Effect of mother support groups on nutritional status in children under two years of age in Laisamis village, Kenya

Background: In tackling the ongoing malnutrition problem in many parts of Kenya, the government has initialized preventive actions such as mother support groups in order to improve health and nutrition among children. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of such intervention.Objective: This study aimed at determining how mother support groups affect the nutrition status of children under 2 years of age.Methods: 41 children participated. Anthropometric measurements were taken of the children once a month during 12 months. Medical history, nutrition status and socioeconomic factors were collected by interviews with the mothers. The children were divided into two groups depending on their mother’s assigned group; mother support group or not.Results: Nutritional status was significantly better among children in the mother support group (P=0.001). There were significantly more children with severe acute malnutrition among the children not in support group (P=0.040). The mean height (P=0.001) and mean weight (P=0.0281) were significantly higher among children in the non-support group.Conclusion: Mother support groups may have a beneficial effect on the nutritional status of children under 2 years of age. Cases of severe acute malnutrition seemed to be less prevalent in children whose mothers attend mother support groups.Keywords: Malnutrition, mother support groups, breastfeeding, Keny

Effect of mother support groups on nutritional status in children under two years of age in Laisamis village, Kenya.

Background: In tackling the ongoing malnutrition problem in many parts of Kenya, the government has initialized preventive actions such as mother support groups in order to improve health and nutrition among children. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of such intervention. Objective: This study aimed at determining how mother support groups affect the nutrition status of children under 2 years of age. Methods: 41 children participated. Anthropometric measurements were taken of the children once a month during 12 months. Medical history, nutrition status and socioeconomic factors were collected by interviews with the mothers. The children were divided into two groups depending on their mother\u2019s assigned group; mother support group or not. Results: Nutritional status was significantly better among children in the mother support group (P=0.001). There were significantly more children with severe acute malnutrition among the children not in support group (P=0.040). The mean height (P=0.001) and mean weight (P=0.0281) were significantly higher among children in the non-support group. Conclusion: Mother support groups may have a beneficial effect on the nutritional status of children under 2 years of age. Cases of severe acute malnutrition seemed to be less prevalent in children whose mothers attend mother support groups

Mobil teknologi og kollektivtransport : Synliggjøring av informasjon gjennom sanntidskart

I denne oppgaven har vi sett på mobile teknologier, og muligheten for ved hjelp av teorier og metoder fra fagfeltet HCI å utvikle en applikasjon for mobile enheter som synliggjør informasjon for brukere av kollektivtrafikk. Dette har vi gjort ved å utvikle en prototyp på et sanntidskart. Et sanntidskart er en visualisering av sanntidsdata fra kollektivtrafikken, som forteller hvor langt unna holdeplassene kollektivtransporten befinner seg. Oppgaven presenterer teori og metoder vi har benyttet fra HCI, lignende løsninger som eksisterer fra før, de forskjellige teknologiene vi så på for å finne en løsning som ville fungere på mobile enheter, og utvikling og brukertest av prototypen. Vi diskuterer bruken av teori og metoder fra HCI i utviklingsprosessen, og protypens funksjonalitet opp mot de empiriske resultatene fra brukertesten. Studiet viste at den beste løsningen for en slik applikasjon var å gjøre den webbasert, og at sanntidskartet kunne utvikles ved hjelp av teknologier som er støttet av de mest moderne mobile nettlesere. Prototypen viste at dette var mulig i praksis, og brukertesten viste at interessen for en slik applikasjon er stor

An artificial walk down Wall Street : can intraday stock returns be predicted using artificial neural networks?

Financial markets are complex evolved dynamic systems. Due to its irregularity, financial time series forecasting is regarded as a rather challenging task. In recent years, artificial neural network applications in finance, for such tasks as pattern recognition, classification, and time series forecasting have dramatically increased. The objective of this paper is to present this powerful framework and attempt to use it to predict the stock return series of four publicly listed companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Our findings coincide with those of Burton Malkiel in his book, A Random Walk down Wall Street; no conclusive evidence is found that our proposed models can predict the stock return series better than a random walk

Effect of mother support groups on nutritional status in children under two years of age in Laisamis village, Kenya

Background: To deal with the ongoing malnutrition problem in many parts of Kenya, the government has initialized preventive actions such as mother support groups to improve health and nutrition among children. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of such interventions as mother support groups. Objective: This study aimed at determining how mother support groups affect the nutrition status of children under 2 years of age. Methods: A total of 41 children participated. Anthropometric measurements were made once a month on the children during 12 months. Medical history, nutrition status and socioeconomic factors were collected by interviews with the mothers. The children were divided into two groups; one mother support group and one not in support group depending on their mother’s assigned group. Results: Nutritional status estimated by mean Z-score was significantly better among children in the MSG than in the non-support group (P=0.001). There was a significant increase in the number of children with severe acute malnutrition among the children not in support group compared to children in the mother support group (P=0.040). The mean height (P=0.001) and mean weight (P=0.0281) were significantly higher among children in the non-support group compared to the children in the mother support group. Conclusion: Mother support groups may have a beneficial effect on the nutritional status among children under 2 years of age. Cases of severe acute malnutrition may be reduced in children whose mothers attend mother support groups