Acute Spotted Fever Rickettsiosis among Febrile Patients, Cameroon

Although potential arthropod vectors are abundant in Cameroon, acute febrile illnesses are rarely evaluated for arboviral or rickettsial infections. Serum samples from 234 acutely febrile patients at clinics in Tiko and Buea, Cameroon, were examined for antibodies to Rickettsia africae and African alphaviruses and flaviviruses. These serum samples did not contain antibodies against typhoid, and blood malarial parasites were not detected. Serum samples of 32% contained immunoglobulin M antibodies reactive with R. africae by immunofluorescence assay and were reactive with outer membrane proteins A and B of R. africae by immunoblotting. These findings established a diagnosis of acute rickettsiosis, most likely African tick-bite fever. Hemagglutination inhibition testing of the serum samples also detected antibodies to Chikungunya virus (47%) and flaviviruses (47%). High prevalence of antibodies to arboviruses may represent a major, previously unrecognized public health problem in an area where endemic malaria and typhoid fever have been the principal diagnostic considerations

Finding guidelines for cabbage intercropping systems design as a first step in a meta-analysis relay for vegetables

Modern agriculture has been focused on optimizing production, neglecting supporting and regulating ecosystem services. Meta-analyses have demonstrated the potential of intercropping to deliver multiple ecosystem services. However, guidelines for the design and management of such systems remain unclear, especially for the understudied vegetable-based intercropping systems. Given the diversity of vegetable crops, we propose a ‘relay’ of classical crop-specific meta-analyses to capitalize on vegetable intercropping research. Each ‘leg’ in the relay analyzes the effects of companion crops on a focal crop, and over the course of subsequent legs, the network of interactions among the different crops is built. In this study we start what we aspire to be the meta-analysis relay, focusing on cabbage (Brassica oleracea ssp.) and the delivery of the provisioning services Productivity, Product Quality (grade and pest injury in cabbage products), and Yield Stability across different companion species, spatio-temporal configurations, and management practices. We identified 76 studies from all inhabited continents across 81 field sites, comprising 892 data records, of which 689 remained after cleaning. We show that intercropping reduced cabbage productivity (−7% on average, P < 0.05) but also pest injury (−48%, P < 0.001) relative to sole cabbage systems. Cabbage grade on the contrary was not significantly improved by intercropping (+1%, P = 0.71). Effects on yield stability varied widely as only few data records were available from trials conducted over more than two years, pointing to the need for longer-term experimentation. Greater productivity was associated with companion species with a low growth habit or types sown at or after planting of the cabbage crop thus limiting competition with cabbage at early development stages. The decrease in pest injuries was associated with intercropping patterns involving strong inter-plant interactions (i.e., mixed, row, and additive) and companion species that supported biodiversity such as living mulches. Overall, beneficial effects of intercropping tended to be more evident in organic production systems, possibly because synthetic inputs may have hidden regulating effects. Cabbage growers and agricultural advisors can use these guidelines when designing intercrop systems specific to their needs. Applying the approach to other crops and agro-ecosystem services as part of the proposed meta-analysis relay will foster comprehensive understanding of vegetable intercropping systems interactions

Feminist Critiques of GIS

Feminist interactions with GIS started in the 1990s in the form of strong critiques against GIS inspired by feminist and postpositivist theories. Those critiques mainly highlighted a supposed epistemological dissonance between GIS and feminist scholarship. GIS was accused of being shaped by positivist and masculinist epistemologies, especially due to its emphasis on vision as the principal way of knowing. In addition, feminist critiques claimed that GIS was largely incompatible with positionality and reflexivity, two core concepts of feminist theory. Feminist critiques of GIS also discussed power issues embedded in GIS practices, including the predominance of men in the early days of the GIS industry and the development of GIS practices for the military and surveillance purposes.At the beginning of the 21st century, feminist geographers reexamined those critiques and argued against an inherent epistemological incompatibility between GIS methods and feminist scholarship. They advocated for a reappropriation of GIS by feminist scholars in the form of critical feminist GIS practices. The critical GIS perspective promotes an unorthodox, reconstructed, and emancipatory set of GIS practices by critiquing dominant approaches of knowledge production, implementing GIS in critically informed progressive social research, and developing postpositivist techniques of GIS. Inspired by those debates, feminist scholars did reclaim GIS and effectively developed feminist GIS practices

LA CONTRACEPTION A TRAVERS LES AGES, EVOLUTION ET INFLUENCE DES FACTEURS SOCIOLOGIQUES

NANTES-BU Médecine pharmacie (441092101) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocSudocFranceF

Quelle première contraception orale estroprogestative chez la femme de moins de 35 ans

En 1992 quatre millions de femmes utilisaient une contraception orale. Celle ci est un motif fréquent de consultation chez le médecin généraliste qui doit choisir parmi une grande panoplie de pilules. Nous avons réalisé une revue de la littérature pour aborder la question quelle contraception orale estroprogestative choisir en première intention chez la femme de moins de 35 ans sans contre-indication. Le premier contraceptif oral estroprogestatif a été disponible en France en 1961, depuis la panoplie thérapeutique s'est agrandie. Nous avons examiné les articles parus sur l'efficacité contraceptive, les risques cardiovasculaires ( comprenant les thromboses veineuses profondes, l'infarctus aigu du myocarde, les accidents cérébrovasculaires ), le risque de cancer et la tolérance clinique . Nous avons retrouvé peu d'études et celles recensées n'étaient le plus souvent que d'un niveau de preuve 2. Afin d'aboutir à un grade de recommandation A basé sur un niveau de preuve 1 il faut réaliser d'autres études sur les effets des différents dosages en éthinylestradiol et les différents progestatifs des contraceptifs oraux estroprogestatifs.NANTES-BU Médecine pharmacie (441092101) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocSudocFranceF