Brane Decay of a (4+n)-Dimensional Rotating Black Hole. III: spin-1/2 particles

In this work, we have continued the study of the Hawking radiation on the brane from a higher-dimensional rotating black hole by investigating the emission of fermionic modes. A comprehensive analysis is performed that leads to the particle, power and angular momentum emission rates, and sheds light on their dependence on fundamental parameters of the theory, such as the spacetime dimension and angular momentum of the black hole. In addition, the angular distribution of the emitted modes, in terms of the number of particles and energy, is thoroughly studied. Our results are valid for arbitrary values of the energy of the emitted particles, dimension of spacetime and angular momentum of the black hole, and complement previous results on the emission of brane-localised scalars and gauge bosons.Comment: Latex file, JHEP style, 34 pages, 16 figures Energy range in plots increased, minor changes, version published in JHE

Population pharmacokinetics of sulfadoxine and pyrimethamine in Malawian children with malaria.

In addition to parasite resistance, inadequate levels of exposure to antimalarial drugs may contribute to treatment failure. We developed population pharmacokinetic (PK) models to describe the distribution of sulfadoxine (SDX) and pyrimethamine (PYM) in children with uncomplicated malaria in Malawi. The concentration levels of antimalarial drugs in whole blood were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. We found no evidence of underdosing in children as compared with adults; the children had drug exposure levels similar to those described in adults. Treatment failure was more likely in children with lower PYM concentrations on day 14 (P = 0.024), and there was a trend for lower SDX concentrations on day 14 (P = 0.061). SDX and PYM concentrations at levels predictive of treatment failure have been identified at day 14. Less than one-third of the children displayed drug concentration levels above these thresholds after receiving the recommended SDX-pyrimethamine (SP) dose. Our findings suggest that PK factors contributed to the observed high rate of treatment failure, and we therefore recommend a higher SP dose for children under the age of 5 years

Coma scales for children with severe falciparum malaria

The Blantyre coma scale (BCS) is used to assess children with severe falciparum malaria, particularly as a criterion for cerebral malaria, but it has not been formally validated. We compared the BCS to the Adelaide coma scale (ACS), for Kenyan children with severe malaria. We examined the inter-observer agreement between 3 observers in the assessment of coma scales on 17 children by measuring the proportion of agreement (PA), disagreement rate (DR) and fixed sample size κ (κn). We assessed the sensivitity and specificity of the scales in detecting events (seizures and hypoglycaemia) in 240 children during admission and the usefulness of the scales in predicting outcome. There was considerable disagreement between observers in the assessment of both scales (BCS: PA = 0.55, DR = 0.09 and κn = 0.27; ACS: PA = O.36, DR = O.31, and κn = 0.31), particularly with the verbal component of the BCS (κn = 0.02). Compared to the ACS, the BCS was more specific (0.85 for BCS and 0.80 for ACS), but less sensitive (0.25-0.69 vs. 0.38-0.88 respectively) in detecting events and was a worse predictor of neurological sequelae. The BCS provided a better overall assessment of a child's incapacity from falciparum malaria, but the ACS was more useful in assessing neurological disturbances.</p