Malaria in Sudan: past, present and the future

Summary. Malaria is a major public health problem in Sudan and this is theleading cause of death. A lot of efforts are done recently to decrease theprevalence adopting the RBM initiative with its well known six elements.There is a new protocol for treatment which would be launched in June2004.Malaria Burden. Malaria in Sudan is a major public Health Problem. Itleads to an estimated 7.5- 10 million cases and 35000 deaths every year. Theburden of the disease on the health system is a reality. Out of the totaloutpatients’ attendance, admissions and deaths malaria represents 20- 40%, 30-50%and 15-20% respectively. These figures bring Sudan on the top of WHO /EMRO countries, as Sudan shouldered 50% of cases and 70% of deaths in theregion (WHO/EMRO). Malaria is endemic throughout the Sudan. Theendemicity level varies from hypo-endemic in the north - mesoendemic inthe central part and hyper-and holo-endemic in the south. (Map 1).Considering other factors which serve as a background for malaria in Sudan;metriological, human behavior and activities, status of the controlprogramme, country economic and social conditions, Sudan has beenstratified to 5 strata (Map2). It is worth to mention here that 80% of thepopulations are living in epidemic-prone area-unstable malaria transmission

Callus formation and organogenesis of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill, C.V. Omdurman) induced by thidiazuron

In vitro culture response was assessed in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. c. v. Omdurman) for optimum callus induction and plantlet  regeneration. Callus induction was achieved within seven to ten days directly on the cut surfaces of both hypocotyls and cotyledon explants cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with -naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), Thidiazuron (TDZ) and benzyl adenine (BA) alone or in differentcombinations, but not in hormone free-medium. The highest callusing index (5.3) was obtained on hypocotyls explants cultured on MS medium supplemented with NAA at 0.5 mg/l followed by an index of 5.2 obtained from the same explant by using 0.1 mg/l NAA in combination with BAP at 0.5 mg/l. However, for the cotyledon explants, the highest callusing index (4.7) was obtained on MS medium supplemented with NAA at either 2.0 or 3.0 mg/l. After 8 weeks of culture, organogenesis was observed only on the explants cultured on medium containing different concentrations of TDZ alone or in combination with BAP. The best shoot formation (93%) was obtained for cotyledon explant callus induced on MS medium containing TDZ in combination with BAP both at 0.5 mg/l. The highest number(6) of shoot per explant was obtained when cotyledon explant callus was sub cultured on MS medium supplemented with 3.0 mg/l TDZ. Plain half strength of MS was found to be the best rooting medium, however, addition of IAA at 1.0 mg/l and IBA at 2.0 mg/l were found essential to induce highest number of roots (22.1 ± 0.9) and longer roots (11.0 ± 0.3 cm), respectively. This protocol would be useful to create somaclonal variation and utilize transgenic approaches for varietal improvement of tomato

Detection of Most Congested Roads in Khartoum City Center using Geographical Information Systems Methods

The aim of this research is to Detect the Most Congested Roads in Khartoum City Center by studying the different causes of traffic congestion using GIS methods . Spatial and descriptive data of the congestion causes have been collected In the last three months, site plan, traffic plan ,random parking, bus lines and bus stations, natural and artificial obstacles ,entrance and exit of study area. Geographical database is created for geometrical analysis, to find out the most affected roads. This helps in developing economical solutions to the problem of traffic congestion

Rare Coexistence Of Benign Renal Oncocytoma And Renal Cell Carcinoma

The coexistence of two tumors in a single person is not common. Finding two tumors in a single organ is rare. We are reporting a 65 years old male who presented with a long history of left loin pain. Clinical examination was unremarkable apart from hypertension. The histopathology of intraabdominal mass seen on exploration of abdomen revealed oncocytoma and renal cell carcinoma.. Keywords: contralateral, nephrectomy, multifocality, hematuria, perinephric. Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Vol. 3 (2) 2008: pp. 167-17

Association Between Hemoglobin A1C and the Severity of Acute Ischemic Stroke in Sudanese Patients in Omdurman Military Hospital

Background: Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) levels are known to be linked to a higher risk of stroke. However, no research data is available on the impact of HbA1C on the severity of acute ischemic stroke in Sudan. Methods: This study is a descriptive, cross-sectional hospital-based study of 40 cases of acute ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke was confirmed using computed tomography (CT) scan at admission; all subjects’ blood HbA1C levels were also measured. Participants were divided into two subgroups based on HbA1C at admission, good glycemic control (GGC) (<7 HbA1C) and poor glycemic control (PGC) (>7 HbA1C), and neurological impairment was assessed using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Results: The age distribution of the participants was 45-85 years, with an average age of 63.5±9.2 years with the highest frequency (67.5%) in the age group of 55-75 years. PGC had a statistically significant high HbA1C value of 8.9±1.3 (P=0.000), when compared to GGC subgroups 5.1±0. The association between stroke severity and HbA1C levels on admission in this study was statistically significant (P value=0.005), on admission (78.6%) PGC had moderate to severe stroke (> 18.8 NIHSS) versus (33.3%) that of the GGC (>10.4NIHSS). The frequency of elevated HbA1C levels in patients with acute ischemic stroke was 70% in this study. Conclusion: PGC was shown to be linked to the occurrence of stroke and to its severity

Combining Ability and Heterosis for Yield and Yield Components in Maize

Abstract: The study was conducted at two sites , University of Khartoum the experimental farm, faculty of Agriculture, Shambat and at west of Khartoum state, Elrawkeeb Dry Land Research Station, Sudan, during the summer and winter seasons of 2009 and 2010 respectively. Five inbred lines (2, 3, 6, 277, and 405) were used as lines and two inbred lines namely (66Y and 160) were used as (testers). These lines were crossed together according to line x tester technique to generate 10 F 1 -hybrids, every genotype was planted in rows with 4 m along, 70cm between rows and 25cm between plants. A line × tester method for estimation the general combining ability (GCA) of parent and specific combining ability (SCA) of their F 1 -hybrids was used. Genetic components resulting from additive and nonadditive type of gene action were also estimated. Heterosis was measured as a deviation from the midparents and better-parent. The analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that both GCA and SCA variances were highly significant for most of the studied characters indicating importance of additive as well as non-additive types of gene action in controlling these traits. GCA mean squares for inbred lines were significant (P < 0.01) for all the traits except cob length and number of kernels/row while GCA due to testers was only significant (P<0.05) for 100-kernels weight. Moreover, variances due to SCA were higher in magnitude than GCA for the yield and yield components except cob diameter, number of rows/cob, number of kernels/row and harvest index. GCA to SCA ratios were less than one for most of the traits except cob diameter, number of kernels row/cob, number of kernels/row and harvest index indicating a preponderance of additive over no additive gene action. High positive heterosis for grain yield and its components was found for more than half of the hybrids studied. Crosses involving 160×3 and 66Y×2 produced the highest heterosis. It can be concluded that these parental lines can be desirable parents for hybrids as well as for inclusion in breeding program, since they may contribute favorable alleles in the synthesis of new varietie

High levels of molasses and peanut hulls in a urea supplemented diet for sheep fattening

A two-phase experiment was conducted to study the effects of feeding molasses (M) or sorgum (S) based diet on feedlot performance and carcass analysis of 48 intact sudndesert male lambs (age 3-7 months) divided equally into groups of a heavy (H) and light (L) with an average 27±0.8 kg and 31.9±0.4 kg starting liveweight respectively; at central animal production and research station at Kuku, Sudan. In the first phase of the experiment the analysis were divided according to liveweight and diet offered into four groups of 12 lambs each and were raised to an average 40 kg. Slaughter weight on either diet. Daily liveweight gain for HM, HS, LM and LS were 204, 236,209 and 219g respectively, where as dressing percentage were 44.1, 44.8, 43.5 and 48.21. Respectivelly for six lambs form each group LM and LS were 153 and 186g/day and dressing percentage of these lambs were 49.4 and 50.7% respectively during the second experimental phase using the remaining six lambs continuing on their same diet to a maximum of 48 kg finishing weight. No significant differences were observed between the diet treatments in feedlot performance or carcass analysis data. It was concluded that fattening desert lambs to 40 kg finishing liveweight has high feed conversion efficiency and yielded a desirable carcass of moderate fat percentage

A Machine Learning Based Vehicle Classification in Forward Scattering Radar

The Forward scattering radars (FSRs) are special types of Bistatic radars in which detected targets should exist in the narrow baseline to obtain their tracking at an angle of 180 degree. This gives the radar several features such as target classification which makes FSR more privileged in comparison to traditional radar systems. Existing research works concerning the ground target detection and classification have utilized neural network for the identification processes and compared it to other statistical models in terms of signal complexity. However, these works considered limited number of scenarios and thereby, the results are insufficient to create an automatic classification system. This study investigates and analyses the classification of ground targets in FSR using Machine-learning (ML) techniques, and proposes a hybrid model for ground target classification. The analysis in this paper represent a foundation for a potential use of pre-processing and signal processing techniques, statistical analysis, and ML in radar applications. The obtained results show that the k-nearest neighbor classifier (KNN) achieves the best performance in all examined scenarios. Additionally, combining multiple pre-processing techniques enhances the accuracy of classification by approximately 30.2% and increases the overall accuracy to more than 99%