Etiology of Diarrhea in Older Children, Adolescents and Adults: A Systematic Review

Diarrhea is an important cause of illness and death around the world and among people of all ages, but unfortunately we often do not know what specific bacterium or virus causes the illness. We conducted a review of the scientific literature with the goal of finding published studies that identified bacteria and viruses among patients with diarrhea in the community and in hospital settings. We initially found nearly 26,000 papers on this topic but narrowed the list to 22 studies that met all of our specific criteria for inclusion in our review. Among patients hospitalized for diarrhea, E coli and Vibrio cholerae were found in more than 49% of people living in middle income and poor countries. Among patients who sought care from their doctor on an outpatient basis, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., and E. histolytica were most often found. In our review we focused on the differences in the distribution of pathogens between patients in inpatient vs. outpatient settings because these estimates may best approximate what we would expect to see if the distribution were applied to global estimates of diarrhea deaths vs. uncomplicated illnesses

Enhancing Water Use Efficiency and Yield of Pomegranate Crop by Using Fish Drainage Water with Bio-Fertilizer under Drip Irrigation System

Fish drainage water is a non-conventional water resource that can be exploited for irrigation due to its constituents of beneficial nutrients, signifying it as environment-friendly bio-fertilizers. Limited water resources, the elevated cost of mineral fertilizers hazards as well as attaining healthy food are of paramount significance in the agriculture sector in Egypt. The utilization of bio-fertilizers is an avenue to fulfil agricultural sustainability, production of clean crops and preservation of the soil from the accumulation of heavy metals and chemicals. Hence, this study aims to find non-conventional alternative water resources to be used for irrigation of pomegranate fruit yield. Two resources of water were utilized, and three types of bio-fertilizers were applied. Results showed that, fish drainage water increased the total yield (kg/fed) by 25.2% as compared to freshwater. Chicken manure increased the total yield (kg/fed) by 22.37 and 11.89% in comparison with cattle and compost organic fertilizer under fish drainage water, respectively. The use of chicken manure yielded the highest net return (2420.79US $/fed), while compost and cattle dung were found to be (2123.52US$/fed) and (1721.66US $/fed), respectively, under using fish drainage water. The study showed that the use of fish drainage water as an organic resource would be an alternative to commercial fertilizers, which could reduce the total cost and thus increase the net profit and yield. Less dependency of commercial fertilizer would have an impact on reducing the emissions of CO2 mitigating global warming

Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) inhibition and molecular modeling study of some 6-bromo- or 6,8-dibromo-quinazolin-4(3H)-ones

Objectives: The dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) inhibitory activity of 6-bromo- and 6,8-dibromo-quinazolin-4(3H)-ones (7–25) were studied to define the structural features and requirements that enhance selectivity and specificity for the proper binding to the enzyme active site. Methods: Compounds 7–25 were tested for their in vitro DHFR inhibition. As an application of the use of DHFR inhibitors, in vitro antitumor activity using disease-oriented human cell lines assay was performed. Key findings: Compounds 19, 20, and 22 showed remarkable DHFR inhibitory activity, inhibitory concentration (IC50 0.6, 0.2, and 0.1 μM, respectively). Compounds 12, 17, 18, 20, and 24 proved to be broad spectrum antitumor with median IC50 values of 0.6, 0.6, 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7 μM, respectively. Molecular docking study results revealed that the active DHFR inhibitors 22 and 20 bind to DHFR with similar amino acid residues as methotrexate, especially Arg 28. Conclusions: The mono-bromo series proved to be more active than the di-bromo counterparts and the 3-(2-hydrazinyl-acetyl)- is more active than its 3-(acetohydrazide) isoster. The investigated compounds could be used as template model for further optimization