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Deep Learning Technology: Sebastian Arnold, Betty van Aken, Paul Grundmann, Felix A. Gers and Alexander Löser. Learning Contextualized Document Representations for Healthcare Answer Retrieval. The Web Conference 2020 (WWW'20)
Funded by The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy; Grant: 01MD19013D, Smart-MD Project, Digital Technologies
Skeletal eroding band (SEB) is a disease of corals that appears as a black or dark gray band that slowly advances over corals, leaving a spotted region of dead coral in its wake. It is the most common disease of corals in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and is also found in the Red Sea.
So far one agent has been clearly identified, the ciliate "Halofolliculina corallasia". This makes SEB the first coral disease known to be caused by a protozoan. When "H. corallasia" divides, the daughter cells move to the leading edge of the dark band and produce a protective shell called a lorica. To do this, they drill into the coral's limestone skeleton, killing coral polyps in the process.
A disease with very similar symptoms has been found in the Caribbean Sea, but has been given a different name as it is caused by a different species in the genus "Halofolliculina" and occurs in a different type of environment.
Black piedra is a form of piedra caused by "Piedraia hortae".
Terbinafine has been used in the treatment.
An escharotic is a substance that causes tissue to die and slough off. Examples include acids, alkalis, carbon dioxide, metallic salts and sanguinarine, as well as certain medicines like imiquimod. Escharotics known as black salves, containing ingredients such as zinc chloride and sanguinarine containing bloodroot extracts, were traditionally used in herbal medicine as topical treatments for localised skin cancers, but often cause scarring and can potentially cause serious injury and disfigurement. Consequently, escharotic salves are very strictly regulated in most western countries and while some prescription medicines are available with this effect, unauthorized sales are illegal. Some prosecutions have been pursued over unlicensed sales of escharotic products such as Cansema.
Piedra (also known as "Trichosporosis") is a hair disease caused by a fungus.
Types include:
- White piedra
- Black piedra
With extra care taken to the health of the shrimp, it is possible to prevent cases of black gill disease. The water should have 10-20 parts per thousand parts salinity and filtered.
HPV is spread by direct and indirect contact from an infected host. Avoiding direct contact with infected surfaces such as communal changing rooms and shower floors and benches, avoiding sharing of shoes and socks and avoiding contact with warts on other parts of the body and on the bodies of others may help reduce the spread of infection. Infection is less common among adults than children.
As all warts are contagious, precautions should be taken to avoid spreading them. Recommendations include:
- cover them with an adhesive bandage while swimming
- wear flip-flops when using communal showers
- should not share towels.
Plantar warts are not prevented by inoculation with HPV vaccines because the warts are caused by different strains of HPV. Gardasil protects against strains 6, 11, 16, and 18, and Cervarix protects against 16 and 18, whereas plantar warts are caused by strains 1, 2, 4, and 63.
Afro-textured hair is the natural hair texture of certain populations in Africa, the African diaspora, Australia and Asia, which has not been altered by hot combs, flat irons or chemicals (through perming, relaxation or other straightening methods). Each strand of this hair type grows in a tiny, spring-like helix shape. The overall effect is such that, compared to straight, wavy or curly hair, afro-textured hair appears denser.
The smuts are multicellular fungi characterized by their large numbers of teliospores. The smuts get their name from a Germanic word for dirt because of their dark, thick-walled, and dust-like teliospores. They are mostly Ustilaginomycetes (of the class Teliomycetae, subphylum Basidiomycota) and can cause plant disease. The smuts are grouped with the other basidiomycetes because of their commonalities concerning sexual reproduction.
Smuts are cereal and crop pathogens that most notably affect members of the grass family ("Poaceae"). Economically important hosts include maize, barley, wheat, oats, sugarcane, and forage grasses. They eventually hijack the plants' reproductive systems, forming galls which darken and burst, releasing fungal teliospores which infect other plants nearby. Before infection can occur, the smuts need to undergo a successful mating to form dikaryotic hyphae (two haploid cells fuse to form a dikaryon).
There are multiple sources known to cause black gill disease. Poor pond conditions can cause debris to build up in the gills turning them black. Certain kinds of bacteria and the fungus genus Fusarium are also known causes.
Skeletal eroding band is visible as a black or dark gray band that slowly advances over corals, leaving a spotted region of dead coral in its wake. The spotted area distinguishes skeletal eroding band from black band disease, which also forms an advancing black band but leaves a completely white dead area behind it.
Skeletal eroding band was first noticed in 1988 near Papua New Guinea and then near Lizard Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, but was regarded as a gray variant of black band disease, as were instances off Mauritius in 1990. Surveys in 1994 in and around the Red Sea first identified the condition as a unique disease. It is now considered the commonest disease of corals in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, especially in warmer or more polluted waters.
The spread of the disease across an infected coral has been measured at in the Red Sea and around the Great Barrier Reef. Corals of the families Acroporidae and Pocilloporidae are the most vulnerable to infection. A study in 2008 found that the infection spread at about per day in colonies of "Acropora muricata", eventually wiping out 95% of its victims. However, experiments showed that the disease easily spread to already dead and dying areas of corals but did not attack undamaged corals.
Apple scab is a disease of "Malus" trees, such as apple trees, caused by the ascomycete fungus "Venturia inaequalis". The disease manifests as dull black or grey-brown lesions on the surface of tree leaves, buds or fruits. Lesions may also appear less frequently on the woody tissues of the tree. Fruits and the undersides of leaves are especially susceptible. The disease rarely kills its host, but can significantly reduce fruit yields and fruit quality. Affected fruits are less marketable due to the presence of the black fungal lesions.
Sugarcane smut or "Ustilago scitaminea Sydow" is caused by the fungus "Sporisorium scitamineum"; smut was previously known as "Ustilago scitaminea". The smut 'whip' is a curved black structure which emerges from the leaf whorl, and which aids in the spreading of the disease. Sugarcane smut causes significant losses to the economic value of a sugarcane crop. Sugarcane smut has recently been found in the eastern seaboard areas of Australia, one of the world's highest-yielding sugar areas.
For the sugarcane crop to be infected by the disease, large spore concentrations are needed. The fungi uses its "smut-whip" to ensure that the disease is spread to other plants, which usually occurs over a time period of three months. As the inoculum is spread, the younger sugarcane buds just coming out of the soil will be the most susceptible. Because water is necessary for spore germination, irrigation has been shown to be a factor in spreading the disease. Therefore, special precautions need to be taken during irrigation to prevent spreading of the smut.
Another way to prevent the disease from occurring in the sugarcane is to use fungicide. This can be done by either pre-plant soaking or post-plant spraying with the specific fungicide. Pre-plant soaking has been proven to give the best results in preventing the disease, but post-plant spraying is a practical option for large sugarcane cultivations.
Black band disease was first observed on reefs in Belize in 1973 by A. Antonius, who described the pathogen he found infecting corals as "Oscillatoria membranacea", one of the cyanobacteria. The band color may be blackish brown to red depending on the vertical position of a cyanobacterial population associated with the band. The vertical position is based on a light intensity-dependent photic response of the cyanobacterial filaments, and the color (due to the cyanobacterial pigment phycoerythrin) is dependent on the thickness of the band. The band is approximately thick and ranges in width from to White specks may be present on surface, at times forming dense white patches. The pathogenic microbial mat moves across coral colonies at rates from to a day. Tissue death is caused by exposure to an hypoxic, sulfide-rich microenvironment associated with the base of the band.
An eschar (; Greek: "eschara") is a slough or piece of dead tissue that is cast off from the surface of the skin, particularly after a burn injury, but also seen in gangrene, ulcer, fungal infections, necrotizing spider bite wounds, spotted fevers and exposure to cutaneous anthrax. The term "eschar" is not interchangeable with "scab". An eschar contains necrotic tissue, whereas a scab is composed of dried blood and exudate.
Black eschars are most commonly attributed to anthrax, which may be contracted through herd animal exposure, but can also be obtained from "Pasteurella multocida" exposure in cats and rabbits. A newly identified human rickettsial infection, "R. parkeri" rickettsiosis, can be differentiated from Rocky Mountain spotted fever by the presence of an eschar at the site of inoculation.
Eschar is sometimes called a "black wound" because the wound is covered with thick, dry, black necrotic tissue.
Eschar may be allowed to slough off naturally, or it may require surgical removal (debridement) to prevent infection, especially in immunocompromised patients (e.g. if a skin graft is to be conducted).
If eschar is on a limb, it is important to assess peripheral pulses of the affected limb to make sure blood and lymphatic circulation is not compromised. If circulation is compromised, an escharotomy, or surgical incision through the eschar, may be indicated.
Clarence (2012) suggests that afro-textured hair may have initially evolved because of an adaptive need amongst humans' early hominid ancestors for protection against the intense UV radiation of the sun in Africa. With regard to the hypothesized recent African origin of modern humans, the author argues that afro-textured hair was the original hair texture of all modern humans prior to the "Out-of-Africa" migration that populated the rest of the globe. According to Clarence (2012), afro-textured hair may have been adaptive for the earliest modern humans in Africa because the relatively sparse density of such hair, combined with its elastic helix shape, results in an airy effect. The resulting increased circulation of cool air onto the scalp may have thus served to facilitate the body-temperature-regulation system of hominids while they lived on the open savannah. Afro-hair requires more moisture than straight hair and tends to shrink when dry. Instead of sticking to the neck and scalp when damp (as do straighter textures), unless completely drenched it tends to retain its basic springiness. The trait may have been retained and/or preferred among many anatomically modern populations in equatorial areas, such as Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Australoids and the Negrito, because of its contribution to enhanced comfort levels under tropical climate conditions.
Black band disease is a coral disease in which corals develop a black band. It is characterized by complete tissue degradation due to a pathogenic microbial consortium. The mat is present between apparently healthy coral tissue and freshly exposed coral skeleton.
Melanism, meaning a mutation that results in completely dark skin, does not exist in humans. Melanin is the primary determinant of the degree of skin pigmentation and protects the body from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The same ultraviolet radiation is essential for the synthesis of vitamin D in skin, so lighter color of skin - less melanin - is an adaptation for the prehistoric movement of humans away from equatorial regions, as there is less exposure to sunlight at higher latitudes. People from parts of Africa have very dark skin, but this is not melanism.
The term is believed to have originated on warships during the Age of sail, where it was common for sailors to sustain such an injury from the impact of a recoiling cannon. The condition in those days would have often been accompanied by other foot injuries, such as a fractured toe.
White piedra (or tinea blanca) is a mycosis of the hair caused by several species of fungi in the genus "Trichosporon". It is characterized by soft nodules composed of yeast cells and arthroconidia that encompass hair shafts.
A unibrow is part of normal human variation, but can also stem from developmental disorders. A unibrow is a recognized feature of Cornelia De Lange syndrome, a genetic disorder whose main features include moderate to severe learning difficulties, limb abnormalities such as oligodactyly (fewer than normal fingers or toes) and phocomelia (malformed limbs), and facial abnormalities including a long philtrum (the slight depression/line between the nose and mouth).
Other medical conditions associated with a unibrow include:
- Waardenburg Syndrome;
- Patau Syndrome;
- Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome;
- Sanfilippo Syndrome;
- 3p Deletion Syndrome;
- Chromosome Deletion Dillan 4p Syndrome (Wolf–Hirschhorn Syndrome);
- Gorlin Syndrome (Basal Cell Nevus Syndrome);
- Frontometaphyseal Dysplasia;
- ATRX Syndrome;
- Chromosome 9q34 Microdeletion Syndrome or Kleefstra syndrome.
Thousand cankers disease can be spread by moving infected black walnut wood. Trees intended for shipment should be inspected for dieback and cankers and galleries after harvest. G. morbidia or the walnut twig beetle ("Pityophthorus juglandis") are not currently known to be moved with walnut seed . There is currently no chemical therapy or prevention available for the disease making it difficult to control the spread of the disease from the west to the eastern united states. Wood from infected trees can still be used for commercial value, but safety measures such as removing the bark, phloem, and cambium to reduce the risk of spreading the disease with shipment. Quarantines have been put in place in some states to reduce the potential movement of fungus or beetle from that region. On May 17th, 2010, the Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture issued a quarantine from affected states to protect Michigan’s black walnut ecology and production. Contacting the appropriate entities about possible infections is important to stopping or slowing the spread of thousand cankers disease.
Acne keloidalis nuchae (also known as "Acne keloidalis", "Dermatitis papillaris capillitii", "Folliculitis keloidalis", "Folliculitis keloidis nuchae", and "Nuchal keloid acne") is a destructive scarring folliculitis that occurs almost exclusively on the occipital scalp of people of African descent, primarily men. This is mainly because men often cut their hair very low as opposed to women, allowing the hair to prick the occipital scalp and upset it. Acne keloidalis nuchae most commonly presents itself in individuals aged 13 to 25. The disease is closely related to pseudofolliculitis barbae and both occur frequently in black men in the military, where it is so common that services often have widely known protocols for management.
A number of treatments have been found to be effective. A 2012 review of different treatments for skin warts in otherwise healthy people concluded modest benefit from salicylic acid and cryotherapy appears similar to salicylic acid.
Ship Foot is commonly diagnosed by a discolouration of the toenail, usually black, blue, purple or red. The symptoms are caused by trapped blood under the toenail. Blisters and cracked skin may also occur.
Citrus Black Spot is a fungal disease caused by Guignardia citricarpa. This Ascomycete fungus affects citrus plants throughout subtropical climates, causing a reduction in both fruit quantity and quality. Symptoms include both fruit and leaf lesions, the latter being critical to inter-tree dispersal. Strict regulation and management is necessary to control this disease since there are currently no citrus varieties that are resistant.