Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease in Thailand: A Comprehensive Modelling of Epidemic Dynamics.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a highly contagious disease with several outbreaks in Asian-Pacific countries, including Thailand. With such epidemic characteristics and potential economic impact, HFMD is a significant public health issue in Thailand. Generally, contagious/infectious diseases' transmission dynamics vary across geolocations due to different socioeconomic situations, demography, and lifestyles. Hence, a nationwide comprehensive model of the disease's epidemic dynamics can provide information to understand better and predict a potential outbreak of this disease and efficiently and effectively manage its impact. However, there is no nationwide and comprehensive (i.e., the inclusion of reinfections in the model) model of HFDM dynamics for Thailand. This paper has endeavoured to promote nationwide comprehensive modelling of HFMD's epidemic dynamics and comprehend the reinfection cases. We have formulated the SEIRS epidemiological model with dynamic vitals, including reinfections, to explore this disease's prevalence. We also introduced periodic seasonality to reproduce the seasonal effect. The pattern of spread of this disease is uneven across the provinces in Thailand, so we used K-means clustering algorithm to cluster those provinces into three groups (i.e., highly, moderately, and least affected levels). We also analysed health records collected from district hospitals, which suggest significant reinfection cases. For example, we found that 11% (approximately) of infectious patients return for repeat treatment within the study period. We also performed sensitivity analysis which indicates that the basic reproduction number (R 0) is sensitive to the rate of transmission (ß) and the rate at which infected people recover (γ). By fitting the model with HFMD confirmed data for the provinces in each cluster, the basic reproduction number (R 0) was estimated to be 2.643, 1.91, and 3.246 which are greater than 1. Based on this high R 0, this study recommends that this disease will persist in the coming years under identical cultural and environmental conditions.

Integrated multi-omics analysis of ovarian cancer using variational autoencoders.

Cancer is a complex disease that deregulates cellular functions at various molecular levels (e.g., DNA, RNA, and proteins). Integrated multi-omics analysis of data from these levels is necessary to understand the aberrant cellular functions accountable for cancer and its development. In recent years, Deep Learning (DL) approaches have become a useful tool in integrated multi-omics analysis of cancer data. However, high dimensional multi-omics data are generally imbalanced with too many molecular features and relatively few patient samples. This imbalance makes a DL based integrated multi-omics analysis difficult. DL-based dimensionality reduction technique, including variational autoencoder (VAE), is a potential solution to balance high dimensional multi-omics data. However, there are few VAE-based integrated multi-omics analyses, and they are limited to pancancer. In this work, we did an integrated multi-omics analysis of ovarian cancer using the compressed features learned through VAE and an improved version of VAE, namely Maximum Mean Discrepancy VAE (MMD-VAE). First, we designed and developed a DL architecture for VAE and MMD-VAE. Then we used the architecture for mono-omics, integrated di-omics and tri-omics data analysis of ovarian cancer through cancer samples identification, molecular subtypes clustering and classification, and survival analysis. The results show that MMD-VAE and VAE-based compressed features can respectively classify the transcriptional subtypes of the TCGA datasets with an accuracy in the range of 93.2-95.5% and 87.1-95.7%. Also, survival analysis results show that VAE and MMD-VAE based compressed representation of omics data can be used in cancer prognosis. Based on the results, we can conclude that (i) VAE and MMD-VAE outperform existing dimensionality reduction techniques, (ii) integrated multi-omics analyses perform better or similar compared to their mono-omics counterparts, and (iii) MMD-VAE performs better than VAE in most omics dataset.

Association between elevated B-type Natriuretic Peptide levels with extent of coronary artery disease in patients with unstable angina and NSTEMI.

The study was undertaken to find out the correlation of elevated B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) levels with the severity of coronary artery disease in patients with unstable angina and NSTEMI. This cross sectional analytical study was carried out in the department of cardiology, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Dhaka during a period of August 2011 to June 2012. A total of 100 consecutive patients with unstable angina and NSTEMI undergoing coronary angiography were included in the study. BNP assay was done by Architect system, a chemo luminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA). CAG was done by conventional method within 14 days of index hospital admission. Study patients were divided into two groups on the basis of BNP levels. In Group I, BNP Levels were ≤80pg/ml and in Group II, BNP levels were elevated >80pg/ml. with 50 patients in each group. Angiographic severity of CAD was assessed by vessel score and Friesinger score. Vessel score showed single vessel was involved in 21(47.7%) patients while multi vessel in 23(52.3%) patients was found in Group I. On the contrary 11(22.4%) single vessel patients and 38(77.6%) multivessel patients were found in Group II. There was significant association between vessel involvement (p=0.01). Friesinger score revealed that less severe CAD was found in 22(44%) patients and significant severe CAD in 28(56.0%) patients in Group I. On the contrary 7(14.0%) less severe CAD patients and 43(86.0%) severe CAD patients were found in Group II. There was significant difference between severity of CAD among the study groups (p=0.01). There was linear correlation between BNP pg/ml and coronary artery disease severity in terms of Vessel score (r=0.38, p=0.01) and Friesinger score (r=0.51, p=0.01). The present study concluded that increased BNP level >80pg/ml was significantly associated with the presence and severity of CAD in patient with UA and NSTEMI.

The effect of salinity on morphological characteristics of seven rice (Oryza sativa) genotypes differing in salt tolerance.

The effect of salinity on morphological characters of salt tolerant genotypes PVSB9, PVSB19, PNR381, PNR519, Iratom24 and salt sensitive genotype NS15 along with one standard check salt tolerant rice cultivar Pokkali were assessed in two factors Completely Randomized Design with four replications. Seven rice genotypes in combination with six levels of salinity (0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 dS m(-1)) were randomly assigned in 168 experimental plastic pots. The different morphological characters studied include plant height, total number of tillers, Root Dry Weight (RDW), Shoot Dry Weight (SDW) and Total Dry Matter (TDM) content of the selected rice genotypes in view to evaluate their response at different salinity levels. The results on the effect of morphological characters indicated that plant height, total tillers, root, shoot and total dry matter were significantly decreased by the application of salinity. The genotypes Pokkali, PVSB9, PVSB19 showed significantly higher values and the lowest value of all these characters were recorded in NS15. A sharp decrease in percent relative-plant height, RDW, SDW, TDM, total tillers were found in susceptible genotype NS 15 after 3 dS m(-1) level of salinity, but these characters were found to decrease slowly in tolerant genotypes.

Impact of some selected insecticides application on soil microbial respiration.

The aim of present study was to investigate the impact of selected insecticides used for controlling brinjal shoot and fruit borer on soil microorganisms and to find out the insecticides or nontoxic to soil microorganism the impact of nine selected insecticides on soil microbial respiration was studied in the laboratory. After injection of different insecticides solutions, the soil was incubated in the laboratory at room temperature for 32 days. The amount of CO2 evolved due to soil microbial respiration was determined at 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 days of incubation. Flubendiamide, nimbicidine, lambda-cyhalothrin, abamectin and thiodicarb had stimulatory effect on microbial respiration during the initial period of incubation. Chlorpyriphos, cartap and carbosulfan had inhibitory effect on microbial respiration and cypermethrin had no remarkable effect during the early stage of incubation. The negative effect of chlorpyriphos, cartap and carbosulfan was temporary, which was disappeared after 4 days of insecticides application. No effect of the selected insecticides on soil microorganisms was observed after 24 or 32 days of incubation.

Amino acid and peptide conjugates of protoporphyrin: preparation and analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Amino acid and peptide conjugates of protoporphyrin have been prepared by reacting protoporphyringen with cysteine, glutathione and peptides containing a free thiol group under acidic conditions. The conjugates were formed by the addition of the thioamino acids or peptides to the vinyl groups of protoporphyrin during the autoxidation of protoporphyinogen to protoporphyrin and is free-radical-mediated. The conjugates were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and characterized by HPLC/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS). All the conjugates formed were diconjugates consisting of diastereoisomers.

Isolation and characterization of protoporphyrin glycoconjugates from rat harderian gland by HPLC, capillary electrophoresis and HPLC/electrospray ionization MS.

It has been widely reported that the Harderian gland, present in most vertebrates, accumulates high levels of porphyrins, particularly protoporphyrin. The present study describes the extraction, identification and characterization of a group of hitherto unreported protoporphyrin glycoconjugates in the rat Harderian gland using HPLC, capillary electrophoresis, on-line HPLC/electrospray ionization MS and tandem MS. The major glycoconjugate was identified as protoporphyrin-1-O-acyl beta-xyloside with a smaller amount of protoporphyrin-1-O-acyl beta-glucoside also detected. In the Harderian glands studied, 50-70% of the porphyrins present were in the form of protoporphyrin glycoconjugates. This is the first reported occurrence of glycoconjugates of porphyrins in Nature and suggests that previous studies have wrongly identified the major porphyrin in the Harderian gland as the unconjugated protoporphyrin.

Arsenicosis: sex differentials.

PIP: This cross-sectional study aimed to identify sex differentials in the occurrence of arsenicosis, with particular reference to women in Nilkanda, an arsenic-affected village in Bangladesh. Data were collected from 200 respondents (90 females and 110 males over 10 years of age) who were categorized into arsenic exposed (n = 167) and unexposed (n = 33) groups. The first group was composed of subjects who had been drinking water with arsenic levels 0.05 mg/l for at least 2 years; the second group comprised subjects who had been drinking water with arsenic levels 0.01 mg/l. The exposed group was further divided into arsenicosis (n = 111) and non-arsenicosis (n = 56) subgroups. The mean weight of the unexposed subjects (51.9 kg), the non-arsenicosis subjects (49.4 kg), and the arsenicosis subjects (46.1 kg) was found to be in decreasing order. The amount of daily water intake was significantly higher in both male (3.8 l) and female (3.1 l) arsenicosis subjects compared with the non-arsenicosis group (2.9 l). The female arsenicosis patients were found to be associated with comparatively low concentration of arsenic in tube well water. The majority of female arsenicosis patients was illiterate and their body weight (43.2 kg) was significantly lower compared to the unexposed group (48.9 kg). A significantly low dose (1.321 mg) of arsenic intake was found among exposed female subjects compared to exposed male subjects (1.734 mg). These findings indicate that females are more susceptible to toxic effects of chronic arsenic exposure and are thus likely to suffer from adverse pregnancy outcomes.^ieng

Metabolism of the nucleic acids of rumen bacteria by preruminant and ruminant lambs.

1. A rumen bacterial culture containing specifically labelled nucleic acids was prepared using [8-14C]adenine. 2. The labelled preparation was given in a liquid diet to two preruminant lambs and via a rumen tube to two ruminant lambs. The radioactivity excreted in exhaled gases, faeces and urine and that incorporated into tissues was determined. 3. The preruminant lambs absorbed 58.3% of the total radioactivity measured after 24 h and the ruminant lambs 66.6% of the total activity measured after 48 h. 4. Of the total radioactivity absorbed the preruminant lambs exhaled 38%, excreted 34% in urine and retained 29% in tissues. The corresponding values for the ruminant lambs were 12, 41 and 47% respectively. 5. There was a close relationship between total nucleic acid content and radioactivity per g of tissues of both preruminant and ruminant lambs. 6. Of the radioactivity in the urine, the ruminant and one preruminant lamb excreted most in the fraction containing allantoin, while the other lamb excreted most activity in the uric acid fraction. 7. The salvaging of the breakdown products of bacterial nucleic acids to make tissue nucleic acids appears to be an important synthesis in preruminant and ruminant lambs and of the likely precursors the purine base may be more important than the nucleoside.

Pleural effusion with pancreaticopleural fistula: a case report.

A case of pancreaticopleural fistula with recurrent hemorrhagic pleural effusion has been described and the pathogenesis of pleural effusion associated with pancreatitis was discussed. Importance of thinking about pancreatic disease as a cause and estimation of amylase in pleural fluid is stressed. The diagnostic limitation of endoscopic retrograde cannulation of the pancreatic duct for defining a fistulous tract has also been noted.

Gastrocolic fistulae in benign peptic ulcer disease.

Occurence of gastroenteric fistulae in non-surgically treated peptic ulcer disease is rare as suggested by only 26 cases published in the literature so far. We had the opportunity to care for 3 patients with this problem in a period of one year. At our institution, a search of the medical records dating back to 1955 yielded one additional case. Most of our patients had a history of salicylate or corticosteroid intake. We present here the details of these cases and discuss the possible role of the location of the ulcer and ulcerogenic anti-inflammatory drug ingestion in the causation of gastroenteric fistula. We believe the incidence of this uncommon entity may rise significantly with the more common use of salicylates and corticosteroids.

Esophageal carcinoma with pseudohyperparathyroidism and hypercorticism.

An unusual case of bihormonal activity by squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus is presented. It is a rare presentation of esophagus carcinoma because of the following reasons: 1. Synthesis of cortisteroids by esophageal carcinoma. 2. Pseudohyperparathyroidism caused by the same tumor. 3. Presentation of hypokalemic alkalosis as the initial manifestation and lack of specific gastrointestinal symptomatology of esophageal carcinoma.

Side effects of diazoxide.

Diazoxide given for hypertensive crises caused severe complications in two patients. Hypotension, anginal syndrome, cerebral ischemia, and right hemiplegia developed in one patient, and myocardial infarction in the other.