781 research outputs found
How front-line healthcare workers respond to stock-outs of essential medicines in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
Shortages of essential medicines are a daily occurrence in many of South Africa (SA)’s public health facilities. This study focuses on the responses of healthcare workers to stock-outs, investigating how actors at the ‘front line’ of public health delivery understand, experience and respond to shortages of essential medicines and equipment in their facilities. Findings are based on focus groups, observations and interviews with healthcare workers and patients at healthcare facilities in the Eastern Cape Province of SA, conducted as part of the Mzantsi Wakho study. The research revealed a discrepancy between ‘informal’ definitions of stock-outs and their reporting through formal stockout management channels. Front-line healthcare workers had designed their own systems for classifying the severity of stock-outs, based on the product in question, and on their potential to access stocks from other facilities. Beyond formal systems of procurement and supply, healthcare workers had established vast networks of alternative communication and action, often using personal resources to procure medical supplies. Stock-outs were only reported when informal methods of stock-sharing did not secure top-up supplies. These findings have implications for understanding the frequency and severity of stock-outs, and for taking action to prevent and manage stock-outs effectively
School, Supervision and Adolescent-Sensitive Clinic Care: Combination Social Protection and Reduced Unprotected Sex Among HIV-Positive Adolescents in South Africa
Social protection can reduce HIV-risk behavior in general adolescent populations, but evidence among HIV-positive adolescents is limited. This study quantitatively tests whether social protection is associated with reduced unprotected sex among 1060 ART-eligible adolescents from 53 government facilities in South Africa. Potential social protection included nine 'cash/cash-in-kind' and 'care' provisions. Analyses tested interactive/additive effects using logistic regressions and marginal effects models, controlling for covariates. 18 % of all HIV-positive adolescents and 28 % of girls reported unprotected sex. Lower rates of unprotected sex were associated with access to school (OR 0.52 95 % CI 0.33-0.82 p = 0.005), parental supervision (OR 0.54 95 % CI 0.33-0.90 p = 0.019), and adolescent-sensitive clinic care (OR 0.43 95 % CI 0.25-0.73 p = 0.002). Gender moderated the effect of adolescent-sensitive clinic care. Combination social protection had additive effects amongst girls: without any provisions 49 % reported unprotected sex; with 1-2 provisions 13-38 %; and with all provisions 9 %. Combination social protection has the potential to promote safer sex among HIV-positive adolescents, particularly girls
Brief clinical report: prune belly syndrome in an anencephalic male
We describe a postmature anencephalic infant with atrophy of the abdominal musculature (prune belly syndrome). Other associations of these conditions are noted
From comprehensive medicine to public health at the University of Cape Town: a 40-year journey
We explore the history of the School of Public Health at the University of Cape Town and its relationship to changes in the understanding of the role of public health both nationally and internationally. We draw from primary and secondary sources to trace the emergence, growth and development of the School, and to situate these processes within the socio-political, clinical and public health contexts in South Africa and internationally
Quantum line bundles on noncommutative sphere
Noncommutative (NC) sphere is introduced as a quotient of the enveloping
algebra of the Lie algebra su(2). Using the Cayley-Hamilton identities we
introduce projective modules which are analogues of line bundles on the usual
sphere (we call them quantum line bundles) and define a multiplicative
structure in their family. Also, we compute a pairing between certain quantum
line bundles and finite dimensional representations of the NC sphere in the
spirit of the NC index theorem. A new approach to constructing the differential
calculus on a NC sphere is suggested. The approach makes use of the projective
modules in question and gives rise to a NC de Rham complex being a deformation
of the classical one.Comment: LaTeX file, 15 pp, no figures. Some clarifying remarks are added at
the beginning of section 2 and into section
Artificial Intelligence
Contains research objectives and reports on five research projects.Computation Center, M.I.T
Evaluation of machine-learning methods for ligand-based virtual screening
Machine-learning methods can be used for virtual screening by analysing the structural characteristics of molecules of known (in)activity, and we here discuss the use of kernel discrimination and naive Bayesian classifier (NBC) methods for this purpose. We report a kernel method that allows the processing of molecules represented by binary, integer and real-valued descriptors, and show that it is little different in screening performance from a previously described kernel that had been developed specifically for the analysis of binary fingerprint representations of molecular structure. We then evaluate the performance of an NBC when the training-set contains only a very few active molecules. In such cases, a simpler approach based on group fusion would appear to provide superior screening performance, especially when structurally heterogeneous datasets are to be processed
Artificial Intelligence
Contains research objectives and reports on eight research projects.Computation Center, M.I.T
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