227 research outputs found
A new analytical approach for the velocity field in rolling processes and its application in through-thickness texture prediction
Knowledge of HIV status prior to a community HIV counseling and testing intervention in a rural district of south Africa: results of a community based survey
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The low uptake of facility-based HIV counseling and testing (HCT) in South Africa, particularly amongst men and youth has hindered attempts to increase access to effective treatment and prevention strategies. Many barriers to HIV testing have been described including long waiting times, transport to reach facilities, fear of lack of confidentiality and health systems factors such as stock outs of HIV test kits. The aim of this study was to undertake a community survey to determine rates of HCT in a rural area in order to plan a community intervention.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A community-based survey was undertaken in 16 communities in Sisonke district, KwaZulu-Natal between September and November 2008. A total of 5821 individuals participated in the survey of which 66% were females. Gender specific mixed effects logistic regression models were used to describe differences in socio-economic characteristics, and their association with HIV testing histories.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall 1833 (32%) individuals in this rural area knew their HIV status. Prior testing was higher amongst women (39%) than amongst men (17%). Older men (> 24 years) were more likely to report having tested for HIV previously, with the highest likelihood (adjusted OR = 4.02; 95% CI: 2.71-5.99) among men in age group, 35-49 years. For women, age group 25-34 years had the highest likelihood of having been previously tested (adjusted OR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.05-1.66). Being currently pregnant (adjusted OR 3.31; 95% CI: 2.29 - 4.78) or having a child under five (adjusted OR 7.00; 95% CI: 5.84 - 8.39) were also associated with prior HIV testing amongst women.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Overall, knowledge of HIV status in this rural sub-district is low. The relatively higher uptake of HIV testing among women is encouraging as it shows that PMTCT services are well functioning. However, these data suggest that there is an urgent need for scaling up HIV testing services in rural communities specifically targeting men and youth.</p
Superfluidity and collective oscillations of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates in a periodical potential
Based on a unified theoretical treatment of the 1D Bogoliubov-de Genes
equations, the superfluidity phenomenon of the Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC)
loaded into trapped optical lattice is studied. Within the perturbation regime,
an all-analytical framework is presented enabling a straightforward
phenomenological mapping of the collective excitation and oscillation character
of a trapped BEC where the available experimental configurations also fit.Comment: 5 pages and 2 Figs, some errors have been corrected in versions
Study of in the vicinity of
Using 2917 of data accumulated at 3.773~,
44.5~ of data accumulated at 3.65~ and data accumulated
during a line-shape scan with the BESIII detector, the reaction
is studied considering a possible interference
between resonant and continuum amplitudes. The cross section of
,
, is found to have two
solutions, determined to be () pb with the phase angle
(0.11 pb at the 90% confidence level),
or ) pb with both of which
agree with a destructive interference. Using the obtained cross section of
, the cross section of , which is useful information for the future PANDA experiment, is
estimated to be either () nb ( nb at 90% C.L.) or
nb
Vaccination coverage and timeliness in three South African areas: a prospective study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Timely vaccination is important to induce adequate protective immunity. We measured vaccination timeliness and vaccination coverage in three geographical areas in South Africa.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study used vaccination information from a community-based cluster-randomized trial promoting exclusive breastfeeding in three South African sites (Paarl in the Western Cape Province, and Umlazi and Rietvlei in KwaZulu-Natal) between 2006 and 2008. Five interview visits were carried out between birth and up to 2 years of age (median follow-up time 18 months), and 1137 children were included in the analysis. We used Kaplan-Meier time-to-event analysis to describe vaccination coverage and timeliness in line with the Expanded Program on Immunization for the first eight vaccines. This included Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), four oral polio vaccines and 3 doses of the pentavalent vaccine which protects against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The proportion receiving all these eight recommended vaccines were 94% in Paarl (95% confidence interval [CI] 91-96), 62% in Rietvlei (95%CI 54-68) and 88% in Umlazi (95%CI 84-91). Slightly fewer children received all vaccines within the recommended time periods. The situation was worst for the last pentavalent- and oral polio vaccines. The hazard ratio for incomplete vaccination was 7.2 (95%CI 4.7-11) for Rietvlei compared to Paarl.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There were large differences between the different South African sites in terms of vaccination coverage and timeliness, with the poorer areas of Rietvlei performing worse than the better-off areas in Paarl. The vaccination coverage was lower for the vaccines given at an older age. There is a need for continued efforts to improve vaccination coverage and timeliness, in particular in rural areas.</p> <p>Trial registration number</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00397150">NCT00397150</a></p
Effects of early feeding on growth velocity and overweight/obesity in a cohort of HIV unexposed South African infants and children
BACKGROUND: South Africa has the highest prevalence of overweight/obesity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Assessing the
effect of modifiable factors such as early infant feeding on growth velocity and overweight/obesity is therefore important.
This paper aimed to assess the effect of infant feeding in the transitional period (12 weeks) on 12–24 week growth
velocity amongst HIV unexposed children using WHO growth velocity standards and on the age and sex adjusted body
mass index (BMI) Z-score distribution at 2 years.
METHODS: Data were from 3 sites in South Africa participating in the PROMISE-EBF trial. We calculated growth velocity
Z-scores using the WHO growth standards and assessed feeding practices using 24-hour and 7-day recall data. We used
quantile regression to study the associations between 12 week infant feeding and 12–24 week weight velocity (WVZ) with
BMI-for-age Z-score at 2 years. We included the internal sample quantiles (70th and 90th centiles) that approximated the
reference cut-offs of +2 (corresponding to overweight) and +3 (corresponding to obesity) of the 2 year BMI-for-age Z-scores.
RESULTS: At the 2-year visit, 641 children were analysed (median age 22 months, IQR: 17–26 months). Thirty
percent were overweight while 8.7% were obese. Children not breastfed at 12 weeks had higher 12–24 week mean WVZ
and were more overweight and obese at 2 years. In the quantile regression, children not breastfed at 12 weeks had a 0.37
(95% CI 0.07, 0.66) increment in BMI-for-age Z-score at the 50th sample quantile compared to breast-fed children. This difference
in BMI-for-age Z-score increased to 0.46 (95% CI 0.18, 0.74) at the 70th quantile and 0.68 (95% CI 0.41, 0.94) at the 90th
quantile . The 12–24 week WVZ had a uniform independent
effect across the same quantiles.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the first 6 months of life is a critical period in the development of childhood
overweight and obesity. Interventions targeted at modifiable factors such as early infant feeding practices may reduce the
risks of rapid weight gain and subsequent childhood overweight/obesity.Scopu
The ‘community’ in community case management of childhood illnesses in Malawi
: Malawi has achieved a remarkable feat in reducing its under-5 mortality in time to meet its
MDG 4 target despite high levels of poverty, low female literacy rates, recurrent economic crises, a severe
shortage of human resources for health, and poor health infrastructure. The country’s community-based
delivery platform (largely headed by Health Surveillance Assistants, or HSAs) has been well established since
the 1960s, although their tasks and responsibilities have evolved from surveillance to health promotion and
prevention, and more recently to include curative services. However, the role of and the form that community
involvement takes in community-based service delivery in Malawi is unclear
E-commerce ethics and its impact on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty: an empirical study of small and medium Egyptian businesses
The theoretical understanding of e-commerce has received much attention over the years; however, relatively little focus has been directed towards e-commerce ethics, especially the SMEs B2B e-commerce aspect. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework that explains the impact of SMEs B2B e-commerce ethics on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Using SEM to analyse the data collected from a sample of SME e-commerce firms in Egypt, the results indicate that buyers’ perceptions of supplier ethics construct is composed of six dimensions (security, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, service recovery, shared value, and communication) and strongly predictive of online buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Furthermore, our results also show that reliability/fulfilment and non-deception are the most effective relationship-building dimensions. In addition, relationship quality has a positive effect on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. The results offer important implications for B2B e-commerce and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of relationship marketing
Sistema de controle adaptativo aplicado a um sistema de distribuição de água com ênfase na eficiência energética
- …