The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is a subclinical enteropathy prevalent in resource-limite... more Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is a subclinical enteropathy prevalent in resource-limited settings, hypothesized to be a consequence of chronic exposure to environmental enteropathogens, resulting in malnutrition, growth failure, neurocognitive delays, and oral vaccine failure. This study explored the duodenal and colonic tissues of children with EED, celiac disease, and other enteropathies using quantitative mucosal morphometry, histopathologic scoring indices, and machine learning–based image analysis from archival and prospective cohorts of children from Pakistan and the United States. We observed villus blunting as being more prominent in celiac disease than in EED, as shorter lengths of villi were observed in patients with celiac disease from Pakistan than in those from the United States, with median (interquartile range) lengths of 81 (73, 127) µm and 209 (188, 266) µm, respectively. Additionally, per the Marsh scoring method, celiac disease histologic severity was in...
Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan : JCPSP, 2017
The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of VAP(ventilator associated pneumonia) after s... more The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of VAP(ventilator associated pneumonia) after strict implementation of ventilator bundle in PICU. Medical records of all children (age 1 month - 16 years) were retrospectively reviewed, who were on mechanical ventilation (MV) for more than 48 hours and received all key components of "ventilator bundle" from January 2012 to December 2014. Out of 1050, 565 (54%) patients were enrolled. The mean age was 4.02 SD 4.29 years and 62 (69%) were male. The indications of MV were respiratory illness (54%), neurological illness (31%), shock (9%), and postoperative care (6%). The mean duration of MV was 7.05 SD 5.4 days. Only 4 patients (0.7%) developed VAP. The incidence-density of VAP was 1.6 per 1000 ventilator days. The strict implementation of simple, inexpensive interventions (ventilator bundle) in care of mechanically ventilated children can decrease significantly VAP even in resource-limited country.
Image classification is central to the big data revolution in medicine. Improved information proc... more Image classification is central to the big data revolution in medicine. Improved information processing methods for diagnosis and classification of digital medical images have shown to be successful via deep learning approaches. As this field is explored, there are limitations to the performance of traditional supervised classifiers. This paper outlines an approach that is different from the current medical image classification tasks that view the issue as multi-class classification. We performed a hierarchical classification using our Hierarchical Medical Image classification (HMIC) approach. HMIC uses stacks of deep learning models to give particular comprehension at each level of the clinical picture hierarchy. For testing our performance, we use biopsy of the small bowel images that contain three categories in the parent level (Celiac Disease, Environmental Enteropathy, and histologically normal controls). For the child level, Celiac Disease Severity is classified into 4 classes...
Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) refers to a subclinical disorder of intestinal function c... more Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) refers to a subclinical disorder of intestinal function common in tropical countries and in settings of poverty and economic disadvantage. The enteropathy that underlies this syndrome is characterized by mucosal inflammation and villus blunting mediated by T cell activation. Epithelial cell disruption and microbial translocation drive systemic inflammation. EED in young children is associated geographically with growth failure, malnutrition, and greatly impaired responses to oral vaccines, notably rotavirus and poliovirus vaccines. In this review, we describe the pathophysiology of EED and examine the evidence linking EED and oral vaccine failure. This evidence is far from conclusive. Although our understanding of EED is still sketchy, there is limited evidence of disturbed innate immunity, B cell disturbances including aggregation into lymphoid follicles, and autoantibody generation. Pathways of T cell activation and the possibility of dendri...
Attention on semiconductor nanocrystals have been largely focused because of their unique optical... more Attention on semiconductor nanocrystals have been largely focused because of their unique optical and electrical properties which can be applied as light absorber and luminophore. However, band gap and structure engineering of nanomaterials is not so easy due to their finite size. Here we demonstrate an approach for preparing ternary AgInS2 (AIS), quaternary AgZnInS (AZIS), AgInS2/ZnS and AgZnInS/ZnS nanocompounds based on cation exchange. Firstly, pristine Ag2S quantum dots (QDs) with different sizes were synthesized in one-pot, followed by the partial cation exchange between In3+ and Ag+. Changing the initial ratio of In3+ to Ag+, reaction time and temperature can control the components of the obtained AIS QDs. Under the optimized conditions, AIS QDs were obtained for the first time with a cation disordered cubic phase and high photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) up to 32% in aqueous solution, demonstrating the great potential of cation exchange in the synthesis for nanocrys...
The Pediatric infectious disease journal, Jan 17, 2015
We evaluated the impact of the new pneumococcal Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccin... more We evaluated the impact of the new pneumococcal Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV10, GSK Vaccines) on tympanostomy tube placements (TTP). Finnish Invasive Pneumococcal (FinIP) disease vaccine trial was a nationwide phase III/IV cluster-randomized, double-blind trial. Children <19 months received PHiD-CV10 in two thirds of clusters (N=52) or hepatitis B or A vaccine as control in 26 clusters according to 3+1 or 2+1 schedules (infants <7 months) or catch-up schedules. A secondary objective of the trial was to assess vaccine effectiveness (VE) against TTPs in children who received at least one vaccine dose before or after 7 months of age. Blinded follow-up lasted from the date of first vaccination (from February 2009 through October 2010) to December 31, 2011. Outcome data were collected through the National Care register and Social Insurance Institution reimbursement register. Over 47000 children were enrolled. In 30527 infants <7 months of age at en...
Current oral rotavirus vaccines perform suboptimally in resource-poor settings. We investigated t... more Current oral rotavirus vaccines perform suboptimally in resource-poor settings. We investigated the effect of an additional dose and later schedule on the immunogenicity of monovalent rotavirus vaccine (RV1) in a developing country. Infants received RV1 at 6 and 10, 10 and 14, or 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age. The primary objective was to compare antirotavirus immunoglobulin A (IgA) seroconversion at 18 weeks in the 6/10/14 arm to the cumulative seroconversion (highest result at 14 or 18 weeks) in the 6/10 arm. Overall, 480 (76.2%) of 630 randomized infants completed the trial per protocol. Seroconversion in the 6/10/14 arm was 36.7% (95% CI, 29.8, 44.2) compared to 36.1% (CI, 29.0, 43.9) in the 6/10 arm, (P=1.0); the result from the 10/14 arm was 38.5% (CI, 31.2, 46.3). Seroconversion in the 6/10 arm at 14 weeks (post hoc) was lower at 29.7% (CI, 23.1, 37.3). In Pakistani infants, the immunogenicity of RV1 did not increase significantly with 3 doses at 6, 10, and 14 weeks compared to ...
The existence of small amplitude quantum ion-acoustic double layers is studied in an unmagnetized... more The existence of small amplitude quantum ion-acoustic double layers is studied in an unmagnetized dense electron-positron-ion plasma. For this purpose, the quantum hydrodynamic model is employed to derive a deformed Korteweg-de Vries (dKdV) equation. The steady state double layer solution of dKdV equation is obtained and its dependence on various parameters is discussed. It is found that only compressive double layers can exist in such plasmas. The analytical and numerical studies reveal that the quantum ion-acoustic double layer structures strongly depend on quantum diffraction effects and positron number density.
The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is a subclinical enteropathy prevalent in resource-limite... more Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is a subclinical enteropathy prevalent in resource-limited settings, hypothesized to be a consequence of chronic exposure to environmental enteropathogens, resulting in malnutrition, growth failure, neurocognitive delays, and oral vaccine failure. This study explored the duodenal and colonic tissues of children with EED, celiac disease, and other enteropathies using quantitative mucosal morphometry, histopathologic scoring indices, and machine learning–based image analysis from archival and prospective cohorts of children from Pakistan and the United States. We observed villus blunting as being more prominent in celiac disease than in EED, as shorter lengths of villi were observed in patients with celiac disease from Pakistan than in those from the United States, with median (interquartile range) lengths of 81 (73, 127) µm and 209 (188, 266) µm, respectively. Additionally, per the Marsh scoring method, celiac disease histologic severity was in...
Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan : JCPSP, 2017
The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of VAP(ventilator associated pneumonia) after s... more The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of VAP(ventilator associated pneumonia) after strict implementation of ventilator bundle in PICU. Medical records of all children (age 1 month - 16 years) were retrospectively reviewed, who were on mechanical ventilation (MV) for more than 48 hours and received all key components of "ventilator bundle" from January 2012 to December 2014. Out of 1050, 565 (54%) patients were enrolled. The mean age was 4.02 SD 4.29 years and 62 (69%) were male. The indications of MV were respiratory illness (54%), neurological illness (31%), shock (9%), and postoperative care (6%). The mean duration of MV was 7.05 SD 5.4 days. Only 4 patients (0.7%) developed VAP. The incidence-density of VAP was 1.6 per 1000 ventilator days. The strict implementation of simple, inexpensive interventions (ventilator bundle) in care of mechanically ventilated children can decrease significantly VAP even in resource-limited country.
Image classification is central to the big data revolution in medicine. Improved information proc... more Image classification is central to the big data revolution in medicine. Improved information processing methods for diagnosis and classification of digital medical images have shown to be successful via deep learning approaches. As this field is explored, there are limitations to the performance of traditional supervised classifiers. This paper outlines an approach that is different from the current medical image classification tasks that view the issue as multi-class classification. We performed a hierarchical classification using our Hierarchical Medical Image classification (HMIC) approach. HMIC uses stacks of deep learning models to give particular comprehension at each level of the clinical picture hierarchy. For testing our performance, we use biopsy of the small bowel images that contain three categories in the parent level (Celiac Disease, Environmental Enteropathy, and histologically normal controls). For the child level, Celiac Disease Severity is classified into 4 classes...
Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) refers to a subclinical disorder of intestinal function c... more Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) refers to a subclinical disorder of intestinal function common in tropical countries and in settings of poverty and economic disadvantage. The enteropathy that underlies this syndrome is characterized by mucosal inflammation and villus blunting mediated by T cell activation. Epithelial cell disruption and microbial translocation drive systemic inflammation. EED in young children is associated geographically with growth failure, malnutrition, and greatly impaired responses to oral vaccines, notably rotavirus and poliovirus vaccines. In this review, we describe the pathophysiology of EED and examine the evidence linking EED and oral vaccine failure. This evidence is far from conclusive. Although our understanding of EED is still sketchy, there is limited evidence of disturbed innate immunity, B cell disturbances including aggregation into lymphoid follicles, and autoantibody generation. Pathways of T cell activation and the possibility of dendri...
Attention on semiconductor nanocrystals have been largely focused because of their unique optical... more Attention on semiconductor nanocrystals have been largely focused because of their unique optical and electrical properties which can be applied as light absorber and luminophore. However, band gap and structure engineering of nanomaterials is not so easy due to their finite size. Here we demonstrate an approach for preparing ternary AgInS2 (AIS), quaternary AgZnInS (AZIS), AgInS2/ZnS and AgZnInS/ZnS nanocompounds based on cation exchange. Firstly, pristine Ag2S quantum dots (QDs) with different sizes were synthesized in one-pot, followed by the partial cation exchange between In3+ and Ag+. Changing the initial ratio of In3+ to Ag+, reaction time and temperature can control the components of the obtained AIS QDs. Under the optimized conditions, AIS QDs were obtained for the first time with a cation disordered cubic phase and high photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) up to 32% in aqueous solution, demonstrating the great potential of cation exchange in the synthesis for nanocrys...
The Pediatric infectious disease journal, Jan 17, 2015
We evaluated the impact of the new pneumococcal Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccin... more We evaluated the impact of the new pneumococcal Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV10, GSK Vaccines) on tympanostomy tube placements (TTP). Finnish Invasive Pneumococcal (FinIP) disease vaccine trial was a nationwide phase III/IV cluster-randomized, double-blind trial. Children <19 months received PHiD-CV10 in two thirds of clusters (N=52) or hepatitis B or A vaccine as control in 26 clusters according to 3+1 or 2+1 schedules (infants <7 months) or catch-up schedules. A secondary objective of the trial was to assess vaccine effectiveness (VE) against TTPs in children who received at least one vaccine dose before or after 7 months of age. Blinded follow-up lasted from the date of first vaccination (from February 2009 through October 2010) to December 31, 2011. Outcome data were collected through the National Care register and Social Insurance Institution reimbursement register. Over 47000 children were enrolled. In 30527 infants <7 months of age at en...
Current oral rotavirus vaccines perform suboptimally in resource-poor settings. We investigated t... more Current oral rotavirus vaccines perform suboptimally in resource-poor settings. We investigated the effect of an additional dose and later schedule on the immunogenicity of monovalent rotavirus vaccine (RV1) in a developing country. Infants received RV1 at 6 and 10, 10 and 14, or 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age. The primary objective was to compare antirotavirus immunoglobulin A (IgA) seroconversion at 18 weeks in the 6/10/14 arm to the cumulative seroconversion (highest result at 14 or 18 weeks) in the 6/10 arm. Overall, 480 (76.2%) of 630 randomized infants completed the trial per protocol. Seroconversion in the 6/10/14 arm was 36.7% (95% CI, 29.8, 44.2) compared to 36.1% (CI, 29.0, 43.9) in the 6/10 arm, (P=1.0); the result from the 10/14 arm was 38.5% (CI, 31.2, 46.3). Seroconversion in the 6/10 arm at 14 weeks (post hoc) was lower at 29.7% (CI, 23.1, 37.3). In Pakistani infants, the immunogenicity of RV1 did not increase significantly with 3 doses at 6, 10, and 14 weeks compared to ...
The existence of small amplitude quantum ion-acoustic double layers is studied in an unmagnetized... more The existence of small amplitude quantum ion-acoustic double layers is studied in an unmagnetized dense electron-positron-ion plasma. For this purpose, the quantum hydrodynamic model is employed to derive a deformed Korteweg-de Vries (dKdV) equation. The steady state double layer solution of dKdV equation is obtained and its dependence on various parameters is discussed. It is found that only compressive double layers can exist in such plasmas. The analytical and numerical studies reveal that the quantum ion-acoustic double layer structures strongly depend on quantum diffraction effects and positron number density.
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Papers by Asad Ali