Adolescents' contraception continuation in Switzerland: a prospective observational study.

Securing the adherence over time to contraception by adolescent girls is a challenge. Until now little was known about this topic in Switzerland. The aim of our study was to determine contraceptive continuation rates among adolescents in this country and assess possible predictive factors for discontinuation. A prospective observational cohort study of 12- to 19-year-old girls starting contraception was performed. Patients were interviewed again after 1 year by phone, email or postal mail. A total of 204 patients were included, of whom 85.8% chose a combined oestrogen-progestogen pill. The answer rate 1 year later was 71%. Among these, continuation of the initially prescribed contraceptive method was observed in 73.1%. Factors statistically affecting the continuation rate were the initial contraceptive method, the place of residence and sexual activity after 1 year. Classification of contraceptive methods in decreasing order of continuation rate was the following: long acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods, oestrogen-progestogen pills, injections, progestogen pills, patches and rings. Major reasons reported for stopping the prescribed contraceptive method were ending sexual relations (54.3%), developing side effects (34.3%) or changing to another contraceptive method (22.9%). Neither age, nationality, smoking, occupation, nor the legal representative's knowledge of the contraception influenced adherence. Contraceptive continuation rate was high among the adolescent population studied. The only predictive factor of discontinuation was the contraceptive method. Our study also reveals that respecting teenagers' confidentiality is essential as it does not negatively impact the continuation rate. The significant impact of the type of contraception on continuation rates stresses the importance of individualised counselling

Adolescent pregnancy: An important issue for paediatricians and primary care providers-A position paper from the European academy of paediatrics.

Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing, remain a widespread health-related problem with potential short and long-term consequences. Comprehensive social, economic, environmental, structural, and cultural factors heavily impact on adolescents' sexual and reproductive health and early pregnancy. Health professionals can play a pivotal role in the prevention of unplanned pregnancy. Improved access to family planning, sexuality education in schools, community-based interventions, and policies contribute greatly to reduce the risk of adolescent pregnancy and the adoption of respectful and responsible sexual behaviour. Additionally, health care professionals can support pregnant adolescents in making decisions under these circumstances and provide adequate health care. This review highlights actions that can guide healthcare professionals in empowering young adolescents to become more aware and capable of making informed decisions about their sexual life, health, and future

PrivateRide: A Privacy-Enhanced Ride-Hailing Service

In the past few years, we have witnessed a rise in the popularity of ride-hailing services (RHSs), an on-line marketplace that enables accredited drivers to use their own cars to drive ride-hailing users. Unlike other transportation services, RHSs raise significant privacy concerns, as providers are able to track the precise mobility patterns of millions of riders worldwide. We present the first survey and analysis of the privacy threats in RHSs. Our analysis exposes high-risk privacy threats that do not occur in conventional taxi services. Therefore, we pro- pose PrivateRide, a privacy-enhancing and practical solu- tion that offers anonymity and location privacy for riders, and protects drivers’ information from harvesting attacks. PrivateRide lowers the high-risk privacy threats in RHSs to a level that is at least as low as that of many taxi services. Using real data-sets from Uber and taxi rides, we show that PrivateRide significantly enhances riders’ privacy, while preserving tangible accuracy in ride matching and fare calculation, with only negligible effects on convenience. Moreover, by using our Android implementation for experimental evaluations, we show that PrivateRide’s overhead during ride setup is negligible. In short, we enable privacy- conscious riders to achieve levels of privacy that are not possible in current RHSs and even in some conventional taxi services, thereby offering a potential business differentiator

Muon Catalyzed Fusion in 3 K Solid Deuterium

Muon catalyzed fusion in deuterium has traditionally been studied in gaseous and liquid targets. The TRIUMF solid-hydrogen-layer target system has been used to study the fusion reaction rates in the solid phase of D_2 at a target temperature of 3 K. Products of two distinct branches of the reaction were observed; neutrons by a liquid organic scintillator, and protons by a silicon detector located inside the target system. The effective molecular formation rate from the upper hyperfine state of $\mu d$ and the hyperfine transition rate have been measured: $\tilde{\lambda}_(3/2)=2.71(7)_{stat.}(32)_{syst.} \mu/s$, and $\tilde{\lambda}_{(3/2)(1/2)} =34.2(8)_{stat.}(1)_{syst.} \mu /s$. The molecular formation rate is consistent with other recent measurements, but not with the theory for isolated molecules. The discrepancy may be due to incomplete thermalization, an effect which was investigated by Monte Carlo calculations. Information on branching ratio parameters for the s and p wave d+d nuclear interaction has been extracted.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PRA Feb 20, 199

Nectar palatability can selectively filter bird and insect visitors to coral tree flowers

Secondary compounds in nectar may play a decisive role in determining the spectrum of floral visitors on plants. Flowers of the African coral tree Erythrina caffra are visited mainly by generalist passerine nectarivores, such as weavers and bulbuls. As the nectar of this species tastes very bitter to humans, it was hypothesized that secondary compounds may repel sunbirds and honeybees which are common in the same habitats yet seldom consume the nectar. We conducted choice tests using fresh nectar and both sucrose and hexose (glucose/fructose) solutions of the same concentration as the nectar. Whitebellied Sunbirds (Cinnyris talatala) were repelled by nectar of both E. caffra and a related species Erythrina lysistemon, but Dark-capped Bulbuls (Pycnonotus tricolor) did not discriminate between the Erythrina nectar and control sugar solution in terms of amounts consumed. Honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata) probed exposed droplets of E. caffra nectar and a control sugar solution at the same rate, suggesting that there is no volatile deterrent, but they immediately withdrew their proboscis far more often from the droplets of Erythrina nectar than they did from the sugar solution, suggesting that they find Erythrina nectar distasteful. These results contribute to a growing awareness that non-sugar components of nectar can play important functional roles in plant pollination systems.South African National Research Foundation (NRF)http://link.springer.com/journal/106822016-03-31hb201

Southern Drakensberg Botany

In the latter part of this century, the high Drakensberg region has been well served botanically, both by extensive scientific studies and by well illustrated more general popular works which have included much on the flora

Evaluation de l’hyperalgésie secondaire en chirurgie prothétique de la hanche

Introduction Les opioïdes sont des analgésiques puissants administrés lors de procédures chirurgicales. Paradoxalement, plusieurs études ont démontré qu’une administration importante d’opioïdes durant une chirurgie pouvait conduire à une hyperalgésie secondaire. Le but de ce travail est de vérifier si une administration importante d’opioïdes durant une intervention chirurgicale prothétique de la hanche augmente les douleurs postopératoires. Méthode Cette étude rétrospective inclus 309 patients ayant subi une arthroplastie primaire de hanche sous anesthésie générale, au CHUV, entre 2008 et 2017. L’objectif principal est d’évaluer s’il existe une corrélation entre l’administration d’opioïdes durant une chirurgie prothétique de la hanche et les scores de douleur et consommations d’opioïdes après cette chirurgie. Les données suivantes ont été extraites : âge, sexe, poids, taille, IMC, classe ASA, durée opératoire, administration peropératoire et consommation postopératoire d’opioïdes, scores de douleur au repos, délai entre le réveil et la première consommation d’opioïdes et le nombre d’épisodes de nausées/vomissements postopératoires durant les premières 24h. Résultats Il n’existe pas de corrélation entre l’administration d’opioïdes peropératoire et la consommation postopératoire dans les deux premières heures (r=-0.04 ; p=0.47). En revanche, il y a une corrélation linéaire positive entre l’administration peropératoire et les consommations entre 2-12h (r=0.13 ; p=0.02) et 12-24h (r=0.17 ; p=0.0025), ainsi qu’avec la consommation totale d’opioïdes entre 0-24h (r=0.12 ; p=0.03). Il n’y a pas de corrélation entre l’administration peropératoire et les scores de douleur postopératoire, peu importe l’intervalle de temps considéré. Conclusion Nos résultats n’ont pas démontré d’augmentation des douleurs postopératoires avec l’augmentation de l’administration d’opioïdes peropératoires. En revanche, nous avons pu démontrer une faible corrélation entre les doses administrées d’opioïdes intraopératoires et les doses d’opioïdes postopératoires