Plasmodium falciparum and P. malariae: infection rates in the population of Northern Imbo Plain, Burundi

Background: Burundi is cited among countries where malaria remains endemic. Notably, malaria is highly endemic in Imbo region, a lowland lying astride Lake Tanganyika. Among key malaria riposte interventions includes the promotion of Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs), but its incidence rate has not reduced. In this paper, we present the distribution of malaria species in 2 settings within Imbo region by accounting for the seasonal variations and the mostly infected populations. Methods: The study was conducted from 2 Health Care Centres of Murambi and Rugombo in Cibitoke District, Northern Burundi. Blood samples were collected on blood slides and the samples were used to confirm the presence of malaria parasites by microscopy. Results: The study observed an average malaria parasite prevalence of 32.5% across the selected site. Majority of patients 459(95.2%) were infected by P. falciparum while 8(1.7%) patients were infected by P. malariae. Patients from Murambi were more infected than those from Rugombo. P. falciparum was the most highly prevalent specie in the 2 localities. High prevalence was observed in children aged between 2 and 5 years. Among older participants P. falciparum still predominated and mixed infections were rather the least prevalent. Conclusion: This study showed that P. falciparum and P. malariae are the most parasites involved in malaria morbidity in North Imbo region. The transmission of P. falciparum was observed year-round. Patients in Murambi are most exposed to malaria infections than those in Rugombo. Further research at large scale including entomological studies is required to better understand the relationship between Entomological Inoculation Rates (EIR) and malaria transmission levels in this setting.

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Seroprevalence and Risk factors of Toxoplasma gondii among ‎children in Al-Qadisiyah Province – Iraq.‎

Al-Qadisiyah Journal Of Pure Science ◽

10.29350/qjps.2021.26.1.1253 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 22-31

Author(s):

Musafer Al-Ardi

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Toxoplasma Gondii ◽

Parasite Prevalence ◽

Elisa Test ◽

Primary Objective ◽

Prevalence Rates ◽

Infection Rates ◽

Serum Samples ◽

High Prevalence ◽

Animal Contact

Background: Toxoplasmosis is a disease associated with the nature of the population, domestic quality and general health culture. Toxoplasma gondii causes many healthy and psychological problems with the possibility of transmission from the mother to her fetus. The primary objective of this study is to establish a database of infection rates among the governorate's children, with the absence of a database of the parasite prevalence rate among children. Materials and method: Four hundred sixty-three serum samples from children 13 old and under were collected during the period from 6 Jan. 2019 to 12 Dec. 2019, all of which were examined by ELISA test to detect immunoglobulin IgM and IgG. All results were analyzed by SPSS 20. Results: The current study referred to high prevalence rates of T. gondii (23.3%), where the ratios of IgM and IgG were (4.1% and 17.9%) respectively. Compared with the present rates of immunoglobulin with gender, age, environment and animal contact. Conclusion: Our current study registered high prevalence rates among children in Al-Qadisiyah governorate, this result represents a database of researchers and workers of health. It's the first study concerning the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in children in Al-Qadisiyah Province.

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Prevalence of Eperythrozoon spp. infection and congenital eperythrozoonosis in humans in Inner Mongolia, China

Epidemiology and Infection ◽

10.1017/s0950268899004392 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 125 (2) ◽

pp. 421-426 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

DIANXIANG YANG ◽

XIUZHENG TAI ◽

YING QIU ◽

SHENG YUN

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscope ◽

Pregnant Women ◽

Developing Country ◽

Seasonal Variations ◽

Peripheral Blood ◽

Inner Mongolia ◽

Large Scale ◽

Blood Samples ◽

High Prevalence ◽

Umbilical Cords

Eperythrozoon is an obligate parasitic bacteria found in many species of animals. A large scale investigation of the prevalence of Eperythrozoon spp. in humans, was conducted in a developing country using light, electron microscope and animal inoculation. Samples were collected in undeveloped areas of Inner Mongolia in China over a 2-year period of 1994–6. Of the 1529 investigated samples, 35·3% were found to be Eperythrozoon spp. positive. The prevalence of infection was associated with occupation and seasonal variations. The infections were mainly mild, in 89·6% of cases (excluding pregnant women and their children). Of 74 pregnant women tested in the areas of high prevalence, 44 were confirmed Eperythrozoon spp. positive. Similarly, eperythrozoa were found in all 44 umbilical cords tested and in the neonatal peripheral blood samples taken at birth. These data suggest that eperythrozoa can be transmitted via the placenta.

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Molecular Epidemiology of Theileria annulata in Cattle from Two Districts in Punjab (Pakistan)

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11123443 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 3443

Author(s):

Asia Parveen ◽

Abeer Mousa Alkhaibari ◽

Muhammad Asif ◽

Hamdan I. Almohammed ◽

Zahra Naqvi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dna Sequences ◽

Large Scale ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Cattle Breed ◽

Parasite Prevalence ◽

Blood Samples ◽

Pcr Products ◽

Tick Borne Disease ◽

Cattle Blood ◽

Female Cattle

The present study was designed to report the molecular prevalence of T. annulata in cattle blood samples collected from Punjab in Pakistan. A total of 428 cattle blood samples were collected from Districts Lodhran (n = 218) and Dera Ghazi Khan (n = 210). The prevalence of T. annulata was determined by the amplification of a fragment from its cytochrome b gene and parasite prevalence was significantly higher (p = 0.03) in the blood samples of cattle collected from Dera Ghazi Khan (70/210; 33%) as compared to Lodhran (52/218; 24%). Presence of T. annulata was also confirmed by the amplification of a fragment from their 30 kDa gene. The amplified PCR products of both genes were confirmed by DNA sequencing and these partial DNA sequences were submitted to GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that amplified partial gene sequences resembled previously reported T. annulata sequences in cattle from India, China, Iran, Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt. The incidence of T. annulata infection was higher in Sahiwal cattle (p = 0.04) than the other enrolled cattle breed from Dera Ghazi Khan. Female cattle from Lodhran (p = 0.02), while males (p = 0.02), animals housed in close compounds (p = 0.04), animals with a tick burden (p = 0.005) and farms with only cattle (p = 0.01) in Dear Ghazi Khan were found to be more susceptible to T. annulata infection. We recommend that large-scale tick and tick-borne disease control strategies be implemented in both districts under investigation, especially in Dera Ghazi Khan.

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Relationship between total plasma homocysteine and the risk of aneurysms – a meta-analysis

VASA ◽

10.1024/0301-1526/a000891 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Hanji Zhang ◽

Dexin Yin ◽

Yue Zhao ◽

Yezhou Li ◽

Dejiang Yao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Single Species ◽

Total Plasma ◽

Control Groups ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Randomized Controlled Studies ◽

The Difference ◽

The Relationship ◽

Healthy Participants

Summary: Our meta-analysis focused on the relationship between homocysteine (Hcy) level and the incidence of aneurysms and looked at the relationship between smoking, hypertension and aneurysms. A systematic literature search of Pubmed, Web of Science, and Embase databases (up to March 31, 2020) resulted in the identification of 19 studies, including 2,629 aneurysm patients and 6,497 healthy participants. Combined analysis of the included studies showed that number of smoking, hypertension and hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) in aneurysm patients was higher than that in the control groups, and the total plasma Hcy level in aneurysm patients was also higher. These findings suggest that smoking, hypertension and HHcy may be risk factors for the development and progression of aneurysms. Although the heterogeneity of meta-analysis was significant, it was found that the heterogeneity might come from the difference between race and disease species through subgroup analysis. Large-scale randomized controlled studies of single species and single disease species are needed in the future to supplement the accuracy of the results.

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New ''Cold War''

Diplomatic Service ◽

10.33920/vne-01-2001-04 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 27-34

Author(s):

Vladimir Batiuk

Keyword(s):

Cold War ◽

Nuclear Weapons ◽

Armed Conflict ◽

Large Scale ◽

Arms Race ◽

Ideological Struggle ◽

Nuclear Arms Race ◽

The Cold War ◽

The Relationship ◽

Nuclear Arms

In this article, the ''Cold War'' is understood as a situation where the relationship between the leading States is determined by ideological confrontation and, at the same time, the presence of nuclear weapons precludes the development of this confrontation into a large-scale armed conflict. Such a situation has developed in the years 1945–1989, during the first Cold War. We see that something similar is repeated in our time-with all the new nuances in the ideological struggle and in the nuclear arms race.

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Investigating Diseases and Chemicals in COVID-19 Literature with Text Mining (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.21503 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Amir Karami ◽

Brandon Bookstaver ◽

Melissa Nolan

Keyword(s):

Text Mining ◽

Literature Review ◽

Topic Modeling ◽

Large Scale ◽

Clinical Manifestations ◽

International Health ◽

Research Papers ◽

Strategic Plans ◽

Funding Agencies ◽

The Relationship

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly all aspects of life and has posed significant threats to international health and the economy. Given the rapidly unfolding nature of the current pandemic, there is an urgent need to streamline literature synthesis of the growing scientific research to elucidate targeted solutions. While traditional systematic literature review studies provide valuable insights, these studies have restrictions, including analyzing a limited number of papers, having various biases, being time-consuming and labor-intensive, focusing on a few topics, incapable of trend analysis, and lack of data-driven tools. OBJECTIVE This study fills the mentioned restrictions in the literature and practice by analyzing two biomedical concepts, clinical manifestations of disease and therapeutic chemical compounds, with text mining methods in a corpus containing COVID-19 research papers and find associations between the two biomedical concepts. METHODS This research has collected papers representing COVID-19 pre-prints and peer-reviewed research published in 2020. We used frequency analysis to find highly frequent manifestations and therapeutic chemicals, representing the importance of the two biomedical concepts. This study also applied topic modeling to find the relationship between the two biomedical concepts. RESULTS We analyzed 9,298 research papers published through May 5, 2020 and found 3,645 disease-related and 2,434 chemical-related articles. The most frequent clinical manifestations of disease terminology included COVID-19, SARS, cancer, pneumonia, fever, and cough. The most frequent chemical-related terminology included Lopinavir, Ritonavir, Oxygen, Chloroquine, Remdesivir, and water. Topic modeling provided 25 categories showing relationships between our two overarching categories. These categories represent statistically significant associations between multiple aspects of each category, some connections of which were novel and not previously identified by the scientific community. CONCLUSIONS Appreciation of this context is vital due to the lack of a systematic large-scale literature review survey and the importance of fast literature review during the current COVID-19 pandemic for developing treatments. This study is beneficial to researchers for obtaining a macro-level picture of literature, to educators for knowing the scope of literature, to journals for exploring most discussed disease symptoms and pharmaceutical targets, and to policymakers and funding agencies for creating scientific strategic plans regarding COVID-19.

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Tu1497 NATIONWIDE SURVEY OF HELICOBACTER PYLORI ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IN HIGH PREVALENCE OF GASTRIC CANCER COUNTRY (BHUTAN): A LARGE-SCALE COMMUNITY-BASED STUDY

Gastrointestinal Endoscopy ◽

10.1016/j.gie.2020.03.3669 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 91 (6) ◽

pp. AB591-AB592

Author(s):

Ratha-Korn Vilaichone ◽

Natsuda Aumpan ◽

Tomohisa Uchida ◽

Thawee Ratanachu-ek ◽

Lotay Tshering ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gastric Cancer ◽

Helicobacter Pylori ◽

Antibiotic Resistance ◽

Large Scale ◽

Nationwide Survey ◽

Community Based ◽

High Prevalence

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Strategic resources and smallholder performance at the bottom of the pyramid

International Food and Agribusiness Management Review ◽

10.22434/ifamr2018.0111 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 365-380 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Matthias Olthaar ◽

Wilfred Dolfsma ◽

Clemens Lutz ◽

Florian Noseleit

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Business Environment ◽

Agricultural Economics ◽

Local Market ◽

Bottom Of The Pyramid ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Strategic Resources ◽

Relative Contribution ◽

The Relationship ◽

Resource Based Theory

In a competitive business environment at the Bottom of the Pyramid smallholders supplying global value chains may be thought to be at the whims of downstream large-scale players and local market forces, leaving no room for strategic entrepreneurial behavior. In such a context we test the relationship between the use of strategic resources and firm performance. We adopt the Resource Based Theory and show that seemingly homogenous smallholders deploy resources differently and, consequently, some do outperform others. We argue that the ‘resource-based theory’ results in a more fine-grained understanding of smallholder performance than approaches generally applied in agricultural economics. We develop a mixed-method approach that allows one to pinpoint relevant, industry-specific resources, and allows for empirical identification of the relative contribution of each resource to competitive advantage. The results show that proper use of quality labor, storage facilities, time of selling, and availability of animals are key capabilities.

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Lack of an association between gallstone disease and bilirubin levels with risk of colorectal cancer: a Mendelian randomisation analysis

British Journal of Cancer ◽

10.1038/s41416-020-01211-x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Richard Culliford ◽

Alex J. Cornish ◽

Philip J. Law ◽

Susan M. Farrington ◽

Kimmo Palin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Large Scale ◽

Causal Effect ◽

Gallstone Disease ◽

Epidemiological Studies ◽

Mendelian Randomisation ◽

Linear Relationships ◽

Potential Risk Factors ◽

The Relationship ◽

Circulating Levels

Abstract Background Epidemiological studies of the relationship between gallstone disease and circulating levels of bilirubin with risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) have been inconsistent. To address possible confounding and reverse causation, we examine the relationship between these potential risk factors and CRC using Mendelian randomisation (MR). Methods We used two-sample MR to examine the relationship between genetic liability to gallstone disease and circulating levels of bilirubin with CRC in 26,397 patients and 41,481 controls. We calculated the odds ratio per genetically predicted SD unit increase in log bilirubin levels (ORSD) for CRC and tested for a non-zero causal effect of gallstones on CRC. Sensitivity analysis was applied to identify violations of estimator assumptions. Results No association between either gallstone disease (P value = 0.60) or circulating levels of bilirubin (ORSD = 1.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96–1.03, P value = 0.90) with CRC was shown. Conclusions Despite the large scale of this study, we found no evidence for a causal relationship between either circulating levels of bilirubin or gallstone disease with risk of developing CRC. While the magnitude of effect suggested by some observational studies can confidently be excluded, we cannot exclude the possibility of smaller effect sizes and non-linear relationships.

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Correlation between L-Lactate Concentrations in Beef Cattle, Obtained Using a Hand-Held Lactate Analyzer and a Lactate Assay Colorimetric Kit

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11040926 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 926

Author(s):

Daniela M. Meléndez ◽

Sonia Marti ◽

Luigi Faucitano ◽

Derek B. Haley ◽

Timothy D. Schwinghamer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Statistical Significance ◽

Road Transportation ◽

Long Distance ◽

Suitable Alternative ◽

Blood Samples ◽

Time Points ◽

Pooled Data ◽

Red Angus ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

Lactate is a product of anaerobic glycolysis, used in animal research as an indicator of muscle fatigue. Therefore, it has been used as an indicator of cattle response to long distance transportation. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship of L-lactate concentrations measured using a Lactate Scout+ analyzer and a traditional lactate assay colorimetric kit. Blood samples were collected by venipuncture from 96 steers (Black or Red Angus × Hereford/Simmental and Black or Red Angus × Charolais; 247 ± 38.2 kg BW) prior to loading (LO1) and after 36 h of transport, and prior to reloading and after an additional 4 h of road transportation, and on d 1, 2, 3, 5, 14, and 28 after transport. The Lactate Scout+ analyzer strip was dipped in blood at the time of sampling, while blood samples were collected into sodium fluoride tubes for use in the colorimetric analysis. Pearson correlations were calculated to assess the strength of the relationship between the experimental methods for the quantification of L-lactate concentrations. The magnitude and direction of the correlation, and the level of statistical significance varied over the observed time points, ranging from r = −0.03 (p = 0.75; LO1) to r = 0.75 (p < 0.0001; d 3). The correlation for the pooled data was weak but statistically significant (r = 0.33, p < 0.0001). Based on the low magnitude of the correlation due to variability across sampling time points in this study, the Lactate Scout+ analyzer is not a suitable alternative to a lab-based assay (considered the gold standard) for measuring L-lactate in transported cattle.

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