Effects of kenaf bast fibres on hydration behaviour of cement

The compatibility between cement and kenaf bast fibre and its improvement with various types of accelerators were investigated by observation and analysis on hydration behaviour in terms of hydration characteristics, namely, maximum hydration temperature and required time to reach maximum temperature. Five extraction methods (crude, water retting, decortication, NaOH retting and benzoate retting), four accelerators (CaCl2, AlCl3, Na2SO4, CaO), three concentrations (2, 4 and 6%) and three particle sizes (0.5, 0.8 and 4.0 mm) were used. The hydration behaviour of mixtures demonstrated that NaOH and benzoate were unsuitable with cement. Meanwhile, CaCl2 and CaO were found to be effective accelerators for restraining inhibitory influences. In addition, 2% accelerator was available and acceptable for quick-curing cement. Particle sizes of 0.5 and 0.8 mm required addition of accelerators to reach maximum cement setting

Physical-mechanical characteristics of cement-bonded kenaf bast fibres composite boards with different densities

This study was carried out to explore the potential of kenaf bast fibres (KBFs) for production of cement-bonded kenaf composite boards (CBKCBs). More than 70% of the KBFs were of size >3.35 mm and length of 31±0.4 mm, therefore, they were used for CBKCBs production. The CBKCBs with the dimensions of 450 × 450 × 12 mm were produced using cement (C): KBF with proportion of (2:1) and different board densities (BD) namely 1100, 1300 and 1500 kg/m3The CBKCBs were first cured in a tank saturated with moisture for 7days, and then kept at room temperature for 21 days. Mechanical and physical properties of the CBKCBs were characterized with regards to their modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), internal bond (IB), water absorption (WA), and thickness swelling (TS). Results of the tested CBKCBs revealed that the MOR increased while the MOE decreased due to uniform distribution of KBFs. It was found that loading of KBFs has a negative influence on the internal bond (IB) of the CBKCBs; the IB was reduced as KBFs tend to balling and making unmixed aggregates with the cement. These results showed that the CBKCB is a promising construction material that could potentially be used in different structural applications due to their good mechanical characteristics

Outbreak of encephalitic listeriosis in red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa)

An outbreak of neurological disease was investigated in red-legged partridges between 8 and 28 days of age. Clinical signs included torticollis, head tilt and incoordination and over an initial eight day period approximately 30–40 fatalities occurred per day. No significant gross post mortem findings were detected. Histopathological examination of the brain and bacterial cultures followed by partial sequencing confirmed a diagnosis of encephalitis due to Listeria monocytogenes. Further isolates were obtained from follow-up carcasses, environmental samples and pooled tissue samples of newly imported day-old chicks prior to placement on farm. These isolates had the same antibiotic resistance pattern as the isolate of the initial post mortem submission and belonged to the same fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (fAFLP) subtype. This suggested that the isolates were very closely related or identical and that the pathogen had entered the farm with the imported day-old chicks, resulting in disease manifestation in partridges between 8 and 28 days of age. Reports of outbreaks of encephalitic listeriosis in avian species are rare and this is to the best of our knowledge the first reported outbreak in red-legged partridges

Methods for the Study of Marine Biodiversity

Recognition of the threats to biodiversity and its importance to society has led to calls for globally coordinated sampling of trends in marine ecosystems. As a step to defining such efforts, we review current methods of collecting and managing marine biodiversity data. A fundamental component of marine biodiversity is knowing what, where, and when species are present. However, monitoring methods are invariably biased in what taxa, ecological guilds, and body sizes they collect. In addition, the data need to be placed, and/or mapped, into an environmental context. Thus a suite of methods will be needed to encompass representative components of biodiversity in an ecosystem. Some sampling methods can damage habitat and kill species, including unnecessary bycatch. Less destructive alternatives are preferable, especially in conservation areas, such as photography, hydrophones, tagging, acoustics, artificial substrata, light-traps, hook and line, and live-traps. Here we highlight examples of operational international sampling programmes and data management infrastructures, notably the Continuous Plankton Recorder, Reef Life Survey, and detection of Harmful Algal Blooms and MarineGEO. Data management infrastructures include the World Register of Marine Species for species nomenclature and attributes, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System for distribution data, Marine Regions for maps, and Global Marine Environmental Datasets for global environmental data. Existing national sampling programmes, such as fishery trawl surveys and intertidal surveys, may provide a global perspective if their data can be integrated to provide useful information. Less utilised and emerging sampling methods, such as artificial substrata, light-traps, microfossils and eDNA also hold promise for sampling the less studied components of biodiversity. All of these initiatives need to develop international standards and protocols, and long-term plans for their governance and support.published_or_final_versio

Assessment of discharge after 24 hours following elective caesarean section in Omdurman Maternity Hospital, Sudan, 2010

Objective: to assess patient satisfaction and morbidity associated with 24 hours hospital stay after elective caesarean section.Methodology: A descriptive study done in Omdurman maternity hospital (OMH) in 2010. All women admitted for elective C/S were counselled for discharge after 24 hours from C/S. Those with medical or obstetrical problems necessitating admission for longer time were excluded.Women who refused to be discharged were included as control after an informed consent. All women were operated on by trained registrars or consultants under similar conditions & were followed till discharge from hospital.Results: The total number of deliveries in OMH during 2010 was 28975. Out of them 21022(72.6%) had spontaneous vaginal delivery and 7953 (27.4%) delivered by caesarean section. Elective C/S comprised 3204(11.1%) while emergency C/S 4749(16.4%). The study included1439.716(49.8%) as study group and 723(50.2%) as control. Readmission was needed for 41(2.8%), 15(1.1%) from study group and 26(1.8%) from control group. The reason in 24(1,7%) was wound infection, 5(0.3%) DVT, two with endometritis and eight (0.6%) due to non- pregnancy related infection. Although, there is slight increase in rate of readmission due to wound infection and DVT in control group, there is no significant statistical difference between the two groups. However there is significant statistical difference in the rate of satisfaction between the two groupsIn the study group, 613(85.6%) ladies were satisfied with the short hospital stay compared to 269(37.2%) in the control group who were satisfied with longer hospital stay after elective C/S (P = 0.0001).Conclusion: Short hospital stay after elective C/S was associated with more patients’ satisfaction, without increase in maternal mortality or morbidity, compared to control.Key words:endometritis, vaginal delivery,maternal mortality

Knowledge and attitudes towards appropriate antibiotics usage among students-a survey

Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections. WHO estimates that more than half of all medicines are prescribed, dispensed or sold inappropriately, and that half of all patients fail to take them correctly. The overuse, underuse or misuse of medicines results in wastage of scarce resources and widespread health hazard. The objective of the study is to evaluate the knowledge and Attitude towards appropriate antibiotic use among students. A 15 item web based questionnaire was developed and employed to collect data from pharmacy students at Ezhuthachan College of pharmaceutical sciences. The survey will gather demographic information and collect data on knowledge, expectations and current antibiotic usage among students.A total of 55 students participated in the study, among the respondents about 60% of respondents believed that they could stop taking antibiotics if their symptoms of infection improved. over a half of the respondents (68%) believed that antibiotics are effective for most of the colds and around half of  them (40%) stated that, they prefer to keep antibiotics at home for emergencies. About 58% would give their antibiotics to a family member if they caught an infection, 44% of respondents identified that, they have bought an antibiotic from community pharmacies without a prescription.The study shows that the pharmacy students has a number of misconceptions relating to appropriate antibiotic use, particularly relating to use of antibiotics for treatment of viral infections. As antibiotics are widely used in students, proper education should be given about rational use of antibiotics

Serological Status to Natural Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Mixed Flocks of Sheep and Goats in Bangladesh

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Effect of clindamycin in acne among college students

Acne is a chronic, self-limiting, inflammatory disease of adolescents and young adults. Acne and its associated problems affects as many as 80% of adolescents and young adults. Only one third affected teenagers could consult with their physician about acne. Clindamycin is a lincosamide antibiotic, developed in 1966 by chemically modifying the naturally occurring lincomycin.. Topical antibiotics such as erythromycin and clindamycin are the most popular in the management of acne. Side effects though minor includes erythema, peeling, dryness, and burning, pseudomembranous colitis which is rare, but has been reported itching, with clindamycin .The objective of the study is to evaluate efficacy of topical clindamycin in treating acne among students and to monitor the adverse effects encountered during the therapy. It was a cross-sectional questionnaire study carried out among 55 students of both sex group of age varying from 18 to 25 years suffering from acne. Knowledge of safe and effective use of clindamycin among students was to be assessed with a 17 pre-validated questionnaire and the data is analyzed using descriptive statistics. Among the respondents, about 79.6% had an outbreak of acne.71.4% believe that their acne is due their food habits. 87% are using clindamycin and was effective in 76.7%. Among them, about 61.9% use without prescription and 48.8% claimed to have no side effect and patients without recurrence is 55%.This study is to demonstrate the efficacy of clindamycin in the treatment of moderate to severe acne. The relevant data obtained through this study will help to aware about safe and effective use clindamycin in acne patients and provides information about the perception of acne among young adults with or without acne

JPD-Coloring of the Monohedral Tiling for the Plane

We introduce a definition of coloring by using joint probability distribution “JPD-coloring” for the plane which is equipped by tiling I. We investigate the JPD-coloring of the r-monohedral tiling for the plane by mutually congruent regular convex polygons which are equilateral triangles at r = 3 or squares at r = 4 or regular hexagons at r = 6. Moreover we present some computations for determining the corresponding probability values which are used to color in the three studied cases by MAPLE-Package

A people-centred perspective on climate change, environmental stress, and livelihood resilience in Bangladesh

The Ganges–Brahmaputra delta enables Bangladesh to sustain a dense population, but it also exposes people to natural hazards. This article presents findings from the Gibika project, which researches livelihood resilience in seven study sites across Bangladesh. This study aims to understand how people in the study sites build resilience against environmental stresses, such as cyclones, floods, riverbank erosion, and drought, and in what ways their strategies sometimes fail. The article applies a new methodology for studying people’s decision making in risk-prone environments: the personal Livelihood History interviews (N = 28). The findings show how environmental stress, shocks, and disturbances affect people’s livelihood resilience and why adaptation measures can be unsuccessful. Floods, riverbank erosion, and droughts cause damage to agricultural lands, crops, houses, and properties. People manage to adapt by modifying their agricultural practices, switching to alternative livelihoods, or using migration as an adaptive strategy. In the coastal study sites, cyclones are a severe hazard. The study reveals that when a cyclone approaches, people sometimes choose not to evacuate: they put their lives at risk to protect their livelihoods and properties. Future policy and adaptation planning must use lessons learned from people currently facing environmental stress and shocks