While overall neonatal mortality rates are improving in Ghana, the Ashanti Region has the highest mortality rate in the country. The clinical causes of newborn deaths are well known, yet local beliefs about illness aetiology, cause of death and care-seeking are less well understood. This exploratory qualitative study sought to understand how community members perceive and respond to neonatal illness. Researchers worked with public health nurses, community health nurses and opinion leaders in the Ashanti Region of Ghana to identify women who had lost a baby, either during pregnancy or after delivery. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted about knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding neonatal mortality. The transcripts were coded and analysed using NVivo 10.0. A total of 100 participants were interviewed: 24% reported a previous stillbirth; 37% reported a previous miscarriage; and 45% reported losing a baby who was born alive. Nine per cent experienced more than one type of loss. The local illness of asram – an illness with supernatural causes – was cited as a leading cause of death of newborns. Every participant reported hearing of, knowing someone, or having a child who had become ill with asram. While women gave varying information on symptoms, method of contraction and treatment, all participants agreed that asram was common and often fatal. Four overarching themes emerged: 1) asram is not a hospital sickness; 2) there is both a fear of traditional healers as a source of asram, as well as a reliance upon them to cure asram; 3) there are rural/urban differences in perceptions of asram; and 4) asram may serve as a mechanism of social control for pregnant women and new mothers. Local beliefs and practices must be better understood and incorporated into health education campaigns if neonatal mortality is to be reduced in Ghana.

The first known occurrence of kornerupine in Australia is described. The mineral is a minor component of a phlogopite-rich garnet-corundum-spinel metasomatic zone, which cuts mafic and ultranlafic spinel-plagioclase-orthopyroxene-hornblende rocks. The kornerupine-bearing assemblage was formed during the second major metamorphic episode that affected the terrain, probably under low-grade granulite or upper amphibolite facies conditions. Kornerupine appears to have formed at significantly lower levels of P-T than those reached in the terrain during the peak of the second granulite metamorphism.

This study aimed to determine prevalence of Ralstonia spp. in cystic fibrosis patients, look for any evidence of cross infection and to describe clinical outcomes for patients infected by Ralstonia spp. Prevalence of Ralstonia spp. was calculated annually from 2008 to 2016. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was performed on ⩾1 sample from patients with an isolation of Ralstonia spp. between 2008 and 2016. A prospective, longitudinal observational study of adult patients was performed with 12 months follow-up from recruitment. Prevalence of Ralstonia spp. rose from 0·6% in 2008 to 2·4% in 2016. In total 12 out of 14 (86%) patients with ⩾1 isolation of Ralstonia spp. developed chronic infection. A pair and a group of three unrelated patients with epidemiological connections shared strains of Ralstonia mannitolilytica. Lung function of Ralstonia spp. infected patients was moderately to severely impaired. Prevalence of Ralstonia spp. is low but increasing. The risk of a patient developing chronic Ralstonia spp. infection following first acquisition is high and cross-infection may be possible. Whether Ralstonia spp. infection causes increased pulmonary exacerbation frequency and lung function decline needs to be evaluated in larger prospective studies.

Background: The infratemporal fossa is an anatomically complex region. Lesions that arise in the infratemporal fossa are uncommon; however, their surgical resection remain challenging. Here we present a modified preauricular subtemporal approach initially described by Obwegeser et al. used in four patients with large skull base lesions. Methods: Retrospective case series of 4 patients Results: Four patients with various lesions of the infratemporal fossa (aneurysmal bone cyst, giant cell tumor of the bone, recurrent melanoma and recurrent clival chordoma) underwent surgical resection using the modified Obwegeser approach. A multidisciplinary team cared for patients consisting of maxillofacial surgery, otolaryngology and neurosurgery. After either nasotracheal intubation or tracheostomy, the patient’s jaw was temporarily wired shut. A curvilinear incision was fashioned and the root of zygoma was exposed (masseter attached) and osteotomized followed by inferior mobilization. The mandibular condyle is osteomized next and TMJ disarticulated with temporalis muscle still attached and reflected superiorly. Surgical resection of tumor then proceeded centered around the region bridging the temporal and infratemporal fossae. Reconstruction was carried out using plates and screws. Conclusions: The modified Obwegeser approach can provide safe and direct access to certain infratemporal fossa lesions with good cosmesis and functional outcome for patients without substantially increasing OR time.

Spring migrants of Myzus persicae (Sulz.) may be produced either by parthenogenetic aphids derived from fertilised eggs laid on the primary host, or by parthenogenetic aphids overwintering on secondary hosts. Five variates, based1 on eight morphological characters of alate M. persicae, are examined to investigate how to distinguish between alatae derived from populations that have overwintered by these two means. No single variate is adequate to identify correctly all specimens, although two of them, number of abdominal tubercles, and shape of the fenestra in the central abdominal patch, may each correctly assign as many as 90%.

Twenty-two gentamicin-resistant urinary isolates of Escherichia coli and five gentamicin-resistant urinary isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae from a Dublin hospital were examined for resistance to the veterinary aminoglycoside antibiotic apramycin. Five isolates of E. coli and one isolate of K. pneumoniae were found to be resistant. The apramycin-resistant isolates, which were also resistant to the veterinary anthelmintic agent hygromycin B, hybridized with a DNA probe for the gene encoding the enzyme 3-N-aminoglycoside acetyltransferase type IV (AAC(3)IV). Resistance to apramycin and hygromycin B was co-transferable in four of the five isolates of E. coli and the isolate of K. pneumoniae. In one isolate of E. coli apramycin resistance was not transferable. On the basis of their restriction enzyme digestion profiles and the antimicrobial resistance traits encoded, the transferable plasmids encoding resistance to apramycin and hygromycin B comprised three distinct types. Genetic linkage between the gene encoding AAC(3)IV and genes encoding resistance to ampicillin and either tetracycline or trimethoprim, means that the relatively widespread use of these antimicrobial agents provides a selective pressure for the persistence of resistance to apramycin and gentamicin even in the absence of bacterial exposure to aminoglycosides.

Nosocomial infection or colonization due to enterococci with high-level resistance to vancomycin (minimal inhibitory concentrations [MICs] between 64 and > 2000 mg/L) has occurred in 41 patients with renal disease. These vancomycin-resistant enterococci were cultured from many sources including blood. All but one strain contained one or more plasmids ranging in molecular weight from 1·0 to 40 Megadaltons (MDa). Vancomycin resistance was transferable by conjugation to a susceptible recipient strain of Enterococcus faecalis but this was not always associated with plasmid DNA. The emergence of transferable high-level vancomycin resistance in enterococci causing significant clinical infections is of particular importance since vancomycin is widely regarded as a reserve drug for the management of infections with multi-resistant Gram-positive organisms.

Myzus persicae (Sulzer) collected in Scotland were characterized for four microsatellite loci, intergenic spacer fingerprints and the resistance mechanisms modified acetylcholinesterase (MACE), overproduced carboxylesterase and knockdown resistance (kdr). Microsatellite polymorphisms were used to define a limited number of clones that were either fully susceptible to insecticides or possessed characteristic combinations of resistance mechanisms. Within these clones, intergenic spacer fingerprints could either be very consistent or variable, with the latter indicating ongoing evolution within lineages, most likely derived from the same zygote. Two clones (termed A and B) possessed all three resistance mechanisms and predominated at sites treated with insecticides. Their appearance on seed potatoes and oilseed rape in Scotland in 2001 coincided with extensive insecticide use and severe control failures. Clones C, I and J, with no or fewer resistance mechanisms, were found in samples from 1995 and were dominant at untreated sites in 2001. A comparison of Scottish collections with those from other UK and non-UK sites provides insight into the likely origins, distribution and dynamics of M. persicae clones in a region where asexual (anholocyclic) reproduction predominates, but is vulnerable to migration by novel genotypes from areas of Europe where sexual (holocyclic) reproduction occurs.

Dementia is a syndrome describing progressive and largely irreversible brain dysfunction. Symptoms are varied but commonly include memory loss, mood changes and difficulties with language and judgement. Delusions and hallucinations can also occur. With disease progression there is a gradual loss of ability to perform tasks of daily living. A range of illnesses, most of which are currently incurable, can cause dementia. These include Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Mixed patterns of dementia also exist, typically Alzheimer's disease overlapping with vascular dementia. This combination of pathologies is probably much commoner in the elderly than traditionally thought.

Carbon-based coatings exhibit many attractive properties that make them good candidates for a wide range of engineering applications. Tribological studies of the films have revealed a close correlation between the chemistry of the hydrocarbon source gases and the coefficients of friction and wear rates of the diamond-like carbon films. Those films grown in source gases with higher hydrogen-to-carbon ratios had much lower coefficients of friction and wear rates than did films derived from source gases with lower hydrogen-to-carbon ratios. The mechanism for this low friction is as yet not properly understood. Ongoing structural characterization of the films at Argonne National Laboratory is gradually revealing this mechanism. Recent studies have included x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and x-ray reflectivity (XRR). XPS showed ∼10% oxygen at the surface, which was largely removed after a 1 minute sputter; NEXAFS showed a high sp2:sp3 ratio implying a highly graphitic material; and XRR has given a comprehensive depth profile, with three layers of increasing density as the substrate was approached. The paper discusses the results and correlation with previous friction measurements.

Further experimental observations have allowed us to refine and confirm some aspects of our recently proposed mechanism for reactive diffusion between Si single crystal and NbC powder compact, particularly regarding the prediction of Si as the dominant diffusing species and the nature of the dependence of SiC particle morphology on the presence of voids in the NbC end member. In Si|NbC diffusion couples annealed at either 1300 or 1350 °C, a two-phase NbSi2 + SiC reaction layer formed. Although NbSi2 was the matrix in all of the reaction layers, the SiC phase morphology depended upon NbC porosity: when high-porosity NbC was used, SiC was present as discontinuous particles greater than 1-μm-across, while when low-porosity or void-free NbC was used, SiC grew cooperatively with NbSi2 in the form of lamellae less than 0.5 μm thick. We propose that this difference arises from the effect of voids both as nucleation sites for SiC particles and as channels for unrestricted SiC growth. Marker experiments conclusively show that Si is the dominant diffusing species in the reaction layer.

Based on our recent experimental observations, a growth mechanism for the reactive diffusion between Si single crystal and NbC powder compact is proposed. In Si–NbC diffusion couples annealed at 1300 °C, a two-phase NbSi2 + SiC reaction layer formed with NbSi2 as the matrix and SiC as discontinuous particles. The NbSi2 grain sizes and SiC particle sizes are both in the μm range. We propose that the SiC particles nucleated at the void surfaces in the NbC powder compact. This proposed nucleation mechanism offers a potential way of controlling the SiC particle size by changing the void size and void density of the NbC powder compact. It is also pointed out that this microstructure requires Si to be the dominant diffusing species. Si must diffuse through the reaction layer, while C only has to undergo local rearrangement, and Nb need not diffuse at all.

How did advocacy at each level of the federal judiciary help shape the leading decision in American law of treason? This article, adapted from a forthcoming biography of Judge Harold R. Medina, is a case study based on Justice Department archives and the personal papers of Medina, Charles Fahy, and seven Supreme Court Justices. It analyzes the whole case, from the lawyers'standpoint, to illuminate the role of counsel in transforming a minor wartime incident into the first treason case decided on the merits by the Supreme Court and the tribunal's only decision during World War II to limit constitutional war powers. Accenting litigation strategy and the use of history in constitutional interpretation, it is a story also of the struggle by counsel on both sides of the case to uphold high professional standards amid the passions of total war.

The Concept of “Judicial Role” refers to normative expectations shared by judges and related actors regarding how a given judicial office should be performed. Scholars have long debated whether judges’ perceptions of these norms influence judicial decisions. Though similar issues vex students of legislatures and foreign policy-making, the linkages among role perceptions and behavior are of special significance for the federal judiciary. Since the Supreme Court grants certiorari in less than 2% of federal appeals, internalized professional values have traditionally been regarded as essential controls binding federal courts into a system. Yet, the appropriate roles and functions of federal appellate judges have never been fixed nor universally accepted. A law explosion, trebling federal appeals in the last decade, has taxed the ability of appellate courts to maintain coherent national law in a highly decentralized judicial organization. Outside the Supreme Court empirical proofs are inconclusive that judges’ prescriptions guide their decisions rather than rationalize personal preferences.

United States courts of appeals were created over four decades ago to help the Supreme Court enforce the supremacy' and uniformity of federal law. Until recently, however, their actual operations and functions in the American polity have received scant description and analysis (Carington, 1969: 542; Dolbeare, 1969: 373-404; Goldman and Jahnige, 1971; Richardson and Vines, 1970; Schick, 1970). This paper is a preliminary report of data gathered to assess the roles of the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Second, and Fifth Circuits in the federal legal system.' The report will: (1) describe the business of the three tribunals, (2) compare decisional patterns among them and the Supreme Court in the same cases, and (3) explore relationships among trial courts, intermediate courts, and the Supreme Court in the flow of federal litigation.