BACKGROUND In 2010 the government of the republic of Zambia stopped training traditional birth attendants and forbade them from conducting home deliveries as they were viewed as contributing to maternal mortality. This study explored positive and negative maternal health related experiences and effects of the ban in a rural district of Kazungula. METHODS This was a phenomenological study and ...

This study compared the acute effect of ingesting bananas (BAN) versus a 6% carbohydrate drink (CHO) on 75-km cycling performance and post-exercise inflammation, oxidative stress, and innate immune function using traditional and metabolomics-based profiling. Trained cyclists (N = 14) completed two 75-km cycling time trials (randomized, crossover) while ingesting BAN or CHO (0.2 g/kg carbohydrat...

BACKGROUND In February 2003, a comprehensive ban on tobacco promotion came into effect in the United Kingdom, which prohibited tobacco marketing through print and broadcast media, billboards, the internet, direct mail, product placement, promotions, free gifts, coupons and sponsorships. OBJECTIVE To investigate the impact of the UK's comprehensive ban on tobacco promotion on adult smokers' aw...

1. Amano T., Ushiyama K., Fujita G., Higuchi H., 2004. Alleviating grazing damage by white-fronted geese: an optimal foraging approach. J. Appl. Ecol. 41, 675–688, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0021... CrossRef Google Scholar

Since the pioneering effort of Hansch and Fujita, quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) have proved valuable in optimizing lead structures. Enriching classical 3D-QSAR analysis, which exploits the three-dimensional structure of ligands, with structural information of the target has helped to improve the interpretability of the derived models and to increase their predictive power...

The balanced decomposition number f(G) of a graph G was introduced by Fujita and Nakamigawa [Discr. Appl. Math., 156 (2008), pp. 3339-3344]. A balanced colouring of a graph G is a colouring of some of the vertices of G with two colours, such that there is the same number of vertices in each colour. Then, f(G) is the minimum integer s with the following property: For any balanced colouring of G,...

Enforcing the ban on meat-and-bone meal in feed for farmed animals, and especially ruminants, is considered an important measure to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The authors describe current analytical methods for the detection and identification of animal tissues in feed. In addition, recently approved requirements, such as the ban of intra-species recycling (practice...

BACKGROUND On January 1, 2008, the French government implemented a national ban on indoor smoking in hospitality venues. Survey results indicate the indoor ban has been successful at dramatically reducing indoor smoking; however, there are reports of an increased number of outdoor hospitality spaces (patios) where smoking can take place. This study sought to understand if the indoor ban simply ...

BACKGROUND Introducing comprehensive smoke-free policies to public places is expected to reduce health costs. This includes prevented health damages by avoiding environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure as well as indirect health benefits from reduced tobacco consumption. METHODS The aim of this study was to estimate direct health costs of ETS exposure in public places and indirect health be...

Telemonitoring is emerging as a compelling application of Body Area Networks (BANs). We describe two health BAN systems developed respectively by a European team and an Australian team and discuss some issues encountered relating to formalization of clinical knowledge to support realtime analysis and interpretation of BAN data. Our example application is an evidence-based telemonitoring and tel...