On 22 August, 150 people climbed in the inaugural OM Boonah Freedom Climb to raise awareness and funding for the Jogini girls of India.

A Fin24 user looks to an expert for help in improving his credit score by paying off his debt.

A retired Fin24 user is looking at investing in a retirement annuity to provide him with a cash payout of R500 000 to ensure that he lives within his means. An expert responds.

A Fin24 user is looking to start a retirement savings plan as it does not form part of company benefits, he would have to pay out of pocket.

A Fin24 user asks whether saving is better when debt is paid off or not.

A Fin24 user wants to know whether paying off a car loan or credit card will make her credit score 'look better.'

A Fin24 user who was forced into early retirement is struggling to pay credit card debt amounting to over R109 000. An expert responds.

A Fin24 user set to retire in August this year is looking at options on where he can invest his pension payout.

A Fin24 user urgently seeks guidance on how to pay off debt owing to the amount of R82 000. An expert responds with workable solutions.

A Fin24 set to retire this year is looking to invest his R1.2m savings in order to receive a monthly payout.

A landlord asks if his current tenants will still be able to move out at the end of the month as planned and whether his new tenant would be hindered from taking occupation. An attorney responds.

A Fin24 reader looking to invest in a living annuity, was shocked to find that she would have to pay fees of up to R110 000 per annum. She wants to know if there are other options. An investment expert responds.

As expected, the number of passengers at Berlin airports fell in January. Tegel and Schönefeld dealt with a total of 2,252,265 passengers, 6.9% fewer than in the same month last year.

The expected consolidation in the aviation market has also arrived in Berlin. At the same time, the worldwide spread of the coronavirus is having an impact on the Berlin airports.

Berlin’s airports are recording a drastic slump in passenger numbers. In March, a decline in passengers of 64.7 percent was recorded at Tegel and Schönefeld for the whole month. However, the number of passengers has continued to fall significantly over ...

27,593 passengers departed from and landed at Berlin's airports Schönefeld and Tegel in April. That is just 1 per cent of air traffic in comparison to April 2019. 22,079 passengers flew from Tegel, and 5,541 from Schönefeld.

By Kristy Dorsey

Global carbon emissions from energy are expected to fall by almost 8% in 2020 in the biggest drop in history as a result of the pandemic, experts said.

THE SCOTTISH Government has been urged to empower the country’s towns and cities can be transformed into healthier hubs for walking and cycling amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case that held the potential to deal a further blow to public-employee unions after last year's "Janus" decision.

School-based health clinics for teachers and their families can significantly lower a district's health care costs and slightly reduce teacher absenteeism, a new study finds.

Six teacher-authors discuss what they learned over the past year and a half as they wrote books that are set to be published in the coming weeks.

Source: Public News Service - Economists warn that the costs of climate change in the U.S. – including from the health impacts of air pollution and natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires – could top $350 billion annually in the next 10 years.

Source: Retema - La Comisión Europea ha aprobado un conjunto de inversiones por valor de 222 millones de euros procedentes del presupuesto de la UE para facilitar la transición de Europa hacia un futuro más sostenible e hipocarbónico en el marco del programa LIFE de medio ambiente y acción por el clima. La financiación de la UE movilizará inversiones adicionales con las que se llegará a un total de 379 millones de euros destinados a 139 nuevos proyectos en 20 Estados miembros.

Source: The Weather Channel - A majority of Americans say they believe climate change contributed to the severity of the hurricanes that devastated Florida, Texas and parts of the Caribbean over the past six weeks, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Source: The Irish Times - Harold Kingston, who runs a dairy farm in Courtmacsharry, Co Cork, with 160 cattle, is typical of the new generation of smart farmers, who have adjusted how they work in response to climate change.

Source: Ámbito - A dos meses de la cumbre mundial que este año tendrá lugar en Bonn, el cambio climático volvió a irrumpir con toda su fuerza y la temperatura amenaza con convertir a 2017 en el año más caluroso desde que se tiene registro. En nuestro país, la fatídica serie de inundaciones sobre la cuenca del río Salado dejó miles de hectáreas bajo las aguas en La Pampa, el sur de Córdoba y el oeste de Buenos Aires. "El cambio climático está afectando y afectará el desarrollo de los países y Argentina es una de las economías emergentes más vulnerables", alertaron especialistas del Banco Mundial.

Source: El Periódico - Las políticas climáticas que se centran en la agricultura y los bosques podrían llevar al aumento de los precios de los alimentos, pero reducir la deforestación e incrementar la captura de carbono en la agricultura podría reducir significativamente las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, evitando riesgos para la seguridad alimentaria, según un nuevo estudio publicado en 'Environmental Research Letters'.

Source: El tiempo - Una subida de 2°C altera la metilación del ADN y la expresión de genes claves para la supervivencia y el desarrollo. Este estudio ofrece una nueva visión sobre las consecuencias del cambio climático en los peces a través de modificaciones epigenéticas en todo el genoma

Source: Infobae - El cambio climático es probablemente el mayor desafío ambiental y social que enfrenta la humanidad, y que fue generado por el ser humano. Es un problema global que se resuelve en forma global, en donde existen muchos matices que hacen difícil el consenso entre los países respecto a las decisiones que deben tomarse. Sin embargo, todos reconocen el siguiente principio como marco de discusión: principio de responsabilidades comunes pero diferenciadas. Este principio reconoce que todos los países tienen responsabilidad común de solucionar el problema, aunque no todos en el mismo nivel y grado, ya que históricamente los países desarrollados han contaminado más a efecto de construir sus economías que aquellos que están en vías de desarrollo. Y no todos los países tienen la misma capacidad y recursos para enfrentar la problemática.

Gallbladder disease in children is an evolving entity and studies suggest an increasing frequency of symptomatic pediatric gallbladder disease and resultant cholecystectomies.

Hispanic ethnicity and obesity are epidemiologically significant risk factors for symptomatic gallbladder disease in the pediatric population. (Read the full article)

Clinical trials in children with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are challenging. To date, no work has been published that permits clinical investigators to estimate the number and compositional features of sites from which to recruit children with severe TBI into clinical trials.

Children with severe TBI are infrequent. Less than 5% of all US hospitals discharged more than 78% of severe TBI cases. To maximize enrollment efficiency for future clinical trials, attention has to be paid to selecting appropriate hospital sites. (Read the full article)

Available clinical prediction rules to identify children with cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis at low risk for Lyme meningitis include headache duration, cranial nerve palsy, and percent cerebrospinal fluid mononuclear cells. These rules require independent validation.

These clinical prediction rules accurately identify patients at low risk for Lyme meningitis in our large multicenter cohort. Children at low risk may be considered for outpatient management while awaiting Lyme serology. (Read the full article)

Pertussis is a poorly controlled vaccine-preventable disease. Verifying outbreaks is challenging owing to nonspecific clinical presentations and imperfect diagnostic tests. Exclusive reliance on highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction has been associated with pseudo-outbreaks.

Contamination of specimens with vaccine derived Bordetella pertussis DNA from pediatric clinic surfaces likely resulted in misdiagnoses. Standard practices, liquid transport medium, and lack of polymerase chain reaction cutoffs for discerning weakly positive (contaminant) DNA are contributory, but modifiable factors. (Read the full article)

The demographics of trials that use antenatal consent may not be representative of the populations that they are intended to study.

This study analyzes the difference in clinical outcomes between the enrolled and eligible but not enrolled populations of a trial that required antenatal consent. (Read the full article)

Few studies have examined the reliability of clinical findings in pediatric appendicitis. Clinical prediction rules are most useful if the included variables are reliable across practice settings and practitioners.

Among children who present with possible appendicitis, the interrater reliability varied considerably for patient history and physical examination variables. Those variables with the highest degree of reliability may be best suited for inclusion in appendicitis clinical prediction rules. (Read the full article)

Strategies to assist patients in achieving optimal chronic disease self-management are critical. The complex family and regimen issues surrounding pediatric type 1 diabetes management suggest the need to integrate such strategies into routine clinical care.

This study demonstrates the efficacy of a practical, low-intensity behavioral intervention delivered during routine care for improving glycemic outcomes. Findings indicate that the approach may offer a potential model for integrating medical and behavioral sciences to improve health care. (Read the full article)

Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis incidence varies over different regions and time periods. Recently, a decline was reported in the United States, Sweden (concurrent with a decline in sudden infant death syndrome), Scotland, and Denmark. The etiology remains unclear; therefore, epidemiologic data are valuable.

A decline in the incidence of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in Germany from 2000 to 2008 was noted but with wide regional variations. The regional distribution of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis was different from that of sudden infant death syndrome. (Read the full article)

Evaluating dehydration severity is a challenging task. Clinical dehydration scores that combine multiple clinical findings are promising. One clinical dehydration scale score has been developed and subsequently evaluated; however, few participants in the derivation and validation studies were significantly dehydrated.

In children requiring intravenous rehydration, the dehydration scale displayed moderate reliability and weak associations with objective measures. Thus, although the scale can assist in assessing dehydration, it should not be used in isolation to dictate interventions (eg, intravenous rehydration, hospitalization). (Read the full article)

Existing clinical research policy does not guarantee availability of results. Registration on the Web site ClinicalTrials.gov and the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act improved transparency in pediatric clinical research. Registration and publication remain voluntary for many trials involving children.

Only 29% of completed registered studies and 53% of National Institutes of Health–funded trials involving children were published. Numbers of studies are increasing. Registration and posting of results on ClinicalTrials.gov should be mandatory for all studies involving children. (Read the full article)

Providers who speak Spanish, regardless of their proficiency level, may use Spanish for clinical care without seeking professional interpretation. Failure to use professional interpretation increases the risk for miscommunication and can lead to patient harm.

Providing residents with objective feedback on Spanish language proficiency decreased willingness to use Spanish in straightforward clinical scenarios. Language proficiency testing, coupled with institutional policies requiring professional interpretation, may improve care for patients with limited English proficiency. (Read the full article)

Persistent facial nerve palsy is a well-described neurologic deficit after Lyme neuroborreliosis and occurs in 13% to 20% of children. Other neurologic deficits are less closely described. Nonspecific subjective symptoms are reported as often among patients as controls in previous short-term follow-up studies.

Persistent neurologic deficits, other than facial nerve palsy, were found in 14% of patients, causing impaired fine motor skills, poor balance, or persistent pain. Nonspecific subjective symptoms were reported as often among patients as controls in this long-term follow-up study and should not be considered as sequelae after Lyme neuroborreliosis. (Read the full article)

There is evidence from both developed and developing countries that antiretroviral treatment significantly reduces mortality in HIV-infected children. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, numerous health system, financial, and human resource obstacles make delivering quality pediatric HIV care a challenge.

We describe the experience of the Baylor International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative in Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Despite challenges delivering pediatric treatment in these countries, mortality and clinical outcomes approaching those from developed countries are feasible. (Read the full article)

Rotavirus is a major cause of acute gastroenteritis among children worldwide. Vaccines targeting rotavirus have been demonstrated to be highly efficacious against severe disease in clinical trials and postlicensure studies. Vaccine impact on mild gastroenteritis has not been well studied.

We used a novel surveillance platform consisting of telephone triage data to capture mild gastroenteritis not detected in other surveillance systems. Since rotavirus vaccine licensure, gastroenteritis-related call proportions have declined, and peak gastroenteritis-related calls are correlated with community norovirus circulation. (Read the full article)

Critics argue that pediatric research without the potential for clinical benefit treats children as mere means to benefit others. Yet, there are no data to assess whether adolescents who participate in research, or their parents, agree with this view.

Respondents felt that by participating in research the adolescents were making important contributions to help others, and the adolescents felt proud to be doing so. These findings support the view that nonbeneficial pediatric research involves a type of charitable activity. (Read the full article)

There are limited data regarding the current status of the pediatric clinical trial enterprise.

Evaluation of the ClinicalTrials.gov data set allows description of the overall portfolio of clinical trials relevant to US children, which was previously not possible. (Read the full article)

Chromosomal microarray analysis offers a superior diagnostic yield over karyotyping for the evaluation of individuals with developmental disabilities. Many third-party payers, however, do not reimburse for microarray testing, citing a lack of evidence that patients benefit from testing.

This study demonstrates that microarray testing frequently identifies conditions that include features requiring specific medical follow-up and that referring physicians respond to abnormal test results with appropriate clinical actions. Microarray testing, therefore, provides direct benefits to patients. (Read the full article)

There is concern about the potential exploitation of children who are enrolled into clinical trials in developing and transition countries. Previous studies of globalization have only examined pediatric drug trials, and only 1 study has provided patient-level data by country.

The involvement of developing and transition countries depends on the product or indication under investigation and is greater for vaccines than for drugs or biologicals. Compared with our previous analysis, involvement of these countries in pediatric drug development has decreased. (Read the full article)

Gaining intravenous access in children can be difficult. Recently, several near-infrared devices have been introduced attempting to support intravenous cannulation by visualizing veins underneath skin. Only one of those devices has been evaluated systemically thus far and results are inconclusive.

Although it was possible to visualize veins with near-infrared in most patients, the VascuLuminator did not improve the success of cannulation. An explanation is that the main problem is probably not localization of the vein but insertion of the cannula. (Read the full article)

Cerebral edema (CE) occurs frequently during treatment of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in children. Severe, life-threatening CE occurs rarely, but subclinical CE is common. Whether the rate of infusion of intravenous fluids influences the occurrence or severity of CE is unknown.

This study demonstrates that the rate of fluid infusion in children with DKA does not substantially affect MRI measures of CE. Studies assessing measures other than edema formation are necessary to determine whether fluid infusion rates influence DKA-related brain injury. (Read the full article)