BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY AND DISINFECTION OF ANOSAN SOLUTION WITH INHERENT APPLICABILITY 1- INACTIVATION OF PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS

The pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms affect human health directly or indirectly and become increasingly important in most countries. Novel antimicrobial agents and disinfectants have become necessary due to the rise of antibiotic resistance phenomena. The current study investigate the inhibitory infect of ANOSAN on pathogenic bacteria and toxigenic fungi. Chemical analysis was performed for ANOSAN. The antimicrobial activity of ANOSAN was carried out using agar well diffusion assay and mean growth inhibition percentage and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). The antibiofilm activity was conducted using Biofilm formation assay and the impact of the disinfectant on the preformed biofilm was visualized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The chemical composition of ANOSAN comprised very low amount of Sodium (0.034%), Chloride (0.01%), Hypochlorite (0.014%) and Organic matter (0.0062%). ANOSAN low concentration showed a broad spectrum of antibacterial activities against Gram positive, Gram negative bacteria and fungi. The MIC (0.781 mg/ml) was observed for Vibrio cholerae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Sub-inhibitory concentrations of ANOSAN have successfully inhibited biofilm formation of the above mentioned bacterial patho gens. The ANOSAN appeared to be effective as bactericidal against Ps. aeruginosa and Staph. aureus. The time kill assay was observed between (0-6h) and between (0-3h) of exposure for both pathogens, respectively, and the viable bacterial counts remained undetectable after the previous time in a confirmatory experiment. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was conducted to confirm the antimicrobial activity of ANOSAN against Staph. aureus and Ps. aeruginosa. These data directly illustrate the destructive effects of the ANOSAN on the pathogenic bacteria. This work clarified that ANOSAN water had bactericidal and fungicidal activity along with inhibiting the ability of pathogenic bacteria to form biofilms, thus providing a good alternative to the use of traditional antimicrobials in food industry, pharmaceutical and medical applications

Can infants develop meningitis in the absence of bacteremia in the first ninety days of life? A retrospective chart review

The overall incidence of meningitis in infants 0-90 days is low; however, it remains a serious cause of morbidity and mortality among affected patients. It is standard of care to perform lumbar punctures as part of the work-up of fever in the first four weeks of life and sick-looking babies up to the age of 90 days. This particular procedure is often refused by parents, and physicians are left to predict the possibility of meningitis based on blood culture results.The aim of this study is to determine whether it would be safe to rule out meningitis based on a negative blood culture in this age group

Volcano like pattern in optical coherence tomography in chronic diabetic macular edema

AbstractIn this article we herein report an interesting vitreo-macular interface abnormality associated with chronic diabetic cystoid macular edema. It is an observational case study of three diabetic patients examined in the diabetic clinic. All the patients had proliferative diabetic retinopathy with chronic macular edema. A serial cross sectional OCT examination and tracking of both the longitudinal progression of macular thickening and vitreo-macular interface revealed cystoid macular edema with a characteristic hyperreflective vitreous shadow emerging from the vitreofoveal interface. All the patients had dehiscence of inner retinal layers.This particular morphological feature at the vitreo-foveolar interface, which we name as “volcano sign”, has not been described earlier. The probable mechanism of such a finding probably could be due to slow progressive leakage of chronic cytoid fluid into the vitreous with condensation of the overlying vitreous. Vitreo-macular traction followed by posterior vitreous detachment probably would have contributed to such a morphological event

First confirmed detection of SARS-COV-2 in untreated municipal and aircraft wastewater in Dubai, UAE: The use of wastewater based epidemiology as an early warning tool to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China and spread to more than 114 countries resulting in a pandemic, which was declared by the WHO in March 2020. Tracking the spread of the virus raised a main concern in every country. Many researches proved the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in stool samples of patients, where the genes of this virus gave a positive signal several days prior to the occurrence of symptoms. The fact of viral shedding in stools provides an advantage in utilizing wastewater systems as a tool to monitor the viral prevalence. We tested more than 2900 municipal wastewater samples coming from 49 distinctive area in Dubai, where 28.6% showed positive results. We also looked into the wastewater samples from 198 commercial aircrafts arriving at Dubai Airport, giving a positive result percentage of 13.6%. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 genes was confirmed using TaqPath™ Covid-19 RT-PCR kit, which targets ORF1ab, N gene and S gene. This project shows the significance of utilizing wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) in monitoring the prevalence of various infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2, which can assist the decision makers to determine the level of precautionary measures according to the areas of the outbreak. With this in mind, pricewise, WBE is considered cost-effective when comparing to clinical nasal swabs

The genomic history of the Middle East

The Middle East region is important to understand human evolution and migrations but is underrepresented in genomic studies. Here, we generated 137 high-coverage physically phased genome sequences from eight Middle Eastern populations using linked-read sequencing. We found no genetic traces of early expansions out-of-Africa in present-day populations but found Arabians have elevated Basal Eurasian ancestry that dilutes their Neanderthal ancestry. Population sizes within the region started diverging 15–20 kya, when Levantines expanded while Arabians maintained smaller populations that derived ancestry from local hunter-gatherers. Arabians suffered a population bottleneck around the aridification of Arabia 6 kya, while Levantines had a distinct bottleneck overlapping the 4.2 kya aridification event. We found an association between movement and admixture of populations in the region and the spread of Semitic languages. Finally, we identify variants that show evidence of selection, including polygenic selection. Our results provide detailed insights into the genomic and selective histories of the Middle East

Brand Dubai: The Instant City; or the Instantly Recognizable City

With ambitions to become a hub of global commerce, a top tourist destination and a shopping Mecca—a New York/Las Vegas/Miami rolled into one—Dubai has been spending billions of dollars to build an astonishing modern city nearly from scratch in a mere 15 years. To date some $100 billion worth of real estate under construction or in the pipeline continues the boom. Combining the involvement of local businesses and innovative strategies of urban marketing with headline catching projects, Dubai has set out to transform its urban landscape, and its image. Ambitious mixed-use urban developments featuring luxury residences, hotels and office blocks, huge shopping malls and imaginative entertainment complexes are rapidly changing the face of Dubai emirate and are putting the Dubai property market on the world stage. The catalyst for much of this expansion, this paper argues, has been the emirate's decision to allow non-nationals to purchase freehold property. The paper concludes by questioning the sustainability of this growth but does not attempt to offer any answers, given its rollercoaster nature

Emirates Mars Mission Characterization of Mars Atmosphere Dynamics and Processes

International audienceThe Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) - Hope Probe - was developed to understand Mars atmospheric circulation, dynamics, and processes through characterization of the Mars atmosphere layers and its interconnections enabled by a unique high-altitude (19,970 km periapse and 42,650 km apoapse) low inclination orbit that will offer an unprecedented local and seasonal time coverage over most of the planet. EMM has three scientific objectives to (A) characterize the state of the Martian lower atmosphere on global scales and its geographic, diurnal and seasonal variability, (B) correlate rates of thermal and photochemical atmospheric escape with conditions in the collisional Martian atmosphere, and (C) characterize the spatial structure and variability of key constituents in the Martian exosphere. The EMM data products include a variety of spectral and imaging data from three scientific instruments measuring Mars at visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths and contemporaneously and globally sampled on both diurnal and seasonal timescale. Here, we describe our strategies for addressing each objective with these data in addition to the complementary science data, tools, and physical models that will facilitate our understanding. The results will also fill a unique role by providing diagnostics of the physical processes driving atmospheric structure and dynamics, the connections between the lower and upper atmospheres, and the influences of these on atmospheric escape