An assessment of the 'road-to-health' card based on perceptions of clinic staff and mothers

Objectives. To describe the opinions of health personnel and parents at child health clinics in Cape Town; to determine the accuracy and completeness of data recorded on the present 'Road-to-Health' (RTB) card; and to ascertain the views of clinic staff and mothers regarding what information they would like to record.Design. Descriptive prospective study.Setting and subjects. Qualitative interviews of 35 health personnel and 150 mothers/caregivers were conducted at 17 child health clinics. The clinic practices of 32 health personnel were monitored and details of 150 RTH cards were examined.Main outcome measures. Responses of health personnel at public and private child health clinics and of mothers were analysed. Data recorded on the card were extracted under the headings: neonatal data, immunisation schedules, measurements, and weight-for-age chart.Results. Most nurses supported the concept of an RTH card but a large majority recommended that it be replaced with a notebook retained by the mother. A significant proportion of health personnel did not know how to use the weight-for-age chart. Most mothers attending clinics carried the card, but this number dropped for hospital visits and consultations with private doctors. Mothers' understanding of the card was limited. For mothers the weight-for-age chart, immunisation schedule and milestone section are obscure.Conclusion. Health personnel and mothers would like to replace the RTH card with a notebook in the parents' home language. It should contain more information on health matters, adequate space to record weight and infectious diseases, an illustrated milestone chart and an improved schedule for immunisations. Mothers perceived the RTH card as belonging to the clinic and wanted a 'baby's own' document

Acute dehydrating gastro-enteritis undernourished infants

In 80 undernourished infants with acute dehydrating gastro-enteritis a pattern of electr.olyte and metabolic disturbances was found, including acidosis, hyponatraemia and hypokalaemia. Clinical assessment of acidosis and dehydration was reliable in most cases, but electrolyte disturbances, including hypernatraemia, could not be accurately diagnosed. In the majority of infants presenting with dehydrating gastro-enteritis, electrolyte and acid-base investigations are not obligatory. The use of half-strength Oarrow's solution in 2;5% dextrose water, with supplementary intravenous sodium bicarbonate and oral potassium, rapidly corrected the electrolyte and acid-base disturbances. No significant difference resulted when this regimen was modified by variations in the rate, volume or type of intravenous fluid given.S. Afr. Med. J., 48, 1563 (1974

Subtask 3.12 - Small Power Systems

The programmatic goal in advanced power systems is to develop small integrated waste treatment, water purification, and power systems in the range of 20 kW to 20 MW in cooperation with commercial vendors. These systems will be designed to incorporate the advanced technical capabilities of the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) with the latest advancements in vendor-offered hardware and software. The primary objective for the work to be performed under this subtask is to develop a commercialization plan for small power systems, evaluate alternative design concepts, and select practical and economical designs for targeted development in upcoming years. A leading objective for the EERC will be to continue to form strong business partnerships with equipment manufacturers who can commercialize the selected power system and treatment design(s). FY95 activities were focused on collecting information from vendors and evaluating alternative design concepts. This year's activities began with the process of selecting one design for targeted development. A case study was performed to determine if the combination of water and waste treatment with power generation could improve the economics over a stand-alone power generation system

Bell-inequality violation with "thermal" radiation

The model of a quantum-optical device for a conditional preparation of entangled states from input mixed states is presented. It is demonstrated that even thermal or pseudo-thermal radiation can be entangled in such a way, that Bell-inequalities are violated

Consequence of Hawking radiation from 2d dilaton black holes

We investigate the CGHS model through numerical calculation. The behavior of the mass function, which we introduced in our previous work as a ``local mass'', is examined. We found that the mass function takes negative values, which means that the amount of Hawking radiation becomes greater than the initial mass of the black hole as in the case of the RST model.Comment: 17pages, 5 figures (three of them are attached, the other 2 figures are available on request. Some mistakes including typographic errors have been correcte

Thermodynamics of doubly charged CGHS model and D1-D5-KK black holes of IIB supergravity

We study the doubly charged Callan-Giddings-Harvey-Strominger (CGHS) model, which has black hole solutions that were found to be U-dual to the D1-D5-KK black holes of the IIB supergravity. We derive the action of the model via a spontaneous compactification on S^3 of the IIB supergravity on S^1*T^4 and obtain the general static solutions including black holes corresponding to certain non-asymptotically flat black holes in the IIB supergravity. Thermodynamics of them is established by computing the entropy, temperature, chemical potentials, and mass in the two-dimensional setup, and the first law of thermodynamics is explicitly verified. The entropy is in precise agreement with that of the D1-D5-KK black holes, and the mass turns out to be consistent with the infinite Lorentz boost along the M theory circle that is a part of the aforementioned U-dual chain.Comment: 21 pages, Revte

A protocol for developing a complex needs indicator for veterans (CNIV) in the UK

Introduction: The veteran population in the UK has been decreasing, however, there remains a proportion of veterans and their families who continue to experience multiple and complex health, financial, and social needs. The complex problems tend to exacerbate each other and deepen over time if appropriate support is not provided. Identifying the veterans with complex needs is crucial for effective support by military charities and health and social care services. The present research aims to develop a complex needs indicator for the veteran population (CNIV) that will quantify complexity and help to identify the risk of having or developing complex needs. Methods: The development of the CNIV will be informed by the guidance for constructing composite indicators. The data on grant support received by veterans’ beneficiaries from the UK Royal Marine and SSFA charities will be used for designing the indicator and evaluating its robustness. The crucial step in constructing the indicator is assigning weights to different needs and risk factors associated with complex cases. Factor analysis (FA) and analytical network process (ANP) will be used as weighting methods for the analysed variables. Conclusion: The development of CNIV has important implications for research and practice, such as the potential to be used as a screening tool for identifying complex cases, improved provision of the targeted support to veterans, assessing the scope of complex problems among veterans within the country and informing policy makers and a more general audience of the complexity of need within the sector

Doubly charged Higgs from ee-γ\gamma scattering in the 3-3-1 Model

We studied the production and signatures of doubly charged Higgs bosons in the process $\gamma e^- \rightarrow H^{--}E^+$, where $E^+$ is a heavy lepton, at the $e^-e^+$ International Linear Collider (ILC) and CERN Linear Collider (CLIC). The intermediate photons are given by the Weizs$\ddot{a}$cker-Williams and laser backscattering distributions. We found that significant signatures are obtained by bremsstrahlung and backward Comptom scattering of laser. A clear signal can be obtained for doubly charged Higgs bosons, doubly charged gauge bosons and heavy leptons

Expanding and Collapsing Scalar Field Thin Shell

This paper deals with the dynamics of scalar field thin shell in the Reissner-Nordstr$\ddot{o}$m geometry. The Israel junction conditions between Reissner-Nordstr$\ddot{o}$m spacetimes are derived, which lead to the equation of motion of scalar field shell and Klien-Gordon equation. These equations are solved numerically by taking scalar field model with the quadratic scalar potential. It is found that solution represents the expanding and collapsing scalar field shell. For the better understanding of this problem, we investigate the case of massless scalar field (by taking the scalar field potential zero). Also, we evaluate the scalar field potential when $p$ is an explicit function of $R$. We conclude that both massless as well as massive scalar field shell can expand to infinity at constant rate or collapse to zero size forming a curvature singularity or bounce under suitable conditions.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure