Search

Objective. Malaria during pregnancy is a priority area for malaria research and control as pregnant women represent a high risk group for severe malaria, and the presentation of malaria during pregnancy varies according to the level of transmission in the area; so the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence rates of malaria parasite among pregnant women attending to Saudi Kassala Teaching hospital in Kassala state, 2022. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Saudi Kassala Teaching hospital in Kassala State. This study involved one hundred and eighty-five blood samples collected from pregnant women who was then examined by using blood films and ICT for malaria, and the data were collected by a structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Results. The prevalence of malaria among pregnant women was 2.2% (95% CI: 0.006–0.054). There was no significant difference among the different age groups with respect to the prevalence of malaria (P value = 0.483). The prevalence of malaria in rural residency was 2.2%, and this was significantly more common than the urban residency (P value = 0.021). When compared across the gestational trimesters, there was no significant difference between them (P value = 0.518). The number of gravidity is not related to malaria infection (P value = 0.737). The presence of symptom compliant of malaria during pregnancy does not suggest the presence of malaria (P value = 0.152). No difference was found between the different educational levels with respect to the prevalence of malaria (P value = 0.362). The result showed that there was 1 (0.5%) negative result in ICT which was positive in blood film for malaria (BFFM) and there were 3 (1.6%) positive malaria parasites by both methods in all 185 samples with statistically insignificant differences (P = 0.703). Conclusion. Plasmodium falciparum was only species detected in this study. Malaria among pregnant women was more prevalent in rural areas. However, other factors such as age, gestational age, gravidity, and educational level do not affect the prevalence of malaria in pregnant women. The presence of symptomatic compliant of malaria during pregnancy does not suggest the presence of malaria. The use of ICT or BFFM has similar diagnostic outcome for malaria in pregnancy.

Rural and urban networks have been rapidly expanding over time, so there is a rising demand for more optimum maintenance policies (MPs). The low traffic weights on the urban network of a residential city makes the appearance and density of load-associated distresses rare. This encourages the city's transportation agency to depend on limited treatment choices and the subjective judgement of the agency's engineers in managing maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) activities. The engineers' judgement reflects their extensive field experience and is usually used in this type of city rather than generating optimal computerized solutions. The present study proposes two alternative MPs that are more objective than the policy that depends on engineers' judgement. One of the proposed alternative policies allows one M&R action along the planning horizon and the other allows multiple M&R actions. The optimum analysis showed that the preventive treatment is the optimal action for more than 50% of the network segments, which means that it plays a vital and nonnegligible role in improving the effectiveness of the M&R activities. Moreover, the sensitivity of the generated M&R plans to the initial performance of the pavement, traffic volume, and the objectives weights is investigated to determine the optimal time, suitable action, maintenance need, and optimal objective weights. The sensitivity analysis showed that varying objective weights leads to different optimal and rational solutions and the most cost-effective solution is not achieved at equal weights for objectives. Key words: urban network, optimization, preventive maintenance, genetic algorithm, pavement performance, maintenance policy. Les reseaux routiers ruraux et urbains ont connu une expansion rapide au fil du temps, de sorte qu'il y a une demande croissante pour des politiques de maintenance plus optimales. Le faible poids de la circulation sur le reseau urbain d'une ville residentielle rend rare l'apparence et la densite des degradations associees aux charges. Cela encourage l'agence de transport de la ville a se fier a des choix de traitement limites et au jugement subjectif des ingenieurs de l'agence pour ce qui est de la gestion des activites de maintenance et de refection (M&R). Le jugement des ingenieurs reflete leur vaste experience de terrain qui est generalement mise a contribution dans ce type de villes plutot que de generer des solutions informatiques optimales. La presente etude propose deux politiques de maintenance de rechange plus objectives que la politique qui repose sur le jugement des ingenieurs. L'une des politiques de rechange proposees permet une action de M&R sur l'horizon de planification et l'autre permet plusieurs actions de M&R. L'analyse optimale a montre que le traitement preventif est l'action optimale pour plus de 50 % des segments du reseau, ce qui signifie que celui-ci joue un role vital et non negligeable au niveau de l'amelioration de l'efficacite des activites de M&R. En outre, la sensibilite des plans de M&R a la tenue initiale de la chaussee, au debit de circulation, et les ponderations des objectifs sont etudies pour determiner le temps optimal, une action appropriee, les besoins de maintenance, et des ponderations d'objectifs optimaux. L'analyse de sensibilite a montre que des ponderations d'objectifs variables menent a des solutions optimales et rationnelles differentes et que la solution la plus rentable n'est pas atteinte a des ponderations egales pour les objectifs. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : reseau urbain, optimisation, maintenance preventive, algorithme genetique, tenue de la chaussee, politique de maintenance., 1. Introduction 1.1. Background The increasing consumption of material, energy, and money, as well as the harmful gasses emitted into the environment during road network construction and maintenance, have spurred [...]

Abstract Oxidized low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL), a risk factor of atherosclerosis, facilitates the formation and vulnerability of atherosclerotic plaque, thus contributing to several clinical complications. Stem cells participate in vascular repair after damage and atherosclerosis is a process of inflammation accompanied with vascular injury. Researchers have proposed that stem cells participate in the formation of atherosclerotic plaque. Also, because ox-LDL is capable of inducing toxic effects on stem cells, it is reasonable to postulate that ox-LDL promotes the progress of atherosclerosis via acting on stem cells. In the present article, we review the relationship between ox-LDL, stem cells, and atherosclerosis and a portion of the associated mechanisms.