scholarly journals Detecting and identifying Schistosoma infections in snails and aquatic habitats: A systematic review

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. e0009175
Author(s):  
Bishoy Kamel ◽  
Martina R. Laidemitt ◽  
Lijun Lu ◽  
Caitlin Babbitt ◽  
Ola Liota Weinbaum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Environmental Dna ◽  
Digital Pcr ◽  
Diagnostic Techniques ◽  
World Health ◽  
Species Discrimination ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Guidelines Development

Background We were tasked by the World Health Organization (WHO) to address the following question: What techniques should be used to diagnose Schistosoma infections in snails and in the water in potential transmission sites? Our goal was to review and evaluate the available literature and provide recommendations and insights for the development of WHO’s Guidelines Development Group for schistosomiasis control and elimination. Methodology We searched several databases using strings of search terms, searched bibliographies of pertinent papers, and contacted investigators who have made contributions to this field. Our search covered from 1970 to Sept 2020. All papers were considered in a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework, and retained papers were grouped by technique and subjected to our GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) evidence assessment profile determined in consultation with WHO. We also considered issues of sensitivity, specificity, coverage, cost, robustness, support needs, schistosome species discrimination, and relevant detection limits. Principal findings Our PRISMA process began with the perusal of 949 articles, of which 158 were retained for data extraction and evaluation. We identified 25 different techniques and for each applied a GRADE assessment considering limitations, inconsistency, imprecision, indirectness, and publication bias. We also provide advantages and disadvantages for each category of techniques. Conclusions Our GRADE analysis returned an assessment of moderate quality of evidence for environmental DNA (eDNA), qPCR and LAMP (Loop-mediated isothermal amplification). No single ideal diagnostic approach has yet been developed, but considerable recent progress has been made. We note a growing trend to use eDNA techniques to permit more efficient and replicable sampling. qPCR-based protocols for follow-up detection offer a versatile, mature, sensitive, and specific platform for diagnosis though centralized facilities will be required to favor standardization. Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) can play a complementary role if inhibitors are a concern, or more sensitivity or quantification is needed. Snail collection, followed by shedding, is encouraged to provide specimens for sequence verifications of snails or schistosomes. LAMP or other isothermal detection techniques offer the prospect of less expensive and more distributed network of analysis but may face standardization and verification challenges related to actual sequences amplified. Ability to detect schistosome infections in snails or in the water is needed if control and elimination programs hope to succeed. Any diagnostic techniques used need to be regularly verified by the acquisition of DNA sequences to confirm that the detected targets are of the expected species. Further improvements may be necessary to identify the ideal schistosome or snail sequences to target for amplification. More field testing and standardization will be essential for long-term success.

scholarly journals Diagnosis of Herpes Simplex Virus: Laboratory and Point-of-Care Techniques

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 518-539
Author(s):  
Peuli Nath ◽  
Md Alamgir Kabir ◽  
Somaiyeh Khoubafarin Doust ◽  
Aniruddha Ray
Keyword(s):  
Herpes Simplex Virus ◽  
Herpes Simplex ◽  
Point Of Care ◽  
Diagnostic Techniques ◽  
Nucleic Acid Amplification ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Simplex Virus

Herpes is a widespread viral infection caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV) that has no permanent cure to date. There are two subtypes, HSV-1 and HSV-2, that are known to cause a variety of symptoms, ranging from acute to chronic. HSV is highly contagious and can be transmitted via any type of physical contact. Additionally, viral shedding can also happen from asymptomatic infections. Thus, early and accurate detection of HSV is needed to prevent the transmission of this infection. Herpes can be diagnosed in two ways, by either detecting the presence of the virus in lesions or the antibodies in the blood. Different detection techniques are available based on both laboratory and point of care (POC) devices. Laboratory techniques include different biochemical assays, microscopy, and nucleic acid amplification. In contrast, POC techniques include microfluidics-based tests that enable on-spot testing. Here, we aim to review the different diagnostic techniques, both laboratory-based and POC, their limits of detection, sensitivity, and specificity, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.

scholarly journals LATEST LABORATORY DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES AND ANTIBIOGRAM TESTING OF TUBERCULOSIS INFECTION

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 591-603
Author(s):  
Vinod Kaul ◽  
Md. Zeyaullah ◽  
Mesheil Alalyani
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Real Time Pcr ◽  
Infectious Agent ◽  
Laboratory Diagnosis ◽  
Diagnostic Techniques ◽  
World Health ◽  
Human Immune Deficiency Virus ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Probe Assay ◽  
Health Organization

Tuberculosis (TB) ranks as the second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, after the human immune-deficiency virus (HIV). Millions of people die because of this disease. Tuberculosis is treatable disease, patients can be saved provided the disease is timely diagnosed. With the ambitious World Health Organization (WHO) goal to end the global TB epidemic, by 2035, with the targets of a 95% reduction in TB deaths and a 90% reduction in TB incidence (both compared with 2015). It becomes essential to focus on rapid laboratory diagnosis of the disease and subsequently starting effective first line treatment. The techniques reviewed in this paper, are conventional to automated culturing procedures. Moreover, among rapid techniques included Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification, Line Probe Assay, Ligase chain reaction, Real time PCR. The serological techniques include Gamma interferon release assays, Enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assays. The old conventional manual techniques for culture have been replaced by more rapid and reliable automated techniques. As long as speed of reporting is concerned the automated culturing procedures have been supplemented by real time PCR which gives report of culture and antibiogram testing report within hours. It has been justified, in order to achieve the goal set by WHO, for the eradication of TB, it is essential to improve detection techniques, including latent forms of the disease as well and timely identification of resistance strains. Real time PCR would fulfil thiscriteria, which can be performed even on OPD basis. This technique can be used as commonly as Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) staining techniques were once used.

The Undiscovered Potential of Essential Oils for Treating SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (41) ◽  
pp. 5261-5277
Author(s):  
Peter J. Wilkin ◽  
Minnatallah Al-Yozbaki ◽  
Alex George ◽  
Girish K. Gupta ◽  
Cornelia M. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Essential Oils ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
World Health Organisation ◽  
Diagnostic Techniques ◽  
World Health ◽  
Clinical Aspects ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
In Silico Studies ◽  
The World

On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a pandemic caused by a novel beta-coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, designated COVID-19. The virus emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, has spread across the world as a global pandemic. The traditional use of medicines from plants can be traced back to 60,000 years. Global interest in the development of drugs from natural products has increased greatly during the last few decades. Essential oils (EOs) have been studied through the centuries and are known to possess various pharmaceutical properties. In the present review, we have highlighted the current biology, epidemiology, various clinical aspects, different diagnostic techniques, clinical symptoms, and management of COVID-19. An overview of the antiviral action of EOs, along with their proposed mechanism of action and in silico studies conducted, is described. The reported studies of EOs' antiviral activity highlight the baseline data about the additive and/or synergistic effects among primary or secondary phytoconstituents found in individual oils, combinations or blends of oils and between EOs and antiviral drugs. It is hoped that further research will provide better insights into EOs' potential to limit viral infection and aid in providing solutions through natural, therapeutically active agents.

scholarly journals Simultaneous absolute quantification and sequencing of fish environmental DNA in a mesocosm by quantitative sequencing technique

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatsuhiko Hoshino ◽  
Ryohei Nakao ◽  
Hideyuki Doi ◽  
Toshifumi Minamoto
Keyword(s):  
Fish Species ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Environmental Dna ◽  
Digital Pcr ◽  
Absolute Quantification ◽  
Taqman Probe ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Target Sequence

AbstractThe combination of high-throughput sequencing technology and environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis has the potential to be a powerful tool for comprehensive, non-invasive monitoring of species in the environment. To understand the correlation between the abundance of eDNA and that of species in natural environments, we have to obtain quantitative eDNA data, usually via individual assays for each species. The recently developed quantitative sequencing (qSeq) technique enables simultaneous phylogenetic identification and quantification of individual species by counting random tags added to the 5′ end of the target sequence during the first DNA synthesis. Here, we applied qSeq to eDNA analysis to test its effectiveness in biodiversity monitoring. eDNA was extracted from water samples taken over 4 days from aquaria containing five fish species (Hemigrammocypris neglectus, Candidia temminckii, Oryzias latipes, Rhinogobius flumineus, and Misgurnus anguillicaudatus), and quantified by qSeq and microfluidic digital PCR (dPCR) using a TaqMan probe. The eDNA abundance quantified by qSeq was consistent with that quantified by dPCR for each fish species at each sampling time. The correlation coefficients between qSeq and dPCR were 0.643, 0.859, and 0.786 for H. neglectus, O. latipes, and M. anguillicaudatus, respectively, indicating that qSeq accurately quantifies fish eDNA.

scholarly journals Advanced and futuristic approaches for breast cancer diagnosis

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayanti Mishra ◽  
Bhumika Kumar ◽  
Monika Targhotra ◽  
P. K. Sahoo
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Early Diagnosis ◽  
Cancer Diagnosis ◽  
Breast Cancer Diagnosis ◽  
Diagnostic Techniques ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Common Causes ◽  
Delay In Treatment

Abstract Background Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer and one of the most common causes of death in women, impacting almost 2 million women each year. Tenacity or perseverance of breast cancer in women is very high these days with an extensive increasing rate of 3 to 5% every year. Along with hurdles faced during treatment of breast tumor, one of the crucial causes of delay in treatment is invasive and poor diagnostic techniques for breast cancer hence the early diagnosis of breast tumors will help us to improve its management and treatment in the initial stage. Main body Present review aims to explore diagnostic techniques for breast cancer that are currently being used, recent advancements that aids in prior detection and evaluation and are extensively focused on techniques that are going to be future of breast cancer detection with better efficiency and lesser pain to patients so that it helps to a physician to prevent delay in treatment of cancer. Here, we have discussed mammography and its advanced forms that are the need of current era, techniques involving radiation such as radionuclide methods, the potential of nanotechnology by using nanoparticle in breast cancer, and how the new inventions such as breath biopsy, and X-ray diffraction of hair can simply use as a prominent method in breast cancer early and easy detection tool. Conclusion It is observed significantly that advancement in detection techniques is helping in early diagnosis of breast cancer; however, we have to also focus on techniques that will improve the future of cancer diagnosis in like optical imaging and HER2 testing.

scholarly journals 3DP Printing of Oral Solid Formulations: A Systematic Review

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara R. M. Brambilla ◽  
Ogochukwu Lilian Okafor-Muo ◽  
Hany Hassanin ◽  
Amr ElShaer
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Extraction Process ◽  
Carcinogenic Risk ◽  
Drug Dissolution ◽  
Dissolution Profile ◽  
Disintegration Time ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a recent technology, which gives the possibility to manufacture personalised dosage forms and it has a broad range of applications. One of the most developed, it is the manufacture of oral solid dosage and the four 3DP techniques which have been more used for their manufacture are FDM, inkjet 3DP, SLA and SLS. This systematic review is carried out to statistically analyze the current 3DP techniques employed in manufacturing oral solid formulations and assess the recent trends of this new technology. The work has been organised into four steps, (1) screening of the articles, definition of the inclusion and exclusion criteria and classification of the articles in the two main groups (included/excluded); (2) quantification and characterisation of the included articles; (3) evaluation of the validity of data and data extraction process; (4) data analysis, discussion, and conclusion to define which technique offers the best properties to be applied in the manufacture of oral solid formulations. It has been observed that with SLS 3DP technique, all the characterisation tests required by the BP (drug content, drug dissolution profile, hardness, friability, disintegration time and uniformity of weight) have been performed in the majority of articles, except for the friability test. However, it is not possible to define which of the four 3DP techniques is the most suitable for the manufacture of oral solid formulations, because the selection is affected by different parameters, such as the type of formulation, the physical-mechanical properties to achieve. Moreover, each technique has its specific advantages and disadvantages, such as for FDM the biggest challenge is the degradation of the drug, due to high printing temperature process or for SLA is the toxicity of the carcinogenic risk of the photopolymerising material.

A qualitative and quantitative comparison between Web scraping and API methods for Twitter credibility analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irvin Dongo ◽  
Yudith Cardinale ◽  
Ana Aguilera ◽  
Fabiola Martinez ◽  
Yuni Quintero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Qualitative Evaluation ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Extraction Methods ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Web Scraping ◽  
Shared Information

Purpose This paper aims to perform an exhaustive revision of relevant and recent related studies, which reveals that both extraction methods are currently used to analyze credibility on Twitter. Thus, there is clear evidence of the need of having different options to extract different data for this purpose. Nevertheless, none of these studies perform a comparative evaluation of both extraction techniques. Moreover, the authors extend a previous comparison, which uses a recent developed framework that offers both alternates of data extraction and implements a previously proposed credibility model, by adding a qualitative evaluation and a Twitter-Application Programming Interface (API) performance analysis from different locations. Design/methodology/approach As one of the most popular social platforms, Twitter has been the focus of recent research aimed at analyzing the credibility of the shared information. To do so, several proposals use either Twitter API or Web scraping to extract the data to perform the analysis. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations are performed to discover the advantages and disadvantages of both extraction methods. Findings The study demonstrates the differences in terms of accuracy and efficiency of both extraction methods and gives relevance to much more problems related to this area to pursue true transparency and legitimacy of information on the Web. Originality/value Results report that some Twitter attributes cannot be retrieved by Web scraping. Both methods produce identical credibility values when a robust normalization process is applied to the text (i.e. tweet). Moreover, concerning the time performance, Web scraping is faster than Twitter API and it is more flexible in terms of obtaining data; however, Web scraping is very sensitive to website changes. Additionally, the response time of the Twitter API is proportional to the distance from the central server at San Francisco.

Prevention and Control of Trichotomy Infection in the Elderly Surgical Patient: An Umbrella Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Ferreira ◽  
Filipe Orfao ◽  
Cesar Fonseca ◽  
Lara Guedes de Pinho
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Elderly Person ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
World Health ◽  
Surgical Patient ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Umbrella Review ◽  
And Control

Introduction: The World Health Organization creates norms and guidelines for the adoption of good practices in health care that are provided to the surgical patient. In order to prevent and control infections associated with health care, the nurse must follow the guidelines for preparing the surgical patient for success. These infections can be particularly harmful to the elderly person given their vulnerability. The preoperative preparation, includes the trichotomy as one of the interventions to be performed, however, is one of the most controversial interventions that has caused in clinical practice, by the potential risk of infection in the surgical patient. Aim: To investigate the need for trichotomy, or removal of hair, in the preparation of the skin of the surgical patient, clarifying which is the most appropriate technique in the prevention of infection. Methodology: we conducted an umbrella review. The documentary research followed the consultation of bibliographic sources in the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health (CINAHL) and Public/Publisher Medline (PubMed) databases. The researched articles were grouped in a time horizon between 2011 and 2020. Afer data extraction, a narrative analysis was performed. Results: We found 40 articles from which 8 were selected. Conclusion: Trichotomy should be avoided by increasing the risk of infection of the surgical site. Innovative haircut and vacuum technologies can help in hair removal, mitigating the risk of contaminating the surgical incision. The timing of the trichotomy is not consensual among researchers.

scholarly journals HCV Detection, Discrimination, and Genotyping Technologies

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 3423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shrikant Warkad ◽  
Satish Nimse ◽  
Keum-Soo Song ◽  
Taisun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Hepatitis C ◽  
Hcv Infection ◽  
World Health ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Infected People ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 71 million people were living with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection worldwide in 2015. Each year, about 399,000 HCV-infected people succumb to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver failure. Therefore, screening of HCV infection with simple, rapid, but highly sensitive and specific methods can help to curb the global burden on HCV healthcare. Apart from the determination of viral load/viral clearance, the identification of specific HCV genotype is also critical for successful treatment of hepatitis C. This critical review focuses on the technologies used for the detection, discrimination, and genotyping of HCV in clinical samples. This article also focuses on advantages and disadvantages of the reported methods used for HCV detection, quantification, and genotyping.

Partial Discharge Detection Using Acoustic and Optical Methods in High Voltage Power Equipments: A Review

2013 ◽  
Vol 845 ◽  
pp. 283-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malik Abdul Razzaq Al Saedi ◽  
Mohd Muhridza Yaacob
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Emission ◽  
High Voltage ◽  
Power Transformer ◽  
Partial Discharge ◽  
Optical Detection ◽  
Detection Threshold ◽  
Optical Methods ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages

There is a high risk of insulation system dielectric instability when partial discharge (PD) occurs. Therefore, measurement and monitoring of PD is an important preventive tool to safeguard high-voltage equipment from wanton damage. PD can be detected using optical method to increase the detection threshold and to improve the performance of on-line measurement of PD in noise environment. The PD emitted energy as acoustic emission. We can use this emitted energy to detect PD signal. The best method to detect PD in power transformer is by using acoustic emission. Optical sensor has some advantages such as; high sensitivity, more accuracy small size. Furthermore, in on-site measurements and laboratory experiments, it isoptical methodthat gives very moderate signal attenuations. This paper reviews the available PD detection methods (involving high voltage equipment) such as; acoustic detection and optical detection. The advantages and disadvantages of each method have been explored and compared. The review suggests that optical detection techniques provide many advantages from the consideration of accuracy and suitability for the applications when compared to other techniques.

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