MO. In 1992, he worked briefly as a Principal Research Engineer at the Edison Welding Institute before joining the engineering faculty of The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. From 1997 to 1998, he was a Visiting Professor in the departments of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Secretary General of the United Nations from 2014 to 2016. Dr. Soboyejo moved to Princeton University in 1999 where he served as a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a Professor in the Princeton Institute of Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM). He also served as the Director of the U.S./Africa Materials Institute (USAMI), one of six international materials institutes supported by the National Science Foundation, and the Director of the Materials Undergraduate Research Program in PRISM. Between 2012 and 2014, Soboyejo served as President and Provost of the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) in Abuja, Nigeria.

AUST is a Pan-African university founded by the Nelson Mandela Institutions (NMI). Soboyejo has also served as the chair of the African Scientific Committee of the NMI. In September 2016, Wole joined the faculty and administration at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where he serves as the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering and Professor of Engineering Leadership. His research focuses on materials for health, energy and the environment. His current projects include the use of nanomaterials for targeting and treating cancer; a shear assay technique that may be able to measure the mechanical properties of organelles in the cell; the development of low cost solar cells/light emitting devices; and sustainable approaches to providing clean water, affordable housing and education to people in the developing world.

wikipedia

Circut Trainer Brings Lion To His Apartment During Lockdown In Egypt

Circus trainer has brought lions into his apartment to perform his act during Egypt’s coronavirus lockdown.  Ashraf el-Helw posted a video online of his big cats performing tricks in his Cairo flat and said he is planning to film more.

 

The 26-year-old, the third generation in a lion-training dynasty, claims he wants to encourage people to stay at home during the pandemic.

 

 

Egypt’s government has imposed nightly curfew and ordered many businesses to shut to contain the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 5,500 people and killed 392 in the country.

 

Mr el-Helw’s first video on 20 April received an enthusiastic response from some viewers, but animal rights activists have criticised the footage and said it raises questions about how the lions are treated.

 

 “This is irresponsible and foolish behaviour,” said Dina Zulfikar, an animal rights activist who sits on the board of Egypt’s largest zoo. “They are not pets, they are wild animals.”

 

She added bringing wild animals into private homes was against the law, and warned Mr el-Helw’s social media profile gave an unrealistic impression of how dangerous lions are.

 

His family have been doing circus shows with lions for over a century. His grandmother was a renowned circus performer, Mahassen el-Helw, the Arab world’s first female lion trainer. She was known as “the iron woman” for her stern stage demeanor.

 

Mr el-Helw’s grandfather, Mohammed, was killed in 1972 during one of his shows by Sultan, a lion who tore him to pieces in front of horrified spectators.

 

There have also been reported incidents of several other family members being attacked during shows in recent years.

Nigerian Humanist Held for Blasphemy in Sharia State

A prominent Nigerian humanist accused of blasphemy has been arrested and taken to the northern city of Kano, according to figures close to him.

Mubarak Bala, the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria was taken from his home on 28 April in neighbouring Kaduna state and taken to Kano, where a warrant for his arrest was issued, Leo Igwe, a fellow Nigerian humanist and human rights advocate, said.

“We condemn his arrest and are extremely worried because this came after several threats made by the religious community in Kano,” Igwe said. “They are likely to try him under sharia law in Kano, which could lead to capital punishment.”

Sharia law is applied in 12 states across the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria, including Kano where blasphemy is punishable by death.Igwe said police had denied Bala access to a lawyer and had not said what the charges were, heightening fears for his safety.

“Our worst fear is that he would be taken to Kano because there are many figures who have been threatening him and promising to end his life,” Igwe said. “The Kano police told me he was in their custody, but for days now they haven’t given us any more information.”

Police in Kano would not confirm whether they were holding Bala.

In a statement, Humanist UK, the leading British humanist society, said: “We condemn in the strongest terms the arrest of our humanist colleague Mubarak Bala by the Nigerian authorities, who have accused him of ‘blasphemy’, which can carry the death penalty.”

Nigeria is a deeply religious country, mainly Christian in the south and largely Muslim in the north.

Bala, the son of a widely regarded Islamic scholar, has been an outspoken religious critic in a staunchly conservative region, where open religious dissent is uncommon. After renouncing Islam in 2014, he was forcefully sent to a psychiatric facility by his family in Kano before being released.

After Bala posted comments critical of  the religion of Islam and religion in general on his Facebook profile recently he had received a surge of online accusations of blasphemy and threats, Igwe said, largely from figures in Kano.

 Bala said recently on facebook,  that after recent threats to his life, he would resort to more mildly critical posts and humour.

Igwe said Bala had helped create a community for thousands of atheists, particularly in northern Nigeria. “To speak out and say you’re an atheist or humanist in Nigeria can be dangerous, but Bala is very passionate about creating a space for those who do not subscribe to Islam or religion,” he said.

SOURCE:Theguardian

Davido and Wizkid Collaborates During Lockdown

Despite the lockdown, it's good to know that Nigerian artistes are putting to good use their time as they continue to release new songs, with some taking it a step further by having intercontinental collaborations.

Recently, two of Nigeria's biggest stars and perceived rivals Davido and Wizkid stepped up their games in another international collaboration in the same week.

The first came with American artiste and songwriter, Khalid featuring Davido and Temsbaby in "Know Your Worth."

Davido did well in the song and his fans have been applauding him.

Then few hours following the release of Know Your Worth, American artiste, Akon announced his new song featuring Wizkid titled "Escape."

"Escape" has been widely received by Wizkid fans, who have also been applauding him for his role in the song as report disclosed he co-wrote the song with Akon.

However, it looks like the new collaborations will bring about another competition between Davido and Wizkid's fans who are in the habit of comparing the success of the duo against each other.

Irrespective of this, Wizkid and Davido have once again done the African continent proud and showed that irrespective of the situation, when it comes to music, African artistes remain relevant.

(Culled from Fulcrumtimes.com)

Vanguard

Read the original article on Vanguard.

Madagascar donates anti-COVID-19 drug to Eq. Guinea

Madagascar has donated the herbal potion that it claims cures coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic patients to Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, local media reported on Thursday.

A consignment of 11,5000 packets weighing 1.5 tons of Covid Organics (CVO) – a form of herbal tea was shipped to Equatorial Guinea. Out of this, 1,500 packets are for curative treatment and 10,000 for preventive healing.

“Equatorial Guinea wanted to be the first country to recognize and use this remedy discovered by Malagasy researchers. And we hope that health cooperation between the two countries will be further strengthened, " said La Verite, a newspaper quoting Mitoha Ondo'o Ayekaba Equatorial Guinea's deputy minister of health.

Equatorial Guinea, with a population of 1.3 million has 315 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, with one death, and nine recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

Last week, Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina officially launched the CVO, a herbal concoction claiming that it can prevent and cure patients suffering from coronavirus. The drug has been developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.

Rajoelina has directed to distribute the drink free of charge to the most vulnerable and sell it at very low prices to others.

According to information from the Presidency of the Republic of Madagascar, three African countries Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guinea Bissau have shown interest in the CVO.

6 amazing African innovations against COVID-19

A cursory glance at history will reveal that the rise of tough, critical situations usually forces innovation, hence the phrase ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world, innovations to fight it have gone up a notch.
A few weeks after the outbreak in Africa, two innovation hubs, Co-creation Hub (CcHub) and Ventures Platform Hub, stepped up to combat the spread of the virus by sponsoring innovative projects and solutions.
On April 1, WHO in Africa held its first hackathon for COVID-19, bringing together a number of innovators from sub-Saharan Africa to pioneer local creative solutions against the pandemic, and address critical gaps in the region.
Groups like Alliance4ai are also aiding startups with innovative ideas during the pandemic, as well as the strategic lobbying of relevant policy stakeholders.

So far, some funds have reportedly been disbursed by Nigerian techpreneurs to innovators in the fight against the pandemic.

Here are some individuals and startups in Africa with interesting innovations against COVID-19

In Nigeria, a triaging app is being developed by Wale Adeosun and his team at Wellvis health, a health tech startup. The COVID-19 Triage Tool is a free online tool to help users self-assess their coronavirus risk category based on their symptoms and their exposure history.

Depending on their answers, users will be offered remote medical advice or redirected to a nearby healthcare facility.

With the COVID-19 tracker by another healthtech startup, Infodemics, users can report isolation or request for testing after answering a few questions about possible symptoms.sts.

The South African government is using a WhatsApp interactive chatbot that can answer common queries on COVID-19, symptoms and treatment. Since its launch in March, it has reportedly reached over 3.5 million users in five different languages.

3D printing of medical masks

Natalie Raphil is a leading AI innovator in Africa and the founder of Robots Can Think, a company that specialises in creating artificial intelligence capable of controlling robots (factory robots, household robots, cars, and others). She is also the leader of the educational stream for WomeninAI South Africa.
Some of her inventions include an Autonomous RPA (Robotic Process Automation) software, biodegradable 3D-printed drinking filters and straws, and with inventor partnerships, an AI walking stick, and various other products of machine learning.In the fight against the pandemic, Natalie is working to provide cheap and accessible medical masks for hospitals. With the aid of members of the Robots Can Think platform and Women in AI community, she is using about five 3D printers to design and produce 100 masks a day for distribution to some major hospitals in Johannesburg.

Real-time COVID-19 tracker

The spread of COVID-19 in Africa has highlighted problems such as misinformation and the lack of data or the means to gather it. In such critical times, up-to-date information and relevant data become even more important.

Darlington Ahiale Akogo, Founder and Director of Artificial Intelligence at GUDRA, and its subsidiaries, has been making some innovations in this regard.

Based in Ghana, Akogo, with a team of 20 persons, has built a comprehensive real-time tracker of COVID-19 cases across Africa. This will provide policymakers and relevant parties with real-time information to track the spread of the virus and help them plan efficient interventions like drug and medical supply distribution, as well as social distancing measures.

He is currently seeking more volunteers from African countries to collect data for real-time analysis and more epidemiologists and statisticians to work on epidemiological modelling and forecasting.

Lung X-ray scans

Tunisia had about 909 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, April 22, and while awaiting a cure, some researchers are searching for ways to contain the virus, as well as ways of testing a large portion of the population.

Some Tunisian engineers have built an accessible web-based platform that scans lung X-rays and evaluates whether patients are likely to be suffering from the novel coronavirus.

Backed by German development agency GIZ, the Italian Society of Medical Radiology, and tech giants IBM, some teachers and students of the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (INSAT) have been developing the platform — COVID-19 Exam CT/XR images by AI — since March.

With thousands of lung X-rays for both healthy and COVID-19 patients being fed into the platform, the AI can recognise the signs of the virus on human lungs. The process is still being optimised to recognise people with few symptoms.

With just an X-ray and an Internet connection, once an image is uploaded on the platform, the AI generates a recognition score for the tested person.

While still in its testing phase, pending approval from Tunisia’s ministry of health, this could be useful in remote regions that lack major hospitals and specialist doctors.

Using sound to generate X-rays

Kenyan health startup, Tambua Health, has been working on a device called T-sense that uses acoustics and deep learning for pulmonary imaging. With this device, sounds from the lungs and the heart are converted to images to help treat various respiratory diseases.

Co-founded by Eric Kirima, Daniel G., and Lewis W. in 2018, the project has been in the works for quite some time, but with the outbreak of the pandemic, it could witness increased relevance.

Testing kits

Since the onset of the pandemic in Africa, very few people have been tested. In Nigeria for example, with a population of almost 200 million, only about 7,153 people have been tested, while Ghana has tested roughly 68,591 of its estimated 29 million population.
To ramp-up COVID-19 testing and protect frontline healthcare workers in Nigeria, Dr Ola Brown, Founder of Flying Doctors Investment Group, recently launched mobile testing booths that have the potential to cut down the use of single-use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which are in short supply.

With these booths, healthcare workers put their hands into gloves and take samples, never coming in contact with the patient. Pending approval from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), protective gears are still being used in these booths.

A potential cure

So far, no definitive cure or vaccine has been announced for COVID-19, and researchers are still trying to understand the nature of the virus. With the use of AI, Amo-Boateng wants to improve research in this regard in Africa.

Understanding the virus: A protein folding algorithm that will determine the structure of the virus in the 3D space using faster and optimised AI.

Screening through existing drugs: An AI is currently being worked on to screen about 1.9 million existing drugs from the Zinc database and DrugBank in search of potential solutions.

Generating new drugs: He is also working on an AI able to identify fake drugs that cannot be manufactured and generate new ones to meet certain targets.

Drug from physics: Though extensive research is still being done, there is currently no cure for the latest strain of the coronavirus. Since no cure has been found through chemical means, Amo-Boateng is currently working on a prototype that can disrupt the activities of the virus using frequencies from light and sound.
He welcomes collaborations with other great minds in Africa to help complete the development of these solutions, drive adoption, and provide means of an adequate trial and approval of completed solutions.

Several hubs and platforms have announced various hackathons and innovation challenges and it will be safe to expect even more amazing innovations from across the continent.

According to Alex Tsado, Technical Product Manager (External) for NVIDIA and founder Alliance4ai, financial and policy support should be given to various individuals and startups, especially those with timely innovations in Africa.

Source: techpoint.africa

As Africa Treats COVID-19 Patients....

Dr Temidayo Fawole may have been at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville this week to attend training on the management and treatment of COVID-19 patients, but home – Nigeria – was never far from her thoughts.

Especially not after the country reported, on 27 February, its first confirmed case of novel coronavirus COVID-19, which was also the first case in Sub-Saharan Africa. Before the day’s training commenced on the 28th, she was briefing her deputy and team at the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) by phone, where she is the national case management lead.

Back in Nigeria, one NCDC team was preparing to make the nearly 700km trip to Lagos to help manage the patient, an Italian who works in Nigeria who had recently returned from Milan. Another was making their way to Ogun State, where the patient had first been screened and isolated, to trace his movements and identify anyone he may have been in contact with.

Nigeria had spent the better part of the past month preparing for just this eventuality, Dr Fawole explains. The country had in place a multi-sectoral, NCDC-led Coronavirus Preparedness Group, which met regularly. A pre-incident action plan had been developed and rolled out, as had been protocols and guidelines for surveillance, infection prevention and control, and the treatment of patients. Three labs had been readied to test for COVID-19. Isolation and treatment centres in four priority states where there are international airports have been assessed, with upgrades planned where necessary.

Dedicated staff had been recruited and trained to work in those centres. “The emphasis of this training was really on clinical management, and it wasn’t just theoretical but we also worked through scenarios,” explains Fawole. “It included an overview of the entire management of patients, from the transfer of patient from the point of entry, to treatment and even discharge.

To ensure that the support provided by WHO addressed areas of potential weakness for member states, an extensive survey was conducted at the end of January 2020.  Patient treatment – also known as case management - emerged as an area of particular concern.  

“Case management is an area in which the region is still struggling,” said Dr Zabulon Yoti, Acting Director of the Health Emergencies Programme in the WHO Regional Office for Africa.  He spoke at the official opening of the WHO Critical Care Training on the Clinical Management of Patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARIs) Associated with COVID-19, which took place in Brazzaville from 26-28 February.

Twenty-two participants – including Fawole –  from 11 countries took part in the training which is designed to support countries in the African Region improve their skills and capacity to treat confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Dr Janet Diaz, unit head of clinical care in the WHO Health Emergencies Programme at the global headquarters, and one of the facilitators on the programme said, “For countries that are preparing now, I think you have to focus on the basics of any response to an infectious respiratory pathogen”. She said that this would include “early detection of the suspect patient; early isolation – so separation of patients so that you reduce spread of infection, either among the community or in a hospital setting; and then early treatment.” 

These are measures that countries like Algeria have been applying for some time now, explained Professor Ghania Brahimi of the Beni Messous University Hospital. Algeria has been using similar treatment principles to that for H1N1 seasonal flu, said Brahimi, who was also attending the case management training in Brazzaville. “The protocols are already in place. There are several training sessions, awareness training sessions that have been held throughout the hospital centres, in the east, west and centre of the country. So I think that people are aware that we can deal with the epidemic and that we are prepared.”

Many participants found the training was helpful, and that all-too-often neglected aspects of emergency response were being addressed. Ms Judith Komuhendo, a psychiatric nursing assistant at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, said, “One of the most important things that I have learnt here is that each patient has a different case management, depending on whether they have mild, severe or critical symptoms.” Dr Aschalew Worku, an internal medicine and pulmonary critical care specialist at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, added that “almost everything we learnt here was important, starting from the initial point of care to the ICU, but I found the critical care part useful because it is my field and because it is usually neglected 

in epidemic management.”

source: WHO