Time-to-pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes in a South African population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Time-to-pregnancy (TTP) has never been studied in an African setting and there are no data on the rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes in South Africa. The study objectives were to measure TTP and the rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes in South Africa, and to determine the reliability of the questionnaire tool.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was cross-sectional and applied systematic stratified sampling to obtain a representative sample of reproductive age women for a South African population. Data on socio-demographic, work, health and reproductive variables were collected on 1121 women using a standardized questionnaire. A small number (n = 73) of randomly selected questionnaires was repeated to determine reliability of the questionnaire. Data was described using simple summary statistics while Kappa and intra-class correlation statistics were calculated for reliability.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 1121 women, 47 (4.2%) had never been pregnant. Mean gravidity was 2.3 while mean parity was 2.0 There were a total of 2467 pregnancies; most (87%) resulted in live births, 9.5% in spontaneous abortion and 2.2% in still births. The proportion of planned pregnancies was 39% and the median TTP was 6 months. The reliability of the questionnaire for TTP data was good; 63% for all participants and 97% when censored at 14 months. Overall reliability of reporting adverse pregnancy outcomes was very high, ranging from 90 - 98% for most outcomes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first comprehensive population-based reproductive health study in South Africa, to describe the biologic fertility of the population, and provides rates for planned pregnancies and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The reliability of the study questionnaire was substantial, with most outcomes within 70 - 100% reliability index. The study provides important public information for health practitioners and researchers in reproductive health. It also highlights the need for public health intervention programmes and epidemiological research on biologic fertility and adverse pregnancy outcomes in the population.</p

Bird tolerance to humans in open tropical ecosystems

AbstractAnimal tolerance towards humans can be a key factor facilitating wildlife–human coexistence, yet traits predicting its direction and magnitude across tropical animals are poorly known. Using 10,249 observations for 842 bird species inhabiting open tropical ecosystems in Africa, South America, and Australia, we find that avian tolerance towards humans was lower (i.e., escape distance was longer) in rural rather than urban populations and in populations exposed to lower human disturbance (measured as human footprint index). In addition, larger species and species with larger clutches and enhanced flight ability are less tolerant to human approaches and escape distances increase when birds were approached during the wet season compared to the dry season and from longer starting distances. Identification of key factors affecting animal tolerance towards humans across large spatial and taxonomic scales may help us to better understand and predict the patterns of species distributions in the Anthropocene.</jats:p

Aligning evidence generation and use across health, development, and environment

© 2019 The Authors Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice collaboration, presents principles and recommendations that help harmonize methods for evidence generation and use. Recommendations were generated in the context of designing and evaluating evidence of impact for interventions related to five global challenges (stabilizing the global climate, making food production sustainable, decreasing air pollution and respiratory disease, improving sanitation and water security, and solving hunger and malnutrition) and serve as a starting point for further iteration and testing in a broader set of contexts and disciplines. We adopted six principles and emphasize three methodological recommendations: (1) creation of compatible results chains, (2) consideration of all relevant types of evidence, and (3) evaluation of strength of evidence using a unified rubric. We provide detailed suggestions for how these recommendations can be applied in practice, streamlining efforts to apply multi-objective approaches and/or synthesize evidence in multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary teams. These recommendations advance the necessary process of reconciling existing evidence standards in health, development, and environment, and initiate a common basis for integrated evidence generation and use in research, practice, and policy design

Hand hygiene practices among community Health Officers in Rivers State, Nigeria

Background: Health care associated infections are most commonly transmitted by the hands of Health care workers and other hospital personnel. Objective: To investigate compliance with hand hygiene guidelines and methods of hand hygiene practice among community health officers in Rivers State Nigeria. Methods: Self administered questionnaires were distributed to 68 community health officers. The questionnaires consisted of 19 items which contained information on bio-demographic characteristics and hand hygiene practices. Data were analysed using SPSS-16 statistical software. Proportions were compared using Chi- square test and ‘p’ value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The response rate was 97.1%. There were 11 (16.7%) males and 55 (83.3%) females with a male to female ratio of 1: 5. The age of the participants ranged from 28-56 years with a mean age of 39.7±6.7. Washing of hands before and after contact with patient was 60.1% and 97% respectively. The difference was significant (p<0.01). Allergy to gloves was 15.2%. About three-quarter (77.3%) of the workers used soap and water to wash the hands when soiled or visibly contaminated. None of the workers used alcohol hand rub. Conclusion: Though there was improved compliance to hand hygiene guidelines, this still fall short of acceptable standards. The provision and promotion of the proper use of alcohol-based hand rub may further improve compliance with hand hygiene by reducing the time required to perform it and the convenience of the method

Effect of Transmission Power Control on the MAC Layer of Wireless Sensor Nodes

The need for long term operation of large scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has posed serious issues on energy efficiency due to the limited energy capacity of sensor nodes. Numerous schemes employed in literature have shown that the problem of effective energy management is as a result of inappropriate cluster sizes, energy consumed during data transmission by the nodes’ power amplifiers, and the energy consumed at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer of nodes for data reception. The investigation of the effect of Transmission Power Control (TPC) on the MAC layer of a self-organized cluster of wireless sensor nodes using typical CC2420 transceiver parameters, IEEE 802.15.4 standard compliant, is presented in this study. The proposed approach offers a new and more efficient method of evaluating the effect of TPC in a self-organized clustering network at the MAC layer. The network’s lifetime simulation results using MATLAB R2013b, were compared when the unwanted signal received at the MAC layer of sensor nodes was considered and when not considered. The results obtained showed a 14.62% decrease in energy consumption of the network nodes, without considering the unwanted signal received at the MAC layer of the nodes

Effect of Transmission Power Control on the MAC Layer of Wireless Sensor Nodes

The need for long term operation of large scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has posed serious issues on energy efficiency due to the limited energy capacity of sensor nodes. Numerous schemes employed in literature have shown that the problem of effective energy management is as a result of inappropriate cluster sizes, energy consumed during data transmission by the nodes’ power amplifiers, and the energy consumed at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer of nodes for data reception. The investigation of the effect of Transmission Power Control (TPC) on the MAC layer of a self-organized cluster of wireless sensor nodes using typical CC2420 transceiver parameters, IEEE 802.15.4 standard compliant, is presented in this study. The proposed approach offers a new and more efficient method of evaluating the effect of TPC in a self-organized clustering network at the MAC layer. The network’s lifetime simulation results using MATLAB R2013b, were compared when the unwanted signal received at the MAC layer of sensor nodes was considered and when not considered. The results obtained showed a 14.62% decrease in energy consumption of the network nodes, without considering the unwanted signal received at the MAC layer of the nodes

Cholelithiasis and type 2 diabetes mellitus in Nigerians

Background: Gallstone disease is one of the most common gastrointestinal diseases seen in clinical practice. Individuals with Diabetes mellitus are reported to have a 2 to 3-fold increase in the incidence of cholesterol Gallstone. Studies have shown a higher prevalence of Gallstone disease in patients with Diabetes mellitus. However there is no literature on Gallstone disease and the Nigerian type 2 diabetic patients. This study was therefore designed to determine the prevalence of Gallstone disease using abdominal ultrasound scan amongst Nigerians with type 2 Diabetes mellitus. Methodology: 100 type 2 diabetic patients and 100 age and sex- matched controls under-went real time ultrasonography to determine the prevalence of Gallstone disease. Result: 15% of the diabetic patients had ultrasound evidence of Gallstone disease as compared to 7% in non diabetic controls. Conclusions: Gallstone disease in Nigerians with type 2 Diabetes mellitus may not be rare. South African Gastroenterology Vol. 5 (3) 2007: pp. 14-1

A role of alpha-tocopherol and phylloquinone in the modulation of uterine contractility and reproductive function in mouse models

Background and aim: Alpha-tocopherol has been implicated in reproduction processes, and deficiency of phylloquinone has been associated with serious complications in pregnancy. This study was therefore aimed at investigating the effects of phylloquinone and alpha-tocopherol on uterine contractility and female reproductive function using mouse models. Materials and methods: Both in vivo and ex vivo animal models were employed and designed to assess changes on uterine contractility and reproductive functions in the non-pregnant uterus. The effect of alpha-tocopherol and phylloquinone on spontaneous uterine contractions, oxytocin-induced uterine contractions (11.82 nM) and high KCl-induced tonic uterine contractions (80 mM) were assessed. The effect of subcutaneous administration of alpha-tocopherol (10 mg/kg) on reproductive hormone levels and reproductive tissues were also determined. Results: Alpha-tocopherol increased the force of contractions while phylloquinone decreased the force of uterine contractions. Plasma levels of luteinizing hormone (P < 0.01), estrogen (P < 0.01) and progesterone (P < 0.001) were elevated in the presence of alpha-tocopherol after 6 days subcutaneous administration. Conclusions: Alpha-tocopherol and phylloquinone have been shown to directly modulate uterine contractility and reproductive function and may contribute to the management and treatment of reproductive disorders