Sentencing of youth offenders for housebreaking with intent to steal : practices and attitudes of magistrates and prosecutors

Includes bibliography.The researcher's knowledge and experience in probation work, including conducting pre-sentence investigations and compiling pre-trial and presentence reports, inspired him to want to find out more about the attitudes and sentencing practices of magistrates and public prosecutors, specifically in housebreaking offences. Some individuals and communities hold a notion that offenders normally break into properties and steal goods or items mainly because they are hungry, destitute, unemployed, or have no visible means of income. Such a belief may, to a large extent, influence or shape judicial attitudes in the sentencing of youth offenders for housebreaking crimes

Growth and Mortality of Mouth Brooding Tilapiines of the Kafue Floodplain Fishery, Zambia

Growth and mortality of Oreochromis andersonii, Oreochromis macrochir and Oreochromis niloticusof the Kafue Floodplain fishery were investigated between September, 2015 and November, 2015. This study was aimed at investigating the growth and mortality of mouth brooding tilapiines of the Kafue Floodplain fishery. Three stations that represent the major ecological habitats of the Kafue Floodplain fishery were selected. These were: Kafue Road Bridge (swamp), Namalyo (lagoon) and Kakuzu (riverine). Fish specimens were collected using gillnets that were set in the evening and hauled the next morning. Length measurements were taken from each fish specimen using a fish measuring board. Weight was measured using a kitchen balance to the nearest one gramme. One-way Analysis of Variance was performed on all quantitative data using Statistix 9.0 software. Oreochromis niloticus showed the largest growth coefficient (k) of 0.22 while Oreochromis macrochir had the smallest growth coefficient of 0.10.  Oreochromis andersonii had a growth coefficient of 0.11. Exploitation ratios in the Kafue Floodplain fishery were found to be below the optimum value (0.5) except for Oreochromis macrochir (0.7). Oreochromis andersonii had an exploitation ratio of 0.3 while Oreochromis niloticus had an exploitation ratio of 0.4. This implies that the decrease in fish catches in the Kafue Floodplain fishery cannot be attributed to over-fishing but may be due to natural mortality

Assessment of Doctors’ Perception on Clinical Leadership: A Case of Tertiary Hospitals in Dar es Salaam Tanzania.

This study sought to investigate the perception on Clinical leadership of doctors working in tertiary hospital in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. The study was guided by the following objectives; to find out whether clinical leadership and health care leadership mean the same thing for doctors, to determine the perceived difference between medical leadership and clinical leadership and to examine the perceived similarities of doctors’ leadership and clinical leadership all aiming eventually to lay a foundation of clinical leadership studies in Tanzania. Using a pre-tested structured questionnaire, doctors with a minimum of first degree working with Muhimbili (plus Mloganzila), JKCI, MOI, Aghakan, ORCI and CCBRT filled the questionnaire physically or submitting an electronic copy of the same. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used to analyse data. The study found that healthcare leadership was significantly positively and moderately correlated with clinical leadership, Doctors’ leadership was positively correlated with clinical leadership and Medical leadership was also positively and significantly related to clinical leadership. Conclusively, the study recommends that policy makers and leaders in health care industry should give more leadership chance to clinical personnel than non-clinical personnel. A more well-structured research on clinical leadership targeting practices, attributes, barriers and enablers should be conducted as a follow up to this one. Keywords: Clinical leadership, health care leadership, medical leadership, doctors’ leadershi

Risk factors for community-acquired pneumonia among adults in Kenya: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among adults worldwide; however, the risk factors for community-acquired pneumonia in Africa are not well characterized. METHODS: The authors recruited 281 cases of community-acquired pneumonia and 1202 hospital controls among patients aged ≥15 years who attended Kilifi District Hospital/Coast Provincial General Hospital in Kenya between 1994 and 6. Cases were admissions with an acute illness with ≥2 respiratory signs and evidence of consolidation on a chest radiograph. Controls were patients without signs of pneumonia, frequency matched by age, sex and hospital. Risk factors related to socio-demographic factors, drug use, clinical history, contact patterns and exposures to indoor air pollution were investigated by questionnaire, anthropometric measurements and laboratory assays. Associations were evaluated using a hierarchical logistic regression model. RESULTS: Pneumonia was associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (Odds Ratio [OR] 2.06, 95% CI 1.44-3.08), anemia (OR 1.91, 1.31-2.74), splenomegaly (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.14-3.41), recent history of pneumonia (OR 4.65, 95% CI 1.66-12.5), history of pneumonia >2 years previously (OR 17.13, 95% CI 5.01-60.26), coryza in the 2 weeks preceding hospitalization (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.44-3.03), current smoking (2.19, 95% CI 1.39-3.70), use of khat (OR 3.44, 95% CI 1.72-7.15), use of snuff (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.35-5.49) and contact with several animal species. Presence of a Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) scar was associated with protection (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.32-0.82). The risk factors varied significantly by sex. CONCLUSION: Pneumonia in Kenyan adults was associated with global risk factors, such as HIV and smoking, but also with specific local factors like drug use and contact with animals. Intervention strategies should account for sex-specific differences in risk factors

Screening of Non- Saccharomyces cerevisiae Strains for Tolerance to Formic Acid in Bioethanol Fermentation.

Formic acid is one of the major inhibitory compounds present in hydrolysates derived from lignocellulosic materials, the presence of which can significantly hamper the efficiency of converting available sugars into bioethanol. This study investigated the potential for screening formic acid tolerance in non-Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strains, which could be used for the development of advanced generation bioethanol processes. Spot plate and phenotypic microarray methods were used to screen the formic acid tolerance of 7 non-Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeasts. S. kudriavzeii IFO1802 and S. arboricolus 2.3319 displayed a higher formic acid tolerance when compared to other strains in the study. Strain S. arboricolus 2.3319 was selected for further investigation due to its genetic variability among the Saccharomyces species as related to Saccharomyces cerevisiae and availability of two sibling strains: S. arboricolus 2.3317 and 2.3318 in the lab. The tolerance of S. arboricolus strains (2.3317, 2.3318 and 2.3319) to formic acid was further investigated by lab-scale fermentation analysis, and compared with S. cerevisiae NCYC2592. S. arboricolus 2.3319 demonstrated improved formic acid tolerance and a similar bioethanol synthesis capacity to S. cerevisiae NCYC2592, while S. arboricolus 2.3317 and 2.3318 exhibited an overall inferior performance. Metabolite analysis indicated that S. arboricolus strain 2.3319 accumulated comparatively high concentrations of glycerol and glycogen, which may have contributed to its ability to tolerate high levels of formic acid

Proline as a formic acid stress protectant during fermentation of glucose to ethanol by Saccharomyces spp.

During bioethanol production from lignocellulosic hydrolysates, yeasts are frequently exposed to various forms of fermentation stress. These include nutritional starvation, metabolites production, and fermentation inhibiting compounds produced during pretreatment and hydrolysis of the lignocellulosic material. These inhibitors hamper efficient ethanol production as they can be toxic to the microbes conducting the fermentation. Formic acid is a significant inhibitor released into the hydrolyzates at a concentration of 10–30mM. Previously it was found that proline acts as a compatible solute that enhances yeast tolerance to stress and therefore improves fermentation efficiency. Proline functions in vitro in protein and membrane stabilization, lowering Tm of DNA and scavenging of reactive oxygen species. In this study, the addition of proline to the media in order to improve the tolerance of yeast to formic acid during fermentation was investigated using Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCYC2592 and Saccharomyces arboricolus 2.3319. It was observed that when proline was present at 30mM in the medium, cell growth was enhanced compared to the control medium in fermentations using both S. cerevisiae NCYC2592 and S. arboricolus 2.3319. The cell number obtained in proline-supplemented medium increased by 8–10% for both S. cerevisiae NCYC2592 and S. arboricolus 2.3319. Cells cultivated on proline medium yielded a higher accumulation of ethanol than the control medium in both strains. These results indicate that modification of growth medium with proline can increase formic acid tolerance and the fermentative ability of yeast cells

Molecular basis of FIR-mediated c-myc transcriptional control

The far upstream element (FUSE) regulatory system promotes a peak in the concentration of c-Myc during cell cycle. First, the FBP transcriptional activator binds to the FUSE DNA element upstream of the c-myc promoter. Then, FBP recruits its specific repressor (FIR), which acts as an on/off transcriptional switch. Here we describe the molecular basis of FIR recruitment, showing that the tandem RNA recognition motifs of FIR provide a platform for independent FUSE DNA and FBP protein binding and explaining the structural basis of the reversibility of the FBP-FIR interaction. We also show that the physical coupling between FBP and FIR is modulated by a flexible linker positioned sequentially to the recruiting element. Our data explain how the FUSE system precisely regulates c-myc transcription and suggest that a small change in FBP-FIR affinity leads to a substantial effect on c-Myc concentration.MRC Grant-in-aid U11757455

Patient safety discourse in a pandemic: a Twitter hashtag analysis study on #PatientSafety

BackgroundThe digitalization of medicine is becoming a transformative force in modern healthcare systems. This study aims to investigate discussions regarding patient safety, as well as summarize perceived approaches to mitigating risks of adverse events expressed through the #PatientSafety Twitter hashtag during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThis research is grounded in the analysis of data extracted from Twitter under the hashtag #PatientSafety between December 1, 2019 and February 1, 2023. Symplur Signals, which represents a tool offering a method to monitor tweets containing hashtags registered with the Symplur Healthcare Hashtag Project, was used for analyzing the tweets shared in the study period. For text analytics of the relevant data, we further used the word cloud generator MonkeyLearn, and VOSviewer.ResultsThe analysis encompasses 358′809 tweets that were shared by 90′079 Twitter users, generating a total of 1′183’384′757 impressions. Physicians contributed to 18.65% of all tweets, followed by other healthcare professionals (14.31%), and health-focused individuals (10.91%). Geographically, more than a third of tweets (60.90%) were published in the United States. Canada and India followed in second and third positions, respectively. Blocks of trending terms of greater interest to the global Twitter community within the hashtag #PatientSafety were determined to be: “Patient,” “Practical doctors,” and “Health Care Safety Management.” The findings demonstrate the engagement of the Twitter community with COVID-19 and problems related to the training, experience of doctors and patients during a pandemic, communication, the vaccine safety and effectiveness, and potential use of off-label drugs. Noteworthy, in the field of pharmacovigilance, Twitter has the possibility of identifying adverse reactions associated with the use of drugs, including vaccines. The issue of medical errors has been also discussed by Twitter users using the hashtag #PatientSafety.ConclusionIt is clear that various stakeholders, including students, medical practitioners, health organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and regulatory bodies, leverage Twitter to rapidly exchange medical information, data on the disease symptoms, and the drug effects. Consequently, there is a need to further integrate Twitter-derived data into the operational routines of healthcare organizations

The NA49 large acceptance hadron detector

The NA49 detector is a wide acceptance spectrometer for the study of hadron production in p+p, p+A, and A+A collisions at the CERN SPS. The main components are 4 large volume TPCs for tracking and particle identification via $dE/dx$. TOF scintillator arrays complement particle identification. Calorimeters for transverse energy determination and triggering, a detector for centrality selection in p+A collisions, and beam definition detectors complete the set-up. A description of all detector components is given with emphasis on new technical realizations. Performance and operational experience are discussed in particular with respect to the high track density environment of central Pb+Pb collisions