Category: Nevin Manimala

BMC Womens Health. 2025 Aug 30;25(1):415. doi: 10.1186/s12905-025-03965-z.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Globally, female genital mutilation (FGM) remains a significant public health concern. The practice is disproportionately high in African countries. In Tanzania, FGM poses serious health risks to both women, girls and children. However, there is limited empirical literature on the factors associated with FGM in Tanzania. This study intended to fill the gap.

METHODS: In this study, we analysed secondary data from a cross-sectional survey, involving a weighted sample of 7,678 women aged 15-49 from the 2022 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS). In this study, the binary dependent variable indicates whether the respondent is mutilated or not mutilated while the independent variables include various demographic characteristics of women, such as age, education level, socioeconomic status, and region of residence. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted. A threshold of p-value < 0.05 at 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was used to determine a statistically significant association.

RESULTS: The prevalence of FGM in Tanzania is 8.2% and types I and II (a cut with or without removal of flesh) were the dominant types of FGM practice by 89.2%. After controlling for other variables, higher odds of being mutilated was reported in; older ages 45-49 years (adjusted Odds Ratio(aOR));3.09, 95%CI: 1.72, 5.54), in rural areas (aOR;2.30, 95%CI:1.4,3.6), in women in unions (aOR;1.60, 95%CI:1.20,2.10), in Northern zone (aOR;9.10, 95%CI: 4.60, 17.80), those who ever heard about FGM had 2.27 times (aOR; 2.27, 95%CI: 0.82, 6.29), those who said FGM required by religion had 8.3 times (aOR; 8.30, 95%CI: 4.30,16.03), those who supported FGM had 5.29 times (aOR; 5.29, 95%CI: 2.69, 10.40) higher odds of reporting having undergone FGM compared to those who said the practice should be stopped. Conversely, lower odds of experiencing FGM was reported in; women with at least secondary education (aOR;0.40, 95%CI:0.20,0.60), those from richest households (aOR;0.40, 95%CI: 0.20, 0.60) and those who said distance to a health facility was not a big problem (aOR;0.70, 95%CI: 0.50, 0.90).

CONCLUSION: Our study found that prevalence of FGM in Tanzania is 8.2%. The factors associated with experiencing FGM included woman’s socio-demographic factors like older age, rural residency, lower or no education, poorest wealth quintile, supporting FGM to continue and being in unions. This calls for collaborative efforts between the government and other stakeholders to design targeted interventions as ending FGM require a multisectoral approach addressing aforementioned determinants across multiple levels including education and wealth creation programs particularly to uneducated and poorest women from rural areas.

PMID:40885968 | DOI:10.1186/s12905-025-03965-z

World J Emerg Surg. 2025 Aug 30;20(1):72. doi: 10.1186/s13017-025-00645-z.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Uncontrolled bleeding contributes to 40% of trauma deaths. While higher platelet-to-red blood cell (PLT/RBC) transfusion ratios may improve outcomes, the optimal ratio remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the threshold of PLT/RBC ratio and its impact on in-hospital mortality in trauma patients requiring massive transfusions.

METHODS: This retrospective, multicenter study used 2014-2018 National Trauma Database (NTDB) data. Adult patients admitted to Level I/II trauma centers with massive transfusions within 24 h of emergency department (ED) admission were included. Patients were divided into high-PLT group (PLT/RBC ratio > 0.7) and low-PLT group (ratio ≤ 0.7).

PRIMARY OUTCOMES: 24-hour and 30-day mortality; secondary outcomes: transfusion-related adverse events.

RESULTS: Among 9,330 patients (median age 37 (26-54) years; 78.9% male), 46.1% had a high PLT/RBC ratio. Restricted cubic spline analysis revealed a nonlinear relationship: mortality dropped significantly at > 0.7 and stabilized above 1.5. After inverse probability treatment weighting, the high-PLT group showed lower 24-hour mortality (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.42-0.48) and 30-day mortality (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.62-0.70). However, the high ratio group experienced higher rates of adverse events, including pulmonary embolism, acute kidney injury, and sepsis. Subgroup analyses confirmed consistent survival benefits despite increased adverse events. Sensitivity analysis further supported the robustness of these findings.

CONCLUSIONS: In this multicenter study, a high PLT/RBC ratio (> 0.7) was associated with improved survival in trauma patients requiring massive transfusions, reducing 24-hour and 30-day mortality. However, it also increased the risk of adverse events, with a ceiling effect observed at ratios above 1.5. These findings underscore the need for high-quality clinical trials to validate the benefits of high PLT/RBC ratios and optimize transfusion strategies for trauma patients.

PMID:40885959 | DOI:10.1186/s13017-025-00645-z

BMC Public Health. 2025 Aug 30;25(1):2983. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-24466-6.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: We aimed to comprehensively analyze the impact of both maternal age and birth spacing on adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes.

METHODS: A total of 151,301 pregnancies in China from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2021 were included, and 8,222 subjects matched their primary and second pregnancy information. Join point regression was used to analyze the temporal trends of adverse outcomes with maternal age and birth spacing.

RESULTS: The mean maternal age at delivery rose from 27.1 years to 28.5 between 2010 and 2021, and the average annual percentage change in advanced maternal age (≥ 35 years) was 1.2%. The optimal childbearing age (with the fewest adverse outcomes) appears to be 27 years. Compared with women aged 27 years, both those aged < 27 years and those aged > 27 years exhibited a significantly higher risk of anemia, low birth weight (LBW), preeclampsia, and preterm birth. In addition, we found that the optimal primiparous childbearing age was 26 years old and birth spacing was 3 years, < 3 years increased the risk of FGR, oligohydramnios, placenta previa, preeclampsia, LBW, preterm birth and premature rupture of membranes (PROM). While birth spacing > 3 years significantly increased the risks of anemia, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), placenta previa, preeclampsia, thyroid dysfunction (TD), preterm birth and PROM. The subgroup analysis revealed that the common adverse outcomes increased with longer birth spacing in pregnant women < 26 years, while these adverse outcomes showed lowest prevalence rates at 3-year birth spacing in pregnant women > 26 years.

CONCLUSIONS: The age of childbearing continues to be delayed, and we are in favor of having children at relatively optimal ages and spacing.

PMID:40885958 | DOI:10.1186/s12889-025-24466-6

Food Chem. 2025 Aug 26;493(Pt 4):146044. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.146044. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study compares spontaneous and yeast-inoculated mead fermentations, analyzing their effects on sensory and chemical profiles. Using advanced instrumental techniques: untargeted analysis of odorants, quantitation of odor-active compounds, and flow cytometry-this research identifies key fermentation-driven changes. Untargeted analysis revealed a more complex volatile profile in spontaneous fermentation, with a higher number of unique compounds (27) from groups classified as fruity (esters), spices (ex. pentane-2,3-dione) and off-flavors (2-furanyl)methanol, octan-1-ol, ethyl 3-methylsulfanylpropanoate, 2-phenylacetonitrile, dodecan-1-ol, 3-methylpentanoic acid, and 3-methyl-1H-indole). Yeast-inoculated samples were characterized by only 8 unique compounds, with more predictable odor profile and fewer off-flavors (2-pentylfuran, pyridine, (E)-oct-2-enal). Statistical analysis identified distinct compounds linked to fermentation type and stage, with microbial dynamics influencing odor-active compound formation. Bacterial content correlated with ethyl hexanoate (0.63), furan-2-carbaldehyde (0.33), and phenylacetic acid (0.49), while yeasts displayed correlations with 2-phenylacetaldehyde (0.37), ethyl hexanoate (-0.59), phenylacetic acid (-0.50), and furan-2-carbaldehyde (-0.47).

PMID:40884928 | DOI:10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.146044

Vaccine. 2025 Aug 29;63:127681. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2025.127681. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In 2015, Argentina introduced the monovalent rotavirus vaccine into its National Immunization Program with a two-dose schedule at 2 and 4 months of age. This study assessed the impact of the universal rotavirus vaccination program on the burden of diarrheal disease in children under five years of age over a ten-year period, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS: A mixed ecological time-trend analysis was conducted using national and regional secondary data from surveillance and health information systems. Six indicators were evaluated: outpatient acute diarrhea cases, hospitalizations due to diarrhea, diarrhea-related deaths, intussusception hospitalizations in infants, laboratory-confirmed rotavirus cases, and rotavirus vaccine coverage. Trends were compared across four periods: pre-vaccination (2010-2014), post-vaccination pre-COVID-19 (2016-2019), during COVID-19 (2020-2021), and post-COVID-19 (2022-2024).

RESULTS: Compared to the pre-vaccination period, acute diarrhea rates declined by 59.6%, hospitalizations by 47.6%, and mortality by 59.7%. Laboratory-confirmed rotavirus positivity fell by 55.2%, with the most pronounced reductions observed in infants under one year of age. Although partial rebounds were noted post-COVID-19, all indicators remained below baseline levels. Intussusception hospitalizations in infants decreased by over 30% nationally, and no region showed rates exceeding pre-vaccine levels. Vaccine coverage declined during the pandemic and showed incomplete recovery. Statistical analyses confirmed significant differences by age group and period for most indicators, particularly highlighting the persistent vulnerability of infants to severe outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: Ten years after the introduction of universal rotavirus vaccination in Argentina, a substantial and sustained reduction in the burden of diarrheal disease was observed across multiple indicators. While regional variability and post-pandemic fluctuations were noted, the overall benefit-risk profile of the vaccine remains strongly favorable. Continued efforts to strengthen vaccine coverage and surveillance systems are essential for consolidating these gains and ensuring timely detection of potential adverse trends.

PMID:40884908 | DOI:10.1016/j.vaccine.2025.127681

Neural Netw. 2025 Aug 20;193:108007. doi: 10.1016/j.neunet.2025.108007. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Pan-sharpening, fusing high-resolution panchromatic (PAN) images with low-resolution multispectral (LRMS) to generate high-resolution multispectral (HRMS) images, is critical for enhancing remote sensing image quality. Despite significant advancements in deep learning methods, research on the image upsampling process remains limited. Existing approaches either fail to effectively utilize the information from PAN images or struggle to balance spectral and spatial information, thereby constraining the performance of these models. To alleviate these problems, we propose a novel Spatial-Frequency Domain Aggregation Upsampling (SFAU) method. Our method consists of three core modules: the Dual-Domain Nonlinear Fusion (DDNF), Region-Specific Attention Mechanism (RSAM), and Adaptive Feature Fusion Gate (AFFG). The DDNF module integrates Frequency-Aware Feature Aggregation (FAFA) and Spatial Domain Enhancement techniques, enabling the capture of high-frequency features while refining local structural details. The RSAM module adaptively refines feature representations and preserves spatial-spectral correlations. Finally, the AFFG module effectively combines the outputs from the DDNF and RSAM modules, ensuring a balanced integration of spatial and spectral information. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method outperforms other popular upsampling techniques and significantly enhances the performance of many leading pan-sharpening models, particularly in high-contrast and spectrally complex regions. Additionally, our approach shows strong generalization in real-world scenarios, highlighting its potential for practical remote sensing applications. Code is available at https://github.com/zacianfans/SFAU.

PMID:40884893 | DOI:10.1016/j.neunet.2025.108007

Health Place. 2025 Aug 29;95:103542. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2025.103542. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

For gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority men (SMM), geo-social exposures in residential and non-residential places are important to consider for health, as home, social, sexual, substance use, and healthcare-related locations may be different. We use survey data from a sample of 219 Black and Hispanic SMM within Los Angeles County to examine the places that individuals visit for eight specific activities, categorized as either lifestyle or healthcare-related. Spatial clustering techniques are used to identify hotspots, or places where individual’s activities are clustered in space, for each activity. We then use descriptive statistics to characterize each hotspot based on the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals who engaged in activities within the hotspot, and then assess whether activity-based hotspots overlap in space. We find unique spatial patterns of hotspots, distinct by activity. Additionally, lifestyle activity space hotspots are spatially patterned by socio-demographic characteristics, primarily along race and ethnic categories, whereas healthcare-related hotspots are not. The overlap, or spatial congruence of hotspots, is higher than we hypothesized, as hotspots of residential locations contained the majority of sex hotspots and substance use hotspots. Our work ultimately identifies four distinct areas of Los Angeles County in which activities are clustered among men in the sample, and health interventions can be tailored to the individuals and their activities in those places. Our findings demonstrate the importance of geographically and demographically targeted interventions, at a fine spatial scale, for health promotion among SMM, as interventions and policy to provide equitable care to reduce racial disparities in health among SMM are sorely needed.

PMID:40884879 | DOI:10.1016/j.healthplace.2025.103542

Mar Pollut Bull. 2025 Aug 29;222(Pt 1):118645. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.118645. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Acoustic methods offer an effective alternative to estimate suspended particle concentrations in marine environments, particularly in hard to access areas such as tropical reef systems influenced by river discharges. The present study evaluates the ability of a moored Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) to estimate chlorophyll-a and sediment concentrations in the water column of a Protected Coral Reef System in the southwestern region of the Gulf of Mexico near the state of Veracruz (Mexico). We analyzed the correlations between the backscatter intensity signal of a 1000-kHz ADCP with particle concentrations at different depths and climatic seasons. Results show a high correlation between the backscatter intensity signal of the ADCP and chlorophyll-a (0.79 < r² < 0.82; p < 0.05) and, a weaker correlation with sediments (0.58 < r² < 0.62; p < 0.05), varying according to depth and season. The particle distributions were notably influenced by wind velocity and river discharge, with significant seasonal differences in chlorophyll-a levels between the dry, cold fronts (northern), and rainy seasons, whereas we observed no statistical difference in sediment distribution among seasons.

PMID:40884860 | DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.118645

J Infect Dis. 2025 Aug 30:jiaf458. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaf458. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Tetanus, Diphtheria and acellular Pertussis (Tdap) vaccination during pregnancy blunts the infant humoral immune response following primary immunization with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). While this effect typically resolves after the booster dose for most vaccine serotypes, its impact on nasopharyngeal carriage of pneumococcal vaccine serotypes remains unclear.

METHODS: A total of 3,298 nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from infants aged 6-30 months attending daycare centers in Belgium between 2018 and 2022, along with data on maternal Tdap vaccination status (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02888457). Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage and serotyping were assessed using culture-based methods (Quellung reaction) and molecular detection (LytA qPCR and serotype-specific qPCR). The association between Tdap vaccination during pregnancy and pneumococcal vaccine-related serotype carriage in infants was evaluated using logistic generalized estimating equation models.

RESULTS: PCV13-related serotype carriage was significantly higher in offspring of Tdap-vaccinated mothers during pregnancy compared to those born to Tdap-unvaccinated mothers. In addition, children who received a PCV10 or mixed PCV10/PCV13 schedule had significantly higher PCV13-related serotype carriage compared to those immunized exclusively with PCV13. No significant differences were observed in individual PCV13-related serotype carriage, except for a significantly higher carriage of the PCV13-related serotype 6C in children of Tdap-vaccinated mothers. No significant difference was found for non-vaccine serotype carriage.

CONCLUSIONS: Tdap vaccination during pregnancy was associated with increased pneumococcal vaccine-related serotype carriage in infants, though the clinical significance remains uncertain. Future studies integrating vaccine serotype carriage data with protective pneumococcal antibody levels are needed to inform future maternal and infant vaccination strategies.

PMID:40884828 | DOI:10.1093/infdis/jiaf458

Gigascience. 2025 Jan 6;14:giaf095. doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giaf095.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Genomic variations, including single-nucleotide polymorphisms, small insertions and deletions, and structural variations, are crucial for understanding evolution and disease. However, comprehensive simulation tools for benchmarking genomic analysis methods are lacking. Existing simulators do not accurately represent the nonuniform distribution and length patterns of structural variations in human genomes, and simulating complex structural variations remains challenging.

RESULTS: We present BVSim, a flexible tool that provides probabilistic simulations of genomic variations, primarily focusing on human patterns while accommodating diverse species. BVSim effectively simulates both simple and complex structural variations and small variants by mimicking real-life variation distributions, which often exhibit higher frequencies near telomeres and within tandem repeat regions. Notably, BVSim allows users to input single or multiple benchmark samples from any reference genome, enabling the tool to summarize and represent the unique distribution patterns of structural variation positions and lengths specific to those species. Its compatibility with standard file formats facilitates seamless integration into various genomic research workflows, making it a very useful resource for benchmarking downstream tools such as variant callers. With numerical experiments, we show that BVSim generated more realistic sequences significantly different from other simulators’ outputs.

CONCLUSIONS: BVSim is written in Python and freely available to noncommercial users under the GPL3 license. Source code, application guide, and toy examples are provided on the GitHub page at https://github.com/YongyiLuo98/BVSim. The tool is registered in SciCrunch (RRID:SCR_026926), bio.tools (biotools:BVSim), and WorkflowHub (doi:10.48546/WORKFLOWHUB.WORKFLOW.1361.1).

PMID:40884802 | DOI:10.1093/gigascience/giaf095