Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in Africa: a perspective

Background: The universal occurrence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was queried about twenty-six years ago. It was thought to occur only in western industrialized countries with high technological development. Over the last decade, knowledge about ASD and its prevalence has been documented as being on the rise in different regions of the world, with most literature coming from the western world – the situation in Africa on aspects of ASD remain unclear. Methods: Literature cited in Pubmed over the last decade on aspects of epidemiology, diagnosis, aetiology and knowledge of ASD in the African context were assessed. Keywords: autism, diagnosis, aetiology, knowledge and Africa were variously combined in the literature search. Results: No study specifically addressed the epidemiology of ASD in Africa. One of the two studies that were relevant addressed epidemiology of ASD in Arab countries, though included two Northern African countries. A higher proportion of non-verbal cases of ASD compared to verbal cases was documented in literature coming from Africa. Associated co-morbid disorders included intellectual disability, epilepsy and oculo-cutaneous albinism. Aetiological factors postulated included post-encephalitic infection, genetic and auto-immune factors, and vitamin D deficiency. Knowledge about ASD in Africa was noted to be low. Conclusion: There is a need for epidemiological studies in Africa to define the magnitude of the problem of ASD and the characteristics of children affected by ASD in this region. This would help in planning and might be helpful in answering the question of aetiology of ASD. Policy making needs to be directed at issues of childhood developmental disorders in Africa.Key Words: Epidemiology; Diagnosis; Aetiology; Knowledge; Autism; Afric

Zidovudine therapy: Effect(s) on histology of the kidney of wister rats

This study investigated the histo-morphological effect(s) of Zidovudine therapy on the kidney of Wister rats. Fifteen Wistar rats obtained from the Animal house of the College of Medicine, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria, were used for this study. A three week period of  acclimatisation was allowed. They were subsequently weighed and randomly stratified into a control (A; n=5) and two treatment groups - B (low dose; n=5) and C (high dose; n=5). Groups B and C received varied doses of Zidovudine (6mg/kg and 12mg/kg respectively). After the completion of a 21 day treatment exercise, renal tissues were harvested from each of thegroups and taken for histo-morphologic analysis The results showed significant body weight reduction in the treatment groups as compared to the control (p<0.05) with mild to moderate derangement in the kidney sections of group B (high dose). It can be concluded therefore, thatwhile low doses of zidovudine can reduce body weight of the animals with no obvious deleterious effects, higher dose however, has capacity to induce histomorphologic alterations in renal tissues of rats.Key words: ARV drug, Renal parameters, Body weight, Kidney, Zidovudin

Needle Tip Force Estimation using an OCT Fiber and a Fused convGRU-CNN Architecture

Needle insertion is common during minimally invasive interventions such as biopsy or brachytherapy. During soft tissue needle insertion, forces acting at the needle tip cause tissue deformation and needle deflection. Accurate needle tip force measurement provides information on needle-tissue interaction and helps detecting and compensating potential misplacement. For this purpose we introduce an image-based needle tip force estimation method using an optical fiber imaging the deformation of an epoxy layer below the needle tip over time. For calibration and force estimation, we introduce a novel deep learning-based fused convolutional GRU-CNN model which effectively exploits the spatio-temporal data structure. The needle is easy to manufacture and our model achieves a mean absolute error of 1.76 +- 1.5 mN with a cross-correlation coefficient of 0.9996, clearly outperforming other methods. We test needles with different materials to demonstrate that the approach can be adapted for different sensitivities and force ranges. Furthermore, we validate our approach in an ex-vivo prostate needle insertion scenario.Comment: Accepted for Publication at MICCAI 201

Solids lateral mixing and compartmentalization in dynamically structured gas–solid fluidized beds

An adequate use of gas pulsation can create an ordered, dynamically structured bubble flow in a bed of Geldart B particles. A structured bed is more homogeneous, responds to external control and is scalable. While earlier studies have focused on describing the self-organization of the gas bubbles, the solid mixing and gas–solid contact patterns have remained unclear. In this work, the solids circulation and mixing behavior in structured and unstructured beds at various pulsation frequencies are compared with a traditional fluidized bed operation. The degree of lateral mixing is hereby quantified through an effective lateral dispersion coefficient extracted from CFD-DEM (discrete element modelling) simulations in a thin fluidized bed system. Mixing shows major quantitative and qualitative differences amongst the investigated cases. The coordinated motion of the gas bubbles wraps the solid flow into a series of compartments with minimal interaction, whereby effective lateral dispersion coefficients are an order of magnitude lower than in an unstructured operation. More importantly, unlike a traditional bed, dispersion in a structured bed is driven by advection and is no longer a diffusive process. Compartmentalization decouples the time scales of micro- and macromixing. Every pulse, the compartments rearrange dynamically, causing a level of local axial mixing that is scale-independent. While further work is necessary to fully understand the compartmentalization at a larger scale, the circulation described here indicates that a dynamically structured bed can provide a tight control of mixing at low gas velocities and a narrower distribution of stresses in the solid phase compared to traditional devices

Hybrid spiral-dynamic bacteria-chemotaxis algorithm with application to control two-wheeled machines

This paper presents the implementation of the hybrid spiral-dynamic bacteria-chemotaxis (HSDBC) approach to control two different configurations of a two-wheeled vehicle. The HSDBC is a combination of bacterial chemotaxis used in bacterial forging algorithm (BFA) and the spiral-dynamic algorithm (SDA). BFA provides a good exploration strategy due to the chemotaxis approach. However, it endures an oscillation problem near the end of the search process when using a large step size. Conversely; for a small step size, it affords better exploitation and accuracy with slower convergence. SDA provides better stability when approaching an optimum point and has faster convergence speed. This may cause the search agents to get trapped into local optima which results in low accurate solution. HSDBC exploits the chemotactic strategy of BFA and fitness accuracy and convergence speed of SDA so as to overcome the problems associated with both the SDA and BFA algorithms alone. The HSDBC thus developed is evaluated in optimizing the performance and energy consumption of two highly nonlinear platforms, namely single and double inverted pendulum-like vehicles with an extended rod. Comparative results with BFA and SDA show that the proposed algorithm is able to result in better performance of the highly nonlinear systems

Sensory Electrical Stimulation Improves Foot Placement during Targeted Stepping Post-Stroke

Proper foot placement is vital for maintaining balance during walking, requiring the integration of multiple sensory signals with motor commands. Disruption of brain structures post-stroke likely alters the processing of sensory information by motor centers, interfering with precision control of foot placement and walking function for stroke survivors. In this study, we examined whether somatosensory stimulation, which improves functional movements of the paretic hand, could be used to improve foot placement of the paretic limb. Foot placement was evaluated before, during, and after application of somatosensory electrical stimulation to the paretic foot during a targeted stepping task. Starting from standing, twelve chronic stroke participants initiated movement with the non-paretic limb and stepped to one of five target locations projected onto the floor with distances normalized to the paretic stride length. Targeting error and lower extremity kinematics were used to assess changes in foot placement and limb control due to somatosensory stimulation. Significant reductions in placement error in the medial–lateral direction (p = 0.008) were observed during the stimulation and post-stimulation blocks. Seven participants, presenting with a hip circumduction walking pattern, had reductions (p = 0.008) in the magnitude and duration of hip abduction during swing with somatosensory stimulation. Reductions in circumduction correlated with both functional and clinical measures, with larger improvements observed in participants with greater impairment. The results of this study suggest that somatosensory stimulation of the paretic foot applied during movement can improve the precision control of foot placement

Whole-exome sequencing gives additional benefits compared to candidate gene sequencing in the molecular diagnosis of children with growth hormone or IGF-1 insensitivity

Ipsen UK!(HLS). Sandoz Pharmaceutical

Chaste: an open source C++ library for computational physiology and biology

Chaste - Cancer, Heart And Soft Tissue Environment - is an open source C++ library for the computational simulation of mathematical models developed for physiology and biology. Code development has been driven by two initial applications: cardiac electrophysiology and cancer development. A large number of cardiac electrophysiology studies have been enabled and performed, including high performance computational investigations of defibrillation on realistic human cardiac geometries. New models for the initiation and growth of tumours have been developed. In particular, cell-based simulations have provided novel insight into the role of stem cells in the colorectal crypt. Chaste is constantly evolving and is now being applied to a far wider range of problems. The code provides modules for handling common scientific computing components, such as meshes and solvers for ordinary and partial differential equations (ODEs/PDEs). Re-use of these components avoids the need for researchers to "re-invent the wheel" with each new project, accelerating the rate of progress in new applications. Chaste is developed using industrially-derived techniques, in particular test-driven development, to ensure code quality, re-use and reliability. In this article we provide examples that illustrate the types of problems Chaste can be used to solve, which can be run on a desktop computer. We highlight some scientific studies that have used or are using Chaste, and the insights they have provided. The source code, both for specific releases and the development version, is available to download under an open source Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) licence at http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/chaste, together with details of a mailing list and links to documentation and tutorials

Exploring local knowledge and perceptions on zoonoses among pastoralists in northern and eastern Tanzania

Background: Zoonoses account for the most commonly reported emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is limited knowledge on how pastoral communities perceive zoonoses in relation to their livelihoods, culture and their wider ecology. This study was carried out to explore local knowledge and perceptions on zoonoses among pastoralists in Tanzania. Methodology and principal findings: This study involved pastoralists in Ngorongoro district in northern Tanzania and Kibaha and Bagamoyo districts in eastern Tanzania. Qualitative methods of focus group discussions, participatory epidemiology and interviews were used. A total of 223 people were involved in the study. Among the pastoralists, there was no specific term in their local language that describes zoonosis. Pastoralists from northern Tanzania possessed a higher understanding on the existence of a number of zoonoses than their eastern districts' counterparts. Understanding of zoonoses could be categorized into two broad groups: a local syndromic framework, whereby specific symptoms of a particular illness in humans concurred with symptoms in animals, and the biomedical framework, where a case definition is supported by diagnostic tests. Some pastoralists understand the possibility of some infections that could cross over to humans from animals but harm from these are generally tolerated and are not considered as threats. A number of social and cultural practices aimed at maintaining specific cultural functions including social cohesion and rites of passage involve animal products, which present zoonotic risk. Conclusions: These findings show how zoonoses are locally understood, and how epidemiology and biomedicine are shaping pastoralists perceptions to zoonoses. Evidence is needed to understand better the true burden and impact of zoonoses in these communities. More studies are needed that seek to clarify the common understanding of zoonoses that could be used to guide effective and locally relevant interventions. Such studies should consider in their approaches the pastoralists' wider social, cultural and economic set up

Clinical course, characteristics and prognostic indicators in patients presenting with back and leg pain in primary care. The ATLAS study protocol

Low-back related leg pain with or without nerve root involvement is associated with a poor prognosis compared to low back pain (LBP) alone. Compared to the literature investigating prognostic indicators of outcome for LBP, there is limited evidence on prognostic factors for low back-related leg pain including the group with nerve root pain. This 1 year prospective consultation-based observational cohort study will describe the clinical, imaging, demographic characteristics and health economic outcomes for the whole cohort, will investigate differences and identify prognostic indicators of outcome (i.e. change in disability at 12 months), for the whole cohort and, separately, for those classified with and without nerve root pain. In addition, nested qualitative studies will provide insights on the clinical consultation and the impact of diagnosis and treatment on patients' symptom management and illness trajectory