Midwifery tutors' capacity and willingness to teach contraception, post-abortion care, and legal pregnancy termination in Ghana

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ghana has a high maternal mortality rate of 540 per 100 000. Although abortion complications usually are treatable, the risks of morbidity and death increase when treatment is delayed. Delay in care may occur when women have difficulty accessing treatment because health care providers are not trained, equipped, or willing to treat the complications of abortion. Gaps in the midwifery tutors' knowledge on comprehensive abortion care (CAC) have resulted in most midwives in Ghana not knowing the legal indications under which safe abortion care can be provided, and lacking the skills and competencies for CAC services. The aim of this study is to assess the capacity and willingness of midwifery tutors to teach contraception, post abortion care and legal termination in Ghana.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study focused on all 14 midwifery schools in the country. A total of 74 midwifery tutors were interviewed for this study. Structured self-administered questionnaires were used for data collection. The data were entered and checked for consistencies using Epiinfo 6.04 and analyzed using Stata 8. Descriptive analysis was used and frequencies reported with percentages.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In total, 74 midwifery tutors were interviewed. Of these, 66 (89.2%) were females. The tutors had mainly been trained as midwives (51.4%) and graduate nurses (33.8%). Respondents were predominantly Christians (97.3%).</p> <p>The study discovered that only 18.9% of the tutors knew all the legal indications under which safe abortion care could be provided. The content of pre-service training of tutors did not include uterine evacuation with manual vacuum aspirator (MVA).</p> <p>The study also highlighted some factors that influence midwifery tutors' willingness to teach comprehensive abortion care. It was also revealed that personal and religious beliefs greatly influence teaching of Comprehensive Abortion Care.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings of this survey suggest that the majority of tutors did not know the abortion law in Ghana as well as the Ghana Health Service Reproductive Health Standards and Protocol. Thus, there is a need to enhance their capacities to teach the present pre-service students the necessary skills to offer CAC after school and to understand related issues such as related legal matters.</p

Impact of shortened crop rotation of oilseed rape on soil and rhizosphere microbial diversity in relation to yield decline

Oilseed rape (OSR) grown in monoculture shows a decline in yield relative to virgin OSR of up to 25%, but the mechanisms responsible are unknown. A long term field experiment of OSR grown in a range of rotations with wheat was used to determine whether shifts in fungal and bacterial populations of the rhizosphere and bulk soil were associated with the development of OSR yield decline. The communities of fungi and bacteria in the rhizosphere and bulk soil from the field experiment were profiled using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) and sequencing of cloned internal transcribed spacer regions and 16S rRNA genes, respectively. OSR cropping frequency had no effect on rhizosphere bacterial communities. However, the rhizosphere fungal communities from continuously grown OSR were significantly different to those from other rotations. This was due primarily to an increase in abundance of two fungi which showed 100% and 95% DNA identity to the plant pathogens Olpidium brassicae and Pyrenochaeta lycopersici, respectively. Real-time PCR confirmed that there was significantly more of these fungi in the continuously grown OSR than the other rotations. These two fungi were isolated from the field and used to inoculate OSR and Brassica oleracea grown under controlled conditions in a glasshouse to determine their effect on yield. At high doses, Olpidium brassicae reduced top growth and root biomass in seedlings and reduced branching and subsequent pod and seed production. Pyrenochaeta sp. formed lesions on the roots of seedlings, and at high doses delayed flowering and had a negative impact on seed quantity and quality

Autonomous control for miniaturized mobile robots in unknown pipe networks

Despite recent advances in robotic technology, sewer pipe inspection is still limited to conventional approaches that use cable-tethered robots. Such commercially available tethered robots lack autonomy, and their operation must be manually controlled via their tethered cables. Consequently, they can only travel to a certain distance in pipe, cannot access small-diameter pipes, and their deployment incurs high costs for highly skilled operators. In this paper, we introduce a miniaturised mobile robot for pipe inspection. We present an autonomous control strategy for this robot that is effective, stable, and requires only low-computational resources. The robots used here can access pipes as small as 75 mm in diameter. Due to their small size, low carrying capacity, and limited battery supply, our robots can only carry simple sensors, a small processor, and miniature wheel-legs for locomotion. Yet, our control method is able to compensate for these limitations. We demonstrate fully autonomous robot mobility in a sewer pipe network, without any visual aid or power-hungry image processing. The control algorithm allows the robot to correctly recognise each local network configuration, and to make appropriate decisions accordingly. The control strategy was tested using the physical micro robot in a laboratory pipe network. In both simulation and experiment, the robot autonomously and exhaustively explored an unknown pipe network without missing any pipe section while avoiding obstacles. This is a significant advance towards fully autonomous inspection robot systems for sewer pipe networks

Envelope Determinants of Equine Lentiviral Vaccine Protection

Lentiviral envelope (Env) antigenic variation and associated immune evasion present major obstacles to vaccine development. The concept that Env is a critical determinant for vaccine efficacy is well accepted, however defined correlates of protection associated with Env variation have yet to be determined. We reported an attenuated equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) vaccine study that directly examined the effect of lentiviral Env sequence variation on vaccine efficacy. The study identified a significant, inverse, linear correlation between vaccine efficacy and increasing divergence of the challenge virus Env gp90 protein compared to the vaccine virus gp90. The report demonstrated approximately 100% protection of immunized ponies from disease after challenge by virus with a homologous gp90 (EV0), and roughly 40% protection against challenge by virus (EV13) with a gp90 13% divergent from the vaccine strain. In the current study we examine whether the protection observed when challenging with the EV0 strain could be conferred to animals via chimeric challenge viruses between the EV0 and EV13 strains, allowing for mapping of protection to specific Env sequences. Viruses containing the EV13 proviral backbone and selected domains of the EV0 gp90 were constructed and in vitro and in vivo infectivity examined. Vaccine efficacy studies indicated that homology between the vaccine strain gp90 and the N-terminus of the challenge strain gp90 was capable of inducing immunity that resulted in significantly lower levels of post-challenge virus and significantly delayed the onset of disease. However, a homologous N-terminal region alone inserted in the EV13 backbone could not impart the 100% protection observed with the EV0 strain. Data presented here denote the complicated and potentially contradictory relationship between in vitro virulence and in vivo pathogenicity. The study highlights the importance of structural conformation for immunogens and emphasizes the need for antibody binding, not neutralizing, assays that correlate with vaccine protection. © 2013 Craigo et al

Measuring quality of life in ALS/MND: validation of the WHOQOL-BREF

Objectives: The World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF Scale (WHOQOL-BREF) is a generic QOL measure with four domains covering Physical, Psychological, Social and Environment. Providing the opportunity to contrast QoL with other conditions, or with population norms, the current study had three aims: 1) can the established domains of the WHOQOL-BREF be validated within a large ALS/MND population; 2) can a total score be validated and 3) can they provide interval level measurement? / Methods: Data were obtained from the Trajectories of Outcomes in Neurological Conditions study. Internal construct validity was determined by fit of the data to the Rasch measurement model. / Results: 636 participants with ALS/MND were included. All domains, except the Social domain, showed satisfactory fit to the Rasch model. All were unidimensional, and showed no Differential Item Functioning by age, gender, or onset type. Finally, a total score was validated from a bi-factor perspective. / Conclusions: The WHOQOL-BREF is valid for use in populations with ALS/MND and can be analyzed to yield interval level measurement: It offers a range of domains that reflect QOL, which can be used for parametric analysis and for comparison with other conditions or general populations, two advantages for its inclusion as a trial outcome measure and for observational studies

Morphology, fluid Motion and Predation by the Scyphomedusa Aurelia Aurita

Although medusan predators play demonstrably important roles in a variety of marine ecosystems, the mechanics of prey capture and, hence, prey selection, have remained poorly defined. A review of the literature describing the commonly studied medusa Aurelia aurita (Linnaeus 1758) reveals no distinct patterns of prey selectivity and suggests that A. aurita is a generalist and feeds unselectively upon available zooplankton. We examined the mechanics of prey capture by A. aurita using video methods to record body and fluid motions. Medusae were collected between February and June in 1990 and 1991 from Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA. Tentaculate A. aurita create fluid motions during swimming which entrain prey and bring them into contact with tentacles. We suggest that this mechanism dominates prey selection by A. aurita. In this case, we predict that medusae of a specific diameter will positively select prey with escape speeds slower than the flow velocities at their bell margins. Negatively selected prey escape faster than the medusan flow velocity draws them to capture surfaces. Faster prey will be captured by larger medusac because flow field velocity is a function of bell diameter. On the basis of prey escape velocities and flow field velocities of A. aurita with diameters of 0.8 to 7.1 cm, we predict that A. aurita will select zooplankton such as barnacle nauplii and some slow swimming hydromedusae, while faster copepods will be negatively selected

Prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Infection Among Hmong Immigrants in the San Joaquin Valley

Chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV) is the major cause of primary liver cancer worldwide and Asians are disproportionately affected. The prevalence of HBV among most Asian American groups has been well documented, except in Hmong immigrants in the United States. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HBV among Hmong immigrants in the San Joaquin Valley of California. A convenient sample of 534 Hmong age ≥18 years was recruited at various locations throughout Fresno County. Blood samples from study participants were collected and tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) by enzyme-immunoassay. Two hundred and eighty-nine females and 245 males of Hmong descent (mean age, 43.93) were screened. Eighty-nine (41 males and 48 females) were positive for HBsAg, which accounts for a prevalence of 16.7% (95% C.I. 13.5–19.9). The majorities of HBsAg positive patients were ≥40 years (64.2%), married (66.7%), born in Laos (87.3%), and had lived in the United States ≥20 years (62.5%). Only 37.5% of the participants reported having a primary care physician. Our study revealed that approximately one out of every six Hmong immigrants screened was infected with HBV. Based on our findings, more than one-third of these infected patients have no primary care physician to provide further treatment, surveillance for liver cancer, or vaccination of their families. This supports the Institute of Medicine’s recent recommendations to the Center for Disease Control to engage in a national Hepatitis B surveillance system

Modulation of Bacterial Type III Secretion System by a Spermidine Transporter Dependent Signaling Pathway

10.1371/journal.pone.0001291PLoS ONE212