Detection of Human Torovirus Like Particles and Adenovirus Type F in Children Attending to Babylon Maternity and Children Hospital

Toroviruses are enteric viruses belonging to the Nidovirales order that infect different animal species and human . Torovirus-like particales (TVLPs) that are immunologically related to BRV have been reported as etiological agents of gastroenteritis in humans. The lack of “in vitro” culture systems for toroviruses, except  for the prototype Berne virus or BEV, isolated originally from an infected horse, has hampered their study and the development of diagnostic assays. This  study  describes a real time RT-PCR method to detect  human  torovirus- like particles  (TVLPs) RNA in clinical  stool  samples using primers corresponding to the gene coding for  the nucleocapsid protein which are conserved in all (TVLPs) strains known to date. During this study, the CT value  measured  during real-time PCR analysis was used as an indication of the viral load found in the stool  sample . The assay was evaluated with 72 stool samples from children attending the Babylon maternity and children hospital. Fifty tow out of 72 (72.2%) children were shedding virus at  the time of sample collection, indicating a high incidence of TVLPs  infection  in Babylon Province. This  is the first study  attempted  for   estimating  the presence of TVLPs  in Iraq. The real time RT-PCR assay described in this study  provides a rapid, highly sensitive, specific and reliable detection and quantization  method enabling future TVLPs  epidemiological studies. In addition to that  the study included the development of real-time PCR assays for the detection of group F Adenovirus in 250 stool samples of pediatric subjects  exhibiting symptoms of diarrhea and/ or vomiting  which  were examined. PCR results of 10 positive Adenovirus group F diarrheic stool samples were confirmed by electron microscopy  examination which gave clear positive Adenovirus appearance . Till now there was no successful virus  culture growth for  isolation of diarrhegenic type 40 and 41 grow in routine cell culture . The result of this study by real time reverse transcription  – PCR  assay reflected in 72 .2 % and 58 % torovirus and adenovirus group F respectively. The genotyping results of adenoviruses(genotype 40 and 41)  highlight the significance of rapid molecular methods for the routine screening of stool samples in diagnostic laboratories to provide rapid and efficient methods . Keywords: Human Torovirus, Adenovirus, RT-PCR, Electron Microscopy

Awareness of hypertension guidelines among family physicians in primary health care

AbstractBackgroundOnly 14% of patients on treatment achieve the recommended blood pressure target. Guidelines aim to assist clinicians in the management of patients with hypertension.ObjectivesThe primary purpose of the study was to survey family physicians(FPs) in Kuwait about their awareness, and to understand better their reasons for not implementing specific guidance within the WHO/ISH guidelines.MethodsThis study is a cross-sectional survey that was carried out in the five health regions of Kuwait. All PHC physicians who were currently working as FPs were asked to participate in the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire of clinically oriented questions formulated on the basis of the 1999 World Health Organization/International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH), as standard reference.ResultsThe study revealed that 49.1% and 42.1% of FPs were very familiar or somewhat familiar with the guidelines respectively, 92.1% were in agreement, and 79.8% indicated that they always or usually follow these guidelines when treating patients. Regarding the correct choice of the guideline statements, only 8.8% of the FPs choose correctly less than ten of the 20 statements, 64% choose 10 to less than 15, and only 27.2% choose ⩾15 statements. When asked about perceived patient barriers to blood pressure control, 84.0% of the respondents ranked overcrowded clinics as important or most important barrier to blood pressure control while, 87.4% considered lack of patient knowledge as important or most important barrier. Non availability of the drugs in the clinic was considered by 88.4% of the physicians, and poor adherence to antihypertensive drugs by 90.1%.ConclusionThere is a need to establish nationwide educational and quality monitoring programs to facilitate the correct implementation of hypertension guidelines in PHC clinical practices in Kuwait

A cytogenic monitoring approach of hospital workers occuptionally exposed to ionizing radiations using micronucleus assay

Background: The objective of this study was to determine chromosomal damage in occupational workers of the radiation department from three different hospitals, Faisalabad, Pakistan exposed for a long term to ionizing radiations using micronucles (MN) assay. A comparison between exposed and non-exposed subjects (controlled) of same age exhibited a significant an increase in the number of micronuclei in occupational workers. MN frequency increases with an increase in age and duration of exposure in both sexes but higher in females.Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at the District Head Quarter Hospital (DHQ), Punjab Institute of Nuclear Medicine (PINUM) and Allied Hospital, Faisalabad, Pakistan. The total 145 subjects were selected from these hospitals. The subjects were divided into two groups. The control group (N= 40) (20 males and 20 females) of healthy subjects (no exposure) and the second group of subjects (N=105) (68 males and 37 females) subjects of occupational workers who were indirectly exposed to radiation. Blood samples (2ml) were collected in sodium heparinised vaccutainer tubes through venipuncture from both the groups. Disposable syringes were used for this purpose. For the evaluation of MN yield, slides were prepared by following the method of Jorge et al. (2004).Results: A significant difference in micro nuclear induction was observed between the occupational subjects and the control subjects and as well as in females and in males (P < 0.01). Females are more vulnerable to ionizing radiation than males. In females, MN yield was two times higher than males. MN frequency was increased with an increase in age and duration of exposure in both sexes, but higher in females and may be due to an increase in chromosomal loss in hospital workers. There is an individual response to the physical noxa, depending on sex, age and exposure. Smoking and drinking habits do not have a significant effect in increasing the number of MN in occupationally exposed workers.Conclusion: It was concluded that females are more vulnerable to ionizing radiations than males. MN test can be used as a biomarker with a predictive value for the estimation in occupationally exposed subjects.Key Words: Radiations; Hospital workers; Sex; Micronucleus assay; Chromosomal damag

Molecular characterization of Mycovirus in the dermatophyte and non-dermatophyte fungi

ABSTRACT: Mycoviruses are widespread in all major fungal groups and most of these cause little or no obvious symptoms in their fungal hosts. Mycoviruses particles were recorded since 1970s period. Many fungi like filamentous fungi like Fusarium spp. and mushroom Lentinula edodes infected by many types of viral particles but they were not regarded as causal agents for mushroom diseases. In this study, the dsRNA genome of a mycovirus recently found in dermatophyte and nondermatophyte fungi and their molecular structure was characterized. Genomic DNA of 180 isolates of Candida albicans and Trichophytone rubrum was extracted and electrophoresis through agarose gel. The results showed that many types of viral genomic DNA were detected, The Partitiviridea and Reoviridea genome of were obtained. In conclusion we observed that many filamentous fungi carried viral particles in their culture without any plaques as a lysogenic form of mycophage

Perfect secret sharing scheme based on vertex domination set

Due to the fast development in data communication systems and computer networks in recent years, the necessity to protect the secret data has become extremely imperative. Several methods have been proposed to protect the secret data; one of them is the secret sharing scheme. It is a method of distributing a secret K among a finite set of participants, in such a way that only predefined subset of participant is enabled to reconstruct a secret from their shares. A secret sharing scheme realizing uniform access structure described by a graph has received a considerable attention. In this scheme, each vertex represents a participant and each edge represents a minimum authorized subset. In this paper, an independent dominating set of vertices in a graph G is introduced and applied as a novel idea to construct a secret sharing scheme such that the vertices of the graph represent the participants and the dominating set of vertices in G represents the minimal authorized set. While most of the previous schemes were based on the principle of adjacent vertices, the proposed scheme is based upon the principle of non-adjacent vertices. We prove that the scheme is perfect, and the lower bound of the information rate of this new construction is improved when compared to some well-known previous constructions. We include an experiment involving security threats to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme

A CYTOGENIC MONITORING APPROACH OF HOSPITAL WORKERS OCCUPTIONALLY EXPOSED TO IONIZING RADIATIONS USING MICRONUCLEUS ASSAY

Background: The objective of this study was to determine chromosomal damage in occupational workers of the radiation department from three different hospitals, Faisalabad, Pakistan exposed for a long term to ionizing radiations using micronucles (MN) assay. A comparison between exposed and non-exposed subjects (controlled) of same age exhibited a significant an increase in the number of micronuclei in occupational workers. MN frequency increases with an increase in age and duration of exposure in both sexes but higher in females. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at the District Head Quarter Hospital (DHQ), Punjab Institute of Nuclear Medicine (PINUM) and Allied Hospital, Faisalabad, Pakistan. The total 145 subjects were selected from these hospitals. The subjects were divided into two groups. The control group (N= 40) (20 males and 20 females) of healthy subjects (no exposure) and the second group of subjects (N=105) (68 males and 37 females) subjects of occupational workers who were indirectly exposed to radiation. Blood samples (2ml) were collected in sodium heparinised vaccutainer tubes through venipuncture from both the groups. Disposable syringes were used for this purpose. For the evaluation of MN yield, slides were prepared by following the method of Jorge et al. (2004). Results: A significant difference in micro nuclear induction was observed between the occupational subjects and the control subjects and as well as in females and in males (P < 0.01). Females are more vulnerable to ionizing radiation than males. In females, MN yield was two times higher than males. MN frequency was increased with an increase in age and duration of exposure in both sexes, but higher in females and may be due to an increase in chromosomal loss in hospital workers. There is an individual response to the physical noxa, depending on sex, age and exposure. Smoking and drinking habits do not have a significant effect in increasing the number of MN in occupationally exposed workers. Conclusion: It was concluded that females are more vulnerable to ionizing radiations than males. MN test can be used as a biomarker with a predictive value for the estimation in occupationally exposed subjects

Plasmid Profile Analysis and Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern of Shigella flexneri Strains Isolated From

Abstract.-This study was carried out to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of 584 Shigella flexneri isolated from diarrheal patients admitted in hospitals in Azad Kashmir Pakistan and to evaluate their changing trends against twenty antibiotics. The isolates showed highest resistance against penicillin followed by carbenicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin, ceftizoxime, kanamycin, co-trimoxazole, piperacillin, amoxicillin, amikacin, streptomycin, nalidixic acid, gentamicin, chloramphenicol, cephalothin and ceftriaxone. All S. flexneri isolates were sensitive to cefixime, ciprofloxacin and enoxacin. Multiple drug resistance (MDR) was observed against 3-10 drugs and was resistant against three or more antibiotics was at the level as high as 300µg/ml. The resistant isolates showed different patterns of antibiotics resistance. The most common pattern was PCaA. The plasmids were observed in 32.8% MDR strains of S. flexneri which were found resistant against three or more antibiotics. The number of plasmids varied from one to seven. Analysis of plasmid DNA of S. flexneri revealed that all the strains contained a heterogeneous population of plasmids ranging between &gt;23.1 kb to &lt;2.0 kb. Based on molecular weight, the pattern of different plasmids was also very diverse. Depending on the number of plasmids, individual strains were grouped into nine different plasmid patterns. Some of the antibiotic resistance determinants were cured by acridine orange, indicating that widespread antibiotic resistance is mediated through plasmid. Transformation experiments showed that the factors for resistance against ampicillin, chloramphenicol and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim resided in &gt;23.1 Kb and 23.1 Kb plasmids

A STUDY ON CHRONIC EFFECT OF PROFENOFOS ON ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE AND BUTYRYLCHOLINESTERASE ACTIVITIES AND PROTEIN CONTENTS IN VARIOUS TISSUES IN MAJOR CARPS

Background: Pesticides widely used for agricultural purposes are carbamates, organophosphates as well as organochlorines. Among these pesticides, organochlorine compounds have been extensively used to control disease vectors as well as agricultural pests. The objective of this experiment was to study the chronic effect of a commercial formulation of profenofos on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butylcholinesterase (BuChE) activity in various tissues in Catla catla, Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala fingerlings was investigated. Materials and Methods: Healthy fingerlings of Catla catla, Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala with an average body length 90±6 mm and 30.00±2.00 g body weight were collected from the fish seed hatchery and brought to the laboratory. Fishes were maintained in 70 litter glass aquaria (27 ± 1oC, 2.70–2.80 ms and 8.85–9.40 pH). The fingerlings of Catla catla, Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala were exposed to the 3 sub lethal concentrations of profenofos (0.038, 0.019, 0.012; 0.06, 0.03, 0.02 and 0.041, 0.020 and 0.013 mg/L) for 8 weeks. The control experiments were also performed with the addition of carrier solvent alone. Acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase level were estimated according to the methodology of Ellman et al. (1961) and Kuster (2005). Total soluble proteins were determined by the Bradford (1976) standard method to assess enzymatic activity of the protein. Results: The least activity of AChE was recorded in muscle samples of Catla catla (1.07±0.040 μmoles/min/g of protein), exposed to the highest concentration of profenofos. BuChE activity was also reduced against various concentrations of profenofos. The AChE and BuChE activity was significantly inhibited even when exposed to a minimum concentration of this insecticide. Profenofos exposure affected the functioning of brain, blood, gills, muscle, kidneys and liver. We concluded that profenofos caused more inhibition in the liver for AChE and BuChE compared to other tissues. Conclusion: It has been concluded that profenofos is very highly toxic to the C. catla, L. rohita and C. mrigala fingerlings, but further studies are required to assign a certain level of toxicity to the said pesticide. Considering the high toxicity of profenofos, it is suggested to handle the profenofos carefully using all the precautionary measures in order to minimize the harmful effects on non-target organisms