Incidence of ventilator associated pneumonia and drug-resistant bacterial preponderance: a fact to ponder

Background: Management of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in critically ill patients is a challenge to intensivists. This study aimed at identifying microbial factors and infection control practices that influenced incidence of VAP in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: Incidence of VAP among patients admitted to the intensive care units (ICU) from January to December 2016 was estimated. A one year period of study was divided into 3 segments of January to April, May to August, and September to December. Isolation rates of Gram Negative Bacteria (GNB) from respiratory samples and their extensively drug resistance (XDR) pattern were also analyzed.Results: A total of 14 patients had developed VAP. Incidence of VAP in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd segments of the year was 25.3, 15.2 and 4.1/1000 ventilator days respectively. Acinetobacter baumannii was the causative agent in all patients (100%). Among all GNB isolated the rate of Acinetobacter baumannii was 83%, 64%, 59% during the 3 segments of the year. XDR strains were 76%, 62% and 55%. Interventional factors like improvement in infection control practices which included hand hygiene, cohorting of MDR/XDR infected patients and environmental surveillance was noted.Conclusions: The VAP incidence declined in the later part of the year than the earlier (25.3 Vs 4.1/1000 ventilator days), with a notable decrease in the isolation of Acinetobacter baumannii (p value-0.005) and XDR organisms (p value-0.01). Directly proportionate association of VAP incidence with microbial factors were noted. Infection control measures to curtail MDR organisms should be an important component in the management of patients on ventilators

Arabidopsis thaliana MIRO1 and MIRO2 GTPases Are Unequally Redundant in Pollen Tube Growth and Fusion of Polar Nuclei during Female Gametogenesis

MIRO GTPases have evolved to regulate mitochondrial trafficking and morphology in eukaryotic organisms. A previous study showed that T-DNA insertion in the Arabidopsis MIRO1 gene is lethal during embryogenesis and affects pollen tube growth and mitochondrial morphology in pollen, whereas T-DNA insertion in MIRO2 does not affect plant development visibly. Phylogenetic analysis of MIRO from plants revealed that MIRO 1 and 2 orthologs in dicots cluster in two separate groups due to a gene/genome duplication event, suggesting that functional redundancy may exists between the two MIRO genes. To investigate this possibility, we generated miro1(+/−)/miro2-2(−/−) plants. Compared to miro1(+/−) plants, the miro1(+/−)/miro2-2(−/−) plants showed increased segregation distortion. miro1(+/−)/miro2-2(−/−) siliques contained less aborted seeds, but more than 3 times the number of undeveloped ovules. In addition, reciprocal crosses showed that co-transmission through the male gametes was nearly absent, whereas co-transmission through the female gametes was severely reduced in miro1(+/−)/miro2-2(−/−) plants. Further investigations revealed that loss of MIRO2 (miro2(−/−)) function in the miro1(+/−) background enhanced pollen tube growth defects. In developing miro1(+/−)/miro2(−/−) embryo sacs, fusion of polar nuclei was further delayed or impaired compared to miro1 plants. This phenotype has not been reported previously for miro1 plants and coincides with studies showing that defects in some mitochondria-targeted genes results in the same phenotype. Our observations show that loss of function in MIRO2 in a miro1(+/−) background enhances the miro1(+/−) phenotype significantly, even though miro2(−/−) plants alone does not display any phenotypes. Based on these findings, we conclude that MIRO1 and MIRO2 are unequally redundant and that a proportion of the miro1(+/−)/miro2(−/−) plants haploid gametes displays the complete null phenotype of MIRO GTPase function at key developmental stages

Relatively Prime Detour Domination Number of Some Switching Graphs

In this paper, we introduce the concept of relatively prime detour domination number for switching graph. If a set S ⊆ V is a detour set, a dominating set with at least two elements, and has (deg(u), deg(v)) = 1 for each pair of vertices u and v, then it is said to be a relatively prime detour dominating set of a graph G. The relatively prime detour domination number of a graph G is known as γrpdn(G) and represents the lowest cardinality of a relatively prime detour dominating set. First, we explain the concept of a switching graph before producing some conclusions based on the switching graphs of helm, fan, complete, spider, and sunlet graphs that have relatively prime detour domination numbers

Draft genome sequence of the rubber tree <it>Hevea brasiliensis</it>

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Hevea brasiliensis,</it> a member of the Euphorbiaceae family, is the major commercial source of natural rubber (NR). NR is a latex polymer with high elasticity, flexibility, and resilience that has played a critical role in the world economy since 1876.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we report the draft genome sequence of <it>H. brasiliensis</it>. The assembly spans ~1.1 Gb of the estimated 2.15 Gb haploid genome. Overall, ~78% of the genome was identified as repetitive DNA. Gene prediction shows 68,955 gene models, of which 12.7% are unique to <it>Hevea</it>. Most of the key genes associated with rubber biosynthesis, rubberwood formation, disease resistance, and allergenicity have been identified.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The knowledge gained from this genome sequence will aid in the future development of high-yielding clones to keep up with the ever increasing need for natural rubber.</p