Women's Intention to Prevent Vesico Vaginal Fistula Recurrence in Two Repair Centres in Zambia

Objective: The study purpose was to determine the association between intention to prevent Vesico-Vaginal Fistula recurrence and knowledge of the risk factors of Vesico Vaginal Fistula recurrence, attitude towards Vesico Vaginal Fistula prevention and self esteem among women with Vesico-Vaginal Fistula in two repair centers in Zambia.Design: This was a descriptive cross sectional correlational study in which data were obtained through the structured interview schedule.Main Outcomes: Vesico vaginal fistula has been recognized as a preventable tragedy and a challenge in areas where access to health care with emergency obstetric care is poor. The situation is getting worse among women, and the key to ending fistula is to prevent it.Measures: The Ministry of Health need to introduce waiting homes in hospitals with emergency obstetric care so that repaired women with VVF can wait for delivery. The MOH needs to support community sensitization orpublic education on attitudes towards Vesico vaginal fistula prevention which will in turn improve intentions to prevent Vesico vaginal fistula  recurrence. Management at katete and Chilonga mission hospitalsshould ensure that counseling services are intensified to women with a repaired VVF so as to prevent recurrence. Antenatal clinics should be used as an opportunity for teaching Vesico Vaginal fistula since the study findingreview that 45% of the respondents did not know the risk factors of recurrence.Results: Majority of the respondents (97%) had positive intentions to prevent VesicoVaginal Fistula recurrence. More than half of the respondents (55%) knew the risk factors of VVF recurrence, 61% had positive attitudes towards Vesico Vaginal Fistula prevention and 52% had low level of self esteem. There was a significant positive relationship between intentionto prevent Vesico Vaginal Fistula recurrence and attitude towards Vesico Vaginal Fistula prevention and a significant negative relationship between intention to prevent Vesico Vaginal Fistula recurrence and self esteem. Knowledge of the risk factors of Vesico vaginal fistula recurrence was not significant. Using multiple regressions, attitude and self esteem were significant explaining 15% of the variance in intention to preventVVF recurrence.Conclusion: Vesico vaginal fistula is a very unpleasant experience for women. Corrective measures have been started by UNFPA but these need to be strengthened. There is need for innovation to consider other solutions that has not been tried before. This is important in order to prevent recurrence of Vesico vaginal fistula among repaired women in subsequent pregnancies

Pre-operative bladder irrigation with 1% Povidone iodine in reducing open prostatectomy surgical site infection (SSI) at university teaching hospital, Lusaka

Purpose: The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of using preoperative bladder irrigation with 1% povidone iodine in reducing post transvesical prostatectomy surgical site infections. Study design: This was a prospective randomized cohort study with blinding of patients and outcome adjudicator regarding group assignments.Methodology: One hundred and thirty patients were recruited from the waiting list of Urology unit II in the department of surgery during the period between July 2011 to December 2012. The non-probability convenience sampling technique was used. Any consenting patient who presented to the department of surgery for open prostatectomy and fulfills the inclusion criteria was selected. The patients were randomly allocated to each of the two groups. Each group had 65 patients. Patients in the study group had their bladder irrigated with 1% 50cc povidoneiodine which was drained upon opening the bladder followed by enucleating the adenomatous prostate gland. Hemostasis was ensured and a 3 way Foley's catheter inserted via the urethral into the bladder and ballooned appropriately for draining and irrigation. The bladder was sutured in 2 layers using 0 or 1 chromic catgut. In the control group povidone-iodine was not used. Both groups received pre-operative antibiotics 30 minutes before incision and post-operative for 5 days. Pre-operative, intraoperative and post-operative data were collected on a standardized data collection forms. Post-operative irrigation was done for 9 to 12 days after which the catheter was removed as an outpatient. Patients were followed up in the urological clinic at 1 week, 2weeks and at 4 weeks post-operatively to assess whether they had developed surgical site infections according to CDC guidelines. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 16.Results: The patients mean age was 71.1 in the control group and 71.4 in the study group with no statistically significant difference (t=0.318; p=0.75; df=126.89). The overall surgical infection rate was 16.2%. In the control group 15 out of 65 patients (23.1%) developed SSIs. While in the study group 6 out of 65 patients (9.2%) developed SSIs. The difference in the rates of SSI between the two groups was statistically significant (÷²; p<0.05; df=126.89) Escherichia coli was the most predominant organism 13/37 (35%), streptococcus 7/37 (18.9), Citrobacter koseri 5/37 (13.5%), Klebsiella sp 4/37 (10.8%). Escherichia coli, Streptococcus and Citrobacter were sensitive to ciprofloxacin; Pantoea agglomerans was sensitive to ceftazidime while Staphylococcus coagulase was sensitive to imipenem. Enterobacter cloace was resistant to all antibiotics used.Conclusion: The study found that irrigating the bladder with 1% povidone-iodine resulted in significant reduction in post prostatectomy surgical site infection, Escherichia coli as the most common causative organism, reduced morbidity and post-operative hospital stay in the povidone iodine group.Key words: Benign prostatic hyperplasia, transvesical prostatectomy, povidone iodine, surgical site infections

How to combine rules and commitment in fostering research integrity?

Research integrity (RI) is crucial for producing research that is trustworthy and of high quality. Rules are important in setting RI standards, improving research practice and fostering responsible research practices. At the same time, rules can lead to increased bureaucracy, which without commensurate increased commitment amongst researchers towards RI is unlikely to lead to more responsible research behavior. In this paper, we explore the question: How can rules and commitment be combined to foster RI? There are three ways that research institutions can govern RI: markets (governing through incentives), hierarchies or bureaucracies (governing through rules), and network processes (governing through commitment and agreement at group level). Based on Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action, we argue that network processes focusing on consensus, as part of the lifeworld, are necessary to legitimize and support systems, i.e. market and bureaucratic modes of governance. We analyze the institutional response to a serious RI case to illustrate how network processes can create a context in which rules can foster RI. Specifically, we analyze how the Science Committee established at Tilburg University in 2012 has navigated and combined different modes of governance to foster RI. Based on this case analysis, we formulate recommendations to research institutions on how to combine rules and commitment

Cytotoxic labdane diterpenes and bisflavonoid atropisomers from leaves of Araucaria bidwillii

K

DNA replication: archaeal oriGINS

GINS is an essential eukaryotic DNA replication factor that is found in a simplified form in Archaea. A new study in this issue of BMC Biology reveals the first structure of the archaeal GINS complex. The structure reveals the anticipated similarity to the previously determined eukaryotic complex but also has some intriguing differences in the relative disposition of subunit domains

Built environment influences commute mode choice in a global south megacity context: Insights from explainable machine learning approach

In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of the built environment (BE) on commuter mode choice using machine learning models in a dense megacity context. We collected 10,150 home-based commuting trips data from Dhaka, Bangladesh. We then utilized three machine learning classifiers to determine the most accurate prediction model for predicting the mode of transportation chosen for commuting in Dhaka. Based on the predictive performance of the classifiers, we identified that the Random Forest (RF) algorithm performed the best. Using the RF model, this study also explored the relative importance of BE factors in predicting commute mode choice, identified nonlinear relationships between the BE factors and mode choice, and examined the interaction effects of these factors on mode selection. Our results reveal that, compared to socio-demographic factors, the BE substantially influence commuter travel behavior. The BE characteristics have a specific nonlinear threshold limit at which they can have a notable impact on lowering private car use, and private car use does not display a constant return of scale with BE. Their interaction effects illustrate the potential optimal combination of BE interventions to lower private car use for commuting. These findings hold substantial implications for urban environmental policy, emphasizing the need for transit-oriented development, travel demand management, and integrated land-use transportation planning to foster low-carbon transportation systems in cities like Dhaka

Waterpipe (narghile) smoking among medical and non-medical university students in Turkey

Objectives. This investigation was performed in order to determine the prevalence rate of waterpipe smoking in students of Erciyes University and the effects of some socio-demographic factors

Cmr1/WDR76 defines a nuclear genotoxic stress body linking genome integrity and protein quality control

DNA replication stress is a source of genomic instability. Here we identify ​changed mutation rate 1 (​Cmr1) as a factor involved in the response to DNA replication stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and show that ​Cmr1—together with ​Mrc1/​Claspin, ​Pph3, the chaperonin containing ​TCP1 (CCT) and 25 other proteins—define a novel intranuclear quality control compartment (INQ) that sequesters misfolded, ubiquitylated and sumoylated proteins in response to genotoxic stress. The diversity of proteins that localize to INQ indicates that other biological processes such as cell cycle progression, chromatin and mitotic spindle organization may also be regulated through INQ. Similar to ​Cmr1, its human orthologue ​WDR76 responds to proteasome inhibition and DNA damage by relocalizing to nuclear foci and physically associating with CCT, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved biological function. We propose that ​Cmr1/​WDR76 plays a role in the recovery from genotoxic stress through regulation of the turnover of sumoylated and phosphorylated proteins

Operationalising learning from rare events: framework for middle humanitarian operations managers

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the learning from rare events and the knowledge management processinvolved, which presents a significant challenge to many organizations. This is primarily attributed to the inability tointerpret these events in a systematic and “rich” manner, which this paper seeks to address. We start by summarizing therelevant literature on humanitarian operations management (HOM), outlining the evolution of the socio-technical disasterlifecycle and its relationship with humanitarian operations, using a supply chain resilience theoretical lens. We then out-line theories of organizational learning (and unlearning) from disasters and the impact on humanitarian operations. Subse-quently, we theorize the role of middle managers in humanitarian operations, which is the main focus of our paper. Themain methodology incorporates a hybrid of two techniques for root cause analysis, applied to two related case studies.The cases were specifically selected as, despite occurring twenty years apart, there are many similarities in the chain ofcausation and supporting factors, potentially suggesting that adequate learning from experience and failures is not occur-ring. This provides a novel learning experience within the HOM paradigm. Hence, the proposed approach is based on amultilevel structure that facilitates the operationalization of learning from rare events in humanitarian operations. Theresults show that we are able to provide an environment for multiple interpretations and effective learning, with emphasison middle managers within a humanitarian operations and crisis/disaster management context

MCM2 - a promising marker for premalignant lesions of the lung: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: Because cells progressing to cancer must proliferate, marker proteins specific to proliferating cells may permit detection of premalignant lesions. Here we compared the sensitivities of a classic proliferation marker, Ki-67, with a new proliferation marker, MCM2, in 41 bronchial biopsy specimens representing normal mucosa, metaplasia, dysplasia, and carcinoma in situ. METHODS: Parallel sections were stained with antibodies against MCM2 and Ki-67, and the frequencies of staining were independently measured by two investigators. Differences were evaluated statistically using the two-sided correlated samples t-test and Wilcoxon rank sum test. RESULTS: For each of the 41 specimens, the average frequency of staining by anti-MCM2 (39%) was significantly (p < 0.001) greater than by anti-Ki-67 (16%). In metaplastic lesions anti-MCM2 frequently detected cells near the epithelial surface, while anti-Ki-67 did not. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that MCM2 is detectable in 2-3 times more proliferating premalignant lung cells than is Ki-67. The promise of MCM2 as a sensitive marker for premalignant lung cells is enhanced by the fact that it is present in cells at the surface of metaplastic lung lesions, which are more likely to be exfoliated into sputum. Future studies will determine if use of anti-MCM2 makes possible sufficiently early detection to significantly enhance lung cancer survival rates