The Scientific World Journal

Food-borne disease due to intestinal parasites (IPs) and enteric bacterial infections (EBIs) remain a major public health problem. Food handlers, individuals involved in preparing and serving food, working with poor personal hygiene could pose a potential threat of spreading IPs and EBIs to the public. The aim of this study was to examine the overall prevalence and risk factors of IPs and EBIs among food handlers in four selected regions of Ethiopia. Scientific articles written in English were recovered from PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, and other sources from Google Engine and University Library Databases. “Prevalence,” “Intestinal Parasites,” “Enteric Bacterial Infections,” “Associated Factors,” “Food Handlers,” and “Ethiopia” were the search terms used for this study. For critical appraisal, PRISMA 2009 was applied. Stata software version 16 was used to perform the meta-analysis. Heterogeneity and publication bias were evaluated using Cochran’s Q, inverse variance (I²), and funnel plot asymmetry tests. A random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled burden of IPs and EBIs and its associated factors among food handlers, along with the parallel odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). For this meta-analysis, a total of 5844 food handlers were included in the 20 eligible studies. The overall pooled prevalence of IPs and EBIs among food handlers in four selected regions of Ethiopia was 29.16% (95% CI: 22.61, 35.71), with covering (25.77%) and (3.39%) by IPs and EBIs, respectively. Ascaris lumbricoides, Entamoeba histolytica/dispar, Giardia lamblia, and hookworm were the most prevalent IPs among food handlers with a pooled prevalence of 7.58%, 6.78%, 3.67%, and 2.70%, respectively. Salmonella and Shigella spp. were the most prevalent EBIs among food handlers with a pooled prevalence of 2.78% and 0.61%, respectively. A high prevalence of IPs and EBIs among food handlers was observed in Oromia (38.56%; 95% CI: 29.98, 47.14), while a low prevalence was observed in the Tigray region (19.45%; 95% CI: 6.08, 32.82). Food handlers who had not taken food hygiene training (OR: 0.68, 95% CI: −0.34, 1.69), untrimmed finger nail (OR: 2.23, 95% CI: 1.47, 2.99), lack of periodic medical checkup (OR: 1.52, 95% CI: 0.41, 2.64), lack of handwashing habits (OR: 1.97, 95% CI: 0.53, 3.41), and eating raw vegetables and meat (OR: 2.63, 95% CI: 0.92, 4.34) were factors significantly associated with the prevalence of IPs and EBIs. The prevalence of IPs and EBIs was high in the selected Ethiopian region (Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, and Tigray) food handlers along an increasing prevalence trend from 2014 to 2022. Therefore, this study recommends the provision of proper health education and training regarding personal hygiene, hand washing, food handling, medical checks, as well as raw vegetable and meat safety.

Recently, haloacid dehalogenases have gained a lot of interest because of their potential applications in bioremediation and synthesis of chemical products. The haloacid dehalogenase gene from Bacillus cereus IndB1 (bcfd1) has been isolated, expressed, and Bcfd1 enzyme activity towards monochloroacetic acid has been successfully studied. However, the structure, enantioselectivity, substrate range, and essential residues of Bcfd1 have not been elucidated. This research performed computational studies to predict the Bcfd1 protein structure and analyse the interaction of Bcfd1 towards several haloacid substrates to comprehend their enantioselectivity and substrates’ range. Structure prediction revealed that Bcfd1 protein consist of two domains. The main domain consists of seven β-sheets connected by six α-helices and four 3₁₀-helices forming a Rossmannoid fold. On the other hand, the cap domain consists of five β-sheets connected by five α-helices. The docking simulation showed that 2-chloroalkanoic acids bind to the active site of Bcfd1 with docking energy decreases as the length of their alkyl chain increases. The docking simulation also indicated that the docking energy differences of two enantiomers of 2-chloroalkanoic acids substrates were not significant. Further analysis revealed the role of Met1, Asp2, Cys33, and Lys204 residues in orienting the carboxylic group of 2-chloroalkanoic acids in the active site of this enzyme through hydrogen bonds. This research proved that computational studies could be used to figure out the effect of substrates enantiomer and length of carbon skeleton to Bcfd1 affinity toward 2-chloroalkanoic acids.

In Nepal, about 700 plant species have been reported to be used for the primary care of different diseases. However, many of them have not been studied yet for their scientific evidence. The main aim of this study is the quantitative analysis of flavonoids and phenolic content, antioxidant, and antidiabetic activities of the extracts of four different medicinal plants, namely, Pogostemon benghalensis, Aleuritopteris bicolor, Crateva unilocularis, and Rungia pectinata growing in Nepal. The methanol extracts of plant samples were prepared by the hot percolation method using the Soxhlet apparatus. The phytochemicals of the plant extracts were analysed by colour differentiation methods using different analytical reagents. The phenolic content was estimated by using Folin–Ciocalteu’s phenol reagent and the flavonoid was estimated by the aluminium chloride colorimetric method. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay was used to evaluate the antioxidant potential. The α-amylase enzyme inhibition activity was performed to evaluate the antidiabetic activity of plant extracts. The amount of total phenolics and flavonoids content was found to be the highest in Pogostemon benghalensis (169.43 ± 3.58 mg GAE/g and 65.2 ± 2.0 mg QE/g), respectively, which also showed the most potent free radical scavenging activity (IC₅₀ 35.92 ± 0.65 μg/mL). The extract of Aleuritopteris bicolor showed the highest α-amylase inhibitory activity (IC₅₀ 651.58 ± 10.32 μg/mL) whereas Crateva unilocularis and Pogostemon benghalensis exhibited moderate activity. The extract of Rungia pectinata showed the least activity towards α-amylase inhibition. Some of the medicinal plants selected in this study showed high TPC and TFC values with potent biological activities. To the best of our knowledge, these medicinal plants have the least exposure to their biological activities, and the results provide scientific evidence for the traditional uses of these plants against diabetes and infectious diseases. However, a detailed study can be performed in these plants to isolate the active chemical compounds and to evaluate in vivo pharmacological activities to know the active drug candidates for the future drug development process.

The search for the right person for the right job, or in other words the selection of the candidate who best reflects the skills demanded by employers to perform a specific set of duties in a job appointment, is a key premise of the personnel selection pipeline of recruitment departments. This task is usually performed by human experts who examine the résumé or curriculum vitae of candidates in search of the right skills necessary to fit the vacant position. Recent advances in AI, specifically in the fields of text analytics and natural language processing, have sparked the interest of research on the application of these technologies to help recruiters accomplish this task or part of it automatically, applying algorithms for information extraction, parsing, representation, and matching of résumés and job descriptions, or sections within. In this study, we aim to better understand how the research landscape in this field has evolved. To do this, we follow a multifaceted bibliometric approach aimed at identifying trends, dynamics, structures, and visual mapping of the most relevant topics, highly cited or influential papers, authors, and universities working on these topics, based on a publication record retrieved from Scopus and Google Scholar bibliographic databases. We conclude that, unlike a traditional literature review, the bibliometric-guided approach allowed us to discover a more comprehensive picture of the evolution of research in this subject and to clearly identify paradigm shifts from the earliest stages to the most recent efforts proposed to address this problem.

Freshwater lakes are important sources of water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses. Lake Tana offers a range of ecosystem services to the surrounding communities. However, this lake is facing deterioration in water quality due to pollution caused by anthropogenic influences. Therefore, regular monitoring of key water quality parameters is critical to understanding the water quality status of the lake. This study aimed to assess the seasonal fluctuation of water quality of the Southern Gulf of Lake Tana using indicator bacteria and some physicochemical parameters. A total of 48 water samples were collected in dry and wet seasons from eight sites in the study area. Total coliforms (TC), faecal coliforms (FC), and some physicochemical parameters (pH, temperature, turbidity, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate) were determined following standard methods. The results revealed that coliform counts were above the permissible level set by Ethiopian Standards and varied significantly among sites (). FC counts ranged from 1 to 1600 MPN/100 ml (with the lowest and highest mean value of 1 at site 8 to 1076.5 ± 3.1 at site 4) and again TC counts ranged from 1 to 1600 MPN/100 ml (with a mean value of 4.8 ± 1.81 at site 6 to 1600 at site 4 and site 8). The findings also confirmed that the highest counts of coliforms were observed during the wet season. The high counts are attributed to the discharge of human excreta and animal wastes during the rainy season from the different anthropogenic activities near the Gulf. Significant variations in most of the physicochemical parameters were also observed between sites and seasons. FC and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅₎ in most sites did not meet the EPA standard for surface water. Corrective measures are highly recommended for anthropogenic activities driving high pollution loads in the lake.

Background. In today’s world, Internet-based medical information plays a significant role in patient education. There are several accessible health-related websites. It has become common to search Internet before going for a medical consultation. The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of cyberchondriasis and its association with demographic variables. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out among metabolic syndrome patients attending the cardiology, endocrinology, and neurology outpatient departments of a tertiary care hospital in South India. The prevalence of cyberchondriasis and its constructs were measured using the cyberchondria severity scale (CSS). Inferential statistics revealed no statistically significant difference in the average CSS scores across sociodemographic variables. Spearman correlation was conducted to determine the relationship between the constructs. Results. A total of 379 participants with metabolic syndrome were included in the study. 42.5% of them were severely affected, and 28.0% were moderately affected by cyberchondriasis. Among the constructs studied, compulsion (85.7%), distress (91.8%), excessiveness (96.6%), and reassurance (76.1%) constructs had an impact on a greater number of study participants, compared to mistrust of medical professional construct (33.0%). Cyberchondriasis had a significant relationship with the history of myocardial infarction (p value = 0.03). There was a statistically significant positive linear relationship between mistrust and reassurance (r_s = 0.169, p value<0.001). Reassurance had a significant negative linear relationship with distress (r_s = −0.147, p value = 0.004). Conclusion. In India, cyberchondriasis is a growing public mental health issue. Awareness among the general population is necessary to minimize the possible outcomes of cyberchondriasis like anxiety and depression. Screening individuals for possible risk factors is recommended.