Spatial Patterns Associating Low Birth Weight with Environmental and Behavioral Factors

Low birth weight (LBW) is a significant public health problem in the world. It was estimated globally by the World Health Organization (WHO) that prevalence of LBW was 15% of all births. In Murung Raya district LBW cases remain high. This paper aimed to identify and discuss the relationship between environmental risk factors with LBW in Murung Raya.A spatial analysis was conducted with 150 women as the total participantswho were recruited through the incidence data in 2013-2014. The questionnaires, medical records, and geographic data were measured by Stata software, ArcGis, SatScan, and Geoda. The study results indicated there was significant correlation between health behavior and environmental variables with the strength of external neighborhood effect across LBW risk factors. More intense clustering of high values (hot spots) was found through the spatial analysis showing that most of the cases were located near the defined buffer zone. This research demonstrates that the spatial pattern analysis provided greater statistical power to detect an effect that was not apparent in the previous epidemiology studies

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and acute chest syndrome revealing sickle cell anemia in a 32 years female patient

Sickle cell anemia results from a single amino acid substitution in the gene encoding the 4-globin subunit. Polymerization of deoxygenated sickle hemoglobin leads to decreased deformability of red blood cells. Hashimoto's thyroiditis is a common thyroid disease now recognized as an autoimmune thyroid disorder, it is usually thought to be haemolytic autoimmune anemia. We report the case of a 32 years old women admitted for chest pain and haemolysis anemia in which Hashimoto's thyroiditis and sickle cell anemia were found. In our observation the patient is a young woman whose examination did not show signs of goitre but the analysis of thyroid function tests performed before an uto-immune hemolytic anemia (confirmed by a high level of unconjugated bilirubin and a Coombs test positive for IgG) has found thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and positive thyroid antibody at rates in excess of 4.5 times their normal value. In the same period, as the hemolytic anemia, and before the atypical chest pain and anguish they generated in the patient, the search for hemoglobinopathies was made despite the absence of a family history of haematological disease or painful attacks in childhood. Patient electrophoresis's led to research similar cases in the family. The mother was the first to be analyzed with ultimately diagnosed with sickle cell trait have previously been ignored. This case would be a form with few symptoms because the patient does not describe painful crises in childhood or adolescence

Evidence for the decay B0->eta pi^0

We report a search for the charmless hadronic decay $B^0\to\eta \pi^0$ with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 694 $\rm fb^{-1}$ containing $753\times10^6$ $B\bar{B}$ pairs. The data were collected by the Belle experiment running on the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance at the KEKB $e^+e^-$ collider. We measure a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(B^0\to\eta\pi^0)=(4.1^{+1.7+0.5}_{-1.5-0.7})\times 10^{-7}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. Our measurement gives an upper limit of $\mathcal{B}(B^0\to\eta\pi^0)<6.5\times 10^{-7}$ at 90\% confidence level. The signal has a significance of $3.0$ standard deviations and constitutes the first evidence for this decay mode.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physical Review D(R

The Osteopontin Level in Liver, Adipose Tissue and Serum Is Correlated with Fibrosis in Patients with Alcoholic Liver Disease

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Osteopontin (OPN) plays an important role in the progression of chronic liver diseases. We aimed to quantify the liver, adipose tissue and serum levels of OPN in heavy alcohol drinkers and to compare them with the histological severity of hepatic inflammation and fibrosis.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>OPN was evaluated in the serum of a retrospective and prospective group of 109 and 95 heavy alcohol drinkers, respectively, in the liver of 34 patients from the retrospective group, and in the liver and adipose tissue from an additional group of 38 heavy alcohol drinkers. Serum levels of OPN increased slightly with hepatic inflammation and progressively with the severity of hepatic fibrosis. Hepatic OPN expression correlated with hepatic inflammation, fibrosis, TGFβ expression, neutrophils accumulation and with the serum OPN level. Interestingly, adipose tissue OPN expression also correlated with hepatic fibrosis even after 7 days of alcohol abstinence. The elevated serum OPN level was an independent risk factor in estimating significant (F≥2) fibrosis in a model combining alkaline phosphatase, albumin, hemoglobin, OPN and FibroMeter® levels. OPN had an area under the receiving operator curve that estimated significant fibrosis of 0.89 and 0.88 in the retrospective and prospective groups, respectively. OPN, Hyaluronate (AUROC: 0.88), total Cytokeratin 18 (AUROC: 0.83) and FibroMeter® (AUROC: 0.90) estimated significance to the same extent in the retrospective group. Finally, the serum OPN levels also correlated with hepatic fibrosis and estimated significant (F≥2) fibrosis in 86 patients with chronic hepatitis C, which suggested that its elevated level could be a general response to chronic liver injury.</p> <h3>Conclusion/Significance</h3><p>OPN increased in the liver, adipose tissue and serum with liver fibrosis in alcoholic patients. Further, OPN is a new relevant biomarker for significant liver fibrosis. OPN could thus be an important actor in the pathogenesis of this chronic liver disease.</p> </div

Differential cross-section measurements of the production of four charged leptons in association with two jets using the ATLAS detector

Differential cross-sections are measured for the production of four charged leptons in association with two jets. These measurements are sensitive to final states in which the jets are produced via the strong interaction as well as to the purely-electroweak vector boson scattering process. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by ATLAS at √s = 13 TeV and with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution and are compared to state-of-the-art Monte Carlo event generator predictions. The differential cross-sections are used to search for anomalous weak-boson self-interactions that are induced by dimension-six and dimension-eight operators in Standard Model effective field theory

2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid removal from aqueous solutions via adsorption in the presence of biological contamination

In this study, the adsorption of the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), a chemical agricultural pollutant, onto granular activated carbon (GAC) was accomplished in the presence of biological contaminants in a batch and continuous system. In the batch studies, the maximum sorption capacities (mg/g) exhibited by GAC were found to be 5.9, 76.8, 124.0, 173.1, and 177.6 in the presence of Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae LMG 17238, Gracilaria verrucosa, a group of aquarium-isolated microorganisms, Spirulina platensis, and in the absence of microorganisms, respectively. Two and three-parameter non-linear equilibrium models - Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich-Peterson, Sips, and Toth - were applied to describe the batch sorption process. In the continuous-flow column studies, breakthrough curves were plotted as a function of influent 2,4-D concentration (50-200 mg/L), flow rate (0.2-0.4 mL/min), GAC mass (0.75-1.5 g), and microorganism load. The highest bed capacity was obtained by using 200 mg/L inlet 2,4-D concentration, 0.2 mL/min flow rate and 1.5 g GAC mass. In the presence of biological contaminants, the order of adsorption of 2,4-D in terms of the maximum adsorption capacity (mg/g) from the least to the greatest was as follows: no microorganism < S. platensis < the aquarium-isolated group of microorganisms < G. verrucosa < LMG 17238. Among the kinetic models applied to the fixed-bed column data, the Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models showed a better fit than the Bohart-Adams. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work has been carried out within the scope of the Research Foundation of Ege University. -

Optimization and Characterization of Cellulose Nanocrystal Production from Aseptic Tetra Pak Food Packaging Waste

Cellulose fibers were extracted from the recycled Tetra Pak aseptic food package wastes, and high value-added cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were produced by the acidic hydrolysis. At the optimum H2SO4 concentration of 25% w, the whiteness index of CNC obtained at 30 °C for 30 min CNC was 84.42%, while it was 56.00% for 50 °C for 60 min CNC. The effects of temperature and time on the hydrolysis yield were optimized by the Central Composite Design and the maximum yield was determined at the condition where the temperature was high and the time was the lowest. The physical and structural properties of different CNCs were investigated using several characterization techniques. The FTIR and TGA analyses of the CNCs obtained at different temperatures and times showed similar spectra and degradation temperatures with each other, respectively. The crystallinity index of alkaline-treated cellulose calculated from the XRD patterns was much lower than those of all of the CNCs. According to AFM measurements and SEM micrographs, it was confirmed that as the temperature and time increased, the diameters of the CNCs were reduced. The lowest diameter value was measured as 175 nm at 50 °C for 60 min CNC, whereas, on the other hand, the highest diameter value was measured as 403 nm at 30 °C for 30 min CNC. © 2022, Turkish Chemical Society. All rights reserved.The authors would like to express their heartiest gratitude and sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Serap CESUR (Ege University) for her support and guidance