External Ocular Surface Bacterial Isolates and their Antimicrobial Susceptibility Patterns among Pre-operative Cataract Patients at Mulago National Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.

Endophthalmitis is a severe complication of cataract surgery which leads to high ocular morbidity and visual loss even with antibiotic treatment. Bacterial ocular floras are the implicated causative agents. This study was undertaken to evaluate the external ocular surface bacterial isolates and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among pre-operative cataract patients at Mulago National Hospital. This cross sectional study enrolled consecutively 131 patients scheduled for routine cataract surgery in the Department of Ophthalmology at Mulago National Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. Eyelid margin and conjunctival swabs were collected and processed using standard microbiological procedures to identify bacterial isolates and their respective antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. Of 131 patients involved (mean age 63.3 ± 14.5 years), 54.2% (71/131) were females. The eyelid margin and conjunctival samples were culture positive in 59.5% (78/138) and 45.8% (60/138) respectively. The most common organisms identified were Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) [65.9% (91/138)] and Staphylococcus aureus [21.0% (29/138)]. CoNS showed the highest resistance to tetracycline (58.2%, 53/91) and erythromycin (38.5%, 35/91), whereas in S. aureus the resistance to tetracycline and erythromycin were 55.2% (16/29) and 31.0% (9/29) respectively. Methicillin resistant CoNS (MRS) and Methicillin resistance S. aureus (MRSA) were 31.9% (29/91) and 27.6% (8/29) respectively. There were low resistance rates for CoNS, S. aureus and other bacterial isolates to ciprofloxacin (11.1%-24.2%), gentamicin (5.6-31.0%), tobramycin (17.2% -25.3%) and vancomycin (0.0%). CoNS and S. aureus are the most common bacterial isolates found on the external ocular surface of the pre-operative cataract patients. Ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, tobramycin and vancomycin showed the lowest resistance rates to all bacterial isolates, therefore may be used to reduce bacteria load in the conjunctiva sac among cataract patients prior to surgery

Essential Medicines at the National Level : The Global Asthma Network's Essential Asthma Medicines Survey 2014

Patients with asthma need uninterrupted supplies of affordable, quality-assured essential medicines. However, access in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited. The World Health Organization (WHO) Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Global Action Plan 2013-2020 sets an 80% target for essential NCD medicines' availability. Poor access is partly due to medicines not being included on the national Essential Medicines Lists (EML) and/or National Reimbursement Lists (NRL) which guide the provision of free/subsidised medicines. We aimed to determine how many countries have essential asthma medicines on their EML and NRL, which essential asthma medicines, and whether surveys might monitor progress. A cross-sectional survey in 2013-2015 of Global Asthma Network principal investigators generated 111/120 (93%) responses41 high-income countries and territories (HICs); 70 LMICs. Patients in HICs with NRL are best served (91% HICs included ICS (inhaled corticosteroids) and salbutamol). Patients in the 24 (34%) LMICs with no NRL and the 14 (30%) LMICs with an NRL, however no ICS are likely to have very poor access to affordable, quality-assured ICS. Many LMICs do not have essential asthma medicines on their EML or NRL. Technical guidance and advocacy for policy change is required. Improving access to these medicines will improve the health system's capacity to address NCDs.Peer reviewe

Stability trends and fragmentation patterns of gaseous yttrium oxide clusters studied by fast atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry

The fragmentation patterns of yttrium oxide cluster species YO+, Y2O2+, Y2O3+, Y3O4+, Y4O6+, Y5O7+, Y6O8+ and Y7O10+ were investigated at collision energies 30-110 and 170 eV by fast atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry. The collision activated dissociation (CAD) spectra obtained revealed higher thermodynamic stability for the clusters of general formula YαO(3α-1)/2+, where a is an odd number (e.g. YO+, Y3O4+, Y5O7+, Y7O10+) which are also the preferred CAD products for all oxide clusters studied. These most stable oxides are constituted by trivalent yttrium only whereas those containing formally tetravalent yttrium YaO3a/2+, (where a is even) e.g. Y2O3+ and Y4O6+, are extremely unstable. The clusters YaO(3a-2)/2+, (where a is even) containing divalent yttrium, e.g. Y2O2+ and Y6O8+, have considerable stability but their CAD products are again the thermodynamic products YaO(3a-1)/2+. Electronic structures appear to have overriding significance in determining the thermo- dynamic stabilities of the oxide cluster species. © 1988

Adaptive channel borrowing scheme for capacity enhancement in cellular wireless networks

The very limited nature of the GSM spectrum, coupled with the increasing demand by an extending number of subscribers place a strain on the network capacity. This leads to an equally raised number of calls that dropped and hence, subscriber dissatisfaction. Several strategies have been implemented in order to minimize these occurrences, with the most prominent being channel borrowing. Channel borrowing process is a scheme whereby frequencies allocated to other cells are temporarily assigned to cells with higher traffic loading so as to reduce the rate of dropped calls in the busy location, hence improving the grade of service of the entire network. This concept is implemented in such a manner as to ensure that the call quality in the original cell is not jeopardized by the borrowing process and the borrowed frequency is returned as soon as possible. The goal of channel borrowing is to ensure maximal utilization of the available spectrum to an operator in such a manner that the owner cell is not disadvantaged. This article presents a detailed review of various Channel Borrowing Schemes and proposes an Adaptive Channel Borrowing Scheme that efficiently borrows free Channels from nearby Cells deploying features in MATLAB R2012a. The ACB algorithm has suitable characteristics for a novel hybrid channel borrowing algorithm and it is based on real time call statistics using random number generators. It is measured with parameters such as Lending Potentials (LP), Borrowing Potentials (BP) and Borrowing Need (BN). These are traffic driven frequency borrowing parameters adopted in the investigation. From the result, an efficient and reliable means of borrowing additional Channels for temporary use without giving the entire system huge workload, was arrived at. The ACB algorithm has the capacity to maximally utilize the system resources hence, reducing the cost or need for the purchase of additional resources.This work was carried out under the IoT-Enabled Smart and Connected Communities (SmartCU) research cluster of the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.Covenant University Centre for Research, Innovation and Development (CUCRID), Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.http://link.springer.combookseries/558hj2020Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineerin