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At present, serial theft case linkage remains at the stage of empiricism. In order to overcome this subjective arbitrariness, this study proposes using a 'two‐step cumulative probability model' for investigation. In the first step, based on expert grading method, the opinions of 99 policemen were combined to quantify the serial theft case characteristics. In the second step, when a new case occurred, the characteristics of it were compared with the characteristics of each serial theft case, and the corresponding probabilities were added according to the calculations of the second step; when the accumulated points exceeded the threshold, we considered concatenating the new case with the corresponding serial cases. The results demonstrated that the average accuracy of the two‐step cumulative probability model was 87.5% and that the average response rate of the irrelevant case (control group) was 12.3%. We concluded that the two‐step cumulative probability model could assist in criminal investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Limited treatment options of extensive drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) have led to its high mortality worldwide. Relevant data about mortality of XDR-TB patients in literature are limited and likely underestimate the real situation in China, since the majority of patients with XDR-TB are lost to follow-up after discharge from TB hospitals. In this study, we sought to investigate the mortality and associated risk factors of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-negative patients with XDR-TB in China. Methods All patients who were diagnosed with XDR-TB for the first time in four TB care centers across China between March 2013 and February 2015 were consecutively enrolled. Active tracking through contacting patients or family members by phone or home visit was conducted to obtain patients’ survival information by February 2017. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to evaluate factors associated with mortality. Results Among 67 patients enrolled, the mean age was 48.7 (Standard Deviation [SD] = 16.7) years, and 51 (76%) were men. Fourteen patients (21%) were treatment naïve at diagnosis indicating primary transmission. 58 (86.8%) patients remained positive for sputum smear or culture when discharged. During a median follow-up period of 32 months, 20 deaths occurred, with an overall mortality of 128 per 1000 person-years. Among patients who were dead, the median survival was 5.4 months (interquartile range [IQR]: 2.2–17.8). Seventeen (85%) of them died at home, among whom the median interval from discharge to death was 8.4 months (IQR: 2.0–18.2). In Cox proportional hazards regression models, body mass index (BMI)

Objectives: This research investigated the effects of area-specific extreme temperatures on health. The outcome variable was defined as the number of new cases of cerebrovascular disease and ischemic heart disease in each of seven regions comprising Taiwan. Methods: For each of the 312 administrative areas, the extreme temperature thresholds were defined as the 5th percentile of daily minimum temperatures and 95th percentile of daily maximum temperatures in 2003-2010, to account for the heterogeneity between areas. Each day was then categorized as experiencing unusually high temperature, unusually low temperature, or normal temperature weather. A generalized linear model was adopted to model the daily number of new cases of disease in each region, with a negative binomial link function for extra-Poisson variation, along with covariates including air pollution and season. Results: Residents in different areas experienced significantly different risk for both of the diseases considered (p ＜ 0.05). Under different threshold values of extreme temperature for the seven regions, extremely-high temperature days were associated with a higher risk of cerebrovascular disease. In summer, extremely high temperature increased risk even more. For instance, the increase of risk for the Central region was 5% overall but 6% in summer (from 16% to 17% in the Kao-Ping region, from 16% to 17% in the Yi-Lan region, and from 52% to 54% in the Hua-Dong region). In winter, the pattern of increased risk remained for extremely-high temperature days (all p-values above ＜ 0.05). For ischemic heart disease, the seven regions also exhibited significantly different risk (p ＜ 0.05). However, extremely-high temperature days only significantly influenced risk in the Yun-Chia-Nan and Kao-Ping regions by 21% and 11%, respectively; while days with extremely-low temperature only affected the susceptible residents in the Yi-Lan region, especially in the winter (risk increased by 22%, p ＜ 0.05). Conclusions: The evaluation of the effect of air temperature on health has attracted much attention in many countries including Taiwan. To evaluate such an effect, heterogeneity in the cutoff temperature values for temperatures among regions should be taken into account. In response to extreme temperatures, in particular to heat waves due to climate change, appropriate measures should be developed to alleviate or prevent negative health consequences for susceptible residents in different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homogeneously staining regions (HSR) or double minute chromosomes (dmin) are autonomously replicating extra-chromosomal elements that are frequently associated with gene amplification in a variety of cancers. The diagnosis of leukemia patients was based on characterization of the leukemic cells obtained from bone marrow cytogenetics. This study report two cases, one with Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia without maturation (AML-M1), aged 23-year-old female, and the other with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)-blast crisis, a 28-year-old female associated with double minute chromosomes. Most cases of acute myeloid leukemia with dmin in the literature (including our cases) have been diagnosed as having acute myeloid leukemia.

Mais um caso de lagochilascariose em criança procedente do Município de Xinguara PA. No Hospital das Clínicas da UFG, foi feita drenagem do abscesso localizado na região cervical direita, constatando-se a presença de ovos e vermes adultos de Lagochilascaris minor. Instituída terapia com albendazol 400mg/dia (durante 30 dias) e antibioticoterapia, houve regressão do quadro clinico.A new case of lagochilascariasis is reported in a child from Xinguara PA, Brazil. The patient had an abscess in the right cervical region, which was drained at the Clinical Hospital of UFG. Eggs and adult stages of Lagochilascaris minor were found in the secretion of the abscess. Treatment with albendazol, at a dosage of 400mg/day for 30 days, associated with antibiotics promoted regression of the lesion.

Acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP) is a specific but rare hepatopathy that can usually complicate the third trimester of pregnancy. It is potentially fatal for the mother and the fetus. To our knowledge, only eight cases of recurrence have been published, we report a new case. The first episode presented by our 23-year-old patient was suspected in front of a cutaneous-mucosal jaundice with vomiting occurring on pregnancy of 35weeks of gestation (WG). Hyperleucytosis, abnormalities of the hepatic balance, as well as a hypoglycemia were biological elements supporting the diagnostic beam. On the other hand, medical imaging could not bring a clear confirmation. The evolution was favorable after deferred delivery by caesarean section for pulmonary maturation. Three years later, she presented to the obstetrical emergency room at 36weeks and six days of gestation, with a clinical and biological picture almost similar to that of the first episode. A caesarean section was then indicated for suspicion of recurrence. The evolution is favorable for the mother and her children. The interest of the communication on the risk of recurrence, the clinical and biological monitoring in particular in the third trimester of the subsequent pregnancy are imperative, in order to improve the prognosis of this pathology., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Milk, fat, and protein loss due to a new subclinical mastitis case may be economically important, and the objective of this study was to estimate this loss. The loss was estimated based on test-day (TD) cow records collected over a l-yr period from 400 randomly selected Dutch dairy herds. After exclusion of records from cows with clinical mastitis, the data set comprised 251,647 TD records from 43,462 lactations of 39,512 cows. The analysis was carried out using a random regression test-day modeling approach that predicts the cow production at each TD based on the actual production at all previous TD. The definition of new subclinical mastitis was based on the literature and assumed a new subclinical case if somatic cell count (SCC) was >100,000 cells/mL after a TD with SCC <50,000 cells/mL. A second data set was created by applying an adjustment to correct low SCC for the dilution effect when determining if the previous test-day SCC was <50,000 cells/ mL. Thereafter, the loss was estimated for records with SCC >100,000 cells/mL. The production (milk, fat, or protein) losses were modeled as the difference between the actual and predicted production (milk, fat, or protein) at the TD of new subclinical mastitis, for 4,382 cow records, and 2,545 cow records after dilution correction. Primiparous cows were predicted to lose 0.31 (0.25-0.37) and 0.28 (0.20-0.35) kg of milk/d at an SCC of 200,000 cells/mL, for unadjusted and adjusted low SCC, respectively. For the same SCC increase, multiparous cows were predicted to lose 0.58 (0.54-0.62) and 0.50 (0.44-0.56) kg of milk/d, respectively. Moreover, it was found that the greater the SCC increase above 100,000 cells/mL, the greater the production losses. The estimated production losses were more precise than previously reported estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study was planned to determine the resistance rates against tuberculosis (TB) drugs in pulmonery tuberculosis patients in a ward of İzmir Chest Diseases and Surgery Researh Hospital. Data of 387 hospitalised male patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis between 1999-2004 were evaluated retrospectivly. Method: The patient TB groups were decided as new( group I), retreatment (GroupII) , smear-culture negative pulmoanry TB and ekstrapulmonary TB (Group III) and chronic (Group IV) according to sputum smear and cultures, anti-tuberculous drugs susceptibility tests , clinical features, the time elapsed for conversion of sputum to negative and hospitalisation time. Becaus of the culture neqativitiy, Group III was exclued from the study. Results: Drug resistance rates of İsoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol and streptomycin were calculated seperately for each group. It was considered that 231 of cases (77 %) were new (Group I), 53 (17.8%) were retreatment (Group II), 13 (4.3 %) were chronic cases (Group IV) of 291 culture positive cases whose culture data was found. Resistances to any drugs were found % 7.8 in new cases, % 58.5 in retreatment cases and % 100 in chronic cases. Conclusion: H, R, E and S resistance rates were detected in new, retreatment and chronicle cases as 4.3%, 4.2 %, 2.6 %, 3.4 %; 30.1 %, 41.5 %, 11.3 %, 24.5 %; 92.3 %, 100 %, 53.8 %, 61.5 % respectivly. MDR-TB rates were found 2.16 %, 11.3 % and 92.3 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homogeneously staining regions (HSR) or double minute chromosomes (dmin) are autonomously replicating extra-chromosomal elements that are frequently associated with gene amplification in a variety of cancers. The diagnosis of leukemia patients was based on characterization of the leukemic cells obtained from bone marrow cytogenetics. This study report two cases, one with Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia without maturation (AML-M1), aged 23-year-old female, and the other with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)-blast crisis, a 28-year-old female associated with double minute chromosomes. Most cases of acute myeloid leukemia with dmin in the literature (including our cases) have been diagnosed as having acute myeloid leukemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ichthyosis is a very heterogeneous family of skin disorders with harlequin ichthyosis being the most severe genetic form. It is a rare autosomal recessive condition, characterized, by dry, severely thickened skin with large plates of hyperkeratotic scale, separated by deep fissures. Infants are very susceptible to metabolic abnormalities and infections. They usually do not survive for very long, but several long term survivals have been noted. The vast majority of affected individuals are homozygous for mutations in the ABCA12 gene, which cause a deficiency of the epidermal lipid transporter, resulting in hyperkeratosis and abnormal barrier function. We report a case of a newborn with harlequin, ichthyosis, born to unrelated parents, who had a favorable evolution with topical treatment and intensive care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the number of new suspected or confirmed cases of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is crucial in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 outbreak. Social media search indexes (SMSI) for dry cough, fever, chest distress, coronavirus, and pneumonia were collected from 31 December 2019 to 9 February 2020. The new suspected cases of COVID-19 data were collected from 20 January 2020 to 9 February 2020. We used the lagged series of SMSI to predict new suspected COVID-19 case numbers during this period. To avoid overfitting, five methods, namely subset selection, forward selection, lasso regression, ridge regression, and elastic net, were used to estimate coefficients. We selected the optimal method to predict new suspected COVID-19 case numbers from 20 January 2020 to 9 February 2020. We further validated the optimal method for new confirmed cases of COVID-19 from 31 December 2019 to 17 February 2020. The new suspected COVID-19 case numbers correlated significantly with the lagged series of SMSI. SMSI could be detected 6-9 days earlier than new suspected cases of COVID-19. The optimal method was the subset selection method, which had the lowest estimation error and a moderate number of predictors. The subset selection method also significantly correlated with the new confirmed COVID-19 cases after validation. SMSI findings on lag day 10 were significantly correlated with new confirmed COVID-19 cases. SMSI could be a significant predictor of the number of COVID-19 infections. SMSI could be an effective early predictor, which would enable governments' health departments to locate potential and high-risk outbreak areas.

Objective: To understand the basic information and epidemic characteristics of new cases of cysticercosis in Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, so as to provide the evidence for formulating the prevention and control strategy of cysticercosis., Methods: The data of inpatients in the Dali Parasitic Disease Prevention and Control Center from 2014 to 2017 were collected and the eligible data of new cases of cysticercosis were analyzed by the epidemiological method., Results: There were 1 552 patients with cysticercosis, including 549 new cases of cysticercosis. Among the new cysticercosis patients, most were neurocysticer-cosis cases (484 / 549, 88.16%). The symptoms included epilepsy and headache (51.73%), headache (40.98%), and dizziness (18.76%). The new cysticercosis patients were mainly middle-aged male farmers of Bai nationality, and they were distributed in all counties (cities) of Dali Prefecture, especially in Eryuan County (26.78%), and Dali City (19.49%). The annual incidence rate was 4.423/105 in 2014, 3.837/105 in 2015, 3.765/105 in 2016, and 3.442/105 in 2017, and there was no significance among the different years'incidence ( χ 2 = 4.595, P > 0.05)., Conclusions: Dali Prefecture is still an endemic area of cysticercosis. Therefore, the monitoring, prevention and control of the disease should be strengthened.