The Occurrence of Type I, II, and III Integrons in Multi-drug Resistance and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolates in Iran

Integrons are mobilizable platforms-DNA elements with impacts on moving antibiotic resistance genes among bacteria and capable of spreading multi-drug resistance (MDR) in pathogens. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains are the main cause of community-acquired and nosocomial infections with high mortality and morbidity rates worldwide. This work is mainly aimed at calculating the frequency of Type I, II, and III integrons within multi-drug resistance and Methicillin-resistant S. aureus Isolates in Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 230 clinical isolates of S. aureus were gathered from patients of educational hospitals in the provinces of Iran. These isolates were verified utilizing particular biochemical examinations and then assessed for antibiotic susceptibility through disk diffusion technique and standard procedures were done. Genomic and plasmid DNA of all isolates were extracted using Extraction Kit and PCR assay was used for the detection of Type I, II and III integrons genes. Out of the 230 S. aureus isolates, 136 (59.1) isolates were MRSA and 141 (61.3) isolates exhibited the MDR pattern. PCR and sequencing showed that 57 (24.8) of tested isolates carry Type I integron. Among the isolates investigated, MRSA and MDR isolates showed frequencies of 56.1 and 57.9, respectively. Type II and III integrons were found in none of 230 isolates. The IntI I gene was present in approximately one-quarter of this study isolates. The great prevalence rate of MDR and MRSA isolates and concurrently the existence of Type I integron among those isolates have been considered an important concern in medical society. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Structural and stratigraphic chronology of the Taconide and Acadian polydeformational belt of the Central Taconics of New York State and Massachusetts

Guidebook for field trips in western Massachusetts, northern Connecticut and adjacent areas of New York: 67th annual meeting October 10, 11, and 12, 1975: Trip A-

Correlative Microscopy of Morphology and Luminescence of Cu porphyrin aggregates

Transfer of energy and information through molecule aggregates requires as one important building block anisotropic, cable-like structures. Knowledge on the spatial correlation of luminescence and morphology represents a prerequisite in the understanding of internal processes and will be important for architecting suitable landscapes. In this context we study the morphology, fluorescence and phosphorescence of molecule aggregate structures on surfaces in a spatially correlative way. We consider as two morphologies, lengthy strands and isotropic islands. It turns out that phosphorescence is quite strong compared to fluorescence and the spatial variation of the observed intensities is largely in line with the amount of dye. However in proportion, the strands exhibit more fluorescence than the isotropic islands suggesting weaker non-radiative channels. The ratio fluorescence to phosphorescence appears to be correlated with the degree of aggregation or internal order. The heights at which luminescence saturates is explained in the context of attenuation and emission multireflection, inside the dye. This is supported by correlative photoemission electron microscopy which is more sensitive to the surface region. The lengthy structures exhibit a pronounced polarization dependence of the luminescence with a relative dichroism up to about 60%, revealing substantial perpendicular orientation preference of the molecules with respect to the substrate and parallel with respect to the strands

Restriction Spectrum Imaging Differentiates True Tumor Progression From Immune-Mediated Pseudoprogression: Case Report of a Patient With Glioblastoma.

Immunotherapy is increasingly used in the treatment of glioblastoma (GBM), with immune checkpoint therapy gaining in popularity given favorable outcomes achieved for other tumors. However, immune-mediated (IM)-pseudoprogression is common, remains poorly characterized, and renders conventional imaging of little utility when evaluating for treatment response. We present the case of a 64-year-old man with GBM who developed pathologically proven IM-pseudoprogression after initiation of a checkpoint inhibitor, and who subsequently developed true tumor progression at a distant location. Based on both qualitative and quantitative analysis, we demonstrate that an advanced diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) technique called restriction spectrum imaging (RSI) can differentiate IM-pseudoprogression from true progression even when conventional imaging, including standard DWI/apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), is not informative. These data complement existing literature supporting the ability of RSI to estimate tumor cellularity, which may help to resolve complex diagnostic challenges such as the identification of IM-pseudoprogression

Use of Desipramine for the Treatment of Overactive Bladder Refractory to Antimuscarinic Therapy

Purpose: To evaluate the use of desipramine in the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 43 patients who were treated with desipramine for OAB refractory to antimuscarinic therapy. These OAB patients were stratified by the presence or absence of bladder pain. Results: Forty-three patients were evaluated with a mean follow up time of 12.2 +/- 4.6 months. The mean age of the patients was 71 16 years. Twelve patients (28%) discontinued desipramine, 9 due to perceived lack of efficacy, 2 due to central anticholinergic side effects, and 1 due to the development of oropharyngeal sores. Patients were stratified into two subgroups based upon treatment with desipramine for OAB alone (n = 29) or OAB and bladder pain (n = 14). There was no difference between the groups in regard to sex (P = .34), prior history of radiation (P = .19), side effects (P = .16), and specifically evaluated central anti-cholinergic side effects (P = .66). There was no statistical difference in the self-reported success rate of the medication (P = .48). In the OAB plus bladder pain subgroup, 71% of patients reported improvement in their pain. Overall, 13 (30%) patients had history of prior pelvic radiation and 10 of those (77%) reported improvement with desipramine. Conclusion: Desipramine is a potential useful treatment for patients with OAB. In addition, it can be used in patients with OAB and bladder pain and patients with complex OAB such as OAB caused by pelvic radiation

IMECE2005-79902 CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER OF LAMINAR, SINGLE-PHASE FLOW IN RANDOMLY ROUGH MICROTUBES

Abstract Convective heat transfer of laminar, single-phase flow in rough microtubes is studied. Wall roughness and slope are assumed to possess Gaussian, isotropic distributions. Fractal concepts are used to model the rough microtube. It is shown that due to the existence of wall roughness, both cross-sectional and inside surface areas are increased. A new concept is defined as a figure of merit for assessing thermal performance of rough microtubes. As a result of increasing roughness, an enhancement is observed in the thermal performance of microtubes. The present model can be extended to analyze other geometries such as rectangular and trapezoidal microchannels. 1 Post-Doctoral Fellow. Mem. ASME. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]. 2 Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Fellow ASME. 3 Associate Professor and Director of MHTL. Mem. ASME

IMECE2005-79902 CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER OF LAMINAR, SINGLE-PHASE FLOW IN RANDOMLY ROUGH MICROTUBES

Abstract Convective heat transfer of laminar, single-phase flow in rough microtubes is studied. Wall roughness and slope are assumed to possess Gaussian, isotropic distributions. Fractal concepts are used to model the rough microtube. It is shown that due to the existence of wall roughness, both cross-sectional and inside surface areas are increased. A new concept is defined as a figure of merit for assessing thermal performance of rough microtubes. As a result of increasing roughness, an enhancement is observed in the thermal performance of microtubes. The present model can be extended to analyze other geometries such as rectangular and trapezoidal microchannels. 1 Post-Doctoral Fellow. Mem. ASME. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]. 2 Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Fellow ASME. 3 Associate Professor and Director of MHTL. Mem. ASME

The white matter connectome as an individualized biomarker of language impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy.

ObjectiveThe distributed white matter network underlying language leads to difficulties in extracting clinically meaningful summaries of neural alterations leading to language impairment. Here we determine the predictive ability of the structural connectome (SC), compared with global measures of white matter tract microstructure and clinical data, to discriminate language impaired patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) from TLE patients without language impairment.MethodsT1- and diffusion-MRI, clinical variables (CVs), and neuropsychological measures of naming and verbal fluency were available for 82 TLE patients. Prediction of language impairment was performed using a robust tree-based classifier (XGBoost) for three models: (1) a CV-model which included demographic and epilepsy-related clinical features, (2) an atlas-based tract-model, including four frontotemporal white matter association tracts implicated in language (i.e., the bilateral arcuate fasciculus, inferior frontal occipital fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and uncinate fasciculus), and (3) a SC-model based on diffusion MRI. For the association tracts, mean fractional anisotropy was calculated as a measure of white matter microstructure for each tract using a diffusion tensor atlas (i.e., AtlasTrack). The SC-model used measurement of cortical-cortical connections arising from a temporal lobe subnetwork derived using probabilistic tractography. Dimensionality reduction of the SC was performed with principal components analysis (PCA). Each model was trained on 49 patients from one epilepsy center and tested on 33 patients from a different center (i.e., an independent dataset). Randomization was performed to test the stability of the results.ResultsThe SC-model yielded a greater area under the curve (AUC; .73) and accuracy (79%) compared to both the tract-model (AUC: .54, p < .001; accuracy: 70%, p < .001) and the CV-model (AUC: .59, p < .001; accuracy: 64%, p < .001). Within the SC-model, lateral temporal connections had the highest importance to model performance, including connections similar to language association tracts such as links between the superior temporal gyrus to pars opercularis. However, in addition to these connections many additional connections that were widely distributed, bilateral and interhemispheric in nature were identified as contributing to SC-model performance.ConclusionThe SC revealed a white matter network contributing to language impairment that was widely distributed, bilateral, and lateral temporal in nature. The distributed network underlying language may be why the SC-model has an advantage in identifying sub-components of the complex fiber networks most relevant for aspects of language performance