British Bryological Society expedition to Mulanje Mountain, Malawi : 13., new and other unpublished records

Further results are provided of the 1991 British Bryological Society Expedition to Mulanje Mt., Malawi including 168 taxa of bryophyte, comprising 72 taxa of liverwort (38 new to Malawi) and 96 taxa of mosses (45 new to Malawi)

Feasibility of using teleradiology to improve tuberculosis screening and case management in a district hospital in Malawi.

Malawi has one of the world's highest rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (10.6%), and southern Malawi, where Thyolo district is located, bears the highest burden in the country (14.5%). Tuberculosis, common among HIV-infected people, requires radiologic diagnosis, yet Malawi has no radiologists in public service. This hinders rapid and accurate diagnosis and increases morbidity and mortality

Aquaculture research and development in rural Africa: summary report

A summary report on the ICLARM-GTZ/Malawi Fisheries Department/University of Malawi International Conference in Zomba, Malawi, on 2-6 April 1990. Contains abstracts of the papers, which attempt to identify the reasons why the progress of aquaculture in Africa has been slow. With Malawi as a case study, fresh approaches to aquaculture development are presented.Aquaculture development, Small scale aquaculture, Sociological aspects, Aquaculture systems, Africa, Malawi,

Future career plans of Malawian medical students: a cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Malawi has one of the lowest physician densities in the world, at 1.1 doctors per 100,000 population. Undergraduate training of doctors at the national medical school has increased considerably in recent years with donor support. However, qualified doctors continue to leave the public sector in order to work or train abroad. We explored the postgraduate plans of current medical students, and the extent to which this is influenced by their background. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was developed after discussion with students and senior staff. This included questions on background characteristics, education before medical school, and future career plans. This was distributed to all medical and premedical students on campus over 1 week and collected by an independent researcher. One reminder visit was made to each class. Chi-squared tests were performed to investigate the relationship of student characteristics with future career plans. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-nine students completed the questionnaire out of a student body of 312, a response rate of 48%. When questioned on their plans for after graduation, 49.0% of students plan to stay in Malawi. However, 38.9% plan to leave Malawi immediately. Medical students who completed a 'premedical' foundation year at the medical school were significantly more likely to have immediate plans to stay in Malawi compared to those who completed A-levels, an advanced school-leaving qualification (P = 0.037). Current premedical students were slightly more likely to have immediate plans to work or train in Malawi compared to medical students (P = 0.049). However, a trend test across all the years was not significant. When asked about future plans, nearly half of students intend to work or train outside Malawi. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of respondents plan to leave Malawi in the future. The effectiveness of the substantial upscaling of medical education in Malawi may be diminished unless more medical students plan to work in Malawi after graduation

Maturity, age and growth of Oreochromis karongae (Teleostei: cichlidae) in Lake Malawi and Lake Malombe

Size-at-50% maturity, age and growth, of Oreochromis (Nyasalapia) karongae (‘chambo’) in Lakes Malawi and Malombe were studied. Similar size-at-50% maturity and growth patterns were found for populations in Lake Malawi, but differences were observed for Lake Malombe populations, suggesting that current chambo fisheries management regulations, based on findings from the southern part of Lake Malawi, may be applicable to the central and southern parts of that lake, but not to Lake Malombe

British Bryological Society expedition to Mulanje Mountain, Malawi : 15., Lejeuneaceae, and the occurrence and frequency of foliicolous taxa

Details of habitat and location are given for 64 taxa of Lejeuneaceae collected during the BBS expedition to Mulanje Mountain, Malawi in 1991, of which 47 are new to Malawi. The occurrence and frequency of foliicolous taxa are documented

Multiwavelength observations of the M15 intermediate velocity cloud

We present Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope HI images, Lovell Telescope multibeam HI wide-field mapping, Wisconsin H-alpha Mapper facility images, William Herschel Telescope longslit echelle CaII observations, and IRAS ISSA 60 and 100 micron coadded images towards the intermediate velocity cloud located in the general direction of the M15 globular cluster. When combined with previously-published Arecibo data, the HI gas in the IVC is found to be clumpy, with peak HI column density of 1.5x10^(20) cm^(-2), inferred volume density (assuming spherical symmetry) of 24 cm^(-3)/(D kpc), and maximum brightness temperature at a resolution of 81x14 arcsec of 14 K. The HI gas in the cloud is warm, with a minimum FWHM value of 5 km/s, corresponding to a kinetic temperature, in the absence of turbulence, of 540 K. There are indications in the HI data of 2-component velocity structure in the IVC, indicative of cloudlets. This velocity structure is also tentatively seen in the CaK spectra, although the SNR is low. The main IVC condensation is detected by WHAM in H-alpha with intensities uncorrected for Galactic absorption of upto 1.3 Rayleigh, indicating that the cloud is partially ionised. The FWHM of the ionised component, at a resolution of 1 degree, exceeds 30 km/s. The spatial and velocity coincidence of the H-alpha and HI peaks in emission is qualitatively good. Finally, the 100 and 60 micron IRAS images show spatial coincidence over a 0.7 degree field, with low and intermediate-velocity gas, respectively, indicating that the IVC may contain dust.Comment: MNRAS, in pres

Subjective expectations in the context of HIV/AIDS in Malawi

In this paper we present a newly developed interactive elicitation methodology for collecting probalistic in expectations in a developing country context with low levels of literacy and numeracy, and we evaluate the feasibility and success of this method for a wide range of outcomes in rural Malawi. We find that respondents' answers about their subjective expectations take into account basic properties of probabilities, and vary meaningfully with observable characteristics and past experience. From a substantive point of view, the elicited expectation's indicate that individuals are generally aware of differential risks. For example, individuals with lower incomes and less land rightly feel at greater risk of financial distress than people with higher socioeconomic status (SES), and people who are divorced or widowed rightly feel at greater risk of being infected with HIV than currently married individuals. Meanwhile many expectations - including the probability of being currently infected with HIV - are well-calibrated compared to actual probabilities, but mortality expectations are substantially overestimated compared to life table estimates. This overestimation maylead individuals to underestimate the benefits of adopting HIV risk-reduction strategies. The skewed distribution, of expectations about condom use also suggests that a small group of innovators are the forerunners in the adoption of condoms within marriage for HIV prevention. © 2009 Adeline Delavande & Hans-Peter Kohler

Income, health, and well-being in rural Malawi

This paper attempts to isolate the causal link of income on health status and subjective well-being for the rural population in Malawi using three waves of household panel data spanning the period 2004-2008 from the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP) and the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH). Malawi is a low-income country with high background morbidity and mortality, as well as an AIDS epidemic, high fertility, and poor reproductive health. Instrumental variables and fixed effects strategies are used to try to address endogeneity of the income to health relationship. The analyses show that a 10% increase in income improves mean general health status of rural Malawians by 1.0% and mean subjective well-being by 1.2%.AIDS/HIV, income, Malawi, self-reported health, subjective well-being