All You Need to Know About UGT1A1 Genetic Testing for Patients Treated With Irinotecan: A Practitioner-Friendly Guide

Irinotecan is an anticancer agent widely used for the treatment of solid tumors, including colorectal and pancreatic cancers. Severe neutropenia and diarrhea are common dose-limiting toxicities of irinotecan-based therapy, and UGT1A1 polymorphisms are one of the major risk factors of these toxicities. In 2005, the US Food and Drug Administration revised the drug label to indicate that patients with UGT1A1*28 homozygous genotype should receive a decreased dose of irinotecan. However, UGT1A1*28 testing is not routinely used in the clinic, and specific reasons include lack of access to concise information on this wide issue as well as mixed recommendations by regulatory and professional entities. To assist oncologists in assessing whether and when to use UGT1A1 genetic testing in patients receiving irinotecan-based therapies, this article provided (1) essential knowledge of UGT1A1 polymorphisms; (2) an update on the impact of UGT1A1 polymorphisms on efficacy and toxicity of contemporary irinotecan-based regimens; (3) dosing adjustments based upon the UGT1A1 genotypes, and (4) recommendations from currently available guidelines from the US and international scientific consortia and major oncology societies.

Family Planning Methods and Practices Adopted by Married Women in Anambra

Introduction: Family planning is a world-wide issue in reproductive health which tends to affect individuals of every tribe or race, irrespective of age, religion or educational level. This study investigated the family planning methods and practices adopted by married women in Anambra State. Methods: Three research questions were formulated to guide the study and two null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. The design for the study was descriptive survey. The study has a population of 133, 736 married women in Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka who were registered under the population commission of Anambra State as at August, 2019. A sample of 420 married women was involved in the study. The instrument titled “Questionnaire Family planning methods and practices adopted by married women in Anambra State was used for collection of data. The data collected was analyzed using Frequency and Percentage and Chi Square. Results: The findings indicated that greater percentage of married women in Anambra State is aware of family planning but practicing it was the major problem. There were no significant difference in the family planning methods adopted by married women in Anambra State based on their ages and parity level. Conclusion: Based on the findings and their implications, it was recommended among others, that there is need for there is need to create more awareness or sensitization on other methods of family planning which the women might not know. Key words: Family planning, reproductive health, married women, Anambra

Autonomous Elbow Controller for Differential Drive In-Pipe Robots

The inspection of legacy nuclear facilities to aid in decommissioning is a world wide issue. One of the challenges is the characterisation of pipe networks within them. This paper presents an autonomous control system for the navigation of these unknown pipe networks, specifically focusing on elbows. The controller utilises three low-cost feeler sensors to navigate the FURO II robot around 150 mm short elbows. The controller is shown to allow the robot to safely navigate around an elbow on all 39 attempts comparing that with the brute force method which only completed five of the nine attempts and damaging the robot. This shows the advantages of the proposed controller. A new metric (Impulse) is also proposed to compare the extra force applied to the robot over the time it is slipping in the elbow due to the errors in the drive unit speeds. Using this metric, the controller is shown to decrease the Impulse applied to the robot by 213.97 Ns when compared to the brute force method.

Discovering The True Accuracy of Ultrasonography in The Confirmation of Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis, a World-wide Dilemma

Background: Acute appendicitis occurs in almost 10 % of western populations. The male-female ratio of approximately 2:1 gradually declines after age 25 years until the gender ratio is equal. Approximately 1% of total surgical procedures are appendectomies. Negative appendectomy rates are increasing and some of the factors that play a massive role in this include clinical evaluation that is not specific and absence of readily available techniques permitting direct visualization of the appendix. Because of this world-wide problem of increasing negative appendectomies, we need a method to confirm the diagnosis of true acute appendicitis.Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate and estimate the efficacy of ultrasound in the confirmation of diagnosis of acute appendicitis in clinically suspected cases of acute appendicitis and to compare ultrasound findings with surgical findings.Methods: This study included a total of 100 patients suspected to have acute appendicitis who were admitted to the department of surgery at Al-Karak teaching hospital, Mutah University, from January 2014- December 2015. Abdominal-pelvic sonography with focus on the right lower quadrant graded compression ultrasonography technique was used. The sonographic data was prospectively correlated with clinical operative and histopathological findings.Results: Graded compression ultrasonography results were analyzed and showed 92.7% sensitivity, 94.5% specificity, 93% accuracy, 94.4% positive predictive value, 92.5% negative predictive value.Conclusion: Ultrasonography has a higher degree of accuracy so it is a safe and a reliable method in the diagnosis of suspected cases of acute appendicitis. This can help minimize negative appendectomies, perforation rates, and medical expenses on patients. Therefore from the findings in our study, we may begin to put this world-wide issue to rest.

Frequency of Chromosomally Encoded gyrA and parC Genetic Determinants of Fluoroquinolone Resistance in A. baumannii

Fluoroquinolones are administered as routine drugs of choice for treating complicated urinary tract infections caused by multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii strains. It is now a world-wide issue that gyr and par induced quinolone resistance as one of the major drug resistance mechanisms. This investigation is thus aimed to assess the prevalence of quinolone resistance and to characterize the gyrA and parC producing strains of A. baumannii. Genomic DNA from 50 fluoroquinolone resistant A. baumannii were screened for gyrA and parC by PCR for the genetic relatedness with fluoroquinolone resistance, with sequencing of the representative strains. All the strains were positive for gyrA(100%) and 82% (n=41) for parC. Presence of parC was observed in 56.09% (n=23) ciprofloxacin resistant A. baumannii with 43.90% (n=18) in levofloxacin resistant A. baumannii. The findings of the present study showed the prevalence of fluoroquinolone resistance among A. baumannii in urinary tract infections and the frequency of gyrA and parC in inducing the resistance.

How to Effectively Improve the Poor People’s Capacity for Poverty Alleviation

Poverty has been a world-wide issue. Due to the social disturbs caused by poverty, crime rates have risen, and diseases have spread. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the party and the country have attached great importance to poverty alleviation and led people to successfully create a path of poverty alleviation and development with Chinese characteristics, bringing more than 700 million people out of absolute poverty, and contributing to the world's poverty alleviation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the state has promoted the targeted poverty alleviation, innovated poverty alleviation methods, and made new progress in the poverty alleviation work. Under the current economic model of precise poverty alleviation, effectively improving the capacity of the poor for poverty alleviation has become a top priority.

Diverse Role of Women for Natural Resource Management in India

Natural resources are means to satisfy human wants which exist in natural environment and which are available without any type of human endeavour. The degradation of natural resources such as land, water, forest etc. may have an adverse impact on livelihood of rural people. The present review paper determines diverse roles of women for management of various natural resources in India. Vigorous participation of women in decisions and activities related to conservation and well-organized utilization of renewable and non-renewable natural resources is solution of this world wide issue i.e., natural resource degradation. Over exploitation and botched utilization of natural resources can be protected in India through involvement of women in policies and programs made for natural resource management. They will also serve as a treasure of indigenous information for conserving natural resources.

Knowledge management and academic information behaviour

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of metaliteracy on collaborative and individual information behaviour (IB) among academic staff. The goal is to observe the impact of these competencies on knowledge management (KM) and IB in research tasks connected with the humanities and social sciences. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an implementation of two combined frameworks into a study on the IB of academics: metacompetencies described by Mackey and Jacobson in the metaliteracy model and Burke’s triple-A model. By using the Dervin’s micro-moment time-line interview framework, authors try to observe the state of development of information literacy and other supportive competencies among younger lecturers and researchers. Findings Scientists develop patterns of collaborative behaviour based on seven metaliteracy areas in KM. Research limitations/implications The study did not include students and other groups related to the academic environment. Their involvement in information processes is a very wide issue and should be the subject of a separate article. Originality/value The paper contributes to research development in the area of information literacy as a KM efficiency factor. IB in this paper is a broad concept, in which the development of metaliteracy is an important aspect of lecturers’ and researchers’ KM and collaboration skills.