The aim of this review is to evaluate the prevalence of and factors associated with keratoconus in Africa.
 
  A systematic online literature search was conducted for articles on keratoconus in Africa. Meta-analysis was performed to estimate the prevalence of keratoconus in Africa. The Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation was used to minimize the effects of studies with extremely high or low prevalence estimates on the overall pooled estimates. Leave-one-out sensitivity analysis was used to assess the robustness of the pooled effects and potential outliers. Meta-regression was performed to explore associations between keratoconus, gender and age.
 
  Twelve studies were included in the review; 5 from Egypt, 2 from South Africa, 2 from Kenya, 1 from Sudan, 1 from Ghana and 1 from Nigeria. Two studies were conducted in allergic conjunctivitis patients, 4 in keratoconus patients, 1 in contact lens service seekers, 1 in pre-LASIK patients, 1 in refractive patients and 1 in a student population. Eight studies of keratoconus or a population with high possibility of finding keratoconus patients. There is a dearth of well-designed population-based studies on keratoconus in Africa, resulting in a lack of epidemiological information. This highlights the urgent need for research on keratoconus in Africa.
 The estimated prevalence of keratoconus reported here is higher than prevalence values reported in other meta-analyses or different geographical locations. This is mainly because studies included in this meta-analysis were either conducted on a cohort at high risk of keratoconus or a population with high possibility of finding keratoconus patients. There is a dearth of well-designed population-based studies on keratoconus in Africa, resulting in a lack of epidemiological information. This highlights the urgent need for research on keratoconus in Africa.
  This work aims to fabricate RF antenna components on metallic needle surfaces using biocompatible polyester tubing and conductive ink to develop an active interventional MRI needle for clinical use at 0.55 Tesla.
 
  A custom computer numeric control-based conductive ink printing method was developed. Based on electromagnetic simulation results, thin-film RF antennas were printed with conductive ink and used to fabricate a medical grade, 20-gauge (0.87 mm outer diameter), 90-mm long active interventional MRI needle. The MRI visibility performance of the active needle prototype was tested in vitro in 1 gel phantom and in vivo in 1 swine. A nearly identical active needle constructed using a 44 American Wire Gauge insulated copper wire-wound RF receiver antenna was a comparator. The RF-induced heating risk was evaluated in a gel phantom per American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) 2182-19.
 
  The active needle prototype with printed RF antenna was clearly visible both in vitro and in vivo under MRI. The device RF safety under MRI. The proposed method enables fabrication of small diameter active interventional MRI devices having complex geometries, something previously difficult using conventional methods.Exorista civilis Rondani (DipteraTachinidae) is an excellent dominant parasitic enemy all over the world. But there has been a lack of research on the molecular regulation of diapause in E. civilis. To investigate the important diapause-associated genes and metabolic pathways in E. civilis, we can provide a theoretical basis for clarifying the molecular mechanism of diapause at the transcriptome level. The Illumina HiSeq. 2000 platform was used to perform transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis of the non-diapause and diapause pupae of E. civilis. 58,050 unigenes were successfully assembled, in which 4355 upregulated and 3158 downregulated unigenes were differentially expressed. Moreover, by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichments, 896 kinds of the differentially expressed genes were specifically analyzed and showed that diapause-associated genes were related to be involved in the pathways of cold resistance, amino acid metabolism, and energy metabolism. Furthermore, these upregulated five genes showed the same trends of expression patterns between quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and RNA-Seq. This study provides a theoretical basis for the further study of the diapausing molecular mechanisms of E. civilis.
  To evaluate the effectiveness of placental volume measured by virtual organ computer-aided analysis (VOCAL) at 12 to 14 weeks of gestation in predicting fetal hemoglobin (Hb) Bart's disease among pregnancies at risk.
 
  This study involves 3-dimensional ultrasound (3D-US) volume datasets derived from pregnancies at risk of fetal Hb Bart's disease at 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy. VOCAL technique was used to measure and calculate placental volume by the authors, who did not know the fetal diagnosis. Placental thickness was also measured. The diagnostic values of placental volume and placental thickness in prediction of fetal Hb Bart's disease were calculated.
 
  Sixty-five volume datasets, including 22 datasets of the affected fetuses and 43 unaffected fetuses, were included. The mean placental volume (±SD) of the affected cases was significantly higher than that of the unaffected ones, 85.35 ± 20.84 cm
  vs 52.24 ± 19.01 cm
   (Student's t test, P < .001). In predicting Hb Bart's disease, placental volume and placental thickness had sensitivities of 77.3% and 72.7% respectively as well as specificities of 88.37% and 76.7% respectively.
 
  Of fetuses at risk of Hb Bart's disease, 3D-US VOCAL placental volume may be useful in early detection of affected fetuses. Its effectiveness is superior to that of conventional placental thickness measurement.
 Of fetuses at risk of Hb Bart's disease, 3D-US VOCAL placental volume may be useful in early detection of affected fetuses. Its effectiveness is superior to that of conventional placental thickness measurement.The phenomenon of "senseless" or "motiveless" homicide refers to homicides that lack an objective external motivation. Despite the unique challenges these homicides pose to police, few empirical studies have been conducted on the topic and existing studies are limited to clinical studies using small samples. To overcome existing empirical shortcomings, the current study used a sample of 319 homicide cases where no motive was established during the investigation to describe the "who" (offender and victim characteristics), "what" (modus operandi, crime characteristics), "where" (encounter, crime, and body recovery associated locations), and "when" (time of the crime) of the entire criminal event.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ipi-549.html  Findings provide insight into the entire crime-commission process and suggest a different dynamic to "senseless" homicide from what has been described in previous literature. Implications for police investigative practice are discussed.