METHODS: This was a comparative cross-sectional study. We recruited children aged 8-11 years from eight primary schools in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. The children were divided into two groups: those with LBW (< 2,500 g) and those with normal birth weight (≥ 2,500 g). Parents of the enrolled children were asked to complete a translated version of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire. Lung function tests, done using a MicroLoop Spirometer, were performed for the children in both groups by a single investigator who was blinded to the children's birth weight.
RESULTS: The prevalence of 'ever wheezed' among the children with LBW was 12.9%. This value was significantly higher than that of the children with normal birth weight (7.8%). Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second, and forced expiratory flow when 50% and 75% of the FVC had been exhaled were significantly lower among the children with LBW as compared to the children with normal birth weight.
CONCLUSION: LBW is associated with an increased prevalence of asthma-like symptoms and impaired lung function indices later in life. Children born with LBW may need additional follow-up so that future respiratory problems can be detected early.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted longitudinal studies to investigate the entomological parameters of the simian malaria vectors and to examine the genetic diversity and evolutionary pattern of their simian Plasmodium. All the captured Anopheles mosquitoes were dissected to examine for the presence of oocysts, sporozoites and to determine the parous rate. Our study revealed that the Anopheles Leucosphyrus Group mosquitoes are highly potential competent vectors, as evidenced by their high rate of parity, survival and sporozoite infections in these mosquitoes. Thus, these mosquitoes represent a risk of human infection with zoonotic simian malaria in this region. Haplotype analysis on P. cynomolgi and P. inui, found in high prevalence in the Anopheles mosquitoes from this study, had shown close relationship between simian Plasmodium from the Anopheles mosquitoes with its vertebrate hosts. This directly signifies the ongoing transmission between the vector, macaques, and humans. Furthermore, population genetic analysis showed significant negative values which suggest that both Plasmodium species are undergoing population expansion.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: With constant microevolutionary processes, there are potential for both P. inui and P. cynomolgi to emerge and spread as a major public health problem, following the similar trend of P. knowlesi. Therefore, concerted vector studies in other parts of Southeast Asia are warranted to better comprehend the transmission dynamics of this zoonotic simian malaria which eventually would aid in the implementation of effective control measures in a rapidly changing environment.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the cardiovascular effects of a butanolic fraction of Gynura procumbens in rats.
METHODS: Anaesthetized rats were given intravenous bolus injections of butanolic fraction at doses of 2.5-20 mg/kg in vivo. The effect of butanolic fraction on vascular reactivity was recorded in isolated rat aortic rings in vitro.
RESULTS: Intravenous administrations of butanolic fraction elicited significant (p < 0.001) and dose-dependent decreases in the mean arterial pressure. However, a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the heart rate was observed only at the higher doses (10 and 20 mg/kg). In isolated preparations of rat aortic rings, phenylephrine (1 × 10⁻⁶ M)- or potassium chloride (8 × 10⁻² M)-precontracted endothelium-intact and -denuded tissue; butanolic fraction (1 × 10⁻⁶ - 1 × 10⁻¹ g/ml) induced similar concentration-dependent relaxation of the vessels. In the presence of 2.5 × 10⁻³ and 5.0 × 10⁻³ g/ml butanolic fraction, the contractions induced by phenylephrine (1 × 10⁻⁹-3 × 10⁻⁵ M) and potassium chloride (1 × 10⁻² - 8 × 10⁻² M) were significantly antagonized. The calcium-induced vasocontractions (1 × 10⁻⁴-1 × 10⁻²M) were antagonized by butanolic fraction concentration-dependently in calcium-free and high potassium (6×10⁻² M) medium, as well as in calcium- and potassium-free medium containing 1×10⁻⁶ M phenylephrine. However, the contractions induced by noradrenaline (1 × 10⁻⁶ M) and caffeine (4.5 × 10⁻² M) were not affected by butanolic fraction.
CONCLUSION: Butanolic fraction contains putative hypotensive compounds that appear to inhibit calcium influx via receptor-operated and/or voltage-dependent calcium channels to cause vasodilation and a consequent fall in blood pressure.
METHODS: The YOLOv4 model is modified using direct layer pruning and backbone replacement. The primary objective of layer pruning is the removal and individual analysis of residual blocks within the C3, C4 and C5 (C3-C5) Res-block bodies of the backbone architecture's C3-C5 Res-block bodies. The CSP-DarkNet53 backbone is simultaneously replaced for enhanced feature extraction with a shallower ResNet50 network. The performance metrics of the models are compared and analysed.
RESULTS: The modified models outperform the original YOLOv4 model. The YOLOv4-RC3_4 model with residual blocks pruned from the C3 and C4 Res-block body achieves the highest mean accuracy precision (mAP) of 90.70%. This mAP is > 9% higher than that of the original model, saving approximately 22% of the billion floating point operations (B-FLOPS) and 23 MB in size. The findings indicate that the YOLOv4-RC3_4 model also performs better, with an increase of 9.27% in detecting the infected cells upon pruning the redundant layers from the C3 Res-block bodies of the CSP-DarkeNet53 backbone.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study highlight the use of the YOLOv4 model for detecting infected red blood cells. Pruning the residual blocks from the Res-block bodies helps to determine which Res-block bodies contribute the most and least, respectively, to the model's performance. Our method has the potential to revolutionise malaria diagnosis and pave the way for novel deep learning-based bioinformatics solutions. Developing an effective and automated process for diagnosing malaria will considerably contribute to global efforts to combat this debilitating disease. We have shown that removing undesirable residual blocks can reduce the size of the model and its computational complexity without compromising its precision.