Tag: nevin manimala

J Wildl Dis. 2022 Mar 4. doi: 10.7589/JWD-D-21-00037. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Coxiella burnetii is an intracellular bacterial pathogen that can be associated with significant reproductive disease or acute mortality in livestock and wildlife. A novel marine mammal-associated strain of C. burnetii has been identified in pinnipeds of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. Little is known about C. burnetii infection in regard to reproductive success or population status. Our objective was to characterize the severity and extent of histologic lesions in 117 opportunistically collected placentas from presumed-normal northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) in July 2011 on St. Paul Island, Alaska, where a high placental prevalence of C. burnetii had been reported. Sections were examined by histology and immunohistochemistry and impression smears with modified acid-fast stain. The nature and frequency of histologic changes were compared with target COM1 PCR-confirmed C. burnetii positive and negative placentas. Overall, histologic changes were similar to placental lesions described in aborting ruminants; however, changes were variable within and between placentas. Vasculitis and occasional intracellular bacteria were seen only in C. burnetii PCR-positive placentas. Dystrophic mineralization, edema, and inflammation were seen in PCR-positive and negative placentas, although they were statistically more common in PCR-positive placentas. Results suggest that C. burnetti and associated pathologic changes are multifocal and variable in placentas from these presumably live-born pups. Therefore, multiple sections of tissue from different placental areas should be examined microscopically and screened by PCR to ensure accurate diagnosis, as the genomes per gram of placenta may not necessarily represent the severity of placental disease. These limitations should inform field biologists, diagnosticians, and pathologists how best to screen and sample for pathogens and histopathology in marine mammal placental samples.

PMID:35245373 | DOI:10.7589/JWD-D-21-00037

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264553. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264553. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

Aquaporins (AQPs) are a kind of transmembrane proteins that exist in various organs of the human body. AQPs play an important role in regulating water transport, lipid metabolism and glycolysis of cells. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a common malignant tumor of the kidney, and the prognosis is worse than other types of renal cell cancer (RCC). The impact of AQPs on the prognosis of ccRCC and the potential relationship between AQPs and the occurrence and development of ccRCC are demanded to be investigated. In this study, we first explored the expression pattern of AQPs by using Oncomine, UALCAN, and HPA databases. Secondly, we constructed protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and performed function enrichment analysis through STRING, GeneMANIA, and Metascape. Then a comprehensive analysis of the genetic mutant frequency of AQPs in ccRCC was carried out using the cBioPortal database. In addition, we also analyzed the main enriched biological functions of AQPs and the correlation with seven main immune cells. Finally, we confirmed the prognostic value of AQPs throughGEPIA and Cox regression analysis. We found that the mRNA expression levels of AQP0/8/9/10 were up-regulated in patients with ccRCC, while those of AQP1/2/3/4/5/6/7/11 showed the opposite. Among them, the expression differences of AQP1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/11 were statistically significant. The differences in protein expression levels of AQP1/2/3/4/5/6 in ccRCC and normal renal tissues were consistent with the change trends of mRNA. The biological functions of AQPs were mainly concentrated in water transport, homeostasis maintenance, glycerol transport, and intracellular movement of sugar transporters. The high mRNA expression levels of AQP0/8/9 were significantly correlated with worse overall survival (OS), while those of AQP1/4/7 were correlated with better OS. AQP0/1/4/9 were prognostic-related factors, and AQP1/9 were independent prognostic factors. In general, this research has investigated the values of AQPs in ccRCC, which could become new survival markers for ccRCC targeted therapy.

PMID:35245343 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264553

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264742. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264742. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

Death registration in Uganda remains extremely low, yet mortality statistics are vital in health policy, planning, resource allocation and decision-making. According to NIRA, only 1% of deaths are registered annually, while Uganda Bureau of Statistics estimates death registration at 24% for the period 2011-2016. The wide variation between the administrative and survey statistics can be attributed to the restriction to only certified death registration by NIRA while survey statistics relate to all forms of death notification and registration at the different sub-national levels. Registration of deaths is of critical importance to individuals and a country’s government. Legally, it grants administrative rights in management of a deceased’s estate, and access to social (insurance and pension) benefits of a deceased person. It is also essential for official statistics and planning purposes. There is an urgent need for continuous and real-time collection of mortality data or statistics in Uganda. These statistics are of significance in public health for identifying the magnitude and distribution of major disease problems, and are essential for the design, implementation, monitoring, and assessment of health programmes and policies. Lack of such continuous and timely data has negative consequences for the achievement of both national and Sustainable Development Goals 3, 11, 16, and 17. This study assessed the determinants of death registration and certification, using a survey of 2018-2019 deaths in 2,100 households across four administrative regions of Uganda and Kampala district. Multivariate-binary logistic regression was used to model factors associated with the likelihood of a death being registered or certified. We find that around one-third of deaths were registered while death certificates were obtained for less than 5% of the total deaths. Death registration and certification varied notably within Uganda. Uptake of death registration and certification was associated with knowledge on death registration, region, access to mass media, age of the deceased, place of death, occupation of the deceased, relationship to household head and request for death certificate. There is need for decentralization of death registration services; massive sensitization of communities and creating demand for death registration.

PMID:35245336 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264742

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264892. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264892. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

To represent the complex individual interactions in the dynamics of disease spread informed by data, the coupling of an epidemiological agent-based model with the ensemble Kalman filter is proposed. The statistical inference of the propagation of a disease by means of ensemble-based data assimilation systems has been studied in previous works. The models used are mostly compartmental models representing the mean field evolution through ordinary differential equations. These techniques allow to monitor the propagation of the infections from data and to estimate several parameters of epidemiological interest. However, there are many important features which are based on the individual interactions that cannot be represented in the mean field equations, such as social network and bubbles, contact tracing, isolating individuals in risk, and social network-based distancing strategies. Agent-based models can describe contact networks at an individual level, including demographic attributes such as age, neighborhood, household, workplaces, schools, entertainment places, among others. Nevertheless, these models have several unknown parameters which are thus difficult to prescribe. In this work, we propose the use of ensemble-based data assimilation techniques to calibrate an agent-based model using daily epidemiological data. This raises the challenge of having to adapt the agent populations to incorporate the information provided by the coarse-grained data. To do this, two stochastic strategies to correct the model predictions are developed. The ensemble Kalman filter with perturbed observations is used for the joint estimation of the state and some key epidemiological parameters. We conduct experiments with an agent based-model designed for COVID-19 and assess the proposed methodology on synthetic data and on COVID-19 daily reports from Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

PMID:35245337 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264892

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264578. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264578. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

In the 12th Five-Year Plan period, Sichuan province has selected strategic emerging industries such as new-generation information technology, new energy, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, biology, energy conservation and environmental protection. However, its strategic emerging industries are still in the stage of cultivation and development, and there are some problems such as low industrial agglomeration and obvious industrial restructuring. In essence, this is because the focus of the development of strategic emerging industries is not clear enough, and the location advantages are not fully utilized to select the most suitable strategic emerging industries for the development of the region. This paper constructs a regional strategic emerging industries selection decision model, applies ARCGIS to study the spatial distribution of strategic emerging industries in Sichuan province, and uses fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method (FCEM) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to solve the priority of developing strategic emerging industries. Conclusions: Firstly, Sichuan province should give priority to the development of new generation information technology industry and new energy vehicle industry, then high-end equipment manufacturing industry, energy-saving and environmental protection industry and new energy industry, and finally biological industry and new material industry. The larger the coefficient of influence is, the higher the comprehensive score is, while the larger the coefficient of sensitivity is, the lower the comprehensive score is. Secondly, the number of enterprises in the new-generation information technology industry and the new energy vehicle industry is still not dominant in Sichuan province. Finally, the study found that the current development of strategic emerging industries in Sichuan province is extremely unbalanced in various regions, and the phenomenon of competition and reconstruction is obvious.

PMID:35245329 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264578

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264905. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264905. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

Published evidence of the cost-effectiveness of alcohol-based handrub (ABH) for the prevention of neonatal bloodstream infections (BSI) is limited in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this study evaluates the cost-effectiveness of a multimodal hand hygiene involving alcohol-based hand rub (ABH) for the prevention of neonatal BSI in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting in Ghana using data from HAI-Ghana study. Design was a before and after intervention study using economic evaluation model to assess the cost-effectiveness of a multimodal hand hygiene strategy involving alcohol-based hand rub plus soap and water compared to existing practice of using only soap and water. We measured effect and cost by subtracting outcomes without the intervention from outcomes with the intervention. The primary outcome measure is the number of neonatal BSI episode averted with the intervention and the consequent cost savings from patient and provider perspectives. The before and after intervention studies lasted four months each, spanning October 2017 to January 2018 and December 2018 to March 2019, respectively. The analysis shows that the ABH program was effective in reducing patient cost of neonatal BSI by 41.7% and BSI-attributable hospital cost by 48.5%. Further, neonatal BSI-attributable deaths and extra length of hospital stay (LOS) decreased by 73% and 50% respectively. Also, the post-intervention assessment revealed the ABH program contributed to 16% decline in the incidence of neonatal BSI at the NICU. The intervention is a simple and adaptable strategy with cost-saving potential when carefully scaled up across the country. Though the cost of the intervention may be more relative to using just soap and water for hand hygiene, the outcome is a good reason for investment into the intervention to reduce the incidence of neonatal BSI and the associated costs from patient and providers’ perspectives.

PMID:35245332 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264905

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264819. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264819. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The reporting quality in medical research has recently been critically discussed. While reporting guidelines intend to maximize the value from funded research, and initiatives such as the EQUATOR network have been introduced to advance high quality reporting, the uptake of the guidelines by researchers could be improved. The aim of this study was to assess the contribution of a biostatistician to the reporting and methodological quality of health research, and to identify methodological knowledge gaps.

METHODS: In a retrospective, single center, observational cohort study, two groups of publications were compared. The group of exposed publications had an academic biostatistician on the author list, whereas the group of non-exposed publications did not include a biostatistician of the evaluated group. Rating of reporting quality was done in blinded fashion and in duplicate. The primary outcome was a sum score based on six dimensions, ranging between 0 (worst) and 11 (best). The study protocol was reviewed and approved as a registered report.

RESULTS: There were 131 publications in the exposed group published between 2017 and 2018. Of these, 95 were either RCTs, observational, or prediction / prognostic studies. Corresponding matches in the group of non-exposed publications were identified in a reproducible manner. Comparison of reporting quality overall revealed a 1.60 (95%CI from 0.92 to 2.28, p <0.0001) units higher reporting quality for exposed publications. A subgroup analysis within study types showed higher reporting quality across all three study types.

CONCLUSION: Our study is the first to report an association of a higher reporting quality and methodological strength in health research publications with a biostatistician on the author list. The higher reporting quality persisted through subgroups of study types and dimensions. Methodological knowledge gaps were identified for prediction / prognostic studies, and for reporting on statistical methods in general and missing values, specifically.

PMID:35245326 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264819

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264816. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264816. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Birth asphyxia is a prominent and avoidable cause of infant illness and death worldwide, particularly in underdeveloped countries such as Ethiopia. Early identification and control of the underlying contributory factors would help to alleviate the situation. As a result, the goal of this study was to assess the magnitude and determinants of neonatal asphyxia among live newborns at the northern Gondar public Hospitals in northwest Ethiopia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: From April 1 to May 2, 2020, 357 newborns were studied in an institution-based cross-sectional study. The sample size was proportionally distributed among three public hospitals, namely Gondar referral teaching hospital, Debark general hospital, and Kola-Diba District Hospital, which was chosen at random. The number of deliveries given at each hospital six months prior to the data collecting period was used to allocate the hospitals. To get all participants, a systematic random sampling approach was adopted based on hospital delivery registration. The physicians’ evaluation of an APGAR score of 7 in the first and fifth minutes of birth was used as the confirmation of birth asphyxia. Data was collected using a standardized and pretested questionnaire. Variables having p-values less than 0.25 were entered into a multivariable logistic regression analysis in the bivariable analysis. At a p-value of 0.05, a statistically significant level was reported.

RESULTS: As per the study, the total prevalence of neonatal asphyxia was found to be 27.1 (95% CI: 21.4, 32.7). In a multivariable logistic regression analysis, neonates born to rural mothers (AOR = 2.441, 95% CI: 1.137, 5.241), primiparity (AOR = 5.521 95%CI: 1.691, 8.026), premature rupture of membrane, (AOR = 3.202, 95% CI: 1.484, 6.909) and low birth weight (< 2.5kg) (AOR = 3.706, 95%CI: 3.307, 4.152) were all found to be independent predictors of birth asphyxia.

CONCLUSION: This study identified that rural residence, primiparity, premature rupture of membrane, and birth weight were found to be the independent predictors of birth asphyxia. The majority of variables that cause birth asphyxia can be controlled.

PMID:35245309 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264816

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264388. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264388. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Nationwide data on thyroid disease prevalence in Greece is lacking. Using the national health examination survey EMENO data resources, we aimed to estimate the prevalence of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism and associated risk factors in adults living in Greece.

METHODS: A random sample of the adults (≥18 years) living in Greece was drawn by multi-stage stratified random sampling based on the 2011 census. During home visits, trained interviewers administered a standardized questionnaire to study participants. All participants answered questions concerning demographic parameters (e.g., age, sex, degree of urbanization, income) and questions concerning smoking habits, alcohol, dietary habits and psychological parameters such as anxiety and thyroid disease. Weighted logistic regression models were fitted to assess factors associated with thyroid disease.

RESULTS: In total, 6006 individuals were recruited in the Greek Health Examination Survey EMENO (response rate 72%) of whom 5981 were eligible for this study. The prevalence of thyroid disease was 9%, where 0.4% was related to hyperthyroidism and 8.6% to hypothyroidism. The prevalence of thyroid disease was higher in women (14.9%) than men (2.7%) (p<0.001). The highest rates of thyroid disease were observed in former iodine-deficient areas. A decrease in the prevalence of thyroidopathies with increasing alcohol consumption was found. Thyroid disease was associated with anxiety in men. Multivariable regression analysis showed that age, geographic area, and smoking were related to thyroid disease.

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of thyroid disease in Greece is higher in women. Age, habits, and characteristics of geographic areas determine the distribution of thyroidopathies in Greece.

PMID:35245310 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264388

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 4;17(3):e0264187. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264187. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

Globally, and in Ghana, a lot of people do practice open defecation as well as share toilet facilities with other households. Meanwhile, open defecation in particular, is associated with numerous negative health and economic effects. To this end, a number of empirical studies have been conducted on the determinants of access to sanitation facilities among households in Ghana. Nonetheless, while financial inclusion (sustainable ways of ensuring easier accessibility to cheap and useful financial products and services among individuals/firms) can enhance the ability of households or individuals to afford toilet facilities, hence, could help in curbing open defecation and sharing of toilet facilities among households, the previous studies on Ghana did not pay attention to it. This study therefore uses data from the 7th round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS7) to examine the association of financial inclusion with open defecation and sharing of toilet facilities among households in Ghana. The binary logit regression is used as the empirical estimation technique. The results show that, financial inclusion in general is associated with lesser likelihood of open defecation and sharing of toilet facilities among households in Ghana after controlling for welfare quintile, urban or rural residence and other covariates. Moreover, while informal financial inclusion is statistically insignificant, formal financial inclusion is found to be associated with reduced open defecation and sharing of toilet facilities among households. Thus, in the attempt to eliminate open defecation as well as reduce the sharing of toilet facilities among households in Ghana, conscious efforts should be devoted towards enhancing formal financial inclusion.

PMID:35245300 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264187