• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제61권3호
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• pp.304-309
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• 2023

Intestinal parasitic infections are a public health burden and a major cause of illness in developing countries. The diseases lead to various health threats, including growth retardation and mental health-related disorders, especially in children. We assessed the risk factors for intestinal parasitic infections among children aged 12-59 months residing in Nyamasheke District, Rwanda. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using secondary data from 1,048 children aged 12-59 months whose stool samples were examined for the presence of intestinal parasites and whose results were registered in the laboratory information system in 2020. The prevalence of intestinal parasites in children aged 12-59 months was 53.2%. The dominant parasites were Ascaris lumbricoides (13.1%), followed by Giardia lamblia (10.9%), Entamoeba histolytica (7.9%), Trichuris trichiura (6.5%), hookworms (1.7%), and Taenia species (1.4%). A significant association was observed between intestinal parasites and the literacy of mothers or children's caregivers (odds ratio (OR)=5.09, P<0.001). Children from farming households were 2.8-fold more likely to contract intestinal parasitic infections than those from nonfarming households (OR=2.8, P<0.001). A significant association was also observed between intestinal parasites and food safety (OR=4.9, P<0.001). Intestinal parasitic infections were significantly associated with hand hygiene practices after using the toilet and washing fresh fruits before eating (P<0.001). The information gathered will help public health providers and partners develop control plans in highly endemic areas in Rwanda.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제58권6호
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• pp.689-694
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• 2020

Strongyloidiasis is caused by Strongyloides stercoralis and is one of the most neglected tropical diseases in tropical and subtropical regions. Although several strongyloidiasis cases have been reported in Korea, genetic analysis of Korean isolates is still incomplete. In this study, a parasite was isolated from a 61-year-old man diagnosed with strongyloidiasis during the treatment of lymphoma on his retroperitoneal lymph node. Diffuse symmetric wall thickening from the ascending to descending colon and a nematode-infected intestine was observed following microscopic examination. Genomic DNA was isolated from a patient tissue block, and S. stercoralis was identified by PCR and sequencing (18S rDNA). In order to determine phylogenetic location of a Korean isolate (named KS1), we analyzed cox1 gene (500-bp) and compared it with that from 47 previous S. stercoralis isolates (28 human isolates and 19 canid isolates) from Asian countries. Our results showed that phylogenetic tree could clearly be divided into 5 different groups according to hosts and regions. KS1 was most closely related with the Chinese isolates in terms of genetic distance.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.144-151
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• 2012

Deforestation is a major and very critical problem faced by many tropical countries including Malaysia. Sabah is the second largest state in Malaysia and its deforestation rate has been accelerating. This study was conducted to monitor the deforestation in Sabah in the last two decades with Landsat images of 1990, 2000 and 2008. Supervised classification with maximum likelihood algorithm was conducted using the Landsat data for monitoring deforestation. In total, between 1990 and 2008, Sabah lost half of its intact forest, or more than 1.85 million ha in less than two decades. Overall, the deforestation rate for all forest types combined for the last two decades was 1.6% per year. Deforestation seemed to be accelerating because the deforestation rate between 1990 and 2000 was 0.9% per year and it had increased to 2.7% per year between 2000 and 2008. The deforestation trend seemed to follow a negative exponential from 1990 to 2008. In contrast, the agricultural areas increased rapidly with a total of increment more than 1 million ha. This confirmed that agriculture especially establishment of commercial plantation was the major factor of deforestation in Sabah for the last two decades.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.55-61
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• 2005

Fire, usually a detrimental factor makes changes in commonly structure and functions when it is practiced properly. In countries like Australia, South Africa, Japan and Texas in USA etc., fire is used as a tool to manage the natural ecosystems in productive condition on the basis of ecological approach. However, in developing countries like India there is effective measure to use and control fire in rangelands. This review provides knowledge on changes in sociological characters of plants, biomass profile, cycling of materials and strategy to use fire for the shaping of communities in different rangelands located in India and other countries. Further, the informations furnished in this article will be more useful for the forest managers, planners of rangelands and administrators in countries like India and tropical countries with similar bioclimatic conditions to prepare appropriate management plans where the fire is an integral factor.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제60권5호
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• pp.367-370
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• 2022

Fascioliasis is a parasitic infection caused by liver flukes. Although several cases have been reported in Korea, phylogenetic analysis of isolates is lacking. In this study, a 66-year-old woman with right upper quadrant (RUQ) abdominal pain was diagnosed as fascioliasis involving abdominal muscle by imaging study. She received praziquantel treatment, but symptoms were not improved. Lateral movement of the abscess lesion was followed. Trematode parasite was surgically removed from the patient's rectus abdominis muscle. The fluke was identified as Fasciola hepatica based on sequence analysis of 18S rDNA. To determine the phylogenetic position of this Fasciola strain (named Korean Fasciola 1; KF1), the cox1 gene (273 bp) was analyzed and compared with the genes of 17 F. hepatica strains isolated from cows, sheep, goats, and humans from various countries. Phylogenetic analysis showed that KF1 was closely related with the isolates from China goat.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.247-268
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• 2023

Tidal stream energy extraction remains a site-specific resource due to the "first generation" criteria requiring high-velocity tidal streams. Most studies on tidal energy and turbine blade design heavily focus on installation sites with higher velocity conditions that are non-existent in tropical countries such as the Philippines. To shorten this gap, this review paper tackles tidal turbine design considerations for low-energetic regions such as the tropics. In-depth discussions of operating principles, methods of analysis, and designs of tidal turbine blades are presented. Notable tidal stream projects around the world are also mentioned in the paper. Also, it provides a perspective on the potential of this renewable energy to produce electricity for various sites in the Philippines. Finally, the paper emphasizes the need for new tidal turbine blade designs to be viable in tropical regions, such as the Philippines.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.874-878
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• 2013

Unlike Europe (particularly, Italy and Spain), where a number of studies have been conducted on the stressful effects of transport on rabbit welfare, few studies have been conducted on transportation of rabbits under hot, humid tropical conditions experienced in countries like Malaysia. We studied the effects of transportation in hot humid tropical conditions of Malaysia on physiometabolic changes in New Zealand white rabbits. Eighty experimental animals were divided into two groups of 40 bucks each and transported for either 3 or 1 h. Transportation caused a significant upsurge of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and creatine kinase activities (p<0.001) though did not significantly affect lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity (p = 0.0706). Both transportation periods caused elevation in plasma glucose levels, lactic acidosis and dehydration as evidenced through elevated packed cell volume and plasma protein concentration. It was concluded that regardless of the duration, transport of rabbits under hot humid tropical conditions, resulted in heat distress since the rabbits showed hyperglycemia, hypercalcemia, lactacidemia, lymphocytopenia, dehydration and increase in blood enzyme activities.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.545-552
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• 2018

Plasmodium vivax is more challenging to control and eliminate than P. falciparum due to its more asymptomatic infections with low parasite densities making diagnosis more difficult, in addition to its unique biological characteristics. The potential re-introduction of incidence cases, either through borders or via human migrations, is another major hurdle to sustained control and elimination. The Republic of Korea has experienced re-emergence of vivax malaria in 1993 but is one of the 32 malaria-eliminating countries to-date. Despite achieving successful nationwide control and elimination of vivax malaria, the evolutionary characteristics of vivax malaria isolates in the Republic of Korea have not been fully understood. In this review, we present an overview of the genetic variability of such isolates to increase understanding of the epidemiology, diversity, and dynamics of vivax populations in the Republic of Korea.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제56권3호
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• pp.215-227
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• 2018

Along with globalization of traveling and trading, fish-borne nematodiases seems to be increasing in number. However, apart from occasional and sporadic case reports or mini-reviews of particular diseases in particular countries, an overview of fish-borne nematodiasis among travelers have never been performed. In this review, we gathered fish-borne nematodiasis among travelers for recent 25 years by an extensive global literature survey using appropriate keywords, e.g. travelers diseases, human infection, anisakiasis, gnathostomiasis, capillariasis, sushi, sashimi, ceviche, Gnathostoma, Pseudoterranova, Anisakis, Capillaria, etc., as well as various combinations of these key words. The Internet search engines PubMed, Medline, Google and Googler Scholar were used as much as possible, and the references of every paper were checked in order to identify useful and reliable publications. The results showed unexpectedly high incidence of gnathostomiasis and low incidence of anisakidosis. The different incidence values of the infection with several fish-borne zoonotic nematode species are discussed, as well as some epidemiological aspects of the infections. The difficulties of differential diagnosis in non-endemic countries are emphasized. It is concluded that travelers must avoid risky behaviors which can lead to infection and that physicians and health authorities must advice travelers on the risks of eating behaviors during travel.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.625-632
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• 2018

Malaria remains one of the leading health burdens in the developing world, especially in several sub-Saharan Africa countries; and Uganda has some of the highest recorded measures of malaria transmission intensity in the world. It is evident that the prevalence of malaria infection, the incidence of disease, and mortality from severe malaria remain very high in Uganda. Although the recent stable political and economic situation in the last few decades in Uganda supported for a fairly good appreciation of malaria control, the declines in infection, morbidity, and mortality are not sufficient to interrupt transmission and this country is among the top 4 countries with cases of malaria, especially among children under 5 years of age. In fact, Uganda, which is endemic in over 95% of the country, is a representative of challenges facing malaria control in Africa. In this study, we evaluated an active case detection program in 6 randomly selected villages, Uganda. This program covered a potential target population of 5,017 individuals. Our team screened 12,257 samples of malaria by active case detection, every 4 months, from February 2015 to January 2017 in the 6 villages (a total of 6 times). This study assessed the perceptions and practices on malaria control in Kiyuni Parish of Kyankwanzi district, Uganda. Our study presents that the incidence of malaria is sustained high despite efforts to scale-up and improve the use of LLINs and access to ACDs, based on the average incidence confirmed by RDTs.