Calcium supplementation to prevent pre-eclampsia - a systematic review

Background. Calcium supplementation during pregnancy may prevent high blood pressure and preterm labour. Objective. To assess the effects of calcium supplementation during pregnancy on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and related maternal and child adverse outcomes. Design. A systematic review of randomised trials that compared supplementation with at least 1 g calcium daily during pregnancy with placebo. Search strategy. The Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group trials register (October 2001) and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (Issue 3, 2001) were searched and study s were contacted. Data collection and analysis. Eligibility and trial quality were assessed. Data were extracted and analysed. Main results. There was a modest reduction in the risk of pre-eclampsia with calcium supplementation (relative risk (RR) 0.68, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57- 0.81). The effect was greatest for women at high risk of hypertension (RR 0.21, 95% CI: 0.11 - 0.39) and those with low baseline calcium intake (RR 0.32, 95% CI: 0.21 - 0.49). There was no overall effect on the risk of preterm delivery, although there was a reduction in risk among women at high risk of hypertension (RR 0.42, 95% CI: 0.23 - 0.78). There was no evidence of any effect of calcium supplementation on stillbirth or death before discharge from hospital. There were fewer babies with birthweight 95th percentile was reduced (RR 0.59, 95% CI: 0.39 - 0.91). Conclusions. Calcium supplementation appears to be beneficial for women at high risk of gestational hypertension and in communities with low dietary calcium intake. These benefits were confined to several rather small trials, and were not found in the largest trial to date, conducted in a low-risk population. Further research is required. (South African Medical Journal: 2003 93(3): 224-228

Comparison of System Call Representations for Intrusion Detection

Over the years, artificial neural networks have been applied successfully in many areas including IT security. Yet, neural networks can only process continuous input data. This is particularly challenging for security-related non-continuous data like system calls. This work focuses on four different options to preprocess sequences of system calls so that they can be processed by neural networks. These input options are based on one-hot encoding and learning word2vec or GloVe representations of system calls. As an additional option, we analyze if the mapping of system calls to their respective kernel modules is an adequate generalization step for (a) replacing system calls or (b) enhancing system call data with additional information regarding their context. However, when performing such preprocessing steps it is important to ensure that no relevant information is lost during the process. The overall objective of system call based intrusion detection is to categorize sequences of system calls as benign or malicious behavior. Therefore, this scenario is used to evaluate the different input options as a classification task. The results show, that each of the four different methods is a valid option when preprocessing input data, but the use of kernel modules only is not recommended because too much information is being lost during the mapping process.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, submitted to CISIS 201

Pulmonary oedema after hexoprenaline administration in preterm labour A report of 4 cases

Despite the widespread use of ,a-sympathomimetic agents for preterm labour there appears to be a limited appreciation of the need for cardiovascular monitoring in the mother. Four patients in whom pulmonary oedema developed during tocolysis with hexoprenaline are described and the aetiological factors and pathogenesis of this potentially lethal complication discussed. Guidelines for the safe use of hexoprenaline in preterm labour are suggested

Guest Editorial: Growing wilderness and expedition medicine education in southern Africa

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Limb reduction anomaly after failed misoprostol abortion

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Evidence for density dependent population regulation in southern elephant seals in the southern Indian Ocean

The means by which populations are regulated form a central theme in conservation biology, and much debate has revolved around density dependence as a mechanism driving population change. Marion Island (46o54'S, 37o45'E) is host to a relatively small breeding population of southern elephant seals, which like its counterparts in the southern Indian and southern Pacific Oceans, have declined precipitously over the past few decades. An intensive mark-recapture study, which commenced in 1983, has yielded a long time-series of resight data on this population. We used the program MARK to estimate adult female survival in this population from resight data collected over the period 1986-1999. Including concurrent population counts as covariates significantly improved our mark-recapture models and suggests density dependent population regulation to be operational in the population. Although predation may have been involved, it is far more likely that density dependent regulation has been based on a limited food supply. A significant increase in adult female survival was evident which is likely to have given rise to recent changes in population growth

Assessing the preference of women for different methods of monitoring the fetal heart in labour

Objective. To assess which of three different methods of monitoring the fetal heart in labour was preferred by labouring women. Method. Ninety-nine women in the first stage of labour were enrolled into a prospective clinical study to compare their preference for fetal monitoring with a Pinard fetal stethoscope, an innovative wind-up Doppler ultrasound fetal heart rate monitor, and cardiotocography. Result. Significantly more women preferred the fetal heart rate monitor to the other two methods (p=0.001). Conclusion. Intermittent auscultation of the fetal heart during labour with a fetal monitor is more acceptable to labouring women than monitoring with a Pinard fetal stethoscope or a cardiotocograph

From the horse's mouth: Advice from chairs on how to lead boards more effectively

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