Parity‑related Changes in Body Weight May Influence the Zinc and Copper Status of Urban Pregnant Women: A Report from South Eastern Nigeria

Background: Micronutrient replacement is done indiscriminately, without recourse to peculiar socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables. Particularly, the relationship between parity, body weight, and some micronutrients has received minimal attention in Nigeria.Aim: To determine the relationship between parity, body weight, and some micronutrients during pregnancy.Subjects and Methods: This is a cross‑sectional study involving 130 pregnant women and 30 nonpregnant control. They were recruited from two health care facilities in Nigeria and grouped into nulliparous and multiparous. After a 24‑h dietary recall, the weight (W) and height (H) were measured. The body mass index (BMI) (W in kg/H in m2) was calculated. Serum copper and zinc were estimated using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer.Results: Multiparous nonpregnant subjects parity=3.0 (0.58) had higher weight (P=0.037) and BMI (P=0.035) than their nulliparous counterparts (parity=0). In addition, there were no significant difference in Cu and zinc levels between the two groups (P=0.243 and 0.402, respectively). Expectedly, weight and BMI increased as pregnancy progressed. There was no significant difference in Cu levels between the three trimesters in the nulliparous pregnant and multiparous pregnant subjects. In the pregnant nulliparous subjects, the Zn levels of the 2nd and 3rd trimesters were significantly lower than that of the nonpregnant nulliparous subjects (P<0.001 and 0.039, respectively). However, in multiparous pregnant subjects, only the 3rd trimester Zn level was significantly lower than that of the nonpregnant controls (P=0.017). Conclusion: Pregnancy weight gain is more pronounced in multiparous than nulliparous women. This parity‑related pattern only affects the serum zinc levels, a situation that should be taken into consideration when formulating policies for nutritional replacement.  Keywords: Africa, body mass index, copper, parity, pregnancy, zin

Adjuvant S-1 chemotherapy after curative resection of gastric cancer in Chinese patients: assessment of treatment tolerability and associated risk factors

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A Selberg integral for the Lie algebra A_n

A new q-binomial theorem for Macdonald polynomials is employed to prove an A_n analogue of the celebrated Selberg integral. This confirms the g=A_n case of a conjecture by Mukhin and Varchenko concerning the existence of a Selberg integral for every simple Lie algebra g.Comment: 32 page

The Energy of Regular Black Hole in General Relativity Coupled to Nonlinear Electrodynamics

According to the Einstein, Weinberg, and M{\o}ller energy-momentum complexes, we evaluate the energy distribution of the singularity-free solution of the Einstein field equations coupled to a suitable nonlinear electrodynamics suggested by Ay\'{o}n-Beato and Garc\'{i}a. The results show that the energy associated with the definitions of Einstein and Weinberg are the same, but M{\o}ller not. Using the power series expansion, we find out that the first two terms in the expression are the same as the energy distributions of the Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m solution, and the third term could be used to survey the factualness between numerous solutions of the Einstein field eqautions coupled to a nonlinear electrodynamics.Comment: 11 page

Next-generation sequencing with a myeloid gene panel in core-binding factor AML showed KIT activation loop and TET2 mutations predictive of outcome

Clinical outcome and mutations of 96 core-binding factor acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients 18-60 years old were examined. Complete remission (CR) after induction was 94.6%. There was no significant difference in CR, leukemia-free-survival (LFS) and overall survival (OS) between t(8;21) (N=67) and inv(16) patients (N=29). Univariate analysis showed hematopoietic stem cell transplantation at CR1 as the only clinical parameter associated with superior LFS. Next-generation sequencing based on a myeloid gene panel was performed in 72 patients. Mutations in genes involved in cell signaling were associated with inferior LFS and OS, whereas those in genes involved in DNA methylation were associated with inferior LFS. KIT activation loop (AL) mutations occurred in 25 patients, and were associated with inferior LFS (P=0.003) and OS (P=0.001). TET2 mutations occurred in 8 patients, and were associated with significantly shorter LFS (P=0.015) but not OS. Patients negative for KIT-AL and TET2 mutations (N=41) had significantly better LFS (P<0.001) and OS (P=0.012) than those positive for both or either mutation. Multivariate analysis showed that KIT-AL and TET2 mutations were associated with inferior LFS, whereas age ⩾40 years and marrow blast ⩾70% were associated with inferior OS. These observations provide new insights that may guide better treatment for this AML subtype.published_or_final_versio

Lymphopenia Association with Planning Target Volume and Lung V5 and its effect on survival of esophageal cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemo-radiation with Dutch CROSS regime

Poster presentation: no. P-064Background: Radiation has a strong lympholytic effect. This effect has been overlooked for decades until recently. As immunotherapy is becoming one of the main systemic treatment of various cancer, it is important to adopt best radiation technique to preserve lymphocyte numbers. Radiation-induced lymphopenia has been reported to be adversely associated with overall survival and recurrence free survival in various cancers including lung, pancreatic and head and neck cancer. Data of lymphopenia effect on esophageal cancer is lacking. We therefore sought to study the association of lymphopenia and overall survival in esophageal cancer patients who have undergone neoadjuvant chemo-radiation according to Dutch CROSS trial regime. One of the possible mechanism of severe lymphopenia in radiotherapy is the large volume of low dose bath killing large number of circulating lymphocytes in both systemic and pulmonary circulation. As there is report of relationship of low dose lung dosimetry parameters with lymphopenia in NSCLC, we also aim to study this relationship in esophageal cancer. Methods: All esophageal cancer patients from June 2012 to April 2015 in our tertiary university hospital who have received neoadjuvant chemo-radiation according to Dutch CROSS trial regime has been retrospectively reviewed. Total subjects eligible for review is 51. One subject has died before the start of chemo-radiation and thus was excluded from analysis. Lymphocyte nadir was defined as the minimum lymphocyte value measured between the start of neoadjuvant chemo-radiation and the operation date. Relationships between lymphocyte nadirs with overall survival (OS) and recurrence free survival (RFS) were evaluated with Cox-regression analysis. Association between Planning Target volume (PTV) and lung dose- volume histogram (DVH) parameters were analysed with Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: 48 out of 50 subjects have normal baseline lymphocyte counts. Low lymphocyte nadir is found to have negative effect on patient's overall survival (OS). On multi-variable Cox regression with backward elimination analysis, patients with higher lymphocyte nadirs exhibited significantly improved OS (hazard ratio [HR] Z=0.656 per 0.1 x 10^9 lymphocytes/L, p=0.009). Of note, No significant relationships with OS were seen in baseline total white cell count, lymphocyte count and neutrophil count. Analyses of lung DVH parameters revealed significant correlations at lower doses (lung V1-V15: P.05). For instance, the correlation coefficient of V1, V5 and V10 were -0.566, -0.495 and -0.419 respectively. Larger PTV was also associated with lower lymphocyte nadir ( r= -0.367 P= 0.008). Conclusion(s): Lower lymphocyte nadir is associated with poorer overall survivial in this group of patients. Higher low dose lung DVH and larger PTV are associated with lower lymphocyte nadir. These findings shall be confirmed with prospective data in future studies. This also suggests immune preserving radiation strategy in radiation by suppressing low dose lung DVH may improve OS in this group of patients.postprin

Risk factors and a predictive model for under-five mortality in Nigeria: evidence from Nigeria demographic and health survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Under-5 mortality is a major public health challenge in developing countries. It is essential to identify determinants of under-five mortality (U5M) childhood mortality because these will assist in formulating appropriate health programmes and policies in order to meet the United Nations MDG goal. The objective of this study was to develop a predictive model and identify maternal, child, family and other risk factors associated U5M in Nigeria.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Population-based cross-sectional study which explored 2008 demographic and health survey of Nigeria (NDHS) with multivariable logistic regression. Likelihood Ratio Test, Hosmer-Lemeshow Goodness-of-Fit and Variance Inflation Factor were used to check the fit of the model and the predictive power of the model was assessed with Receiver Operating Curve (ROC curve).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study yielded an excellent predictive model which revealed that the likelihood of U5M among the children of mothers that had their first marriage at age 20-24 years and ≥ 25 years declined by 20% and 30% respectively compared to children of those that married before the age of 15 years. Also, the following factors reduced odds of U5M: health seeking behaviour, breastfeeding children for > 18 months, use of contraception, small family size, having one wife, low birth order, normal birth weight, child spacing, living in urban areas, and good sanitation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study has revealed that maternal, child, family and other factors were important risk factors of U5M in Nigeria. This study has identified important risk factors that will assist in formulating policies that will improve child survival.</p

Spatial heterogeneity of habitat suitability for Rift Valley fever occurrence in Tanzania: an ecological niche modelling approach

Despite the long history of Rift Valley fever (RVF) in Tanzania, extent of its suitable habitat in the country remains unclear. In this study we investigated potential effects of temperature, precipitation, elevation, soil type, livestock density, rainfall pattern, proximity to wild animals, protected areas and forest on the habitat suitability for RVF occurrence in Tanzania. Presence-only records of 193 RVF outbreak locations from 1930 to 2007 together with potential predictor variables were used to model and map the suitable habitats for RVF occurrence using ecological niche modelling. Ground-truthing of the model outputs was conducted by comparing the levels of RVF virus specific antibodies in cattle, sheep and goats sampled from locations in Tanzania that presented different predicted habitat suitability values. Habitat suitability values for RVF occurrence were higher in the northern and central-eastern regions of Tanzania than the rest of the regions in the country. Soil type and precipitation of the wettest quarter contributed equally to habitat suitability (32.4% each), followed by livestock density (25.9%) and rainfall pattern (9.3%). Ground-truthing of model outputs revealed that the odds of an animal being seropositive for RVFV when sampled from areas predicted to be most suitable for RVF occurrence were twice the odds of an animal sampled from areas least suitable for RVF occurrence (95% CI: 1.43, 2.76, p < 0.001). The regions in the northern and central-eastern Tanzania were more suitable for RVF occurrence than the rest of the regions in the country. The modelled suitable habitat is characterised by impermeable soils, moderate precipitation in the wettest quarter, high livestock density and a bimodal rainfall pattern. The findings of this study should provide guidance for the design of appropriate RVF surveillance, prevention and control strategies which target areas with these characteristics