Obstetric hemorrhage and adverse maternal outcomes: experience of a private teaching hospital in Southwestern Nigeria

Background: Obstetric hemorrhage (OH) has remained the leading cause of maternal mortality, despite concerted National efforts. This audit was conducted to determine its contribution to Adverse Maternal Outcomes and determinants of survival at a private Teaching Hospital, which had provided comprehensive essential obstetric care for 3 years.Methods: A retrospective review of all Severe Maternal Outcomes (SMO) due to OH using the Near-Miss approach.Results: There were 682 deliveries, 101 (14.8%) were SMOs; composed of 97 Maternal Near Misses (MNM) and 4 Maternal Deaths (MD). OH accounted for 37/101(36.6%) of the total SMO and 33/97 (34.0%) of the total MNM observed. All MD were due to Obstetric hemorrhage, n=4(100%), with a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 3.3%. Coagulopathy (CFR=25%) and ruptured uterus (CFR=20%) were major causes of MD. Most of the MNM 19/33 (57.6%) and MD 3/4 (75%) were unbooked referrals; with MD more likely when a referred patient lived >5km from the hospital (OR=3.53). Significantly more MD (p=0.021, OR= 1.36, CI=1.005-1.850), were associated with deviations from standard management protocol.Conclusion: Obstetric Hemorrhage, caused most of the Adverse Maternal Outcomes. Survival however depended on the quality of antenatal care, pre-referral care and adherence to standard management protocol for definitive care.Keywords: Pregnancy, hemorrhage, maternal, near-miss, NigeriaAfr J Health Sci. 2016; 29(2):105-11

Fungal Community Succession of Populus grandidentata (Bigtooth Aspen) during Wood Decomposition

Fungal communities are primary decomposers of detritus, including coarse woody debris (CWD). We investigated the succession of fungal decomposer communities in CWD through different stages of decay in the wide-ranging and early successional tree species Populus grandidentata (bigtooth aspen). We compared shifts in fungal communities over time with concurrent changes in substrate chemistry and in bacterial community composition, the latter deriving from an earlier study of the same system. We found that fungal communities were highly dynamic during the stages of CWD decay, rapidly colonizing standing dead trees and gradually changing in composition until the late stages of decomposed wood were integrated into soil organic matter. Fungal communities were most similar to neighboring stages of decay, with fungal diversity, abundance, and enzyme activity positively related to percent nitrogen, irrespective of decay class. In contrast to other studies, we found that species diversity remained unchanged across decay classes. Differences in enzyme profiles across CWD decay stages mirrored changes in carbon recalcitrance, as B-D-xylosidase, peroxidase, and Leucyl aminopeptidase activity increased as decomposition progressed. Finally, fungal and bacterial gene abundances were stable and increased, respectively, with the extent of CWD decay, suggesting that fungal-driven decomposition was associated with shifting community composition and associated enzyme functions rather than fungal quantities

Effect of fungi associated with foliar diseases of Ficus capensis on the proximate, anti-nutrient and mineral composition of leaves

 The Ficus capensis Thunb leaves are affected by some foliar diseases, which could reduce the nutrient benefits from these leaves. This study aimed at isolation and characterization of fungal pathogens associated with the plant's foliar diseases, analysis of the proximate and phytochemical composition of healthy and diseased fruits and leaves. The effect of isolated fungal species on these proximate and phytochemical contents of leaves was also investigated. Hendersonula sp., Didymeria conferta, Rhizopus stolonifer and Fusarium oxysporium were isolated and characterized as fungi associated with the leaves. Proximate analysis revealed the presence of protein, carbohydrate, lipid, ash, fiber, and moisture. Mineral nutrient analysis revealed the presence of copper, zinc, lead, manganese, magnesium, potassium, sodium, calcium, while that of anti-nutrients revealed saponin, alkaloid, flavonoid, tannin and cyanogenic glycoside, both in the diseased and the healthy leaves and fruits of the plant. The values of the food nutrients and minerals in healthy leaves were significantly different from those of the infected fruits and leaves, with the value of non-nutrients in infected leaves were higher than those in health ones. The non-nutrients in the infected leaves were higher than those in the healthy leaves and fruits of the plants, while the proximate and mineral composition of the supposedly healthy leaves was greater than those of diseased leaves.  &nbsp

On kinematical constraints in boson-boson systems

We consider the scattering of two-bosons with negative parity and spin 0 or 1. Starting from helicity partial-wave scattering amplitudes we derive transformations that eliminate all kinematical constraints. Such amplitudes are expected to satisfy partial-wave dispersion relations and therefore provide a suitable basis for data analysis and the construction of effective field theories. Our derivation relies on a decomposition of the various scattering amplitudes into suitable sets of invariant functions. A novel algebra was developed that permits the efficient computation of such functions in terms of computer algebra codes.Comment: 14 pages, 8 table

Observation of the decay \psip\rar\kstark

Using 14 million $\psi(2S)$ events collected with the BESII detector, branching fractions of \psip\rar\kstarkpm and \kstarknn are determined to be: \calB(\psip\rar\kstarkpm)=(2.9^{+1.3}_{-1.7}\pm0.4)\times 10^{-5} and \calB(\psip\rar\kstarknn)=(13.3^{+2.4}_{-2.7}\pm1.9)\times 10^{-5}. The results confirm the violation of the "12%" rule for these two decay channels with higher precision. A large isospin violation between the charged and neutral modes is observed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

A resonant-term-based model including a nascent disk, precession, and oblateness: application to GJ 876

Investigations of two resonant planets orbiting a star or two resonant satellites orbiting a planet often rely on a few resonant and secular terms in order to obtain a representative quantitative description of the system's dynamical evolution. We present a semianalytic model which traces the orbital evolution of any two resonant bodies in a first- through fourth-order eccentricity or inclination-based resonance dominated by the resonant and secular arguments of the user's choosing. By considering the variation of libration width with different orbital parameters, we identify regions of phase space which give rise to different resonant ''depths,'' and propose methods to model libration profiles. We apply the model to the GJ 876 extrasolar planetary system, quantify the relative importance of the relevant resonant and secular contributions, and thereby assess the goodness of the common approximation of representing the system by just the presumably dominant terms. We highlight the danger in using ''order'' as the metric for accuracy in the orbital solution by revealing the unnatural libration centers produced by the second-order, but not first-order, solution, and by demonstrating that the true orbital solution lies somewhere ''in-between'' the third- and fourth-order solutions. We also present formulas used to incorporate perturbations from central-body oblateness and precession, and a protoplanetary or protosatellite thin disk with gaps, into a resonant system. We quantify these contributions to the GJ 876 system, and thereby highlight the conditions which must exist for multi-planet exosystems to be significantly influenced by such factors. We find that massive enough disks may convert resonant libration into circulation; such disk-induced signatures may provide constraints for future studies of exoplanet systems.Comment: 39 pages of body text, 21 figures, 5 tables, 1 appendix, accepted for publication in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronom