Effect of vermicompost on manifestation of pesticide action on growth of Zinnia elegans

In order to asses the implication of endosulfan in the soil amended with vermicompost, Zinnia elegans (Family Asteraceae) was grown, under strict laboratory conditions. Seed germination, size of internode, total length of the plant, leaf area of the plant, tufts of rootlets, which emerged, were measured and recorded. Vermicompost at a concentration of 12.5% was used as source of amendment; treatment was made with endosulfan the concentration of which ranged from 2.5, 5 and 7.5% respectively. From the data obtained after 4 days of treatment, it appeared that the addition of endosulfan in plain soil (7.5%), affects germination to negative value. Reduced germination and plant growth even during prolonged treatment (up to 9 days) was noticed during treatment with 2.5 and 5% of endosulfan. In a soil amended with vermicompost, however, germination to total length of the plant was found to increase quite considerably. This trend has continued, even during extended period of treatment. The entire texture of the plant was found to change to a healthier look in the presence of vermicompost. Better growth of the plant, larger number of rootlets, and bigger leaf area, can be suggested to be additive role of vermicompost on growth and development of Zinnia elegans. This also indicated possible involvement of the plant in remediation of pesticide endosulfan. On this account, Z. elegans like related members of this family can be considered as a candidate involved in remediation of pesticides from polluted soilKey word: Vermicompost, endosulfan, Zinnia elegans

Nutritional paradigm of vermicompost enhances tolerance to endosulfan in Cicer arietinum

A nutritional factor in vermicompost has been exploited suitably to stimulate growth of chickpea Cicer  arietinum. It was noticed that incorporating 12.5% of vermicompost stimulates the plant in every aspect of  growth and development. Germination rate decreased during 10 to 15 days of treatment. However, it becomes identical to the control after 20 days of treatment. The percentage of increase in total length, internode size,  emergence of leaf, emergence of flower and number of pod was 13% (40 days treatment), 205% (15 days  treatment), 43% (28 days treatment), 58% (65 days treatment) and 600% (80 days treatment),  respectively. Similar impact of vermicompost was also noticed during growth of the plant in 2.5, 5 and 7.5%  of endosulfan. An increase in germination to the extent of 6-fold was also noticed. Total length, internode size, emergence of leaf, emergence of flower and number of pod has been triple (5 days treatment in 15%  endosulfan), more than 450% (5 days treatment in 5% endosulfan), more than 550% (23 days of growth in  10% endosulfan), 300% (65 days growth in 10% endosulfan) and 600% (85 days growth in 5% endosulfan).  Hence, the results obtained partially support stimulation effect of vermicompost in chickpea plant growth. This can be attributed to, as one of the principles, adopted by Cicer arietinum in remediation of endosulfanKey words: Vermicompost, endosulfan, growth parameters, chickpea

Triorchidism at orchidopexy: a case report

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Epidemiology of Subpatent Plasmodium Falciparum Infection: Implications for Detection of Hotspots with Imperfect Diagnostics.

At the local level, malaria transmission clusters in hotspots, which may be a group of households that experience higher than average exposure to infectious mosquitoes. Active case detection often relying on rapid diagnostic tests for mass screen and treat campaigns has been proposed as a method to detect and treat individuals in hotspots. Data from a cross-sectional survey conducted in north-western Tanzania were used to examine the spatial distribution of Plasmodium falciparum and the relationship between household exposure and parasite density. Dried blood spots were collected from consenting individuals from four villages during a survey conducted in 2010. These were analysed by PCR for the presence of P. falciparum, with the parasite density of positive samples being estimated by quantitative PCR. Household exposure was estimated using the distance-weighted PCR prevalence of infection. Parasite density simulations were used to estimate the proportion of infections that would be treated using a screen and treat approach with rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) compared to targeted mass drug administration (tMDA) and Mass Drug Administration (MDA). Polymerase chain reaction PCR analysis revealed that of the 3,057 blood samples analysed, 1,078 were positive. Mean distance-weighted PCR prevalence per household was 34.5%. Parasite density was negatively associated with transmission intensity with the odds of an infection being subpatent increasing with household exposure (OR 1.09 per 1% increase in exposure). Parasite density was also related to age, being highest in children five to ten years old and lowest in those > 40 years. Simulations of different tMDA strategies showed that treating all individuals in households where RDT prevalence was above 20% increased the number of infections that would have been treated from 43 to 55%. However, even with this strategy, 45% of infections remained untreated. The negative relationship between household exposure and parasite density suggests that DNA-based detection of parasites is needed to provide adequate sensitivity in hotspots. Targeting MDA only to households with RDT-positive individuals may allow a larger fraction of infections to be treated. These results suggest that community-wide MDA, instead of screen and treat strategies, may be needed to successfully treat the asymptomatic, subpatent parasite reservoir and reduce transmission in similar settings

Family Planning Decisions, Perceptions and Gender Dynamics among Couples in Mwanza, Tanzania: A Qualitative Study.

Contraceptive use is low in developing countries which are still largely driven by male dominated culture and patriarchal values. This study explored family planning (FP) decisions, perceptions and gender dynamics among couples in Mwanza region of Tanzania. Twelve focus group discussions and six in-depth interviews were used to collect information from married or cohabiting males and females aged 18-49. The participants were purposively selected. Qualitative methods were used to explore family planning decisions, perceptions and gender dynamics among couples. A guide with questions related to family planning perceptions, decisions and gender dynamics was used. The discussions and interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed manually and subjected to content analysis. Four themes emerged during the study. First, "risks and costs" which refer to the side effects of FP methods and the treatment of side -effects as well as the costs inherit in being labeled as an unfaithful spouse. Second, "male involvement" as men showed little interest in participating in family planning issues. However, the same men were mentioned as key decision-makers even on the number of children a couple should have and the child spacing of these children. Third, "gender relations and communication" as participants indicated that few women participated in decision-making on family planning and the number of children to have. Fourth, "urban-rural differences", life in rural favoring having more children than urban areas therefore, the value of children depended on the place of residence. Family Planning programs should adapt the promotion of communication as well as joint decision-making on FP among couples as a strategy aimed at enhancing FP use

Medical record linkage in health information systems by approximate string matching and clustering

BACKGROUND: Multiplication of data sources within heterogeneous healthcare information systems always results in redundant information, split among multiple databases. Our objective is to detect exact and approximate duplicates within identity records, in order to attain a better quality of information and to permit cross-linkage among stand-alone and clustered databases. Furthermore, we need to assist human decision making, by computing a value reflecting identity proximity. METHODS: The proposed method is in three steps. The first step is to standardise and to index elementary identity fields, using blocking variables, in order to speed up information analysis. The second is to match similar pair records, relying on a global similarity value taken from the Porter-Jaro-Winkler algorithm. And the third is to create clusters of coherent related records, using graph drawing, agglomerative clustering methods and partitioning methods. RESULTS: The batch analysis of 300,000 "supposedly" distinct identities isolates 240,000 true unique records, 24,000 duplicates (clusters composed of 2 records) and 3,000 clusters whose size is greater than or equal to 3 records. CONCLUSION: Duplicate-free databases, used in conjunction with relevant indexes and similarity values, allow immediate (i.e.: real-time) proximity detection when inserting a new identity

Local Network Topology in Human Protein Interaction Data Predicts Functional Association

The use of high-throughput techniques to generate large volumes of protein-protein interaction (PPI) data has increased the need for methods that systematically and automatically suggest functional relationships among proteins. In a yeast PPI network, previous work has shown that the local connection topology, particularly for two proteins sharing an unusually large number of neighbors, can predict functional association. In this study we improved the prediction scheme by developing a new algorithm and applied it on a human PPI network to make a genome-wide functional inference. We used the new algorithm to measure and reduce the influence of hub proteins on detecting function-associated protein pairs. We used the annotations of the Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) as benchmarks to compare and evaluate the function relevance. The application of our algorithms to human PPI data yielded 4,233 significant functional associations among 1,754 proteins. Further functional comparisons between them allowed us to assign 466 KEGG pathway annotations to 274 proteins and 123 GO annotations to 114 proteins with estimated false discovery rates of <21% for KEGG and <30% for GO. We clustered 1,729 proteins by their functional associations and made functional inferences from detailed analysis on one subcluster highly enriched in the TGF-β signaling pathway (P<10−50). Analysis of another four subclusters also suggested potential new players in six signaling pathways worthy of further experimental investigations. Our study gives clear insight into the common neighbor-based prediction scheme and provides a reliable method for large-scale functional annotation in this post-genomic era

Effect of Body Mass Index on work related musculoskeletal discomfort and occupational stress of computer workers in a developed ergonomic setup

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Work urgency, accuracy and demands compel the computer professionals to spend longer hours before computers without giving importance to their health, especially body weight. Increase of body weight leads to improper Body Mass Index (BMI) may aggravate work related musculoskeletal discomfort and occupational-psychosocial stress. The objective of the study was to find out the effect of BMI on work related musculoskeletal discomforts and occupational stress of computer workers in a developed ergonomic setup.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A descriptive inferential study has been taken to analyze the effect of BMI on work related musculoskeletal discomfort and occupational-psychosocial stress. A total of 100 computer workers, aged 25-35 years randomly selected on convenience from software and BPO companies in Bangalore city, India for the participation in this study. BMI was calculated by taking the ratio of the subject's height (in meter) and weight (in kilogram). Work related musculoskeletal discomfort and occupational stress of the subjects was assessed by Cornell University's musculoskeletal discomfort questionnaire (CMDQ) and occupational stress index (OSI) respectively as well as a relationship was checked with their BMI.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A significant association (p < 0.001) was seen among high BMI subjects with their increase scores of musculoskeletal discomfort and occupational stress.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>From this study, it has been concluded that, there is a significant effect of BMI in increasing of work related musculoskeletal discomfort and occupational-psychosocial stress among computer workers in a developed ergonomic setup.</p

Determinants of low family planning use and high unmet need in Butajira District, South Central Ethiopia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The rapid population growth does not match with available resource in Ethiopia. Though household level family planning delivery has been put in place, the impact of such programs in densely populated rural areas was not studied. The study aims at measuring contraception and unmet need and identifying its determinants among married women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 5746 married women are interviewed from October to December 2009 in the Butajira Demographic Surveillance Area. Contraceptive prevalence rate and unmet need with their 95% confidence interval is measured among married women in the Butajira district. The association of background characteristics and family planning use is ascertained using crude and adjusted Odds ratio in logistic regression model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Current contraceptive prevalence rate among married women is 25.4% (95% CI: 24.2, 26.5). Unmet need of contraception is 52.4% of which 74.8% was attributed to spacing and the rest for limiting. Reasons for the high unmet need include commodities' insecurity, religion, and complaints related to providers, methods, diet and work load. Contraception is 2.3 (95% CI: 1.7, 3.2) times higher in urbanites compared to rural highlanders. Married women who attained primary and secondary plus level of education have about 1.3 (95% CI: 1.1, 1.6) and 2 (95% CI: 1.4, 2.9) times more risk to contraception; those with no child death are 1.3 (95% CI: 1.1, 1.5) times more likely to use contraceptives compared to counterparts. Besides, the odds of contraception is 1.3 (95% CI: 1.1, 1.6) and 1.5 (1.1, 2.0) times more likely among women whose partners completed primary and secondary plus level of education. Women discussing about contraception with partners were 2.2 (95% CI: 1.8, 2.7) times more likely to use family planning. Nevertheless, contraception was about 2.6 (95% CI: 2.1, 3.2) more likely among married women whose partners supported the use of family planning.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The local government should focus on increasing educational level. It must also ensure family planning methods security, increase competence of providers, and create awareness on various methods and their side effects to empower women to make an appropriate choice. Emphasis should be given to rural communities.</p