Cultural issues in the psychiatric assessment of Xhosa children and adolescents

Traditional healers living in Guguletu, Cape Town, were interviewed about their practices in order to ascertain whether or not there are cultural/indigenous expressions of psychological distress or dysfunction in black children and adolescents. Besides bedwetting, fits and school anxiety, five other 'syndrOInes' were described: ukupharnbana, ukuphaphazela, arnafufunyane, urnoya and ukuthwasa. Although detailed case studies are required to establish the internal validity and exact nature of these 'syndromes', it is clear that any systematic study of psychiatric disorders in Xhosa children and adolescents needs to take them into account

A comparative study of four novel sleep apnoea episode prediction systems

The prediction of sleep apnoea and hypopnoea episodes could allow treatment to be applied before the event be-comes detrimental to the patients sleep, and for a more spe-cific form of treatment. It is proposed that features extracted from breaths preceding an apnoea and hypopnoea could be used in neural networks for the prediction of these events. Four different predictive systems were created, processing the nasal airflow signal using epoching, the inspiratory peak and expiratory trough values, principal component analysis (PCA) and empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The neu-ral networks were validated with naïve data from six over-night polysomnographic records, resulting in 83.50% sensi-tivity and 90.50% specificity. Reliable prediction of apnoea and hypopnoea is possible using the epoched flow and EMD of breaths preceding the event

Risk-taking behaviour of Cape Peninsula high-school students. Part I. Introduction and methods

In this study, risk-taking behaviour of Cape Peninsula high-school students was investigated. Suicidal behaviour, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, road-related behaviour, violent behaviour and sexual behaviour were included. This article, the first in a series, describes the rationale and methodology of the project. Sixteen schools were selected so as to yield a representative sample of schools in the three major education departments in the Cape Peninsula (administered by the Department of Education and Training and the Houses of Assembly and Representatives). The final sample size was 7 340 school students. A self-administered questionnaire was completed in a normal school period. Estimates for each education department were weighted to produce an overall estimate. The results are presented by standard and home language(s), and gender. Limitations of the study include its cross-sectional nature; the possibility of under- and over-reporting; the exclusion of important groups of adolescents such as absentees and dropouts, and those attending specialised and private schools; and not being able to present the results separately for each education department

Risk-taking behaviour of Cape Peninsula high-school students. Part II. Suicidal behaviour

The prevalence of a wide range of risk-taking behaviour among high-school students in the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, was investigated. In this article, the results for suicidal behaviour are presented. Cluster sampling techniques produced a sample of 7 340 students from 16 schools in the three major education departments. A self-administered questionnaire was completed in a normal school period. Estimates for each education department were weighted to produce an overall estimate. During the previous 12 months, 19% of students had seriously thought about harming themselves in a way that might result in their death, 12,4% had told someone that they intended to put an end to their life, and 7,8% had actually tried to put an end to their life. There were different trends according to gender, standard and language(s) spoken at home. Of those who had made a suicide attempt during the previous 12 months, 85,7% indicated that they had seriously thought about doing so, while 57,7% had told someone that they intended putting an end to their life. There is in many cases no continuity from suicidal ideation to communicating suicidal intent to an actual attempt

Risk-taking behaviour of Cape Peninsula high-school students. Part IV. Alcohol use

The prevalence of a wide range of risk-taking behaviour among high-school students in the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, was investigated. In this article, the results for alcohol use are presented. Cluster sampling techniques produced a sample of 7 340 students from 16 schools in the three major education departments. A self-administered questionnaire was completed in a normal school period. Estimates for each education department were weighted to produce an overall estimate. Of the sample, 53,2% reported ever using alcohol; 26,2% had used it recently and 15,4% reported episodes of binge drinking in the previous 14 days. Drinking patterns varied according to school standard, home language, and gender. Males reported higher rates of alcohol use and for both genders rates increased with age. Overall, the prevalence of drinking was highest among adolescents whose home language was English. The proportion of Xhosa-speaking females who drank was very low.The prevalence of binge drinking in particular was identified as being of concern. The findings indicate a need for preventive action and further local research in this area

Risk-taking behaviour of Cape Peninsula high-school students. Part III. Cigarette smoking

The prevalence of a wide range of risk-taking behaviour among high-school students in the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, was investigated. In this article, the results for cigarette smoking are presented. Cluster sam.pling techniques produced a sample of 7 340 students from 16 schools in the three major education departments. A selfadministered questionnaire was completed in a normal school period. Estimates for each education department were weighted to produce an overall estimate. Of the students 18,1% indicated that they smoked at least 1 cigarette per day. Of these, 66,9% had tried to stop. Of those who did not smoke at least 1 cigarette per day, 41,2% had smoked previously and 3,6% intended to start smoking. There were different trends according to gender, standard, and language(s) spoken at home. Of note was the small percentage of Xhosa speaking females who smoked. There is an urgent need for smoking prevention programmes in schools

Risk-taking behaviour of Cape Peninsula high-school students. Part VI. Road-related behaviour

The prevalence of a wide range of risk-taking behaviour among high-school students in the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, was investigated. In this article, the findings for road-related behaviour are presented. Cluster sampling techniques produced a sample of 7 340 students from 16 schools in the three major education departments. A self-administered questionnaire was completed in a normal school period. Estimates for each education department were weighted to produce an overall estimate. During the previous year, 8,5% of the students had been involved in a motor vehicle accident, and 7,4% had been injured in a pedestrian accident. Of those who had driven a vehicle, 63,2% reported driving without a licence; 16,1% drove an overcrowded vehicle; and 8% reported driving under the influence of alcohol or cannabis. Of those who had been on a motorcycle, 47,9% reported riding without a helmet. Despite the availability of seat belts, 37,3% had failed to wear one on the last occasion they were in the front seat of a vehicle. Variations according to gender, standard, and home language(s) were identified. The prevalence of risk behaviour was higher in males, who also showed a more pronounced increase in such behaviour with age. The need for accident prevention programmes remains urgent

Growth and persistence of 17 annual medic (Medicago spp.) accessions on clay soils in central Queensland

Seventeen accessions of annual medics were evaluated on clay soil sites at Emerald, Theodore, Biloela and Mundubbera, central Queensland. Successful medics could have a role in both permanent and ley pastures. However, these are marginal areas for medics with winter (June-August) rainfalls of 80-100 mm. The accessions were selected on the basis of results in southern Queensland, a more favoured area for medics. There were 9 accessions of Medicago truncatula (barrel medic), 4 of M. scutellata (snail medic), 2 of M. polymorpha (burr medic) and 1 each of M. aculeata (keg medic) and M. orbicularis (button medic). Lucerne (M. sativa) cv. Trifecta was sown at 3 sites. All sites except Theodore were irrigated in the year of establishment (1993). The medic seedlings at Theodore died in 1993 and the trial was resown in 1994. Measurements were made of seed set in the first year and whenever it occurred in later years, seedling density in most years and yield when there was adequate growth. Selected measurements were made of soil seed reserves. Measurements ceased in 1998

Four methods for determining the composition of trace radioactive surface contamination of low-radioactivity metal

Four methods for determining the composition of low-level uranium- and thorium-chain surface contamination are presented. One method is the observation of Cherenkov light production in water. In two additional methods a position-sensitive proportional counter surrounding the surface is used to make both a measurement of the energy spectrum of alpha particle emissions and also coincidence measurements to derive the thorium-chain content based on the presence of short-lived isotopes in that decay chain. The fourth method is a radiochemical technique in which the surface is eluted with a weak acid, the eluate is concentrated, added to liquid scintillator and assayed by recording beta-alpha coincidences. These methods were used to characterize two `hotspots' on the outer surface of one of the He-3 proportional counters in the Neutral Current Detection array of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment. The methods have similar sensitivities, of order tens of ng, to both thorium- and uranium-chain contamination.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figure

Coulomb displacement energy and the low-energy astrophysical S factor for the Be7(p,gamma)B8 reaction

The relationship between the Coulomb displacement energy for the A=8, J=2+, T=1 state and the low-energy astrophysical S factor for the Be7(p,gamma)B8 reaction is discussed. The displacement energy is interpreted in a particle-hole model. The dependence of the particle displacement energy on the potential well geometry is investigated and is used to relate the particle displacement energy to the rms radius and the asymptotic normalization of the valence proton wave function in B8. The asymptotic normalization is used to calculate the astrophysical S factor for the Be7(p,gamma)B8 reaction. The relationship to the Li7(n,gamma) reaction, the B8 quadrupole moment, radial density, and break-up momentum distribution are also discussed.Comment: Latex with Revtex, 26 pages, 8 figures are added in a uuencoded tar-compressed fil