A low proportion of HBeAg among HBsAg-positive pregnant women with known HIV status could suggest low perinatal transmission of HBV in Cameroon

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) from HBV-positive mothers to their infants is common and usually occurs when the mother is hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive and/or has a high HBV DNA load. In this study, we determined the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and HBeAg among pregnant women with known HIV status.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>A total of 650 pregnant women with a mean age of 26.2 years including 301 HIV-positives and 349 HIV-negatives were screened for HBsAg (Monolisa AgHBs Plus Biorad, France). Among the HBsAg-positives, HBeAg and anti-HBe were tested (Monolisa Ag HBe Plus Biorad, France). Overall, 51 (7.85%) were positive for HBsAg. The prevalence of HBsAg was not statistically different between HIV-positive and HIV-negative pregnant women [28/301 (9.3%) vs 23/349 (6.59%); p = 0.2]. None of the 45 HBsAg-positive samples was reactive for HBeAg.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study indicates a high prevalence of HBsAg with very low proportion of HBeAg in Cameroonian pregnant women. Since perinatal transmission of HBV is mostly effective when the mother is also HBeAg-positive, our data could suggest that perinatal transmissions play a minor role in HBV prevalence in Cameroon. In line with previous African studies, these findings further suggests that horizontal transmission could be the most common mechanism of HBV infections in Cameroon.</p

Chronic Intestinal Failure in Children: An International Multicenter Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism database for chronic intestinal failure (CIF) was analyzed to investigate factors associated with nutritional status and the intravenous supplementation (IVS) dependency in children. Methods: Data collected: demographics, CIF mechanism, home parenteral nutrition program, z-scores of weight-for-age (WFA), length or height-for-age (LFA/HFA), and body mass index-for-age (BMI-FA). IVS dependency was calculated as the ratio of daily total IVS energy over estimated resting energy expenditure (%IVSE/REE). Results: Five hundred and fifty-eight patients were included, 57.2% of whom were male. CIF mechanisms at age 1–4 and 14–18 years, respectively: SBS 63.3%, 37.9%; dysmotility or mucosal disease: 36.7%, 62.1%. One-third had WFA and/or LFA/HFA z-scores &lt; −2. One-third had %IVSE/REE &gt; 125%. Multivariate analysis showed that mechanism of CIF was associated with WFA and/or LFA/HFA z-scores (negatively with mucosal disease) and %IVSE/REE (higher for dysmotility and lower in SBS with colon in continuity), while z-scores were negatively associated with %IVSE/REE. Conclusions: The main mechanism of CIF at young age was short bowel syndrome (SBS), whereas most patients facing adulthood had intestinal dysmotility or mucosal disease. One-third were underweight or stunted and had high IVS dependency. Considering that IVS dependency was associated with both CIF mechanisms and nutritional status, IVS dependency is suggested as a potential marker for CIF severity in children

Review of Intrinsic Motivation in Simulation-based Game Testing

This paper presents a review of intrinsic motivation in player modeling, with a focus on simulation-based game testing. Modern AI agents can learn to win many games; from a game testing perspective, a remaining research problem is how to model the aspects of human player behavior not explained by purely rational and goal-driven decision making. A major piece of this puzzle is constituted by intrinsic motivations, i.e., psychological needs that drive behavior without extrinsic reinforcement such as game score. We first review the common intrinsic motivations discussed in player psychology research and artificial intelligence, and then proceed to systematically review how the various motivations have been implemented in simulated player agents. Our work reveals that although motivations such as competence and curiosity have been studied in AI, work on utilizing them in simulation-based game testing is sparse, and other motivations such as social relatedness, immersion, and domination appear particularly underexplored

Computational modeling of mood and feeling from emotion

We propose requirements for computational models that combine mood and emotion to create feeling and feeling intensity within an appraisal theory framework. Meeting these requirements involves solving many representational issues, such as determining the range of values for each appraisal dimension. We present functions that have been realized in a computational model that fulfill these requirements

Addition de taurine lors d'une nutrition parentérale chez l'enfant : aminogramme plasmatique et urinaire

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