Prevalence and Antibiotic Sensitivity Testing of Bacteria Isolated from Open Wounds of Hospitalized Patients

Background: Substantial infectivity of open wounds by microorganisms not only precipitates in terms of complexity, morbidity and mortality because of encouraging other fatal comorbidities but also becomes challenging to handle by medical practitioners.Methods: To ascertain the bioburden associated particularly with bacteria in open wounds, this research work was conducted at the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics department of Women University, Multan in association with Pathology Department of Nishtar Hospital and College, Multan from January to June 2018. 65 different wound samples were collected from different wards and analyzed by standard procedures for bacterial isolation and characterization, employing biochemical tests including catalase, oxidase, coagulase, motility, triple-sugar iron (TSI), citrate and indole tests. The isolated bacterial strains were also evaluated for sensitivity or resistance against twelve different antibiotics.Results: All the 65 samples were found to be positive for bacterial presence. Gram-positive cocci constituted 63% of the isolates and gram-negative rods comprised 37%. Biochemical tests revealed that the predominant pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus (63.1%) followed by Proteus spp., (15.4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.3%) and Escherichia coli (9.2%), respectively. Antibiotic sensitivity testing disclosed that the most effective antibiotics against these isolates were Tigecycline and Polymyxin B while the least effective antibiotics were Ceftazidime and Ampicillin.Conclusion: These findings can prove beneficial in understanding the prevalence of various bacteria in wound infections. In addition, they indicate the need to develop and implement antibiotic stewardship programs so as to combat drug resistance among pathogens.Keywords: Gram-positive cocci; Drug resistance; Staphylococcus aureus   

Biosecurity and Biosafety concerns of Research and diagnostic Laboratory under International Guidelines

Currently, academic research labs and diagnostic laboratories are facing a serious issue of biosecurity and biosafety globally. The high rate of mutations and continuous new emerging infectious diseases with the risk of bioterrorism demands that each lab personnel share equal responsibility for biosecurity & biosafety at their work. The primary job of government authorities is to implement a well-organized detection system and limit the spread of hazardous biological agents by providing a biologically safe setting for lab scientists and for the common man in communities and institutes. The safety of lab personnel, lab environment, and pathogens depends on effective and safe laboratory working and pathogen handling which determines the reliable and accurate results of laboratory experiments. The aim of this article is to address the basic components of laboratory biosafety, laboratory biosecurity, and laboratory management. Further DURC (dual-use research of concern) deals with the commencement of lawful reasons to generate information, knowledge, technology, and products that are used for either harmful or beneficial purposes. The precautions are taken to ensure laboratory biosecurity and biosafety should be a part of the laboratory safety policy manual for guidance and implementation for a safe laboratory environment.Keywords: Antioxidants; tomato; lycopene; β-carotene; reactive oxygen species (ROS)

Mining scientific trends based on topics in conference call for papers

Ever since analyzing scientific topics and evolution of technology have become vital for researchers, academics, funding institutes and research administration departments, there is a crucial need to mine scientific trends to fill this appetite more rigorously. In this paper, we procured a novel Call for Papers (CFPs) dataset in order to analyze scientific evolution and prestige of conferences that set scientific trends using scientific publications indexed in DBLP. Using ACM CSS, 1.3 million publications that appear in 146 data mining conferences are mapped into different thematic areas by matching the terms that appear in publication titles with ACM CSS. In recent years, an attempt termed as Topic Detection and Tracking (TDT) [1] is made to find the solution for the problem of "well-awareness" on this dynamic data. As conference ranking has been made by different forums on the basis of mixed indicators1. ERA2 ranks Australia's higher education research institutions. The major contributions of this paper are as follows: (i) compilation of CFPs dataset, (ii) identification of topics and keywords from CFP corpus, and (iii) measure the impact of these extracted hot topics from CFPs

Frequency of Disc Degeneration at Different Levels of Cervical Vertebrae in Adult Patients with Neck Pain on Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background:Disc degeneration is terminology used for heterogeneous changes affecting the anatomy and physiology of the intervertebral disc. Disc degeneration alters the material properties of the intervertebral disc leading to an unfavorable distribution and transmission of stress to adjacent spinal structures.Objective:The aim of the study was to determine the frequency of disc degeneration at different level of cervical vertebrae in adult patients with neck pain on magnetic resonance imaging.Methodology:In this descriptive study 180 adult patients were included. All patients had been collected from DHQ hospital Gilgit and Ghurki Trust teaching hospital. After informed consent, data were collected through 1.5 tesla GE (closed bore) and 0.35 tesla Hitachi (open bore) MRI machines.Results:Findings show that among 180 adult patients, 136 presented with disc degeneration among which 81 were males and 55 were females. Among 81 males, 63 had disc degeneration at multiple levels while 18 had single disc degeneration. In females 35 patients showed multiple disc degeneration while 20 involved a single disc.Conclusion:It is concluded that disc degeneration is prevalent in males than females. Disc degeneration at multiple levels is higher than single disc degeneration in both genders. Keywords: Disc degeneration, magnetic resonance imaging, intervertebral disc. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/71-02 Publication date: February 29th 202

Food safety and biological control; genomic insights and antimicrobial potential of Bacillus velezensis FB2 against agricultural fungal pathogens

Development of natural, broad-spectrum, and eco-friendly bio-fungicides is of high interest in the agriculture and food industries. In this context, Bacillus genus has shown great potential for producing a wide range of antimicrobial metabolites against various pathogens. A Bacillus velezensis strain FB2 was isolated from an agricultural field of National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) Faisalabad, Pakistan, exhibiting good antifungal properties. The complete genome of this strain was sequenced, and its antifungal potential was assayed by dual culture method. Moreover, structural characterization of its antifungal metabolites, produced in vitro, were studied. Genome analysis and mining revealed the secondary metabolite gene clusters, encoding non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs) production (e.g., surfactin, iturin and fengycin) and polyketide (PK) synthesis (e.g., difficidin, bacillaene and macrolactin). Furthermore, the Bacillus velezensis FB2 strain was observed to possess in vitro antifungal activity; 41.64, 40.38 and 26% growth inhibition against major fungal pathogens i.e. Alternaria alternata, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium solani respectively. Its lipopeptide extract obtained by acid precipitation method was also found effective against the above-mentioned fungal pathogens. The ESI-MS/MS analysis indicated various homologs of surfactin and iturin-A, responsible for their antifungal activities. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of Bacillus velezensis FB2, as a promising candidate for biocontrol purposes, acting in a safe and sustainable way, to control plant pathogens.</p

Food safety and biological control; genomic insights and antimicrobial potential of Bacillus velezensis FB2 against agricultural fungal pathogens

Development of natural, broad-spectrum, and eco-friendly bio-fungicides is of high interest in the agriculture and food industries. In this context, Bacillus genus has shown great potential for producing a wide range of antimicrobial metabolites against various pathogens. A Bacillus velezensis strain FB2 was isolated from an agricultural field of National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) Faisalabad, Pakistan, exhibiting good antifungal properties. The complete genome of this strain was sequenced, and its antifungal potential was assayed by dual culture method. Moreover, structural characterization of its antifungal metabolites, produced in vitro, were studied. Genome analysis and mining revealed the secondary metabolite gene clusters, encoding non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs) production (e.g., surfactin, iturin and fengycin) and polyketide (PK) synthesis (e.g., difficidin, bacillaene and macrolactin). Furthermore, the Bacillus velezensis FB2 strain was observed to possess in vitro antifungal activity; 41.64, 40.38 and 26% growth inhibition against major fungal pathogens i.e. Alternaria alternata, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium solani respectively. Its lipopeptide extract obtained by acid precipitation method was also found effective against the above-mentioned fungal pathogens. The ESI-MS/MS analysis indicated various homologs of surfactin and iturin-A, responsible for their antifungal activities. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of Bacillus velezensis FB2, as a promising candidate for biocontrol purposes, acting in a safe and sustainable way, to control plant pathogens.</p

Mixed convective heat transfer in a power-law fluid in a square enclosure: Higher order finite element solutions

Incorporation of momentum gradients produced due to inertial motion of the lid along with the presence of temperature differences in the configuration make the physical problem more significant. The joint variation of momentum and thermal diffusion in diversified natural liquids is recognized as mixed convection. Valuable attention has been received by such a phenomenon in different areas of science and technology such as in wind current–based solar receivers, electronic instruments, control of emergency shutdown in reactors, thermal exchangers, oceanic currents, control of atmospheric pollution, and so on. So, the main focus is to contemplate hydrothermal characteristics of a power-law fluid contained in a square cavity with the movement of the upper lid and being thermally adiabatic. The other extremities are considered to be at rest, and the base wall is prescribed with uniform/non-uniform temperature distributions. The governing formulation of the problem is handled by executing a finite element approach. Hybrid meshing is performed for domain discretization, and weak variational formulation is utilized for formulation discretization. Second-degree polynomials are employed as the interpolation function, providing information about velocity and temperature distributions at boundary and intermediate nodes. The system of finalized non-linear equations is resolved by using the Paradiso software. The results for velocity and temperature distributions are attained comparatively for uniformly and non-uniformly heated profiles. The kinetic energy and average Nusselt number are also computed against flow concerning variables. From the attained graphical and tabular data, it is deduced that by increasing the Reynolds number, inertial forces dominate over buoyancy forces and the effect of lid movement is prominent on flow characteristics. It is also inferred that for the shear thickening case and for all values of the Reynolds number, the average Nusselt number shows a constant behavior

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely