Rift Valley Fever Virus Circulating among Ruminants, Mosquitoes and Humans in the Central African Republic

Background Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) causes a viral zoonosis, with discontinuous epizootics and sporadic epidemics, essentially in East Africa. Infection with this virus causes severe illness and abortion in sheep, goats, and cattle as well as other domestic animals. Humans can also be exposed through close contact with infectious tissues or by bites from infected mosquitoes, primarily of the Aedes and Culex genuses. Although the cycle of RVFV infection in savannah regions is well documented, its distribution in forest areas in central Africa has been poorly investigated. Methodology/Principal Findings To evaluate current circulation of RVFV among livestock and humans living in the Central African Republic (CAR), blood samples were collected from sheep, cattle, and goats and from people at risk, such as stock breeders and workers in slaughterhouses and livestock markets. The samples were tested for anti-RVFV immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. We also sequenced the complete genomes of two local strains, one isolated in 1969 from mosquitoes and one isolated in 1985 from humans living in forested areas. The 1271 animals sampled comprised 727 cattle, 325 sheep, and 219 goats at three sites. The overall seroprevalence of anti-RVFV IgM antibodies was 1.9% and that of IgG antibodies was 8.6%. IgM antibodies were found only during the rainy season, but the frequency of IgG antibodies did not differ significantly by season. No evidence of recent RVFV infection was found in 335 people considered at risk; however, 16.7% had evidence of past infection. Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the strains isolated in the CAR with those isolated in other African countries showed that they belonged to the East/Central African cluster. Conclusion and significance This study confirms current circulation of RVFV in CAR. Further studies are needed to determine the potential vectors involved and the virus reservoirs

Advantage of vacuum assisted closure on healing of wound associated with omentoplasty after abdominoperineal excision: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Primary closure of the perineum with drainage after abdominoperineal excision of the rectum for carcinoma, is widely accepted. However hematoma, perineal abscess and re-operation are significantly more frequent after primary closure than after packing of the perineal cavity. Those complications are frequently related to the patients' clinical antecedent (i.e radiotherapy, diabetes, smoking).</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>In the present report, vacuum assisted drainage was used after abdominoperineal excision for carcinoma in the very first step due to intraoperative gross septic contamination during tumor resection. The first case: A 57-years old man with a 30-years history of peri-anal Crohn's disease, the adenocarcinoma of the lowest part of the rectum and Crohn colitis with multiple area of severe dysplasia required panproctocolectomy with a perineal resection. The VAC system was used during 12 days (changed every 3 days). We observed complete healing 18 days after surgery. The second case: A 51-year-old man, with AIDS. An abdominoperineal resection was performed for recurrence epidermoid anal cancer. The patient was discharged at day 25 and complete healing was achieved 30 days later after surgery.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The satisfactory results showed in the present report appear to be favored by association of omentoplasty and VAC system. Those findings led us to favor VAC system in the case of pelvic exenteration associated with high risk of infection.</p

Drug vaping applied to cannabis: Is "Cannavaping" a therapeutic alternative to marijuana?

Therapeutic cannabis administration is increasingly used in Western countries due to its positive role in several pathologies. Dronabinol or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) pills, ethanolic cannabis tinctures, oromucosal sprays or table vaporizing devices are available but other cannabinoids forms can be used. Inspired by the illegal practice of dabbing of butane hashish oil (BHO), cannabinoids from cannabis were extracted with butane gas, and the resulting concentrate (BHO) was atomized with specific vaporizing devices. The efficiency of "cannavaping," defined as the "vaping" of liquid refills for e-cigarettes enriched with cannabinoids, including BHO, was studied as an alternative route of administration for therapeutic cannabinoids. The results showed that illegal cannavaping would be subjected to marginal development due to the poor solubility of BHO in commercial liquid refills (especially those with high glycerin content). This prevents the manufacture of liquid refills with high BHO concentrations adopted by most recreational users of cannabis to feel the psychoactive effects more rapidly and extensively. Conversely, "therapeutic cannavaping" could be an efficient route for cannabinoids administration because less concentrated cannabinoids-enriched liquid refills are required. However, the electronic device marketed for therapeutic cannavaping should be carefully designed to minimize potential overheating and contaminant generation

ncPRO-seq: a tool for annotation and profiling of ncRNAs in sRNA-seq data

Summary: Non-coding RNA (ncRNA) PROfiling in small RNA (sRNA)-seq (ncPRO-seq) is a stand-alone, comprehensive and flexible ncRNA analysis pipeline. It can interrogate and perform detailed profiling analysis on sRNAs derived from annotated non-coding regions in miRBase, Rfam and RepeatMasker, as well as specific regions defined by users. The ncPRO-seq pipeline performs both gene-based and family-based analyses of sRNAs. It also has a module to identify regions significantly enriched with short reads, which cannot be classified under known ncRNA families, thus enabling the discovery of previously unknown ncRNA- or small interfering RNA (siRNA)-producing regions. The ncPRO-seq pipeline supports input read sequences in fastq, fasta and color space format, as well as alignment results in BAM format, meaning that sRNA raw data from the three current major platforms (Roche-454, Illumina-Solexa and Life technologies-SOLiD) can be analyzed with this pipeline. The ncPRO-seq pipeline can be used to analyze read and alignment data, based on any sequenced genome, including mammals and plants. Availability: Source code, annotation files, manual and online version are available at http://ncpro.curie.fr/. Contact: [email protected] or [email protected] Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics onlin

A framework for analyzing institutional gaps in natural resource governance

In this paper we present the Inter-Institutional Gap(IIG) Framework as a novel approach to conceptualizing the often-overlooked interconnectivity of different rule-levels between formal and informal institutions in a resource system. This framework goes beyond the existing concepts of legal pluralism, institutional void, structural hole, and cultural mismatch, each of which offer valuable insights to particular gaps between formal and informal institutions, but do not sufficiently address the interaction at every rule level (i.e. constitutional choice, collective choice and operational choice rules). In order to demonstrate the potential of our framework for better understanding the underlying causes of inter-institutional gaps, we apply it to four case studies that encompass diverse geographical locations, governance scales, and social-ecological systems. Results reveal inter-institutional gaps can be created when there are unintended, unforeseen or hidden gaps between different rule hierarchies in two or more simultaneously operating institutions. More specifically we observe that: i) inter-institutional gaps are co-existing, therefore if a certain gap is identified, other gaps may be expected; ii) certain gaps may reveal latent gaps; and iii) intermediaries may be key to addressing inter-institutional gaps. In many cases, sustainable natural resource management and regulation cannot be achieved without directly addressing the inter-institutional gaps that exist between formal and informal institutions operating in the same resource system. The Framework facilitates analysis and understanding of multi-level governance structures in pursuit of addressing complex natural resource management issues