Molecular genotyping of methicillin resistant and susceptible staphylococcus aureus by coagulase gene polymorphism

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which causes nosocomial infections is among the most important multi-resistant pathogens worldwide. Investigations of MRSA outbreaks in nosocomial settings often require strain-typing data to verify effectively that the isolates belong to the outbreak strain, and to discriminate similarity from unsimilarity strains. Quick and reliable typing methods are required to obtain information among MRSA isolates and toallow faster implementation of appropriate control measures.Objective : The aim of this study was to investigate genotyping of methicillin resistant and sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA and MSSA) in Khartoum Teaching Hospital, Sudan by using antibiotype and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCRRFLP) of the coagulase gene. Methods: This is across sectional study. The samples were collected from clinical wound specimens in the wards of surgery, orthopaedic and burns at Khartoum Teaching Hospital, then processed, cultured and subsequently susceptibility test was performed using disc diffusion method. The MRSA strains were investigated by oxacillin 1[g disk diffusion method. PCR used to amplifya sequence of the coagulase (coa) gene, and the PCR products were analyzed by PCR-RFLP using Alu1 restriction enzyme. Result: Forty eight S. aureus strains were isolated and the number of MRSA identified was 9(18.75%). All strains of MRSA and MSSA were sensitive to vancomycin, while multi-drug resistance was common among MRSA strains. PCR amplification products of coa gene were approximately at 500 bp (26/48), and 580 bp (22/48). By Alu1 restriction enzyme digestion of the PCR-amplified of coagulase gene, two distinct PCR-RFLP patterns exhibited; coaA and coaB and their fragments were approximately at 190, 310 bp and 190, 390 bp with percentages of 54.2% (26/48) and 45.8% (22/48) respectively. Conclusion: PCR-RFLP is considered an attractive tool for rapidly demonstrate the frequency of different patterns and discriminate the relatedness of isolates in different hospital wards.Key words: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase gene, antibiotype, restrictionfragment length polymorphism (RFLP

A Review of Clinton Bennett’s Book ‘Muslims and Modernity’

Clinton Bennett according to his own order of preferences has discussed and examined in his book Muslims and Modernity, the Modernism, democracy, gender equality, human rights, freedom of expression, Islamic Epistemology, post-modernism, war and peace in Islam, Christian-Muslim relations, rights of Christians as minorities in the Muslim world, Muslims as minorities in the non-Muslim world, different responses on Qur’an and the case of Palestine-Israel. These modern issues are favorite topics in the west. For example as far as the human rights are concerned the western people have the impression that women and non-Muslims are deprived of their basic human rights in the Muslim society. There is no space for liberty of expression in Islam; being a conservative religion Islam is incompatible with post-Modernity and that Islam does not favor democracy as it proposes the rule of elite. Therefore, all these aspects are taken into consideration as a political vision of Bennett. All the modern issues as perceived and presented by the former, we have included them all in this article. Bennett has listed different responses ranging from fundamentalists up to the progressive Muslims and the difference of opinion and the agreement between them

The Icelandic Low as a predictor of the Gulf Stream north wall position

The Gulf Stream’s Northwall east of Cape Hatteras marks the abrupt change in velocity and water properties between Slope Sea to the north and Gulf Stream itself. An index of the Northwall position constructed by Taylor and Stephens (1998), called GSNW, is analyzed in terms of interannual changes in the Icelandic Low (IL) pressure anomaly and longitudinal displacement. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) composites suggest that when IL pressure is anomalously low, there are lower temperatures in the Labrador Sea and south of the Grand Banks. Two years later, warm SST anomalies are seen over the Northern Recirculation Gyre and a northward shift in the GSNW occurs. Similar changes in SSTs occur during winters in which the IL is anomalously west resulting in a northward displacement of the GSNW 3 years later. Although time lags of 2 and 3 years between the IL and the GSNW are used in the calculations, it is shown that lags with respect to each atmospheric variable are statistically significant at 5% level over a range of years. Utilizing the appropriate time lags between the GSNW index and the IL pressure and longitude, as well as the Southern Oscillation index, a regression-prediction scheme is developed for forecasting the GSNW with a lead-time of 1 year. This scheme, which uses only prior information, was used to forecast the GSNW from 1994 to 2015. The correlation between the observed and forecasted values for 1994-2014 was 0.60, significant at the 1% level. The predicted value for 2015 indicates a small northward shift of GSNW from its 2014 position

On a record of the spiny lobster Panulirus penicillatus Olivier from Madras

The occurrence of the spiny lobster, Panulirus penicillatus off Madras is reported for the first time. Eight species of palinurid loteters, namely, Panulirus homarus (Linnaeus), P. omatus (Fabridus), P. paiyphagus (Herbst), P. txrsicolor (Latreille), P. longipes longipes (A. Milne Edwards), P. penicillatus (Olivier), Palinustus mossambicus (Barnard), and Puerulus sewelli (Ramadan) are recorded from Indian waters. While four spedes, P. homarus, P. omatus, P. polyphagus and the deep sea lobster, P. sewelli form fairly good fishery, P. versicolor, P. penicillatus, P. longipes longipes and P. mossambicus are caught in small numbers

The Discovery of a Giant H-alpha Filament in NGC 7213

The nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 7213 has been imaged in H-alpha and HI with the CTIO 1.5 m telescope and with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), respectively. Optically NGC 7213 looks undisturbed and relatively featureless but the continuum-subtracted H-alpha image shows a 19 kpc long filament located approximately 18.6 kpc from the nucleus. The H-alpha filament could be neutral gas photo-ionized by the active nucleus, as has been suggested for the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5252, or shock-ionized by a jet interacting with the surrounding HI, as has been suggested for the radio galaxy PKS 2240-41. The HI map reveals NGC 7213 to be a highly disturbed system suggesting a past merging event.Comment: 14 pages including 4 figures and 1 table. Figures 1-4 are in jpeg format; Better quality images can be retrieved in postscript format at ftp://charon.nmsu.edu/pub/shameed/ ; Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

The association of HLA-DRB genes and the shared epitope with rheumatoid arthritis in Pakistan

The association of particular HLA-DR alleles and the shared epitope with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is now well established. The strength of these links varies between races. Furthermore, the proposition that the presence of the shared epitope is indicative of severe disease has been more difficult to sustain in non-Europeans. This study examines the frequency of HLA-DR and HLA-DRB1 amongst Pakistanis for the first time. Using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes (PCR-SSOP) and primers (PCR-SSP), HLA-DR phenotype and genotype frequencies were ascertained in 86 RA hospital out-patients and 79 healthy controls matched for age, gender and ethnicity. HLA-DR1 and HLA-DR4 frequency was similar in patients and controls. HLA-DR10 occurred in 26 instances (15%) in RA and in eight (5%) controls (Pcorr = 0.048). HLA-DR2 was also increased in patients (P = 0.053) and its major subtype DR15 was significantly increased (Pcorr = 0.03). HLA-DR5 frequency was 5% in patients and 19% in controls (Pcorr = 0.002). The HLA-DR4 alleles possessing the shared epitope were more common in RA (Pcorr = 0.03) and this difference was enhanced by inclusion of other alleles possessing the shared epitope (Pcorr = 0.002). Shared epitope alleles were observed in 43 (50%) patients and 17 (22%) controls (Pcorr = 0.003). The shared epitope did not distinguish patients with more severe disease, as reflected by pain, joint deformities, disability, rheumatoid factor or X-ray damage. The distribution of HLA-DR alleles in Pakistanis with RA supports the shared epitope hypothesis. In common with other non-European racial groups, HLA-DR4 was not associated with RA. Unlike other groups, there was a weak link of RA with HLA-DR2. A protective effect of HLA-DR5 was apparent. In accord with some other studies, the shared epitope in this hospital out-patient population was not a marker for more severe disease

Management of TB in the private sector in Khartoum, Sudan: quality and impact on TB control

IntroductionSudan has a large and growing private health sector. No survey was done in Sudan to show the extent of the use of private health care services by the population. Also precise data on tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis and treatment in the private sector are not available.Material and methodsA facility-based cross-sectional survey was carried out during February2007-June 2007 in Khartoum state, whereby consented private physicians working in the all private clinics (n=110) were interviewed.ResultsThis study showed that a large private sector exist in the country and deliver care to TB patients and reported the non-adherence of this sector to National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) guidelines. 59.1% of the interviewed physicians correctly mentioned the TB treatment regimens, only 8(12.3%) physicians that reported management of TB patients actually prescribed these regimens to their patients. Similarly, only 10(15.4%) physicians requested sputum smear examination for TBdiagnosis.ConclusionA considerable proportion of cases is inadequately managed by the private sector and is not notified to NTP. The information delivered by this study can be used to develop a workable Public-private mix (PPM) model with the private sector.Key words: Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide, Ethambutol

Comparative study of stripe magnetic domains in epitaxial Ni(111) and Co(0001) films

The evolution of stripe magnetic domain structures observed by magnetic force microscopy on epitaxial Ni(111) and Co(0001) films as a function of film thickness is successfully explained by a periodic one-dimensional model with tilted partial flux closure domains. The model predicts a sizable fraction of the magnetization not being parallel to the film’s normal, which consequentially results in an in-plane magnetization in agreement with the experimentally observed magnetization for these films. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69860/2/JAPIAU-91-10-7550-1.pd

On mechanism of antiarrhythmic action of some dimethylphenylacetamide derivatives

The study aim was to identify essential elements of the antiarrhythmic action mechanism of tertiary and quaternary derivatives of Dimethylphenylacetamide. The study was conducted in albino rats and mice of both sexes; isolated neurons of mollusc Limnea stagnalis; and strips of rats’ right ventricle myocardium. Two compounds of Dimethylphenylacetamide LKhT- 3-00 and LKhT-12-02 were studie

Evidence of a Weakly Absorbing Intermediate Mode of Aerosols in AERONET Data from Saharan and Sahelian Sites

Accurate retrievals of aerosol size distribution are necessary to estimate aerosols' impact on climate and human health. The inversions of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) usually retrieve bimodal distributions. However, when the inversion is applied to Saharan and Sahelian dust, an additional mode of intermediate size between the coarse and fine modes is sometimes seen. This mode explains peculiarities in the behavior of the Angstrom exponent, along with the fine mode fraction retrieved using the spectral deconvolution algorithm, observed in a March 2006 dust storm. For this study, 15 AERONET sites in northern Africa and on the Atlantic are examined to determine the frequency and properties of the intermediate mode. The mode is observed most frequently at Ilorin in Nigeria. It is also observed at Capo Verde and multiple sites located within the Sahel but much less frequently at sites in the northern Sahara and the Canary Islands. The presence of the intermediate mode coincides with increases in Angstrom exponent, fine mode fraction, single-scattering albedo, and to a lesser extent percent sphericity. The Angstrom exponent decreases with increasing optical depth at most sites when the intermediate mode is present, but the fine mode fraction does not. Single-scattering albedo does not steadily decrease with fine mode fraction when the intermediate mode is present, as it does in typical mixtures of dust and biomass-burning aerosols. Continued investigation is needed to further define the intermediate mode's properties, determine why it differs from most Saharan dust, and identify its climate and health effects