There are no widely adopted ethical standards for the use of imagery in global health publications. We reviewed imagery used by global health actors in grey literature related to antimicrobial ...resistance (AMR) and vaccination and analysed whether the imagery used was relevant, ethical, and equitable.
Reports produced by key global health actors on AMR and vaccination were retrieved through searches on 1) Google using key MESH terms; and 2) the website of each actor. Reports containing at least one image of person/s, published between 2015 and 2022 were included. Guidelines from Photographers Without Borders, European Non-governmental confederation for relief and development (CONCORD) Code of Conduct on Images and Messages, and the National Press Photographers Association were used to develop an analysis framework. Consensus was reached iteratively on the (qualitative and quantitative) indicators used in the final framework.
In 118 reports from 14 global health actors, there were 1115 images, of which 859 included people (370 healthcare professionals (HCPs), 402 adult non-HCPs, and 393 children). Of HCP images, 301/370 (81%) included non- whites, 273/370 (74%) included women, and 247/370 (67%) included non-white women. Of the non-HCP images, 346/402 (86%) included non-whites, 321/402 (80%) included women, and 278/402 (69%) included non-white women. Of images including children, 359/393 (91%) included non-whites. Qualitative analysis identified issues of relevance, integrity, consent, and representation from high income versus low-and middle-income countries (LMIC). Inequities in staging, digital manipulation, and breaches of confidentiality were noted in images depicting LMICs.
Biased representation of LMICs drives misleading and irrelevant disease associations and power imbalances. This work highlights how imagery in global health contributes to representations that are inequitable and unethical.
Through the process of inquiry, we have created an ethical framework for appropriate imagery use in global health grey literature to help key actors avoid these biases.
Vegetables eating raw are a leading source of transmission of infective forms of pathogenic internal parasites among human beings. This research was conducted from April to October, 2017 to assess ...the parasitic contamination of vegetables sold at main vegetable markets in districts Lower Dir and Peshawar, Pakistan. Eight hundred specimens of different vegetables were purchased and soaked in physiological saline solution, shaken with a mechanical shaker for 20 minutes and processed by sedimentation concentration method. Results revealed that only 19.7% (n=158/800) of the vegetables were found to be contaminated with single or multiple parasite species. Ascaris lumbricoides (the large round worm) 12.3% (n=99/800) was the most commonly detected pathogen and Taenia saginata (the beef tapeworm) 1.62% (n=13/800) was the least frequently detected one. Interestingly, significant p value (p>0.05 at 95%CI) between the number of examined and contaminated for all the variables studied including education status of the vendors, markets location, type of vegetables, means of display, washed before display, washing source of water and market type. The findings of this study evidenced that consumption of raw vegetables possesses great risk of getting parasitic infections in Lower Dir and Peshawar districts, Pakistan. Instructing the sellers and the public about parasitic disease transfer and their hygiene can reduce the infection rate of parasites of human origin.
Traditional method of defining design and cost scope of project between the client and consultant requires repetitive updates and visualization. However, lack of proper visualization persists during ...this phase i.e. semi detailed engineering. This results in longer cost blackout periods and weaker cost control leading to less accurate budget scope. Mostly drawings and (sometimes) scaled models are used in getting feedback from client. With the emergence in the visualization technology, it is possible to get immersed in a full-scale interactive virtual environment and experience everything like it is happening in real. This technology has a potential to present things in "interactive-immersive-physics" enabled environment as a way to assist in cost and design appraisals happening between client and consultant. This paper aims at reviewing potential of "Immersive visualization" and summarizing the factors that can be controlled using the same in construction projects to improve cost engineering process during semi-detailed engineering phase. The study will provide knowledge base for implementing virtual reality into construction project scope definition. Review, potential best practices alongside inputs from field professionals and experts will be utilized to achieve the objectives of this study.
Clarithromycin is commonly prescribed for
infection. Domain V mutations are responsible for clarithromycin resistance. This study was aimed to characterize the clarithromycin resistance and its ...associated mutations in clinical isolates of
in Pakistan.
Infection was diagnosed in 93 patients' biopsies using culture, rapid urease test,
, and
gene multiplex PCR. Clarithromycin resistance was assessed by the agar dilution method. Mutations were detected by PCR-RFLP using 46 (1.4 kb) domain V fragments. Sequencing was executed for 13 domain V fragments, of which 12 showed unusual amplicon size (1.2 kb) and 01 had a new
II RFLP pattern.
A total of 48 (83%) strains were obtained from 58 (62.3%) PCR
-positive samples. Resistance (MIC ≥ 0.001 mg/mL) and intermediate resistance phenotype (MIC = 0.0005 mg/mL) was observed in 22 (46%), and 10 (21%) isolates, respectively. The primary resistance was found in 23 (39.6%) samples. PCR-RFLP detected A2142G, A2143G, and double mutations in 19, 04, and 01 resistant strain, respectively. Sequencing of 10 amplicons obtained from intermediated resistant strains and 03 amplicons from resistant strains showed 138 new mutations. Among them, T2182C was also seen in 04 intermediated resistant isolates, whereas A2142G, A2143G, and A2143C were observed in resistant isolates. The new
II RFLP pattern in an intermediated resistant strains was due to A1761G mutation.
domain V mutations showed extensive diversity. Multiple mutations in domain V may give endurance to
against clarithromycin. Further investigations on the molecular mechanism of antibiotic resistance in
seem crucial at this stage.
...the image is resolved with the best possible sensitivity and detail as silver is deposited directly on the molecules within the transparent gel matrix. ...visualization is from the primary source ...that is DNA and does not suffer any degradation or blurring that can accompany secondary imaging devices like fluorescence, autoradiography etc. ...we recommend Method 4 for staining ds DNA in agarose with silver nitrate. While NaOH solution used in Prieto et al protocol is 3%. ...a simple step that is likely to be neglected by the experimenters in the lab that is manual shaking with a circular movement in alternate clockwise and counter clockwise direction of the plate containing the gel at each step, proved to be very effective for DNA bands visualization. The whole procedure of staining takes about 45-50 minutes. ...it does not require special equipments, therefore feasible to be used routinely in the lab to detect DNA in agarose gel.
This paper presents the development, experimentation, and validation of a reliable and robust system to monitor the injector pulse generated by an engine control module (ECM) which can easily be ...calibrated for different engine platforms and then feedback the corresponding fueling quantity to the real-time computer in a closed-loop controller in the loop (CIL) bench in order to achieve optimal fueling. This research utilizes field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and direct memory access (DMA) transfer capability to achieve high speed data acquisition and delivery. This work is conducted in two stages: the first stage is to study the variability involved in the injected fueling quantity from pulse to pulse, from injector to injector, between real injector stators and inductor load cells, and over different operating conditions. Different thresholds have been used to find out the best start of injection (SOI) threshold and the end of injection (EOI) threshold that capture the injector “on-time” with best reliability and accuracy. Second stage involves development of a system that interprets the injector pulse into fueling quantity. The system can easily be calibrated for various platforms. Finally, the use of resulting correction table has been observed to capture the fueling quantity with highest accuracy.
Although the brain was traditionally considered as 'immunologically privileged', recent findings have implied an involvement of immune mechanisms in neurological disease and illness, including ...central nervous system (CNS) malignancies. In this review, we initially focus on aspects of the immune system critical for effective antitumor immunity, as an understanding of normal immunological functions and how they relate to tumor immunology will set a foundation for understanding the unique challenges facing the integration of neuro-oncology and neuroimmunology. We summarize current knowledge of immune responses in the 'immunologically quiescent' brain and its role in tumor immunology. We will then discuss the emerging field of 'immunomics' and recent advances in molecular technologies, such as DNA microarray, which are being applied to brain tumor antigen epitope discovery and patient stratification for brain cancer immunotherapy. This, in turn, should have significant importance for ultimately designing and developing efficient and focused strategies for anticancer immunotherapy. Finally, the current state of immune-based treatment paradigms and future directions will be discussed, paying particular attention to targeted antibody strategies, adoptive cellular immunotherapy, and tumor vaccine approaches that have been studied in clinical trials for CNS neoplasms.
Abstract
Background and aims: Sampling strategies are planned to enhance the homogeneity of a sample, hence to minimize confounding errors. A sampling strategy was developed to minimize the variation ...within population groups. Karachi, the largest urban agglomeration in Pakistan, was used as a model population.
Subjects and methods: Blood groups ABO and Rh factor were determined for 3000 unrelated individuals selected through simple random sampling. Among them five population groups, namely Balochi, Muhajir, Pathan, Punjabi and Sindhi, based on paternal ethnicity were identified. An index was designed to measure the proportion of admixture at parental and grandparental levels. Population models based on index score were proposed. For validation, 175 individuals selected through stratified random sampling were genotyped for the three STR loci CSF1PO, TPOX and TH01.
Results: ANOVA showed significant differences across the population groups for blood groups and STR loci distribution. Gene diversity was higher across the sub-population model than in the agglomerated population. At parental level gene diversities are significantly higher across No admixture models than Admixture models. At grandparental level the difference was not significant.
Conclusion: A sub-population model with no admixture at parental level was justified for sampling the heterogeneous population of Karachi.
The current study aimed to evaluate the pain perception among patients with Myofascial pain syndrome in both genders. The study was crossectional survey design. Data was collected using consecutive ...sampling technique. 170 Patients with Myofacial pain syndrome were taken as the sample of the study who visited dental teaching hospital from January, 2020 to April, 2021. Chi-square test was used to assess the pain perception among patients with Myofascial pain syndrome in both genders using SPSS version 23.0. The results of chi-square revealed a significant difference between both genders in terms of prevalence of Myofascial pain syndrome (X2=9.110, P=.011). In conclusion, Males were higher in reporting severe pain while females were higher in reported moderate myofascial pain.
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