The fifth most prevalent disease is being neglected by public health organisations

The progress towards reduction of global mortality has produced an epidemiological transition towards non-fatal diseases, which challenge the ability of the world’s population to live in full health. Although traumatic dental injuries are not lethal, their treatment is more expensive (US$2 000 000–5 000 000 per million inhabitants) and time-consuming than that of all the other bodily injuries, making dental rehabilitation less likely among disadvantaged individuals. Since untreated traumatic dental injuries have a negative social, functional, and emotional effect in children and adolescents, differences in treatment of these injuries between children from different countries and social classes produce disparities in their quality of life

The Impact of Treatment of Organic Manures on Future Soil Carbon Sequestration Under Different Tillage Systems in Pakistan

Funds provided by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan for carrying out this Ph.D. research work under “Indigenous 5000 Fellowship Program” and “International Research Support Initiative Program” are highly acknowledged.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Household energy and recycling of nutrients and carbon to the soil in integrated crop-livestock farming systems : a case study in Kumbursa village, Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Acknowledgements We are grateful to the farmers of Kumbursa village for their wholehearted cooperation in providing genuine responses to interview questions during the household survey. We are also thankful to the Development Agent of Kumbursa village, Mr Dinku Chala, for facilitating our relations with farmers of the study area and for participating in data collection. We are indebted to Addis Ababa University and AUC funded Afri-Flame project (Adaptation of small-scale biogas digesters for use in rural households in Sub-Saharan Africa) for their joint financial support. Our heartfelt gratitude also goes to the staff of Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center for their cooperation in nutrient content analysis of crop residues and dung cakes. Finally, we owe our heartfelt indebtedness to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments which greatly contributed to the improvement and final refinement of this paperPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Profile of children with new-born brachial plexus palsy managed in a tertiary hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria

 New-born Brachial Plexus Palsy (NBPP) is birth injury resulting from traction to the brachial plexus at birth. It is an injury to two or more cervical or thoracic nerve roots. It has been reported to be one of the most common birth injuries of the new-born. Persistent presentation of children with NBPP in Nigeria paediatric practice necessitates the need to examine prevalence, patterns and possible predisposing factors. This study therefore investigated retrospectively, profiles of children who presented with NBPP over a ten year period and were managed at the Physiotherapy department of the University College Hospital, Ibadan Nigeria. A  retrospective cross-sectional survey, in which files of children with NBPP located from the database of the Physiotherapy department were retrieved in order to assess infant and maternal information. One hundred and seventy children, 93 (54.7%) males and 77 (45.3%) females were studied. Their mean birth weight was 4.21±0.54 kg, 99 (58.2%) were delivered in private (non-government) hospitals, majority 163 (95.9%) presented with Erb’s Palsy. Mothers, 54 (31.8%) were mostly primiparous and a seemingly persistent elevation in two-yearly incidence of NBPP was observed. Improved healthcare policy in child delivery is encouraged in non-government hospitals in Nigeria to provide preventive measures toward incidence of NBPP. Documentation of physiotherapy management of children with NBPP should include outcomes from admission through to discharge.Keywords: New-born, Brachial plexus Palsy, Incidence, Physiotherapy, Nigeri

Three-loop HTL gluon thermodynamics at intermediate coupling

We calculate the thermodynamic functions of pure-glue QCD to three-loop order using the hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory (HTLpt) reorganization of finite temperature quantum field theory. We show that at three-loop order hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory is compatible with lattice results for the pressure, energy density, and entropy down to temperatures $T\simeq3\;T_c$. Our results suggest that HTLpt provides a systematic framework that can used to calculate static and dynamic quantities for temperatures relevant at LHC.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figs. 2nd version: improved discussion and fixing typos. Published in JHE

Architecting Self-adaptive Software Systems

Peer reviewe

A placebo-controlled trial of folic acid and betaine in identical twins with Angelman syndrome.

BackgroundAngelman syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is caused by maternal genetic deficiency of a gene that encodes E6-AP ubiquitin-protein ligase (gene symbol UBE3A) mapping to chromosome 15q11-q13. AS leads to stiff and jerky gait, excess laughter, seizures, and severe intellectual disability. In some parts of the brain, the paternally inherited UBE3A gene is subject to genomic imprinting by the action of the UBE3A-antisense transcript (UBE3A-ATS) on the paternally inherited allele. Consequently, only the maternally inherited UBE3A gene is expressed in mature neurons. AS occurs due to deletions of the maternal 15q11 - 13 region, paternal uniparental disomy (UPD), imprinting center defects, mutations in the maternal UBE3A gene, or other unknown genetic malfunctions that result in a silenced maternal UBE3A gene in the specific imprinted regions of the brain.ResultsA potential treatment strategy for AS is to increase methylation of UBE3A-ATS to promote expression of the paternal UBE3A gene and thus ameliorate the clinical phenotypes of AS. We treated two sets of male identical twins with class I deletions with a 1 year treatment trial of either betaine and folic acid versus placebo. We found no statistically significant changes in the clinical parameters tested at the end of the 1 year trial, nor did we find any significant adverse events.ConclusionsThis study tested the hypothesis that by increasing the methylation of the UBE3A-antisense transcript in Angelman syndrome to promote expression of the silenced paternal UBE3A gene we may ameliorate the clinical phenotypes of AS. We treated two sets of identical twins with placebo versus betaine and folic acid. Although this study represented a novel approach to treating Angelman syndrome, the differences in the developmental testing results was not significant. This paper also discusses the value of monozygotic twin studies in minimizing confounding variables and its utility in conducting small treatment studies.Trial registrationNCT00348933 . Registered 6 July 2006

Three-loop HTL QCD thermodynamics

The hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory (HTLpt) framework is used to calculate the thermodynamic functions of a quark-gluon plasma to three-loop order. This is the highest order accessible by finite temperature perturbation theory applied to a non-Abelian gauge theory before the high-temperature infrared catastrophe. All ultraviolet divergences are eliminated by renormalization of the vacuum, the HTL mass parameters, and the strong coupling constant. After choosing a prescription for the mass parameters, the three-loop results for the pressure and trace anomaly are found to be in very good agreement with recent lattice data down to $T \sim 2-3\,T_c$, which are temperatures accessible by current and forthcoming heavy-ion collision experiments.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures; corresponds with published version in JHE

Estimating the effect of nitrogen fertilizer on the greenhouse gas balance of soils in Wales under current and future climate

This work was supported by a Grant from the Welsh Government (Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Project—GMEP).Peer reviewedPublisher PD