Maternal risk factors for low birth weight at South rand hospital (Johannesburg)

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Medicine in Family Medicine Johannesburg, South Africa 2017Background: Low birth weight (LBW) is an important risk factor for infant developmental problems, morbidity and mortality. Low birth weight babies are twenty times more likely to die during the neonatal period than their normal weight counterparts. Although risk factors for low birth weight vary from one community to another, maternal risk factors for low birth weight in the South Rand Hospital (Johannesburg, Gauteng) catchment area have not been investigated. The objective of this study was to determine maternal risk factors for low birth weight in South Rand Hospital, Johannesburg. Method: This 1: 1 matched case-control study was conducted on a total of 480 mothers who delivered babies at South Rand Hospital between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2014. The cases were 240 mothers who delivered singleton term live LBW babies. They were matched with an equal number of controls. Results: Conditional logistic regression showed that, no anaemia in the third trimester (OR=0.54, 95% CI= 0.30-0.99), immigration status (OR= 0.46, 95% CI= 0.25- 0.85) and four or more antenatal care clinic attendance (OR=0.36, 95% C.I= 0.12- 0.76) were protective factors, while smoking during pregnancy (OR= 8.69, 95% CI= 2.70-28.35) predisposes to delivering a LBW baby. Conclusion: The results showed that smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for LBW, while maternal third-trimester haemoglobin level of 11g/dl or more, immigrant status, and more than three ANC visits were protective factors for delivering LBW baby.MT201

Modelling targeted procurement strategies and relationship quality criteria influencing the development of small contractors in South Africa

Targeted Procurement strategies are widely used in government contracts to achieve contractor performance and development objectives in the South African construction industry. However, there have been reports of poor performance and high attrition rate of contractors in contractor development programmes. There is little or no objective empirical evidence informing the implementation of SMC-friendly policies in South Africa. The study fundamentally set out to empirically validate the pre-existing assumption that targeting small and medium-sized contractors, and increasing their participation in government contracts stimulates their growth performance and development. The research further examines whether the quality of relationships in the project supply chain mediates the relationship between targeted procurement strategies used and contractor development. An embedded mixed methods research approach was adopted, that primarily employed quantitative (survey) means of data collection, and supported by secondary qualitative data (focus group interview) which was conducted concurrently. A sample size of 307 contractors registered on Grades 3 to 6 of the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb) Register of Contractors that have executed targeted procurement projects and been part of a cidb-registered contractor development programme within a five-year period (2011 – 2015) constituted the focus of the research. Data collected was subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. The empirical model developed was validated using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. Findings from the study reveal that Targeted Procurement strategies influences the quality of relationships in the project supply chain, and is a statistically significant predictor of the growth performance and development of targeted contractors. Moreover, relationship quality emerged to be an important mediator of the relationship between Targeted Procurement strategies and contractor development. These findings demonstrate that Targeted Procurement has the potential to achieve its intended results of improving the performance and development of historically disadvantaged contractors where the quality of relationships in the project supply chain has significant elements of trust, communication, collaboration, joint problem-solving and risk allocation. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge recognizing the importance of social and relational dimensions of inter-firm relationships within the context of project management and particularly relating to public-sector procurement and small contractor development. The findings imply that the government as a key construction sector client should continue to invest in Targeted Procurement or affirmative action policies that benefit historically disadvantaged SME contractors. The recommendations made calls for the establishment of a framework on Targeted Procurement for ease of application by the government and accountability. This also implies further research into more measurable criteria for the proposed Targeted Procurement framework. The policy implication of the findings from this study is the need for policymakers, state entities, and public-sector client departments to recognise their role in shaping construction supply chains. They should encourage the design and implementation of strategies and policies that enable adequate relationship management to be entrenched in the supply chain, and consider including relationship management as a relevant criterion for participating in public contracts

Accomplishing High Quality Assignments in CYP Post Graduate Diploma

21st Century learner can be described as ‘technowiredcompuchildren’. This refers to youth focused inquiry based learning system offered at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU). All learning systems involve the successful completion of high quality assignments indicating that the student has done additional reading beyond the course material and has made out all-out-effort towards completing assignments with ingenuity. The Commonwealth youth program (CYP), Post Graduate Diploma in ‘Youth in Development Work’ played a significant role in promoting the student’s based reading cum writing, speaking and listening skills, motivated thinking process and above capacity for critical thinking. This paper provides an insight into the value of completing high quality assignments at one’s own initiative.Keywords: 21st century learner, high quality assignments, reading skills, speaking and listening skills, technowiredcompuchildren, writing skills

Endoscopic Resection and Post-Operative Brachytherapy in the Treatment of Sinonasal Melanoma

Background: Sino-Nasal Melanomas (SNM) are rare, aggressive tumours often associated with a poor prognosis due to advanced stage disease at presentation. Mean 5-year survival is 0-46%. Various treatment modalities are used in the management of SNM. Surgery is regarded as the primary treatment modality, but therapy remains controversial. Complete resection is a surgical challenge and it is often impossible to achieve adequate margins due to the fact that tumour often abuts vital anatomical structures. Incomplete resection has been shown to be a predictor of poor survival. Harris et al. (2014) were the first to report on the use of post-operative brachytherapy in an attempt to prevent local recurrence after endoscopic resection of SNM. Methods: A retrospective analysis of all patients undergoing endoscopic resection of SNMs and receiving adjuvant brachytherapy in a single surgeon’s practice between August 2004 and May 2014 was carried out. Outcome measures included local control rate and 5-year overall survival estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. The incidence of regional and distal recurrence (metastases) was calculated Results: Five cases of sinonasal melanoma (3 males 2, females) were managed with endoscopic resection and adjuvant brachytherapy. Patients were followed up for a median duration of 61 months (32-154 months) following adjuvant Brachytherapy. Local control was achieved in four out of five patients (80%). Three out of five patients developed distant metastasis. Median time to metastasis was 54 months. One patient received immunotherapy after diagnosis of distant metastasis (BRAF positive). Three out of five patients (60%) died from the complications of distant metastases of sinonasal melanoma. Median survival time following adjuvant Brachytherapy was 61 months (32-154 months). Five-year survival rate was 40% (95% CI 5.2% - 75.3%). Conclusion: This is the only case series describing the use of brachytherapy following endoscopic resection of sinonasal melanoma. Our case series, albeit small, describes a local control rate and 5-year survival comparable with the best reported in the literature. Adjuvant brachytherapy represents a novel approach and potentially a useful addition to the adjuvant therapy armamentarium. The advantages of brachytherapy include a favourable side-effect profile and a shorter duration of treatment, while delivering a dose of radiation similar to that of Conventional Radiotherapy. Further studies are necessary to define the role of brachytherapy in sinonasal melanoma

Whistleblowing Policy and Anti-Corruption Struggle in Nigeria: An Overview

Corruption is a hidden activity that is difficult to discover unless reported. Its secretive nature makes it impossible to defeat given all the measures that have been adopted across the globe. However, one of the important tools increasingly used around the world today to prevent and uncover corruption in both public and private sectors is whistleblowing. This paper, therefore, focuses on the role of whistleblowing policy in fighting corruption in Nigeria. Within the short period, the policy was introduced, it has yielded considerable positive outcome resulting in the discovery and recovery of looted public resources, as well as prosecution of culprits. However, this policy has not yet been backed by any legislation. This paper, therefore, concludes that for the policy to thrive, the legislature should pass the proposed Whistleblower Protection Bill into law. This will protect whistleblowers from any reprisals and encourage them to disclose more information

Cognitive engagement and online political participation on Facebook and Twitter among youths in Nigeria and Malaysia

The role of social media in online political participation cannot be understated. Yet, limited research has been conducted in this area. Thus, this study aims to investigate this phenomenon in comparative terms from the cognitive engagement perspective. This study adopts the Cognitive Engagement Theory (CET) to examine the relationship between Access to Political Information on Facebook and Twitter (APIFT), Political Interest (PI) and Policy Satisfaction (PS) and Online Political Participation of youth via Facebook and Twitter (OPPFT) in Nigeria and Malaysia combined, and each country individually. This study also analyses the moderating role of Political Knowledge (PK) in this relationship. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 476 undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Universiti Utara Malaysia. A questionnaire was used to collect data which was analysed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and Partial Least Squares-MultiGroup Analysis (PLS-MGA). Results reveal that APIFT, PI and PS lead to OPPFT among the youth in Nigeria and Malaysia, except the relationship between PS and OPPFT for Malaysian youth. Also, PK moderates the relationship between APIFT and OPPFT for the combined youth as well as Malaysian youth, but not for Nigerian youth. Furthermore, in the relationship between PI and OPPFT, PK does not moderate the relationship for the combined youth and Nigerian youth, but it does for the Malaysian youth. Additionally, PK is found not to moderate the relationship between PS and OPPFT for the combined youth and Malaysian youth but it does for Nigerian youth. Furthermore, for country differences in terms of direct relationships, there is no significant difference between Nigerian and Malaysian youth in terms of the relationship between APIFT and OPPFT, but there is a significant difference in the relationship between PI and PS with OPPFT. Generally, these findings suggest that from a social media angle, access to political information, PI, PK and PS are likely to reduce the gap in political participation among the youth in Nigeria and Malaysia. Consequently, this study contributes in the modelling of the relationship between CET and political participation. Thus, empirical findings of this study add to the body of knowledge on online political participation

Collaborative Governance Oversight in Corruption Prevention Efforts in Indonesia

Prevention of corruption in Indonesia is not an easy task. Corruption has been a serious problem in Indonesia for decades. To overcome this problem, joint efforts from the government, private sector and the community are needed. One way to overcome this problem is to use collaborative governance which is the aim of this research. In the context of preventing corruption, collaborative governance has an important role in maintaining accountability and transparency in public financial management. This research is descriptive qualitative research with data sources derived from a literature review. This article discusses the meaning of collaborative governance and oversight of corruption prevention, the role and function of collaborative governance in preventing corruption, the determining factors for the success of collaborative governance in preventing corruption, and the implementation of collaborative governance in preventing corruption in Indonesia. The implication of this research is that efforts to prevent corruption in Indonesia are a joint responsibility of the government, private sector and society because good collaboration between the three can strengthen the system of oversight and control of corrupt practices

Quantitative analysis of caffeine in some selected brands of energy drinks available in Kano State Nigeria

This research work was aimed to determine the pH and level of caffeine in some selected brands of energy drinks available in Kano state, Nigeria. Different brands of these products were purchased from different shops in Kano metropolis. Caffeine was carefully extracted from each product and analysed by ultraviolet/visible spectrophotometric methods. The results showed that the caffeine content of the energy drinks ranged from 34.65 to 40.88mg/100mL. Like-wise the mean pH of carbonated energy drinks were highly acidic ranging from 2.99±0.017 to 3.98±0.012, The reason behind the low pH values in carbonated drinks could be as a result of the presence of carbon (iv) oxide gas and other acids such as phosphoric acid, malic acid, ascorbic acid, citric acid and tartaric acid used as preservatives by the manufacturers of these product.Keywords: Energy drinks, Caffeine, pH, Kano- Nigeri

Improving e-commerce product recommendation using semantic context and sequential historical purchases

Collaborative Filtering (CF)-based recommendation methods suffer from (i) sparsity (have low user–item interactions) and (ii) cold start (an item cannot be recommended if no ratings exist). Systems using clustering and pattern mining (frequent and sequential) with similarity measures between clicks and purchases for next-item recommendation cannot perform well when the matrix is sparse, due to rapid increase in number of items. Additionally, they suffer from: (i) lack of personalization: patterns are not targeted for a specific customer and (ii) lack of semantics among recommended items: they can only recommend items that exist as a result of a matching rule generated from frequent sequential purchase pattern(s). To better understand users’ preferences and to infer the inherent meaning of items, this paper proposes a method to explore semantic associations between items obtained by utilizing item (products’) metadata such as title, description and brand based on their semantic context (co-purchased and co-reviewed products). The semantics of these interactions will be obtained through distributional hypothesis, which learns an item’s representation by analyzing the context (neighborhood) in which it is used. The idea is that items co-occurring in a context are likely to be semantically similar to each other (e.g., items in a user purchase sequence). The semantics are then integrated into different phases of recommendation process such as (i) preprocessing, to learn associations between items, (ii) candidate generation, while mining sequential patterns and in collaborative filtering to select top-N neighbors and (iii) output (recommendation). Experiments performed on publically available E-commerce data set show that the proposed model performed well and reflected user preferences by recommending semantically similar and sequential products