Variation in relapse frequency and the transmission potential of Plasmodium vivax malaria

There is substantial variation in the relapse frequency of Plasmodium vivax malaria, with fast-relapsing strains in tropical areas, and slow-relapsing strains in temperate areas with seasonal transmission. We hypothesize that much of the phenotypic diversity in P. vivax relapses arises from selection of relapse frequency to optimize transmission potential in a given environment, in a process similar to the virulence trade-off hypothesis. We develop mathematical models of P. vivax transmission and calculate the basic reproduction number R0 to investigate how transmission potential varies with relapse frequency and seasonality. In tropical zones with year-round transmission, transmission potential is optimized at intermediate relapse frequencies of two to three months: slower-relapsing strains increase the opportunity for onward transmission to mosquitoes, but also increase the risk of being outcompeted by faster-relapsing strains. Seasonality is an important driver of relapse frequency for temperate strains, with the time to first relapse predicted to be six to nine months, coinciding with the duration between seasonal transmission peaks. We predict that there is a threshold degree of seasonality, below which fast-relapsing tropical strains are selected for, and above which slow-relapsing temperate strains dominate, providing an explanation for the observed global distribution of relapse phenotypes

Shashi Tharoor as a Gentleman Politician

Shashi Tharoor is an outstanding politician ranked the best among the present day leaders.  His past UN career, his authoritative clout on every matter pertaining to India and his charismatic personality make him the most sought out among the political leaders of India. Entering the Indian political arena directly landing into the middle of the medley, he has been in the eye of many controversies that have projected him as a nonconformist and impractical outsider whose views and dreams for India are unrealistic. However, Shashi Tharoor has proved the cynics wrong and has manifested himself as an able leader and darling of his constituency who have chosen him two times consecutively.  He is among the first generation of techsavvy new generation political leaders to make full use of the internet and reach his followers instantaneously and continuously, thus demonstrating an elected public servant’s style of functioning could also be accountable and transparent. His stupendous academic achievements and outstanding literary works set him apart in the firmament of successful personalities of India holding a promise to the future of the country.  Even in his short term political career, Shashi Tharoor has proved himself to be a gentleman politician who is sincere and honest in his commitment to his voters and strives his best to fulfill his promises. Such dedicated politicians who are ready to serve the nation selflessly are the need of the hour in today’s India and Shashi Tharoor is a fine example of the proper role a true political leader can play in a disgraced democratic country like ours and serve as an instrument of change for bettering the miserable lives of millions of innocent trusting citizens of the country, at least in the coming century

Automated RFID based library management systems

RFID provides one of the best solutions for the identification of assets. RFID is a new generation which provides auto identification and data collection technique. RFID allows identification of tagged books, using radio frequency. RFID based Library Management System (LMS) will help us to increase the flow of transaction for a library. The proposed system of LMS is based on UHF RFID readers, along with the antennas at library entrance and on all other transactional points of the library. This work discusses elimination of transactional module from existing RFID based Library Management Syste

Isolated Renal Sarcoidosis: a Rare Cause for Granulomatous Interstitial Nephritis

Introduction: Granulomatous interstitial nephritis (GIN) is a rare histological diagnosis that can be the first manifestation of systemic disease. It has been associated with medications, infections, sarcoidosis, crystal deposits, paraproteinemia and Wegnere's granulomatosis. It can also be seen in an idiopathic form. Case report: A 37 year-old female patient presented to our nephrology service with lethargy and weight loss of three months duration. Her past medical history and clinical examination were not remarkable. She had impaired renal function tests and hypercalcemia associated with elevated angiotensin converting enzyme levels and sonographically normal kidneys. Extensive investigations revealed no other organ involvement and no evidence of infection or malignancy. Renal biopsy showed extensive interstitial non-necrotizing granulomata. Accordingly, she was diagnosed as a case of isolated renal sarcoidosis and started on steroid therapy. Within one month of treatment, she recovered normal renal function. Steroids were successfully tapered after another six months, and she shows no evidence of recurrence 24 months after steroid withdrawal. Conclusion: The possibility of isolated renal sarcoidosis should be considered in any case of impaired kidney function and hypercalcemia even in the absence of systemic manifestation. The finding of non-caseating interstitial granulomata in renal biopsy supports this diagnosis. Keywords: granulomatous interstitial nephritis, non-caseating granuloma, renal insufficiency, renal sarcoidosis

Managing and reducing uncertainty in an emerging influenza pandemic

published_or_final_versio

Virtual Werribee : a planning support tool

Virtual Werribee is collaborative research in applying 3-D modelling and visualisation as a planning support tool in comparison to 2-D plans and drawings. It was a joint initiative involving Deakin University and the Wyndham City Council to demonstrate the use of 3-D visualisation for planning process in the actual context of a planning authority in Australia. The objective of this project was to assist the council in preparing for the revised Local Structure Plan. By reconstructing the council&rsquo;s data into easily understood information, 3-D model and visualisation served as a verification and discussion tool for decision making. The integration of wider site context also provided a better understanding of the surrounding development areas. This could equip other stakeholders as well as the community to participate in council&rsquo;s planning agenda activities, such as increasing the urban density and building heights limit.Virtual Werribee included the development planning agenda, categorised as new, re-development and hypothetical. The modelling process progressed with sufficient data from the council. Some changes to the initial plan were made, including the use of CAD modelling software instead of GIS software, and production of a block model with selected detail buildings, instead of a full draped 3-D model. The council decided that the block model would be sufficient for their planning purposes. This was determined while taking into consideration the available facilities at the council.The potentials of the model as a planning tool were demonstrated in this paper, and further compared to the council&rsquo;s existing materials prepared by the project developers. The advantages of the 3-D interactive model and visualisation over the conventional materials have provided the council officer with a tool for better empowerment in the planning process. This was also evident in the increasing engagement level between the officer and the model as the process developed. As a result of this, the project scope has also expanded, finally covering the entire city.While Virtual Werribee has the potential to better communicate council&rsquo;s planning agendas to the stakeholders and the community, the key factor, coupled with its visualisation components, was its interactive capability. Property layers with aerial site image that provided a realistic background served as a virtual city platform for different users. Although limited in its analytic capability found in GIS software, this model offered high visualisation content to assist visual impact assessment through its interactive mode along with a series of still images and a simulation movie.<br /

ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY TRIBAL COMMUNITIES FOR THE TREATMENT OF VARIOUS DISEASES IN BHADRACHALAM AND CHARLA AREA OF KHAMMAM DISTRICT, TELANGANA STATE

Ethnobotanical field work is different from the routine field collection, which are done usually by taxonomists or flora writers. While taxonomist give emphasis on plants and their habitat, the ethnobotanists, in addition to these aspect, record the relationship of these plants with the local inhabitants. Therefore, the first step in ethnobotanical field work is to identify the local inhabitants or primitive societies and their regional jurisdiction. Field study in a tribal area gives first hand information. Here the ethanobotanist apart from collection of plant, also discuses and records the uses of plants with the help of informants. Great patience and perseverance are required in ethnobotanical study. Traditionally used medicinal plants have been a source of relief in controlling various types of diseases throughout the globe. Tribal people have traditional knowledge of plant species use for different purposes such as food, colors, gums, medicine etc. Present study deals with ethnobotanical study to explore about ethnomedicinal plants using for curing various diseases. We have conducted an ethnobotanical survey to collect the information about the traditional medicinal plants for various diseases by the tribes of Bhadrachalam and Charla area of Khammam district. In our investigation we have recognized 25 taxa, belonging to 23 genera of 17 families of magnoliphyta are used for different diseases. These collected plants were planted in our research field for further studies. Different explants of these plants have been used for plant tissue culture studies like micropropagation and conservation of germplasm. The herbal plants, fruits, seeds are preserved and documented in the form of herbarium and specimens

Gender and age differences in walking for transport and recreation: are the relationships the same in all neighborhoods?

AbstractIntroductionWalking as regular physical activity (PA) is central to healthy aging, and environments influence walking. Multilevel neighborhood-based studies that only report average (fixed-effect) walking differences for gender and age implicitly assume that neighborhood environments influence the walking behavior of men and women, and younger and older persons, similarly. This study tests this assumption by examining whether gender and age differences in walking for transport (WfT) and walking for recreation (WfR) are similar or different across neighborhoods.MethodsThis paper used data from the HABITAT multilevel study, with 7,866 participants aged 42–68years in 2009 living in 200 neighborhoods in Brisbane, Australia. Respondents reported minutes spent WfT and WfR in the previous week, categorized as: none (0mins), low (1–59mins), moderate (60–149mins) and high (≥150mins). Multilevel multinomial logistic models were used to estimate average differences in walking by gender and age, followed by random coefficients to examine neighborhood variation in these individual-level relationships.ResultsOn average, women were more likely to engage in WfR at moderate and high levels (no gender differences found in WfT); and older persons were less likely to do WfT and more likely to do high levels of WfR. These average (Brisbane-wide) relationships varied significantly across neighborhoods.ConclusionRelationships between gender and walking, and age and walking, are not the same in all neighborhoods, (i.e. the Brisbane average conceals important information) suggesting that neighborhood-level factors differentially influence the walking behaviors of men and women and younger and older persons. Identifying these factors should be a priority for future research

Prevalence and factors associated with postpartum vaginal infection in the Khyber agency federally administered tribal areas, Pakistan

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and to identify the factors associated with vaginal infection among the married women between the ages of 15-49 years residing in the Khyber Agency (FATA), Pakistan.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the month of July 2005 on 1084 mothers by using random sampling strategy in Khyber Agency Pakistan by trained nurses. The descriptive and multivariate statistics were computed.Results: The multivariate analysis showed that the associated factors with vaginal infection were the use of unhygienic material to soak up the lochia [aOR=3.45, 95% CI (1.36, 8.75)], bathing after 40 days [aOR=2.10, 95% CI (1.55, 3.14)], and women who did not receive antenatal care [OR=3.87, 95% CI (1.93, 7.75)]. Also women who did not have medical facilities available [OR=2.45, 95% CI (1.23, 5.06)] reported of vaginal infection.Conclusions: This study concluded that there is considerable need for health education among women and the entire community for the maintenance of hygiene, safe delivery through medical personnel and improvement in the mobility of mothers and female education (JPMA 57:363:2007)

Role of serum glypican-3 in the diagnosis and differentiation of small hepatocellular carcinoma from hepatitis-C virus cirrhosis

Background: Serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) has insufficient sensitivity and specificityfor detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, glypican-3 (GLP-3) was suggested as a new biomarker for the detection HCC.Objectives: To determine the role of serum GLP-3 levels in the early diagnosis and differentiation of small (3 cm or less in diameter) HCC from liver cirrhosis. Also, to correlate GLP-3 levels to clinico- laboratory data.Methods: The study included sixty patients; 30 of them with hepatitis C virus (HCV) cirrhosis, and 30 patients with proved HCC. In addition, 20 healthy subjects were included as a control group. Clinical and radiological features (abdominal ultrasonography and/or abdominal triphasic computed tomography) were recorded. Liver function tests, complete blood cell count, and serum AFP were measured. Serum GLP-3 values were determined by an ELISA technique.Results: Serum levels of GLP-3 were significantly elevated in patients with HCC compared with HCV cirrhosis group (p&lt; 0.001). Also, these levels were significantly elevated in these two patients’ groups versus controls (p&lt;0.001). Also, serum GLP-3 levels with cut-off value of P240 ug/L, had a higher sensitivity (100%) and same specificity (93.3%), than AFP with cut-off value of P200 ng/ ml, for detection of HCC. Moreover, GLP-3 levels showed a higher sensitivity than AFP (50% vs.41.7%), for detection of small HCC. The combined use of both markers (i.e. when either one of the two markers positive) improved the specificity to 88.9%. Regarding unicentric HCC, GLP-3 at cut-off value of 6580 ug/L had better specificity than AFP at cut-off value of 6765 ng/ml (57.1% vs. 42.9%). The combined use of both markers improved the sensitivity and specificity to 82.6% and 71.4%, respectively. Conclusion: Serum GLP-3 levels are higher in HCC versus HCV cirrhosis, which can differentiate HCC from liver cirrhosis. Also, serum GLP-3 is highly sensitive and specific for detecting HCC. Moreover, GLP-3 is more sensitive than AFP for the detection of small HCC. Furthermore, a combination of both serum markers yielded an improved specificity and both sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of small and unicentric HCC, respectively.Keywords: Serum tumor marker Alpha-fetoprotein Early hepatocellular carcinoma Diagnosis