Sero-prevalence and risk factors for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 infection in women and children in a rural district of Bangladesh: A cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Bangladesh reported its first COVID-19 case on March 8, 2020. Despite lockdowns and promoting behavioural interventions, as of December 31, 2021, Bangladesh reported 1.5 million confirmed cases and 27 904 COVID-19-related deaths. To understand the course of the pandemic and identify risk factors for SARs-Cov-2 infection, we conducted a cohort study from November 2020 to December 2021 in rural Bangladesh. METHODS: After obtaining informed consent and collecting baseline data on COVID-19 knowledge, comorbidities, socioeconomic status, and lifestyle, we collected data on COVID-like illness and care-seeking weekly for 54 weeks for women (n = 2683) and their children (n = 2433). Between March and July 2021, we tested all participants for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using ROCHE's Elecsys® test kit. We calculated seropositivity rates and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) separately for women and children. In addition, we calculated unadjusted and adjusted relative risk (RR) and 95% CI of seropositivity for different age and risk groups using log-binomial regression models. RESULTS: Overall, about one-third of women (35.8%, 95% CI = 33.7-37.9) and one-fifth of children (21.3%, 95% CI = 19.2-23.6) were seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The seroprevalence rate doubled for women and tripled for children between March 2021 and July 2021. Compared to women and children with the highest household wealth (HHW) tertile, both women and children from poorer households had a lower risk of infection (RR, 95% CI for lowest HHW tertile women (0.83 (0.71-0.97)) and children (0.75 (0.57-0.98)). Most infections were asymptomatic or mild. In addition, the risk of infection among women was higher if she reported chewing tobacco (RR = 1.19,95% CI = 1.03-1.38) and if her husband had an occupation requiring him to work indoors (RR = 1.16,  95% CI = 1.02-1.32). The risk of infection was higher among children if paternal education was >5 years (RR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.10-1.71) than in children with a paternal education of ≤5 years. CONCLUSIONS: We provided prospectively collected population-based data, which could contribute to designing feasible strategies against COVID-19 tailored to high-risk groups. The most feasible strategy may be promoting preventive care practices; however, collecting data on reported practices is inadequate. More in-depth understanding of the factors related to adoption and adherence to the practices is essential

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

ORIGINAL ARTICLES Detection Of Minimal Residual Disease In Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Autologous Pbsct Using Flow Cytometry And Rt-Pcr 1

ABSTRACT Carcinoma of the breast is the most prevalent cancer among Egyptian women. Hematogenous distant metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in breast cancer and other solid epithelial tumors. The present study was planned to evaluate CK-19 mRNA detection by nested RT-PCR assay as a detection marker of circulating breast cancer cells in the peripheral blood and disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow of patients with operable breast cancer before the initiation of any adjuvant therapy. Another aim was detection of minimal residual cancer cells contaminating the peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) apheresis products of patients with advanced breast cancer undergoing high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) and autologous PBSC transplantation, and to determine the impact of minimal residual disease (MRD) detection on the outcome of long-term follow up of these patients after transplantation. This present study included 64 breast cancer patients. Molecular and cellular approaches have been used in the detection of the occult tumor cells. RT-PCR targeting tissue-specific mRNA and flow cytometry using monoclonal antibodies against cytokeratin were applied on 14 bone marrow samples, 30 peripheral blood samples as well as 20 PBSC samples from high-risk primary and metastatic breast cancer patients who underwent high-dose chemotherapy and autologous transplantation. Flow cytometry detected minimal residual disease in 7 patients (35.0%) of group I (PBSC), while in group II bone marrow micrometastasis was detected in 3 (21.4%) patients. The nested RT-PCR assay for CK-19 mRNA detected minimal residual disease in 11(55.0%) patients of group I (PBSC) and 5 (36.0%) of group II (bone marrow micrometastasis) patients as well as 8 (27.3%) patients of group III (CTC). The concordance of flow cytometry and RT-PCR was 82.4%. There was a significant association between tumor stage and CK-19 mRNA by RT-PCR assay (p-value = 0.017) in group I (PBSC), while larger primary tumors > 2 cm were significantly associated with a higher incidence in micrometastasis patients (group II) than were tumors that were 2 cm or less in diameter (p<0.001). The presence of CK-19 mRNA positive tumor cells in the PBSC was significantly associated with a decreased DFS (p=0.04). Patients with bone marrow micrometastasis had a higher risk of relapse (p=0.007) and death (p=0.01) than patients without bone marrow micrometastasis. Measuring CTC counts can facilitate the early prediction of treatment response and thereby avoid unnecessary therapy. CTCs may also be a useful biomarker for molecular targeted agents, enabling the identification of patients most likely to respond to a given treatment and facilitating treatment selection

Original paper<br>The leukemogenic role of (iASPP) in acute leukemia

Introduction: The ASPP family (apoptosis – stimulating proteins of p53) comprises three proteins, ASPP1, ASPP2 and iASPP, that interact with and modulate the behavior of p53. ASPP1 and ASPP2 enhance the ability of p53 to induce apoptosis by causing p53 to up regulate the expression of proapoptotic genes specifically rather than genes involved in cell cycle arrest. Inhibitory member of the ASPP family (iASPP) acts as inhibitor for the p53, it was originally identified as a nuclear protein that interacts with and inhibits NFkb p56 RelA and inhibits p53-mediated cell death as well. Material and methods: To examine the role of iASPP in acute leukemic patients, we analyzed iASPP mRNA expression in acute leukemia by semi quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results: The results showed that the median level of iASPP in acute lymphoblastic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia patients was significantly higher than those in cells from normal donors (p=0.04). The expression of iASPP in ALL and AML patients was not associated with age, gender, hemoglobin, platelets; blasts count in bone marrow, treatment outcome but was associated with blasts count in peripheral blood and total leucocytic count in AL patients. Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that iASPP may play a role in leukemogenesis and/or disease progression of acute leukemia

COMPARISON BETWEEN PID CONTROLLER IN CONVENTIONAL CONTROL AND PID IN SIMULINK IN REFINING GOLD SCRAPS

In this study a comparison between PID controller in conventional control and PID control in Simulink was investigated. A control strategy was developed for purification of gold by aquaregia method. The aquaregia was composed of 1:3 HNO3 and HCL, therefor a ratio controller was designed to constantly adjust this ratio. The block diagram was drown and the transfer functions were cited from the literature. The stability of the control loops of the system ware calculated and used in the simulation of the loops. From the results of the simulation the controller that gives minimum interaction was selected. The loop paring was determined by the Relative gain array which gives the coupling with minimum interaction

Application of green technology to treat fibrous (textile) waste and recycling of used chemicals for reutilization of similar waste

Industrial factories, especially textile mills, usually release untreated waste into the environment. These textile industries produce large volumes of waste that harms the environment and humans. Waste treatment procedures are expensive. However, foreign buyers choose companies with waste-treatment facilities or ecologically friendly methods. In this study, color was extracted from discarded textile fibers using colorimetric analysis, and then synthetic fiber components were recycled using eco-friendly processes and materials. There was also an evaluation of the regenerated chemicals' ability to treat analogous garbage. Samples processed with both new and recycled chemicals were found to be free of color and synthetic components, providing strong evidence that the recycled chemicals are just as effective. The treated materials passed safety testing showing no traces of Azo or Formaldehyde. As a result of the waste treatment process, the samples were in an appropriate state, having lost their color and all synthetic components. Because their physico-mechanical qualities were not altered by the treatment, the samples may be safely discharged into the environment or used as a raw material in the textile industry's spinning division to make fresh yarn. Chemicals originally used to treat fibrous debris were recycled and put to good use in a circular process that saved money in the long run. The method used to treat textile industry fiber waste is feasible for widespread implementation, which is both practical and helpful in the fight against environmental degradation

GLUL rs10911021 polymorphism and risk of coronary artery disease among Egyptian individuals

Abstract Background Genome-wide association studies have identified novel genes related to coronary artery disease (CAD). These studies have been replicated in distinct ethnic populations, returning inconsistent results. Our work aimed to study the frequency of C and T alleles of GLUL polymorphism genetic variant rs10911021 among Egyptians with coronary artery disease in comparison to apparently healthy subjects. Our study included 420 patients with CAD (180 CAD without T2DM, 240 CAD with T2DM patients) and 200 control subjects. All subjects were genotyped for rs10911021 by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results For rs10911021, the frequency of (C/T + T/T) genotypes was significantly higher in CAD patients with and without T2DM than in controls (55(45 + 10) % vs. 22(19 + 3) %; p < 0.001) and (50(45 + 5) % vs. 22(19 + 3) %; p < 0.001 respectively). The genotype C/C was the most frequent among the controls (78%). The presence of GLUL polymorphism was associated with 4.4-fold increased risk to develop CAD in diabetic patients (OR = 4.4, 95% CI = (2.2–8.7); p < 0.001) and was associated with 2.3-fold increased risk to develop CAD (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = (1.1–4.6); p = 0.0213). Conclusion In conclusion, among Egyptians, the GLUL polymorphism susceptibility variant rs10911021 is associated with CAD, with and without T2DM