Pregnancy outcome after one previous caesarean section at a tertiary university teaching hospital in Tanzania

The aim of this study was to assess outcome of pregnancy in women with one previous caesarean section at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) from 13th September 2006-2nd February 2007. All women with one previous caesarean section coming for delivery at MNH in that period were identified. Data on medical history, socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics, decision on mode of delivery, and pregnancy outcomes were collected. There were 3285 deliveries during the study period, out of which 365 (11%) women had one previous caesarean section. Almost half (48%) of the women with one previous caesarean section attended antenatal care in the dispensaries and health centres. Trial of scar was decided in 80 (21.9%) women. A total of 278 women had the decision for repeat caesarean section made on admission whereby 180 (64.4%) were for emergency caesarean section and 98 (35.6%) were for elective caesarean section. A total 52 women delivered vaginally, 44 after trial of the scar and eight among women decided for emergency repeat caesarean section on admission. The incidence of uterine rupture was 2% and perinatal mortality ratio was 55 per 1000 live birth. In conclusion, a significant proportion of women delivering at MNH had one previous caesarean section among which few underwent trial of scar. Half of the women attended antenatal care in the dispensaries and health centres. Women with previous caesarean section should be encouraged to attend hospitals providing comprehensive emergency obstetric care. The quality of intrapartum monitoring should be audited to improve maternal and newborn outcome

A Doorway Detection and Direction (3Ds) System for Social Robots via a Monocular Camera

In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm to detect a door and its orientation in indoor settings from the view of a social robot equipped with only a monocular camera. The challenge is to achieve this goal with only a 2D image from a monocular camera. The proposed system is designed through the integration of several modules, each of which serves a special purpose. The detection of the door is addressed by training a convolutional neural network (CNN) model on a new dataset for Social Robot Indoor Navigation (SRIN). The direction of the door (from the robot’s observation) is achieved by three other modules: Depth module, Pixel-Selection module, and Pixel2Angle module, respectively. We include simulation results and real-time experiments to demonstrate the performance of the algorithm. The outcome of this study could be beneficial in any robotic navigation system for indoor environments

Design Minkowski Shaped Patch Antenna with Rectangular Parasitic Patch Elements for 5.8 GHz Applications

Abstract—This paper presents the parametric study on the Minkowski shaped antenna with the rectangular parasitic patch elements. This patch antenna consists four parts – patch, feed line, ground plane and parasitic elements. The rectangular parasitic patch elements are located at the bottom of the Minkowski shaped patch. The parametric study of different patch sizes (Design 2A, Design 2B, Design 2C, Design 2D and Design 2E) is presented in this paper. The antenna parameters studied in this paper are resonant frequencies, return loss at the resonant frequency, bandwidth and realized gain. The target frequency of this antenna is 5.80 GHz for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) application. It shows the return loss of – 24.477 dB, bandwidth of 254 MHz (5.676 GHz to 5.930 GHz) and a gain of 2.351 dB. Index Terms—Minkowski; patch antenna; gain; return loss; bandwidt

A Carrierless Amplitude Phase (CAP) Modulation Format: Perspective and Prospect in Optical Transmission System

The explosive demand of broadband services nowadays requires data communication systems to have intensive capacity which subsequently increases the need for higher data rate as well. Although implementation of multiple wavelengths channels can be used (e.g. 4 × 25.8 Gb/s for 100 Gb/s connection) for such desired system, it usually leads to cost increment issue which is caused by employment of multiple optical components. Therefore, implementation of advanced modulation format using a single wavelength channel has become a preference to increase spectral efficiency by increasing the data rate for a given transmission system bandwidth. Conventional advanced modulation format however, involves a degree of complexity and costly transmission system. Hence, carrierless amplitude phase (CAP) modulation format has emerged as a promising advanced modulation format candidate due to spectral efficiency improvement ability with reduction of optical transceiver complexity and cost. The intriguing properties of CAP modulation format are reviewed as an attractive prospect in optical transmission system applications

A Numerical Algorithm for Solving Stiff Ordinary Differential Equations

An advanced method using block backward differentiation formula (BBDF) is introduced with efficient strategy in choosing the step size and order of the method. Variable step and variable order block backward differentiation formula (VSVO-BBDF) approach is applied throughout the numerical computation.The stability regions of the VSVO-BBDFmethod are investigated and presented in distinct graphs.The improved performances in terms of accuracy and computation time are presented in the numerical results with different sets of test problems. Comparisons are made between the proposed method and MATLAB’s suite of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) solvers, namely, ode15s and ode23s

Comparison of Two Powder Processing Techniques on the Properties of Cu-NbC Composites

An in situCu-NbC compositewas successfully synthesized fromCu,Nb, and C powders using ball milling and high pressure torsion (HPT) techniques. The novelty of the new approach, HPT, is the combination of high compaction pressure and large shear strain to simultaneously refine, synthesize, and consolidate composite powders at roomtemperature.The HPTed Cu-NbC composite was formed within a short duration of 20 min without Fe contamination from the HPT’s die. High porosity of 3–9%, Fe and niobium oxidations, fromgrindingmedia and ethanol during ball milling led to low electrical conductivity of the milled Cu-NbC composite. The electrical conductivity of the HPTed Cu-NbC composite showed a value 50% higher than that of milled Cu-NbC composite of the same composition

Antioxidant analysis of different parts of Carica papaya

This study was conducted to compare the total antioxidant activity (TAA), total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) from the different parts of papaya tree including their ripe and unripe fruit, seeds and the young leaves. Two methods namely DPPH radical scavenging activity and β-carotene bleaching assay were used to determine the TAA, whereas TPC was determined by Folin-Ciocalteu's method while TFC by aluminium trichloride (AlCl3). For these purposes, methanolic extracts (80%) were prepared. The results showed that the highest antioxidant activity through β-carotene bleaching assay was observed in unripe fruit (90.67 ± 0.29%) followed by young leave, ripe fruit and the seed. In other hand, young leaves exhibited a significant higher scavenging effect compared to others and the dose required in reducing the absorbance of DPPH control solution by 50% (EC50) was calculated at 1.0 ± 0.08mg/ml. The EC50 values were 4.3 ± 0.01mg/ml, 6.5 ± 0.01mg/ml and 7.8 ± 0.06mg/ml for unripe fruit, ripe fruit and seeds respectively. Interestingly, both TPC and TFC also showed that young leaves had the highest antioxidant content (424.89 ± 0.22mg GAE/ 100 g dry weight and 333.14 ± 1.03mg rutin equivalent/ 100 g dry weight, respectively). Statistically, Pearson correlation showed there were positive correlations between TPC and TFC with antioxidant activity assayed by DPPH radical scavenging assay (r=0.846 and r=0.873, respectively). However there was no correlation between TPC and TFC with β-carotene bleaching activity. In brief, taken into account all the parameters measured, antioxidants were highly remarkable in the sequence of young leaves > unripe fruit > ripe fruit > seed. Nevertheless, further investigation for isolation and identification of the phytoconstituents responsible for antioxidant activity is desirable

Reduced graphene oxide-multiwalled carbon nanotubes hybrid film with low Pt loading as counter electrode for improved photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells

In this work, the role of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with hyperbranched surfactant and its hybridisation with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) as counter electrode (CE) were investigated to determine the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). Sodium 1,4-is(neopentyloxy)-3-(neopentyloxycarbonyl)- 1,4-dioxobutane-2-sulphonate (TC14) surfactant was utilised as dispersing and stabilising agent in electrochemical exfoliation to synthesise graphene oxide (GO) as initial solution for rGO production prior to its further hybridisation and fabrication as thin film. A chemical reduction process utilising hydrazine hydrate was conducted to produce rGO due to the low temperature process and water-based GO solution. Subsequently, hybrid solution was prepared by mixing 1 wt% MWCNTs into the produced rGO solution. TC14-rGO and TC14-rGO_MWCNTs hybrid solution were transferred into fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate to fabricate thin film by spraying deposition method. Finally, the CE films were prepared by coating with thin Pt NPs. Photoanode film was prepared by a two-step process: hydrothermal growth method to synthesise titanium dioxide nanowires (TiO2 NWs) and subsequent squeegee method to apply TiO2 NPs. According to solar simulator measurement, the highest energy conversion efficiency (η) was achieved by using CE-based TC14-rGO_MWCNTs/Pt (1.553%), with the highest short current density of 4.424 mA/cm2. The highest η was due to the high conductivity of CE hybrid film and the morphology of fabricated TiO2 NWs/TiO2 NPs. Consequently, the dye adsorption was high, and the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs was increased. This result also showed that rGO and rGO_MWCNTs hybrid can be used as considerable potential candidate materials to replace Pt gradually

Polymorphism of growth hormone gene and its association with wool traits in Egyptian sheep breeds

Growth hormone (GH) gene has been described as a candidate gene for marker-assisted selection in different farm animals. The present study was designed to identify the polymorphism in GH gene and its association with variation of wool traits in Egyptian sheep breeds. Wool and blood samples were collected from 42 animals including two breeds (Barki and Rahmani) and one crossbred (Rahmani x Awase). Measurements of wool traits were analyzed and involved staple strength (Str), staple length (STL), fiber diameter (FD) and clean fleece yield (CFW). DNA was extracted from blood samples and a 365-bp fragment from exon V was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Single strand conformation polymorphisim (SSCP) analysis showed two conformational patterns. The pattern I was recorded to be more frequent (83.3, 92.86 and 90%) than pattern II (16.7, 7.14 and 10%) in Barki, Rahmani and crossbred, respectively. The sequence analysis showed one single nucleotide polymorphism (C/T). The pattern I (allele T) has been found to affect CFW and FD than pattern II (allele C). Whereas, C allele was more pronounced for Str and STL. These traits are the most important parameters determining commercial values of wool that are preferred for clothing or carpets industry. The nucleotide sequences of C and T alleles were submitted to GenBank and have the accession numbers: KT250511 and KT250512, respectively. In conclusion, the present results provide evidence that there is a single nucleotide polymorphism within GH gene in Egyptian sheep breeds. This mutation was found to have some effects on wool traits. Therefore our data show interesting prospects in future selection programs for improving wool industry.Key words: Sheep, wool, growth hormone (GH) gene, polymorphism, single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP)

The Challenges of Psychological Adjustment for International Students: A Critical Analysis of Coping Mechanisms and Support Services

This paper critically analyzes the challenges of psychological adjustment faced by international students and explores coping mechanisms and support services that can help them overcome these challenges. The essay first introduces the background information on international students and highlights the importance of psychological adjustment for their well-being and academic success. The challenges of psychological adjustment, including cultural, academic, social adjustment, and language barrier, are discussed in detail. The essay then explores coping mechanisms, including problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, seeking social support, and cultural adjustment programs, and the support services, including counseling services and international student services, that can help international students adjust to their new environment. Finally, the essay evaluates the effectiveness of these coping mechanisms and support services, emphasizing the importance of cultural competence in providing effective support services. This essay has practical implications for higher education institutions in providing tailored support to international students and highlights the need for future research to explore the effectiveness of coping mechanisms and support services for different groups of international students and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their psychological adjustment