Rare Presentation of Liver Abscess

Liver abscess can present in various manners and in some cases causes delays and misdiagnoses. We are reporting 2 cases of rare presentation of liver abscess. The first case is a 64-year-old gentleman presented with right hypochondriac pain since August 2017 and diagnosed to have liver abscess. He was treated with antibiotics and serial imaging for reassessment. However, he presented again this year with right sided anterior abdominal wall swelling. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed anterior abdominal wall collection with extension into right internal and external oblique muscles with communication with liver collection at segment VII. An open incision and drainage was performed with drain inserted over the anterior abdominal wall collection. He was then referred to hepatobiliary center for further management. Second case is a 30-year-old gentleman underlying Beta thalassemia major- post splenectomy with Klebsiella pneumonia bacteremia noted to have left multiseptated collection with posterobasal consolidation and left parapneumonic effusion which was initially misdiagnosed as splenic abscess. However, with further imaging was confirmed to be a left liver abscess with focal discontinuity in left hemidiaphragm, which communicates between liver abscess and enlarging left lower loculated pleural effusion. Radiological guided pigtail catheter was inserted and serial imaging showed collection decreasing in size. Extra-abdominal manifestation of a liver abscess is a rare clinical entity and is not well documented. The advent of ultrasound and CT scan, there has been improvement in the rate of early diagnosis even with these uncommon presentations. Percutaneous drainage with antimicrobial therapy remains gold standard for a non-ruptured abscess. Surgical intervention should be considered for large, complex, multiseptated abscesses or in whom percutaneous drainage has failed

PEMANFAATAN DIGITAL LIBRARY PADA PERPUSTAKAAN KAMPUNG PENDIDIKAN DESA KUAJANG KABUPATEN POLEWALI MANDAR

The lack of interest in reading nowadays is one of the factors in the decline of the nation's regeneration that loves literacy. The Education Village Library Group of Kuajang Village, Binuang District is one of the literacy movements established in Kuajang Village. This library is part of a project of teenagers and hamlet residents to build a literacy village to feel the equal distribution of education without having to abandon the value of local wisdom. In addition, it also aims to increase public interest in reading through the development of an appropriate technology as a solution, namely the digital library. The method of implementation is in accordance with the planning stages that have been prepared, namely the stages of activities that begin with the coordination and analysis of needs (Phase I), digital library application design (Phase II), application integration in the framework model (Phase III), and the use of systems in the field (Stage IV). The results show that the application development uses the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) model that can facilitate the user in the process of searching for books and the initial display of the digital library system in the form of a catalog. To optimize the use and utilization of this application, training is carried out to users and managers of the Education Village Library Group. In addition, periodic monitoring and assistance will be carried out to ensure the use of this system can be operated and the benefits are felt by the communit

BESARAN ENERGI AKTIVASI DARI OKSIDASI HASIL PENGECORAN ALUMINIUM KALENG MINIMUM YANG MENDAPAT PERLAKUAN PANAS QUENCHING DAN ANNEALING

Thermogravimetry analyzer adalah suatu alat untuk melakukan analisa thermal dimana massa bahan uji akan berbanding terbalik atau berbanding lurus dengan laju temperatur yang meningkat dan fungsi waktu (temperatur meningkat konstan). TGA biasanya digunakan untuk menentukan karakteristik material. Kurva naiknya massa material Aluminium dapat digunakan untuk mengetahui oksidasi. Titik naiknya massa material bisa digunakan untuk menghitung energi aktivasi. Penelitian ini menggunakan alat Thermogravimetry Analyzer (TGA) Exstar SII 7300 dengan 3 (tiga) sampel yang berbeda yaitu: Sampel Non Heat Treatment, Sampel Quenching, Sampel Annealing.  Hasil pengujian didapatkan bahwa energi aktivasi pada keadaan temperatur 400-6500C ramp 10 pada sampel non heat treatment E = 30,137 kJ/mol. Pada quenching E = 23,537 kJ/mol. Pada annealing E = 28,373 kJ/mol

SIMULASI DISTRIBUSI TEMPERATUR PADA TUNGKU PELEBURAN ALUMUNIUM DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN SOFTWARE AUTODESK SIMULATION MECHANICAL 2016

Sebagai salah satu bagian dari tungku peleburan, krusibel mempunyai peran yang penting. Krusibel pada sebuah tungku peleburan berfungsi sebagai wadah material yang akan dilebur. Material krusibel harus memiliki nilai titik lebur yang lebih tingggi dari pada alumunium. Kerusakan pada krusibel sering kali terjadi pada saat peleburan berlangsung, hal ini disebabkan temperatur pembakaran yang melebihi titik lebur dari material krusibel. Kerusakan yang sering terjadi pada krusibel tungku peleburan menyebabkan perlunya simulasi distribusi temperatur untuk menentukan material yang tepat digunakan pada krusibel. Simulasi ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan perangkat lunak Autodesk Mechanical Simulation 2016. Data-data yang diperlukan untuk melakukan simulasi ini adalah dimensi tungku peleburan, sifat mekanik material, dan data proses peleburan. Simulasi dimulai pertama kali dengan membuat model tungku peleburan alumunium. Data yang diinput pada perangkat lunak Autodesk Mechanical Simulation adalah data material pada tungku, serta data temperatur saat peleburan. Hasil dari simulasi ini adalah berupa grafik distribusi temperatur

Diagnosis of osteoporosis from dental panoramic radiographs using the support vector machine method in a computer-aided system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Early diagnosis of osteoporosis can potentially decrease the risk of fractures and improve the quality of life. Detection of thin inferior cortices of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs could be useful for identifying postmenopausal women with low bone mineral density (BMD) or osteoporosis. The aim of our study was to assess the diagnostic efficacy of using kernel-based support vector machine (SVM) learning regarding the cortical width of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs to identify postmenopausal women with low BMD.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We employed our newly adopted SVM method for continuous measurement of the cortical width of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs to identify women with low BMD or osteoporosis. The original X-ray image was enhanced, cortical boundaries were determined, distances among the upper and lower boundaries were evaluated and discrimination was performed by a radial basis function. We evaluated the diagnostic efficacy of this newly developed method for identifying women with low BMD (BMD T-score of -1.0 or less) at the lumbar spine and femoral neck in 100 postmenopausal women (≥50 years old) with no previous diagnosis of osteoporosis. Sixty women were used for system training, and 40 were used in testing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The sensitivity and specificity using RBF kernel-SVM method for identifying women with low BMD were 90.9% [95% confidence interval (CI), 85.3-96.5] and 83.8% (95% CI, 76.6-91.0), respectively at the lumbar spine and 90.0% (95% CI, 84.1-95.9) and 69.1% (95% CI, 60.1-78.6), respectively at the femoral neck. The sensitivity and specificity for identifying women with low BMD at either the lumbar spine or femoral neck were 90.6% (95% CI, 92.0-100) and 80.9% (95% CI, 71.0-86.9), respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that the newly developed system with the SVM method would be useful for identifying postmenopausal women with low skeletal BMD.</p

Nutritional intervention and its impact on the height of children among the B40 group in Selangor

Introduction: A number of children suffer from malnutrition with visible stunting due various factors such as food insecurity and household income. The address of nutritional intervention promotes healthier outcomes especially engagement through population with greater risks, those with low income of B40 groups in Selangor being the most populous state, thus accelerating health policy makers in making differences in public health strategies. Nutritional status is a significant measure for the anthropometric development of the children population. Therefore, this study aims to measure the impact of nutritional intervention on the height of children aged 1 to 6 years old among the population. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done in Selangor State involving 500 children aged 1 to 6 years old randomly selected among the B40 group. A nutritional intervention that involved the supply of specialized formula milk totalling 2kg and 30 tablets of multivitamin with lysin were given for each month. Nutritional counseling was also given. Anthropometric measurements were taken using (barang) and were monitored using WHO AthroPlus software. The height is categorized into moderately stunted and severely stunted defined by WHO height-for age Z score. Descriptive data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25. Results: 500 total respondents participated in the 5-month course. There were equal numbers of gender 50% and the majority of the respondents were aged 3 years old. For all ages, the baseline height results showed 15.0% were moderately stunted and 3.3% were severely stunted. For each month, there was an increase in mean of height, where the highest in the second month follow up, increase in mean of 1.89m, followed by 0.63m, 0.53m and 0.48m increase in height on the third, fourth and fifth month respectively. The fifth month has the lowest percentage of moderately stunted children 5.0% compared to the first month with 15%. Discussion: Here, by giving nutrient supplementation, it helps to improve the height of these children. Initially, children may develop stunting not as easily as being underweight. Stunting is needed more attention compared to other undernutrition anthropometric; underweight and wasting as each varies in severity, speed and onset of its retardation. Conclusion: Access to nutrition security throughout the 5-months-programme improves the stunting problems, thus the growth and health outcomes in up to aged 5 children. Therefore, other efforts of environmental sanitation, primary health care and control infections for the children are also recommended

Lablab purpureus—A Crop Lost for Africa?

In recent years, so-called ‘lost crops’ have been appraised in a number of reviews, among them Lablab purpureus in the context of African vegetable species. This crop cannot truly be considered ‘lost’ because worldwide more than 150 common names are applied to it. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this paper aims to put forward four theses, (i) Lablab is one of the most diverse domesticated legume species and has multiple uses. Although its largest agro-morphological diversity occurs in South Asia, its origin appears to be Africa. (ii) Crop improvement in South Asia is based on limited genetic diversity. (iii) The restricted research and development performed in Africa focuses either on improving forage or soil properties mostly through one popular cultivar, Rongai, while the available diversity of lablab in Africa might be under threat of genetic erosion. (iv) Lablab is better adapted to drought than common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) or cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), both of which have been preferred to lablab in African agricultural production systems. Lablab might offer comparable opportunities for African agriculture in the view of global change. Its wide potential for adaptation throughout eastern and southern Africa is shown with a GIS (geographic information systems) approach

The First Outbreak of Autochthonous Zika Virus in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo.

Background: Zika virus (ZIKV) infection is a public health concern. The first ZIKV outside Africa was detected in mosquito in Malaysia. More than six decades ago, serological surveys indicated the presence of human infection with ZIKV in the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah. It has also been demonstrated that orangutans in Sabah have antibodies against ZIKV. Several years ago, a case of human ZIKV infection was reported in a traveler who visited Sabah. Therefore, it is thought that ZIKV is endogenous to Sabah and is widely distributed. During the recent global epidemic of ZIKV, the first autochthonous case and two subsequent autochthonous cases were detected in Sabah. Because ZIKV infection is mainly asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, the extent of ZIKV infection in the population of Sabah is not known. Furthermore, the presence of ZIKV in vector mosquitoes and animals has not been investigated. Therefore, the present study was performed to analyze the outbreak cases of ZIKV infection and to determine their relationship with the burden of ZIKV infection in the local population, mosquitoes, and wild nonhuman primates in Sabah. Methods: Serum and urine samples were collected from two local patients with ZIKV infection, their household members, and those who resided within 400m of the patients’ residences. Serum samples were also collected from four wild Maca fascicularis. Mosquito samples, mostly female Aedes albopictus, were collected from 30 sites in Kota Kinabalu. The presence of ZIKV was assessed by RT-qPCR and RT-PCR. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using the neighbor-joining method. Results: Two cases of ZIKV infection were identified by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in residents of Kota Kinabalu, and the Taiwanese health authorities reported one case in an individual who visited Kota Kinabalu during the study period. All household members of both local patients and people living within a 400 m radius of the patients were negative for ZIKV. Furthermore, mosquitoes collected from the surroundings of the residences and places visited by the patients and four serum samples from M. fascicularis were also negative for ZIKV. A phylogenetic tree constructed using the nucleotide sequences of the envelope genes of ZIKV showed that the strains from Sabah formed a cluster with strains from Thailand and Cambodia, and belong to the Asian lineage. Conclusions: Our study revealed that ZIKVs in Sabah is of Asian lineage and are not related to the recent outbreak strains in the Americas and Singapore. ZIKV infection in Sabah is sporadic, possibly because of limited transmission of the virus. Further studies are needed to characterize the evolutionary history of ZIKV in Sabah to understand the epidemiology of this infection in Borneo