Urbanisation and women's health in Khayelitsha Part 11. Health status and use of health services

A study was conducted among women in Khayelitsha to determine the relationship between urbanisation, health status and use of health services; 722 households were visited, and 659 female respondents provided information on acute and chronic illness for the 3229 individuals who were members of their households. In addition, they provided information concerning their reproductive health, AIDS awareness, knowledge of cervical smears and use and knowledge of health services. Acute illness was reported for .4,3% of the study population, the commonest complaints being diarrhoea, abdominal pain and upper respiratory infections; 4,4% reported chronic illness, the commonest complaints being hypertension and tuberculosis; 16,2% of women reported gynaecological illness; 86% had of heard of AIDS (although their knowledge of transmission and prevention was poor); and 45% had heard of cervical smears. Patterns of illness and knowledge and use of health services vary in the different areas of residence of Khayelitsha. This appears to be related to urbanisation, age, and environmental and socio-economic factors

Urbanisation and women's health in Khayelitsha Part I. Demographic and socio-economic profile

Demographic and socio-economic data and information on migration patterns and urban/rural links was collected from 722 households in the formal housing area and the serviced and the unserviced site areas of Khayelitsha; 659 women and 61 men were interviewed. Thirty-eight per cent of the population were aged under 15 years and 77% under 35 years. There was a predominance of females in the 5 - 35-year age group. There was a mean of 4,9 persons per household, and 93,5% of sites contained 1 dwelling. Of the 659 female respondents, 7% had received no formal education, 39% had primary school education, and 54% had secondary school education. unemployment among women was 45%. Domestic service accounted for 66,2% of formal employment. Of all women 86% were unskilled, 71,9% had been born in a 'homeland', and 69,7% had migrated to an urban area before 1985. Ties to the rural areas were strong, particularly in the 'shack' areas. 'New arrivals' to an urban area were young, mostly unemployed, and lived in the worst environmental conditions. In the unserviced 'shack' areas, 47,5% of women had migrated to an urban area in the last 5 years. These are important target areas for a study of the health effects of urbanisation and for possible interventions. This study tends to confirm the 'quadruple' oppression of women in Khayelitsha, on the basis of race, social class and gender and as new arrivals in an urban environment

Hidden Markov Models and their Application for Predicting Failure Events

We show how Markov mixed membership models (MMMM) can be used to predict the degradation of assets. We model the degradation path of individual assets, to predict overall failure rates. Instead of a separate distribution for each hidden state, we use hierarchical mixtures of distributions in the exponential family. In our approach the observation distribution of the states is a finite mixture distribution of a small set of (simpler) distributions shared across all states. Using tied-mixture observation distributions offers several advantages. The mixtures act as a regularization for typically very sparse problems, and they reduce the computational effort for the learning algorithm since there are fewer distributions to be found. Using shared mixtures enables sharing of statistical strength between the Markov states and thus transfer learning. We determine for individual assets the trade-off between the risk of failure and extended operating hours by combining a MMMM with a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) to dynamically optimize the policy for when and how to maintain the asset.Comment: Will be published in the proceedings of ICCS 2020; @Booklet{EasyChair:3183, author = {Paul Hofmann and Zaid Tashman}, title = {Hidden Markov Models and their Application for Predicting Failure Events}, howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 3183}, year = {EasyChair, 2020}

Negative parental responses to coming out and family functioning in a sample of lesbian and gay young adults

Parental responses to youths' coming out (CO) are crucial to the subsequent adjustment of children and family. The present study investigated the negative parental reaction to the disclosure of same-sex attraction and the differences between maternal and paternal responses, as reported by their homosexual daughters and sons. Participants' perceptions of their parents' reactions (evaluated through the Perceived Parental Reactions Scale, PPRS), age at coming out, gender, parental political orientation, and religiosity involvement, the family functioning (assessed through the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales, FACES IV), were assessed in 164 Italian gay and lesbian young adults. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the relation between family functioning and parental reaction to CO. The paired sample t-test was used to compare mothers and fathers' scores on the PPRS. Hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to analyze the relevance of each variable. No differences were found between mothers and fathers in their reaction to the disclosure. The analysis showed that a negative reaction to coming out was predicted by parents' right-wing political conservatism, strong religious beliefs, and higher scores in the scales Rigid and Enmeshed. Findings confirm that a negative parental reaction is the result of poor family resources to face a stressful situation and a strong belief in traditional values. These results have important implications in both clinical and social fields

From presence to consciousness through virtual reality

Immersive virtual environments can break the deep, everyday connection between where our senses tell us we are and where we are actually located and whom we are with. The concept of 'presence' refers to the phenomenon of behaving and feeling as if we are in the virtual world created by computer displays. In this article, we argue that presence is worthy of study by neuroscientists, and that it might aid the study of perception and consciousness

Mechanical activation of vinculin binding to talin locks talin in an unfolded conformation

The force-dependent interaction between talin and vinculin plays a crucial role in the initiation and growth of focal adhesions. Here we use magnetic tweezers to characterise the mechano-sensitive compact N-terminal region of the talin rod, and show that the three helical bundles R1-R3 in this region unfold in three distinct steps consistent with the domains unfolding independently. Mechanical stretching of talin R1-R3 enhances its binding to vinculin and vinculin binding inhibits talin refolding after force is released. Mutations that stabilize R3 identify it as the initial mechano-sensing domain in talin, unfolding at ~5 pN, suggesting that 5 pN is the force threshold for vinculin binding and adhesion progression

A preliminary study of genetic factors that influence susceptibility to bovine tuberculosis in the British cattle herd

Associations between specific host genes and susceptibility to Mycobacterial infections such as tuberculosis have been reported in several species. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) impacts greatly the UK cattle industry, yet genetic predispositions have yet to be identified. We therefore used a candidate gene approach to study 384 cattle of which 160 had reacted positively to an antigenic skin test (‘reactors’). Our approach was unusual in that it used microsatellite markers, embraced high breed diversity and focused particularly on detecting genes showing heterozygote advantage, a mode of action often overlooked in SNP-based studies. A panel of neutral markers was used to control for population substructure and using a general linear model-based approach we were also able to control for age. We found that substructure was surprisingly weak and identified two genomic regions that were strongly associated with reactor status, identified by markers INRA111 and BMS2753. In general the strength of association detected tended to vary depending on whether age was included in the model. At INRA111 a single genotype appears strongly protective with an overall odds ratio of 2.2, the effect being consistent across nine diverse breeds. Our results suggest that breeding strategies could be devised that would appreciably increase genetic resistance of cattle to bTB (strictly, reduce the frequency of incidence of reactors) with implications for the current debate concerning badger-culling

Marine oxygen production and open water supported an active nitrogen cycle during the Marinoan Snowball Earth

The Neoproterozoic Earth was punctuated by two low-latitude Snowball Earth glaciations. Models permit oceans with either total ice cover or substantial areas of open water. Total ice cover would make an anoxic ocean likely, and would be a formidable barrier to biologic survival. However, there are no direct data constraining either the redox state of the ocean or marine biological productivity during the glacials. Here we present iron-speciation, redox-sensitive trace element, and nitrogen isotope data from a Neoproterozoic (Marinoan) glacial episode. Iron-speciation indicates deeper waters were anoxic and Fe-rich, while trace element concentrations indicate surface waters were in contact with an oxygenated atmosphere. Furthermore, synglacial sedimentary nitrogen is isotopically heavier than the modern atmosphere, requiring a biologic cycle with nitrogen fixation, nitrification and denitrification. Our results indicate significant regions of open marine water and active biologic productivity throughout one of the harshest glaciations in Earth history

Congenital anomalies in low- and middle-income countries: the unborn child of global surgery.

Surgically correctable congenital anomalies cause a substantial burden of global morbidity and mortality. These anomalies disproportionately affect children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to sociocultural, economic, and structural factors that limit the accessibility and quality of pediatric surgery. While data from LMICs are sparse, available evidence suggests that the true human and financial cost of congenital anomalies is grossly underestimated and that pediatric surgery is a cost-effective intervention with the potential to avert significant premature mortality and lifelong disability

Takayasu's arteritis associated with Crohn's disease: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>The simultaneous presence of Takayasu's arteritis and Crohn's disease in a patient seems to be rare. To our knowledge, no patient with the combination of Crohn's disease and Takayasu's arteritis has been reported from our region.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>Herein we present the case of a 22-year-old Iranian woman previously diagnosed as Crohn's disease and who had subsequently developed Takayasu's arteritis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Clinical suspicion, proper imaging, and consideration of the differential diagnosis are important for the correct diagnosis and management of patients with this coincidence.</p