A Mobile User Interface For Low-Literacy Users In Rural South Africa

Information and Communication Technology services for socio-economic development of low-literacy users in rural communities in developing regions are new research contributions that seek to alleviate poverty in underserved communities. The intended users are still new to these technologies and can be described as novice users. This study was conducted to design a mobile user interface to enable low-literacy users in Dwesa community in South Africa to have access to mobile commerce services. We applied different ethnographic research methods through a usercentred design approach to actively involve the target users in the design process. This helped to identify the users’ needs and also meet users’ expectations. The usability of the mobile user interface was evaluated with the target users in the community. The user evaluation shows that the users have positive attitudes and perception of the system. The study found that the user interface conforms to the users’ cultural experience and preferences and they are also positive in their intent to use the user interface

Patients’ Perception of Anaesthesia, the Anaesthetist and Experience of Anaesthesia Care

Background: The anaesthetist is a health care professional, but misconceptions about her identity and roles influence patient satisfaction, a unique clinical endpoint.    Objective: To determine patients’ perception of the anaesthetist and their satisfaction with perioperative anaesthesia care. Methods: This prospective study recruited adult patients scheduled for elective surgeries in a Nigerian tertiary health facility. A structured questionnaire was administered during the pre-anaesthetic visit, before the administration of anaesthesia and 24 hours post-operative to elicit information on socio-demographics, type of surgery, patient's perception of anaesthetist as a specialist, previous and index anaesthesia experience, and patient's satisfaction from the perioperative anaesthesia care. Results: One hundred (23 males and 77 females) adult patients with a mean age of 42.17±12.87 years were recruited for elective surgeries in various surgical specialities. Seventy-eight per cent were familiar with the roles of anaesthetists, but those with previous exposure to anaesthesia and a higher educational status showed better knowledge. Most participants (89%) realised that the anaesthetist was a qualified doctor. Still, when probed further, it was discovered that only 42% could anticipate that the anaesthetist oversaw the operating theatre. A majority (73%) were unaware that the anaesthetist works outside the operating theatre. The participants were very satisfied (68%) or satisfied (32%) with the post-operative assessment of perioperative anaesthesia care. Conclusion: Most patients scheduled for elective surgeries were familiar with anaesthetist roles and identity but were unaware of her role outside the operating theatre

Efficiency in education

Education is important at national, local and individual levels. Its benefits accrue both to society and to individuals, and as such provision of education in many countries is paid for at least in part from the public purse. With competing demands for government funding, it is important for education to be provided as efficiently as possible. Efficiency occurs when outputs from education (such as test results or value added) are produced at the lowest level of resource (be that financial or, for example, the innate ability of students). This special issue is devoted to the topic of efficiency in education, and is well-timed given that governments around the world struggle with public finances in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008. In this paper, we explore and provide an overview of the themes of the special issue and introduce the papers contained therein

Education can improve the negative perception of a threatened long-lived scavenging bird, the Andean condor

Human-wildlife conflicts currently represent one of the main conservation problems for wildlife species around the world. Vultures have serious conservation concerns, many of which are related to people's adverse perception about them due to the belief that they prey on livestock. Our aim was to assess local perception and the factors influencing people's perception of the largest scavenging bird in South America, the Andean condor. For this, we interviewed 112 people from Valle Fértil, San Juan province, a rural area of central west Argentina. Overall, people in the area mostly have an elementary education, and their most important activity is livestock rearing. The results showed that, in general, most people perceive the Andean condor as an injurious species and, in fact, some people recognize that they still kill condors. We identified two major factors that affect this perception, the education level of villagers and their relationship with livestock ranching. Our study suggests that conservation of condors and other similar scavengers depends on education programs designed to change the negative perception people have about them. Such programs should be particularly focused on ranchers since they are the ones who have the worst perception of these scavengers. We suggest that highlighting the central ecological role of scavengers and recovering their cultural value would be fundamental to reverse their persecution and their negative perception by people.Fil: Cailly Arnulphi, Verónica Beatríz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Lambertucci, Sergio Agustin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Borghi, Carlos Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; Argentin

Complex Precipitation Pathways in Multi-Component Alloys

One usual way to strengthen a metal is to add alloying elements and to control the size and the density of the precipitates obtained. However, precipitation in multicomponent alloys can take complex pathways depending on the relative diffusivity of solute atoms and on the relative driving forces involved. In Al-Zr-Sc alloys, atomic simulations based on first-principle calculations combined with various complementary experimental approaches working at different scales reveal a strongly inhomogeneous structure of the precipitates: owing to the much faster diffusivity of Sc compared with Zr in the solid solution, and to the absence of Zr and Sc diffusion inside the precipitates, the precipitate core is mostly Sc-rich, whereas the external shell is Zr-rich. This explains previous observations of an enhanced nucleation rate in Al-Zr-Sc alloys compared with binary Al-Sc alloys, along with much higher resistance to Ostwald ripening, two features of the utmost importance in the field of light high-strength materials

Evidence of decline of malaria in the general hospital of Libreville, Gabon from 2000 to 2008

BACKGROUND: Substantial decline in malaria transmission, morbidity and mortality has been reported in several countries where new malaria control strategies have been implemented. In Gabon, the national malaria policy changed in 2003, according to the WHO recommendations. The trend in malaria morbidity was evaluated among febrile children before and after their implementation in Libreville, the capital city of Gabon. METHODS: From August 2000 to December 2008, febrile paediatric outpatients and inpatients, under 11 years of age, were screened for malaria by microscopic examination at the Malaria Clinical Research Unit (MCRU) located in the largest public hospital in Gabon. Climatic data were also collected. RESULTS: In total, 28,092 febrile children were examined; those under five years always represented more than 70%. The proportion of malaria-positive slides was 45% in 2000, and declined to 15% in 2008. The median age of children with a positive blood smear increased from 24(15-48) to 41(21-72) months over the study period (p < 0.01). Rainfall patterns had no impact on the decline observed throughout the study period. CONCLUSION: The decrease of malaria prevalence among febrile children during the last nine years is observed following the introduction of new strategies of malaria cases management, and may announce epidemiological changes. Moreover, preventive measures must be extended to children older than five years

CORRIE: enzyme sequence annotation with confidence estimates

Using a previously developed automated method for enzyme annotation, we report the re-annotation of the ENZYME database and the analysis of local error rates per class. In control experiments, we demonstrate that the method is able to correctly re-annotate 91% of all Enzyme Classification (EC) classes with high coverage (755 out of 827). Only 44 enzyme classes are found to contain false positives, while the remaining 28 enzyme classes are not represented. We also show cases where the re-annotation procedure results in partial overlaps for those few enzyme classes where a certain inconsistency might appear between homologous proteins, mostly due to function specificity. Our results allow the interactive exploration of the EC hierarchy for known enzyme families as well as putative enzyme sequences that may need to be classified within the EC hierarchy. These aspects of our framework have been incorporated into a web-server, called CORRIE, which stands for Correspondence Indicator Estimation and allows the interactive prediction of a functional class for putative enzymes from sequence alone, supported by probabilistic measures in the context of the pre-calculated Correspondence Indicators of known enzymes with the functional classes of the EC hierarchy. The CORRIE server is available at:

Cross-Protection against Lethal H5N1 Challenge in Ferrets with an Adjuvanted Pandemic Influenza Vaccine

Background. Unprecedented spread between birds and mammals of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAI) of the H5N1 subtype has resulted in hundreds of human infections with a high fatality rate. This has highlighted the urgent need for the development of H5N1 vaccines that can be produced rapidly and in sufficient quantities. Potential

Inflammation plays a critical role in 2,8-dihydroxyadenine nephropathy

International audienceAdenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency is a genetic disease characterized by an increased production of 2,8 dihydroxyadenine (2,8-DHA) precipitating in urine, leading to a crystalline nephropathy and end-stage renal disease. Here, we describe the high prevalence of granuloma (88%) in biopsies from patients with APRT deficiency. A murine model of 2,8-DHA nephropathy was generated, showing that anakinra or dexamethasone, combined with allopurinol, improved renal function to a larger extent than allopurinol alone, the standard therapy. Inflammation plays a critical role in the development of 2,8-DHA nephropathy, and therapy based upon drugs targeting innate immunity could improve renal function recovery