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Surgical site infections (SSIs) are associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. SSIs are defined as an infection that occurs after surgery in the part of the body where the surgery took place. Approximately 1–4% of hysterectomies are complicated by SSIs, with higher rates reported for abdominal hysterectomy. Over the past decade, there has been an increasing number of minimally invasive hysterectomies, in conjunction with a decrease in abdominal hysterectomies. The reasons behind this trend are multifactorial but are mainly rooted in the well-documented advantages of minimally invasive surgery. Multiple studies have demonstrated a marked decrease in morbidity and mortality with minimally invasive surgeries. Specifically, evidence supports lower rates of SSIs after laparoscopic hysterectomy when compared to abdominal hysterectomy. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist recommends minimally invasive approaches to hysterectomy whenever feasible. This chapter will review the current literature on surgical site infection (SSI) after hysterectomy for benign indications.

People with prediabetes can postpone or even reverse progression to type 2 diabetes (T2D) by making dietary changes. This study aimed to examine the association of changes in consumption of total and specific types of dairy products with the subsequent risk of incident T2D among individuals with prediabetes.This cohort study included 639 individuals (50% female, mean age 47.3 years) of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS) who had prediabetes at baseline. We assessed 3-year changes in the consumption of dairy products using a food frequency questionnaire. Using multivariable logistic regression, odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for the association of changes in intake of total and subtypes of dairy products during a 3-year interval with the risk of incident T2D in the subsequent 3 years.After almost 9 years of follow-up, the incidence of T2D was 25.2%. Compared with individuals whose intake remained relatively stable over 3 years, those who decreased consumption of total dairy ( 0.5 servings/day) had a higher T2D risk (OR = 1.56; 95% CI: 1.02 to 2.41). Increasing low-fat dairy consumption by 0.50 serving/d was associated with a lower risk of T2D (OR = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.35 to 0.90) compared with stable consumption. Those who increased consumption of low-fat milk (OR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.37 to 0.92) and low-fat yogurt (OR = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.33 to 0.93) had a lower risk of T2D than those who were relatively stable in their consumption. Replacing low-fat milk and yogurt with regular cheese was associated with 66 and 47% higher risk of T2D, respectively.In individuals with prediabetes, increasing consumption of low-fat dairy, low-fat milk, and low-fat yogurt had reduced risk of subsequent T2D. These data suggest a role of low-fat dairy products in the prevention of T2D among prediabetes patients.

Additional file 3: Supplementary Table 3. Sensitivity analysis: Multivariable adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for incident type 2 diabetes according to categories changes in total, low-fat, and high-fat dairy consumption.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table 1. A comparison of baseline characteristics between participants followed and those lost to follow-up.

Additional file 2: Supplementary Table 2. Initial intake and changes in consumption of subtypes of dairy products over a 3-year follow-up.

Additional file 1.

This file provides additional data tables describing our study population and analysis. Appendix 1 provides a brief overview of how we constructed the summary variables for several multi-question concepts, including perceived affordability of the healthcare system or its services and medication adherence. Appendix 2 provides a frequency distribution of the CHCs reported by patients in the study population. Appendix 3 provides a frequency distribution for the additional covariates included in the ordinal regression model, outside of the sociodemographic factors seen in Table 1. These frequencies are stratified by the respondents’ reported level of access to treatment(s) needed to manage their CHCs. Appendix 4 provides the results from the univariate regression analysis. Appendix 5 looks into the self-reported reasons for not always having access to treatment to manage CHCs, cited by patients in the study population who perceive their level of access as “Often” or “Sometimes/Rarely/Never.”. (DOCX 84 kb)

The local palm oil market of Togo has been facing competitive imports. Examining consumer preferences for domestic versus imported palm oil will aid local farmers with a more marketable product. A conjoint choice experiment (CCE) was designed to discover consumer preferences. Three-hundred surveys were conducted over two weeks in Sokodé, Togo in June 2014. Latent class analysis results showed three distinctive classes of consumers. Class 1 (69%) consumers purchase palm oil once a week and have formal education. They prefer lower price and local palm oil for cooking sold at boutiques. Class 2 (28%) prefer local oil and Class 3 (3%) prefer imported oil. A site suitability analysis with ArcGIS revealed the best growing areas for the trees. The results will be presented to rural farmers in Togo in order to assist in the production of the best product for consumers, increasing local production and supporting the local economy.

The use of laser doping in the solar cell industry has recently led to the commercialisation of several high efficiency solar cell structures which were historically too costly to produce in an industrial setting. Used in conjunction with industrial-grade silicon wafers, commercial cells with selective emitters and rear surface passivation schemes are now approaching or exceeding 20% efficiency, offering a competitive edge over conventional screen-printed cells with a homogeneous front emitter and a full aluminium rear back surface field. In this thesis, the use of laser doping is proposed as a means to fabricate more complex solar cell structures such as interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cells or cells with a rear surface floating junction. Both of these structures have been difficult to commercialise due to the need for several masking steps and high temperature diffusions and oxidations which are both costly and not compatible with new low-cost silicon material emerging onto the market. Specifically the use of laser doping to form a contact to an underlying region through a diffused layer of the opposite polarity to the laser doping is investigated. The method is found to be able to be performed without introducing significant recombination, and also to be able to electrically isolate regions of the device or structure on either side of the laser doping from each other. The technique is applied to the edge isolation of solar cells and is found to provide superior edge passivation to a standard cleaving method of edge isolation. The method is applied to form p-type interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cells with full emitter coverage and only one furnace diffusion step. Advanced bulk passivation techniques are considered and developed for such structures which traditionally require high-quality float zone silicon substrates with long minority carrier diffusion lengths. Whilst the proof-of-concept IBC cell structures fabricated on commercial Czochralski-grown material yielded only a modest efficiency of 14.6%, modelling suggests that the efficiency potential of such a simple structure exceeds 22%. Further work is required to improve the robustness of the fabrication process and suggestions for efficiency improvements in the future are presented.

This study analyzes consumer preferences for wine in Prishtina, Kosovo – a transition country in the Balkans, which is making efforts to withstand to the competition pressure from the traditional neighboring wine producing countries. With the changes in life style and consumer behavior, and incomes rising rapidly since the last conflict, it is imperative to survey the changing demand for producers to compete in the domestic markets. Conjoint Choice Experiments were used to evaluate wine consumer preferences based on wine type (white vs. red), origin (domestic vs. imported), taste (sweet vs. dry) and price. Four distinct classes of consumers were identified. The top two important attributes in the choice of wine are the type and origin but preferences vary across groups – type of wine and origin appear far more important when compared to price, especially for the richest identified segment, whose consumers prefer more expensive wines.