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IntroductionEffective supply chain management (SCM) of point-of-care (POC) tests for diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) requires active participation from diverse stakeholders, government entities, and regulatory bodies. The responsibility for overseeing various aspects of POC tests, including procurement, quality assurance, storage, inventory management, distribution, and human resource capacity, lies with national, provincial, and local levels of government. This study aimed to collaboratively develop an innovative approach to enhance SCM for SARS-CoV-2 POC diagnostic services in resource-limited settings, using the Mopani District in Limpopo province, South Africa, as a case study.MethodsKey stakeholders were invited to participate in an online workshop using purposive sampling. The study employed the nominal group technique (NGT) for data collection, which consisted of two phases. Phase 1 focused on identifying barriers in the supply chain of COVID-19 rapid tests, while phase 2 aimed to devise strategies to overcome the priority barriers identified in phase 1. Participants used a Likert scale of 1–5 to rank barriers and strategies, and an overall ranking score was calculated for each. The participants were provided with the results of the ranking exercise for their feedback.ResultsEleven key stakeholders from national (n = 1), provincial (n = 4), and local government (n = 2) levels, research entities (n = 3), and non-governmental organizations (n = 1) took part in the study. Participants identified significant barriers in the supply chain, such as the availability of testing kits, unknown demand, information on SCM during a pandemic, methods of controlling stock, and procurement processes. Strategies suggested by key stakeholders included monitoring stock levels and optimizing stock visibility systems to improve test availability, enhancing information visibility and consistent data updates to address unknown demand and improve SCM during a pandemic, employing data capturing and digitization for effective stock control, and implementing demand planning and standardized procurement processes at the national level to enhance stock procurement.DiscussionThe successful collaboration with key stakeholders, facilitated by the NGT, resulted in the co-creation of a novel approach to enhance SCM for COVID-19 diagnostic services in resource-limited settings. This study holds the potential to support the provision of COVID-19 diagnostic services in such settings. A recommended follow-up study would assess the feasibility of implementing this approach.

This article focuses on understanding the role played by African spirituality in the provision of kinship care in the South African context. African traditional spirituality was found to be an important factor underpinning kinship care and its provision, especially in rural African communities. The study was conducted using a qualitative research methodology. Twenty-one (21) participants, who were kinship caregivers, were recruited using purposive non-probability sampling methods. The study found that African spirituality helped them to preserve both their cultural and personal identity. Furthermore, through African spirituality, children and youth in kinship care receive psychosocial support and experienced a positive upbringing through their kinship caregivers and tribal community. African kinship caregivers were found to offer kinship care as a spiritual duty to help children and youth who need care and protection in the absence of their birth parents.

Challenging heteronormative spaces has been identified as one of the key difficulties facing the issue of destabilisation of deeply entrenched gendered and sexual practices and spaces within institutional contexts. In a university context, that includes a hegemonic masculine student residence culture; this may be even more challenging and disrupting to how one mediates social and academic space. Challenging includes awareness of how one may be able to challenge, as well as moments when one is not able to challenge. Strategies of resistance may be adopted that further reinforce gay male students' participation in academic space. Through qualitative analysis of a group of gay male students living in residence at a South African university, we explore these students' movement through different spaces on campus within the residences. Using performative theory and the concept of hegemonic masculinity, the findings highlight sexuality's intersection with other identities both in the experience of and resistance to victimisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the Sound Etudes, Ghenadie Ciobanu created a new category of the musical etude genre, related to the field of chamber music, which reflects the processes that occur in the sphere of the "musical genre" in contemporary art. The Sound Etude’s name in itself indicates a new vision of how to exploit the source of musicalsound. Each of the five Sound Etudes tends to reflect artistic, aesthetic, stylistic and technical phenomena specific to contemporary music. At the same time, they are united by a fundamental idea — the fusion of man with nature and universe, as well as the attempt of grasping the purpose of man in this world and the universe.

Time series are presented for the Class II methanol maser source G12.89+0.49, which has been monitored for nine years at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory. The 12.2 and 6.7 GHz methanol masers were seen to exhibit rapid, correlated variations on time-scales of less than a month. Daily monitoring has revealed that the variations have a periodic component with a period of 29.5 d. The period seems to be stable over the 110 cycles spanned by the time series. There are variations from cycle to cycle, with the peak of the flare occurring anywhere within an 11 d window, but the minima occur at the same phase of the cycle. Time delays of up to 5.7 d are seen between spectral features at 6.7 GHz and a delay of 1.1 d is seen between the dominant 12.2 GHz spectral feature and its 6.7 GHz counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory, quantitative study investigated the prevalence rate of patients with co-occurring substance-related and psychiatric disorders (CODs) at a private rehabilitation centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Details of the case histories of the clients were collected, coded and analysed using Statistical Analysis System (SAS). The results indicated that 57.1% of 419 clients had one or more co-occurring psychiatric disorder, along with a substance-related disorder. Of the 239 with a COD, 155 had a mood disorder, 40 had an anxiety disorder, 39 had ADHD, 35 had an eating disorder, eight had a conduct disorder and five had schizophrenia. Statistically significant relationships were found for ADHD with cannabis-related disorders and polysubstance dependence; anxiety-related disorders with alcohol-related disorders; and mood disorders with cocaine-related disorders, possibly substance-induced disorders and substance-induced disorders. These results showed that a large group of patients admitted at the centre had one or more COD and this made the treatment more complex. The results of this study suggest the need to develop specialized treatment programmes for patients with CODs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The article examines the experiences of protesters and bystanders who have sustained eye injuries from rubber bullets fired by the police. Use of rubber bullets by police officers during public protests is officially regulated, but there is insufficient documentation about the nature of fatal and non-fatal injuries linked to rubber bullet use during protests in South Africa., Methods: We pres-ent three case studies based on data gathered from student protests, community protests, and media reports. Through the analysis of these sources, the article presents the personal stories of individuals who have experienced eye injuries, detailing how the incidents occurred and the subsequent impact on their lives. It also examines the accessibility of medical, psychological, and legal services available to victims in addressing the consequences of these injuries., Results: The cases studies illustrate that rubber bullets were used frequently and often without due caution by police officers during the events examined. The use of rubber bullets was linked to numerous eye injuries, resulting in lasting psycho-logical and physical consequences for those affected., Discussion: Rubber bullet-related eye injuries during protests are disturbingly common in South Africa. Consequently, there is an urgent need to provide essential services and support to those who suffer from these life-altering incidents.

Background: South Africa presents one of the riskiest patterns of alcohol consumption, with per capita consumption above the African regional average. Globally, there has been an increased focus on the potential of appointing lay counsellors to administer alcohol intervention strategies in resource-limited contexts. Given the increasing need for relevant and efficient intervention strategies in response to high-risk alcohol consumption, screening instruments such as the AUDIT-C have gained increased attention., Methods: This paper explores the experiences of 15 lay counsellors in response to the training received on how to administer the AUDIT-C instrument, as well as provide interventions such as brief advice or an appropriate referral, in the resource-limited South African township of Alexandra, Johannesburg. A focus group was facilitated for this purpose and, thereafter, a thematic content analysis was applied to identify the themes most central to the lay counsellors' experiences., Results: The research findings suggest that the lay counsellors perceived the training to be adequate in preparing them for administrating the AUDIT-C and for providing any relevant interventions, and that their confidence in administering the instrument developed as the project progressed. However, recruitment and administration challenges were experienced in primary healthcare and community settings, and lay counsellors perceived home visits to be more appropriate with respect to issues related to confidentiality and stigmatisation., Conclusion: Overall, while lay counsellors feel that the training they received on the tool and the tool itself is useful for effectively implementing the AUDIT-C in low-resource communities, the availability and efficiency of alcohol treatment services in Alexandra Township need to be improved., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Unhealthy alcohol use is a leading contributor to premature death and disability worldwide. The World Health Organization's Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health ranked South Africa as having one of the riskiest patterns of alcohol consumption, which calls for intervention. Recognising the need for effective primary care interventions, particularly in the absence of appropriate alcohol-related harm reduction policies at national and local levels, this paper highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with a two-pronged, community-centred approach to the identification of unhealthy alcohol use and interventions., Methods: This approach included the use of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) as a means of screening to identify individuals at moderate (score of 5-7) to high risk (score of 8 +) alcohol use, raising awareness, and investigating the potential utility of brief advice and referrals as a means of reducing risk., Results: Of the 54,187 participants, 43.0% reported engaging in moderate-risk alcohol consumption, with 22.1% reporting high-risk alcohol consumption. Resistance to brief advice was observed to increase with higher AUDIT-C scores. Similarly, participants engaging in high-risk alcohol consumption were resistant to accepting treatment referrals, with fewer than 10% open to receiving a referral., Conclusions: While men were most likely to report patterns of high-risk alcohol consumption, they were more resistant to accepting referrals. Additionally, participants who were willing to receive brief advice were often resistant to taking active steps to alter their alcohol use. This study highlights the need to consider how to prevent harmful patterns of alcohol use effectively and holistically, especially in low socioeconomic settings through primary health care and community services., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

The Streptomyces sanglieri bacteriophages AxeJC, Cumberbatch, Eastland, Eklok, HFrancette, Ignacio, Piccadilly, and Vondra form a novel actinobacteriophage cluster, BP. These siphoviruses have circularly permuted genomes with an average size of 37,700 bp and a GC content of 71%. Each genome contains approximately 58 protein-coding genes, with no tRNAs.

In this paper we examine men's insights on how migration and minework affect their perceptions and performances of masculinity in the settings of minework and in their "real home" communities and explore the potential consequences of masculinity constructions for their own and their family's health. This study used qualitative methodology. Findings are based on 13 in-depth interviews conducted over two phases of data collection with adult men who were either working or seeking work in the mines in North-West province, South Africa. Data suggest that for these men, migration to and working in the mines meant they must straddle the temporal space of work and the rural home space. For these men, the role of provider was an inescapable demand and, resulting from migration for work, their experience of fatherhood was solely centred on material provision with little or no emotional involvement with their children. Findings further illustrate the impact of minework on men's health and livelihoods-resulting in some men reimagining and seeking to create alternative career paths for their children. There is pressing need for labour reforms on the employment conditions of low-paid mine workers to enable them to reinforce their livelihoods and secure better futures for their families. Gender-transformative interventions which aim to transform ideas of masculinity that emphasize providing rather than emotional involvement with children are also needed., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction: Haemoglobin Bart's (Hb Bart's) level is associated with α-thalassaemia traits in neonates, enabling early diagnosis of α-thalassaemia. The study aimed to detect and quantify the Hb Bart's using Cord Blood (CB) and CE Neonat Fast Hb (NF) progammes on fresh and dried blood spot (DBS) specimen respectively by capillary electrophoresis (CE)., Methods: Capillarys Hemoglobin (E) Kit (for CB) and Capillarys Neonat Hb Kit (for NF) were used to detect and quantify Hb Bart's by CE in fresh cord blood and dried blood spot (DBS) specimens respectively. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using the β-Thal Short Programme was also performed concurrently with CE analysis. Confirmation was obtained by multiplex ARMS Gap PCR., Results: This study was performed on 600 neonates. 32/600 (5.3%) samples showed presence of Hb Bart's peak using the NF programme while 33/600 (5.5%) were positive with CB programme and HPLC methods. The range of Hb Bart's using NF programme and CB programme were (0.5-4.1%) and (0.5-7.1%), respectively. Molecular analysis confirmed all positive samples possessed α-thalassaemia genetic mutations, with 23/33 cases being αα/-- SEA , four -α 3.7 /-α 3.7 , two αα/-α 3.7 and three αα/αα CS . Fifty Hb Bart's negative samples were randomly tested for α-genotypes, three were also found to be positive for α-globin gene mutations. Thus, resulting in sensitivity of 91.7% and 88.9% and specificity of 100% for the Capillarys Cord Blood programme and Capillarys Neonat Fast programme respectively., Conclusion: Both CE programmes using fresh or dried cord blood were useful as a screening tool for α-thalassaemia in newborns. All methods show the same specificity (100%) with variable, but acceptable sensitivities in the detection of Hb Bart.

Violence is a serious public health and human rights challenge with global psychosocial impacts across the human lifespan. As a middle-income country (MIC), South Africa experiences high levels of interpersonal, self-directed and collective violence, taking physical, sexual and/or psychological forms. Careful epidemiological research has consistently shown that complex causal pathways bind the social fabric of structural inequality, socio-cultural tolerance of violence, militarized masculinity, disrupted community and family life, and erosion of social capital, to individual-level biological, developmental and personality-related risk factors to produce this polymorphic profile of violence in the country. Engaging with a concern that violence studies may have reached something of a theoretical impasse, 'second wave' violence scholars have argued that the future of violence research may not lie primarily in merely amassing more data on risk but rather in better theorizing the mechanisms that translate risk into enactment, and that mobilize individual and collective aspects of subjectivity within these enactments. With reference to several illustrative forms of violence in South Africa, in this article we suggest revisiting two conceptual orientations to violence, arguing that this may be useful in developing thinking in line with this new global agenda. Firstly, the definition of our object of enquiry requires revisiting to fully capture its complexity. Secondly, we advocate for the utility of specific incident analyses/case studies of violent encounters to explore the mechanisms of translation and mobilization of multiple interactive factors in enactments of violence. We argue that addressing some of the moral and methodological challenges highlighted in revisiting these orientations requires integrating critical social science theory with insights derived from epidemiology and, that combining these approaches may take us further in understanding and addressing the recalcitrant range of forms and manifestations of violence., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: In this paper, the author explores how adolescent boys negotiate multiple voices of masculinity in Alexandra Township, a historically working-class and black community in Gauteng, South Africa., Method: Thirty adolescent boys were recruited and provided with disposable cameras to take 27 photos under the theme 'my life as a boy' in the new South Africa. Arrangements were made for photos to be collected and processed. In the follow-up interviews, boys were asked to give a description of each photo and why and how they had decided to take that photo to represent aspects of their masculinity. Results Some of the photos taken depict books, cars, boys smoking, gambling, fighting and reading books at school., Conclusion: This study reveals that being a boy is not a homogeneous phenomenon. All the participants agreed that there are different ways of being a boy and that some boys are more popular than others, which often depends on the context in which the boys find themselves. The interviews revealed recurring allusions to different 'types' of boys at schools in Alexandra Township-namely, tsotsi boys and academic boys. However, it is important to note that boys do not fit neatly into each of these categories. The findings of the study reveal some interesting complexities on how adolescent boys simultaneously accept and reject certain practices of township masculinity in their daily lives, depending on the time and space in which they find themselves. Some positions are more dominant than others and this reveals how adolescent boys 'police' each other as part of a process of conforming to idealised norms of township masculinity as lived out in the township context of Alexandra.

Introduction: Headache and sleep disorders have a high impact in children, both from the point of view of prevalence and from the perspective of the quality of life of the subjects who suffer their consequences. AIM. To determine the prevalence of sleep disorders among the child population that suffers from headaches., Subjects and Methods: The Spanish version of the Paediatric Sleep Questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of the child and teenage population that attend the different schools in the town of Gandia. This questionnaire includes two questions about the existence of headache., Results: In all, 887 subjects answered the survey (68% of respondents). The sleep disorders that are clearly associated with headache are: rhythmic movement disorders, sleep-talking, nightmares, waking up more than twice during the night, unwillingness to go to bed, early waking, delayed onset of sleep, insomnia, irregular hours of going to bed and getting up, excessive daytime sleepiness, snoring and positive screening for apnea-hypopnea syndrome., Conclusions: It is shown that the population with headaches has a greater number of sleep disorders, mainly insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness and parasomnias. It is important to gather information about sleep habits in any child who is attended because of headache.

Introduction: The evaluation of comorbidity is an important factor in the treatment of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Sleep disturbances are one of the most common features of this disorder., Objective: To find out the frequency of sleep disturbances among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder., Material and Methods: We used the Spanish version of the Paediatric Sleep Questionnaire, which was given out to a representative sample in Gandia (Spain)., Results: The questionnaire was answered by 887 (68 % of the sample). The sleep disturbances that showed a clear relationship with the three ADHD variables studied are: snoring, enuresis, rhythmic movement disturbances, night awakenings, and bedtime resistance. Sleep-disorder breathing, bruxism, somniloquy, day sleepiness, early awakenings and difficulty falling sleep are associated with only one of the three variables studied., Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that the population with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder has more sleep disturbances. The association with the enuresis is of particular interest due to the possible clinical implications.

Introduction: Knowledge of sleep patterns and sleep disturbances among healthy children is interesting, particularly, amongst other things, for carrying out comparative studies with children with certain diseases. The objective of the present study was to study sleep patterns and the prevalence of sleep disturbances among schoolchildren., Methods: We used the Spanish version of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire, which was given out to a representative sample of Gandia Town., Results: The prevalence of sleep disturbances were as follows: insomnia 10.5 %, daytime sleepiness 13 %, a positive score for sleep-disorder breathing 5.7 %, snoring 5.7 %, enuresis 5.3 %, sleepwalking 12.5 %, night terrors 18.4 %, nightmares 12.8 %. As regards sleep patterns, the average time for getting up was 7:45 am, the average time for going to bed was 22:13 pm, and the average sleep duration was 9 hours and 30 minutes., Conclusions: Comparison among different populations studies is difficult due to the use of different instruments to measure the same variables. Our results are similar to other studies, with the exception of sleep-disorder breathing and snoring, where the prevalences are lower in our study. The sleep patterns also did not show any differences between other published studies.

Aim: This paper is based on a study of Revista Trimestral Micrografica (Trabajos del Laboratorio de Investigaciones Biologicas) between its creation by Santiago Ramon y Cajal in 1896 and his death in 1934., Development: The journal Revista Trimestral Micrografica was the main way in which Santiago Ramon y Cajal and his school published their work since its creation. Ramon y Cajal created the journal for two main reasons: first, he needed a rapid system to publish his own work; second, the journal could serve to encourage his pupils. The journal published many important reports defending the neuronal theory which expanded the cellular one to include the nervous system.

A comparative study between two distinctive groups of children documenting morbidity, physical growth and psychopathology was completed. 186 children belonging to a marginal and deprived suburban community from Valencia was defined as a experimental group (EG). 100 randomly selected children attending the emergency room of La Fe Children's Hospital was defined as control group (CG). Significant statistical differences were found between the two groups in: type and quality of prenatal care, vaccinations, low stature, depressive symptomatology and bizarre personality and behaviour. No significant statistical differences were found between the two groups in: breast feeding patterns, incidence of respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses, weight, prematurity, low birth weight, caries and anxiety.