Strengthening iron folate supplementation of pregnant women in Ntchisi District, Malawi

While an estimated 45% of pregnant women in Malawi are anaemic, only 33% take iron tablets for a minimum of 90 days during pregnancy. The study explored the capacity of health facilities and communities to strengthen antenatal iron folate supplementation in Ntchisi, to support the achievement of Malawi’s nutrition target on halving anaemia in women of reproductive age by 2025. This qualitative study employed systematic random and purposeful sampling. Eight Focus Group Discussions with mothers of children 0-23 months, eight with Care Group volunteers and eight in-depth interviews with Village Health Workers (Health Surveillance Assistants) were conducted in each village falling within the catchment area of each of 8 health facilities. Health facilities had been sampled each from the 7 Traditional Authorities with the district hospital and direct observations had been conducted at each for antenatal care service delivery. 10 key informants from the health facilities and the District Health Office were interviewed. Thus a total of 16 FGDs, 8 HSA interviews, and 10 key informant interviews provided the data analysed in this paper. Data were analysed manually using thematic framework analysis. Poor access to and follow up of antenatal care at the health facility has limited access to iron folate supplements, as the health facility is the main source of Iron folates. Recurrent depletion of stock of iron folate were reported by mothers at most health facilities. Consumer demand for the tablets was low due to side effects, poor acceptability, associated myths, forgetfulness and frustration from having to take a daily medication. There was limited training and education materials at the health facility and community with inadequate support given to women. The absence of clear policies and guidelines on iron folate supplementation resulted in inconsistencies in messaging. Uptake and adherence were not routinely monitored. There is a need to improve the main building blocks of the iron folate programme, including the: delivery system, tablet supply, patient education, consumer demand, monitoring and evaluation and polic

Antibacterial activity of copper salts against microorganisms isolated from chronic infected wounds

Indexación: Web of Science: Scopus; Scielo.Background: The antimicrobial activity of copper (Cu+2) is recognized and used as an antimicrobial agent. Aim: To evaluate the antimicrobial activity of copper against microorganisms obtained from chronic cutaneous wound infections. Material and Methods: Five chemical products that contained copper particles in their composition were tested (zeolite, silica, acetate, nitrate and nanoparticle of copper). The antimicrobial activity against antibiotic resistant strains usually isolated from chronic cutaneous wound infections was determined for two of the products with better performance in copper release. Results: The minimal inhibitory and minimal bactericidal concentrations of copper acetate and nitrate were similar, fluctuating between 400-2,000 mu g/ml. Conclusions: The studied copper salts show great potential to be used to control both gram positive and gram negative, antibiotic resistant bacteria isolated from wound infections.http://ref.scielo.org/jh7v9

Impurity Effect on the In-plane Penetration Depth of the Organic Superconductors κ\kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2X_2X (XX = Cu(NCS)2_2 and Cu[N(CN)2_2]Br)

We report the in-plane penetration depth $\lambda_{\parallel}$ of single crystals $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2X$ ($X=$ Cu(NCS)$_2$ and Cu[N(CN)$_2$]Br) by means of the reversible magnetization measurements under the control of cooling-rate. In $X$ = Cu(NCS)$_2$, $\lambda_{\parallel}(0)$ as an extrapolation toward $T$ = 0 K does not change by the cooling-rate within the experimental accuracy, while $T_{\textrm{c}}$ is slightly reduced. On the other hand, in $X$ = Cu[N(CN)$_2$]Br, $\lambda_{\parallel}(0)$ indicates a distinct increase by cooling faster. The different behavior of $\lambda_{\parallel}(0)$ on cooling-rate between the two salts is quantitatively explained in terms of the local-clean approximation (London model), considering that the former salt belongs to the very clean system and the later the moderate clean one. The good agreement with this model demonstrates that disorders of ethylene-group in BEDT-TTF introduced by cooling faster increase the electron(quasiparticle)-scattering, resulting in shorter mean free path.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Approximate Ginzburg-Landau solution for the regular flux-line lattice. Circular cell method

A variational model is proposed to describe the magnetic properties of type-II superconductors in the entire field range between $H_{c1}$ and $H_{c2}$ for any values of the Ginzburg-Landau parameter $\kappa>1/\sqrt{2}$. The hexagonal unit cell of the triangular flux-line lattice is replaced by a circle of the same area, and the periodic solutions to the Ginzburg-Landau equations within this cell are approximated by rotationally symmetric solutions. The Ginzburg-Landau equations are solved by a trial function for the order parameter. The calculated spatial distributions of the order parameter and the magnetic field are compared with the corresponding distributions obtained by numerical solution of the Ginzburg-Landau equations. The comparison reveals good agreement with an accuracy of a few percent for all $\kappa$ values exceeding $\kappa \approx 1$. The model can be extended to anisotropic superconductors when the vortices are directed along one of the principal axes. The reversible magnetization curve is calculated and an analytical formula for the magnetization is proposed. At low fields, the theory reduces to the London approach at $\kappa \gg 1$, provided that the exact value of $H_{c1}$ is used. At high fields, our model reproduces the main features of the well-known Abrikosov theory. The magnetic field dependences of the reversible magnetization found numerically and by our variational method practically coincide. The model also refines the limits of some approximations which have been widely used. The calculated magnetization curves are in a good agreement with experimental data on high-T$_c$ superconductors.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The Dependence of the Superconducting Transition Temperature of Organic Molecular Crystals on Intrinsically Non-Magnetic Disorder: a Signature of either Unconventional Superconductivity or Novel Local Magnetic Moment Formation

We give a theoretical analysis of published experimental studies of the effects of impurities and disorder on the superconducting transition temperature, T_c, of the organic molecular crystals kappa-ET_2X and beta-ET_2X (where ET is bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene and X is an anion eg I_3). The Abrikosov-Gorkov (AG) formula describes the suppression of T_c both by magnetic impurities in singlet superconductors, including s-wave superconductors and by non-magnetic impurities in a non-s-wave superconductor. We show that various sources of disorder lead to the suppression of T_c as described by the AG formula. This is confirmed by the excellent fit to the data, the fact that these materials are in the clean limit and the excellent agreement between the value of the interlayer hopping integral, t_perp, calculated from this fit and the value of t_perp found from angular-dependant magnetoresistance and quantum oscillation experiments. If the disorder is, as seems most likely, non-magnetic then the pairing state cannot be s-wave. We show that the cooling rate dependence of the magnetisation is inconsistent with paramagnetic impurities. Triplet pairing is ruled out by several experiments. If the disorder is non-magnetic then this implies that l>=2, in which case Occam's razor suggests that d-wave pairing is realised. Given the proximity of these materials to an antiferromagnetic Mott transition, it is possible that the disorder leads to the formation of local magnetic moments via some novel mechanism. Thus we conclude that either kappa-ET_2X and beta-ET_2X are d-wave superconductors or else they display a novel mechanism for the formation of localised moments. We suggest systematic experiments to differentiate between these scenarios.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

an individual participant data meta-analysis

Background The impact of neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs) on influenza-related pneumonia (IRP) is not established. Our objective was to investigate the association between NAI treatment and IRP incidence and outcomes in patients hospitalised with A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection. Methods A worldwide meta- analysis of individual participant data from 20 634 hospitalised patients with laboratory-confirmed A(H1N1)pdm09 (n = 20 021) or clinically diagnosed (n = 613) ‘pandemic influenza’. The primary outcome was radiologically confirmed IRP. Odds ratios (OR) were estimated using generalised linear mixed modelling, adjusting for NAI treatment propensity, antibiotics and corticosteroids. Results Of 20 634 included participants, 5978 (29·0%) had IRP; conversely, 3349 (16·2%) had confirmed the absence of radiographic pneumonia (the comparator). Early NAI treatment (within 2 days of symptom onset) versus no NAI was not significantly associated with IRP [adj. OR 0·83 (95% CI 0·64–1·06; P = 0·136)]. Among the 5978 patients with IRP, early NAI treatment versus none did not impact on mortality [adj. OR = 0·72 (0·44–1·17; P = 0·180)] or likelihood of requiring ventilatory support [adj. OR = 1·17 (0·71–1·92; P = 0·537)], but early treatment versus later significantly reduced mortality [adj. OR = 0·70 (0·55–0·88; P = 0·003)] and likelihood of requiring ventilatory support [adj. OR = 0·68 (0·54–0·85; P = 0·001)]. Conclusions Early NAI treatment of patients hospitalised with A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection versus no treatment did not reduce the likelihood of IRP. However, in patients who developed IRP, early NAI treatment versus later reduced the likelihood of mortality and needing ventilatory support

Global human footprint on the linkage between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in reef fishes

Copyright: © 2011 Mora et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Difficulties in scaling up theoretical and experimental results have raised controversy over the consequences of biodiversity loss for the functioning of natural ecosystems. Using a global survey of reef fish assemblages, we show that in contrast to previous theoretical and experimental studies, ecosystem functioning (as measured by standing biomass) scales in a non-saturating manner with biodiversity (as measured by species and functional richness) in this ecosystem. Our field study also shows a significant and negative interaction between human population density and biodiversity on ecosystem functioning (i.e., for the same human density there were larger reductions in standing biomass at more diverse reefs). Human effects were found to be related to fishing, coastal development, and land use stressors, and currently affect over 75% of the world's coral reefs. Our results indicate that the consequences of biodiversity loss in coral reefs have been considerably underestimated based on existing knowledge and that reef fish assemblages, particularly the most diverse, are greatly vulnerable to the expansion and intensity of anthropogenic stressors in coastal areas

Requerimientos nutrimentales de la flor ave de paraíso (strelitzia reginae aiton)

With the aim of understanding the nutritional balance and requirement of the bird of paradise flower (Strelitzia reginae Aiton), the need for nutrients under a commercial production system was quantified, in a plot established 10 years ago, with use of fertilization, pruning, irrigation, pest and disease control, with a population density of 1,250 plants ha1, through the chemical analysis of nutritional concentration in the biomass produced in a year. It was concluded that the annual nutrient requirement in the crop was the following: macronutrients (Kg ha1) N (68.22), P2O5 (23.23), K2O (145.73), CaO (134.66), MgO (10.38) and micronutrients (g ha1), Cu (174.7), Fe (282.4), Mn (288.2) and Zn (390.6)