Isolation of Acanthamoeba isolates belonging to T2, T3, T4 and T7 genotypes from environmental samples in Ankara, Turkey

Acanthamoeba keratitis is a blinding infection that is becoming increasingly important in human health. Early diagnosis is a prerequisite for successful treatment and requires identification of Acanthamoeba at the genotypic level. The genus Acanthamoeba consists of both pathogenic and non-pathogenic species and has been recently classified into 13 different genotypes, T1-T12 and T14. More importantly, 95% of Acanthamoeba isolates that produce keratitis belong to T4 genotypes. In this study, we attempted to determine whether predominance of T4 isolates in Acanthamoeba keratitis is due to greater virulence or greater prevalence. We isolated 18 Acanthamoeba isolates from environmental samples in Ankara, Turkey and determined their pathogenic potential by means osmotolerance, temperature tolerance and in vitro cytotoxicity assays using corneal epithelial cells. Ribosomal DNA sequencing revealed that 10 isolates belong to T2, 5 belong to T3, 2 belong to T4 and one belongs to T7 genotype. As expected, T3 and T4 isolates exhibited the most pathogenic traits and were osmotolerant, temperature tolerant and exhibited severe corneal epithelial cell cytotoxicity indicating their pathogenic potential. Overall these data indicate that high frequency of T4 isolates in keratitis cases may well be due to their greater virulence. This is the first report presenting environmental distribution of Acanthamoeba in Ankara, Turkey

Samsonite: Case Study

This case study aimed at shedding light on the new emerging trends of business observed in the Asian region. Today, big multinationals are learning from Asia and applying best practices, developed in this continent, in their operations worldwide spanning from USA, South America and Europe. In particular, this case study paid focus on the strategy adopted by Timothy Charles Parker, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Samsonite International S.A, incorporated in March 2011. It also focused on the turnaround strategy applied by him for the Samsonite (Luggage Company). Charles Parker is a man with a reputation for turning around companies from losses to prof itability. He was put in charge by the Board to revive Samsonite that was continuously losing its strength and market share in the year of 2009. From this perspective, this study tried to explore the methodology adopted by Timothy Charles Parker to successfully revive the company. It is also noteworthy to note how Timothy Charles Parker paid careful attention to the integration strategy by Ramesh Tainwala in India to support the Samsonite operations in American and European operations. Furthermore, Asian region was also used for tapping funds from the stock market because of damage to the brand equity of Samsonite in the developed markets. Within the period of merely seven years, Samsonite is now one of the most thriving and successful luggage companies in the world and its share is most sought after in Hong Kong stock market. Based on the studies case, it can be recommended that management practices developed in Asian region can also be adopted in order to revive

Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis: amoebicidal effects of clinically approved drugs against Naegleria fowleri

Here we tested the effects of clinically approved drugs targeting vital cellular receptors and biochemical pathways against Naegleria fowleri. For the first time, our findings revealed that digoxin and procyclidine showed potent amoebicidal effects as no viable trophozoites were observed (\u3e95% kill rate). In view of the devastating nature of this disease and the problems associated with chemotherapy, the present findings offer promising drug-leads for clinical practice. Drugs tested in the present study are FDA approved and should be of potential value in the management of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis

Occurrence of possible drug related interactions in medical patients in out-patient departments of Pakistan

Background: Data regarding occurrence of drug-drug interactions in Pakistan is rare. In the current study, we have tried to find out the clinical adversity and frequency witnessed in prescriptions of a medical outpatient department.Methods: Patient prescriptions were analyzed for potential drug-drug interactions.  A sample of 364 patients, visited outpatient department who were being prescribed at least two drugs simultaneously using a drug interaction program website.Results: The 364 patients (72.8% male, mean age 57.9±15.2 years) were prescribed a median of six drugs (range 2-13) at OPD visit. Three hundred forty nine patients (95.8%) had at least one potentially interacting drug combination. 2636 potential interactions were seen in the visiting patients. Out of these 124 (4.7%) were of major severity, 1730 (65.6%) moderate and 515 (19.5%). Out of 124 patients with a potential DDI with major severity, no patient was re-hospitalized within 2 months after discharge due to a probable drug-related problem associated with the potential DDI.Conclusions: A large percentage of patients were detected having one or more potential drug-drug interactions, using drug interaction detection program. However, the percentage of patients having clinically adverse consequences due to drug-drug interactions appears to be very low

Bomb blast injuries: tertiary care hospital in-patient experience over the last 20 years

Abstract OBJECTIVE: To examine the distribution and nature of limb injuries in young bomb blast victimsand their management in a tertiary healthcare setting. METHODS: The retrospective study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi and data was searched using the University Medical Record Database with International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision-Clinical Modification codes for injuries and terrorism between 1990 and 2012. Data regarding injuries, including admission time, hospital stay duration, interventions and mortality, was collected and classified as per the New Injury Severity Score. RESULTS: There were 22 patients in the study; 19(86.3%) males and 3(13.7%) females. The mean age of the sample was 13.1±4.1 years. Median length of hospital stay was 9 days (range: 2-42 days). Sixteen (72.7%) patients required operative intervention. Patients rarely had accompanying injuries with limb injuries. Four (18%) patients needed open reduction and internal fixation. Two (9%) patients needed open reduction and external fixation. One (4.5%) patient required a limb amputation. One (4.5%) patient required ileal resection with ileoileal anastomosis due to shrapnel perforations. There was no mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The young age group was not severely affected by limb trauma. Injuries sustained were infrequently accompanied by severe/critical injury severity scores

Samsonite: Case Study

This case study aimed at shedding light on the new emerging trends of business observed in the Asian region. Today, big multinationals are learning from Asia and applying best practices, developed in this continent, in their operations worldwide spanning from USA, South America and Europe. In particular, this case study paid focus on the strategy adopted by Timothy Charles Parker, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Samsonite International S.A, incorporated in March 2011. It also focused on the turnaround strategy applied by him for the Samsonite (Luggage Company). Charles Parker is a man with a reputation for turning around companies from losses to prof itability. He was put in charge by the Board to revive Samsonite that was continuously losing its strength and market share in the year of 2009. From this perspective, this study tried to explore the methodology adopted by Timothy Charles Parker to successfully revive the company. It is also noteworthy to note how Timothy Charles Parker paid careful attention to the integration strategy by Ramesh Tainwala in India to support the Samsonite operations in American and European operations. Furthermore, Asian region was also used for tapping funds from the stock market because of damage to the brand equity of Samsonite in the developed markets. Within the period of merely seven years, Samsonite is now one of the most thriving and successful luggage companies in the world and its share is most sought after in Hong Kong stock market. Based on the studies case, it can be recommended that management practices developed in Asian region can also be adopted in order to revive

Genetics of drought tolerance at seedling and maturity stages in Zea mays L.

Shortage of irrigation water at critical growth stages of maize is limiting its production worldwide. Breeding drought-tolerant cultivars is one possible solution while identification of potential genotypes is crucial for genetic improvement. To assess genetic variation for seedling-stage drought tolerance, we tested 40 inbred lines in a completely randomized design under glasshouse conditions. From these, two contrasting inbred lines were used to develop six basic generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1F1, BC2F2). These populations were then evaluated in a triplicated factorial randomized complete block design under non-stressed and drought-stressed conditions. For statistical analyses, a nested block design was employed to ignore the replication effects. Significant differences (p≤0.01) were recorded among the genotypes for investigated seedling-traits. Absolute values of fresh root length, fresh root weight, and dry root weight lead to select two genotypes, one tolerant (WFTMS) and one susceptible (Q66). Estimates of heritability, genetic advance, and genotypic correlation coefficients were higher and significant for most of the seedling-traits. Generation variance analysis revealed additive gene action. Narrow-sense heritability [F2 ≥ 65; F∞ ≥ 79] revealed the same results. Generation mean analysis signified additive genetic effects in the inheritance of cob girth, non-additive for plant height, grains per ear row and grain yield per plant, and environmental for ear leaf area, cob length, grain rows per ear, biomass per plant, and 100-grain weight under drought-stressed conditions. For conferring drought-tolerance in maize, breeders can adopt the recombinant breeding strategy to pyramid the desirable genes

Interventions for Adolescent Mental Health: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.

Many mental health disorders emerge in late childhood and early adolescence and contribute to the burden of these disorders among young people and later in life. We systematically reviewed literature published up to December 2015 to identify systematic reviews on mental health interventions in adolescent population. A total of 38 systematic reviews were included. We classified the included reviews into the following categories for reporting the findings: school-based interventions (n = 12); community-based interventions (n = 6); digital platforms (n = 8); and individual-/family-based interventions (n = 12). Evidence from school-based interventions suggests that targeted group-based interventions and cognitive behavioral therapy are effective in reducing depressive symptoms (standard mean difference [SMD]: -.16; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -.26 to -.05) and anxiety (SMD: -.33; 95% CI: -.59 to -.06). School-based suicide prevention programs suggest that classroom-based didactic and experiential programs increase short-term knowledge of suicide (SMD: 1.51; 95% CI: .57-2.45) and knowledge of suicide prevention (SMD: .72; 95% CI: .36-1.07) with no evidence of an effect on suicide-related attitudes or behaviors. Community-based creative activities have some positive effect on behavioral changes, self-confidence, self-esteem, levels of knowledge, and physical activity. Evidence from digital platforms supports Internet-based prevention and treatment programs for anxiety and depression; however, more extensive and rigorous research is warranted to further establish the conditions. Among individual- and family-based interventions, interventions focusing on eating attitudes and behaviors show no impact on body mass index (SMD: -.10; 95% CI: -.45 to .25); Eating Attitude Test (SMD: .01; 95% CI: -.13 to .15); and bulimia (SMD: -.03; 95% CI: -.16 to .10). Exercise is found to be effective in improving self-esteem (SMD: .49; 95% CI: .16-.81) and reducing depression score (SMD: -.66; 95% CI: -1.25 to -.08) with no impact on anxiety scores. Cognitive behavioral therapy compared to waitlist is effective in reducing remission (odds ratio: 7.85; 95% CI: 5.31-11.6). Psychological therapy when compared to antidepressants have comparable effect on remission, dropouts, and depression symptoms. The studies evaluating mental health interventions among adolescents were reported to be very heterogeneous, statistically, in their populations, interventions, and outcomes; hence, meta-analysis could not be conducted in most of the included reviews. Future trials should also focus on standardized interventions and outcomes for synthesizing the exiting body of knowledge. There is a need to report differential effects for gender, age groups, socioeconomic status, and geographic settings since the impact of mental health interventions might vary according to various contextual factors

Myoglobin-Based Classification of Minced Meat Using Hyperspectral Imaging

Minced meat substitution is one of the most common frauds which not only affects consumer health but impacts their lifestyles and religious customs as well. A number of methods have been proposed to overcome these frauds; however, these mostly rely on laboratory measures and are often subject to human error. Therefore, this study proposes novel hyperspectral imaging (400–1000 nm) based non-destructive isos-bestic myoglobin (Mb) spectral features for minced meat classification. A total of 60 minced meat spectral cubes were pre-processed using true-color image formulation to extract regions of interest, which were further normalized using the Savitzky–Golay filtering technique. The proposed pipeline outperformed several state-of-the-art methods by achieving an average accuracy of 88.88%

Efficacy of Green Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles for Potential Therapeutic Applications : Circumstantial Insight on Mechanistic Aspects

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Green synthesized cerium oxide nanoparticles (GS-CeO 2 NPs) have a unique size, shape, and biofunctional properties and are decorated with potential biocompatible agents to perform various therapeutic actions, such as antimicrobial, anticancer, antidiabetic, and antioxidant effects and drug delivery, by acquiring various mechanistic approaches at the molecular level. In this review article, we provide a detailed overview of some of these critical mechanisms, including DNA fragmentation, disruption of the electron transport chain, degradation of chromosomal assemblage, mitochondrial damage, inhibition of ATP synthase activity, inhibition of enzyme catalytic sites, disorganization, disruption, and lipid peroxidation of the cell membrane, and inhibition of various cellular pathways. This review article also provides up-to-date information about the future applications of GS-CeONPs to make breakthroughs in medical sectors for the advancement and precision of medicine and to effectively inform the disease diagnosis and treatment strategies.Peer reviewe