Larval habitat diversity, physicochemical characterization and their effect on the density of larval malaria vectors in the city of Accra, Ghana.

Background: Malaria is more prevalent in rural areas due to fewer mosquito breeding habitats in urban settings. However, urban factors such as irrigated farming, open sewers, and discarded containers create mosquito breeding sites. This study investigates the diversity and distribution of larval habitats and the impact of physicochemical characteristics on the presence and density of s.

The role of car tyres in the ecology of mosquitoes in Ghana.

is an important vector of arboviral diseases including dengue and yellow fever. Despite the wide distribution of this mosquito species, there are limited data on the ecology of . in Ghana.

Low-cost interventions to improve ventilation in long-term care facilities.

Residents of long-term care facilities are particularly vulnerable to communicable diseases. Low-cost interventions to increase air exchange rates (AERs) may be useful in reducing the transmission of airborne communicable diseases between long-term care residents and staff. In this study, carbon dioxide gas was used as a tracer to evaluate the AER associated with the implementation of low-cost ventilation interventions.

Psychometric properties of the Global Psychotrauma Screen in the United States.

Background: Prior research assessing the psychometric properties of the Global Psychotrauma Screen provided support for its internal consistency reliability, construct validity, convergent validity, and divergent validity in several international samples, but not specifically in a U.S. subsample.

Revisiting College Entry Testing to Increase Trained Deaf Teachers in the Classrooms.

Graduate Records Examinations (GRE) remain an important criterion for admission to the graduate program. This study explored the predictive role of the GRE for college success among deaf students because most deaf and hard-of-hearing students experience lifelong difficulties in English language and literacy because of their different language acquisition processes. Additionally, the study examined the students' undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), first-semester grade point average (FSGPA), and graduating graduate grade point average (GGPA) to understand D/HH students' performance in a graduate program.

Institutionalising community engagement for quality of care: moving beyond the rhetoric.

Community engagement has the potential to improve quality of care but is poorly represented in policy and the literature; its institutionalisation in health systems must be supported, argue

Semantic adaptation of the Global Psychotrauma Screen for children and adolescents in the United States.

: The review of trauma screening tools for children and adolescents indicates a need for developmentally and linguistically appropriate, globally applicable, free, and easily accessible trauma screening instruments. : The aim of this study is to adapt the Global Psychotrauma Screen (GPS) for children and adolescents in the United States. : Using the modified Delphi method, this study included the GPS Expert Consensus (GPS-EC) and the GPS Stakeholder Consensus (GPS-SC) substudies.

Pilot monitoring and evaluation of the WHO postpartum family planning compendium mobile application: An in-depth, qualitative study.

Objective: To assess the feasibility, functionality and acceptability of a mobile application (app), the World Health Organization (WHO) Postpartum Family Planning (PPFP) Compendium, in clinical care.

Method: This prospective qualitative study was conducted among family planning providers routinely delivering PPFP care in Accra, Ghana. We conducted in-depth interviews at baseline and 3 months after app introduction.

High rates of cerebral toxoplasmosis in HIV patients presenting with meningitis in Accra, Ghana.

Background: Data on adult meningitis among patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is scarce in western sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana.

Methods: HIV-infected adults with a provisional diagnosis of meningitis were consecutively enrolled, between August 2014 and January 2016. After patient data collection, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was obtained and evaluated for microbiological aetiologies, cell counts and biochemistry.

Uterine Tonus Assessment by Midwives versus Patient self-assessment in the active management of the third stage of labor (UTAMP): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide and accounts for one third of maternal deaths in low-income and middle-income countries. PPH can be prevented by active management of the third stage of labor (AMTSL), a series of steps recommended by the World Health Organization to be performed by skilled birth attendants (SBAs). Task shifting in the AMTSL step of uterotonic drugs administration to community health workers, traditional birth attendants and self-administration has been investigated as a strategy to increase access to quality obstetric care considering persistent SBA and facility-based delivery shortages.

Novel, electrolyte solutions comprising fully inorganic salts with high anodic stability for rechargeable magnesium batteries.

Herein the first inorganic magnesium salt solution capable of highly reversible magnesium electrodeposition is presented. Synthesized by acid-base reaction of MgCl2 and Lewis acidic compounds such as AlCl3, this salt class demonstrates upwards of 99% Coulombic efficiency, deposition overpotential of <200 mV, and anodic stability of 3.1 V.

Influence of affective image content on subjective quality assessment.

Image quality assessment (IQA) enables distortions introduced into an image (e.g., through lossy compression or broadcast) to be measured and evaluated for severity.

Increased antibiotic resistance of E. coli exposed to static magnetic fields.

The present study demonstrates that exposure of bacteria to medium strength static magnetic fields can significantly alter antibiotic sensitivity. Cultures of Escherichia coli were exposed to fields produced by permanent magnets. Samples of bacterial cultures continuously growing in the presence and in the absence of static magnetic fields were left untreated or were treated with an antibiotic and measured at 45 min intervals for cell growth and survival.

Histological findings after brown recluse spider envenomation.

Histologic specimens from 41 rabbits were studied for changes resulting from the manual injection of brown recluse spider venom. Major findings included a mixed inflammatory cell infiltrate, coagulative tissue necrosis, and vasculitis. All specimens demonstrated a well-delineated zone of eosinophilic staining recognizable as "mummified" coagulative necrosis of the epidermis and dermis.

Drawing specimens for coagulation testing: is a second tube necessary?

Three recent studies discussed the possibility that the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) recommendations that the coagulation specimen should be the second or third tube collected are unnecessary. However, only one reagent/instrument was used in each study. Our protocol differed from the previous studies because we performed the assays on three different reagent/instrument systems on the same samples.

Oral anticoagulant therapy and international normalized ratios in swine.

While monitoring coagulation testing in Yucatan miniature swine being given oral anticoagulants, we noticed instances of high international normalized ratios (INR) without clinical complications in our animal model. All pigs (n = 17) weighed approximately 35.2 kg and were dosed daily with 2 to 3 mg of coumadin.

Peripheral blood lymphocyte apoptosis: a clue to the diagnosis of acute infectious mononucleosis.

Objective: To describe the morphology and significance of apoptotic lymphocytes in peripheral blood smears of patients with acute infectious mononucleosis. To our knowledge this has not been previously reported.

Design: Peripheral blood smears from 27 patients with a positive heterophile antibody test were collected and reviewed for the presence of apoptotic lymphocytes.

Patterns of virus burden and T cell phenotype are established early and are correlated with the rate of disease progression in human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected persons.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 DNA and RNA levels and T lymphocyte cell surface markers were measured in blood serum and cell fractions from asymptomatic infected patients to find novel virologic and immunologic features in early disease predictive of subsequent clinical disease course. Thirty-two patients with rapid disease progression (rapid CD4+ cell loss and progression to clinical AIDS) were compared with 25 patients with stable infections (constant or rising CD4+ cell counts, no clinical disease manifestations). All HIV-1 burdens measured by polymerase chain reaction were consistently higher in specimens from rapid progressors than slow progressors.

Canine epidermotropic cutaneous lymphoma.

The histologic features of an epidermotropic cutaneous lymphoma in a dog are presented. The neoplasm, which was intensely epidermotropic, thoroughly invaded the follicular and apocrine gland epithelium. The intense epidermotropism was retained in the tumor stage.

Circadian variation of cytosol glucocorticoid receptors in human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and mononuclear cells (MN) in a normal population.

Unlabelled: Glucocorticoid cytosol and whole cell receptors from human PMN's have been quantified, and compared to those of human MN leukocytes on the same blood sample. The normal cytosol PMN receptor density (N = 15) averaged 1,254 +/- 105 (SE) molecules bound/cell at 0900 h and increased significantly to 1,497 +/- 98 at 2,100 h (P less than 0.02).