The ethnic distribution of sickle cell disease in Sudan

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one of the most common inherited disorders of haemoglobin in Africa and it is expected that sickle cell trait varies in frequency in different areas in Sudan. An extensive literature search was carried out accessing the US National Library of Medicine, the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region  resources, the Catalogue for Transmission Genetics in Arabs and papers and documents published in Sudan  that included data on the prevalence of sickle cell anaemia and trait. Rates of SCA and trait varied in different areas in Sudan with the highest rates reported from Western and Eastern Sudan where one in every 123 children born in Messeryia tribe in Western Sudan is at risk of having SCD. High consanguinity rates and malaria endemicity are strong related factors with sickle cell gene in Sudan. This review will present what is known about the rates of sickle cell gene in different ethnic groups in Sudan

THE CHANGING PROFILE OF CONSANGUINITY RATES IN BAHRAIN, 1990-2009

Consanguineous marriage is traditional and respected in most communities of North Africa, the Middle East and West Asia, including Bahrain, with intra-familial unions accounting for 20-50+% of all marriages. Significant secular changes in consanguinity rates have been reported in recent decades in different populations. Among parents of 14,237 newborns in Bahrain in 2008-2009, the total consanguinity and first cousin marriage rates over a period of four months in 2008 were 10.9% and 6.9% respectively, while during all of 2009 the rates were 11.4% and 6.8% respectively. The study confirms that over a ten-year period first cousin marriage rates in Bahrain have declined from 24% to nearly 7%. Although advice against cousin marriages was not attempted at any stage in the comprehensive community genetics programmes in Bahrain, increasing the literacy of the public and of the health care providers on prevention strategies for genetic diseases could have contributed to this decline in consanguinity rate in Bahrai

Future Solar Irradiance Prediction Using Least Square Support Vector Machine

Support vector machine (SVM) based on statistical learning theory has shown its advantage in regression and prediction. This paper presents the future prediction of the solar irradiance using least square support vector machine (LSSVM) which is a kind of SVM with quadric loss function. SVM has greater generalization ability and guarantee global minima for given training data set which will give good performance for solar irradiance with time series prediction. In order to improve the prediction performance of the LSSVM, the experimental data have to be normalized and appropriate parameters are selected by generic algorithm. In this research, solar irradiance data are collected daily at monitoring station located at Green Energy Research Centre (GERC) UiTM, Shah Alam. This related information will be used in prediction of the future data which useful for designing new PV systems and monitoring existing systems performance. The results show good agreement between the predicted against the actual values measured.  The proposed solar irradiance time series prediction method is considerable practical value which can be used in other datasets

ANALISIS PREFERENSI KONSUMEN DALAM MEMILIH TRANSPORTASI ONLINE DI KOTA SURABAYA

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui preferensi konsumen dalam memilih transportasi online uber di kota surabaya, serta untuk mengetahui variabel manakah yang dominan terhadap pembentukan preferensi. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah konsumen yang pernah menggunakan jasa angkutan online kususnya uber minimal satu kali di kota surabaya. Teknik pengambilan sampel yang digunakan adalah non probabilty, dan melalui teknik purposive sampling. Jumlah sampel yang digunakan sebanyak 100 responden. teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah uji instrumen dengan uji validitas dan uji uji reabilitas, asumsi klasik dan analisis regresi linier berganda dengan alat bantu aplikasi SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions). Berdasarkan hasil analisis regresi linier berganda pada penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa variabel viral marketing, harga/tarif, promo, kepercayaan dan citra merek adalah berpengaruh positif terhadap pembentukan preferensi konusmen dalam memilih transportasi online di kota surabaya dan variabel kepercayaan menjadi variabel yang dominan. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa seluruh hipotesis dalam penelitian ini terbukti kebenaranny

Immunoglobulins assessment (IgE,G,A,M) in some Iraqi patients with acute and chronic urticaria

60 patients diagnosed as having urticaria were included in the study ; 30 patients were effected with acute urticaria and 30 patients were affected with chronic urticaria. In addition, 30 healthy adult volunteers were selected as control group .The patients and control groups sera were examined with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay ( ELISA) to detect total level IgE and radial immunodiffusion (RID) to detect levels of IgG , IgA and IgM . The total level of IgE in acute urticaria ( 1.45±0.13) IU/mL and chronic urticaria (2.12 ± 0.10) IU/mL patients were significantly higher than the control groups ( 0.85 ± 0.10)IU/mL (

PREVALENCE OF CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES IN SOUTH SINAI, EGYPT

A total of 3961 married couples from six major geographical areas representing the South Sinai governorates in Egypt were studied to assess the rate of consanguineous marriage. The population of six selected areas (St Catherines, Nuweiba, Abu Rudeis, Ras Sudr, El Tor and Abu Zenima) were subdivided into Bedouin, urban and mixed populations. A questionnaire-based interview was conducted showing that the consanguinity rate in this region is 37.5%, with the highest rate recorded in Abu Rudeis (52.3%) and lowest rate in Nuweiba (24.1%). Consanguinity was significantly higher among the Bedouin population compared with the urban population in Abu Rudeis, Ras Sudr, El Tor and Abu Zenima, while in St Catherines and Nuweiba there was no statistically significant difference. Among consanguineous couples, 5%, 60% and 35% were double first cousins, first cousins and second cousins respectively. The mean inbreeding coefficient α of the studied population was 0.0184

Clinical and inheritance profiles of Kallmann syndrome in Jordan

BACKGROUND: Proper management of patients with Kallmann syndrome (KS) allows them to attain a normal reproductive health. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the presentation modalities, phenotypes and the modes of inheritance among 32 patients with Kallmann syndrome in Jordan. Recognition of the syndrome allows for prompt proper management and provision of genetic counselling. SUBJECTS: Over a period of five years (1999–2004), the clinical and inheritance profiles of 26 male and 6 female patients with Kallmann syndrome from 12 families were evaluated at the National Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Genetics in Jordan. RESULTS: The patients belonged to twelve Jordanian and Palestinian families and their age at presentation ranged from 4 – 46 years. Nine boys aged 4–14 years presented with cryptorchidism and microphallus, all other males presented with delayed puberty, hypogonadism and/or infertility. The main presentation among six female patients was primary amenorrhea. Intrafamilial variability in clinical phenotype was specifically evident for renal abnormalities and sensorineural hearing impairment. Familial KS was diagnosed in 27 patients belonging to five families with the X-linked mode of inheritance and two families with the autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. CONCLUSIONS: (1) the majority of cases in this study represented the X-linked form of KS, which might point to a high prevalence of Kal 1 gene in the population. (2) Genetic counselling helps these families to reach a diagnosis at an early age and to decide about their reproductive options. (3) Children presenting with cryptorchidism and microphallus in our population should be investigated for KS

E-learning for research capacity strengthening in sexual and reproductive health: the experience of the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research and the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization

Abstract: Technological advancement has resulted in the increasing use of e-learning and online education, initially in high-income countries and increasingly in low- and middle-income countries. Background: In 2010, the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and partner institutions, developed an online postgraduate course “From Research to Practice: Training Course in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research”. This course takes advantage of the advancing Internet technology to provide training opportunities to health professionals mostly from low- and middle-income countries whose access to quality education is constrained by time, financial resources, or both. Case presentation: To assess the outcomes of the course, an evaluation was conducted by sending a self-administered questionnaire to graduates of the 2010–2012 programme. The objectives were to determine if the graduates had applied the knowledge gained from the course to their work and whether they had implemented their research project developed during the course. The evaluation also appraised the number of graduates who participated in the design or implementation of a new research project since the course concluded and whether the course had contributed to advancement in their careers. A total of 175 of 219 course graduates answered the questionnaire. The evaluation revealed that the majority of respondents (98%) had utilized the knowledge acquired, with nearly half of them (47%) having published a scientific paper as author or co-author. About a third of respondents (39%) had implemented their course research project and about three quarters of them (74%) have been involved in the design or implementation of a research project after completing the course. Over three quarters (81%) of respondents opined that the course had contributed to their career advancement and almost half of them (46%) had a career promotion as a direct or indirect benefit of the course. Conclusion: We surmise that the course positively impacted the participants’ knowledge and understanding of sexual and reproductive health, which they applied in their professional work, as well as strengthened their research capacity. Success factors for the e-learning programme include tailor-made content to meet participants’ needs, flexibility of access, and ongoing engagement/personal interactivity with course coaches

A Comparative Study of the Effects of Age and Smoking on Nail Growth Rate in Healthy Individuals

Background: The nail organ has an important functional and aesthetic importance. Nail Growth Rate (NGR) has attracted the attention of many investigators not only due to the importance of the nail apparatus but also as a tool to reflect health. Objective: To study the effects of smoking and age on nail growth. Patients and methods:The study was conducted at the Department of Physiology and the Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, University of Baghdad during the period from January 2011 to May 2011. Nail growth measurement was performed by etching a T – mark on the nail plate of the right and the left thumbs with a wide bore needle. The vertical distance between the point of meeting of the T and the proximal nail fold was measured using (vernier). A second measurement was performed one month later. The difference between the 2 readings was divided by the number of days between the readings to give the NGR. Results:The NGR was measured in a total of 106 subjects. The subjects were divided into 3 groups: Group1 (Smoker male subjects): 23 subjects were included in this group. Their ages ranged between 20 and 59 years with a mean of 35.87 +11.72 years. Group 2 (Non-smoker male subjects): 34 subjects were included. Their ages ranged between 13 and 52 years with a mean of 31.76 + 10.16 years.Group 3 (Non-smoker female subjects): 49 subjects were included. Their ages ranged between 8 and 58 years with a mean of 27.49 +11.66 years. NGR measurement in: Group 1:The mean growth rate in the right thumb was 95.4 + 28.8 microns/day, and for the left thumb was 96 + 34 microns/day. Group 2:The NGR was 105.6 + 34.35, and 103.4 + 34.24 microns /day, for the right thumb and the left thumb respectively. . Group 3: The NGR was 100 .5 + 33.52 microns/day for the right thumb and 101.6 + 31.77 microns /day for the left thumb. Conclusion: Age was inversely correlated with nail growth in right and left thumbs in all groups. The duration of smoking and number of cigarettes was inversely related to nail growth, but it did not reach statistical significance