Increased Birth Weight Associated with Regular Pre-Pregnancy Deworming and Weekly Iron-Folic Acid Supplementation for Vietnamese Women

Low birth weight is an important risk factor for neonatal and infant morbidity and mortality and may impact on growth and development. Maternal iron deficiency anaemia contributes to intrauterine growth restriction and low birth weight. Hookworm infections and an iron-depleted diet may lead to iron deficiency anaemia, and both are common in many developing countries. A pilot program of deworming and weekly iron-folic acid supplementation for non-pregnant women aiming to prevent iron deficiency was implemented in northern Vietnam. We compared the birth weight of babies born to women who had had access to the intervention to babies born in districts where the intervention had not been implemented. The mean birth weight of the intervention districts' babies was 124 g more than the control districts' babies; the prevalence of low birth weight was also reduced. These results suggest that providing women with deworming and weekly iron-folic acid supplements before pregnancy is associated with increased birth weight in rural Vietnam. This intervention was provided as a health system integrated program which could be replicated in other at-risk rural areas. If so it could increase the impact of prenatal and antenatal programs, improving the health of both women and newborns

The UK Biobank imaging enhancement of 100,000 participants: rationale, data collection, management and future directions

UK Biobank is a population-based cohort of half a million participants aged 40–69 years recruited between 2006 and 2010. In 2014, UK Biobank started the world’s largest multi-modal imaging study, with the aim of re-inviting 100,000 participants to undergo brain, cardiac and abdominal magnetic resonance imaging, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and carotid ultrasound. The combination of large-scale multi-modal imaging with extensive phenotypic and genetic data offers an unprecedented resource for scientists to conduct health-related research. This article provides an in-depth overview of the imaging enhancement, including the data collected, how it is managed and processed, and future direction

ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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Purification of an alpha amylase from Aspergillus flavus NSH9 and molecular characterization of its nucleotide gene sequence

In this study, an alpha-amylase enzyme from a locally isolated Aspergillus flavus NSH9 was purified and characterized. The extracellular α-amylase was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and anion-exchange chromatography at a final yield of 2.55-fold and recovery of 11.73%. The molecular mass of the purified α-amylase was estimated to be 54 kDa using SDS-PAGE and the enzyme exhibited optimal catalytic activity at pH 5.0 and temperature of 50 °C. The enzyme was also thermally stable at 50 °C, with 87% residual activity after 60 min. As a metalloenzymes containing calcium, the purified α-amylase showed significantly increased enzyme activity in the presence of Ca2+ ions. Further gene isolation and characterization shows that the α-amylase gene of A. flavus NSH9 contained eight introns and an open reading frame that encodes for 499 amino acids with the first 21 amino acids presumed to be a signal peptide. Analysis of the deduced peptide sequence showed the presence of three conserved catalytic residues of α-amylase, two Ca2+-binding sites, seven conserved peptide sequences, and several other properties that indicates the protein belongs to glycosyl hydrolase family 13 capable of acting on α-1,4-bonds only. Based on sequence similarity, the deduced peptide sequence of A. flavus NSH9 α-amylase was also found to carry two potential surface/secondary-binding site (SBS) residues (Trp 237 and Tyr 409) that might be playing crucial roles in both the enzyme activity and also the binding of starch granules. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Needle in a haystack: Intraoperative breakage of pediatric minimal access surgery instruments

The search for tiny bits of broken pediatric minimal access surgery (MAS) instruments in an operative field is akin to the search for a needle in a haystack. With the extension of MAS to the pediatric age group, instruments are becoming smaller and equitably more prone to breakage. When breakages occur, retrieval, especially in the pediatric abdominal cavity, can be challenging. Inability to do so would affect patient safety and also lead to a web of medico legal and ethical issues. We present two cases of intraoperative breakage: An eyeless 3-0 polyamide suture needle and a 2-mm grasper blade both of which were successfully retrieved and fortuitously escaped becoming retained surgical items

Rapids Glaciers, Alaska, U.S.A.: intplications for the

structure of their drainage systetn