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Monkeypox is a zoonotic viral disease endemic to the tropical rainforest regions of Central and West Africa. The 1st virus isolation was done from a group of research monkeys in 1958 and the 1st human case was detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970. Outbreaks outside Africa by 2021 were always small-scale and associated with travel to endemic regions or the importation of infected animals. But in 2022, more than 2000 cases were reported from 1st January to 3rd August from more than 80 countries worldwide, and the majority of them had no travel or contact history. Neighboring country India has also detected four monkeypox cases for the first time with one death which is a concern for Bangladesh. This review article gives a brief overview of the monkeypox virus, the disease, and most importantly, the preventive measures in the context of the current global outbreak.

Background: Febrile seizures (FS) are a major presentation in young children with febrile illnesses. They may occur recurrently within the same febrile illness. This study sought to examine the profile of children with febrile convulsions and the association of hyponatremia with recurrent febrile seizures. Methodology: The study determined the clinical characteristics, recurrence pattern, and serum sodium level of children with FS admitted into the Department of Paediatrics of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), Sokoto, Nigeria. It was a retrospective study from January 2019 to December 2020. Cases were children aged 3 months to 6 years admitted with FS. Their case folders were extracted and relevant data entered into a proforma sheet and data was analyzed using SPSS version 23. Results: 357 of 4583 (7.8%) admitted children had FS, 230 were male (64.4%) with M:F ratio of 1.8:1. Their ages ranged from 3 to 72 months with mean of 33.6 (±17.3) months. 201 (56.3%) had simple FS while 156 (43.7%) had complex FS. Higher proportion of females had complex FS though not significant (Ꭓ2=0.61; p=0.73). The commonest documented cause of fever was malaria (70.3%). 177 (49.6%) had recurrent episodes FS on admission. Of the total, 118 had serum sodium results retrieved, 60 (50.8%) had hyponatremia with a mean level of 129.3mmol/l (±5.5); this was slightly lower in those with recurrent seizures within the illness but not significant. It was also lower in those with complex seizures especially those with higher temperatures on admission. There were 6 mortalities and these included cases initially diagnosed with complex FS but later developed febrile status epilepticus and died. Conclusion: Febrile seizures are a significant presentation in children. About half had associated hyponatremia which was associated with recurrent seizures though not significant. Those with complex FS had hyponatremia which was more significant with fever at presentation. Mortality occurred in those that had febrile encephalopathy.

Pediatric epileptic encephalopathies comprises a group of severe childhood epilepsy syndromes characterized by refractory seizures associated with progressive cerebral dysfunction, manifesting as cognitive or learning difficulties and behavioural or sensory impairments.

Multi-scale models integrating biomolecular data from genetic, transcriptional, and translational levels, coupled with extracellular microenvironments can assist in decoding the complex mechanisms underlying system-level diseases such as cancer. To investigate the emergent properties and clinical translation of such cancer models, we present Theatre for in silico Systems Oncology (TISON, https://tison.lums.edu.pk), a next-generation web-based multi-scale modeling and simulation platform for in silico systems oncology. TISON provides a “zero-code” environment for multi-scale model development by seamlessly coupling scale-specific information from biomolecular networks, microenvironments, cell decision circuits, in silico cell lines, and organoid geometries. To compute the temporal evolution of multi-scale models, a simulation engine and data analysis features are also provided. Furthermore, TISON integrates patient-specific gene expression data to evaluate patient-centric models towards personalized therapeutics. Several literature-based case studies have been developed to exemplify and validate TISON’s modeling and analysis capabilities. TISON provides a cutting-edge multi-scale modeling pipeline for scale-specific as well as integrative systems oncology that can assist in drug target discovery, repositioning, and development of personalized therapeutics.

The phytochemical and antimicrobial activity of the petroleum ether and crude methanol extracts, chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions of the leaves of Lannea kerstingii were investigated. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of steroids and triterpenes in the petroleum ether extract, steroid, triterpene, flavonoids and tannins in both crude methanol extract and chloroform fraction while the ethyl acetate fraction contained only flavonoids and tannins. The extracts exhibited antimicrobial activities with zones of inhibition ranging from 17.00 to 21.03, 20.10 to 25.24, 25.32 to 34.02 and 22.28 to 27.20 mm for petroleum ether extract, methanol extract, chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentration was between 5 and 10mg/ml, 5mg/ml for the petroleum ether and methanol extract respectively, and between 2.5 and 5 mg/ml, 5mg/ml for the acetate fractions. The minimum bactericidal concentration for all the extracts was 40mg/ml respectively except for chloroform fraction which ranged from 20 to 40mg/ml. The minimum fungicidal concentration for all the extracts was found to be 40mg/ml respectively. This result indicates the broad spectrum antimicrobial potential of L. Kerstingii and justifies the use of this plant in traditional medicine.

This paper describes the design, fabrication and experimental characterization of photonic crystal microbeam cavity resonators for the terahertz band implemented using suspended dielectric rectangular waveguide (DRW) in high resistivity silicon. Electrical quality factors of up to 11,900, combined with small modal volumes of 0.28 mm3 and 0.077 mm3, are demonstrated for devices operating at 100 and 200 GHz, respectively. The devices are found to be extremely light-sensitive, opening up new opportunities for light-controlled switching devices at terahertz frequencies. It is shown that the quality factor of the resonator can be tuned and the resonance extinguished through photo-illumination with an infrared light-emitting diode (IR LED). Additionally, the questions of thermal tunability and thermal stability of the resonators are examined. The demonstrated resonators are inherently suited to integration with DRW and by silicon bulk micromachining represent an attractive approach for realizing microphotonic integrated circuits for terahertz systems-on-a-substrate.

We studied the effect of an intracameral bevacizumab injection on the corneal endothelium and iris neovessels (INV).Ten eyes were studied in 10 patients with an average age of 52.1 +/- 13.17 years. Patients underwent intracameral bevacizumab injections at a concentration of 1.25 mg/0.05 mL. Intraocular pressure, best-corrected visual acuity, gonioscopy, neovascular membrane extent, anterior segment photography, iris fluorescein angiography, pachymetry, and specular microscopy were recorded preoperatively and postoperatively.The minimum follow-up period was 4 months. INVs started to regress within the first 2 days after the injection and regressed completely by the end of the fourth week. Reduction in INV leakage started 1 week after injection, and resolved in 8 eyes (80%) by the end of the fourth week. Intraocular pressure dropped significantly from 17.8 +/- 4.8 mmHg to 16.6 +/- 2.8 mmHg over 4 weeks. The mean endothelial cell loss was 3.95% +/- 6.78%.An intracameral bevacizumab injection proved to be safe for corneal endothelial cells.

Mohamed HM Hosny, Ahmad MM ShalabyDepartment of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, EgyptPurpose: To evaluate the in vivo aberrometric performance of two phakic intraocular lenses (PIOLs); the Visian implantable contact lens (ICL) and the AcrySof Cachet PIOL.Methods: Thirty eight eyes from 29 patients with an age range of 23–32 years and more than 9 D of myopia were divided into two groups; one group of 20 eyes received a Visian ICL model V4c, another group of 18 eyes received an AcrySof Cachet PIOL. Total higher order aberrations (HOAs) root mean square, total coma, and total spherical aberrations were recorded pre and 6 weeks postoperatively to evaluate and compare the aberrometric performance of the Visian ICL and the AcrySof Cachet PIOL implanted in highly myopic patients.Results: Preoperatively, there were no significant differences in any studied parameters, except for preoperative spherical equivalent. Postoperatively, there were no statistically significant differences in the induction of HOAs between both PIOLs. The reduction in spherical aberrations was statistically significant in each group as well as in all study patients.Conclusion: Both AcrySof Cachet PIOL and ICLs are effective phakic implants to correct high refractive errors. They both induce small amounts of negative spherical aberration that do not affect the total HOAs, yet reduce the positive ocular spherical aberration. This result is expected to improve the quality of vision in such patients.Keywords: high myopia, higher order aberrations, refractive procedures, phakic implants

Nonspecific X-linked mental retardation is a nonprogressive, genetically heterogeneous condition that affects cognitive function in the absence of other distinctive clinical manifestations. We report here linkage data on a large Pakistani family affected by a form of X-linked nonspecific mental retardation. X chromosome genotyping of family members and linkage analysis allowed the identification of a new disease locus, MRX53. The defined critical region spans approximately 15 cM between DXS1210 and DXS1047 in Xq22.2-26. A LOD score value of 3.34 at no recombination was obtained with markers DXS1072 and DXS8081.