Bioconversion of Weedy Waste into Sugary Wealth

Efforts put in overriding the inulin abundant invader nastiest category I weeds are infeasible that lead into its impermanent confiscation. Hence, their heedful exploitation is obligatory. These invasive weeds have ample amount of inulin, which serves as a renewable, cheap raw substrate for inulinase production. Therefore, they have enticed intention of many researchers toward exploring more idiosyncratic inulinase producing microbial strains that utilize invasive inulin-rich weeds as substrate for fructose liberation. Plenteous industrial applications of inulinases have marked it distinctly crucial in recent biotechnological epoch. This review thus elaborates the literature on infused footprints embedded by the substituted low calorie healthy sweetener in new advancing fields

Procalcitonin Identifies Cell Injury, Not Bacterial Infection, in Acute Liver Failure

Background Because acute liver failure (ALF) patients share many clinical features with severe sepsis and septic shock, identifying bacterial infection clinically in ALF patients is challenging. Procalcitonin (PCT) has proven to be a useful marker in detecting bacterial infection. We sought to determine whether PCT discriminated between presence and absence of infection in patients with ALF. Method Retrospective analysis of data and samples of 115 ALF patients from the United States Acute Liver Failure Study Group randomly selected from 1863 patients were classified for disease severity and ALF etiology. Twenty uninfected chronic liver disease (CLD) subjects served as controls. Results Procalcitonin concentrations in most samples were elevated, with median values for all ALF groups near or above a 2.0 ng/mL cut-off that generally indicates severe sepsis. While PCT concentrations increased somewhat with apparent liver injury severity, there were no differences in PCT levels between the pre-defined severity groups–non-SIRS and SIRS groups with no documented infections and Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock groups with documented infections, (p = 0.169). PCT values from CLD patients differed from all ALF groups (median CLD PCT value 0.104 ng/mL, (p ≤0.001)). Subjects with acetaminophen (APAP) toxicity, many without evidence of infection, demonstrated median PCT \u3e2.0 ng/mL, regardless of SIRS features, while some culture positive subjects had PCT values Summary/Conclusions While PCT appears to be a robust assay for detecting bacterial infection in the general population, there was poor discrimination between ALF patients with or without bacterial infection presumably because of the massive inflammation observed. Severe hepatocyte necrosis with inflammation results in elevated PCT levels, rendering this biomarker unreliable in the ALF setting

The role of hepatitis E virus infection in adult Americans with acute liver failure

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135129/1/hep28649-sup-0001-suppinfo.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135129/2/hep28649.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135129/3/hep28649_am.pd

Performance of Isfahan North Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Removal of Listeria monocytogenes

Listeria and in particular Listeria monocytogenes is considered a ubiquitous foodborne pathogen which can lead listeriosis in human and animals. Listeriosis can be serious and may cause meningitis, septicemia and abortion in pregnant women. Although wastewater or sludge may contaminate foods of plant origin, there are no data on occurrence of Listeria spp. in wastewater and sludge in Iran. The purpose of current investigation was to study the occurrence of Listeria spp. in various samples of wastewater and sludge in Isfahan North wastewater treatment plant. Influent, effluent, raw sludge and dried sludge samples were collected from Isfahan North municipal wastewater treatment plant. L. monocytogenes were enumerated by a three–tube most probable number (MPN) assay using enrichment Fraser broth. A total of 65 various samples from five step in 13 visits were collected. The presence of Listeria spp. also was determined using USDA procedure. Then, phenotypically identified L. monocytogenes were further confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction amplification. L. monocytogenes isolated from 76.9%, 38.5%, 84.6%, 69.2% and 46.2% of influent, effluent, raw sludge, stabilized sludge and dried sludge respectively. The efficiency of wastewater treatment processes, digester tank and drying bed in removal L. monocytogenes were 69.6%, 64.7% and 73.4% respectively. All phenotypically identified L. monocytogenes were further confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction. The results of present study have shown that Listeriaspp. and L. monocytogenes in particular, were present in wastewater treatment plant effluents and sludge at high level. The bacteria may spread on agriculture land and contaminate foods of plant origin. This may cause a risk of spreading disease to human and animals

Global longitudinal strain for detection of cardiac iron overload in patients with thalassemia: a meta-analysis of observational studies with individual-level participant data

Background: Although cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is the most reliable tool for assessment of CIO in patients with thalassemia, it is not always readily available. Recent studies have explored the potential of GLS as an alternative for diagnosis of CIO. We aimed to investigate the efficacy of global longitudinal strain (GLS) for detection of cardiac iron level (CIO). Methods: We searched SCOPUS, MEDLINE, and Embase to identify the studies which used GLS for assessment of CIO. We searched for individual participant data (IPD) in eligible studies to perform ROC curve analysis. CMR with a T2* cut-off value of 20 ms was considered as the gold standard. A meta-analysis was performed and the risk of bias was assessed using the JBI Checklist. Results: A total of 14 studies with 789 thalassemia patients (310 and 430 with and without CIO respectively and 49 with undetermined condition) were considered eligible for meta-analysis. IPDs of 405 participants were available. GLS was significantly lower in patients with CIO (-17.5 ± 2.7%) compared to those without CIO (-19.9 ± 2.3%; WMD = 1.6%, 95% CI = [0.76-2.4], p = 0.001, I2 = 77.1%) and to normal population (-20.61 ± 2.26%; WMD = 2.2%, 95% CI = [0.91-3.5], p = 0.001, I2 = 83.9%). A GLS < -19.5% could predict CIO with 92.8% sensitivity and 34.63% specificity (AUC = 0.659, 95% CI = [0.6-0.72], p-value < 0.0001). A GLS value < -6% has 100% positive predictive and ≥ -24.5% has 100% negative predictive values for detection of CIO. Conclusions: According to our study, GLS is a strong predictor of CIO and when CMR is not available, it may be a useful screening method for identification of CIO in thalassemia patients

Demographic and Biodata Results Based Upon the Calculated Infection Cut-off Value of 1.62 ng/mL.

<p>Samples were resorted based upon the cut-off value of 1.62 ng/mL and demographic and biodata were re-examined.</p><p>Demographic and Biodata Results Based Upon the Calculated Infection Cut-off Value of 1.62 ng/mL.</p

Receiver Operator Curve for the Detection of Infection in ALF and ALI patients Using PCT.

<p>The ROC analysis resulted in an AUC of 0.697 with a sensitivity of 64.3% and a specificity of 62.0% for the use of PCT in the detection of infection this population of ALF patients.</p

Median APAP vs All Other Etiologies PCT values by Category.

<p>This graph represents the median PCT values for the four ALF patient severity groups sorted by etiologies: APAP and All Others etiologies (combined viral and other) with the lower dashed line indicative of no infection (0.1 ng/mL) and the upper dotted line indicative of severe sepsis (2.0 ng/mL).</p

Median PCT Values by Category.

<p>This graph represents the median PCT values for the five patient severity groups. The lower dashed horizontal line represents the 0.1 ng/mL PCT cut-off value indicative of no infection. The upper dotted horizontal line represents the 2.0 ng/mL PCT cut-off value indicative of severe sepsis.</p

Demographic Data for Patients Based Upon Severity of Illness Classifications.

<p>*Ethnicity: O were reported in the CLD group; 15 of 16 were reported in the Septic Shock group</p><p>**Race: 18 of 20 reported in the CLD group / p-value reported for white vs. all other races.</p><p>Demographic Data for Patients Based Upon Severity of Illness Classifications.</p