Prune belly syndrome: a South African perspective

Background: Prune belly syndrome (PBS) is a rare congenital disorder with a triad of signs: absent abdominal wall musculature, urinary tract malformations, and cryptorchidism. The aims of this study were to describe the epidemiology, renal function, management and outcome of patients with PBS at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa.Methods: A retrospective record review was conducted of patients with PBS referred to the paediatric nephrology unit from 1984 to 2014.Results: A total of 44 patient records were analysed. Most of the patients presented as neonates (n = 35, 80%). The accompanying congenital malformations included urological problems (21, 48%), orthopaedic abnormalities (5, 11%), congenital heart disease (3, 7%) and gastrointestinal abnormalities (2, 4%). The medical management included the use of prophylactic antibiotics and intermittent bladder catheterisation. Surgical management included abdominoplasty with orchidopexy and circumcision. At the last clinic visit, severe reductions in renal function were noted in 11 (58%) of the patients under the age of 2 years, whereas normal renal function was present in 14 (56%) of the patients over 2 years of age. The default rate was 57%; 6 (14%) patients were transferred to an adult clinic and 2 (4%) patients died.Conclusions: The patient profiles and the management recorded are comparable with other reported series. There are differences in the frequencies of congenital malformations and the rates of surgical intervention. The renal outcome for children older than two years was favourable compared to younger children. Progression to end-stage renal disease was observed infrequently, but this may be underestimated in view of the high default rate

Strengthening Knowledge Co-Production Capacity: Examining Interest in Community-University Partnerships.

Building successful, enduring research partnerships is essential for improving links between knowledge and action to address sustainability challenges. Communication research can play a critical role in fostering more effective research partnerships, especially those concerned with knowledge co-production processes. This article focuses on community-university research partnerships and factors that influence participation in the co-production process. We identify specific pathways for improving partnership development through a prospective analytical approach that examines community officials’ interest in partnering with university researchers. Using survey responses from a statewide sample of Maine municipal officials, we conduct a statistical analysis of community-university partnership potential to test a conceptual model of partnership interest grounded in natural resource management theory and environmental communication. Our findings both support and advance prior research on collaborations. Results reveal that belief in the helpfulness of the collaborator to solve problems, institutional proximity, familiarity, perceived problem severity and problem type and trust influence interest in developing community-university partnerships. These findings underscore the benefits of proactively assessing partnership potential prior to forming partnerships and the important roles for communication research within sustainability science, especially with regard to strengthening partnership formation and knowledge co-production processes

Communication and sustainability science teams as complex systems

Communication is essential to resilience, as interactions among humans influence how social-ecological systems (SES) respond to change. Our research focuses on how specific communication interactions on sustainability science teams, such as how people meet with each other; the ways in which they categorize themselves and others; the decision-making models they use; and their communication competencies affect outcomes. We describe research from a two-year study of communication in Maine\u27s Sustainability Solutions Initiative, a statewide network of sustainability science teams. Our results demonstrate that decision making and communication competencies influenced mutual understanding, inclusion of diverse ideas, and progress toward sustainability-related goals. We discuss our results in light of key resilience themes and conclude with recommendations for communication design in sustainability teams for improved collaborative process and outcomes

Analyzing the Impacts of Natural Environments on Launch and Landing Availability for NASA's Eploration Systems Development Programs

NASA is developing new capabilities for human and scientific exploration beyond Earth orbit. Natural environments information is an important asset for NASA's development of the next generation space transportation system as part of the Exploration Systems Development Program, which includes the Space Launch System (SLS) and MultiPurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Programs. Natural terrestrial environment conditions - such as wind, lightning and sea states - can affect vehicle safety and performance during multiple mission phases ranging from prelaunch ground processing to landing and recovery operations, including all potential abort scenarios. Space vehicles are particularly sensitive to these environments during the launch/ascent and the entry/landing phases of mission operations. The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Natural Environments Branch provides engineering design support for NASA space vehicle projects and programs by providing design engineers and mission planners with natural environments definitions as well as performing custom analyses to help characterize the impacts the natural environment may have on vehicle performance. One such analysis involves assessing the impact of natural environments to operational availability. Climatological time series of operational surface weather observations are used to calculate probabilities of meeting or exceeding various sets of hypothetical vehicle-specific parametric constraint thresholds

Analyzing the Impacts of Natural Environments on Launch and Landing Availability for NASA's Exploration Systems Development Programs

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing new capabilities for human and scientific exploration beyond Earth orbit. Natural environments information is an important asset for NASA's development of the next generation space transportation system as part of the Exploration Systems Development (ESD) Programs, which includes the Space Launch System (SLS) and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Programs. Natural terrestrial environment conditions - such as wind, lightning and sea states - can affect vehicle safety and performance during multiple mission phases ranging from pre-launch ground processing to landing and recovery operations, including all potential abort scenarios. Space vehicles are particularly sensitive to these environments during the launch/ascent and the entry/landing phases of mission operations. The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Natural Environments Branch provides engineering design support for NASA space vehicle projects and programs by providing design engineers and mission planners with natural environments definitions as well as performing custom analyses to help characterize the impacts the natural environment may have on vehicle performance. One such analysis involves assessing the impact of natural environments to operational availability. Climatological time series of operational surface weather observations are used to calculate probabilities of meeting/exceeding various sets of hypothetical vehicle-specific parametric constraint thresholds. Outputs are tabulated by month and hour of day to show both seasonal and diurnal variation. This paper will discuss how climate analyses are performed by the MSFC Natural Environments Branch to support the ESD Launch Availability (LA) Technical Performance Measure (TPM), the SLS Launch Availability due to Natural Environments TPM, and several MPCV (Orion) launch and landing availability analyses - including the 2014 Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission

Transdisciplinary research partnerships in sustainability science: an examination of stakeholder participation preferences

Sustaining coupled natural and human systems requires multiple forms of knowledge, experiences, values, and resources be brought into conversation to address sustainability challenges. Transdisciplinary research partnerships provide the opportunity to meet this requirement by bringing together interdisciplinary scientists with stakeholders in some or all stages of the knowledge production process. However, building partnerships to produce sustainability outcomes is a complex process requiring an understanding of the social psychological and contextual variables impacting partnerships. Here, we explore local government officials’ (LGOs’) preferences for participation in these partnerships. Using data from a statewide survey, we develop a theoretically and empirically derived model to test the relationship between a suite of factors and LGOs’ preferred transdisciplinary partnership style. We find collaboration preferences are influenced by LGOs’ confidence that researchers can help solve problems, experience with researchers, the severity and type of problem(s) occurring in the community, and partner trust. Assessing stakeholder partnership expectations may assist partners with co-designing flexible research processes that address collaboration expectations, foster dialog and social learning among project partners, and that increase the potential of research to influence change

Reproductive Health Supplies in Six Countries: Themes and Entry Points in Policies, Systems and Funding in Bangladesh, Ghana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Reproductive Health Supplies in Six Countries: Themes and Entry Points in Policies, Systems and Funding, identifies the challenges faced by reproductive health programs in Bangladesh, Ghana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Uganda. Funding constraints, combined with a weak commitment to prioritize the purchase of reproductive health supplies on the side of the recipient countries and a limited capacity for distribution, have created an unstable environment for supplies worldwide. The report, and its six associated case studies, calls for renewed attention to reproductive health supplies to avoid putting the health of millions of women at risk

Access to In-Patient Stroke Services and Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) Rehabilitation: Current Demands and Capacity.

The objective of this project was to analyse the current access to in-patient stroke services and MDT rehabilitation in an acute stroke centre and to compare these services to the recommended “National Clinical Guidelines and Recommendations for the Care of People with Stroke and TIA” (IHF 2010). A retrospective chart review was carried out, recording activity statistics of all patients admitted with acute stroke over a three-month period. 73 patients (male=40, 54.8%) were included. Patients were discharged from the stroke service after a mean stay of 20.2 days (SD.= 19.3). 76.7% (N=56) of patients were admitted to the acute stroke unit (ASU). The mean length of time from admission to first assessment 3.4 days (SD.=2.68), with an average of 138 minutes of treatment received per day across all disciplines. This is compared to the IHF’s recommendation of patients being assessed within 24-48 hours of admission and receiving 180 minutes of treatment across all disciplines. As demands for stroke MDT services increase, it is important to recognise the benefits of increasing staff and resources to maintain and continue to improve standards of care

Anti-HTLV antibody profiling reveals an antibody signature for HTLV-I-Associated Myelopathy/Tropical Spastic Paraparesis (HAM/TSP)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>HTLV-I is the causal agent of adult T cell leukemia (ATLL) and HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). Biomarkers are needed to diagnose and/or predict patients who are at risk for HAM/TSP or ATLL. Therefore, we investigated using luciferase immunoprecipitation technology (LIPS) antibody responses to seven HTLV-I proteins in non-infected controls, asymptomatic HTLV-I-carriers, ATLL and HAM/TSP sera samples. Antibody profiles were correlated with viral load and examined in longitudinal samples.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Anti-GAG antibody titers detected by LIPS differentiated HTLV-infected subjects from uninfected controls with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity, but did not differ between HTLV-I infected subgroups. However, anti-Env antibody titers were over 4-fold higher in HAM/TSP compared to both asymptomatic HTLV-I (<it>P </it>< 0.0001) and ATLL patients (<it>P </it>< 0.0005). Anti-Env antibody titers above 100,000 LU had 75% positive predictive value and 79% negative predictive value for identifying the HAM/TSP sub-type. Anti-Tax antibody titers were also higher (<it>P </it>< 0.0005) in the HAM/TSP compared to the asymptomatic HTLV-I carriers. Proviral load correlated with anti-Env antibodies in asymptomatic carriers (<it>R </it>= 0.76), but not in HAM/TSP.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These studies indicate that anti-HTLV-I antibody responses detected by LIPS are useful for diagnosis and suggest that elevated anti-Env antibodies are a common feature found in HAM/TSP patients.</p

X-ray Periodicity in AGN

Significant (marginal) detections of periodic signals have been recently reported in 3 (4) Active Galactic Nuclei. Three of the detections were obtained from long EUVE light curves of moderate-luminosity Seyfert galaxies; the fourth was discovered in Chandra data from the low-luminosity Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4395. When compared with Cyg X-1, I find that the period is related to the luminosity as $P\propto L^{2/3}$ rather than the expected one-to-one relationship. This result might be explained if the QPO is associated with the inner edge of the optically thick accretion disk, and the inner edge radius depends on the source luminosity (or black hole mass). A discussion of uncertainties in the period detection methodology is also discussed.Comment: To appear in From X-ray Binaries to Quasars: Black Hole Accretion on All Mass Scales, eds. T. J. Maccarone, R. P. Fender, and L. C. Ho (Dordrecht: Kluwer