Kvistarildsen0313

6 ± 1.6 or 10.1 ± 1.1 days) were delayed (p less then 0.001) after infection with either 200 or 1000 RH△ROP9 parasites. These evidences suggested that ROP9 facilitated T. gondii infection in vitro and in vivo. V.Ross-Macdonald models are the building blocks of most vector-borne disease models. Even for the same disease, different authors use different model formulations, but a study of the dynamical consequences of assuming different hypotheses is missing. In this work we present different formulations of the basic Ross-Macdonald model together with a careful discussion of the assumptions behind each model. The most general model presented is an agent based model for which arbitrary distributions for latency and infectious periods for both, host and vectors, is considered. At population level we also developed a deterministic Volterra integral equations model for which also arbitrary distributions in the waiting times are included. We compare the model solutions using different distributions for the infectious and latency periods using statistics, like the epidemic peak, or epidemic final size, to characterize the epidemic curves. find more The basic reproduction number (R0) for each formulation is computed and compared with empirical estimations obtained with the agent based models. The importance of considering realistic distributions for the latent and infectious periods is highlighted and discussed. We also show that seasonality is a key driver of vector-borne disease dynamics shaping the epidemic curve and its duration. Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a cyclo-zoonotic disease endemic to Pakistan, however, phylogeography and etiology of Echinococcus granulosus from human host has remained unexplored so far. The current study was carried out to estimate population structure and appraise the genetic variability of E. granulosus in two major provinces of Pakistan, Sindh and Punjab. 94 isolates were subjected to sequence analysis from histopathologically confirmed CE patients using a fragment of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1; 366bp). Three genotypes of E. granulosus sensu lato, G1 (57.44%), G3 (41.48%) and G6 (1.06%), were inferred to exist in human patients. Molecular diversity indices for E. granulosus sensu stricto manifested the presence of 14 haplotypes among the regional populations forming distinct clades with sheep (G1) and buffalo (G3) strains. The haplotype network displayed a double clustered star like feature with PK-H1c (37.63%) and PK-H9c (32.25%) as most dominant haplotypes displaying low genetic differentiation between the two geographic regions. Neutrality indices (Tajima's D and Fu's Fs) were negative for all populations indicating population expansion across Pakistan. The sympatric presence of G1 and G3 genotypes among humans in endemic focus of Pakistan confirms the zoonotic potential of E. granulosus s.s. with special emphasis on the G3 strain which emerged as a dominant cause of CE in humans compared to other global studies, where only G1 is linked to the majority of CE cases. Data from this study will prove to be a keystone for devising robust regional control strategies for human hydatidosis and investigating potential pathogenicity of E. granulosus s.l. haplotypes and their clinical manifestations in Pakistan. AIMS This meta-analysis aimed to quantitatively examine the possible associations between total meat, red meat, processed meat, poultry and fish intakes and type 2 diabetes (T2D). METHODS Relevant articles were identified in PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases using a search time up to January 2019. Generalized least-squares trend estimations and restricted cubic spline regression models were used for analysis. RESULTS Twenty-eight articles were included in the analysis. When comparing the highest with the lowest category of meat intake, the summary relative risk of T2D was 1.33 (95% CI 1.16-1.52) for total meat, 1.22 (95% CI 1.16-1.28) for red meat, 1.25 (95% CI 1.13-1.37) for processed meat, 1.00 (95% CI 0.93-1.07) for poultry and 1.01 (95% CI 0.93-1.10) for fish. In the dose-response analysis, each additional 100g/day of total and red meat, and 50g/day of processed meat, were found to be associated with a 36% (95% CI 1.23-1.49), 31% (95% CI 1.19-1.45) and 46% (95% CI 1.26-1.69) increased risk of T2D, respectively. In addition, there was evidence of a non-linear dose-response association between processed meat and T2D (P=0.004), with the risk increasing by 30% with increasing intakes up to 30g/day. CONCLUSION Our meta-analysis has shown a linear dose-response relationship between total meat, red meat and processed meat intakes and T2D risk. In addition, a non-linear relationship of intake of processed meat with risk of T2D was detected. INTRODUCTION AND AIM Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT) is one of the most used biomarkers for monitoring alcohol use in pregnancy. However, its effective application in this context is hampered by the demonstrated physiological progressive increase during pregnancy (even in abstinent women) of CDT values, which in the third trimester can reach values close or exceeding the cut-offs usually adopted in clinical and forensic diagnostics. The present work was aimed at the re-assessment of CDT reference values in pregnancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS The CDT analysis was performed by a validated HPLC-UV Vis method on 284 serum samples of women with a physiological pregnancy and on 370 sera of non-pregnant woman from the general population (control group). All the samples were tested also for GGT for excluding alcohol abuse. The statistical analysis was performed using the MedCalc® Statistical Software. RESULTS The re-definition of the specific reference concentrations was carried out according to the Horn and Pesce Robust Method. The resulting CDT upper reference values were 1.45%, 2.01% and 2.05% in the first, second, and third trimester, respectively. CONCLUSIONS In order to prevent the development of maternal and fetal prenatal alcohol exposure complications, the use of alcohol biomarkers, including CDT, has been proposed. However, this biomarker, in the monitoring of alcohol use in pregnancy, has so far been applied adopting the same cut-off used for general population without taking into consideration the progressive physiological increase of its value throughout the pregnancy. In the present study, a specific re-assessment of the CDT reference concentrations of each trimester is reported.