Tuberculosis and health sector reform: experience of integrating tuberculosis services into the district health system in rural South Africa

SETTING: Hlabisa health district, South Africa. OBJECTIVE: To describe the integration of a vertical tuberculosis control programme into an emerging 'horizontal' district health system, within the context of health sector reform. DESIGN: Descriptive account of the process of integration of the programme into the health system. RESULTS: A highly 'vertical' system of delivering tuberculosis treatment (with poor programme outcomes) was converted into a (horizontal' team, integrated within the district health system, that used available resources such as village clinics and community health workers, with improved programme outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: In some settings at least, integration of tuberculosis 'programmes' into the district health system as tuberculosis 'teams' is feasible, and may produce highly cost-effective outcomes.

Incorporating phase retardation effects into radiofrequency resonator models: application to magnetic resonance microscopy

A method is presented for including path propagation effects into models of radiofrequency resonators for use in magnetic resonance imaging. The method is based on the use of Helmholtz retarded potentials and extends our previous work on current density models of resonators based on novel inverse finite Hilbert transform solutions to the requisite integral equations. Radiofrequency phase retardation effects are most pronounced at high field strengths (frequencies) as are static field perturbations due to the magnetic materials in the resonators themselves. Both of these effects are investigated and a novel resonator structure presented for use in magnetic resonance microscopy.

Cell death and immunohistochemistry of p53, c-Fos and c-Jun after spermine infection into the rat striatum

Administration of polyamines into the central nervous system results in tissue damage, possibly through the excitotoxic actions of the NMDA receptor. Direct injection of 100 nmol of spermine into the rat striatum produced a lesion equivalent to approximately 50% of the striatum. Analysis of the DNA in this region revealed the distinct ladder-like pattern of degradation often associated with apoptosis. This DNA fragmentation was confirmed in vivo using terminal deoxynucleotidyl-transferase-mediated biotinylated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end labelling (TUNEL). The morphology of the TUNEL-positive cells showed marked differences at the needle tract when compared with cells in damaged areas away from the needle tract, suggesting a differential mechanism of cell death in these two regions. The patterns of p53, c-Fos and c-Jun protein expression were determined using immunohistochemistry. The number of p53-immunoreactive cells increased up to 14 h and returned to basal levels by 24 h. c-Fos protein expression transiently increased, peaking at 8 h after injection, c-Jun exhibited a protracted pattern of expression, remaining elevated up to 24 h. p53 protein expression was colocalised with TUNEL staining in areas away from the needle tract, but not in cells at the needle tract, suggesting once again a differential mechanism of cell death. At 14 h, c-Fos and c-Jun were not colocalised with TUNEL staining, suggesting that they are either not involved with the cell death process or that the time course of protein expression and the onset of DNA fragmentation do not overlap. This work represents the first characterisation of processes associated with cell death induced by spermine in vivo.

Decompositions of complete multipartite graphs into cycles of even length

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an edge-disjoint decomposition of any complete multipartite graph into even length cycles are investigated. Necessary conditions are listed and sufficiency is shown for the cases when the cycle length is 4, 6 or 8. Further results concerning sufficiency, provided certain small decompositions exist, are also given for arbitrary even cycle lengths.

Wave-induced seepage flux into anisotropic seabeds

Considerable effort has been devoted to quantifying the wave-induced soil response in a porous seabed in the last few decades. Most previous investigations have focused on the analysis of pore pressure and effective stresses within isotropic sediments, despite strong evidence of anisotropic soil behaviour reported in the literature. Furthermore, the seepage flux, which is important in the context of contaminant transport, has not been examined. In this paper, we focus on water wave-driven seepage in anisotropic marine sediments of finite thickness. The numerical results predict that the effects of hydraulic anisotropy and anisotropic soil behaviour on the wave-driven seepage in marine sediment are significant. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

MHCWeb: Converting a WWW database into a knowledge-based collaborative environment

The World Wide Web (WWW) is useful for distributing scientific data. Most existing web data resources organize their information either in structured flat files or relational databases with basic retrieval capabilities. For databases with one or a few simple relations, these approaches are successful, but they can be cumbersome when there is a data model involving multiple relations between complex data. We believe that knowledge-based resources offer a solution in these cases. Knowledge bases have explicit declarations of the concepts in the domain, along with the relations between them. They are usually organized hierarchically, and provide a global data model with a controlled vocabulary, We have created the OWEB architecture for building online scientific data resources using knowledge bases. OWEB provides a shell for structuring data, providing secure and shared access, and creating computational modules for processing and displaying data. In this paper, we describe the translation of the online immunological database MHCPEP into an OWEB system called MHCWeb. This effort involved building a conceptual model for the data, creating a controlled terminology for the legal values for different types of data, and then translating the original data into the new structure. The 0 WEB environment allows for flexible access to the data by both users and computer programs.

Sex pheromone biosynthesis in the female olive fruit-fly. Double labelling from [O-18(2)]-dioxygen into 1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5]undecane

The demonstration that both oxygen atoms of 1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5] undecane (1), the sex-pheromone of the female olive fly, originate from dioxygen, strongly implicates monooxygenase mediated processes in assembly of (1), and reveals unexpected complexity in the formation of its nine-carbon precursor.

Scope for further analytical solutions for constant flux infiltration into a semi-infinite soil profile or redistribution in a finite soil profile

[1] We attempt to generate new solutions for the moisture content form of the one-dimensional Richards' [1931] equation using the Lisle [1992] equivalence mapping. This mapping is used as no more general set of transformations exists for mapping the one-dimensional Richards' equation into itself. Starting from a given solution, the mapping has the potential to generate an infinite number of new solutions for a series of nonlinear diffusivity and hydraulic conductivity functions. We first seek new analytical solutions satisfying Richards' equation subject to a constant flux surface boundary condition for a semi-infinite dry soil, starting with the Burgers model. The first iteration produces an existing solution, while subsequent iterations are shown to endlessly reproduce this same solution. Next, we briefly consider the problem of redistribution in a finite-length soil. In this case, Lisle's equivalence mapping is generalized to account for arbitrary initial conditions. As was the case for infiltration, however, it is found that new analytical solutions are not generated using the equivalence mapping, although existing solutions are recovered.

Incorporation of bovine dry blood plasma into biscuit flour for the production of pasta

Spray-dried blood plasma (DBP) (10.9 g/100 g [w/w] nitrogen) was added to medium-protein biscuit flour (1.4 g/100 g N) during pasta manufacture. High-protein durum semolina (2.0 g/100 g N) Was used to produce the control pasta. Sensory data indicated that the addition of DBP produced pasta with significantly better colour intensity and acceptability. aroma intensity, flaN our intensity. textural strength, texture acceptability, aftertaste intensity, aftertaste acceptability. and overall acceptability The DBP/biscuit flour formulation that gave the optimum balance between pasta protein content and organoleptic acceptability contained 2.2 g/100 g DBP. A higher content of DBP resulted in increased protein levels, but these pasta formulations, ere less acceptable organoleptically. (C) 2002 Swiss Society of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Translational incorporation of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine into proteins

An Escherichia coli cell-free transcription/translation system was used to explore the high-level incorporation Of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) into proteins by replacing tyrosine with DOPA in the reaction mixtures. ESI-MS showed specific incorporation of DOPA in place of tyrosine. More than 90% DOPA incorporation at each tyrosine site was achieved, allowing the recording of clean N-15-HSQC NMR spectra. A redox-staining method specific for DOPA was shown to provide a sensitive and generally applicable method for assessing the cell-free production of proteins. Of four proteins produced in soluble form in the presence of tyrosine, two resulted in insoluble aggregates in the presence of high levels of DOPA. DOPA has been found in human proteins, often in association with various disease states that implicate protein aggregation and/or misfolding. Our results suggest that misfolded and aggregated proteins may result, in principle, from ribosome-mediated misincorporation of intracellular DOPA accumulated due to oxidative stress. High-yield cell-free protein expression systems are uniquely suited to obtain rapid information on solubility and aggregation of nascent polypeptide chains.

Subduction of the Nazca Ridge and the Inca Plateau: Insights into the formation of ore deposits in Peru

A large number of ore deposits that formed in the Peruvian Andes during the Miocene (15-5 Ma) are related to the subduction of the Nazea plate beneath the South American plate. Here we show that the spatial and temporal distribution of these deposits correspond with the arrival of relatively buoyant topographic anomalies, namely the Nazca Ridge in central Peru and the now-consumed Inca Plateau in northern Peru, at the subduction zone. Plate reconstruction shows a rapid metallogenic response to the arrival of the topographic anomalies at the subduction trench. This is indicated by clusters of ore deposits situated within the proximity of the laterally migrating zones of ridge subduction. It is accordingly suggested that tectonic changes associated with impingement of the aseismic ridge into the subduction zone may trigger the formation of ore deposits in metallogenically fertile suprasubduction environments. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Pathogens associated with nursery plants imported into Western Australia

A small survey of the potting mix taken from 15 consignments of nursery grown plants imported into Western Australia from other states in Australia found that Phytophthora spp. were present in 10% of the samples and Pythium spp. were present in 25% of the samples. Plant pathogenic nematodes were isolated from 12 of 13 consignments. Potting mix appears to be an important route by which plant pathogens can be passively introduced into Western Australia.