Poultry farming not only provides high nutritious food but also creates employment opportunity for rural masses. Documented evidences elaborates that helminth parasitism is most deciduous problem of chickens especially in developing world. Ascaridia (A.) galli, a nematode of small intestine, has been considered as the most common and important parasite of chicken. The present study was carried out to investigate prevalence and severity of A. galli in White Leghorn layers (housing type: battery cage and deep litter, 50 each) and Fayoumi-Rhode Island Red crossbred (male and female: 50 each) flock rearing at Government Poultry Farm, Dina, Punjab, Pakistan. Two hundred faecal samples were examined by using standard parasitological and McMaster egg counting technique. The overall prevalence was 24.5% at farm, 13% in White leghorn layer (battery cage=2%, deep litter=24%) and 36% in Fayoumi-Rhode Island Red (male=34%, female=38%). It was also observed that White leghorn layer rearing in deep litter had more severe infection (EPG=1920) of A. galli compare with battery cages birds (EPG=500). Parasite prevalence was significantly related with sex (P<0.05) in Fayoumi-Rhode Island Red and male birds had less number of average parasites (0.34±0.47) as compared to females (0.38±0.490). Additionally, female birds were under serious threat of infection (EPG=2270) compared with its counterpart (EPG=1250). Given the high infection rates, particular attention should be paid to management and provision of feed supplement to White leghorn layer housing in deep litter and female bird of Fayoumi-Rhode Island Red crossbred.

Children with visual impairment are reported to be at higher risk of poor oral health. They faced difficulties in basic skills including oral care. For this reason, they may develop dental caries and periodontal disease. The aim of this study was to assess the oral health status of a group of visually impaired school children in Kuala Lumpur. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on students from a Special Education School in Kuala Lumpur. Oral examination was conducted to determine caries experience and oral hygiene status. Caries was measured using DMFT index and simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) for oral hygiene status. Oral examination was based on modified World Health Organization (WHO) oral health assessment criteria for children. Chi-square test was used to determine associations between demographic variables and oral health status. Results: A total of 91 visually impaired students (41 blind, 50 low vision) within the age group of 13 to 17 years old participated in this study. The mean OHI-S score was 1.68 (SD 0.87) with majority of students had fair oral hygiene (39.6%) and 29.7% with poor and very poor oral hygiene. The mean DMFT score of total students were 0.80 (SD 1.62). Male students demonstrated significantly better oral health status than female in relation to prevalence and mean score of dental caries. Conclusion: Most of the visually impaired children in this study showed fair oral health status. Regular oral health education is recommended to improve the oral hygiene especially in the totally blind group.

To study the effect of high temperature, rice seedlings 20, 30, 40 and 50 d were kept at 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm water depth in a water pool. Meteorological findings indicated that water temperature varied up to 10 cm but became stable below this depth.Deep water inflicted higher tiller mortality, minimal increase in dry weight of aerial parts and leaf area, decrease in root length, and decrease in root dry weight especially at 20 cm water depth and produced an unbalanced T/R ratio (top versus root dry weight).However, deep water tended to increase plant length. These parameters, however, excel in shallow water. Older seedlings, with the exception of root dry weight, could not perform well compared to young seedlings in all physiological and morphological aspects.The study revealed that seedlings, particularly young ones, stand well in shallow water and can cope with high temperature.

Spatially and temporally programmed expression of the Hox genes along the antero-posterior (A-P) axis is essential for correct pattern formation during embryonic development. An accumulating body of evidence indicates the pivotal role of spatial chromatin organization for the coordination of gene regulation. Recently, chromosome conformation capture (3C) technique has been developed and opened a new way to study chromosomal interactions in the nucleus. In this study, we describe 3C method we applied in F9 embryonic teratocarcinoma cells and demonstrate that the chromosomal interactions at Hox loci are successfully detected. Interestingly, at Hoxc loci, the abundance of intrachromosomal interactions with neighboring fragments was drastically decreased when the genes are expressed. These results indicate the possibility of the dynamic pattern of chromosomal interaction in association with the transcriptional regulation of Hox genes.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Chromatin ; Embryonic Development ; Female ; Gene Expression ; Genes, Homeobox ; Pregnancy ; Teratocarcinoma ; Transcriptional Activation

To study the effect of high temperature, rice seedlings 20, 30, 40 and 50 d were kept at 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm water depth in a water pool. Meteorological findings indicated that water temperature varied up to 10 cm but became stable below this depth. Deep water inflicted higher tiller mortality, minimal increase in dry weight of aerial parts and leaf area, decrease in root length, and decrease in root dry weight especially at 20 cm water depth and produced an unbalanced T/R ratio (top versus root dry weight). However, deep water tended to increase plant length. These parameters, however, excel in shallow water. Older seedlings, with the exception of root dry weight, could not perform well compared to young seedlings in all physiological and morphological aspects. The study revealed that seedlings, particularly young ones, stand well in shallow water and can cope with high temperature.
Desiccation ; Organ Size ; Oryza ; anatomy & histology ; cytology ; growth & development ; physiology ; Plant Components, Aerial ; anatomy & histology ; growth & development ; Plant Leaves ; anatomy & histology ; growth & development ; Plant Roots ; anatomy & histology ; growth & development ; Seedlings ; cytology ; growth & development ; Temperature ; Time Factors ; Water ; analysis

Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis is a rare autosomal recessive disorder presenting with loss of pain sensation, thermal sensation defects, and self-mutilating behavior. In the present study, we recruited two consanguineous pedigree showing pain insensitivity symptoms from Pakistan for clinical and molecular investigations. In family A, one female patient displayed classical CIPA symptoms along with microcephaly and severe intellectual disability. During course of the disease, her right foot was amputated and had remarkable dental degeneration and teeth shedding. In family B, one boy presented with classical symptoms of congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis. Blood was collected from both families for molecular studies. Sequencing with the Ilumina Trusight One Sequencing Panel covering 4813 OMIM genes revealed a known homozygous mutation c.2084C>T; p.P695L of NTRK1 in family A and a novel truncated mutation c.2025C>G; p.Y681X in family B. Protein modeling analysis of both mutations (p.P695L and p.Y681X) predicted loss of the rigidity in tyrosine kinase domain of NTRK1 that led to conformational changes as well as deleterious effect on protein function. The known mutation was reported more than a decade ago in a family from Northern Israel and other non-sense mutation is newly identified. It is interested that most of NTRK1 mutations are associated with this domain. This is first ever report of NTRK1 variants in congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis patients from Pakistan.
Pain Insensitivity, Congenital

Intermaxillary tooth size discrepancy (TSD) is the disproportion in patients’ tooth size that is usually referred to the Bolton analysis. This size imbalance may also affect the outcome of orthodontic treatment. Therefore, this retrospective study was conducted to determine the prevalence of intermaxillary tooth size discrepancy (TSD) beyond 2 standard deviation (2 SD) from Bolton’s mean in orthodontic patients and to evaluate the effect of TSD beyond 2 SD of Bolton’s mean on orthodontic treatment outcomes. A total of 226 sets of orthodontic study models that met the selection criteria were selected from 3077 orthodontic cases. Bolton's analysis of the anterior and overall ratios was performed on each of the pre-treatment models. The orthodontic treatment outcomes for the cases which were identified of having TSD beyond 2 SD were evaluated and any interventional techniques to improve the outcome of the treatment were recorded. The results showed that 29.20% of cases had TSD beyond 2 SD of Bolton’s mean. 26.54% of cases had anterior ratio of more than 2 SD. Meanwhile, 7.08% of cases had an overall ratio greater than 2 SD. Of all cases with TSD beyond 2 SP, most of these cases (62.12%) had affected the outcome of orthodontic treatment. In conclusion, there is more than one quarter of orthodontic patients present with TSD beyond 2 SD of Bolton’s mean which may influence the outcome of orthodontic treatment. Intervention techniques should be carefully planned to achieve satisfactory treatment outcomes.

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a zoonotic infection that may be transmitted to human beings either by consumption of raw or uncooked meat or by ingesting oocysts. Toxoplasma organisms can cross blood placenta barrier and may result in congenital toxoplasmosis. About 80% of immunocompetent individuals do not show any clinical manifestations and are silent carriers of this disease. Pregnant women especially in highly prevalent areas are recommended to be screened for this disease in order to prevent the potential vertical transmission. To our knowledge no such study has been conducted in this region of Saudi Arabia. This study attempted to carry out two objectives: first, to find out the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in pregnant women attending prenatal care services in our hospital; second, to find out risk factors associated with T. gondii seroprevalence in our patients. It was carried out in Teaching Hospital in Al-Kharj over a period of one year. All 306 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic were involved in the study. A pretested selfexplanatory questionnaire was filled out by the patients and their sera were collected to be tested for IgG and/or IgM against T. gondii. The results were then statistically analyzed using SPSS software and p-value was calculated using Pearson Chi Square test. Out of the 306 blood samples tested, 99 (32.4%) were seropositive for specific anti T. gondii IgG antibodies and 3(1%) were seropositive for IgM. This show that seroprevalence of T. gondii antibodies was high among pregnant women and the prevalence showed a significant association with age. The study recommends conducting educational programs to raise awareness among women about risk factors and precautions to be taken.

Objective: This study aims to report the demographic features of patients with acromegaly the disease burden, and the corresponding treatment patterns and outcomes in Malaysia. Methodology: This is a retrospective study that included patients from the Malaysian Acromegaly registry who were diagnosed with acromegaly from 1970 onwards. Data collected included patient demographics, clinical manifestations of acromegaly, biochemical results and imaging findings. Information regarding treatment modalities and their outcomes was also obtained. Results: Registry data was collected from 2013 to 2016 and included 140 patients with acromegaly from 12 participating hospitals. Median disease duration was 5.5 years (range 1.0 – 41.0 years). Most patients had macroadenoma (67%), while 15% were diagnosed with microadenoma. Hypertension (49.3%), diabetes (37.1%) and hypopituitarism (27.9%) were the most common co-morbidities for patients with acromegaly. Majority of patients had surgical intervention as primary treatment (65.9%) while 20.7% were treated medically, mainly with dopamine agonists (18.5%). Most patients had inadequate disease control after first-line treatment regardless of treatment modality (79.4%). Conclusion This registry study provides epidemiological data on patients with acromegaly in Malaysia and serves as an initial step for further population-based studies.
acromegaly ; treatment outcomes

BACKGROUND: Food handlers can play a vital role into reducing foodborne diseases by adopting appropriate food handling and sanitation practices in working plants. This study aimed to assess the factors associated with food safety knowledge and practices among meat handlers who work at butcher shops in Bangladesh. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 meat handlers from January to March, 2021. Data were collected through in-person interviews using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of three parts; socio-demographic characteristics, assessments of food safety knowledge, and food safety practices. A multiple logistic regression model was used to identify the factors associated with food safety knowledge and practices. RESULTS: Only 20% [95% confidence interval, (CI) 15.7-24.7] and 16.3% (95% CI 12.3-20.7) of the respondents demonstrated good levels of food safety knowledge and practices, respectively. The factors associated with good levels of food safety knowledge were: having a higher secondary education [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 4.57, 95% CI 1.11-18.76], income above 25,000 BDT/month (AOR = 10.52, 95% CI 3.43-32.26), work experience of > 10 years (AOR = 9.31, 95% CI 1.92-45.09), ≥ 8 h per day of work (AOR = 6.14, 95% CI 2.69-13.10), employed on a daily basis (AOR = 4.05, 95% CI 1.16-14.14), and having food safety training (AOR = 8.98 95% CI 2.16-37.32). Good food safety knowledge (AOR = 5.68, 95% CI 2.33-13.87) and working ≥ 8 h per day (AOR = 8.44, 95% CI 3.11-22.91) were significantly associated with a good level of food safety practice. CONCLUSIONS Poor knowledge and practices regarding food safety were found among Bangladeshi meat handlers. Findings may help public health professionals and practitioners develop targeted strategies to improve food safety knowledge and practices among this population. Such strategies may include education and sensitization on good food safety practices.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Bangladesh ; Female ; Food Handling/statistics & numerical data* ; Food Safety/methods* ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Meat ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult