Activity of chitosan and its derivatives against Leishmania major and L. mexicana in vitro

There is an urgent need for safe, efficacious, affordable and field-adapted drugs for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis which affects around 1.5 million new people worldwide annually. Chitosan, a biodegradable cationic polysaccharide, has previously been reported to have antimicrobial, anti-leishmanial and immunostimulatory activities. We investigated the in vitro activity of chitosan and several of its derivatives and showed that pH of the culture medium plays a critical role on anti-leishmanial activity of chitosan against both extracellular promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes of Leishmania major and Leishmania mexicana Chitosan and its derivatives were approximately 7-20 times more active at pH 6.5 than at pH 7.5 with high molecular weight chitosan being the most potent. High molecular weight chitosan stimulated the production of nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species by uninfected and Leishmania infected macrophages in a time and dose dependent manner at pH 6.5. Despite the in vitro activation of bone marrow macrophages by chitosan to produce nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species, we showed that the anti-leishmanial activity of chitosan was not mediated by these metabolites. Finally, we showed that rhodamine-labelled chitosan is taken up by pinocytosis and accumulates in the parasitophorous vacuole of Leishmania infected macrophages

A cross-sectional study of maternal perception of fetal movements and antenatal advice in a general pregnant population, using a qualitative framework

BACKGROUND: Maternal perception of fetal movements has been used as a measure of fetal well-being. Yet a Cochrane review does not recommend formal fetal movement counting compared to discretional fetal movement counting. There is some evidence that suggests that the quality of fetal movements can precede quantitative changes however there has been almost no assessment of how women describe movements and whether these descriptions may be useful in a clinical setting. Therefore we aimed to examine maternal perception of fetal movements using a qualitative framework. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design we identified women during routine antenatal care at a tertiary referral hospital, in Sydney, Australia. Eligible women were pregnant ≥ 28 weeks, carrying a single child, > 18 years old, and with sufficient English literacy to self-complete a questionnaire. Post-natally the medical records were reviewed and demographic, pregnancy and fetal outcome data were extracted. Text responses to questions regarding maternal descriptions of fetal movements throughout pregnancy, were analysed using thematic analysis in an explicit process. RESULTS: 156 women participated. There was a general pattern to fetal movement descriptions with increasing gestation, beginning with words such as “gentle”, to descriptions of “strong” and “limb” movements, and finally to “whole body” movements. Women perceived and described qualitative changes to fetal movements that changed throughout gestation. The majority (83%) reported that they were asked to assess fetal movements in an implicit qualitative method during their antenatal care. In contrast, only 16% regularly counted fetal movements and many described counting as confusing and reported that the advice they had received on counting differed. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to use qualitative analysis to identify that pregnant women perceive fetal movements and can describe them in a relatively homogenous way throughout pregnancy that follow a general pattern of fetal growth and development. These findings suggest that women’s perception of fetal wellbeing based on their own assessment of fetal movement is used in an ad hoc method in antenatal care by clinicians

A systematic review of community participation measures for people with intellectual disabilities

Background: Community participation is considered a fundamental aspect of quality of life and one of the essential goals of services for people with intellectual disabilities (ID), yet there is no agreed way of measuring community participation. Method: Two systematic searches were performed across eight electronic databases to identify measures of community participation and identify validation studies for each measure. Measures were included if they were developed for adults with ID, measured extent of participation and had published information regarding content and psychometric properties. Each measure was evaluated on the basis of psychometric properties and in relation to coverage of nine domains of community participation from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Results: Eleven measures were selected with the quality rating scores varying substantially ranging from 2-11 of a possible 16. Conclusions: The majority of measures were not sufficiently psychometrically tested. Findings suggest a need for the development of a psychometrically robust instrument

Childhood hepatitis C virus infection: An Australian national surveillance study of incident cases over five years

NHMRC: Enabling Grant No: 402784ARC Linkage Project Grant(LP110200277

Prevalence and predictors of iron deficiency anemia in children under five years of age in Pakistan, a secondary analysis of national nutrition survey data 2011–2012

Background: Iron deficiency Anemia (IDA) in children is a recognized public health problem that impacts adversely on child morbidity, mortality and impairs cognitive development. In Pakistan information on the true prevalence and predictors of IDA is limited. This study sought to investigate IDA in children under five years of age using data from a nationally representative stratified cross-sectional survey. Methods: Secondary analysis was performed on the National Nutrition Survey in Pakistan 2011–2012. We used a pre-structured instrument to collect socio demographic and nutritional data on mothers and children. We also collected Anthropometric measurements and blood samples for micronutrient deficiencies. IDA was defined as having both haemoglobin levels of \u3c110 g/L and ferritin levels of \u3c 12 μg/L. Data analysis was performed by applying univariate and multivariate techniques using logistic regression through SPSS. Findings: A total of 7138 children aged between 6–59 months were included in the analysis. The prevalence of IDA was 33.2%. In multivariate regression analysis adjusted odds ratios (AOR) were calculated. Age \u3c 24 months (AOR 1.40, 95% CI 1.18–1.55 p \u3c0.05), stunting (AOR 1.42 CI 1.23–1.63 p\u3c0.05), presence of clinical anemia (AOR 5.69 CI 4.93–6.56 p\u3c0.05), having a mother with IDA (AOR 1.72 CI 1.47–2.01 p\u3c0.05) and household food insecurity (AOR 1.20 CI 1.10–1.40 P\u3c0.05) were associated with IDA. Living in a rural area (AOR 0.77 CI 0.65–0.90 p\u3c0.05) and being a female child (AOR 0.87 CI 0.76–0.98 p\u3c0.05) were associated with reduced odds of IDA. Conclusion: The prevalence of IDA amongst Pakistani children represents a moderate burden that disproportionately affects the youngest, growth retarded children, affected children are more likely to have mothers with IDA and live in areas where food security is lacking. National efforts to alleviate the burden of IDA should involve both short term vertical programs such as iron supplementation and long term horizontal programs including wheat flour fortification

Ab-initio theory of NMR chemical shifts in solids and liquids

We present a theory for the ab-initio computation of NMR chemical shifts (sigma) in condensed matter systems, using periodic boundary conditions. Our approach can be applied to periodic systems such as crystals, surfaces, or polymers and, with a super-cell technique, to non-periodic systems such as amorphous materials, liquids, or solids with defects. We have computed the hydrogen sigma for a set of free molecules, for an ionic crystal, LiH, and for a H-bonded crystal, HF, using density functional theory in the local density approximation. The results are in excellent agreement with experimental data.Comment: to appear in Physical Review Letter

A Pilot Study: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Sensation Seeking, and Pubertal Changes

This study was designed to examine the relationship of pubertal changes and sensation seeking (SS) in adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Patients with current or past histories of uncomplicated stimulant medication use for ADHD between the ages of 11 and 15 (13 ± 1.5) were recruited from a Child Psychiatry and a General Pediatric Clinic. SS was measured using the SS Scale for Children. Pubertal development was measured using Tanner staging, free testosterone, and DHEAS. Subjects and their parent were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC). SS total score was correlated with Tanner stage, free testosterone, and DHEAS (p ≤ 0.01). The combined parent and child reports of symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder from the DISC were inversely related to age (p ≤ 0.05). Understanding SS in ADHD adolescents as they move through puberty will aid clinicians in monitoring ADHD adolescents and their trajectory into high-risk behaviors

Development of the Guernsey Community Participation and Leisure Assessment – Revised (GCPLA-R).

A sufficiently psychometrically robust measure of community and leisure participation of adults with intellectual disabilities was not in existence, despite research identifying this as an important outcome and a key contributor to quality of life. The current study aimed to update the Guernsey Community Participation and Leisure Assessment (GCPLA). Adults with intellectual disabilities, carers and experts were consulted in creating a revised pool of 46 items. These were then tested and data from 326 adults with intellectual disabilities were analysed for their component structure and psychometric properties. Principal Component analysis discovered a stable set of components describing seven different clusters. This revised measure (the GCPLA-R) was demonstrated to have satisfactory reliability, and scores were related to challenging behaviour and adaptive behaviour in theoretically consistent ways and were correlated with scores on comparable measures