MUTATIONS IN THE RPOB GENE OF MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS IDENTIFIED BY SEQUENCING METHOD

ABSTRACTObjective: To identify the mutation in the rpoB gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), using by sequencing method from pulmonary specimensof presumptive TB patients belonging to the districts of Tamil Nadu.Methods: A total of 8697 clinical specimens of presumptive MTB patients were collected from various districts of Tamil Nadu. Smear microscopy wasperformed by light emitting diode fluorescent microscopy and all the smear positive samples were tested using line probe assay (LPA) to detect thepercentage of drug resistance pattern and to identify the missing mutation in LPA by the sequencing method.Results: Among 4897 smear positives subjected to LPA method; 407 (8.3%) MTB was not detected and 16 (0.3%) showed invalid result; 4473 (91.4%)strains showed MTB positive; 3695 (82.6%) were sensitive for both rifampicin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) drugs; 502 (11.2%) were resistance for INH;73 (1.6%) resistant for RIF; 203 (4.5%) were resistance for RIF and INH. Totally, 52 (1.2%) strains results cannot be confirmed by LPA and reportedas sensitive for RIF, because of the faint and the missing bands in both wild type and mutation. These strains were sequenced and 39 (75%) strainsshowed resistant to RIF.Conclusion: Hence LPA may be the molecular technology for the rapid, feasible and reliable method for the detection of multidrug resistant mutationbut few confusion bands cannot be reported as resistance, which should be confirmed by either conventional phenotypic drug susceptibility testingor by sequencing method.Keywords: Line probe assay, Sequencing, Mutation, Multidrug resistant tuberculosis

Study of onychomycosis

Background: Onychomycosis is one of the most common fungal nail infections caused by Dermatophytes, Non-Dermatophytic Molds (NDM) and Yeast. Though it is not life-threatening, can cause pain, discomfort, and disfigurement. It decreases the nail growth rate. Objectives: This study was carried out to document the clinico-mycological pattern and antifungal susceptibility pattern of onychomycosis.Methods: The study group included 130 consecutive patients with suspected fungal nail infections, attending Dermatology outpatient department of King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh during November 2012 to August 2014. The nail clippings of the patients were collected and subjected to KOH mounts for direct microscopy and fungal culture and antifungal susceptibility tests.Results: Onychomycosis was common among males (66.92%) than females (33.08%) with highest incidence was in age group 31-40 years (41.37%). Finger or toenails were exclusively involved in 32.18% and 55.18% patients respectively while these were involved concurrently in the rest of the 12.65% patients. Distal and lateral subungual onychomycosis seen in 64.36% of the patients was the most common clinical type. KOH and culture positivity were recorded in 56.92% and 48.46% cases respectively. Dermatophytes (50.58%) were predominant isolate followed by NDM (27.58%) and yeast (21.84%). Clotrimazole and ketoconazole were most effective antifungals against dermatophytes. For NDM, itraconazole, nystatin and amphotericin B and for yeast fluconazole and itraconazole were effective.Conclusions: The present study gives an insight about the aetiological agents causing onychomycosis and their anti-fungal susceptibility pattern in this region. Thus, it can help in taking adequate control measures to prevent it

Isolation, speciation and antifungal susceptibility patterns of candida isolated from cases of chronic balanoposthitis

Background:Balanoposthitis is a common condition affecting 11% of male genitourinary clinic attendees and it can be a recurrent or persistent condition. Various predisposing factors like diabetes mellitus, sexual intercourse and usage of oral antibiotics can cause chronic balanoposthitis. The Objective of the study was to isolation and speciation of candida and their antifungal susceptibility patterns from the cases of chronic balanoposthitis.Methods: The study group comprised of swabs collected from 62 male patients with chronic balanoposthitis attending sexually transmitted diseases (STD) outpatient department (OPD), King George Hospital (KGH), Visakhapatnam. Standard mycological tests for the candida isolation, speciation and antifungal susceptibility were done.Results: Out of 62 samples, (85%) were culture positive for candida. The most common species isolated was C. parapsilosis (37.7%), followed by C. glabrata (28.3%), C. albicans (15.09%), C. dubliniensis (9.4%), C. krusei (7.5%) and C. tropicalis (1.88%). Most of the candida species showed sensitivity to amphotericin B, Nystatin, clotrimazole and ketoconazole. A relative resistance to fluconazole and itraconazole was observed.Conclusions: Chronic balanoposthitis is the most common infection in men attending STD, OPD. In the present study, diabetes is main predisposing factor than sexual intercourse and candida non albicans predominated over C. albicans. Resistance of candida species to azoles is on rise. This establishes the importance of determination of antifungal susceptibility patterns to prevent the emergence of drug resistance, prior to initiation of therapy.

A challenging case of fenofibrate induced neutropenia

Fenofibrate induced neutropenia is a rare condition. We reported 59-year-old male who developed neutropenia after taking fenofibrate for 20 days. He presented with complaints of fever, upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) symptoms. At presentation his total counts were 800. He was evaluated thoroughly for other causes of neutropenia and was treated with antibiotics, steroids, G-CSF. Once the fenofibrate was stopped, patient counts improved and his symptoms subsided. Hence, it is very important to always keep in mind the possibility of side effects of drugs, however remotely rare they are.

Isolation and speciation of genus candida in patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy for head and neck tumours

Background: Fungal infections occur as a result of defect in the immune system. The use of wide-spectrum antibiotics, immunosuppressive therapy, HIV and an increasing incidence of diabetes are some of the causes that resulted in raising number of immunocompromised individuals, in the global scenario. Opportunistic fungal infections mainly oral candidiasis is common in patients undergoing chemotherapy (CT) or radiotherapy (RT) for Head & Neck tumors. Objectives: Isolation and speciation of Candida with antifungal susceptibility testing in patients undergoing CT and RT for Head and Neck tumors.Methods: Study group comprised of 100 saliva samples collected by oral rinse method, (50 chemotherapy and 50 radiotherapy) from inpatients of King George hospital, Visakhapatnam and 50 normal healthy individuals were taken as control group. Standard mycological tests for the Candida isolation, speciation and antifungal susceptibility were done.Results: In the study group out of the 100 patients, 38% were culture positive for Candida. The most commonly isolated species was C. albicans (60.5%) followed by non albicans species. Most of the candida species showed sensitivity to nystatin, amphotericin B, itraconazole and Ketoconazole. In control group 9 out of 50 samples (18%) were culture positive and all the isolates were Candida albicans.Conclusion: Increase in frequency of oral candidiasis in patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy was observed. The increase in positivity may be attributed to inadequate nutritional status and poor oral hygiene during chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Culture positivity is more in RT patients than in CT patients. Though C. albicans is the predominant isolate, non albicans species are also emerging. All the Candida species isolated from study group were sensitive to nystatin, amphotericin B, itraconazole and ketoconazole. In the study group all the Candida species were resistant to clotrimazole and fluconazole and in the control group all the C. albicans were sensitive to fluconazole.  

Implementation of the advanced encryption standard algorithm on an FPGA for image processing through the universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter protocol

Communication among end users can be based either on wired or wireless technology. Cryptography plays a vital role in ensuring data exchange is secure among end users. Data can be encrypted and decrypted using symmetric or asymmetric key cryptographic techniques to provide confidentiality. In wireless technology, images are exchanged through low-cost wireless peripheral devices, such as radio frequency identification device (RFID), nRF, and ZigBee, that can interface with field programmable gate array (FPGA) among the end users. One of the issues is that data exchange through wireless devices does not offer confidentiality, and subsequently, data can be lost. In this paper, we propose a design and implementation of AES-128 cipher algorithm on an FPGA board for image processing through the universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) protocol. In this process, the advanced encryption standard (AES) algorithm is used to encrypt and decrypt the image, while the transmitter and receiver designs are implemented on two Xilinx BASYS-3 circuits connected with a ZigBee RF module. The encrypted image uses less memory, such as LUTs (141), and also consumes less chip power (0.0291 w), I/O (0.003), block RAM (0.001 w), data, and logic to provide much higher efficiency than wired communication technology. We also observe that images can be exchanged through the UART protocol with different baud rates in run time

Unleashing the Power of SVD and Louvain Community Detection for Enhanced Recommendations

Recommendation systems play a vital role in delivering personalized content to users, thereby enhancing their overall experiences across diverse applications. Collaborative filtering based recommendation systems have demonstrated success through the application of matrix factorization techniques. However, the incessant growth in dataset size and complexity presents challenges regarding the scalability of recommendation algorithms. Consequently, addressing these scalability concerns becomes imperative to ensure the seamless functioning of recommendation systems in handling increasingly large and diverse datasets. This research introduces an innovative method that seamlessly integrates matrix factorization techniques and community detection algorithms to effectively tackle the scalability issue in recommendation systems. Through numerous experiments utilizing real-world datasets, the proposed method's efficiency is thoroughly assessed. These compelling findings underscore the method's potential as a promising solution for constructing robust and scalable recommendation systems effectively. Ultimately, the overarching objective is to enhance user experiences by providing personalized and relevant content recommendations that cater to the evolving needs of modern recommendation systems. By optimizing scalability and recommendation accuracy, this innovative approach seeks to elevate the efficacy and user satisfaction of recommendation systems across various domains

Community-Based Matrix Factorization (CBMF) Approach for Enhancing Quality of Recommendations

Matrix factorization is a long-established method employed for analyzing and extracting valuable insight recommendations from complex networks containing user ratings. The execution time and computational resources demanded by these algorithms pose limitations when confronted with large datasets. Community detection algorithms play a crucial role in identifying groups and communities within intricate networks. To overcome the challenge of extensive computing resources with matrix factorization techniques, we present a novel framework that utilizes the inherent community information of the rating network. Our proposed approach, named Community-Based Matrix Factorization (CBMF), has the following steps: (1) Model the rating network as a complex bipartite network. (2) Divide the network into communities. (3) Extract the rating matrices pertaining only to those communities and apply MF on these matrices in parallel. (4) Merge the predicted rating matrices belonging to communities and evaluate the root mean square error (RMSE). In our experimentation, we use basic MF, SVD++, and FANMF for matrix factorization, and the Louvain algorithm is used for community division. The experimental evaluation on six datasets shows that the proposed CBMF enhances the quality of recommendations in each case. In the MovieLens 100K dataset, RMSE has been reduced to 0.21 from 1.26 using SVD++ by dividing the network into 25 communities. A similar reduction in RMSE is observed for the datasets of FilmTrust, Jester, Wikilens, Good Books, and Cell Phone