A total of 2203 Nigerian school-age children (10-19 yr) were examined clinically for the presence of oral anomalies. The following prevalence figures were found: commissural lip pits (2.9%), ankyloglossia (0.2%), geographic tongue (0.3%), fissured tongue (0.8%), torus palatinus (4.5%), torus mandibularis (1.9%), snowcap type amelogenesis imperfecta (0.2%), localized enamel hypomaturation (11.7%), missing lateral incisors (0.7%), and peg lateral incisors (1.5%). None of the following conditions was found: cleft chin, cleft lip, double lip, medium rhomboid glossitis, bifid tongue, macroglossia, cleft palate or cleft lip and palate.

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A survey of biopsied lesions of patients aged 0-16 yr who presented with oral swellings at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital over a period of 11 yr was conducted to determine the pattern of presentation of these lesions in 203 Nigerian children, 123 boys and 80 girls. 21% of the lesions were fibro-osseous lesions. There were more non-odontogenic than odontogenic tumors and very few salivary gland tumors.

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The rise of globalization and industrialization has driven the demand for rare earth metals (REMs). These metals are widely used in various sectors of the global economy with various applications in medicine, renewable energy, electronics, agriculture, and the military. REMs are likely to remain an important part of our global future, and, as production increases, areas contaminated by REMs are expected to expand over the coming decades. Thus, triggering significant adverse environmental, animal, and human health impacts. Despite increased attention on REMs outside China in recent years, there are limited studies exploring REM production, deposits, and associated health impacts in the African context. Proper mine management, adequate safety protocols, sustainable processing methods, and waste handling systems have been identified and proposed globally; however, the nature and scale of implementing these management protocols on the African continent have been less clear. Therefore, planetary health-centered solutions are urgently needed to be undertaken by researchers, policy makers, and non-governmental actors in Africa and across the globe. This is with the overarching aim of ensuring eco-friendly alternatives and public health consciousness on REM exploitations and hazards for future generations to come.

In this study, a robust method of Taguchi-Pareto (TP) coupled with particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to minimize the thrust force in the drilling of carbon fiber reinforced plastic composites. Taguchi-Pareto is used against Taguchi (T) to emphasize the prioritization scheme essential for deploying the resources to parameters. Besides, and differently from earlier studies, particle swarm optimization is integrated with the Taguchi-Pareto to optimize the structure further. A further result is placed in the fitness function of the PSO to cultivate the velocity and position vectors. In the TP-PSO, the Pareto scheme is introduced to prioritize the factors based on the 80-20-rule. The Taguchi method yielded a feasible optimal parametric setting. The TPSO and TPPSO attained minimum thrust force in four and seven iterations, respectively. Furthermore, the PSO, TPPSO, and TPSO hold the first, second, and third positions, respectively. Results suggest that the proposed robust TPPSO offers an important indicator of optimization of the thrust force while drilling carbon fiber reinforced plastic composites using existing datasets. The usefulness of this effort is to help drilling operators and process engineers undertake energy-saving decisions.

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ABSTRACT.Objectives: To report and describe 5 cases of squamous odontogenic tumour(S.O.T) that accumulated in the file of the biopsy services of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos during a period of 21years, review the literature and to comment on the nature of this rare tumour. Methods: Haematoxylin and eosin stained sections of each of the tumours histologically diagnosed as S.O.T were reviewed with the objective of reconfirming the diagnosis in the biopsy report file. Results: 5 cases of S.O.T. were diagnosed during this period. The mean age of occurrence (+SD) was 36.6 years + 10 (range 20 to 45 years). All the five (100%) cases presented in females, 4(80%) occurred in the mandible and 1 (20%) occurred in the maxilla. All the 4 mandibular lesions occurred in the body of the mandible while the single maxillary lesion occurred in the posterior region. Discussion: All the 5 cases in the present series presented in females, though review of the literature showed that this tumour do occur in males also but with a female predominance. The mandibular prevalence (4 out of 5) in this series contrasts with reports in the literature. This variation may be due the limited number cases studied, but are however important additions to the few reported cases. Conclusion: Care should be taken not to misdiagnose this condition as acanthomatous ameloblastoma or well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Although, it has an infiltrative pattern of growth, S.O.T. has become accepted as a distinct lesion rather than a variant of ameloblastoma. Treatment should be by conservative excision