Prevalence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae: A cause for community‑acquired infection among pediatric populaztion

Background: Atypical pneumonia caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a leading cause of mortality among the pediatric age group.Objectives: Our study was designed to know the prevalence of M. pneumoniae in children with community‑acquired pneumonia and the involvement in the cytoadherence to the respiratory epithelium by M. pneumoniae using electron microscopy and immuno‑gold labeling technique.Materials and Methods: A total of 152 children of 1 month to 12 years of age of both sexes attending Hebei Provincial People’s Hospital, Shijiazhuang, Hebei with diagnosed pneumonia were included in the study.Results: Out of 152 children 84 (55.3%) were males, and 68 (44.7%) were females. The mean age of the patients in the control group (50 patients) was 18.5 ± 3 months with 31 (62%) males and 19 (38%) females. IgM antibodies against M. pneumoniae were positive in 84 (55.3%) males and 68 (44.7%) females. Out of 50 patients 9 (18%) were found to positive for IgM M. pneumoniae antibodies of which four (44.4%) males and 5 (55.5%) females were positive. Our study observed that the gold particles were clustered on the filamentous extension of the tip of the cells. Out of 152 serum samples subjected to particle agglutination assay 138 (90.7%) were positive 1:320 titer, 9 were >1:80 and 3 showed titer was >1:40.Conclusion: We suggest that clinicians should consider empirical therapy of broad spectrum antibiotics therapy to cover these atypical pathogens to reduce the severity before obtaining the serological results. From our study, we also suggest electron microscopic and biochemical studies for better diagnosis of these pathogens.Key words: Atypical, community‑acquired pneumonia, electron microscope, gold labelin

A simple method for estimating the convectiondispersion equation parameters of solute transport in agricultural ecosystem

The convection-dispersion equation (CDE) is the classical approach for modeling solute transport in porous media. So, estimating parameters became a key problem in CDE. For statistical method, some problems such as parameter uniqueness are still unsolved because of more factors. Due to the advantage of clear physical concept and unique parameter values, the simple deterministic method became very useful alternatives. In this paper, a simple method was proposed to estimate both D and R, and the validity was verified by experiment, which can be applied in agriculture and environmental fields for predicting soil quality property.Key words: Convection-dispersion equation (CDE), parameters estimation, agricultural system

COPADS III (Compendium of Distributions II): Cauchy, Cosine, Exponential, Hypergeometric, Logarithmic, Semicircular, Triangular, and Weibull

This manuscript illustrates the implementation and testing of eight statistical distributions, namely Cauchy, Cosine, Exponential, Hypergeometric, Logarithmic, Semicircular, Triangular, and Weibull distribution, where each distribution consists of three common functions Probability Density Function (PDF), Cumulative Density Function (CDF) and the inverse of CDF (inverseCDF). These codes had been incorporated into COPADS codebase (https://github.com/copads/ copads) are licensed under Lesser General Public Licence version 3

Microwave assisted heterogeneous catalysis: effects of varying oxygen concentrations on the oxidative coupling of methane

The oxidative coupling of methane was investigated over alumina supported La2O3/CeO2 catalysts under microwave dielectric heating conditions at different oxygen concentrations. It was observed that, at a given temperature using microwave heating, selectivities for both ethane and ethylene were notably higher when oxygen was absent than that in oxygen/methane mixtures. The differences were attributed to the localised heating of microwave radiation resulting in temperature inhomogeneity in the catalyst bed. A simplified model was used to estimate the temperature inhomogeneity; the temperature at the centre of the catalyst bed was 85 °C greater than that at the periphery when the catalyst was heated by microwaves in a gas mixture with an oxygen concentration of 12.5% (v/v), and the temperature difference was estimated to be 168 °C in the absence of oxygen

GdxSi grown with mass-analyzed low energy dual ion beam epitaxy technique

Semiconducting gadolinium silicide GdxSi samples were prepared by mass-analyzed low-energy dual ion beam epitaxy technique. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiles indicate that the gadolinium ions are implanted into the single-crystal silicon substrate and formed 20 nm thick GdxSi film. X-ray double-crystal diffraction measurement shows that there is no new phase formed. The XPS spectra show that one type of silicon peaks whose binding energy is between that of silicide and silicon dioxide, and the gadolinium peak of binding energy is between that of metal Gd and Gd2O3. All of these results indicate that an amorphous semiconductor is formed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

One-step fabrication of biocompatible chitosan-coated ZnS and ZnS:Mn2+ quantum dots via a γ-radiation route

Biocompatible chitosan-coated ZnS quantum dots [CS-ZnS QDs] and chitosan-coated ZnS:Mn2+ quantum dots [CS-ZnS:Mn2+ QDs] were successfully fabricated via a convenient one-step γ-radiation route. The as-obtained QDs were around 5 nm in diameter with excellent water-solubility. These QDs emitting strong visible blue or orange light under UV excitation were successfully used as labels for PANC-1 cells. The cell experiments revealed that CS-ZnS and CS-ZnS:Mn2+ QDs showed low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility, which offered possibilities for further biomedical applications. Moreover, this convenient synthesis strategy could be extended to fabricate other nanoparticles coated with chitosan

Mesonia sediminis sp nov., isolated from a sea cucumber culture pond

A yellow-pigmented, Gram-stain negative and facultatively anaerobic bacterium, designated MF326(T), was isolated from a sample of sediment collected from a sea cucumber culture pond in Rongcheng, China (122A degrees 14'34aEuro(3)E 36A degrees 54'36aEuro(3)N). Cells of strain MF326(T) were found to be catalase negative and oxidase positive. Optimal growth was found to occur at 30 A degrees C and pH 7.0-7.5 in the presence of 2.0-3.0 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain MF326(T) is a member of the genus Mesonia and exhibits the high sequence similarity (94.3 %) with the type strain of Mesonia ostreae, followed by Mesonia algae (93.9 %). The dominant fatty acids of strain MF326(T) were identified as iso-C-15:0, an unidentified fatty acid with an equivalent chain-length of 13.565 and anteiso-C-15:0. The major polar lipids were found to be two unidentified lipids and phosphatidylethanolamine. The major respiratory quinone was found to be MK-6 and the genomic DNA G+C content was determined to be 40.7 mol%. On the basis of the phylogenetic analysis and differential phenotypic characteristics, it is concluded that strain MF326(T) (=KCTC 42255(T) =MCCC 1H00125(T)) should be assigned to the genus Mesonia as the type strain of a novel species, for which the name Mesonia sediminis sp. nov. is proposed.A yellow-pigmented, Gram-stain negative and facultatively anaerobic bacterium, designated MF326(T), was isolated from a sample of sediment collected from a sea cucumber culture pond in Rongcheng, China (122A degrees 14'34aEuro(3)E 36A degrees 54'36aEuro(3)N). Cells of strain MF326(T) were found to be catalase negative and oxidase positive. Optimal growth was found to occur at 30 A degrees C and pH 7.0-7.5 in the presence of 2.0-3.0 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain MF326(T) is a member of the genus Mesonia and exhibits the high sequence similarity (94.3 %) with the type strain of Mesonia ostreae, followed by Mesonia algae (93.9 %). The dominant fatty acids of strain MF326(T) were identified as iso-C-15:0, an unidentified fatty acid with an equivalent chain-length of 13.565 and anteiso-C-15:0. The major polar lipids were found to be two unidentified lipids and phosphatidylethanolamine. The major respiratory quinone was found to be MK-6 and the genomic DNA G+C content was determined to be 40.7 mol%. On the basis of the phylogenetic analysis and differential phenotypic characteristics, it is concluded that strain MF326(T) (=KCTC 42255(T) =MCCC 1H00125(T)) should be assigned to the genus Mesonia as the type strain of a novel species, for which the name Mesonia sediminis sp. nov. is proposed

Plasticity performance of Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi high-entropy alloys under nanoindentation

The statistical and dynamic behaviors of the displacement-load curves of a high-entropy alloy Al0.3CoCrCuFeNi were analyzed for the nanoindentation performed at two temperatures. Critical behavior of serrations at room temperature and chaotic flows at 200 degrees C were detected. These results are attributed to the interaction among a large number of slip hands. For the nanoindentation at room temperature recurrent partial events between slip hands introduce a hierarchy of length scales leading to a critical state. For the nanoindentation at 200 degrees C there is no spatial interference between two slip hands which is corresponding to the evolution of separated trajectory of chaotic behavior

NOA1 Functions in a Temperature-Dependent Manner to Regulate Chlorophyll Biosynthesis and Rubisco Formation in Rice

NITRIC OXIDE-ASSOCIATED1 (NOA1) encodes a circularly permuted GTPase (cGTPase) known to be essential for ribosome assembly in plants. While the reduced chlorophyll and Rubisco phenotypes were formerly noticed in both NOA1-supressed rice and Arabidopsis, a detailed insight is still necessary. In this study, by using RNAi transgenic rice, we further demonstrate that NOA1 functions in a temperature-dependent manner to regulate chlorophyll and Rubisco levels. When plants were grown at 30°C, the chlorophyll and Rubisco levels in OsNOA1-silenced plants were only slightly lower than those in WT. However, at 22°C, the silenced plants accumulated far less chlorophyll and Rubisco than WT. It was further revealed that the regulation of chlorophyll and Rubisco occurs at the anabolic level. Etiolated WT seedlings restored chlorophyll and Rubisco accumulations readily once returned to light, at either 30°C or 15°C. Etiolated OsNOA1-silenced plants accumulated chlorophyll and Rubisco to normal levels only at 30°C, and lost this ability at low temperature. On the other hand, de-etiolated OsNOA1-silenced seedlings maintained similar levels of chlorophyll and Rubisco as WT, even after being shifted to 15°C for various times. Further expression analyses identified several candidate genes, including OsPorA (NADPH: protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase A), OsrbcL (Rubisco large subunit), OsRALyase (Ribosomal RNA apurinic site specific lyase) and OsPuf4 (RNA-binding protein of the Puf family), which may be involved in OsNOA1-regulated chlorophyll biosynthesis and Rubisco formation. Overall, our results suggest OsNOA1 functions in a temperature-dependent manner to regulate chlorophyll biosynthesis, Rubisco formation and plastid development in rice