Trauma unit workload at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal

Each year, 70 000 South Africans are killed by trauma, and a further 3.5 million seek trauma care. We analysed 1 465 trauma patients at the regional-level King Edward VIII Hospital (KE8H) in eThekwini Municipality. Mean patient age was 29 years. Peaks in patient numbers were observed mid-month, at month-end, between 08h00 and 12h00 daily and on Saturday and Sunday nights. Most injuries occurred on roads, at informal settlements and at bars/shebeens. More than 44% of injuries had a violent cause. The pattern of presentation was more in line with a primary healthcaresetting than a referral centre. Reliable and accurate injury trend information is required for effective strategies to curb South Africa’s high injury mortality and morbidity rates. Epidemiological databases are needed, as well as safe, robust and ethical systems for collecting, collating, analysing and disseminating non-fatal injury related data

Similar biodiversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi in set-aside plantations and ancient old-growth broadleaved forests

Setting aside overmature planted forests is currently seen as an option for preserving species associated with old-growth forests, such as those with dispersal limitation. Few data exist, however, on the utility of set-aside plantations for this purpose, or the value of this habitat type for biodiversity relative to old-growth semi-natural ecosystems. Here, we evaluate the contribution of forest type relative to habitat characteristics in determining species richness and composition in seven forest blocks, each containing an ancient old-growth stand (> 1000 yrs) paired with a set-aside even-aged planted stand (ca. 180 yrs). We investigated the functionally important yet relatively neglected ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF), a group for which the importance of forest age has not been assessed in broadleaved forests. We found that forest type was not an important determinant of EMF species richness or composition, demonstrating that set-aside can be an effective option for conserving ancient EMF communities. Species richness of above-ground EMF fruiting bodies was principally related to the basal area of the stand (a correlate of canopy cover) and tree species diversity, whilst richness of below-ground ectomycorrhizae was driven only by tree diversity. Our results suggest that overmature planted forest stands, particularly those that are mixed-woods with high basal area, are an effective means to connect and expand ecological networks of ancient old-growth forests in historically deforested and fragmented landscapes for ectomycorrhizal fungi

SPIRIT: A Microservice-Based Framework for Interactive Cloud Infrastructure Planning

The IaaS model provides elastic infrastructure that enables the migration of legacy applications to cloud environments. Many cloud computing vendors such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform offer a pay-per-use policy that allows for a sustainable reduction in costs compared to on-premise hosting, as well as enable users to choose various geographically distributed data centers. Using state-of-the-art planning algorithms can help application owners to estimate the size and characteristics of the underlying cloud inveterate. However, it’s not always clear which is the optimal solution especially in multi-cloud environments with complex application requirements and QoS constraints. In this paper, we propose an open framework named SPIRIT, which allows a user to include cloud infrastructure planning algorithms and to evaluate and compare their solutions. SPIRIT achieves this by allowing users to interactively study infrastructure planning algorithms by adjusting parameters via a graphical user interface, which visualizes the results of these algorithms. In the current prototype, we have included from the IaaS Partial Critical Path algorithm. By taking advantage of SPIRIT’s microservice-based architecture and its generic interfaces a user can add to the framework, new planning algorithms. SPIRIT can transform an abstract workflow described using the CWL to a concrete infrastructure described using the TOSCA specification. This way the infrastructure descriptions can be ranked on various key performance indicators

Partial reduction of anthracene by cold field emission in liquid in a microreactor with an integrated planar microstructured electrode

We report a novel microreactor with a photolithographically defined integrated electrode containing micro tips that serve as emission points for solvated electrons into liquid n-hexane in a microfluidic channel. The implementation of sharp electrode tips permits to extract electrons from the electrode material at relatively low voltages. The electric field distribution in the gap between a planar patterned platinum microtip array and a planar rectangular counterelectrode is analyzed by a computational model. Cold field emission using these microdevices is experimentally verified, and the partial reduction of anthracene to 9,10-dihydroanthracene, via solvated electrons emitted in solutions with or without ethanol in n-hexane is investigated. It is found that in the current microreactor configuration, the majority of the products are products originating from coupling of ethanol fragments to, and/or oxidation of 9,10-dihydroanthracene at the platinum counterelectrode, leaving no detectable yield of the desired reduction product

Trauma unit workload at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal

Each year, 70 000 South Africans are killed by trauma and a further 3.5 million seek trauma care. We analysed 1 465 trauma patients at the regional-level King Edward VIII hospital (KE8H) in eThekwini Municipality. Mean patient age was 29 years. Peaks in patient numbers were observed mid-month, at month-end, between 08h00 and 12h00 daily and on Saturday and Sunday nights. Most injuries occurred on roads, at informal settlements and at bars/shebeens. More than 44% of injuries had a violent cause. The pattern of presentation was more in line with a primary healthcare setting than a referral centre. Reliable and accurate injury trend information is required for effective strategies to curb South Africa’s high injury mortality and morbidity rates. Epidemiological databases are needed, as well as safe, robust and ethical systems for collecting, collating, analysing and disseminating non-fatal injury-related data

Conned by Conn’s Syndrome

Conn’s Syndrome is a rare entity amongst hypertensive patients and imaging of the aldosterone producing adenoma (APA) can prove challenging but is none the less very important for surgical planning and cure. We present two patients with MRI confirmation of APA with negative and equivocal computed tomography (CT) scans

Report and policy brief from the 4th Africa Conference on Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research: Innovations in access to prevention, treatment and care in HIV/AIDS, Kisumu, Kenya, 29 April - 3 May 2007

About 520 delegates from all over Africa and 21 countries attended the conference. This report and policy brief summarises the key findings and suggested policy options that emerged from rapporteur reports of conference proceedings including the following themes: (1) Orphans and vulnerable children, (2) Treatment, (3) Prevention, (4) Gender and male involvement, (5) Male circumcision, (6) People living with HIV/AIDS, (7) Food and nutrition, (8) Socioeconomics, and (9) Politics/policy. Two (11.8%) of the 17 OVC projects from the three countries were classified as best practice interventions. Of the 83 abstracts that were accepted at the conference, only 7 (8.4%) were dealing with antiretroviral therapy (ART).There has been tremendous effort by various organisations to provide information about prevention of HIV/AIDS. Information received by adolescents has been effective in increasing their knowledge, but without positive sexual behaviour change.The conference noted the contribution of gender discrimination and violence to the HIV epidemic and the different risks that men and women face in relation to the epidemic. Social scientists need to study the deep cultural meanings attached to male circumcision among different ethnic groups to be able to guide the debate on the latest biomedical findings on the protective effect of circumcision against HIV. Palliative care and support is crucial for coping among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in order to deal with medical and psychological issues. Results from several countries have helped researchers to explore alternative ways of examining poverty in the context of HIV and AIDS. Policy frameworks which are likely to succeed in combating HIV/AIDS need to be updated to cover issues of access, testing, disclosure and stigma. In general, the conference was successful in identifying innovations in access to prevention, treatment and care in HIV/AIDS. SAHARA J Vol. 4 (2) 2007: pp. 640-65