Ectopic enterobius vermicularis Iinfestation; an extremely rare cause of mesenteric lymphadenopathy mimicking tuberculous lymphadenitis

Enterobius vermicularis (EV) is a pinworm which commonly resides in the lumen of the intestinal tract and lays eggs on the perianal skin. However, rarely the worm can infest various other sites in the body and cases with infestation of such ectopic sites have been reported in literature. Rare cases of mesenteric lymph node involvement have also been reported. We report a case in a young male who presented with signs and symptoms of acute appendicitis. During surgery, enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes were identified. Histological examination revealed adult worm in the appendiceal lumen. Histological examination of mesenteric lymph node revealed degenerated worm surrounded by caseating chronic granulomatous inflammation. We conclude that EV infestation should be considered in the differential diagnosis of enlarged mesenteric lymph node with chronic granulomatous inflammation, especially in young patients and when accompanying bowel tissue also reveal the helminth

Evaluation of the effectiveness of English language teaching in English language institutes in Mardan

AbstractThe scope of English language is widening day by day. There are various English language institutes working in Mardan city. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the course content, class activities and adopted teaching methods in these language institutes. For this purpose, we distributed questionnaires among 76 students of different language institutes seeking their perception regarding the courses. We came to know that the courses were least effective due to the teachers’ ineptness, their focusing more on the content than on the students’ needs, and because of the unavailability of the proper resources for effective language practices at the institutes. However, some of the students at these institutes were found quite satisfied with their improvement in accent and pronunciation. As a whole, the language institutes in Mardan need to do a thorough overhauling of their practices to help students’ achieve their language goals satisfactorily

Evaluation of erectile dysfunction with color Doppler sonography

Objective: To assess the role of Color Doppler Sonography in the evaluation of erectile dysfunction.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Radiology Department, Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi from 5-6-2002 to 2-9-2003. All consecutive patients presenting with erectile dysfunction and undergoing penile color Doppler evaluation with injection PGE1 20 mcg were included in this study.Results: A total of 70 patients with an age range of 24-70 years (mean 41 +/- 12.25 years) were included in the study. A normal response was noted in 45 (psychogenic) cases. Vasculogenic causes were observed in 23 patients, 12 with arterial insufficiency and 11 with venous leak. Peyronie\u27s disease was diagnosed in 2 patients.CONCLUSION: Color Doppler evaluation of erectile dysfunction is an effective method for differentiating psychogenic and vasculogenic causes of erectile dysfunction

Morphological Identification and Resistance Profile of Antibiotic and Heavy Metals-Resistant Bacteria in Hospital Sewage of Peshawar

Background: Increased resistance of microorganisms to commonly prescribed antibiotics has emerged as a significant hurdle in contemporary medical practice. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared antibiotic resistance as a " major threat to public health.". In the present study, bacterial isolates were selected based on high antibiotic and heavy metal tolerance from a water sample taken from hospital sewage.Methods: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria were isolated through the disk diffusion method. Gram staining was done for morphological identification. For molecular identification, the 16s rDNA PCR amplification was done with universal primers. Results: The strain BC1 was found resistant to ampicillin (10μg/ml), and cefixime (5μg/ml). While, susceptible to kanamycin (30μg/ml), azithromycin (15μg/ml) and intermediate in response to amoxicillin (30μg/ml). The strain BC2 was resistant to ampicillin (10μg/ml), cefixime (5μg/ml) and kanamycin (30μg/ml). While, Susceptible to amoxicillin (30μg/ml), and intermediate in response to azithromycin (15μg/ml). The strains were also found resistant to heavy metals.Conclusion: The recent investigation on bacterial strains from hospital effluent found interesting candidates for understanding the AMR bacteria and developing novel active biomolecules to combat the antibiotics problem. The isolated strains could be a source of novel resistant genes however; a comprehensive molecular analysis is needed for advanced studies

Enhancing the Expression and Purification of IL-29: A study of autoinduction and one-step Purification Methods

Background: Cytokines have long been viewed as a sign of hope due to their immunomodulatory and therapeutic characteristics. Developing simple, economical and readily scaled technologies to simplify their manufacturing is a critical challenge.Method: In this study we have used a customized medium to automatically induce the expression of the IL-29 in E. coli expression system from the T7 promoter, allowing for higher yields as compared to the traditional technique of IPTG induction. Similarly, one-step purification method is employed to make the fermentation process cost-effective, along with enhancing its efficiency.Results: From 1 L batches of IPTG-induced and autoinduced media, the harvested biomass was 11.8 g and 13.4 g, respectively and their corresponding IBs were 3.8 g and 4.8 g. Total protein purified from 1 L batch was 132  mg, at a concentration of 13 mg/mL, with an indicated high purity of 97%. IL-29 significantly decrease the metabolic activity of HepG2 cells. Specifically, 50% of the cells died at a concentration of 0.156 μg/mL, while 80% of the cells died at a concentration of 5 μg/mL.Conclusion: This study presents an economical solution for producing and purifying IL-29 in E. coli, resulting in higher yields of biomass and IBs than expensive traditional method. The purified protein was highly pure and had immunomodulatory effects on HepG2 cells. These findings have important implications for developing simplified and scalable technologies for cytokine production with therapeutic potential.Keywords: Escherichia coli; Cytokines; Interleukins; Interferons; Protein purification    

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women aged 16 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of post-partum haemorrhage after a vaginal birth or caesarean section from 193 hospitals in 21 countries. We randomly assigned women to receive either 1 g intravenous tranexamic acid or matching placebo in addition to usual care. If bleeding continued after 30 min, or stopped and restarted within 24 h of the first dose, a second dose of 1 g of tranexamic acid or placebo could be given. Patients were assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight numbered packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. We originally planned to enrol 15 000 women with a composite primary endpoint of death from all-causes or hysterectomy within 42 days of giving birth. However, during the trial it became apparent that the decision to conduct a hysterectomy was often made at the same time as randomisation. Although tranexamic acid could influence the risk of death in these cases, it could not affect the risk of hysterectomy. We therefore increased the sample size from 15 000 to 20 000 women in order to estimate the effect of tranexamic acid on the risk of death from post-partum haemorrhage. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ISRCTN76912190 (Dec 8, 2008); ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00872469; and PACTR201007000192283. Findings Between March, 2010, and April, 2016, 20 060 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive tranexamic acid (n=10 051) or placebo (n=10 009), of whom 10 036 and 9985, respectively, were included in the analysis. Death due to bleeding was significantly reduced in women given tranexamic acid (155 [1·5%] of 10 036 patients vs 191 [1·9%] of 9985 in the placebo group, risk ratio [RR] 0·81, 95% CI 0·65–1·00; p=0·045), especially in women given treatment within 3 h of giving birth (89 [1·2%] in the tranexamic acid group vs 127 [1·7%] in the placebo group, RR 0·69, 95% CI 0·52–0·91; p=0·008). All other causes of death did not differ significantly by group. Hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (358 [3·6%] patients in the tranexamic acid group vs 351 [3·5%] in the placebo group, RR 1·02, 95% CI 0·88–1·07; p=0·84). The composite primary endpoint of death from all causes or hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (534 [5·3%] deaths or hysterectomies in the tranexamic acid group vs 546 [5·5%] in the placebo group, RR 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·09; p=0·65). Adverse events (including thromboembolic events) did not differ significantly in the tranexamic acid versus placebo group. Interpretation Tranexamic acid reduces death due to bleeding in women with post-partum haemorrhage with no adverse effects. When used as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, tranexamic acid should be given as soon as possible after bleeding onset. Funding London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO