Maternal factors promoting normal linear growth of children from impoverished Rwandan households: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Linear growth faltering remains a pervasive public health concern that affects many children worldwide. This study aimed to investigate possible maternal factors promoting normal linear growth among children aged 6-23 months of age from impoverished Rwandan households.

Methods: We used a three-stage cluster sampling procedure.

Acceptability, feasibility and appropriateness of intensified health education, SMS/phone tracing and transport reimbursement for uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision in a sexually transmitted infections clinic in Malawi: a mixed methods study.

Introduction: Uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) remains a challenge in many settings. Innovative implementation strategies are required to scale-up VMMC uptake.

Methodology: RITe was a multi-faceted intervention comprising transport reimbursement (R), intensified health education (IHE) and SMS/Telephone tracing (Te), which increased the uptake of VMMC among uncircumcised men with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Malawi.

Correction: Exploring reasons why South African dental therapists are leaving their profession: A theory-informed qualitative study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Sympathetic remodeling and altered angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 localization occur in patients with cardiac disease but are not exacerbated by severe COVID-19.

Purpose: Remodeling of sympathetic nerves and ACE2 has been implicated in cardiac pathology, and ACE2 also serves as a receptor for SARS-CoV-2. However, there is limited histological knowledge about the transmural distribution of sympathetic nerves and the cellular localization and distribution of ACE2 in human left ventricles from normal or diseased hearts. Goals of this study were to establish the normal pattern for these parameters and determine changes that occurred in decedents with cardiovascular disease alone compared to those with cardiac pathology and severe COVID-19.

Social Determinants of Health: Healthcare managers' COVID-19 experiences of poor governance, poverty and social media on health interventions.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many barriers to healthcare including structural factors like poverty and governance, and intermediary factors such as service delivery, especially in low and middle-income countries where resources are limited. Social Determinants of Health like poverty, governance and access to basic services significantly affect the effectiveness of health interventions. This study aimed to explore healthcare managers' experiences of delivering health interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Gauteng Province, South Africa, using the Social Determinant of Health lens.

Exploring reasons why South African dental therapists are leaving their profession: A theory-informed qualitative study.

Background: Dental therapy is a category of mid-level oral health professional that was introduced to address inequities in oral health service provision in South Africa within a constrained human resource for health context. However, low numbers of registered dental therapists and attrition threaten this strategy.

Aim: This study explored reasons for this attrition, building on the Hertzberg Two-Factor Theory.

Effectiveness of an intervention to increase uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision among men with sexually transmitted infections in Malawi: a preinterventional and postinterventional study.

Objective: To evaluate the effect a multistrategy demand-creation and linkage intervention on voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) uptake, time to VMMC and predictors of VMMC uptake among men with sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Design: Pragmatic preinterventional and postinterventional quasi-experimental study combined with a prospective observational design.

Setting: A public and specialised STI clinic in Lilongwe, Malawi.

The infant feeding methods promoted by South African Instagram influencers in relation to crying and sleeping, 2018-2020: a retrospective digital ethnography.

Background: Globally, there has been a decline in breastfeeding rates. This has resulted in increased infant mortality due to infectious diseases and inappropriate feeding practices. The aggressive marketing of breastmilk substitutes (BMS) by manufacturers has contributed, in part, to these declines.

Prevalence and Correlates of Stunting among Children Aged 6-23 Months from Poor Households in Rwanda.

Stunted linear growth continues to be a public health problem that overwhelms the entire world and, particularly, developing countries. Despite several interventions designed and implemented to reduce stunting, the rate of 33.1% is still high for the proposed target of 19% in 2024.

Risk, lifestyle and non-communicable diseases of poverty.

Common discourse in public health and preventive medicine frames non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, as diseases of 'lifestyle'; the choice of terminology implies that their prevention, control and management are amenable to individual action. In drawing attention to global increases in the incidence and prevalence of non-communicable disease, however, we increasingly observe that these are non-communicable diseases of poverty. In this article, we call for the reframing of discourse to emphasize the underlying social and commercial determinants of health, including poverty and the manipulation of food markets.

Attrition of dental therapists in South Africa-A 42-year review.

Introduction: Dental therapists are mid-level oral healthcare providers introduced in 1977 to the South African health system to improve access to oral health services. There has, however, been anecdotal evidence of their unusually high rate of attrition that is cause for concern.

Aim And Objectives: This study aimed to determine the demographic profile and attrition rate among members of the South African Dental Therapy profession.

(Non)Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes in South African Parenting Magazines: How Marketing Regulations May Be Working.

Although exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first six months is optimal for child health, it remains low globally. Breastmilk substitutes (BMS) marketing undermines breastfeeding. In 2012, South Africa introduced Regulation 991, which prohibits marketing BMS products for infants below 6 months.

Uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision among men with sexually transmitted infections in Lilongwe, Malawi: a protocol for a pre-interventional and post-interventional study.

Introduction: Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) is one of the key interventions for HIV prevention. However, its uptake among men in Malawi is low. Implementation science strategies for demand creation of VMMC increase uptake.

"Maskandi experience": exploring the use of a cultural song for community engagement in preparation for a pilot Sterile Insect Technique release programme for malaria vector control in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa 2019.

Background: An assessment of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) as a complementary malaria vector control tool, is at an advanced stage in South Africa. The technique involves the release of laboratory-reared sterilized male mosquitoes of the major malaria vector Anopheles arabiensis, raising social, ethical and regulatory concerns. Therefore, its implementation largely depends on community participation and acceptance.

Effects of HIV voluntary medical male circumcision programs on sexually transmitted infections.

Purpose Of Review: Evidence of the protective effect of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) against HIV is well established. However, evidence of the protective effect of VMMC against other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has been inconsistent or scarce across different populations and settings. This review summarizes the current evidence on the effect of VMMC for HIV prevention on acquisition and transmission of other STIs in heterosexual men, women, and men who have sex with men (MSM).

Reported infant feeding practices and contextual influences on breastfeeding: qualitative interviews with women registered to MomConnect in three South African provinces.

Background: Global guidelines recommend exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first 6 months of life. South African EBF rates have steadily increased but still only average 32% for infants below 6 months of age. Malnutrition and developmental delays continue to contribute substantially to the morbidity and mortality of South African children.

Initial loss to follow up of tuberculosis patients in South Africa: perspectives of program managers.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a serious public health problem in South Africa. Initial loss to follow up (LTFU) rates among TB patients are high, varying between 14.9 and 22.

Awareness, Analysis, and Action: Curricular Alignment for Student Success in General Chemistry.

This article examines the ways that a shared faculty experience across five partner institutions led to a deep awareness of the curriculum and pedagogy of general chemistry coursework, and ultimately, to a collaborative action plan for student success. The team identified key differences and similarities in course content and instructional experiences. The comparative analysis yielded many more similarities than differences, and therefore, the team shifted its focus from "gap analysis" to an exploration of common curricular challenges.

Two new dwarfgobies from the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans (Teleostei: Gobiidae: Eviota).

Two new species of dwarfgobies are described, Eviota asymbasia from the Sulu Sea, Philippine Islands, south to Java and west to Damar, and E. bipunctata occurring from the Indian Ocean eastward into the western Pacific Ocean. Eviota asymbasia lacks the IT pore of the cephalic sensory-pore system and usually also the POP, has a dorsal/anal-fin formula of 8/8, has some pectoral-fin rays branched and usually 15 rays, two spots on the pectoral-fin base, no dark spot over the preural centrum, first dorsal fin may be filamentous, six ventral postanal spots, and the male genital papilla is not fimbriate.

Two new species of the cheilostome bryozoan Cheilopora from the Aleutian Islands.

Two new species of Cheilopora-C. peristomata and C. elfa-are described from the shallow water around Adak and Amchitka of the Andreanof and Rat island groups of the Aleutian Islands.

A new sea star of the genus Leptasterias (Asteroidea: Asteriidae) from the Aleutian Islands.

A new species of asteriid sea star of the genus Leptasterias (Order Forcipulatida) is described from the nearshore waters of the Aleutian Islands. Leptaterias tatei sp. nov.

Breast reconstruction with the Bostwick autoderm technique.

Background: In 1990, Bostwick presented a technique wherein excess skin in the ptotic breast provides a deepithelialized inferiorly based dermal flap at the time of mastectomy. This adjoins the inferior border of the pectoralis major muscle, creating a complete autologous vascularized pocket, which is then covered by Wise pattern skin flaps.

Methods: One hundred seventy breasts were reconstructed in 110 patients.

Biomolecular gradients via semiconductor gradients: characterization of amino acid adsorption to InxGa1-xN surfaces.

The band gap of indium gallium nitride can be tuned by varying the compositional ratio of indium to gallium, spanning the entire visible region and extending into the near-infrared and near-ultraviolet. This tunability allows for device optimization specific to different applications, including as a biosensor or platform for studying biological interactions. However, these rely on chemically dependent interactions between the device surface and the biostructures of interest.

Gallium nitride is biocompatible and non-toxic before and after functionalization with peptides.

The toxicity of semiconductor materials can significantly hinder their use for in vitro and in vivo applications. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a material with remarkable properties, including excellent chemical stability. This work demonstrated that functionalized and etched GaN surfaces were stable in aqueous environments and leached a negligible amount of Ga in solution even in the presence of hydrogen peroxide.