Measuring Patient Satisfaction Parameters: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study At PNS RAHAT Hospital Karachi.

Objective: To describe patient satisfaction with hospital services and staff dealing. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out between January to April-2011 at out-patient departments of PNS Rahat. Randomly selected 96 patients entitled to free medical treatment were offered to voluntarily fill the pretested structured questionnaire in URDU(with mathematical scoring for each selected satisfaction index selected) to comment on the various aspects of services offered at the hospital. The four objective satisfaction scores included: 1-seating /waiting facilities, 2-length of waiting time, 3-staff attitude and 4-Cleanliness at the outpatient departments, radiology, laboratory and pharmacy. Results: The availed mean score was 80.1 + 42.6. Out of the total possible score of 170 of the questionnaires filled. The mean patient score achieved was 57.4 + 33.9. Patients scored less on the satisfaction indices pertaining to waiting time [Average score=4.73/10] and comfortable stay [Average score=6.43/10] in the waiting areas of the hospital OPDs. Patients had a higher satisfaction score on indices related to sanitation/cleanliness issues [Average score=7.52/10] and staff attitude [Average score=7.71/10]. Conclusion: Prolonged waiting time and non-availability of quality stay in waiting areas of outpatient departments and diagnostic centers are the cause of lesser patient satisfaction during a patient's visit to hospital

First Event-Related Potentials Evidence of Auditory Morphosyntactic Processing in a Subject-Object-Verb Nominative-Accusative Language (Farsi)

While most studies on neural signals of online language processing have focused on a few—usually western—subject-verb-object (SVO) languages, corresponding knowledge on subject-object-verb (SOV) languages is scarce. Here we studied Farsi, a language with canonical SOV word order. Because we were interested in the consequences of second-language acquisition, we compared monolingual native Farsi speakers and equally proficient bilinguals who had learned Farsi only after entering primary school. We analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) to correct and morphosyntactically incorrect sentence-final syllables in a sentence correctness judgment task. Incorrect syllables elicited a late posterior positivity at 500–700 ms after the final syllable, resembling the P600 component, as previously observed for syntactic violations at sentence-middle positions in SVO languages. There was no sign of a left anterior negativity (LAN) preceding the P600. Additionally, we provide evidence for a real-time discrimination of phonological categories associated with morphosyntactic manipulations (between 35 and 135 ms), manifesting the instantaneous neural response to unexpected perturbations. The L2 Farsi speakers were indistinguishable from L1 speakers in terms of performance and neural signals of syntactic violations, indicating that exposure to a second language at school entry may results in native-like performance and neural correlates. In nonnative (but not native) speakers verbal working memory capacity correlated with the late posterior positivity and performance accuracy. Hence, this first ERP study of morphosyntactic violations in a spoken SOV nominative-accusative language demonstrates ERP effects in response to morphosyntactic violations and the involvement of executive functions in non-native speakers in computations of subject-verb agreement.Peer Reviewe

The Impact of CRISPR-Cas System on Antiviral Therapy

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein nuclease (Cas) is identified as an adaptive immune system in archaea and bacteria. Type II of this system, CRISPR-Cas9, is the most versatile form that has enabled facile and efficient targeted genome editing. Viral infections have serious impacts on global health and conventional antiviral therapies have not yielded a successful solution hitherto. The CRISPR-Cas9 system represents a promising tool for eliminating viral infections. In this review, we highlight 1) the recent progress of CRISPR-Cas technology in decoding and diagnosis of viral outbreaks, 2) its applications to eliminate viral infections in both pre-integration and provirus stages, and 3) various delivery systems that are employed to introduce the platform into target cells

Humanizing glycosylation pathways in eukaryotic expression systems

Glycosylation represents the most widespread posttranslational modifications, found in a broad spectrum of natural and therapeutic recombinant proteins. It highly affects bioactivity, site-specificity, stability, solubility, immunogenicity, and serum half-life of glycoproteins. Numerous expression hosts including yeasts, insect cells, transgenic plants, and mammalian cells have been explored for synthesizing therapeutic glycoproteins. However, glycosylation profile of eukaryotic expression systems differs from human. Glycosylation strategies have been proposed for humanizing the glycosylation pathways in expression hosts which is the main theme of this review. Besides, we also highlighted the glycosylation potential of protozoan parasites by emphasizing on the mammalian-like glycosylation potential of Leishmania tarentolae known as Leishmania expression system

Humanizing glycosylation pathways in eukaryotic expression systems

Glycosylation represents the most widespread posttranslational modifications, found in a broad spectrum of natural and therapeutic recombinant proteins. It highly affects bioactivity, site-specificity, stability, solubility, immunogenicity, and serum half-life of glycoproteins. Numerous expression hosts including yeasts, insect cells, transgenic plants, and mammalian cells have been explored for synthesizing therapeutic glycoproteins. However, glycosylation profile of eukaryotic expression systems differs from human. Glycosylation strategies have been proposed for humanizing the glycosylation pathways in expression hosts which is the main theme of this review. Besides, we also highlighted the glycosylation potential of protozoan parasites by emphasizing on the mammalian-like glycosylation potential of Leishmania tarentolae known as Leishmania expression system

Response Surface Methodology for Optimization of Operational Parameters to Remove Ciprofloxacin from Contaminated Water in the Presence of a Bacterial Consortium

Ciprofloxacin (CFX) is a broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone antibiotic that is widely used to treat bacterial infections in humans and other animals. However, its unwanted occurrence in any (eco)system can affect nontarget bacterial communities, which may also impair the performance of the natural or artificially established bioremediation system. The problem could be minimized by optimization of operational parameters via modeling of multifactorial tests. To this end, we used a Box–Behnken design in response surface methodology (RSM) to generate the experimental layout for testing the effect of the CFX biodegradation for four important parameters, that is, temperature (°C), pH, inoculum size (v/v %), and CFX concentration (mg L–1). For inoculation, a consortium of three bacterial strains, namely, Acenitobacter lwofii ACRH76, Bacillus pumilus C2A1, and Mesorihizobium sp. HN3 was used to degrade 26 mg L–1 of CFX. We found maximum degradation of CFX (98.97%; initial concentration of 25 mg L–1) at 2% inoculum size, 7 pH, and 35 °C of temperature in 16 days. However, minimum degradation of CFX (48%; initial concentration of 50 mg L–1) was found at pH 6, temperature 30 °C, and inoculum size 1%. Among different tested parameters, pH appears to be the main limiting factor for CFX degradation. Independent factors attributed 89.37% of variation toward CFX degradation as revealed by the value of the determination coefficient, that is, R2 = 0.8937. These results were used to formulate a mathematical model in which the computational data strongly correlated with the experimental results. This study showcases the importance of parameter optimization via RSM for any bioremediation studies particularly for antibiotics in an economical, harmless, and eco-friendly manner.The authors are thankful to Higher Education Commission (HEC) for the grant No TTSF-77.Scopu

Association Mapping for Improving Fiber Quality in Upland Cottons

Improved fiber yield is considered a constant goal of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) breeding worldwide, but the understanding of the genetic basis controlling yield-related traits remains limited. Dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits is an ongoing challenge for geneticists. Two complementary approaches for genetic mapping, linkage mapping and association mapping have led to successful dissection of complex traits in many crop species. Both of these methods detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) by identifying marker–trait associations, and the only fundamental difference between them is that between mapping populations, which directly determine mapping resolution and power. Nowadays, the availability of genomic tools and resources is leading to a new revolution of plant breeding, as they facilitate the study of the genotype and its relationship with the phenotype, in particular for complex traits. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies are allowing the mass sequencing of genomes and transcriptomes, which is producing a vast array of genomic information with the development of high-throughput genotyping, phenotyping will be a major challenge for genetic mapping studies. We believe that high-quality phenotyping and appropriate experimental design coupled with new statistical models will accelerate progress in dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits