A Systematic Review of Hepatitis E Virus Detection in Camels

Simple Summary: Acute hepatitis, which is a rising public health issue globally, is mostly caused by the hepatitis E virus (HEV). There is a potential risk of camel-borne zoonotic HEV infection in the desert regions of the Middle East and Africa, where camels frequently interact with human populations and camel-derived food products constitute a component of the food chain. To better understand the current state of this subject, the current work's objective is to provide a scientific review of the detection of HEV genotypes seven and eight in camels around the world. Until today, no review paper has been published compiling and discussing the reports available on HEV in camels. More studies are required to ascertain the prevalence of HEV infection in camels worldwide. Additionally, because camels are utilized as a form of transportation in many countries and because HEV in these animals may pose a threat to public health, there is a possibility of foodborne transmission through contaminated camel products. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) represents a major cause of acute hepatitis and is considered an emerging public health problem around the world. In the Middle East's and Africa's arid regions, where camels frequently interact with human populations and camel-derived food products are a component of the food chain, camel-borne zoonotic HEV infection is a potential threat. To date, no review paper has been published on HEV in camels. As such, the purpose of the current work is to provide a scientific review of the identification of HEV genotypes seven and eight in camels worldwide to have a better understanding of the current status of this topic and to identify gaps in the current knowledge. Searches were carried out in the electronic databases PubMed, Mendeley, Web of Science, and Scopus, including studies published until 31 December 2022 (n = 435). Once the databases were checked for duplicate papers (n = 307), the exclusion criteria were applied to remove any research that was not relevant (n = 118). As a result, only 10 papers were found to be eligible for the study. Additionally, in eight of the ten studies, the rates of HEV infection were found to be between 0.6% and 2.2% in both stool and serum samples. Furthermore, four studies detected HEV genotype seven in dromedary camels, and two studies have shown HEV genotype eight in Bactrian camels. Interestingly, these genotypes were recently reported in camels from the Middle East and China, where one human infection with HEV genotype seven has been associated with the consumption of contaminated camel meat and milk. In conclusion, more research will be needed to determine the prevalence of HEV infection in camels around the world as well as the risk of foodborne transmission of contaminated camel products. As camels are utility animals in several countries, HEV in these animals may pose a potential risk to public health.This research was funded by Fundacao para Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), grant number 2021.09461.BD

Species Composition, Distribution, Biomass Trends and Exploitation of Dominant Fish Species in Manila Bay using Experimental Trawl Survey

An experimental trawl fishing survey was conducted in Manila Bay from March 2014 to October 2015 at sixteen (16) pre-established dragging stations adapted from an earlier study (MADECOR, 1995). Using a commercial otter trawl, the average trawling speed during fishing operations was 6-7 km/hour. Analysis of catches focused on biomass trends, species composition, distribution and exploitation of dominant species. A total of 146 fish and invertebrate species belonging to 48 families were recorded during the survey period wherein most of the catches were dominated by small pelagic species such as anchovies and sardines. Exploitation rates (E) for the six (6) dominant species (Sardinella gibbosa, Sardinella fimbriata, Valamugil seheli, Mugil cephalus, Encrasicholina devisi and Stolephorous commersonnii) shows signs of overfishing. The estimated demersal fish biomass of the bay revealed that the relative decline was about 90% from the 1947 baseline study

Survey of Zoonotic Diarrheagenic Protist and Hepatitis E Virus in Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) of Portugal

Simple Summary Enteropathogenic viruses, such as hepatitis E virus, and diarrhoeagenic protists have been frequently reported in swine and can infect a wide range of mammals, including humans. Data on their fecal shedding and circulation pathways are still lacking or incomplete. Hence, the aim of the present study was to characterize the presence of microeukaryotes and HEV in the wild boar of Portugal. Of the 144 samples tested, 2 showed the presence of Cryptosporidium scrofarum, 21 Balantioides coli, 42 Blastocystis ST5, and 4 HEV genotype 3. The present work shows that potentially zoonotic protozoa and HEV are circulating in wild boar populations in Portugal. Enteropathogenic parasites and viruses have been frequently reported in swine and can infect a wide range of mammals, including humans. Among the wide variety of parasites infecting swine, diarrhoeagenic protists are among those that cause significant morbidity. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) has also been reported both in domestic pigs and wild boar and is known to have an important public health significance. These agents share the fecal-oral transmission route, but data on their fecal shedding and circulation pathways are still lacking or incomplete. Hence, the aim of the present study was to characterize the presence of microeukaryotes and HEV in the wild boar of Portugal. Wild boar stool samples (n = 144) were obtained during the official hunting seasons (October to February) in 2018/2019, 2019/2020, and 2021/2022 and tested for Cryptosporidium spp., Balantioides coli, Giardia duodenalis, Blastocystis sp., Enterocytozoon bieneusi and HEV by molecular assays, followed by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. We have detected Cryptosporidium scrofarum (1.4%, 95% CI: 0.2-4.9), B. coli (14.6%, 95% CI: 9.2-21.4), Blastocystis ST5 (29.2%, 95% CI: 21.9-37.2) and HEV genotype 3 (2.8%, 95% CI: 0.7-6.9; subgenotypes 3e and 3m). Co-infections were observed in thirteen animals where two were positive for both HEV and B. coli, one was positive for both C. scrofarum and Blastocystis ST5, and ten were positive for both B. coli and Blastocystis ST5. Giardia duodenalis and E. bieneusi were not detected in the surveyed wild boar population. As far as we know, this is the first report describing protist infections by Cryptosporidium spp., B. coli, and Blastocystis sp., as well as the first identification of the emerging HEV genotype 3m in wild boar of Portugal. The present work shows that potentially zoonotic protozoa and HEV are circulating in wild boar populations in Portugal. Awareness and epidemic-surveillance network implementation measures targeting wild boar are needed to prevent the spread of these pathogenic agents to humans.This research was funded by Fundacao para Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), grant number 2021.09461.BD

Pain catastrophizing, depression, and anxiety in THA patients with differing radiographic severity

Background: Comorbid mood disorders and pain catastrophizing behavior in patients with hip osteoarthritis have been associated with worse pain scores and more functional limitations before and after undergoing a total hip arthroplasty (THA). There remain questions regarding the relationship between severity of hip disease and mental health factors on preoperative measures in patients with differing radiographic disease. The purpose of this study was to assess preoperative pain catastrophizing, depression, and anxiety scores in THA patients with less severe radiographic hip arthritis compared to those with more severe radiographic disease. Methods: A total of 785 patients were enrolled in a prospective cohort of THA patients at a tertiary hip program over a 5-year period. Study participation consisted of preoperative and postoperative survey completion with a minimum of 1-year postoperative follow-up. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was used to assess for pain catastrophizing. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-A, HADS-D) was used to assess for anxiety and depression. Radiographic severity was assessed using preoperative radiographs and was graded with the Tönnis classification of osteoarthritis and joint space width. Results: Preoperative and postoperative surveys were completed for 411 patients. Preoperatively, 58 patients (14.11%) had a clinically relevant PCS score, 72 patients (17.52%) had an abnormal HADS-D score, and 69 patients (16.79%) had an abnormal HADS-A score. Tönnis Grade 0/1 patients had more abnormal preoperative HADS-A scores than Tönnis Grade 2/3 patients (20.51% vs 11.11%, p = 0.036). There were no statistically significant differences in the preoperative PCS (p = 0.104) and HADS-D (p = 0.188) scores between Tönnis Grade 0/1 patients and Tönnis Grade 2/3 patients. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that patients with less severe radiographic disease had greater anxiety scores. This suggests that patients with clinically relevant anxiety were more likely to undergo a THA earlier in the course of their hip pathology rather than continuing with conservative management until they progress to end-stage disease. There was no difference in pain catastrophizing and depression scores between groups of less and more severe hip disease

Actual implementation of sick children's rights in Italian pediatric units: a descriptive study based on nurses' perceptions

BACKGROUND: Several charters of rights have been issued in Europe to solemnly proclaim the rights of children during their hospital stay. However, notwithstanding such general declarations, the actual implementation of hospitalized children’s rights is unclear. The purpose of this study was to understand to which extent such rights, as established by the two main existing charters of rights, are actually implemented and respected in Italian pediatric hospitals and the pediatric units of Italian general hospitals, as perceived by the nurses working in them. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. A 12-item online questionnaire was set up and an invitation was sent by email to Italian pediatric nurses using professional mailing lists and social networks. Responders were asked to score to what extent each right is respected in their hospital using a numeric scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always). RESULTS: 536 questionnaires were returned. The best implemented right is the right of children to have their mothers with them (mean score 4.47). The least respected one is the right of children to express their opinion about care (mean 3.01). Other rights considered were the right to play (4.29), the right to be informed (3.95), the right to the respect of privacy (3.75), the right to be hospitalized with peers (3.39), the right not to experience pain ever (3.41), and the right to school (3.07). According to the majority of nurses, the most important is the right to pain relief. Significant differences in the implementation of rights were found between areas of Italy and between pediatric hospitals and pediatric units of general hospitals. CONCLUSION: According to the perception of pediatric nurses, the implementation of the rights of hospitalized children in Italian pediatrics units is still limited

The gravitino coupling to broken gauge theories applied to the MSSM

We consider gravitino couplings in theories with broken gauge symmetries. In particular, we compute the single gravitino production cross section in W+ W- fusion processes. Despite recent claims to the contrary, we show that this process is always subdominant to gluon fusion processes in the high energy limit. The full calculation is performed numerically; however, we give analytic expressions for the cross section in the supersymmetric and electroweak limits. We also confirm these results with the use of the effective theory of goldstino interactions.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure

Boundary degrees of freedom in fractional quantum Hall effect: Excitations on common boundary of two samples

Using the Carlip's method we have derived the boundary action for the fermion Chern-Simons theory of quantum Hall effects on a planar region with a boundary. We have computed both the bulk and edge responses of currents to the external electric field. From this we obtain the well-known anomaly relation and the boundary Hall current without introducing any ad hoc assumptions such as the chirality condition. In addition, the edge current on the common boundary of two samples is found to be proportional to the difference between Chern-Simons coupling strengths.Comment: 20 pages, uses revte

Out-of-core solution of eigenproblems for macromolecular simulations

We consider the solution of large-scale eigenvalue problems that appear in the motion simulation of complex macromolecules on desktop platforms. To tackle the dimension of the matrices that are involved in these problems, we formulate out-of-core (OOC) variants of the two selected eigensolvers, that basically decouple the performance of the solver from the storage capacity. Furthermore, we contend with the high computational complexity of the solvers by off-loading the arithmetically-intensive parts of the algorithms to a hardware graphics accelerator

Safety and effectiveness of edoxaban in a real-world clinical setting: Two-year follow-up of the ETNA-AF-Europe study

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Private company. Main funding source(s): Daiichi Sankyo Europe OnBehalf ETNA-AF-Europe investigators Background Oral anticoagulation (OAC) for stroke prevention is essential in the management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The assessment of OAC use in routine clinical care and the effects of this therapy on outcomes and safety are important. Purpose: We analysed two-year outcome data with adjudicated follow-up results in 13,417 patients with AF treated with edoxaban. Methods: ETNA-AF-Europe (Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02944019) enrolled 13,417 consecutive patients with AF treated with edoxaban in 825 centres in 10 European countries and 2-year prospectively collected, real world data is presented. Results: Edoxaban was prescribed according to licence recommendations in 83.1% (n = 11,146) of patients (Table). Whilst three quarters of patients were prescribed edoxaban 60 mg (n = 10,248, 76.4%), the quarter prescribed edoxaban 30 mg were older (79.5 versus 71.8 years), had a higher stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc score: 3.9 versus 3.0) and a higher bleeding risk (HAS-BLED score: 2.9 versus 2.4). Thromboembolic and bleeding events were more common in patients receiving edoxaban 30 mg OD without differences in intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) (Figure). Patients prescribed a non-recommended dose of edoxaban had a numerically higher stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc score: 3.6 versus 3.1) with subsequent higher rates of ischemic stroke and mortality, however they also had higher bleeding rates, with the exception of ICH (table) despite a similar initial bleeding risk (HAS-BLED score: 2.7 versus 2.5). Conclusions: In this large, European data set reporting two-year outcomes on edoxaban therapy, no additional safety signals were observed and event rates were in line with those observed in ETNA-AF after 1 year and in ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48, re-affirming the safety and effectiveness of edoxaban licence recommendations in a real world setting of patients with AF. All key events of interest, other than intracranial haemorrhage, were numerically lower in patients prescribed the licenced recommended dose. Outcomes with rec. vs non-rec. dosesn (%/year [95%CI])Recommended dose (n = 11,146; 83.1%)Non-recommended dose (n = 2271; 16.9%)Any stroke/SEE138 (0.68 [0.57;0.80])31 (0.76 [0.51;1.07])Ischaemic stroke99 (0.48 [0.39;0.59])26 (0.63 [0.41; 0.93])Major bleeding189 (0.93 [0.80;1.07])49 (1.20 [0.89;1.59])Intracranial haemorrhage43 (0.21 [0.15;0.28])7 (0.17 [0.07;0.35])All-cause mortality729 (3.55 [3.30;3.82])208 (5.04 [4.38;5.78])CV mortality405 (1.97 [1.79;2.18])113 (2.74 [2.26;3.30])CI, confidence interval; CV, cardiovascular; rec., recommended; SEE, systemic embolic event.Abstract Figure. Annualised event rates at 2-year F