Search

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurological condition that worsens with time and is characterized bysymptoms such as cognitive impairment andbradykinesia, stiffness, and tremors. Parkinson’s is attributed to the interference of brain cells responsible for dopamine production, a substance regulating communication between brain cells. The brain cells involved in dopamine generation handle adaptation and control, and smooth movement. Convolutional Neural Networks are used to extract distinctive visual characteristics from numerous graphomotor sample representations generated by both PD and control participants. The proposed method presents an optimal feature selection technique based on Deep Learning (DL) and the Dynamic Bag of Features Optimization Technique (DBOFOT). Our method combines neural network-based feature extraction with a strong optimization technique to dynamically choose the most relevant characteristics from biological data. Advanced DL architectures are then used to classify the chosen features, guaranteeing excellent computational efficiency and accuracy. The framework’s adaptability to different datasets further highlights its versatility and potential for further medical applications. With a high accuracy of 0.93, the model accurately identifies 93% of the cases that are categorized as Parkinson’s. Additionally, it has a recall of 0.89, which means that 89% of real Parkinson’s patients are accurately identified. While the recall for Class 0 (Healthy) is 0.75, meaning that 75% of the real healthy cases are properly categorized, the precision decreases to 0.64 for this class, indicating a larger false positive rate.

Association studies investigating miRNA in relation to diseases have consistently shown significant alterations in miRNA expression, particularly within inflammatory pathways, where they regulate inflammatory cytokines, transcription factors (such as NF-κB, STAT3, HIF1α), and inflammatory proteins (including COX-2 and iNOS). Given that endometriosis (EMS) is characterized as an inflammatory disease, albeit one influenced by estrogen levels, it is natural to speculate about the connection between EMS and miRNA. Recent research has indeed confirmed alterations in the expression levels of numerous microRNAs (miRNAs) in both endometriotic lesions and the eutopic endometrium of women with EMS, when compared to healthy controls. The undeniable association of miRNAs with EMS hints at the emergence of a new era in the study of miRNA in the context of EMS. This article reviews the advancements made in understanding the pathological role of miRNA in EMS and its association with EMS-associated infertility. These findings contribute to the ongoing pursuit of developing miRNA-based therapeutics and diagnostic markers for EMS.

It is crucial to explore knowledge, attitudes and perceptions (KAP) about rabies among the people in the community, the personnel dealing with animal bite management and suspected rabies patients, including humans and animals, to facilitate intervention in improving rabies elimination strategies. In 2016, we conducted an interactive face-to-face survey in three different districts of Bangladesh to understand the extent of KAP towards rabies in the community peoples (CPs), human healthcare professionals (HCPs) and veterinary practitioners (VPs). A set of prescribed questions was employed to measure what proportion of each group possessed sufficient knowledge, positive attitudes and adequate perceptions about rabies. A total of 1133 CPs, 211 HCPs and 168 VPs were interviewed by using a standard questionnaire comprising both closed and open-ended questions. Of the CPs, 49% identified the disease correctly (i.e. rabies is caused by an animal bite or a scratch). Only 29% of the CPs were aware that a wound should be washed immediately with soap and water after an animal bite or a scratch. However, only 49% of the CPs, 65% of the HCPs and 60% of the VPs felt that it is important to consult a physician and receive post-exposure vaccine as the first line of treatment following an animal exposure. Among the HCPs, 23% of the respondents did not possess sufficient knowledge about animal bites as categorised by the World Health Organization (WHO), and 12% of the respondents did not possess the knowledge on how to manage an animal bite properly. Out of 52% of the VPs who previously treated suspected rabid animals, only 29% had a history of taking rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Lack of formal education and rural subsistence were found to largely contribute to poor rabies KAP level among the CPs (P ≤ 0.01). There has been a high demand for proper training to be provided to HCPs and VPs for the effective management of an animal bite incidence in human and animals, respectively. Multi-sectoral collaboration through integrated One Health initiatives including community education, awareness programmes, facilitation of rabies PEP, and dog vaccination as well as its population control are critical in the way forward to control rabies in Bangladesh.

Antimicrobial resistance is a major health problem, particularly in developing countries like Bangladesh, where there is a paucity of information on resistance patterns and prevalence of antimicrobial determinants. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of resistance, including multi-drug resistance (MDR), and the associated genetic determinants in Escherichia coli isolates from cloacal swabs of live broiler chickens in Bangladesh. Altogether, 400 cloacal swabs (200 from Rajshahi and 200 from Dhaka divisions) were randomly collected from individual chickens in 50 broiler farms. E. coli was isolated and identified using conventional bacteriological culture and biochemical methods. The isolates were further confirmed using genus-specific 16S rRNAtargeted polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers. Antimicrobial susceptibilities and MDR of the isolates against nine different antimicrobial agents (ampicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, colistin sulphate, and streptomycin) were determined using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Resistance determinants of E. coli to ampicillin (blaTEM), streptomycin (aadA1), erythromycin [ere(A)], trimethoprim (dfrA1), and tetracycline [tet(A), tet(B)] were screened using PCR. Our results showed that all swab samples were positive for E. coli. The isolates were uniformly resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, streptomycin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, and trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole. The isolates exhibited highest susceptibility to colistin sulphate (73.5%), followed by gentamicin (49%), and levofloxacin (17%). All isolates were resistant to three classes of antibiotics, 204 isolates (51%) were resistant to four classes, and 56 isolates (14%) were resistant to five. The highest prevalence of antimicrobial resistance gene was recorded for tetracycline (tet(A):95.25%; tet(B):95.25%) followed by ampicillin (blaTEM:91.25%), streptomycin (aadA1:88.25%), erythromycin (ere(A):84.75%), and trimethoprim (dfrA1:65.5%). In conclusion, surveillance for MDR bacteria in poultry is a critical piece of knowledge, which would be useful for optimizing empiric antimicrobial treatments and exploring alternative antimicrobial agents.