Average Body Temperature Research Articles

Assessment of Postharvest Practices of Tuna Sold at the Honiara Fish Market in the Solomon Islands.

The study is aimed at assessing the impacts of postharvest handling practices on the quality and safety of tuna sold at the Honiara Fish Market (HFM), Solomon Islands. Two major approaches were adopted: (1) face-to-face interviews of 60 participants using questionnaires and physical observations of the supply chains and postharvest handling practices and (2) determination of time-temperature, quality index, histamine, and microbial load of tuna and contact surfaces. Sampling was conducted on both the wet season (WS) and dry season (DS), of which 36 samples from both batches of fresh tuna (FT) and brined tuna (BT) were analyzed. Three critical control points (CCPs) were identified in the supply chains of both FT and BT, where samples were obtained for scientific analyses. The average body temperature for WS tuna exposed for 9-10 h with low or no ice after catch was 3°C for FT and 15°C for BT, while DS samples were 26°C and 31°C for FT and BT, respectively. The quality index (QI) for WS showed a significant difference (P < 0.05) at 0 for FT and 8 for BT, while both DS showed a significant increase at 16 for BT and 5 for FT. Histamine levels for all the samples increased across the three CCPs, however with levels <50 mg/L, while microbial load for both seasons and for both samples were within the required specifications. However, contact surfaces for both seasons revealed high levels of microbial contamination. This study reveals that poor handling practices along the tuna supply chains of fish sold at the HFM were observed; however, all the tuna was safe for consumption when cooked properly.

A MICROCONTROLLER-DRIVEN ENTRANCE GATE TO COMBAT RESPIRATORY VIRUS SPREAD

Respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, continue to be a significant public health concern worldwide. In this regard, public health organizations provide preventative measures, such as wearing masks, and practicing good hand hygiene, to help control the spread of respiratory illnesses. However, existing preventive measures may not be fully effective in ensuring compliance, especially in dispersed economic conditions, leading to continued risks of respiratory virus spread in public spaces. To address this challenge, this study proposes a microcontroller-driven system designed to monitor and regulate entry into public spaces, aiming to reduce the transmission of respiratory illnesses. The system employs a camera, a temperature sensor and an ultrasonic sensor to detect face mask usage, measure body temperature, and track the distance of hands from the sensor for automatic handwashing. Using deep learning method to measure accuracy rates of 0.90, 0.89, 0.89, and 0.89 for detecting face masks, precision, recall, and F1 score, respectively, and an accuracy of 99.18% in measuring body temperature. The system has the potential to enhance public safety significantly. The automatic door opening feature, triggered only when a person is wearing a mask, has an average body temperature, and has washed their hands automatically, adds to the system's efficacy. The system's ability to detect and respond to non-compliance with safety measures can help promote adherence to public health guidelines and reduce the risk of infection. This study's findings demonstrate the developed system's high potential to contribute to public safety in the era of respiratory viruses.

Indicators of thermal comfort and nitrogen digestibility as a function of digestible arginine: lysine ratios in the diet of laying Japanese quails raised in hot weather

The objective with this study was to determine the influence of the digestible arginine: lysine ratio in the diet of laying Japanese quails raised in hot weather on the physiological variables of thermoregulation, time in tonic immobility, behavior and nitrogen utilization. A total of 240 laying quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) with 40 weeks of age were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments and six replications containing eight quails per experimental unit. The studied digestible arginine: lysine ratios were 110%; 120%, 130%, 140% and 150%, for 63 days divided into three periods of 21 days each. There was a quadratic effect (p < 0.05) for the variables average surface temperature, average body temperature, core to surface thermal gradient, ambient to surface temperature gradient observed in the morning. In the afternoon, a quadratic effect (p < 0.05) of the arginine: lysine ratio was observed for variables average surface temperature, average body temperature, core to surface thermal gradient, ambient to surface thermal gradient, back temperature, head temperature and respiratory frequency. There was no significant effect (p > 0.05) of arginine: lysine ratios on the frequency of behaviors, except drinking and panting (p < 0.05), for which 130% ratio provided the lowest frequencies of these behaviors. There was a quadratic effect (p < 0.05) for the parameters of nitrogen retention, nitrogen excreted and nitrogen retention efficiency. Nitrogen intake and excreta moisture were not influenced by the different relationships studied (p > 0.05). The 130% arginine: lysine ratio corresponding to 0.131 g/kg/feed of arginine improves physiological responses related to thermoregulation and decreases the expression of behaviors correlated to heat stress, also meeting the best estimated ratio for nitrogen retention in the diet of quails laying Japanese raised in hot weather.

Hypothermia or hyperthermia, which is associated with patient outcomes in critically ill children with sepsis? —A retrospective study

ObjectivesIn the early stage of sepsis, identifying high-risk paediatric patients with a poor prognosis and providing timely and adequate treatment are critical. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of...

Association between intraoperative body temperature and postoperative delirium: A retrospective observational study

Study objectiveThe effect of perioperative body temperature derangement on postoperative delirium remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the association between intraoperative body temperature and postoperative delirium in patients having noncardiac surgery. DesignSingle-center retrospective observational study. SettingTertiary university hospital. PatientAdult patients who had major noncardiac surgery under general anesthesia for at least two hours between 2019 and 2021. InterventionsPatients were classified into three groups according to their intraoperative time-weighted average body temperature: severe hypothermia (<35.0 °C), mild hypothermia (35.0 °C–36.0 °C), and normothermia (≥36.0 °C) groups. MeasurementsThe primary outcome was the risk of delirium occurring within seven days after surgery, which was compared using logistic regression analysis. A multivariable procedure was performed adjusting for potential confounders including demographics, history of hypertension, diabetes, atrial fibrillation or flutter, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and stroke or transient ischemic attack, preoperative use of antidepressants and statins, preoperative sodium imbalance, high-risk surgery, emergency surgery, duration of surgery, and red blood cell transfusion. Cox regression analysis was also performed using the same covariates. Main resultsAmong 27,674 patients analyzed, 5.5% experienced postoperative delirium. The incidence rates of delirium were 6.2% (63/388) in the severe hypothermia group, 6.4% (756/11779) in the mild hypothermia group, and 4.6% (712/15507) in the normothermia group. Compared with the normothermia group, the risk of delirium was significantly higher in the severe hypothermia (adjusted odds ratio, 1.43; 95% confidence interval, 1.04–1.97) and mild hypothermia (1.15; 1.02–1.28) groups. The mild hypothermia group also had a significantly increased risk of cumulative development of delirium than the normothermia group (adjusted hazard ratio 1.14; 95% confidence interval, 1.03–1.26). ConclusionsIntraoperative hypothermia (even mild hypothermia) was significantly associated with an increased risk of postoperative delirium.

Metabolic rate, sleep duration, and body temperature in evolution of mammals and birds: the influence of geological time of principal groups divergence.

This study contains an analysis of basal metabolic rate (BMR) in 1817 endothermic species. The aim was to establish how metabolic scaling varies between the main groups of endotherms during evolution. The data for all the considered groups were combined and the common exponent in the allometric relationship between the BMR and body weight was established as b = 0.7248. Reduced to the common slope, the relative metabolic rate forms the following series: Neognathae - Passeriformes - 1.00, Neognathae - Non-Passeriformes - 0.75, Palaeognathae - 0.53, Eutheria - 0.57, Marsupialia - 0.44, and Monotremata - 0.26. The main finding is that the metabolic rate in the six main groups of mammals and birds consistently increases as the geological time of the group's divergence approaches the present. In parallel, the average body temperature in the group rises, the duration of sleep decreases and the duration of activity increases. BMR in a taxon correlates with its evolutionary age: the later a clade diverged, the higher is its metabolic rate and the longer is its activity period; group exponents decrease as group divergence nears present times while with increase metabolic rate during activity, they not only do not decrease but can increase. Sleep duration in mammals was on average 40% longer than in birds while BMR, in contrast, was 40% higher in birds. The evolution of metabolic scaling, body temperature, sleep duration, and activity during the development of endothermic life forms is demonstrated, allowing for a better understanding of the underlying principles of endothermy formation.

The multidisciplinary audit in enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) colorectal surgery: experience in a single Italian center.

Current literature underlines the role of periodical feed-back to improve Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) path adherence during implementation program. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical impact of an audit program in an ERAS path. All elective patients submitted to elective colorectal surgery from November 2018 to January 2020 in our Institution were considered. The sample was divided into two study groups: group 1, including patients enrolled in the first sixth months of ERAS program until the first audit; group 2, patients enrolled in a time period of a six months after the first audit. The final analysis included 46 patients in group 1 and 64 in group 2. Group 2 showed a higher ASA Score (P<0.03), a higher prevalence of right hemicolectomy, and a lower prevalence of left hemicolectomy and anterior rectum resection (RAR) (P<0.016). Group 2 also had a lower prevalence of anastomotic leakage (AL) (P<0.004). Intraoperative normothermia (T>36 C°) in this group was achieved in a larger number of patients in comparison with group 1 (39% vs. 19.5%) (P<0.01). Group 2 experienced a higher average body temperature at admission in recovery room (RR) when compared to Group 1 (35.8 vs. 35.1 C°, P<0.01). Audit program may represent a useful tool to promote advantageous changes in clinical practice and to favor a better compliance to ERAS program.

Pediatric Shock Profile in The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital

Introduction: Shock is a life-threatening condition caused by circulatory failure which increases morbidity and mortality rate. According to the western literature, about 2% of children are admitted to hospitals worldwide due to shock. Objective: This study aimed to describe the pediatric shock profile of patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital between 1 January to 1 December 2019. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 patients were selected as the participants using a descriptive method. Data collection was carried out by recording the exact time the participants first entered the PICU. Furthermore, data were collected based on gender, age, physical and laboratory examination, diagnosis of shock, patients’ outcomes, as well as PRISM III score. Results: The results of this study that the males and children are 51.7% and 53.3%, respectively. At an infant age, the distribution of the highest average pulse and breathing frequency was 135 and 32.2, respectively. The highest average body temperature at the age of adolescents was 37.19°C. Furthermore, the patients' diagnoses were dominated by distributive shock with the highest PRISM III score ≥8 and deaths recorded of 76.6%, 60%, and 61.7%, respectively. The diagnosis results showed that distributive shock leads to the highest mortality with a PRISM III score of 51.7% and 53.3%. Conclusion: Distributive shock contributes to the patient's diagnoses and mortality rate with the highest score of PRISM III being ≥8. From this conclusion, the PICU needs to be more responsive to detect distributive shock in children.

Thermal response of human body with immersion suit in cold environment.

Hypothermia caused by cold water immersion is one of the main causes of death in marine accidents. Immersion suit is a kind of protective clothing when implementing flying tasks over the sea in cold seasons, with the main function to slow down the loss of human heat in water and prolong the survival time. In this study, the thermal properties and wearing types of immersion suit and underwear were analyzed. The subjects with internal- and external-wear immersion suit exposed to the experimental environments for 2h in five working conditions. The core temperature, weighted average skin temperature, and average body temperature were measured and calculated. Both internal- and external-wear immersion suits could fulfil the cold protection requirements under the experimental conditions. The results of clothing parameter tests and physiological experiments both exhibit that the external-wear immersion suit has better thermal insulation effect. And the tolerance time in low-temperature water was predicted, which is crucial for effective and efficient rescue during shipwreck in adverse thermal scenarios. In future research, a comprehensive evaluation and analysis of the thermal insulation performance of immersion suit could be completed in combination with the water ingress of the clothing, the subjects' thermal comfort, and flexibility of the clothing.

Changes in sleep profile on exposure to sodium chloride and artificially carbonated springs: a pilot study.

[Purpose] Herein, we aimed to investigate the effects of bathing in a sodium chloride spring and an artificially carbonated spring on core body temperature and electroencephalograms, to assess whether the springs facilitate sleep. [Participants and Methods] This randomized, controlled, crossover study evaluated the effects of a sodium chloride spring, an artificially carbonated spring, a plain hot bath, and no bath on sleep. The subjective evaluations and recording of temperature were performed before/after bathing at 40 °C for 15 min at 22:00 h, before nocturnal sleep (0:00-7:00 h), and after the participants (n=8) woke up in the morning. [Results] Bathing significantly increased the core body temperature, with significant subsequent declines observed until bedtime. Participants in the sodium chloride spring group had the highest average core body temperature, while participants in the no-bath group had the lowest average core body temperature before bedtime (23:00-0:00 h). During bedtime (1:00-2:00 h), the participants in the no bath group had the highest average core body temperature, while participants in the artificially carbonated spring group had the lowest average core body temperature. The amount of delta power/min in the first sleep cycle significantly increased in the bathing groups, with the highest value during bedtime being recorded in the artificially carbonated spring group, followed by the sodium chloride spring, plain hot bath, and no-bath groups. These sleep changes were associated with significant declines in the elevated core body temperature. Increased heat dissipation and decreased core body temperature were observed in the artificially carbonated spring and sodium chloride spring groups, which increased the delta power during the first sleep cycle compared with that observed in the plain hot bath group, followed by the no-bath group. [Conclusion] An artificially carbonated spring would be the most appropriate given each circumstance because it did not cause fatigue, as observed with the sodium chloride spring.

Study on the Changes in Common Laboratory Parameters in Dengue Patients with Secondary Bacterial Infection

Secondary bacterial infection can adversely affect the clinical course of primary viral infection indengue fever. Time consuming microbiological culture confirmations and false negative culture resultsdelay the timely initiation of antibiotics. The objective of this study was to describe the variation in thecommon laboratory parameters during the illness, identify criteria that may predict secondary bacterialinfection before microbial culture confirmation, identify the common organisms causing secondarybacterial infections and their antibiotic sensitivity patterns. A retrospective case-control study was carriedout at the Dengue Management Unit of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Sri Lanka. Patientstreated with antibiotics upon suspicion or culture confirmation of secondary bacterial infections andpatients not treated with antibiotics were selected for the study. Total WBC count, absolute neutrophilcount, platelet count, HCT (Hematocrit), CRP (C Reactive Protein) and average body temperature wererecorded. Independent sample t-test was used to analyze the data. Study results showed that most positivemicrobial cultures were detected on the 6th and 7th days of illness. Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, andnon-speciated Gram-positive cocci were the commonly isolated organisms. Patients with confirmedsecondary bacterial infection had significantly higher neutrophil count (3.32±0.35x103/μL, p&lt;0.05) andlower platelet counts (49.33±7.66x103/μL, p&lt;0.05) on the 6th and 5th day of illness respectively. Theaverage body temperature was significantly higher in the study group than the control from the fever day3 onwards (p&lt;0.05). The study subjects were more likely to have significantly lower HCT values(38.62±1.12%, p&lt;0.05) than their controls on the third and fourth days of fever. Overall, the present studysuggests that bacterial co-infection increases the mortality rate in dengue patients. The variation inabsolute neutrophil count, platelet count, and body temperature pattern compared to the illness day can beused along for early prediction of secondary bacterial infection.&#x0D; Keywords: dengue, bacterial infection, antibiotics, platelet count, HCT

1022. The Role of Baseline Body Temperature in Neutropenic Fever

Abstract Background The management of neutropenic fever patients is challenging – from identification to diagnosis to treatment. We hypothesize that patients’ individual baseline body temperature provides diagnostic and prognostic value. Methods This is an analysis of 92 adult patients admitted for neutropenic fever to a tertiary medical center over 1 year period. We modelled the length of stay and the ability to find a definitive diagnosis using the change in body temperature from each patient’s outpatient baseline, the neutropenia level and overall patient acuity on admission, persistence of fever over 48-72 hours, and age. All temperatures were standardized to oral. Refer to Table 1 for the inclusion and exclusion criteria and statistical methods. Table 1.Inclusion and exclusion criteria and statistical methods. Results Refer to Tables 2 and 3 for demographics and descriptive statistics of temperature readings, to Table 4 for advanced statistical analyses. Importantly, the average baseline body temperature was at 36.7C; the average fever on admission was at 38.1C; based on the ≥ 38C cutoff, only 24% of patients had persistent fever over 48-72 hours but based on personalized cutoffs at &amp;gt; 2 standard deviations (SDs) or &amp;gt; 3 SDs above their outpatient baseline, 54% and 34% had persistent fever, respectively; the etiology of fever was identified in 48% of patients, all of which constituted infections; our multiple regression model demonstrated that a longer length of stay (LOS) of ≥ 4 days was predicted by larger deviation from baseline body temperature at admission and independently by fever persistence, after correcting for age, neutropenia level, and need for ICU level of care on admission. A similar model could not predict the ability to identify a fever-explaining diagnosis. Conclusion Given the average outpatient baseline body temperature of 36.7 +/- 0.3C, at 2 standard deviations (SDs) above this baseline, only 3% of patients would be at the 38C cutoff for fever, at 3 SDs, it would be 20%, thus rendering the standard 38C cutoff too high to be useful in identifying many neutropenic fever cases and supporting the use of personalized cutoffs based on patient’s baseline temperature. Further, consideration of the specific deviation from patients’ baseline body temperature could serve as a predictor for hospital LOS in patients admitted with neutropenic fever. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures.

Intraoperative Hypothermia Is Not Associated with Surgical Site Infections after Total Hip or Knee Arthroplasty.

Maintaining perioperative normothermia decreases the post-surgery surgical site infection (SSI) rate. We investigated whether SSI is associated with intraoperative hypothermia in total hip (THA) and total knee (TKA) arthroplasties by retrospectively analyzing 297 THA and TKA cases. The patients' intraoperative core body temperature (BT) was measured by bladder catheter or forehead sensor. We evaluated the associations between SSI and intraoperative BT and other variables and patient characteristics. Fifty-six patients (18.8%) had hypothermia (BT <36°C); 43 developed SSI (14.5%); only five had hypothermia (11.6%). Intraoperative hypothermia and SSI were not significantly associated. The SSI group had more men (34.9% vs. 18.1%) and THA patients (77.4%), a longer mean surgical duration (174.3 vs. 143.5 mins), and a higher average BT (36.4°C vs. 36.2°C) than the no-SSI group. The SSI patients had a higher intraoperative BT. A multivariable analysis revealed that SSI was associated with male sex (OR 2.3, 95%CI: 1.031-4.921, p=0.042), longer surgery (OR, 1.01, 95%CI: 1.003-1.017, p=0.004), THA (OR 3.6, 95%CI: 1.258-10.085, p=0.017), and intraoperative BT >36.0°C (OR 3.6, 95%CI: 1.367-9.475, p=0.009). Intraoperative hypothermia was not associated with SSI in adults who underwent THA or TKA. These results suggest that hypothermia might not be the problem for SSI.

Impact‐Absorbing Thermally Dissipative Epoxy Composite Liner for Helmets

Helmets are ubiquitously used forms of protective equipment in various industries. A common major drawback in helmets is their poor thermal management. Here, to reduce the dependency on active cooling methods and to conserve same helmet design, a composite thermal liner based passive cooling mechanism is proposed. A multifunctional liner consisting of uniformly distributed graphene oxide nanosheets and icosane is prepared. A helmet liner cast out of a 3D‐printed mold is tested to measure impact energy absorption using a home‐built helmet impact testing setup in accordance with ASTM D7136/D7136M‐20. The liner is expected to deform, thereby absorbing the energy from the impact and eventually reducing the impact experienced by the user. The material (10X‐GOME‐0.75), obtained after careful optimization of the mechanical and thermal properties of different combinations of varying weight fractions of the fillers, exhibits about 300% greater deformation over an unmodified epoxy (UME) liner (0.3% strain) and also shows 98% strain recovery over a fatigue test of &gt;7500 cycles. Thermal characterization shows heat absorption by the material at about 37 °C, which is the average human body temperature. Such materials can have future in developing lightweight next‐generation helmets with better thermal management for use in various fields.

A Single-Administration Microneedle Skin Patch for Multi-Burst Release of Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

The necessity for multiple injections and cold-chain storage has contributed to suboptimal vaccine utilization, especially in pandemic situations. Thermally-stable and single-administration vaccines hold a great potential to revolutionize the global immunization process. Here, a new approach to thermally stabilize protein-based antigens is presented and a new high-throughput antigen-loading process is devised to create a single-administration, pulsatile-release microneedle (MN) patch which can deliver a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 S1-RBD protein-a model for the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 100% of the protein antigen could be stabilized at temperatures up to 100 °C for at least 1 h and at an average human body temperature (37 °C) for up to 4 months. Arrays of the stabilized S1-RBD formulations can be loaded into the MN shells via a single-alignment assembly step. The fabricated MNs are administered at a single time into the skin of rats and induce antibody response which could neutralize authentic SARS-CoV-2 viruses, providing similar immunogenic effect to that induced by multiple bolus injections of the same antigen stored in conventional cold-chain conditions. The MN system presented herein could offer the key solution to global immunization campaigns by avoiding low patient compliance, the requirement for cold-chain storage, and the need for multiple booster injections.

Sex and Body Colour Affect the Variation in Internal Body Temperature of Oedaleus decorus asiaticus in Natural Habitats in Inner Mongolia, China

Oedaleus decorus asiaticus is one of the most harmful locusts in agricultural and pastoral areas in China. Plagues of this grasshopper can aggravate grassland degradation and cause huge damage to the livestock industry. Fungal biopesticides are seen as a suitable means of controlling grasshoppers and locusts. However, the efficiency of fungal biopesticides is dependent on temperature. Currently, there is limited knowledge on the thermal biology of this grasshopper in natural habitats. In this study, ground temperature measurements were made in conjunction with measurements of internal body temperatures using thermocouples and hand-held thermometers. The grasshoppers were randomly caught during the daytime in 2017 and 2018 in eight different locations in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Our results indicated that the average internal body temperature of nymphs as well as adults of O. d. asiaticusis was higher than the ground temperature and that it increases/decreases with increases/decreases in ground temperature, respectively, during the daytime. Moreover, the adult internal body temperature is significantly higher than that of the nymphs at different times of the day, specifically around 6:00, 10:00, 13:00, and 18:00. Female internal body temperatures were significantly higher than those of the males by an average of 0.90 °C. Additionally, the average internal body temperature of the brown morphs was higher than that of the green morphs by approximately 1.17 °C. These findings demonstrate that brown morph insects might be more tolerant of fungal biopesticides and hence the biopesticides may take longer to kill them. Hence, ecophysiological adaptations to climate change may affect how fungal biopesticides could be used in the future.

반추위 삽입 센서를 활용한 육성기 홀스타인 거세우의 생리 상태 변화 평가

In the last decade, the wireless biosensor technologies for cattle have been widely spread over the world. The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes of physiological state in Holstein growing steers using the rumen bolus sensor. A total of thirty-two Holstein young steers (219.48 ± 16.61 kg, 7.25 ± 0.40 months of age) were used and the rumen bolus was orally administered to each steer before conducting this experiment. The rumen bolus used in this study (Smart alyac®, Hankook Iot Corp, Gimcheon, Korea) can measure not only body temperature (BT) but also moving behavior which was expressed as indices (moving index, MI). All steers equipped with the bolus sensor were housed in pens (4 animals per pen) and the sensor data were collected for 29 days. During experimental period, the average MI for the day (day: 0700–1900, night: 2000–0600) was significantly higher than that for the night (day: 111.10, night: 98.53, p &lt; 0.0001), but the result of average BT was opposite (day: 39.04°C, night: 39.62°C, p &lt; 0.0001). The average MI in animals having low average daily gain (ADG) was higher than those having high ADG (low ADG: 105.46, high ADG: 103.66, p &lt; 0.0001) and average BT was the same (low ADG: 39.41°C, high ADG: 39.33°C, p &lt; 0.0001). When the steers exposed to several stresses, the average MI was significantly lower than that in normal condition (normal: 117.40, stress: 109.88, p &lt; 0.01). Stressed steers also showed increased BT compared to steers in normal condition (normal: 38.78°C, stress: 39.50°C, p &lt; 0.0001). In conclusion, rumen bolus sensors, which generally used in cows to detect estrus, can be applied even to steers to detect the physiological changes rapidly in stressful environment.

Pertumbuhan Cacing Sutra (Tubifex sp) Pada Substrat Lumpur, Pasir, dan Kombinasinya

&lt;p&gt;The increase of freshwater aquaculture leads to the increasing demand for silkworms (&lt;em&gt;Tubifex&lt;/em&gt; sp) as natural feed. Unfortunately, high demand of silkworm supply is not fully fulfilled yet because its availability is relied on natural catch. Cultivation of &lt;em&gt;Tubifex&lt;/em&gt; sp. outside its natural habitats requires good information on substrates and feed. We aimed to study the effect of mud, sand and their combination use as substrates in supporting &lt;em&gt;Tubifex&lt;/em&gt; sp growth. This study used complete randomized design with 5 treatments, namely K1 (100% sand), K2 (100% mud), P1 (combination 75% mud-25%) sand, P2 (combination 50% mud-50% sand), and P3 (combination 25% mud-75% sand) with triplicates on each treatment. Research was conducted for 21 days using fermented chicken manure as feed. &lt;em&gt;Tubifex&lt;/em&gt; sp growth was measured on biomass, number of individuals, and average body weight, while pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen and total organic matter were listed as measured environmental parameters. The use of sand and mud combination as substrate was better than a single sand or mud alone to support &lt;em&gt;Tubifex&lt;/em&gt; sp growth. Combination of 75% mud and 25% sand showed the best growth of Tubifex sp as observed on biomass value of 13,244 g, 370 number of individuals, and average weight body of 2,741 mg. The application of a combination of sand and mud substrates has a potency to support the cultivation of &lt;em&gt;Tubifex&lt;/em&gt; sp outside its native habitat.&lt;/p&gt;

Prevalence of leptospirosis among patients attending renal and general outpatient clinics in Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda

In this study, we sought to establish the prevalence of leptospirosis among renal patients and general outpatients attending Mulago National Referral Hospital, Uganda. A total of 254 patients were recruited, their blood samples collected and interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaires provided between July and October 2018. These questionnaires captured data on sociodemographic characteristics and symptoms of leptospirosis disease. An individual with an average body temperature of 37.3 ± 1.1 °C was considered to be having fever. The blood samples were analyzed using the standard Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) with a panel of 14 Leptospira-serovars belonging to 11 serogroups. Prevalence was reported with confidence intervals while questionnaire data was analyzed using logistic regression analysis. We present an overall prevalence of leptospirosis at 4.70% (95% CI = 2.60–8.30) after analysis of samples from recruited patients. This seropositivity (12/254) was classified into 7 serovars, among which, Canicola and Djasiman presented with titers between ≥ 200 and ≥ 400 in samples of both renal patients and outpatients, indicative of the active disease. Djasiman was the highest contributor to the reported prevalence. Overall, most examined participants presented with common symptoms of abdominal pain (AOR = 24.4, 95% CI (2.42–267.89), p = 0.02) and dehydration (AOR = 0.1, 95% CI (0.01–0.69), p = 0.05). Our study suggests that these symptoms and previous history of abdominal pain may be caused by Leptospira infections among the studied participants. We therefore recommend inclusion of leptospirosis in the differential diagnosis for renal and febrile illnesses. Indeed, abdominal pain and dehydration should be further studied with a bigger sample size and for other related febrile illnesses.

What Makes A Hot Spring, Hot?

Hot springs naturally are groundwater that emerges to the surface after being heated up by geothermal activities. There are various classifications of hot springs according to the surface temperature. Still, in Malaysia, it is referred to as the spring that is higher than an average body temperature or 40 °C and above. Two types of hot spring origin are volcanic and non-volcanic sources. The Quaternary magmatic intrusion of Maria volcanic complex in Sabah is the only volcanic-related hot spring. Meanwhile, Sungai Klah, Ulu Slim, Gadek, and other hot springs in Malaysia originated from regional granite intrusion that slowly cooled down since the Triassic period. In Peninsular Malaysia, there is a geological trend of hot springs distribution based on three different intrusion and localities of granite batholiths: Eastern, Central and Western belts of granite. Tectonically, most of these hot springs are associated with fault zones related to highly fractured and deep-seated fault areas with high permeability host rock, such as Bok Bak Fault. Later it can conduit meteoric water to seep deep beneath the subsurface and be subjected to a high geothermal gradient zone. High dissolved minerals in the hot springs are beneficial for balneotherapy, while the excess heat and brine can be harnessed into electrical energy. The development of geothermal potential in Malaysia is still unhurried compared to our neighbouring countries, for example, Thailand’s Fang Geothermal Power Plant is a non-volcanic hot spring with a sound temperature of 130°C which can generate 300 kW of electricity. Lastly, effort has been made by researchers in gathering the data on hot spring distribution in Malaysia which can be viewed with just a click. A new app is developed for Android user named Malaysia’s Hot Springs that can be freely downloaded from the ‘Apps Store’ in hope that the application can serve as hot springs tourism and publication reference purposes.