Health-seeking Behaviors have the potential to substantially reduce child mortality through Prompt and appropriate care seeking practices particularly in developing countries. This study was conducted to assess care seeking behavior of the mothers during childhood illness and to determine the most important factors affecting. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 299 mothers who have child under 5 years old suffered from fever, symptoms of respiratory disease and/or diarrhea during the preceding 15 days before the data collection at a rural PHC unit (Qalyubia Governorate). Pretested interviewing questionnaire about socio demographic characteristics of mothers and their children, HSB and presented child symptoms. The followings were concluded from the study: Respiratory symptoms followed by fever then diarrhea were the most common symptoms affecting the studied children within 15 days prior to the study. More than four- fifths of mothers sought appropriate care and the private sector was their first choice followed by PHC facilities. Half of mothers have delayed in seeking care while only about one third of mothers sought appropriate at a proper time. Proper ANC visits (≥4), presence of fever (alone or with other symptoms) and perceiving child illness as severe were found to be significant predictors of seeking appropriate care at a proper time.

A small scale, dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model (DSGE) of a small open economy is estimated for Egypt using Bayesian techniques to gauge the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) policy response to exchange rate movements. Alternative policy rules, which reflect the main policy tool: interest rate, are considered where the CBE is presumed to respond to changes in inflation, output and possibly exchange rate movements. Alternative specifications of the Taylor construct, including the rules with lagged, contemporaneous and expected variables, are employed to test the robustness of the policy results of the models. The findings suggest that the estimated policy coefficients and other parameters of the model including the contemporaneous policy rule equation fit the data well. The results reveal that the behavior of the CBE is geared towards exchange rate targeting more than inflation targeting during the period under examination. A posterior odds test suggests that the CBE responds to exchange rate movements, in the benchmark model and the model containing the contemporaneous policy rule, thus the CBE does respond to exchange rate changes.

Background: Impaired skeletal muscle endurance may be an important causal factor in the development of patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS). However, there is lack of information regarding the effect of hip versus knee muscle fatigue on isokinetic parameters, and myoelectric activity of hip and knee muscles in these patients. Purpose: The study was conducted to investigate the effect of hip abductors versus knee extensors fatigue protocol on knee proprioception, hip and knee muscle strength and their myoelectric activity in patients with PFPS. Methods: Fifteen female patients with PFPS participated in the study. They were tested randomly under two fatiguing conditions; hip abductors and knee extensors fatigue protocols. Isolated muscle fatigue of two muscles was induced isokinetically on the affected side in a two separate sessions with a rest interval of at least three days. After determining peak torque, patients performed continuous maximal concentric-eccentric contraction of the selected muscle until the torque output dropped below 50% of peak torque value for 3 consecutive repetitions. Knee proprioception, eccentric hip abductors' peak torque, eccentric knee extensors' peak torque, EMG ratio of vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) / vastus lateralis (VL), and EMG activity of gluteus medius (GM) muscle, were recorded before and immediately after each fatigue protocol using the Biodex Isokinetic system and EMG Myosystem. Results: Two-way within subject MANOVA revealed that eccentric knee extensors’ peak torque decreased significantly after hip abductors fatigue protocol compared to pre fatigue condition (p<0.05). On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference in the eccentric hip abductors’ peak torque after admitting knee extensors fatigue protocol (p>0.05). Moreover, no significant difference was found in knee proprioception, EMG ratio of VMO / VL, and EMG activity of GM muscle, after either hip or knee fatigue protocol (p>0.05). Conclusion: A hip focused rehabilitation program may be beneficial in improving knee function through correcting faulty kinematics and hence decrease knee loading in patients with PFPS.
Keywords: Mechanical Responses, Muscle Fatigue, Knee Proprioception, Electromyography, Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome.