1,966 research outputs found
Community Knowledge and Perceptions on National School-Based De-Worming Programme
Objectives: To determine the community level of knowledge, attitude and perception of soil transmitted helminthes and the national school-based de-worming programme in selected villages of Busia County in Kenya. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Setting: Busia and Bunyala districts in Busia County. Subjects: A total of 384 participants were studied. Main outcome measures: Socio-demographic characteristics, then knowledge, causes and effects of Soil Transmitted Infections on health and education, prevention strategies, knowledge of national school-based de-worming programming, implementing strategies of the programme, benefits of the programme, community satisfaction and health seeking behaviour. Results: Eating the uncooked food as a cause for soil transmitted infections constituted 27.16% (63) followed by 16.38% (38) not using latrines, 15.95% (37) eating left over foods, 12.93% (30) eating cold food, 10.78% (25) eating not well cooked pork, 9.48% (22) eating contaminated soil, and 7.33% (17) changing of diet. One head teacher interviewed stated that âOne can be able to notice if his/her child has worm infection if the child eats without getting satisfied, eating all the time and yet his belly is big.âCommunity Health Extension Worker in the FGD stated that: âDuring floods seasons most of the areas in Budalangi become flooded and all latrines are filled with water and the excreta start overflowing. Most of the residents donât have shoes especially the children and therefore they are prone to the worm infection.â99.57% of the parents were aware of the national school based de-worming programme of which (92%) learnt about the programme after their children were de-wormed in their various schools. Seventy five percent (174) were satisfied about the programme; 65.1% (151) and 10.3% indicated that the programme improves the childrenâs health and studentâs school performance respectively. Conclusion: Most of the parents do not have adequate knowledge on worms, their causes and signs and symptoms of the intestinal worms. Low educational levels and poverty levels also contribute to the lack of awareness on intestinal worms and putting the prevention measures across the board. The study also found out that the community perception towards the de-worming programme was good because the de-worming programme improved the childrenâs health and performance in education
Use of rapid diagnostic tests in malaria school surveys in Kenya: does their under-performance matter for planning malaria control?
Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are known to yield false-positive results, and their use in epidemiologic surveys will overestimate infection prevalence and potentially hinder efficient targeting of interventions. To examine the consequences of using RDTs in school surveys, we compared three RDT brands used during a nationwide school survey in Kenya with expert microscopy and investigated the cost implications of using alternative diagnostic approaches in identifying localities with differing levels of infection. Overall, RDT sensitivity was 96.1% and specificity was 70.8%. In terms of classifying districts and schools according to prevalence categories, RDTs were most reliable for the 40% categories and least reliable in the 1-4.9% category. In low-prevalence settings, microscopy was the most expensive approach, and RDT results corrected by either microscopy or polymerase chain reaction were the cheapest. Use of polymerase chain reaction-corrected RDT results is recommended in school malaria surveys, especially in settings with low-to-moderate malaria transmission
Internal Energy of the Potts model on the Triangular Lattice with Two- and Three-body Interactions
We calculate the internal energy of the Potts model on the triangular lattice
with two- and three-body interactions at the transition point satisfying
certain conditions for coupling constants. The method is a duality
transformation. Therefore we have to make assumptions on uniqueness of the
transition point and that the transition is of second order. These assumptions
have been verified to hold by numerical simulations for q=2, 3 and 4, and our
results for the internal energy are expected to be exact in these cases.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Helium, Oxygen, Proton, and Electron (HOPE) Mass Spectrometer for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission
The HOPE mass spectrometer of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission (renamed the Van Allen Probes) is designed to measure the in situ plasma ion and electron fluxes over 4Ď sr at each RBSP spacecraft within the terrestrial radiation belts. The scientific goal is to understand the underlying physical processes that govern the radiation belt structure and dynamics. Spectral measurements for both ions and electrons are acquired over 1 eV to 50 keV in 36 log-spaced steps at an energy resolution ÎE FWHM/Eâ15 %. The dominant ion species (H+, He+, and O+) of the magnetosphere are identified using foil-based time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry with channel electron multiplier (CEM) detectors. Angular measurements are derived using five polar pixels coplanar with the spacecraft spin axis, and up to 16 azimuthal bins are acquired for each polar pixel over time as the spacecraft spins. Ion and electron measurements are acquired on alternate spacecraft spins. HOPE incorporates several new methods to minimize and monitor the background induced by penetrating particles in the harsh environment of the radiation belts. The absolute efficiencies of detection are continuously monitored, enabling precise, quantitative measurements of electron and ion fluxes and ion species abundances throughout the mission. We describe the engineering approaches for plasma measurements in the radiation belts and present summaries of HOPE measurement strategy and performance
Scientific Communication: Reporting on Mental Health Illness (MHI) in Kenya: how well are we doing?
No Abstrac
Probing a non-biaxial behavior of infinitely thin hard platelets
We give a criterion to test a non-biaxial behavior of infinitely thin hard
platelets of symmetry based upon the components of three order
parameter tensors. We investigated the nematic behavior of monodisperse
infinitely thin rectangular hard platelet systems by using the criterion.
Starting with a square platelet system, and we compared it with rectangular
platelet systems of various aspect ratios. For each system, we performed
equilibration runs by using isobaric Monte Carlo simulations. Each system did
not show a biaxial nematic behavior but a uniaxial nematic one, despite of the
shape anisotropy of those platelets. The relationship between effective
diameters by simulations and theoretical effective diameters of the above
systems was also determined.Comment: Submitted to JPS
Path integral Monte Carlo simulations of silicates
We investigate the thermal expansion of crystalline SiO in the --
cristobalite and the -quartz structure with path integral Monte Carlo
(PIMC) techniques. This simulation method allows to treat low-temperature
quantum effects properly. At temperatures below the Debye temperature, thermal
properties obtained with PIMC agree better with experimental results than those
obtained with classical Monte Carlo methods.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, Phys. Rev. B (in press
Element-specific field-induced spin reorientation and an unusual tetracritical point in MnCr2S4
The ferrimagnetic spinel MnCr2S4 shows a variety of magnetic-field-induced
phase transitions owing to bond frustration and strong spin-lattice coupling.
However, the site-resolved magnetic properties at the respective field-induced
phases in high magnetic fields remain elusive. Our soft x-ray magnetic circular
dichroism studies up to 40 T directly evidence element-selective
magnetic-moment reorientations in the field-induced phases. The complex
magnetic structures are further supported by entropy changes extracted from
magnetocaloric-effect measurements. Moreover, thermodynamic experiments reveal
an unusual tetracritical point in the H-T phase diagram of MnCr2S4 due to
strong spin-lattice coupling.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure
Non-existence of stationary two-black-hole configurations
We resume former discussions of the question, whether the spin-spin repulsion
and the gravitational attraction of two aligned black holes can balance each
other. To answer the question we formulate a boundary value problem for two
separate (Killing-) horizons and apply the inverse (scattering) method to solve
it. Making use of results of Manko, Ruiz and Sanabria-G\'omez and a novel black
hole criterion, we prove the non-existence of the equilibrium situation in
question.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; Contribution to Juergen Ehlers Memorial Issue
(GeRG journal
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