Effectiveness of blood pressure control in a small community

The aim of this study was to examine the degree of control of blood pressure with respect to individuals on anti-hypertensive drug therapy attending a Health Centre for repeat prescription. Despite their being on anti-hypertensive drug therapy, only 35% of the individuals were found to be normotensive, 27% were in the borderline range whereas 38% were found to be hypertensive. The relatively high prevalence of poorly controlled patients suffering from high blood pressure is partly a reflection of the degree of non-compliance by patients to prescribed drug regimens although this is difficult to either qualify or quantify. Education of the patient vis-à-vis his medical condition and its treatment is of great importance as is regular monitoring and effective control of raised blood pressure by the family physician.peer-reviewe

Evaluation of the Clinimetric Properties of the Upper Limb Subscales of the Motor Assessment Scale Using a Rasch Analysis Model.

OBJECTIVES: To apply Rasch analysis to evaluate the psychometric properties of the composite score of the 3 upper limb subscales of the Motor Assessment Scale (UL-MAS) when administered in the acute/subacute phase post-stroke. DESIGN: Prospective data collection of UL-MAS scores. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty Eighty individuals a mean of 64.8 days (standard deviation 53.3; range 4-193 days) following the onset of unilateral stroke. METHODS: All UL-MAS test items were administered in 30 participants assessed longitudinally over 3 occasions, and in 50 participants assessed on a single occasion. These 140 observations were pooled to be evaluated using Rasch analysis. RESULTS: With the elimination of the wrist radial deviation test item, the UL-MAS demonstrated uni-dimensionality with no significant test item response bias. The test item difficulty hierarchy was validated in the Upper Arm and Hand Movements subscales, but not in the Advanced Hand Activities subscale. The acceptable floor (14%) and ceiling (9%) effects and the high Person Separation Reliability Index (0.96) indicated that the scale was appropriately targeted to discriminate statistically between groups of acute/subacute stroke participants with differing upper limb motor recovery. CONCLUSION: The findings support the psychometric properties of the composite UL-MAS score in this clinical population

Annibale Preca

Dan l-artiklu jittratta dwar il-bijografija tal-kittieb Annibale Preca.N/

Household decision-making about delivery in health facilities: evidence from Tanzania.

This study investigated how partners' perceptions of the healthcare system influence decisions about delivery-location in low-resource settings. A multistage population-representative sample was used in Kasulu district, Tanzania, to identify women who had given birth in the last five years and their partners. Of 826 couples in analysis, 506 (61.3%) of the women delivered in the home. In multivariate analysis, factors associated with delivery in a health facility were agreement of partners on the importance of delivering in a health facility and agreement that skills of doctors are better than those of traditional birth attendants. When partners disagreed, the opinion of the woman was more influential in determining delivery-location. Agreement of partners regarding perceptions about the healthcare system appeared to be an important driver of decisions about delivery-location. These findings suggest that both partners should be included in the decision-making process regarding delivery to raise rates of delivery at facility

Riparian woodland condition in relation to lippia (Phyla canescens (Kunth) Greene) and fire management, southern Queensland

The implementation of inappropriate management regimes encourages alien species invasion into native ecosystems. Disturbances, such as fire, flooding and grazing, create a unique window of opportunity for invasive species to colonise areas not previously invaded. Fire regimes can be changed through the introduction of foreign species and may induce detrimental ecosystem effects including increased tree mortality, an increase in bare ground and further invasion by foreign species. Phyla canescens (lippia) is an invasive introduced species covering over 5.3 million hectares of the Murray-Darling Basin. Many potential control methods have been attempted. However, the response of lippia to fire as a potential management tool has not previously been studied. The general question of this research was: what is the effect of a prescribed fire on lippia, the vegetation structural components and the soil seed bank of a vegetation remnant in a highly modified agricultural landscape? This research examined the following specific hypotheses: that there is no difference in the abundance of lippia between burnt and unburnt treatments, six months after a prescribed burn; that there is no difference in the abundance of other vegetative structural components between burnt and unburnt woodlands, six months after a prescribed burn; that the fire has resulted in no change in the seedling emergence of lippia seeds stores in the soil seed bank; and, that the fire has resulted in no change of pseudo-species (not taxonomically identified species) richness within the seed bank. Ten sites, (5 burnt, 5 unburnt) were sampled within each of the two woodlands: Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Eucalyptus populnea, six months after a prescribed burn. At each site, a 500 m2 quadrat was established to determine general disturbance measures (using a 0–4 scoring method) and the abundance and percentage cover of vegetative structural components. Within each 500 m2 quadrat, the density of the following vegetative structural components were measured: trees > 20 m; trees 10–20 m; trees 20 m; standing stags 10–20 m; standing stags < 10 m; stumps; logs 6–13 cm; logs 13–35 cm; logs 35–90 cm; and logs 90–150 cm. The percent cover of each of the following vegetative structural components was also measured: trees; stags; stumps; logs; grasses/sedges; herbs/forbs; lippia; lippia litter; fine litter; bare ground. Within each 500 m2 quadrat, eight 70 cm2 sub-quadrats were placed along a 16 m transect to determine the cover abundance of lippia, grasses and forbs at a finer scale. Soil samples were also collected at each site for the glasshouse seed germination trial. Samples were kept in the glasshouse for 14 weeks to determine total germination and pseudo-species richness of each site and treatment. Independent T-tests determined whether there were any significant differences of variables between treatments. The Levene’s Test for Homogeneity was used to determine homogeneity. There were no significant differences in the abundance and cover of lippia or vegetation structural components between burnt and unburnt woodlands, six months after a prescribed burn at either the broad (500 m2) or finer scale (70 cm2) (T-test, p > 0.05). The only exception to this finding was a significant difference in forb cover between burnt and unburnt Eucalyptus populnea woodlands (T-test, p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in seedling emergence or pseudo-species richness between burnt and unburnt treatments within each woodland (T-test, p > 0.05). This research shows that fire may not be a suitable control method for lippia invasion. The results found for structural components and the seedling germination trial were consistent with previous literature. Lippia’s response to fire in this study and the lack of positive effect that fire had on the invasive weed at St Ruth Reserve, has begun to fill an identified knowledge gap in the control methods for lippia. This study shows that fire may not be a useful management tool for lippia

The Anti-tumour Agent, Cisplatin, and its Clinically Ineffective Isomer, Transplatin, Produce Unique Gene Expression Profiles in Human Cells

Cisplatin is a DNA-damaging anti-cancer agent that is widely used to treat a range of tumour types. Despite its clinical success, cisplatin treatment is still associated with a number of dose-limiting toxic side effects. The purpose of this study was to clarify the molecular events that are important in the anti-tumour activity of cisplatin, using gene expression profiling techniques. Currently, our incomplete understanding of this drug’s mechanism of action hinders the development of more efficient and less harmful cisplatin-based chemotherapeutics. In this study the effect of cisplatin on gene expression in human foreskin fibroblasts has been investigated using human 19K oligonucleotide microarrays. In addition its clinically inactive isomer, transplatin, was also tested. Dualfluor microarray experiments comparing treated and untreated cells were performed in quadruplicate. Cisplatin treatment was shown to significantly up- or down-regulate a consistent subset of genes. Many of these genes responded similarly to treatment with transplatin, the therapeutically inactive isomer of cisplatin. However, a smaller proportion of these transcripts underwent differential expression changes in response to the two isomers. Some of these genes may constitute part of the DNA damage response induced by cisplatin that is critical for its anti-tumour activity. Ultimately, the identification of gene expression responses unique to clinically active compounds, like cisplatin, could thus greatly benefit the design and development of improved chemotherapeutics

ESL WRITING VARIABILITY: WRITING TASKS, GENDER AND PROFICIENCY LEVEL

Research focusing on L1 (native speakers of English) writers has shown that students tend to perform differently on different writing tasks. L1 students perform better on narrative and descriptive writing tasks than argumentative.  In fact, some scholars have suggested that L1 students lack a schema for argumentative writing, which perhaps contribute to their poor performance on argumentative writing tasks. This tendency seems also applicable to L2 (non-native speakers of English) writers.  This paper reports the findings of a study on the impact of narrative and argumentative writing tasks, gender and proficiency level on the quality of Malaysian English as a second language (ESL) learners’ writing.  The findings of this study are discussed in the light of variability in ESL writing.  Their implications for writing assessment practices are also highlighted. Keywords:  ESL writing, task variability, gender, proficiencylevel