2,467 research outputs found
Secondary Fahr’s Disease: A Consequence of Post-Thyroidectomy Hypoparathyroidism
Objective: The objective of this case report is to emphasize the importance of considering uncommon conditions like Fahr’s disease in the
differential diagnosis of seizures and cognitive impairment, especially in patients with a history of thyroidectomy.
Material and Methods: A 56-year-old woman who had undergone subtotal thyroidectomy 25 years previously presented with movement
disorder and cognitive impairment secondary to hypoparathyroidism. A CT scan of the brain showed pathognomonic bilateral calcification
in the basal ganglia, thalamus and cerebellar nuclei.
Result: The patient was diagnosed with Fahr’s disease caused by post-thyroidectomy hypoparathyroidism and successfully managed with
oral calcium, carbidopa/levodopa and haloperidol.
Conclusion: We recommend the routine use of CT scanning in the long-term follow-up of post-thyroidectomy patients
Validation of the protein kinase PfCLK3 as a multistage cross-species malarial drug target.
The requirement for next generation anti-malarials to be both curative and transmission
blocking necessitate the identification of new druggable molecular pathways. Here we
identify a selective inhibitor to the Plasmodium falciparum protein kinase PfCLK3 which we
use in combination with chemogenetics to validate PfCLK3 as a drug target acting at
multiple parasite life stages. Consistent with a role for PfCLK3 in RNA splicing, inhibition
results in the down-regulation of >400 essential parasite genes. Inhibiting plasmodium CLK3
mediates rapid killing of asexual blood stage P. falciparum and blockade of gametocyte
development preventing transmission, as well as showing parasiticidal activity against P.
berghei and P. knowlesi. Hence, our data establishes PfCLK3 as a target with the potential to
deliver both symptomatic treatment and transmission blocking in malariapre-print7900 K
Creek`s Aquaculture Techniques in Rangamati Hill Tracts of Bangladesh
An experiment was conducted in nine suitable (average .10±2 ha) creeks of Rangamati hill tracts Bangladesh viz., of Langadu, Naniarchar and Sadar Upazila for evaluating growth, survival and production performance of Indian major carps (Labeo rohita, Catla catla, Cirrhinus mrigala) in a completely randomized design into three different treatments with three replications for a period of one year. Stocking density, growth, survival was checked periodically and total yield calculated from stocking and harvesting data. A significant spatial variation in specific growth rate (SGR) and yields was found despite uniform stocking densities, attributable to variation in environmental parameters. Among the results rohu was found to have comparatively higher SGR of 1.51±0.55 in Naniarchar where as langadu creek was reported with higher SGR of 1.46±0.94, 1.57±0.41 and 1.46 ±.64 for rohu catla, and mrigal. Rangamati sadar Upazilla creek was found to be conducive to Catla with a SGR of 1.55±.78. In general, higher gross and net productions were reported from Sadar Upazilla, Langadu and Naniarchar creeks, suggestive of its suitability for developing creeks aquaculture technology. However research findings will help the community of Chittagong hill tracts by giving appropriate technology for sustainable fish production in creeks
Experience in Managing Severe Malnutrition in a Government Tertiary Treatment Facility in Bangladesh
Children with severe acute malnutrition, defined as weight-for-height <70% of the reference median or bilateral pedal oedema or mid-arm circumference <110 mm having complications, were managed in the Nutrition Unit of the Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) following the guidelines of the World Health Organization, with support from Concern Worldwide Bangladesh and ICDDR,B. In total, 171 children aged less than five years (mean±SD age 23.5±15.3 months) were admitted during June 2005–May 2006. Of them, 66% were aged less than two years, and 84.2% belonged to households with a monthly income of less than US 14.6 per child or approximately US$ 1 per child-day (excluding staff-cost). Food and medicines accounted for 42% and 58% of the total cost respectively. This study demonstrated the potential of addressing severe acute malnutrition (with complications) effectively with minimum incremental expenditure in Bangladesh. This public-private approach should be used for treating severe acute malnutrition in all healthcare facilities and the treatment protocol included in the medical and nursing curricula
Editorial: Frontiers in malaria research
No abstract available
Latency reduction by dynamic channel estimator selection in C-RAN networks using fuzzy logic
Due to a dramatic increase in the number of
mobile users, operators are forced to expand their networks
accordingly. Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) was
introduced to tackle the problems of the current generation of
mobile networks and to support future 5G networks. However,
many challenges have arisen through the centralised structure of
C-RAN. The accuracy of the channel state information
acquisition in the C-RAN for large numbers of remote radio
heads and user equipment is one of the main challenges in this
architecture. In order to minimize the time required to acquire
the channel information in C-RAN and to reduce the end-to-end
latency, in this paper a dynamic channel estimator selection
algorithm is proposed. The idea is to assign different channel
estimation algorithms to the users of mobile networks based on
their link status (particularly the SNR threshold). For the
purpose of automatic and adaptive selection to channel
estimators, a fuzzy logic algorithm is employed as a decision
maker to select the best SNR threshold by utilising the bit error
rate measurements. The results demonstrate a reduction in the
estimation time with low loss in data throughput. It is also
observed that the outcome of the proposed algorithm increases at
high SNR values
Experience in Managing Severe Malnutrition in a Government Tertiary Treatment Facility in Bangladesh
Children with severe acute malnutrition, defined as weight-for-height
<70% of the reference median or bilateral pedal oedema or mid-arm
circumference <110 mm having complications, were managed in the
Nutrition Unit of the Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH)
following the guidelines of the World Health Organization, with support
from Concern Worldwide Bangladesh and ICDDR,B. In total, 171 children
aged less than five years (mean\ub1SD age 23.5\ub115.3 months) were
admitted during June 2005\u2013May 2006. Of them, 66% were aged less
than two years, and 84.2% belonged to households with a monthly income
of less than US 40. The main reason for bringing children by their
families to the hospital was associated major illnesses:
bronchopneumonia (33%), oedema (24%), diarrhoea (11%), pulmonary
tuberculosis (9%), or other conditions, such as meningitis,
septicaemia, and infections of the skin, eye, or ear. The exit criteria
from the Nutrition Unit were: (a) for children admitted without oedema,
an absolute weight gain of 65500 and 65700 g for children
aged less than two years and 2-5 years respectively; and for children
admitted with oedema, complete loss of oedema and weight-for-height
>70% of the reference median, and (b) the mother or caretaker has
received specific training on appropriate feeding and was motivated to
follow the advice given. Of all the admitted children, 7.6% of parents
insisted for discharging their children early due to other urgent
commitments while 11.7% simply left with their children against medical
advice. Of the 138 remaining children, 88% successfully graduated from
the Nutrition Unit with a mean weight gain of 10.6 g/kg per day
(non-oedematous children) and loss of -1.9 g/kg per day (oedematous
children), 86% graduated in less than three weeks, and the
case-fatality rate was 10.8%. The Nutrition Unit of CMCH also functions
as a training centre, and 197 health functionaries (82 medical
students, 103 medical interns, and 12 nurses) received hands-on
training on management of severe malnutrition. The average cost of
overall treatment was US 14.6 per child or approximately US$ 1 per
child-day (excluding staff-cost). Food and medicines accounted for 42%
and 58% of the total cost respectively. This study demonstrated the
potential of addressing severe acute malnutrition (with complications)
effectively with minimum incremental expenditure in Bangladesh. This
public-private approach should be used for treating severe acute
malnutrition in all healthcare facilities and the treatment protocol
included in the medical and nursing curricula
Analyses of structural and electrical properties of aluminium doped ZnO-NPs by experimental and mathematical approaches
Pure and aluminium doped ZnO-NPs were played the central role in every field of life due to extraordi-nary physical, chemical and electrical properties. The main objective of the present research was used to enhance the electrical conductivity and reduce the electrical resistivity of aluminium doped zinc oxide-NPs. Synthesis of pure and aluminium doped zinc oxide-NPs (Zn1-xAlxO) at x = 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 wt% was carried out by co-precipitation method. The XRD results depicted that hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure and crystallite size in the range of 13-25 nm were calculated by using Debye-Scherrer's equa-tion. Likewise, the non-uniform, irregular and pore like surface morphology of the prepared NPs was evi-dent from SEM micrographs. Various functional groups (CH, CO, OH and ZnO) attached to the surface of aluminium doped zinc oxide-NPs were identified by FTIR analysis. The UV-VIS spectra also depicted a shift towards the blue region of the visible spectrum. In terms of electrical properties with the help of experimental and mathematical analyses of aluminum doped zinc oxide-NPs exhibited higher conductiv-ity (1.34 x 10(-6) to 1.43 x 10(-3) S/cm) and lower resistivity (5.46 x 10(5) to 6.99 x 10(2) Omega-cm). The present results suggest that the aluminum doped zinc oxide-NPs have been improved the structural and electrical properties which make it a good candidate for optoelectronic devices. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).</p
Introgression of blast resistance genes into the elite rice variety MR263 through marker-assisted backcrossing
BACKGROUND Blast caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is a significant disease threat to rice across the world and is especially prevalent in Malaysia. An elite, early-maturing, high-yielding Malaysian rice variety, MR263, is susceptible to blast and was used as the recurrent parent in this study. To improve MR263 disease resistance, the Pongsu Seribu 1 rice variety was used as donor of the blast resistance Pi-7(t), Pi-d(t)1 and Pir2-3(t) genes and qLN2 quantitative trait locus (QTL). The objective was to introgress these blast resistance genes into the background of MR263 using marker-assisted backcrossing with both foreground and background selection. RESULTS Improved MR263-BR-3-2, MR263-BR-4-3, MR263-BR-13-1 and MR263-BR-26-4 lines carrying the Pi-7(t), Pi-d(t)1 and Pir2-3(t) genes and qLN2 QTL were developed using the simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers RM5961 and RM263 (linked to the blast resistance genes and QTL) for foreground selection and a collection of 65 polymorphic SSR markers for background selection in backcrossed and selfed generations. A background analysis revealed that the highest rate of recurrent parent genome recovery was 96.1% in MR263-BR-4-3 and 94.3% in MR263-BR-3-2. CONCLUSION The addition of blast resistance genes can be used to improve several Malaysian rice varieties to combat this major disease
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