Cardiac arrest in children preceding PICU admission: Aetiology and outcome in a developing country

Includes bibliographical referencesObjective: To describe the characteristics and outcomes of children admitted to PICU following cardiac arrest between January 2010 and December 2011. Methods: Retrospective descriptive study of routinely collected data. Results: Of 2501 PICU admissions, 110 (4.4%; 58.7% male) had preceding cardiac arrest, 80.6% of which occurred in hospital. Median (IQR) age was 7.2 (2.5 - 21.6) months; 30.8% had chronic underlying disease. Children presented most commonly with respiratory (n=28, 27.2%), cardiovascular (n= 22, 21.4%), and gastrointestinal disease (n= 20, 19.4%). Twenty-eight (27.2%) arrested while undergoing a procedure. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was given for median (IQR) 10 (5 - 20) minutes. Thirty-five (34%) patients received no adrenaline, 44 (42.7%) received up to 3 doses of adrenaline, and 24 (23.3%) received more than 3 doses of adrenaline during resuscitation. Duration of CPR and number of adrenaline doses did not significantly influence patient outcome. Survival to PICU discharge was 63 (61.2%), 57 (55.3%) survived to hospital discharge with half the deaths in PICU occurred within 24 hours of PICU admission. Out of 51 survivors whose neurological status were assessed 32 were normal, 6 had mild disability, 7 had moderate disability and 6 had severe disability. Standardized mortality ratio (actual/mean predicted) was 0.7. The median (IQR) length of stay in PICU and hospital were 3 (1 - 8) and 27 (9 -52) days respectively. Pediatric risk of mortality (PIM2) score was the only variable independently associated with mortality on multiple logistic regression (adjusted OR 1.05; 95% CI 1.02 - 1.07; p=0.0009)

The Identity of Who/What Is Greater than the Temple in Matthew 12:6

What is greater than the Temple is an ongoing debate among New Testament (NT) scholars. Scholars interpret what is greater than the Temple either as the kingdom of God/heaven, the superior service of the disciples of Jesus, love/mercy, or Jesus. However, though some of the literature so far reviewed considered Matthew’s usage of comparative adjectives in his Gospel, it is not exhaustive. This article intends to investigate Matthean style of using the comparative adjective to help interpret the one on 12:6. This article uses the text-centred approach of exegesis to unravel the identity of what is greater than the Temple in Matt. 12:6. The study concludes that what is greater than the Temple would be a temple or something relating to the Temple. We conclude that what is greater than the Temple is Jesus’ ministry

Same-Sex Marriage in Ghana: Scripture, Health Law and Bioethics

Same-sex relationship is not a recent phenomenon. In the Christian scripture (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13) are traces of sexual prohibitions which have guided the morality of Christian marriage for years. Also, early colonial regulations in the Gold Coast (and perhaps other British colonies) contained strict prohibitions against homosexuality. In Ghana today, same-sex marriage is an illegal and ethical subject attracting diverse opinions. Whilst some Western countries recognize same-sex marriage and provide free movement as well as residency permits for same-sex couple, the marriage is repressed, criminalized and forbidden in most parts of Africa (if not entirely). The paper is to examine same-sex marriage and the extent to which scripture, health law and bioethics have shaped and informed attitudes toward homosexual activities in Ghana today. The paper examines Christian scriptural and bioethical responses which can serve as a means for co-existence. Keywords: Same-sex marriage, Scripture, Health law, Bioethics, Co-existence DOI: 10.7176/DCS/11-4-04 Publication date: April 30th 202

Livelihood and the risk of HIV/AIDS infection in Ghana: the case of female itinerant traders

Itinerant trading is the second major economic activity for women who constitute an important chain in the distribution of goods in West Africa. Historically they have played important roles in the political economy of Ghana. With the outbreak of AIDS these women, some of whom move far away from home sometimes for days or even weeks, stand the risk of being infected with HIV through their activities. Using a combination of methods including a survey, focus-group discussions and conversations with key informants, we examine how the trade is organized, the characteristics of the traders, and the risk factors that are likely to predispose them to contracting the AIDS virus. Itinerant women traders appear highly vulnerable, as women and as highly mobile people. This state of affairs, occasioned by the extremely difficult conditions in which the women work, is exploited for the sexual gratification of the men with whom they come into contact. The attempt to reduce the spread of AIDs through education has to target itinerant women traders at the points of transaction

Early Childhood Education Policy and Practice in Ghana: Document and Evidence Analysis with McDonnell and Elmore’s Framework of Policy Instruments

Early childhood education (ECE) in Ghana has grown from a traditional approach to a more formalised and modernised system of care and education services for young children. As a valued practice, ECE reflects a distributive, regulatory or redistributive policy. The paper analyses Ghana’s ECE policy implementation using McDonnell and Elmore’s framework of five elemental instruments. We supported the analysis with ECE policy documents and research evidence in ECE. Enabling and inhibiting factors affecting ECE were identified and ways were devised to enhance the latter. We established that while ECE has somewhat addressed equity and access issues, concerns exist regarding implementation factors such as quality teacher training and parent involvement for promoting effective programs. The paper recommends the need to evaluate ECE and provide planned and ongoing opportunities to advance the professional development, capacity, and motivation of ECE implementers, especially early childhood teachers

Maintaining privacy for a recommender system diagnosis using blockchain and deep learning.

The healthcare sector has been revolutionized by Blockchain and AI technologies. Artificial intelligence uses algorithms, recommender systems, decision-making abilities, and big data to display a patient's health records using blockchain. Healthcare professionals can make use of Blockchain to display a patient's medical records with a secured medical diagnostic process. Traditionally, data owners have been hesitant to share medical and personal information due to concerns about privacy and trustworthiness. Using Blockchain technology, this paper presents an innovative model for integrating healthcare data sharing into a recommender diagnostic computer system. Using the model, medical records can be secured, controlled, authenticated, and kept confidential. In this paper, researchers propose a framework for using the Ethereum Blockchain and x-rays as a mechanism for access control, establishing hierarchical identities, and using pre-processing and deep learning to diagnose COVID-19. Along with solving the challenges associated with centralized access control systems, this mechanism also ensures data transparency and traceability, which will allow for efficient diagnosis and secure data sharing

DESIGN OF A MINIMAL OVERHEAD CONTROL TRAFFIC TOPOLOGY DISCOVERY AND DATA FORWARDING PROTOCOL FOR SOFTWARE-DEFINED WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Software-defined networking is a novel concept that is ported into wireless sensor networks to make them more manageable and customizable. unfortunately, the topology discovery and maintenance processes generate high overhead control packet exchange between the sensor nodes and the central controller leading to a deterioration of the network's performance. In this paper, a novel minimal overhead control traffic topology discovery and data forwarding protocol is proposed and detailed. The proposed protocol requires some changes to the topology discovery protocol implemented in SDN-WISE to improve its performance. The proposed protocol has been implemented within the IT-SDN framework for evaluation. The results show reduced overhead control traffic and increase, of about 20%, data packet delivery rate over the protocol in SDN-WISE

UTILITY OF FIBEROPTIC BRONCHOSCOPY FOR RETRIEVAL OF ASPIRATED HEADSCARF PINS

Background: Tracheobronchial foreign body aspiration is a worldwide health problem which often results in life threatening complications.Headscarf pin aspiration is a common and unique form of foreign body aspiration among young Muslim women. Rigid bronchoscopy (RB) is considered the standard procedure for retrieval. Standard flexible bronchoscopy (FOB) is used increasingly in the treatment of tracheobronchial headscarf pins aspiration in adults.Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the utility (use) of FOB for the retrieval (extraction) of aspirated headscarf pins.Materials and Methods: Patients with the diagnosis of headscarf pin aspiration admitted to Sulaimanyah Teaching Hospital, department of cardiothoracic and vascular Surgery from January 2008 to September 2011 were included in the study. Standard FOB procedure using an oral approach with patient in recumbent position, under local anesthesia and conscious sedation was performed as the primary tool for retrieval.Results: A total of 20 cases were admitted during the study period. The mean age of the sample was 24 years (10-40 years).All patients presented with cough while two of them had hemoptysis (10%) and five had unilateral wheeze on chest auscultation (25%). The aspirated pin was successfully retrieved in 19/20 cases (95%) during the first attempt of FOB. However, FOB was not successful in 1/20 case (5%). The aspirated pin was successfully retrieved by RB under general anesthesia.Conclusions: FOB is a safe and successful method when performed by an experienced bronchoscopist, well educated staff, and at a well equipped bronchoscopy unit. Headscarf pin aspiration is a relatively common form of foreign body aspiration among young Muslim Iraqi women. It commonly occurs when women hold the pins in their teeth while wearing the hejaab and talking to others at the same time