Modeling Commodity Flow in the Context of Invasive Species Spread: Study of Tuta absoluta in Nepal

Trade and transport of goods is widely accepted as a primary pathway for the introduction and dispersal of invasive species. However, understanding commodity flows remains a challenge owing to its complex nature, unavailability of quality data, and lack of systematic modeling methods. A robust network-based approach is proposed to model seasonal flow of agricultural produce and examine its role in pest spread. It is applied to study the spread of Tuta absoluta, a devastating pest of tomato in Nepal. Further, the long-term establishment potential of the pest and its economic impact on the country are assessed. Our analysis indicates that regional trade plays an important role in the spread of T. absoluta. The economic impact of this invasion could range from USD 17-25 million. The proposed approach is generic and particularly suited for data-poor scenarios.

Severe diarrhoea due to Cystoisospora belli in renal transplant patient on immunosuppressive drugs

Cystoisospora belli, formerly known as Isospora belli, protozoal parasite endemic to many regions of the world including the Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa, and South-East Asia. It is frequently encountered in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and is considered to be an AIDS-defining illness. Chronic severe watery diarrhoea due to C. belli has also been reported in other immunodeficiency states. C. belli infection in immunosuppressed patients has rarely been described. We describe severe diarrhoea due to C. belli in a human immunodeficiency virus-negative renal transplant recipient on immunosuppressive drugs. Oocysts of C. belli were detected in direct smear preparation of the diarrheic stool sample of the patient. The patient responded to combination treatment with Bactrim-double-strength (trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole) and Nitazoxanide.

Strongyloides stercoralis hyperinfection in an immunocompetent patient with extreme eosinophilia

This report examines an unusual case of Srongyloides stercoralis hyperinfection in a 63-yr-old man. The patient had a history of vitamin B deficiency, on and off diarrhea, and clinical pellagra for a decade and a half. There was also evidence of extreme eosinophilia. The patient did not have any associated illness suggestive of immunosuppression. Treatment with ivermectin resulted in remarkable clinical improvement and reversion of eosinophil count to normal.

Human babesiosis--a case report

Babesiosis is an emerging, tick-transmitted, zoonotic disease caused by hematotropic parasites of the genus Babesia. Most cases of Babesial infections in humans have been acquired in temperate regions of the United States, Europe, France and England. A few cases of Babesiosis have been described in other parts of the world, including China, Taiwan, Egypt, South Africa, and Mexico.1,2 We report the first case of human Babesiosis, in a normosplenic, previously healthy individual from India.

Early diagnosis of filarial pleural effusion

This paper describes a case of pleural effusion due to filariasis. Microfilaria of Wucheraria bancrofti were detected in the pleural fluid on cytological examination. Treatment with diethylcarbamazine cleared the pleural effusion.

On combinatorial DNA word design

We consider the problem of designing DNA codes, namely sets of equi-length words over the alphabet [A, C, G, T] that satisfy certain combinatorial constraints. This problem is motivated by the task of reliably storing and retrieving information in synthetic DNA strands for use in DNA computing or as molecular bar codes in chemical libraries. The primary constraints that we consider, defined with respect to a parameter d, are as follows: for every pair of words w, x in a code, there are at least d mismatches between w and x if w not equal x and also between the reverse of w and the Watson-Crick complement of x. Extending classical results from coding theory, we present several upper and lower bounds on the maximum size of such DNA codes and give methods for constructing such codes. An additional constraint that is relevant to the design of DNA codes is that the free energies and enthalpies of the code words, and thus the melting temperatures, be similar. We describe dynamic programming algorithms that can (a) calculate the total number of words of length n whose free energy value, as approximated by a formula of Breslauer et al. (1986) falls in a given range, and (b) output a random such word. These algorithms are intended for use in heuristic algorithms for constructing DNA codes.

Discovery of association rules in medical data

Data mining is a technique for discovering useful information from large databases. This technique is currently being profitably used by a number of industries. A common approach for information discovery is to identify association rules which reveal relationships among different items. In this paper, we use this approach to analyse a large database containing medical-record data. Our aim is to obtain association rules indicating relationships between procedures performed on a patient and the reported diagnoses. Random sampling was used to obtain these association rules. After reviewing the basic concepts associated with data mining, we discuss our approach for identifying association rules and report on the rules generated.