Association between congenital toxoplasmosis and preterm birth, low birthweight and small for gestational age birth.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between congenital toxoplasmosis and preterm birth, low birthweight and small for gestational age birth. DESIGN: Multicentre prospective cohort study. SETTING: Ten European centres offering prenatal screening for toxoplasmosis. POPULATION: Deliveries after 23 weeks of gestation in 386 women with singleton pregnancies who seroconverted to toxoplasma infection before 20 weeks of gestation. Deliveries after 36 weeks in 234 women who seroconverted at 20 weeks or later, and tested positive before 37 weeks. METHODS: Comparison of infected and uninfected births, adjusted for parity and country of birth. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Differences in gestational age at birth, birthweight and birthweight centile. RESULTS: Infected babies were born or delivered earlier than uninfected babies: the mean difference for seroconverters before 20 weeks was -5.4 days (95% CI: -1.4, -9.4), and at 20 weeks or more, -2.6 days (95% CI: -0.5, -4.7). Congenital infection was associated with an increased risk of preterm delivery when seroconversion occurred before 20 weeks (OR 4.71; 95% CI: 2.03, 10.9). No significant differences were detected for birthweight or birthweight centile. CONCLUSION: Babies with congenital toxoplasmosis were born earlier than uninfected babies but the mechanism leading to shorter length of gestation is unknown. Congenital infection could precipitate early delivery or prompt caesarean section or induction of delivery. We found no evidence for a significant association between congenital toxoplasmosis and reduced birthweight or small for gestational age birth

A combined microfinance and training intervention can reduce HIV risk behaviour in young female participants.

OBJECTIVE: To assess effects of a combined microfinance and training intervention on HIV risk behavior among young female participants in rural South Africa. DESIGN: : Secondary analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from a cluster randomized trial, the Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity study. METHODS: Eight villages were pair-matched and randomly allocated to receive the intervention. At baseline and after 2 years, HIV risk behavior was assessed among female participants aged 14-35 years. Their responses were compared with women of the same age and poverty group from control villages. Intervention effects were calculated using adjusted risk ratios employing village level summaries. Qualitative data collected during the study explored participants' responses to the intervention including HIV risk behavior. RESULTS: After 2 years of follow-up, when compared with controls, young participants had higher levels of HIV-related communication (adjusted risk ratio 1.46, 95% confidence interval 1.01-2.12), were more likely to have accessed voluntary counseling and testing (adjusted risk ratio 1.64, 95% confidence interval 1.06-2.56), and less likely to have had unprotected sex at last intercourse with a nonspousal partner (adjusted risk ratio 0.76, 95% confidence interval 0.60-0.96). Qualitative data suggest a greater acceptance of intrahousehold communication about HIV and sexuality. Although women noted challenges associated with acceptance of condoms by men, increased confidence and skills associated with participation in the intervention supported their introduction in sexual relationships. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to impacts on economic well being, women's empowerment and intimate partner violence, interventions addressing the economic and social vulnerability of women may contribute to reductions in HIV risk behavior

Reading the Complex Skipper Butterfly Fauna of One Tropical Place

BACKGROUND: An intense, 30-year, ongoing biodiversity inventory of Lepidoptera, together with their food plants and parasitoids, is centered on the rearing of wild-caught caterpillars in the 120,000 terrestrial hectares of dry, rain, and cloud forest of Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. Since 2003, DNA barcoding of all species has aided their identification and discovery. We summarize the process and results for a large set of the species of two speciose subfamilies of ACG skipper butterflies (Hesperiidae) and emphasize the effectiveness of barcoding these species (which are often difficult and time-consuming to identify). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Adults are DNA barcoded by the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Guelph, Canada; and they are identified by correlating the resulting COI barcode information with more traditional information such as food plant, facies, genitalia, microlocation within ACG, caterpillar traits, etc. This process has found about 303 morphologically defined species of eudamine and pyrgine Hesperiidae breeding in ACG (about 25% of the ACG butterfly fauna) and another 44 units indicated by distinct barcodes (n = 9,094), which may be additional species and therefore may represent as much as a 13% increase. All but the members of one complex can be identified by their DNA barcodes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Addition of DNA barcoding to the methodology greatly improved the inventory, both through faster (hence cheaper) accurate identification of the species that are distinguishable without barcoding, as well as those that require it, and through the revelation of species "hidden" within what have long been viewed as single species. Barcoding increased the recognition of species-level specialization. It would be no more appropriate to ignore barcode data in a species inventory than it would be to ignore adult genitalia variation or caterpillar ecology

Predicting Fluid Intelligence of Children using T1-weighted MR Images and a StackNet

In this work, we utilize T1-weighted MR images and StackNet to predict fluid intelligence in adolescents. Our framework includes feature extraction, feature normalization, feature denoising, feature selection, training a StackNet, and predicting fluid intelligence. The extracted feature is the distribution of different brain tissues in different brain parcellation regions. The proposed StackNet consists of three layers and 11 models. Each layer uses the predictions from all previous layers including the input layer. The proposed StackNet is tested on a public benchmark Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge 2019 and achieves a mean squared error of 82.42 on the combined training and validation set with 10-fold cross-validation. In addition, the proposed StackNet also achieves a mean squared error of 94.25 on the testing data. The source code is available on GitHub.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, Accepted by MICCAI ABCD-NP Challenge 2019; Added ND

COMPLICATIONS RELATED COMORBIDITIES OF ARTERIOVENOUS FISTULA (AVF) CREATION AS HEMODIALYSIS ACCESS FOR END STAGE RENAL DISEASE (ESRD) IN BEN MBOI DISTRICT HOSPITAL, RUTENG FLORES INDONESIA

Introduction: Since Brescia and Cimino(1966) posted AV Fistula technique, there has been increase of long term survival of patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). AV fistula has its own set of indications, benefits, and complications. Purpose: To show AV Fistula creation outcomes, complications and its related comorbidities in Ben Mboi District Hospital, Ruteng Flores IndonesiaMethod: An analytical study design using a cross sectional approach was employed in this study. Using medical record data from 2019 to 2022, all men and women who received hemodialysis through AV Fistula were included. Bivariate analysis was carried out from baseline data such as age, sex, comorbidities, location of an av fistula (AVF), previous dialysis insertion with complications that arise using Chi-square. Results: Age, sex, hypertension and AV Fistula creation location has no significant correlation with complications such as failed to mature, thrombosis, infection, venous hypertension. Diabetes mellitus has a significant correlation with occurrence of failed to mature (p=0.012), thrombosis (p=0.014), venous hypertension (p=0.08). Obesity has a significant correlation with occurrence of failed to mature (p=0.000), thrombosis (p=0.000). Previous insertion of CDL in right subclavian vein has a significant correlation with occurrence of venous hypertension (p=0.000).Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus has a significant correlation with occurrence of complications such as failed to mature, thrombosis and venous hypertension. Obesity has a significant correlation with occurrence of failed to mature and thrombosis. History of CDL insertion in right subclavian vein has a significant correlation with venous hypertension

Withdrawing intra-aortic balloon pump support paradoxically improves microvascular flow

Introduction: The Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP) is frequently used to mechanically support the heart. There is evidence that IABP improves microvascular flow during cardiogenic shock but its influence on the human microcirculation in patients deemed ready for discontinuing IABP support has not yet been studied. Therefore we used sidestream dark field imaging (SDF) to test our hypothesis that human microcirculation remains unaltered with or without IABP support in patients clinically ready for discontinuation of mechanical support. Methods: We studied 15 ICU patients on IABP therapy. Measurements were performed after the clinical decision was made to remove the balloon catheter. We recorded global hemodynamic parameters and performed venous oximetry during maximal IABP support (1:1) and 10 minutes after temporarily stopping the IABP therapy. At both time points, we also recorded video clips of the sublingual microcirculation. From these we determined indices of microvascular perfusion including perfused vessel density (PVD) and microvascular flow index (MFI). Results: Ceasing IABP support lowered mean arterial pressure (74 +/- 8 to 71 +/- 10 mmHg; P = 0.048) and increased diastolic pressure (43 +/- 10 to 53 +/- 9 mmHg; P = 0.0002). However, at the level of the microcirculation we found an increase of PVD of small vessels <20 mu m (5.47 +/- 1.76 to 6.63 +/- 1.90; P = 0.0039). PVD for vessels >20 mu m and MFI for both small and large vessels were unaltered. During the procedure global oxygenation parameters (ScvO(2)/SvO(2)) remained unchanged. Conclusions: In patients deemed ready for discontinuing IABP support according to current practice, SDF imaging showed an increase of microcirculatory flow of small vessels after ceasing IABP therapy. This observation may indicate that IABP impairs microvascular perfusion in recovered patients, although this warrants confirmatio

Hepatic teratoma and peritoneal gliomatosis: a case report

The hepatic teratoma is a very rare entity of which only 25 cases have been published so far. In our case the hepatic teratoma is associated with peritoneal gliomatosis, which is an indicator for an ongoing peritoneal spread of a teratoma. Wall calcifications and the homogeneity as well as the well defined border misled the radiologist to the diagnosis of an echinococcal cyst, which is the most common differential diagnosis, however the hepatic teratoma has to be taking into consideration when dealing with unclear hepatic cysts, although it is very rare

Whole-brain metallomic analysis of the common marmoset (: Callithrix jacchus)

© 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Despite the importance of transition metals for normal brain function, relatively little is known about the distribution of these elemental species across the different tissue compartments of the primate brain. In this study, we employed laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry on PFA-fixed brain sections obtained from two adult common marmosets. Concurrent cytoarchitectonic, myeloarchitectonic, and chemoarchitectonic measurements allowed for identification of the major neocortical, archaecortical, and subcortical divisions of the brain, and precise localisation of iron, manganese, and zinc concentrations within each division. Major findings across tissue compartments included: (1) differentiation of white matter tracts from grey matter based on manganese and zinc distribution; (2) high iron concentrations in the basal ganglia, cortex, and substantia nigra; (3) co-localization of high concentrations of iron and manganese in the primary sensory areas of the cerebral cortex; and (4) high manganese in the hippocampus. The marmoset has become a model species of choice for connectomic, aging, and transgenic studies in primates, and the application of metallomics to these disciplines has the potential to yield high translational and basic science value