Utilization of digital tools to enhance COVID-19 and tuberculosis testing and linkage to care: A cross-sectional evaluation study among Bodaboda motorbike riders in the Nairobi Metropolis, Kenya.

Kenya has registered over 300,000 cases of COVID-19 and is a high-burden tuberculosis country. Tuberculosis diagnosis was significantly disrupted by the pandemic. Access to timely diagnosis, which is key to effective management of tuberculosis and COVID-19, can be expanded and made more efficient through integrated screening. Decentralized testing at community level further increases access, especially for underserved populations, and requires robust systems for data and process management. This study delivered integrated COVID-19 and tuberculosis testing to commercial motorbike (Bodaboda) riders, a population at increased risk of both diseases with limited access to services, in four counties: Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos and Kajiado. Testing sheds were established where riders congregate, with demand creation carried out by the Bodaboda association. Integrated symptom screening for tuberculosis and COVID-19 was conducted through a digital questionnaire which automatically flagged participants who should be tested for either, or both, diseases. Rapid antigen-detecting tests (Ag-RDTs) for COVID-19 were conducted onsite, while sputum samples were collected and transported to laboratories for tuberculosis diagnosis. End-to-end patient data were captured using digital tools. 5663 participants enrolled in the study, 4946 of whom were tested for COVID-19. Ag-RDT positivity rate was 1% but fluctuated widely across counties in line with broader regional trends. Among a subset tested by PCR, positivity was greater in individuals flagged as high risk by the digital tool (8% compared with 4% overall). Of 355 participants tested for tuberculosis, 7 were positive, with the resulting prevalence rate higher than the national average. Over 40% of riders had elevated blood pressure or abnormal sugar levels. The digital tool successfully captured complete end-to-end data for 95% of all participants. This study revealed high rates of undetected disease among Bodaboda riders and demonstrated that integrated diagnosis can be delivered effectively in communities, with the support of digital tools, to maximize access.

Valorization of rare earth processing byproducts for agriculture usage.

Sandy texture soil, a major problem for agriculture requires structure and capacity improvements. However, utilization of soil conditioner may arrest this problem. This research was carried out to investigate the accumulated levels of metal ions and radionuclides in water, soil and plants following phosphogypsum organic (PG organic) added to a sandy soil for 23-month in 3 cropping seasons. The condition in the field was simulated in the laboratory using an open leaching column for 30-day under constant but different pH of leachant. More ions were released at pH < 4.6 and decreases greatly at pH > 5.6. The metal ions measured in the surface and borehole water, and soils were below the target values for respective standard raw drinking water. The metal ions did not accumulate in soil, plant and grain, and water as indicated by biological accumulation coefficients, contamination factors, I-geo index and pollution load index in a sandy soil that received the PG organic. Naturally occurring radionuclide concentrations, such as 226Ra, 228Ra, and 40K, in soil and plant tissue were found to be lower than the average value reported by several earlier studies. Under field condition the pH of water (i.e., rainfall) was greater than pH 5.6, thus renders PG organic became less soluble. There was no leaching of natural occurring radionuclides to the groundwater. Therefore, the application of PG organic to the studied soil had no impact on the soil, plants, and water and suitable as a soil conditioner in sandy texture soils.

GanoCare® Improves Oil Palm Growth and Resistance against Ganoderma Basal Stem Rot Disease in Nursery and Field Trials.

Basal stem rot (BSR) caused by Ganoderma boninense is a major threat to sustainable oil palm production especially in Southeast Asia and has brought economic losses to the oil palm industry around the world. With no definitive cure at present, this study introduces a new fertilizer technology called GanoCare®, as an effort to suppress BSR incidence in oil palm. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the effect of GanoCare® on growth, physiology, and BSR disease suppression using sitting technique in the oil palm nursery stage. A follow-up using similar treatments was carried out in the field to test on severity of Ganoderma using baiting technique under natural condition. Treatments tested were 10 g/month and 30 g/three months given as pretreatment only or continuous treatment. Results showed that GanoCare® increased the height, bulb diameter, leaf area, chlorophyll content, photosynthesis rate, and fresh and dry weight of the leaf, bole, and root of oil palm seedlings in the nursery trial. Seedlings treated with GanoCare® exhibited reduced percentage of disease severity, incidence, and dead seedlings, compared to the control. In nursery and field, lowest percentage of dead seedlings due to Ganoderma was found in seedlings given combination of pretreatment and continuous treatment of 30 g/three months (T4) with 5.56 and 6.67%, while control seedlings significantly marked the maximum percentage of 94.45 and 93.33%. The most successful treatment in both nursery and field was T4 with disease reductions of 77.78 and 82.36%, respectively, proving that nutrients contained in GanoCare® are essential in allowing better development of a strong defense system in the seedlings.

Adaptation of the metabolomics profile of rice after Pyricularia oryzae infection.

Pyricularia oryzae (P. oryzae), one of the most devastating fungal pathogens, is the cause of blast disease in rice. Infection with a blast fungus induces biological responses in the host plant that lead to its survival through the termination or suppression of pathogen growth, and metabolite compounds play vital roles in plant interactions with a wide variety of other organisms. Numerous studies have indicated that rice has a multi-layered plant immune system that includes pre-developed (e.g., cell wall and phytoanticipins), constitutive and inducible (phytoalexins) defence barriers against stresses. Significant progress towards understanding the basis of the molecular mechanisms underlying the defence responses of rice to P. oryzae has been achieved. Nonetheless, even though the important metabolites in the responses of rice to pathogens have been identified, their exact mechanisms and their contributions to plant immunity against blast fungi have not been elucidated. The purpose of this review is to summarize and discuss recent advances towards the understanding of the integrated metabolite variations in rice after P. oryzae invasion.

Mining and Development of Novel SSR Markers Using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data in Plants.

Microsatellites, or simple sequence repeats (SSRs), are one of the most informative and multi-purpose genetic markers exploited in plant functional genomics. However, the discovery of SSRs and development using traditional methods are laborious, time-consuming, and costly. Recently, the availability of high-throughput sequencing technologies has enabled researchers to identify a substantial number of microsatellites at less cost and effort than traditional approaches. Illumina is a noteworthy transcriptome sequencing technology that is currently used in SSR marker development. Although 454 pyrosequencing datasets can be used for SSR development, this type of sequencing is no longer supported. This review aims to present an overview of the next generation sequencing, with a focus on the efficient use of de novo transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) and related tools for mining and development of microsatellites in plants.

Genetic Divergence and Heritability of 42 Coloured Upland Rice Genotypes (Oryzasativa) as Revealed by Microsatellites Marker and Agro-Morphological Traits.

Coloured rice genotypes have greater nutritious value and consumer demand for these varieties is now greater than ever. The documentation of these genotypes is important for the improvement of the rice plant. In this study, 42 coloured rice genotypes were selected for determination of their genetic divergence using 25 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers and 15 agro-morphological traits. Twenty-one out of the 25 SSR primers showed distinct, reproducible polymorphism. A dendrogram constructed using the SSR primers clustered the 42 coloured rice genotypes into 7 groups. Further, principle component analysis showed 75.28% of total variations were explained by the first-three components. All agro-morphological traits showed significant difference at the (p≤0.05) and (p≤0.01) levels. From the dendrogram constructed using the agro-morphological traits, all the genotypes were clustered into four distinct groups. Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that among the 15 agro-morphological traits, the yield contributing factor had positive correlation with the number of tillers, number of panicles, and panicle length. The heritability of the 15 traits ranged from 17.68 to 99.69%. Yield per plant and harvest index showed the highest value for both heritability and genetic advance. The information on the molecular and agro-morphological traits can be used in rice breeding programmes to improve nutritional value and produce higher yields.

Evaluating the level of adherence to Ministry of Health guidelines in the management of severe acute malnutrition at Garissa Provincial General Hospital, Garissa, Kenya.

INTRODUCTION: Half of Kenya's high infant and under five mortality rates is due to malnutrition. Proper implementation of World Health Organization's (WHO) Evidence Based Guidelines (EBG) in management of severe acute malnutrition can reduce mortality rates to less than 5%. The objectives were to establish the level of adherence to WHO guideline and the proportion of children appropriately managed for severe acute malnutrition (steps 1-8) as per the WHO protocol in the management of severe acute malnutrition. This was a short longitudinal study of 96 children, aged 6-59 months admitted to the pediatric ward with diagnosis of severe acute malnutrition. METHODS: Data was extracted from patients' medical files and recorded into an audit tool to compare care provided in this hospital with WHO guidelines. RESULTS: Non-edematous malnutrition was the commonest presentation (93.8%). A higher proportion (63.5%) of patients was male. Most (85.4%) of patients were younger than 2 years. Patients with non-edematous malnutrition were younger (mean age for non-edematous malnutrition was 16 (± 10.6) months versus 25 (± 13.7) months in edematous malnutrition). The commonest co- morbid condition was diarrhea (52.1%). Overall, 13 children died giving an inpatient case fatality rate of 13.5%. Appropriate management was documented in only 14.6% for hypoglycemia (step1), 5.2% for hypothermia (step 2) and 31.3% for dehydration (step 3). CONCLUSION: The level of adherence to MOH guidelines was documented in 5 out of the 8 steps. Appropriate management of children with severe acute malnutrition was inadequate at Garissa hospital.

Assessing groundwater stoichiometric composition and its suitability in Northwestern Bangladesh / Avaliação de lençol de água quanto a composição estioquiométrica e a sua conveniência do Noroeste do Bangladesh

Groundwater quality analyses included pH, EC, cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Zn2+, Cu2+, Mn2+, Fe3+ and As3+), anions (CO32-, HCO3-, NO3-, SO42-, PO43- and Cl-) and TDS of northwestern Bangladesh. The samples contained Ca2+, Mg2+ and Na+ as the dominant cations and HCO3- and Cl- were the dominant anions. Ratios of major cations and anions of water samples suggest the predominance of Ca and Mg-containing minerals over Na-containing minerals. According to TDS and SAR values, all samples were classed as 'freshwater' and 'excellent' categories. The SSP of all waters was under 'excellent' and 'good' classes. All samples were within 'soft' class regarding hardness with 'suitable' RSC. Based on As3+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Fe3+, SO42-, NO3- and Cl- all groundwater samples were within the 'safe' limit for drinking but unsuitable for some industries for specific ions.

As análises de qualidade de Lençol de Água incluíram pH, EC, e os cations,(Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Zn2+, Cu2+, Mn2+, Fe3+ e As3+), aníons ( CO32-, HCO3-, NO3-, SO42-, PO43- e Cl-e TDS do noroeste do Bangladesh. As amostras continham Ca2+, Mg2+ e Na+ e como o cations dominante HCO3- e Cl foram os aníons dominantes. Segundo o TDS e valores de SAR, todas as amostras foram classificadas como categorias 'de água doce' e 'excelentes'. O SSP de todas as águas foi nas classes 'excelentes' e 'boas'. Todas as amostras foram dentro da classe 'suave' quanto à dureza com RSC 'conveniente'. Baseado As3+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Fe3+, SO42-, NO3- e Cl- - todas as amostras de lençol de água foram dentro do limite 'seguro' como água de bebida mas impróprias para algumas indústrias que emprega íons específicos.

Tetra-kis-µ-l-alanine-κO:O'-bis-[tetra-aqua-terbium(III)] hexa-perchlorate.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Tb(2)(C(3)H(7)NO(2))(4)(H(2)O)(8)](ClO(4))(6), contains a dinuclear cation and six perchlorate anions, one of which is disordered. In the cation, the four l-alanine mol-ecules are present in their zwitterionic form and bridge two Tb(3+) ions through their carboxyl-ate O atoms. Each Tb atom is also coordinated by four water mol-ecules in a square-anti-prismatic geometry. In the crystal structure, the cations and anions are held together via inter-molecular O-H⋯O and N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds.

Erratum: Tetra-kis-µ-l-alanine-κO:O'-bis-[tetra-aqua-terbium(III)] hexa-perchlorate. Corrigendum.

The surname of one of the authors and the affiliation of that author in the paper by Mohamed et al. [Acta Cryst. (2009), E66, m193-m194] are corrected.[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1107/S1600536809028955.].

Potential non-phytopathogenic filamentous fungi for bioconversion of domestic wastewater sludge.

Ten filamentous fungi adapted to domestic wastewater sludge (DWS) were further studied to evaluate their potential in terms of adaptation to higher sludge supplemented growing media and phytopathogenicity (induction of diseases to plants) to three germinating crop (Corn: Zea mays, Mung bean: Phaseolus aureus and Mustard: Brassica napus) seeds. The performances of the fungi in seed germination were evaluated based on percent germination index (GI) and infected/spotted seeds on direct fungal biomass (FBM) and fungal metabolite (FM). Significantly the highest biomass production was achieved with RW-P1 512 and Penicillium corylophilum (WW-P1003) at the highest (25%) sludge supplemented growing media that implied its excellent potentiality of adaptation and multiplication to domestic wastewater sludge. Significantly encouraging results of percent GI and spotted/infected seedlings were observed in FM than FBM by all fungi except the strain Aspergillus niger. A. niger gave the poorest percent of GI (24.30, 26.98 and 00.00%) and the highest percent of infected/spotted seeds (70, 100, and 100%) using FBM for corn, mung bean and mustard, respectively. On the other hand, comparatively the highest percent of GI (107.99, 106.25 and 117.67%) and the lowest percent of spotted/infected seedlings (3.3, 3.3 and 3.3%) were achieved with the isolate RW-P1 512 using FM. In FBM, the superior results of percent GI (86.61, 95.92 and 83.87%) and spotted/infected seedlings (3.3, 63.3 and 43.3%) were obtained by A. versicolor. Several crop seeds were responded differently for different fungal treatments. Hundred percent infected/spotted seeds in FM were recorded only for mustard with Trichoderma family that implied its strong sensitiveness to its metabolites.