Finnsheep and their utilization in crosses with the Merino under range conditions of South-Africa

Two field trials were performed at two localities in a semiarid region to evaluate the performance of Finn (F) x Merino(M) crossbred females. The trials involved 781 F x M ewes and 657 M ewes. Ile de France, S.A. Mutton Merino, Dohne Merino, M, and F x M rams were used for matings. The F x M ewes were superior to M ewes in lambing-%, especially after mating as lambs, and the fecundities were 187and 107 %, resp. Multiple lambs of F x M ewes had better survival rates than those of M ewes. Lambs born from F x M ewes grew faster, had a larger weaning mass, over 10 % longer stables, ca. 2 mm thicker fibres, 30 % lower clean fleece weights, and a little less crimps/25 mm than those born from M ewes. Thus, F x M seemed to provide a suitable and acceptable composite showing remarkable adaptability to harsh environmental conditions. The results from the F x M wool and its special qualities can be regarded as useful attributes. Establishment of a composite F x M female line appeared well-founded

Foreign body ingestion in children presenting to a tertiary paediatric centre in South Africa: A retrospective analysis focusing on battery ingestion

Background. Ingestion of foreign bodies remains a frequent reason for presentation to paediatric emergency departments worldwide. Among the variety of objects ingested, button batteries are particularly harmful owing to their electrochemical properties, which can cause extensive injuries if not diagnosed and treated rapidly. International trends show an increasing incidence of button battery ingestion, leading to concern that this pattern may be occurring in South Africa. Limited local data on paediatric foreign body ingestion have been published.Objectives. To assess battery ingestion rates in a tertiary paediatric hospital. We hypothesised that the incidence has increased, in keeping with international trends. Secondary objectives included describing admission rates, requirements for anaesthesia and surgery, and promoting awareness of the problems associated with battery ingestion.Methods. We performed a retrospective, descriptive analysis of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital trauma database, including all children under 13 years of age seen between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2015 with suspected ingestion of a foreign body. The ward admissions database was then examined to find additional cases in which children were admitted directly. After exclusion of duplicate records, cases were classified by type of foreign body, management, requirement for admission, anaesthesia and surgery. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data in comparison with previous studies published from this database.Results. Patient age and gender patterns matched the literature, with a peak incidence in children under 2 years of age. Over the 6-year period, 180 patients presented with food foreign bodies, whereas 497 objects were classified as non-food. After exclusion of misdiagnosed cases, the remaining 462 objects were dominated by coins (44.2%). Batteries were the causative agent in 4.8% (22/462). Although the subtypes of batteries were not reliably recorded, button batteries accounted for at least 64% (14/22). Most children who ingested batteries presented early, but more required admission, anaesthesia and surgery than children who ingested other forms of foreign body.Conclusions. The study demonstrated that the local incidence of button battery ingestion may be increasing, although data are still limited.Admission, anaesthesia and surgery rates for batteries were higher in this cohort than for all other foreign bodies. As button batteries can mimic coins, with much more dire consequences on ingestion, our ability to expedite diagnosis and management hinges on a high index of suspicion. It is imperative to increase awareness among healthcare workers and parents

Does sentinel lymph node biopsy have a role in node-positive head and neck squamous carcinoma?

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The objective of the study was to determine whether sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) can be used to reduce clinical overstaging of cervical nodes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in a developing world setting. STUDY DESIGN: Sentinel and echelon lymph nodes were identified by means of a combination of lymphoscintigraphy, gamma probe and blue dye identification. They were analysed histologically and their pathological status was compared with the rest of the neck dissection specimen to determine diagnostic accuracy in patients with T1-4 N0-3 SCC of the oral cavity or oropharynx undergoing primary surgical resection and neck dissection. RESULTS: Thirty-three patients were included in the study, 13 in the node-negative (N0) and 20 in the node-positive (N+) group. In the clinically N0 group the sensitivity of SLNB was 100% and the negative predictive value (NPV) 100%. In the clinically N+ group the sensitivity was 71% and the NPV 60% for staging the nodal status of the neck. CONCLUSIONS; The accuracy of SLNB in the clinically N+ neck is too low for SLNB to be a means of avoiding comprehensive neck dissection. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2B

Update on drowning

Drowning is defined as the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from either submersion or immersion in liquid. Drowning morbidity and mortality are an under-recognised public health burden in southern Africa. Continuous concerted efforts are underway to improve awareness among recreational water users, but the prevention and management of drowning remain difficult to achieve owing to poor reporting and limited resources. Priorities for both prehospital and emergency department management of drowning victims include ensuring airway patency, adequate ventilation, supplemental oxygenation and rewarming for a pulsatile patient, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation with rewarming for a pulseless patient

Labour induction at term - a randomised trial comparing Foley catheter plus titrated oral misoprostol solution, titrated oral misoprostol solution alone, and dinoprostone

Objectives. To compare three methods of labour induction.Design. Randomised controlled trial.Setting. Academic hospitals in Johannesburg, South Africa.Subjects. Women with intact membranes due for induction of labour.Method. Randomised, sealed opaque envelopes were used to allocate women to labour induction with extra-amniotic Foley catheter/titrated oral misoprostol solution (N = 174), titrated oral misoprostol solution alone (N = 176), or vaginal dinoprostone (N = 176). Misoprostol was dissolved in water and 20 - 40 g was given 2-hourly.Outcome measures. These were failure to deliver vaginally within 24 hours, additional measures for induction or augmentation of labour, analgesia, and maternal and fetal complications.                                                      Results. In the Foley catheter group, misoprostol was required in all but 1 case. Failure to deliver vaginally within 24 hours was similar for the three groups (79/174 v. 70/176 v. 70/176 respectively). Labour augmentation, caesarean section and instrumental delivery were used somewhat more frequently in the Foley /misoprostol group than in the misoprostol alone group, but these differences were not statistically significant. More analgesia was used in the Foley catheter/misoprostol group than in the misoprostol group (64/172 v. 46/175). Side effects and neonatal complications were similar for the three groups.Conclusions. Use of extra-amniotic Foley catheter placement showed no measurable benefits over the use of oral misoprostol alone, or vaginal dinoprostone.

UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2020.3.0

UPC++ is a C++11 library that provides Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) programming. It is designed for writing parallel programs that run efficiently and scale well on distributed-memory parallel computers. The PGAS model is single program, multiple-data (SPMD), with each separate constituent process having access to local memory as it would in C++. However, PGAS also provides access to a global address space, which is allocated in shared segments that are distributed over the processes. UPC++ provides numerous methods for accessing and using global memory. In UPC++, all operations that access remote memory are explicit, which encourages programmers to be aware of the cost of communication and data movement. Moreover, all remote-memory access operations are by default asynchronous, to enable programmers to write code that scales well even on hundreds of thousands of cores

An interesting cause of syncope

Patient with a history of repeated episodes of syncope over the preceding week

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

Challenges for writing Church History in Africa in a global age: A Zambian perspective

The purpose of this article is to discuss the six big challenges which should be taken into consideration in addressing the issue of doing and writing church history in Africa. The thesis of the article is that these challenges are not taken into sufficient consideration by the outside world as from a Third World perspective. Experts in the field of writing church history, in general, have stated and clearly articulated that no history is ever easy to write. What makes it particularly difficult to write church history in Africa, are the different perspectives on the establishment of the church on our continent. What we have, are pieces of information that have been distorted by prejudice and bias as each generation came to be. Addressing these challenges will, however, help us to overcome certain barriers in our study of African church history