Facteurs de risque de démence dans une population de personnes âgées sénégalaises

Description La démence est devenue un problème de santé publique. Dans le but d’une prévention, il est important de connaitre son épidémiologie au Sénégal. L’objectif de cette étude était d’identifier les facteurs de risque de démence dans une population de personnes âgées sénégalaises. MéthodesUne étude transversale a été réalisée du 01 Mars 2004 au 31 Décembre 2005 auprès d’une population de 872 personnes âgées de 55ans et plus utilisant le Centre Médicosocial et Universitaire de l’Institut de Prévoyance Retraite du Sénégal pour des soins. Par une étude en deux phases, des données sociodémographiques, sur le mode de vie, le réseau social, les antécédents ont été collectées à l’aide d’un questionnaire structuré complété par un examen clinique et une évaluation neuropsychologique. Le diagnostic de démence reposait sur des critères DSM IV-R

Caractérisation agropédologique des sols de mboltime dans la zone des niayes (Sénégal)

L'objectif de cette étude était de faire une évaluation de la fertilité physico-chimique de différents sols du village de Mboltime et de déterminer les similarités relatives. Les horizons de cinq fosses pédologiques (P1 , P2, P3, P4 et P5) ouvertes dans les zones dunaires et inter-dunaires ont servi à cet effet. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que les horizons de surface sont sableux à sablo-limoneux avec des pH et conductivité électrique variant selon les profils et les horizons. Seul le profil P4 a montré des sols acides et salés au niveau des horizons P4H1, P4H3 et P4H5. Les autres profils ont montré des sols neutres à légèrement alcalins et non salins. Les teneurs en matière organique et azote total ont été assez faibles dans les profils 1, 2, 3 et 5, et moyens dans le profil 4 avec un rapport C/N variant de 2,72 à 16,50. Les teneurs en Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ et K+ varient suivant le C et N. Le cation le plus abondant dans les sols a été le Ca2+; suivi du Mg2+ et du Na+ alors que K+ a été le cation le moins abondant. L'analyse factorielle des correspondances (AFC) a permis de mettre en évidence deux groupes de sols en fonction de la salinité et de l'acidité. Un groupe I constitué de sols très salins et un groupe II constitué de sols non salins. Cette étude a mis en évidence deux contraintes majeures à la production végétale dans le village de Mboltime que sont la salinité et l'acidité des sols.Mots clés : Sol, Profil pédologique, Niayes, salinite ; Sénégal AGROPEDOLOGICAL CARACTERIZATION OF MBOLTIME SOILS IN NIAYES AREA (SENEGAL)The objective of this study was to evaluate physico - chemical properties of different soils from Mboltime village and relevant similarities. Horizons of five soil profiles (P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5) in the dune and inter-dune areaswere used for that purpose. The results showed variance in topsoil contents of sand with silt- loam, pH and electric conductivity according to the  profiles. Only the P4 profile presents acid and salty soil to the level asof horizons P4H1, P4H3 and P4H5. The other profiles presented neutral to slightly alkaline soil pH with limited salinity. The soil contents of organic matter, and total nitrogen were rather weak in the profiles 1, 2, 3 and 5, and moderate in profile 4. The C/N ratio values varied from 2.72 to 16.50 while soil contents of Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+ variations were according to C and N. The most abundant cations in land was Ca2+; followed by Mg2+, Na+ and K+ was the least abundant cationin soils. The factorial  correspondence analysis (FCA) showed two groups of soil according to  salinity and acidity mainly depending to high and low salinity respectively. This study showed two major constraints to land productivity in the village of Mboltime which are the salinity and the acidity of soils.Keywords : Soil, soil profile, salinity, Niayes, Senega

Success of Senegal's first nationwide distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets to children under five - contribution toward universal coverage

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In 2009, the first national long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLIN) distribution campaign in Senegal resulted in the distribution of 2.2 million LLINs in two phases to children aged 6-59 months. Door-to-door teams visited all households to administer vitamin A and mebendazole, and to give a coupon to redeem later for an LLIN.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A nationwide community-based two-stage cluster survey was conducted, with clusters selected within regions by probability proportional to size sampling, followed by GPS-assisted mapping, simple random selection of households in each cluster, and administration of a questionnaire using personal digital assistants (PDAs). The questionnaire followed the Malaria Indicator Survey format, with rosters of household members and bed nets, and questions on campaign participation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 3,280 households in 112 clusters representing 33,993 people. Most (92.1%) guardians of eligible children had heard about the campaign, the primary sources being health workers (33.7%), neighbours (26.2%), and radio (22.0%). Of eligible children, 82.4% received mebendazole, 83.8% received vitamin A, and 75.4% received LLINs. Almost all (91.4%) LLINs received during the campaign remained in the household; of those not remaining, 74.4% had been given away and none were reported sold. At least one insecticide-treated net (ITN) was present in 82.3% of all households, 89.2% of households with a child < 5 years and 57.5% of households without a child < 5 years. Just over half (52.4%) of ITNs had been received during the campaign. Considering possible indicators of universal coverage, 39.8% of households owned at least one ITN per two people, 21.6% owned at least one ITN per sleeping space and 34.7% of the general population slept under an ITN the night before the survey. In addition, 45.6% of children < 5 years, and 49.2% of pregnant women had slept under an ITN.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The nationwide integrated LLIN distribution campaign allowed household ITN ownership of one or more ITNs to surpass the RBM target of 80% set for 2010, though additional distribution strategies are needed to reach populations missed by the targeted campaign and to reach the universal coverage targets of one ITN per sleeping space and 80% of the population using an ITN.</p

Electron Accumulation and Emergent Magnetism in LaMnO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures

Emergent phenomena at polar-nonpolar oxide interfaces have been studied intensely in pursuit of next-generation oxide electronics and spintronics. Here we report the disentanglement of critical thicknesses for electron reconstruction and the emergence of ferromagnetism in polar-mismatched LaMnO3/SrTiO3 (001) heterostructures. Using a combination of element-specific X-ray absorption spectroscopy and dichroism, and first-principles calculations, interfacial electron accumulation and ferromagnetism have been observed within the polar, antiferromagnetic insulator LaMnO3. Our results show that the critical thickness for the onset of electron accumulation is as thin as 2 unit cells (UC), significantly thinner than the observed critical thickness for ferromagnetism of 5 UC. The absence of ferromagnetism below 5 UC is likely induced by electron over-accumulation. In turn, by controlling the doping of the LaMnO3, we are able to neutralize the excessive electrons from the polar mismatch in ultrathin LaMnO3 films and thus enable ferromagnetism in films as thin as 3 UC, extending the limits of our ability to synthesize and tailor emergent phenomena at interfaces and demonstrating manipulation of the electronic and magnetic structures of materials at the shortest length scales.Comment: Accepted by Phys. Rev. Let

Stability of Mine Car Motion in Curves of Invariable and Variable Radii

We discuss our experiences adapting three recent algorithms for maximum common (connected) subgraph problems to exploit multi-core parallelism. These algorithms do not easily lend themselves to parallel search, as the search trees are extremely irregular, making balanced work distribution hard, and runtimes are very sensitive to value-ordering heuristic behaviour. Nonetheless, our results show that each algorithm can be parallelised successfully, with the threaded algorithms we create being clearly better than the sequential ones. We then look in more detail at the results, and discuss how speedups should be measured for this kind of algorithm. Because of the difficulty in quantifying an average speedup when so-called anomalous speedups (superlinear and sublinear) are common, we propose a new measure called aggregate speedup

20/20 Vision - What does the next 20 years hold for citizenship education?

Citizenship is a feeling, status and practice. It is essentially about living together and working to transform society towards greater democracy and social justice. It is a curriculum space shared by educational movements for human rights, political literacy, sustainable development, peace and equalities. Implementing this synthesis of politics, philosophy, sociology, law and international relations is an adventure in curriculum development. I identify three periods of Citizenship in England, analysing opportunities and significant and severe threats now and in the future

Transforming climate science into usable services: The effectiveness of co-production in promoting uptake of climate information by smallholder farmers in Senegal

Does the provision of weather and climate information services (WCIS) enhance farmer’s use of forecasts in informing farm decisions? This paper assesses the effectiveness of the Multi-disciplinary Working Group (MWG) – a WCIS co-production initiative in Senegal in influencing farmers uptake of weather and climate information (WCI). WCIS are increasingly gaining importance and widely touted as critical in helping farmers adapt to climate variability. While there have been various WCIS initiatives producing and translating climate data into tailored information and knowledge in different parts of the world, there is hardly any rigorous evidence assessing their effectiveness in improving uptake. In this assessment, we use innovative survey methods and apply rigorous analytical approaches that control for self-selection bias to establish causal linkages between the MWG and use of WCIS. Our findings indicate that MWGs are positively associated with farmers’ awareness, access and uptake of WCI resulting in farm management responses depending on the type of information used. The presence of MWGs generally increases farmer’s awareness of WCI by 18%, access by 12% and uptake by 10%. Furthermore, use of seasonal forecasts is generally associated with a higher proportion of farmers using improved seed, fertilizers and manure, but negatively with crop diversification within MWG locations. This suggests that participatory approaches in the provision of tailored climate information and advisory services can lead to higher uptake and use among farmers in informing farm management responses for better adaptation to climate change. We highlight lessons for improved evaluations of WCIS in future