Engaging community health workers in maternal and infant death identification in Khayelitsha, South Africa: a pilot study.

Background: Engaging community health workers in a formalised death review process through verbal and social autopsy has been utilised in different settings to estimate the burden and causes of mortality, where civil registration and vital statistics systems are weak. This method has not been widely adopted. We piloted the use of trained community health workers (CHW) to investigate the extent of unreported maternal and infant deaths in Khayelitsha and explored requirements of such a programme and the role of CHWs in bridging gaps.

'Building on shaky ground'-challenges to and solutions for primary care guideline implementation in four provinces in South Africa: a qualitative study.

Objectives: Clinical guidelines support evidence-informed quality patient care. Our study explored perspectives of South African subnational health managers regarding barriers to and enablers for implementation for all available primary care guidelines.

Design: We used qualitative research methods, including semistructured, individual interviews and an interpretative perspective.

Using the behavior change wheel to identify barriers to and potential solutions for primary care clinical guideline use in four provinces in South Africa.

Background: Clinical practice guidelines risk having little impact on healthcare if not effectively implemented. Theory informed, targeted implementation may maximise their impact. Our study explored barriers to and facilitators of guideline implementation and use by South African primary care nurses and allied healthcare workers in four provinces in South Africa.

Chlorinated phenol-induced physiological antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous environmental bacterium and an opportunistic pathogen with the ability to rapidly develop multidrug resistance under selective pressure. Previous work demonstrated that upon exposure to the environmental contaminant pentachlorophenol (PCP), P. aeruginosa PAO1 increases expression of multiple multidrug efflux pumps, including the MexAB-OprM pump.

Improving treatment adherence for blood pressure lowering via mobile phone SMS-messages in South Africa: a qualitative evaluation of the SMS-text Adherence SuppoRt (StAR) trial.

Background: Effective use of proven treatments for high blood pressure, a preventable health risk, is challenging for many patients. Prompts via mobile phone SMS-text messaging may improve adherence to clinic visits and treatment, though more research is needed on impact and patient perceptions of such support interventions, especially in low-resource settings.

Method: An individually-randomised controlled trial in a primary care clinic in Cape Town (2012-14), tested the effect of an adherence support intervention delivered via SMS-texts, on blood pressure control and adherence to medication, for hypertensive patients.

The "how" and "why" of including gender and age in ethnobotanical research and community-based resource management.

This paper examines the process and outcome of participatory methods for stakeholder identification. We used focus group style participatory methodology to engage local residents in identifying key sub-groups relevant to conservation in Boumba, Niger. We then conducted a quantitative pictorial recognition study to measure the diversity of local useful plant knowledge across groups.

Conditions associated with the cystic fibrosis defect promote chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.

Rationale: Progress has been made in understanding how the cystic fibrosis (CF) basic defect produces lung infection susceptibility. However, it remains unclear why CF exclusively leads to chronic infections that are noninvasive and highly resistant to eradication. Although biofilm formation has been suggested as a mechanism, recent work raises questions about the role of biofilms in CF.

Resilience in post-Katrina New Orleans, Louisiana: a preliminary study.

Background: Much scholarly and practitioner attention to the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans, Louisiana has focused on the failures of government disaster prevention and management at all levels, often overlooking the human strength and resourcefulness observed in individuals and groups among the worst-affected communities.

Objectives: This preliminary study sought to investigate human resilience in the city of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, eighteen months after Hurricane Katrina struck the Mississippi delta region.

Methods: The Sense of Coherence scale, short form (SOC-13) was administered to a sample of 41 residents of Lower Ninth Ward and adjacent Wards who had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina but were either living in or visiting their home area during March 2007.

Transcriptome analysis reveals that multidrug efflux genes are upregulated to protect Pseudomonas aeruginosa from pentachlorophenol stress.

Through chemical contamination of natural environments, microbial communities are exposed to many different types of chemical stressors; however, research on whole-genome responses to this contaminant stress is limited. This study examined the transcriptome response of a common soil bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, to the common environmental contaminant pentachlorophenol (PCP). Cells were grown in chemostats at a low growth rate to obtain substrate-limited, steady-state, balanced-growth conditions.

Prolonged displacement may compromise resilience in Eritrean mothers.

Objective: to assess the impact of prolonged displacement on the resilience of Eritrean mothers.

Methods: an adapted SOC scale (short form) was administered. Complementary qualitative data were gathered from study participants' spontaneous reactions to and commentaries on the SOC scale.