Neuropathic Tremor Secondary to Guillain Barre Syndrome-a Case Study

Neuropathic tremor (NT) is a movement disorder characterized by tremor occurring in the isolated context of peripheral neuropathy. It consists of a postural and/or kinetic tremor affecting the distal upper extremities. The pathology of Neuropathic tremor is not well defined and the etiology is broad, but neuropathy and tremor severity are not related.Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acquired heterogeneous group of disorders due to an immune-mediated inflammation and demyelination of the peripheral nervous system.We reported a case of young girl presented with the kinetic tremors following GBS after 6 months. After the detailed Clinical evaluation we reached the diagnosis of Neuropathic tremor. She showed no significant difference on therapeutic trials of propranolol, although tremor improved spontaneously over the course of 3 months. To our knowledge this is the first case report of neuropathic tremor following GuillainBarre Syndrome

Health Expenditures, Institutional Quality and Economic Growth

The study aims to determine the effect of health expenditures on economic growth while taking into account the quality of health institutions, keeping in view the fact that it’s not just the level, rather quality of expenditures or institutions that matters. Our hypothesis was where institutions are better health investment in health brings more economic growth as compared to those with low quality institutions. To attain that objective the standard neoclassical Solow Growth Model at steady-state level was taken as theoretical framework and made a production function adding institutional quality proxied by government effectiveness along with other variables like health expenditure, primary education completion rate, population growth etc. For estimation purposes, data for the sample of 20 South, East Asian and Pacific developing countries was used for the period 1995-2017. It was found that if health expenditures adjusted for the quality of government expenditures increase by 100%, then the economic growth will increase by 5%

Letter to the Editor: An oncolytic parasite to treat polycythemia vera

No Abstrac

Analysis of Disengagements in Semi-Autonomous Vehicles: Drivers’ Takeover Performance and Operational Implications

This report analyzes the reactions of human drivers placed in simulated Autonomous Technology disengagement scenarios. The study was executed in a human-in-the-loop setting, within a high-fidelity integrated car simulator capable of handling both manual and autonomous driving. A population of 40 individuals was tested, with metrics for control takeover quantification given by: i) response times (considering inputs of steering, throttle, and braking); ii) vehicle drift from the lane centerline after takeover as well as overall (integral) drift over an S-turn curve compared to a baseline obtained in manual driving; and iii) accuracy metrics to quantify human factors associated with the simulation experiment. Independent variables considered for the study were the age of the driver, the speed at the time of disengagement, and the time at which the disengagement occurred (i.e., how long automation was engaged for). The study shows that changes in the vehicle speed significantly affect all the variables investigated, pointing to the importance of setting up thresholds for maximum operational speed of vehicles driven in autonomous mode when the human driver serves as back-up. The results shows that the establishment of an operational threshold could reduce the maximum drift and lead to better control during takeover, perhaps warranting a lower speed limit than conventional vehicles. With regards to the age variable, neither the response times analysis nor the drift analysis provide support for any claim to limit the age of drivers of semi-autonomous vehicles

Factors Affecting Awareness of Oral Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study from a One-Day Free Consultation Camp in Karachi

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Studying novel sporulation genes in Clostridium sporogenes

The class Clostridia consists of bacteria that are ubiquitous in nature, but are of high significance in various aspects of life, namely health, disease, food spoilage, biofuel production, bioterrorism and cancer therapy. Most of the clostridial species produce resilient spores, which ensure their survival under harsh environments up to several years in the form of dormant refractile bodies; and once they find favourable growth conditions, they germinate into their metabolically active forms. As much as this phenomenon is astounding, the current knowledge about clostridial sporulation mechanisms is also very limited. This situation calls for exploiting the forward genetics approach, by using transposable elements to identify novel sporulation genes in a relatively-accessible, non-pathogenic strain of Clostridium sporogenes. In conditional transposon mutagenesis, a mariner-based transposon is allowed to jump into random genes on host chromosome by means of Himar1 transposase enzymes, which eventually generates a library of transposon mutants that can be screened for the desired phenotype and ultimately, the genotype. Hence, transposon-insertion mutant libraries were constructed in C. sporogenes, from which 5,061 mutants were randomly screened for sporulation or germination defects, on the basis of little or complete loss of heat-resistant spores. Out of the 41 isolated sporulation- or germination-defective mutants, 28 unique genes were identified to have potential roles in sporulation or germination. According to annotations from the NCBI genome database, the identified genes encode for proteins involved in various stages of sporulation, cell division, DNA translocation, and some other biological processes. This indicates that the defects in sporulation or germination in the corresponding C. sporogenes mutants were either caused through the direct or indirect disruption of their cascades. Among the identified sporulation or germination genes, CLSPO_RS15205 (yqfD), CLSPO_RS07560 (divIVA), CLSPO_RS16880 (clpX), CLSPO_RS17345 (spoVK) and CLSPO_RS00950 (spoIID) were selected for CRISPR/Cas9-based targeted genome editing and the resulting null mutants were further characterized. In brief, attempts were made to determine possible roles of the target genes in the survival, growth, haemolysis, proteolysis and cell and colony morphology of C. sporogenes mutant strains. This characterization of general biology and sporulation profile of the acquired mutants will not only aid in better understanding sporulation mechanisms in C. sporogenes, but also for its toxigenic surrogate Group A proteolytic Clostridium botulinum. The acquired data is aimed to help spores-based applications in cancer therapy and food safety research. Keywords: clostridium; sporulation; transposon; genes; mutants; spores; CRISPR; cas9; yqfD; divIVA; clpX; ATPase; spoVK, spoIID; characterizatio

Impact of a digital health literacy intervention and risk predictors for multimorbidity among poor women of reproductive years: Results of a randomized-controlled trial

Objective: The objective of this study was to deliver an intervention to improve health awareness for infection prevention, hygiene, and sanitation to assess its impact. Furthermore, it aimed to identify the risk of multimorbidity in women of reproductive years from low socio-economic background. Methods: A randomized control trial was conducted in Pakistan among women aged 15–45 years. Overall, 820 women participated in the baseline survey; 388 women were part of the control group and 360 of the intervention group. A digital health literacy intervention was delivered by 91 trained community health workers. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. Results: About 35.9% of women suffered from multimorbidity. The intervention group showed higher odds of confidence in managing health with respect to skill and technique acquisition (AOR = 2.21; 95% CI 1.01–4.84), self-monitoring and insight (AOR = 2.97; 95% CI 1.29–6.80) as well as sanitation and hygiene (AOR = 1.42; 95% CI 1.07–1.93). Two primary outcomes related to hand hygiene and protective behavior against infection did not show any significant improvement. The secondary outcomes of the study related to impact on overall health-related quality of life, social integration and support, and emotional well-being also did not show any significant improvement. Conclusions: Digital health literacy interventions and multimorbidity management for women of reproductive years at the primary level are a way forward to alleviate communicable and non-communicable disease burden in developing countries like Pakistan. These efforts are also critical to improve maternal and child health in developing regions

Impact of a digital health literacy intervention and risk predictors for multimorbidity among poor women of reproductive years: Results of a randomized-controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to deliver an intervention to improve health awareness for infection prevention, hygiene, and sanitation to assess its impact. Furthermore, it aimed to identify the risk of multimorbidity in women of reproductive years from low socio-economic background. METHODS: A randomized control trial was conducted in Pakistan among women aged 15–45 years. Overall, 820 women participated in the baseline survey; 388 women were part of the control group and 360 of the intervention group. A digital health literacy intervention was delivered by 91 trained community health workers. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: About 35.9% of women suffered from multimorbidity. The intervention group showed higher odds of confidence in managing health with respect to skill and technique acquisition (AOR = 2.21; 95% CI 1.01–4.84), self-monitoring and insight (AOR = 2.97; 95% CI 1.29–6.80) as well as sanitation and hygiene (AOR = 1.42; 95% CI 1.07–1.93). Two primary outcomes related to hand hygiene and protective behavior against infection did not show any significant improvement. The secondary outcomes of the study related to impact on overall health-related quality of life, social integration and support, and emotional well-being also did not show any significant improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Digital health literacy interventions and multimorbidity management for women of reproductive years at the primary level are a way forward to alleviate communicable and non-communicable disease burden in developing countries like Pakistan. These efforts are also critical to improve maternal and child health in developing regions

Study on growth and condition factor of Oreochromis mossambicus in Malir river

The present study was conducted to examine the extent of pollution in Malir River by studying the growth of Oreochromis mossambicus, the common fish of this river. In this study, analysis of length and weight has been done to describe the variation in growth and condition index. The growth rate (Best Condition Factor) was observed at spot 3 (Drigh road) and low at spot 4 (Quyumabad)