Evaluation of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of carbapnemases-producing enterobacteriaceae and its prevalence in a referral hospital in Tehran city

Background & Objective: Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae is a growing concern worldwide including Iran. The emergence of this pathogen is worrying as carbapenem is one of the �last-line� antibiotics for treatment of infections caused by multi drug resistant gram- negative bacteria. The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in a referral hospital in Tehran, Iran. Methods: In this study, all positive isolates of Enterobacteriaceae recorded in blood, urine, and other body fluids were studied during April 2017 to April 2018 in a referral hospital in Tehran. All cases of resistance to carbapenems were first tested by modified Hodge test. All cases with positive or negative test, after gene extraction, were examined genotypically based on the primers designed for the three Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC), New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM), and OXA-48 genes by conventional PCR method. Results: 108 isolates (13.6) were resistant to all cephalosporins as well as to imipenem and meropenem. In a genotypic study, including 45 isolates, 13 isolates were positive for OXA-48 gene, 11 isolates for OXA-48 and NDM genes, 11 isolates for OXA-48, NDM and KPC genes, 4 isolates for OXA-48 genes and KPC, 3 isolates for NDM, one isolate for KPC. On the other hand, two isolates were negative for all three genes examined. Conclusion: OXA-48 gene was one of the most common genes resistant to carbapenems in Iran. According to studies, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in Iran is rising dramatically, which reduces the choice of antibiotics to treat severe infections in the future. © 2020, Iranian Society of Pathology. All rights reserved

A Hybrid Approach to Scalable and Robust Spoken Language Understanding in Enterprise Virtual Agents

Spoken language understanding (SLU) extracts the intended mean- ing from a user utterance and is a critical component of conversational virtual agents. In enterprise virtual agents (EVAs), language understanding is substantially challenging. First, the users are infrequent callers who are unfamiliar with the expectations of a pre-designed conversation flow. Second, the users are paying customers of an enterprise who demand a reliable, consistent and efficient user experience when resolving their issues. In this work, we describe a general and robust framework for intent and entity extraction utilizing a hybrid of statistical and rule-based approaches. Our framework includes confidence modeling that incorporates information from all components in the SLU pipeline, a critical addition for EVAs to en- sure accuracy. Our focus is on creating accurate and scalable SLU that can be deployed rapidly for a large class of EVA applications with little need for human intervention

Limbic system associated membrane protein mutation in an iranian family diagnosed with ménière's disease

Background: Ménière's disease (MD) is a common inner ear disorder which is characterized by recurrent attacks of vertigo, fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), tinnitus, and a sense of fullness in the affected ear. MD is a complex disorder; although six genes have been linked to familial autosomal dominant form of the disease, in many cases, the exact genetic etiology remains elusive. Methods: To elucidate the genetic causes of MD in an Iranian family, we performed exome sequencing on all members of the family: consanguineous parents and four children (two affected and two unaffected). Variant filtering was completed using a customized workflow keeping variants based on segregation with MD in autosomal recessive (AR) inheritance pattern, minor allele frequency (MAF), and in-silico prediction of pathogenicity. Results: Analysis revealed that in this family, 970 variants co-segregated with MD in AR pattern, out of which eight variants (one intergenic, four intronic, and three exonic) were extremely rare. The exonic variants included a synonymous substitution in USP3 gene, an in-frame deletion in ZBED2 gene, and a rare, highly conserved deleterious missense alteration in LSAMP gene. Conclusion: The phenotype observed in the proband described here, i.e. vertigo, poor sense of smell, tinnitus, and borderline hearing ability, may originate from aberrant changes in the cerebellum and limbic system due to a deleterious mutation in the LSAMP gene; hence, LSAMP mutation is a possible candidate for the etiology of MD in this family. © 2020 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved

Iranome: A catalogue of genomic variations in the Iranian population

Considering the application of human genome variation databases in precision medicine, population-specific genome projects are continuously being developed. However, the Middle Eastern population is underrepresented in current databases. Accordingly, we established Iranome database (www.iranome.com) by performing whole exome sequencing on 800 individuals from eight major Iranian ethnic groups representing the second largest population of Middle East. We identified 1,575,702 variants of which 308,311 were novel (19.6%). Also, by presenting higher frequency for 37,384 novel or known rare variants, Iranome database can improve the power of molecular diagnosis. Moreover, attainable clinical information makes this database a good resource for classifying pathogenicity of rare variants. Principal components analysis indicated that, apart from Iranian-Baluchs, Iranian-Turkmen, and Iranian-Persian Gulf Islanders, who form their own clusters, rest of the population were genetically linked, forming a super-population. Furthermore, only 0.6% of novel variants showed counterparts in "Greater Middle East Variome Project", emphasizing the value of Iranome at national level by releasing a comprehensive catalog of Iranian genomic variations and also filling another gap in the catalog of human genome variations at international level. We introduce Iranome as a resource which may also be applicable in other countries located in neighboring regions historically called Greater Iran (Persia)

Exome sequencing utility in defining the genetic landscape of hearing loss and novel-gene discovery in Iran

Hearing loss (HL) is one of the most common sensory defects affecting more than 466 million individuals worldwide. It is clinically and genetically heterogeneous with over 120 genes causing non-syndromic HL identified to date. Here, we performed exome sequencing (ES) on a cohort of Iranian families with no disease-causing variants in known deafness-associated genes after screening with a targeted gene panel. We identified likely causal variants in 20 out of 71 families screened. Fifteen families segregated variants in known deafness-associated genes. Eight families segregated variants in novel candidate genes for HL: DBH, TOP3A, COX18, USP31, TCF19, SCP2, TENM1, and CARMIL1. In the three of these families, intrafamilial locus heterogeneity was observed with variants in both known and novel candidate genes. In aggregate, we were able to identify the underlying genetic cause of HL in nearly 30 of our study cohort using ES. This study corroborates the observation that high-throughput DNA sequencing in populations with high rates of consanguineous marriages represents a more appropriate strategy to elucidate the genetic etiology of heterogeneous conditions such as HL. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Lt

Panel 6 : Vaccines

Objective. To review the literature on progress regarding (1) effectiveness of vaccines for prevention of otitis media (OM) and (2) development of vaccine antigens for OM bacterial and viral pathogens. Data Sources. PubMed database of the National Library of Science. Review Methods. We performed literature searches in PubMed for OM pathogens and candidate vaccine antigens, and we restricted the searches to articles in English that were published between July 2011 and June 2015. Panel members reviewed literature in their area of expertise. Conclusions. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) are somewhat effective for the prevention of pneumococcal OM, recurrent OM, OM visits, and tympanostomy tube insertions. Widespread use of PCVs has been associated with shifts in pneumococcal serotypes and bacterial pathogens associated with OM, diminishing PCV effectiveness against AOM. The 10-valent pneumococcal vaccine containing Haemophilus influenzae protein D (PHiD-CV) is effective for pneumococcal OM, but results from studies describing the potential impact on OM due to H influenzae have been inconsistent. Progress in vaccine development for H influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and OM-associated respiratory viruses has been limited. Additional research is needed to extend vaccine protection to additional pneumococcal serotypes and other otopathogens. There are likely to be licensure challenges for protein-based vaccines, and data on correlates of protection for OM vaccine antigens are urgently needed. Implications for Practice. OM continues to be a significant health care burden globally. Prevention is preferable to treatment, and vaccine development remains an important goal. As a polymicrobial disease, OM poses significant but not insurmountable challenges for vaccine development.Peer reviewe

Hybrid composites with aligned discontinuous fibres: 16th European Conference on Composite Materials, ECCM 2014

High performance composites can replace metals in many applications because of their exceptional strength and light weight, but brittle failure is an undesirable characteristic. Hybridisation is one of the approaches to overcome this limitation of composites because hybrid composites provide the potential for tailoring a response with desired stiffness, strength and ductility. In this paper, hybrid composites consisting of unidirectional continuous glass laminates and aligned discontinuous carbon preforms developed by the HiPerDiF (High Performance Discontinuous Fibre) method were tested in tension. The hybrid composite is designed as a layer-by-layer system to achieve pseudo-ductile response. Results are presented showing the effects of the proportion and absolute thickness of the aligned carbon preform on the failure modes. This paper also introduces the advantages of the aligned discontinuous carbon preforms produced by the HiPerDiF method in layer-by-layer hybrid composites

The High Performance Discontinuous Fibre (HiPerDiF) technology for consistent quality control of reclaimed carbon fibres

This paper describes the ongoing development of an alternative, improved method for the quality control of reclaimed carbon fibres based on materials manufactured with the HiPerDiF method. The HiPerDiF method, invented at the University of Bristol, allows remanufacturing aligned short fibre specimens that are representative of unidirectional composites manufactured from reclaimed carbon fibres (rCF). Two different specimen types are taken into consideration: 100% rCF and interlaminated hybrid specimens made of a layer of aligned short rCF sandwiched between continuous glass fibres. The obtained failure strain results are compared with results obtained from single fibre tensile test (SFTT): the interlaminated hybrid specimens allow avoiding premature failure caused by stress concentration in the end-tab region. Further work is needed to be able to efficiently retrieve the stiffness related properties

Pseudo-ductility in intermingled carbon/glass hybrid composites with highly aligned discontinuous fibres

The aim of this research is to manufacture intermingled hybrid composites using aligned discontinuous fibres to achieve pseudo-ductility. Hybrid composites, made with different types of fibres that provide a balanced suite of modulus, strength and ductility, allow avoiding catastrophic failure that is a key limitation of composites. Two different material combinations of high strength carbon/E-glass and high modulus carbon/E-glass were selected. Several highly aligned and well dispersed short fibre hybrid composites with different carbon/glass ratios were manufactured and tested in tension in order to investigate the carbon ratio effect on the stress-strain curve. Good pseudo-ductile responses were obtained from the high modulus carbon/E-glass composites due to the fragmentation of the carbon fibres. The experimental results were also compared with an analytical solution. The intermingled hybrid composite with 0.25 relative carbon ratio gave the maximum pseudo-ductile strain, 1.1%, with a 110 GPa tensile modulus. Moreover, the initial modulus of the intermingled hybrids with 0.4 relative carbon ratio is 134 GPa, 3.5 times higher than that of E-glass/epoxy composites. The stress-strain curve shows a clear "yield point" at 441 MPa and a well dispersed and gradual damage process