Economic growth as an underlying probable systemic driver for childhood obesity in South Africa: A Joinpoint regression and ecological analysis over 10 years

Background. Childhood obesity has become a global public health problem and is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, myocardial infarction and various cancers in later adulthood.Associations between adult obesity and economic growth, technological changes, socioeconomic status and economic inequities have been reported, but limited data are available for children and adolescents in countries that are undergoing an epidemiological health transition exhibiting both under- and overnutrition.Objectives. To demonstrate childhood obesity trends and explore their associations with economic growth in South Africa (SA).Methods. This was a retrospective review and analysis of obesity and economic growth trends in SA. Data for obesity levels were obtained from national surveys conducted in SA youths in 2002, 2008 and 2012. Economic growth indicators (EGIs), namely gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, household final consumption expenditure and Gini coefficient, were obtained from the World Bank and IHS Global Insight databases. Obesity trends for 2002 - 2012 are presented by gender and ethnicity. Annual percentage changes (APCs) in obesity prevalence were computed to assess obesity trends using the linear Joinpoint regression.Results. An overall increase in obesity prevalence over time from 3.8% to 6.0% was observed. Females had higher levels across all time points. APCs in both males (7.8%; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.3 - 15.9; p=0.01) and females (3.1%; 95% CI –14.7 - 24.7; p=0.30) were observed. Among black Africans, coloureds and whites, females had higher obesity levels than males for the three time points. For males, the prevalence of obesity was highest in whites and Asians/Indians, whereas coloureds and blacks had lower levels across all time points. However, the black male population had the highest APC increase (9.4%; 95% CI –23.0 - 55.3; p=0.20). The prevalence of obesity was positively and inversely associated with GDP per capita and the Gini coefficient, respectively.Conclusions. An increase in childhood and adolescent obesity over time was observed, while trend associations between obesity and EGIs exist

The role of information flow and technology in supply chain collaboration – a case study of Logwin logistics

Abstract: Owing to the challenges of today’s hyper-competitive business environment firms are increasingly realising that greater focus should be placed on collaboration across the supply chain, especially with respect to costs, information and technology. The positivism research philosophy was used in case approach to determine the role of information flow and technology in supply chain collaboration of a logistics services provider. The unit of analysis of the study was LOGWIN Logistics. The results reveal that that LOGWIN is dependent on technology to boost supply chain collaboration. In addition, the benefits derived from technology and information flow included increased end customer satisfaction, shorter lead times, improved information from between LOGWIN, its suppliers and its customers, as well as internal information flow. The findings suggest that technology and information flow does have a positive effect on supply chain collaboration. Management should invest in implementing technology and training of employees to enhance information flow and to boost supply chain collaboration

Telemedicine coverage for post-operative ICU patients.

Introduction There is an increased demand for intensive care unit (ICU) beds. We sought to determine if we could create a safe surge capacity model to increase ICU capacity by treating ICU patients in the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU) utilizing a collaborative model between an ICU service and a telemedicine service during peak ICU bed demand. Methods We evaluated patients managed by the surgical critical care service in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) compared to patients managed in the virtual intensive care unit (VICU) located within the PACU. A retrospective review of all patients seen by the surgical critical care service from January 1st 2008 to July 31st 2011 was conducted at an urban, academic, tertiary centre and level 1 trauma centre. Results Compared to the SICU group ( n = 6652), patients in the VICU group ( n = 1037) were slightly older (median age 60 (IQR 47-69) versus 58 (IQR 44-70) years, p = 0.002) and had lower acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) II scores (median 10 (IQR 7-14) versus 15 (IQR 11-21), p \u3c 0.001). The average amount of time patients spent in the VICU was 13.7 + /-9.6 hours. In the VICU group, 750 (72%) of patients were able to be transferred directly to the floor; 287 (28%) required subsequent admission to the surgical intensive care unit. All patients in the VICU group were alive upon transfer out of the PACU while mortality in the surgical intensive unit cohort was 5.5%. Discussion A collaborative care model between a surgical critical care service and a telemedicine ICU service may safely provide surge capacity during peak periods of ICU bed demand. The specific patient populations for which this approach is most appropriate merits further investigation

The spatial trend associations between socio-economic factors and households’ travel pattern in Gauteng

It is widely believed that public transport alternatives, income levels and employment influence households’ travel patterns and modal choice. In particular, the level of employment and disposable income influences trip generation rates as well as the type of trips that are undertaken. The dual nature of Gauteng’s and South Africa’s economy creates a diverse socio-economic landscape and it is expected that this has varying effects on household travel patterns and modal choice. However, not enough is known about the relationship between socio-economic factors and households’ travel patterns in South Africa. The aim of this study is to describe the spatial trend associations between socio-economic factors and households’ travel patterns in Gauteng by analyzing data from the Gauteng Household Travel Survey. The results revealed trend associations between 1) income, employment, possession of a driver’s license and car ownership 2) income, employment and trip generation rates 3) income, employment and mode choice and 4) income, employment and type of trip. The results suggest that private cars are the preferred mode above a certain income threshold and that public transport alternatives are limited and not preferred. This study highlights that improvements in public transport alternatives can significantly influence households’ travel patternsPapers Presented at the 2018 37th Southern African Transport Conference 9-12 July 2018 Pretoria, South Africa. Theme "Towards a desired transport future: safe, sufficient and affordable"

Pembuatan Aplikasi Audience Response System Berbasis Web Dan Android

Audience Response Systems are widely used in various events as a media to gather information, to collect data, and to know the opinions of the general public towards particular issues, topics, news. Audience Response System can also be used to find out the client or customer satisfaction to the quality of products or services. Unfortunately most of the audience response systems that exist today are in the form of a physical (or remote) device which is severely limited in use. Along with the development of technology, almost all people have a smartphone to support their daily activities. The physical remote device called a clicker can be replaced with an application or program that can be installed on smartphones, while the polls are created through the website. In this research, the Audience response system was built using Node.js, PhoneGap platform, and the WebSocket Socket.IO as Javascript library to support bi-directional data communications. Based on testing result, this application can run properly all the functionalities that have been mentioned such as login to the system, create a poll, join a poll, and give a vote. The realiability of the system is 93%.

Fungal enolase, ß-tubulin, and chitin are detected in brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease patients

Recent findings provide evidence that fungal structures can be detected in brain tissue from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients using rabbit polyclonal antibodies raised against whole fungal cells. In the present work, we have developed and tested specific antibodies that recognize the fungal proteins, enolase and b-tubulin, and an antibody that recognizes the fungal polysaccharide chitin. Consistent with our previous studies, a number of rounded yeast-like and hyphal structures were detected using these antibodies in brain sections from AD patients. Some of these structures were intracellular and, strikingly, some were found to be located inside nuclei from neurons, whereas other fungal structures were detected extracellularly. Corporya amylacea from AD patients also contained enolase and b-tubulin as revealed by these selective antibodies, but were devoid of fungal chitin. Importantly, brain sections from control subjects were usually negative for staining with the three antibodies. However, a few fungal structures can be observed in some control individuals. Collectively, these findings indicate the presence of two fungal proteins, enolase and b-tubulin, and the polysaccharide chitin, in CNS tissue from AD patients. These findings are consistent with our hypothesis that AD is caused by disseminated fungal infectionFundación Ramón ArecesPeer Reviewe

A focal plane detector design for a wide-band Laue-lens telescope

The energy range above 60 keV is important for the study of many open problems in high energy astrophysics such as the role of Inverse Compton with respect to synchrotron or thermal processes in GRBs, non thermal mechanisms in SNR, the study of the high energy cut-offs in AGN spectra, and the detection of nuclear and annihilation lines. Recently the development of high energy Laue lenses with broad energy bandpasses from 60 to 600 keV have been proposed for a Hard X ray focusing Telescope (HAXTEL) in order to study the X-ray continuum of celestial sources. The required focal plane detector should have high detection efficiency over the entire operative range, a spatial resolution of about 1 mm, an energy resolution of a few keV at 500 keV and a sensitivity to linear polarization. We describe a possible configuration of the focal plane detector based on several CdTe/CZT pixelated layers stacked together to achieve the required detection efficiency at high energy. Each layer can operate both as a separate position sensitive detector and polarimeter or work with other layers to increase the overall photopeak efficiency. Each layer has a hexagonal shape in order to minimize the detector surface required to cover the lens field of view. The pixels would have the same geometry so as to provide the best coupling with the lens point spread function and to increase the symmetry for polarimetric studies.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure