Marital violence and sexually transmitted infections among women in post-revolution Egypt.

To explore the relationship between past year physical or sexual partner violence against women and women's self-report of sexually transmitted infection (STI) symptoms in post-revolution Egypt; and to examine the effects of men's and women's risky sexual behavioural characteristics and structural dimensions of poverty and gender inequality on this relationship. This study uses the nationally representative cross-sectional demographic and health survey data conducted in 2014. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between past year partner violence and self-report of STI symptoms among currently married women. women's self-report of STI was based on their responses to three questions; whether in the past year they had: got a disease through sexual contact?, a genital sore or ulcer?, or a bad smelling abnormal genital discharge? Women who gave an affirmative response to one or more of these questions were assumed to self-report STI. Almost one-third of women self-reported symptoms of STI. Fourteen percent of women reported they had experienced physical or sexual violence by a male partner in the past 12months. Abused women had a 2.76 times higher odds of self-reported STI symptoms (95% CI 2.25-3.38). The significant relationship between self-reported STI and past year partner violence against women did not alter when adjusting for men's and women's behavioural characteristics and factors related to poverty and gender inequality. Public health interventions that address women's sexual and reproductive health need to consider violence response and prevention strategies

Near-Optimal Complexity Bounds for Fragments of the Skolem Problem

Given a linear recurrence sequence (LRS), specified using the initial conditions and the recurrence relation, the Skolem problem asks if zero ever occurs in the infinite sequence generated by the LRS. Despite active research over last few decades, its decidability is known only for a few restricted subclasses, by either restricting the order of the LRS (upto 4) or by restricting the structure of the LRS (e.g., roots of its characteristic polynomial). In this paper, we identify a subclass of LRS of arbitrary order for which the Skolem problem is easy, namely LRS all of whose characteristic roots are (possibly complex) roots of real algebraic numbers, i.e., roots satisfying x^d = r for r real algebraic. We show that for this subclass, the Skolem problem can be solved in NP^RP. As a byproduct, we implicitly obtain effective bounds on the zero set of the LRS for this subclass. While prior works in this area often exploit deep results from algebraic and transcendental number theory to get such effective results, our techniques are primarily algorithmic and use linear algebra and Galois theory. We also complement our upper bounds with a NP lower bound for the Skolem problem via a new direct reduction from 3-CNF-SAT, matching the best known lower bounds

The Role of Fat Grafting and Adipose-Derived Stem Cells in Breast Reconstruction

Fat grafting is a common surgical procedure that involves the transfer of fat from one area of the body to another in order to improve contour deformities, such as in breast reconstruction. Advantages of the technique include using autologous tissue rather than a foreign body and the added benefit of having liposuction to remove fat from an undesirable location. Although adipose tissue could be the ideal soft tissue filler, fat grafting is plagued by tremendous variability in long-term retention, with volume survival rates of 20-80%, resulting in suboptimal outcomes and repetitive procedures. The mechanisms contributing to long-term fat graft survival and resorption are not well understood. The discovery of multipotent mesenchymal adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) in subcutaneous adipose tissue has encouraged the study of their role in fat graft survival. ASCs are observed to survive after grafting, and in fact play a major role in adipocyte survival, regeneration and differentiation through adipogenesis and paracrine effects. In fact, lipoaspirate supplemented with ASCs has been shown to improve angiogenesis and long-term graft retention through the release of factors. Many adipose graft enrichment strategies encompassing growth factors, platelet-rich plasma, stem cells, gene therapy and tissue engineering have been attempted to augment and improve the viability of fat grafts. Therefore, a systematic review was undertaken to optimize safety and outcomes related to these enrichment strategies. Recently, concerns have been raised from several regulatory bodies, including the FDA, regarding safety of fat grafting in the setting of breast reconstruction. ASCs within lipoaspirate have been postulated to create an inflammatory tumor microenvironment, to encourage angiogenesis, and to potentially contribute to tumorigenesis. Therefore, a review of both local data and a systematic review was undertaken to determine oncological outcomes of fat grafting to the breast. Finally, we test the hypothesis that ASCs derived from obese donors exhibit compromised ASC functionality, leading to reduced fat graft retention when compared to non-obese subjects. Collectively, the studies that comprise this dissertation generate and critically appraise evidence for the safety, efficacy and outcomes of fat grafting in the setting of breast reconstruction

Social protection interventions to attain sustainable development goal one in South Africa

Abstract: The article reviews social protection interventions in South Africa to determine how they give effect to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Of particular interest is SDG One, which targets the alleviation of poverty. South Africa lags behind in terms of achieving the targets of SDG One, and therefore invests hugely in social protection interventions aimed at fighting poverty. The aim of this article is to answer the question, “What is the role that social protection interventions in South Africa play in attaining sustainable development?” The findings explore that social protection requires state-led interventions to improve citizens’ welfare. A qualitative conceptual and documentary literature analysis was used as the research methodology, where a qualitative description of findings focuses on themes that emerged from the literature review and was conceptualised by way of unobtrusive research techniques. The article recommends that social protection interventions be prioritised in public policy implementation in pursuance of sustainable development

How do area-level socioeconomic status and gender norms affect partner violence against women? Evidence from Tanzania.

: To explore how area-level socioeconomic status and gender-related norms influence partner violence against women in Tanzania. : We analysed data from the 2010 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and used multilevel logistic regression to estimate individual and community-level effects on women's risk of current partner violence. : Prevalence of current partner violence was 36.1 %; however, variation in prevalence exists across communities. Twenty-nine percent of the variation in the logodds of partner violence is due to community-level influences. When adjusting for individual-level characteristics, this variation falls to 10 % and falls further to 8 % when adjusting for additional community-level factors. Higher levels of women's acceptance towards wife beating, male unemployment, and years of schooling among men were associated with higher risk of partner violence; however, higher levels of women in paid work were associated with lower risk. : Area-level poverty and inequitable gender norms were associated with higher risk of partner violence. Empowerment strategies along with addressing social attitudes are likely to achieve reductions in rates of partner violence against women in Tanzania and in other similar low-income country settings.<br/

Nature and occurence of yeasts in Haryana grapes and wines

More than one hundred isolates of yeasts were taken from juice, must (at different stages of fermentation) and wine prepared from seven different grape varieties grown in Haryana. The isolates fell into 6 genera and 14 species. Saccharomyces yeasts were the most frequently encountered species during the fermentation, and all but one were identified as S. cerevisiae, S. cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus, S. steineri, S. carlsbergensis and S. mellis. Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Debaryomyces vini, Candida pulcherrima, C. guilliermondii, Endomycopsis fibuliger, E. fibuliger var. monospora and E. fibuliger var. bispora were the other strains isolated.The occurrence of Schizosaccharomyces pombe and strains of Endomocopsis fibuliger is of interest in this connection when it is considered that Kloeckera apiculata and Saccharomyces oviformis have been significantly absent in Haryana grapes and musts

Assessing gender equality in the South African sports sector

Abstract: Sport has generally been a male-dominated domain which appears to discriminate against women by preventing their advancement to high-level positions in sports organisations. The article conceptually utilises the Gender and Development approach as a theoretical framework. The rationale behind this approach is that in a patriarchal society, there are stereotyped mentality, social practices, and cultural traditions confining women to household tasks only; role-conflict between men and women; and gender challenges in terms of work-family-balanced tasks that restrict women from advancing their careers outside their delegated and expected home-based tasks. This approach therefore aims to empower, incorporate, integrate, and mainstream gender in the sport sector. The article contextually utilises a comprehensive literature survey, document analysis, and a desktop review of the Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa to identify gender gaps. Through document analysis, the gender gaps will be discussed in the South African sports sector at strategic and policy levels that suppress women from holding decision-making and strategic positions. Authors believe that women alone are not responsible for the lack of gender-based representation in sports management. Male counterparts hold equal responsibility to encourage, promote,..

Heavy Quark Potential from Gauge/Gravity Duality: A Large D Analysis

The heavy-quark potential is calculated in the framework of gauge/gravity duality using the large-D approximation, where D is the number of dimensions transverse to the flux tube connecting a quark and an antiquark in a flat D+2-dimensional spacetime. We find that in the large-D limit the leading correction to the ground-state energy, as given by an effective Nambu-Goto string, arises not from the heavy modes but from the behavior of the massless modes in the vicinity of the quark and the antiquark. We estimate this correction and find that it should be visible in the near-future lattice QCD calculations of the heavy-quark potential.Comment: 22 pages, 5 Figures. v2: references added, typos corrected and, Sec. 4 rewritten with an expanded non-perturbative discussion of the corrections to the Arvis potential arising from the massless modes near the boundary of the qcd strin