Audit of gynaecological cancers Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre

The aim of the audit was to assess the trend of the gynaecological cancers for the first quarter of 2008, and the prevalence of HIV and syphilis among the cases. Gynaecological cancer cases accounted for 6% of gynaecological admissions at QECH between January and April 2008. The findings show that cervical cancer still remains the leading gynaecological cancer among women in the unit. Among the cases where HIV testing was done, 50% of cases tested HIV positive and these were all cervical, vaginal and vulval cancer cases. Syphilis was prevalent in 10% of the cases. Low socioeconomic status and young age was associated with cervical cancer. A majority of the cases of advanced cervical cancer had been sub optimally managed by health workers at initial visit when the disease was at its early stage hence missing an opportunity for adequate treatment.Malawi Medical Journal Vol. 20 (4) 2008: pp. 140-14

Population Differences in Death Rates in HIV-Positive Patients with Tuberculosis.

SETTING: Randomised controlled clinical trial of Mycobacterium vaccae vaccination as an adjunct to anti-tuberculosis treatment in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive patients with smear-positive tuberculosis (TB) in Lusaka, Zambia, and Karonga, Malawi. OBJECTIVE: To explain the difference in mortality between the two trial sites and to identify risk factors for death among HIV-positive patients with TB. DESIGN: Information on demographic, clinical, laboratory and radiographic characteristics was collected. Patients in Lusaka (667) and in Karonga (84) were followed up for an average of 1.56 years. Cox proportional hazard analyses were used to assess differences in survival between the two sites and to determine risk factors associated with mortality during and after anti-tuberculosis treatment. RESULTS: The case fatality rate was 14.7% in Lusaka and 21.4% in Karonga. The hazard ratio for death comparing Karonga to Lusaka was 1.47 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.9-2.4) during treatment and 1.76 (95%CI 1.0-3.0) after treatment. This difference could be almost entirely explained by age and more advanced HIV disease among patients in Karonga. CONCLUSION: It is important to understand the reasons for population differences in mortality among patients with TB and HIV and to maximise efforts to reduce mortality

An Overview of Science Challenges Pertaining to our Understanding of Extreme Geomagnetically Induced Currents

Vulnerability of man-made infrastructure to Earth-directed space weather events is a serious concern for today's technology-dependent society. Space weather-driven geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) can disrupt operation of extended electrically conducting technological systems. The threat of adverse impacts on critical technological infrastructure, like power grids, oil and gas pipelines, and communication networks, has sparked renewed interest in extreme space weather. Because extreme space weather events have low occurrence rate but potentially high impact, this presents a major challenge for our understanding of extreme GIC activity. In this chapter, we discuss some of the key science challenges pertaining to our understanding of extreme events. In addition, we present an overview of GICs including highlights of severe impacts over the last 80 years and recent U.S. Federal actions relevant to this community

Yields and qualities of pigeonpea varieties grown under smallholder farmers’ conditions in Eastern and Southern Africa

Pigeonpea is one of the few crops with a high potential for resource-poor farmers due to its complementary resource use when intercropped with maize. A three year comprehensive comparative study on the performance of six pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) varieties on farmers’ fields in Eastern and Southern Africa where intercropping with maize is normal practice, was undertaken. The varieties were tested for accumulation of dry matter (DM), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in all above-ground organs for three years under farmers’ conditions. The study revealed that the latest introduced ICEAP 00040 outperformed all the other tested varieties (ICP 9145; ICEAP 00020, ICEAP 00053, ICEAP 00068, and a local variety called “Babati White”) under farmer-managed conditions. The harvest indices (HI), ranging from 0.08-0.15 on dry matter (DM) basis, were relatively low and unaffected (P>0.05) by the environmental variation. The N harvest index (NHI) was 0.28 and P harvest index (PHI) was 0.19. The better responses of ICEAP00040 to favourable conditions could however only be realised in a minority of cases as yields generally were low. These low yields are still a major challenge in African smallholder agriculture as pulses play an important role in soil fertility maintenance as well as in the household diets

Project EURISGIC : worst case scenarios (technical note D5.1)

The overall objective of Work Package 5 of the EURISGIC project (see website eurisgic.eu) is defined as being: “Estimate the largest possible GIC flowing anywhere in the European high-voltage power grid, based on archive data.” This document is a technical note (deliverable item D5.1) for the results of this work package. For each of the project team members participating in the work package (FMI – Finland; Neurospace – Sweden; IRF – Sweden; NASA and Catholic University of America - USA; BGS - UK) we summarise activities related to worst case scenario modelling: activities such as research into extreme event statistical methods, theoretical extreme event modelling and individual (historical and hypothetical) event studies. We note that research is continuing and therefore some results reported here are subject to further confirmation in published scientific journals

Phytochemical composition of four selected vegetable spices commonly consumed in Malawi

Spices, regardless of source, play an important role in enhancing or improving flavor of foods or dishes. In this study, determination of phytochemical composition with respect to total phenolic compounds, antioxidant capacity and vitamin C was conducted in four selected vegetable spices consumed in Malawi, namely Allium cepa L, Allium sativum L, green bell pepper (Capsicum annum L.) and Zingiber officinale. Results showed that total phenolic composition, in mg GAE/100 g, was highest in Zingiber officinale rhizomes (326.5±0.39) followed by Allium cepa L. (169.7±0.00), green bell pepper (124.9±0.20) and Allium sativum L. (72.72±0.39), respectively. Results further showed that Zingiber officinale had the highest antioxidant capacity and reducing power and the lowest vitamin C content, in the range of 21.78±0.21 mg AAE/100 g, 24.35±2.24 mg AAE/g and 3.61±0.23 mg AAE/100 g, respectively compared to the other vegetable spices. On the other hand, vitamin C content was highest in Allium sativum L followed by red Allium cepa L registering values of 455.0±2.12 and 443.4±2.50 mg AAE/100 g, respectively. The reducing power (in mg AAE/g) of the vegetable spices was highest in green bell pepper (Capsicum annum L.) with the value of 17.11±1.549 followed by red Allium cepa L. (9.519±0.860) and Allium sativum L. (5.922±0.778), respectively. Total tannins content, in mg TAE/g, was highest in Allium sativum L, which registered the value of 159.56±4.84 followed by Zingiber officinale (91.53±0.33), bell  pepper (79.94±0.21) and Allium cepa L (49.36±1.98). Furthermore, phytic acid and oxalic acid contents were highest in Zingiber officinale registering values of 5.504±0.822 mg/kg and 37.25±2.83 mg/g, respectively. Red Allium cepa L. was found to contain 20.53±0.916 mg/g oxalic acid but had the lowest phytic acid content registering the value of 2.057±0.095 mg/kg. It can be concluded that the high phytochemical composition in the four vegetable spices, with low antinutrients like phytic and oxalic acids, can play an important role in improving human nutrition and health of consumers.&nbsp

Present day challenges in understanding the geomagnetic hazard to national power grids

Power grids and pipeline networks at all latitudes are known to be at risk from the natural hazard of geomagnetically induced currents. At a recent workshop in South Africa, UK and South African scientists and engineers discussed the current understanding of this hazard, as it affects major power systems in Europe and Africa. They also summarised, to better inform the public and industry, what can be said with some certainty about the hazard and what research is yet required to develop useful tools for geomagnetic hazard mitigation

Productivity and profitability of maize-legume cropping systems under conservation agriculture among smallholder farmers in Malawi

A study was conducted from 2014 to 2017 in Malawi to elucidate the short-term effects of maize-legume intercropping and rotation systems under conservation agriculture (CA) and conventional tillage (CT) on crop productivity and profitability. Twelve farmers hosted on-farm trials per district, in three districts, with each farmer having six plots. The design of the study was randomised complete block design arranged in a split plot fashion with tillage as main plot and cropping systems as sub-plots, with each farmer acting as a replicate. CA had 1400 and 3200 kg ha−1 more maize grain yield in the second and third seasons, respectively compared with CT. In the first two seasons, CT had 310, 180 and 270 kg ha−1 more cowpea, soybean and pigeon pea grain yields in Salima, Mzimba and Mangochi districts, respectively, compared with CA. Similarly, CA had 1100 and 950 kg ha−1 more groundnut grain yields than CT in Salima and Mzimba districts in the second and third seasons, respectively. Over the three-year study period, partial land equivalent ratio for maize ranged from 0.78 to 1.24. Largest net returns were achieved by intercropping maize with pigeon pea in Mangochi and rotating maize and groundnut in Mzimba and Salima districts

Carbon sequestration and selected hydraulic characteristics under conservation agriculture and traditional tillage practices in Malawi

Conservation agriculture (CA) is increasingly promoted among smallholder farmers of sub-Saharan Africa in a quest to improve food security while sustaining the natural resource base of the agro-ecosystems where agriculture is based. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of CA and traditional tillage on soil organic carbon (SOC) and selected hydraulic properties in two contrasting agro-ecological zones of Malawi. Six farmers hosted on-farm trials in each location, with each farmer having the following treatments: CA with continuous sole maize (CA-SM), CA with maize–legume intercrops (CA-ML), and traditional tillage with continuous sole maize (CT-SM). Soil samples were randomly collected in October 2015, from farmers’ fields located in Chipeni, Chinguluwe, Lemu, and Zidyana where CA had been implemented for 10 years (2005–2015) at six depth intervals: 0–10, 10–20, 20–40, 40–60, 60–80, and 80–100 cm. Bulk density, soil water characteristics, and pore size distribution were determined using undisturbed core samples. At all sites, CA improved total SOC, carbon stocks, and the stable fraction of particulate organic carbon. Maize–legume intercropping under CA had 35%, 33%, and 73% more total SOC than CT-SM in Chipeni, Lemu, and Zidyana respectively. In Chinguluwe and Lemu, CA-ML had 0.54 and 0.50 g kg–1 respectively more stable fraction of particulate organic carbon (POMP) than CT-SM; whereas in Chipeni, CA-SM had 0.73 g kg–1 higher POMP compared with CT-SM. CA also improved soil porosity, pore size distribution, and water retention capacity by increasing the proportion of mesopores and micropores compared with CT-SM. Thus, changing management practices from CT-SM to CA has the potential to improve the soil organic matter and soil hydraulic properties across agro-ecological zones in Malawi, which is important for sustainable agriculture. Farmers should be encouraged to minimise tillage, retain residues as mulch on the soil surface, and practice crop rotation

Tuberculosis lymphadenitis, a diagnostic problem in areas of high prevalence of HIV and tuberculosis

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