scholarly journals Structure, Immunoreactivity, and In Silico Epitope Determination of SmSPI S. mansoni Serpin for Immunodiagnostic Application

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 322
Author(s):  
Stefano De Benedetti ◽  
Flavio Di Pisa ◽  
Enrico Mario Alessandro Fassi ◽  
Marina Cretich ◽  
Angelo Musicò ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
In Silico ◽  
Epitope Mapping ◽  
Far East ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Circulating Antigen ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Timely Treatment

The human parasitic disease Schistosomiasis is caused by the Schistosoma trematode flatworm that infects freshwaters in tropical regions of the world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and the Far-East. It has also been observed as an emerging disease in Europe, due to increased immigration. In addition to improved therapeutic strategies, it is imperative to develop novel, rapid, and sensitive diagnostic tests that can detect the Schistosoma parasite, allowing timely treatment. Present diagnosis is difficult and involves microscopy-based detection of Schistosoma eggs in the feces. In this context, we present the 3.22 Å resolution crystal structure of the circulating antigen Serine protease inhibitor from S. mansoni (SmSPI), and we describe it as a potential serodiagnostic marker. Moreover, we identify three potential immunoreactive epitopes using in silico-based epitope mapping methods. Here, we confirm effective immune sera reactivity of the recombinant antigen, suggesting the further investigation of the protein and/or its predicted epitopes as serodiagnostic Schistosomiasis biomarkers.

Global Patterns of Ruler Conversion to Islam and the Logic of Empirical Religiosity

Islamisation ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 21-55
Author(s):  
Alan Strathern
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Far East ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The South ◽  
Old World ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
Global Patterns ◽  
Sub Saharan

The first great expansion of Islam owed little to the conversion of rulers but instead followed, albeit slowly, in the footsteps of strikingly rapid military conquest. Yet, in the second millennium, Islam expanded further and faster by means of ruler conversions than its proselytising rivals, Christianity and Buddhism. The principal regions where this held true were Sub-Saharan Africa and maritime Southeast Asia, though Central Asia also saw numerous conversions of the Mongol and Turkic elites that poured into the region.1 This was the period, then, in which Islam broke out of its Mediterranean and West Asian base to penetrate new territories to the south and the far east of the old world.

Pleistocene Chronology in the Far East

Antiquity ◽  
1946 ◽  
Vol 20 (77) ◽  
pp. 9-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Le Gros Clark
Keyword(s):  
Far East ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Human Fossil ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Personal Opinion ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Boulder Clay ◽  
Intensive Work ◽  
Glacial Periods

To the anthropologist, the dating of the fossil remains of prehistoric man in the Far East has always seemed a vague and haphazard business. So far as Europe is concerned, we have accepted the correlations between cultural sequences and stratigraphical data which have been worked out after many years of intensive work by geologists and archaeologists. Indeed, so well has the evidence been clarified for us that we even feel we can to some extent assess the validity of arguments put forward for the chronological position of this or that piece of human fossil. But the Far East is very different. The cultural sequences characteristic of Europe are not to be found there, the animal and plant remains found at different stratigraphical levels have a strange oriental appearance and differ specifically too much from those in the European Pleistocene to permit of direct faunistic correlations, and in the tropical regions such as Java the fluctuations of climate related to the glacial periods were not striking enough to provide a reasonable time scale by reference to any deposits so distinctive as boulder clay. Thus the anthropologist in the past has simply noted the personal opinion of local geologists on the antiquity of fossil man or palaeolithic cultures in the Far East, without really being clear as to the evidence on which the opinion was based (and suspecting, sometimes, that the geologist was not always quite clear himself).

Acute Appendicitis Associated With Schistosoma Species

2019 ◽  
Vol 152 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S60-S61
Author(s):  
Jesus Rico Castillo ◽  
Diana Alame ◽  
Madalina Tuluc ◽  
Michelle Nagurney ◽  
Noha Ghusson
Keyword(s):  
Acute Appendicitis ◽  
Histopathological Examination ◽  
Granulomatous Inflammation ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Lower Quadrant ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Host Immune Responses ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract Objectives Schistosomiasis is a public health problem in tropical regions of the world, highly endemic in sub-Saharan Africa but uncommon in the United States. It is considered second only to malaria as the most devastating human parasitic diseases, and it is mainly classified as urinary or intestinal. Here we report a rare case of acute appendicitis associated with Schistosoma spp. Case Presentation A 28-year-old male presented to our institution in October 2018 with a 2-day history of periumbilical and right lower quadrant abdominal pain associated with nausea, vomiting, fever, and chills. CT scan of the abdomen in the emergency department showed hyperenhancement of the appendix, with an increased diameter of 10 mm and infiltration of the adjacent fat, compatible with appendicitis. The patient was administered intravenous piperacillin-tazobactam and underwent an uncomplicated laparoscopic appendectomy. Histopathological examination of the appendectomy specimen reveals neutrophilic infiltrate of the wall consistent with acute appendicitis, with granulomatous inflammation surrounding parasitic eggs measuring 60 by 37 μm morphologically consistent with Schistosoma spp. within the wall. Additionally, Ziehl-Neelsen stained negative. Significant travel history included a trip to Lake Malawi approximately 9 years prior to this presentation where he frequently swam in freshwater lakes. He does not recall developing an acute illness associated with this travel. Discussion Chronic schistosomiasis is the result of host immune responses to schistosome eggs that become lodged in the capillaries or organs and cause granulomatous reactions. Chronic inflammation can lead to bowel wall ulceration, hyperplasia, and polyposis and, with massive infection, to periportal liver fibrosis, dysuria, and hematuria. Small bowel involvement is very unusual and only rare cases of appendicitis have been reported worldwide. Additionally, Ziehl-Neelsen stained negative favoring other Schistosoma species instead of S mansoni, S intercalatum, or S japonicum. Fortunately, the patient underwent surgery, received praziquantel, and achieved full recovery.

scholarly journals Determination of Necessary and Sufficient Operational Conditions of The Sleeve-Type Bearings in Autonomous Power Plants of Ormat Type Under Conditions of Siberia and the Far East

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 01126
Author(s):  
Olga V. Vysokomornaya ◽  
Vladimir S. Vysokomorny ◽  
Alexander S. Beck ◽  
Andrey G. Kosintsev ◽  
Vladimir F. Panin
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Far East ◽  
Operational Conditions ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

scholarly journals Exploring physicochemical and cytogenomic diversity of African cowpea and common bean

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sílvia Catarino ◽  
Miguel Brilhante ◽  
Anyse Pereira Essoh ◽  
Alberto B. Charrua ◽  
Josefa Rangel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Common Bean ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Nuclear Dna Content ◽  
Grain Legumes ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Germplasm Collections ◽  
Sub Saharan

AbstractIn sub-Saharan Africa, grain legumes (pulses) are essential food sources and play an important role in sustainable agriculture. Among the major pulse crops, the native cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and introduced common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) stand out. This paper has two main goals. First, we provide a comprehensive view of the available genetic resources of these genera in Africa, including data on germplasm collections and mapping biodiversity-rich areas. Second, we investigate patterns of physicochemical and cytogenomic variation across Africa to explore the geographical structuring of variation between native and introduced beans. Our results revealed that 73 Vigna and 5 Phaseolus species occur in tropical regions of Africa, with 8 countries accounting for more than 20 native species. Conversely, germplasm collections are poorly represented when compared to the worldwide collections. Regarding the nuclear DNA content, on average, V. unguiculata presents significantly higher values than P. vulgaris. Also, V. unguiculata is enriched in B, Mg, S, and Zn, while P. vulgaris has more Fe, Ca, and Cu. Overall, our study suggests that the physicochemical and cytogenomic diversity of native Vigna species is higher than previously thought, representing valuable food resources to reduce food insecurity and hunger, particularly of people living in African developing countries.

scholarly journals HIV disclosure perspectives from HIV-positive parents, HIV-positive children, and HIV-negative children

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Gachanja ◽  
Gary J Burkholder ◽  
Aimee Ferraro
Keyword(s):  
Good Health ◽  
Hiv Disclosure ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Hiv Negative

The aim of this research brief is to describe a study that examined the lived experiences of HIV-positive parents and their biological HIV-positive and negative children before, during, and after the HIV disclosure process in Kenya. This is the first study from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that provides perspectives on HIV disclosure of a parent’s and a child’s illness from the viewpoints of HIV-positive parents, HIV-positive children, and HIV-negative children. Prior studies in SSA have mostly centered on disclosure to HIV-positive children (of their own illnesses) and others have reported on parents disclosing their illnesses to their children. Key Aspects of HIV Disclosure to Children: 1. Disclosure should be performed as a process. 2. It is a parent’s decision on when to disclose but also a child’s right to be told about his/her own, a parent’s, and other family member’s illnesses and deaths. 3. Healthcare professionals should help parents prepare for and disclose family member’s illnesses and prior deaths to their children. 4. Disclosure should preferably be performed when both the parent and child are in good health. 5. Disclosure should be performed when a child shows understanding of the illness and/or maturity. 6. Disclosure planning should include a determination of who is the most suitable person to disclose to a child. 7. Disclosure should be postponed until animportant life event (e.g., taking a national school examination) has occurred. The original research article is located at: https://peerj.com/articles/486.pdf

scholarly journals On the Specificity of the Use of Eastern Asian Written Sources on the History of the Khitan and Their States (10th – 13th Centuries)

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-31
Author(s):  
Gennady G. Pikov
Keyword(s):  
Far East ◽  
The State ◽  
State Structure ◽  
The Far East ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Construction ◽  
History Of ◽  
Synthetic Work

The article focuses on the need to consider classical medieval texts not only as sources of historical information, but also as author's works subject to a certain methodology and using a variety of historiographical technologies and ideological schemes. The specific subject of the study is the two main sources on the history of the Eastern and Western Khitans (“Khitan Guo Chi” / “History of the Khitan state” and “Liao Shi” / “History of the [dynasty] Liao”), who created the largest state structures in the pre-Mongol period. “Khian Guo Zhi” is more of a history of the Khitan ethnos, whereas “Liao Shi” is a history of the dynasty, i.e., of the state construction. As a result, we have the maximum possible penetration in those days into the two most important topics-the people as a geopolitical actor and the state as a civilizational-state structure. Their authors carried out impressive synthetic work to prove certain postulates. These are, strictly speaking, not scientific approaches, but ideological, existing, moreover, often in the form of Philistine fabrications. These sources raise a particularly significant problem of the origin of the Khitan, their dynasty, civilizational affiliation of the Khitan, the Khitan determination of the place in a nomadic world, the specifics of socio-economic and social system of the state of Liao, Khitan influence on the social development of the far East and East Asian regions. In them, the Chinese civilizational paradigm was applied to the fullest extent possible, the essential worldview settings of classical Chinese historiography are traced: Sino-centrism, sedentary centrism, Han-fan dichotomies and culture – nature. As a result, these works had a significant impact on the development of the two most common approaches to studying the history of Khitan, which are considered as classical barbarians who constantly attacked China and for this purpose created their own quasi-state, but under the influence of Chinese civilization “grew” to the level of the traditional dynasty.

Screening of 25 cowpea genotypes for resistance to Megalurothrips sjostedti Trybom in southern Ghana

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Bonney ◽  
John Saviour Yaw Eleblu ◽  
Vincent Eziah
Keyword(s):  
Insect Pest ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Flower Bud ◽  
Megalurothrips Sjostedti ◽  
Lattice Design ◽  
Cowpea Varieties ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
University Of Ghana ◽  
Moderately Resistant

In sub-Saharan Africa, Megalurothrips sjostedti Trybom are the most destructive insect pest of cowpea. It causes approximately 100% reduction in cowpea yield. Synthetic insecticides are widely used in controlling this pest, however, health and environmental hazards are another challenge. This study sought to evaluate 25 cowpea genotypes from Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo and South-Sudan for resistance to this pest under field screening using a 5 by 5 alpha lattice design with 2 checks at University of Ghana farms. The results revealed Laduni 1B as resistant, 20 moderately resistant and 4 susceptible genotypes were also identified in this study. In the determination of correlated and non-correlated variables, ten traits were reported important to the resistance of cowpea genotypes to flower bud thrips. The genotypes with resistance could be used to introgress the resistant trait into other preferred but susceptible cowpea varieties.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document