572 research outputs found
Multivitamins/multiminerals in Switzerland: a first assessment The fallacy of slimming products: a case analysis in Switzerland
Purpose: To assess the composition and compliance with legislation of multivitamin/multiminerals (MVM) in Switzerland.
Methods: Information on the composition of vitamin/minerals supplements was obtained from the Swiss drug compendium, the Internet, pharmacies, parapharmacies and supermarkets. MVM was defined as the presence of at least 5 vitamins and/or minerals.
Results: 95 MVM were considered. The most frequent vitamins were B6 (73.7%), C (71.6%), B2 (69.5%) and B1 (67.4%); the least frequent were K (17.9%), biotin (51.6%), pantothene (55.8%) and E (56.8%). Around half of MVMs provided >150% of the ADI for vitamins. The most frequent minerals were zinc (66.3%), calcium (55.8%), magnesium (54.7%) and copper (48.4%), and the least frequent were fluoride (3.2%), phosphorous (17.9%) and chrome (22.1%). Only 25% of MVMs contained iodine. More than two thirds of MVMs provided between 15 and 150% of the ADI for minerals, and few MVMs provided >150% of the ADI. While few MVMs provided <15% of the ADI for vitamins, a considerable fraction did so for minerals (32.7% for magnesium, 26.1% for copper and 22.6% for calcium).
Conclusion: There is a great variability regarding the composition and amount of MVMs in Switzerland. Several MVM do not comply with the Swiss legislation
Direct Interactions in Relativistic Statistical Mechanics
Directly interacting particles are considered in the multitime formalism of
predictive relativistic mechanics. When the equations of motion leave a
phase-space volume invariant, it turns out that the phase average of any first
integral, covariantly defined as a flux across a -dimensional surface, is
conserved. The Hamiltonian case is discussed, a class of simple models is
exhibited, and a tentative definition of equilibrium is proposed.Comment: Plain Tex file, 26 page
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Bacterial pathogens and resistance causing community acquired paediatric bloodstream infections in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Background
Despite a high mortality rate in childhood, there is limited evidence on the causes and outcomes of paediatric bloodstream infections from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to characterize the bacterial causes of paediatric bloodstream infections in LMICs and their resistance profile.
Methods
We searched Pubmed and Embase databases between January 1st 1990 and October 30th 2019, combining MeSH and free-text terms for âsepsisâ and âlow-middle-income countriesâ in children. Two reviewers screened articles and performed data extraction to identify studies investigating children (1âmonth-18âyears), with at least one blood culture. The main outcomes of interests were the rate of positive blood cultures, the distribution of bacterial pathogens, the resistance patterns and the case-fatality rate. The proportions obtained from each study were pooled using the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation, and a random-effect meta-analysis model was used.
Results
We identified 2403 eligible studies, 17 were included in the final review including 52,915 children (11 in Africa and 6 in Asia). The overall percentage of positive blood culture was 19.1% [95% CI: 12.0â27.5%]; 15.5% [8.4â24.4%] in Africa and 28.0% [13.2â45.8%] in Asia. A total of 4836 bacterial isolates were included in the studies; 2974 were Gram-negative (63.9% [52.2â74.9]) and 1858 were Gram-positive (35.8% [24.9â47.5]). In Asia, Salmonella typhi (26.2%) was the most commonly isolated pathogen, followed by Staphylococcus aureus (7.7%) whereas in Africa, S. aureus (17.8%) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (16.8%) were predominant followed by Escherichia coli (10.7%). S. aureus was more likely resistant to methicillin in Africa (29.5% vs. 7.9%), whereas E. coli was more frequently resistant to third-generation cephalosporins (31.2% vs. 21.2%), amikacin (29.6% vs. 0%) and ciprofloxacin (36.7% vs. 0%) in Asia. The overall estimate for case-fatality rate among 8 studies was 12.7% [6.6â20.2%]. Underlying conditions, such as malnutrition or HIV infection were assessed as a factor associated with bacteraemia in 4 studies each.
Conclusions
We observed a marked variation in pathogen distribution and their resistance profiles between Asia and Africa. Very limited data is available on underlying risk factors for bacteraemia, patterns of treatment of multidrug-resistant infections and predictors of adverse outcomes
Athéisme et sécularisme au Kenya. Les tribulations des Atheists In Kenya (AIK)
As affirmed by the 2010 constitution, the Republic of Kenya is a secular country that promises both freedom of faith and freedom from religion. In practice, however, the realm of religion in Kenya is highly normative. The 2010s have seen the rise of a group seeking to challenge this status quo: Atheists in Kenya (AIK). The group met with fierce resistance, and its attempt to register as a legal society ended before the countryâs High Court. AIKâs activism turned it into a social movement that demands a reexamination of the close ties between religion and the State. It is thus an important participant in a wide debate on secularism in Kenya. In addition, AIK may be read as a testimony to the countryâs present stage of democratization, which allows â if sometimes reluctantly â for new modes of social action and for the expression of claims that were formerly kept in check.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Effects of bioaerosol exposure on work-related symptoms among Swiss sawmill workers
Objective: Exposure to bioaerosols in the occupational environment of sawmills could be associated with a wide range of health effects, in particular respiratory impairment, allergy and organic dust toxic syndrome. The objective of the study was to assess the frequency of medical respiratory and general symptoms and their relation to bioaerosol exposure. Method: Twelve sawmills in the French part of Switzerland were investigated and the relationship between levels of bioaerosols (wood dust, airborne bacteria, airborne fungi and endotoxins), medical symptoms and impaired lung function was explored. A health questionnaire was distributed to 111 sawmill workers. Results: The concentration of airborne fungi exceeded the limit recommended by the Swiss National Insurance (SUVA) in the twelve sawmills. This elevated fungi level significantly influenced the occurrence of bronchial syndrome (defined by cough and expectorations). No other health effects (irritations or respiratory effects) could be associated to the measured exposures. We observed that junior workers showed significantly more irritation syndrome (defined by itching/running nose, snoring and itching/red eyes) than senior workers. Lung function tests were not influenced by bioaerosol levels nor dust exposure levels. Conclusion: Results suggest that occupational exposure to wood dust in a Swiss sawmill does not promote a clinically relevant decline in lung function. However, the occurrence of bronchial syndrome is strongly influenced by airborne fungi level
Dynamical real-space renormalization group calculations with a new clustering scheme on random networks
We have defined a new type of clustering scheme preserving the connectivity
of the nodes in network ignored by the conventional Migdal-Kadanoff bond moving
process. Our new clustering scheme performs much better for correlation length
and dynamical critical exponents in high dimensions, where the conventional
Migdal-Kadanoff bond moving scheme breaks down. In two and three dimensions we
find the dynamical critical exponents for the kinetic Ising Model to be z=2.13
and z=2.09, respectively at pure Ising fixed point. These values are in very
good agreement with recent Monte Carlo results. We investigate the phase
diagram and the critical behaviour for randomly bond diluted lattices in d=2
and 3, in the light of this new transformation. We also provide exact
correlation exponent and dynamical critical exponent values on hierarchical
lattices with power-law degree distributions, both in the pure and random
cases.Comment: 8 figure
Les formes chrétiennes du religieux au Kenya
Alors que le Kenya est souvent considĂ©rĂ© comme un pays chrĂ©tien, un journaliste kĂ©nyan prĂ©tendit, au milieu de lâannĂ©e 2013, que « si lâon conduisait un sondage dâopinion pour connaĂźtre combien de citoyens se rendaient rĂ©guliĂšrement dans des lieux de cultes, ses rĂ©sultats effrayeraient profondĂ©ment le clergĂ©. Si les chercheurs continuaient leurs recherches, il se pourrait quâils apprennent quâaller au ciel nâest pas la premiĂšre raison qui conduit les rares personnes qui se rendent dans des li..
Christian Forms of Religion in Kenya
Introduction Although Kenya is often considered a Christian country, a Kenyan journalist asserted in 2013 that, âif an opinion poll was conducted to establish how many citizens regularly go to places of worship, the results would frighten the clergy to death. If the researchers were to probe deeper, it might emerge that going to heaven is hardly the reason the few who visit places of worship (to ogle at gorgeous choir members) go there in the first place.â Despite these cynical remarks, sever..
Multivitamins/multiminerals in Switzerland: not as good as it seems.
BACKGROUND: Multivitamin/multimineral (MVM) supplements are commonly consumed by the general population, but little is known regarding their composition and compliance with local regulations. We assessed the composition and compliance with regulations [no indication in the label of vitamin/minerals amounting <15% of the acceptable daily intake (ADI)] of MVM available in Switzerland.
METHODS: The composition of vitamin/minerals supplements was obtained from the Swiss drug compendium, the Internet, pharmacies, parapharmacies and supermarkets. MVM was defined as the presence of at least 5 vitamins and/or minerals.
RESULTS: Of the 254 vitamin/mineral supplements collected, 95 (37%) were considered as MVM. The most frequent vitamins were Bâ (73.7%), C (71.6%), Bâ (69.5%) and Bâ (67.4%); the least frequent were K (17.9%), biotin (51.6%), pantothene (55.8%) and E (56.8%). Approximately half of MVMs provided >150% of the ADI for vitamins. The most frequent minerals were zinc (66.3%), calcium (55.8%), magnesium (54.7%) and copper (48.4%), and the least frequent were fluoride (3.2%), phosphorous (17.9%), chrome (22.1%) and iodine (25%). More than two thirds of MVMs provided between 50 and 150% of the ADI for minerals, and few MVMs provided >150% of the ADI. While few MVMs provided <15% of the ADI for vitamins, a considerable fraction did so for minerals (32.7% for magnesium, 26.1% for copper and 22.6% for calcium).
CONCLUSION: There is a great variability regarding the composition of MVMs available in Switzerland. Several MVM do not comply with Swiss regulations, which calls for monitoring and corrective measures
Renormalization group theory for finite-size scaling in extreme statistics
We present a renormalization group (RG) approach to explain universal
features of extreme statistics, applied here to independent, identically
distributed variables. The outlines of the theory have been described in a
previous Letter, the main result being that finite-size shape corrections to
the limit distribution can be obtained from a linearization of the RG
transformation near a fixed point, leading to the computation of stable
perturbations as eigenfunctions. Here we show details of the RG theory which
exhibit remarkable similarities to the RG known in statistical physics. Besides
the fixed points explaining universality, and the least stable eigendirections
accounting for convergence rates and shape corrections, the similarities
include marginally stable perturbations which turn out to be generic for the
Fisher-Tippett-Gumbel class. Distribution functions containing unstable
perturbations are also considered. We find that, after a transitory divergence,
they return to the universal fixed line at the same or at a different point
depending on the type of perturbation.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
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