Contamination of drinking water with heavy metals poses a human health threat, particularly in low-income countries where point-of-use water purification systems are beyond the reach of a majority of households. The study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of Acacia galpinii (monkey thorn tree) biomass in removing Pb(II), Cd(II), Ca(II) and Mg(II) ions from drinking water. A. galpinii biomass from seed and seed pods was processed by pulverizing, Soxhlet oil extraction and particle size grading. The material was analyzed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometry. Influence of the physiochemical parameters (contact time, initial concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH) on the effectiveness of the biomass in removing Pb(II), Cd(II), Ca(II) and Mg(II) ions was evaluated and the best fit adsorption isotherm model (Langmuir vs. Freundlich) was also determined. Particle size, dose, contact time and pH all played significant roles in the effectiveness of metal removal for both seed and seed pod biomass. At biomass particle size <90 microns, 98% removal rates of Pb(II) ions were achieved for seed pods (AGK) compared with 65% for plain seeds (AGS). The same trend was observed for Cd, Ca and Mg. Contact time for effective removal of metal ions by AGK and AGS were 90 min and 120 min, respectively. Maximum adsorption was achieved at solution pH 6-8 for all metals. Lead adsorption followed a Langmuir isotherm with maximum adsorption capacities of 10.8932 for AGK and 3.4412 for AGS. Adsorption of Ca and Mg followed a Freundlich model, with adsorption capacity of 1.1789 for Ca and 1.4521 for Mg. Acacia galpinii seeds and seed pods are inexpensive, readily available and may serve as a cost effective means for treatment of drinking water for domestic users in the lower end of the income spectrum.

Background: Despite characteristic clinical features of glomus tumor, dermatologists can meet diagnostic difficulty in some cases with glomus tumor.

Objective: To investigate clinical features and dermoscopic findings of glomus tumors.

Method: For 22 cases of glomus tumors, sex, age of initial visit, disease duration, site of lesion, size, associated symptoms and nail deformities and dermoscopic findings were investigated.

Results: Mean age of initial visit and disease duration was 43.4±13.4 years old and 5.6±5.1 years, respectively (19 female, 3 male). Both 1^st Fingers (9, 40.9%) were most common involved site. Nail lunula (12.54.5%) was more frequently involved than proximal nail fold (6, 27.3%) or nail bed (4, 18.2%). 15 cases were identifiable for size and mean size was 6.0±1.9 mm. There were associated symptoms such as pain (16, 72.7%), tenderness (7, 31.8%) and cold intolerance (2, 9.1%). Onychoschizia (13, 59.1%), longitudinal ridging (12, 54.5%) and distal nail notching (8, 36.4%) were commonly associated nail changes. On dermoscopic examination, whitish patch (16, 72.7%), purplish patch (15, 68.2%), erythematous patch (13, 59.1%) and irregular linear vessel (1, 4.5%) were observed. In 9 cases (40.9%), characteristic three zones consisting of central purplish patch, middle erythematous patch and peripheral whitish patch were observed.

Conclusion: Characteristic dermoscopic findings of this study can help making more accurate diagnosis and performing appropriated treatment in glomus tumors. 

Epigenetics, including DNA methylation, histone methylation and non-coding RNA, plays a very important role in cardiovascular diseases. In this talk I will introduce the therapeutic potentials of miRNA-101a mimics in the treatment of sustained hypertension-induced cardiac fibrosis and remodeling. Our work demonstrated that miR-101a and TGF-β1 mutually inhibits each other from studies of ex vivo cultured primary cardiac fibroblasts (cFBs) and in vivo transverse aortic constriction (TAC) model. miR-101a functions as an endogenous TGF-β1 signaling inhibitor and escape from miR-101a inhibition may lead to the development of fibrosis. Our novel findings include: (1) miR-101a inhibits cFB proliferation through promoted apoptosis; activation by down-regulation expression of α-SMA and fibronectin with EDA; collagen synthesis and secretion through enhance of autophagy, (2) TGF-β1 reduces miR-101a expression through inhibition of miR-101a promoter activity. Meanwhile miR-101a inhibits TGF-β1 signaling pathway but does not affect TGF-β1 expression and (3) we further tested the efficacy of miRNA-101a treatment in a TAC model. Our data demonstrate that early treatment of miR-101a mimics could supplement the loss of miR-101a, inhibit the activation of TGF-β signaling pathway, therefore reduce cardiac fibrosis and improve cardiac function. 

Current daily crude oil production in Nigeria stands at about 2.5 MBOPD, placing Nigeria as 6^th largest oil producer in the world. Petroleum exploration and production (E and P) is thus the mainstay of the country’s economy, contributing about 85% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. All phases of petroleum E and P activities generate wastes streams that could impact environment negatively, if not properly managed. Huge proportions of produced petroleum are lost into the environment as spills and through other sources. These and petroleum E and P wastes streams find their way into inland waters and oceans with ultimate effects on aquatic biodiversity in general and seafood, in particular. Effects of petroleum E and P activities on seafood range from physical contamination leading to poor seafood health and quality, manifesting in fish tainting, to toxic effects and finally to death as a result of pollution. Standard analytical protocols were adopted for physicochemical analyses of coastal water samples, fish tissues and histological studies. Effects of petroleum E and P waste streams, oil spills and other activities on seafood have been determined and are enormous. Attempts are made to highlight effects of petroleum activities on production of seafood and some of our field observations and research findings in past years, with a view to justify the effects of petroleum E and P activities on production and management of seafood in Nigeria. These impacts may be partly due to the “lip-service” integration of biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) into petroleum E and P operations in Nigeria and partly because of lack of responsible business practices (RBP) by the proponents of petroleum E and P projects. Non-enforcement of existing legal framework due to duplicity and overlap of functions of the regulators and lack of political will power also contribute to the effects of petroleum E and P activities on seafood production and management in Nigeria. As a way forward, some suggestions have been proffered.

Objective: To determine gender distribution and relative frequency of cardiac defects in children who underwent palliative or corrective cardiac surgery at Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Department at NICVD, Karachi, Pakistan.

Methodology: This retrospective cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Karachi, Pakistan from October 2013 till September 2015. 1004 patients up to age group of 14 years admitted for Cardiac Surgery at Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) were included.

Results: Out of 1004 patients, there were 683 males (68%) and 321 females (32%). Patients presented with cyanotic heart disease were 578 (57.5%) while acynotic patients were 426 (42.4%). Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) followed by Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) was the commonest congenital heart lesions, 42.8% and 20%, respectively.

Conclusion: Majority of patients with pediatric heart disease had cyanotic CHD with the commonest lesion being Tetralogy Of Fallot (TOF). Most of the patients were more than one year (70%) with significant difference in sex distribution with male predominance.

Aim: To use novel quantitative methods to identify the preoperative and postoperative factors for predicting 30-day mortality for multiracial Asian patients undergoing mitral valve repair or replacement.

Methods: The de-identified data of 197 patients who had undergone mitral valve repair or replacement from 2009 to 2015 were analyzed with generalized structural equation model (gSEM). The chi-square automated interaction detector (CHAID) algorithm was applied for variable-selection. Analyzed with Stata MP version 14, all statistical tests were carried out with 95% confidence intervals.

Results: Female gender, BMI>29 kg/m², the need for emergency surgery and prolonged mechanical ventilation were identified as significant predictors of 30-day mortality. Emergency surgery was also significant in explaining other postoperative outcomes such as unplanned reoperation, prolonged mechanical ventilation and prolonged intensive care. Patients who had valve replacement were more likely to suffer from postoperative complications. The final model was deemed to be valid externally (AUC: 0.99; 95% C.I.: 0.98-1.00).

Conclusion: The results were congruent with traditional negative prognosticators for mitral valve surgery. The novel quantitative techniques are able to provide more comprehensive analysis than the conventional methods. With its multi-way splitting, the CHAID could identify meaningful cut-offs of the quantitative predictors objectively and jointly. On the other hand, gSEM is able to analyze the multiple outcomes in a single setting that could result in higher precision. A predictor’s effect could also be divided into direct and indirect, thus providing more information about its overall effect on the outcomes. We have validated the use of these new statistical methods for use in future studies on identifying risk factors for medical conditions.

Alpha-Chloralose was introduced in drugs domain as general anesthetic for animal experiment a century ago, it found also its utility and became the most famous and only raticide since 1989. Although it has been ignored to the benefit of AVK, new problems are appearing witch put emphasis documenting  hospitalizations poisoning cases’ difficulties and also their diagnostics. Endeed, Alpha-Chloralose is one of the old substance products that it ‘s up of the debate in Algeria about  its efficiency use as a pesticide, because of a potential misuse. This is why we decide to develop this topic through four interesting cases, completing with clinical and analytical investigations. In countrary of the almost of case reports in the litterature, mostly are choosen with several evolution after recividism or death (case N°1 and 2), ones likely Munhchauzen syndrome (case N°3), and a probable poisoning case (case N°4).