Book Review: "From soldiers to citizens: Demilitarization of conflict and society"

Book review: From soldiers to citizens: Demilitarization of conflict and societyJoão Gomes Porto, Chris Alden and Imogen Parsons 2007Aldershot. Ashgate, 192 pp.ISBN 978-0-7546-7210-

Rest-stops as a planning engineering option to fatigue

Road accidents on the Kenyan roads claim about 3,000 lives annually. It isestimated that the economy further looses approximately Ksh. 14 billion or 5 % of its gross domestic product too on accident related expenses (MoTC, 2004). However, this intractable problem persists amidst efforts to introduce measures including enforcement to use seatbelts and insertion of speed-governors. In an effort to understand some of the underlying causes, this study examined travellers’ perception of fatigue as a  contributor to crashes. Both empirical and exploratory research  methodology was used to capture the opinions of the road users and to get statistical information by carrying out a survey of 715 road- users on  Mombasa Road. The results showed the occurrence of fatigue to be a major cause of 87 %, 83 % and 82 % of the nodding off, exhaustion and yawning experienced respectively by passengers. Similar results were reported for drivers. The effects of fatigue were attributed to poor road conditions by 76 % and long periods of sitting by 64 % of the passengers interviewed. To counter fatigue effects, 72 % and 79 % of the private car and truck drivers respectively stopped to relax at petrol stations. The use of open countryside was cited by 53 % of the passengers interviewed as an alternative place to stop. The results underscore the need to devise effective measures that will relieve fatigue but at the same time be environmentally sound. Indeed well planned rest-stops by location,  proximity to urban centres, at black spots and near scenic viewing points can provide avenues to re-energize and provide an escape from driving under hazardous conditions and also be used as a point to enjoy the special characters of region.Key words: Crash, fatigue, rest-stops, Mombasa Roa

Polarized vector boson scattering in the fully leptonic WZ and ZZ channels at the LHC

Isolating the scattering of longitudinal weak bosons at the LHC is an important tool to probe the ElectroWeak Symmetry Breaking mechanism. Separating polarizations of $W$ and $Z$ bosons is complicated, because of non resonant contributions and interference effects. Additional care is necessary when considering $Z$ bosons, due to the $\gamma/Z$ mixing in the coupling to charged leptons. We propose a method to define polarized signals in $Z\!Z$ and $W^+\!Z$ scattering at the LHC, which relies on the separation of weak boson polarizations at the amplitude level in Monte Carlo simulations. After validation in the absence of lepton cuts, we investigate how polarized distributions are affected by a realistic set of kinematic cuts (and neutrino reconstruction, when needed). The total and differential polarized cross sections computed at the amplitude level are well defined, and their sum reproduces the full results, up to non negligible but computable interference effects which should be included in experimental analyses. We show that polarized cross sections computed using the reweighting method are inaccurate, particularly at large energies. We also present two procedures which address the model independent extraction of polarized components from LHC data, using Standard Model angular distribution templates.Comment: version published in JHE

Bipolar disorder and peripartum mood episodes: Epidemiology and clinical correlates

INTRODUCTION: It is known that the peripartum period is a high-risk period of recurrence in bipolar disorder (BD). However, data on correlations between reproductive life events, such as age at menarche and peripartum period, are mixed in BD. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this retrospective study are to investigate the lifetime rate of peripartum mood episodes, the clinical correlates and the relationship between age at menarche and peripartum episode in a sample of women with BD. METHODS: The study focused on comparisons between women with vs. without peripartum mood episodes (n = 292). Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics between women with vs without BD peripartum episode were examined through descriptive statistics.Adjusted logistic regression analysis was run to examine the association between variables. RESULTS: In our sample, 30% had at least one BD peripartum episode. Women with peripartum episode had significantly earlier age at menarche, earlier onset of BD and longer duration of untreated disorder compared to women without peripartum episode. After adjustment, the late menarche (>15 years) was associated with lower probability of BD episodes during the peripartum period compared to normal menarche (12-14 years). CONCLUSIONS: Peripartum mood episodes are common in BD and are correlated with early onset of BD and long duration of untreated disorder. Moreover, age at menarche may be related to the risk of peripartum mood episodes. The results deserve to be deepened in further studies

A Five Year Review OF API20E Bacteria Identification System’s Performance at a Teaching Hospital

Objectives: To assess the performance of the API20E bacteria  identification system at a teaching hospital in Kenya.Design: Retrospective study.Setting: The microbiology laboratoryoratory of the Aga Khan University teaching Hospital.Subjects: One thousand six hundred and fifty eight API20E records.Main outcome measures: The accuracy in identifying the bacteria species.Results: One thousand four hundred and forty two (87.6%) isolates had the exact identity, 199 (12%) nearest identity, and seven (0.4%) no identity. The performance varied among the species; Acinetobacter baumanii had 140 (99.3%) isolates with the exact identity and only one (0.7%) with the nearest identity compared with Aeromonas hydrophila which had five (17.2%) with exact and 24 (82.8%) with nearest.Conclusions: The API20E system is a robust bacteria identification method which can serve small and medium clinical microbiology laboratoryoratories that may not afford automated systems. Adhering to the manufacturer’s instructions and good laboratoryoratory practice can improve the  performance of this method

Maximum temperature and solar radiation as predictors of bipolar patient admission in an emergency psychiatric ward

Environmental variables can regulate behavior in healthy subjects. Recently, some authors investigated the role of meteorological variables in bipolar patients with an impact on both the onset and course of bipolar disorder (BD). The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of meteorological variables and other indexes in bipolar hospitalized patients. We examined all patients admitted to the Psychiatric Inpatient Unit of San Luigi Gonzaga Hospital, Orbassano (Turin, Italy) from September 2013 to August 2015, collecting several socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Seven hundred and thirty patients were included. Compared to the day of admission of control individuals, patients with BD were admitted on a day that presented higher minimum, medium, and maximum temperature, higher maximum humidity, higher solar radiation, and higher hours of sunshine. After logistic regression analysis, admissions to the emergency psychiatric ward due to a primary diagnosis of BD were associated with maximum temperature and solar radiation. The current study provides a novel perspective on the question surrounding seasonal mood patterns in patients with BD. A greater awareness of all possible precipitating factors is needed to inform self-management and psycho-educational programs as well as to improve resilience regarding affective recurrences in the clinical practice

Measuring gender norms about relationships in early adolescence : results from the global early adolescent study

Introduction: Gender norms are increasingly recognized as drivers of health and wellbeing. While early adolescence constitutes a critical window of development, there is limited understanding about how adolescents perceive gender relations across different cultural settings. This study used a mixed-method approach, grounded in the voices of young people around the world, to construct and test a cross-cultural scale assessing the perceptions of gender norms regulating romantic relationships between boys and girls in early adolescence. Methods: The study draws on the Global Early Adolescent study (GEAS), a study focusing on gender norms and health related outcomes over the course of adolescence in urban poor settings worldwide. In-depth interviews were first conducted among approximately 200 adolescents between 10-14 years in seven sites across 4 continents to identify common scripts guiding romantic relations in early adolescence. These scripts were then transformed into a multidimensional scale. The scale was tested among 120 adolescents in each of 14 GEAS sites, followed by a second pilot among 75 adolescents in six sites. We evaluated the psychometric criteria of each subscale using principal component analysis, and parallel analysis, followed by exploratory factor analysis to guide the selection of a more parsimonious set of items. Results: Results suggested a two-factor structure, consisting of an "adolescent romantic expectations" subscale and a "Sexual Double Standard" subscale. Both subscales yielded high internal validity in each site, with polychoric Cronbach alpha values above 0.70 with the exception of Kinshasa for the adolescent romantic expectations scale (0.64) and Hanoi for the sexual double standard scale (0.61). Conclusion: This study reveals common perceptions of gendered norms about romantic engagement in early adolescence, normative for both sexes, but socially valued for boys while devaluated for girls. The findings illustrate that social hierarchies of power in romantic relationships form early in adolescence, regardless of cultural setting