Elevation in liver enzymes are associated with increased IL-2 and may predict severe outcomes of dengue virus infection in a Sri Lankan cohort [Poster Abstract]

This is an open access article under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)Background: A synergistic effect of host genetic factors, host immunity and the virulence of dengue viruses (DENV) contribute to the pathogenesis of DENV infections. In severe DENV infections, the hepatic transaminase AST level increases more than the hepatic transaminase ALT. IL-2 and TNF- are both elevated in DENV infection as a part of the body’s early response to infection. The objective was to assess the correlation between changes in IL-2 and TNF- levels with changes in liver enzymes in dengue patients with varying clinical severity. Methods & Materials: A total of 67 DENV infected patients (DF=24 and DHF=43) either confirmed by ELISA or RT-PCR from July 2011 to February 2012 from General Hospital Kandy were selected for the IL-2 and TNF- evaluation using a single analyte ELISArray (Qiagen, Germany). Clinical, haematological parameters and hepatic transaminases (AST and ALT) were recorded on admission. Five mL of blood was collected from DENV suspected patients on fever days 5 or less (onset of fever was considered as day 1). Results: Of the patients, 47.76% (n=32) showed AST: ALT >2. AST: ALT mean ±SD among DF was 1.64±0.74 U/L while it was 3.18± 4.50 U/L for DHF/DSS patients. No significant correlation was noted between AST: ALT and TNF- and also with IL-2. A significant positive linear correlation was observed between AST and IL-2 levels (r= 0.31 p = 0.01) and also between ALT and IL-2 levels (r= 0.27 p = 0.02). No significant correlation was noted between AST and TNF- and ALT and IL-2. Conclusion: Almost half of our study population showed AST: ALT>2 indicating acute changes in liver function and the potential for liver derangement due to DENV infection. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the IL-2 with AST and ALT levels, although no correlation was noted between AST and ALT with TNF - . The positive correlations between elevations of AST and ALT with IL-2, and the association of higher levels of these factors in DHF/DSS compared with DF suggest that these measurements may be useful predictors for the progression of DENV infection to severe DF/DHF

Quantifying and Controlling Prethermal Nonergodicity in Interacting Floquet Matter

The use of periodic driving for synthesizing many-body quantum states depends crucially on the existence of a prethermal regime, which exhibits drive-tunable properties while forestalling the effects of heating. This dependence motivates the search for direct experimental probes of the underlying localized nonergodic nature of the wave function in this metastable regime. We report experiments on a many-body Floquet system consisting of atoms in an optical lattice subjected to ultrastrong sign-changing amplitude modulation. Using a double-quench protocol, we measure an inverse participation ratio quantifying the degree of prethermal localization as a function of tunable drive parameters and interactions. We obtain a complete prethermal map of the drive-dependent properties of Floquet matter spanning four square decades of parameter space. Following the full time evolution, we observe sequential formation of two prethermal plateaux, interaction-driven ergodicity, and strongly frequency-dependent dynamics of long-time thermalization. The quantitative characterization of the prethermal Floquet matter realized in these experiments, along with the demonstration of control of its properties by variation of drive parameters and interactions, opens a new frontier for probing far-from-equilibrium quantum statistical mechanics and new possibilities for dynamical quantum engineering

Validity of a commercially available IgM ELISA test for diagnosing acute leptospirosis in high endemic districts of Sri Lanka

BackgroundLack of point of care diagnostics is a major challenge for control of human leptospirosis. Immunoglobulin M enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (IgM ELISA) have been widely used for the diagnosis of leptospirosis. The purpose of the present study was to determine the validity of IgM ELISA in the diagnosis of leptospirosis in a Sri Lankan context. MethodsConfirmed cases of leptospirosis from the 2008 Sri Lankan outbreak of leptospirosis and a group of leptospirosis excluded febrile patients were selected for the validation study. Disease confirmation and exclusion was carried out using either paired sample MAT (optimized for the region) or qPCR or both. A commercially available IgM ELISA kit was used and the procedure performed according to the manufacturers’ instruction in the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya. ResultsThe study sample included 88 confirmed cases of leptospirosis and a comparison group of 71 acute fever patients.  Of the 88 confirmed cases selected, 53 reacted in IgM ELISA and of the comparison group, 38 gave a positive reaction. *MAT was carried out among acute and convalescent samples where the acute sample was obtained within the first 10 days of illness and the convalescent sample after the day 14. A regionally optimized MAT panel with 21 serovars were used for MATSensitivity and specificity of IgM ELISA, as a point of care diagnostic test for patients in this sample with acute leptospirosis, was 60.23% (95% CI 49.78, 69.82) and 46.48% (95% CI (35.36, 57.96) respectively. Diagnostic accuracy of the test was 54.09% (95% CI 46.34, 61.65 %). The ROC (Receiver-operator characteristic curve) curve for the IgM ELISA showed a value of .669 for area under the curve. Optimal cut off points were not detected due to the poor test parameters in this sample. ConclusionThis study shows the poor diagnostic capabilities of IgM ELISA during the acute phase of leptospirosis in high endemic settingsDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljid.v4i2.6952 Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases 2014; Vol.4(2):83-89</p

EFFECT OF AGRICULTURE ON ENVIRONMENT

The burgeoning population in this country is making increasing demands on agriculture.Consequently, there is mounting pressure on the natural resource base, particularly on landfor increased food production. Failure to adopt appropriate soil and water conservationpractices in agriculture has resulted in considerable soil erosion and land degradation,rendering a large extent of agricultural lands marginal and unproductive. Due todemographic pressure, agriculture is being extended even to sloping lands, causing heavysoil erosion. Moreover, shifting cultivation has continued unabated, further dwindling theforest cover, which has already reached a threshold value. With the advent of improvedvarieties, large quantities of agrochemicals such as inorganic fertilizers, insecticides,herbicides, fungicides etc. are being released to the environment. Many of farmers usepesticides indiscriminately polluting the soil, water and the food they produce, causingserious environmental and health problems.Some major consequences of improper agricultural practices are the loss of soil fertility,land degradation, siltation of rivers and reservoirs, occurrence of flash floods,eutrophication of water bodies with attendant reduction in hydro-power generation, loss ofbiodiversity, emissions of green house gases such as CO2 and NO", which have far-reachingenvironmental, social, economic and political implications. The major causes ofagriculture-related environmental problems, their effects and consequences and measuresto mitigate them are discussed

CHEMISTRY OF LEAF LINER OF SOME AGRO-FORESTRY SPECIES IN SRI LANKA

Dl'l'llillpmilion or k:l! litter ix a major process in the nutrient dyn.nnicx of agroccosystcm»,which is intricnlly gOVL'lllcd hv the liner chemistry, The chemistry of leaf litter dctcrrnincshOlh the umc course of decomposition and the nutrient rcIC:1SCpaucrn. There arc many:I,~rIllorc'strv Spl'l'leS in Sri 1.:1111-::1h.ili information nvailahk- Oil their liner chcmixirv ISxc.uuv. Such information provcx useful ill idelltifying :1J'[1ropri:ltl' agrofon'stry spccie,s Iordnl'lopillg xuxtainahlr agrol'U)systl'IllS, Therefore studies were carried out to dcrcrm incIhe l'lllll'l'lltr:I1iolls Ill' nutricius II.; N. P. K, Ca and Mg ), ligllill .md ccllulnxr or nine:1~J()fmeslry spl'l'ies ill Sri Lanka. vii .. Acacia auriculijonnis, Acacia mangium. Giriridia,\('I'lllll!, Maccnan;« !1ciIUIU (Kallde J. Altoni« srholaris (Alstonia). Artocurnus il/lcgrU(J/iarluk J, Aruuntpu» altilis (bread truin. 11'/lIIiI/0//(/ ('(11111/10 (Indian almond), and MOI/.~It('r'lindica (m:1I1goI.Considerable interspecific variation in the above parameters was observed in the leaf litter.Ax rl'g:lI'&lt;ls the per ccntx of ",y, K. C:I and Mg. the values observed varied from 0,39'1 -1(12, OJ)2'i - 0,171. () 16 - 0,9'1. 1.76 - 2,'17 and (I.n - 0.'1 I. respectively. The highestconcentration of N W:IS in (; scpittm while A altilis, A. altilis. A. il/lcgrifiJ/iil and A.sclioars had the highest conccutrarion of P. K. Ca and Mg. respectively. This underlinesIhl' importance of introducinu diverse species (hiological diversity) ill order to cxrablish abalanced Icrtility regime. Milldim and A. ntangiurn had the highest concentration oflignin (22.9l) %) and cellulose 132.76 %). respectively. A salient feature in the leaf litter inM. indica W:IS that. it had the lowest concentration of N (0.39'1 %) and cellulose (14.59 %)and the highest concentration of lignin (n.99%). These data prove useful in identifying asuitable combination of agroforcsuy species for sustainable soil fertility management.

THE SEED BANK DYNAMICS OF TWO DIFFERENT FOREST TYPES IN SOUTHERN SRI LANKA

The floristic composition and regeneration potential of natural forests in wet zone(Wilpita) and dry zone (Hambanthota) was investigated by sampling in the top IOcm ofthe soil using special desigri samples (30cm*30cm* lOcm) along the transects andenumerating the number of seedlings emerge from the soil during the period of twomonths. The seedlings were transferred into poly bags once a week and allowed to grow forfew months to determine the floristic composition.The mean number of seeds germinated per square meter in Wilpita in Hambanthota were162 and 146 respectively. The composition of the seedlings from Wilpita and Hambanthotaforests was not similar, though the population density was generally higher in the Wilpitaforests. The floristic composition at the Wilpita forests was observed and Alstoniamacrophy/a (Hawarinuga), Macaranga Pe/teta (Kande), Trema orienta/is (Gedumba) andMelastoma malabathricum (Bovitiya) were prominent species among the tree species.Affinity analysis showed that the Alstonia was the most prominent tree species in Wilpitaforest There was no significant difference observed in the number of seedlings per squaremeter among the samples collected along tbe transects.This study shows that the regeneration potential of the rain forests in the wet zone(Wilpita) is much higher than forests in the dry zone.

Co-infections with multiple dengue virus serotypes in patients from 3 different Provinces of Sri Lanka, a dengue hyper endemic country [Poster Abstract]

This is an open access article under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Prevalence and determinants of age-related macular degeneration in central Sri Lanka: the Kandy Eye Study

Aims To determine the prevalence, associations and risk factors for age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) in central Sri Lanka. Methods The study was a population-based, cross-sectional survey of residents aged ≥40 years in rural Sri Lanka. ARMD was assessed on dilated fundoscopy using the International Age-Related Maculopathy Epidemiology Study Group classification system. Results Of the 1721 subjects identified, 1375 participated (79.9%). Of the participants, 1013 were aged ≥50 years (73.6%). The prevalence of any ARMD (adjusted for study design) was 4.72 (95% CI 2.22 to 7.20)% with 3.82 (95% CI 1.60 to 6.04)% early ARMD and 1.70 (95% CI 0.14 to 3.27)% late ARMD. Age (p<0.001) and Sinhalese ethnicity (p = 0.016) were significantly associated with ARMD. Men had a tendency toward a higher prevalence of ARMD than women, although this was not statistically significant (p = 0.081). Ocular risk factors such as cortical cataract (p = 0.024) and pseudophakia (p = 0.003) were associated with ARMD on the univariate but not multivariate analyses. Illiteracy and the identification of social supports were significantly associated with ARMD on univariate analyses. However, only social support was statistically significant after multivariate analysis (p = 0.024). Conclusions Although the prevalence of ARMD is slightly lower in Sri Lanka than surrounding regions, it contributes to a higher proportion of visual impairment, including blindness. Risk factors include age and Sinhalese ethnicity.L A Goold, K Edussuriya, S Sennanayake, T Senaratne, D Selva, T R Sullivan, R J Casso

EFFECT OF BUFFALO GRAZING ON PLANT SPECIES DIVERSITY IN A COCONUT-PASTURE-CATTLE INTEGRATED SYSTEM

The effects of long and short-term buffalo grazing on plant species diversityunder coconut were examined. 18 Murrah and Surthi pure and crossbredbuffaloes were allowed to graze 3 hours a month for 6 months (short termgrazing). Herbage from an adjoining coconut plantation was taken as thecontrol. Quadrate sampling was adopted to analyze herbage up to specieslevel and four random samples were taken at each event.The Shannon diversity Index (H), species richness and evenness werecalculated for each treatment.Results showed that the diversity index and evenness in the undisturbedhabitat (ungrazed coconut plantation) were 2.176 and 0.6679 respectively andwere much higher than highly disturbed habitat (grazed plantation) where thesame values were 0.4.747 and 0.2160. The short term grazing effect showedan intermediate results. In the ungrazed site there were greater number ofplant species and more equitable the individuals in the community weredistributed. Long term grazed coconut plantation had only 9 species and over80% of the individuals belong to one species; Carpet grass (Axonopus affinis)the most common species in a grazing land. Grazing pressure was favorableto dominate prostate type plants. It was shown that grazing pressure whethershort term or long term changed the abundance of plant species.It is concluded that different levels of disturbance have different effects onplant species diversity