Agricultural production in Greater Sekhukhune: the future for food security in a poverty node of South Africa?

This paper argues that within the range of complementary activities necessary to secure the food security of marginalised groups in South Africa in places such as Greater Sekhukhune, the aspect of agricultural production is often neglected. A comprehensive approach to food security should focus on exploiting opportunities around increasing local food availability through production, as well as stimulating food accessibility by, for example, supporting small enterprises through micro-credit, and supporting food utilisation through education. In this way a range of options is created that vulnerable people can adopt to promote their livelihoods beyond survivalist strategies. This paper explores the issue of agricultural production within Greater Sekhukhune to provide insights into the challenges facing a comprehensive food security strategy that would guarantee food supply through a range of interventions. The study in the Greater Sekhukhune District in Limpopo Province was conducted through two sets of household surveys (2004 and 2006) and the responses to the agricultural production part of these surveys are discussed. Marked changes from 2004 to 2006 were observed. For “agrarian reform†to be a success, the necessary institutional framework needs to be in place to enable a broad range of services from government and non-governmental actors. The facilitation of such “joined up governmentâ€, although in existence in theory, requires concerted political will to become a reality.Food security, agricultural production, household surveys, Greater Sekhukhune, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

The evolution, current indications and outcomes of cementless total knee arthroplasty

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has been performed by orthopedic surgeons for decades, but the cementless TKA has only recently gained much interest in the world of arthroplasty. Initially, early designs had multiple complications, particularly with aseptic loosening due to osteolysis and micromotion. However, modifications have shown good outcomes and excellent survivorship. Over the last several decades, changes in implant designs as well as implant materials/coatings have helped with bone in growth and stability. Furthermore, surgeons have been performing TKA in younger and more obese patients as these populations have been increasing. Good results from the cementless TKA compared to cemented TKA may be a better option in these more challenging populations, as several studies have shown greater survivorship in patients that are younger and have a greater BMI. Additionally, a cementless TKA may be more cost effective, which remains a concern in today\u27s healthcare environment. Overall, cemented and cementless TKA have great results in modern times and there is still a debate as to which implant is superior

Investigation of an unusual GABA-A receptor: studies on the promiscuous ε [epsilon] subunit

γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A (GABAA) receptors are pentameric, chloride-selective ion channels. Nineteen different GABAA receptor subunits are known to exist in man and various subunit combinations are able to form receptor subtypes with different, subunit-specific pharmacological properties. GABAA receptors are targeted by many clinically-important drugs, for example, benzodiazepines. Unwanted side effects, such as tolerance and dependence, often occur due to non-selective receptor targeting. There is, therefore, a need for subtype-selective drugs. Comparatively little is known about the role of the ε subunit or ε-subunit-containing receptors in vivo. Recently, it has been recognised that a GABAA receptor subtype, that contains the α3 and ε subunits, is present in neurons within the forebrain that synthesise acetylcholine, and this may regulate neurotransmitter release. In Alzheimer’s disease, cholinergic neurotransmission is reduced; therefore, this subtype might be a target for the development of anti-Alzheimer’s disease drugs that would function by increasing acetylcholine release in forebrain regions where cholinergic neurons are dying. The pharmacological properties of a GABAA receptor that comprises the α3, β2 and ε subunits were examined in Xenopus laevis oocytes using the two-electrode voltage-clamp technique. The results obtained confirm that the ε subunit confers unusual properties on the GABAA receptor

Kummer strikes back : new DH speed records

This paper introduces high-security constant-time variable-base-point Diffie--Hellman software using just 274593 Cortex-A8 cycles, 91460 Sandy Bridge cycles, 90896 Ivy Bridge cycles, or 72220 Haswell cycles. The only higher speed appearing in the literature for any of these platforms is a claim of 60000 Haswell cycles for unpublished software performing arithmetic on a binary elliptic curve. The new speeds rely on a synergy between (1) state-of-the-art formulas for genus-2 hyperelliptic curves and (2) a modern trend towards vectorization in CPUs. The paper introduces several new techniques for efficient vectorization of Kummer-surface computations. Keywords: implementation / performance, Diffie--Hellman, hyperelliptic curves, Kummer surfaces, vectorizatio

Velocity‐resolved laser‐induced desorption for kinetics on surface adsorbates

Most experimental methods for studying the kinetics of surface reactions – for example, temperature programmed desorption (TPD), molecular beam relaxation spectrometry (MBRS) and velocity-resolved kinetics (VRK) – employ detection schemes that require thermal desorption. However, many adsorbates – for example reaction intermediates – never leave the surface under reaction conditions. In this paper, we present a new method to measure adsorbate concentrations on catalytic surfaces and demonstrate its utility for studying thermal desorption kinetics. After a short-pulsed molecular beam deposits CO or NH3 on Pt (111), the surface is irradiated with an ultrashort laser pulse that induces desorption. Another tightly focused ultrashort laser pulse ionizes the gas-phase molecules by a non-resonant multiphoton process and the ions are detected. This two-laser signal is then recorded as a function of time after the dosing molecular beam pulse and decays exponentially. First-order thermal desorption rate constants are obtained over a range of temperatures and found to be in good agreement with past reports. Ion detection is done mass selectively with ion-imaging, dispersing the gas phase molecules by their velocities. Since laser-induced desorption (LID) produces hyperthermal gas phase molecules, they can be detected with little or no background. This approach is highly surface-specific and exhibits sensitivity below 10−4 ML coverage. Because the signals are linearly proportional to adsorbate concentration, the method can be employed at lower temperatures than VRK, whose signal is proportional to reaction rate

Surgical treatment of gluteus medius tears augmented with allograft human dermis

Greater trochanteric pain syndrome can be caused by gluteus medius and minimus tendinopathy/tears and chronic trochanteric bursitis. Specifically, moderate-to-severe abductor tendon tears can cause severe lateral hip pain, limp, and abnormal gait. A variety of open and endoscopic techniques to treat glut abductors hip tears have been described. The use of scaffolds, such as acellular human dermal allograft, to augment tendon repair, already has been successfully reported in rotator cuff repairs of the shoulder. Still, the use of acellular human dermal allograft in the hip has been limited. However, there are some clinical scenarios in which augmentation of abductors hip tendon repair with scaffold is indicated. Chronic or massive gluteus tears or revision cases may benefit from augmentation with a scaffold. The purpose of this technical note and accompanying video is to describe our indications, pearls, and pitfalls of repair of moderate to severe gluteus tears via a minimally invasive technique augmented with acellular human dermal allograft

Application of an event-based camera for real-time velocity resolved kinetics

We describe here the application of an inexpensive event-based/neuromorphic camera in an ion imaging experiment operated at 1 kHz detection rate to study real-time velocity-resolved kinetics of thermal desorption. Such measurements involve a single gas pulse to initiate a time-dependent desorption process and a high repetition rate laser, where each pulse of the laser is used to produce an ion image. The sequence of ion images allows the time dependence of the desorption flux to be followed in real time. In previous work where a conventional framing camera was used, the large number of megapixel-sized images required data transfer and storage rates of up to 16 GB/s. This necessitated a large onboard memory that was quickly filled and limited continuous measurement to only a few seconds. Read-out of the memory became the bottleneck to the rate of data acquisition. We show here that since most pixels in each ion image contain no data, the data rate can be dramatically reduced by using an event-based/neuromorphic camera. The data stream is thus reduced to the intensity and location information on the pixels that are lit up by each ion event together with a time-stamp indicating the arrival time of an ion at the detector. This dramatically increases the duty cycle of the method and provides insights for the execution of other high rep-rate ion imaging experiments

a retrospective study

Introduction Emergency treatment of major sub-/total traumatic amputations continue to represent a clinical challenge due to high infection rates and serious handicaps. Effective treatment is based on two columns: surgery and antimicrobial therapy. Detailed identification of pathogen spectrum and epidemiology associated with these injuries is of tremendous importance as it guides the initial empiric antibiotic regimen and prevents adverse septic effents. Methods In this retrospective study 51 patients with major traumatic amputations (n = 16) and subtotal amputations (n = 35) treated from 2001 to 2010 in our trauma center were investigated. All patients received emergency surgery, debridement with microbiological testing within 6 h after admission and empircic antimicrobial therapy. Additionally to baseline patient characteristics, the incidence of positive standardized microbiologic testing combined with clinical signs of infection, pathogen spectrum, administered antimicrobial agents and clinical complications were analyzed. Results 70.6% of the patients (n = 36) acquired wound infection. In 39% wounds were contaminated on day 1, whereas the mean length of duration until first pathogen detection was 9.1 ± 13.4 days after injury. In 37% polymicrobial colonization and 28% Pseudomonas were responsible for wound infections during hospitalization. In 45% the empirc antimicrobial therapy focussed on Gram positive strains did not cover the detected bacteria, according antimicrobial resistogram. It was significantly more often found in infections associated with Pseudomonas (p 0.02) or polymicrobial wound infections. Conclusions This epidemiologic study reveals a pathogen shift from Gram-positive to Gram- negative strains with high incidence of Pseudomonas and polymicrobial infections in sub-/total major traumatic amputations. Therefore, empiric antimicrobial treatment historically focussing on Gram-positive strains must be adjusted. We recommend the use of Piperacillin/Tazobactam for these injuries. As soon as possible antimicrobial treatment should be changed from empiric to goal directed therapy according to the microbiological tests and resistogram results

Impact of high prevalence of pseudomonas and polymicrobial gram-negative infections in major sub-/total traumatic amputations on empiric antimicrobial therapy: a retrospective study

INTRODUCTION: Emergency treatment of major sub-/total traumatic amputations continue to represent a clinical challenge due to high infection rates and serious handicaps. Effective treatment is based on two columns: surgery and antimicrobial therapy. Detailed identification of pathogen spectrum and epidemiology associated with these injuries is of tremendous importance as it guides the initial empiric antibiotic regimen and prevents adverse septic effents. METHODS: In this retrospective study 51 patients with major traumatic amputations (n = 16) and subtotal amputations (n = 35) treated from 2001 to 2010 in our trauma center were investigated. All patients received emergency surgery, debridement with microbiological testing within 6 h after admission and empircic antimicrobial therapy. Additionally to baseline patient characteristics, the incidence of positive standardized microbiologic testing combined with clinical signs of infection, pathogen spectrum, administered antimicrobial agents and clinical complications were analyzed. RESULTS: 70.6% of the patients (n = 36) acquired wound infection. In 39% wounds were contaminated on day 1, whereas the mean length of duration until first pathogen detection was 9.1 ± 13.4 days after injury. In 37% polymicrobial colonization and 28% Pseudomonas were responsible for wound infections during hospitalization. In 45% the empirc antimicrobial therapy focussed on Gram positive strains did not cover the detected bacteria, according antimicrobial resistogram. It was significantly more often found in infections associated with Pseudomonas (p 0.02) or polymicrobial wound infections. CONCLUSIONS: This epidemiologic study reveals a pathogen shift from Gram-positive to Gram-negative strains with high incidence of Pseudomonas and polymicrobial infections in sub-/total major traumatic amputations. Therefore, empiric antimicrobial treatment historically focussing on Gram-positive strains must be adjusted. We recommend the use of Piperacillin/Tazobactam for these injuries. As soon as possible antimicrobial treatment should be changed from empiric to goal directed therapy according to the microbiological tests and resistogram results