An overview of artificial nutrition in apiculture

Artificial nutrition in apiculture is a long-term subject of discussion and investigation. The maintenance and boosting of bee colonies in apiculture depends on synthetic food around the globe to overcome the suppressing factors, including dearth periods. The information on types of food components and their combinations used is haphazard and hardly helpful in determining the advancements in the artificial feeding of bees. This study aimed to extract the available information on artificial feeding on honeybees and arrange it most scientifically. The information in the form of research or review articles available on every platform, viz., soft portals, printed journals, books and scientific proceedings, were collected and analyzed to produce a comprehensive and informative review article on the artificial nutrients in apiculture. Compilation of the available information revealed that artificial feeding of bees depends on food components and their combinations. Based on this, it can be suggested that nectar and pollen are basic foods of honey bees, and based on this, the food components were further categorized as nectar supplements and pollen supplements. These supplements were fed to bees as natural nutrients and food components. The natural nutrients include proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, yeasts, antibiotics, amino acids, enzymes, antioxidants, etc. Meanwhile, under natural food components, cereal grains, pulses, beans, fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants, spices, condiments, and some non-traditional/ miscellaneous kinds of stuff have been included in the bee diets. On the other hand, many diet categories have been prepared using the abovementioned nutrients and food components in various forms and proportions. In general, the pollen and nectar, the main food of bees, have been supplemented under different diet combinations. These diet combinations used pollen and nectar substitutes or combined with other nutrition, drugs, antibiotics, etc. The present investigation provides an updated overview of the food categories and their combinations used in the artificial feeding of bees to date. These findings can help explore new food items and their effective diet combinations

¿Afecta la estimulación del macho cabrío el rendimiento reproductivo de las cabras sincronizadas con esponjas de acetato de medroxiprogesterona (MAP)?

This investigation was executed to determine effect of buck exposure on estrus response, onset of standing estrus, ovulation rate, conception rate and pregnancy rate in goats synchronized with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MAP) sponges. Sponges were placed inside the vagina for fifteen days in buck exposed and isolated groups. Post sponge withdrawal, estrus activities were continuously observed. The interval between sponge withdrawal and the onset of standing estrus were 32.3±10 h (18-51 h) and 45.2±10.9 h (27-51h) in buck isolated and exposed group respectively (p<0.05). Ovulation and conception rates were confirmed by serum progesterone level using radioimmunoassay. Ovulation rates were 100% in both groups and conception rates were 93% and 100% in buck exposed and in isolated group respectively (p>0.05). Pregnancies were confirmed by ultrasound on day 35 post mating which were 93%, was and 69% in buck exposed and isolated group respectively (p>0.05). Based upon the evidence, it was inference that post sponge removal sudden buck exposure cause markedly earlier estrus onset while the continuous buck exposure was unable to show significantly impact on conception and pregnancy rates compare to isolated group.Esta investigación se llevó a cabo para determinar el efecto de la exposición al macho cabrío sobre la respuesta al estro, el inicio del estro permanente, la tasa de ovulación, la tasa de concepción y la tasa de preñez en cabras sincronizadas con esponjas de acetato de medroxiprogesterona (MAP). Se colocaron esponjas dentro de la vagina durante quince días en grupos aislados y expuestos a machos. Después de retirar la esponja, se observaron continuamente las actividades estrales. El intervalo entre la retirada de la esponja y el inicio del estro permanente fue de 32.3±10 h (18-51 h) y 45.2±10.9 h (27-51 h) en el grupo de machos aislados y expuestos respectivamente (p<0.05). Las tasas de ovulación y concepción se confirmaron mediante el nivel de progesterona sérica mediante radioinmunoensayo. Las tasas de ovulación fueron del 100% en ambos grupos y las tasas de concepción fueron del 93% y del 100% en los machos expuestos y en el grupo aislado, respectivamente (p>0.05). Los embarazos fueron confirmados por ultrasonido en el día 35 después del apareamiento, que fueron 93%, fue y 69% en el grupo expuesto y aislado de machos, respectivamente (p>0.05). Sobre la base de la evidencia, se infirió que la exposición repentina al macho después de la extracción de la esponja provocó un inicio del estro notablemente más temprano, mientras que la exposición continua al macho no pudo mostrar un impacto significativo en las tasas de concepción y preñez en comparación con el grupo aislado

Seroprevalence and Risk factor of Brucella Abortus in Cattle (Indigenous and crossbred) in District Layyah

Background: Brucellosis is very important infectious, zoonotic disease all over the world affecting variety species, causing severe economic losses in animals and severe illness in human beings. This study was planned to find the seroprevalence and associated risk factors with Brucella Abortus in indigenous and crossbreed cattle of District Layyah.Methods: The blood sample were collected from 350 blood animals and screened by Rose Bengal plate test (RBPT) using anti-Brucella antibodies. The seropositive samples were confirmed through indirect ELISA tests. The information on risk factors associated with brucellosis were collected on pre-designed questionnaires.Results: The result of the present study showed the overall prevalence of 6.97% in cattle in district Layyah. It was more prevalent in the age group of 2-5 years (14.6%) as compared to that of the age group 5-10 years (6.25%). The prevalence was significantly higher in the cattle with history of abortion (52.38%) as compared to the non-aborted cattle (3%). The crossbreed animals were found to be more affected than indigenous animals.Conclusion: There is a dire need to eliminate the seropositive animals by application of proper control programme and eradicate this zoonotic disease in developing countries especially in Pakistan.Keywords: Brucellosis; Cattle; Seroprevalence; Layyah

An overview of the Leucospidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) of the Arabian Peninsula with description of a new species

An overview of the family Leucospidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) is provided for the leucospid fauna of the Arabian Peninsula. Two genera containing four species are identified based on morphometrics and colour patterns. One species, Leucospis ayezae Usman, Anwar & Ahmad, sp. nov., is described. Leucospis elegans Klug had been previously recorded from Arabia Felix (= Yemen) and is recorded here for the first time from Saudi Arabia. The status of Leucospis aff. namibica from Yemen has been clarified, and this species is placed here in the genus Micrapion Kriechbaumer as M. clavaforme Steffan. An updated key and a map showing the distribution of the family Leucospidae in the Arabian Peninsula is provided. The occurrence and color morphs of all leucospid species that have been recorded so far from the region are briefly discussed

Functional and structural analysis of predicted proteins obtained from homo sapiens' minisatellite 33.15-tagged transcript pAKT-45 variants

The spermatozoa are transcriptionally dormant entities which have been recognized to be an archive of mRNA, coding for a variety of functionally crucial cellular proteins. This significant repository of mRNA is predicted to be associated with early embryogenesis and postfertilization. The mRNA transcripts which are tagged with minisatellites have been involved in the regulation of the gene functions as well as their organization. However, very little information is available regarding the expression of the transcripts tagged with minisatellites in spermatozoa. Therefore, in order to understand the functions and the conformational behavior of the proteins expressed from these minisatellite-tagged transcripts, we have performed a detailed in silico analysis using the sequences of the transcripts. The protein predicted from KF274549 showed the functionalities similar to uncharacterized C4orf26 proteins, while that obtained from KF274557 predicted to be a metallophosphoesterase. Furthermore, the structural folds in the structure of these predicted proteins were analyzed by using the homology modeling and their conformational behaviors in the explicit water conditions were analyzed by using the techniques of Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. This detailed analysis will facilitate the understanding of these proteins in the spermatozoon region and can be used for uncovering other attributes of the metabolic network

The impact of diabetes mellitus on the emergence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and treatment failure in TB-diabetes comorbid patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundThe existence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in tuberculosis (TB) patients is very dangerous for the health of patients. One of the major concerns is the emergence of MDR-TB in such patients. It is suspected that the development of MDR-TB further worsens the treatment outcomes of TB such as treatment failure and thus, causes disease progression.AimTo investigate the impact of DM on the Emergence of MDR-TB and Treatment Failure in TB-DM comorbid patients.MethodologyThe PubMed database was systematically searched until April 03, 2022 (date last searched). Thirty studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study after a proper selection process.ResultsTuberculosis-Diabetes Mellitus patients were at higher risk to develop MDR-TB as compared to TB-non-DM patients (HR 0.81, 95% CI: 0.60–0.96, p < 0.001). Heterogeneity observed among included studies was moderate (I2 = 38%). No significant change was observed in the results after sub-group analysis by study design (HR 0.81, 95% CI: 0.61–0.96, p < 0.000). In the case of treatment failure, TB-DM patients were at higher risk to experience treatment failure rates as compared to TB-non-DM patients (HR 0.46, 95% CI: 0.27–0.67, p < 0.001).ConclusionThe results showed that DM had a significant impact on the emergence of MDR-TB in TB-diabetes comorbid patients as compared to TB-non-DM patients. DM enhanced the risk of TB treatment failure rates in TB-diabetes patients as compared to TB-non-DM patients. Our study highlights the need for earlier screening of MDR-TB, thorough MDR-TB monitoring, and designing proper and effective treatment strategies to prevent disease progression

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Towards Design and Development of Security Assessment Framework for Internet of Medical Things

The majority of medical equipment in use today does not have built-in security features. As a result, whether linked to a hospital system or the cloud, these devices’ built-in weaknesses make them vulnerable to a variety of cyberattacks. In hospitals and clinics, hackers can breach equipment, manipulate data, and disrupt facilities, putting patients’ health as well as their lives in jeopardy. A professional can manage cybersecurity threats by lowering the attack surface of the system. Security analysis, whether as a means to detect possible vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers or as a means to prevent cyberattacks, plays an important role in risk mitigation. In addition, throughout the pre-market and post-market phases, security checks are required. This study presents a paradigm for incorporating security check concepts into medical device design and development and healthcare big data security. The security of devices and healthcare data is tested by the integrated fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS method. After the security check of devices, with the parameters security-checked for data, the algorithm is designed and implemented. As a result, the appropriate customized security controls are prompted in order to impede the attack

A FUZZY BASED APPROACH FOR PRIVACY PRESERVING CLUSTERING

Abstract — Extracting previously unknown patterns from massive volume of data is the main objective of any data mining algorithm. In current days there is a tremendous expansion in data collection due to the development in the field of information technology. The patterns revealed by data mining algorithm can be used in various domains like Image Analysis, Marketing and weather forecasting. As a side effect of the mining algorithm some sensitive information is also revealed. There is a need to preserve the privacy of individuals which can be achieved by using privacy preserving data mining. In this paper, fuzzy based data transformation methods are proposed for privacy preserving clustering in database environment. In case one, a fuzzy data transformation method is proposed and various experiments are conducted by varying the fuzzy membership functions such as Z-shaped fuzzy membership function, Triangular fuzzy membership function, Gaussian fuzzy membership function to transform the original dataset. In case two, a hybrid method is proposed as a combination of fuzzy data transformation approach specified in case one and Random Rotation Perturbation (RRP). The experimental results proved that the proposed hybrid method yields good results for all the member functions which are used in case one