267 research outputs found
Emerg Infect Dis
No full textIn the United Kingdom, the National Screening Programme for identification of hepatitits B virus (HBV) infection in pregnant women uses HBV e antigen (HBeAg) and antibody to HBeAg (anti-HBe) as markers of infectivity to determine use of immunoglobulin for hepatitis B. Serum samples from 114 HBV-infected women were analyzed. Viral loads correlated with HBeAg/anti-HBe status and viral genotypes. Among 95 mothers whose serum contained anti-HBe, viral loads ranged between undetectable and 8.6 x 10(6) IU/mL (median 228 IU/mL). Ten (10.5%) of these mothers had plasma viral loads >10(4) IU/mL; 6 were infected with genotype E and one each with genotypes A, B, C, and D. All viruses had precore stop codon or basal core promoter mutations. Preponderance of genotypes other than A among antenatal mothers in the United Kingdom reflects increasing globalization and trends in immigration. HBeAg serostatus is no longer sufficiently accurate for inferring potential infectivity of pregnant HBV carriers
Production and use of monoclonal antibodies against a conserved epitope of hepatitis B surface antigen
No full textThe hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) displays the major neutralising epitope of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) termed the a determinant. As well as its use as an immunogen in vaccines, HBsAg is the primary diagnostic marker for HBV, with its detection in serum being used for routine screening in diagnostic laboratories. Recently, mutations within the a determinant have been described, some of which have been linked to false- negative HBsAg reactions in the serum of HBV infected individuals. The inability of some assays to detect HBsAg mutants will result in the failure to monitor immune responses as well as the transmission of infection through blood or organs as a result of inaccurate diagnosis.
This thesis describes the use of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to define epitopes present on the wild-type (WT) HBsAg, that are preserved on HBsAg carrying mutations in the a determinant. The MAbs were raised against mutant HBsAg purified from two renal transplant patients. Following the screening process, those hybridomas which recognised the wild type and mutant HBsAg were selected. Characterisation studies using recombinant HBsAg further demonstrated that the MAbs were able to detect mutants ranging from codon 133 to 145. Once formatted into a solid phase radioimmunoassay, the MAbs were used to detect naturally-occurring in vivo mutant-virus infections.
The identification of the conserved epitope in the first loop of the a determinant, using oligopeptides, highlighted possible limitations of the monoclonal antibody which were later demonstrated in a study assessing the prevalence of HBsAg mutants in orthotopic liver transplant patients. Changes associated with natural genetic variation in the first loop resulted in the monoclonal antibody failing to recognise HBsAg in specimens from patients infected with viruses of subtype ayw3 carrying changes in the putative binding site at residues 125 and 127.
An important, although maybe not pan-reactive, epitope has been identified which can be used to improve HBsAg detection assays as well as providing a strategy for studying the prevalence of HBsAg mutants in different populations
A survey of author name disambiguation techniques: 2010–2016
No full textAbstractDigital libraries content and quality of services are badly affected by the author name ambiguity problem in the citations and it is considered as one of the hardest problems faced by the digital library researchers. Several techniques have been proposed in the literature for the author name ambiguity problem. In this paper, we reviewed some recently presented author name disambiguation techniques and give some challenges and future research directions. We analyze the recent advancements in this field and classify these techniques into supervised, unsupervised, semi-supervised, graph-based and heuristic-based techniques according to their problem formulation that is mainly used for the author name disambiguation. A few surveys have been conducted to review different techniques for the author name disambiguation. These surveys highlighted only the methodology adopted for author name disambiguation but did not critically review their shortcomings. This survey provides a detailed review of author name disambiguation techniques available in the literature, makes a comparison of these techniques at an abstract level and discusses their limitations.</jats:p
Measuring microfinance access : building on existing cross-country data
No full textGiven the acknowledged need for a new effort to expand the set of available data on direct access to financial services, including a focus on access by those at low income, Honohan provides a selective review of the diverse sources of data that exist and considers how best to build on them. He proposes a basic framework within which to consider the analysis of the interesting questions: (1) How does access affect poverty and productivity? and (2) What hinders access? The author discusses existing and potential contribution of household and business user surveys, surveys of providers and their regulators, and surveys of experts, and assesses their relative strengths.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Poverty Assessment,Governance Indicators
سیرت نگاری میں ہندو مصنفین کی قلم آزمائی کے مقاصد
No full textThe attempts of Hindu authors in biographies may have had different purposes. Hindu writers seek to know and understand Islamic history and personalities. This interest broadens their cultural and historical consciousness. Hindu writers are interested in biographies to promote harmony and understanding between different religious faiths. This work promotes peace and brotherhood among religions. Some Hindu writers undertake biographies for scholarly and research purposes. Their research is based on a deep study of Islamic history and biography. Showing literary skills in biography can also be a goal. Hindu writers try to expand their skills in literary arts and write in different styles. Biography can be a medium of cultural exchange between Hindu and Muslim societies. This gives the two societies an opportunity to understand each other better. The aim of some Hindu writers is to bring Islamic history and biography to the general public so that people can get information about various religious figures. Explain the various reasons for engaging in biographies and highlight the importance and usefulness of his work
Emerg Infect Dis
No full textIn 2005, 329 cases of hepatitis E virus infection were confirmed in England and Wales; 33 were confirmed indigenous infections, and a further 67 were estimated to be indigenous infections. Hepatitis E should be considered in the investigation of patients with hepatitis even if they have no history of travel
Emerg Infect Dis
No full textHepatitis E virus (HEV) is the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis in England. Substantial yearly increases of autochthonous infections were observed during 2003-2016 and again during 2017-2019. Previous studies associated acute HEV cases with consumption of processed pork products, we investigated risk factors for autochthonous HEV infections in the blood donor population in England. Study participants were 117 HEV RNA-positive blood donors and 564 HEV RNA-negative blood donors. No persons with positive results were vegetarian; 97.4% of persons with positive results reported eating pork products. Consuming bacon (OR\ua03.0, 95% CI 1.7-5.5; p<0.0001), cured pork meats (OR\ua03.5, 95% CI 2.2-5.4; p<0.0001), and pigs' liver (OR\ua02.9, 95% CI 1.0-8.3; p = 0.04) were significantly associated with HEV infection. Our findings confirm previous links to pork products and suggest that appropriate animal husbandry is essential to reduce the risk for HEV infection
Uslub Dialogis Kisah Nabi Musa As. Dalam al-Qur’an
No full textThe Qur'an was revealed by Allah Swt. to the Prophet Muhammad Saw. in a very fluent language, Arabic with all its amazing characteristics. in the story of the Qur'an we find many verses that are dialogues between Allah Swt. and His messengers, between the apostles and his people, between pious people and others. And this conversation has a profound impact on the speaker as well as on the listener. In the revelation of God that the Qur'an there are many perfect stories, among the stories of the Qur'an which is very amazing and filled with mystery is the story and dialogue between the Prophet Moses with his people, the Prophet Moses with God, the Prophet Moses with Prophet Khidir and others. With the Balaghah Science approach, we can find that the words and dialogue of the Apostles can be used as guidelines and role models for us when communicating thoughts, ideas, intentions, feelings, and emotions directly in the world of education or for society. On this occasion the author will only examine the dialogue in the story of the Prophet Moses contained in the Qur'an with the aim to be more focused and not too long discussion. There is also a Balaghah qualitative research that specializes in Ma'ani knowledge, more precisely about Ijaz and Ithnab, with the hope of obtaining in-depth and detailed results. After the author conducted research on Ijaz and Ithnab in the conversation on the story of Moses in the Qur'an, the writer got several results, including that in the Qur'an there are 22 ijaz, 13 for ijaz qashr and 9 for ijazhadzfu. And there are 33 for ithnab, namely 3 for al-Idhahba'dal ibham (explanation after the unclear ones), 2 for dzikrul khas ba’dal ‘am(mentioning those that are specific after the general nature), 5 for tadzyil , 6 for takmil, 1 for tatmim, 5 for i'tiradh and 8 for tikrar. In the ijaz and ithnab there are many secrets, deep meanings, and enormous value. The purpose of ijaz and ithnab is to summarize, glorify, glorify, praise, criticize, strengthen meaning, explain meanings and others
Adsorption studies of hexavalent chromium ions on the dead biomass of Cystoseira indica
No full textThe biosorption of hexavalent chromium ions from aqueous solution was investigated using acid-modified dead biomass of the abundantly available brown marine alga Cystoseira indica from Karachi coastal area of Pakistan. The biosorbent was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The optimum biosorption conditions, i.e., biosorbent dosage, contact time, initial metal ion concentration, pH, and temperature, were determined by carrying out batch-mode experiments. The sorption behavior was established by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, which showed that although the uptake of metals was more feasible on a heterogeneous surface, homogeneous surface conditions seemed to exist at the same time. The thermodynamic parameters ∆G°, ∆H° and ∆S° calculated at different temperatures ranging from 298 to 318 K demonstrated that the biosorption was a spontaneous and exothermic process under the experimental conditions applied
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