251 research outputs found
Prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection among blood donors at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ghana (2009)
Background: Despite education and availability of drugs and vaccines, hepatitis B virus (HBV) is still the most common severe liver infection in the world accounting for >1 million annual deaths worldwide. Transfusion of infected blood, unprotected sex and mother to child transmission are 3 key transmission routes of HBV in Ghana. There is high incidence of blood demanding health situations in northern Ghana resulting from anemia, accidents, malnutrition, etc. The higher the demand, the higher the possibility of transmitting HBV through infected blood. The aim of the investigation was to estimate the prevalence of HBV in blood donors which will provide justification for interventions that will help minimize or eliminate HBV infection in Ghana. Findings. We investigated the prevalence of HBV infection among blood donors at Tamale Teaching Hospital. The Wondfo HBsAg test kit was used to determine the concentration of HBsAg in 6,462 (576 voluntary and 5,878 replacement) donors as being 1 ng/ml. 10.79% of voluntary donors and 11.59% of replacement donors were HBsAg+. The 20-29 year group of voluntary donors was >2 times more likely to be HBsAg + than 40-60. Also the 20-29 year category of replacement donors was >4 times as likely to be HBsAg + than 50-69. Conclusions: Risk of infection was age, sex and donor type dependent. The 20-29 year category had the highest prevalence of HBsAg + cases, mostly males residing within the metropolis. © 2012 Dongdem et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd
Conjunctival mucous membrane colour as an indicator for the targeted selective treatment of haemonchosis and of the general health status of peri-urban smallholder goats in southern Malawi.
Facial Emotion Recognition with Sparse Coding Descriptor
With the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic ravaging the world, all sectors of life were affected including education. This led to many schools taking distance learning through the use of computer as a safer option. Facial emotion means a lot to teacher’s assessment of his performance and relation to his students. Researchers has been working on improving the face monitoring and human machine interface. In this paper we presented different types of face recognition methods which include: Principal component analysis (PCA); Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF); Local binary pattern (LBP); Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and also the group sparse coding (GSC) and come up with the fusion of LBP, PCA, SURF GLCM with GSC. Linear Kernel Support Vector Machine (LSVM) Classifier out-performed Polynomial, RBF and Sigmoid kernels SVM in the emotion classification. Results obtained from experiments indicated that, the new fusion method is capable of differentiating different types of face emotions with higher accuracy compare with the state-of-the-art methods currently available
Sphingomyelinase inhibitory and free radical scavenging potential of selected Nigerian medicinal plant extracts
Ceramides from sphingolipid breakdown, and other sphingolipid
metabolites, mediate cellular signalling in infectious and other
diseases. Therefore, inhibitors of sphingomyelinases (SMases), hold
promise as prospective therapeutic agents. Considering the potential
therapeutic utility, this in vitro study explored the sphingomyelinase
inhibitory, and free radical scavenging potential of five Nigerian
medicinal plant leaf extracts, purported to have efficacy against
diseases, including HIV/AIDS. The extracts\u2019 sphingomyelinase
inhibitory potencies were assessed colorimetrically and theirfree
radical scavenging capabilities were assayed by the ability to quench
2,2\u2010diphenyl\u20101\u2010picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and
superoxide anion (O2.\u2010) radical. Considering their IC50
(\u3bcg/ml) values, the extracts inhibited the biochemical activity of
sphingomyelinase in a dose-dependent manner, relative to imipramine the
standard inhibitor (IC50 38.5 \ub1 2.4 \u3bcg/ml). With Aloe vera as
least inhibitory, inhibition increased as follows: Aloe vera
(Asphodelaceae) (1132 \ub1 10.8) < Senna siamea (Fabaceae)
(992.2 \ub1 11.2) < Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae) (984 \ub1
7.4) < Landolphia owariensis (Apocynaceae) (146.3 \ub1 9.4) <
Stachytarpheta angustifolia (Verbenacae) (100.3 \ub1 8.7). DPPH
radical scavenging relative to ascorbic acid standard increased as: A.
indica < A. vera < S. siamea < S. angustifolia < L.
owariensis; and superoxide anion quenching, relative to standard rutin
increased as: A. vera < S. angustifolia < L. owariensis < S.
siamea < A. indica.These results showed thatthe most potent SMase
inhibitor was S. angustifolia; whereas, for DPPH radical scavenging and
superoxide inhibition, the most potent of the five extracts were L.
owariensis and A. indica respectively.These extracts deserve further
investigation into their biological effects
The BARD1 Cys557Ser Variant and Breast Cancer Risk in Iceland
BACKGROUND: Most, if not all, of the cellular functions of the BRCA1 protein are mediated through heterodimeric complexes composed of BRCA1 and a related protein, BARD1. Some breast-cancer-associated BRCA1 missense mutations disrupt the function of the BRCA1/BARD1 complex. It is therefore pertinent to determine whether variants of BARD1 confer susceptibility to breast cancer. Recently, a missense BARD1 variant, Cys557Ser, was reported to be at increased frequencies in breast cancer families. We investigated the role of the BARD1 Cys557Ser variant in a population-based cohort of 1,090 Icelandic patients with invasive breast cancer and 703 controls. We then used a computerized genealogy of the Icelandic population to study the relationships between the Cys557Ser variant and familial clustering of breast cancer. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The Cys557Ser allele was present at a frequency of 0.028 in patients with invasive breast cancer and 0.016 in controls (odds ratio [OR] = 1.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11–3.01, p = 0.014). The alleleic frequency was 0.037 in a high-predisposition group of cases defined by having a family history of breast cancer, early onset of breast cancer, or multiple primary breast cancers (OR = 2.41, 95% CI 1.22–4.75, p = 0.015). Carriers of the common Icelandic BRCA2 999del5 mutation were found to have their risk of breast cancer further increased if they also carried the BARD1 variant: the frequency of the BARD1 variant allele was 0.047 (OR = 3.11, 95% CI 1.16–8.40, p = 0.046) in 999del5 carriers with breast cancer. This suggests that the lifetime probability of a BARD1 Cys557Ser/BRCA2 999del5 double carrier developing breast cancer could approach certainty. Cys557Ser carriers, with or without the BRCA2 mutation, had an increased risk of subsequent primary breast tumors after the first breast cancer diagnosis compared to non-carriers. Lobular and medullary breast carcinomas were overrepresented amongst Cys557Ser carriers. We found that an excess of ancestors of contemporary carriers lived in a single county in the southeast of Iceland and that all carriers shared a SNP haplotype, which is suggestive of a founder event. Cys557Ser was found on the same SNP haplotype background in the HapMap Project CEPH sample of Utah residents. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that BARD1 Cys557Ser is an ancient variant that confers risk of single and multiple primary breast cancers, and this risk extends to carriers of the BRCA2 999del5 mutation
Germline sequence variants in TGM3 and RGS22 confer risk of basal cell carcinoma.
To access publisher's full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field.To search for new sequence variants that confer risk of cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC), we conducted a genome-wide association study of 38.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and small indels identified through whole-genome sequencing of 2230 Icelanders. We imputed genotypes for 4208 BCC patients and 109 408 controls using Illumina SNP chip typing data, carried out association tests and replicated the findings in independent population samples. We found new BCC susceptibility loci at TGM3 (rs214782[G], P = 5.5 × 10(-17), OR = 1.29) and RGS22 (rs7006527[C], P = 8.7 × 10(-13), OR = 0.77). TGM3 encodes transglutaminase type 3, which plays a key role in production of the cornified envelope during epidermal differentiation.Red Tematica de Investigacion Cooperative en Cancer RD06/0020/1054
Danish Cancer Society
"Europe Against Cancer": European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)
deCODE Genetics/AMGE
Experiences, challenges and looking to the future in a clinical tuberculosis cohort in the time of COVID-19 in the Philippines.
A cohort study of Filipino tuberculosis patients is currently undergoing data collection amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In this article we present the current experiences, challenges and obstacles of our team during this period as we attempt to fulfil our roles and responsibilities in Metro Manila, Cebu and Negros Occidental in the Philippines. Each site had different lockdown restrictions and experienced problems to different degrees. The underlying themes were similar, covering the supply chain, mobility, communication, physical and mental health and disruption of health services due to reallocation of staff. While we maximized the use of mobile devices, logistical challenges remained. Institutional support for the field teams, creative problem solving and resilience are required to adapt in a rapidly changing environment
LSST Science Book, Version 2.0
A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint
magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science
opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)
will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field
of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over
20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with
fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a
total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic
parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book
discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a
broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and
outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies,
the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local
Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the
properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then
turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to
z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and
baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to
constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at
http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo
Insertion of an SVA-E retrotransposon into the CASP8 gene is associated with protection against prostate cancer
To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files.
This article is open access.Transcriptional and splicing anomalies have been observed in intron 8 of the CASP8 gene (encoding procaspase-8) in association with cutaneous basal-cell carcinoma (BCC) and linked to a germline SNP rs700635. Here, we show that the rs700635[C] allele, which is associated with increased risk of BCC and breast cancer, is protective against prostate cancer [odds ratio (OR) = 0.91, P = 1.0 × 10(-6)]. rs700635[C] is also associated with failures to correctly splice out CASP8 intron 8 in breast and prostate tumours and in corresponding normal tissues. Investigation of rs700635[C] carriers revealed that they have a human-specific short interspersed element-variable number of tandem repeat-Alu (SINE-VNTR-Alu), subfamily-E retrotransposon (SVA-E) inserted into CASP8 intron 8. The SVA-E shows evidence of prior activity, because it has transduced some CASP8 sequences during subsequent retrotransposition events. Whole-genome sequence (WGS) data were used to tag the SVA-E with a surrogate SNP rs1035142[T] (r(2) = 0.999), which showed associations with both the splicing anomalies (P = 6.5 × 10(-32)) and with protection against prostate cancer (OR = 0.91, P = 3.8 × 10(-7)).National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI)
G0500966/75466
Department of Health, Medical Research Council
Cancer Research UK
University of Cambridge
NIHR
Department of Health
Anniversary Fund of the Austrian National Bank
15079
Medical and Scientific Fund of the Mayor of the City of Vienna
10077
Common Fund of the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health
NCI
NHGRI
NHLBI
NIDA
NIMH
NINDS
NCI\SAIC-Frederick, Inc. (SAIC-F)
10XS170
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
10XS171
Science Care, Inc.
X10S172
SAIC-F
10ST1035
HHSN261200800001E
deCODE genetics/AMGEN
HHSN268201000029C
DA006227
DA033684
N01MH000028
MH090941
MH101814
MH090951
MH090937
MH101820
MH101825
MH090936
MH101819
MH090948
MH101782
MH101810
MH10182
New basal cell carcinoma susceptibility loci.
To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files.
This article is open access.In an ongoing screen for DNA sequence variants that confer risk of cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC), we conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 24,988,228 SNPs and small indels detected through whole-genome sequencing of 2,636 Icelanders and imputed into 4,572 BCC patients and 266,358 controls. Here we show the discovery of four new BCC susceptibility loci: 2p24 MYCN (rs57244888[C], OR=0.76, P=4.7 × 10(-12)), 2q33 CASP8-ALS2CR12 (rs13014235[C], OR=1.15, P=1.5 × 10(-9)), 8q21 ZFHX4 (rs28727938[G], OR=0.70, P=3.5 × 10(-12)) and 10p14 GATA3 (rs73635312[A], OR=0.74, P=2.4 × 10(-16)). Fine mapping reveals that two variants correlated with rs73635312[A] occur in conserved binding sites for the GATA3 transcription factor. In addition, expression microarrays and RNA-seq show that rs13014235[C] and a related SNP rs700635[C] are associated with expression of CASP8 splice variants in which sequences from intron 8 are retained.NCI\SAIC-Frederick, Inc. (SAIC-F) 10XS170
Roswell Park Cancer Institute 10XS171
Science Care Inc. X10S172
Laboratory, Data Analysis and Coordinating Center (LDACC)
HHSN268201000029C
SAIC-F
10ST1035
HHSN261200800001E
Brain Bank
DA006227
DA033684
N01MH000028
University of Geneva
MH090941
MH101814
University of Chicago
MH090951
MH090937
MH101820
MH101825
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
MH090936
MH101819
Harvard University
MH090948
Stanford University
MH101782
Washington University St Louis
MH101810
University of Pennsylvania
MH10182
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