Prevalence and the correlates of post-natal depression in an urban high density suburb of Harare

A research article on post-natal depression amongst women in Zimbabwe.Postnatal depression is a common complication of childbearing with a prevalence of 33% in Zimbabwe. Thus Zimbabwe has one of the highest prevalence of postnatal depression in the world and the situation is further compounded by the fact the country also ranks among those with the highest HIV prevalence globally.12 Despite variations in symptomatic presentations in different settings, postnatal depression transcends cultural boundaries, a phenomenon which makes it imperative to tackle the disorder cross culturally Understanding the risk factors for postnatal depression is therefore crucial in planning for effective interventions to curb the burden of psychiatric morbidity among vulnerable populations such as pregnant women in resource constrained settings

“The problem with all those teachers Is that they are completely numb”: representations of teachers and education in recent Dutch novels

Research shows that teachers and education are often represented negatively or stereotypically in popular and literary culture, both in the Dutch language area and in Anglophone contexts. Regarding contemporary Dutch literature, though, research on educational representations has until now focussed on small corpora of novels that explicitly deal with education. In this article, we explore the representations of teachers and education in a much larger and broader corpus: the 170 submissions to the bulk list of the prestigious Dutch Libris Literatuurprijs of 2013. We provide a Keyword in Context Analysis of 292 educational representations in this corpus and offer a demographic analysis of the 71 teachers who inhabit the novels under analysis. In doing so, we show that educational representations and teacher characters are relatively common in contemporary Dutch language novels. Our analysis also reveals that literary representations of teachers are predominantly negative in nature, especially regarding their behaviour towards students, their external presentation, and their pedagogical skills. Representations of education in general tend to be even more negative. In that sense, literary representations of education appear to converge with the negative public appeal of the educational sector in the contemporary Low Countries.Modern and Contemporary Studie

Characteristics tests of cerebrospinal fluid cytology, chemistry and bacteriology in invasive paediatric bacterial meningitis in Madagascar

Background: Paediatric bacterial meningitis is a major public health problem. CSF laboratory analysis is the key element to confirm the disease but remains difficult to access by clinicians or patients in low-resource settings. We described CSF biological tests results in invasive paediatric bacterial meningitis at the University Hospital Mother and Child of Tsaralalàna (CHUMET) in Madagascar.Methods: In this retrospective and descriptive study from January 2013 to December 2018, all CSF samples that were confirmed for bacterial meningitis by triplex PCR Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis were enrolled. CSF collected from eligible children were tested by microscopy, culture, soluble antigen at CHUMET laboratory. Residual CSF was referred to the regional reference laboratory (RRL) for real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmatory testing and serotyping.Results: Over the 6-year study period, 2286 CSF were tested by PCR, 141 (6.1%) were positive. The age group of (1-12 months) was the most affected (68.0%). The majority of CSF were cloudy with pleiocytosis >100/mm3. Hyperproteinorrhea >1 g/l was noted in 48.2% of cases. The sensitivity of gram stain was respectively 56.6% and 75% for Pneumococcus and Meningococcus detection while for culture it was 28.3% and 66.6%, respectively. The average white cell count was notably higher in meningococcal meningitis and changed significantly according to the pathogens identified (p=0.007).Conclusions: Paediatric bacterial meningitis diagnosis are based on CSF laboratory testing. Accessibility to multiplex PCR point-of-care tests targeting meningitis pathogens should be made easier for laboratories in low-income countries to improve patient care, monitor pathogen trends and vaccine impact program.

Tissintite, (Ca,Na,□)AlSi_2O_6: A Shock-Induced Clinopyroxene in the Tissint Meteorite

During a nanomineralogy investigation of the Tissint Martian meteorite, we discovered the new shock-induced mineral tissintite, (Ca,Na,□)AlSi_2O_6, which is named after Tissint, Morocco, where the host meteorite fell. This phase provides new insights into shock conditions and impact processes on Mars. Here, we emphasize the origin of tissintite (IMA 2013-027) and demonstrate how nanomineralogy can play an important role in meteorite and Mars rock research

The Impact of Global Warming and Anoxia on Marine Benthic Community Dynamics: an Example from the Toarcian (Early Jurassic)

The Pliensbachian-Toarcian (Early Jurassic) fossil record is an archive of natural data of benthic community response to global warming and marine long-term hypoxia and anoxia. In the early Toarcian mean temperatures increased by the same order of magnitude as that predicted for the near future; laminated, organic-rich, black shales were deposited in many shallow water epicontinental basins; and a biotic crisis occurred in the marine realm, with the extinction of approximately 5% of families and 26% of genera. High-resolution quantitative abundance data of benthic invertebrates were collected from the Cleveland Basin (North Yorkshire, UK), and analysed with multivariate statistical methods to detect how the fauna responded to environmental changes during the early Toarcian. Twelve biofacies were identified. Their changes through time closely resemble the pattern of faunal degradation and recovery observed in modern habitats affected by anoxia. All four successional stages of community structure recorded in modern studies are recognised in the fossil data (i.e. Stage III: climax; II: transitional; I: pioneer; 0: highly disturbed). Two main faunal turnover events occurred: (i) at the onset of anoxia, with the extinction of most benthic species and the survival of a few adapted to thrive in low-oxygen conditions (Stages I to 0) and (ii) in the recovery, when newly evolved species colonized the re-oxygenated soft sediments and the path of recovery did not retrace of pattern of ecological degradation (Stages I to II). The ordination of samples coupled with sedimentological and palaeotemperature proxy data indicate that the onset of anoxia and the extinction horizon coincide with both a rise in temperature and sea level. Our study of how faunal associations co-vary with long and short term sea level and temperature changes has implications for predicting the long-term effects of “dead zones” in modern oceans

Crystal structure of hydrous wadsleyite with 2.8% H 2 O and compressibility to 60 GPa

ABSTRACT Hydrous wadsleyite (β-Mg 2 SiO 4 ) with 2.8 wt% water content has been synthesized at 15 GPa and 1250 °C in a multi-anvil press. The unit-cell parameters are: a = 5.6686(8), b = 11.569(1), c = 8.2449(9) Å, β = 90.14(1)°, and V = 540.7(1) Å 3 , and the space group is I2/m. The structure was refined in space groups Imma and I2/m. The room-pressure structure differs from that of anhydrous wadsleyite principally in the increased cation distances around O1, the non-silicate oxygen. The compression of a single crystal of this wadsleyite was measured up to 61.3(7) GPa at room temperature in a diamond anvil cell with neon as pressure medium by X-ray diffraction at Sector 13 at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. The experimental pressure range was far beyond the wadsleyite-ringwoodite phase-transition pressure at 525 km depth (17