THE EFFECT OF THREE PRETREATMENTS ON BREAKING SEED DORMANCY OF BAOBAB (ADANSONIA DIGITATA L.)

Objective: Baobab (Adansonia digitata) is a native tree that is found in African savannas, it is a member of family ‘Malvaceae’. The tree is found in Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and in different regions of western Madagascar. Seed dormancy is the most limiting factor for some plants propagation. Dormancy allows seeds to separate from their mother plant and survive dispersal, over distance, and time before growth recommences. This study was aimed to determine the effect of three pre-treatments on breaking the seed dormancy of Adansonia digitata L., a multi-purpose and indigenously endangered tree. Methods: The study was carried out in the greenhouse of the Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Nigeria. The three pre-treatments are: Soaking in hot water (100°C) for 5, 10, 15, and 20 min; and soaking in sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and hydrochloric acid (HCL) concentrations (100%, 75%, 50%, and 25%) for 5, 10, 15, and 20 min. Untreated seeds served as control. These were laid out in a complete randomized design with three replications. Data were collected on germination percentage, germination rate, day of emergence, and the average seedlings height. Results: The result showed that earliest mean days of emergence (7 days) were observed in seeds subjected to hot water treatment at 15 min. It also showed the highest rate of germination and percentage 6 (100%). On the other hand, the effect of acids (H2SO4 and HCL) pre-treatments on the seeds gave a fair result (16.66–33.33%), untreated seeds did not germinate. Conclusion: All the pre-treatments used in the study were found to be effective. However, soaking of seeds in hot water (100°C) pre-treatment for 15 min is recommended for breaking the seed dormancy of A. digitata

A comprehensive review on medical diagnosis using machine learning

The unavailability of sufficient information for proper diagnosis, incomplete or miscommunication between patient and the clinician, or among the healthcare professionals, delay or incorrect diagnosis, the fatigue of clinician, or even the high diagnostic complexity in limited time can lead to diagnostic errors. Diagnostic errors have adverse effects on the treatment of a patient. Unnecessary treatments increase the medical bills and deteriorate the health of a patient. Such diagnostic errors that harm the patient in various ways could be minimized using machine learning. Machine learning algorithms could be used to diagnose various diseases with high accuracy. The use of machine learning could assist the doctors in making decisions on time, and could also be used as a second opinion or supporting tool. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of research articles published from the year 2015 to mid of the year 2020 that have used machine learning for diagnosis of various diseases. We present the various machine learning algorithms used over the years to diagnose various diseases. The results of this study show the distribution of machine learningmethods by medical disciplines. Based on our review, we present future research directions that could be used to conduct further research

Medical diagnosis using machine learning: a statistical review

Decision making in case of medical diagnosis is a complicated process. A large number of overlapping structures and cases, and distractions, tiredness, and limitations with the human visual system can lead to inappropriate diagnosis. Machine learning (ML) methods have been employed to assist clinicians in overcoming these limitations and in making informed and correct decisions in disease diagnosis. Many academic papers involving the use of machine learning for disease diagnosis have been increasingly getting published. Hence, to determine the use of ML to improve the diagnosis in varied medical disciplines, a systematic review is conducted in this study. To carry out the review, six different databases are selected. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are employed to limit the research. Further, the eligible articles are classified depending on publication year, authors, type of articles, research objective, inputs and outputs, problem and research gaps, and findings and results. Then the selected articles are analyzed to show the impact of ML methods in improving the disease diagnosis. The findings of this study show the most used ML methods and the most common diseases that are focused on by researchers. It also shows the increase in use of machine learning for disease diagnosis over the years. These results will help in focusing on those areas which are neglected and also to determine various ways in which ML methods could be employed to achieve desirable results

Emergence of Tuning to Natural Stimulus Statistics along the Central Auditory Pathway

We have previously shown that neurons in primary auditory cortex (A1) of anaesthetized (ketamine/medetomidine) ferrets respond more strongly and reliably to dynamic stimuli whose statistics follow "natural" 1/f dynamics than to stimuli exhibiting pitch and amplitude modulations that are faster (1/f(0.5)) or slower (1/f(2)) than 1/f. To investigate where along the central auditory pathway this 1/f-modulation tuning arises, we have now characterized responses of neurons in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC) and the ventral division of the mediate geniculate nucleus of the thalamus (MGV) to 1/f(gamma) distributed stimuli with gamma varying between 0.5 and 2.8. We found that, while the great majority of neurons recorded from the ICC showed a strong preference for the most rapidly varying (1/f(0.5) distributed) stimuli, responses from MGV neurons did not exhibit marked or systematic preferences for any particular gamma exponent. Only in A1 did a majority of neurons respond with higher firing rates to stimuli in which gamma takes values near 1. These results indicate that 1/f tuning emerges at forebrain levels of the ascending auditory pathway

Safety and efficacy of catheter directed thrombolysis (CDT) in elderly with pulmonary embolism (PE).

INTRODUCTION: Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) remains a common cause for morbidity and mortality in patients over 65 years. Given the increased risk of bleeding in the elderly population with the use of systemic thrombolysis, catheter-directed therapy (CDT) is being increasingly used for the treatment of submassive PE. Nevertheless, the safety of CDT in the elderly population is not well studied. We, therefore, aimed to evaluate the safety of CDT in our elderly patients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational study of consecutive patients aged \u3e65 years with a diagnosis of PE from our Pulmonary Embolism Response Team database. We compared the treatment outcomes of CDT versus anticoagulation (AC) in elderly. Propensity score matching was used to construct two matched cohorts for final outcomes analysis. RESULTS: Of 346 patients with acute PE, 138 were \u3e65 years, and of these, 18 were treated with CDT. Unmatched comparison between CDT and AC cohorts demonstrated similar in-hospital mortality (11.1% vs 5.6%, p=0.37) and length of stay (LOS) (3.81 vs 5.02 days, p=0.5395), respectively. The results from the propensity-matched cohort mirrored results of the unmatched cohort with no significant difference between CDT and AC in-hospital mortality (11.8% vs 5.9%, p=0.545) or median LOS (3.76 vs 4.21 days, p=0.77), respectively. CONCLUSION: In this observational study using propensity score-matched analysis, we found that patients \u3e65 years who were treated with CDT for management of acute PE had similar mortality and LOS compared with those treated with AC. Further studies are required to confirm these findings

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. Methods Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. Results A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). Conclusion We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty

PRKCA Polymorphism Changes the Neural Basis of Episodic Remembering in Healthy Individuals

Everyday functioning relies on episodic memory, the conscious retrieval of past experiences, but this crucial cognitive ability declines severely with aging and disease. Vulnerability to memory decline varies across individuals however, producing differences in the time course and severity of memory problems that complicate attempts at diagnosis and treatment. Here we identify a key source of variability, by examining gene dependent changes in the neural basis of episodic remembering in healthy adults, targeting seven polymorphisms previously linked to memory. Scalp recorded Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were measured while participants remembered words, using an item recognition task that requires discrimination between studied and unstudied stimuli. Significant differences were found as a consequence of a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) in just one of the tested genes, PRKCA (rs8074995). Participants with the common G/G variant exhibited left parietal old/new effects, which are typically seen in word recognition studies, reflecting recollection-based remembering. During the same stage of memory retrieval participants carrying a rarer A variant exhibited an atypical pattern of brain activity, a topographically dissociable frontally-distributed old/new effect, even though behavioural performance did not differ between groups. Results replicated in a second independent sample of participants. These findings demonstrate that the PRKCA genotype is important in determining how episodic memories are retrieved, opening a new route towards understanding individual differences in memory

The need for national medical licensing examination in Saudi Arabia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medical education in Saudi Arabia is facing multiple challenges, including the rapid increase in the number of medical schools over a short period of time, the influx of foreign medical graduates to work in Saudi Arabia, the award of scholarships to hundreds of students to study medicine in various countries, and the absence of published national guidelines for minimal acceptable competencies of a medical graduate.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>We are arguing for the need for a Saudi national medical licensing examination that consists of two parts: Part I (Written) which tests the basic science and clinical knowledge and Part II (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) which tests the clinical skills and attitudes. We propose this examination to be mandated as a licensure requirement for practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The driving and hindering forces as well as the strengths and weaknesses of implementing the licensing examination are discussed in details in this debate.</p

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London

Blockade of IL-33 release and suppression of type 2 innate lymphoid cell responses by helminth secreted products in airway allergy

Helminth parasites such as the nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus strongly inhibit T helper type 2 (Th2) allergy, as well as colitis and autoimmunity. Here, we show that the soluble excretory/secretory products of H. polygyrus (HES) potently suppress inflammation induced by allergens from the common fungus Alternaria alternata. Alternaria extract, when administered to mice intranasally with ovalbumin (OVA) protein, induces a rapid (1–48 h) innate response while also priming an OVA-specific Th2 response that can be evoked 14 days later by intranasal administration of OVA alone. In this model, HES coadministration with Alternaria/OVA suppressed early IL-33 release, innate lymphoid cell (ILC) production of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13, and localized eosinophilia. Upon OVA challenge, type 2 ILC (ILC2)/Th2 cytokine production and eosinophilia were diminished in HES-treated mice. HES administration 6 h before Alternaria blocked the allergic response, and its suppressive activity was abolished by heat treatment. Administration of recombinant IL-33 at sensitization with Alternaria/OVA/HES abrogated HES suppression of OVA-specific responses at challenge, indicating that suppression of early Alternaria-induced IL-33 release could be central to the anti-allergic effects of HES. Thus, this helminth parasite targets IL-33 production as part of its armory of suppressive effects, forestalling the development of the type 2 immune response to infection and allergic sensitization