Diuretics use in Paediatric practice with focus on Furosemide

Diuretics remain a common medication in Paediatric practice and possibly one of the most important drugs in Nephrology practice. Understanding their mechanism, appropriate rationale for use and prompt identification of side-effects allows for high efficacy and safety in their use. On the background of challenges in our center with regards to the use of frusemide, this review is specifically focused on addressing factors that may affect frusemide efficacy, possible cause of resistance and drug interactions that may occur following its use

Ventilatory support of the newborn

Respiratory disorders are a frequent cause of admission in the newborn. Respiratory diseases have unique physiologic, anatomic and clinical characteristics during this period necessitating special management. Knowledge of the pathophysiology of pulmonary diseases and their differential impact on the lungs of differing stages of maturity is essential to the safe and efficacious applications of special techniques of treatment. Principles of respiratory management include establishment of the airway, ensuring oxygenation, assisted ventilation, assessing adequacy of ventilation, correction of metabolic abnormalities and alleviation of cause of distress. The goal of treatment is safe and effective assistance to oxygen delivery and carbon dioxide removal from the tissues. Inspired oxygen should be administered in a controlled manner to provide adequate but not excessive blood oxygen tension levels. Mechanical ventilation may be required to treat metabolic abnormalities. There is the need for continuous monitoring and re- evaluation. This article is intended to present an overview of the embryology of the respiratory system, pulmonary physiology in the newborn, the principles of oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation. It also discusses the complications that can follow. Key words: Ventilatory support, oxygen delivery, newbor

Measles: The past, the present and the future

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases known to affect man. It spreads rapidly from an index case to many susceptible individuals resulting in cycles of epidemics in different parts of the world especially in the African continent. The contribution of measles to childhood mortality and morbidity remains high because it gives rise to complications such as pneumonia, malnutrition and blindness. Measles vaccine is known to be efficacious and effective; however appearance of epidemics in parts of Europe and the USA in recent times underscores the fact that low vaccine uptake will always leave a large number of susceptible individuals with a potential for epidemics. The history, aetiopathogenesis, clinical features (including complications), diagnostic tools, treatment and prevention are discussed in this article. The most important steps to prevent measles cases and deaths would be to institutionalize the two dose measles vaccine regime; give supplemental Vitamin A; strengthen health systems to be able to adequately deliver the vaccine and supplement, carry out surveillance and offer treatment for cases. There is no doubt that global partnerships remain relevant in order to consolidate and accelerate prevention of measles, thus, they must continue to be supported

Abelian-Higgs and Vortices from ABJM: towards a string realization of AdS/CMT

We present ans\"{a}tze that reduce the mass-deformed ABJM model to gauged Abelian scalar theories, using the fuzzy sphere matrices $G^\alpha$. One such reduction gives a Toda system, for which we find a new type of nonabelian vortex. Another gives the standard Abelian-Higgs model, thereby allowing us to embed all the usual (multi-)vortex solutions of the latter into the ABJM model. By turning off the mass deformation at the level of the reduced model, we can also continuously deform to the massive $\phi^4$ theory in the massless ABJM case. In this way we can embed the Landau-Ginzburg model into the AdS/CFT correspondence as a consistent truncation of ABJM. In this context, the mass deformation parameter $\mu$ and a field VEV $$ act as $g$ and $g_c$ respectively, leading to a well-motivated AdS/CMT construction from string theory. To further this particular point, we propose a simple model for the condensed matter field theory that leads to an approximate description for the ABJM abelianization. Finally, we also find some BPS solutions to the mass-deformed ABJM model with a spacetime interpretation as an M2-brane ending on a spherical M5-brane.Comment: 43 pages, latex, explanations added in the introduction, end of section 4, and on page 2

Profiling and Role of Bioactive Molecules from Puntius sophore (Freshwater/Brackish Fish) Skin Mucus with Its Potent Antibacterial, Antiadhesion, and Antibiofilm Activities

Epidermal fish mucus comprises of diverse bioactive metabolites which plays an immense role in defense mechanisms and other important cellular activities. Primarily, this study aims to screen the unexplored mucus extract of Puntius sophore (P. sophore) for its antagonistic potential against common pathogens, which are commonly implicated in foodborne and healthcare associated infections, with effects on their adhesion and biofilm formation. Profiling of the skin mucus was carried out by High Resolution-Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (HR-LCMS), followed by antibacterial activity and assessment of antibiofilm potency and efficacy on the development, formation, and texture of biofilms. Furthermore, bacterial cell damage, viability within the biofilm, checkerboard test, and cytotoxicity were also evaluated. As a result, P. sophore mucus extract was found to be effective against all tested strains. It also impedes the architecture of biofilm matrix by affecting the viability and integrity of bacterial cells within biofilms and reducing the total exopolysaccharide content. A synergy was observed between P. sophore mucus extract and gentamicin for Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), and Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis), whereas, an additive effect for Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Thus, our findings represent the potent bioactivities of P. sophore mucus extract for the first time, which could be explored further as an alternative to antibiotics or chemically synthesized antibiofilm agents

Image Compression Using Proposed Enhanced Run Length Encoding Algorithm

In this paper, we will present p roposed enhance process of image compression by using RLE algorithm. This proposed yield to decrease the size of compressing image, but the original method used primarily for compressing a binary images [1].Which will yield increasing the size of an original image mostly when used for color images. The test of an enhanced algorithm is performed on sample consists of ten BMP 24-bit true color images, building an application by using visual basic 6.0 to show the size after and before compression process and computing the compression ratio for RLE and for the enhanced RLE algorithm

ABJM Dibaryon Spectroscopy

We extend the proposal for a detailed map between wrapped D-branes in Anti-de Sitter space and baryon-like operators in the associated dual conformal field theory provided in hep-th/0202150 to the recently formulated AdS_4 \times CP^3/ABJM correspondence. In this example, the role of the dibaryon operator of the 3-dimensional CFT is played by a D4-brane wrapping a CP^2 \subset CP^3. This topologically stable D-brane in the AdS_4 \times CP^3 is nothing but one-half of the maximal giant graviton on CP^3.Comment: 26 page

An evaluation of the SureID 23comp Human Identification Kit for kinship testing

Short tandem repeat (STR) profiling has been routinely used in kinship testing since the introduction of commercial kits in the mid-1990s. While 15 to 23 STR loci normally give definitive results in simple kinship testing, additional loci are sometimes required to resolve complex cases. The SureID 23comp Human Identification Kit, recently released by Health Gene Technologies (China), multiplexes amelogenin and 22 autosomal STRs, 17 of which are non-CODIS STRs. This enables the profiling of 38–40 loci when used in conjunction with widely used commercial kits. In this study, the kit was evaluated for kinship applications as a supplementary STR kit following the minimum criteria for validation recommended by the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) and the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) using 500 samples. Performance was comparable with other commercial kits demonstrating: repeatability and reproducibility; precision (maximum s.d. 0.1048 nt); accuracy, all alleles were within ±0.41 nt compared to the actual sizes; heterozygous peak balances at all loci >68%; stutter ratios ranged from 3.8% to 16.15%; full profiles were generated with 125 pg DNA (95.12% of alleles at 62 pg),; and we found 100% concordance over 5 common STRs with the GlobalFiler kit

High-speed shaking of frozen blood clots for extraction of human and malaria parasite DNA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Frozen blood clots remaining after serum collection is an often disregarded source of host and pathogen DNA due to troublesome handling and suboptimal outcome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>High-speed shaking of clot samples in a cell disruptor manufactured for homogenization of tissue and faecal specimens was evaluated for processing frozen blood clots for DNA extraction. The method was compared to two commercial clot protocols based on a chemical kit and centrifugation through a plastic sieve, followed by the same DNA extraction protocol. Blood clots with different levels of parasitaemia (1-1,000 p/μl) were prepared from parasite cultures to assess sensitivity of PCR detection. In addition, clots retrieved from serum samples collected within two epidemiological studies in Kenya (n = 630) were processed by high speed shaking and analysed by PCR for detection of malaria parasites and the human α-thalassaemia gene.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>High speed shaking succeeded in fully dispersing the clots and the method generated the highest DNA yield. The level of PCR detection of <it>P. falciparum </it>parasites and the human thalassaemia gene was the same as samples optimally collected with an anticoagulant. The commercial clot protocol and centrifugation through a sieve failed to fully dissolve the clots and resulted in lower sensitivity of PCR detection.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>High speed shaking was a simple and efficacious method for homogenizing frozen blood clots before DNA purification and resulted in PCR templates of high quality both from humans and malaria parasites. This novel method enables genetic studies from stored blood clots.</p