De novo stone formation in ureteric stump post-nephrectomy

Introduction: The leftover ureteric stump after a simple nephrectomy is rarely symptomatic. Here, we report a unique case of ureteric stump stones that likely developed de novo and patients became symptomatic. Case Report: We report the case of a 53-year-old female, who had benign right nephrectomy for a non-functioning kidney 17 years ago and presented with three years history of recurrent urinary tract infections and right-side abdominal pain. A continuous unenhanced computed tomography scan confirmed the presence of multiple de novo stones in the leftover ureteric stump, which was successfully treated by an open transperitoneal ureteric stumpectomy. She was asymptomatic at 12 months post-operative follow-up. We describe problems of leftover ureteric stumps and the possible pathophysiology of the stones formation in this group of patients. Conclusion: Albeit rare, various symptoms and complications can develop in the leftover stump, including stumpitis, urinary tract infections, and calculi. Therefore, discussion with patients of ureteric stump complications is recommended

The Concepts of God, Man, and the Environment in Islam: Implications for Islamic Architecture

This paper discusses the concepts of God, man, and the natural environment, as well as some of their implications for Islamic architecture. The paper is divided into eight sections, (1) Introduction: what is Islamic architecture?, (2) Tawhid (God\u27s Oneness), (3) Islam and the role of man on earth, (4) Islam and the environment, (5) The importance of built environment, (6) Peaceful and sustainable coexistence between the environment, architecture and man, (7) The unique soul of Islamic architecture, and (8) Conclusion. The nature of the paper – its content, methodology, and conclusions –, is conceptual and philosophical, rather than empirical. The paper concludes that Islamic architecture is an architecture that through its multidimensionality embodies the message of Islam. It both facilitates the Muslims\u27 realization of the Islamic purpose and its divine principles on earth and promotes a lifestyle generated by such a philosophy and principles. At the core of Islamic architecture lies function with all of its dimensions: corporeal, cerebral and spiritual. The role of the form is an important one too, but only inasmuch as it supplements and enhances function

A Local-Dominance Theory of Voting Equilibria

It is well known that no reasonable voting rule is strategyproof. Moreover, the common Plurality rule is particularly prone to strategic behavior of the voters and empirical studies show that people often vote strategically in practice. Multiple game-theoretic models have been proposed to better understand and predict such behavior and the outcomes it induces. However, these models often make unrealistic assumptions regarding voters' behavior and the information on which they base their vote. We suggest a new model for strategic voting that takes into account voters' bounded rationality, as well as their limited access to reliable information. We introduce a simple behavioral heuristic based on \emph{local dominance}, where each voter considers a set of possible world states without assigning probabilities to them. This set is constructed based on prospective candidates' scores (e.g., available from an inaccurate poll). In a \emph{voting equilibrium}, all voters vote for candidates not dominated within the set of possible states. We prove that these voting equilibria exist in the Plurality rule for a broad class of local dominance relations (that is, different ways to decide which states are possible). Furthermore, we show that in an iterative setting where voters may repeatedly change their vote, local dominance-based dynamics quickly converge to an equilibrium if voters start from the truthful state. Weaker convergence guarantees in more general settings are also provided. Using extensive simulations of strategic voting on generated and real preference profiles, we show that convergence is fast and robust, that emerging equilibria are consistent across various starting conditions, and that they replicate widely known patterns of human voting behavior such as Duverger's law. Further, strategic voting generally improves the quality of the winner compared to truthful voting

VCT uptake and associated factors among teachers from Harari Administrative Region

sector which is vital to the creation of human capital is also equally affected. The loss of skilled and experienced teachers due to the problem is increasingly compromising the provision of quality education in most African countries and thus, needs appropriate intervention measures that reverse the current trend. Objectives: To assess the prevalence and determining factors of VCT uptake among teachers of Harari Administrative Region. Methods: A cross sectional study design with analytic component was conducted among 566 teachers drawn from 20 randomly selected schools of Harari Administrative Region from March to April 2009. Self administered questionnaire, adapted from previous relevant studies was used to estimate the prevalence of VCT uptake and the various socio-demographic and psychological factors. Data were entered and analyzed using bi-variate and multivariate models. Results: A total number of 497 teachers responded to the questionnaire adequately making the response rate of 87.8%. The mean age of the participants was 34.68 ranging from 18 – 61 years. There were more teachers from urban areas (72.0%) and most of them were males (62.2%). About half (54.1%) were married and few (5.2%) were divorced. The vast majority (98.6%) heard about the confidential VCT service and their major sources of information were mass media (85.3%) and health workers (56.2%). The prevalence of VCT uptake was 46.3%. The odds of utilizing VCT significantly increased with being younger age group, female and first and second cycle teachers’category. Conclusions: The major factors identified for increased uptake of VCT are gender, age and salary category. Actions targeting the males, non-youth age group and low grade teachers’ are necessary to follow their peer groups to utilize the VCT service in order to achieve the goal of education set for 2015

Applicability of the theory of planned behavior in predicting intended use of Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing services among teachers of Harari Region, Ethiopia

Background: The predictive validity and applicability of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) may be a promising model for understanding and predicting intended behaviors to use VCT services. The need for theory based study would thus be essential in designing evidence based HIV-related interventions in the future. Objectives: To examine the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the additional predictive role of perceived risk in predicting intended use of Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing (VCT) services. Methods: A cross sectional study design was conducted among 20 randomly selected schools in Harari Region between March and April 2009. Four hundred ninety seven randomly selected teachers consented to participate in the study giving a response rate of 87.8%. Self administered questionnaire, adopted from the TPB was used for data collection. Multiple linear regression models were used to predict the role of important variables that can influence the intention to use VCT among teachers using SPSS version 15.Result: More than half (53.7%) who had never used VCT service were considered in the analysis for the intended VCT service use. All the modal variables correlated significantly with behavioral intention. Subjective norm (r=0.45,

A Double Blind Study Comparing Virucare and Inter-feron as Treatment for Hepatitis CVirus and its Complications

Objective: To present the results of a comparative double blind study between Virucare and Interferon to evaluate their efficacy, safety and tolerability in treating Hepatitis C Virus and its complications Keywords: Hepatitis C, polymerase chain reaction, interferon. Egypt. J. Hum. Genet Vol. 9 (1) 2008: pp. 71-8

The Pricing War Continues: On Competitive Multi-Item Pricing

We study a game with \emph{strategic} vendors who own multiple items and a single buyer with a submodular valuation function. The goal of the vendors is to maximize their revenue via pricing of the items, given that the buyer will buy the set of items that maximizes his net payoff. We show this game may not always have a pure Nash equilibrium, in contrast to previous results for the special case where each vendor owns a single item. We do so by relating our game to an intermediate, discrete game in which the vendors only choose the available items, and their prices are set exogenously afterwards. We further make use of the intermediate game to provide tight bounds on the price of anarchy for the subset games that have pure Nash equilibria; we find that the optimal PoA reached in the previous special cases does not hold, but only a logarithmic one. Finally, we show that for a special case of submodular functions, efficient pure Nash equilibria always exist

Minimal Spin-3/2 Dark Matter in a simple ss-channel model

We consider a spin~-~3/2 fermionic dark matter candidate (DM) interacting with Standard Model fermions through a vector mediator in the $s$-channel. We find that for pure vector couplings almost the entire parameter space of the DM and mediator mass consistent with the observed relic density is ruled out by the direct detection observations through DM-nucleon elastic scattering cross-sections. In contrast, for pure axial-vector coupling, the most stringent constraints are obtained from mono-jet searches at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, Version accepted for publication in EPJ