The burden and challenges of Neonatal Tetanus in Kilifi District, Kenya - 2004-7

Objectives: To describe the incidence of neonatal tetanus (NNT) and to describe the trends between 2004 and 2007; to show the geographical distribution of NNT in Kilifi district and to describe routine immunisation coverage, catch-up campaigns and mop-ups.Design: Retrospective studySetting: Kilifi district, Coastal KenyaSubjects: Children diagnosed with Neonatal Tetanus (NNT) attending Health facilities in the District.Results: The incidence of NNT in Kilifi increased from 0.6 in 2004 to 1.0 per 1000 live births in 2007. Over 50% of Kilifi district was a high risk area for NNT. It was a public health problem (>1 per 1000 live births) in 19/36 locations. Immunisation (TT2+) increased from 4% in 2004 to 17% in 2007 for women of childbearing age and from 22% to 98% for pregnant women in the same period. All cases of NNT were delivered at home. 83% of NNT cases had potentially infectious materials applied to their cords.Conclusions: Neonatal tetanus was an increasing problem in Kilifi district in the period 2004-2007. Immunisation coverage was low for women of childbearing age. TT immunisation data capture was a mix-up (pregnant women and women of childbearing age) at various health facilities and was a challenge to accurate estimates of TT2+ immunisation coverage

A Sociolinguistic Comparison Between Algerian and Maltese

A sociolinguistic study is made of the Maltese language to compare it to the Algerian language. Algerian is not the official language in Algeria, although it is the national one, and in this article an empirical study is undertaken to question the particularities of Algerian and its formation, comparing it with Maltese which has itself gained official status. Maltese, or “the language of the kitchen” as it is known, has gained important status on the island after decades of foreign occupation and linguistic influence from various civilizations that left palpable paw prints on the Mediterranean island. Maltese has managed to successfully confirm its linguistic identity, through a noticeable influence of Arabic, Italian and English amongst other languages that have imposed themselves and had a hand in forming the Maltese language. A sociolinguistic and historical study is made to explain the formation of Algerian comparing it to Maltese and the influence of history in both languages. A historical study is made to compare and observe the historic diachronic of both countries, and we compare the influence of foreign languages in Algeria and Malta. Likewise, an empirical study is undertaken to question the use of Algerian from various angles, and to examine the linguistic identity in Algeria

'Tweaking' the model for understanding and preventing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in low income countries : "inserting new ideas into a timeless wine skin"

Background: Maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Low Income Countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa involves numerous interrelated causes. The three-delay model/framework was advanced to better understand the causes and associated Contextual factors. It continues to inform many aspects of programming and research on combating maternal and child morbidity and mortality in the said countries. Although this model addresses some of the core areas that can be targeted to drastically reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, it potentially omits other critical facets especially around primary prevention, and pre- and post-hospitalization continuum of care. Discussion: The final causes of Maternal and Neonatal mortality and morbidity maybe limited to a few themes largely centering on infections, preterm births, and pregnancy and childbirth related complications. However, to effectively tackle these causes of morbidity and mortality, a broad based approach is required. Some of the core issues that need to be addressed include:-i) prevention of vertically transmitted infections, intra-partum related adverse events and broad primary prevention strategies, ii) overall health care seeking behavior and delays therein, iii) quality of care at point of service delivery, and iv) post-insult treatment follow up and rehabilitation. In this article we propose a five-pronged framework that takes all the above into consideration. This frameworks further builds on the three-delay model and offers a more comprehensive approach to understanding and preventing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Low Income Countries Conclusion: In shaping the post 2015 agenda, the scope of engagement in maternal and newborn health need to be widened if further gains are to be realized and sustained. Our proposed five pronged approach incorporates the need for continued investment in tackling the recognized three delays, but broadens this to also address earlier aspects of primary prevention, and the need for tertiary prevention through ongoing follow up and rehabilitation. It takes into perspective the spectrum of new evidence and how it can be used to deepen overall understanding of prevention strategies for maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in LICS

La Traducción De La Argumentación En El Texto Periodístico Español/Árabe Y La Aplicación De Las Técnicas Específicas De Traducción

This research aims at presenting the importance of the journalistic translation from Spanish into Arabic. It pretends to present this topic through two main axes. The first axe presents a contextualization of journalistic genre in a very particular way; the argumentative genre as the main axe of our research. The second axe of this work, which has been very practical, after defining and exposing the characteristics of argumentative text, focuses on the application of specific techniques of journalistic translation, which are basically, amplification, compression and omission. Therefore, we have chosen a mass media of great international projection: Project Syndicate; an international organization that has the largest source of world opinion articles in different languages, signed by eminent intellectuals and specialists in different fields of knowledge. Subsequently, we proceeded to the selection of news argumentative and we have analyzed the translation technique used in each case, with its pertinent comments as final results of the study

Material and instruments linked to the saharawi food: cultural, linguistic and semantic elements

En este artículo, centrado en la región denominada Sáhara Occidental (antiguo Sáhara Español), y directamente relacionado con la dialectología y las tradiciones populares, ofrecemos un estudio sobre el material y los instrumentos culinarios utilizados tradicionalmente (aunque mucho de ello se conserva hoy en día) por los habitantes autóctonos de dicha región. Para ello, abordamos cuestiones principales tales como el dialecto ḥassā-niya; la cocción y preparación tradicional de los alimentos en la zona objeto de estudio; los instrumentos y vasijas para el tratamiento de la leche; los instrumentos para el tratamiento del grano o el uso y aprovechamiento de arbustos para la obtención de la madera, ya que la inmensa mayoría de los recipientes de madera se fabricaban a partir de algunas de las especies leñosas más representativas del entorno. El enfoque es, básicamente, antropológico, con un evidente componente semántico, reflejado en el uso abundante de terminología árabe ḥassā-niya, con su equivalente castellano.This article focuses on the region called Western Sahara (former Spanish Sahara) and directly related to dialectology and folk traditions, we provide a study on the culinary equipment and instruments used once (although much of it remains today) by the indigenous inhabitants of the region. To this end, we address key issues such as Hassaniya dialect; cooking and food preparation in the traditional survey area; instruments and vessels for the treatment of milk; tools for treatment of grain or the use and utilization of shrubs for obtaining wood, since the vast majority of wooden containers were made of some of the most representative woody species in the area. The approach is basically anthropological, with obvious semantic component, reflected in the generous use of Arab-Hassaniya terminology, with its equivalent in Spanish

Differential Responses of Bird Species to Habitat Condition in a Coastal Kenyan Forest Reserve: Implications for Conservation

The management of assemblages of species across many taxa is a common concern in conservation. Consequently, the use of one or a few surrogate or indicator species to represent an entire assemblage has become an increasingly important tool in conservation science. However, conservation schemes based on the needs of one or two focal species often fail to account for individualistic responses of larger assemblages of species. Data from bird point counts along with vegetation characteristics from a coastal tropical dry forest in Kenya that is subject to elephant disturbance were used to explore the differential responses of bird species to environmental conditions in a forest reserve where wildlife management includes both endangered birds and mammals. Results revealed that even birds with similar foraging habits had idiosyncratic responses to both environmental traits and elephant disturbance. While overall species responded to important characteristics such as percent canopy cover and leaf litter depth, individualistic responses of different species trait diversity defied easy characterization of optimal forest management schemes. Taken together, our analyses highlight the difficulty in basing the development of management plans for entire assemblages of species on the response of a single or a few species. Implications for wildlife conservation in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and similar forest reserves are discussed, emphasizing the need for a better understanding of individual species’ responses to forest conditions

GlcNAcstatins are nanomolar inhibitors of human O-GlcNAcase inducing cellular hyper-O-GlcNAcylation

O-GlcNAcylation is an essential, dynamic and inducible post-translational glycosylation of cytosolic proteins in metazoa and can show interplay with protein phosphorylation. Inhibition of OGA (O-GlcNAcase), the enzyme that removes O-GlcNAc from O-GlcNAcylated proteins, is a useful strategy to probe the role of this modification in a range of cellular processes. In the present study, we report the rational design and evaluation of GlcNAcstatins, a family of potent, competitive and selective inhibitors of human OGA. Kinetic experiments with recombinant human OGA reveal that the GlcNAcstatins are the most potent human OGA inhibitors reported to date, inhibiting the enzyme in the sub-nanomolar to nanomolar range. Modification of the GlcNAcstatin N-acetyl group leads to up to 160-fold selectivity against the human lysosomal hexosaminidases which employ a similar substrate-assisted catalytic mechanism. Mutagenesis studies in a bacterial OGA, guided by the structure of a GlcNAcstatin complex, provides insight into the role of conserved residues in the human OGA active site. GlcNAcstatins are cell-permeant and, at low nanomolar concentrations, effectively modulate intracellular O-GlcNAc levels through inhibition of OGA, in a range of human cell lines. Thus these compounds are potent selective tools to study the cell biology of O-GlcNAc

An exploratory analysis of the regionalization policy for the recruitment of health workers in Burkina Faso

BACKGROUND: Health personnel retention in remote areas is a key health systems issue wordwide. To deal with this issue, since 2002 the government of Burkina Faso has implemented a staff retention policy, the regionalized health personnel recruitment policy, aimed at front-line workers such as nurses, midwives, and birth attendants. This study aimed to describe the policy’s development, formulation, and implementation process for the regionalization of health worker recruitment in Burkina Faso. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study. The unit of analysis is a single case study with several levels of analysis. This study was conducted in three remote areas in Burkina Faso for the implementation portion, and at the central level for the development portion. Indepth interviews were conducted with Ministry of Health officials in charge of human resources, regional directors, regional human resource managers, district chief medical officers, and health workers at primary health centres. In total, 46 indepth interviews were conducted (February 3 - March 16, 2011). RESULTS: Development The idea for this policy emerged after finding a highly uneven distribution of health personnel across urban and rural areas, the availability of a large number of health officers in the labour market, and the opportunity given to the Ministry of Health by the government to recruit personnel through a specific budget allocation. Formulation The formulation consisted of a call for job applications from the Ministry of Health, which indicates the number of available posts by region. The respondents interviewed unanimously acknowledged the lack of documents governing the status of this new personnel category. Implementation During the initial years of implementation (2002-2003), this policy was limited to recruiting health workers for the regions with no possibility of transfer. The possibility of job-for-job exchange was then approved for a certain time, then cancelled. Starting in 2005, a departure condition was added. Now, regionalized health workers can leave the regions after undergoing a competitive selection process. CONCLUSION: The policy was characterized by the absence of written directives and by targeting only one category of personnel. Moreover, there was no associated incentive—financial or otherwise—which poses the question of long-term viability

Intercultural translation. The reflection of the religious notions of qadar and rizq in Arabic paremiology and phraseology

El objetivo del presente trabajo es indagar la plasmación de las realidades cultu-rales en hechos lingüísticos mediante el estudio de los refranes y expresiones árabes que se refieren explícitamente a los conceptos religiosos de qadar y rizq, dos palabras clave tan arraigadas en la cultura arabo islámica que dan lugar a un abundante caudal paremiológico. La exposición de estas cuestiones se abordará teniendo muy en cuenta la traducción de los referentes culturales y los equivalentes funcionales. Para ello, se ha seguido la siguiente metodología: ejemplo en árabe, traducción funcional al castellano propia de los autores y un análisis-comentario. Los resultados globales logrados en este estudio han respondido a su objetivo principal, que aspiraba a reflejar la existencia de numerosos rituales sociales, a través de la paremiología y fraseología, que los árabes aplican a la hora de afrontar los dis-tintos acontecimientos, que transcurren a lo largo de su vida. Como conclusión, se puede comprobar, una vez más la interdependencia entre la cultura y el lenguaje, haciendo hinca-pié en que una asimilación correcta de los códigos lingüísticos de una determinada socie-dad deberá pasar inexorablemente por la comprensión de los componentes culturales que subyacen a ellos.The aim of this paper is to investigate the reflection of cultural realities in linguistic facts by studying Arabic proverbs and expressions that refer explicitly to the religious concepts of qadar and rizq, two key words so deeply rooted in the Islamic Arab culture that they have given rise to a great abundance of paremiology. These questions are addressed while taking into account the translation of cultural references and their functional equivalents. For this purpose, the following methodology has been used: an example in Arabic is given, then a functional translation into Spanish by the authors is provided, and this is followed by an analysis-comment. The overall results obtained in this study have fulfilled the main objective, which was to demonstrate the existence of numerous social rituals, through paremiology and phraseology, that Arabs apply when facing different situations in their lives. In conclusion, this research confirms, once again, the interdependence between culture and language, emphasizing that the correct assimilation of the linguistic codes of any given society requires a thorough understanding of the cultural components underlying them