Mycobacterial antigen in tissues in diagnosis of cutaneous tuberculosis

Background: Cutaneous tuberculosis presents a diagnostic challenge, as it is difficult to demonstrate the causative organism by histopathology and also culture of organisms from skin lesions is a less rewarding and time consuming process. Aim: Present study was undertaken to evaluate the utility of immuno-histochemical staining to demonstrate Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen in tissue sections. This is based on the finding that the mycobacterial antigen is the last to disappear from the tissues and thus can be used as a marker of mycobacterial infections. Material & Methods: Fifty randomly selected skin biopsy specimens were subjected to routine histopathological examination to corroborate the clinical diagnosis. Immuno-histochemical study was undertaken to demonstrate mycobacterial antigen. Observations: All the tissue sections were negative for AFB, both by Z-N stain and by culture. Mycobacterial antigen was demonstrable in 68% of cases of cutaneous tuberculosis. The highest positivity was recorded in scrofuloderma (89%), followed by Lupus Vulgaris (69%) and Tuberculosis Verrucosa Cutis (47%). Conclusions: Mycobacterial antigen was demonstrable in majority of cases of cutaneous tuberculosis using polyclonal antiserum. However, since cross reactivity was reported in cases of leprosy and also in some fungal infections, this test by itself cannot be considered as diagnostic. The results should be considered along with other findings

Copepod Abundance and Diversity from Offshore Region of Tuticorin, South East Coast of India

A detailed study had been carried out on species abundance, biomass and composition of copepod in four different offshore stations namely, Station I: Vembar, II: Keelavaipar, III: Punnaikayal and IV: Thiruchendhur in Gulf of Mannar region from October 2011 to April 2012. A total of 56 copepod species belongs to 20 families under 4 orders have been encountered during the period. The percentage composition of different groups of copepod species was composed of Calanoida (35 numbers) 62.5%, Cyclopoida (4 numbers) 7.14%, Harpacticoida (8 numbers) 14.3% and Poecilostomatoida (9 numbers) 16.1%. The percentage of biomass composition of different groups of copepods during the study was in the order of Calanoida 38.99%, Harpacticoida 32.56%, Cyclopoida 15.22% and Poecilostomatoida 13.23%. In the case of species composition, Euterpina acutifrons (28.61%) was the most abundant species followed by Acrocalanus gracilis (17.68%), Corycaeus crassiusculus (12.33%), Oithona brevicornis (12.03%) and Temora turbinata (4.25%) were the other dominant species in observation. The copepod density in different stations were in the range of 8600–39900, 3900–64600, 3800–24800 and 5000–22500 numbers m-3 at station I, II, II and IV respectively. The lowest biomass of copepod was observed at station III and highest biomass was found at station II. The copepod species richness ranged from 0.48 to 2.72 and species diversity was in the range of 0.87 to 1.98 in the study areas. Species evenness was varied from 0.24 – 0.51 during the observation period

Zinc oxide nanoparticle-coated films: fabrication, characterization, and antibacterial properties

In this article, novel antibacterial PVC-based films coated with ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated, characterized, and studied for their antibacterial properties. It was shown that the ZnO NPs were coated on the surface of the PVC films uniformly and that the coating process did not affect the size and shape of the NPs on the surface of PVC films. Films coated with concentrations of either 0.2 or 0.075 g/L of ZnO NPs exhibited antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria, but exhibited no antifungal activity against Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium citrinum. Smaller particles (100 nm) exhibited more potent antibacterial activity than larger particles (1000 nm). All ZnO-coated films maintained antibacterial activity after 30 days in water

Student Expectations and Outcomes in Virtual vs In-Person Interprofessional Simulations: A Qualitative Analysis

Background: Health-related programs frequently integrate interprofessional education (IPE) into their training. The COVID-19 pandemic transitioned many IPE programs online, making it essential to assess student expectations and perceived learning outcomes across virtual simulations and in-person settings. Methods: This qualitative study compared student expectations and self-reported outcomes across in-person and virtual case scenarios at a Texas health science center. Responses to open-ended questions from two data collection periods were analyzed using inductive coding and thematic analysis. Results: Students from nursing, medicine, dentistry, public health, and informatics participated in each group. Three major themes emerged from this study: communication, teamwork, and role identification, with self-development and professionalism as major subthemes. For communication, students often described a desire for increased simulations to practice with interprofessional communication . Teamwork was the second theme identified, with students discussing the significance of effective teamwork, such as, It is a good practice to work together, listen to each other, and achieve a common goal of patients getting better . Additionally, students expressed a desire to better understand the roles of other healthcare professionals across different settings. Conclusions: Realistic IPE simulations may help students build confidence in their team roles while understanding other health professions. To strengthen curriculum design, faculty should include student expectations and perceived outcomes from IPE activities. A limitation of this study is the reliance on self-reported data, which may introduce response bias and the potential variability in student experiences

Cleanup of industrial effluents containing heavy metals : a new opportunity of valorising the biomass produced by brewing industry

Heavy metal pollution is a matter of concern in industrialised countries. Contrary to organic pollutants, heavy metals are not metabolically degraded. This fact has two main consequences: its bioremediation requires another strategy and heavy metals can be indefinitely recycled. Yeast cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are produced at high amounts as a by-product of brewing industry constituting a cheap raw material. In the present work, the possibility of valorising this type of biomass in the bioremediation of real industrial effluents containing heavy metals is reviewed. Given the auto-aggregation capacity (flocculation) of brewing yeast cells, a fast and off-cost yeast separation is achieved after the treatment of metal-laden effluent, which reduces the costs associated with the process. This is a critical issue when we are looking for an effective, eco-friendly, and low-cost technology. The possibility of the bioremediation of industrial effluents linked with the selective recovery of metals, in a strategy of simultaneous minimisation of environmental hazard of industrial wastes with financial benefits from reselling or recycling the metals, is discussed

Effects of solubilizing surfactants and loading of antiviral, antimicrobial, and antifungal drugs on their release rates from ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer

This study investigates the effects of surfactants and drug loading on the drug release rate from ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer. The release rate of nystatin from EVA was studied with addition of non-ionic surfactants Tween 60 and Cremophor RH 40. In addition, the effect of increasing drug load on the release rates of nystatin, chlorhexidine diacetate and acyclovir is also presented