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Abstract The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly spurred the development of deep learning (DL) models for the pathology automatic diagnosis based on CT scan images. However, the assumption about the generalization of the proposed models remains to be assessed and shown for concrete clinical use. In this work, we have investigated the real value of widely used public datasets for the elaboration of DL models that are dedicated to automatic diagnosis of Covid-19 using CT scans. We have collected various international public datasets from 13 countries. Different Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been trained and their performances carefully assessed. Two evaluations have been conducted: (1) an internal evaluation following a cross-validation procedure, and (2) an external evaluation on real patients coming from new and different sources. The objective is to assess the generalization capabilities considering real-world conditions: different acquisition conditions, devices and configurations. Three families from the most effective CNN models have been selected (ResNet, DenseNet and EfficientNet). These have been fine-tuned, evaluated and used within a training methodology based on transfer learning. The most effective models have been further customized in order to create new models that are dedicated to the task at hand. These models have significantly improved the diagnosis performance.

Background: In this study, we suggested an experimental procedure demonstrating the impact of pesticide on the development of ectopic xenografts of human glioblastomas in immuno-competent Balb/c mice.Method: In this in-vivo study, the mice were treated with or without a mixture of pesticide (Glyphosate and Chlorpyrifos), using a concentration corresponding to 1/8 of LD50 of each pesticide. The pesticides were injected intraperitoneally every 72 hours. The human glioblastoma cell suspension was cultured with tumor cerebrospinal fluid and then injected subcutaneously into the treated and not treated mice with a mixture of pesticide (Glyphosate and Chlorpyrifos) following 18 days after the beginning of the experiment.Results: The body mass index of the male and female mice treated with pesticide was statistically (P = 0.0048) higher than those not treated with pesticides. 66.6% of the mice treated with pesticides and xenografts of glioblastoma developed masses at the injection site. The histological analysis revealed that 41.66% of the masses were astrocytic tumors. The other found masses corresponded to inflammatory lymph nodes and fibroblastic tissue formations.Conclusion: The treatment of mice with pesticide mixture was found to allow the development of glioblastoma xenografts in immunocompetent mice.

Background: Several reports have shown that saliva specimen is an excellent alternative biofluid sample for SARS-CoV-2 detection. We conducted this study, in order to assess the sensitivity and specificity of using saliva self-collected by adult and pediatric patients, as a biological sample for RT-PCR diagnosis., Aims: The present study was carried out to assess the sensitivity and specificity of using saliva self-collected from adult and pediatric patients, as a biological sample for RT-qPCR diagnosis., Methods: In this study, 50 symptomatic patients and 40 asymptomatic subjects (adult and pediatric) were enrolled between September 2020 and November 2020 at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Bejaia University Hospital (CHU), and tested simultaneously for the sensitivity and specificity of the SARS-CoV-2 viral genome by RT-PCR on both nasopharyngeal swabs NP swab and saliva samples., Results: Our RT-qPCR results revealed that saliva samples showed the highest sensitivity (95% CI [27.67, 29.82]) followed by a nasopharyngeal swab for symptomatic (95% CI [29.64, 31.49]) as well as for asymptomatic adult patients. Moreover, the saliva of symptomatic and asymptomatic patients was monitored, and the presence of viral RNA was detected in >95% of the asymptomatic patients as well as the symptomatic patients. Surprisingly, the Ct values of ORF1ab and N genes are highly lower in nasopharyngeal swabs compared to saliva. Indeed, the mean difference note that for the ORF1ab gene and N gene, the mean of difference in ΔCt value were respectively 3.683 and 3.578. Together, including symptomatic and asymptomatic subjects, the overall agreement between the saliva sample and the nasopharyngeal is about 84%., Conclusion: The sensitivity of saliva samples remains acceptable; it may still be a viable option in locations where laboratory facilities are lacking for diagnostic purposes in the early phase of the disease., Competing Interests: No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the author(s). List of Abréviations:ACE2:Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2CoV:CoronavirusCt:Cycle thresholdNPS:nasopharyngeal swabOP: Oropharyngeal ORF:Open Reading Frames.RT-qPCR:real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reactionSARS-CoV-2:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2TMPRSS2:Transmembrane Serine Protease 2., (Copyright: © 2024 Afr. J. Infect. Diseases.)

Motor complications after herpes zoster are not uncommon. There have been reports of muscular paralysis following herpes zoster. The association between diaphragmatic paralysis and zoster was first reported in 1949 by Halpern. The case presented below showed diaphragmatic involvement following herpes zoster in a HIV-tuberculosis coinfected patient., (© The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.)