52,884 research outputs found
Erythropoietin and polyneuropathy in older persons
No full textIntroduction: Recent studies demonstrated that erythropoietin (EPO) have a number of non-erythropoietic effects including neuroprotection and vascular protection. Materials: Using data from a representative sample of older persons, we tested the hypothesis that EPO levels are correlated with peripheral nerve parameters (NVC and CMAP) assessed by surface ENG and with clinically diagnosed polyneuropathy. We selected 972 participants (aged 60-98 years) with complete data for the analyses. Results: We found a significant association between EPO and age-adjusted NCV and CMAP (for NCV: 0.57 +/- 0.26; p = 0.03 and for CMAP: 0.54 +/- 0.23; p = 0.02). In logistic regression models adjusting for age, sex and multiple potential confounders, higher EPO levels were associated with a significantly lower probability of having a clinical diagnosis of polyneuropathy (OR = 0.43; 95% Cl: 0.22-0.84). Discussion: These findings suggest that EPO is implicated in the pathogenesis of polyneuropathy in older persons. Whether low EPO is a risk factor for polyneuropathy should be tested in future longitudinal analyses. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved
Motor competencies in childhood : Monitoring, intervention and relationships with self-perception
No full textMotorische Kompetenzen und die Selbstwahrnehmung dieser sind zentral hinsichtlich der Ausbildung eines gesundheitsförderlichen Lebensstils. Bewegungsmangel im Kindesalter und motorische Defizite unterstreichen die Relevanz von Untersuchungen in diesem Forschungsfeld. In diesem Kontext besteht Forschungsbedarf, welcher an der jungen Forschungslinie zu motorischen Basiskompetenzen ansetzt. Daher zielt die vorliegende Arbeit auf die Untersuchung motorischer Basiskompetenzen im Kontext des Monitorings, der Intervention sowie der Untersuchung von Zusammenhängen mit der Selbstwahrnehmung. Es wurden konfirmatorische Faktorenanalysen durchgeführt sowie eine kompetenzorientierte Intervention für das mittlere Kindesalter konzipiert und evaluiert. Zudem fanden Varianzanalysen mit Messwiederholung und manifeste Pfadmodelle Anwendung. Neben der Bestätigung der faktoriellen Struktur des Tests zur Erfassung motorischer Basiskompetenzen (MOBAK 3-4), wurden Zusammenhänge mit endogenen sowie exogenen Faktoren nachgewiesen. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass mit Hilfe der relativ kurzen Intervention positive Effekte auf die motorischen Basiskompetenzen erzielt werden können. Zudem zeigten sich moderate Korrelationen zwischen motorischen Basiskompetenzen und der Selbstwahrnehmung. Auf Grundlage dieser Befunde sollten im Bereich der Objektkontrolle vor allem motorische Kompetenzen und im Bereich der Lokomotion insbesondere die Selbstwahrnehmung zur Steigerung des Kompetenzlevels gefördert werden.Motor competencies and self-perception are essential for the development of a physical active and health-promoting lifestyle. The relevance of studies, due to this subject, is characterized through the lack of physical activity and motor deficits in childhood. There is a need for research, which is based on the young research field of basic motor competencies. Therefore, the aim of the present work is to examine basic motor competencies in the context of monitoring, intervention and their relationships with self-perception. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted and a competency-based intervention for primary school children was designed and evaluated. Moreover, the analysis of variance with repeated measures and manifest path models were utilized. In addition to the confirmation of the factorial structure of the instrument for the assessment of basic motor competencies for third and fourth grade (MOBAK 3-4), correlations with endogenous as well as exogenous factors were demonstrated. With the help of a relatively short intervention, positive effects on motor competencies could be shown. Moreover, moderate correlations were found between basic motor competencies and self-perception. Due to the findings, motor interventions should address strategies targeting the acquisition of motor competencies particularly in object control and self-perception especially in locomotor during middle childhood.von Anne Strotmeyer, Erstgutachterin: Prof.'in Dr. Miriam Kehne, Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Christian HerrmannTag der Verteidigung: 09.12.2022Universität Paderborn, Dissertation, 202
Traumatic identity and aura in David Lodge's "Author, author"
No full textEste artículo analiza la novela Author, Author (2004) de David Lodge como ejemplo de bioficción neo-victoriana centrada en una celebridad, en este caso concreto, Henry James. El género forma parte del renacimiento Victoriano actual que afecta a los estudios culturales en su conjunto. Mi argumento central es que la novela de Lodge constituye una respuesta a las ansiedades culturales actuales, en particular a las que se refieren a la crisis identitaria y autoría literaria, así como a la pérdida del aura artística de Walter Benjamin, sublimándolas a través de los traumas de finales del siglo XIX. La elección de James, como demuestra el artículo, no es casual. Es el último representante de un mundo perdido en el que el aura aún tenía un espacio; el ser humano en crisis y traumatizado porque no encaja en un status quo nuevo.This paper delves into David Lodge’s Author, Author (2004) as an example of neo-Victorian celebrity biofiction, more concretely on Henry James. The genre belongs to the wave of Victorian revival in current literature which also affects cultural studies in general. My main contention is that Lodge’s novel responds to current cultural anxieties, particularly the crisis of identity and authorship and the end of Walter Benjamin’s concept of aura, by sublimating them into late-nineteenth-century traumata. The choice of James is, the article argues, not casual. He represents the redeeming figure of a lost auratic world; the human in crisis, traumatized because he does not fit in the new status quo
Identifying author-inventors from Spain: methods and a first insight into results
No full textThe aim of this paper is to describe a matching and disambiguation methodology for the identification of author-inventors located in the same country. It aims to maximize precision and recall rates by taking into account national name writing customs in the name matching stage and by including a recursive validation step in the person disambiguation stage. An application to the identification of Spanish author-inventors is described in detail, where all SCOPUS 2003-2008 publications of Spanish authors are matched to all 1978-2009 EPO applications with Spanish inventors. Using this data, we identify 4,194 Spanish author-inventors. A first look at their patenting and publication patterns reveal that Spanish author-inventors make quite a significant contribution to the overall country’s scientific and technological production in the time periods considered: 27% of all EPO patent applications invented in Spain and 15% of all SCOPUS scientific articles authored in Spain, with important differences across fields and excluding journals in non-technologically relevant fields.Peer reviewe
¿Qué es el plagio?
No full textEl plagio es tomar un fragmento de una obra artística o intelectual ajena y hacerlo pasar como propio, sin la debida acreditación del autor.Plagiarism is taking a fragment of another's artistic or intellectual work and passing it off as one's own, without due accreditation of the author
Microbial larvicide application by a large-scale, community-based program reduces malaria infection prevalence in urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
No full textBACKGROUND\ud
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Malaria control in Africa is most tractable in urban settlements yet most research has focused on rural settings. Elimination of malaria transmission from urban areas may require larval control strategies that complement adult mosquito control using insecticide-treated nets or houses, particularly where vectors feed outdoors.\ud
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METHODS AND FINDINGS\ud
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Microbial larvicide (Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti)) was applied weekly through programmatic, non-randomized community-based, but vertically managed, delivery systems in urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Continuous, randomized cluster sampling of malaria infection prevalence and non-random programmatic surveillance of entomological inoculation rate (EIR) respectively constituted the primary and secondary outcomes surveyed within a population of approximately 612,000 residents in 15 fully urban wards covering 55 km(2). Bti application for one year in 3 of those wards (17 km(2) with 128,000 residents) reduced crude annual transmission estimates (Relative EIR [95% Confidence Interval] = 0.683 [0.491-0.952], P = 0.024) but program effectiveness peaked between July and September (Relative EIR [CI] = 0.354 [0.193 to 0.650], P = 0.001) when 45% (9/20) of directly observed transmission events occurred. Larviciding reduced malaria infection risk among children < or =5 years of age (OR [CI] = 0.284 [0.101 to 0.801], P = 0.017) and provided protection at least as good as personal use of an insecticide treated net (OR [CI] = 0.764 [0.614-0.951], P = 0.016).\ud
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CONCLUSIONS\ud
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In this context, larviciding reduced malaria prevalence and complemented existing protection provided by insecticide-treated nets. Larviciding may represent a useful option for integrated vector management in Africa, particularly in its rapidly growing urban centres
Experiencing the armed struggle : the Soweto generation and after
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (p. 354-369).This study explores the experiences of the rank-and-file soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Azanian People's Liberation Anny. Extensive interviews by the author and other researchers reveal the voices of the soldiers themselves. The African National Congress and Pan African Congress archives at the University of the Western Cape and the University of Fort Hare supplement and verify these oral testimonies, as do some published sources. Most previously published materials about the armed struggle against apartheid have already focused on diplomacy, strategy and tactics, operations, leadership, and human rights abuses to the neglect of the soldiers' actual experiences. This study complements these with significant new oral history materials from the Soweto generation of soldiers and their successors. When dealing with MK, many authors have documented issues of the camp structure in Angola, and operations inside South Africa, so much of this detail is only addressed briefly, leaving space to explore the soldiers' experiences. In the case of APLA, very little has been written on its history, and more detail is provided on these subjects. This study therefore deals with the soldiers' politicisation and motivation for joining the armed struggle, their experiences in leaving South Africa and training in exile, the crises in exile which limited their effectiveness for a time, their return to fight in South Africa, and their difficulties in the "new" South Africa. These materials reveal that vast problems remain facing these veterans of the struggle against apartheid, and that they have the potential, if properly supported and employed, to contribute substantially to the development of present day South Africa. Conversely, if their neglect continues, they also have the potential to bring vast harm to the country. Further use of the investigative tools of oral history, especially if extended to the former soldiers' vernacular languages, is necessary to augment the history of South Africa, and these soldiers' contributions
İcāzet-nāme; اجازتنامه
No full text1. Kitabın İçindekiler : Eserin ilk sayfaları eksiktir. 1a-34b: Hz. Muhammed’in doğumu, ahlakı, mucizeleri, miracı, hicreti, ve ayrıntılı olarak ölümü manzum olarak anlatılır. 35a-36a: Hatim duası; 36b-38a: Münacat duası. 2. Kitabın İçindekiler : İlmiye icazetnamesidir. En sonda Ahmed Nazif Sinobi, belgenin hocası Es-seyyid el-Hâc Rif’at b. el-Hâc İbrahim el-Ankaravi’den aldığı icazet sureti olduğunu belirtir. (46a). Burada Ahmed Nazif Es-Sinobi’nin mührü de vardır. 46a’da son bulan icazetnamenin rıka yazıyla farklı bir kağıda yazılmış bir diğer kopyası da 48b-50b arasındadır. 53b-55a: Farklı bir kağıda farklı bir yazıyla muhtemelen bir mevlidden alınmış Hz. Muhammed’in hayatına ait kısa bir manzume.Original scanned with Zeutschel OS 12000C A2 scanner and saved as 300 ppi uncompressed tiffs. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP20002 vol. in 1; 22x16,5 c
Participatory mapping of target areas to enable operational larval source management to suppress malaria vector mosquitoes in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
No full textBACKGROUND\ud
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Half of the population of Africa will soon live in towns and cities where it can be protected from malaria by controlling aquatic stages of mosquitoes. Rigorous but affordable and scaleable methods for mapping and managing mosquito habitats are required to enable effective larval control in urban Africa.\ud
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METHODS\ud
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A simple community-based mapping procedure that requires no electronic devices in the field was developed to facilitate routine larval surveillance in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The mapping procedure included (1) community-based development of sketch maps and (2) verification of sketch maps through technical teams using laminated aerial photographs in the field which were later digitized and analysed using Geographical Information Systems (GIS).\ud
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RESULTS\ud
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Three urban wards of Dar es Salaam were comprehensively mapped, covering an area of 16.8 km2. Over thirty percent of this area were not included in preliminary community-based sketch mapping, mostly because they were areas that do not appear on local government residential lists. The use of aerial photographs and basic GIS allowed rapid identification and inclusion of these key areas, as well as more equal distribution of the workload of malaria control field staff.\ud
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CONCLUSION\ud
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The procedure developed enables complete coverage of targeted areas with larval control through comprehensive spatial coverage with community-derived sketch maps. The procedure is practical, affordable, and requires minimal technical skills. This approach can be readily integrated into malaria vector control programmes, scaled up to towns and cities all over Tanzania and adapted to urban settings elsewhere in Africa
Ecology and Epidemiology of Integrated Malaria Vector Management in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
No full textMalaria remains one of the major contributors to the global burden of disease with approximately 70% of the clinical malaria attacks occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Sub- Saharan Africa has the highest risk as ideal climatic conditions for transmission coincide with occurrence of some of the most efficient malaria vectors, namely Anopheles gambiae s.s., Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus.. Even though it is estimated that by the year 2030 more than 50% of the African population will live in towns and cities, relatively little is known about urban malaria epidemiology, larval ecology and adult mosquito behaviour. Although integrated malaria control programs including environmental management and larviciding have proven successful before the Global Eradication Campaign started in 1955, they were neglected after the invention of DDT. Lately interest into these control measures has revived but it remains to be determined whether they are feasible and cost-effective in urban Africa. The overall goal of the research presented in this thesis was to enhance current understanding of urban malaria epidemiology and ecology and to take an in-depth look at the effectiveness of larviciding with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bti) in the context of the Urban Malaria Control Program (UMCP) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our findings are based on data derived from the first 3 years of the UMCP, where data collection started in March 2004. The project area includes 5 wards in each of the 3 municipalities which consist of 67 mitaa covering an area of 55 km2 in which 611,871 people lived during the population census of 2002. Achieving the UMCPs objectives fundamentally relies on three component activities: 1) Mapping and surveillance of potential Anopheles breeding sites, 2) Monitoring of adult mosquito densities, and 3) Household surveys with questionnaires and blood smears testing for malaria parasite infection. In the third year of the UMCP, beginning in March 2006, the routine application of the microbial larvicides Bti in open habitats and Bs in closed habitats was initiated in 3 of the 15 wards in the study area, adding to existing interventions such as bednets, house screening, ceiling boards, repellents, spray and coils. At the same time a detailed survey of mosquito biting behaviour, human behaviour and domestic protection measures was conducted in 12 Ten Cell Units (TCU), the smallest subunit of local government in Tanzania, which presented the highest An. gambiae s.l. densities during the early period of the UMCP surveillance system. Human landing catch (HLC) was conducted in 216 houses on an hourly basis indoors and outdoors from 6 pm till 7 am and residents were interviewed about their sleeping behaviour, where they spend their evenings and what kind of preventive measures against malaria they use. Personal protection of an insecticide treated net (ITN) was evaluated using an extension of a recently developed mathematical model. Overall An. gambiae s.l. exhibited a classical hourly biting pattern. In contrast one of the complex’s component sibling species, namely An. arabiensis, had an early biting peak before 10 pm. Both sibling species, namely An. gambiae s.s. and An. arabiensis, as well as An. funestus and An. coustani were highly exophagic. This behaviour led to a reduced personal protection against exposure to An. gambiae s.s. by ITNs which conferred 59% reduction of exposure in Dar es Salaam compared to 70% in rural Tanzania. An. arabiensis is a vector of only modest importance in Dar es Salaam which is fortunate because ITNs only conferred 38% protection against exposure to this species of mosquito. ITNs conferred slightly less protection against exposure to malaria vectors in good quality houses. This is mainly because people living in good houses tend to spend more time indoors before they go to bed. An. gambiae s.l. is the most important vector in Dar es Salaam , responsible for an EIR (entomological inoculation rate) of 1.00 infectious bites per person per year whereas An. funestus has an EIR of 0.13. Surprisingly, An. coustani also acts as a notable vector in Dar es Salaam with an EIR of 0.20 infectious bites per person per year. Malaria transmission is seasonal with two peaks of malaria prevalence during and after the two rainy seasons. Malaria prevalence was only related to EIR in children under 5 years of age, with a classical ageprevalence distribution similar to most of rural Africa. Malaria prevalence steadily declined from 2004 onwards as the use of window screenings, ceiling boards and more effective drugs like amodiaquine and artemisin-based drugs increased. ITNs (prevalence reduction estimate 20%, 95% CI 0%-36%; P=0.060; year 1) and ceiling boards (prevalence reduction estimate 22%, 95% CI 3%-38%; P=0.026; year 2) conferred modest personal protection and reduced malaria prevalence by approximately one fifth. By comparison, a much greater reduction (prevalence reduction estimate 50%, 95% CI 20%-64%; P=0.002) of malaria prevalence was achieved by larviciding with Bti. This was mainly achieved through major reductions of An. gambiae during July and August when most of the sporozoite infected mosquitoes were caught, combined with all-year-round suppression of the secondary vectors, namely An. funestus and An. coustani. This major achievement was only possible through the novel surveillance and staff management procedures developed by the UMCP to enable effective community based implementation in a decentralized manner. Standards of the surveillance improved greatly after the onset of the program with realized reaction times to vector surveillance at observations being one day, week and month at ward, municipality and city level, respectively. These results of changing biting behaviour of the main malaria vectors in urban settings and the therefore lower but still useful personal protection offered by ITNs call for additional complementary vector control methods such as environmental management or larviciding. The UMCP demonstrated that major reductions in malaria prevalence can be achieved through routine application of microbial larvicides with its new practical management and surveillance system. As these represent the early results of the program, we expect substantial improvement with time and investment. Here we demonstrated for the first time since before the Global Eradication Campaign era, a success story of a malaria control program integrating larviciding, which could be easily adapted by other African cities as a cost-effective option for malaria prevention
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