749 research outputs found
Decline in adolescent treatment admissions for methamphetamine use in Cape Town
Background and objectives. The purpose of this report is to describe the changing trends in adolescent treatment admissions for methamphetamine in Cape Town, and to discuss possible implications.Method. Data were collected on admissions for drug abuse treatment through a regular monitoring system involving drug treatment centres and programmes in Cape Town, every 6 months as part of the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU). A one-page form was completed by treatment centre personnel for each patient to collect demographic and substance abuse data.Results. The results indicate that between 2004 and 2006, a significant increase in the proportion of adolescent treatment admissions for methamphetamine abuse occurred, while a significant decrease occurred between 2006 and 2011.Conclusions. The initial increase in adolescent treatment admissions for methamphetamine abuse from 2004 to 2006, and subsequent decrease between 2006 and 2011, may suggest a change in methamphetamine abuse patterns among adolescents in Cape Town
Functional haemodynamic monitoring: the relative merits of SVV, SPV and PPV as measured by the LiDCOrapid in predicting fluid responsiveness in high-risk surgical patients
Management of erectile dysfunction: perceptions and practices of Nigerian primary care clinicians
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a prevalent health problem in many societies, but the diagnosis is seldom documented in primary care. The objective of this study was to investigate the perception and practices of clinicians regarding the management of ED in primary care settings in Nigeria.
Methods
A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was applied to a purposive sample of clinicians attending conferences/workshops organised by the Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria and Update Courses of the Faculties of Family Medicine of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and the West African College of Physicians. Information was obtained on their professional characteristics, experiences with the management of ED and possible barriers to the effective management of ED.
Results
A total of 187 completed questionnaires were analysed. Most (87.2%) of the respondents were general practitioners, while the rest were specialists in various fields (excluding sexual health) who worked at the primary care level. One hundred and forty-seven respondents (76%) reported that ED was common in their clinical practice. Over half (56.2%) of the respondents ascribed a high priority to ED management in their day-to-day clinical practice, while 33.2% and 10.6% of them ascribed medium and low priority to ED management respectively. Although 80.8% of the respondents agreed that ED patients could benefit from orthodox treatments, only 18% of them had ever prescribed any medication for affected patients; most (82%) of them either counselled or referred ED patients to secondary or tertiary care level for further management. Most of the clinicians (62%) would not take a sexual history unless the patient brought it up. The reported barriers to the management of ED include lack of a standardised protocol (64.2%), inadequate experience in ED management (85.6%), preference of patients for native medication (42.3%), and the high cost of modern medication (48.1%).
Conclusion
The clinicians acknowledged the high prevalence of ED in the primary care setting and recognised that they had a role to play in managing affected patients. The identified barriers to the management of the condition point to the need for education of both clinicians and patients, as well as the provision of guidelines for the management of ED in primary care settings.South African Family Practice Vol. 49 (9) 2007: pp. 1
Factors associated with caregiver burden in a child and adolescent psychiatric facility in Lagos, Nigeria: a descriptive cross sectional study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Definitions of burden of care stress the effect of the patient's mental illness on the family. There are generally very few studies in this environment on caregiver burden in child/adolescent mental ill-health. This study aimed to identify patient and caregiver characteristics that are associated with caregiver burden.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Caregivers of patients attending the Child and Adolescent Clinic of the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos [n = 155] were consecutively recruited over a one-month period. The caregivers were administered a sociodemographic questionnaire, the General Health Questionnaire, Zarit Burden Interview, and the Columbia Impairment Scale. Scoring on the Children's Global Assessment Scale was done by clinicians.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Most caregivers observed in this study were females (80.5%), with mothers of the patients accounting for 78% of all the caregivers. A higher percentage of the patients were males (52.8%). Moderate to severe/severe burden was recorded among 25.2% of caregivers. Factors associated with caregiver burden were patient's level of functioning [r = 0.489, p < 0.001], psychiatric morbidity in the caregiver [r = 0.709, p < 0.001], level of impairment as assessed by the caregiver [r = 0.545, p < 0.001], and child's level of education [t = 3.274, p = 0.001]. Each one independently predicted caregiver burden.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The study reveals a high level of burden among the caregivers of children and adolescents with mental health problems.</p
Screening nuclear field fluctuations in quantum dots for indistinguishable photon generation
A semiconductor quantum dot can generate highly coherent and
indistinguishable single photons. However, intrinsic semiconductor dephasing
mechanisms can reduce the visibility of two-photon interference. For an
electron in a quantum dot, a fundamental dephasing process is the hyperfine
interaction with the nuclear spin bath. Here we directly probe the consequence
of the fluctuating nuclear spins on the elastic and inelastic scattered photon
spectra from a resident electron in a single dot. We find the nuclear spin
fluctuations lead to detuned Raman scattered photons which are distinguishable
from both the elastic and incoherent components of the resonance fluorescence.
This significantly reduces two-photon interference visibility. However, we
demonstrate successful screening of the nuclear spin noise which enables the
generation of coherent single photons that exhibit high visibility two-photon
interference.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures + Supplementary Informatio
NLO QCD corrections in Herwig++ with MC@NLO
We present the calculations necessary to obtain next-to-leading order QCD
precision with the Herwig++ event generator using the MC@NLO approach, and
implement them for all the processes that were previously available from
Fortran HERWIG with MC@NLO. We show a range of results comparing the two
implementations. With these calculations and recent developments in the
automatic generation of NLO matrix elements, it will be possible to obtain NLO
precision with Herwig++ for a much wider range of processesComment: 26 pages, 28 figure
Exploring the Effect of Operational Factors and Characterization Imperative to the Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles
The synthesis and application of silver nanoparticles are increasingly becoming attractive. Hence, a critical examination of the various factors needed for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles as well as the characterization is imperative. In light of this, we addressed in this chapter, the nitty-gritty on the operational parameters (factors) and characterization relevant to synthesis of silver nanoparticle. The following characterization protocols were discussed in the context of silver nanoparticle synthesis. These protocols include spectroscopic techniques such as ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
Coherent Parton Showers with Local Recoils
We outline a new formalism for dipole-type parton showers which maintain
exact energy-momentum conservation at each step of the evolution. Particular
emphasis is put on the coherence properties, the level at which recoil effects
do enter and the role of transverse momentum generation from initial state
radiation. The formulated algorithm is shown to correctly incorporate coherence
for soft gluon radiation. Furthermore, it is well suited for easing matching to
next-to-leading order calculations.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure
Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a top anti-top pair at NLO with parton showering
We present predictions for the production cross section of a Standard Model
Higgs boson in association with a top-antitop pair at next-to-leading order
accuracy using matrix elements obtained from the HELAC-Oneloop package. The NLO
prediction was interfaced to the PYTHIA and HERWIG shower Monte Carlo programs
with the help of POWHEG-Box, allowing for decays of massive particles,
showering and hadronization, thus leading to final results at the hadron level.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Single-top Wt-channel production matched with parton showers using the POWHEG method
We present results for the next-to-leading order calculation of single-top
Wt-channel production interfaced to Shower Monte Carlo programs, implemented
according to the POWHEG method. A comparison with MC@NLO is carried out.
Results obtained using the PYTHIA shower are also shown and the effect of
typical cuts is briefly discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure
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