Enhanced surveillance of hepatitis B infection in inner-western Sydney

Objectives: We developed an enhanced surveillance system for hepatitis B to improve the detection of newly acquired cases and to collect epidemiological data. Methods: The study was undertaken from February to June (inclusive) 2005 at the Sydney South West Area Health Service Eastern Zone Public Health Unit. A letter was sent to treating doctors on receipt of a notification, requesting additional information on cases. Cases identified by the treating doctors as newly acquired were followed up by telephone. Results: There were 295 notifications of hepatitis B in the period, of which three were newly acquired infections. Only one of these three cases was identified through enhanced surveillance. Information on ethnicity was obtained. Conclusions: This enhanced surveillance system is of limited value as an ongoing process. We recommend that it be undertaken periodically to monitor the epidemiology of the disease

A tuberculosis contact investigation involving two private nursing homes in inner western Sydney in 2004

Australia has one of the lowest incidence rates of tuberculosis (TB) in the world, approximately five per 100,000 per year 1, although in some parts of the country the incidence is considerably higher. In the former Central Sydney Area Health Service the incidence rate in 2003 was 14 per 100,000 per year.2 The incidence is also higher in those aged 65 years and over1, a population that has declining immunocompetence due to a variety of factors.3 Furthermore, the subpopulation of this group (and, indeed, of people of any age) living in residential institutions such as nursing homes and hostels are at even greater risk of TB infection and disease due to their chronic ill health and multiple medical problems.3 Despite this, there are no guidelines in NSW regarding TB screening of the elderly, either in response to potential exposure or with regard to screening at entry to a residential facility. There are also very few reports in the literature of TB contact investigations in residential facilities. Those that have been published come from the United States and are concerned with TB in hospitals or correctional facilities.3,4,5,6 There has been one report of TB transmission in a school setting in Sydney7, but there is a paucity of Australian literature that clarifies what is required for contact investigations in the local residential care setting. This paper describes a contact investigation resulting from a case of active TB in a health care worker employed by a number of nursing homes in inner-western Sydney and highlights the need for policies with regard to TB screening of the elderly residing in nursing homes

A macro-fracture investigation of the backed stone tools from Dzombo Shelter, eastern Botswana

Foragers occupying Dzombo Shelter, eastern Botswana, and producing a Later Stone Age technology came into contact with incoming Iron Age food-producers at approximately AD 350. From the onset of their interactions the Later Stone Age record began to change. One such change was in stone tool preference; over much of southern Africa scraper frequencies increasedwhereas backed tools declined. However, between c. AD 900 and 1200 at Dzombo, backed tools inexplicably dominate the formal tool assemblage. This paper seeks to understand the role of backed tools at Dzombo frombefore the arrival of farmers until the establishment of the Mapungubwe state, c. AD 1220, in order to explain shifts in use and preference patterns. By performing a macro-fracture analysis itwas possible to demonstrate an increased occurrence of fractures consistent with impact-related damage between approximately AD 350 and 1200, and it is suggested here that during this time hunting activitieswere intensified. The factors possibly driving this intensification are discussed and could relate to forager–farmer interactions or a shift in the site's function. As is shown, the former is more likely. The macro-analysis of backed tools provides greater clarity when viewing Dzombo's archaeological sequence and to some extent confirms earlier suggestions that in order to augment growing mercantile opportunities spurred on by the arrival of farmers, forager hunting activities increased.Palaeontological Scientific Trust and their Scatterlings of Africa programme.National Research Foundation.http://ees.elsevier.com/jasrep2015-09-30hb201

A review of hunter-gatherers in Later Stone Age research in southern Africa

Since its inception in academia in 1929 by John Goodwin and Clarence van Riet Lowe, the Later Stone Age (LSA) in southern Africa has seen considerable growth and heated academic debate. Recently, some academics have lamented that LSA research has stagnated, and even reached the brink of marginalisation. According to Mitchell (2005), one reason for reviving LSA research is the field’s global importance and potential to empower and represent previously disenfranchised communities. The aim of this paper is to examine how San communities and southern African hunter-gatherers have been historically perceived by reviewing LSA research approaches. Several key themes of LSA research are presented which capture major shifts in methodological and theoretical frameworks and research interests within the field. These examples signal fundamental shifts in research discourse, archaeologists’ perspectives, and the dominant views of ‘Bushman’. Although providing an historical summary of LSA research, the paper also considers decolonisation within the field, aligning with the current socio-political milieu in southern Africa. It is suggested that while using ethnography and indigenous knowledge systems is helping us decolonise our approach to the archaeological record, this is not without its problems.https://www.archaeology.org.za/saabpm2020Anthropology and Archaeolog

Casting foragers into a new mould? The case of the Mafunyane Shelter, eastern Botswana

The final two millennia of southern Africa’s Later Stone Age saw considerable shifts in subsistence, settlement and production patterns. Much of these changes coincided with the arrival of agriculturalists bringing crops, livestock and metals (Mitchell 2002). The nature of these changes, however, varied across the region and hence not all Later Stone Age features are found at any individual site, thereby requiring archaeologists to undertake regional studies. As a result of one such study, an intriguing discovery was made in eastern Botswana (Figure 1) at Mafunyane Shelter (Figures 2 & 3). Walker (1994), who originally excavated the site, identified an early first-millennium AD Later Stone Age occupation, as well as activity by metalworking people. The present article reports the results of a recent excavation intended to explore the potential relationship between the Later Stone Age occupants and the metalworkers at this site.Palaeontological Scientific Trust and Scatterlings of Africa programme.South African National Research Foundation.http://antiquity.ac.uk2016-12-30hb201

Reflections on a journey through the southern Omo Valley, Ethiopia

In this paper I describe my recent journey through the lower Omo Valley where I visited various tribal groups and witnessed a Hamer bull-jumping ceremony. The aim with this article is to present African life-systems found elsewhere on the continent that might reflect certain aspects archaeologists identify in our own prehistoric records.http://www.archaeologysa.co.za/publications/digging-stick/hb201

Dzombo Shelter : a contribution of the Later Stone Age sequence of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape

On the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape, Later Stone Age (LSA) research has been conducted mostly in South Africa, with limited studies in neighbouring Botswana and Zimbabwe, all part of the broader landscape. In an attempt to broaden our understanding of the regional sequence, a recent study in Botswana sought to integrate finds made here with those in South Africa. This paper presents the results from one excavation, conducted at Dzombo Shelter, and relates these to finds made elsewhere on the landscape. Of particular interest is the dominance of backed stone tools between AD 900 and 1000, a period in which scrapers usually dominate the formal component of LSA assemblages, and the infrequency of exchange goods even though the site is in close proximity to farmer homesteads. I argue here that due to the various outcomes from interactions with farmers, excavating a variety of site types is required in order to achieve a holistic understanding of forager cultural change.Palaeontological Scientific Trust, Scatterlings of Africa, NRF and Meyerstein Trust.http://www.archaeologysa.co.za/saab/hb201

A graphical user interface for infant ERP analysis

Recording of event-related potentials (ERPs) is one of the best-suited technologies for examining brain function in human infants. Yet the existing software packages are not optimized for the unique requirements of analyzing artifact-prone ERP data from infants. We developed a new graphical user interface that enables an efficient implementation of a two-stage approach to the analysis of infant ERPs. In the first stage, video records of infant behavior are synchronized with ERPs at the level of individual trials to reject epochs with noncompliant behavior and other artifacts. In the second stage, the interface calls MATLAB and EEGLAB (Delorme & Makeig, Journal of Neuroscience Methods 134(1):9–21, 2004) functions for further preprocessing of the ERP signal itself (i.e., filtering, artifact removal, interpolation, and rereferencing). Finally, methods are included for data visualization and analysis by using bootstrapped group averages. Analyses of simulated and real EEG data demonstrated that the proposed approach can be effectively used to establish task compliance, remove various types of artifacts, and perform representative visualizations and statistical comparisons of ERPs. The interface is available for download from http://www.uta.fi/med/icl/methods/eeg.html in a format that is widely applicable to ERP studies with special populations and open for further editing by users. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.3758/s13428-013-0404-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Das baltische Adverb: Morphosemantik und Diachronie

In dieser Arbeit wird die Wortart "Adverb" in den baltischen Sprachen zum einen aus synchroner, zum anderen aus diachroner Sicht untersucht. Gegenstand des synchronen Teils ist erstens die Abgrenzung der Adverbien von anderen Wortarten, zweitens eine Einteilung der Adverbien nach ihrer Bedeutung im Hinblick auf die Art ihrer Erfragbarkeit ("wo?" "wohin?" "wann?" "wie?" etc.) und drittens eine Beschreibung der produktiven und aktiven Bildungstypen in Ergänzung zu den synchronen Grammatiken der baltischen Sprachen. Im diachronen Teil wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob sich bestimmte Bildungstypen inhaltlichen Gruppen zuordnen lassen: Untersucht werden dabei Adverb bildende Formantien, Suffixe, Kasusendungen, Adverbien aus Verbformen und Wortbildungstypen wie Zusammenrückungen, Komposita, die Ableitung von Adverbien aus Adverbien durch Affigierung und expressiv-lautmalerische Formen; weitere Gruppen sind schließlich endungslose Adverbien und Lehnwörter