Distribution of Spoligotyping Defined Genotypic Lineages among Drug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Clinical Isolates in Ankara, Turkey

Background: Investigation of genetic heterogeneity and spoligotype-defined lineages of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates collected during a three-year period in two university hospitals and National Tuberculosis Reference and Research Laboratory in Ankara, Turkey. Methods and Findings: A total of 95 drug-resistant M. tuberculosis isolates collected from three different centers were included in this study. Susceptibility testing of the isolates to four major antituberculous drugs was performed using proportion method on Löwenstein–Jensen medium and BACTEC 460-TB system. All clinical isolates were typed by using spoligotyping and IS6110-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) methods. Seventy-three of the 95 (76.8%) drug resistant M. tuberculosis isolates were isoniazid-resistant, 45 (47.4%) were rifampicin-resistant, 32 (33.7%) were streptomycinresistant and 31 (32.6%) were ethambutol-resistant. The proportion of multidrug-resistant isolates (MDR) was 42.1%. By using spoligotyping, 35 distinct patterns were observed; 75 clinical isolates were grouped in 15 clusters (clustering rate of 79%) and 20 isolates displayed unique patterns. Five of these 20 unique patterns corresponded to orphan patterns in th

Effect of Illumination on the Photovoltaic Parameters of Al/p-Si Diode with an Organic Interlayer Prepared by Spin Coating Method

In this study, the photovoltaic device application of bromothymol blue (BTB) as an organic interlayer has been reported. After Al back contact fabrication on the surface of the chemically cleaned substrate by thermal evaporation method, the organic interlayer has been grown on p-Si substrate via spin coating technique. Al top contacts have been formed on this organic thin film to finalize the device constructions. The different illumination intensities were exposed to the prepared sample for the enhancement in the photovoltaic properties of device. The fundamental photovoltaic parameters such as open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current (Isc) and output power (P) were determined for the device under different illuminations. The photocurrent and the photo voltage have been increased with the increasing in illumination intensity. The dependence of the capacitance on the voltage at high and low frequency has been also reported for the studied device. Consequently, it has been confirmed that the illumination intensity has an important influence on the photovoltaic parameters of the device

Yatan hastalarda böbrek fonksiyon bozukluğu tipleri, seyirleri ve sonuçları: Tek merkez deneyimi

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine how to eliminate the treatment uncertainties, and correct and prevent inappropriate treatment in patients with renal failure. Material and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the biochemistry department’s records of 438 patients with creatinine values >1.5 mg/dL that were followed-up at our hospital for the last five years. Demographics, type of renal dysfunction, related risk factors (use of nephrotoxic agents, surgical procedures, comorbidity, etc.), dialysis treatment, complications, and clinical outcome of these patients were recorded and analyzed. Results: The most important result of the study is that the quality of the medical data recorded was very poor. The most common type of acute renal injury was prerenal acute renal injury. Among the cases, the most common etiological factors were dehydration and use of nephrotoxic agents. Surgical procedures and comorbid conditions facilitated the development of renal dysfunction, and all complications observed were more common and serious in the elderly patients. Among the patients with chronic renal injury, more of those with diabetic nephropathy required hospitalization. Interestingly, nosocomial infections were the most common cause of mortality in the patients hospitalized due to renal dysfunction. Conclusion: Only a few medical records were suitable for retrospective evaluation. We think that if the quality of hospital data collection/storage systems could be improved, the quality of research data obtained in such studies would likewise improve and these data will bring preventive and corrective approach to mortality and morbidity. © 2019, Duzce University Medical School. All rights reserved.Amaç: Bu çalışmanın amacı, böbrek hasarı olan hastalarda tedavi belirsizliklerinin nasıl giderileceğinin belirlenmesi ve tedavideki uygunsuzlukların düzeltilmesi ve önlenebilmesidir. Gereç ve Yöntemler: Kreatinin değeri >1,5 mg/dL olan ve hastanemizde son beş yılda takip edilen 438 hastanın biyokimya anabilim dalı kayıtları geriye dönük olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Hastaların demografik özellikleri, böbrek fonksiyon bozukluğu tipleri, ilişkili risk faktörleri (nefrotoksik ajanların kullanımı, cerrahi prosedürler, komorbidite, vb.), diyaliz tedavisi, komplikasyonlar ve klinik sonuçları kayıt altına alındı ve analiz edildi. Bulgular: Çalışmanın en önemli bulgusu, kaydedilmiş olan tıbbi verilerin kalitesinin çok düşük olmasıdır. En sık görülen akut böbrek hasarı tipi prerenal akut böbrek hasarı idi. Olgular arasında en yaygın etiyolojik faktörler dehidratasyon ve nefrotoksik ajanların kullanımı idi. Cerrahi işlemlerin ve eşlik eden hastalıkların böbrek fonksiyon bozukluğu gelişimini kolaylaştırdığı, gözlenen tüm komplikasyonların yaşlı hastalarda daha sık ve ciddi seyirli olduğu belirlendi. Kronik böbrek hasarı olan hastalar arasında, diyabetik nefropatisi olanların çoğunun hastaneye yatması gerekiyordu. İlginç olarak, böbrek fonksiyon bozukluğu ile izlenen yatan hastalarda en önemli mortalite nedeninin nozokomiyal infeksiyonlar olduğu belirlendi. Sonuç: Retrospektif değerlendirme için sadece birkaç tıbbi kayıt uygundu. Hastane veri toplama/depolama sistemlerinin kalitesinin iyileştirilebilmesi durumunda, bu tür çalışmalarda elde edilen araştırma verilerinin kalitesinin de aynı şekilde gelişeceğini ve bu verilerin mortalite ve morbidite konus

Reactively Sputtered Cu2ZnTiS4 Thin Film as Low-Cost Earth-Abundant Absorber

Cu2ZnTiS4 thin films have been deposited on glass by the reactive cosputtering technique with high-purity ZnS and Cu and Ti metals as targets and H2S as reactive gas. Cu2ZnTiS4 thin films were obtained at various temperatures and H2S flows and were annealed in H2S atmosphere. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of the Cu2ZnTiS4 thin films were examined by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. Agglomeration was found to increase with increasing temperature. The XRD peaks of the Cu2ZnTiS4 thin films were consistent with those of Cu2ZnSnS4. Furthermore, the optical bandgaps of the Cu2ZnTiS4 films were lower than those of conventional Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films

Description of 30 shared types containing 90 isolates that matched a preexisting shared type in the SITVIT2 proprietary database of the Pasteur Institute of Guadeloupe.

a<p>The percentage in this study as compared to the SITVIT2 database was calculated by dividing the number of strains with a given pattern in the present study by the total number of strains with the same pattern in the database, and then multiplying the figure by 100 to get the percentage with respect to the total amount. Note that SITVIT2 is an updated version of the previously released SpolDB4 database <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0030331#pone.0030331-Brudey1" target="_blank">[27]</a>. At the time of the present analysis, it contained genotyping information on 67,000 <i>M. tuberculosis</i> clinical isolates from 160 countries of patient origin.</p>b<p>Lineage designation, LAM: Latin-American and Mediterranean; Unk: Unknown patterns within any of the major lineage described in database.</p>c<p>For newly created SITs, match with an orphan isolate is shown in the database.</p

Statistical comparison of Beijing isolates in this study and in the previously published studies from Turkey.

<p>Statistical comparison of Beijing isolates in this study and in the previously published studies from Turkey.</p

Drug resistance patterns of the 95 drug-resistant <i>M. tuberculosis</i> isolates from Ankara, Turkey.

<p>Drug resistance patterns of the 95 drug-resistant <i>M. tuberculosis</i> isolates from Ankara, Turkey.</p

Description of the orphan isolates (n = 5) after comparison of the spoligotype patterns of the drug-resistant <i>M. tuberculosis</i> isolates from Ankara with the SITVIT2 database.

<p>Description of the orphan isolates (n = 5) after comparison of the spoligotype patterns of the drug-resistant <i>M. tuberculosis</i> isolates from Ankara with the SITVIT2 database.</p